Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute session, Venerable Lobsang Namgyel continues a teaching on thought transformation by examining eleven virtuous mental qualities essential to ethical practice. He explores pliancy (mental flexibility enabling the mind to release fixation on negative thoughts and return to virtue), conscientiousness (cherishing virtuous states and recognising when the mind strays toward non-virtue), and equanimity (a balanced mind free from lethargy and excitement, free from the extremes that undermine meditation). He then turns to the ethics of actively benefiting others through ten concrete methods: helping those who suffer, those ignorant of dharma methods, those in need, those in danger, those afflicted with depression or despair, the impoverished, the homeless, those according to their wishes, those on the dharma path, those on the wrong path, and using miracles when appropriate. Throughout, Venerable Namgyel offers practical examples—from recognising jealousy in group meditation to how compassion towards the suicidal requires patience, listening, and refusal to postpone help. Designed for serious practitioners already engaged with Buddhist ethics and the study of the mind.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 ethics 4.mp3
UUID: dae5a6db-ad02-4180-851e-abd749370796
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.3 minutes
Words: ~6,349
Oh, your karma. Your karma manifests incredible luck, isn’t it? If you didn’t have the karma to experience it. Margaret? I didn’t use the did, and you said it.
Somebody maybe ate double for you. Where are we up to? Eight. Isn’t it? Just checking.
Pliancy. Pliancy. Pliancy. P l i a n c y. Pliancy.
Well, some of them don’t know. Do you know? Yes. What? You look you look like you’re up to mischief.
No? Okay. Pliancy. Do you know what pliancy is? Flexibility.
Flexibility. pliancy is like rubber. Rubber is pliant. Steel is not. So it’s a mental factor which enables the mind to focus on whatever we wish.
It’s a mental factor which enables your mind to focus on whatever you wish, as well as helping to overcome any physical or mental rigidity. By overcoming physical rigidity, stiffness of the body. You will have freedom from pain and disease, and you will gain the ability to have extraordinary powers such as flying. You can fly through the air without buying a ticket. That would be useful.
Pliancy removes all obstructions from the mind. So I’m just thinking about the stiff mind. So if you have a mind that isn’t pliable, it latches onto a negative object, and then it refuses to budge. Isn’t that what we experience? We go.
This is it. And you keep going back to it and back to it and back to it. It’s like a broken record, isn’t it? Just keep coming around and around, and you think, leave go. Let go of it.
Stop it. But it won’t. It just keeps coming back and back. So that’s because the mind isn’t pliant, isn’t pliable. You may think it’s because your mind is not pliable.
You could think it’s like that, but it’s because the mind isn’t, that your mind has latched on to an object in a negative sense, and then it won’t let go of it. If your mind is pliable, then you’re able to remove your mind from the negative object. You’re more easily able to put it back into a virtuous state of mind, isn’t it? Like jealousy. Say no more.
Yes, like jealousy. Yeah. You know, you could get really jealous. Often I talk about in courses, you know, when somebody’s sitting there and they’re sitting really well and you’re not, you think you’re worse than everybody. And you know, this is just a small example, but you can look out the corner of your eye and it’s somebody that’s irritated you a little bit, but now they’re really irritating because they’re sitting well and they don’t move.
And you know, you’re not meditating, but you’re sort of fixated on them. You think, But that’s not a very nice person. You’ve already decided. Haven’t even talked to them. Not a very nice person.
And on top of that, they sit so well, you know, they must be even worse than I thought. So we can make up all these stories about this person. You project it onto them. You think it’s true. And then in the break times, whatever they do will prove to you the first thought was true.
And it keeps going on like that. Because your mind’s not pliable, you keep going back to the same thought that they’re not good. They’re this. They’re this. They’re this.
And that produces more and more suffering. So that little bit of jealousy can build into a big jealousy. That little bit of hatred can build into a big hatred, big anger because we keep returning, revisiting, isn’t it, over and over and over. So what do we want to do? We want to develop a more pliable state of mind, more flexible state of mind, thinking about impermanence, how things change, death could happen any moment, we think about these things.
