1 00:00:00,031 --> 00:00:08,661 Do you think secular mindfulness programs are valuable in and of themselves, or do you think that mindfulness is only valuable within a larger Buddhist framework? 2 00:00:17,150 --> 00:00:19,052 He crashed his computer doing that. 3 00:00:23,557 --> 00:00:26,781 It was such a profound thing that it just, the weight of it. 4 00:00:27,318 --> 00:00:28,760 That was karma in effect, yeah. 5 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:34,026 It was Google suppressing the revelation. 6 00:00:34,967 --> 00:00:35,648 Censorship. 7 00:00:36,730 --> 00:00:37,350 Censorship. 8 00:00:37,490 --> 00:00:38,812 No, don't give them the answer. 9 00:00:38,832 --> 00:00:38,892 OK. 10 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:49,525 I guess I'll start answering this one if no one else is going to. 11 00:00:49,565 --> 00:00:52,329 I think secular mindfulness programs are great. 12 00:00:52,689 --> 00:00:56,734 I think Buddhism is a great program, right? 13 00:00:56,883 --> 00:00:57,924 Is anyone with me? 14 00:00:57,944 --> 00:01:00,026 Buddhism is a secular mindfulness program. 15 00:01:00,867 --> 00:01:04,009 It's a secular religious mindfulness program. 16 00:01:10,615 --> 00:01:19,443 Secular because it has nothing to do with belief or dogma, but it's religious because you have to take it seriously. 17 00:01:19,784 --> 00:01:21,205 It's meant to be taken seriously. 18 00:01:21,385 --> 00:01:24,588 Religions as opposed to negligence. 19 00:01:24,608 --> 00:01:26,670 Religions is the opposite of negligence. 20 00:01:28,895 --> 00:01:32,739 And it's, yeah, I mean, what else do you need? 21 00:01:32,779 --> 00:01:35,182 If you're practicing mindfulness, what do you need? 22 00:01:35,222 --> 00:01:45,494 The problem is they often water it down, and they're not really pushing mindfulness as hard as monks will, because a monk will say, oh, you're bleeding to death? 23 00:01:45,554 --> 00:01:46,575 Well, be mindful of it. 24 00:01:47,336 --> 00:01:50,560 You know, the secular programs can get sued for saying such things. 25 00:01:53,403 --> 00:01:54,885 You're dying of a... 26 00:01:55,186 --> 00:01:57,810 Oh, you're throwing up and you're, oh, well, be mindful. 27 00:01:57,870 --> 00:01:59,472 Remember that all things are impermanent. 28 00:02:00,314 --> 00:02:09,467 The more civilized society is. 29 00:02:10,929 --> 00:02:18,040 Yeah, the things we can do to our meditators here, it's like, yeah, yeah, well, you know, you could go see a doctor if you want, but you could also just be mindful of it. 30 00:02:18,761 --> 00:02:19,442 What if I die? 31 00:02:19,482 --> 00:02:23,488 Well, you know, if you die, I promise I'll do the chanting at your funeral free. 32 00:02:27,991 --> 00:02:29,634 That's what my teacher says, actually. 33 00:02:29,795 --> 00:02:32,680 When people start worrying, he says, don't worry. 34 00:02:32,741 --> 00:02:34,424 If you die, I'll do the chanting for free. 35 00:02:36,749 --> 00:02:41,518 And he said, I haven't had anyone die yet. 36 00:02:44,023 --> 00:02:46,589 But that's the difference, really. 37 00:02:46,629 --> 00:02:48,312 It's not so extreme. 38 00:02:48,764 --> 00:02:53,169 A lot of people, I only know this from second-hand experience, people say it's very watered down. 39 00:02:53,189 --> 00:03:07,986 You've got people sitting up on their zafus and whatever these croissants that they sit on, and teachers telling you not to sit through pain, not to be mindful of pain, not to that extent, but be gentle with yourself. 40 00:03:08,046 --> 00:03:17,978 There's that one aspect that it tends to be more watered down, because monks are like do or die, nibbana or bust. 41 00:03:18,667 --> 00:03:22,511 If I die, that's a great experience, or sickness is cool and stuff. 42 00:03:25,854 --> 00:03:31,080 I mean, that's generalization, but I think it's a valid one. 43 00:03:33,021 --> 00:03:42,351 But certainly, if a secular mindfulness program has all the potential to be just as valuable as one placed in Buddhist cosmology. 44 00:03:42,371 --> 00:03:48,437 I mean, we did talk earlier about rebirth, and I do have personally this belief that ideas like karma and rebirth 45 00:03:49,092 --> 00:04:16,197 can help if you quote unquote believe in them they tend to steer you in the right direction because they tend to complement reality and you'll see it from and so if you take it from the other end where you believe in karma and rebirth you'll start to see it from the experiential end as well and they'll meet up together if on the other hand you believe in a death there's nothing that can actually interfere with your observation of the truth but so you can 46 00:04:17,088 --> 00:04:17,530 I don't know. 47 00:04:17,570 --> 00:04:22,913 You don't have to take it, but it can be helpful because it happens to be true.