Smart thinking, boy wonder!

Smart Thinking, Boy Wonder by Ajahn Brahm Okay. I'm settling down now for this evening's talk. I was given a number of suggestions for this evening's talk, and I've allowed them just to be all put together in my brain. And what the result came out was through the experience I had some years ago, when I was invited to give a talk as part of an Amnesty International function. They were talking about, I think, violence or anger in the world, and they had the former Archbishop Connelly and myself, and there's a couple of other people as well. I can't remember who they were now, and they called it great thinkers on this subject. So I was supposed to be a great thinker, and I objected because I don't think very much. So I'm really a quiet non thinker because when you read it, you're not thinking so much. But. It gave me. The idea of the talk is not that great thinking. What does that actually mean? Because the opposite of great thinking is stupid thinking. And a stupid thinking is, uh, takes in a lot of the subjects which people ask me to talk about things like jealousy, right, for finding those sorts of stuff, which creates lots of suffering for people in this world, because people live by their thoughts and they fashion their world by their thoughts. The thinking is such an important part to our happiness or to our pain that we're going to talk about thinking this evening, or rather wise thinking, or rather smart thinking. As soon as I had the idea of smart thinking, I remembered one of my heroes when I was a kid, Batman and Robin, because I would always turn around to Robin and says, smart thinking boy wonder. So this is where we find what that really means. Smart thinking boy wonder what is smart thinking? First of all, the best type of thought, the smartest thought, the best thought of all is silence. In other words, no thought. Because we think so much, we never see what's really happening and our thoughts just too often and negative. It's amazing what you can understand in silence when all the thinking stops. Because when we just listen to the thinking in our mind, it's thought. Reality is one step removed from the real world. Is our description, how we interpret it, how we try and make sense of it. But it's not the real world. If you think about Ajahn Brown, who is he anyway? The experience and the thoughts are two different things altogether, and you'll find that in life. So sometimes, though, we should understand that the thinking is very deceptive and is much more happiness in silence. But for many that's a big thing to ask. So we'll go to the next stage for one step backwards towards suffering. If you're going to think at all, at least, why don't you think good, positive, nice thoughts? Because if you think positive thoughts and you can do this, at least you create happiness instead of the misery in this world. To tell you what I mean that way. Somebody asked me, can we talk about jealousy? What is jealousy is actually just a whole bunch of stupid thoughts which have no real meaning. When I was in Singapore last week, that sister watching my arm was here instead because I was up there teaching lots and lots of talks at the Zen conference, which I was at. One of my presentations was Buddha in the office, because as you know that for many years I tried to make these Buddhist teachings something which is applicable to your daily life. So you can come here, you can be entertained by a few jokes, be inspired, but also be able to go home and become better people. And many of you live half your lives in an office. Even I live most of my life in an office these days. In fact, this was it. Somebody told me they just got a letter or, uh, from their son. He got a job. He's out of work for weeks and months, and he finally got a job in the office in Kalgoorlie somewhere, until his father found out what office it was. It was the unemployment office. He was just getting the dole. But the office work. I say that some of the problems is like the politics, and the politics is about promotion and who's going to get what job and where. We're so jealous as someone else who gets preferred ahead of us, who gets a promotion, who gets the plum job. And I was telling people that that stupid thinking, wise thinking is to understand if somebody else gets promoted above you, then they're the ones who have to do all the extra work. No one in their right mind in my monastery wants to get promoted to being abbot. When I say how hard I was at work about a year ago when we had this tsunami in Penang, because I was in Penang that day, my second round at entertainment, I was very worried and concerned because if I had been swept away, he would have to be abbot. That's the only reason why he rang straight away. It's like a bubble rice bubble, right? It was not compassionate. It was more like concern and worry. Because sometimes we think, oh, wouldn't it be great to get that better job? And it's stupid because if you get that better job, it's not better at all. It's just different, that's all. And the jealousy, which is like thinking, oh, if only I would like her. Oh, if only I could give a talk like Edinburgh. Please don't try and give it. That's my biggest mistake. Opening my mouth now I'm not allowed to close it. People sometimes bring up my first get into my hall at 630 in the morning to have some breakfast, and straightaway telephone call from Rajan Brown. Was I saying last week that somebody rang up because the dog died? Another person rang up from United States because they're having some marital trouble. And I get that every morning at 630. And it's too late to die. It's a crazy life I live, so don't ever try and be successful. That's the worst thing you can ever do. Because you. Well, is it really? And the answer is, of course. No. If you start thinking about it, you think, oh, the other person would always be happier than I am. And some of you heard this classic story from my life. Actually, it's not in the book of opening the door of your heart. Maybe I should write chapter two to. This is one of the stories which really deserves to be in that book. The story. They're not here today. I don't think the two tigers, two sisters who came to see me many years ago. And after the meal, you know, they feed them back the meal there to soften me up. And then they ask all these tough questions afterwards. And they came to have some counseling. And they were sisters. They came together. The first one, her problem was her husband. She is having a terrible marriage. Basically, she wants to get divorced. And so I think I was talking backwards and forwards and about such stuff. No, actually, that's, uh, I heard some nice marriage jokes when I was in Singapore. You know that, um, they say that love is blind and that marriage is the result of love. So really, marriage is an institution for the blind. But, uh. I got to tell that next time I marry somebody. Let me say that when you're