Episode Transcript
The title of today's talk is How to Change the World. It's going to be dedicated to Mr. Bush, Mr. Howard and Osama bin laden. How to change the world. So I've already mentioned this evening's talk about changing the world, and it's a very important topic, especially for us Buddhists come here every evening. Many of you may have seen the results of the 2006 census to see that the number of Buddhist has gone up again. I still should put in my demand for a bonus because it's called a productivity bonus. When you increase your market share, and even more than that. Whereas just recently came back from Sydney and some people have noticed the increase in the number of Buddhists and the decline in the number of Christians in Australia. And they decided to extrapolate the graph. And they predicted the way things are going. Over the last 10 or 15 years. By 2045, because Buddhism is growing, Christianity is declining by 2045. Buddhism will be the biggest religion here in Australia. Statistics. Trends. So whether that's true or not. So never believe statistics. It's still important to understand that we do have responsibilities. Certainly in the 24 years I've been in Australia where Buddhism has grown. It is from a few people living in small houses to major temples, with many members, and with a large organization, and part of that organization means we have a responsibility to our society, to things like global warming, to things like social activism, to looking after the elderly, to solving some of the problems in this world. And as we go grow bigger and bigger, that responsibility also gets more important. In the moment being only a 2% or 2.1% of the population, we can blame others. But as we grow bigger and bigger, we do have that greater responsibility. And it's fascinating to understand that how Buddhists should exercise that responsibility in the world around them. And it brings to mind a very important story from the time of the Buddha. And that was actually the enlightenment of the Buddha. And this is a story which his ancient is similar to a Christianity, the temptation of Jesus. But this was many hundreds of years before. And, uh, it's obviously that story of Christianity, of temptation, of Jesus, would almost certainly have come from the story of the Buddha, simply because it was so much earlier written down about how the Buddha became enlightened. And the story actually was that just before the Buddha was bigger and become enlightened, there was even also the tempting thought, instead of becoming a Buddha, to use the enormous wisdom, compassion, energy, resources to actually, instead of being an enlightened monk, to be a world leader. Someone who can sort of lead the world as a rudo, as a king. You had the word in those days of a wheel turning monarch. It was just a word which meant like a universal monarch, someone who wielded power over a large number of people in the in the earth, and a person who was like a Buddha, you would imagine, would have enough wisdom and compassion to rule wisely. But the Buddha rejected that path and instead, which instead followed the path of being an enlightened one. And there's an important point there, because sometimes that we are, even in our life, tempted to get out there and change things to all. And we think that we can rule for the betterment of other people, for the harmony from the peace and prosperity of our world. But what is interesting that Buddha rejected that and said, no, it's more important to be an enlightened one. And I can understand why that's true, because. There are two ways of dealing with the problems in this world, and the first ways of a king, of a rule, of a prime minister of president is actually to exert control. And there's another Buddhist way is to understand and to adapt. Very often the way we want to change the world is counterproductive. We want to find some peace and stability, but too often because we are too much control freaks. It is the reason why we have so many problems in this world, because we try to change the world in an unwise way. We create a world which needs change. Is there another option? An example of this and I'll bring out some examples of my previous week. I just returned from Sydney. This morning I left. I should have left on a Monday afternoon. However, once again spread out when I'm flying and don't fly the same flight because the flight was delayed again. Two weeks ago. That happened to me. The flight was supposed to leave at 4:15 p.m. on Monday afternoon, and it finally took off at 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. And so there I had a 20, almost 24 hour delay. And that might be okay if you're a layperson, but for a monk, you don't have any money to buy yourself a cup of tea, nor do you have a mobile phone to ring up your friends to come and save you. So I spent most of Monday night at Perth Airport, and the interesting thing was that once again, you saw many people getting very upset and banging and complaining. But I have enough experience of delayed aircraft to know. That the harder you shout, the more you thumbed the desk. The plane never comes earlier. Why do people do that? They want to see that they can change the world. They want to change Qantas and make sure it sort of comes early or gets a flight on time. But there are times when you just realise that there's nothing to be changed except your attitudes to the experiences which you have to face. Of course, it was very unpleasant, especially being a monk, because not only did I have no telephone, no money, but as a monk we don't have a credit card either. We've caused a lot of problem when at 5:00 in the morning, Qantas decided to ship us to a hotel. The waste of