Doomsday! | Ajahn Brahm

Doomsday by Ajahn Brahm [Note: AI generated Transcription – expect errors!] Somebody, uh, gave a call from United States, and I asked for this talk this evening because they were concerned about things like global warming, concerned about the ecological damage to our planet, concerned about the future of their children. So tonight's talk will be the Buddhist idea of doomsday. Isn't that wonderful idea doomsday? Because those are some of the returns. They really get into doomsday stuff. And the end of the world is nigh. And sometimes the people, if you look in the world in one, one way. My goodness, the end of the world is nigh. The signs are there. Things are going wrong. There was there a pestilence? The sea is rising. Actually, we're quite looking forward to global warming. In our monastery in serpentine. Because we're up on a hill. When the sea rises, will have a seaside monastery, will live on the beach. Isn't that wonderful? It's been a resort. I've kept on calling a monastery and serpentine club made. It really will be Club Med with its own beach. Now a Club Med means club meditation. All right. So we're not afraid of those sorts of things. Now, the important thing is that some people, they always think the worst things are going to happen. And it actually starts to bring up something very interesting in human psychology, which is actually all about like, fear and guilt. Something terrible was going to happen. Something terrible is going to happen. And one of the things you know about fear and worry is that whatever you're afraid of, that is what usually happens to you. Is as if you bring it about through your fears for your worry. The classic story which I tell and I can't, uh, I can't actually just stop myself taking it again because it's a great story. It was a time when I used to watch the television many, many years ago, and there was one, uh, series which I was absolutely addicted to. I'd watch it every week, and it was called Kung Fu. That was the only sort of almost spiritual program you could get on the TV in those days was over 30 years ago. How many of you may remember the series? Because there was this little fellow, the novice called grasshopper, who was learning not just how to fight, but also learning some of the spiritual values of China at the time, because apparently the people who learn kung fu came from the Sheldon Monastery, which was originally a Buddhist monastery. So they weren't as fighters, but they're also sort of, uh, monks as well. And I remember that because of that series, they always seem to associate like kung fu and, and, uh, military. So what's it called? Martial arts with Buddhist monks. And so that helped me one time because I remember I was in it was in London and, uh, visiting my mother early on, and I had to walk past his gang of, like, young people congregating out of one of what we call these days sink estates is very poor housing estates, which were rife with crime. And when I walked past them, they started trying to wire me up with something. Put, put up, put up, put up. Buddha. And I just went like this. Okay, let me out. I don't know anything about martial arts, but I don't know that I. So it's just a recognition that there was a bug in brown mouse. I didn't know what I knew or what I didn't know. So it was called bluff. That was a good a long way with bluffing these days, but they help me. But anyway, in this series, because they were associating Buddhist monks. No, no, this couldn't have serious Buddhist monks doing kung fu. It's also learning many things. And the episode which I remember, which comes to mind when I talk about just how fear actually makes the worst things happen, was the time of little Grasshopper. Was taken into the back room of the temple complex. This was one of those rooms which were always kept locked. Like little monks and even big monks were not allowed to go. Now there's all sorts of rumours amongst the young novices of what was inside that closed room, but now he was going to find out. His blind master took out a big key. I opened the padlock and let little grasshopper into this very dark, this mysterious and terrifying room. And as little grasshopper became accustomed to the dark light, his blind master said, what can you see, little grasshopper? What can you see? And little grasshopper could see. Said like a swimming pool. So like an indoor swimming pool. And a master said, that's not a swimming pool. That is a pool full of acid, concentrated fighting acid. Go close to the edge, said master. But be careful. Go close to the edge and tell me what you see inside the acid pool. And her grasshopper very carefully walked to the edge, peered over. Thousands said of a grasshopper. I see many bones. Yes, said the master. Those ones belong to little novices like you who fell in. What else do you see? And if someone said, I see a prank, a prank stretching from one edge of the pool to the other. Ah, yes, said the master. It is a training for all novices at this monastery. The one day they have to walk across that narrow plank across the terrifying pool of acid. Are you ready? No, no. I will give you one week to master. One week to practice. Because in seven days time, you will have to walk unaided across that pool of acid. And if you fall in. There will be two small bones in the bottom of the pool. And little grasshopper. You could see he was very scared. And I remember that as I was watching this movie, I was scared to. But then they told little grasshopper outside in the temple courtyard where the monks had put another plank exactly the same size and length, and only just upon two bricks made, said grasshopper. You do not have to come to any chanting. You do not have to do any other