Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk at Lara Prison, Ven Robina Courtin addresses a group working with anger, grounding the teaching in karma—that every thought, word, and action seeds our consciousness and ripens as future experience. She challenges the Western assumption that happiness comes from outside things (better objects, nicer people, favorable circumstances), showing instead that the mind is the main source of suffering or peace. Using concrete metaphors—water that is naturally pure despite appearing polluted everywhere; an acorn that can only become an oak tree; an overgrown garden that can be transformed—she clarifies this point. She then turns directly to anger, explaining why we mistakenly believe another person’s harsh words or punch causes our anger when in fact anger is a seed in our own mind. The Buddhist path, she says, is being your own therapist—learning to take responsibility for your seeds and transform them.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 DwA.mp3
UUID: 223b69e1-e1ef-49b0-bb2b-a8ccb0d8549a
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Chasing Buddha 2001 robina (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2001 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.2 minutes
Words: ~8,751
I think I wanna start with this little prayer, which we can sing in Tibetan. But just think, it’s it’s really what prayers are. Just don’t get all holy about it. Okay? Prayers are really just like affirmations or a series of little thoughts you have that you put firmly into your mind, you know?
And given that Buddha would say that everything we think is a seed that will bring a fruit, which is the meaning of karma, which we’ll talk about, then it it has meaning. It’s not just some empty words, you know. So just think, here we are all sitting here, you know, about to be listening to some of Buddha’s ideas about the mind and how it functions. And so may whatever just think, may whatever I you know, whatever thoughts that I have on the basis of listening, thinking, contemplating about this, may they be these seeds that are so firmly in my mind. And may they develop into the the fruit of my marvelous potential.
Because Buddha says everything we say, do, and think is a seed that brings a fruit in our own experience. So it’s like developing ourself, you know. So may this activity of listening develop these seeds in our minds that will ripen in the future as quickly as possible in development of our all of our own amazing potential for the sake of ourselves and others. So just think that when we sing this little prayer. We’re listening today at Lara Prison, we were talking about anger, you know?
This group of people, it’s a group they’ve been doing, I think, in dealing with their you know, how to how to deal with anger. I think in our culture, it’s a very common one, isn’t it? It’s a very strong one. So the basic Buddha the basic one of the basic ideas that Buddha has is that, first of all, starting point, you know, which is very good for our minds, think, hear it, is that every single one of us has amazing potential. You know?
I think we tend so often in our culture to think that we’re naturally bad, you know? And it’s even the view of some of our religions. So it’s kind of interesting that the Buddhist view is exactly the opposite. Buddha says we’re naturally good. So naturally doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily our habit right now.
I mean, this is very clear that it’s not our habit. I mean, look at the world, you know, it seems to be very easily the habit is to be very unhappy and negative and depressed and angry, especially when things go wrong, you know. It doesn’t seem to take much for us to get upset. But Buddha says, you know, we can be forgiven for thinking that that’s our natural state. That’s who we really are.
But all he’s saying is that, you know, that it’s not logical to say that. The more we look at the mind and understand its characteristics and our and our qualities, the more we can see that what is natural, what is what is nature, in the very deepest meaning of the word, is what is called the positive qualities. It’s what we go towards. We want to be happy. We don’t want to suffer, you know?
So the things that we go towards in our hearts, this is the good qualities, the positive ones. When we hear the words love and kindness and patience and generosity, we we know immediately they refer to the qualities that when we when we are are on the receiving end of them, we are happy. When they’re in their own mind, they’re happy, you know. So Buddha says that’s what’s natural. Okay.
We have these other habits. It’s sort of like when you look when you think about what water is, it’s pure, clear stuff. We know that it that’s you know, it’s it’s it is this pure, clear stuff. What we mean by water is pure, clear stuff. It’s it’s nature.
You know? It’s what it really is. But we also know it can be polluted. You know? So we in a sense, we can be forgiven for thinking that water is naturally polluted because for everywhere you go and all the streams and all the rivers and the water coming out of taps and more and more so these days, it’s polluted, isn’t it?
So we just it’s easy to think that that’s the nature of water. But we all know and we understand it that it’s not true, that the pollution can be removed no matter how deep the pollution is. Well, that’s Buddha’s idea. And as a starting point, think it’s a very important one, especially for us that have this opposite view and therefore the low self esteem and hopelessness and guilt that we all seem to have very badly. You know?
But it’s the good qualities within us that they are who we really are. They’re our nature, you know, which is a very empowering idea. So then if we get to see that and really contemplate this, not just believe it, but really look in to see how it’s logical. This is very much the Buddhist approach. Don’t just believe something.
Check it out. See if it’s common sense. You know? Then we’ve got some perseverance through the difficulties, through the you know, the job of removing pollution is not easy. You take you gotta get your hands really dirty.
You know? But once you know what you’re doing and that there is the potential at the end of the road to have this pure, water, you don’t mind how dirty your hands get. So that’s that’s really what the job of being a spiritual practitioner is in Buddhist terms, you know? As Lama Yeshe says, being your own therapist. That’s what being a Buddhist is.
