Accountability

Accountability by Ajahn Brahm Over the internet. People send many requests for talks and I apologize. I can't give a talk on every subject which people ask me to over the internet. But one subject came up last week and I thought it would make a wonderful subject for a talk, which is accountability. And I think it is pertinent because many of you may have been to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's talk at the Dome on Wednesday and some of the things which he was so talking about, such as UN climate change and also ethics, bring up. Some of the things I'm going to talk about this evening are the accountability of what one does, what one speaks, even what one thinks. The actions of yourself and others in this world that do have consequences and is the consequences of one's actions, are all about the ethics and what actually is. Those are those ethics. And what direction should they take to create the goal of ethical behavior, which is always a happier, more prosperous, more harmonious world for yourself and others? So it's about the accountability. And I think that's a wonderful subject because it's the lack of accountability in certain areas of people's lives, which I would say are the direct cause for many of the problems which you face, I face which many other people face, basically not seeing through the consequences of one's speech, one's actions, and even one's thoughts. And that was especially true with the, you know, the hot climate of, uh, the hot subject of climate change simply because the consequences of our actions, they do affect us. But why is it that people find it so hard to do anything about this problem? Uh, even personally, it's okay saying the government should do this and corporations should do that. But how many of you have taken any positive, real, um, significant change to your lifestyle to actually to address that problem and why not? And it's obvious because for many of us, the demands of the moment, just getting through a day sometimes take so much effort that often we don't have time to look at the big picture and appreciate the big picture because life is so fast. The only thing we can do is just to look at the road immediately ahead. It's a strange thing that the faster you go, the less you see. And it's the case that now, being a monk. No, you do have no days of silence. Days when you don't do very much. Opportunities where you can just stop all the rushing around and just reflect and see the bigger picture. I think one of the reasons why that people don't act on the big pictures of life is because of the fastness of their life. The demands of the present or the immediate present occupy too much of the space of our brain. Which is why that is a comment which I saw many years ago from the philosopher Descartes. I know so so Pascal, who actually said, I wrote this in my book, that all the troubles of mankind arise from not knowing how to sit still. And of course, there was a very deep saying. And the meaning of it is is not just stillness itself, though, which obviously gives you a bigger, better value system was important in life. But just in that stillness, in that sort of moment of stopping, you can really sit back, stand back and actually see the bigger picture of your life. It's one of the reasons why we have monasteries and retreat centres, because a lot of time people go to those retreat centres or monasteries, such as mine down in serpentine and they ask, what am I supposed to do? And I say, stop. Don't do anything. Just get up. What, you want to meditate and sit. Walk whatever you want to do. But don't do very much. A lot of times people go to those places to actually to stop, and they get a bigger picture of what their life is all about and where it all belongs. They get the the larger perspective because as you all know, that sometimes just getting here for this evening, you didn't have time to think of too much. Which is one of the problems why people don't address these major issues. The demands of the moment take priority, and it means that we end up getting to these places. How on earth do we get to this place? And that's noticed with climate change. It sometimes with your health issues. How do I get to this cancer? To this disease? How did it happen? A lot of times is because we were rushing through our life day by day, attending to the dishes, to the TV, to the programs we had to see, to our work or whatever to our kids. And they were actually standing back long enough to figure out what's really happening. I know that when I meditate, sometimes you feel your body is tired. When you stop and look, then you can see when you're rushing around so much, how on earth can you really get to know your body and its needs and requirements? And that's why I asked you during the meditation period, just to stop and look and feel how your body is right now. Spend time with it. When you spend time with it, you can listen to the bodily signals. When you listen to those signals from the body, you can hear what it needs. You can act appropriately, but to many of us, the body is a bigger picture. There's the needs of the moment take priority, and it's only when there's a big problem. Only then, when it's too late, do we attend. Same with things like climate change was the same with our relationships we have with our partners. Sometimes attending to the needs of the moment means we don't stand back and see how the whole big relationship issue is going. We don't take time out to know. I still remember from the first couple of years I was a monk in Thailand, seeing the benefits of even these forest monasteries. Now sometimes people complain that, oh, you know, monks and monasteries, they just look after themselves. They're so isolated. What good do they do for the community? And we should actually be spending more money to building hospitals and schools or whatever. Orphanages rather than monasteries. But even in my first couple of years, I saw the value to the bigger community of just a quiet little monastery in the northeast of Thailand. When this man came to see me in this monastery, and because I could speak reasonably good Thai, he just asked me the question, can I stay here for a few days? And of course, you know, in monasteries, as long as his accommodation people are allowed to stay there, it's that decent? It's not excluding how the people from our community. Of course you can come and stay there. You don't have to be a Buddhist as long as you can keep the rules and fit in there, there's no problem at all. So he came to stay for a few days because I was the first monk he saw when he came to that monastery. After a few days when he wanted to go back home, he came to see me, basically out of respect, to ask permission to go back home again. So I said, yeah, of course you can go back home. This is not a prison. But I couldn't help but ask, now, why did you come in the first place here? And he said what? It wasn't to meditate. It wasn't all that interested in meditation, nor was it interested in learning anything about Buddhism because he was a born Buddhist. He said, the reason I came to stay here for a few days was because I had a terrible argument with my wife, and I came here just to cool down and to get perspective. And