What is Good? | Ajahn Brahm

AB20040102_What Is Good? By Ajahn Brahm [NOTE: Robot generated transcript - contains errors!] Okay, here we go. Another nice meditation. Sir, in a few moments, we'll begin this evening's dhamma talk. This evening. And countless suggestions before I came in here. We're going to be talking about the meaning of good and bad, what good and bad is, and how we can understand the difference between the two. So afterwards you'll be able to know whether this was a good talk or a bad talk. So I think everyone's pretty good though. Not too many people coming in and going out this evening. Now, in Buddhism, we have the idea of law of karma, and the law of karma means that every action has its consequence by body, speech or mind. And that consequence does not just act on this life, but on future lives as well. One can also say it acts on other people as well because we all could. Actions affect others? Your bad actions affect others. So we're not alone in this universe. And you may read even on the statue outside, underneath that statue is written to do good, not to do evil. To purify the mind. That's the teaching of all the Buddhas. Sounds makes a lot of sense. But what is good and what is bad? And how do you know? Because sometimes people say all sorts of things are good. In our monastery, we have the two basic walls of our monastery because there's rules which are more than just the rules of the monks. Video laid down by the Buddha and the first rule of our monastery is number one. The abbot is always right. And rule number two. If he's wrong, refer to rule number one. And I thought I could turn our backs on this idea. Well, we talked about that. Wish it was true. They'd be wonderful. But the point is this sometimes in some dictatorships, I'm just not. Sometimes I used to be called a spiritual director or the Buddha Society of Western Australia. But sometimes people I don't know if this is what they call a Freudian slip. They started calling me the spiritual dictator or the Buddha Society. But what I mean is that can one kind of person, any one person, dictate to you what is good or what is bad? People tried that on me when I was very young and it didn't really wash. Nothing really. So believe in it. And very often because they just pronounce what was good and what was bad. That I didn't really believe it. And they enforce that with punishments. And so I always just thought that, you know, what's good is what you don't get punished for. Well, what's bad is actually what you do sort of get into trouble for. And all I learned by that sort of, you know, good and bad, if you'd be a bad monk or be a bad boy, you get in big trouble. All I learned from that is learning how not to be caught. And that's all that that does in our world. We have speed cameras. In our world we have like laws which prohibit this and prohibit that. But like speed limits, how many people keep those rules? So why don't they keep them? Because they say it's good to, um, you know, drive under the speed limit. It's good to do this. It's good to do that. But if we don't really understand why, if no one tells us and if we don't really accept that argument, then we will not follow that. That's why that many of the legends of our current age have lost the support of people simply because they've been going around saying, this is good, that is bad, and it doesn't make sense to many people. Just to actually tell people what's good and bad is not good enough. And what I mean by that will take some examples of that with abortion or homosexuality, with people that talk about that. And in some religions they say it's bad to be homosexual, it goes against the law of God, it goes against this and goes against that. But then again, you look at your own heart. What's bad about that? There's something which doesn't jibe. You are told, but it does not make sense. I was very wonderful, actually, to meet her. Her original life. Buddhism, her faith. Like this. This says you don't have to believe. Which means you aren't told what's good and what's bad. Her first. When I saw that, I went first. When people hear that, they think, oh, Buddhism is just a wishy washy religion where you could do anything you want. And of course, those of you who see just how strict our monasteries are and just how disciplined the monks and nuns are, and just how well behaved the people in the Buddhist society are, that is so well behaved when we're in here. But I don't know what they do when they go home. But they sit here, they're well behaved. Least that's something also that you can understand that on the face of it, by experience, Buddhism is not a wishy washy religion. It doesn't just tell people just to do whatever they want. This is something more to it than that. Here's what Buddhism does and what all good religions do, what governments should do, what parents should do. It's actually to explain to people why something is good, why something is bad, to give that individual knowledge and experience insight into what goodness truly is and what badness truly is. The Buddha gave a very powerful description of this, and this is actually direct from the Buddha's teachings to his son