going out with your future partner, you hold her hand out of love. When you marry, you hold her hand out of self-defence. Uh, yeah. I think I'd better go down that path. It is no good. But anyhow, that she was having trouble with her husband. And then after I sort of calmed her down and said, well, it's not that bad, you know, being married. And then I calmed her down and I asked her, sister, what's your problem? And her sister's problem? She was single. She couldn't find a husband. And so this solution came to me as a brainwave. But I wouldn't buy it. I said, you've got a husband you don't want. She wants to add his own voice. Your sister's anyway. But that was just messing around in the end. Just. I told him this is where I started. That lovely way of looking at life. I say you, madam, with a husband, you've got married persons suffering. You sister who's got no husband, you got single persons suffering. That's all it is. And if you find a husband, you won't have a single person suffering again. You'd have married persons suffering. If you get divorced and get rid of your wife or husband, rather, you won't have married person suffering ever again. But you'll have a single person suffering. But isn't that a beautiful way to actually looking at what happens when we try and change our external situations, rather than changing our mind? We might change our job, we might change our marital status. We might have even changed from being a layperson to a monk, or more back to a lay person. Whatever you want to do, move jobs. If you move from Australia knows to say, uh, London, a big city. Sure. You know, you've got sort of you've got haven't got Dalziel suffering anymore, but then you have like big city suffering instead. So when we think about Sharesies, that's really the answer there. You're jealous because you'd think, oh, if you were like them, if only I could do what they do. But really, you're just changing one type of suffering for another type of suffering. Some people are working and they want to give up work. Some people haven't got a job and they're looking desperately for a job. Isn't that the case? Sometimes we just changing one from a suffering to another. So instead of being jealous, we should be wise. And what the wise is saying all this thinking about. Oh, once I do this, then it'll be wonderful. Be beautiful, be happy. This is what I do. Sometimes I think, oh, if I wasn't the abbot, if I any sort of somebody else was the abbot. I remember just tomato saying this years ago. He's the Abbot Monastery in England. He said, you know, I'm just so fed up with all these people coming to ask me questions. One day I'm going to do something really scandalous. He said, so now we will come. Listen to me anymore. I can have a peaceful life. But of course, monks can't. Good manners can't do anything scandalous. But anyhow, the idea is that sometimes we think it's not the job you have to do. It's not. The position in the company is not your agenda. It's not your situation you have to be in right now. That isn't the problem, because if you change it, you just change one type of suffering for another type of suffering. But you can actually end all suffering by this beautiful acceptance. Which is why I titled that book Opening the Door of Your Heart. It was the story of my father who said, whatever you do in your life, stand the door of my house, he said. But later I adapted it to the door of my heart will always be open to you. Now that wasn't just loving kindness, that was wisdom there. This moment, my job, my situation, what I was happening to me. My cancer. Go to jail, dying. Somebody else dying. Having to work so hard. Having no work at all. The situation is not important. What's important is our attitude towards it. Whether we can be at peace. Embrace this moment as it is. Embrace being an ABBA. Having to work so hard. My heart, my door, my heart is open to that. Sure, there's a lot of tiredness, but there's a lot of joy as well. And if no, I have nothing to do. Well, sure, there's no nobody likes me. But I can be peaceful. Whatever it is, if you embrace this moment, there's always an incredible sense of peace and stillness and most importantly, freedom. You don't need to change your job to be free. You don't need to change your illness to be free. You don't need to go another place to be free, because freedom is not found with people you like, or getting the best job or being rich. Freedom can only happen right now with being at peace with where you are. Every time we run and go somewhere else, where are we going to? You can look where you're going to, but I like to look where I've been running from. What I've been running away from. All your desires and aspirations. Your goals, your dreams. Yeah, you're chasing something, but you're also running away from something else. So instead of looking for what you're chasing and where you're heading. How about looking? What are we running away from? And in the end, we find we're running away from right here, right now. And that's always a place we've been running away to the goals of the destination. That's not the important point, is where you're coming from, what you're running from. That's what we should be looking for. And what we're running away from is this present moment here and now. We're running away from contentment, from peace, from stillness. No wonder we never found happiness or stillness. Peace of mind. So after a while, we learn how to stop thinking and just to know and to realize this moment as it is just here in North America on a Friday night. This is good enough. When you start thinking it's good enough, it's more than good enough, because once it's good enough, you have no work to do any more. You stop thinking and become beautifully silent. So where's the room for jealousy? Jealousy is just unwise. Thinking is a fault finding fault, finding with your position, measuring yourself against somebody else. And why do you always measure that way? And I sometimes that this idea of measuring because I was a scientist before a physicist, sometimes you put so much effort into measuring accurately, but you can't really measure accurately. I remember Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, but later on I learned Buddha's uncertainty principle. How can you judge anybody? Even knowing yourself is hard enough. So if you can't judge, how can you actually think? Sometimes we think, oh, that person's a bastard. That person's so wonderful, this person's stupid. But that guy is really sharp. Is that really a wise judgment? Who's doing the measurement anyway? And how can you? So I learned as a Buddhist a long time ago not to measure my friends. And then after I learned not to measure my friends, to accept them as they are and to enjoy them as they are. When I didn't measure them, I gave them a sense of freedom to be who they are, and they showed me parts of them I never expected, like their marks in my monastery. I'd