That’s what being a spiritual practitioner is, you know. And that’s got some profound truth to it. Sort of sounds kinda cute, but it’s very deep. Being your own therapist. This is really where meditation comes in in Buddhism, which we’ll talk about, you know.
They’re the techniques that we use to become familiar with the workings of our own mind. So this starting point is important. We have this amazing potential. And so, okay, then potential means something that you can develop, isn’t it? You know?
So then we have to ask, why would I want to develop this potential of mine? Well, this is it’s a logical reason that’s inherent in this whole idea that it’s our natural state. It’s because it’s who we really are. Excuse me. Simply because it is who we really are, in a sense you can say we have no choice but to develop it, you know.
For example, if you if you think about what an acorn is, okay, until we’re taught by somebody, it’s not evident that what an acorn is. It’s this little this little kind of thing, you know? Oh, that’s kinda cute. What’s that? And then someone says, what value is is that?
And they point to this magnificent oak tree, and you go, really? How amazing. That thing is its nature is to be an oak tree. Its nature isn’t to be a piece of jewelry or its nature isn’t to be a weapon. You can use it of these if you like, but it’s kinda dumb.
It’s nature. What it really is is to be an oak tree, isn’t it? So that’s the same way of looking at us. What Buddha says is our nature, If you’re a living being, if you exist and have a consciousness in mind, then necessarily who you are, the oak tree of you is this is is is what they mean by Buddha. A perfectly developed being, an amazing person, fully developed, and it’s something simple.
It’s not something esoteric in the sky, you know. A Buddha is I mean, there are extraordinary qualities, but what Buddha is saying is this natural potential of ours, this oak tree ness of our self is the development of our positive qualities. Very simply. Very simply, the development of our positive qualities. That when we are completely depolluted, when our when our mind is fully developed, which Buddha says it can be, then it is literally full of all what we call the positive qualities.
And I’m talking here way beyond what we think is normal in our ordinary Western culture with all our various psychological models, you know. And actually, and this is something very interesting too about Buddhism, the whole idea of being your own therapist. Even though it’s called religion, quote unquote, it is definitely psychological. I mean, Buddha didn’t use the term. We’ve kind of coined that term in, you know, in the last century, wasn’t it, on the twentieth century.
But Buddhism is definitely psychological. And anything I say tonight, it’ll all be very familiar to us. We’ve all heard these ideas before, but they they’ve come from Buddha, you know. He didn’t invent them. He just observed them.
You know, that’s the idea. So it’s actually quite a radical statement to think that what, you know, what Buddha is saying is that psychologically, we all have the potential to develop the positive qualities of illness to degrees that are just phenomenal, way beyond what we think is possible. So you think in our culture, we tend to think, well, you know, you’re a reasonable, rounded human being when you have a little bit of attachment and a little bit of jealousy and a little bit of depression and a little bit of anxiety, and all this is not out of control. You’re okay, you know? But to actually say that you can be completely free of that, no one says that.
There’s no psychological model in this culture that I know about that says you can be absolutely free of all, you know, all neuroses, all delusion, all ego. It sounds insane. So actually, Buddha is saying we’re completely shortchanging ourselves is kind of ridiculous. We have this phenomenal potential, and, we won’t be satisfied until we develop it. So it’s like with an acorn, you don’t really have a choice.
You can’t turn it into an apple tree or or or a or a table. You know? Its job is to become an oak tree. Well, our job, Buddha says, is to become this perfect being. So there’s a saying in Buddhism that a bird needs two wings, the wing of wisdom and the wing of compassion.
And so when you can, you know, you can say that when you’re fully developed, you have these two wings perfectly developed. So, you know, when we think of spiritual path, usually, we think of compassion, love, kindness, doing all that stuff, all the good stuff, you know. And indeed, Buddha’s not not arguing. He says the same. When a person’s fully developed what they are, their function is simply to be an amazingly beneficial person.
But the other thing, the other wing is crucial. And this is where this is called the wisdom wing. And what this is referring to is all the work that we need to do on our own minds to develop our own amazing qualities. And you you can say this for our own benefit so that then we’re really qualified to benefit someone else. So in other words, we we can all maybe agree that we have to be loving and kind and compassionate and forgive our enemies and blah blah blah, you know.
But if we’re full of injury and side and misery and depression and anxiety and anger and confusion, how on earth can we do that job? It’s not possible. You you it’s impossible to help anybody, you know? So you gotta work on yourself first. Okay, you do them simultaneously, developing these two wings.
But there’s the internal one, the one of working on your own mind, being your own therapist, knowing yourself well, understanding your positive qualities, understanding your negative qualities. Because the positive ones are those you wanna develop and the negative ones are those you want to eliminate. So it’s a very practical job, you know? And the Buddhist approach is it’s practical and it’s step by step. It’s logical.
