Episode Transcript
Origins Of Buddhism
So today I'll give a talk about the origins or the original Buddhism.
Because a lot of people argue about what's your vision of Buddhism?
And sometimes people arguing about that in Sydney, which one is right? Which one is wrong?
Now, there's sort of many different types of Buddhism.
Or you got the right type and the fence next door got the wrong type? Or what about religion itself? What's the regional religion? What's the real one?
And part of my path as
part of your class, never, whether you're a Buddhist or not, is always to try and come to the origins of things. Because in the origins of things you come to your heart and in your heart that you find life and meaning. I'm talking about coming home coming to the heart of things to us and that part is talks can we already talks can we just so superficial just words and series philosophies, which people tend to argue about
Now recently, so I called up my brother got one brother who lives in London he's a bank manager, sometimes completely opposite to me. He's got heaps of money I've got none.
You he lends people money, architect donations.
Maybe he's gonna make a deal there somewhere.
We're having an argument about the impending war in Iraq, he was very much for the war he was very much against. During the middle of the argument. I said, Hang on, brother. This is supposed to be Christmas peace and goodwill to all men. Shut up.
So he started arguing, remember that the importance of all religions, the importance of all truths is peace and harmony. There's something inside each one of us which notice now what is peaceful, what is harmonious. What is good as a monk in my position, is too often people come up to you and ask, is this right versus wrong? Should I be doing this? Should I not be doing this? What does the Buddha say about euthanasia, abortion, gambling or whatever?
Recently in Singapore, somebody I was on radio
stupid time just after giving talks all day, starting off at 10pm and leaving till midnight.
I love to introduce things always been a
while the pit person us up with this question.
I've got a wife, kids, I'm having an affair with somebody else. Is that okay?
You know the answer to that question.
If you ask me that question, it means it's not okay.
If it was okay, you will need to bring up and ask what you
do understand.
And I told that little anecdote about added if Mr. Blair sought the war in Iraq was okay, he wouldn't go on to see the Pope.
What are you actually saying here is all morality or goodness?
Isn't that in your heart?
Isn't that where the origin of things actually lies the origin of goodness.
Because all human beings, my theory, my own experience, my theory based on experience of dealing with others, everybody knows, when you're doing something which is bad,
for harmful, you feel in your gas.
They call it bad gas. I mean, your head not down there in your guts because it these days, people feel aches and pains in their guts because they've got all these sort of these syndromes.
But what actually, but the sad fear is in their heart inside of themselves. They feel that something's wrong sometimes.
And you do very well to trust those feelings rather than your head, and your justifications and theories, where the Buddha said this or didn't say that whether Christianity says this or not. That's just excuses. For not actually seeing in the source of things in your heart and the origin of things, what's good and what's bad.
Remember, somebody telling me this documentary recently about? I mentioned this some weeks ago, about the event in the Vietnam War, over 25 years ago, where the American soldiers went into a village and massacred shot every man, woman and child, even babies.
shot them all that were the order. Those were the orders. Because they were told that that was finished with so many of the enemy, the Vietcong and the communists. It became known as the My Lai Massacre. The officer in charge was Lieutenant Kelly.
He was such a horrendous thing, that it could not be hidden. As a big inquiry, Lieutenant Kerry got put in jail and pardoned just a few years later, a year or two later.
But in this particular documentary, the television crew wants you to trace as many of these soldiers as possible to see what is the effect of such a an act of barbarism.
25 years down the track. Every one of those soldiers had huge social, emotional, psychological problems, gonna have a relationship, even with themselves or with somebody else.
In therapy, those were alive still in obsessive behavior, addictions, goodness knows what else. There was not a happy one among them, apparently except one who stood out. It was an Afro American who went ordered to go in there with guns blazing, refused, said no.
Even though
I don't think it was a declared war, but is tantamount to war, even though disobeying orders at that time meant military jail.
Military jail was much worse than ordinary jail civilian jail. Civilian jails in US are much worse than Australian jails. So you can imagine just what he was facing for a couple of years.
But he was willing to face that, rather than kill women, children, innocent men and boys.
So they asked him, Why did you do that?
Where did you get your courage from? Are you religious? Are you a philosopher? Why did you refuse, and apparently that he said, he refused, because something inside of him, told him it was wrong. He wasn't a religious, he wasn't educated, he got one of the basic education to just went into the military
to leash as a source of income livelihood. He was a person with no other prospects in the world. So he joined the military just for that reason. But
when faced with killing somebody else, when he said he felt in his heart, and he knew he was well,
sometimes, when we talk too much, are we thinking too much, maybe too much? We can justify too easily. He was a simple guy. And that's why he read his guts. He looked in his heart, and no, I cannot do this.
