The Secret

The Secret by Ajahn Brahm And the savings talk on addressing a subject which is central to his teachings, but it's difficult to understand. They say understanding that, uh, of craving or desire and how that actually fits into our modern day lifestyles, especially for those of you who know a traditional Buddhism, you know, in all of the schools of Buddhism, we have something called the Four Noble Truths. And the second Noble Truth states quite bluntly, the craving is the source of suffering. And so as Buddhism is supposed to somehow let go of craving and have no desires of your desires. But then how do we actually practice that in our daily lives? Because as much as we do desire as much as we want, does that mean that we should all just become monks and nuns, or just give up our jobs and just live on the street and not look after our kids and not have the latest clothes? What does that really mean? It's a difficulty for many Buddhism, for many Buddhists, trying to reconcile our lifestyles with the idea that suffering, the suffering is caused by craving. So I'm going to investigate what that really means, especially in our lives today. So we can actually start by just knowing that our present world is in great danger because of the untrammeled or unrestricted craving of our species, or is wanting more and more. And obviously, that cannot be sustained. Uh, a few years ago, we're talking about ozone layers. Now talk about global warming. Interesting to see what comes next. But all seems to come by just, you know, using too many resources. And it's tough being a modern Western person to say, how can we actually deal with this? Because, yeah, maybe once we've finished our house, then we can actually start worrying about global warming. Once we got what we need, then we can actually, uh, try and help other people. And unfortunately, that sometimes that that's not really sufficient, actually, to save our future. And we see like so many wars and so many arguments and so many competition over limited things that we want to know, is this the world we really want to bequeath to our children? And this is a world we really want to live in ourselves. As far as the 2500 years ago, Buddhism was concerned with saying that the biggest problem here is like the craving. Sure, that yeah, we know we want to. So try and do something with global warming. We want to have peace on earth. We want to have couples being able to live happily together. We want to have people sharing the resources of our planet. But some it called craving gets in the way and this is our problem. However, that craving doesn't mean no desires. This is going to be made. The central point of this talk today is as if that desire is okay, but we're desiring the wrong things in life. No, we're desiring the material things rather than the spiritual things, and measuring people by possessions rather than by her qualities such as compassion and virtue and peace. And we're actually having goals in our life in her which allow us to pay off our mortgages. But we'll never have enough time for ourselves and our loved ones. So the heart of this tour today is. Well, we have to have desires. That's part of being a human beings, part of having a mind. And some of those desires are very worthwhile. But what type of desires do we have in our life? How being a man, having a privileged position simply because you know you do. I have acquaintances across the spectrum, from very poor people to very wealthy people, from presidents to business, from multi-millionaires to people on the dole. And when you actually meet all these types of people, you know, you can actually see that it's not really that economic circumstances which determines their happiness. This was one of the first insights I got when I was, you know, a relatively wealthy Westerner. And I say this even though I was a student with very little money and, uh, holes in my jeans. I had holes in my jeans because I couldn't afford better ones, not because it was a fashion statement. I was ahead of my time because these ten people bite me straight from the shop with pre-made holes. The warden. William. Dart, then going to a place like northeast Thailand in the village, is a long way away from anywhere there. There were subsistence farmers who just had very spare cash and would live on the path, the economy just growing rice or whatever they could catch, especially fish in the rainy season and building their houses of whatever can be found in the forests or in the fields. And he saw there that some of those people were just so poor compared to the poor student I thought I was. I was actually very wealthy compared to them. But one of the things which I did notice is living in our village. Yeah, sure, many of those poor people were happier than the people I knew. So a great university like Cambridge. But I also saw some miserable people in that village. And when I saw those miserable people in my village, I want to find out why, that some people were miserable. Other people were happy. When I thought I had very few things. When I found out that basically it worked out like this. Every house had a waterproof flat, which they used to plow the fields and the the dung from the water buffalo would be the fertilizer for their fields, and the buffalo would, while they fields and do all sorts of tasks like putting the cart. It was a very important part of their