try not to measure them. We just finished our rounds retreat on Wednesday. You know, in a monastery, we don't give report cards. You know, like you do in school. At the end of a school term, you give a report card a b c d e o f. It might be fun, actually, to give a report to all my monks. Give them a card swelling. But we can't do that because how can you measure other people? Sometimes we think, oh, this guy's a great meditator or she can't meditate at all. And this girl is really wise and compassionate. But this one isn't. But is that really fair? Many years ago, I looked at the simile of a school because I was a school teacher before I was a monk, and I had to measure kids in the school in one year. I was a school teacher. You know what I did? I had a class and had them for one period a week at the end of the term, how they knew them. So I literally what I did, I wrote down is these meaningless words. Now. Quite good. Now. All right. Moderate. And as soon as I had 30 of these names, which meant nothing, I just put them one after the other against each name, except for the other kids who really stood out at the top. And the naughty kids. Everyone else just got this moderate or good enough. Could do better, but you can sell it to anyone, can't you? And it was actually meaningless because I could not judge his people. And his judging is part of thinking. So often that thinking is like measuring life or measuring somebody else. And after I think, how can I do that? But if you are going to charge someone, if you are going to measure them, why don't you measure them? Give them the benefit of the doubt. This is not the case in the Western legal system. People are innocent until proven guilty. Except if they're your partner. So why can't we just give life the benefit of the doubt? And that's one of the positive thoughts. If you're going to think at all, you might as well think in a positive light. And if you think in a positive light, that's always looking at the bright side, the best side is always something you can see which is good in people or good in life. Yeah. So I have to work hard as a monk. And I say this, this last weekend, I think I counted how many hours I did each day. I think it was 16 hours a day on Saturday and a 14 hour day on Sunday. Because it was Sunday, I didn't work so hard. Now it's actually from early morning. Just always being with people, asking their answering their questions for such a long time. I's not wonderful to be able to serve so long. Sometimes people say, oh, that must be so tiring. I say, no, it's inspiring. Because you can teach and you can lead people. I told people in when you're like Buddha in the office, I say, when you start a new job, or actually the series of things which happen in the job are measured by the four aspirations, you know, the four aspirations, actually, you know, because I invented this in Singapore, the four aspirations. You start, you start in life when you go to sort of a new job with inspiration. And that's usually comes close with aspiration. When you want to do something, you are inspired and you aspire to do something. People join our committee the same. They get inspired by these talks of this Buddhist society. Then they aspire to help for the next generation, which soon comes afterwards is called desperation. Well, it doesn't work well, you get fed up. And of course, you know the aspiration is expiration when you leave. And so often that's the series, the source of the series, which we all go to, whether it's in a new job, a relationship, aspiration, inspiration, desperation, expiration, the false pressures of life. But it does not have to be that way. Why? When we get inspired, we aspire. Why do we always get despair afterwards with what we do and especially like, why does the, you know, some communities or religious groups or, you know, you come in and it's just so inspiring and so wonderful. And why is it that sometimes it all falls apart? Like in the relationship was so good at the beginning. What is that soap goodness and inspiration gone. And it's gone because you haven't looked after it. So often you know, because it's wrong thinking. Sometimes we think, oh, it's going to be all right forever and ever. Oh, it's so wonderful. But, you know, it's our attitude which makes it beautiful. Beauty is not out there. Beauty is inside of you. It's what you add onto this world. For example, if you ever go to my monastery, you find that on our shrine, there's three new Buddha statues and his Buddha statues. I don't think I said as two weeks ago. I don't think so. These two Buddha statues were offered by a Thai lady who went all the way to Bangkok to offer these two statues. Some banks think they're ugly because they're gaudy and they're like simple, simple Buddha statues. But I put them up there not because I like the way they look, because I like where they came from. Because a couple of people or a group of people went all the way to Thailand, especially to get those statues for us. And I don't care if they look like Mickey Mouse. Simply because. Simply because they put so much effort and so much love to get them. That's beautiful for me. And so I've got like a different character of beauty. I can see beauty in something which is ugly sometimes because it doesn't matter. What's on the outside is something in the inside which you can see that sometimes. Why you can look at a the situation which you have in life, maybe your husband, your wife, your job. You can if you're a wise thinker. And this is what I mean by a great thinker, you can see beauty in anything. And this is actually part of the way I've taught in my life and the way I have practicing, that whatever happens to you, you can always find something which is joyful. Last Wednesday, I was teaching at a cancer support association in Qatar. So they invite me there once every year. And actually that, you know, they and the Cancer Support Association have quite a high turnover. So there's always new people to listen to my jokes. It's all right to laugh. It's called black humour because I always dye the lashes that have already died. You've got a new lot next time. There's nothing wrong with dying. What do you expect there will be. Go to the Cancer Support Association if they're going to live for a long time. So what's wrong with dying? Dying is fun. You don't have any worries anymore. Solves all the problems we did. And also, you know, when you're a good person, you go to heaven afterwards. If you're not a good person, you can always bribe someone by giving a big donation before you die. That's what a lot of people do, you know. They get really guilty at the very end. But of course, you just can't do any bribery. The point is that sometimes when a person's hard enough, they're all the less sickly. And isn't quality of life not much good? What's wrong with letting them go? So then dying is a wonderful thing. It's either ending. The ending of a day is the