He suffered one or two years in military jail.
But then he had the next 23 years of happiness,
of being at peace with himself.
Enjoying life?
What would you do?
Recently, one of our members, who's here told me that he was working for Samaritans. And he got a call from a man, an Englishman living in Paris, who was very much responsible on the team, which developed the cluster bomb.
The bomb, which kills many, many beings, which was used in Iraq.
So recently, he was suicidal, seeing results of his work and research.
Do you understand how in your guts, if you felt was right and was wrong, you would never do those things.
You would feel deeply inside. There's something here, which is going to harm and hurt others. Which is why to help people and all these teachings we need just to help people trust in what they already know.
Buddha talks about goodness, morality virtue, the all the rules whether it's five precepts eight precepts temporary set to run on 27 people, it's 1000s of preset and millions of presets which we make in our world.
He said there's only two main things you should look after two main precepts for life. Two rules, which you do well to understand and follow
those two rules. The two precepts of original Buddhism
are reasonable goodness, isn't never to do anything, which hurts another be
or yourself
to
never do anything which harms others or harms yourself. The second
does not make sense.
Isn't it obvious? If you follow the life of those tools, so much of what is causing pain in the world will be stopped. So much of injury and suffering which cancer injury to yourself and others will be avoided. And you'll find you'll become saints. They will regard you as saying the speakers, your goodies, and your goodies because you don't create any harm or hurt in as well.
Those guidelines for life.
But sometimes when we talk about this about badness, it's more than badness in this world, it's more than just doing bad. On rather refraining from doing bad, not hurting others not harming yourself. Because sometimes people can do that, despite never going out, never going into this world, hiding themselves, hiding themselves off in a little hat in a forest.
Surely not doing anything to hurt other people. So hurt themselves, we're not doing it to help either.
Your guts the origin of religion, is not just refraining from harming, because to other rules,
to actually put energy and effort to do what gives happiness to us. And which gives happiness to answer.
Those are the four rules of life. Never do anything which hurts another, never to do anything which hurts yourself. Put energy and effort into giving happiness to us, putting energy in and striving to give happiness to answer
obvious rules of life. But my goodness, we forget.
These are going into the heart of us. And sometimes that these guidelines actually take us into the root of things to offer in life. We just want to speculate.
Sometimes in my talks, and certainly people would ask me, how many times people ask me some questions. What is the Barna? What is the meaning of emptiness?
Sometimes I ask them, so if yesterday, how many? How much donations did you give into that donation box over there? What's that got to do with nirvana? Everything I said,
I'll explain why.
Because Nibbana is getting to the source of things, going against the stream to find your heart,
I made a mistake, or slip of the tongue. When I was teaching in Sydney, instead of saying going against the stream of the world, which is a very
strong and Buddhist metaphor, we actually came from when for the Buddha became enlightened, he put his boat in the water, and floated it on the water and said, If I'm going to become enlightened, may my bowl float against the stream. And it did. It was not just an omen. It was also a teaching, not just that he would become enlightened, but also about the way to the enlightenment, to go against the stream of the world. And when I made a slipper start Assange, I said to go against the scream of the world.
So hey, that's good.
Because of her religion of insight is going against the scream of the world. Where does that scream come from? It comes from here.
I don't like this, I don't want this. Why me? This is unfair. That's a scream of the world. I want, I hate
going going to scream over the world, we actually go in an in an end to silence into the heart of things. When you go into the heart of things, you see how much you collect God.
Presumably, to go against the stream of the world to find the origin. And this is original Buddhism. This is what I mean by this is a great simile for this.
When I was a student,
and young man in England, used to go to the cinema.
In those days, people would smoke in the cinema. That isn't movie theaters were full of smoke.
There was an advantage to that. Because when you look to the screen of the movie, you could see a cone of light
going backwards from the screen, back and back getting sooner and more pointed into the character focus.
Not in the direction where other people were looking. But in the opposite direction how to follow aggregates the stream to its source. And there you saw in a little room in the back of the theater, a man with a machine with lights and a bit of plastic. And that's all that was there. That was the movie. This machine with a bloke and some lights and plastic say Right. That was always there. That was a source the origin of that movie. When I saw that
the movies weren't so exciting anymore. There was so frightening whenever you got scared because some monster was about to jump out of the screen
and sort of kill the innocent virgin beautiful girl was always an innocent virgin beautiful girl got killed. No ugly women. I don't know about monsters I don't care for
ugly women are really sexist and never go for plugs either. It's always girls, we should do something about this sexist monsters.