house, but I noticed the farmers who had so one water buffalo and were happy with one water buffalo seemed to be the ones always smiling, for they farm had one water buffalo and wanted. Soon there was the farmer who was unhappy, who did seem to have so much time and so much joy in their lives, saying to me that happiness was not so much how much you have, but how much you want. And that started to make me think. You know the basic question of why? How much do you really need to be happy enough? And does it really mean the more you have the hacker you are? I think that's the great myth of art of our modern existence. Taking the more we have, the more pleasure and happiness and freedom and power we can exert. But every one of you knows old enough to know by now that that's a promise of freedom and happiness. When you gain wealth is a very false promise. Those people who experience the the gain of wealth, people whose business goes well, people who win the lottery or inherit come in to a great deal of money, very often realize it spoils their lives. A classic story is a few years ago, one of the people who won a huge lottery in the United States. $100 million or more. This picture was in the newspaper being led to jail. He had a very happy man before he won the lottery. And then as soon as he won the lottery, things started to go wrong in his life. Sure, before he won that lottery and then he didn't have much money, but he had enough to sort of enjoy his life. And he was about to eat and had a modest little house and go out with his friends. But as soon as he became really, really wealthy. All of his friends he could not trust anymore. So all asking for loans of, you know, bits of money here and there. It was one of the problems with wealth. They didn't know. It promises you so much. It tends to limit your enjoyment of the world rather than facilitate it. And I've seen this so many times and sometimes wonder, what do you want wealth for? It's much better to not be wealthy and not be poor, but be someone in the middle. And that reminded me of one of the books I read as a student, which was the very famous book Plato's Republic, where in the last chapter this was, you know, a Greek philosophy of 2500 years ago, and the last chapter where they were describing reincarnation. And most of the Greeks believed in reincarnation. At that time it was just common knowledge. So the reincarnation is not an Asian thing. It was right there in Europe. You know, 2000 or so years ago. Ferdinand Plato's Republic. He was noticing that in his last chat about reincarnation, the one people show as their future lives. This was his way of describing it as a wonderful metaphor when he chose the wealthy lives, the stupid people were the ones who chose to be rich and powerful in their next life, because the rich and powerful had far more suffering than the people who are just lying there in the middle. So first of all, you know that Buddha's teaching of the middle way just applies to your wealth as well. Please don't aspire to being too wealthy because you find it gives you more problems in life. You just have enough in the middle somewhere. Medium income. Well, that's good enough. And indeed, without water. Plato said 2500 years ago in Greece was confirmed by a famous study which was done in the United States 12 months ago, where they were trying to find out what the maximum happiness was compared to people's annual income. And it was not that hard to gain the information, the data. They had a huge sample of people from different levels of income, and they could gauge that happiness, but not how strong their marriages were, whether they had many divorces, whether they depressed drug dependency, alcoholism, and all these vaguely indicators that things were going wrong in your life or things were going well in your life. And I've done a huge sample that you found out that the optimum income. In other words, the income which would guarantee you the best happiness was about $50,000 US per year. More than that, and your happiness level went down less than that, and you just couldn't afford the things which you wanted, so you weren't happy. So actually, the best as far as happiness was concerned and this was proved, you can look at the research yourself of a large sample, and I think it's probably similar in Australia, similar demographic, about 50,000 US or the equivalent over here. Would that be about 55,000 Australian or something. Was the optimum income more than that. And you'd have more luxury, less than that, you'd have more suffering. So that's actually the income to aim for. So if you are earning more or less, the British Society of W8 can help you become happier by allowing you to give the difference to a retreat set to one's monastery or to this joint. Or even better, just to tell your boss 55,000 is enough for me. I don't want the race. To know what of it. Now people laugh at that. But actually that's evidence based and that's dharma based as well. That's Buddhist based, because sometimes we think the more money, the more happiness, and the truth about him is opposite. So when you are having your desires and cravings, your aspirations in life, please keep that in mind. And on that. So if we don't want the salary, what most people aspire to in this life and you want your boss off of this is actually to get the nice big house in a nice suburb. Now look at not a mala here. This