Rahul, his son, who also became a monk as well. And like many boys, you know, didn't know really what was right and what was wrong. They would have given this very beautiful teaching when this. His son was only a young novice, a little fellow. He said, look, this is what karma is all about. If it hurts another person or it hurts yourself, then that is called bad. If it helps another person or helps yourself, that is called good. Now, though that might seem obvious to many people, but it's actually incredibly profound. It gives you an idea, a way of testing what is good and what is bad for yourself. And it also makes goodness rational, reasonable because who in their right mind would go around hurting others or hurting yourself? If you really knew is going to hurt yourself. Who would put your finger in the fire? Who would actually go and hurt someone else as well? It does not really make sense. To listen. Make sense? The meaning of life is actually going around helping yourself, creating happiness in yourself, and creating happiness in others. As it is, those two actually go together because I've found in my life, whatever hurts another person hurts me. It goes both ways. Whatever helps another person, it helps me. It's. This is. Try it out for yourself. Go and hurt somebody. And you will hurt for sure. If you can't hit somebody, I can hit you back because I don't hit you back. I don't call the police. They'll call the lawyer and you'll be in big trouble. If you don't, they don't call a lawyer. If they don't do anything. Again, you're in big trouble. You don't have to be someone who believes in karma. And said this something was in Singapore. This experience that when I was being driven in a bus, uh, when I was a, uh, before I became a monk, I decided to go up to India to try and find the holy places. This was in 1970 something 72 or 3 or something. And I also did decide to go to Kashmir, this beautiful little valley, just to no rest after the long overland trip all the way from England and buses and trains and goodness knows what else. But when I went to Kashmir. Travelling overland, you went up this mountain range from Jammu, which was the summer winter capital of whatever it was of, of that state over the mountain passes. And these roads were single track with a cliff on one side and a drop on the other side, on dirt roads, zigzagging hairpin bends. And these drivers were driving to so fast and taking these bends to skidding around. If any vehicle was coming in the opposite direction, we'd be dead. We'd go over the side and every now and again you peer over the side and see buses just like the one I was traveling in crashed on. So we were actually quite scared. And so he kept on telling the driver, hey, slow down. Doesn't matter if we get the latest, we get there. And the driver was a muslim, and he kept on saying to us, if it's at us, will we go over it? Saudis will. And I said, look, I'm not a muslim. But from that experience I started thinking, yeah, if we do go over for Muslim, it's Allah's will. If you're a Christian is God's will. Even if you're a Jew, it's sort of Jehovah's will. Moses will. No Jehovah's will. If you're a Buddhist, what would it be? Would you say it's your bad karma? I say no. It's because of a bad driver. That's why you go. You know, Buddhism is incredibly practical. It's a karma, the present moment. You can see it's bad because it hurts other people and it hurts yourself. You don't have to believe in karma about that. You know it now. If you do anything which is bad, you feel it. It hurts you in this very moment. Every time I said something really nasty to someone else, I felt it straight away. Oh, why did I say that was a stupid thing to say? If ever you'd done something really wrong, you felt terrible. Why did I do that? That was a fun thing to do. You can feel it in your heart when it's wrong because it hurts you. That's why we call it bad karma. It hurts. It doesn't just hurt you. It hurts other people as well. Because we've all got this amazing thing called compassion. Everyone. A human being has compassion. So does animals. So does birds. This. There was this case of this bird, this parrot. Who was killed by a car at the bottom of the road, going out to a monastery in serpentine, on the corner of Kingsbury Drive in the Southwest Highway. He had been hit by a car and I dead by the side of the road. At that time there was a worker, one who used to be our caretaker. Many of you may remember him. Jasper. He was coming to work at our monastery every day. Drive in from here. Work there all day and come back home again afterwards. He said when he first came in that morning, you saw this parrot hit by some sort of trunk lying on the corner of the road. He looked up on the tree, and there was a parrot on a tree on a branch, staring down at this dead carcass. When he went home that evening, he noticed that that parrots by the side of the road was still there. And what? Amazingly, so was the parrot up on the tree, looking down exactly the same position. It hadn't moved. It was even more surprising the following morning. The parrot on the tree was still there, he said, for three days, going up and down. That