Ringkasan dibuat dengan bantuan AI • Belum diverifikasi
Dalam sesi tanya jawab langsung dari Birken Forest Monastery, Ajahn Sona membahas berbagai pertanyaan seputar Dhamma, dimulai dengan kabar kebakaran hutan di sekitar vihara dan kaitannya dengan khotbah Api. Ia kemudian menjawab pertanyaan tentang makna hidup, menjelaskan bahwa pertanyaan yang tepat adalah tentang tujuan hidup, yaitu mengurangi penderitaan dan mencapai Nibbana. Mengenai kemarahan dan karma, ia menegaskan bahwa kemarahan adalah ketidakbajikan dan karma baik serta buruk tidak bercampur, masing-masing berbuah sendiri, seperti perumpamaan garam dan sungai Gangga. Menjawab pertanyaan tentang kecerdasan buatan, ia menjelaskan pandangan Buddhis bahwa kesadaran adalah elemen terpisah yang dapat muncul dengan matriks fisik yang sesuai, sehingga mesin pun berpotensi memiliki kesadaran. Terkait kepunahan manusia, ia menekankan bahwa kesadaran tidak hilang melainkan berpindah ke alam lain, dan jumlah makhluk tidak terhitung. Mengenai Islam dan keberagaman, ia menyatakan bahwa semua agama memiliki pandangan berbeda dan sejarah menunjukkan konflik, namun individu tidak dapat mengubah dunia, hanya dapat mengatasi emosi negatif dan fokus pada pengembangan diri. Ia juga menjelaskan bahwa titik buta spiritual adalah delusi (avijja) yang dikenali melalui efeknya seperti kemarahan dan keserakahan, serta dapat dilemahkan dengan mengurangi lima rintangan. Dalam hal karma dan vipaka, ia membedakan antara niat dan buahnya, serta menjelaskan bahwa praktik baik dapat mempercepat atau memperlambat pematangan buah karma. Mengatasi keinginan (tanha) memerlukan kebijaksanaan, bukan pemuasan, karena keinginan adalah kekurangan seperti hutang. Terakhir, ia menyarankan praktik menahan indra dan mengganti hiburan dengan hal yang mendidik, serta merekomendasikan buku-buku untuk pemula. Pesan utamanya adalah pentingnya kebijaksanaan, pengembangan diri, dan memahami hukum karma dalam menjalani kehidupan.
Welcome to Birkin Forest Monasteries live stream. I'm Adjan Sona. Feel free to submit a question in the question bar and we will proceed.
First, a little bit of news before we answer some questions, because we had some questions sent to us by email about our condition here.
We're in British Columbia, in the southern interior, and we're making news worldwide by apparently being a light, not a light unto the world, but alive on fire.
So, we are drenched in smoke today.
The monastery is at 1200 meters.
Above sea level, which about 4,000 feet elevation, and that helps a bit with smoke.
Smoke tends to collect in the valleys, but in the last few days we've been drenched in smoke as well.
We're surrounded by forest fires.
When I speak of surrounded, though, British Columbia is a very large area.
It is approximately.
The same size as the entire west coast of the United States, California, Oregon, Washington, and throw in Idaho as well.
And then you have the approximate area of British Columbia, just this province.
So, it's a gigantic area.
It is one of the largest pine forests in the world, and it is experiencing a drought for the last several years, and that puts it at it in a very unusual condition.
And so, you probably are seeing on the screen some images of the drought.
Even here, our marsh, which is part of the monastic property, is drying up.
It's about two feet, at least two feet lower than normal.
That's a lot of water, because the marsh itself is at least 60 acres, or what you would call it, 25, 30 hectares.
And that's an enormous amount of water.
That's a lot of water to be down two feet, but the entire interior of British Columbia is under drought conditions, and so the lakes, water, everything is under, is down, snow packs, et cetera.
So, what happens is that the soil itself is flammable.
The top three, four inches of soil, which is often covered with pine needles and so forth, is a spongy material.
And it's actually what they call duff, and it can ignite as well.
So, fires are, when they do set off, they move like a bomb.
To the south of us is a, you may have heard on the news, a town named Summerland, a nice name.
And on Friday night, they had a little fire of something like eight hectares.
Or 20, 20 acres, perhaps.
And suddenly, within an hour, it was 1,000.
Within four hours, it was 5,000 hectares.
5,000 hectares is 50 square kilometers.
And I won't do the math for Americans to turn kilometers into square miles.
Now it's, it's now 10,000 hectares, at least, which is 100 square kilometers.
And so, it's the nature of the fires, they're rated on a scale, how fast they ignite.
So, usually five is the top of the scale, but these are in the six zone.
So, yeah, we're, it's extremely dry and very volatile.
Now, as far as the monastery goes, this affects us.
We, we do a lot of preparation of fireproofing all of the buildings.
