Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 92-minute session, Ven Tony Beaumont guides practitioners through a comprehensive meditation and reflective teaching on developing inner harmony. The first part covers breath work and a grounding meditation on the four elements—earth, water, fire, and air—to settle and clarify the mind. He then moves into a reflection on gratitude and good fortune: the remarkable gift of human life, its capacities for body, speech, and mind; the particular privilege of being born in a stable country with access to Buddhist teachings; and the presence of realized masters like the Dalai Lama. The final extended portion addresses the Four Noble Truths—suffering, its causes rooted in ignorance and karma, the possibility of cessation, and the path of practice—emphasizing personal responsibility and the potential for transformation. Throughout, Beaumont stresses how inner stability enables both ethical discernment and compassionate action, and how using this human life wisely toward spiritual development benefits both ourselves and others. Suitable for practitioners of any experience level seeking a structured approach to meditation and Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Developing Inner Harmony 2015 08 16 AM Session.mp3
UUID: ab68a341-e8c5-4321-b5a2-2d495d18090f
Teacher: Ven Tony Beaumont
Collection: Developing Inner Harmony (Ven Tony Beaumont)
Date: 2015-08-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 92.1 minutes
Words: ~7,610
Okay. So then today’s meditation day. Okay. The first part is a period for an hour, which ten o’clock, and then we continue on with further meditation teachings. Good day and then this afternoon.
Alright. So then with this first part of meditation, thought to divide it into three parts, and that would be first off just to focus the mind by using the breath and then to do meditation on the four elements. It’s earth, water, fire, and air. And then to do a meditation on reflecting on the positive situation we have in our life and own those things which we find ourselves having the good fortune to have, particularly from the point of view of if we have these good circumstances then that’s conducive to be able to use the life in such a way that we can be of greatest benefit to ourselves and others. So then okay.
So here, first off with this with the breathing meditation is to sit comfortably in such a way that not only do you have the sense of being comfortable, your body feeling comfortable, but also it’s not a posture that’s gonna lead you to fall asleep or your mind becomes sluggish. And so then it’s said to be good if we can keep our back straight. This allows the wind energy within the body to flow more freely and therefore with that keep more alert state of mind. And so meditation is a process of being alert. It’s an active process.
So we’re trying to develop some degree of clarity, some degree of sharpness in our mind. Alright. So here in this first part, what we’re doing is to adjust and observe the natural flow of the breath. And this way of observing the breath is something that’s not unique to Buddhism. It’s a practice which is used in other religious traditions and also outside religious traditions as well And probably more than ever in the western world, it’s seen as something which can be used in constructive way in different varieties of way.
And here, particularly in Buddhism, we’re trying to focus our mind using the breath, bringing our mind into the present moment, letting go of memories and anticipations, things of the past, and then also plans for the future, and then any other things that may be distracting. And so then with this, what we try to do is to just to be aware of the flow of the breath as it comes in through the nostrils and passes back out again, to keep the awareness and the sensation of the air passing in and flowing out again. Just to settle the mind on the awareness of the air passing in and passing out. In the sense that this is a natural rhythmical flow and taking place since the time of our birth. So it’s a rhythmical flow just like some ways we can say if we sit by the sea, in the beach and observe the waves as they come in onto the shore and then the water goes back out and then returns again, only to go back out again continuously like this, this cycle of going in and out.
So similar with our breath. So reconnecting with this natural organic process. And when we’re observing the breath as it comes in and out, the distractions may arise just to sense that whatever passes through, that they’re just like clouds passing through the sky and not get caught up. So many clouds, you know, sit outside and watch the sky. Clouds come through the sky and they have a duration of time and they’re constantly changing.
They pass through what we’re observing, a particular point in the sky and then move on like this, another one comes and passes on. And so this is like this with our thoughts or the sensations in the body or sounds. They are events that arise, abide and pass. Or these events can also be like bubbles arising from the surface of a pond. How that come they form, they burst, and they dissolve back into the water.
So similarly, to just to let these events arise and pass away. Don’t get drawn into the story. Just bring the mind back to the breath. So like this for the next few minutes. It may be the case that there’s a lot of turbulence in your mind, maybe you have lot of conflict, things that you’re thinking about that occurred during the week or might be an overwhelming sense of emotional problems that’s dominating your life.