So when they did this, people get very scared.
And you jump out of your seats unless you went against the stream of the world and against the scream of the theater.
And they waited. So it was all commissioned. It's only a movie. It's only light and go into a bit of plastic that's
just see the source of things.
And of course, that metaphor goes with life as well. Why do you get so excited and scream? Why do you get so romantic? And teary?
Why do you get so attached and this is mine. You're just watching the screen, you're not going to the source of things.
This is what I meant. If you go to the source of things. You just love to put money in the box, you'd love to share. You'd love to give your time for others, you love to care.
You'd love to let go and feed people
love
coaching in the same word, I think it's freedom. It's what I was playing around with in the retreat. And somebody said the German word for love is libre comes the same route as liberty, liberation, freedom.
There's two types of laws, the sort of love we know in the world is not freedom or freeing love, it's actually attaching cleaning that
that's why mothers love their children. They don't love their children. They grasp onto them and try to keep them there. Make sure they always go with clean underwear. Or whatever else it is. That's not freedom. That's cleaning that's putting kids in a prison. No wonder they rebel.
That's true, isn't it? Well, in that partnership and a relationship where the other person, they stay, they love you. But they're smother you.
If you can't do anything, you can't go anywhere without them. There's no feed in there at all. And that's why so many relationships breaker is not real love. It's not the love, which is freeing love. So love is attaching controlling that.
That's the love which goes with the scream of the world, it means more screams. It's not freeing. That's why when you watch the movie screen, you're actually caught up in what's happening there.
You're bound up in the action of the movie.
I remember years ago, seeing this movie on the aeroplane called Armageddon. We've seen that movie.
I've seen it. But I haven't heard it. I didn't have the headphones.
It was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen flying next time you have a movie on the TV, turn off the volume and watch. You'll see just how stupid it is.
Basically don't get involved in it. You're freeing yourself and actually seeing it as if the distance remember, as seen in this a crack me out. I don't know what other people in the aeroplane saw.
Where they were in this some space shuttle or something and it all got blown out was sparks and fire everywhere. And things go bang boom. And some metal flying all over the place. Now if it's only happened sort of a quarter that match everyone would get so blown to smithereens. Everyone should have died, but the hero was inside. So I knew what happened. I saw the
once all the explosions and the sparks are finished and everything went silent.
And you saw about a piece of the wreckage
and
the hero drag yourself. And he was okay after he wasn't even lose. There wasn't even a word. Not a word. And they didn't even have to wash his face afterwards. He was still clean and perfect. And his hairstyle was still immaculate.
It was crazy was it it? But people really buy into that stuff. And they think Oh, isn't it great? He writes
and says we buy the stuff for the world. Your footy team wins the game.
You're buying in to the stupidity of life going with a scream of the world. Instead of going against the scream of the world not to original.
What is real life?
Whereas Oh come on.
So when we actually go to the reality of life is actually it's not getting involved in things. But getting this involves freeing oneself
and in all that freeing oneself less when your relationships really start to work
some
times people ask me, sir, now turn around, you're 50 Now 5051 52 or something, something like that, because
then you miss having children.
And I said, Listen, I've got too many already knows how many people I have to talk to on a Friday night. And most people I have to mother in the monastery, I've got too many children already.
So you miss having a wise? Look how many friends which I have?
How many people I care for?
Don't miss anything, actually, I'll get much more in this job
than I would in any other sort of part of life. Why does it always happen, because when you go to the source of things, you get everything you ever wanted.
Most beautiful relationship is being a friend, so many people are beautiful freedom, being able to let go and go wherever you wish, and do whatever you want, as much as you need.
So this is what he saying he is going to the sources, and this is actually going in the opposite direction where you think you'll find happiness, you see that your children will be good if you control them so much. In the end, you put so much pressure on them. They rebel in a rotten way.
It's like having a bird in a cage. If you have a bird in a cage and always close the door,
the first time that doors open or fly away and never come back.
You put a bird in a cage and leave the door open or put delicious food and is one of the nicest caterers in the neighborhood. And you're kind to that bird and friendly to it and careful it
you don't need that all
the bird comes back, because it loves to be there.
This is actually what we mean by freeing laugh.
So this is the you love yourself.
With Freedom or with control, you still try to make yourself something to make yourself better to make yourself perfect to get rid of all your faults to iron out all your idiosyncrasies.
You're not freeing yourself.
That's why
you don't feel peace in your heart. There's still business to be done.
When you actually start to understand the way of going against the stream instead of accumulating wiki.
So amazing. First of all, I saw it when you actually give charity give donations.