This is next weekend when we talk about this. The precious human rebirth, impermanence death, we have to think about these a lot because this helps us to develop flexibility rather than fixating on ourselves, others, the situation as being permanent, unchanging. What is the the happening? I’m sorry? Oh, the repetitive thoughts?
Well, you know, Buddha Buddha said we’re all crazy. We’re all crazy. We’re all in the Samsaric mental hospital. It’s called it’s called the Samsaric mental hospital. And I think that the people in the mental hospitals, the other mental hospitals, might be the same ones.
And so everybody thinks they’re insane, but they’re actually sane. And the ones who are not in the hospital are the ones who are actually insane. So maybe it’s a little bit like that. But Buddha said that we’re all crazy because we’re not enlightened. You know, we have karma.
We have delusion. What are we born from? karma and delusion. So is this like the key thing to Of? Your life experience Yeah.
What you know. From the past to to the present. From all the past lives to the present, you bring everything with you, all that baggage. You know? And you pack it so nicely, isn’t it?
All the delusions, all the negative karmas, you get the suitcase and you pack them really nicely and you put all that nice little paper to keep them safe. And you think, now I’m going to Colville or I’m going to Christchurch, wherever you’re going, and you pack all your delusions and you put them in your case, and you take them on the plane with you. And you keep looking after them and taking care of them and and look you know, nurturing them, really in a way, nurturing them. But what do they produce for you? More suffering, more delusions, more problems.
So once we understand the process that the more we go into the delusions, the more delusional we are, the more potential of delusions there will be. It’s not the answer to get involved in the delusions. The answer is to back off from them, distance a little from them, watch them as if you’re watching television. We know how it is to watch TV, don’t we? We’ve watched TV.
So now step back from your delusions as they’re appearing, these repetitive thoughts. This for me, it was music. When I stopped listening to music, I’d hear a snatch of a song from the nineteen eighties, and suddenly, it would go round and round and round in my mind. And I could go to bed with it, I’d wake up with it, and it would go on and on. It’s that the mind that’s done that grabbed hold of it, and it doesn’t want to let go of it.
So we all experience that sometimes, those repetitive thoughts, you know, the jealousy, the hatred, whatever it is. So when you back off from it, you think I am not that thought. I am not that thought. It’s thought, but not I am the thought. Okay?
So the I is separate from the thought. When we don’t know about this, we think I am the thought. Thought is me. I am the thought. But now we recognize that we’re separate from the thought.
And because we’re separate from the thought, the thought nature is what? Impermanent. It came, therefore it can go. It’s not there twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty two weeks of the year from the time you were born. It appeared, it will disappear.
You know that’s its nature. Also, nature is empty. It’s not inherently existent. It appeared because of causes and conditions. Also, that ensures it will go.
So there’s many good sides to it where you can look at it from another positive point of view and say, well, look at it from that point of view, it will go. If you look at it from the delusional side, you think this is very frightening because all I think is the same thing over and over and over. But just back off a little bit, just as if watching TV. Let go. As you’re backing off, it’s like you’re pushing the TV away.
It’s a on a trolley. Right? Before it was huge, you decided to buy the fifty two inch gigantic screen, and you decided to sit here so you were really involved. Right? And now you get a stick, and you push the TV a little bit away because you feel you can’t move, so you have to move the TV.
And it’s like the thought just becomes a little bit more distant, and you look at it and you say, well, that’s not a very pleasant thought, is it? But I’m not that thought. I’m not involved with that thought. I’m just watching that thought. The appearance of the thought.
Like the cloud in the sky, it will appear. It will disappear. I’m just watching it. Or like the bubble, which comes from the ocean, from the floor of the ocean. It comes up, and when it reaches the top, it bursts.
I’m just watching that bubble. Oh, okay. You go with that one then. You just watch that bubble. As it comes up and it reaches the surface, which is your mind, it bursts.
It doesn’t have the power to do anything unless you give it the power. Giving it the power is getting involved in it. I am that thought. I am the jealousy, the anger. You get involved in it, and then you can’t separate.
Once you separate, then you can let go of it. And to do that, you need this pliability to be flexible. Okay? Thank you. Nine is conscientiousness, another long word.
Conscientiousness. Comes from conscience, doesn’t it? And it’s a mental factor that cherishes virtue and prevents the mind from straying to nonvirtue. So what’s it taking care of? What’s it, looking after?
