Coming this evening. When Lindy, your director, was up at Chenrezig a few months ago for the regional meeting, We talked about someone visiting Buddha House for the lunch on Sunday, and she asked if I would come down. And I’ve been reluctant to do much moving around this year since I started at Karunā because it’s a new job for me, that’s taken quite a lot of time. But I I hadn’t been to the center down here, so I actually consider it an advantage to me that she made that invitation. And I really did want to come down and see the center and to meet the people down here.
So I’m very happy to be here. And I’ve only been here for a couple of hours now, but it feels very relaxing. I said to Jampa, this is my weekend’s holiday. Get away from all the the cares. Okay.
For tonight’s talk, I I thought to speak about the Buddhist path in just a very simple basic way. Although I have been around for many years, actually I don’t like to mention the number of years because it’s getting a bit embarrassing. You should be sort of almost enlightened after twenty three years or something. But most of those years I have seemed to I’ve been very fortunate in that I have been able to take a lot of teachings from many highly realized beings, but at the same time I’ve spent a lot of time also working in our centers, so I wouldn’t say I’m a highly qualified teacher. Tonight I really did want to talk more about the path in a basic way, because personally I find it makes it easier.
If I keep it simple, it makes it easier to integrate with the nine to five jobs and things like that. When we are there some of you who have not been to the centre before? Some of you who are new? Okay. So when we’re talking about the Buddhist path, we’re talking about our own life, in a way, our daily life actions, the way we live our life.
And we have to try and bring our understanding of the Buddha’s teachings into our life. Otherwise, Buddhist teachings, the things that we know about, and we put all this extra stress on ourselves because we feel that we’re not doing it, you know? We should be doing this, and we should be doing that. To actually be following the Buddhist path means that our life’s actions do need to be congruent with the Buddhist teachings. Because the you know, if you think of our life, it’s it’s a continuity of our body and our mind from our birth up until our death.
That’s what our life is. It’s the collection of the actions that we do with our body, speech, mind. And our life is actually a path. We’re going in a direction with our life, and that direction depends on the activities that we do. Reference is often made now to the conditions that we have in our childhood and the influence that has on the kind of person we are later in life.
So you can see the idea of the life being a path. The things that happen to us now, or that happen to us early in our life, are a part of what we are now, and what we’re doing now that’s also creating or setting us in a certain direction to be what we’re going to be in the future. So our life is a path, and if we’re talking about following the Buddhist path or following the Buddhist advice, we’re really taking the Buddhist teachings and using those as a a guide for how we behave so that we’re going in a particular direction. Now in terms of the a spiritual path, and in particular, Buddhist path, the direction that we’re taking our life, if we’re if we’re able to follow that particular path, is that we’re taking ourselves from a state where we may have some short moments of happiness, but there’s also a lot of uncomfortable things that happen in our life. So we’re going from there to a state where our happiness is increasing, happiness is coming more often, more easily, and where our discomfort and our pain and our dissatisfaction is becoming less.
Where we’re getting the ability to deal with the problems that arise in our life, where we’re able to start seeing those things in a beneficial way rather than being overwhelmed by them. So if we’re on the path that that is the purpose and it is what happens as we integrate the Buddha’s teachings into our way of life, then we’re we’re going from a state where there’s more discomfort and pain to a state where there’s more happiness. Okay? Okay. So I think it’s it is worthwhile thinking about the goals that we can achieve with this life.
You know, okay, our life’s a path. Where can it be taking us to? What can we achieve with this life? What what do we want to be like when we come to the end of this life? What’s going to be important for us to have accomplished?
What kind of person do we want to be? We really do need to to think about that because we don’t really have limits. You know, as human beings, we can we can train our mind. We can overcome faults that we have now, we can develop qualities that we have very slightly or that we don’t seem to notice much at all, we can develop those things, we can become the kind of person that we want to. So if you think about what you want to achieve and get that very clear, then that starts to bring an awareness of the life being a path because you’ve got that as your goal, and you use your life to to work towards that goal.
If you don’t ever think about what you want to achieve, you just sort of cope with each day as it comes or enjoy each day as it comes, then there is a danger that, you know, the end of the life comes and and there’s dissatisfaction with what you’ve done or with what you’ve achieved because you haven’t really thought about it, haven’t thought deeply about what isn’t going to be meaningful at that time. Now when we start thinking about what we want to achieve with our life, for for most of us, it’s important to have a a sense of fulfillment, you know, something that that we’re content with ourselves, we’re content with the kind of person we are and the kinds of things that we’ve done in our life. Sure, could have done more, but, you know, looking back, we we don’t want to be unhappy with who we are. We don’t want to be unhappy with what we’ve done. Basically, it comes down to we want not an not an excited type of happiness, but we want a a sense of peace, you know, peace with ourselves.
And if we go further than that, like from our study of the Buddhist path, we know that we can actually achieve the goal of complete liberation from all types of suffering, we can achieve an everlasting state of happiness, a blissful happiness that that we’re quite confident will never leave us. We can achieve that in this life, or, you know, we can set that as our goal and use this life to come closer to it. We can take the goal of enlightenment actually becoming a Buddha. Can you imagine yourself as a Buddha? It’s good to think about.
We have the ability to achieve that. But if we don’t visualize it as as a possibility, we’ll never we’ll never reach for it. It’s something that some other really amazing people do. But actually, we we all have that that potential to achieve full enlightenment. And if that if that’s hard to to see as being real, you know, if that’s hard to to really believe in, then you can think about the beings that are enlightened know, beings who have achieved enlightenment, they weren’t always enlightened.