And so this can be a little bit like how it is, Almost like in a boat in the ocean, a small boat in the ocean. And there are waves all around you constantly threatening to swamp the boat, to overwhelm. And so, of course, when that’s happening, you are totally focused on that sense of being overwhelmed, whatever you can do to stop the waves from overwhelming. But then there’s another way. It’s as though you’re aware of that happening, maybe the turbulence in your mind.
And then in your mind’s eye, just to imagine. So visualize yourself going up into the sky just like you’re going up in a plane. As you go up in sky, it’s very clear, clear blue sky. And as you go up, you sense instead of the waves, just a sense of spaciousness in all directions, limitless space, nothing obstructing your vision. And so as you look back down, you can see, still see the waves.
They’re still there, but they’re no longer overwhelming. Let go that dominance, this superficial agitation of the mind and allowing yourself now to experience this vastness of the mind free from all this superficial agitation. So just allow yourself to experience a sense of limitless, spacious sky. So then now having developed some clarity, some less agitation in your mind, some spaciousness, and to reflect on this meditation on four elements. And firstly, earth element, that quality of our being, which is associated with solidity, the density, heaviness of weight, and consensus in the feeling of the body, your body just allowing the body to sink into the seat in which you’re sitting.
It’s the weight of the body. This quality of body, heaviness, the weightiness, of density, substance. And then also to sense this earth element externally and that the support that we have for our body underneath our backside, underneath our feet. And then perhaps the since the the weight of your hands on your knees, the support of the knees of your hands. And so this earth element is constructive phenomenon.
And then to get a sense of the water element, that constituents constituent part of our being, our fluidity. Of the of the blood throughout the body, of the lymph, the saliva, This liquid quality within our body. Or do they say liquidity and adhesion. And then also the sense that you’ve just generated awareness and how it exists in the external environment. The reality of the humidity that’s existing in the air surroundings.
The darkness of the soil, the liquid in plants. I could even think also in terms of how that rain and clouds and sky. And then reflect on the fire, how does this existence of this fire element within our body. This element of heat, this attribute, quality of heat and how our body actually radiates out heat. You capture your body or someone else’s body, The warmth that’s radiating out from the person’s body.
And then the heat generated in digestion. And then surroundings also has this fire element. And of course, the heat coming from the sun continuously radiating our sun onto our surrounding environment. And then next to consider the air element. And how within our body traveling through our blood vessels, the cells carrying oxygen.
And then on a more subtle level, how it is described, using acupuncture to affect the wind energy existing within our body. These meridians in the subtle level within the body. And then to sense this connectedness with our body and external environment through the air, we’re constantly breathing in air into our body, taking it in and then breathing back out again. So this is air element surrounding us and how closely connected we are with this, with our environment. So then if you would like to stand and stretch your legs, Please do so.
Try to keep your mind focused. Move position, whatever, and try to remain the present moment. Okay. So just to motivate here for this last for the second part of this meditation. The center here was established on the basis of lot of actions, a lot of activity, a lot of effort, a lot of generosity offered by many people over the years and very much from the connectedness within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
And on the basis of a trust, some degree trust, some degree of faith in the value of this tradition and the qualities embodied in those beings like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe responsible for founding the centre, and the understanding of this view that just as they have developed themselves, developed compassion and wisdom and perhaps even, you know, perhaps even enlightened beings, not too sure, then the view is also we can develop ourselves. We can become completely developed beings. It’s not the case that, okay, I have my mind simply comes from my brain and the brain that I have has come from my parents. And that brain is deteriorating, so therefore, my mental capacity is very much dependent upon, limited by, this brain and by the genetics of parents and so on. So in Buddhism, we don’t refute the effect of the brain and the mind.
If we’re saying the mind is not something physical that predated this life, and even if we do have very strong negative tendencies, they can be removed. We can work with the mind and we can become completely developed beings and embodiment, embodied with wisdom and compassion, radiating out these qualities like the sun. So then here, and just to take a moment to recite this refuge prayer, which is basically entrusting oneself into spiritual development, developing good qualities of the one self so that one can fulfill happiness of itself and others. Alright. So then so with this meditation, we’re just gonna reflect on our life and some of the factors we have.