So I couldn't understand why you did that. When I first became a monk in Northeast Thailand, we had to go and arms around in the village every morning, walking with a powerhouse. And these poor villages who put rice and maybe banana, or fish in your bow.
And the first couple of times I did this, I got very embarrassed. And then guilty. Because I started the thing I had a good degree.
I had a good education. I came from a rich country, and he was I taking food from these people.
And I thought perhaps I should disrobe, go back to England, get a nice job and send these people bags of rice, because that's what I should be doing instead of taking from them.
I never understood what generosity meant, what letting go was, what giving and freedom was.
Until one day, we had an invitation for a meal
in a person's house. So we didn't go into arms around that day, we didn't walk in the village taking people's rice and bananas.
I thought they'd be happy. We weren't begging that day.
But that afternoon, the village headman from the three or four villages around, came to our monastery, to ask forgiveness and to say sorry.
And I was there and what are you doing this? Well, I thought you'd be glad you weren't didn't have these monks scrounging on you today.
And what they said was really shocked me. Because they're asking forgiveness. They thought they'd done something wrong. But they'd upset us that we didn't go for arms round that morning.
I realized they got so much enjoyment, fulfillment and peace. So much happiness in their house, from seeing the mountains every morning, giving their rice and their fish, even though they were so poor.
Understand what generosity was. It wasn't that we needed it. It was that they needed to give
that opened up the heart, the beginning of Nirvana, the hearts of giving, not because somebody needs it, but because I need to give it
For example, by that time my father was well dead, he died when I was 16.
Those of you who have a mother or father who's passed away who's dead,
you may recognize this feeling in your heart.
As much unfinished business
and other businesses you want to give back to a person or people who have given us so much, who cared for you looked after you, sacrifice for you,
who worked so hard, so you could believe and prosper.
My father did work very hard for me.
And he sacrificed a lot. Remember the time when I was in primary school, and got a place in the school soccer team for the first time, we would play on Saturday mornings. On Saturdays my father had to work.
He told his boss I found out later, but because of some illness, he was never a healthy man. Because of some illness. His doctor had prescribed a series of injections on Saturday mornings. He was lying through his teeth. He was a very loving man, but he wasn't very truthful.
He already died when he got his birth certificate, my mother found out that he was actually two years older than he said he was,
was true.
When he first and better, he said, he said he was two years younger when he kept the story ever since. Because it
was such a loving man.
Because he was sacrificing his job if he got a founder, you get sacked. For serious play soccer every Saturday morning. Imagine what that means to you. To see your dad come and watch you play.
How proud you felt.
And when you found out why he did that, or how he did that your estimation of him grew even more
as sort of fellow he was.
And dying when I was only 16. I still had lots of Turkish How can you give to someone who's dead.
He had his beautiful ideas in religion is in Christianity you can do like a master someone who said in Buddhism, we do an act of good karma for those that
don't know if he ever received it, but I needed to do it. One day isn't the sort of our sickness teaching in Melbourne. And somebody gave me a donation, I said, whatever you want to use it for a jumper.
He'll sound like $1,000 Because I've given some talks to them. And I really appreciated it.
I say can I use it to buy some Buddhist party books for our library.
Now these scriptures, we didn't have these books. So that I did. And I got the inscribed on the front cover in memory of William Betts, my father,
I feel so happy to do that. To give. It's very hard as a mom to give, we don't really have the money, but someone helped me out that way.
And even this day, you won't ever look at those books and video descriptions. It gives me so much happiness I'm giving to someone who gave me so much in return.
Giving is an act of love
is an act of warmth, coming from the heart.
That's why every time in my life I've ever given anything. I feel so wonderful afterwards.
I just come back from Sydney. I've just given it so much energy, the small Buddhist group.
Yesterday I taught her how she found the time ago, basically got up and had some breakfast, talking to people and 10 o'clock till five, seven hours straight of giving a seminar by myself then talking to people afterwards about what his Federation's network in the evening from seven to about 10
talking so much doing so much. And I'll be doing this day after day before the teaching retreat before then teaching and Sydney.
I love it.
Because it's a chance of giving is my act of dynamite add to generosity. That's why it comes from the heart and it gives me so much happiness. It's my privilege to give. I thought at first why can't the other monks do this? Why is it always have to be me? This is not there. We got 20 marks on my monastery can they give a hand?
To think like that sometimes why me?
I was taught I realized it's not a question why me is thank you for giving me the privilege. Now the whole story of when I again versus a man when I learned these traditions of coming from the heart
when agencia would come back from arms round, we'd always go outside in the village without any shoes on that was a tradition so our feet are very dirty. So before we came into the
Hold we'd always like wash our feet when it came to the teacher
I saw all these monks get up off their seats rush over and wash and chairs feet.