They were ordinary beings like us. Gradually, through their practice, they developed their mind and achieved that state of enlightenment. You know, they overcame the delusions and misconceptions, and and we can do the same thing. They purified all the imprints or the potential left in their mental continuum due to unskillful actions. All of that was purified, and we can do the same thing.
And then they perfected the qualities, generosity and morality and patience, these kinds of things. Perfected them. They trained in those qualities again and again and again until they became part of their a natural part of their mental continuum. So, again, we can do the same thing. So, in thinking about the goals, even I think if, you know, liberation and enlightenment don’t feel like us at the moment, it’s still worthwhile struggling with that as an idea.
Okay, one day I would like to get to that point. And then thinking about the path and seeing that, yes, really believing that it is achievable. Because as I said, if you if you don’t see that as a goal for yourself, there’s absolutely no way that you’ll ever reach there. It’s also helpful I think to look back on the Śākyamūni Buddha’s life story. Mean you know we hear about that in various versions But it’s quite helpful in giving an indication of how we can also think.
As the Buddha became well, at that time he wasn’t the Buddha as Prince Siddhartha as he became aware of the suffering that existed in the world, as he saw the suffering and the pain that people were experiencing, he became totally concerned about that and focused fully on it and sort of thought, you know, I have to find an answer. It can’t go on like this. I have to find an answer. I have to find a way that I can bring about the cessation of this suffering and pain that people are experiencing. So from our side, we also need to have that that determination, you know, to think about, is this life really perfect?
Is this the is how I’m living now, or the kind of person I am now, is that really what I want to be? Or is there pain in there that I don’t want to have to experience? Is there uncomfortable things that I don’t want to have, I don’t want to carry with me? It’s it’s looking at that and deciding that you don’t want it that, again, sets you in the in the direction of going beyond it. So just as the Buddha, when he decided he had to find an answer, he had to find a way to overcome this suffering, after deciding that, then he, you know, focused for several years, focused his life, gave up thinking about anything else, just focused completely on finding that solution.
So for us, you know, our life is kind of overwhelming, and then every so often we think about what we want to achieve with our life, or, you know, how am I going to find happiness or how am I going to help others. Just maybe once a day when we meditate or occasionally when we see somebody suffering, we think of it. But we we do need to to keep it in mind as much as possible. Otherwise, our life won’t become focused on our goal. It won’t become the path.
You know, we’ll be sort of doing all this stuff, with our life over here wandering around, then every so often come here and try and take few steps on the path. I learned a very interesting thing yesterday. I was at a workshop about problem solving was one of the things that came up. They gave us this little diagram of steps we need to go through when we’re solving a problem. And it was, it was actually like a new age interpretation of the four noble truths.
It was it was identify the problem, right, which is which is what the Buddha taught us to do and also what he did in his life. It was recognize that there is suffering. K? Identifying the problem. Then there was be clear about the causes.
And then there was what’s the outcome you want? Okay, which is, you know, it’s the causes being the cause of suffering and then the outcome being the cessation of suffering and the causes. And then the fourth one was looking at the options and deciding which one you’re going to take in order to achieve the outcome. So it was like, you know, deciding on the path that you’re going to follow. So the the the Buddha’s teachings presented that, his lifestyle, the way he lived his life presented that, and it is truly what we what we should do with our life if we want to be on the be on a path that takes us from suffering to the cessation of suffering or takes us to more happiness, if we can’t achieve perfect, everlasting happiness, at least get to the stage where we’re able to control our mind and overcome problems and, you know, have more happiness in our life.
And then, you know, if you can think of the the more ultimate goals, liberation and enlightenment. Okay. So on on the basis of wanting to put our life in a direction that’s beneficial, Dalai Lama in his great compassion presented a summary of the Buddha’s teachings, or he presented the the essence of those teachings in really just a couple of words. And I keep referring to those in my own meditation because they really do encompass all the main aspects of the Buddha’s teachings, but they’re so logical and practical and easy to to follow. So his advice was, if you want to follow the Buddhist path, help others.
And if you can’t help, at least don’t harm. Have you read that in any of the one of those little booklets of the Dalai Lama? Help others, and if you can’t help, at least don’t harm. So so the main point I I thought to talk about tonight was how we can practice that for the purpose of taking our life along the Buddhist path and achieving those goals of more happiness, liberation, or enlightenment. Okay.
Okay. Well, First of all, about helping others. What are some of the ways that we can help others? Just think about it. You know, it it is a good thing to do with your life.
Most people would agree. Yes. Yep. You’re a good person if you go out and help others. Mother Teresa, you know, really one of the very, very special people that lived in this world because she helped others.
So if we want to help others, mean, have we got to do if we got to sort of go to the hospitals each day and take care of the sick? Do we need to make lots of money and, you know, help people who are suffering in various forms of from various the various problems that come from poverty. What does it mean helping others? Do you feel you help others? Do you think there’s some things you do in your life that help others?
Got some examples? Listening helps others. Yeah? Reiki and massage. Okay.
You you give those to others. Great. Making other people feel comfortable and relaxed and healing and that sort of thing. What was your one? Hand on healing.
Hand on healing. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So the the examples here of how people are helping others are through Reiki and massage and healing and prayer to help others overcome their pain.
What what about your example? Okay. Good. Just taking things a little bit lightly and helping everybody get up out of the heaviness of it all. Okay.
Oh, that’s an interesting one. Yes. No. It’s a very interesting one because a lot of people find that difficult to, you know, to be able to accept others’ help. To some of the people I’ve been working with and that I’ve been around, people who are sick and, you know, they’re losing the ability to take care of themselves, or older people who are losing the ability to take care of themselves, begin to feel a burden on others and feel so miserable about their life.