Let’s consider our good fortune. A little bit like in Christian tradition, the idea of reflecting on your blessings. Here the psychology really is that instead of obsessing over all the things that are lacking in our life, we’re looking at the positive qualities we have and of course not just leaving it at that but if we’ve got these good fortunes and the implication is that we should use these gifts in the best way. If we feel badly about ourselves, how can we help others? If we have poor self esteem, then how can we be of benefit to others?
So in reflecting in this way, it’s not in order to, you know, become inflated or anything like that or fool ourselves, but rather to from a positive view of oneself, eliminate or lessen self pity, and elevate the mind to a positive feeling, buoyant feeling. So firstly, we just think just to be even just to have human life, human being. That from the point of view of humans have body, speech, and mind. It’s a body that we have. Then of course human beings, their bodies can do huge damage than any animal does.
But if we decide to use our body in a constructive way, beneficial way, then of course we can. You just think about your hands, what you can do with your hands. You know, if a person is in a caring profession, for instance, in nursing, what they do with their hands each day to benefit others. Just even that, and their various instruments and so on which are protecting the lives of others. Applying bandages, giving medicines, like this, given by hand.
Animals have hoofs or claws or things like this, But animals have got a hand humans have got a hand which can be used to help others. Then with your hands, of course, if someone’s doing massage, touching the body of another person, you can use your hands. Just that gesture, just that, you know, that genuine concern for another person to touch them at the right time in the appropriate way can reassure another person. And then with our bodily gestures, if we’re skillful for this, the right smile at the right time, the capacity to be able to empathize with another person and show this through the smile or way we look at them with our eyes and bring them great peace. The Dalai Lama often mentions this about the capacity of human being to smile.
So in some ways, expression of the human body is an expression of divinity, meaning divine person being, how you can express compassion and wisdom with the physical body. And then speech as well. We can use that speech in a way that is skillful to help others say the right thing at the right time in the right tone. One word is possible if we’re skillful at the right time to save another person’s life. And, of course, with speech then, you know, animals make noises, but, you know, one can up or human beings put sounds together to create meaning, to create communication, and then to create language, written form in which we can impart ideas.
We can receive ideas through language. We can receive ideas, understanding, wisdom, compassion, and we can impart it with that speech. Then also human beings with the mind that we have, with the imagination, we can visualize creating image in our mind of something which we wish to achieve, idea, some possibility in our mind, and then engage in the causes to achieve that objective. We have the capacity to be able to understand, to comprehend concepts, to be able to understand the causes of the suffering and the causes of the suffering happens, to abandon one and cultivate the other. And with our mind, we have the capacity to be able to grasp profound and difficult concepts.
So human life is remarkable. Then also human being have the capacity to develop trust or say faith, confidence in that which brings happiness. And that may, you know, developing faith in a sense, faith in the spiritual path. Faith that the way to go forward, the way to create meaning in the life is through inner transformation. So if we have this, then we should really rejoice.
There’s so many people in this earth, you know, intelligent, so smart. But very often, even that smartness becomes the opposite obstacle because it prevents them from opening up to another way of knowing. Acknowledge that they may not understand how things exist. So just to have that openness of mind that we’ve been coming here this morning, whatever degree of trust or confidence in spiritual practices, not to even just give up an hour at a time, Sunday morning. It should be a source of rejoicing.
There’s something taking place that we some attribute existing within us. Some belief in importance of internal development. And this is something we can nurture more and more. It’s something we can fertilize in water, a mind of faith and trust. And so this faith is said to be like a mother because it gives birth to good qualities.
And it’s like the hands because hands pick things up and so the faith can pick up good qualities. And then faith is like the legs because it allows you to follow the spiritual path. So faith follows the path to developing aspiration, which leads in turn to develop engagement in activity. So then also to rejoice in our current situation, to be born in a situation in Australia with the standard of living we have, the relative absence of violence, freedom to express ourselves, high economic standard, ease to get a passport from travel, Extraordinary social services system. Some other people could not conceive the social services system of the health and pensions and so on that exist in this country.