services. All your duties are suspended for seven days. All you need to do is to practice walking on this plank. But be careful. Be diligent, because in seven days he won't be this plank in the courtyard. You'll have to walk over. He'll be the plank over the pool of concentrated acid. So little grasshopper was practicing all day. He was so good at it. He could dance along that plank, do it blindfolded. It was so easy to balance. Except when the seventh day came. And he was taken into the dark and mysterious and terrifying. When he became accustomed to the dark light. The master said, get on the end of the plank and you could see the little grasshopper did not want to go. He turned around and looked to his master in terror as if to say, please, please don't make me do it. And the master said, walk. So grasshopper had to start walking. Now I think you'd understand. Her plank over solid ground of the same size and length, appears much narrower and longer when it's put over acid. That language is so narrow. There's such a long way. When it was over a pool of concentrated, dangerous acid. So there's a grasshopper started walking, and you can see he wasn't steady. You can see the fear was getting stronger the closer he went to the middle of the pool. But it was already too late. He passed a point of no return. He was already wobbling. And it looked like he looked like he was going to fall in. And at that point we had the commercial break. We had the adverts. Oh, how I hated those commercial breaks. That was. I was so worried about what happened with grasshopper. So after the commercial breaks, we were back in that dark room. And a terrifying pool of acid. Little grasshopper, just a few steps back from where we ended up. He started to shake. He started to swap or he started to sway and then he fell in. And as soon as it fell in, the master could hear the splash, couldn't see him, and was laughing and laughing and laughing and little glass half, always trying frantically to get out, until he realized, hey, this isn't biting, this isn't burning. It was only water. And they just put the bones in the bottom for special effects. And they ate full grasshoppers. They fooled me. It was only water. And at that point the master gave the object lesson gave the meaning. He said, little grasshopper, why did you fall in? I'll tell you why. You fell in fear. Pushed you in, little grasshopper. Only fear. If he'd have known outside your water, would you fell in? If it was only water, he could have danced across the plank. It was a fear of falling in. Pushed him in. Here is a great object lesson for him in his spiritual life, as it is for each one of us. How often is the things we feel the most? We actually make them happen? We bring them about. Fear creates what we're afraid of. Talking about the end of the world. I read this as a true story. It's quite a sick story, but it was reported in the newspapers. There was one fellow who used to walk up and down with one of these signs. Repent, the end of the world is nigh. The end of the world is nigh. Yeah, see, he was right because he walked across the road and got run over by a truck. Behavior is truly the end of the world was nice. Because it was very broad, it about probably wasn't sort of whitewashing the tracks. Now there's a report in this paper. Anyway, what we are afraid of of that comes about a lot. So why is it when we look to the future, why is it we always look with such negativity? Think of all the things which could go wrong. I will be terrible if this happens. If that happens. No. When I was like in Thailand, that was a time when there was a, uh, the Cold War was at its height. People were thinking a nuclear war was a certainty that the Soviet Union, United States, especially when Mr. Regan came to power, they were bound to actually to have a crash. We had all these movies about the end of the world never happened. A good job because it was enough. People who weren't afraid, they didn't bring it about. A lot of time is fear. Things he sings about. But sometimes you look. Why is it that when we look at the future of the world, we always look with such negativity? And this is actually part of our human foibles, some defilements in the mind, while we're always so negative that we always look for the future and we think of everything which might go wrong. We never think of what might go right. And that's one of the problems in life, which is so negative in the way we look at the past, look at the present, look at the future, always seeing the problems, the faults. Now the reason is, is because as human beings, we've been trained that way ever since we were at school. We were trained to look at the faults which are wrong and manage them, fix them up. We were great fixer uppers of things and not appreciators of what's already been fixed up. Many years ago, I had to make a resolution. Every Monday morning I would go for a walk around my monastery, but not to do any work. I was a manager of the monastery. A manager's job is to look at the faults and fix them up. And when I come over here to Northern Ireland the weekend my manager job are going to look at the faults and fix them up. Always fixing up people's faults. They come here to tell me their problem. There's no one ever comes here and tells me all the wonderful things happening to them. They never come and say, oh, I had a wonderful day. I've got a such a wonderful husband. All my children are so, so good. I've got no problems in the world. I'm very wealthy. I'm just so healthy. They never tell me that. Hey, cows! I got cancer. I'm dying. My husband is just going out with somebody else. My children not study. They're talking about to me. They're on drugs. Oh, come on, be kind to your poor