When I first saw this I was actually disgusted
The reason was because I saw that man is old enough now to wash his own feet. That's what I saw.
That's like a lesson I mean, is it 40s or 50s? Doesn't know whether what he's feeling now. My goodness. And worse than that I saw there's about 30 monks were huddled around this fee that is only 20 toes and a foot
so I started saying why can we have like a roster? You know, this man can wash his feet you know one day or maybe have two banks now for each left one for left foot one for the right for this enough? Can we sense about this? I have a roster every day. Now that's why that's sensible, isn't it? That's how we do things in the West.
How stupid I was
no way upward that stupidity was one day I decided to go and give it a try. See what's going on. So I was on the lookout for residential care to be quick.
I get to actually get off and runs
and I managed to get his small toe
and I was so happy. I don't know I don't know why. But get like a small toe your your teacher and sort of Abby must have really hurt I don't know the products and so we had to put up with
20 people so trying to wash your feet?
Can I get so much happiness? And when did these things happen? you contemplate why what's going on?
I wasn't coming from my head anymore, I was coming from my heart.
I was doing this out of kindness love, this man has given me teachings put me on the right track in monastic life. I wanted to give back
when he started giving the whole heart started to flow out into the world in a beautiful way.
The way of the world is trying to take get what can I get out of this? What can I get out of this? Put his aside what can I get out of this talk? What can I get out of meditation? What can I get out of life?
less aware of the world that is going with the scream of the world?
You know people like there have you ever known anyone happy? Who thinks like their
said What can I get out of this? The way of original Buddhism was what can I give?
What can I let go of what can I share? How much love can I give this word? Freedom?
That's actually the way of the halves. So how much can I give to my teacher? Watching his toasts or whatever washing his robes?
It meant so much to feel rather than saying
sometimes when we were given robes to wash, used to get upset and angry.
Why me? Why did I have even this route and no other monks until people told me it's such a privilege to do this.
Once there was a man who got given so many robes to wash on a day after staying up all night meditating, we used to do this once a week, meditating all night.
After meditating all night as a practice, we go into hours and have our meal when it's finished about 930 We could all go and have a rest. Imagine how tired you felt. Not Steve for 24 hours and having a one meter the day in the hot i jungles.
So this poor monk usin Brisbane
just after the meal when he's about to go back to his heart and have a rest was given all the efforts clothes to wash.
He went ballistic.
He started fuming because his eyes go red. Why me why now. We've been up all night. It's time for us cutting weight so this afternoon or tomorrow
because washing
in the old ways we used to washing the monitors in title was so time consuming. Holding your own water from a well there's no pipe water. There's no soap powder, you had to boil water over fire.
And then you said chip this little pieces of wood from the jackfruit tree to get the sap out of them and boil out that SAP and that was sort of the detergent and you pour that water that brownish water over the robe. Hamlet that beat it with your hands sometimes it used to stick their hands It was so hard leaving it
and to dry those ropes you had to put them over the lines and because it was all natural dyes, you had to be very careful to keep turning
Get otherwise the die was streak.
It was many, many hours is not just putting in a washing machine and going reading a book.
This was really hard work.
So I knew this. Here's a map from Brisbane actually, I knew this man was really upset and fuming and when I went into the, the washing shed, because I knew what was going to happen. He was swearing in ways only Brison people know
he was really upset. And I told him something I did a long time ago. Because when I was once having to push these barrels of Earth Day after day after day for stupid reasons. When a time man saw me getting angry, he came up to me and said,
doing it is easy. Taking about is hard.
And that just clicked on so many light bulbs in my mind. Doing it is easy seeking about is hard. If you want to write something about your desk, in work or in your home, some motto, which you can always remember really works to stop problems in your life. Always think about that right there. Contemplate that doing is easy taking about his heart. So that's what I told his Brisbane man on back when he's complaining and swearing and just really being very upset just said those words. Doing it is easy. Thinking about his heart, and He shut up.
I turned a light bulbs in him as well as the market turned on those light bulbs to me. When I was putting those Barrows as soon as I started thinking about him complaining about it. That Barrow lost half its weight.
It wasn't so burdensome to push any more you try it.
When this Aussie fella was told, don't lie about what she knows things. Just doing it is easy thinking about his heart.
I left him to do it. And he came only afternoon to sang where he said You are right. Doing things is so is he thinking about his heart.
What do you really need to do in life?