parrot on the tree had not moved. Parrots mate for life. It didn't really take much to understand the power of laying dead there on the ground, hit by a truck with the partner, the mate. Of the one parent up on the tree staring down without moving. It was grief. The parrot, has lost his mate for life and stood there for three days, not moving, staring down. When one person gets hurt, it hurts at least one more. It hurts many people. How many ever. Many people care for you, love you, look after you even if they don't really know you. If I see someone hurting, I hurt. Which is why that we say what is bad, what hurts you also hurts another. What hurts another hurts you. We're in this together. Whether you like it or not. We're in the same boat. Miss a fitting miss Mark gave a very good simile some years ago. It is like a family. Excuse me. Like a family of five people. Like the five fingers of a hand. They have to learn to work together. And if one finger gets hurt and infected, you can't use the whole hand. So the fingers. They can't be selfish. It doesn't make any sense to be selfish. It's not in their best interest to be selfish. The best interest is to work together and to look after each other where they are. The big thing or the little finger. We have to care for each other. Then we can use our hand. Being good is caring. We care for ourselves and we care for others. That is what means by being good, because it creates happiness and peace in this world. Isn't that good? Her not caring. Hurting. Harming. Being angry. Being cruel. Being selfish. We realized that hurt. So that's why these are teachings which everybody is so simple, but which people often forget. And we forget it at our peril and the power of the world. We create harm and hurt in this world, rather than peace rather than happiness. Therefore it's not good. When you understand it, you understand why many people naturally know what's good and what's bad. They don't need to go to an ethics course at university. They don't need to be taught by religions. They don't even need to be taught by their parents. Because if there were only encouraged to find out for themselves. And to trust their own heart, to trust their own experience. What is good? What is bad. It's not that hard to find out. To feel it inside. Too often we just want other people to tell us. And this is one of the problems when we ask for an authority from outside of us, whether it's a god, whether it's a priest, whether it's some sort of expert. Some of us would just go to experts all the time to be told what is good for our health, to be told what is we should be doing in our life, to be told what is right and what is wrong. To be told what is spiritually our path. We always want to be told things. Don't you know yourself? Buddhism tells you how to find out. That's as far as it tells you. It encourages you to know these things for yourself. As I said in Singapore, as I said here many times, a Buddhist teacher like myself, our main job, my hope, my aspiration is to get rid of you all. I'm trying to get rid of you so you don't need to come here anymore. So you know for yourself. You know how to find out for yourself. You know what's good. You know what's bad. You know us. Happiness is not a tool, a teacher, any school. Has to do, trying to allow the people to learn until they graduate so they can be independent of the school. I'm a big failure. I am such a big failure that people keep coming over every Friday evening. It's the same old people. Oh my goodness. I am not a very good teacher. Either that or you're very sick. Gigi. Okay. So what? You're telling people how to be happy? In one of those stories, which is a very powerful story and a very deep in the Chinese art of war. You know, I didn't read that book. It's just people, actually. Because why would Mark read The Chinese Art of War? There's a lot of interesting, um, sayings in that. One of the famous sayings. I usually tell this on a retreat and meditation retreat about the Chinese general who had the best discipline in the whole Imperial army. Whenever he told the soldiers to do something, they always did it straight away. There was no rebellion, no argument. And the Emperor was so amazed that this general, he wanted to find out. Okay, general, what is your trick? What is your your technique by which your soldiers always follow your orders? And he gave this answer to the Emperor. He said, I only tell my soldiers to do what they want to do. That's what they always follow the orders. I only tell them to do what they want to do. That's what they always follow orders. Brilliant isn't it? So if you want your children to have good discipline in the home, just tell them what they want to do. No. Not always. Follow the orders. If you want to have a good relationship with your wife, tell your wife to do what she wants to do. Tell you. What? Okay. Now of course, you realize there's something more to it than that. And then more to it than that was because those soldiers got up really early in the morning. How do you get them to want to get up early in the morning? How do you get them to go training really hard? How do you get them to actually go fighting