The virtue, the good things that you do, and prevents the mind from straying to nonvirtue. So conscientiousness is knowing what virtue is, knowing that the mind is moving away from virtue, the natural state of the mind, and knowing when it’s headed towards the non virtue. So the possibility of attachment coming up or hatred coming up and then needing to apply the antidotes. Then number ten is equanimity. An equanimity is a mental factor that dwells in a natural state.
It’s a natural state spontaneously without effort, and it’s free of lethargy and excitement. So the two extremes of meditation, which are a difficulty, a problem, are lethargy and excitement. Equanimity does not have lethargy or excitement. The natural state of our mind is to be balanced. Excitement is where the thoughts are coming one after the other.
You’re very excited. So when you try to meditate, your mind’s going all over the place like the monkey. Right? Grasping at one thought after another, one branch after the other. So this is excitement.
The opposite is lethargy. So you sit down to meditate and you go, woah. I think a lot of people have that happen, especially if you try to meditate in the evening. It’s very difficult, isn’t it? Just go, woah.
And then you’re in this meditation, you think you’re having an incredible time. You know? It’s really amazing. And people come out of it and say, wow, that was the most amazing meditation I ever had in my life. You say, well, what was it?
Oh, yeah, can’t really remember. So it’s like that time in the afternoon when it’s hot, you’re tired, you lie on the bed, and you go into a sleep, and you can still hear things going on. So it’s sort of like awake, asleep, and something amazing is happening, but you can’t remember after. You can’t quite get it. So you have to be very careful of lethargy and excitement.
These are the two extremes. And equanimity is right in the middle between the two. So it’s a natural balance. It’s spontaneous. It’s not that you need to create it.
It’s the quality of the mind itself is to have equanimity. But because of the karmic imprints, we have our propensity, our habit to go into more lethargy, or for some people, excitement. Tends to be one extreme or the other. For instance, you could be an excitable person, but if you’re extremely tired, you go into sinking into the lethargy. But usually, you would be excited.
Then there’s other people who are usually the one that sinks, but very rarely, they’re very excited. That would be the usual type there. So know what your type is, whether you’re excitable or whether you have lethargy, you think, and then you have to apply the antidotes in order to get your mind out of it. So we’ll talk about that in, the meditation class. It functions to not allow an opportunity for the delusions to arise.
So equanimity provides a balanced state of mind where the delusions cannot arise. When you’re balanced, then you’re not going towards anger, hatred. You’re not going towards, attachment and desire. You’re just completely balanced. This is your nature.
I think it gives us some hope about our mind. You see, you’re not trying to gain something. It’s something that you already have. Right? We’re always thinking we have to get something, but, actually, our mind’s nature is is everything that we want.
We have to remove all these other things. Yeah? Then the last one, eleven, is non harmfulness. Non harmfulness. This is a mental factor of compassion, which is a patience devoid of the intention to harm.
A mental factor of compassion that is a patience devoid of the intention to harm. It’s one of the one of the patience, and we’ll talk about this tomorrow, is the enduring of suffering. Do we endure suffering? As soon as we start to suffer, we we want to do something about it, don’t we? We want to react to the suffering.
Patience is a voluntary action, a voluntary enduring of suffering. So then, whenever we’re experiencing suffering, instead of wanting to react against it, then in this case, we’re not harming back. There’s a nonharmfulness. So the mind’s own nature is not to harm. What’s not its nature is to harm.
Isn’t it? The mind’s own nature is not to harm. So what we would normally be experiencing without all the delusions is just this very beautiful mind. But when harm takes advantage of it, then you think harm is the nature of the mind. You think anger is the nature of the mind.
All these negatives seem to be the nature of the mind. But if you keep meditating on these eleven virtuous qualities, then you’ll see that actually your mind is very beautiful, and the delusions are taking advantage. So whenever you go back to the nature of the mind, then you have all the qualities there. Everything that you need is there. Right?
But we need to remove the negativities in order to experience the nature of the mind. Is that clear? It’s okay. And then, the ethics of benefiting living beings. I’ll try and go really quickly.