So some kind of when we say religion, we tend to kinda get a bit kind of glassy eyed, you know. Which for Buddhism, there’s no contradiction between between being spiritual and psychological, philosophical. They all fit together perfectly, you know. And also the approach in Buddhism is very down to earth in the sense that in the way that when we think of science, we immediately think that it’s something you’re not supposed to believe in. No one, Ehren is not forcing you to believe that e equals m c squared when he tells you that that’s what he thinks it is, whatever it is.
Right? We don’t go, oh, well, I’ve gotta believe that. Excuse me. You know? But we think about religion this way.
Buddha says, don’t be like this, you know? So when hear something like e equals m c squared, we might never have a clue what it means. It sounds simple. Anyone you know, a five year old can say e equals m c squared. But to get the deep meaning of it, the experience of it, you know, you gotta really check carefully that you think Einstein’s valid.
You check on his sources. You check on his reputation. You check that he’s a valid person. Then you’re prepared to do all the work, which takes years and years to discover whether it’s true or not. Well, that’s exactly the approach of Buddha.
This is exactly the approach of Buddhist religion. You know? Buddha is basically saying he has discovered he has found it to be so, just like Einstein, that, you know, the nature of our true nature is to become a Buddha, that consciousness is a beginningless continuity of energy, that it doesn’t come from mother, doesn’t come from Brahma, doesn’t come from God. All these different things that you’ll talk about. That we have the potential to do this and that karma is the natural law, blah blah blah, you know, all of Buddha’s philosophical presentations, his teachings.
They’re his findings, basically, of how things exist, and then there are his various methods that, you know, a person who is called a Buddhist would then use to develop these qualities that Buddhist says we have innately. All of this The attitude towards it is that kind of, you know, intelligent, checking, being, you know, clear and sturdy and on the ground attitude, not kind of holy and religious in the sky and I’ve gotta believe it, you know. Buddha would say that’s a superstition. Doesn’t help. Okay.
So where does anger and all this stuff fit into all this? Well, as I said before, when we hear the things like kindness, you know, love, generosity, we don’t go, oh, how disgusting, do we? And when we hear, you know, jealousy, anger, pride, we don’t go, yeah, yeah, great, I like that. We don’t. I mean, all know the meaning of those words in English, as soon as we hear them, they refer to something that’s really painful.
We know this, you know. We don’t need God or Buddha or great philosophers to tell us this. So basically, Buddha’s saying, very simple, really. He’s saying, we all wanna be happy. If you look at it, we might not say it so simply.
It almost seems a little bit too simple. We’re thinking, come on. Life’s more complex than that. But the bottom line, isn’t it, we wanna feel good, be content, be happy, and we don’t want the opposite. And you look like a dog, it’s the same.
Michael knows the words, but it’s obvious his behavior indicates. It’s the same thing. Alright? Excuse me. So okay, Buddha says, that’s cool.
Nothing wrong with being happy. Nothing wrong with wanting to be happy. You’re on the right track, you’re saying. But then he would argue or he’d disagree with the methods we use, and that’s where the essence of the Buddhist approach is, in the methods for getting this happiness. You know?
But he was saying we’ve got methods that are up the creek without a paddle. We’re completely hopeless. We’ve lost the plot completely, you know? The methods we’re using now, in fact, are bringing us more suffering. But because we’re so addicted to these methods, we don’t ever question them, and this is the tragedy, you know.
So what he’s getting us to do is really questioning all our assumptions about what we think happiness is and how we get it. And what Buddhism is, in one sense, is a presentation of exactly that, you know, how to get happiness, how to avoid suffering, and then eventually that which is the wisdom wing. And then on the basis of this, we start to open our eyes and see that everybody else is in the same boat. They all wanna be happy too. They don’t wanna suffer either.
And the more we’re capable of doing it for ourselves, the more qualified we are to do it for others. Isn’t it? It’s just logic. So the bit the wisdom wing is the basis for success and the compassion wing, you know, the work that we do to benefit others. Okay.
So where we’re doing this job or where the workshop is, as as says, is in the mind. In the mind, in our heart, in our consciousness, in our thoughts and feelings and emotions. So let’s look at what the mind is and what it’s not just so we can be on the same track. You know? Because the word mind is used quite differently.
My Buddhist is It’s used in a much more it’s got a sort of a more a broader meaning. Okay. The word mind, you can say broadly speaking, it can be used in Buddhist terms synonymously with the word consciousness, which immediately gives it a different flavor, doesn’t it? When we say mind, we think to point to this physical feeling of a brain and all the thoughts and stuff. But when we say consciousness, think of something kind of more spacious.
Well, these words effectively are synonymous. Okay. So so what the mind isn’t is the brain. Buddha says mind or consciousness aren’t words that refer to this physical thing. Consciousness mind are words that actually refer to the inner part of us, to all the thoughts and feelings of emotions, the whole deal, the whole spectrum of our inner experiences, thoughts, intellect, you know, emotion, feelings, unconscious, subconscious, intuition, instinct, spirit, you name it.