time. The night was already over. They should have done their hours ago, but nevertheless, they did that. So it's interesting being a monk. I got to stay at the Hyatt. Not asleep there, but to get in there and have a look around. It's very interesting, unfortunately, that when even though Qantas was paying for this, when you checked in, the first thing they asked was, can we have your credit card, sir? So once again, I caused a lot of problems for people because there's not many people in this world don't have a credit card. But very proudly, I am one of those. But because of that situation, it was a very wonderful situation in one respect, because whenever you get into these difficulties or change of plans when things go wrong. Sure, there are some people complain, but other people start to get to know each other and talk to each other. This amazing just how many friendships are made when you're sitting all night, or most of the night at Perth Airport with nothing else to do. And that was a wonderful part of it. For example, another example is that as a monk and I try to do something just not for, you know, the Buddhist society here, but try to do something for our local community in Australia. We all know that religions can be very divisive and can be violent and create a lot of problems in this world. So you do try and do your best with some interfaith dialogue to try and make some bridges between people of different religions. And we do go to many ceremonies and many discussions. And a lot of them are a complete waste of time. However, the best one which I ever went to I think was a cathedral here, Saint George's Cathedral, one of the good ones. Many years ago there was an interfaith, um, ceremony, and I've been going there for quite a few years already, and it was very, very boring. People would chant something, and then the next one would chant something, and then the dean would say something. We always had to stand up and then sit down again, because that's the only way to keep us from falling asleep. And on this occasion, at the middle of the ceremony, I always remember this one. At the middle of the ceremony, a policeman came in. He talked to the dean, and the dean interrupted. Somebody I think was a sick man or something, giving his prayer, and said that the policeman had just announced there was a bomb threat, that someone had rang up the police department in Perth to say they'd left a bomb in that cathedral as a protest for non-Christians entering the holy precinct. And we had to evacuate immediately. That was such a wonderful ceremony because once we evacuated, instead of just chanting our own stuff, we started talking to each other, laughing and becoming friends. Just like what happened at the airport on Monday night, if we're just going on the flight and it was all going to go according to schedule, people would be reading their books, watching their movies. They wouldn't talk with anybody, however, because something went wrong. It's a wonderful opportunity for communication to happen to get to know people. This is why that sometimes when we want to change the world, we realize that sometimes we're not really being affected because we're going about it in the wrong way before we need to change the world. We need to know the world. We need to know what we're changing. And then we now need to know how to change it. So a Buddha, before he became enlightened, he rejected the idea of being a world changed by being a monarch or president or whatever, because he didn't know the world yet, because he didn't know the world. He said, let's wait for a while. This become enlightened first, and then we'll see about that question. And of course, where does the bulletin be coming to light? You can see just how powerful that enlightenment was and how a Buddha has changed the world, but not from being a monarch or a controller. By being a much more effective leader, by giving knowledge, understanding, compassion, compassion leading to people, understanding one another, understanding themselves, and understanding life. From that understanding there, the change happens. It's like another thing which I've been doing. The reason I went over to Sydney, though, we have an organisation which I don't mind saying, that I was the founder of and got it going. It was an Australian Sanga Association. Sanga is the word we use for the ordained monks and nuns of all traditions. And he made. No. You seem like Tibetan monks. You see, um, Chinese nuns. You seen Zen monks and you know us. And you wonder, sort of see, why are all these different types of Buddhists in Australia? Is it the case that that the Christians are like somebody else, that we can't live together in peace and harmony? And that's one of the first things that I wanted to change when I came here. Oh, why is it that we got people in different robes? Is there a difference there? Because quite frankly, I get embarrassed if we can't live together as Buddhist monks and Buddhist nuns, if we have issues we haven't solved, then we are just like hypocrites. We tried to encourage other people to live in peace and harmony, and we have arguments amongst ourselves. We have not the right to teach people the means to overcome the disharmony in their office, in their family, in their country, or in their world. So the Australian Song Association, we are very impressed and inspired by just how far we've come in such a short time and how we do how the leaders of the different Buddhist organisations in Australia coming together and working together in harmony, addressing real issues, practical issues like misbehaviour by monks and nuns, even criminal misbehaviour. We want to make sure there's no problems with paedophilia, for example, or