And if you can really get through to them that they’re helping by giving the opportunity to others, you know, to create merit, to to serve, to to help, then they can start to feel better within themselves. If they think like that, then their inability to do things actually becomes a positive thing rather than a negative thing. Yeah, so that’s a very important one. Any others want to share? How about, you know, some of you meditate?
I think you’ve been listening to teachings for a long time with all these holy beings down here. You meditate. So listening to teachings and, meditating. Is that is that to help others or or is that more for your benefit? Pick that up.
Okay. Good. Yeah. Okay. So it is easy for you know, sort of recap what what’s your name?
Yeti. Yeti. What Yeti said. Sometimes we do meditate for ourselves, you know, after a heavy day, heavy meeting. Might might meditate to relax, might feel a bit overwhelmed by things, so you meditate in order to work out how you’re gonna deal with the problem.
That is in a way to overcome your own discomfort, and that’s okay. But, our meditation with just a little bit of a turn of the mind, can also be to help others. As yet he was saying, by meditating, that, energy that we’re generating, you know, that more pacified energy we’re generating within ourselves is something that we contribute. That’s the energy we contribute to the to the people around us rather than our confusion and our anxiety and like that. So even though initially we might set out to do the meditation for our own benefit, if we just think, actually, I I want to I want to help others.
Okay. So I’ll do this meditation for others. Right? Just stretching the thought, opening the thought up a little bit, you can include everyone. The benefit of every you you can do that same meditation for the benefit of everyone.
And the same with listening to teachings. You know? Yes. I want to understand the path so that I can, overcome suffering, but also I want to do that so that, without without directly going out there and doing something, I’m going to help you. Just by being a better person, we can help others, and and we can we can develop ourselves with that motivation that we, you know, we want to develop so that we can benefit others.
Okay, what about things like cups of delicious tea? What was that tea we had? Just tea. Oh, something quite nice. Anyway, know, when you when you pick up a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, usually that would be for your you know, quenching your thirst for your health.
Right? It’s also very easy to do that for the benefit of others in order to help others. How would you think if you want to, you know, have the drink for the benefit of others? I’m doing this for you. Is that nice?
It can’t be done. She doesn’t think it can be done. We can’t we can’t can’t all fit with it.
He said, yes. Alright. I’ll have this cheese, and I’ll take it to Krishna. So he ate it all. And the disciples were furious with him because Krishna was supposed to have this cheese, and he didn’t have it.
So Krishna walked on the wall after a while and came to them. I’m sorry, he said, but now we can have our meditation together. But he said, of course, I could walk on the road, and you can too, but if you only believe deeper. But he said, I first have to have a short sleep. I’ve eaten so much cheese that I’m tired.
You can’t eat for the benefit of that. It’s a long story. Did you hear it? I’m not sure I could repeat it. Thing is, we’re trying to make our life into the path, okay, into the path to liberation, enlightenment, happiness.
Now we we probably drink supposed to be eight cups a day, eight drinks a day, something like that. So, anyway, we have several. Now if we can’t make that part of the path and Dalai Lama said the path is helping others. So if we can’t do that for the benefit of others, then we can’t integrate our whole life into the path. So we’ve got to find a way.
See, we’ve to find a way that everything we do in our life is the path. Can you drink the water? Help me out because it’s always stuck with my heart. Yeah, you can, that’s right. You can drink the water so your voice doesn’t get too, you know, tense and then difficult for other people to listen.
You can drink the water. Well, let’s say, you know, that in general, the food we eat and the drinks that we take, that’s to keep this life going, isn’t it? If we didn’t do those things, we wouldn’t survive. So in drinking and eating, we’re staying healthy, keeping our life going as long as possible so that we can use our life to serve others. Alright?
Just by keeping alive and using your life to benefit others, then the things you do to keep healthy, to keep your life going. Actually, your motivation is so that you can benefit others. Do you see the connection? Does it make sense for you? Just one moment.
One moment. Fighting the and everything. That might be a slightly different technique. It’s like seeing Yes. Yeah.
Actually, what what I’ve been talking about really is our action, and maybe what you’re speaking about are the the things that are around us. But it would it is along the same line. It’s seeing seeing the benefit in situations that happen, seeing the Buddha nature, the beauty in beings around us. You who keep the things light. Yes.
You can just twist it all around so there’s just words, and yes, that’s true. Those of you who’ve been taught the practice of dedicating your food and offering it. That’s another way of eating and drinking for the benefit of others. You visualize the food as nectar and visualize offering it to the gurus, the enlightened beings. You can visualize offering to all other living beings.
You can even though physically you can’t go out there and give food to everybody who is hungry in your visualization as you’re about to eat, instead of, wow, this is for me, you can just take a moment to think, may all beings have food and and, you know, the enjoyment of food. So it’s about it’s it’s about the way we think, in in terms of helping others. It’s about doing what we do in a way that encompasses others rather than just doing the actions for ourselves. Okay. Yes.
That’s right. Yeah. Instead of things being there for us to use. Any technique, like, you choose something that for you is meaningful, any sort of way of motive, you know, a motivation or a ritual, The purpose is doing the action so that all beings are included in, you know, are beneficiaries of the action. And the reason it’s important to do with things like eating and drinking are because we do them several times during the day.
So if we just be consistent for a few days and get into the habit of generating that motivation or that thought, whatever it is going to be, then, like every time we drink or eat for the rest of the life, we have we are creating merit. We’re making that action a part of our path. We just need to be consistent in the beginning to establish the practice, to establish the habit of thinking like that, and then it’s something we will be doing several times each day for the rest of life. So anything at all that you do, any daily life action, think about how it benefits others. I mean, It it that may be something that you really seem to do for your benefit.