We have gravel aprons around all of the buildings and metal skirting and all kinds of things that we invest in.
Because we can't actually afford to insure this place anymore.
It's, fire insurance is too, too high.
This is a characteristic of some of the other monasteries as well, of Bayagiri in California.
It's so, so prone to fire that they can't insure either.
And several, it's going to be, many, many people are going to have this experience.
So, we're sitting here and we have to just, instead of putting the money into insurance, we put it into fire prevention.
We also are, we have extinguishers, we have drones.
So, you're probably seeing some images of the place from the drone position.
Our, our introduction usually before the Q&A is, is our own drone.
Circling the monastery and looking down on it for various seasons.
And today we have some drone imagery around us.
And you're seeing the, how dry the marsh is and, and so forth.
So, we, we use these drones also to spot fires ahead of time because we're in a very isolated area.
And even the fire crews and professionals can't keep up with fires that are ignited by lightning.
So, we...
We basically take responsibility for our whole area through these drones.
And we do fire prevention and we're ready for evacuation and all that kind of stuff.
Right now we're in a retreat.
We also have a retreat going on.
So, various people come to meditate here for a quiet week.
And they are all, we, we inform them ahead of time about all our preparations, etc.
So...
The condition, we could be asked to evacuate at a moment's notice.
And this has happened before.
We have had fire evacuation here.
We just pack up and leave in a, in, within 15 minutes.
And that's how it goes.
So, welcome to the world.
And of course, there is a, a sutta called the Fire Sermon by the Buddha.
The world is on fire.
The eye is on fire.
The ear is on fire.
The nose.
The tongue.
The body.
The mind is on fire.
The fire with what?
Fires of greed, hatred and delusion.
Because the world is all impermanent as well, in a sense it's also continuously passing out of existence.
And we grasp at it.
So, the mind, the eye is on fire.
We're grasping at images and so forth.
Wanting them to stay.
But they, they're intrinsically impermanent.
So, we can really relate to fire.
By the way, if you're interested in English literature, one of the, I think it's T.H.
What is it?
The famous English poet.
T.S. Eliot.
T.S. Eliot, yes.
Yeah.
He is, is it Four Quartets or something like that?
He was actually influenced by Buddhism.
And he, and the Fire Sermon as well.
So, he, you can find in his poetry references to fire and so forth.
And that's influenced by Buddhism.
Yes.
T.S. Eliot.
Thomas Stearns Eliot.
I'm making up for my, my lack of memory of the, of the initials because I actually know his middle name, Stearns.
Okay, so that's the fire update.
We're all right for now.
And we're, we're really well prepared.
So, don't worry about us.
Next, I would like to direct your attention to Arrow River Forest, Arrow River Hermitage.
And that's a affiliated monastery in Ontario near Thunder Bay.
And they have a project going on.
And that is to build a new,
basically,
the, the kitchen area.
A new building so that they can eat.
They have an antiquated building there that's been there since 1970.
And it is falling apart.
And they have been raising funds for this new building.
And they're, they're getting there.
They have initiated the project.
Please go to their website, Arrow River Hermitage,
and look on the, the dining room project.
They have all the drawings.
They've initiated it.
There's pictures of what's going to happen, progress being made.
And they need to, they just don't have enough funds to complete it this year.
So, we are directing your attention to the, to the project so that they can actually get this done.
It's been going on for some years.
Monasteries, again, just work by donations and so forth.
So, if you need new buildings, you just have to wait patiently until people are aware of this.
But it's a good project, a worthy project.
So, please investigate it.
And if you can help, please do.
Okay, let's go to the first question on the, the spiritual board there.
Yes, Ajahn.
The first question, we'll jump around the chat a little bit today.
The first question comes from jckm01.
Dear Ajahn, why are we here?
What is the meaning of life?
And what is one's life's purpose?
Of course, I've been asked this many times.
And over the years, I come up with various answers.
And just, I don't know, it was two or three days ago, I was doing walking meditation.
I was thinking, you know, it's the wrong question.
It's not, Buddhism isn't really interested in the meaning of life.
Its primary focus, this, the, the ultimate good is,
the ultimate good for Buddhism is the cessation of suffering.
So it's not, you're not asking the meaning of life.
You're asking what, what is the means to reduce suffering?
How do we suffer less?
Rather than asking what's the meaning of life,
how do we suffer less and come to the end of suffering?
That is, so the entire purpose of your life is towards that.
You're not asking what the meaning of life is.
You're asking what the purpose of life is.
What is the purpose that you should dedicate your life to?
And it is the reduction of unnecessary suffering.
And that's a very, if there's any meaning at all,
that, that's the most meaningful answer.
Within the, what's called samsara,
the endless cycle of birth and death,
which is the primary Buddhist view of existence,
it ultimately isn't, there aren't sort of stations of meaning in it.