was actually a bad suburb before we came in, and now we raised the house prices. So those of you who want to invest in property and you've got a property in some suburb, build a monastery next door. Well, then that's what we've got. No, that's not the point. The point is, what I've often seen is you can see this huge houses which are built these days. And even a week ago, uh, just I went to a local councils that Christmas lunch and it was salvage over there because now we want to be friends with our local councillors and others look big and so serpentine. And I went no further for PR. And as we're going through Gerardo, which is now a very pretty little town in the hills, there was a big development there and these huge houses in the forest. But before I got to these huge mansions, I passed these small the old wooden cottages, which used to be in that logging town or timber town of Judith. I saw these huge places and I think, my goodness, people must have to work so hard to pay for these big mansions. And I thought, what are they doing that for now? Number one, if you have a very, very big house, people say, well, I need that for my family. See that when I grew up, you know, were living on top of one another. I was in the same bedroom with my brother all the time. Sure, we used to fight, but we also learned how to love one another as well. You had to because there was no escape in such a small house. One of the things which you learned living in such close quarters with other members of your family is how to get on together. And when you live in such a huge place, when everyone has their own rooms, actually probably 2 or 3 rooms that every person in the family. It means you got so many halls, too many places you can go. Instead of fixing up the social and problems which you have with your siblings or with your parents and shelter. There's many advantages to living in close quarters with one another. You tend to get on. And I think that is one of the social problems which comes with people living in such huge houses in our modern age. We don't know how to live with each other. And maybe that is the cause of so many divorces, of people changing partners. We haven't learned those skills of cooperation and and give and take between one another. You have to learn that when you're living in such close quarters. I remember my father telling me at least I had my own bed when I grew up. He shared his bed with about 6 or 7 brothers and sisters when he grew up. But he. How can you go to sleep that way? And just in the small bedroom, have 4 or 5 sinks. Other brothers in the same way. They certainly knew how to sort of cooperate with such a small bed, but they didn't have such a great time. They loved each other very, very much. So sometimes we think that the wealth would give us such a huge property, but it comes at a great cost. And one of the biggest costs is how hard you have to work, how many hours you have to spend. It's pay for such a big glass. It can only be in one room at a time. And sometimes, though, we as an example, as a counter example, we have our monasteries where we live and I enjoy taking people to see where I live. Even years ago, when I lived in a bigger place than I live now, there was a big room, maybe three metres by 2.4, with a walking path in the front. And I still remember about ten years ago, taking a group of women who were visiting the monastery with a local women's group who wanted to do weird things on an afternoon and never been to the monastery. And that's qualified as being weird. And when I told them to see my heart, my room was in them for just one of the girls turning round to me and say, wow, if only in my house were this small. I get all my house work done in half an hour, and she looks at my simplicity with a lot of end, which is the other reason huge houses take a lot of maintenance and a lot of work and you haven't got the time. Number one, you're working so hard to pay off the mortgage, and number two, you're having to work so hard to maintain the place and keep it clean, and you never managed to get all the things done. So isn't there something wrong about that? So it's great to be able to down sides. Any of you who come and visit Bob Dylan and Monastery and many of you have saw this. My cave where I live, there is a small cafe. It's not even about 2.5m if it's that circular and about that higher. It's only located where I live. And that's so easy. When I wake up in the morning, it takes me about 30s to make my bed. I sleep on the floor. It just takes about five minutes to sweep it out. It's just a simple place to stay, and it gives me so much time and so much freedom. This is an example of where we have big places. We think that this is going to create happiness and space. Sure, it's got physical space, but we have no time space left. And that is one of the great complaints of our modern age with material wealth. But time or so we have decided. We want comfort. We want wealthy. We want sort of some happiness. But sometimes our cravings and desires and misplaced that haven't got wisdom with it. And a lot of times it is because we are sheep. We just follow what other people do. One of the great things about religion, what they should be doing, especially in the past like Buddhism, is making you question. Don't just follow what other people are doing like lemmings just going over the cliff of environmental