So this is engaging in deeds to help others. And by actively engaging in these deeds, then you’re naturally restrained from harming, and this is the third type of ethics. And any virtuous action performed to benefit other living beings, such as the six perfections, maintaining vows, is the division of ethics. And so we have specific things, that are recommended to benefit living beings. The first one is helping those who suffer, giving aid to those who are suffering physically or emotionally.
So you can think of the poor, the sick, the handicapped, those who are mentally limited, more mentally limited than we are. Even though we’re crazy, there’s always somebody worse off. Right? So if you’re in a good situation, help those who are worse off than you, because one of these days in the future, you’ll be the one who needs the help. Then the second one is helping those ignorant of the methods.
Helping those ignorant of the methods. So those who don’t know the methods. They have no understanding of dharma and the methods for gaining happiness. So these are people who maybe can’t distinguish right from wrong. Virtue from non virtue, the relationship between cause and effect.
People often say to me once they come into Buddhism, yes, but there’s emptiness, isn’t there? And isn’t there a nonduality? So that means there is no right and wrong, and everything is just all the same. Well, if that’s what Buddha taught, I think we’d be in a big confusion because then you don’t know what to do and what not to do. I mean, the wonderful thing about Buddhism, even though sometimes people don’t like the ten of this and the six of this and the lists, you know, as we say, but at least it tells you.
You know, it doesn’t just say practice virtue and don’t do theirs, but it it actually says what it means. And so if you’re trying not to harm, what does that mean? If you’re trying to do good, what does that mean? And so the second one is helping those ignorant of the methods. This means they don’t know about these methods and you do.
So if you’ve studied and you know about the ten non virtues, you know about the ten virtues, you know about the six perfections, and somebody’s having a really hard time of it. You know, we’re talking about minds that arise that are really painful and difficult. And you know something about Buddhism. Well, you have to be very skillful in applying what you know to the situation. And like I said to you on Thursday, if you were here, often the best thing is to keep quiet and just listen and just keep listening and waiting until the emotion subsides.
And once the emotion goes down, then often you need to look for the right time and the right words to say the right thing. This takes skill, doesn’t it? Instead of the very beginning of the conversation saying, well, you know it’s all impermanent. You know? Before you tell me the whole thing.
You’ve just broken up with your boyfriend again, haven’t you? Well, it’s impermanent. And blah, blah, blah, blah, I must be going now because I’ve got a dharma class. You know? It’s on compassion.
I’ll see you later. Bye. So we can use Dharma and actually seem very cruel because we’re saying the words, but we’re not feeling how the other person feels. You know? That sense of empathy, compassion.
How do they feel? They feel that they’re in a terrible situation, and they want somebody to understand. They want you to listen. And so you listen. What you recognize from listening is that they don’t understand that they’re creating the suffering.
And then how do you give some advice which will help them to get out of that suffering that they’re creating? So at the moment, they feel they’re a victim, but we want to empower them so that they’re not a victim. This takes skill. Okay? And if you don’t have that skill, find somebody who does, somebody who is able to talk to them and explain the things that need to be explained that you can’t do.
This is why dharma centers exist. Right? What Lama is always saying, like, the emergency emergency room of the hospital. We’re the mental emergency room. And so when your friend is freaking out and having a really bad time, if they’re open to dharma, you recommend they come along and they can talk to somebody here if you feel you can’t deal with the situation.
At least there is help. Yeah. So, enabling people to refrain from non virtue and wrong livelihood, that’s a difficult one. Many people fish, isn’t it? In this country, many people fish, kill possums, you know, things like this.
So, when you hear about this, I mean, you hear a lot about this in Colville, and people say kill fish, pollen, blah blah blah. If you say, completely wrong. You know, Buddha said they won’t talk to you again. There’s no chance of discussing it anymore. So you just have to listen and listen for why do they do it.
What is the advantage in it for them? That’s what you have to counteract. Yeah? If the disadvantage is greater than the advantage, they will change. Once you understand about karma, you will change.
But you can’t just give them all of dharma in ten minutes and then think they can change their lives. Just slowly. Number three is benefiting those in need of help. Benefiting those in need of help. Take any opportunity to look after others when you see they need help.
So look for others who need help. You’re consciously looking. Right? Usually, have the blinkers on. We have sort of complete blinkers.