monk. Hey! That is because we get trained. Ever since we were at school, we're always given problems, things which are wrong and told to fix them. And our whole life becomes fixing problems, fixing the problem in ourselves, whatever that is. Fixing the problem in our husband, fixing that problem in our fixing the problem with our kids. They're never good enough. Fixing the problem with our parents, fixing the problem with the government, fixing the problem with the world. We're all great fixers. That's why we're in a fix. We are ready to be fixed. So I'm going to fix you now. At the end. She gave this beautiful story once. He said, as a woman who is raising chickens. And every morning she goes into the chicken pen and she collects all the chicken shit, and she leaves all the eggs every day. All she ever collects is chicken shit. What a stupid woman that is. Not that you get the meaning of that story. Why is it when we go into the future or we collect as a shit, the chicken shit, the rotten stuff to dang the terrible stuff? If we were getting chicken. Click the eggs for goodness sake. You can use them. No good. You can sell them. You can make omelets or whatever else you want to do with eggs and make rice cakes. Now, if you're going to go into the future and collect things, why did you collect the eggs? The good stuff. When you think of all the wonderful things which might happen, instead of thinking all the wrong things which are happening. Do you see what I mean? How are we negative? We only whatever we do in life, we only collect the problems. We never see the good things which are going on. We look at our husband. He just collected the chicken tag. So you connect you wise. You never appreciate the round or the beautiful eggs he's got there, or the wonderful things which he's done for you. How hard is were to beautiful character. You look at your kids, they're trying so hard. Wonderful, exhilarating. And you, you're not working hard enough. You come second. You should come top. Come on. You go to university. Poor old kids. Half the kids at school have to be lower than average. I have to be for you on your kid to be better than average. And that's our problem. They can't be. So when you. This is what I did. So I decided every Monday morning, instead of collecting the chicken shit from my monastery, I collect the eggs. What that meant for me? I deliberately not looked at what needed to be fixed up. Not look at all the mistakes, not look all the letters which needed to be written, but go to all the letters I had written. Not all of the beautiful buildings which had been built. Look at all of the things which didn't need to be swept. Look all the things which were beautiful and perfect in my monastery. Instead of just looking at this as wrong, I have to tell them how to do this. They should do this wherever. Instead of actually looking at the faults, I deliberately went there to look at the beauty. Because you know what? People would visit my monastery is always a wonderful monastery. Isn't it? Beautiful monastery? I couldn't see it. When I went to my monastery, all I could see is this mat was misbehaving. That gutter needed to be cleaned out. That was cracked. This needs to be fixed up. That needed to be done because I was a manager. All you see is a force. So I had to stop being the manager, the fall founder. I had to look at what was really there. I had to see the monastery just as other people see the monastery. Just like you have to see your wife. Just as other people see your wife. But as you see, the wife. You know what a wonderful woman that is. You've got so many friends, but you know you can't see it. You always have to fix this and fix that. And you know the manager. Now, I think you get the point. What I'm saying here, by doing that little training, I learned how to appreciate my monastery once again. And not just appreciate my monastery. To appreciate life again. Because too often in our life we just say everything which is wrong. Which is creating the chicken dung again. Never cooked any eggs. You look at yourself when you see all the things which are wrong in you. Well, I should be doing this. I should be doing that. I should be a better meditator or I should be giving better talks. I should be telling the same old stories all over again. I should be telling the same old jokes. I should be doing this. I should be talking too much, right? How many times we look at ourselves and we always just pick out the force picking out the chicken dung. How many times do we see the beautiful things in herself? The beautiful things in our partner, the beautiful things in our children, the beautiful things in our life. One morning a week. You should do that at least. Say all the wonderful things in your kids. See the beauty in your parents. To the amazing success you've had in your life. To appreciate what you have and then you can see just how beautiful you are and your life is. You can do that now you get a bit of happiness. You're not sort of being overly optimistic because the rest of the day you can see the faults, but at least, you know, one morning a week you're giving yourself a break and then getting some sort of perspective on life. If you can do that in a day, then you can do that in the future. Look upon the future instead of thinking all the things which might possibly go wrong, you start to think of all the things which might possibly go right. Because when we're doomsday people, what we think is all the terrible things which are going to go wrong. I know it's going to be global warming. I notice now that the whole world is going to end. I know that, you know, the the oil prices are going to go up. There's not enough oil left. So we know all the price of oil. The water