You know, it’s finish the day, escape, or maybe you like dreaming. Anybody who doesn’t like sleeping? Maybe don’t think about it, maybe just sleep. But anyway, if examine the mind that of lies down and starts to go to sleep, usually it’s sort of focused on a benefit for us. So there again, that’s something we’re going to do every day, or most days anyway.
And as we get older, we might even do it twice a day for the rest of the life. So again, if we set the habit, right, if we set the habit of motivating that, doing it for others, again, there’s this huge accumulation of virtue that we’re doing in our life. We’re using our life again in the path. So sleep is very similar to food in that, you know, by sleeping you’re maintaining your health and keeping your life going as long as the life forces has determined it can last for. And again, using your life, by keeping your life like that, then you can use it to benefit others.
You can use it to serve others. Although some of you may have other practices like focusing on the enlightened being at the head of the bed or absorbing into you as you go to sleep so that you bring your mind into a very positive state as you’re falling asleep. That’s quite important actually because sleep is called a mental factor, like, you know, our emotions, our anger and things like that. They’re mental factors or mental activities. And sleep is an activity of the mind.
Okay. So if we sleep for eight hours or seven hours, six, whatever it is, there’s a mental factor of sleep, right, that’s that’s there with our mental continuum for that period of time that we’re asleep. So it’s like, let’s talk about a positive thing. Let’s say, holding the mind focused on compassion for six hours is pretty beneficial thing to do, isn’t it? Six hours, eight hours of compassion.
So if the mental as we go to sleep, if our mind is in a virtuous state, you know, like, by absorbing the enlightened beings in, you know, in into our heart or having our mind focus on on the holy beings, that virtuous state or or generating compassion as we’re going to sleep. So that virtuous state, that virtuous, mind continues on with the with the mental factor of sleep for the six hours, and we’re accumulating virtue. We’re keeping our mind in a virtuous state for the duration of our sleep. Do understand that? Whereas if if we go to sleep with anger or anxiety or attachment and desire, things like that, are agitating minds, what we call negative mental states, disturbing mental states.
They combine with our mental continuum and with this factor of sleep and pervade the six hours of our sleep. So the six hours are spent with our mind being in this non virtuous state or disturbed state. So this is like playing the stock market. You know, you’ve got to know the ones that bring the best returns. So sleep through some technique, doing that for the benefit of others.
Or okay. So if you make if you’re sleeping, you you make the effort to bring your mind into a virtuous state as you go to sleep, that you may say, well, I’m doing that, keeping my mind in a virtuous state because that’s positive karma that I’m creating. So if you notice that you’re limiting to that, that’s great. But if you’re limiting it to that, think, no, I want my practice to be benefiting others, then you can think I’m creating virtue so that I’d, you know, develop the qualities of the wisdom, compassion, qualities that are going to enable me to perfectly benefit others. I’m accumulating virtues so that I can be the type of person that has the power to benefit others.
Okay. We will not go through the whole day. But, you know, things like, you know, preparing meal meals for other people in your family, that is doing things for others. And and it’s good to acknowledge that, you know, I’m serving others rather than doing it with sort of a mind that resents having to do it. It’s offering food to others.
When we go to work, maybe it’s a job that you don’t enjoy very much. But you can think of it as, like, if you’re working for someone, it is an offering. You’re offering your service to them, for them to be able to run this business. And there are people who benefit through, you know, making their livelihood by working for that business or whatever. And so by your contribution, you’re allowing them to have that income, that livelihood.
So you can think of it as, I’m doing this for others. Okay? And if it’s your business, then you’re offering the opportunity for many people to have, to receive a wage, to have, to have that income and be able to take care of their their family, themselves and their family. And another one, remember Rinpoche when I say Rinpoche, I’m thinking of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. But one example he gave is when you have to pay bills, you know, you’re paying for, you know, tickets to go here or there or telephone bills or whatever, think that you’re making an offering.
Okay. You’re sending off, let’s say, telecom. What do they call themselves now? Something else? Telstra.
Yeah. So you’re making the offering. So so many thousands of people shares in the company and work for the company. You’re making you’re making a contribution to all of them. So so the thought has to be behind the action.
Okay. We’re paying the bill. But if the thought is, you know, this is painful, this is really hard, And sort of you over resenting all those phone calls the kids made. That’s actually you know, there’s some aversion in that action. So our action’s not not on the path.
But if we can think, okay, I’m sending this as an offering, then it becomes generosity, becomes virtue. Because it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check the phone bill and see if it was unreasonable and then speak to the children and ask them not to make so many phone calls. But, you know, so it’s not it’s not saying just be completely unrealistic and be taken over by whatever happens to you. But what you do have to do, if you do it with this attitude of helping others, it’s, it’s bringing your life into the path. That’s true.
Mhmm. Yes. Yes. I I think the way you presented is is is quite accurate. It it is about the the lowest like transforming the lower self into the higher self.
And the different spiritual paths that are available for us are all different methods of doing that. And in finding this, the higher self, sometimes we find it by an external guru or Buddha or image of the Buddha reflecting that for us. Sometimes we find it by looking within into our own mind and finding it there or through through other traditions. That’s a nice way to put it. Let’s talk for a minute about what should we do if we don’t really feel very inspired to do this?
Or if we kind of only remember very, very occasionally, or we can’t sort of get the energy to do it. Who cares? You know? Too many other things to worry about. Well, just, you know, remembering what we talked about at the beginning, we do need to, our life is a path.
We’re going somewhere. Right? And because what we want to achieve with this life, now I’m making some assumptions, but I think most people want to achieve a sense of fulfillment and happiness, liberation or enlightenment with their life. You know, we don’t want to end up being miserable and dissatisfied with our souls at the end of the life. We want this goal.