most beautiful time, I think, anyway, especially here in Perth. The end of the day, you look out at the ocean and you see these amazing sunsets, but you don't see the sunset in the morning or midday. You only see it at the end of the day. So sometimes death can be just so beautiful, so inspiring. And I've seen many inspiring deaths in my life. And maybe that I'll try my best when I try to make it inspiring and good fun. Maybe just tell a joke at the end. Whatever it is, I don't know. But anyhow, you've probably heard it before anyway, but never mind. But the point is, you could look at anything with a sort of. With a sense of fun, with the sense of joy. It's just what we add to it is a problem. And so that our thinking needs to be changed, needs to be developed. So whatever happens to us in life. Now if it's a cancer, we've got a great now I've got time to rest because when you're sick, you can go into bed and people look after you and you don't have to do anything. They're really kind. And when you're about to die, people come and say sorry for all the wrong things they've done before. They always want to make amends. It's beautiful when you die. Get all your family to come and see you. If you want to have your family come and visit you and they haven't visited you for a long time, just send them an email saying, I'm sick. I'm dying. I do not lie because everyone is dying. Just takes a little bit longer than other people. It's true, isn't it? You don't lie that breaking your precepts will all die. I'm dying. So there's lots of benefits on these things. So this is what I'm saying. Then sometimes the way we use our thoughts, which is creating more unhappiness for ourselves. And I can't see the purpose of that. So we're not actually develop our soul to see something positive with whatever happens. If you miss your plane, then you've got a wonderful chance to have a rest in the airport. And if something goes wrong, so somebody, for example, steals your car. Isn't that wonderful? Now I can exercise because I needed to exercise a lot. You know, just too fat. And again, if I'm too fat, if any of you notice I've gained weight during my retreat, it's not my fault. It's your fault. You feed me too much. And anyway, what's wrong with being fat? Sometimes in the old days, we actually liked the butter. You know that fat butter. You know, so that's our tradition to be fat in Buddhism, so you don't have to worry about it. I was somebody once said that there was this study which was done in the UK years ago. I only keep those studies which actually that support my my attitudes and views, because this particular study was saying that they had some people had high cholesterol and they tested out that people with high cholesterol who went on one of these diets and those who didn't. To see whether it actually affected their longevity. And they did a long study. Many people, they found it didn't affect your longevity at all. The health benefits from eating health food were completely outweighed or balanced by being depressed by not getting the food you like. Makes a lot of sense, isn't it? People like to hear that. I thought it was a great, great night. So the point is that sometimes it's a thinking which kills us, the worrying. You know that famous joke? I've told it so many times, but I can't help repeating it because this was from George Burns, 99 years old. It was the 99th birthday. Said this because the interviewer is saying you are still drinking alcohol, whiskey, lots of it. Every day you're eating all this junk food, you know, McDonald's and KFC, you're smoking and you're not exercising. You're staying up late at night, he said. Aren't you worried about your lifestyle? And his response was, I'm not worried about my lifestyle. My wife was and she died 20 years ago. It's a worry which kills you more than anything else, which is a bad thinking. So if you're actually jealous of somebody, why? Goodness, you're killing yourself. You know, thinking is causing stress. It's not the job you're doing which causes the stress, is the thinking about it causes the stress. That is the problem. This story is in my book. It's the story of like pushing the wheelbarrows. Because this was the time that Gentile was building his monastery, and it was done by monk power. If he had enough money to get contractors. But it was cheaper having monks, and actually I needed the exercise and needed to make good karma. So thank you very much my teacher, for making me work. But like many people, I thought I didn't become a monk to push wheelbarrows. I became a monk to meditate, to go to some nice cave and sit for hours. In the deepest of meditations I learned how to fly through the air, not learn how to push wheelbarrows. What do you want to be a mouth for that for? But there I was, in the jungles of Thailand with swarms of mosquitoes around you, sweating, being made to work for about 830 9:00 in the morning till 10 p.m. at night with no other meal. Just work, work, work. That was tough, but I had faith. But even faith doesn't last long. After three days of that, I had enough. But fortunately. Fortunately, by three days we'd moved the Earth, which again, China wanted us to move. And of course, you know, we always have our goals. We think only another day, only another half a day, and then another hour. Then we're finished. Now that's dangerous thinking about goals. Because if we think about goals where this is going to be finished, you're asking for trouble. Because as your child went to another monastery the next morning, actually, and Liam was the second monk, he was in charge. He told us, no, the earth's in the wrong place. Move it. Three more days of hard work. Sweating, being bitten by mosquitoes. Tired when? I should have been meditating for three days. We slept. And after only three days. That's not long. And I still had my face. And after three days we'd finished. Ah, at last! Then that entire came back. You know the story. You put it in the wrong place. I told you over there. Move it! Now. That's what I lost it. Quite understandable. But I started complaining. Swearing because you could. One of those things about being a foreign monk. You could swear in your own language and no one could understand what you're saying. Unfortunately, they may not understand the words, but they can see your body language. They knew I was really suffering another three days of this. When is it going to end? And that was when one of the monks came out to me. And I really thank him for the rest of my life, what he said, because what he said to me, he said, look, pushing the wheelbarrows is easy. Thinking about it is a difficult part. I'm such a wonderful, simple Buddhist teaching. That's why I'm sharing it with you again, because that was selfish. So much suffering and pain in life. Pushing the wheelbarrows is easy. Thinking about it is a difficult part and I understood what he said. I stopped thinking about pushing the wheelbarrows. I