Some other places, totally nothing. So I’m very fortunate to have this situation. Then also the existence of spiritual tradition and particularly here we say in Buddhism, that Buddhism came into existence twenty five hundred years ago. Buddha manifested manifested and then taught taught for forty years. Eighty four thousand collections of teachings introduced into the world so strongly and established in the world twenty five hundred years ago.
And that not only that, but they were established, but they still exist today. That these are still existing and alive today. Then not only that, there are beings, brothers and sisters, who are engaging, trying to engage in spiritual practice, really giving it priority in life, genuinely engaging. Then also remarkable that there are holy beings who manifest in this earth. The Dalai Lama, is he an ordinary person coming to this world, or did he come here through the power of compassion and prayer?
Now we have access to meeting him, seeing him, listening to him being on this earth, who is an embodiment of wisdom and compassion. And at the age of eighty, still totally energized to work for others, never have given up on anything. So when he was identified at the age of three, so people supposedly knew he was only three and actually, he used to be like his brother. So he’s not like manifesting like a saint with a halo, but they’re able to recognize the age of three. This is an extraordinary day.
So how can this be the case if it’s not did you did they indoctrinate? What the quality of the system before that? The last line and coming to this world out of a totally dedicated to the. So we have connection with beings like us. They’re not in that, then we have it that it’s come together that people have committed themselves in different ways to establish networks of centers around the world.
And just not just networks of centers, but also establishing programs of centers. So we have this fortunate circumstance. And given this case then, just to conclusion, say we can decide to use this life well. How do we use this life well? We can use it well from moment to moment.
Every person that we meet, every circumstance in it, every difficult circumstance also is an opportunity for us to create the causes for happiness for ourselves and for others. So that’s remember to know. And then also throughout this life, we can decide, you know, career or job or whatever activities that we’re engaged in. Engage in these in a constructive way. Use the light, getting in a positive direction, going from light to light or from darkness to light.
And then we can create the causes for a peaceful old age and death, having tried to do the best that we can with our circumstance, our life circumstance. And then also we use this life to create the causes to attain good fortune of rebirth, liberation and enlightenment. So then just in dedication, to dedicate whatever positive results from reflecting during this time on these meditation teachings, on observing the breath and then the elements and then reflecting our fortunate life circumstance. Whatever positive results have arisen from reflecting this way, We offer this up, offer up in there the positive potential up to those, to others who’ve recently died and may they take rebirth in fortuitous circumstance and to kind compassion on their parents, have circumstance for meeting spiritual teachers, follow the paths of ground and attain enlightenment. When most people are seriously ill, may they recover from illness and if not, then may they also have peaceful death and likewise good rebirth circumstance and utilize their life well, benefiting others.
And wherever beings are undergoing difficulty from, may they find a way of overcoming those difficulties or transforming something beneficial. And wherever beings engaged in constructive beneficial activities and projects, may those activities and projects bear fruit, bring benefit to others. And then may highly realized beings continue to manifest in this world. May teachers live long. And then to do whatever dedication, whatever personal dedication you’d like to make.
Just do that. Okay. So just to give you just to talk for a moment. How many days to on the subject? So let’s do it within a harmony.
So if we do develop this sort of internal harmony, so that internal harmony principle to the mind, is also sensational body mind combination. And if we’re able to do this reading Buddhism, we’re talking about not just life, but having a more positive view about ourselves in the world and Buddhist understanding, then the consequence of this, not just internal harmony, but also there’s gonna be harmony in our relationships with others with the community at large within the country, the influences that we have on the country, but also within our environment. So this is a strong influence, Emphasis place to attain this kind of internal sanity. So, really, this is reflected in the first teaching of the Buddha, this kind of view, a particular view about our current situation. How did the Buddha first state that?
It seems like the other two talks are talking about this, the truth of suffering. But in fact, to live life means that we’re going to have difficulties. There’s gonna be problems with that. So it’s an important thing. We wanna develop an internal harmony, stability within our mind that we understand that whether we like it or not, circumstances, problems arise.