So this is where Buddhism relates quite well to very modern ideas about absurdity,
the meaninglessness of existence, the absurdity of existence,
the pointlessness of existence.
Once the West let go of Christianity
and its various religious ideas about, you know,
going to heaven and so forth,
where an eternal well-being would be found,
they were left with a sense of meaninglessness and a vacuum,
and which is filled in by philosophies like absurdity
and nihilism and all kinds of, or making your own meaning.
This is another, the answer that philosophers like Sartre and Nietzsche gave
is that you make your own meaning.
You just choose something randomly and make it meaningful.
In a sense, that's why Buddhism appeals to a lot of Westerners as well,
because they are very familiar with this feeling that, you know,
it's, if the religious structures formerly of Christianity and so forth
are invalid, then what, you know, what is the, how do you navigate life?
So Buddhism gives an answer where it's not sugar-coated,
it's not like you go to heaven forever, dear, that's all.
It says, no, there is no place, conceivable existence,
wherein you are comfortable and safe.
All of them are impermanent and transient.
So how do, what do you make, what do you do with that?
Your one goal is to exit.
This continuously evaporating kind of situation is to exit.
And the, there's all kinds of similes for this,
is to cross over to the other shore.
You have to get a raft or a boat or something
and help you across the, to the other shore.
And the other shore is the place that doesn't flood,
but it's not actually a place.
So they use these similes like the island and the place
and the this and the that, but actually they're not,
they're not concrete places.
The nirvana, the cessation of suffering is not a place.
It's the evaporation of ignorance is what it is.
And the presence though of knowledge.
And knowledge is not enough itself.
It's got to be knowledge that leads to freedom,
vimuti, or ultimate emotional purification
of all the forms of unnecessary suffering.
So these are emotional,
what we're talking about emotional suffering.
The body remains and the body ages
and gets ill, et cetera.
The Buddha's body did.
The Arahant disciples' bodies,
they had racking illnesses, great pain,
and so forth in the body.
But emotionally they were not distressed about it.
They remained in a state of emotional well-being
in the midst of this.
So that is the aim, the aim, the only sensible aim
is to free yourself from this pursuit
or attempt to remain in samsara,
in some sort of safe form.
It's futile and you must make the escape.
And that is the purpose of life.
Rather than the meaning of life,
it's the purpose of life.
Okay, let's move on.
The next question comes to us from Samrit.
Dear Ajahn,
Does acting out of anger degenerate virtue?
And if yes, how?
Well, the very act of anger is a degeneration of virtue.
It's not virtue.
Virtue itself doesn't degenerate.
You're either virtuous or you're not.
And so it's not a thing.
Virtue is not a thing.
It's an intention actually.
So this is what the Buddha is saying is volition.
Where is morality found?
Where is meaning found?
It's found in intention.
Chaitanya, I say, is kama.
Kama is chaitanya, meaning what is the intention behind the acts.
So that is what virtue you generate moment by moment.
Some thoughts and intentions are virtuous and some are not.
But they don't mix.
Black and white don't mix and become gray.
There's black and there's white.
And when you're angry, you're creating a negative type of kama.
It is not virtuous.
It's unvirtuous.
And then when you're full of loving kindness and generosity,
you're creating positive karma.
Virtue, it's virtuous.
But they're not mixed.
So the positive virtue is not stained by past negative kama.
And the negative kama is not lightened or mixed with the positive karma.
They remain separate issues.
And both of them will have their own fruition.
Positive mental states and so forth will have very positive delightful results.
And negative things will have negative results.
And they're not mixed or neutralized.
Each of them will play out.
And you'll see this in people's lives.
Tremendous beautiful things happen to them and then negative things happen to them.
Polarities happen to them.
What the most fortunate person will have unfortunate situations.
And occasionally a person whose life is riddled with misfortune will have, you know, sudden good fortune.
So you'll see these things are playing out as a kind of unmixed situation.
However, the Buddha did say,
a person who has a lot of good results in their life is primarily a virtuous person.
When they do a small negative thing, it does not saturate their whole life.
So he made the difference between a teaspoon of salt poured into a cup of water.
How does the water taste?
It tastes very salty.
If you pour it into the Ganges River, you hardly notice it.
It would hardly register.
So this is the difference.
A small negative thing done by a good person who's primarily virtuous is diluted, hardly noticeable.
And a person who has very little virtue, very little good karma,
even a small negative deed can saturate their life.
So you think of it as some kid born into a ghetto, very unfortunate circumstances.
They decide that they're going to, they want a radio or they want a music device.
And they see it in a window, they throw a brick through the window and grab it and run.
And they get caught and they end up in jail.
And in jail, one thing leads to another and they get killed in jail.
So they're all of, you know, 18 years old.
And this trivial thing, they snatched something to listen to music with and they end up dead.