destruction. Save for yourselves. Question. Don't follow the norm, but follow wisdom. And common sense is what is dead. Give. Follow. Other people are always upset. You're going to be in a lot of trouble if you just say, well, most people are doing it, it must be right. I always remember one of my favorite quotes from Voltaire. There was Voltaire, who made a quote from mathematics because I was a mathematics mathematician as well. One of his favorite famous quotes, which I thought was very funny, but also so true. The only way to understand the mathematical concept of infinity. To really get your head around what infinity means is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity. But. They know what infinite means. So it's a waste of time following other people. The question of find out for ourselves. So it doesn't matter what other people are saying and saying, oh, you should sort of upgrade and move to a bigger house. It's an investment for the future, maybe your future, but not your children's future. And its not a future for your peace and happiness and the time. How much do you really need? And it's the same when only one sort of fame or status. Even when I was a young monk, there was a fellow monk. His name was Gary, and I remember that as a young man. He grew up in Los Angeles. And no, he, uh. He met that film. My son was that who played dirty Harry. What was his name? Clint Eastwood. You met Eastwood in his early days. Because they went to the same university together. Who told all these stories about and being with the rich and famous. But I remember once when that singer, Bob Dylan, was in Los Angeles and he found out from his friends which hotel he was in, and managed to use some of his contacts to sneak in the back, and spent most of the whole evening and night with Bob Dylan and sort of noticed a famous man. At that time there was Marty famous, and Bob Dylan was saying, no, he was said to Bob Dylan. So it must be great being famous. Just Bob Dylan's wall and just said, no, it's whatever it is. I can't repeat it here. It's terrible being famous. It was such a pain to be well known. I'm not as well known as Bob Dylan, but I think you know that sometimes I've gone to the toilet as Singapore airport and not being even able to go to the loo because someone in the toilet of Changi Airport stopped me to ask me questions on meditation. And sometimes that happens here as well. But 7:25, I'm trying to get to the toilet before I do the talking and someone stops me at a bar. So one of the great things of being sort of not blameless is you can go to the toilet whenever you want. So. But do you want to be famous? Would it be lovely to be famous? Why did people go on this TV shows? Was it like Australian Idol? Well, there's other Big Brother shows and they want to be famous. They must really soon need to see a psychiatrist very quickly, because no one in the right mind would want to be famous. There are other times people desire that they want that, they crave that, and really, they're sort of putting all of their energies into the wrong place. There's a great story which now sort of I adapted as well as in that I newsletter, a journal for one of the Buddhist centres in Sydney. And I told her the recent sort of concert in Singapore. It's a nice story about a monastery somewhere in the world. And in the middle of the night. So the apple was, one can not be heard a noise in the main shrine. So he got up and checked. Sure enough, there was a burglar in the temple. And as soon as the burglars saw they had, the burglars tried to open the donation box. And he told the outlet. Just get out of here. And the abbot took one look at the burglar, and instead of actually stopping, the burglar, said he tried to open the donation box. Here's the key. So the burglar took it and told him not to do anything. But the abbot took one look at the burglar, had many burglars, and this guy was so thin. So the abbot asked him, when was the last time you ate burglar shadow? When I said talks, I always like to sort of wake people up every now and then. Shut up. He said he. For the average shudder. He said, look, there's some leftover food from this morning's meal in the cupboard. Help yourself. And the man was hungry. So just looking at the abbot, banishing a knife from the kitchen said, don't come near. He quickly sort of stuffed some food into his mouth, and I would tell him, don't touch his pinch of time. And the. And they were opened, a donation box, emptied it, took some raw food and ran away, saying, don't call them, please. Ever since all the donations are there, it's for charity, for compassion. Your poor person's. Just take what you want. I'll clear it with the committee tomorrow. So the next day, when the committee heard about this, at least the guy was being kind of the abbot for being cracked. But usually what happens a few days later, that burglar was caught robbing another house somewhere, was sentenced to jail, but forgot all about that until a few years later. The burglar returned with another knife. He came and said, you remember me? I lost his temper five years ago. Now I come to robbing again. But the burglar said this time. But last time I took the wrong thing. I took the money, put him down as the knife, he said. Now I've come to take compassion or wisdom that has shown me how you were so kind to me, even though that I was about to kill you and rob your