And it’s certainly true that if we can, you know, difficulties arise, then it makes sense if we can eradicate those problems. So Buddhism in no way is saying not to eradicate problems. The negative qualities, call it all the possible qualities. And this wouldn’t be a worrying statement, so it wouldn’t be worrying because this would mean that the mind would also be freed from that state of dissatisfaction which is born, not being able to find the things that we want, but the mind would be free for instance. Does this understand as potential for you to take from all those different levels of suffering?
It has no problems. Each of our systems within this body has its own specific type of cancer, its own different types of disease. We continue as we live older, old age comes and it has its problems. And again, as much as our society has worked to try to eradicate problems in difficulties and they create the environment, in some ways that pursuit in doing that to create a perfect environment has created more problems because when old age comes, the people these days become more of a problem. How do they deal with this, you know, this old body, this unattractive body?
And not only that because the society venerates youth and beauty and everything else. You know, what value is an old person? In previous times, an old person had value in society because they had knowledge and wisdom. But now who has knowledge, of course, the young ones are the computers. If you want to have knowledge, you have to go to a young person, don’t you?
It’s a different type of knowledge, isn’t it? It’s the old people. So that becomes more problematic like this. But actually Buddhists do and actually it’s more that we actually embrace and open ourselves up to the reality of difficulties. It becomes not so much a problem in terms of opportunity.
In a sense, we would say to live life means to experience pain. It means we can experience pain. But whether that pain becomes suffering or not is another thing that’s dependent upon our response to the actual circumstance. So Buddhism very much here gives us a framework to deal with this most wisely. And this then becomes an antidote and protection for us to avoid becoming addicts.
Because, you know, addiction comes really very much from a state of not being able to deal with, drugs, it be alcohol, whether it food, whether it be whatever is anything to drive an escape, which in turn becomes more of a problem and traps the person. The person more and more, you know, addicted to pleasure, whatever it is, then it leads to more problems. But if we take that more open approach, much more open approach, much more mature approach, then It also means if we’re familiar with this, we can realize that we become familiar with it, we can understand it, and we can be a support for others who go through difficulties. We can identify the difficulties, be a support for them and feel compassion for them when they go through it, and feel compassion for them. This is, you know, we say this is a first of the four noble truths. First is the truth of cause, where does all this problems come from?
We’re saying the origin is within our own mind. We say karma and disturbing states of mind. karma from the point of view of events that occur as a result of actions created in the past. karma means intentional action body, speech and mind.
We can also see it more broadly, that as a result of actions, we create certain actions and we experience a result. But there’s there’s karma and then there’s disturbing states of the mind which motivate that karma. And they may need such things as anger, which, you know, motivate a person to do an action, destructive action, or maybe clinging attachment or maybe jealousy, like this. So the root of all these disturbing states of mind is basic ignorance. It’s not understanding how things exist.
And that ignorance is seeing ourselves as existing as an independent entity. I, me, Tony, my problems, I, me. Not and it’s not seeing beyond this and understanding that this, you know, for instance, this body has come from parents. The body is dependent upon food. My mind, the evolution of my mind is dependent upon my interactions with others.
I don’t exist as an independent person. But while I see myself as an independent entity, I, when there’s a sense of insecurity, I need to get things for me and I need to push away anything that threatens me So on the base of that, then we’ll create the karma. So we’re saying, and this has been happening, where does this come from? This basic ignorance, the same delusion has, been existing since the beginning of this time. Just like we say, just like numbers in a sequence, one, two, three, four, five, six.
Keep going back. There’s a stream with no such beginning. But they they the message here in this the second truth truth, the truth that points to something such as personal responsibility. The various people we meet, that’s due to our actions. So it comes back very on a personal very mature, very honest, very much called integrity.
Can’t cheat. You can’t, you know, there’s no way around it. You can’t distort it. It’s a way that just suits yourself. We’re left with a personal responsibility.
But then that is extraordinary from another way if we start to think about it because there is an opportunity. So just as I’m responsible for the condition I am now, personal responsibility, once you start to take responsibility, it’s within your power now to transform your life. While you don’t take responsibility for your life, while you’re blaming everyone else, how can you change your life? Because when a notion holds your spirit. Others control my mind.