In very, very unfortunate circumstances.
And then some guy, a white collar worker, embezzles two, three million dollars or ten million dollars
and he gets public service where he has to go and give lectures to primary school kids, you know, about being good.
.
This is, this is, you see, when you look at the justice systems of the world,
you see extraordinary, inexplicable differences in how justice, so-called justice, comes to people.
It's extreme in one direction and almost without meaning in the other direction.
This is just a kind of a microcosm
.
It's a kind of a microcosm of the karma that's playing out.
By the way, the justice system, the British justice system, which is very advanced, you know,
and has, was advanced even a thousand years ago,
is kind of a, very reflective of the laws of karma described by the Buddha 2,500 years ago.
It's the Buddha's description of how to arrange the sangha
and what, what are bad things to do and good things to do
and what the, the punishments should be and so forth is remarkably advanced.
There's no violence in, in the punishments and so forth,
but there's, there's learnings, learning opportunities, etc.
So his sense of justice and how the universe is embedded with this idea of justice
is reflected in the most advanced civil law in some countries
and is quite remarkable that the courts have a grasp of this.
This is intuitive to humans, to the best of humans.
The worst of humans do not have a grasp of this thing called justice and,
or morality.
There, in, in, in French, there is a description of a, you know, habitual criminal.
They're, they're designated, and this is being the 19th century, moral imbecility.
They're a moral imbecile.
They, they cannot, they have not the intelligence factor of morality.
So they cannot intuit what is right and what is wrong.
Whereas other people have very high intelligence,
but they are not in the moral dimension.
So the Buddha is a moral genius.
And he's not the only moral genius in history.
There are other people who are very, have exalted senses of morality
and they teach others that there are,
it's like a great artist teaches others to see in a certain way through their art.
Or a great musician teaches others to hear in a certain way through their art.
Others can only admire it.
Others, some can have the, is part, partially that intuition.
But to have total intuition about this is, is called genius.
And so the Buddha is a moral genius.
Yeah, let's go on to the next question.
The next question is from John.
Is artificial intelligence a life form?
Not that I know of at the moment.
However, Buddhist ideas about consciousness
would be the most, the easiest way to imagine that it's possible
that a machine could become conscious.
Because consciousness, from a Buddhist point of view,
consciousness is not a, what's called an epiphenomenon of the brain.
Consciousness,
utilizes its interaction with the body.
So the Buddha gives this simile.
He says consciousness and the body,
the mind and the body lean against each other
like two sheaves of wheat in a field.
If you take one away, the other one falls down.
If you take the other one away, the other one falls down.
So body and mind are, rely on each other.
But they're not identical.
Materiality of the body is not consciousness.
And so the brain is not intrinsically conscious.
Consciousness is another element.
And that consciousness can arise
if given the proper matrix, physical matrix,
which is appropriate to consciousness.
So a human body is an appropriate matrix
for consciousness to associate with.
And an animal body is as well.
So these biological organisms
are appropriate for the use of consciousness.
Occasionally consciousness doesn't,
I mean the Buddha goes into the very interesting descriptions,
consciousness arises in the womb.
When the sperm and egg have united,
consciousness, a third element called consciousness,
appears because that matrix is available to it.
So in sort of scientific materialist ideas,
the consciousness is intrinsic
to the information in the sperm and egg.
But from a Buddhist point of view,
there's this separate consciousness
called relinking consciousness.
Relinking consciousness arrives
when the suitable conditions are there with sperm and egg.
Consciousness can lean against it.
And that consciousness then could,
if the mechanical or electrical,
whatever it is, is suitable,
consciousness could arise.
But consciousness is not created
out of sophisticated interactions.
Of materiality.
That's not what,
from a Buddhist point of view.
The great problem in philosophy today
is conscious, what is consciousness?
And they have,
there's at least 20 schools of it,
what it is.
And some of them, you know,
think it's identical with the brain, etc.
Others say it just doesn't add up that way.
But nobody has absolute,
convincing clarity about it.
But the Buddha has,
apparently has, you know,
insight that only perhaps a Buddha could have
and says, you know,
there actually is,
the consciousness is not lost
at the end of the material life.
A lot of the information is transmitted.
It's very similar to our present idea
of transmission through genetics.
Information from the previous,
father and mother,
is transmitted to the new person.
And the information is transmitted through this
infinitesimally small structure,
genes.
And the zygote and so forth.
These are tiny,
you can't see it with the human eye.
And yet all of the information
of a human is supposed to be within,
embedded within that tiny little
microscopic,
blob of genetics.
So this is,
we would explain,
we would say,
certainly there is genetic,
genes are part of it.
But consciousness is something else
than genes.
And it's the mixture of all of these things
that produce a whole being.
Okay, next question.
It looks like a couple questions
came up from that.
