Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Venerable Tony Beaumont delivers a 125-minute teaching on practical approaches to reducing stress rooted in Buddhist principles. He opens by using ocean waves as a metaphor for stress, then establishes the core framework: stress arises from unwholesome mental states, but the mind is naturally free of these disturbances, just as clouds are superficial to sky. He explores how living according to karma and the law of cause and effect protects us, and illustrates this with a challenging real-world example about institutional abuse and how ignoring problems compounds suffering. He then contrasts attachment—which overestimates an object’s positive qualities and leads to suffering—with compassion, which when grounded in understanding that all beings wish to be free from suffering, actually reduces stress. He addresses burnout in helping professions, showing it arises not from too much compassion but from unrealistic self-expectations. Finally, he introduces the Buddhist concept of self-grasping as the deepest source of suffering, and offers the practice of tonglen, or taking on others’ suffering, as a transformative tool. Suitable for practitioners of any level interested in practical Buddhist approaches to mental wellbeing.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2015 08 25 Ven. Tony Reducing Stress 25-8-15.mp3
UUID: 72f9b941-3c9e-4d29-8027-2651a6cab750
Teacher: Ven Tony Beaumont
Collection: Reducing Stress Week (Ven Tony Beaumont)
Date: 2015-08-25
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 125.2 minutes
Words: ~1,865
Sensations in the body, and these events just allow them to arise and sense that they have a nature of arising, fighting, passing away, like clouds So then just to sense that when this is taking place, it’s like being in the ocean and riding a boat and being threatened to be swamped by the waves. So in that situation, it’s very difficult to feel at peace in the moment while it is about to swamp the boat, sitting there applying this effort, fighting sense, struggle, And then think about and its capacity to protect. So then when we bring in our life the principles, teachings of karma and live our life according to karma, which is explained, then this protects us So then we continue on with the subject. Stress. But these are influences of unwholesome.
And even if we, you know, as well, we’re. Naturally free of the disturbing states. They are superficial to the mind just like clouds are superficial to the sky or like dirt can be extracted from a glass of water. It might be muddy, you can take it out. So this is what we have.
Then just some things to say about values. It’s a set of values. The two come together, the view of what you’re doing is your your your living is is a guidelines in such a way that you understand this is what I should do, but it corresponds to something I want to do because this is the way to go. So that is the way to go. So when we establish the set of values in our life, we do it on the basis of when you meditate and reflect in your personal life experience and also so you can, you know, read the news and see what other people’s behaviors and so on and see how we set that But still on another level, I guess, I didn’t really connect. I heard the stories, I didn’t connect with the people who were performing the actions and those actions.
But then He’s not wearing his. He’s wearing his greens in in the state of South Australia in Victoria. They’re all wearing green. If you go to the prison, there’s green stuff everywhere. It’s been to prison.
I’ll never wear a green again, but I get out. So he’s there. Right? And he’s no longer a priest. He’d been in there for several years.
And he’s being interviewed because they’ve got the royal commission taking place. He’s there on video. And his evidence is that he was answering the question. When he’s questioned, really hit me really strongly when he said, to hear him actually say this, I was out of control. But, you know, hear the accusations being made, but actually to hear him say he sent them off to other parishes.
And, again, I I I as I said before, previously those people would go to church. But when I thought about that, why are they doing that? And I can understand, you know, I can understand, look, I would do I would do things too It was an embarrassment, but to actually do that and then but to do that to the young girls and the boys. So it makes sense to examine and see how to explain And and if you do it that level, if you take it seriously, it’s a foundation for your as a as a monk, you know, priests, they might have the same thing. It’s definitely there for monastic life.
But if it’s really integrating the life, So can’t see how they they’re trying to solve the problem, but then I understand it. It’s essential importance. So important to me is that the minimum level of spiritual practice, the Dharma practice is working for future lives. And what that means what that means when they say working for future lives, it ends. Because what work means working for this life is to engage in the world of darkness.
Is the material pleasures of money, buying, winning, all the rest of life. And that’s what’s most important. If that’s the most important in your life and that’s in terms of sport is to win, if that’s what’s number one, then it’s going to be very difficult for you, very challenging for you to not cheat and solve. I just saw the this light here on, And there’s this bottom light that comes Oh, the blue light over there. Yeah.
That was That was on the other day when it came in. That’s right. It’s not supposed to be, is it? When there’s no one. No.