I don’t have any control. I’m so deflating. Someone I know, know, years ago, right, in a relationship with boyfriend one, leaves boyfriend one to go to boyfriend two, the same with boyfriend two. In a relationship with boyfriend two for three years, Then as you know, in relationships things happen. And that relationship ends.
She ends up with boyfriend three who subsequently becomes her husband. Right? Husband and then father of quite a few children. And then it was over many years, difficulties in relationships and, you know, the raising of children and all sorts of other things. I don’t know the details, but whatever.
Very difficult for her in that situation. But here it is, thirty years after leaving boyfriend two, she blames boyfriend two for everything. She said because of boyfriend two, I left boyfriend one, I ended up with boyfriend three. He’s responsible. Know, really all this is, right?
So I sort of tie in a bit with that meditation on forgiveness, but it’d be pretty difficult to forgive if your mind is locked into a blame. Right? So I think Buddhism is liberating. I mean, if I was to tell her that she wouldn’t wanna hear it anyway she’s got so much vested interest in holding that thing for so many years, but that’s terrible for her. She’s like this.
But I guess many people can hold that view. That’s not to say that boyfriend two, they might hold certain risks. So you definitely did probably do things wrong, but, ultimately, it’s still to be thinking about this thirty years later. If I don’t have been So I think, you know, regardless of what meditation practices she does, it’s just simply to quieten the mind. I don’t think there’s gonna be an inner harmony possible while she holds that type of view.
Your mind will always come back to life. So a third of the teachings of Buddha is the truth of this cessation of suffering. So they’re saying that not only can you eliminate a small amount of problems and difficulties and, you know, some degree of fulfillment in your life, claiming in Buddhism that we can become a completely developed being. Some people say that’s really ego tripping, you know, like this. But it’s not, I mean, ego is saying that in any case, even if we are able to attain that, our ego tripping is I, how great I but an understanding that this is the ability to attain that state is going to be dependent on a multiplicity of other people.
So it’s not an ego thing, it’s all dependent upon others. So this is one way to talk about Buddha potential, Buddha nature is that the understanding that our mind isn’t being produced from our brain, it’s being influenced from it. Whereas if you have the idea that your mind is coming from your brain, it’s coming from the chemicals and electrical impulses in the brain, then whatever occurs in your mind, how it evolves, is going be dependent upon that physical basis. And that physical basis is going to deteriorate as you get older, we know that. And it’s also dependent upon the genetics, I suppose, of your capacities of your parents.
That’s very limited. But in Buddhism, they’re saying, no, that’s not understanding what mind is. Mind is not something physical. Mind is experience. And it’s a stream in that it comes from its previous instant.
Each individual person’s stream arises from the previous moment. And so there are various patterns existing in our mind. And even though we may have very strong negative patterns as in ones that are, you know, those states that we don’t like, you know, like miserliness, hatred, or whatever it is, the patterns are certainly there. But they’re patterns that they’re like movements of clouds in the sky. So the sky can be very overcast and dense and thick, those clouds, but they’re never one with the sky.
They can be removed by their very nature. They are superficial to the to the sky. So likewise said in Buddhism that these disturbing states of mind are not in accord with reality and bring suffering to the mind. Whereas the positive states of mind when we start to see the connectedness with others, they express the reality of our existence and the connectedness with others. And the more that we explore and understand our mind more deeply, the more that these of mind, the wholesome states of mind, arise.
So it would be, you know, a completely developed being would also have completely developed love and compassion. It would be a consequence of the unfolding of the potential existing within the mind. So this is what they say to Buddhism. No matter what you do, no matter how bad, how negative you are, you don’t lose this. No one has ever killed this.
No one can take this from you. Nobody can take it from you. Tony Abbott can’t take it. Well, bloody hell, it might be even worse. Have this potential existing within us that no one can take from us. And also our skill in our life, how we conduct our life. That’s what we’ve called the natural Buddha potential, but then there’s the evolving Buddha potential because that is that which has the positive states of mind that we can cultivate in this life.