The whole deal. This is known as our mind. So it’s more it’s a more kind of proactive dynamic word rather than for something physical, you know. It’s the it’s the experiences that we have at whatever degree, at whatever level we have them. This is what we’re dealing with.
This is where the workshop is. This is our mind. And this is where the potential for perfection exists. So this is what we have to transform. It’s not our nose or our eyelashes that we have to transform, you know?
Okay. So this mind of ours is not physical. It doesn’t doesn’t refer to the brain. Buddha’s not arguing that there is an interdependent relationship between our thoughts and feelings in our brain. Obvious.
It’s completely obvious. But just because something’s interdependent doesn’t mean it’s the same thing. You know? The second thing that’s really crucial that make that really separates Buddhist view you know, Buddhist philosophical views from other philosophical views and indeed other religions is that there’s not one atom of your mind, your consciousness, your personality, your feelings, your emotions, the you of you. There’s not one atom of that that comes from anyone else.
In other words, Buddha is saying, we’re not created by our superior being. We’re not created by God. So if we think of this, the usual criterion in our culture for being religious, in all cultures, is if you believe in a creator of God, quote unquote. Now Buddhism is not kind of insulting that, and I’m not insulting that. Buddhism just disagrees, that’s all.
You know, you ask, are you a Tibetan, are you religious? They’ll say, of course I am. What they mean by being religious is being your own therapist, dealing with your human mind, developing your amazing potential, and benefiting others. And yes, you have indeed all these other practices that we call religious like prostrations and holy things, like pictures, and, you know, wearing fourteenth century robes and bald heads and that stuff, you know? But these are all meant to be methods that support the actual job of changing your mind, transforming yourself, becoming your true nature.
They’re just things that support that. They’re not the main point. The main point of being a Buddhist isn’t having a bald head. The main point of being a Buddhist isn’t being mindful. The main point of being a Buddhist isn’t sort of speaking slowly.
I mean, could we help it? I wouldn’t be a Buddhist if that were the case. Alright? They’re not the main point. The point of being a Buddhist is being your own therapist, changing your mind, becoming who you really are.
All this other stuff supports it, that’s all. Okay. So this mind of ours is where the potential is. And so, okay, the Buddhist view is we’re not made by God or Buddha. I’ll describe that in a minute.
But also, most interestingly, in our Western culture, the usual view, if you’re a materialist, we’re gonna see view even of most religious people. We’re made by our mom and dad, isn’t it? Know, kind of, I didn’t ask to get born. Excuse me. I just got plunged here by somebody.
It’s something to do with millions. I mean, it’s kind of astonishing idea to think that’s got something to do with you, whereas Buddha is saying that. He says, we you know, who we are has got everything to do with, you know, with who with what we’ve done. We have everything to do with who we are. It was a kind of a shocking idea that we’re not made by God or Buddha.
Mom and dad didn’t make us. They provided us with a body. Thank you, mom and dad. Egg and sperm come together, you know? Usually in the mother’s womb, although these days it’s different.
Petri dishes and things, whatever the words are. But you understand my point. So the old fashioned way of getting of of coming into being is in the mom’s womb, isn’t it? Mom and dad do their thing, the egg and sperm come together. But the Buddhist view is what causes the egg and sperm to come together as opposed to go down the toilet with the rest is not the entry of a soul put there by gold or Buddha.
I’m not criticizing that to you. I’m just showing it’s different. Nor are you merely the egg and sperm with all the genes and the DNA and all the stuff like that. Buddha would say when neither of those views what Buddha would say would be is that a subtle level of this very consciousness that we call now rabina, you know, the rabineness of rabina, the difference between the dead rabina and the live one. It was the presence of her consciousness, her thoughts, her feelings, her emotions.
Know? This is where we’re whether we’re talking Scorpion, Hitler, Mother Teresa, all the rest of us. Right? But what went into the egg and sperm at that time due to many, many very kind of subtle causes and conditions, this whole process of karma that Buddha talks about, which we can describe, is the is a subtle level of this very consciousness bearing, holding a sort of subtler level, like a repository of all the imprints of past actions, past karma, past habits. And that that subtle consciousness, you know, finds its way very strongly, very firmly, not in a random way at all.
It’s all due to karma. Finds its way into Robina’s mother’s womb, you know. So in this sense, we say, who am I? We’re really where I come from. Buddhist Swiss, you know, who created me?
Buddhist Swiss, honey, you do it. So it’s quite interesting. Even if you don’t go much further, it’s already a very it’s already a very empowering idea, isn’t it? It says that we are the the cause of who we are, and this is precisely Buddhist point. So this and and this this is this is the principle of karma.
And, of course, we’re implying already here this concept of continuity of consciousness, which is the concept of, you know, reincarnation. It’s not just meant to be some kind of hippie idea. You know? It’s Buddha’s philosophical presentation of reality, and it’s all presented in the teachings very deeply and profoundly. You know?