So therefore, we do need to make our daily life actions with the with the teachings of the Buddha or who you know, whatever spiritual tradition you’re following. We need to make them congruent with that spiritual advice. So if we’re not feeling motivated, it’s we need to look at ways that we can overcome that lack of enthusiasm or that dullness that takes us over. Okay? Because if we don’t, well, we we can see that the goal that we will achieve with the life.
Won’t be the one that we wanted, you know, won’t be the one in our dreams. So I think one very useful thing to think about to get some inspiration to to do these kinds of to have this kind of thought process is just to think about the incredible benefit that we receive from others. Like, when others when we feel others’ kindness, when when others do something maybe maybe they don’t do anything in a very direct way, but the energy that we feel from them is supportive. We feel their care, we feel their liking, we feel their support in some way. You know, just think about how do you feel when that happens.
And compare that to how you feel when you’re around someone who dislikes you, who’s, you know, disturbed by you, who’s who doesn’t want who doesn’t want to to be near you or someone who, you know, due to their own disturbing thoughts, really hurts you by what they say and what they do. If you think about you as the recipient of this type of energy that we’re trying to generate, okay, really think of some experiences of that in your life, then you know exactly how you’re making others feel when you’re generating this sort of energy of helping others. And you know how you’re making them feel if you’re generating this sort of energy where you’re harming or you’re not caring. You know how you’re making them feel. Okay.
So that’s really something that you have to do in in a in a quiet moment. Actually think about how you feel when somebody has, you know, done something to help you when when they didn’t really have to. You know, they noticed you were unhappy or burdened at some time, and they just did some small thing to show their their care for you or they did something to actually lighten the burden for you. Just, you know, it it makes you feel really yeah. That you can yeah.
It brings happiness. It brings joy into your heart. Whereas if if other people distrust you, you know, that they’re they’re lying to you or they’re criticizing you or speaking negatively about you, it’s it’s very disturbing. You have to be quite strong to stay steady with that sort of energy happening around you. So then we think, you know, what what do I want to contribute back to others when I know what it feels like?
You know, do I do I want others to feel that disturbance when I’m around? Or do I want my energy to be something that actually makes them feel joyful and content? So that’s one thing that you can think about because we all do have the same ambition in that we want to be happy and free from suffering. And the feeling is the same, know. The happiness, the feeling of happiness in my mind and the feeling of happiness in your mind, it is the same.
It’s we’re very aware of our own feelings, but it doesn’t take much to just put ourselves in another’s place to know exactly what what the feelings are like for them because they’re the same as our feelings. Just, you know, imagining you’re inside that body feeling those things. And of course then as we start to do this kind of practice where we’re we’re really concentrating on doing everything for the benefit of others. What what will most likely happen is that you start to feel incredibly happy yourself. You know your mind becomes quite light.
You feel feel okay about yourself. Whereas the times when we spend our expend our energy in a way of sort of you know, hurting others or being agitated by others and putting out that sort of vibration, we don’t feel good about ourselves. We sort of justify it, and we say it’s kind of because they’re like that, I have to be like this. But we don’t really feel good within our heart, you know. But as soon as you do one thing to really make somebody else happy, you get the happiness straight back right then.
So the more we do that practice, bringing about that thought, you know, I’m doing this for the benefit of others’, our level of happiness or the quality of our happiness is increasing day by day. And that in itself is an inspiration to keep going to increase the practice. You know, and and and people can say, well, then but then you’re doing it for your own happiness. But you’re not you know, if you stop doing it for your own happiness, you’re gonna lose the feeling anyway, you know, if if you start doing it with a more selfish motivation. What else?
Well, yeah, let’s talk about harming then. Just before we go off that last point, again, advice is that a way to make this training even more easy is that .even easier, is to think at the beginning of the day, just to motivate at the beginning of the day. I’m going to be doing, you know, run through the actions. I’m going to be having a shower, having breakfast, preparing lunches for the children, doing this, doing that. Just run through the actions you’re going to do and right then and there think how the how are they beneficial for others.
You know? Open your mind up then, thinking, okay. I’m I’m going to shower for the benefit of others. I mean, if you didn’t shower ever, you’re harming others. So it’s true.
I mean, usually, you know, we shower and we dress up for for us, isn’t it? We sort of like to feel we like to look like this. We like to present ourselves in a certain way. But actually, if you do it for others, you get more joy out of it. Okay.
So anyway, don’t get back over saying stuff. So at the beginning of the day, think through the main actions you’re going to do and think, yes, I’m going to do this for others. Like, you know, you’re really generating the motivation. I’m going to shower for others. I’ll prepare the breakfast for others.
I’m going to work for others. I’ll pay the bills for others. And then off you go and do the day’s work. Probably don’t have time to think about it again during the day. Then end of the day, just short meditation.
Just think back. How did I go? How did I go? Now, the things that you remember, yeah, okay, I did benefit or, you know, I I did as I planned. Yes.
I, prepared those meals and did those things. Rejoice in in the successes. Okay? Rejoice in the things that you did as you planned. Because we haven’t reached the perfection yet, there are going to be mistakes that we made.
There are going to be times when we did get frustrated with others. We did put out some negative vibrations. We did say things. We really said things to hurt, and we meant them at the time. And maybe we didn’t say it.
Maybe we just did it, you know, with the way we looked. Cold shoulder sort of thing. Just the body language, you know, a disturbing energy for others. So the the important thing is to acknowledge them, to say, yeah, I did do it. And I and I well, there are a few choices here.
Maybe you did hurt others, and you intended to. Just really check, you know. Check deeply down there. Yes. Okay.