no problems with monks or nuns misunderstanding the law of this country, so that by working together and helping each other and other little things. One interesting thing we did was to tell all the monks and nuns how to recognise nut cases when they come to see you in your monastery or temple. I got to say that because sometimes a person comes to, you know, to teach some meditation or to understand Buddhism, and it's not the right place for them, because they may have a lot of troubles and psychiatric problems, and it's not the appropriate place for them to come, because monks and nuns know we are competent in some areas, but we're not sort of competent in everything. And there are sometimes we need to recognise the limitations of our abilities and to know that and know where to refer a person afterwards so we don't get into trouble. So these are little things which we were doing. And at the same time, because we're all in this same boat, we have a common problems, common cause. And then the best part of these little meetings is that we spend a lot of time cracking jokes together. We read out our financial reports. We have $5 in the bank. That's all I had to work on. But we all get get going somehow or other. And the point was here that there was a sense of like people working together when they're not in their own temples, talking together, laughing together. And becoming friends together. We were understanding each other. And unless we understand each other, we can't have harmony and we can't move forward. We can't change anything unless we understand each other. First of all, it's like other things. You want to change your marriage sometimes. What changed your relationship are the way that marriage works. You want to change the the way that it works in the workplace. You want to change your health in case you've got a medical problem. And a lot of times we go in there wanting to change straight away without really understanding what's happening, first of all. And it's important. This is one of the reasons that why we emphasize this meditation, this mindfulness, this training of how to really understand, to be aware, to know, to perceive, to listen, to understand what what we're doing and where we are. And this we have that means for communication, for understanding. Then we're in trouble, which is actually, by the way, that was the reason why the aircraft could not take off on Monday. The engines were fine. The pilot was there. The only reason it wouldn't take off because the PA system was broken. We also see? Haven't you guys got mobile phones? Can't you just shout the instructions down the aisles? But it's a good symbol. Without a PA system, without communication, the aircraft can't take off without communication between a husband and wife. Your marriage can't take off without communication between you and your body. Your body can't take off. It dies young or gets sick. And how unhealthy? Without communication between you and your heart, how can you ever find peace and fulfillment? The aircraft just can't take off without their understanding. So we have these techniques and this emphasis again and again and again, sort of in Buddhism is try to understand each other and build up the technique for knowing and that technique for knowing and understanding. It's not just this thinking or this discussion that's so superficial. Instead of actually discussing what the differences between Tibetan Buddhism is and Theravada Buddhism, what are the differences between a monk and nun who spend time with each other and its what's not said or what's behind the words, what's unspoken. That is what we look for. That's what we understand, and that's where we get the harmony and the progress from. This is why that we have such concepts as total listening, which I emphasize often. Total listening is where you are silent inside. You're not thinking, you're not talking to yourself, but you are silent, mindful, gathering information. If more people could learn how to listen, listen properly. In other words, when someone else is speaking, not only your mouth is still, but your mind isn't creating any thoughts or counterarguments. Paying attention still and mindful. And this is actually what we train ourselves to be able to do in meditation. In Buddhism, it's a training of the mind be able to understand. And when I put it that way, you can and you can realize where so many problems come from in life because we don't know how to listen. How can we ever understand what's going on? You don't know how to listen to another person. They're speaking and we second guess what they're trying to say. We think, here they go again. Why can't they shut up? I've heard this so many times. You haven't heard it so many times. If you had heard it once, they would need to say it again, would they? It's because you haven't heard it. You think you have, but you haven't heard them. But it's more than just your partnership. You've got to be able to listen to your body as well, to be aware and mindful of the signals which your body are telling you. And you can feel it. Sometimes I feel it. Then my body gets tired. Especially when you spend all night at the airport. You feel physical, tired. But because you get aware, mindful of the body, you can actually start to stop some of these terrible diseases like cancers and heart problems, because you can feel that before it happens. It's sense. It sensations feeling in the body that there's some imbalance. And either you can stop and go another way, give yourself a break, relax, take time out, or else you can, just as I say, send some caring attention down there. I found that incredibly powerful just to take a part of the body, which is to say, had an operation. You