If one was a Buddhist, one goes into this and looks into it. It’s just Buddhist view of reality that’s all. It’s the it’s the it’s and this one karma is the creative principle. Buddhism doesn’t use the term creation, you know, but it’s a term we understand. So it’s the creation it’s the creative principle.
So let’s look at karma then because then we’ll get to looking at the mind because it’s all it’s all kinda connected. Okay. This this concept of karma, what it basically means is is that it means the word means action. It’s a Sanskrit word that simply means action. So when we say I did an action, we can’t really okay.
Big deal. You know? Like, very dynamic, isn’t it? But the meaning of action has the dynamic implication, doesn’t it, of a reaction. In the same way, if you say, oh, I planted a swede today, the the first thing that arises in your mind is, oh, what kind of fruit will it bring?
You see my point. You have to think of always another cute looking sweet, how nice you planted a seed. Big deal. You immediately know, but it implies that a fruit will come from it. So that’s the same with when we say cause, it implies an effect.
Well, this is the idea here with karma. It’s a dynamic word, action, that everything we do, everything we say, everything we think Buddhist is is a karma. And it’s a Or a seed that we leave necessarily the imprint, or the seed is left in our consciousness. And we all know seeds Necessarily bring fruits.
So the Buddhist view is they bring fruits within this continuous this continuity of consciousness. Future future future future, not in someone else. Else. What we do does have an effect on others. But here, when we’re discussing karma, the crucial one to get is that whatever I do, whatever I say, whatever I think leaves imprintment in my consciousness that will bring experiences in the future to me.
The the future me, you know, whether it’s next next day, next week, or next life. It’s the same continuity of consciousness. So therefore, by the same token, if we look into ourselves now, including the Scorpion, the Mother Teresa, the Osama bin Laden, the whoever’s. You know? Every living being, in principle, is this.
That whatever I am now, it one in terms of the kind of form that I’m in, the human the realm that we’re born into according to Buddhist way of saying it, whether you’re a scorpion or a human, that is due to past actions. Then if you look into the personality of the person, the scorpion or the human, there’s certain personality there, isn’t there, qualities and tendencies and characteristics? And then on the basis of the words and the actions that you do, all of this is a result of having done it before, simply. The third thing the third way that karma ripens, as they say, which is kind of heavier for us and really takes some thinking about. It is that whatever whatever happens to me, whatever people do to me, good or bad, this is also the fruit of what I’ve done before.
And the fourth way is even the environment. Buddha doesn’t talk about god or Buddha making nor is it some mysterious person called mother nature, nor is it merely something that comes from some big bang. Actually, as a Dalai Lama says, you know, big bang, no problem. Just not the first one, that’s all. You know?
So it’s not just the physical laws, what it would say, that determine your own person or determine the universe. All this is the energy that propels them, the energy, the creative principle. In other words, it’s this it’s this concept of karma, the individual and collective things that sentient beings do, say, and think. So it’s quite complex, obviously. I’m just giving the overall principle.
You know? So of course, the point I wanna make here, without going even into too much how the law of karma, the implication of this is quite quite quite pretty intense, isn’t it? The implication of this is that I’m responsible. So we know that when I’m responsible, not guilty, you mean I’m to blame, not like that, which is how we think. But responsible is very empowering.
Because if I am responsible for who I am now, including the suffering and including your happiness, then I know that if my mind continues tomorrow, next day, next day, which is what Buddha says it is, it will, then it’s it’s I know logically that next day, next life, the present, and then I wanna be happy then too. So given that I wanna be happy and don’t wanna suffer, Buddha says, honey, no problem. Just take your own hands. It’s your it’s up to you. Learn to know what seeds to plant.
It will bring happiness. And learn to know what seeds not to plant and, in fact, to pull out to avoid suffering. It’s so simple. It’s like a joke. Just in the same way that, you know, you realize you’ve got this great big mass of overgrown green stuff around.
You’re all tangled and miserable and depressing looking. And someone says, you’ve been here. You’re gonna have the most amazing garden, you know. And they show you a picture of beautiful garden, oak trees and pear trees and all these things and flowers, and you just sort of boggle wide. You look at them.
You can’t believe. And they say, well, go to botany school. Do you learn the rules of what to what to plant and what to not plant? So then in fifty years trying to have this, there, that, there, and this here, you know, very simple. You learn the rules.
So unfortunately, in our lives, we walk around kind of blind. We don’t really think we have anything to do with our life. We think we have nothing to do with who we are. We think we have nothing to do with what’s gonna happen tomorrow. We think everything just comes from left field, good or bad.
We kinda cross our fingers and hope for the best. But none of us thinks we can really guarantee that good things will happen or bad things will happen. And then when, you know, when they do happen, we think it’s got nothing to do with us. What it says, we’re walking around like ignorant people, freaking out. You know, there’s so much fear and anxiety.