I did intend to. The acknowledging of it is the one of the biggest steps to take. Because once you’ve recognised, yeah, that’s a part of me, then you start to want to change that. While ever you deny it, ever you leave it buried and don’t acknowledge it, you never get around to changing it. So at the end of the day, it’s looking back, noticing those things and acknowledging.
Now, when we do something to hurt others, it’s not like all of us that such a bad person and did this terrible thing. It’s this, you know, for a certain period of time, there was this mental factor of anger or frustration or whatever that was present in our mind, and that motivated us to do these different things. And we do have these negative mental factors still within our mental continuum, so it does happen. But, you know, we sort of see, yeah, Okay, that mental factor, it did cause me to do this hurtful action which is going to harm them. It harms me in the long run.
I really want to I can really see that as a problem, and I want to gradually overcome it. Do you see the difference? It’s sort of like regretting it instead of being guilty about it. So you you regret when you do acknowledge that that there is this negative action, this negative part of us that has caused us to engage in that type of action. Is that okay?
So then there’s the second thing that happens. There’s sometimes we hurt others, and we didn’t intend to. Okay. No. What are gonna do?
Feel terrible? Get depressed about it? Doesn’t help. Our motivation wasn’t to harm, so it isn’t a negative action. Okay.
The the quality of the action is not negative. It’s maybe it was know, was there wasn’t, the motivation to help, but there certainly wasn’t the motivation to harm. But what we can we can sort of pray for or wish for in that case is an increase of our ability to sort of be aware of others’ needs and what they’re feeling and to increase our own wisdom so that we don’t say the wrong things. So to increase our merit so that we’ve got the right things in our mind to say at the right time. Okay, so that’s sort of like just a decision to develop something within ourselves so that we can benefit more.
So it’s not it’s not a mistake, but it’s just recognising that there’s some potential there that can, you know, we’ve still got to go further in developing that. Okay. And then there’s there’s the one that you’re referring to where you you have to correct children, for example, or if you’re a teacher and you you know, you have to discipline children. And you may do something. You might impose something on them which actually does hurt them because they don’t want to do it.
And you know it’s hurting, okay, you still decide to go ahead with that because you can see it’s for the long term benefit. So that kind of action is actually positive in nature because it is really you’re really doing it in order to benefit the person, though it’s making them unhappy at the moment. So the important thing in those sort of situations is to just be sure that we were as careful as possible to cause as less as little pain as possible. Now the example that comes to mind is I don’t know if teachers do this anymore, but they did when I was going to school. Like, when they correct your your material and they tick and cross and write comments, you know, you can put sort of big angry looking crosses and nasty things like rubbish and stupid and ta ta da.
Or you can you can put it in a way that’s still saying you’re wrong. You know, you’ve made this mistake, but it doesn’t have to hurt. So it’s kind of our responsibility if if we are going to not allow the child to do something that they want to do or correct something that they’ve done that’s a mistake. Act in a way that we see is going to bring the result that we want. But we it’s our responsibility to make sure we cause as little pain as possible.
You know, mean, even in the work, you know, with other people that you work with, have that situation where you might need to, know, confront something someone about the way they’re doing something. But just be careful about how it’s done. So there’s all different ways that we harm and it depends on the motivation motivation as to whether it’s something we need to regret or whether it’s actually been a positive thing. It’s actually been done for the benefit of others. Yeah?
When you talk about causing you’re eating meat. So they say that you’re hypocritical in that way. Mhmm. How do you cope with something like that? What do what do you say when people say that to you?
Did could you hear the question? Well, one one practice is to to make special dedication for beings that have been killed. I mean, e even just about everything we do, like we drive home tonight, there’s going to be insects that we we kill, you know, that hit the windscreen and so on. The beings that we harm during our work, we can include them in our prayers that we make special dedication that, you know, we’re we’re able to lead them to enlightenment or we’re able to bring great benefit to them or we’re able to bring happiness to them. Just generating that wish.
It when you’ve there’s a few things there because one the one you were talking about was really the indirect, you know, we haven’t killed them, but we’ve sort of created the condition for them to be killed. Whereas the other one of killing insects when we do different actions like driving. There’s there’s a link established, isn’t there? Because let’s say that the insects that you kill when you’re driving, there is a link there more direct than the other one. So you could sort of think that now that link is is established.
So sort of utilise it in some way, you know, in the future. May I be able to benefit this being in some way, may I be able to bring benefit to the being. Step on a snail and and you just you were ignorant, you didn’t see it was there, and you have regret and hope that it would be born in pure land. Mhmm. That’s different from having somebody, you know, like a butcher.
You’re you’re happy that a butcher will go and kill, beans, you know, animals, and then you’ll you’ll be eating them. Well, my Because people Yeah. Well, there’s The can of worms. The you mentioned about vows. Some some Buddhists have taken refuge, you know, sort of a decision to follow the Buddhist path, but they don’t have any vows.
So then if we’re talking about somebody who isn’t, holding vows, then, really, it’s about karma. You know, the actions that we do, there’s there’s nobody who’s saying you got to do this and you can’t do that. Maybe as advice they’re saying it, but there’s nobody up there directing the traffic. It’s like if we do this, we create negative karma, and and we therefore experience that type of result. And we do this positive karma, we get that kind of result.
So So you could you could quite safely eat meat, and you could you could eat it with a motivation of, you know, the same one as we did with eating anything, prolonging your life, wanting to benefit others, and it can be a positive action. So the the killing, if if you were to kill something, it would be pretty hard to do that with a positive motivation. And therefore, in, you know, nearly every case, killing something or asking somebody else to kill something for you is a negative action, then But it’s okay to buy the meat from the butcher’s shop after someone that you don’t know is killing. Is that right? Yeah.