I'll go with the
question from XYZ.
Dear Ajahn,
I struggle with the idea of reincarnation.
What would happen to the consciousness
if humans went extinct?
How would this affect the cycle of rebirth?
Yeah, it's not something to worry about
anytime soon.
The Buddha talks that
in terms of the beings in the universe,
by the way,
he is very
copacetic with the
modern cosmological sense of the universe.
The universe is,
present universe is supposed to be
maybe 14 billion years old and
there's gazillions,
that's a special scientific term,
gazillions of
stars and planets and so forth.
How many of them have life?
How many there are
even more advanced than us?
If a world system,
if you began to develop even
a thousand years
earlier than the Earth,
what would,
what is the
possibilities of,
what are we going to look like
in a thousand years?
So there might be world systems out there
that are not only a thousand,
but a billion years older than us
and have evolved through all of these stages.
So the Buddha says
the numbers of beings in the universe
are incalculable.
You can't even,
there's no numbers that are appropriate
to apply to it.
It's incalculable as,
as also the,
does the universe have a beginning or not
in space and in time?
These are called incalculables.
They're not,
the human mind cannot grasp
either of those possibilities.
So,
um,
the idea of,
of humans going extinct
or anything like that is not,
it's not possible.
The only way you exit from samsara
is through full enlightenment.
And that is a very,
uh,
small,
very small number of beings
at any given time.
When Dhamma is present,
the whole idea of samsara
and Nibbana is present,
then perhaps,
those who are serious
and,
and process the eightfold path,
they can exit.
But,
any concern about,
uh,
you know,
extinction of the,
of humanity
because of conditions,
you know,
the,
the world,
the nuclear problems
or a meteor hits the earth
or we manage to heat the earth up
and vanish that way.
Uh,
it's not of any concern
from a Buddhist point of view.
There's,
there's not where,
that's not the source of life.
That's not the ending of life.
Uh,
consciousness just
goes to different
functions and levels
of the environment
and remains there until
suitable opportunities for
taking the,
the form of,
uh,
humans and so forth
or animals or whatever.
So,
it's similar to the
evolution of the earth.
Is the earth supposed to be,
uh,
four and a half billion years old now?
And starting with sort of
blue-green algae
and,
and somehow humans
step out of blue-green algae.
Buddhism has a slightly different
version of this,
uh,
that actually is the descent
of consciousness
from higher states
down into
lower states,
more coarse states.
Uh,
when the situation is available,
consciousness migrates
to it.
So,
this is very similar
to what we were talking about.
Consciousness is not identical
with materiality.
Consciousness is a,
is an energy form
that
utilizes
certain
physical
attributes.
When,
when certain
physical
things are available,
consciousness can associate
with that.
So,
that's how we would think
about this.
Fascinating subject.
I could talk for hours
about it,
but it's,
uh,
I wanna,
I wanna sort of answer
10 questions
in an hour or so.
The next question
is from Tony.
Dear Ajahn,
what should people
in European countries
who see their culture
being Islamized
do?
We know
from history
what happens
to other faiths
and religions
when Islam
becomes dominant.
Uh,
well,
this is the case
all through history.
The,
you know,
the opening chapter
of the,
the Pali Canon
is called,
the,
the Nikaya,
the longer length sayings
and the first one
of this is the
all-embracing
net of views.
So,
the first
sutta
is 62
possible
ways of looking
at the world,
62,
um,
views
or ditties
and these are,
uh,
the word
that we use
in the West
is called religion
and the word
in Buddhism
is called ditti
or view.
So,
everybody has a view.
By the way,
that's their view.
So,
they,
there are people
who say
you can't know anything.
It's,
it's,
it's all just guesses
but none of them
can be known,
et cetera.
That,
that's their view.
That's their,
they have a religious,
uh,
grasp
of that.
And then every,
there's a,
a number,
you know,
all kinds of variations
but they all break down
into a certain
limited,
there's only a certain
number of ways
you can look at things.
One of the basics is
you,
you,
you cease
at death
or you do not.
So,
that's one of the first
big divisions.
So,
most of the,
uh,
and religions
are very sophisticated
in this.
Some,
like,
um,
early Christianity,
uh,
as,
as,
according to
some
Christian scholars,
early Christianity
had both of those ideas.
One is that
a whole bunch
of people
ceased
at death
and
others
persisted
for eternity.
They,
they were both
eternalists
and annihilationists.
In modern times,
in a sense of Christianity
in modern times
is that,
uh,
instead of just
ceasing at death,
those,
those people
who didn't believe
went,
go to hell forever.
Their,
their consciousness
remains in hell forever.
The other ones
go to heaven forever.
Um,
but apparently
in the earlier times,
uh,
it wasn't about
that certain people
went to hell,
they just ceased
to exist.
And then others
who believed,
uh,
you know,
were,
became eternal
in heaven.