Like, you know, you you don’t realize there are rules around it. We can learn the rules, and we can abide by them. This is the Buddhist approach. And the rules you call karma, you know, abiding by the laws of karma. This is Buddha’s idea.
So, Kerry, what are the things then that we should avoid doing, saying, and thinking because they’ll bring us suffering and because we know we don’t want suffering. Well, they’re things that are called negative. And what are the things we should do, say, and think that we know will bring us happiness because we want happiness? Well, there are things that we call positive. That’s what we mean by those words.
You know? So, okay, like I said before, it’s almost quite simple, really, although we’ve made it complex. We don’t need God or Buddha or philosophers to tell us that anger, jealousy, pride, pride, and anxiety, and the rest are miserable. And if we’re really honest, we don’t need them to tell us that when I’ve got them, I’m make I’m mean to other people. You don’t have to look too deep to look at the people, you know, the Palestinians and the Israelis or the just even look at their flutaries.
Even if you don’t know the details, you can see anger, raging, can’t you? There’s not love and kindness there. It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? But we’re making everything so complicated.
So one of the things that makes it truly complicated for us, we have made it complicated, and is when Buddha would disagree with the methods we use. He would say, fine. You wanna be happy. No problem. You’re on the right track.
But if From there. They’re on, like I said, we’re up a creek without a paddle, you know. He says one of the fundamental mistakes that we make and this is not meant to be a moralistic issue. This is actually Buddha’s view of, you know, how you get happy. He’s saying, we think happiness comes from getting something out there.
So we think the cause of happiness is a new fridge or a a handsome body or a delicious chocolate cake or a sunny day or the green light’s coming whenever I want them or whatever. You know? This is the logic we use, isn’t it? How are you today, Rabin? Oh, I’m really good.
What happened? Oh, well, the green lights were green, people were kind, the food was tasty, the sky was blue. We automatically this is how we talk. It’s logic, isn’t it? The logic we all use.
Buddhist disagrees. He says we’re not looking deeply enough. We we you know, and this is so when we look at suffering, it’s fine. Why are you miserable today? Well, the lights were red, the people were mean, the sky was cloudy, the food was lousy, you know, not to mention the punches and everything else.
So the logic of this is, therefore, I’m suffering. So it’s a reason I mean, look at the Israelis and Palestinians just for an example, you know. I mean, this is one example of what’s happening in the moment. That’s the absolute logic those human beings are living according to. The absolute logic, and that’s the logic we all live according to.
This is what Buddhist Buddhist says, this is a total tragedy. First, because it only brings us more suffering, but it simply doesn’t bring us what we want, which is called happiness. So this one already, we could spend eons working on just we could spend the next month looking at this one, how the outside world isn’t the brain factor here. So what is not a good disagreeing that the chocolate cake definitely plays a part in the pleasure you experience? Of course, it does.
No one could deny that. That would be stupid. Or that no one can deny that the punch plays a part in your misery. Plays a part. You know, it has a role.
But what is simply saying what we do, the mistake we make, is we give all the power to the punch and make it. And that’s our problem. And that’s this and he’s saying it’s like this victim mentality. It’s the same mentality that says, excuse me. I didn’t ask to get born.
I just got plunged here. It’s their fault. You know? So but even sinking this when it’s very deep in our bones, as an absolute truth, we’re never closer to it. He says we’re opting out of responsibility, not in an unkind way, but in a way that’s not beneficial to ourselves, where we’ve no power.
We give all the power to the outside. We give all the power to that person who’s mean to us. We give all the power to that chocolate cake, you know. Like, as if we don’t have any choice. That’s our tragedy.
And that’s how all we think. I mean, this is our culture. You look. You know? Who taught us, as little children, that we could look into our minds and understand the nature of anger and jealousy and pride and love and compassion and when we could have some control over it?
I mean, why wouldn’t we close our eyes and try to go to sleep, is our mind like flowers and trains all going out of control? Now we assume that’s normal. I mean, that’s stunning if you think about it. It’s sort of like no one has a method to drive cars. We just kinda just assume you get on the freeway and you just do your best.
And crashes come every day, but what to do? This is life because who can drive cars? Well, of course, no one can drive cars. I mean, I mean, how insane. You know?
Well, that’s how we think about our minds. We don’t assume we can have any control. And the only time, you know, we think we have a problem is if we wake up one morning so depressed we can’t get out of bed. We think that’s normal. What’s what’s our our do?
You know? I mean, Buddha says we are ignorant. That we have that it is our mind, and we can have control. And if we can’t, then, you know, it’s a recipe for disaster and just at the world. You know?
So first, we we make this huge mistake which kinda separates the story from this empowerment. It is this belief that’s deeply in our bones, and can we can be forgiven for thinking this, and it’s hard to see that it’s not true, is the outside. The thing out there, you know, is the source, the main source of suffering, the main source of happiness. And Buddha is saying as long as we have that in our bones, as long as that’s one of our fundamental assumptions, nothing will change. We will never get happy.