got a big wound there. You just send your kind attention there. It heals. I saw that in years and years and years ago. Later, you had a mastectomy in Thailand. But how many years ago was that? 25 years ago. He and I taught her how to do this meditation. She came back and said, oh, it's so wonderful. These nurses and doctors, they sent me out of hospital way before I should come out because the room was healing. They couldn't believe how quickly it was healing and I told her how I'd done it. Said, well done. That's a great thing to do. You're understanding your body by listening to it, and that way you are affecting change for the better. You understand first and just sometimes it's through the understanding that often is all that's needed for change to happen as an automatic result. Understand first change. Next was the same with understanding some of the reasons for disharmony in your workplace or in your school. Hey, she's not here today, but a teacher who was at, uh, teaching year six is in a primary school in the hills in Perth. I won't say where it is. When I went to that school to give a little talk on Buddhism. As usual, you check in with the principal, first of all, and the principal was telling how this teacher had been teaching meditation for many years in this school. She was a deputy principal, and even though there are many great devout Christians in this school who sometimes complained, the principal backed this teacher up so much because the power results of this five minute meditation, the beginning of the year, was so effective in seeing the increase in the academic performance of those grade sixes. But the other part, which they notice because they learn how to be silent, be quiet. He said the unexpected result was the children became more sensitive to each other. And they gave an example which I'd always remember. He said that sometimes there was a disagreement in the school that it was €6 per grade. Sixes. So that's what, 11, 12 year olds. Sometimes there's always friction. Maybe amongst the boys or the girls. I'm not quite sure which. Whenever there was about to be some trouble, some disagreement, some argument in that class, one of the children would interrupt the lesson by putting their hand up and saying, miss, can we have quiet time now? There was an opportunity just to be quiet, to sit quietly for five minutes. And that defused the whole situation, because in those five minutes of quietness, every child in that class had a time not just to be quiet, but to understand, to feel what was going on. And that was always needed to change the negative negativity in that classroom. Unfortunately, that sometimes we just go in there so fast wanting to change things. We want to set the thing right. Being so arrogant that thinking we have the ability to see what the problem is and fix it straight away. Instead of learning how to just be still first of all and understand and then do something about it. And I think that ability to understand, especially other human beings, is one of Buddhism's great assets. When we talk about compassion in Buddhism, very all other religions talk about compassion and kindness as well. What is the difference? What are the differences is that Buddhism teaches you how to be compassionate. It gives you the training of how that's achieved. Everybody wants to have compassion in this world, to be kind. But you may have been coming here for a long time. And how many are you are compassionate to the person you live with? How many of you? If you're stuck in an airport for 23 hours, just don't go to the counter and give up all your compassion, you stupid people. I've got a place to go to. Why does this happen to me? Because I saw many people do. So it's easy to say, yes, I am compassionate. I should be compassionate. I'm going to kill anybody who says I'm not compassionate. How many times do you lose it? And why do you lose it? Know what it's like. Especially if you lose it to the people you love. People feel so terrible. They shouted at their loved one. That could be your husband. Your wife? Sometimes it's your kid. Know how terrible that is? When you've been mean and nasty and even violent to someone you really love. You think, why did I do that? It is a problem and there is solutions to that. Those solutions is learning to understand more. Understand yourself. Understand how you're feeling. Understand how you work. Understand the whole process by which this thing, like anger and ill, will come up. It is a process. You don't just break into anger immediately. That is cause and effect, a whole process. The more you understand it, the more you see it happening in your mind. The early you can catch it and the more you can do about it. That's why whenever we talk about even addictions, which we call like habits, the way we overcome those addictions and habits is to understand them, be aware of them, to see the whole process and catch it earlier and earlier and take another path. The understanding, the awareness which arises is like having a more doors to walk through instead of just one door, which you always go again and again and again. You have alternatives. That's what understanding gives you. More alternatives, different ways of solving the problems. And these are why the understanding what's happening is often the cause of compassion and wisdom. If you understand how to truly be effective in this world. So we do also have the big problems of this world. You know, we do have the big problems of our political system, which is when you've got to give credit. This is not a bad system if you've been to other countries in the world, at least this works just about. But what is our moral responsibility there? Obviously it's