We all have the basis to be able to do this. The gardening of the mind is developing these beautiful flowers in our mind by our practices. This is part of what we can do. And then we need the capacity to be inspired. We have these other people to inspired to engage in this.
We have the ability also to practice as well as possible. We create the conditions and we open ourselves up to an experience of an enlightened experience. Being that have this in the past, the ripened cause may manifest for us. It may occur in our dreams. Okay.
So that’s the third truth, the truth of the cessation of suffering and more than just cessation of suffering, the truth is that we can become a completely developed being, embodied with love and compassion. Then the fourth truth is the truth of the path. And this again emphasizes just as we are personally responsible for our current situation, then what takes place in the future is dependent upon what we do now. This is an important part in understanding karma. karma is not a fatalistic view.
karma, the understanding of karma should lead us to say, Okay, I am responsible for what happened now. What’s happened is due to actions created in the past. What happens to me in the future is dependent upon what I do now. So in this fourth noble truth, the emphasis is on the path that we have to engage in the practices. And there is that lag, know, as I say, eighty four thousand teachings of the world.
Methods are there, available. Those texts. So it’s like this. And also then as well, we would say that there is a tradition of Buddhism that’s a live tradition and then there are the highly realized practitioners and teachers that we can connect with who can give us guidance. So anyway, the more that we, you know, reflect on that, consider we would say Buddhism, you know, if not this is Dalai Lama often says, you know, Buddhism is not for everyone.
And he even says, you know, some people, you know, it’s not the kind of view that would work for them. And also he said religion isn’t essential, not necessarily essential, but what is essential is the developing spiritual practices of love and compassion. Someone may develop those not through religion. Also even through religion, through religion harm can be caused. The real So then, of course, it’s in our harmony should also express itself in terms of our we’ve got this thing bringing about outer harmony to our environment as well in our relationships and also our environment, really Buddhist principles is that the idea is that we are more content within oneself so that it reduces this grasping of meaning, endless pursuits of pleasure and material course.
It puts so much stress on the environment and demands the environment, pollutes the environment. Buddhism helps to lessen that. Then they say Buddhism as well. It helps to develop relationships and develop more and more understanding about why people do things as they are. Then you can have this understanding mind which is instead of being resentful towards others, compassionate towards others.
But in the process also of developing harmony, and often it’s important to the communities, I love to say to this is on developing harmony in the community. Does not mean, does not mean developing harmony. That doesn’t mean necessarily that you let everyone else do as they please in order to have harmony. That’s not necessarily wise at all. That’s certainly true when it comes to a situation, for instance, you’ve got two egos in conflict in the community, that if they’re really trying to engage in practice and they’re considering the environment and their own development and development of the other person, then it can make sense to hand over the victory to the other person if the loss is just merely someone’s ego.
And in any case, if you lose that, you know, mind might important benefit you anyway because it’s, you know, my needs at the expense of others cause so many problems in the world. But there is the other situation, of course, where there are ethical issues involved where it may be appropriate for you where you really need to stand up. So for instance, even in the spiritual, that seems like it does occur definitely in religious centers, spiritual centers, so on, where you have examples of people in prominent position in that place. They may be the head person, and it turns out this person has been misbehaving. Mhmm.
You know, someone’s dead, and that they’re stealing. They’ve been caught by you. You’ve discovered this person’s ripping off money, But then not only that, what this many people seem to do these days is is, you know, have sex with an underage person. So if you discover it, when you say, oh, in the interest of harmony, I won’t do anything about it. How appropriate is that?
It’s a question. We we look at that and say, well, in the interest of Buddhism, the interest of Buddhism, the of sentient beings, you know, beings like this, of Buddhism, and perhaps in the interest even of the person committed the action, then we have a responsibility because it’s an ethical issue. We have to stand up. So even in that case then, if we’ve got a stable foundation on which we’re living our life and that person is abusive, if we really have a stable foundation to understand and, as generally the teaching is saying, if you have a teacher and you discover your guru acts against Dharma, and it’s connecting to Buddhism and to the strength of guru devotion, in that situation where someone, the teacher, is going against Dharma and is hurting others, you know, in a sense, have a responsibility to do so. And do it with stability within yourself.