Never ever ever ever. But he is saying, remember, this is where the hope is, that we have the potential to be happy. We can be happy. And just that we have to learn to find new methods of sort. You know?
So the usual methods we find that are new you know, we we think chocolate cake’s the cause of happiness, and after a while, we get bored. We think, oh, now I’ll try a carrot cake. That’ll cause me happiness. So we don’t really change it on methods. We just change the object, you know.
This person causes me suffering, get rid of them. Another one comes along, he causes me suffering, get rid of him. Now the next one, you know, go on forever. But it says if you change your mind this is the key. It was a simple word, isn’t it?
Like I said, five year olds stood around. Ruin that phrase. But it’s to see it, to kind of look through much being your own therapist is is profound, is amazing. Even to get begin to get a glimpse of it, even to begin to have some confidence in it, even we’re not sure, you know, is amazing already. And the fact is we’ve tried everything else, you know, in the very nature of our culture because it’s so oriented towards the external world.
We’ve tried we’ve we’ve invented we’re inventing thousands of new objects and foods and this and that every single day. Why? It’s logical. Why? Why would we keep inventing things?
Because we’re convinced that if we get the better things, they’re gonna get better happiness. We keep trying. You gotta admire our effort, you know? So the positive qualities in our mind, what we said, the development of these is what the cause of happiness is. It’s so simple.
The development of our positive qualities will bring us happiness. But even more fundamental than that, the removal of the negative ones is a source of happiness. Just figuring out even developing the positive ones. If the world could all see, if we could all see that my anger, my depression, my jealousy, my anxiety, my fears, they are why I suffer. You imagine what a blissful world it would be because who in their right mind would be angry for even one second?
It would be so disgusting like Lama Zopa says, it’s like you’re in a septic tank. You’d be repulsed by the idea of ignorance. It’s just like you’ve eaten a mouthful of poison. Nobody would do that if they had if they had any intelligence. Well, that’s what Buddha is saying.
We are so removed from truth right now. We’re caught up in this schizophrenic world of really not seeing that how our mind is, our thoughts, our emotions, our feelings, our attitudes, that they are the source of whether we’re happy or whether we suffer. They are the main source, the main one. Yes. Of course, like I said, the external world, the cakes and the punches play a very active role.
But we don’t give any credibility to this mind, these thoughts, these feelings, think it’s all from the outside, which in Buddhist terms is is as dumb as as thinking that, you know, the apple seed plays no role at all in the apple tree. The main causes of the apple tree are you and the water and the soil and the sunshine. We’d all know that it’s ridiculous, don’t we? You can water the ground for two for twenty seven years. You’re not gonna get an apple tree.
I’m sorry. You’d need an apple seed there. So you can punch me in the nose for twenty seven years, I’ll get a very bloody nose where I agree. But I would not ever get angry if I didn’t have a seed of anger in my mind. Whereas the absolute logic we use now is that the anger is like one of the components of your fist.
You give me anger, isn’t it? Buddha just says it’s ridiculous, which is hardly shocking. It’s sort of like saying you mean I shouldn’t be angry if somebody punches me. Buddha says, spot on. Get out of their way, maybe.
No problem. Don’t be stupid, you know, sit there until they punch me again. But the this is it sounds shocking, but when we really begin to understand the power of our own mind, we can see this is the truth. We can see this is the truth, you know. As long as I’ve perpetuated this, when you’ve really gone beyond anger, and we’ll talk more about what it actually is and how it functions, you know?
And that’s from a very that will be you know, a person who’s really gone beyond anger would be a very advanced person who’s done amazing internal work, amazing work at being their own therapist. If you’ve really gone beyond anger, that even a person punches you, sure you feel a bloody nose, but you will not be angry and you will not see an enemy out there. You just have compassion. This is the facts, you know. This is how come when you read the biographies of all these amazing Tibetans who’ve been tortured for twenty seven years or something in Tibet, you know, and many many many stories have been published.
But it’s almost like mind boggling to us. We can’t quite comprehend it when you have these people coming out of being tortured for so many years and they come out more compassionate, more loving, more patient, more wise. It’s not even the same like we assume you should. We don’t comprehend it, it’s too deep, you know? I mean, when you really analyze the Dalai Lama, you know, everybody, you know, until recently. Generally speaking, like, say, in America where I’m living, people adore the Dalai Lama.
They love all the words he says. They love the idea that he’s so patient and doesn’t fight the communist Chinese, you know. It sounds wonderful when you hear him talking because everyone loves him. But excuse me, since all this business has been happening now, no one wants to know about his view. They think he’s insane, you know, because they’re suddenly realizing this huge anger in their own minds.
And now their country has been, you know, bombed or whatever, attacked. How you know, no one would expect us to be kind and loving. You don’t wanna know about what Dalai Lama saying. People are even, like I said, criticizing him now. Because when you really look deeply into why he’s such a nice, cute guy, it’s not because he’s a nice, cute guy, it’s because he’s worked so hard at this very view we’re discussing in here of really, really realizing the causes of happiness and the causes of suffering.