just did it. Just pushed them enough. They got lighter. I had the same amount of dirt in them, but because I wasn't complaining and thinking all the time, I actually had more energy. And those three days went very quickly when you don't think about it. But I learned so much. I'll probably learn more from that experience than weeks and months of sitting quietly in the lotus position, meditating on my breath. It was the attitude problem which I had because I didn't just learn how to push wheelbarrows. I learned about life being a habit. Thinking about it is a hard part. Doing it is very easy. Sometimes you give talks in 3004 thousand people. Isn't that scary? It is if you think about it. Or going on live TV. What happens if you pick your nose and then by the time you think know what you're doing, it's too late. It's all over. Southeast Asia? Actually, I just remembered. Now, what I just did is being videoed. This is all on the internet now. Are. But thinking about it is the difficult part. And that's why people have fear. Fear of speaking in public. Fear of going to an interview. Fear of going to an examination for fear of having a tennis match. Fear of a court case. Actually, the experience itself is not bad as of thinking about it. What kills you? Even going to the doctor to have a biopsy? You've got a little lump somewhere. Ah. So thinking about is a killer, isn't it? Sometimes people don't sleep at night and they can get some tests from the doctors. Trouble is that, you know, they go for the tests and the doctor says, we're not quite sure. We'll give you another test. That's more sleepless nights. The other point is the actual procedures itself a very easy. And even having cancer is easy. Even dying is easy is a thinking about it as a problem. So why can't we stop this bad thinking? And if we're going to think at all, think positively. A great opportunity to push a wheelbarrow, to make some good karma, to do something for the world. A great opportunity being sick. Because when I'm sick or when you're sick, all of your loved ones, your friends and relatives have got an opportunity to show their compassion and care to what any sick people in this world. Who can we be kind to? It's a great thing being stupid. As I said to that schoolchild many years ago, I told a story in Singapore last week because in Singapore, many of them are Mahayana Buddhists. And Mahayana Buddhists have the idea of a bodhisattvas, someone who sacrifices even their life for the happiness of other beings. So at the end of the year, one of the kids in my class came bottom. This one kid would have to do every year. He can't. 30th in my class of 30. So when I gave out the report cards, you can imagine how he felt you'd have to face his parents as the bottom of the class. But also, hear me look so depressed from being a kind teacher. I thought I kind of cheer him up. I went up to this poor, poor young boy and said. I explained to him about Buddha's of the New Year as a Buddhist, as a school teacher, and I spent him about Bodhisattva, a bodhisattvas, someone who sacrificed their own well-being for the sake of others. And that's you. You're taking this terrible position of bottom of the class, so no one else has to endure this ignominy, this pain that. I said, you're such a kind person. Of all the children in this class, you have taken this terrible position on yourself. Why are you just so compassionate and so kind? You deserve a medal. We should have a special prize for you. And of course, you thought I was crazy, which was half true. But what it did was it cheered him up. It got him out of his negative thinking about. Oh, isn't it terrible? And bottom of the class. It is where jealousy comes from. When you think that you know you're the ugly one. You know you're the stupid one. You're the hopeless one. You can't do anything. Oh, you're so lucky. Being the ugly one. Being the stupid one. Being the hopeless one. People can leave you alone. You can have some peace at last. And actually, it's interesting because being a monkey do cancel all sorts of people. Every now and again you get some sort of TV star or movie star or someone, someone who's very blessed with beauty or being really handsome and strong. Now you get to know what it's like to be like that. You're being very, very beautiful. It's a terrible. Almost like a burden on a woman. Being sort of attractive and famous is a terrible burden on a man. When you actually learn what it's like, you wouldn't want that for the world. So just being you is the very best. In fact, you couldn't do better than who you are. When you think like that. You have peace and you have contentment. And this positive thinking that whatever is happening to your life, whoever you are, is wonderful and you can make so much out of being who you are, you know, being who you are. It is called contentment. It's called coming home. It's called peace. This is not the end of a life, not as mean death. Black enlightenment, being at peace with yourself, one with yourself, content with yourself, warts and all. So we have this beautiful positive thinking in Buddhism. The Buddha said that the only thing he teaches is suffering and the end of suffering. That's why all these talks I give here sometimes say, what's this got to do with Buddhism? Can we have some more formal Buddhism, you know, dependent origination for noble Truths, three characteristics or whatever, all this theoretical stuff. But yeah, it is theoretical stuff, but put down into the earth, ending your suffering and your pain and giving you happiness and peace and joy. So we work hard because that's our duty. But we never complain. No, we don't even complain. In our mind, it's too much fault finding in our world. If you could change it, do it. If you can't change it. Be at peace with it. And what you can't change. It's not. You're just being at peace with it. You can actually grow and learn from it. Sometimes you might be married to someone who's, you know, don't know why you got married to them, but there you are. You're stuck with them for the time being. Sometimes they may not be the best. They may not be so caring. They may be even smelly. But if they are, there's always something you can do about it. You can always stuff some cotton wool in your nose, I don't know. Or you can make suggestions to them. Sometimes those suggestions work, sometimes they don't work. But sometimes at least you can be kind. What was it? That story from Mother Teresa when she picked up this man on the streets of Calcutta who had a cancer? Then it was really stinking like rotten flesh can only stink. I don't know that I smelled rotten flesh many times when he used to go to see autopsies in Thailand. And that's. I don't know what it is. This this smell of human death has got something psychological to it as well. It's the most offensive smell you can possibly have. This in my book. All the smells I smell, that's the worst one. And, you