a understand just more of the needs requirements of human beings in our society and how those can be achieved. To understand, for example, the topical issue of the problem in some Aboriginal communities in our country, but is going in there as we have many times before, without understanding who are the people, what are the situations, what's going on? You see that so often without that real understanding, that mindfulness, that real knowing, sometimes all the compassionate and caring work in the world can be quite destructive. Before we act, we have to listen. We have to listen with a silent mind. And that silent mind is with no ideas, with no preconceptions of what you're going to do and why you're going to do it and how you're going to do it. A lot of times we do need just to listen, first of all, to be still, to gather that information, to feel the other person. But it's not just we get the information. When we listen to other people, we get respect because we're respecting them. We're hearing them. And again, that's one of the great achievements we've made with the different traditions of Buddhism in this country, because we deliberately listen to each other, heard each other. Respect is there. And when is respect, then there's no obstacles to finding solutions to the problems. Which in other countries are there between the different sects of Buddhism? When we listen and hear, then the gender problems disappear as well. As a man, we hear. We listen closely to how the other gender feels. You don't come in with ideas in that conversation before we listen. You can understand how men feel. All the young people here are going out. Boys and girls. If you want a relationship, why is it so hard to forge that relationship and get a partner in life? If you don't learn how to understand yourself and understand the other person, you can only do that by really listening silently, clearly getting to know each other. You can't do that. The relationship will never work. Being a month, being many years as a meditator, it's great being able to talk to anybody and be able to really listen to them and understand it. Because when you can listen to them, understand them, it's amazing how much friendship you can make and how that's a friendship which is not superficial, which is deep. Someone says, you understand me? At last. Had I have had no training in this deadly training is on the job. And so often that you talk to people and they say, wow, you read my mind, you're always reading my mind. That's worth telling me. In Sydney, some people saying that, oh yeah, we always know you in our mind, so don't read your mind. I just listen to you. That's how I understand what you're trying to say. Now, in the big picture of things, when we do have that understanding and that respect with each other, then we do have that sense of togetherness. We're in this together. Doesn't matter what the problem is. When we have that mutual respect, it does now become our proper. Never your problem. Never my problem, but our problem. The problem with Buddhism in Australia is not my problem. It's not the Tibetan monks problems. It's not even just a Buddhist problem. It's always our problem. The whole country is part. Everybody's problem is ours. When you have that respect and listening and that compassion, what that compassion does. It brings people together. It unites so we can actually solve the problem as a one person, not just the white people solving the Aboriginal problems or the Aboriginal problems. Rejecting solution has to work together. It's the only way. It's not a black problem is not white man's business. This Australian's business, this world's business. And that's why that when we listen to each other, we understand. And that's how we can change the world. Even people were telling, asking the question. It's a common question. What did Buddhists do with social action? Uh, sometimes the you know, the I sort of have a sigh and say, well, look, I think we should market ourselves more. The number of hospitals, Buddhist hospitals there are in Buddhist countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, schools, orphanages, even the Suu Kyi Foundation is the Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist foundation. I think they were the first on the ground in a Pakistani, uh, earthquakes. I mean, before Red cross or Red Crescent got there. But they don't publicize themselves. But they are all there. I think even in Malaysia, looking at a Malaysian girl and she was, I was told that during the floods in the south of south of Malaysia, it was a Buddhist. Temples again were the first to bring relief to the mostly Muslims in the south of that country who were flooded, lost their homes, lost everything in those floods. We do do social action, heaps of it. So Buddhism is not just sitting on the cushion. Never has been, never will be. And what were the social actions which I thought was unique? Quite fascinating. Was a monk in town, a very famous monk in Thailand who does get given lots of donations instead of using them for his ten courses. I've been to his temple. It's very simple temple, very simple monastery. He decided to use some of those funds to build a facility in Bangkok. For a section of the community who were doing it tough. What he built was a woman's prison. Burgtheater. So hang on, that's really strange. I never heard that before because what he'd done, he'd visited one of the women's jails in Bangkok, was disgusted with the conditions there, and realized the government would probably not be able to get the funds before they had many committees and feasibility studies, and argued it in the the government for so many. You know what it's like in government projects. So I