Really going beyond the delusions, really going beyond guilt and blame and all the rest. It’s very profound actually, his position. Though it sounds, it’s kind of nice, you know. It’s so profound and it demands so much of us. So forget about whether your family were blown up in some kind of terrorist attack.
Just even when the person looks wrong at you next door, look at your mind, you know, how painful it is, how angry we get, how believing so strongly that person’s the cause of my suffering, and all the rationality, all the rationalizing we do. So to even begin to hear the words that the person who did that thing to us isn’t the main cause is quite profound, it’s kind of mind boggling, it’s radical. So how is it true? Not just some religious belief. How is it true?
Because it’s in this where the power is, where the space is to be able to change. As long as we believe that that person out there is the cause of my suffering, then it really is true, isn’t it? As long as they’re existing, I’m gonna always suffer, which is how come in America they have a thing called death row, you know? Until that person’s dead. And not only that, until they suffer, when you hear people who went to the hanging and went to the execution, they come out furious because the person didn’t suffer enough.
They look like they died peacefully, and they’re not happy even with that. I mean, it’s so outrageous when you think about it, but that’s the conclusion of this view we have that Buddha says is completely mistaken, you know. Not moralistically so. No. He’s not trying to say, you’re a bad person.
He’s simply saying, you’re on the wrong track, you know. So what what is a negative state of mind? What makes it negative? And what is a positive one? Because we should understand it, not just kinda believe it, you know.
Well, according to Buddha, you know, a negative state of mind, again, like it’s not a moralistic statement. He’s simply saying that it’s something that is the source that causes you pain. What is what causes it to be negative, broadly speaking now, we’ll go into more detail, is it comes from an unhappy neurotics the the unhappy neurotic part of us, the overdeveloped mistaken sense of this freaked out me, you know? And then what’s that called positive is coming from a more spacious kind of interconnected sense of we, not just me. So if you know, I’m talking to my friend, let’s say, you know, we’re sitting there feeling very good and very comfortable and nice to each other.
There’s a really comfortable feeling inside each of our hearts, isn’t there? Very unthreatened. So I’m kind to you, you’re kind to me. Very positive. And so you can say, you know, the mind isn’t disturbed.
There’s no disturbance in our heart, which is what happiness is if you think about it. The lack of disturbance equals happiness to some degree, isn’t it? And then secondly, what’s interesting about it is that the sense of it’s coming from a sense of interdependence, isn’t it? I’m more connected to you, you’re more connected to me. But check how it is when you start to argue, you know?
If suddenly you start to say words I don’t like and I say words you don’t like, you can feel it literally, physically almost, you becoming and me becoming more separate. You’re out there, I’m over here. My eyes My sense of eye is panic stricken, yours is panic stricken, you’re getting angry, I’m getting angry, you’re, you know, so vivid there, you me over here vivid, vivid. There’s no sense of interdependence, is there? And it’s very disturbing.
Very disturbing. So we can see if we look into our hearts and we do, we be our own therapist. We can analyze ourselves the logic of what negative means and what positive means. And they’re not just what God or Buddha says we should or shouldn’t do, which is our usual view, you know. They’ve got logic.
There’s logic and we have to investigate that ourselves, you know. So Buddha’s sort of saying, it’s like Buddha being your parents saying, don’t be angry, don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal. Why? Because it causes you suffering. Initially, he’s just giving you advice like your mom.
Don’t go near the fire, darling. But then if you ask the question, why? Well, the best reason is because it’ll burn you. Not because I said so, then you get all resentful. Well, I’m gonna do what I like.
I’m gonna walk into the fire, you know? But no, when you really learn why you don’t go near fire, it’s because you know it’ll cause suffering. So why you don’t be angry, Buddha says, the first reason. Don’t even mention compassion yet. That’s more advanced, you know.
We’ve gotta get this first reason first. Why not to be angry is because it causes suffering to you for God’s sake. And we know we don’t want suffering. But this is a tough one to see. Why?
Because we’re so caught up for and Buddha says from ancient ancient habit, you know, bringing it with us from past lives. We’re so caught up in this mistaken view. It’s like a philosophical view, but it’s deep in our bones that it all comes from out there, you know. So, I mean, I remember since a child, my mother didn’t have to teach me how to be angry. Now you raise your voice for a minute, now you bare your teeth, now you put your fist up here.
She didn’t have to teach me. I was really good at it from the time I came out of her womb, you know. She can attest to that. So Buddha says, you know, and so we can be forgiven for thinking, is this is the view, you know, that that’s what just my personality. My mom made me this way, dad made me this way, god made me this way.
What can I do? Remember Buddha is saying, we brought this energy with us. We’ve perfected anger from before. We brought it with us. Why some children are loving, naturally loving or naturally generous is because they perfected, they’ve really practiced that well in the past.
Just like you know in this life,