It’s not it’s not wait a minute. It’s not breaking any vows. It’s not breaking any vows. I might have to get Jampa.
But if you were if you were if you are following a Chinese tradition, when I was in Taiwan, I found out that their interpretation of the Bodhisattva vows is that, it is breaking a vow to eat meat. Got born in the lucky country. Yeah. It’s their tradition. Yeah.
They’re They’re they’re they’re they’re they’re they’re And and it is true what you said, like, when you eat a bowl of rice, there are beings that have been killed in order to, you know, for that to arrive there in the plate. So you gotta think about, okay, your karma let’s not get it too complicated here. Your karma is you’re sitting down and you’re eating this meal, whatever it is, whether it’s meat or rice. And if you do the action with this, you know, with the bodhicitta motivation, with the thought of care for others, it’s making the action virtuous. And you can also add, okay, because you’re doing it for the benefit of others.
You’re doing it to have a healthy life so that you can serve others. Alright? And you can add to that sort of a dedication that that any beings harmed in in me being able to have this food, that they are born in a pure realm or that I’m able to benefit them in all future lives, something like that. How are you going to explain it to other people? They’re upset.
Well, they’re upset. It’s it’s you know, like, we we can’t you’ve got to just act and watch your own motivation. And somebody can be sitting down to a huge T bone and be creating more merit than somebody sitting down to a bowl of muesli. But but we we only we only know our own motivation. Right?
Oh, and maybe that’s how you can explain it to others that that an action is virtuous or nonvirtuous according to the motivation. I don’t know. Somebody else got an answer for this lady. How is she gonna explain it to other people? Personal choice.
Yeah. That’s good. I’m I’m a Buddhist, but I’m not a good Buddhist. I’m not necessarily a good Buddhist. I mean, that that is the other thing too, isn’t it?
Like, we’re not saying we’re we’re Buddha. We’re human beings, we’re doing creating as much virtue as we can according to our ability. Others to kill an animal so you can eat it. And on one hand, say you personally swipe a fly. Yeah.
Well, the the response that this question does it comes up many times. The the answer that Geshe Tashi Tsering gave up in Chenrezig was that then if you follow that line, then really you have to just about cut out everything that you do in your life. You can’t eat other things. No. That’s right.
There’s there’s beings that are harmed. And it’s better to think perhaps it’s better to generate love by thinking of the kindness of others. You know, it sort of like you’re getting into some nitpicking in a way. And no. I’m not saying you are, but to be able to answer.
Yeah. Well, one practical answer is that you get very weak when you don’t have protein, And if you’re working and studying, some people experience weakness when they don’t eat meat. Yeah. And if you’ve got a busy life anyway, and you sort of don’t go to the whole all that travel of preparing, you know, a whole different range of each type of food to stay healthy. Well, then you get sick.
Well, what’s the good of that? There’s one one story I’m gonna tell you about. Yes. We won’t get into protein in the Sudan. Won’t get into the are healthy and they have strong.
We won’t debate the point. But I wanted to tell you a story about somebody I met in Taiwan because well, it’s kind of related. He he was a doctor and a student. And he a part of his job was, you know, to do with research and it involved having to kill mice and stuff like that and do these experiments on them. And he started coming along to the centre and had this terrible shock when he heard about, you know, killing and thought, what am I going to do?
You know, I’ve trained all these years. This is my job. It’s you can’t just walk out of a job over there and get another one. What am I going to do? He went home and he prayed.
He prayed to to the Buddha to sort of help him because he he didn’t want to kill. And a couple of days later, he went to work and his boss told him that, he was getting changed. His work was being changed. He was being given something else to do. He’s being moved off that research work.
In a way it was sort of like, a bit of a demotion for him, but, like, his situation changed. And there is something about, like, the stronger commitment we have to helping and not harming, the if we really do that with faith in the Buddha and people, you know, holy beings like the Dalai Lama, This this was the advice they gave. Our lifestyle changes. Oh. You know, many stories.
There was another older woman at Chenrezig. She she decided to take ordination. And I’m sorry. Missed. First part was she she lived over by the, over by the coast and had a unit there and lawn and garden and stuff.
And, she had those lawn bugs or something that kept attacking the grass. So she’d sort of have to spray every year. Then she started coming up to Chenrezig and again came up came the teaching about the killing. And and it includes lawn bugs. And and and she sort of thought, what am I gonna do?
She she’d been thinking about taking refuge in the five precepts. And but, you know, will I will I take the killing one? Because, you know, I really have to I have to I don’t know why. It’s like you have to get rid the ants in the house and the lawn bugs. You know, for her, that was that was still an important thing to do.
And, anyway, she decided, okay, no, no, no. I’ll have to do it. I’ll have to I’ll have to take the the vows. It was know, that that became more important. She had to make a choice, she chose the vows.
And shortly after that, she she decided to get ordained and to move up to Chenrezig and to just give up the whole unit. So it’s something like when you make a commitment to yet to follow the advice, some of the obstacles that are in our life that that is in a sort of naturally make us keep creating this negative karma, they drop away. And like I think of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, he he all his life, in fact even in his last life, it’s so the stories go he he sits, meditates, you know, does his prayers. Now he does sort of lots of work, it’s always by sitting there. Like, he he never lies down.
If he’s gonna have a snooze, he just pulled back on on the cushion. And there was even one point he just sat so much that he he was getting pressure sores. He was only twenty at the time. He was getting pressure sores from sitting, and Lama Yeshe sort of said he had to get up and circumambulate the gompa every day. What was I going to tell you?