Or they were
resurrected.
They didn't,
didn't immediately
go to heaven.
They were,
they just
suspended
and then
at some point
God decided
to resurrect them.
As,
you can see these
variations on,
and all of these views
are,
uh,
listed in the,
the 62 views
in,
uh,
in,
uh,
longer length sayings.
So,
uh,
there's,
there's,
but it's a limited number.
There,
there's only a certain amount
of variations
that you can have.
And Islam is,
has its,
and first of all
Islam itself
does not agree with itself.
There's schools
of Islam,
right?
There's Shia
and Sunni
and all kinds of,
and then there's,
uh,
contemplative
structures,
uh,
as well.
So,
as with any
group of humans
they disagree
with each other.
You know,
we had a rabbi here,
an orthodox rabbi,
um,
and he was saying,
uh,
he was told a joke.
He said,
uh,
there's this,
uh,
Jewish guy
that end up,
uh,
washed ashore
on an island
from a shipwreck.
And finally after
any number of years
the rescuers came
and they discovered
and found him.
And he was very glad,
glad to be saved
and everything.
And there was two
buildings on it.
And they asked him,
what,
what were the two buildings?
He says,
uh,
these are two,
uh,
synagogues.
And,
uh,
why are there two,
there's only one of you,
there's two synagogues.
He says,
uh,
I used to,
I wouldn't set my foot
in that,
that synagogue anymore.
This,
this one is
the orthodox one.
So,
even with one person,
you,
you can have an internal
disagreement
with yourself
over religious views,
let alone
large groups of people.
So,
uh,
yeah,
this is kind of
hyped up.
Uh,
there are genuine,
of course,
there are genuine threats.
Uh,
we can see
in the history
of Christianity,
ex,
extreme,
uh,
persecutions,
extreme,
uh,
uh,
absolute,
um,
fanatic
annihilationism
of other
belief systems
and other people,
um,
et cetera,
in,
so-called
in the name
of Christianity.
But,
which Christianity
is it,
you know?
So,
this is not new.
And,
you can't,
when you say,
you know,
about it,
the individual,
only the individual
has to sort out
the views
that they're,
they're going to do.
You can't sort out
somebody else's views.
You can offer advice
if they're asking.
But,
all you can do,
and it's quite a daunting task
to sort out
your own views
of anything,
you have to
think a lot
and study a lot
and contemplate a lot.
Most people
don't do that.
They tend to just
go to the,
whatever's,
whatever their parents did
or their neighbors do,
they tend to fall
into that
and accept that.
So,
you're asking them
to suddenly
be philosophers.
And people,
most people
are not.
You're not going
to question
your own values.
You're not going
to question the,
the values
of your community.
Most people don't.
Partly because
they're not capable
of it.
It takes a lot
of thought
and intelligence
and study.
And,
most people
don't have the time
for that.
They don't have
for that.
So,
you're,
you,
as an individual,
should not suffer
over this.
You should
say,
I can't
shape the world.
I can't tell
the world
what to do.
And I better stop
having negative
emotions
about
the stuff
that has gone
on throughout
all of history
and will continue
to go on
throughout
all of history.
Much of it
is just based
It's going
to be there.
You can cure
your own ignorance
and it's not by
wishing it away
either.
It's by
replacement of it
by knowledge.
So,
only the individual
will
have the solution
to the
problems
of the universe
because the,
the universe
is just full
of problems.
And that's why
we're actually
headed out
of the universe.
We're headed
to exit.
We're exiting
this,
I think,
Angurang
from Sydney
Australia.
Dear,
Ajahn,
How can I
check
my Spiritual
Blind Spot?
Yeah.
Your Spiritual
Blind Spot
is called
delusion
and
ignorance
Avija.
And it's
very interesting
that you can't
then it reappears. Notice, normally your field of vision appears to be complete, but actually
there is a little spot in there that is absent, but you can't see that. It's only when you
do these tests that you can see that, oh, there's a little spot in my vision field that
actually is not there, and I can't see that, I can't intuit that. So that's ignorance.
You can see, though, the two major effects of ignorance, greed and anger, and they are
the food which keeps the ignorance going. Those you can see quite clearly, you can feel
your own desires and greed, and you can feel your own hostility and anger.
And they are produced by ignorance. So you think, when you feel angry or greedy, you think,
I must be deluded. Although I can't see my delusion, it seems perfectly clear that I should
be angry. It seems perfectly clear that I'm justified in wanting that thing. That seems
perfectly clear to me. Aha, I must be out of my mind.
I am experiencing these irrational impulses which cause me to suffer. Now, if I can say,
okay, in a sense, I'm off my meds. I wouldn't be behaving like this if I was on my meds.