will run out. We won't be able to do this. We won't be able to do that. The world is going to be a terrible state. My kids are sort of going to go piss a law and order. Things are getting worse and worse and worse. It's not the same as when I was young. Have a look what it was like when you were young. Whenever any parents come here to complain about their kids, my standard response is, well, what did you do when you were the age? This is your karmic result because you didn't do what your parents said. Now this is what you have to endure. It's obvious karma. This thing is this. Your kids are getting your own back. That's all. I think it's true and it's amazing just how it works every time. If anyone's a counsellor, that's a great strategy. And you think this is garbage is what you expect. So look, why is it we always see the worst of what's going to happen in the future? Of course it might happen, but the point is with life. We look on the positive side of life and looking at the positive side, there's more chance that the positive will actually come about. If we look at the negative side, there's more chance the negative will come out. It's a psychology of wish fulfillment. It's like watering the flowers or watering the weeds. What do you want to grow in your garden? You walk to the flowers, you find the flowers. Hookah. You watched the weeds. You found the weeds. If you water positive energy, positive thinking, positive comments, you will understand the positive will grow in you. You want the positive in your partner praising them, seeing their good qualities. You will see those good qualities grow and grow and grow. The mind is a forerunner of all things. A mine makes a world, not the world makes a mind. If you know how to use a mind, it's amazing just how you can change your world. The way you look at it. And therefore with that positive attitude, it's amazing what you can do. Okay, so what is global warming? You can make use of that. The wise person is one who can adapt to time and place. The one who realize is not the world which is a problem is the way we respond to it, the way we relate to it. We can't change the way of the world, but we can change the way we relate to it with the way we respond to it. That's how we can work as Buddhists or as people. So whatever happens in a world we can find, we can always find something, some way of turning it to our advantage, to happiness, to peace, to harmony or whatever. You know, the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia. The Americans dropped so many bombs on those countries. There were lots of bomb casings left. When I was a young man. You go from monastery to monastery and all those bomb casings were used as monastery bells. They all came because that was the best iron they could get. I gathered that from the jungles or whatever the case is, and they just welded a little hook on the top. And that was your monastery bell. It's amazing just how you can turn a bomb into a monastery. Bear. They took the explosive path before they hit the Belfast rock. How about that? Really working the bugs off in the morning? So this is just an idea of what we can actually do with, with even bad things. Whatever happens in life, you can always make use of it. You get these sicknesses. You get these deaths. Whatever happens to you can always make use of it. So. For the famous saying A Chinese say, if this is all you get from this talk this evening, this will change your life. Rather light a candle to complain about darkness. I read that so many years ago that has actually affected my life enormously. Instead of complaining about things, go and do something. Complaining doesn't help. Rather, light a candle. They complain about darkness, so some things happen. You can always do something about it. I've had a long enough life now to know what ever happens in this world. If there's a war, if there's a conflagration, if the sea rises, if there's tornadoes, if there's hailstones, whatever happens to this hailstones, it's marvellous. I can collect that ice and put it in my drink, for I have a nice, cool iced tea. Whatever happens. Huh? Now, it's not a joke. Because you can make use of anything in this life. Once you know my own story. And it's not just not complaining about anything because, you know, rather light a candle. Life gives you lots of dog poo. The dog. That's why you step in sometimes on the way here. And dog poo is smelly, is offensive. It's very yucky, but it's great fertilizer. Whatever happens to you in life. The negative part is like stepping in dog poo. Sometimes it's not dog poo you step in, but elephant focus is so much of it. Furthermore, the better for your garden when you grow a mango tree. That mango is sweet is delicious. Why? Because of the dog poo. When you taste that mango, you're tasting dog poop transformed into sweet, juicy mango. That's where it comes from. And you understand now the meaning of this simile global warming, or whether it's, uh, skin cancers coming from the depletion of the ozone in the forest being sort of destroyed. We're going to try and stop those here, but we can only do so much. But when it does happen, whatever happens, we can always use that fertilizer. For our wisdom, for our compassion. Sometimes the people want the world to be utopia. What a terrible world it would be if it was a utopia. People would not need to be kind with it to each other. They would need to care. There would be no need for compassion. They had no need for love, for wisdom. It's a world was perfect. What a terrible place this would be. It's wonderful to go to the hospitals and see those who are sick and see the nurses looking after them so kindly to see people visiting them, to see people actually looking