thought I got some money. It is monastery. I'll build that women's prison and build it to a respectable standard. He knew there will be some ladies, women who commit crimes, who have to go to jail because of. That's the law of the land. They have to go to jail. Let's make it a much more kind and compassionate and well appointed prison. I thought, wow, that makes sense. He explained it to me. I understood what he was doing. It's unique that people are thought out of the box to see a community of people, whether it should be there or not. There it is there. Let's do something about it to improve the happiness. Whatever happiness is, or at least to improve or lessen the suffering. And so that degree of social action. I thought that was unique and quite inspiring because he was listening, understanding, not just following what other people do, but using the understanding, the listening to see what the problem is and see if there's something you can do about it. Or another big fashionable problem of the moment about global warming. What is Buddhism doing about global warming? What is we doing about it? Sometimes people complain to me, look, I've just come back from Sydney flying in a big jet. Because that's not just for holidays. I haven't been on a holiday. Actually, when I did go on a holiday, there was six months silent retreat where there was no global warming, no hot air came out of my mouth because I was silent for six months. And I was just going to teach and inspire and encourage. One of the great things about Buddhism is again and again and again we teach simplicity and we practise simplicity. And the monks are examples of simplicity. Even this afternoon, a gentleman who doesn't support many monks wanted to support me and asked this afternoon, what can I get for you? Just for you person? Not your monastery, not the retreat center we're building. What for you? I will give something for you. And I said, look, I don't need anything. And he heard about what happened to me at the, uh, the hotel I sent to where they wanted the credit card before they would put me in. He said, I'll give you a credit card. And he will pay all the fees. And you know, your bank roll me. Even I said what? I want a credit card for now. So have you been ever offered a credit card by somebody? Would you accept it? I said no. And one of the reasons I argued with him, I said, look, because I want to be an example of living simply. And for those of you who have taken me to the airport of receive me, you can see what I carry onto that aircraft, which is a bowl and a bag and that's it. No checking baggage and it's very light. And people in Perth airport know me now, and they actually think when I go through that airport switching to customs very often they say, wow, that's impressive. Well done. And they're not Buddhists. They're just impressed that there are religious people who do live simply. And in a couple of weeks time, we'll have our entry to the rains retreat day down at serpentine. And that's the day which many of you have been there before. Is an open day even not an open day. Sometimes people come and visit her from Armidale and other groups, and you get taken on tours to where I live and have a look under the mattress and in the drawers and see what I've got. And you see, you do live simply. Now that's a great statement for how we can make a big help to consumerism, which is a great cause of global warming. How much stuff we have. How many clothes you had? How many cars you have, how much stuff you have in your house. How many rooms you have in your house? How much do you really need? The great thing about religion is that this this type of Buddhism, we really do teach simplicity. We really do act simplicity. We say, how much do you really need? Cut it out. Cut it down anyway. Have less. Live in smaller houses. Smaller houses are much more friendly. Simply because you have to share rooms. You don't have the kids room in your wife's room. This is your room and this is the family room. It's a one room. Have one TV in the whole house. So you have to compromise on who watches what. When you have to learn the skill of living together rather than living apart. Realize you can't always get your own way. But you can understand each other. Now just have a room where you know you've got your little bedrooms, but just one central room. So you always have to hang out with your kids and your kids with you instead of separating each other out. Because this is how I grew up. My father told me that when he grew up, his father had 10 or 12 kids, and they all slept not just in one room, in one bed. Now that's how you learn to get on with somebody. And they did. They were a family and they really loved each other. But this one I grew up with just in one house, one side of the apartment, because it was a small apartment, we always running into each other. So you actually learn communication, understanding, compassion, living together. But after I left to go to become a monk, my mother was in this, one of these tall rice apartment blocks. It was because we were all poor. It was, uh, like a homes west. What we have over here. Like a council house run by the local government subsidized housing. And it's supposed to be a hotbed of crime, those areas. But one thing happened there after I went to visit her, maybe, uh, 10 or 12 years after I became a monk, I'd found that many of those people in that small apartment block had been there for such a long time and were so crammed together they got to know each other. It was a community had developed, was like a village, a village not spread out, but spread up. Plus the the great social cohesion apparatus. Was the elevator. The only way to get up and get down