If I was knowledgeable, I wouldn't be saying these things, thinking these things, doing
these things. So therefore, that's the clue. So that's the first thing. Most people don't
accept that anger or greed is...
There's nothing wrong with it. So they're not going to undo their ignorance. But if
you think, yeah, okay, I get it. Intellectually, I see anger and greed are kind of irrational
and they cause distress. And I don't think that's wise. Then you're... Now you're on
the track. So you think, okay, what if I just prevent it? By preventing it, it weakens the
connection to the supply for ignorance.
Okay.
Ignorance itself starts to become less of a power in generating anger and desire. So
in dependent origination, normally you see this kind of clock thing where ignorance is
at 12 o'clock and then there's sankaras or volitions and then there's consciousness.
What comes before 12 o'clock?
Often it's shown at 11 o'clock, it's death. But death doesn't cause the rising of ignorance.
Death has nothing to do with ignorance. What is shown in other suttas is that the primary
cause, the food of ignorance, is what are called the five hindrances. The five hindrances,
anger, greed, agitation, sloth, and doubt, feed ignorance. They... Ignorance depends
on them. And then...
Okay.
Ignorance then feeds back into strengthening the five hindrances, et cetera. So if you can
weaken the five hindrances, you will get a reduction and a clarification. You will start to
feel lucidity and dispassion. And so two things, nibbida and viraga. Nibbida is disenchantment,
and viraga is reduction of desire and craving.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
I don't know about...
I don't know how you feel this in your life. You... This is what meditation does to you.
You suddenly realize you don't... You're not reacting so much. And you don't... You're
not craving so much. What a strange thing. Well, you interfered with the cycle of conditioning.
So this is how you do it. You can't see your blind spots. So you see what feeds the blind
spots. Yeah.
The next question is from Steven. Dear Ajahn, can purifying one's consciousness cause vipaka
to play out sooner than it otherwise would have yeah the Vipaka is the fruit
of action so in the West we use this word karma or comma actually it's now an
English word karma is now in the Oxford English dictionary and Nirvana is in the
Oxford English dictionary because they're really useful words and they
they have in the Sanskrit form Nirvana and Karma have become part of the
regular vocabulary see people say that's your karma that you you something bad
happens that's your karma well it's not your karma actually it's it's your Vipaka
it's the fruit of your karma karma is the intentional action and the Vipaka
is the fruit of that you have a bunch of fruit coming
you can accelerate
you can accelerate
and slow down the process of it you know it's like fruit we should buy from the
market you can but you can speed up the the ripening of your bananas by mixing
them putting in a plastic bag with or apples or something like that don't take
my advice about that but some somehow you can do this so yes you can swamp the
one way is to swamp the whole consciousness with loving-kindness and
it can be a wet blanket on the arising of negative karma it doesn't eliminate
it but it can delay the arising of it if in certain circumstances certain kinds
of karma needs certain circumstances for their fruition for them to arise until
that situation comes along the
they certain negative things can't arise so you swamp it with good things
and that creates that's new karma which creates also good fruit as well the next
question is from ACC monks say intimacy is empty but unfulfilled desire is a
huge trap is a completely inexperienced minds desire more powerful than a jaded
playboys how does one reach nibbida without
tasting the candy well that's the problem actually
desire is it is less blank less blameworthy and it is but very hard to
get rid of so the Buddha talks about these three things anger is a great
stain on the personality but it's easier to get easy to get rid of desire is a
lesser stain on the personality it can Q does it grow and does you grow longer thy still rather than a person that dreams of world husbands嘴
personality and very hard to get rid of. Ignorance is a great stain on the personality and very hard
to get rid of. So why is anger a great stain? Because, you know, hatred and negativity and all
this distorts the thoughts and then violence and all kinds of stuff come out of it. And
why is it easier to get rid of? Because it is intrinsically unpleasant. To be angry is
to have a state of a negative feeling. It always arises with negative feelings. So most
people are quite open to the idea that they'd like to get rid of negative feelings. So they're
open to the idea of being less angry. It's very easy. Desire though is accompanied by
pleasant feelings. So people are much less open to the idea of getting rid of desire
because it's accompanied by pleasant feelings.
And it doesn't seem to have such terrible results. We all form a nice wine appreciation
club or things like that. We celebrate our desires and even get status in society because
of your desires. So that's why it's really, really hard to get rid of it. Now, do you
need to fulfill your desires before you realize how...
that they're problematic? No. You only realize this through wisdom. You realize that every
time you have... every time you want something, that the very moment you want something is
the moment you lack something. You are the one that put yourself in a state of lack.
To want... this is the old English term. One wants this, meaning one lacks.
It's identical to being put in deficit. So the moment you want is the moment you lack.
The Buddha says it's similar to being in debt. A man is in debt. He goes into business and
he has to borrow a whole bunch of money. And he lives anxiously until the day that he finally
pays off the debt. So the moment he pays off the debt, he's free of this debt. Desire is
debt. So you're in debt. As long as you have desire, you're in debt.