in a battle where they might get killed or certainly wounded? How can you get someone to want to do that? Motivation. That general was so incredibly good motivator. He motivated his troops so much. He explained to them the reasons why until they wanted to get up in it early in the morning, they couldn't wait to get up early in the morning. They couldn't wait to go training. They couldn't wait to go into battle. That's why they're too straining at the leash to be given the orders at once. They were given the orders crate. Off they went. Motivation. So those of you with kids, the idea to get them to do what you want is motivation. So they want to clean up their room. They can't wait for you to give the order sander to clean up. You are waiting for you to say that, dad, Sander said, mow the lawn. Oh, marvelous. Thank you son daughter, do extra homework. Thank you so much, father. Like the. If you're a great motivator, you can do that. And how do you do that? You actually giving them the reasons why? Understanding is in the interest. It's in their happiness. They'll become better people. They want to do this because they want to be happy. In my monastery, people get up at 4:00 in the morning. How can you do that? I can put closed circuit TVs in every monk's hut. And just to check. I can punish them if they don't. You know the punishment in my monastery when people do something wrong. I think I told us some time ago, the people in Singapore love this, because I told them there was one person who broke a rule in the monastery recently, and so I gave him 50 strokes of the cat. And the people of Singapore as well. You beat the monks in the monastery. I said 50 strokes of the cat. 50 strokes the cat. We've got this little cat in our monastery called Kit Kat. And I told you how to stroke that cat 50 times. Which is. Which is called 50 strokes of the cat. And the reason is I gave it that punishment to them. Because when somebody does something wrong, they want to hurt themselves even more. And I said, no, don't hurt yourself. Give compassion to something someone else. That's actually a marvelous psychological tool to somebody wants to hurt themselves. No, you can't hurt yourself. Go and help somebody. That's the way you can pay off your debt because you're not compassionate enough to yourself. So you have to learn compassion. And they're a good way to learn. Compassion is to find a little cat or a dog and stroke your 50 times. That was a reason why he was broke. His rule? He wasn't compassionate. So what we're saying here is that if you can motivate a person, motivate a person because they know what is good, they know what is bad, you're motivating them to know that it's in their interests. They feel happier. It's in your interest not to sort of speed. Because you're happier. You don't have to worry about things. It's in your interest to go out. Alcohol. Look what happened a couple of nights ago. And at your party. Everyone had a great time. And when you went home, I hope some of you met the booze bus. I was actually very disappointed when the following morning when we drove back, we didn't meet a boost bus anywhere. No roadblocks because wonderful isn't it? Being a Buddhist who doesn't drink, you go to the roadblock there and you feel so at peace. You're not worried at all. You're not worried whether you're over the limit, under the limit, because you know you're under the limit. Trouble is that I know this one. Uh, Thai lady, she got caught by the roadblock, and the police were asked. Have you been drinking? She said yes. Okay. Blow into the tube. One of my disciples. And the tube reach zero. So have you been drinking orange juice? Coca cola? See that? You just come from Thailand? Her knowledge of English was okay, but she did not know the nuances of. What do you mean by. Have you been drinking as well? You asked me. Have I been drinking just orange juice? So answer the question. I know, he said. Really? Get out of it. Isn't it wonderful being a Buddhist so you can have fun like that with a policeman? They can't do anything to you. You know. So there's a lot of happiness to be got there. That's why you know something is good when you feel happy about yourself, when it helps yourself and helps others. And again, that's why many people understand in their heart what is good and what is bad. You can try killing something. What's it like when you kill something? The only animal I was responsible for killing when I was a young man was killing a mouse. After my father died was a mouse running around my mother's flat. Like many mothers, he was screaming. So I decided to be the man of the house to go and catch the mouse. And I put a little mouse trap down and caught that mouse. I remember taking it away and this, this being here to so furry, so soft. And I was responsible for taking his life. I felt terrible. And only when I felt what it was like to be responsible for somethings death. Only then did I realize why it was wrong. I could feel it inside. I was sensitive enough to know I'd taken the life of a big. And that hurt me. That's how I knew that killing was wrong. Some people last year in the law of karma, killing a mouse or killing a