was to be squashed in this small lift together, and to be squashed in this lift together with people after a year or two. Even the English with their reserve had to start talking to each other. They got to know each other, going up and down that lift, talking to each other. So when I actually went in there, everybody knew who I was because my mother told everybody the lift going up, lift going down. Now my son's coming. Oh, that's very nice. He's a Buddhist monk. Oh, that's very good. They started chatting together and one day after visiting her, when I was going to walk to a nearby temple to give a talk, when I got to the ground floor and the lift doors opened, I was faced by an old lady who was covered with blood. Of course, I wonder what had happened. She had fallen down some concrete stairs. So forget about my Buddhist talk. Why do I give up all this talk anyway? About kindness, compassion, helping people? So I decided that she was my Buddhist talk that day. And the other people that said will have to wait. So I took her straight upstairs to where my mother's flat was, sort of bathed her. Called an ambulance. Fancy broken her leg. But the interesting thing of that story was because she was bleeding, there was a trail of blood going into my mother's apartment, and before we'd know, washed her before the ambulance came. I don't know how many people from that apartment block were inside my brother, my mother's sitting room asking what had happened. Is anything we can do to help? I saw there was a village here, and people actually cared for each other simply because there was squashed together. The closer our living quarters are, I think the closer our community becomes. Sure we have our arguments. We also have our friendships as well. So we shouldn't have these quarter acre blocks. Not even a 10th of an acre. Block this squash up more. Not only is that great for stopping global warming, but having more people together because we don't have to walk so far to the shops, then we don't have to drive anyway. Just walk. It's not that far away, but we also get to know each other. We have community instead of this great separation of people. Do you know your neighbors? Maybe your neighbor. What about the one? Two doors down. Sometimes it's such a long way away. That's why sometimes in poor areas are the most generous kind. Because they are so close together, they get to know each other, become more human and more wealthy people because they're separated and they have huge mansions with their high walls they haven't even got. Don't even look over the wall. The wall is too high to see their neighbors. Their imprisons, imprisoned by their affluence. So sometimes simplicity is not just for the sake of being ascetic. And just to see, you know, just being tough guys and doing penance, it's not just the more you have, you know, the more you suffer later on. So, you know, be a bit more simple. Simplicity is happiness. You don't have so much. It's wonderful. When I wake up in the morning, I don't have to think what I'm gonna wear today. I don't even when I look inside in the mirror, I don't think. Should I change my hairstyle? I do, I need to go to see the hairdresser today. Amazing how simple it becomes, of course, that this is so-called bad for the economy. But is it really so bad for the economy? What is the economy anyway? The reason why we want to make sort of, uh, have a good return, uh, for our efforts, is so we can afford things, but we. What do we really need? What do we want to buy? Things are so expensive in this country because we earn too much. So it costs too much. Isn't it wonderful if we just simplify more and we simplify more? We don't need those big houses. Don't need to be cars. Don't need all those appurtenances. Even little things. Like I said here before, those huge plasma screen TVs. What on earth do you want those for? And you go in those aircraft you see, just on the back seats is these little, little dab screens and people watch those. I was there today. See these people just watching the movies on the aircraft. If you look at the little movie screen, all these big screens, it appears exactly the same. Try it out next time you see a small screen. When you're in looking at that movie, there's a quality of the movie or the TV show. Does it? Is it different when you see it on a plasma screen TV? It is actually the same psychologically. The senses. They just focus on whatever space there is that fills the mind. And that's all you need. As I said here before, the only time you notice how big your TV screen is is when it is not turned on, when you're not looking at it, when you're focusing on it, watching the movie, basically the small screen in your mind is exactly the same. So we can actually we can simplify our lives. When we simplify our lives, we have more funds and we also have more fun too. One of the memories from my first year as a monk in Thailand was going on going into a house for some. Chanting one evening. This was an old village in the north east of Thailand. Electricity had not arrived yet. There was no road going in there, which was tracks. When we went into that village, just using our flashlights to guide the way, we saw house after house after house on the route into the village. On the houses were built on stilts. There was a platform open and we saw on every house on the platform, maybe 13, maybe 20 people sitting around an oil lamp. You could see the glow of the lamp on their faces. They would do this every evening throughout the year, no matter what season. Sitting around every evening, grandparents, uncles, even small toddlers. Talking to each other. Telling old stories. Jokes they probably heard. Hundreds of times. Their favorite