after those who are needy and sick. Those who say could do a great service to the world by allowing other people to be compassionate. Those were set in Paris amid Mahayana Buddhism. We call this a Buddhist for practice. You're giving up your happiness to encourage other people to understand them. To understand compassion and service and kindness. When is poor people in this world? It encouraged us to understand the meaning of generosity, to care when there orphans, people with no parents were no one to love them. He teaches us how to appreciate not only our parents, but to look after those people because we know what it's like. If there was no suffering in this world. Wherever we find the wisdom to be compassionate. So whatever happens in this world, we can actually make use of this. Maybe the world becomes a mess, but the world outside is not so important. It's a world inside, which is important. It's our kindness and our compassion. The spiritual qualities. That's the meaning of life. That's what life is all about. It's not what we have, but how we relate to it. It's not what occurs to us in life or what we do with it. Rather than light a candle to complain about darkness. There's always a candle. There's somewhere to light. So stop being a victim. And do something about to learn from it. Grow from it. Become a wise IT kind of person as a result. When things go wrong, we can always learn and sometimes those are our best lessons. The teachers I hated the most at school were the strict ones. I didn't like them, but those are the ones I learned the most from now, I think. Thank you. Sometimes the lessons in life, the tough ones, are difficult ones. We lose a son. We lose a daughter. We have a separation in a relationship. We have a cancer. We have a death. We lose our money. Whatever it is happens to us in life. How on those great occasions for growth. For wisdom, for kindness, for understanding. Yes. Another time. We really appreciate what life is truly like. Yesterday, I had the privilege of going to a funeral service in Fremantle. Another free man at that service. Everyone was listening to the talk. It's amazing how death. So it makes you pay attention. Then. So I was really paying attention when I was saying. And one of the things I was saying is that it happens every time. At the end of a service, people start talking about the person is dead. And they never, ever talk about how rich they were, how much money they had, how wonderful they were, how high they were in society. They always talk about how generous they were, how loving they were, how compassionate they were, how they looked after their friends and their relations, how they're always forgiving. Those are the qualities which. He remembered the dead by. You'll never remember the dead by their wealth, by their position in society, how big their house is or what type of car they sort of they drove. You never see on the headstones and gravestones. Proud owner of a Mercedes and. Because that doesn't count. That is not important. That's only temporary. The size of your house, the size of your car, the size of your bank. Balance doesn't count as much as the size of your heart. That is what people remember you by. That is the meaning of life. And so, okay, global warming, they may destroy all of our houses. If we live now too close to the beach. Sort of. Uh, the oil prices may mean we can't have our big cars anymore. This. I don't know what else happens in this world, but the forest, you know, means that our area is not so good anymore. But we can still have compassion, kindness, generosity, the beautiful qualities. We can still be incredibly wealthy. Not in things. Bring compassion and wisdom. Kindness, love. And isn't that what the life is all about? So when I say global warming, I like the idea of global warming. I think global warming is a wonderful idea. The global warming of people's heart. So people become more compassionate and kind in this world. That's what I call by global warming. Can we warm people's hearts to each other? Can we warm the hearts of the Israelis to the Palestinians? Can we warm the hearts of al Qaeda to Mr. Bush? Global warming. That's the right thing to do. And that way when we have the wolves in the heart. They saw the rise in the sea level. Great rise in the level of people's kindness and compassion towards each other. Rising people's virtuous. So we can flood the low lights of this world. And that way we can get something good in this world. And that can be better and happier. It doesn't matter how much you have. Doesn't matter if you destroy your your cars or destroy the energy. So you can't sort of come and go wherever you are. Doesn't matter if you can't have a television anymore. My goodness, why do you want those things for anyway? Is there more important? Do you have your family and friends? So many years ago. I should have got this somewhere from the internet or, uh, noted it from the time. But the London School of Economics did this amazing survey. Now London School of Economics, a famous um institution in London, part of the university, one of the great centres of economics in the world. And I decided it's not really fair to judge a country by the gross national product, because that misses out so much. So I decided to have another standard. To measure a country's happiness well-being. And with a whole group of students, they started to work out criteria to measure a country's well-being by such as like a longevity of marriage will be a plus. No divorces would be a negative. Suicide would be a negative. You know, like your health, psycho psychologist. Psychological problems will be a negative. Whatever it was to try to work out a person's happiness, like wealth was only one