Oh, yeah. So when I think about his life, like, just now for many years, he’s so focused on on sort of his meditation practice. He he very rarely does anything in his life where he where he is engaged in harming where he’s got the opportunity to harm others. Whereas, you know, for some of us, there’s like, we’re going here and there, and we we have to sort of do these kind of things in our house and stuff like that, where where we do have many, many opportunities to harm. And it’s almost like we can’t survive without harming.
So it’s like, by the level of merit, gradually our life changes, our lifestyle changes, and, you know, the whole environment becomes more pure and there’s less opportunities. So, anyway, the point is, I think, having faith. Sure. Sure. I mean, when when they were taking the Aboriginal children away, you know, twenty, thirty years ago, it was also protection, wasn’t it?
But I think the way when we’re talking about helping too, another useful thing to keep in mind, what what is really helping is helping a person create virtue because that’s the cause of their happiness. So if mean, one one way you could perhaps think about it just as an example is some where there’s a lot of anger, you know, happening. There’s a lot of negative karma being created there. It’s possible that by separating those people who are actually, you know, their whole day is just spent creating more and more negative karma because of more and more hate and anger, that you’re you’re helping them by not giving them the opportunity to create that. I mean, that’s just you if you think about it in terms of are you helping them are you helping them to stop create negative karma?
Are you helping them to create virtue? Then then there really is a benefit. Benefit. But you sort of got to think about each individual situation as to how how you could connect that. And sometimes when you’re trying to make a decision of, you know, should you do this or this?
Because if I do this, it’ll help that one. If I do that, it’ll help that one. You go for which one helps the most in the in the longest term. So this might help sort of five people be happy tonight but this will happen. This one will help sort of two people reach enlightenment.
Then you sort of go for this one. So the action that helps the the greatest number and that helps in the most long term way. And that that’s the that’s the scale I use, but somebody did say that. I think it was was Lama Zopa in Lama Zopa’s teachings. This week is your husband?
Well, it is a very pure thought. Like, at a time when you could have easily expressed anger, or incredible sort of, like turning on yourself, being really dissatisfied with yourself, saying that, yes, mistakes you have made, but, you know, like in a negative way. Instead of doing that, you you brought your mind into a positive state where you regretted any harm that you had caused to anyone. Seemed like you included a lot of people. Yeah.
Yeah. I actually didn’t it was Yeah. My mother Yeah. My ancestors. Then at that point, it was like I was Everyone.
Yeah. It was excellent. Yeah. It’s great. When when we generate a thought like that, regretting the harm that we’ve caused to all those beings, we’re purifying masses of karma.
Like, have hurt many, many, many we’ve hurt everyone many times. And then when you regret that hurt in a very wide way like that, you know, in an inclusive way, you’ve purified everything all the harm you ever did. You know? Maybe it’s not completely wiped out, but it’s it’s it’s weakened. It’s weak.
So it’s very it’s a very pure state that your mind would be in. Keep it there. Yeah. That’s all it’s generating bodhicitta, isn’t it? Or, yeah, regret that you’ve harmed.
Wanting wanting to not wanting wanting all those other beings to be to have happiness, to to not be harmed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Are there any other questions? Oh, yeah. Well, there would be.
There there is, like, when when when they’re talking about the when they’re talking about negative karma of killing, for example, and and the different power of, you know, killing other living beings, there’s a different intensity or different strength in the karma depending on different things. And one of those things is the the size of the if we’re talking about animals, you know, like to kill an elephant is a stronger karma than to kill an ant. It’s not saying killing the ant. Not negative karma. Just saying stronger because it’s it’s larger.
It experiences more pain. Also, it takes more effort to do the killing. So, yes, so there are degrees. Yeah? Yeah.
Yeah. That’s true. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Could you could be quite right with that because we don’t know what what they’re experiencing, and the loss of life is, you know, the greatest suffering for anything. But in terms of the effort of the action that you create, like, kill an to kill an elephant takes a lot more of your, power. You’ve got to do more a stronger action than to kill the ant. So from that point of view, the karmic imprint on your mind is stronger.
The strength yes. So the negative result is going to be stronger. I’ll I’ll accept the one about the pain. Don’t know. We don’t know what they’re how much what their feeling of pain is is like.
I I think so. I’ve I’m not it is more negative karma to kill a human being. Well, to answer that fully, you’d need to go to one of the texts where they explain or to ask the teachers here to explain. I think there are about six or ten something different different sort of aspects of an action, each of which determines the difference of strength of the karma. And generally it’s said to be more negative karma to kill the human being because of the potential that that being has while they are human.
So you’re not just taking the life but you’re also seizing the potential that they have, you know, and regardless of of whether I’m in a racist or Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Become better human being for being a hero.
You can become saints and dream of the Bodhisattva. Especially if people from Buddha House go and visit them. He’s saying that people people who, are imprisoned and so on the question was about what you know, whether somebody who who creates violent negative actions against others should be, you know, be imprisoned or if it’s better to actually have the death sentence brought back in and we’re we’re talking about the the beings that like, in prison, still, there is the potential for that being to purify and to create merit and like that. Well, can’t say. Can’t say.
Say. Can’t say. Just watch your own karma. And lawyers could have very good karma. They could also have creating very negative karma, but can’t say.
You know, you only know your own motivation. Might finish off there. Is there well, let’s put it this way. If there are any other people who’ve got some things they wanna discuss, we can we can talk about it afterwards. The diet of the llamas.
Some are still on Tibetan tea and, you know, lots of milk and lots of butter and things like that, and some are into the healthy stuff. I mean, you you can’t generalize. I don’t know. Don’t know. What about you?
You ask you ask. He’ll know. Okay. So thanks very much for coming along tonight. I thought to do some meditation, but it’s getting a bit late already.
So you can do it as you’re going to sleep. As you’re motivating to have a good to have a