temple, said the burglar, realizing that the first time he thought of money was happiness. Oh, those five years realize kindness was more important than money. He said the first time, he'd stolen the wrong thing. Now, he came to take the writing and asked the abbot to teach him compassion and kindness. I like that story because sometimes when we want something, we're wanting the wrong thing. It is okay to work, but not the material things in life. There is people in this world and other people in the big houses. There is people in this world. The people with the big hearts. Those people for a while. Things and other people with the big bank balances. Those people are wealthy. The people got tired for each other. Isn't that so? It's obviously the quality of life, which is rather the heart. That craving as we have in this world is actually wrongly attracted. And that's what leads to suffering, and usually should go all the more to an altar in life, as no other people do. You start to question more and more when you experience getting the big house, or the wealth or the fame. So many people say, so what? It says, yes, this is what I worked so hard for. And where's the payoff? Because such craving, we call it unfaithful. Craving require unfaithful because it promises so much. But for us to deliver. But the desire for the beautiful qualities of life. Are things like peace, time, contentment, kindness, compassion, generosity. Those are the real things which is wonderful to crave for, which is great to desire. Who actually desire something which is truly worth something in life? Why? Because what does the the wealth, the money, the house, the car? What does it really promise you? It promises you freedom and happiness, respect, security, and sometimes what people think about these days. Well, if I get wealthy, then I can be secure and can be happy for ever after. I still remember the story, which I read as a still as a young man. Maybe I read all the right stories, which is why I became a monk instead of seeking fortune in the world. I so sought fortune in my heart. And there was a man who was in the boom years of United States in the Roaring 20s. Made enough money and managed to cash it in before the depression years. And being a multi-millionaire, he decided, why should I just live in the United States? Are there any other places in the world where I can live which got a better climate, safer and more a happy existence? So he went to the local public library to get our books, and he used his intelligence to try and find the perfect place in the world where he could retire and enjoy his remaining years. Using his great wealth, he could go anywhere he wanted with so much money. And so he decided on a tropical island with perfect climates. It was called Guadalcanal. For those of you who are old enough, you know that Guadalcanal became famous because it was the site of two major battles in the Second World War. First, when it was taken over by the Japanese Imperial troops, and then it was actually taken over by the Americans afterwards. It was two huge battles. So there was a guy who made his pile. And so I'm now going to retire to Guadalcanal, thinking it'd be peaceful forever after. And what happens. He gets involved in two major wars. He actually survived both battles. Of his two major battles, he survived both and lived to tell the tale. But it wasn't a peaceful place. So I don't know where you want to entire whether it's to Peppermint Grove or something. Dairy Keyes I don't know what other places to think, but who knows what's going to happen then later on? That's a trouble. It might have a new airport in Peppermint Grove next five years or whatever else you did. Now, this is the great uncertainty of life, so cannot trust such material investments. Sometimes you invest so much in your wife. You take her shopping to Paris, you bring her all the latest fashions, and of course, she runs away with your best friend because he's more wealthy than her. Whatever else it is, you know that it's like. How can you really have any security in life? I look at myself as a monk who's got no money and I have no health insurance, I have no superannuation, no pension plans, and I'm getting old now. And I say, well, what am I going to do next? For, you know, I don't worry about my future. I've got greater investments than you have. Karma invests because of how much I've served, how much I've given over these last years. And I don't have to worry about anything from my future. Even when I go overseas, sometimes I ask if you've got any health insurance because things happen when you're overseas, you may get into an accident or fall sick or something. But I say that I have health insurers when I go overseas, there's enough people who care about me when I go to Singapore or Thailand or Sri Lanka, and I know I'll get the best of care if I feel sick. 546 the same here. Y is because I've been kind enough to many people. The people just want to be kind back. That is my health insurance. I'm paid with many, many installments of kindness and giving to others. And this is what I know will come back to me. It's based in Buddha's teachings. If you are security for your future, make lots of good. Come. Be kind. Be generous. Be there for others and others will be there for you. Which is why the wealthy people sometimes get so lonely. They wonder why I got all this money. But I can't