ones. But together. When I saw that, even I can picture it now. I thought, wow, I'd missed out. Our family had a TV. In that simplicity, there was something which I hadn't known. Not as a rich person, but much more wealthy than they were. And knowing the joy of just being with another person all evening, every evening, talking with them, just being with them, sharing time together. Simplicity doesn't mean we lose out. I think in simplicity we gain so much when we understand that when we're mindful, we've really realized that what we really need in life. We sometimes sing all these possessions and stuff we have stand in the way. The being together. The extra sofa you have stands in the way between you and your partner physically. The extra room means there's another place which can separate you. Why do we want so much? What we really want is some peace and harmony and growth. Maybe we can get as much as we ever need without destroying this world as planet. It's really understanding what we truly want, not things. Is just being loved. Being cared for. Having fun together. Being a piece together. Solving the problems of life we really want. I understand that first of all, then how much can we change the world? Imagine if everybody like me lived in a cave. Small one with no TV. How much carbon will be saved? Imagine if everyone like me was set up but had no kids at one child. Makes a huge carbon footprint. In fact, because we're celibate as monks and nuns. Really? I was thinking that we could actually sell our carbon credits for being celibate to the government and pay off our retreat centre. Roughly. It's true. Overpopulation is one of the great problems of our world. We should know that. So that one of the great things about Buddhism. Yeah. Birth control. One of the things Buddhism. We are pragmatic monks keep the eight precepts. We don't have sex, but you guys goes too. So if you do, be mindful, be careful, get the condom on, whatever it is, because you've got to be mindful and careful. First of all. And when you're mindful and careful, you don't have too many kids. And that way we can solve a lot of the problems of our world, and we can also teach that to others. You know, there's nothing. I don't know why some religions say that's killing when we have, uh, contraception. That's not killing. According to Buddhism, Buddhism is maybe much more rational than logical. So if more people were Buddhists, you'd have much more restraints, much more simplicity, maybe less trouble. Enough children to care for, to give you happiness. But not so many that we kill our planet. We understand from understanding that we can't change this world, but just going out there and just complaining or demonstrating or going to concerts or goodness knows what else. And this is an understanding of what the problem is. And the problem is not their problem. It's not the government's problem. It's our problem. It's everybody's problem. We have to work together. And when we do have that understanding. When we do have that compassion arising from that understanding, that respect for one another, there we can move forward. I think that's one thing which Buddhism can offer to this world. A way to change the world is to create the understanding. First of all, that the Buddha did listen is to understand. From that you can make those contacts with others. That way you can work together for a common cause. No egos driving. It doesn't matter who's the boss, who's not the boss. The important thing is to get the job done with that lack of ego, that compassion, that peace, that understanding. That is how we change the world. Become a Buddha first. At least. Become awake first, silent first. Listen for his compassion first. Pull that up first. And if there's not much time, you better be quick. Stop messing around. Meditate properly. Spend time being peaceful. Be compassionate. Turn off the TV. Don't have to watch the TV this weekend. Meditate instead. At least take an hour off and sit. Understand? Grow your mind. There's not much time left. Be quick or else. Thank you. Okay. There was a talk on how to change the world without thumping on the desk. So, as any comments or questions about the talk this evening. Going, going? Oh, yes. For God's always relied upon for question. Yes. Lawrence, you give good questions. Doctor who is on tomorrow. I remember Doctor Who. He was always travelling in time. And if you travel in time, did he actually travel in time and find out that global warming was a fact? Because I heard that his other programs were saying that global warming was a scam wasn't going to happen. So what did Doctor Who say? Because he traveled into the future. So he should know. You can't turn off the television because Doctor Who is on. That is called attachment. It is called ignorance. If you had a choice between being fully enlightened and Doctor Who. Would it be a close call? It would be a very close call, he said. Okay, okay. If you watch Doctor Who do an hour's meditation afterwards, do you live simply how many TVs you got in the house? One little one. Very good. That's very good. And actually, the television is like the Tardis. Remember Doctor Who, the Tardis. I remember the Tardis because it's a small little box, but it's huge inside, even like a TV. It's only a small little box. But when you watch it, there's a whole world inside. So your TV is like a Tardis, so don't get sucked in too much. Otherwise you won't get out again. Okay. Okay. I think that thanks very much for that. So it's great to have a sense of humor. Um. Uh. I'm good. I go. Down like a worm. Can I be what dame? So I gotta go to the mall. I'm on the madani. Nerve! Hardly. Hanover. Oh, I'd love the archers. And go find the mommy.