thing. Health was one thing, but had other things as well to work out what was a happy country. And then I applied that standard. To so many countries in the world, and they came up with a surprising result. The country with the highest level of well-being turned out. Not the United States, not to be sort of France or Italy or Greece or something. Sorry, not Australia. The country which turned out to be the happiest and most well being in the world was Bangladesh. One of the poorest countries, was deemed to be one of the happiest. And that surprised everybody, even the Bangladeshis. Because I wanted more, more aid coming in. We don't want to be able to bond as being happy. That. And one of the reasons was because I had such strong family ties. So that no one was ever alone. There was never lonely. If you lost, your parents had so many aunts and uncles who would look after you. Because her strong family ties him to suicide was just never happened. At least at that time anyway. And I still recall going to this village in northeast Thailand where I became a monk. 1974 75. So that's 30 years ago now. And at that time this was northeast Thailand, away from the cities, in the jungles, undeveloped. To get there was just over dirt roads. No electricity, no televisions. And they're a village which hadn't changed for centuries. And I remember the first year, the going into a ceremony in one of the houses. And we were walking in the evening using our flashlights. We pass house after house after house. You looked up and saw the same signs in the open balcony area which formed most of the house. You'd see semi-circles of of faces illuminated by the flame of a simple oil lamp. And you looked at those faces. You know, the old grandparents or uncles, the parents, the children, the brothers and sisters, usually about 13, 16, 20 people lived in the same house sitting around as they would do every night of the year, talking to each other, telling stories, cracking jokes. All jokes, all stories. They still love them. Every evening, though, be spent together. Talking to one another. When I saw that I realised were deprived childhood I had had. I had a TV, even though we only had one TV in the house, we had to watch it together. You wouldn't believe the arguments we had. We didn't talk with each other. We did talk with each other. But as always, I want that channel. I know you had it last time. It's my turn now. No it isn't. I remember those arguments when you used to have one one TV in one house. There's only two channels. My goodness. No. We're having these days where there's 6 or 10. But that's why it stayed with me all these years. It was a state of like a family of harmony, of peace, of love, of caring, of meeting together, talking together, being together. How much is that worth? Would you give that out for millions of dollars? You ask any of those people who were in that house at the time, they wouldn't give that up. Those were so much more. There's something more to life than materialism. And when we talk about the future of our world, we're just talking about the future of materialism. The fact there might be we won't be able to just afford big houses, big cars. Maybe we'll have to move. Maybe we have to want to be wonderful, have to learn to live together, because there might be so much land and useless. Maybe the time where we each have our own little room and a house will be gone. We have to actually to share a room. With somebody. With many people and the kids will have to share. I grew up with my brother having to share the room all my life. Sure, we had arguments, but we learned to love each other and care for each other because he stepped in the same room with the fella. I remember my father saying, hey, let alone in the same room, they had to share the same bed. 6 or 7 kids. Yeah. Maybe I don't know how they got to sleep, but they certainly learn how to love and care for each other for the rest of their life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all had to live in a small room? Then we'd have to get on with each other. So okay so I have global warming. This might go wrong. This might go wrong. But what might go right. Maybe. Maybe an ecological disaster will become so strong. They will. It will mean people have to work together. We have to put away. All of our armaments, and perhaps soldiers will have to actually change from fighting the world to fixing the world. Maybe that when things go terribly, terribly wrong. Maybe we should come to our senses and learn the most important things in life, and not just big houses and big cars and coming here and going there and and measuring ourselves by our wealth, but measuring ourselves with the masks and measurements of happiness factor. And that something which ecological disaster, global disaster will not alter. Because that's part of the way we look at life. That's the way we react to life. That's the emotional world. That's what people talk about when you die. The important qualities. Trouble is that people are just so materialistic these days. They worry about the dollar going up, the dollar going down. There were about the share market going up, the share market going down. I know that because a couple of Sundays we had this big ceremony in the Supreme Court garden for a week, and it's just I looked up there was the was a stock exchange building. And because although the All Ords industry going up, going down wouldn't be wonderful just for one day of the week waste sack we can have like the happiness going up or going down also. So he's spiritual, like peace on earth, going up or going down and having a building which shows that sign instead of just stupid stock markets and shares going, oh, what does that mean anyway? Stock