I realized I was wrong. I'm going to go back to stay with my wife again. And I thought, wow, what a wonderful thing that would be. If every time you had a big argument with someone you love, instead of going to the pub and getting drunk or going to other, you know, houses of ill repute or wherever else you'd go, just actually to go to a temple to cool down and get a perspective, a bigger picture, because you know what it's like sometimes we get into this terrible argument. So the smallest issues, which are really unimportant at the time, they seem huge. And all we need is a perspective to see exactly what we're doing. It's a bigger picture. And that's why we have monasteries and retreat centers for people just to. To slow down, to cool off titles, to get the bigger picture of what life really is all about, rather than just the needs of the moment and arguing back on standing your ground. Because unless you realize what's really important in life, sometimes we lose it and we lose our health. What was really important in life and being the richest person or being the healthiest person? What's more important? Being right or having a loving relationship? Is it really important you get your promotion at work? Whether you're happy in your workplace, what's really important? And a lot of times we just miss it. What's really important that, you know, we can actually pay off our mortgage or we've got a planet to live in in our next 5000 years. The bigger picture, things which come very clear once we give ourselves time out. A bit of peace, a bit of stillness. At a time when we can put aside the needs and requirements of a moment. Stand back and look more deeply. That's one of the first reasons, I think, that some of the problems which we have in our world are not addressed because people are rushing too fast. They haven't got really time to slow down and see the importance of these issues until sometimes it's too late. And so if one does actually have that opportunity to slow down, we'll see this importance. And of course, the other reason why such things are not addressed is because we always think it's not going to happen to me. It's someone else's problem. Now when people get cancers, they think, yeah, I know that maybe 1 in 3 people are going to get cancer, but not me. It's not my problem. But the point of accountability, it is not your problem. Not my problem. It's our problem. On the wonderful things which I learnt about Buddhism. What affects you affects me. And the whole point of life is not me. It's not you. It's always us. We're in this together. It's not just for now. We're in this together. One of the important aspects of Buddhism, and it's actually a truth which now I keep on trying to push and make more acceptable to our global community is the fact that you're not here just for 50, 60, 70, 80 years. You're going to come back to this place afterwards. Reincarnation is the facts. The evidence is out there. One of these days I'm going to get some finance and make a documentary. Just like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. You are going to come back here. The evidence is there, but people are in denial. Now, I had the, um, the Dalai Lama's event the first morning that one of the, uh, presenters on the, uh, the forum on the environment, especially climate change, was a young 24 year old called Annie Rose, who gave a quite impassioned speech about the problem of climate change for the perspective of a 24 year old. He was saying that, you know, in my lifetime that if what these scientists say, there is going to be problems. So this is going to be my I'm going to have to face these when I'm 40, 50, 60. But John Howard and George Bush, they'd be dead by that time. And so you can see that her one of her arguments was a very valid argument, that too many of our leaders think it's not their problem because they're not going to be here when it happens. And sometimes that many of you may think like that, you know, if you're 50 or 60. Okay. Yeah, we know when global warming happens, when the sea levels rise, when there's lots of storms and there's mass migration, which cannot be stopped into this country, and this lack of water and whatever else is happening. You think, oh, okay. Yeah. But, you know, 10 or 20 years, 30 years, I'll be out of here. So I'm going to enjoy myself. Obviously, it's not so important for you if it's not going to impinge upon you personally. But when you think you have to come back here, if Mr. Howard and Mr. Bush really understood that they have to come back to the planet, which they messed up, then perhaps we would take the bigger picture. One of the great things about an acceptance of no rebirth. You come back to this planet not just once, but many times. It does give you that bigger picture. It's not just, you know what room you're going to wake up tomorrow morning. In. What planet are you going to be reborn in? In your next life? When you actually start to think of that and you accept that being a monk of so many years, being a meditator, don't disbelieve these things, because in deep meditation, you know the truth of these things. And I've gone on record as saying, this is not a belief, this is a knowledge, a realization of truth. And there's evidence out there if anyone wants to look at their evidence. You know, I keep on saying this, Ian Stevenson, Professor Ian Stevenson, a huge he just he didn't die recently. He got reincarnated recently. I've had a month or two ago he passed away. So when he gets reincarnated, I think if he gets reborn, the first word will come out of his mouth and say, how was right, I told you. So. There's also the other evidence, which I keep quoting from Professor Pim van Bommel, December 15th, 2001 journal called The Lancet. Look it up yourself and see his conclusion. Consciousness survives death. Looking at near-death experiences is so much evidence there. And as a scientist, you know, I was a scientist before. I still say I'm a scientist now that this evidence is so strong. But the important thing is, what's a consequence of that evidence? If it is true, it it is true. It means that, you know, we have to come back here again. Now, that makes us much more accountable. And it makes, you know, whether you're a young person, either Annie Rose, who says, well, I'm going to have to live through this. It doesn't matter if you're 24 or 40 2 or 64, 84, you know you're going to have to come back here. My goodness, that makes it important. More important. It's personal. It's not even just for your kids. It's for you. And so that that gives a greater impetus for what we mean as ethics in this global millennium. Now, the ethics droid is like being kind of being compassionate, but not just for the immediate family or the immediate moment. That compassion has to be the bigger picture and the compassion to be have a sustainable world for your future because you're going to come back here. You're building this. And that sort of compassion together with wisdom. That, to me is in Buddhism, is the basis of these ethical decisions and the accountability to know that it's just not in the moment. There are consequences of your actions. There's an old Zen story, which I've argued against for many years. Many of you may know