know, sometimes you you wonder why that is. It must be something psychological. Is it reminds you of your own death or something which is genetically, uh, put into us. I actually forgot what my train of thought was. Now, you see, because this is. I was talking about thinking and like being silent. Sometimes you just go back into your silent thought and forget what we're thinking about in the first place. But never mind. That's what happens without thinking, right? Mother Teresa, thank you very much. Yes I do. Oh, you are so kind. And is it wonderful that I actually forgot my train of thought? Because if I hadn't stopped, my train of thought wouldn't have given the opportunity up for Jenny to make some good karma this evening in public. So it was a wonderful thing that I. I stopped my train of thought. So you never get embarrassed about making mistakes like this because you can always do something with your mistake. So thank you for that. Was it Mother Theresa? Yes, mother Theresa, it's many persons who peeking out from the street because the cancers have got lots of especially untreated cancers. Lots of stuff. And then people ask them afterwards when you sort of, you know, offended or repelled by the smell of that man who'd been in the gutter literally for days on end, and she said, no, I didn't even think about her, his smell. I just felt about his pain and what he needed. And I was a beautiful story there that sometimes what are we focusing on? If somebody smells how it is focusing on one thing and not thinking about other things, why is it we focus on like this bad smell rather than the other pain or, you know, something else about them? Why is it we always focus on the faults? So after a while there might be there might be something else. So, you know, there is a of that flower we have in Australia. I remember I see he's here this evening. He used to do the flowers every week. And one day when I came in here, uh, just on a Friday afternoon, getting ready for the talk, I smell literally like what? Smelled like dog shit. And I had to look at my shoes. I thought I stepped in something on the way in here, but I checked my shoes. I didn't bring it in, and I checked everyone else's shoes. I couldn't smell any of that dog poo on their shoes either. I was ready because he could really. It was really strong. And then I sort of literally follow my nose, sniffed around to find out what the sniff was. The smell was coming from, and there it was in the face of flowers, because one of these flowers was just so yellow and beautiful and delicate, but it smelt of dog poo. Now that's actually one of the flowers we have in Western Australia, because it is used that actually it is, um, pollinated by flies instead of bees. And it used actually to attract the flies. They have to attract the flies flutter to get the pollen from one flower to another. So it exudes this beautiful fragrance. And the person who actually bought it that day had a cold so he could smell it look nice. He can smell it. So even though it smells like dog poo, you can actually sort of looking at the smell, looking at something else. There's something beautiful there. It's a beautiful flower which belongs in our ecosystem. They may be might not be the nicest flower to smell, but it certainly was a very beautiful flower to look at. So why do we focus on one thing to the exclusion of others? Because we're all like that flower, really, aren't we? There's always a part of us which smells of dog poo and other parts which are very beautiful. You can never find a perfect flower. You can never find a perfect partner. You never find a perfect job. There'll always be some part of your job, which is dog poo. And the other part which is so beautiful and wonderful and rewarding. If it was a perfect job, then why would they need to pay you? Remember your payment. Your salary is a bribe for doing something you don't like doing. If anyone comes in and says you really enjoy your job, I'm going to tell your boss they're going to cut your pay. Are you enjoying the job? So the point of this is, if we look upon the way we use our thought, we can actually train our thoughts to look at that positive, beautiful side. Whenever we see one of those flowers, we can look for the beautiful, frequently petals and the rich colours. We don't have just to look at a smile. If you've got a husband who smells. And I say this because someone asked me to talk about this tonight, they actually have got a husband who smells. How about looking at another part of him? His beauty, his tenderness, his humanity, his softness. Look at that. And I'll tell you something. If you look at their beauty, their kindness or goodness, you will find the smell will decrease. It happens that way. Whatever you focus on tends to grow. You actually create your world. Each one of us, never a Christian, comes up and say, who created the world? A Buddhist always say you did. And that's a very profound saying. So understand how you create your world. You can create the heaven or hell just with the way you use your thinking. And much of our practice as a Buddhist, as a practice, the way we are conditioned to, is the way we come and listen to this brainwashing every Friday night. The. And the way you enter your mind. With meditation, you actually recondition yourself to see something positive in the world. You get sick. Marvellous. Time for other people to be compassionate towards me. You die. Marvellous. Teaching people the value of life and you lose your job. Marvellous. Now you've got time to serve at our Buddhist centre. And it's lots of things which you can do later on. I'm sure our presence. I will tell you what you can do if you lose your job. So you've got a chance to make lots of merit. Whatever happens to you in life, there's always a good way of thinking about it. So why do you think the bad way? It's just bad habit, that's all it is. Creating, suffering for yourself. More pain for yourself. More pain for others. Fortunately, I've seen many, many people in my life. I've actually taken these teachings to heart. And terrible things happen to them. But they're always a piece with it. It's as if they've got not just a wheelbarrow to push, but a whole truck, a whole train load of dirt to push. I just get ahead and do it. Thinking about it. It's a hard part. Doing it is so easy. When I go off to teach, I look at my schedule some time and it doesn't bear thinking about it, so I don't think about it. Just do it. Sometimes I look at all the jobs I was supposed to be doing. You know, global conference next year, I'm supposed to be organizing retreat center building. As a book, I'm supposed to be proofreading the next beautiful breath about my meditation teachings. Running a monastery, doing this, doing that doesn't bear thinking about it. So you just then you find your life is so easy. And if you stop and meditate, how many people come up? I can't meditate. Look, stop thinking about it. Just