market. So when we actually start to see what is most important in the world, then natural disasters can't destroy that. Can a natural disaster destroy? Caring. Love. Working together. Friendship. Harmony. Family. Bonds. Generosity. UFC fight when there are natural disasters. That actually works in the opposite direction to acting as she brings communities together. What was it? Well, I think recently there was an earthquake in Turkey and the Greeks went to help. Or is it the other way around? Who cares which way round it was, for they were warring with each other for so long. There's a natural disaster. Okay, we'll come and give a hand. Well, there was an earthquake in. Was it quam in Iran? And other Western countries came to hell. Isn't that a wonderful signal for which goes again, doesn't matter if you're an Islamic country or a Christian country or Buddhist country or whatever. Let's put aside those external signs of religion and go to the internal signs of spirituality. Somebody needs help and I can give it. That's all we need. Who cares whether you're a Buddhist, a muslim, a Hindu, or who cares? You are someone who needs help. I want to help you. To one of the most inspiring stories I heard of a couple of years ago. There was a Lankan monk. That's sometimes I know you swank. And so they're not very happy about your monks. But there's some great monks in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese monks. And this was one of them. He has not just a blood donor. He was an organ donor as well. And I found there was one lady in Sri Lanka who needed a kidney transplant. She's on dialysis. They found out the only match in the heart of the ionosphere like was this monk. The trouble was that lady who needed a kidney. Was an evangelical Christian. And so they asked the monks, do you want to give your kidney to the opposition? It's. Because that's what it's like sometimes. Somebody to the light of that, you know, we're the Christians. You're the Satan worshipers. You know, whatever it is I think you are. And of course, he just said, and thank goodness he was a proper Buddhist. He said, oh, of course, Shelley is a queen. I don't care who she is. She can have my kidney. And so the monk went to the hospital and gave his kidney to someone who was converting all the Buddhist to Christianity. What a wonderful thing that was. And I admire people like that. It doesn't matter who they are. And if a West Coast Eagle watches donated egg to a female doctor. And see the matter what sides you're on. Someone needs it, so you give it. You know, I wrote a story in my little book, which is coming out soon about a Buddhist football team. Imagine a Buddhist footy team. If the other team wanted the ball, you give it to them out of compassion. Here. Take it. That's what I thought. If they couldn't score the goal themselves, say, look here, this is how it's done. Kick in your own goal. But. And you won't be doing any of these rough tackles and that sort of stuff. You know, if you take. Excuse me, sir, would you mind stopping a moment and being very polite, passing the ball over because not into violence and into compassion. And also, if they really wanted the ball, you give it to them because it means a letting go, letting go who you are. If you're running the ball, it doesn't matter if you come bottom of the league, because we know with humility, humility, we sacrifice our sacrifices for the sake of others. Isn't that what life is all about? Sacrifice your own happiness. So anyone else wants to win? Oh, please. You win. And when you get rid of it at the end of the season, that's what we're supposed to be. To be relegated out of samsara. The end of samsara leaves a whole league of suffering. So I put the football team I think will be very maybe won't win. They must be big, good fun. Is that it? Isn't that. Isn't that what life is all about? Being kind, giving, generous, warm hearted. So when we start to think of those those as something which global warming, ecological disaster. Whatever else terrible things happen in your life should never be able to destroy. Whether it's your husband leaving, your wife dying, your children not doing too well at school. One of your children coming out saying they're gay. Should that really destroy? You'll put his qualities of kindness, compassion, love. Forgiveness, warmth. It should not a tool. It is a qualities which are important as spiritual quantities which are important. We can always light a candle, a candle of wisdom, of love, of caring, no matter what happens. So don't complain or you shouldn't have done that. Oh, my son shouldn't be a drug addict. Oh, my daughter shouldn't be gay. Oh, this shouldn't happen. Oh, come on, not a candle of compassion, of wisdom and care. Isn't that the most wonderful thing we can do? And when we can do that, we can actually build a beautiful world. Okay. The forest can be destroyed. We could have beautiful people. And actually, you finally have beautiful people. The forests start regenerating again. You find when we have people who are consume less because they don't need so much to create happiness, they have each other for happiness. I don't need such a big house. They want to live together in small houses, for friendship, for family ties, for caring and seeing each other. I want to see my children. I want to see my wife, my husband. So let's just have one room to stay. Instead of. A family room which no one ever goes in. So the front row. We're back in the games room, a toilet. How many toilets you got in the house? You can only use how many people are in there to use them. My goodness, there's been most of the time cleaning your house, not not using it. So wouldn't it be wonderful? We don't need that much. We don't