I’m going to work. I’m going home. We don’t want to see anybody who needs help, especially at the time when we think we need time off or we’re going to do what we want to do tonight. So take off the blinkers, look for people who need help, and if you’re not sure what you need to do, read the seven point cause and effect. You know the seven-point cause and effect?
Well, all six cause and six cause and one effect. It’s called seven cause and effect or six causes and one effect. So that one has got slogans at the end. There’s many slogans. So if you’re not sure what to do, write the slogans on a piece of card and carry them around with you.
A really thing good thing to do is you could get them all printed out and cut them up into pieces of paper, and then just pull one out for the day. This is the slogan for today. Yeah. They’re all all about thought transformation, changing your mind into a more positive mind. Okay?
And by doing that, then maybe what will happen is you’ll create the cause to have a class on the seven cause and effect, or the six causes and one effect, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Number four is protecting those in danger. So you shield them. You protect them from sickness by giving medicine.
You nurse them, protecting wild animals. In whichever way you can, you protect others from danger. This is really good to do. If you can’t do it, then give some money to somebody who can do it. Greenpeace, we just had a lady in Colville who works for Greenpeace.
They go out on the ships, and they go to where the whaling’s happening. Because when the Japanese are whaling, if there’s another ship there, they won’t do it. So the whole thing about Greenpeace and stopping the whaling is just to go there and sit, and then the Japanese won’t do the whaling. So this time, Greenpeace ran out of, petrol, and so the boat had to come back. Did you see this on TV?
I was in Thailand at the time. They said it was very successful. They really cut down the number of whales that they were able to kill, and, they ran out of petrol, so they had to be towed back. And they said, okay. There is an expenditure in petrol and, you know, all this manpower and all the rest of it, but at least we’re saving some whales.
So if that’s where your heart is and you can’t do that, then give some money to Greenpeace who can do it. We have projects within the FPMT of saving, animals. So in Singapore, they do that. They’ve saved millions of animals now. There are projects in, I think it’s Tasmania, Nepal, to buy land and to save animals’ lives and put them on that land and protect them.
Not just that, to build stupas and have prayer wheels and have mantras. And so they hear all these holy things, sounds, and taken around holy objects, and so their next life is assured, to be a good rebirth. So if you’re interested in that, find out about it. Five is is helping those afflicted with misery. Those afflicted with misery, they’re usually the people we run away from.
They’re miserable. Don’t talk to me. Now you’re looking for them. Right? Where is a miserable person?
You know? Give me miserable. You love it because this is something you want to do. You think this is great. You know?
This is what I do, what I am. So you’re looking for miserable people, and you want to give care. You want to give emotional support. You are the the the the miserable emergency ward ten or something. So those are depressed.
Those are lonely. People can be suicidal. If you have skills, there are these, lines, you know, where people call in and you can give advice on the line. So particularly if you’re a little bit afraid of yourself being miserable or you’ve yourself being lonely or depressed, this is a really good thing to give to somebody else because the karmic result is you never will be depressed. You never will be lonely.
You never will be suicidal because you’ve helped helped others to resolve their difficulties. So you give it out. It comes back to you. So trying to console them and cheer them up. You can introduce healing concepts such as impermanence and karma and things like this, but my same advice goes as before, be careful how you give the advice.
Can you say something at some stage about suicide? I don’t know much about it. Is it prevalent in New Zealand? Is it? I’m surprised.
Yeah. You live in paradise and you’re committing suicide. Yeah. But, Japan was supposed to be, I think, the highest suicide rate. And Iceland because because they get very, depressed in the winter.
I’ve got friends in Finland, and they go into this dark time, you know, And but we don’t have dark. But I think it’s the pressure. It’s the pressure of now performing, being the best. You can’t always be the best. And all that pressure on particularly children, you know, to be number one in the class, to be the best.
I think that’s actually about not being heard. Heard. Margaret can talk to us about suicide. No. I mean, it’s just that’s what I do think. It’s like that he that no one hears their voice.
Well, this what all this is saying, isn’t it? Listen, open your ears and listen. Yeah. Instead of just saying, oh, I’m busy. Oh, I’m busy.