do it. Meditation is easy when you don't think about things. What are you going to think about it? Think positive. I can meditate, I can meditate, I can meditate, I can meditate. Instead of saying I can't. So whatever you're doing in life, change the way you think. And if you want to know how you do this, keep coming here long enough. Friday night. Get the tape. Play it to yourself subliminally after you go to sleep. It's completely brainwashed into you. And then you find not only can you live with a partner in life, even if they do smell, you see something else beautiful in them, even if they're not the best, you can actually appreciate that part of them inside them, which is the nice part. You look at the good part inside another person. In Buddhism, we call that the Buddha nature. Everybody has got Buddha nature. Every experience has got Buddha nature. Everything has got this purity. The Buddha is just like a word for somebody pure, noble, wonderful, beautiful. Everything has got that. Even dog poo. You know, that's fertilizer for your mango tree all day. Citrus and death has got this Buddha nature. When things go wrong. At the time, you may wrongly think, oh, this is terrible, or what's happened to me? I say sometimes, aren't you lucky? So fortunate to have that beautiful experience to learn. The tough part of life is where we learn how to love. People I know who have had it easy don't know what love is. I don't know what compassion is, how to open their heart. Sometimes it's a disappointments. The pains, the deep frustrations. Sometimes is the agony of life which opens us out. At least it gives you the opportunity to do so. So when these things happened, I don't just think about it. If you do welcome it, imagine that anything which happens to you in life, you can welcome it. Sickness, pain. Even death. Welcome. Then how on earth can you ever have any stuttering anymore? How you have peace and freedom. Other people you see. Sometimes people come to me. Rapists. Murderers. People who done terrible things. And you welcome them. You see in their eyes, as the first person in years who's welcomed them, has treated them as a person, not a criminal. That's why when you approach some some people in jail who have done those terrible crimes, and you look at them with welcoming justice, how it's just such a rare thing. They cry. They know that someone has seen something in them which other people haven't seen for years. Healing starts. So whoever you meet in life, if you welcome them, you look at their beautiful Buddha nature inside. That's what grows. That's what they show to you. And then you can be a friend to anybody. You have no enemies left in the world. No one can be your enemy. They may try because of your heart. You will melt everybody. You're melting life. You're melting life into this beautiful. Nutritious soup. You may not taste nice, but it's good for you. So this is about how to change the way we think. To train ourselves. Every time you have a bad thought and negative thought, how to stop it? Don't think like that. Try to look for the potential in every experiences you have in life, even a divorce. You know what happens in a divorce. You learn about what relationships are. You look back and say, well, maybe next time I won't be so critical. I really watch the way I speak because that's really. I'm a big time hurt. Next time I'll be a bit more soft and careful. You can learn so much about what a relationship truly is. We didn't have that experience. Sometimes you just don't know. So anything which happens, we can make it beautiful. This is how we make a beautiful world. This is how you are one of the great thinkers. Or again, as Batman said to to Robin, smart thinking boy wonder. And as the title of this talk. This evening. Smart thinking boy and girl wonder. Thank you. Okay. Is anyone got any questions? So I've been thinking too much. Any questions? Everyone has to say. Yeah. Come on. Go for it. We. Got everything you got around you. Awesome. 8 billion. Oh, I don't think that. I see. Hmm? Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Mm. Wilson. Okay. You ask a question about evolution. You say you come from a country where many hundreds of thousands of people have died in wars, the wars and conflicts all over today. Killed yet not just killed. Tortured. Sometimes left to die for a long time. And my home country was England. And my parents grandparents had all these horror stories about the Blitz, the Second World War through Parliament. It's not just terrorism where just a couple of bombs had just happened once a year. Like in Bali, this is every night, but there's one bomb, a hundred thousands of bombs falling from the sky. And that's even the people aren't combatants. So the terror type. But people actually said that was just a wonderful time in London. People were helping each other and they looked back with nostalgia. The pain, the suffering was huge. Who's something else there? Look upon that as one of the most glorious times of Londoners. Because they stuck together, they helped each other. And that was something which was almost, you can't say or did, but almost counted the physical pain and suffering. But that's what I focused on this evening. There will always be wars when it's stupid people who think too much and they'll think negatively about others. And that's really what it is. And negative way of thinking. Not seeing the Buddha nature in our so-called enemies. People of different ways, different religions different in to different countries. But when we start with a war, we don't need to have events. We don't need to think they killed my boy. I must kill two of this. That is the problem with revenge. And revenge, you know, comes from pride. You know, the problem with the Twin Towers was they did to America. That's us. Their pride was shattered. They wanted to thrash back, as we do. That's not the Buddhist way. A Buddhist way is to say. Even in the terror of a war, in the pain of your children being blown up. Even there, in the very worst thing you can possibly imagine. There is another way. If there wasn't another way, there'd be no hope for this. World Wars will always go on, and the other way is seeing something deeper. That we die is not the problem. The way we die. How we live. That's where we should be looking at. Not how long we live our situation, whether it's in poverty or wealth, health or sickness. That's not the problem is how we are healthy and how we are sick. That is the public. Health and sickness will always be there. Unfortunately, that was a part of the human condition. We limit them as much as we can. We used to have a Geneva Convention, which actually limits it. Just when we play was actually played by some sort of rules limit the terrible things we do to each other. But unfortunately these days that some governments just they don't want to play by the rules anymore. So this is what we should be doing. Practical steps. Ordinary