get the best care. Sure, they have invested in the share market but have never invested in the karma market. This is the Wall Street of Australia, the market for this sensor. This is where you can buy great investments with guaranteed returns. And the Buddhist Karma stock market never crashes. Hello. Is it sad for you, for this life, for the next? And that actually, this is not just a joke. This is not an exaggeration. The people actually creating a design. They want happiness, they want peace. And what I should say sometimes. What do I really want in life? Sounds like people say they just want to be cared for. But how do you become cared for? You don't become cared for because you're rich. You just become exploited or you become sort of feared. You become cared for when you know how to care for others. This is again what karma is all about. So if you desire is to care for other people in this world, if that is your craving in life, seeing how much I can care for others, then you're putting the craving in the right place. The craving to have a more harmonious, peaceful, sharing, kind, warm society. Not having big houses again. Bye bye. Having big hearts. Big hearted communities which really look after one another and sometimes wider in the poorer suburbs. People look after each other much more. Much easier now. My mother, because I came from a poor family, was always lived in what was called council flats. Council flats was state subsidized housing. And they loved. My father died. We just moved from one council flat to another. My poor mother lived in this council flat for many years, and these big, tall tower blocks in London were supposed to be a hotbed of crime. So my little old mother was a prime suspect, according to the sociologist. But she lived in this tower block for many years. And I remember when I went to visit her and stayed in that tower block for a short while. I was going to give a talk in the Sri Lankan Vihara in Chiswick one day, and it was not that far from where my mother lived, so I wanted to walk. I enjoyed those walks through the streets of London, especially in my robes, because I was always a radical. I wanted to, uh, to surprise and stagger and confront people with my sartorial elegance of the brown robes. But I also enjoyed having fun because people would look at me, and sometimes not knowing exactly what you weren't dressed in this, these robes, these like what people used to call like red blankets, but sometimes they would cross the other side of the road. But I always take pleasure in wishing them good morning with a smile. And to an Englishman, if someone actually wishes you good morning, you have to say good morning back. It's psychological torture for them. But they decided that. But anyhow, on this particular occasion, when I got to the in the elevator, the lift and got to the bottom. As the doors opened, I was the only one in this elevator was the doors opened. I was confronted by an old lady who was covered with blood, but like a scene out of a movie. I didn't know what had happened to her, whether she'd been attacked and mugged or whatever, but she actually told me she had fallen down a flight of stairs, and she must have been about 65 or 70, but she could still stand. And so immediately I forgot about giving a talk. At any sort of rehab, it's more important. I'm kind of compassionate. I practice Buddhism rather than teaching. So I forgot about the talk and actually took this old lady upstairs to my mother's apartment where we bathed. Her words called the ambulance. She did have a broken leg, but because of the shock, she couldn't feel the pain at the time. So he bathed her, comforted her. Call the ambulance. But the wonderful thing which happened was that no, because there was an accident. And because I sort of took her into my mother's apartment very quickly. My mother left a door open. And there was a trail of blood which was leading into my mother's apartment. And I was so pleased that in a matter of five minutes that a how many people had come into my mother's apartment to find out what was going on and whether she was all right. And when they found out the reason why that one of the tenants in this apartment block had had an accident and fallen over and was wounded. It was wonderful to see a community coming together and helping one another. No, no. When I was bathing the wounds because my mother doesn't. My blood. And, uh, someone else was like, going to her house where she had to turn her oven off because she had something in the oven cooking, and somebody was going to ring her daughter somewhere else. And everybody was working together so. Well, I thought, this is not a hotbed of crime. This is a community where people care about each other. And it was because they were all poor. They weren't afraid of one another. And I saw that actually one of the reasons why community was made, it is tower block was because of the elevator. Every day people will be stuck together in this very small elevator, not as big elevator as they found in these big mansions, but small elevators. What about elevators are great. You're stuck together, going up and down, no matter how much of a stiff upper lip, how reserved you are as an English person when you see the same people up and down the lift. After a couple of years, as you start talking to them, when you start talking to you get to know them. When you get to know