mosquito or killing, say, a cow or killing a chicken. Which is worse? I'll tell you how you can know what's worse. How do you feel when you've done that? If you killed a chicken, you know, it feels much, much worse than when you killed a mosquito. If you let that mosquito go free. That feels even better. The law of karma. That's the levels of severity of the bad karma or the good karma. Even as you feel it inside, there is an indicator inside of you which knows that how bad that is. And this is what I keep wanting people to actually to understand. What is it like when. You have an abortion. What does it feel like for women who do that? There, you know, whether it's good or whether it's bad in your own heart and mind. Sometimes this you realize it's not bad, because there was this wonderful case in England when I was visiting there some years ago, a woman who was having twins for some reason or another, that if she went through that pregnancy, naturally, both twins would certainly die and so would she. And so the volatile lemma was what should you do? Should you intervene if you killed one of the babies in the womb? Then the other two would survive. Is that right or is that wrong? What should you do? What's the ethics behind that? How do you know? Feel it in your heart. To me. It felt light that one child was killed so the other two could survive. You can understand inside of you as long as you're sensitive. A lot of times, though, people never trust their feelings because out of fear, because sometimes they're told, if you do this, you will go to hell. It's written in the big book. Well, if you do this, I will never speak to you again. You'll be excommunicated from the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. Don't even think about walking through that door on a Friday night ever again. This theory stops people being sensitive. To their intuition, to their inner feelings. That's one of the reasons why fear is one of the biggest obstacles to morality, to knowing what is good and what is bad. Because not only fear, but the idea of punishment. Guilt that also stops you being sensitive. On the opposite to that. We have this amazing Buddhist practice in meditation called mindfulness. Being alert, feeling, knowing in that silence without having any. Words or preconceived ideas, but knowing how it feels. You find when you practice. This Buddhist training of meditation, of mindfulness, being alert to what's happening inside of you, you become incredibly sensitive. To knowing what is good and what is bad. When you practice meditation, you find that you do some things you just can't do anymore. When I was a young man, we never used to go on the buses in London. I thought it was fair if the bus driver didn't ask you for the money for your trip. Then there's no reason to pay him. It's his job. If you asked me, sure, I'd pay him. But if you didn't ask me, well. Fair enough. And so I've spent all the money in the school. Tuckshop. No, actually, I thought fair game. But after I started becoming a meditator and started feeling these things, I thought, this is just not right. You know, there's some companies. I think it was owned by the government who's running this. But if I don't pay my way. Then I had to put up the fares for other people and they don't make a profit or whatever. This is not right. I felt it was being sensitive that there's certain things which I was doing before didn't feel good. And because of that, that's where I started being absolutely honest. That's why I gave up alcohol. When you're meditating on alcohol, you just couldn't mix them at all. There's something inside said, what am I doing this for? This was expensive. Stuff it into any good for my body and I was pretty poor as a student. Anyway, I could do much better with that money by giving it to some sort of charity. Some sort of orphanage, that's all. There was a waste of water as well. There's a water shortage in many parts of the world. Those people who drink beer, what happens to it? It just goes straight through the body, out in urine. If you want to really sort of save water in the world, you shouldn't drink outing beer. Amazing how much water we can save if we ban beer in Australia are. But why do people offer that suggestion? That's a reasonable suggestion. Because people have got into their head that to party you need be. You need alcohol. But my goodness. Last New Year's Eve when you partied here. Those people who came, didn't you have good fun? I know a piece of alcohol was just drunk. You say you can have fun. You can have more fun without alcohol. That's what I felt when I gave up alcohol. I had more fun than before. I was alert all night. Before. When you take an alcohol, when you come to the lighthouse and I don't know what you're up to, what you're doing. And sometimes you get into big trouble. You just out of your senses. You don't know what's happening. So what we're saying here is that you become sensitive to what's bad. You got sensitive was good as well. There's some things which you learn how to do, which you'd know in your heart is good. Every time I gave a donation to a charity, I just felt so good about that. It became a fun way