You can do this because you understand. You’ve got the stability, you understand what’s right and what’s wrong. You have the internal strength. But even if that person abused you, and they may have been very kind to you in the past, they abused you, you still remain that stability because you understand clearly that this person’s a teacher, that importantly the teachings, and maybe at this stage as a teacher is a Buddha, and deliberately done this act to check to make sure I have the maturity to be able to discern life and wrong. So as I yell and scream at you and they’re taken to jail, you can still keep them in your heart as your teacher.
Yeah. Don’t abandon. But of course you understand that you discern and say, well, maybe there’s no need to receive those teachings after this time, this person’s been shown to be unworthy. And you don’t go the other way. If some people do the opposite perversion, when their teacher has done something or they feel the teacher has betrayed them and they turn against them, incredibly negative doing that.
They’re gonna suffer. So it should be an object of compassion for us. So it’s important because it’s discernment. You know? And you discern the difference between the one way and harmony on one level when it’s two egos and the situation where it’s ethical, then the stakes are far greater.
So we have to also have as well. I have to look at our lives and decide how are we going to use our life because there’s an emphasis placed in certain Tibetan Buddhism on remembering kindness of others and so we should always remember the kindness of others and repay their kindness. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you do everything your parents want to do. Right? From a Buddhist point of view, it’s sometimes appropriate not to do it.
We have to think about, never forget the kindness of the parent, but at the same time, our current situation as a human being and circumstances to allow us to develop spiritual practice so that we can benefit others. It’s an extraordinary situation we find ourselves in, extraordinary situation. And that circumstance for us to get human life and openness to spiritual practice is due to powerful practice done in the past, practices of morality and generosity, particularly those three, done by someone in our mind stream in the past lives, brought us to this situation. So how do we use this life? If you use this life just simply to maintain the harmony or to fulfill what that other person would like you to do, The question is that a wise decision?
Because you may end up doing that and you never you didn’t make them happy in the long run anyway. And you’ve done ended up doing something which later on you realize I was the opportunity. There was one guy, Renaud, years ago at the monastery medieval, there was a guy who came to live there for a while and he did he took ropes. He didn’t take full ordination or he didn’t take novice ordination. He got permission to wear the robes.
Salama gave a permission to wear the robes. So in that, I called it rabjam, which means when you are like that, you’re neither a lay person nor fully ordained. But for everyone else, I saw him. Think it was a month before the cut. Can’t see any difference.
It’s not like it’s anything that’s on the top. But his stinger, when he came, and it was, for me, it seemed pretty obvious, hadn’t resolved the issues with his mother. His mother had a strong hold over and control over him and she certainly didn’t want him to come home. She didn’t want him to come back at all. She came to visit the monastery, and I can’t remember if if he was already a monk or not then. But in any case, she certainly didn’t like us.
She hated us anyway, think. You know? Because she we were taking him away from her. Right? But the problem is his decision.
He had to resolve the issue himself about this and to decide on how he’s gonna use his life. His mother had the capability to be able to control him. So when he became a monk, then she would come and be a nuisance. Which he couldn’t deal with and yet he just couldn’t stop it. You know, we’ve got to use this ability to be able to.
So The five greatest regrets of the dying. Was it’s not a scientific book or anything. She was just a carer looking out to people who were in the process of dying. She talked to many people over a period of time They were in a process of dying to the point where they died. Looked after them in their home, so that’s the situation.
And so, you know, it’s not a scientific thing, but she came out with these five greatest regrets of the dying. The first one was I regretted that I didn’t live my life truly to what I wanted to do. Lived according to what others expected me to do. So just an interesting note that those who could end up like that. I think if you go on the internet, right, you if you go five greatest regrets of the dying, you’ll get that.
Five greatest regrets of the dying.
It’ll come up. So I mean, it’s not a scientific thing. I won’t. Alright. So your lunchtime now and just to dedicate this morning’s session.
So from reflecting this while this a subject matter is body of that meditation, body of breathing, and then the elements of meditation and human rebirth meditation. And then the Bodhicitta meditation and forgiveness. And then this last part, yeah, to dedicate whatever results there are now from the session can be of great benefit to ourselves and others. Okay.