people demanding of our governments that something like a Geneva Convention is applied. It doesn't matter what the person might know, you don't torture them. Sure you may get some information this time. If you open the doors to tell the demon we don't play by any rules whatsoever anymore. That's the way forward. One thing with Buddhism, if it's not practical, it's not worth believing it. We try our very best. If that happens to you. If you are a victim of torture. The Buddha actually said in his powerful teaching. If people hold you down and talk to you, he says the simile of the sword. They saw you limb from limb, just with a two handed sword or even a chainsaw. That's too quick. Slowly. You know, one of those old swords having a workshop. He said, if monks, you have one thought of ill will toward your torturers. You're not a disciple of mine. He said, when you're being tortured, spread goodwill to your tortures. You think that's impossible? You read some of these books by Tibetan monks who have been incarcerated in Chinese jails and tortured? They've done it. It's not impossible. Other people have done it. If you can do that, why do you get angry at your wife torturing you? Or she says his words, Yak yak yak yak yak. No reason to start having goodwill towards your wife or your husband or anybody. Especially yourself. That's Buddhism. That's damn powerful. Brilliant. So that's what we should be doing. Does that answer your question halfway? Because your question was a big one. So you take a long time to answer fully. But it's not an illusion. Illusion? Sorry that I didn't answer first, but what it is, I call it delusion because it's not illusion. Wars are real. Pain is real. Life is real. But it's actually we add on something to it which doesn't really belong. That's what I like. I agree with you. It was a big fit. Thinkers, philosophers, people who thought too much. You know, I've got this theory for the industrial revolution in the West started with the, um, discovery of coffee. Historically is actually quite accurate because once I discovered coffee, then people could think at twice the speed they normally did. And they sat around thinking about things instead of actually thinking about sort of how you can get your horse from A to B. Let's try another way. Let's get a locomotive or a car or something. And still, even these days, apparently somebody said that they was working as an intern in some sort of government department, I think just in Perth. And people in these government departments have about ten cups of coffee a day. And I suggested Western Australia. Imagine what it's like in the white House. No one is crazy. They're just crazy. Give me something to some bubble. You're bound to push yourself. I think it might be a bit of a joke. I think there's a lot of truth in that. But they put every government agency on decaf. I think it would be a very more peaceful world. Anyway, that's another thing. So thank you for your question. Hopefully I'll answer this. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Actually, we probably should finish off. Should we now maybe one more question and then I got a question coming. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Go for it. Okay. If you're feeling a lot of pain and it feels like torture. Who should you wish goodwill to? Wish goodwill to your pain. This is. I've done this before. You. This, we call it in English anthropomorphism. In other words, you look at a thing which isn't really a being, like a pain. Look upon it as a being. I sometimes people look at your, their car and then give it a name like Emily or George or whatever. I don't know what you call your car. It's not. It's only a machine. But you give it a name and then you can actually be kind to it. So if you give your pain a name, right. They've given this hurricane a name. Wilma. So I give you, you know, they give you a power to name Katrina or Wilma or something. And. Hello. Hi. Thanks for coming to see me again. Okay. But once you actually can answer for Morpheus, you can actually say that the door of my heart is open to you. Come in. And incredible thing happens. Will you really do that? Obviously, if you can take a painkiller or something, take it. But if you can't, then there will always be. For each one of you sitting here, there'll be sometimes a pain you just cannot get rid of. Even the best palliative care will not do it. And that's the pain you have to accept. If you want to look at an inspiring story in my book, Opening the Door of Your Heart is a poem by Jonathan Rosen Fuller. And the reason I put it in my book with the permission of the author. He was a guy who had chronic pain throughout this amazing poem. So there are many types of pain as a pain, which is useful. Like when you touch something which is hot, it stops you burning yourself. There's other types of pain which I think has got no use at all. The chronic pain was just does not go away and say why is this here? It's not helping my body. It's not helping protect me if it's a killer, a killer from within. But in his poem, he said. But actually it has a purpose. What is purposes is teaching you how to be strong, how to be happy in spite of the pain. So there's a hurdle, a great hurdle which can only be done yourself. No one can hold your hand in that struggle. He said. When you do it and it can be done. You have this incredible sense of inner strength, of happiness in spite of the pain, and then you understand its purpose. That's the gist of his poem. But the reason I put it in there, because it was written when he was nine years of age. The young boy who had this incredible allergy to everything, and in constant, a nine year old kid that it's brilliant. If he can do it, just be kind to your pain. Welcome. The other story I tell you, I won't repeat it here, but it's in the book. The anger eating demon who eat that one? Get out of here! Pain. You don't belong. Because an unspeakable, ugly, more offensive, harder to bear. You say welcome pain and they get smaller. Anger eating demon stories. One of the best stuff. My story was taught by the Buddha. Brilliant analogy and how to deal with the negative things in life. Read it and many of your problems. Even in meditation, some of the monks would use the aggravating theme of the meditation during the retreat. I don't want to be sleepy. I don't want to be restless. I want to be in China. Doesn't matter. Wherever you are. There's a demon in your head. That's all right. He was summoned by monks having lust. The demon of glass came into them. I told him to say welcome, demon. Thank you for coming to visit. I can't do that. They said I'll just get even more lost and end up disrobing. We'll follow instructions. Welcome. Last. Thank you for coming to visit me. They found, like everyone found the demon gets it seems more or less IP, less offensive, less real problem. It disappears, as does pain. Okay. Thank you for that. Amazing question.