them, you become friendly. When you become friendly, you start caring for each other. That's why all the lovely things which happen when you live in small places, people get to know each other and care for one another. And I thought, wow, that place is not wealthy as far as material things are concerned. But what a wonderful thing is to know that somebody will switch off your oven. You know, if you have to go to hospital unexpectedly, that someone will bathe your wounds and someone will look after you and care for you. Alas, called health insurance the real one because there's always someone to care, because you have cared for others. And that's that's what people want most of all, to be cared for, looked after, especially in times of difficulty and stress. So really, when we talk about craving, this is really what we should be craving for. We should be using our mental energies, using our desires to build up something which is really worthwhile in life. Instead of this false shimmer as like big houses, big bag balances because of fancy clothes. So you don't need fancy clothes to get on in life. But this is why it's healthy. Why we're brown robes. This is a far more practical. These brown robes like this. Because whenever I spill a cup of tea, I don't need to wash it. The brown goes to brown. Most stains of brown stains. And that's one of the reasons why we have so brown was because they're easy to look after. And there's. This act. It seconds as a blanket a night time. So it's just so practical to have a few things and use and well, I don't know how many clothes you have, or especially those poor people who are young or have to have designer clothes, designer shoes, designer. And we think it's great being like a man with so simple as saying lovely word. Day in and day out. I wear this robe to see the Queen of England. I wear this robe to see the builders of the builder site and the retreat center. Isn't it wonderful? You don't know? I'm seeing the Queen today. What should I wear? I only see the builder. What should I put on to be the same? Before I saw the queen, I never had a haircut either. It's the same old thing. While the present is true, like all these other people, you tend to go and see. So it's great to be sinful. So my craving is just to see how simple I can make my life materially, and how rich I can make my life emotionally caring and looking after others. And that's precisely what we learn in Buddhism, you see. You don't need that much to be happy. The secret of happiness. And I'm saying this because someone asked me today, can I talk about the secrets? Because The Secret is a book with a video which has sold a lot of copies and has made it author into a very unhappy, rich person. Oh, what stupid is. But that's not the secret of, like, winning something and it comes to you. Because sure, there's something to that. If you imagine it, if you will it long enough eventually will come. Do you really want that is. Is that how you're going to use the power of your mind just to get the car parking space you want in the bow? It's much better to have a car parking space further away than you get some exercise, and then you don't die of a heart attack when you're 40. So the thing is, yes, there's some truth to that is wanting the wrong things. One of the wonderful. If that book said, if you can just imagine world peace, or you can imagine just not poor people in Africa having wells in every village, I can imagine just that. The people in Perth having enough water because they don't speak their gardens too often. I can imagine people being kind to each other. You can imagine people saying the buses are in the trains, giving their seats up to elderly or sick of people. Be wonderful. If the different communities where there's the Aboriginal community or the other ethnic communities can live together in peace and harmony. Be wonderful as if we can have love between our families and their kids. Looking after one another, looking after their parents would be wonderful if there was no violence in our schools. I dreaming of things like that I think is far more worthwhile. Yeah though. So dreaming about material things and so that sort of secret. That's not the secret to happiness. That's the secret to more headaches. More problems in the world. So the real secrets, you know, was revealed by the Buddha. If you like this common knowledge. Now, it's not secret. We teach it all the time. He said if you really want something in life, if you're really aiming for something in life. If you want to use your craving and the power of your physical body and mind to do something, to get something, please get the right things in life. The things which are really worthy. And don't use the power of your mind for secondary exam stuffs. Otherwise, you're just like you know, the person goes to dodgy brothers car dealers and get an old bomb as a car because that's what that sort of book reminded me of. People selling false goods. So if you really want happiness, contentment, kindness, compassion, generosity. That's what makes the world go round. That's what inspires peace. Happiness drives peace and brings up a world in which you want to live, rather than a world in which we always complain. Or why is it like this? And why is this all happiness? So you should cravings for the right goals. And if you start to use your craving for the right goals, for things like peace, for