And then to overcome desire and free yourself from that is the moment the mortgage is paid
off. The business loan is paid off. And it's a... people celebrate this. Nobody wants to
be in debt. They would like to be out of debt.
And so this is like, do you want to walk around in a state of lack all the time, in a state
of hollowness, missing something? Or do you want to feel full and at ease? Take your choice.
That's an intellectual process. It doesn't mean that you've gone through 700 girlfriends and now
you understand. I get it. It's not worth it. No, it doesn't work that way. Ask Don Giovanni,
whatever his name is. Don Juan. Go and watch the opera.
Yes. The next question is from CLB105. Hello, Ajahn. Can you please talk about how I can
overcome this sense restraint and the seventh precept long term, without falling into dullness
and depression? To what extent could generosity and kindness help to overcome this dullness?
Well, it's entertainment and singing, dancing and so forth. Yeah, most people have
trouble living without that. And you can start by shaping it. It's not like don't indulge
and the frivolous stupid stuff you know just to pass the time uh at least choose something
that educates you or and elevates you and there are there's good literature out there uh things
that uh ex you know help produce the the qualities of generosity and kindness and loving all this
stuff and so it you know frivolous things or just leaving the radio on all day long playing the
top 40 you know just it's just it's just a pointless mind-numbing stuff so if you're going
to listen to something choose great things that uh perhaps produce a better or loftier sense of
emotion in you um because just abandoning these things is not uh does not conduce to growth
monks are asked not
to do that because they have a replacement there's they're forced forced to rely on their
the time to pushes them into meditation and that's a form of uh deep learning and it has its
own gratification you have to think about things you're you're forced to and you don't have the
option to distract yourself for lay people it's hard to force yourself into that austere lifestyle
and you don't
have a surrounding sangha to support the meditative lifestyle so you're you're going to have you're
going to probably indulge in some of these things but try to choose ones that are elevate you and
increase your sense of compassion if you read uh charles dickens you're going to um
through the my great mind of a great artist you're going to be
start to have sense of compassion for the state of beings you know what is it like
to be an eight-year-old kid wandering the streets of london without parents
falling in with a bunch of other ragamuffins and stealing and you know at the mercy of adults that
are manipulating it's a terrible situation but most people are too callous to see it so you
have to look through the eyes of a great person in order and it opens your heart to this whole
situation so that caused whole social revolutions you know when a person can describe the situation
from the outside to the inside and to the inside they can't see it they can't see it so they can't
see it so they can't see it so this is the right thing to do and when you start to go into it
so this is what art great literature is that's elevating it's not it it's not just entertaining
or distracting it's elevating so you can you can read these i mean if you read the suttas there are
all kinds of stories like this it's it's literature as well and it's elevating literature so you can
find dhamma in in literature and art you can find this uh to help elevate your your consciousness
Okay, one last question.
Yes, Ajahn, the final question for today is from Sivigan.
Dear Ajahn, do you have a recommended book list for a beginning Buddhist?
Yes, go to Birkin Forest Monastery, birkin.ca,
and we have a list of books, basic books that we recommend.
The Noble Eightfold Path by Bhikkhu Bodhi,
The Words of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
There's some books by Ajahn Sona on there.
So yeah, let me advertise.
This is one, it's called Life is a Near-Death Experience.
So this is a small book, you can get it off Amazon.
And this one is called What Comes Before Mindfulness?
And this is the, mindfulness is universally taught now,
but it's not Buddhist mindfulness, it's not right mindfulness.
In order for it to be right mindfulness,
it has to be connected with the previous path factor,
which is called right effort.
So this whole book is about that, and it's by me, and it's on Amazon.
Okay, and so go to the book list on our website,
and it'll give you all the ones that we recommend,
because there's a lot of stuff out there,
and a lot of stuff is not appropriate to the Theravada schools,
not appropriate to Buddhism in general.
There's a lot of opinions, a lot of nonsense,
and a lot of misinformation.
So we've tried to preselect some stuff, yeah.
Is there another book coming out soon?
Yes, there's another book.
So this book, Bloom, by me, is no longer available.
We decided to re-edit the entire thing,
re-write the entire thing,
and it will be coming out as Cool Head, Warm Heart,
I don't know, within, maybe,
probably by the beginning of, end of this year.
And you can see it on Amazon, yeah.
Okay, that is it for today,
and we hope that you are well,
if you're in the smoke area,
because lots of people in British Columbia watch this as well.
Be prepared, always be prepared to leave.
Notice that some people are very reluctant,
very clinging to their place.
You've got a choice, your money or your life.
You have to sometimes just leave all your possessions behind,
and they may not be there when you come back,
so that's also a lesson in Buddhism, yeah.