Let's do it. This talk this evening is sponsored by Nike, just do it
stop thinking you're fat.
Which is what I learned with that generosity, helping giving serving.
And so I was at a seminar. I don't know what I'm gonna say next. All these talks, which I give on TV and radio and stuff like that. If I thought about it, it'd be so painful. So difficult. I wouldn't survive.
But when I just do it, it's so easy.
When you get this toy, don't think about it. Don't think whether you can afford it or not.
Just do it.
If you're gonna think think I can't afford not to do
is what life is all about sharing, giving.
Giving to your parents. It's Mother's Day soon, isn't it?
How much is your mother given to you?
Year after year after year?
How much do you need to give back to pay off your debt?
Just the
gift from Love.
It doesn't matter what you do. Now, when you shut up and start thinking or not thinking about these things, you start to do things in an original way.
Not what other people do not what you're expected to do. Not getting the dog card and the roses like everyone else do something different.
From the hearts being rebel do something original.
It's one of the greatest gifts I ever saw. One of the greatest acts of charity to my Templin purse. I mentioned this during the retreat.
Okay, when I was cleaning Aloha meditation hall one afternoon
I was sweeping behind a cupboard. It was a cover where we kept all of the robes.
And as I was sweeping I heard someone sneaking.
They were literally sneaking in looking backwards and forwards like a burglar
that I sort of just peeked around the corner, she didn't see me.
And I recognized her straightaway. There was one girl in a village who had been born mentally deformed or deficient rather. She couldn't speak. She couldn't go to school. She would never get a husband. She wouldn't be able to work.
But in those village life that always be accepted as part of things
and her friends are the same age, there was her friend to take her to the festivals and all the ceremonies during the year.
Those friends of hers could understand the only language she spoke, which was a series of grants.
That's all it was. And it was amazing to see her with their friends, the friends understood exactly each grant.
There is like a language which has never been recorded the language of familiarity, growing up with somebody
you understand in your own language.
And I saw this little girl, this mentally deficient girl sneaking into the hall, looking around to make sure that no one so I saw her
when she went up to the shrine room with her hands and
in this Anjali in a very sort of hard way, not in a beautiful way because he couldn't move her body properly.
And put something on a shrine. As soon as you put something on the shroud she ran out. So now I will catch
her while she was gone to see what she put as a gift to her put her on the shrine.
And it was this paper flower. And she had folded.
Origami seen. But my goodness, it was ugly.
Because she couldn't do very much.
But inside it was so beautiful.
Because of how hard it was, for her to put that on there. She was embarrassed in case I'm also see her
she's not kidding. She put that beautiful flower, he was ugly on the outside the beautiful in the middle, because it came. So with such great difficulty.
So when I saw that flower on that shrine,
sort of my eyes went washy. And afterwards, I told him, I said that flower has to stay. If anyone was, I'm gonna get very angry at them. They're gonna be in big trouble with me.
Because that was an act of huge generosity came from this little girl's heart.
She wanted to give to something she loved and respected as I wanted to give to my father, as I want to give to others to your friends, if it's your mother, or your lover, or your children,
acts of giving, real giving from the heart, is an act of friendship and love.
That's why we do these things because we need to do these things, to express these really beautiful feelings which come from our heart. Original Buddhism comes from that place from our heart.
Which is why even with precepts, not just with giving, we keep these precepts, these rules of goodness, not from the outside, we could take it from my heart.
When you get in contact with this, you know starting through generosity starting through feeding your heart was really good. You know, this is good.
I trusted in there. I used to give all sorts of gifts to people. I
don't know if you know, but when I was young, I used to have a motorbike as you can imagine me with a motor with a motorbike.
When I decided to become a monk,
I realized you know you can have your motorbike as a monk.
Imagine these robes, they balloon out and you probably fly off, if you could keep them on that was
so I had to get rid of my motorbike.
So I found a friend of my mother's who was interested in that motorbike. He came around to look at it. I showed it to him. It was a nice motorbike quite expensive.
And I said do you want it? He said, Yeah. So let's go up to settle up because I wanted to do this in front of my mother. So went out to my mother's flat.
And then he asked again, how much and I said, Do you really want it? Do you like I said, Yes, I want it how much
and one of the wonderful moments of my life. I said you can have it for nothing and you have a free.
And the best moment came when I saw the look on his face as he looked at my mother.
And my mother could read the look on his face as I could. And my mother said, Don't worry, he's all right.
He's not crazy. He's just got to be a man doesn't need any money.
My mother wrote to me afterwards to say how much that gift meant to that man.
She was the first time in his life. Anyone had given him anything for free.
anything substantial.