harmony, for kindness, for generosity, you will also find that that's precisely how one gains success in meditation. Why people love to meditate and why people like to become monks and nuns sometimes. People often say the happiest time of their lives is when they're at peace. And actually, that's what we say, isn't it? Peace is golden or silence is golden, and peace of mind is the most valuable commodity in the world. Isn't that really why we searched high and low for a partner for a lifestyle, so we could have a few moments of peace? So really, the craving. If you really want to crave the right things. We really want to crave for peace. Peace in our own hearts. You can't find peace in your own hearts. Of course you can never make peace in the world. Or the peacemakers of one of anger inside of them. They're also a lot of self-doubt. And because of that, they can never make real peace. Only a temporary pauses ceasefire in the hostilities between mankind, womankind, or the planet. But when we learn how to find a bit of peace in our own hearts, then we understand what is truly worth craving for. Which is why in that book which I wrote open the door of your heart, I said one way of making that peace in your own heart. Will you say to yourself, whoever I am, whatever I've done, the door of my heart is open completely to me. You made peace with your past. Now, if I find some abiding sense. He can't make peace and war at the same time. Peace means accepting, embracing, being one with something. It's another word for unconditional love and acceptance. Embracing. So when you embrace the moment you embrace yourself, you embrace the people you have to live with. Only then can you find peace. And this is precisely what one does. In meditation, my meditation is almost like a training ground, like a gym where one learns the strengths of character. So I can go and take those skills out into the world and really make something of this world instead of making problems. So learning how to make peace in one's meditation. You're sitting here for half an hour and a short time ago. Did you make peace or did you make war? Did you try and fight all the defilements, the wandering mind, the itchy had the aches and pains. Did you try to fight the past and future? What did you learn? How to embrace and make peace with it? When you realize what craving does a man's war. When you understand love, peace, kindness, gentleness gives you the highest happiness. But only do you understand how to make peace with yourself and be truly free. Be rich because the highest wealth, even in the English language, is called to want fanatic to one fanatic. How much do you need before you can watch fanatic? He did nothing at all. Have enough right now. A moment of contentment. A moment of accepting yourself, the situation, your partner, your life. In this moment is a moment of growing peace. Why don't you understand that? Peace in the heart. You understand what it lion is, what the aspiration of Buddhism is. Why don't meditate? Why we keep precepts? Why we come here to listen to talks like this? Because every now and again you get a taste of freedom, a taste of peace. The fearless was silence in the heart. Where you want for nothing, when you want for nothing is the most beautiful feeling in the world. Any content that is happy with a smile and as a result of that, you know what compassion is. And no one, not even monks, sit meditation forever. Half an hour, an hour, 2 or 3 hours on retreat. And of course, there you come and take that piece and put it there in the world. So you're craving it sometimes to make peace in your heart and with your eyes are open your other meditation to create the same peace in this world, using the same way to embrace the people you're with. To be kind to them, to be gentle, to be soft. We call out making good karma a generosity, the kindness of compassion. That's really what we should we crave. And it was. We can make that in this world. Sure, we work hard. We have our jobs, we contribute as a society. But then we never have any stress. Our work does become our vocation, becomes our vacation. As Mark Twain is to say, we enjoy what we're doing because we're not doing this for money. We're not doing this for the Saudi, for the big house. We're doing this for peace. We're doing this for kindness. We're doing this to contribute to the happiness of our world. When the goal becomes well and we never get the collateral damage of environmental destruction, there's roads and families of corruption and war. It's not reclaiming as well as we're craving for the wrong things and things which lead to suffering, rather than the things which lead to peace. But there's a challenge for you in this life. You have desire. You have craving. You have aspirations. What is really what a spark for. Where do you want to be in one, two, three, four, five years time? Where do you want the world to be? Really? It's up to you to crave for the right things. Thank you for this. So that somebody celebrating my talk tonight. As if I were in his flat. Very proud of that. So, has anyone got any comments or questions about the talk tonight? About the secrets cleaning? Out. Any comments or questions or the second time? For the third time. All right. So thank you for coming. We now have a few announcements if you'd like to listen to them. There may be things which might change your life for the better.