this. You may know the story, but I always add the last chapter, which is usually omitted from the story of these two monks. You know that monks because we're celibate. No, we're not supposed to come into physical contact with women in the same way. The nuns who come and teach here are not allowed to come into physical contact with males. The reason is because we're celibate and we don't want to give the wrong impression. And this is our basic rule for monastic life, which has been there for a long, long time. And there's a story of two monks who were walking from one place to another, and they came to a river which was swollen, and there was a young lady waiting to cross, but she couldn't cross by herself because the cupboard was too strong. And so one of the monks grabbed her and carried her across, and deposited her safely on the other side of the the river. And after five minutes, when they were walking along, the other monk was very upset and angry and said, you just broken your rules. You're not supposed to be carrying a woman that's against know our traditions. You shouldn't do that. And the story ends in the Zen tradition, where the monk who carried a woman said, listen, I put her down about five minutes ago. You're still carrying her? You've all heard that before. And I. Even when I first heard her, I thought, that's not right. The last chapter of the story is when the police come and arrest that monk, because that woman's father was a lawyer. She was only 15 years of age, and that monk got put in jail for sexual assault, which happens these days. In other words, there are consequences of your actions. You can't just say, okay, I let it go a long time ago. Whatever you do in life has consequences. You're accountable for your actions. It may be kindness you think is kindness, but unless you have wisdom, sometimes your compassion can actually make a lot of problems in the world. I don't know if any of you read the report on the Stolen Generation, but the people who took those Aboriginal children from their families, I was quite convinced that many of those people, they thought they were doing the right thing. He thought they were compassionately taking those Aboriginal kids away from their parents to give them a better education, a good start in life by putting them in basically white institutions. It asks them at a time and they would say, of course, this is a kind thing to do. And of course, now, you know, in hindsight, we should have known at the time there was a very cool thing to do, a heartless thing to do. But it makes me wonder how many so-called compassionate acts we think are compassionate. We don't see the bigger picture. We're actually creating more problems and difficulties in our world. I certainly know from my time in Thailand, in the north East, which is a very poor part of the world. How many you call them these days, even do gooders. And they are do good as a compassionate people, and they're kind people, but sometimes it's not wise. Sometimes they try and impose social systems ideas which are not really valid in those areas. I don't know how many. So Christian missionaries went off to these so-called know, uh, underdeveloped countries to try and spread their gospel, and they really did think they were doing compassionate things. The point I try to say here is that compassion without wisdom sometimes creates enormous problems in this world, and huge difficulties, so that it's important that when we look at the accountability of what we'd say, what we do, how we think, we don't just take compassionate thing compassion, compassion, compassion and kindness. It's not just for the moment just to make someone happy. Now we have to look for the bigger picture. And how is this going to all work out in the future? And when we're involved in that future and we're part of that future, we're not going to just depart to some heaven or hell realm, or we're just not going to just disappear out of existence in a materialistic way. We see that that we're accountable. It makes ethics much more important for us. Too often, the way people behave in our modern world. It's as if there won't be held to account. They will get away with it. I will get away with it by being able to speed and not being caught by the cameras, by being able to cheat on their tax forms. It's almost the end of the financial year. All you people who are Buddhist, who kept the five precepts, you know, that means you cannot do anything which is cheating the tax office, even though you think is justified by the way, Mr. Costello and the government acts. It does not matter. You still have to be honest. You have to be accountable. And especially look at me. I'm a monk and I have to be accountable to you because you feed me. And that's why that, you know, whenever we have this, I said, I think this last week, maybe in here, maybe in in Armidale, I forget where I say these things. But whenever you come to the monastery over in serpentine. Now for the entry to the rains day, or for the catena ceremony, or even if you just come there, you're quite welcome to look inside my room and under the pillows and under the blankets to see if there are any copies of Playboy or any. Other sort of stop in there to make sure that actually we don't get paid by play. Monk magazine notes. There's no such thing as playing Mac Magazine. There is how I could start it. But the point is, I have to be accountable. I have to be open so people can see what you do and why you do it and how you do it. And it's not just accountable to you. I have to be accountable to my karma. Now there is such a thing as conscience and no one gets away with anything in this world. When I went to visit prisons, you know, because that was 20 years ago or more. I spent a lot of time in those jails, uh, talking and teaching some of the inmates. And it's one of the first things which I learned there was that every one of those crims or had a conscience, they all felt very bad about the crime which they had committed. It took a while for me to understand that, but as one of the first amazing things I learned there. At first, some of those crims in the jail were put on the face of bravado. They know I never. One of the criminals is a quite a charming guy. He always used to say, no, no, I only robbed houses. I didn't rob people. You can see it as someone's tries to put a spin on it. So there's no person involved. You just rob the house. You don't rob the person. But after a while, talking to these prisoners, they all eventually came clean and just told you how bad they felt about what they did. The bravado was just a just a cloth which they put around their hearts, which they took off every now and again to people who they trusted. The real truth of the matter was, whenever you do something, you feel it quite acutely, especially if it's hurt and harmed another person. I don't need to tell you that because, you know, if you have misbehaved, if you have abused someone, cheated someone, been cruel to someone, been unkind to somebody. Well, you know, it's there was a scar in your heart. There are consequences for one's actions. And it's good to acknowledge that because knowing there's consequences for one's actions of bodies, speech and even thought, it does actually make