No. Alright. So just to continue on a bit here as well. It can be interesting to see how it is with these two we use these two words, attachment and compassion, and what is it, how it is that attachment is a source of in general that brings that as a source of stress, it brings that stress whereas the cultivation of compassion in a wise way would be a source to reduce stress. I’m trying to set a different stream as to the attachment type energy and the compassion type energy.
So attachment, we say, is the quality of mind that overestimates the positive qualities of an object and wishes to possess it. And it’s very much related to our attachment to an object is very much related to what that object brings us. It’s very much our wanting, those are my wishes. So that might be an attachment to a person or an object or whatever else is. That’s what I want.
Right? So it causes us to hallucinate the objects in a way that they don’t exist. And so when you’re attached to an object then you really want to possess that object. In the moment that you’ve got that So it’s it’s why it’s very clear in the mind how it is that attachment is a source of suffering. And then if we do those actions, then that creates more problems or stresses us out because we’re doing these actions on the base of our attachment.
That includes attachment to those people who are very close And it’s not conditional on what they give you with attachment, it’s conditional. It’s like I like you so much provided you give me what I want. If you don’t give me what I want then Someone else was married. Oh, you’re making a mistake. I’m married, though.
So, you know, I think we can see that story. The compassionate element is is brings happiness really if we’re doing it wisely. And compassion is generated here really on the basis of understanding how everyone wants to be free from suffering just like us equal to us. Have a right to it. But, of course, we do it.
We, again, we have to do it according to our own capacity. So so it’s not some people say, I’ve got too much compassion. That’s my problem. I’ve got too much compassion in helping professions. But if you look at it, when a person’s got too much compassion, they say, I’ve got too much compassion and they’re burning out like this, what’s taking place isn’t the problem.
The problem isn’t too much compassion. It’s it’s an most likely unrealistic expectation about themselves plus and also expectation of what they should get in return on top of this. That’s why they’re burning out. If you can think instead of my situation, let’s think of all the other people. This really works in your mind.
So it might not necessarily be compassionate, it’s some awareness. It’s not just me focusing on my situation. And So you transform it using the this misfortune you’ve got as an opportunity becomes the basis for practice. So this is logic behind. It’s not something you’ll just come across.
There’s a bit of aversion to it. But when you understand the processes type of place, you’re trying to eradicate self pity, self Okay. So then just one thing else to say. This is this idea of self-grasping. Ultimately, says this in Buddhism, the real source of our problem.
But there’s going to be a resistance instinctively here. But whatever we can do to lessen because think about it if we can really question, if you look at this body and I who am I? This I, this body. And, of course, we we identify ourselves. Someone comes in the room.
It’s on the base of their body. In the way that it appears and how it appears is permanent, independently existing life. They said this about me. That me that appears to us at that time, whenever the conception appears, this is the ego. When you look, The next rebirth and all the rest.
But if we were to say, if we were to walk and say, even just to think about this theory that we understand, if we were to lessen that grasp of it sense of the eye, you’re gonna have less attachment mind and less anger. When you have less attachment mind, less anger mind, Is well, meditation in Creating like a space. Like that. Definitely creates it can create peace. Right?
It can in and of itself, I think, was in especially in the textbooks, the emphasis is based on the fact that we live our life according to our concepts of how things exist, how it is and how things exist. According concepts things exist, so those concepts need to be developed or transformed in the Holistic Life. So sitting quietly meditating And in fact, we say the story of the Buddha, you know, the story of the Buddha, the prince, born a prince. And then he So I think that was probably she was saying it from point of view, you know, example in regards to that that kind intention. Well, let’s say for instance, you know, say if you have, like, a headache, you know, one of the things can happen with headaches or anything like this.
Right? This is one thing, you experience the pain because you don’t want it. Right? It makes it a lot worse because you’re pushing it away. Mhmm.
And this one thing is the headache, but then it sets up the tension. It comes up and you’re pushing it away, and that makes it worse. So in the case of this, instead of going down that pathway, the aversion of putting it away, like, you imagine your own headache of taking on their suffering. Yeah. So you’re you’re experiencing this headache.
Right? And you’re willingly opening up to take on that pain as well. So you’re using it as opportunity to transform a situation which is totally meaningless and causing the suffering. It becomes an opportunity to develop. Some people freak out if the disease or something like that taking on all this cancer.
People freak out, then I might get that disease or what it was. But really, that’s a process of psychological thing. And more than likely, that process of changing your whole way of understanding Awesome. Thank you.