Isn’t it? How often do we say, knowing yourself, you were going to go to the shops, you were going to go to the football, you were going to go the cinema, whatever you were gonna do. Somebody calls and they say, oh, I’m so depressed. I’m so miserable. And you say, actually, I’m really busy now.
Can you call me back tomorrow? And imagine that person commits suicide, and you never speak to them again. I always think there is no tomorrow. You can’t put it off. You should never say to somebody, let’s talk about it tomorrow.
You have this opportunity, and this is what Buddha is saying. It’s an opportunity to look after somebody else instead of yourself. That’s what bodhicitta is. The big heart is, what can I do for you? And instead, we say, I’m gonna take care of myself.
I’m looking after number one. And I think where the depression and the suicide comes from is that, I want to look after number one. And so you alienate. You you sort of put a bubble around yourself, and you feel very lonely and like there’s no connection between you and others. It’s very difficult.
I think very difficult. And particularly, we’re having more people who are miserable, depressed, and suicidal who are coming into Buddhism. And it’s not very easy to take Buddhist methods and use it to help with depression and suicidal thoughts because the system’s so big. You have to actually be quite mentally balanced in order to be able to apply Buddhism. So my usual advice is go to a psychiatrist or counseling or something like that.
Go through that until you reach the point where you can work with Buddhism because Buddhism is quite tough. You have to be your own psychiatrist. Right? You have to know your own mind. He’s always depressed.
I don’t talk to him anymore. I just couldn’t believe it. Yes. And yet these were The lack of tolerance. Yes.
I think what it I think we put a time frame on it. I’ll give him a month, and if he’s not out of the depression by then, I give up. Yeah. Yeah. You know?
Yes. It’s just amazing. It’s not however long you take is fine. I’ll wait. I’m I’m gonna be patient, and I’ll wait as long it takes you to get out of your depression.
I’m there for you. Whatever you whatever I can do, I’m gonna be there for you. I think in our modern world, we put a time frame on this, and we say, well, I’ll wait a month, and after that, you’re out. You know? It’s just amazing.
Are you taking Prozac? You’re not. Oh, you should be taking Prozac. You know? That will fix you.
Or if you are, the second problem is if you’re on a more healthy diet, you’re on Prozac. Yeah. You know? It’s Yeah. So if you’re on Prozac, you’re a problem.
And if you’re not on Prozac, you’re a problem. Isn’t it? Yeah. It’s quite hurtful. Yeah.
I think. When you see free, I think. Yes. Yes. It really pulls you back a bit.
Doesn’t it? And you, you sorta wonder, why do people do this? Because they don’t have the methods to think about compassion. This is it. We want to be compassionate in our society, but we don’t have the methods to be compassionate.
If somebody in school taught you these things, listen to the miserable, do this, do this, we might have some skills. But because we’re not taught and our parents don’t necessarily know, you know, if your parents don’t have incredible compassion, you’re not taught at school, where are you going to know from? Is it from the films? I don’t think. It’s not from the dramatic programs we see on TV.
It’s not from the programs where they chase after each other with guns and they’re stabbing each other and all the rest of it. I mean, isn’t that what they seem to promote these days? You know, all the murder programs and the drama programs. But a compassion program, you know, a program where somebody’s depressed and people are really nice to them and they wait for them to get better and, you know, they’re talking about them in a positive way. And people would be watching going, oh, this program’s so boring.
You know? It’s so unlifelike. But actually, what we should be doing, isn’t it? It’s not dramatic. It’s just a nice thing to do, what you should be doing to take care of others, and yet we do the dramatic thing.
If you don’t get out of your depression right now, and put the phone down, as if that’s going to stimulate them into being less depressed, as if anger’s going to solve the problem, you know, or hatred’s going to solve the problem. It’s not. And at least in Buddhism, we know there are opposing forces. Right? Anger, hatred is opposing force to love.
Whenever you apply that, you’re gonna have less love. So don’t think from anger and hatred, you’re going to produce more love. It’s just an opposing force. Yeah. Okay.
We should get on. I know we’re late. Helping the poverty stricken. So supporting those who are poor, it doesn’t just mean materially, but also spiritually. So practicing generosity if they need, clothes, money, but also Dharma concepts.