you more careful. I don't mean being feeling guilty and feeling negative. It just makes you more careful and more ethical and more compassionate and more wisely compassionate. That's how you speak to each other. So now, if you are angry now with your partner, just shut up. Be quiet. There's an old saying. If you cannot improve on the silence, be quiet. Now a lot of our words don't improve upon the silence. The silence is much better than what we can add to it. If you can improve on the silence, then. Okay. Speak. If you are going to speak, make sure it's from kindness, not from anger. Because once that anger is out, you can't catch it and put it back in again. You can say, sorry, I never meant to say that, but it's been said. And this is a very wonderful story. I'm not quite sure when I last told this story, but it's an important story to remember about speech. It's a story of the the chicken ceremony. You tell these stories simply because at the end of the talk, usually when I asked people about what I talked about, usually the only things people remember are the stories and the jokes and this chicken story. There's a lot of chicken stories in Buddhism, but this chicken story is the man who went to the monk in the temple one evening because he had a terrible argument with his wife and said some terrible things to her. Things he felt ashamed about. And he went to the monk for some advice, especially asking the monk, can you do something to use your psychic powers to solve this problem? And the monk said, well, actually there is an old Buddhist sermon he called the chicken ceremony, which might be able to help you. And he said, okay, let's do the chicken ceremony. And how does the chicken ceremony work in Buddhism? This is how it works. The monk said, well, you've just got enough time. You've got to go to the market and get a chicken first. How can you do a chicken ceremony without a ticket? So go and get a chicken from the market now. Dead chicken. And on the way back, just to save time, on the way back from the market to the temple, please take the chicken, take all the feathers out and just throw them out by the side of the road. Because when you come to the temple, I need a freshly plucked chicken. So the man hurried off to the market, managed to buy a chicken just before the store closed, and plucked all the feathers out to them away on the way to the temple. And so he gave the the monk this freshly plucked chicken and say, what do I do now? The mango to the clerk. It's a bit late to do the second part. Now give me the chicken and come back tomorrow morning. Great, said the man. So he went back home. Wife wouldn't talk to him all night. Had to sleep on the sofa. You know what it's like. And the following morning, Friday morning, he went to the temple for part two of the chicken ceremony. What do I have to do next? Said the man. And so the man got the chicken out of the fridge, gave it back to the man. He said, okay, here's the chicken. Now I want you to retrace your steps back to the market. Go back the same way you came last night and get all those feathers which you threw on the side of the road, and stick them back in the chicken exactly where they came from. He said, I can't do that. He said, no. Go. This is the second part of the ceremony. That's the only way it will work. He said, look, I probably won't be able to find all those feathers, let alone stick them back in again. And that's when the man told him the meaning of the chicken ceremony. He said, just in the same way that once you take the feather off the chicken and throw it away, you can't even find it again to put it back where it came from. That's just like your speech. Once it comes out of the mouth, you can't even find it where it goes to, let alone put it back in where it came from. So now you understand the meaning of the chicken ceremony. Once those feathers are out, they're out there for good. So once your speech has left your mouth, you can't grab it and put it back in again. Once out, it's out and you're stuck with it. Understanding that means it's really important. It's vital to make sure that what comes out of your mouth improves upon the silence, or is kind and meaningful. Otherwise, you'll never catch it to put it back in again. You are accountable for what you say. Especially from where it comes from, the quality of that speech. As soon as you open your mouth, you're creating karma and that comes back on you. And for all of you who have been hurt, how many times you've been hurt by speech rather than by punches or kicks. And all of the pain in the world war comes from words and which comes from fist or boots. So be careful of those words which come out. Which is why that we do have things like mindfulness, which goes along with our speech. We're alert to what we're saying, we're careful of how we speak, and we're more than that. We're careful of where we come from when we speak, especially to those people we live with. And this is your partner in life. If you speak harshly to the person you really love, what are you doing? You're not only hurting her and him, you're hurting yourself. So be accountable by knowing that you can't just disappear. You can't just walk out of the house. If you do, you still carry the memory of that relationship with you for the rest of your life. Why don't we avoid those problems, which happened too often in life, by knowing that everything we say we're accountable for, even everything we do, we're going to be accountable for. So that we are more careful in our life. And it's not just in our relationships and it's just everything we do. Years ago, when I was teaching one of these weekend retreats in safety Bay, use, his sister Irma does those weekend retreats these days. But I remember one weekend teaching this retreat in safety Bay just by the beach is a wonderful place to teach meditation because you've got the ocean there. You could actually test how your meditation is going on by trying to walk on the water. It's called paddling. But that's what when I was caught paddling in the water, I just tried to walk on water. Not doing it yet, but I'm keeping on trying. But one day, doing the interview period, I was between two people waiting for the next person to come into the room. I looked out the window and because this is it was actually the place we usually hire for the retreats. Safety Bay was an altar. It was like a holiday home for a Catholic clergy, monks and nuns and priests. And there was a big church next to it. This was a Sunday and the church service had just finished and I looked out of the window. I just caught. Two men were shaking hands after the service and saying goodbye to each other. And I always remember the conversation because these were two friends, had just been to church there, listening to some spiritual sermon, and one said to the others they parted be good. And the other one said, no, that's no fun. And my heart sank. Why is it a nice society? We think being naughty is having more fun. Really, being good is having more fun. So why am I one of my sayings? If you want a good time and be good. Obviously being good means having a good time. And it's a strange thing that somehow or other our society in which we live think that, you know. Getting