I'd want his house that was worth so much to open another person's heart to give him his sharing.
Remember that story?
Some years ago in purse was a young boy was driving on his BMX bike or something. And he saw these two kids had captured a little rabbits a wild rabbit. And we're not really torturing it, but they were sort of making it hurt teasing it.
And he went out to try and stop these boys and they wouldn't stop. So they said, I'll give you my bike if you give me that rabbit.
So the boys look to the bike, consider a bike that's a really good bike said, Okay, deal. So the guy is in this wild rabbit, which he talked about how to look after, in his home, to heal, to feed to care for when his parents came home that evening, they got an extra outfit in the house. And they were missing the bike. Where's your bike gone. And when he told him the story, they rang up the papers. And it was on the front page of The West Australian.
He was also on the front page of The West Australian the following day, with three new BMX bikes.
Now with people that just stay in the newspaper and just sit around to him,
isn't there was a wonderful story of kindness, a little boy could do that. He went to great lengths to scream at the world and opened up his heart.
You see, that's that's precepts. That's goodness.
There's not sort of, you know, if it was somebody else's partner, because it hurts, you know, that hurts that's torturing somebody, know how relationships work. It's not going stealing or killing
their hurts, you know that that's, you can feel it, you feel it's wrong.
So you don't need to ask anyone else, ask yourself, when you find out right in your heart, the origin of Buddhism, that's where it is. That's where you know what the precepts are just called compassion.
I'm not supposed to be compassionate,
as sometimes say that, you know, there's two types of Buddhism in our type of Buddhism Theravada. We're just looking at our own enlightened, we're not compassionate, we don't worry about anybody else in the world.
Does that make sense to you, or the monks and nuns you've known?
It doesn't matter what type of Buddhism is, that's just Syrian sauce in the real world.
Whether it's the monks in your monasteries here, and the nuns in Dharma Sangha, or the committee members, other people work here yourselves.
I hope you're giving a lot of yourselves
with compassion to others,
coming from the heart and caring for each other, helping looking after serving.
Isn't that the meaning of life, not what you couldn't get out of life or what you can give.
How much you can share? How much you can
give happiness to others.
So is that what compassion is the small giving
isn't a wonderful, compassionate acts of poor gives a wonderful other act of giving, giving other people the benefit of the doubt, giving other people so well, I can't judge you.
Not accept you as you are. Doesn't matter who you are, no matter what you've done. By forgive.
That's a great act of generosity. Because you're giving up your hate.
You're giving the other person the freedom
to change. Strange thing, that when you put another person in the box is your enemy. There'll become your enemy, and they will always act accordingly. When you forgive and give the other person a chance. You're giving them the freedom to change,
to become a better person.
As you do for yourself if you forgive the faults of your past, while those things which you've done which are not proud of
if you forgive those, also giving ourselves a chance to change.
Why do people always become repeat offenders in life?
The reason is because recite identify with those faults, the reasons why they feel guilty. They become that person. They keep on repeating as a way of life.
If we forgive ourselves, we give ourselves freedom.
Now one person once told me
that in Sydney when he was about seven years old, he was playing on one of the many piers in Sydney
with his best friend who lives next door just for boys being boys. He posts his best friend into the water.
Only his best friend drowned,
died.
Imagine the gills that young boy felt
he had to know if you went to the funeral be live next to the parents who lost their seven year old
even though they said you didn't mean it. That
Don't feel bad about it. Is it an accident boys being boys?
Does that help?
You? No, it doesn't. When when he does something really bad and people say don't worry about it. Sometimes it makes it worse. It's called the whole guilt. Now, not only we feel guilty because we've done a terrible thing, where we feel guilty about feeling guilty, because other people tell us not to be fair with W stupid. That's called Double Kill, be wary of there.
This person felt guilty for so many years about having killed somebody.
There's only one day is equal to one day he realize that he didn't need to feel guilty.
There's something inside of him. So with wisdom, that you could give out that guilt, give up that fat and forgive himself.
Without opened up his heart, he was free of that past.
If you come from the theory and the thoughts, you can never give that up, you got to come into your guts.
You don't need to be told by a Buddha or by a bank or by Jesus Christ or anybody to say to this, you know this, this is original stuff.
And you also know that when you forgive,
when you give freedom, you also give peace.
In all the meditation, I've been teaching recently, I tell people to really give yourself that freedom in your mind.
told a story that my six years of mine, I was spending in the North of Thailand in a very remote monastery in up in the hills by myself. And during that time,
I had no teaching other monk at all to so when my meditation started going all over the place. I couldn't watch the press I was thinking about this.