Anything that helps them and supports them to be able to, change the course of their life and create further causes of happiness. You know, in the, the Gathering of Disciples, it says in the beginning, give them gifts. So you give things. And then as soon as they’re feeling comfortable because they’ve got enough material possessions, they’ll start listening to dharma. But if you’re hungry, really hungry, and so I must tell you about dharma is that all I want is a meal.
Couldn’t you give me a meal? He said, later. Just listen to this first. You know? So first, give the meal, then somebody can be relaxed and and feeling better.
This is all common sense, but somebody needed to write it down to say it because we don’t necessarily know. Number seven is helping the homeless, providing shelter for those nowhere to live. Could be refugees, derelicts. People have had to leave their home because of arguments, domestic disputes. Very popular in New Zealand.
Isn’t it? Now there’s many women’s shelters. Maybe there should be men’s shelters. Now there’s also men being beaten up by their wives, less acknowledged, and the men usually won’t talk about it. But they say that the violence, from men to women is the same percentage as women to men.
They say the same percentage. All we hear about is how men beat women. It’s easier because the men’s usually bigger. Men are usually bigger. But there are women who beat up on men, and the men won’t talk about it.
Who’s gonna say my wife beat me up? You know? That’s that’s our our ego, our stigma, isn’t it? So, looking and and seeing, is there any way that you can provide food, shelter, support? And, if you can’t do it, but you have some resources, you have some clothes or bedding or something like that, there might be a shelter in the area that you could, help.
Eight is helping others according to their wishes according to their wishes. So this is watching their state of mind, their talents, and their weaknesses, their inclinations, and then you use use the most effective methods appropriate to their specific situation. So you’re watching, first of all, to see what they have, who they are, what they are, and then you use the methods in relation to them, not just any method, something specific, particularly to remove their suffering. Number nine is helping those on the right path helping those on the right path. This is providing an assistance and support for the sangha.
So already on the Dharma path, and those with aspiration for the Dharma path. So guiding them, teaching them, helping them in whichever way possible to continue on their path. And then the last one is number ten, helping those on the wrong path. We look even further afield. Maybe we don’t see them very often, but they have extreme delusional views.
They’re engaging in nonvirtue. They’re hurting others, and they’re thinking it’s the right way to go. They think they’re on the right track. So not to take a self righteous stance. Don’t become irritable or exasperated, thinking they’re evil and beyond help, but you endeavor to guide them in order to purify their negative karma.
And sometimes you try that and it doesn’t work. And so what you can do is recite the Sanghata Sūtra for them or, one of the other sutras and dedicate all the merit for them. And often that helps them to change their mind. One friend of mine, she did that, and, it was for somebody who was killing possums. And within I remember very well, it was like two or three weeks, he decided he wasn’t gonna do this anymore.
It was actually his job to do it, and he thought he was doing a good service. And he completely changed his mind, and he gave it up. And it was only the Sanghata Sūtra and going around the stupa. So you can do amazing things, but we don’t because we’re lacking the faith, we’re lacking the aspiration, and we think, what can I do? But if you have the faith, the aspiration, you do it.
So I wasn’t going to mention the last one, but maybe I will. It’s a nice one. Eleven is helping others by using miracles. By using miracles. So whatever powerful attainments you have, like walking through walls, flying through the air, turning nothing into gold, one fish into many.
Whatever you can do, you should be doing it if it’s going to help the person to change their mind. So this is the rare situation, isn’t it? Not our situation, but it’s what Lama Yeshe used to do this. In the book, it gives some examples of how Lama Yeshe would disappear and appear, and, he would do magic. And, this is one of the the attainments of somebody on the Bodhisattva path.
So if you have, the ability to perform miracles, you should do it only if it’s going to result in that person changing their mind, becoming more positive. Okay. We stop there. I should have done the three six and all the rest of it, but we’ll do it tomorrow. Is that book on?
Is that out yet? No. Adele has finished it. It’s gone to the publisher, and now they’re going through it. And I would guess one more year.
From the time the manuscript is finished, it usually takes about a year to be published, and it was a big manuscript. She kept adding more stories, more stories, more stories. Oh, yeah. It was great, wasn’t it? Oh,