to use my money. I could sort of go and sort of buy something for myself. It was much more fun giving it to somebody else. You know how much fun it is giving something to others and sharing in the joy of generosity? Sharing being with someone. You understand that? That's the first step to love his giving. If you go out with somebody. You try and give them presents. You want to look after them and you just love giving it to them. I keep on telling people it doesn't matter whether you need it or not. Take it. Someone was to give you something out of love. Out of care. Please celebrate that beautiful exchange. So often people are given me among things, which is no way I'm going to use. City things, but I accept them. I accept it because I can always give them to somebody else. Somebody even gave me a a comb once for my birthday. If that's true, they did. Thank you very much. It's the thought which counts. You may be an idiot, but it's not switch caps. I can always give it to somebody else. I just enjoy it. Just enjoy the exchange. You know, that story was one day here. I'm just looking. She's here. She's not here this evening. This one lady once gave me a pair of socks. I never wear socks, but this time she gave me a pair of socks. Just before the Friday night talk, he writes a pair of socks. This is an old Sri Lankan lady. And I thought, ah, that's very kind of you. And that evening, even though it's probably in the middle of the summer, I don't know, I put those socks on. And when I was giving a talk, I was usually actually covering my feet when I give it a talk. I started putting my feet out. I put about delivery. It's a wonderful occasion. She was sitting over there in the corner. I just looked out of the corner of my eye. Yeah, she saw me and she turned around and I thought, he's wearing my socks. He's wearing. I got so much fun out of that. And so did she. Now, do you understand? That's called good. It made me happy. It made her happy. And you don't need to be an ethicist. You don't need to be a philosopher to know that that was good. Every time you're kind, you're caring, you're loving, you're compassionate. That is called goodness. Which is why then we called the saints in the world. Those who have got so much kindness had compassion. Those are really good. Those were selfless. You understand? That's what good means. Why does all of the world agree? Compassion is good. I'll tell you why. Because everybody feels that in their heart. They feel this happiness in their heart whenever they are giving compassion or receiving it. They feel the sense of freedom in their heart. There is a connection between freedom. Liberation, liberality, and the German word labor to love. What I love is to give. To give. Is to make free. This is all going towards the deeper goals of freedom and happiness. Why is it that freedom is good? Why is it that people feel that when they're in a prison, it's suffering? Even though that in the prisons of our state you can have televisions. You can have CD players. You don't have to work very hard. He gets three meals a day, and yet more than three meals a day. In some prisons, you can cook your own food. You get all his perks. You got no worries in the world. You don't have to go to work on a Monday morning. You don't have any bills while you're in prison. Isn't that a wonderful place to be? Another reason is that people don't want to be in that position. It's suffering, no matter how good it is outside in, in, uh, terms of the, uh. Their enjoyments and their material comforts inside of jail because they're not free. That's why it's painful. That's why it's not good. Putting a person in a jail. In a prison. It's not good, you know, then. And there are many prisons in life. And I've mentioned this before, this is the profound part of what is of any place you don't want to be is called a prison. If you don't want to be in your body because you're old, aching, you're ugly, smelly, whatever it is. That is called a prison for you. If you don't want to be in your relationship, you're in a prison again. If you don't want to be in your job, if you. That would have been your home. If you don't want to be in this state, you're in a prison. How do you escape from a prison? It doesn't matter what you experiencing. The most important thing is how you relate to it. If you're content to be there. It is not a prison. My monastery. It is much more austere than any prison. Any prisoners who came to stay in my monastery will probably run straight back and say, let me back inside. I want my three meals a day, my TV, my my books, my magazines, my CD, my music. You don't have any of that inside a monastery. But why is it a people like being in a monastery? Why is it they don't try to escape? Because they're happy to be there. They're content to be there. Doesn't matter where you are. Freedom comes from being content with where you are. That's why the bigger happiness of bigger good, of freedom is not the freedom to follow desires is called a freedom from desires called contentment. So this is where we see in our mind whenever we feel content. Don't you feel good? Sometimes at the end of the week, you finish your work. You