Thinking about that, and mine was wondering is that a struggle
that one day, or whether the Buddha statue in this monastery bowed and made a determination or resolution I told myself
so most of the day, I'm going to really put extra effort into meditating in the disciplining myself into watching my best.
But bide if you want to play around since 3pm to 4pm every afternoon. You can think whatever you like, anything he goes, sexual fantasies, go for it.
Sci Fi thinking about all the movies you've seen in the past, go through whatever you want to do for three to four, you can but the rest of the day, please just watch your best and do it properly. I thought that would work.
And then what happened? The rest of the day I was trying to watch my breath it got even more hot. My mind would sort of want to think about this and sort of stupid ideas would come in you get down and dozy then you get restless can navigate still. I was trying so hard. When he got to 3pm I thought right that's it.
I've done all the work now and I leaned back against the wall of my heart put my feet out. Say okay, whatever want to think about mine, go for it.
Now when I thought about for the next day, I just my dress. I thought I could I was in my mind for one hold our hands so easy just watching the birth go in and go out. Best meditation of the whole day.
My mind was like a teenager.
You want your teenager to come to this center.
banned them from coming.
You must never come to the Buddhist center. That's my place. We don't allow kids in here. You can't come
why not? I'll tell you just don't go
you know that teenager in your mind?
What's your breath? Watch your breath. I've never done it. Okay, do whatever you want.
And that's so still. Why cuz you're giving yourself freedom.
Creative and controlling judging. You're going against the stream of the world, which thinks that happiness comes from chasing the rainbow.
From striving from doing from getting happiness.
You're not giving your mind freedom at all.
You're hating yourself.
You're hating this moment. You're hating the wandering mind. You're hating all of this. Now what do you never get peace?
So you say those words of loving kindness won't remind
the door of my house open to come in seeking about all sorts of unwholesome things come in.
When you let go, everything stops. Why?
Because you're going into the heart of things. So alive
To freedom
not to control.
When you come to the heart of things, it's not only giving you give yourself the meditation or expecting anything in return, that's real giving. Anyone who gives expecting a name to be recorded in the newsletter, are expecting their names to be put out in a brass plaque or even better in neon lights. President Saul gave a $10 today to the Buddhist society.
That's not giving us
that's a deal.
I'll give if you give me something back here.
Real giving, he's expecting nothing. Real meditation is you just give yourself this half an hour meditation expecting nothing back in return. Giving yourself to the breath, no matter what happens.
Real love the two of my hearts open to man, no matter what you do.
Real freedom
means real peace.
You find your mind stops.
You come to the heart. Because you're not pushing your way.
In the opposite direction. You're going against the screams of the world.
And then you come to this beautiful peace inside of you. The hearts of all religions, the origin of things, in giving, in rush, in stillness, all the same words.
To get is to be free. To free is to let go of my house open to be free.
Giving peace to your mind. You're at peace with your mind. Or in your meditation do make war with your mind
is the weapon of mass destruction you.
So you're at peace with the world.
They all come the source of things, your heart,
inside your mind, stillness, emptiness, whatever used to call it. When you know that you know freedom. You know why people give donations in a box as part of nibbana you know why people keep precepts. Just the heart opening in freedom.
You know why people meditate so easily, so beautifully. They just let go.
Let go and let go and let go and let go.
And the hardest thing is you find all the happiness you'd ever want to know about.
Bliss, this is feasible. Please his last malicious piece. Please cancel giving.
It's like the ceremony I gave in the retreat the last similarly, life is like being in a hot air balloon. They've got all this baggage in your basket is why I said no to your basket cases.
And your job is to empty your basket of all the weights and the baggage and the attachments and the stuff you carry around. So you throw out the things he is throwing out things in your life. That's called giving, forgiving, loving,
giving to others compassion, freedom.
And the more you give out, the higher you go in your balloon. Do you have less baggage as attachments, less problems.
You always get to a stage on the past where you go so high it's this will be no this is higher to go
look around your basket.
And this is nothing else in there.
Until you realize basket us for the basketball to throw the basket out
and they go really high then when you throw the basket out your body
and is this you hanging onto the ropes. You can't go any higher. And the last stage to go really high. Do you have to throw you out when you throw you out and then the balloon goes high into the barn around.
So you go to new barn just by slowing things out stimuli the balloon, all your baggage past future attachments. So more out until you finally got your basket and you lift. That's where the basket and that's where you will.
That's the end of things. That's the origin
as the original petition in the heart, not in the words, not in the texts, not in the different colored robes. Not in agendas matter. Nance
right inside you. Thank you