need that much. It doesn't matter about, you know, the economy going down. Economy may go down, but people's hearts may go up when we start looking at things like. This. I remember during the Second World War, my parents telling me that was a terrible time in London. Now that's really there was bombs being dropped. No, my mother told me that she was in one of these terraced houses in London, in the borough of Acton, and a bomb landed next door. I got other neighbors got completely blown to smithereens. And Till's very lucky to come out. Just had sort of no wounds along her arm, just blood pouring out. They said that was one of the best times for people in London. They really worked together. When people actually say, I think the Americans and the American reporters were there at the time, say they're just so impressed how the Londoners coped with the blitz, with people dying around them, bombs going off, rationing in that so-called disaster. Those other things grew in the price of life. And house what crew was like working together. Friendship, caring for each other, family values, kind values, looking after each other, generosity. All those things we call spiritual values were important at that time. So those of you who look for terrible things happening in the world in the future, perhaps they're not so terrible afterward. Even if they do happen, maybe they won't happen. Who knows what happens. I can't predict the future when I can predict if people are good people, then good things happen to them. Doesn't matter what's happening outside. They may destroy our monastery. They can never destroy a monk's beautiful heart. They can never destroy peoples working together. Forgiveness. Generosity. Gratitude. That can never be destroyed unless you allow it to be taken away. My favorite saying, I never allow anybody else to control my happiness. You can call me whatever you like. You can say it's the best thought you ever heard of. The most stupid talk you've ever heard. How would I allow anything to control my happiness? My happiness is my business. So why would you allow disasters in the world to upset you? To control your happiness? It's interesting idea, isn't it? Sometimes we look at things in the newspaper or in the TV. We get very sad and upset. Does that help? I'm not saying happiness means you don't care. Half of this means you care enormously. So said in the. In the the funeral service. The last simile. I'm not sure when I said this how John would often hold up a glass like this and say, can you see the crack in the glass? We don't know what he's talking about. I can't see any crack, he says as a crack there is hardly infinitesimal. It's growing every day, and one day will grow so much the glass will crack, will not only be able to be used. So this is her body. This is her world. This is life. Her life is always impermanent, is cracking. We are cracking. Some people are more creative than others. Is about to crack, about to die. Things are about to go wrong. Now the global warming is about to happen. Was going to happen. There was going to have it all cracked. It is fragile. It's about to end. But the beautiful thing was I just said. Because it's fragile. Because it's got a crack in it. Because one day this glass will shatter. That is its destiny. Therefore, I care about this grass. Therefore, I put it down gently. Therefore, I don't knock it and hurt it because I know this class won't last very long. You are like this class, you're going to crack in. You. One day that crack will open up and you will die because you are impermanent. Fragile. That is why you care. Your loved ones will one day leave you. Your relationship has a crack in it. One day your relationship will shatter and die because of that. That is why you care. If this glass was made of some summer tea which was completely indestructible, why would I need to care about it? I could throw it around and drop it. Who cares? Is indestructible. It was permanent. There will be no need for compassion, for care. Because our children one day won't be here. That's why we care for them. Because one day a tampon won't be here. You better care for me. This isn't because our environment, it's got a crack in it. We have to care for our environment, but we know that one day the nature of things is to cease to fall apart. What rises was worse one day. Pass away. What gets born must one day die. What comes together? Your loved ones were. One must one day part. That's obvious. That's the law of nature. But it doesn't make life gloomy. It makes life compassionate because this is all going to end. That is why I care. So life is not gloomy after all. It's not doomsday, but compassion day. It's not a sort of Armageddon, but Carmageddon. That sounds like a. It's how we can make lots and lots of good karma to make this world happy. The spiritual values can never be destroyed except if you destroy them. Kindness. Generosity. Gratitude. Love. Peace. Global warming. Ecological disaster can't destroy that. And that is the most important thing. So that's the talk about doomsday. But what did I say? Uh, what can we get? Okay, so thanks for listening to the talk. And I hope the person in United States appreciates this talk. And he's worrying about having children. So, uh, if you want to have children, they'll be fine. You'll be able to have lots of, uh, good things happening in the world. And if they got good karma, then they'll be happy in this with quite good spiritual qualities. What happens outside is not important. As long as we create those beautiful spiritual qualities inside and then we're impervious, the heart will be able to survive no matter what happens to the body. Thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed the talk.