drunk means having fun, or just now going out and just racing cars down the street is having fun, having a good time or just, you know, going off with someone else's wife or husband is having a good time. Gee, what is a good time anyway? Every time that you've really been happy, I mean deep happiness and deep fulfillment. Where does that come from? And a lot of the times, if you really use your wisdom, really investigate, don't follow what other people say. Don't follow what I say, but investigate for yourself. You find a lot of happiness now. The real happiness, the long lasting happiness comes from being good, being kind, being generous, being faithful, being trustworthy, even even being restrained and being sober. I told this to kids when I was in Singapore, because they invited me to one of these youth camps for 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 year olds. I was, you know, instead of actually telling them, don't take alcohol, don't take drugs. I was saying, look, you know, what are you boys here for on this year's camp? You're out there for the girls. The girls? What are you here for? You're here for the boys. And this is what you're interested in. When you're 18, 19, 20, you're not interested in the Four Noble Truths. No. Or dependent origination. You know, this is a Buddhist camp. We know what you're here for. So, look, let's get real. If you want a good time with each other, what's it like? You know, at a party if you get drunk or if you get high on drugs, do you really know what you're doing? And I recall when I was a student at Cambridge, going to parties when I gave up alcohol, when I was 20, 19, 19, I gave up alcohol and I had a much better time. When you went to a party, when he picked up a nice girl, when I had alcohol, I couldn't really remember what I was doing. So how can you enjoy it when you're not there at the time? But when I was sober, you know, he got the cork girl in the corner. Then you enjoyed everything, which you did, and you remembered it afterwards. That was really good fun. You know what I mean? So even at that level of being sober and not sort of having your wits sort of dulled by drugs or by alcohol, you have a more enjoyable time. It's obvious. So this is just little reasons why saying that when you are restrained, when you are good, you actually have a happier time and understanding that much. You understand why there are consequences and what those consequences are. Why? Why is compassion is in your interest and in the interest of other people as well. So it's not just the, you know, indulging yourself. It's understanding what's really good for you. And of course, one of the things which the Dalai Lama was talking about, you know, which everyone talks about these days, but no one does much about, is the fact that one of the problems with global warming, we're just consuming far too much. So are you going shopping tomorrow? Heard a group of Singaporeans visit today. I would expect spending 17. There were teachers from Singapore who came here for a conference. Today was their free day and they arranged with me to come to the monastery today. I showed them around the monastery. There was 17 of the money. Three turned up. When I asked where the rest of them. They've gone shopping. See what? What are the monks said? What are you guys? You're from Singapore. What are you going shopping in Perth for? People in Perth. Go shopping in Singapore anyway. If you go to the shops, you buy something. Even the koala bears. You look at it made in Singapore. Are you tired? Are you sleep? So now why do people always go shopping? It's crazy. But why do we do that? So we have to look. It's not just consumerism saying consumerism is bad. Obviously the reason why we go is shopping. We get a thrill. And being able to buy those things. And we're also being able to sort of get these people behind the counters, giving us personal attention. A lot of it is just an ego and self-affirmation trip. And this is one of the great things about Buddhism. Sort of. What's your ego there for anyway? Why do you want an ego? It's just a big trouble. The bigger the ego, the bigger the trouble. So is that where you really get affirmation from from your purchasing power? So why can't we be more simple? One of the great things which Buddhist training can give us now is the understanding. We don't need to affirm a sense of importance by being able to purchase things, or being able to own those things. You're not measured by how much you possess. In fact, because of the Buddhist, uh, emphasis on non-attachment, the more things you own. In Buddhism, the more stupid you are. I'll be quite blunt there. Why do I own so much? How many of you have got more than one house? Is that investment, investment? Investment? Investment in your investment in trouble? If you really want you to know about investments, you should give it to the retreat center or the nuns monastery. Investing in your future in your good karma. Having monasteries and retreat centers so that you can come and learn meditation. You can have, like nuns to sort of teach your kids in the future. Now that's an investment. Investment in good karma. But no matter how many times I say that no, no, no, no, you never do that because you haven't got the guts. You follow? Other people say, it's great when I go overseas. People ask me, do you want travel insurance? I've got travel insurance, I'd say I. What company? Buddhist company. That's my travel insurance. I make good karma. I know how that works. If I ever get sick, I know if I ever get sick in any of these countries I go to, whether it's tied up Malaysia, Singapore, England, US or whatever. Even in the US, you know, with those incredibly expensive sort of health systems. If I go to the US, I made it so much good karma by the talks I've given by how many people I've helped over there. I'm not joking. There'll be doctors falling over themselves trying to treat me for free. At my health insurance. I've been kind over the many years I've helped other people. So I know if I'm in need, other people help me. That's an amazing type of insurance for your future. I know just the goodness, the kindness of virtue, the sacrifice, the hard work. That's a sort of money you don't have in banks. That's karma. You are. You have a good karma account. There's huge amounts of credit in that account. Especially being a monk. Being a teacher. And each one of you, if you're a really a good person, a kind person, a generous person, you also make a huge amount of investment in your future. Karma is not just a small thing. Is that what runs this world? You know, an interesting story about karma, by the way, that I was interested in all sorts of things as a Buddhist, not just Buddhist things, but, you know, like psychic phenomena. I was always interested in these psychic phenomena, and also people who get into trance and do these amazing things. And of all those people who could get into trance, of all the mystics, there was one which stood out because he was investigated. He seemed to be the real thing. And that was his fellow called Edgar Casey. Who lived during the period between the First and Second World Wars in Virginia Beach in the United States. And the reason why he was the real thing was because he was so humble. Did it many, many times. And being in the United States was doctors from New York and Washington or whatever would come down and investigate him again and again and again and again. And he was always came out to be the real thing, though. And even while he was in France, they started putting these slivers of wood between his nails and his, um, flesh. You know, it's like torture to see whether, you know, he was just faking it because no one could do that. But an act of will you let them do it so many times that he had to say no. So, like, I can't feel what you're doing when I'm in trials, but I can sure feel it when I come out of France. And he would do these amazing things like he he go in his trances and they'd say a name of a person and he would actually say this. The treatment with either medicines which were unknown or in doses which were really off the planet. But they would work. I remember one case, which was always really impressive. In a trance, somebody was asked about amid her. They were asked about his person who was very, very sick, and he said, oh, this is medicine. They need it, so cure them. And he named the medicine. And so when he came out of trance, he went to the drugstore. Never heard of that medicine. So they put him in trance again. And so asking, is that the medicine? He said, yes, that's the medicine. But it's true. You can't get it in Virginia Beach. They don't have it in the pharmacy in Saint Louis now, a long way away. And those were the days without before email. They had to send a telegraph. So they sent a telegram to Saint Louis, which was taken to the pharmacy. The pharmacy sent a telegram back. Never heard of such a medicine. So they put him in trance for third time, and this time in the trance. He said, look, it's in that pharmacy store in Saint Louis, on the third shelf on the left, to the right at the back. And that's the sort of telegram they sent to seminary. The telegram came back. Found it. And these are just examples. This fellow was the real thing. But the reason I mentioned him here, the one day whilst in France he was a Baptist, were from the south, went to the Baptist church, a devout Christian, but they asked him why he was in France. The question what's the most important law in the world? And he replied, the law of karma. This was about 1930. No, 1909, 1930, 1928 or something. Amazing. He could say such a thing. And a lot of times when he came out afterwards, he was very upset about what he said. In France, for the most important law in the world is a law of karma, law of accountability, personal accountability. What is said in Buddhism? You are the heir to your karma. You inherit your karma. You're born of your car. You live by your karma. That's actually what really affects your happiness or lack of happiness. That is perhaps a rule, a law which, if Buddhist really understand, gives them the most important motivation for being good, for being ethical, for caring about what they say and what they do, and caring about how their actions affect not just themselves, but their family, their loved ones, their children, the animals around them, and the planet in which they live. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why Buddhism has been such a a tolerant and peaceful religion. Because we understand in a very deepest way just how the wars and violence and anger just creates pain and suffering in our world. We can't avoid it. If we do that. We have to face the consequences ourselves, our loved ones, everybody. So really, I think the compassion and the law of karma, accountability is so important for us to really get inside of ourselves and understand whether you're a politician, whether you're a corporate CEO, whether you're a monk, whether it is an ordinary person that you are responsible. And you cannot put that responsibility onto someone else. This is one of my big arguments with the theistic religions. It's not God's fault. You can't pray to some sort of God or Allah or some divine being. Oh, please, may we stop global warming. Oh, please, may I not get cancer? Oh please, may we have peace in this world. We don't have masses or Eucharist to create peace in this world. We create that peace. Each individual, each one of us. We are accountable. We can't pass the buck to somebody else. So understanding the inherent import and accountability of what we say, what we do, how we act. Seeing the big picture really gives us a huge amount of responsibility. That's one of the reasons why Buddhism isn't will not be greatly popular, because I don't think many people are up to taking that responsibility. They'd rather pray to a God and hope he will fix it, or just put their head in the sand and think, oh, I'm going to die soon. So what the hell? The real, responsible people are the ones who really care for this world and care for each other and care for the happiness and well-being. We do become responsible and we take on that responsibility. Then we become proactive. We do take care. And when it comes to things like consumerism, we say, well, maybe I can live more simply and you can come and go to the monasteries in which which you support, whether it's a monastery up at down the south, or you can come to Serpentine Monastery. Those Singaporeans who came today, when I took them inside my hall in the hall at the serpentine, they were so impressed. This is so simple. It was so beautiful. There were no chandeliers. There was no marble floors. There was no, I knows a shrine there, but no big icons. You go to many Buddhist temples in the world and just. It's so full. Smells like a museum with artwork and chandeliers and immensely expensive things. So really, what a religious place is supposed to look like? Were you trying to impress? What message are you supposed to be saying? When a temple looks like a a museum or like an artwork? What you're actually saying is. Yeah, consumed. But when we keep it simple and practical, what we're saying is that you can live like this as well. At least you can try and live close to this. Years and years ago, when I was in Thailand, I made a resolution for myself. It's been hard to keep sometimes, but I try to keep and I think I'm keeping it now. I said I will never live in an accommodation which is more comfortable, elaborate than the poorest of my supporters. How can I live better than them when they are the ones who feed me and now give me my robes and look after my needs? Because if I was living in a palace and one of my supporters was just living in a hovel, I would feel a hypocrite. So that's one of the reasons why any of you goes to serpentine. You can see where I live, my cave. I do sleep on the floor, and there's very little in that cave, so I don't think anyone else here is in a cave. So I think I'm keeping my resolution to live more simply than it's one of you who support me, but that shows how little you need to live. When I go traveling, I have great fun in the airports because, you know, I have my ball on my back and that's all I have. And these days at Perth Airport, they don't ask me anymore. Where are your suitcases? Because they know me. Now there's a weird monk who just travels with small things. But it's a great teaching to do that, to say yes, we can. This simply, you don't need so much. Because that teaches us simplicity. Being accountable for how much you use on this planet. How many clothes have you got? How many shoes have you got? How many clothes can you wear at one time? I've got this robe and I got a spare robe. That's it. So that's great being a monk. You don't have to look in your car. But what am I going to wear today? Should I wear the blue one? The pink one? It's great because it's simple. So that way you don't need so much. You don't have to worry about fashion. That's why people ask, why do monks and nuns shave their hair? It saves a lot of money on combs, on hair gel and all this other stuff which people use these days. Gray. Shave it off. So it's simplicity. Maybe you might not go that far. Eventually you do, because you'll go bald when you go old, so you might as well do it now rather than later. Get old and done with. But anyhow. They keep it simple. And even that little things like I've told in meditation retreats. How many have you got? Plasma screen TVs. What the hell are you doing with plasma screen TVs? Because psychology shows you if you've just got a small TV. This is basic meditation. What you learn in meditation, a small TV. Once you focus on that program, the edges of the screen disappear and the image in your mind is exactly the same. No different. If you've got a huge TV, the only time you understand you can perceive how big your television is is when it's not turned on. When you're watching it small or big, it actually looks the same in your mind. Any psychologist would agree with me if you don't believe it, you try that. Give a small TV screen, you know, watch a movie or footie match or something. When you're really into it, you can't see the edges. It fills the whole mind. It looks in your mind exactly as if you've got a big, um, movie screen in one of these movie theaters somewhere. The mental perception is actually the same, so you can save a lot of money that way. I saw that many times, but people still go out and buy the plasma screen TVs. Why is that? Because you're not convinced by truly convinced by the adverse by society. One of the great things about Buddhism, we can actually hammer this home again and again and again. You got monks who live by example, teach by example, and some of you may consume less, live more even. This is the one meal of the day. Sometimes we have a breakfast. I have to keep eating so much for only one meal a day. And the breakfast? Look how big I am so it can be done. So if it is simply how many rooms do you have to have in your mansion? If you look at the houses which people buy in personnel, they're not houses. They're mansions now. How many rooms have you got? How many bedrooms? So when you keep it simple, you can understand how you consume this. So it'll be more for our children and our grandchildren and for future generations. I'm not just talking climate change, I'm talking doing something about it. Otherwise, where will we be? You have to be accountable. Smaller houses. It's one of the nice things about smaller houses where I grew up within blocks of flats. Sometimes that some of my relations up in Liverpool used to live in these terraced houses. People thought, wow, that was just so much poverty. Yeah, but you go next door, you go across the street. Everybody knew you. You're in each other's houses. You didn't have much personal space. You had a great social community. That's what I found. When people live in small places. They are far more friendly. The bigger the mansion. The most separation between you and your neighbor, the lonelier you are. So why can't we squash up a bit, be more friendly, have smaller houses, even have terraces down our streets? Instead of having all this separation between us and the other. Not only will we have a much better social life. Will be more friendly, learn how to cooperate and live with each other more, and have bigger social networks, but also will have less of an environmental footprint. So little things like that are just ways of showing accountability and how some of these ancient Buddhist teachings of simplicity, ethics. Using your mindfulness, using your wisdom actually are very positive. It does actually work. We're trying to show that in practice, you're not just here for today. And then you've got many years ahead of you. Even the oldest person in this hall here. Another hundred years who probably still be here. Maybe not in this body. In another body. But when you realize that you are accountable for the place in which you live. You have to look after it and care for it. That's what means by being good and having a good life. Being kind. Being caring. Being mindful. Looking after yourself and looking after others in the place in which you live. That's a positive message. Something which Buddhism can help with in our future. Don't give up hope. You are the hope. Thank you very much. Okay. Any comments or questions? I was a quick one. I didn't even ask for any questions. I got one from Lawrence straight away. Yes, Lawrence. Did I have a chance to speak with the Dalai Lama? What did I discuss? Not even a cry of a chance. It's one of the prophets disappointed because sometimes when you become a famous monk, you become a celebrity monk. And if anyone was there, you saw the big barriers between the audience and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And I wasn't given any special treatment there. So not even the the monks and the nuns could get him close to him. So had his organizers and maybe a few celebrities could get close, but I wasn't wealthy enough to get close. It's a shame, and I'm sure the Dalai Lama just felt terrible about that also. So one of the things which I must always remember, doesn't matter how well known or famous you get. You always must be accessible and accessible to ordinary people. Because sometimes when you get isolated, because you'll get famous and get a celebrity, you lose contact with the real world. You get in the bubble of celebrity. Yes, I was a bit bored at the times. It wasn't enough jokes. It's also that sometimes I notice I work as a speaker. That actually just where you sit sometimes when you're up on a stage like that and the audience is so far away from you, the lights are on and sometimes you can't even see the audience because of the the bright lights. I think that was what's happening with him. That's why he had to wear the mask, as the lights were too to too bright. And it's terrible, then, that you're just speaking to it like an openness of blackness. That's why here, you know, you see, when I give a talk, I always turn around to look at you. I should to contact you. You got to be part of the audience when you're giving a talk. And I think one of the problems, a big audience like that, in such a bright stage and being up on the stage for long distance from people, sometimes you lose the connection. I know the last time that I was here 15 years ago was in the old entertainment centre, and that was a much more friendly venue. It was like closer, more packed together. And I think, you know, he actually at that time, he actually walked through the auditorium on his way to the stage. So, you know, people could get close to him. The important. That close is not just the speech, but near the closeness of important figures like that. So it'd be great if he could have actually walked through. That if anyone else felt like that. But I thought it would have been nice if it was a bit closer. It's a hand at the back. I can't see who it's coming from. Yeah. The reason? The only way I can actually justify all the travel, which I do personally, because I do fly around a lot. Every one of those is always the invitation. And I do really work my butt off when I go overseas. If any of you see the schedule and it's always, uh, for doing a huge amount of compassionate, kind work for people, but the only way that I can do then justify that is trying to make sure that I put myself out of the travel business by trying to teach and make other people do that work. So I don't need to go too many times. And basically that I refused more invitations than I ever accept. And you know that some invitations that, you know, when I travel to London to see my mother, haven't seen her for a year and a half this last time. And I'm glad I did see her this time, because I don't think she remembered me the next time I go. She's that old now, getting dementia when I go over to places like Singapore and Thailand. You really try and work hard trying to make people become more accountable, better people. So I don't know, maybe if I go traveling I can save another ten people from traveling. Maybe I can encourage more people to be simple. Maybe the long term effect of what I can say when I can speak will actually have a net benefit. So the aircraft fuel which is pumped into the atmosphere, the CO2. Is balanced by how much I save. The very least, I got many carbon credits because I don't have kids, so maybe I can pay off so of the carbon, which I admit on my travels with the fact that I am not contributing to the overpopulation of the world, which is one of the other things which is creating huge amounts of environmental problems. So I don't know, but it's it's quite frankly, it's just so hard sometimes when people ask you to go overseas because they don't have monks, they don't have nuns there. They've got no one to teach them. And I really value this teaching, this, uh, meditation and Buddhist, um, teachings. They should go further afield. The internet is great because apparently the the talks which are go out on the internet here, there are maybe 300. Listen to it live. I don't know if that's the right number, maybe a bit less, a bit more, I'm not sure. But, uh, was it in in January? It was 25,000. Listened to every talk, a hundred thousand. I was talking to Sol earlier today, I think last month. What was it? Maybe about 80,000. About 20,000 people listened to every talk. Throughout the world. That's a much better way than traveling overseas to give talks. To let the internet do the travelling. But when I was in Bangkok last month, people said, no, no, we wanted to see you live. So yes, I'm aware of that. So if I do go overseas, it's never for a holiday. It's always for work, and I really try hard to make sure that I work a lot to make sure the time overseas is well worth. Well worth it. I can't see why people go on holidays overseas. That's not all that necessary. If it's the sea now, your relation or mad or something, that's understandable. Oh, pilgrimage. Yeah, but just do it once. I know sometimes people go pilgrimages. Once, twice, three, four, five times. So I say go at once to see those places. But the best program is place to go into is inside. Because that's where the Buddha really lives. That's where the truth is. That's where compassion is. So you go inside and do a lot of deep meditation, stillness. And that's where the real holy sites are inside the human being's heart. Any other comments? Yes. Last question. Then we have to finish off. Yes. Wow. That will take a lot of time. But it is true that basically the consciousness six types of consciousness is as standard Buddhism is the consciousness which is associated with the five senses sight, consciousness, hearing, smelling consciousness, taste consciousness and touch consciousness, and indeed meditation. All those five external consciousnesses, they're so subdued they actually turn off. And then he came face to face with mine consciousness. So here you can't hear anything. People can shut you. It don't take it out. It's not outside of you. Remember? Space. Over there. Over here. That's all. Concerned with the body and the five senses. Mind. Consciousness has its own different space. It's not out here. It's not in the world. It's deep inside its own world. So you can't hear. You can't feel your deep inside. You get to know what this mind consciousness is. And when you understand how independent it can be of the body, it's very clear to you that when this body turns off and dies, that mind consciousness being independent does not finish consciousness. Mind consciousness survives death. We're not calling this a soul. That's one of the great insights of Buddhism. In this mind, consciousness is a process, not a thing. But it's there for many people. That's a technical point. Then deeper meditation. You can see that it's an important part of Buddhism, but at least for the time being, you know that this stream of consciousness does continue after death in meditation is obvious. So this is not beliefs or not saying this is what's in the books. This is what you know. That's why I don't mind keeping on telling you. Look, you are going to be reincarnated when you die. You're not going to disappear. And you're going to carry with you the karma of what you've done in this world. You are accountable. You're going to come back again somewhere. That gives a moral imperative to people. People who think they're just going to live and they're going to disappear or they can live. They'll do whatever they like, but just know, pray to some God or pray to some Jesus or Allah. And that's all they need to do. And then they can, you know, go to some heaven where it means they're not accountable. In Buddhism we say no. When the sayings of Buddha. No. No day with no god can stop the results of your can. You can escape it in the mountains and the rivers. In the valleys. Wherever you go to hide, the karma will always get you. But I don't mean this bad karma. I mean your good karma. Whatever kindness, generosity, goodness you've done in your life. But I will come back to you also. So being a Buddhist doesn't mean just not doing any bad karma. It means generating and cultivating as much good karma as you possibly can. That is your investment for the future. That is a stock exchange which never crashes. Okay, thank you for that question. I hope I answered it, but now we've got over time. So, uh, Don, would you like to give the announcement, sir? How we've got solar panels for our pump water pump at suppertime and go see it on our lake. That's been enough for quite a few years. We got heaps of first solar water heaters over there, and most of the cooties are out on solar power. We're trying our best. Not perfect, but we're getting better at it. So go and have a look. See what we've done. And some are some good of a while. Ago. And finally what they mean. So what are the what are the the monomers. Derby. The party planner I. I, I guess the signs on the body.