finish your job. Doesn't that feel happy? I still remember one of the happiest afternoons of my life when I was a schoolchild was we had an afternoon off school. Just before lunch, I finished off all my homework. I was only about 14 at the time, finished it all off. I had no homework to do, a free afternoon. I went to where my dad was working and hung out with him all afternoon, went home, watch the TV. I could do whatever I liked. I was free because I was content. That was one of the most amazing feelings of freedom. Just content to be. There's other times in my life when I realize just that contentment can get so much deeper. Contentment is the highest good. Isn't that the gold of your life? To find contentment. People feel they can find content with the partner in their life. They can find content with a nice house. They can find contentment. So for their job. Wherever it is. Why do you find that contentment? Then that is our highest good. And it's not just that good for yourself, it's good for others. Some people ask you, what did your mother think when you became a monk? Most mothers, like my mother said, as long as you're happy, then I'm happy. Isn't that the case of someone who loves you? They just want you to be happy. And if you're happy, then they're happy. It gives them lots of contentment to know their children are happy, doing well, content with their life. That's why whatever gives happiness to another is happiness to you. Whatever gives happiness to you gives happiness to another. This is where we noticed a link between us. We know it is good to create your own happiness in life as well as happiness for others. Before I became a monk, when I was looking for a career in this world, I worked out or whatever I did in my life had to fulfill two main objectives. This was how I worked out what I wanted to do in life, what I thought was good. Even there before I was a Buddhist, I realized I had to find some sort of career which could serve others, give happiness to others, be a contribution, but also something which would bring happiness to myself. And for me, the life of a monk. Supplied both those requirements in a happiness and being able to serve others. Because I realize I could not be happy if other people were becoming happier. I couldn't just stay by myself knowing other people were in pain and trouble. I had to contribute in this world. You try not contributing. You tried not surfing. It's like trying to hurt someone else. You feel lonely. You feel depressed. Lack of self-esteem. You get into all these negative states of mind. I've been teaching for a long while now. A lot of depression in our society comes. For my lack of wanting to serve others. Not getting out there and doing something for others. Not contributing to society, not doing charitable works. It's how we used to do in our old days, because we were part of villages where we had to help each other. Okay. Now we give that to government organizations, other charities. Let them do it. All I'll do is I'll give it all donation to the salvos and assuage my consciousness. Conscience? That's not enough. We have to get in there and do things. Actually to serve. To get out there and get our hands dirty. Washing the dishes and old people's home was something. Because when we really serve others, when we're giving happiness to others, that's good. You know why? It's good? Because you get lots of happiness back. He can't get depressed. If you're out there serving others, your feeling of self-worth increases enormously. You are participating in the society. You are making this a better, caring, more beautiful world. When you know that, my goodness, you get a lot of happiness inside. It is good to care. Because it creates happiness inside of you. And it creates happiness amongst others. All these moments when people go out there and serve in communities who serve in old people's homes, those serving Buddhist societies, people who do this get so much joy and happiness back. We don't need rewards. You don't need to have prizes. You don't need to have your name on the board. When you go home at night, you realize you've done something for others. Many years ago, I was with a senior monk when he was teaching a retreat. I was just looking after him. I was only a young man, but this one occasion really changed much of the way I looked at my monastic life. This woman came in and the first word she said was, I've just come in here to thank you for saving my life. And the way she said that really shook me. I thought, why on earth is this man done? So the women will come up and say, thank you for saving my life. She told her story. She was a young woman in a university in the north of England. She had some difficulties, either with her studies or with her boyfriend, and without much. Investigation. The doctor just prescribed her Valium. In those days, it was just almost like Panadol. Just give it out. If it's not better in two weeks, come back and see me again. I knew this Valium was addictive and she became an addict. She'd been addicted to Valium, this antidepressant, for so many years. When she came to this meditation retreat. She heard that on a retreat, you're not supposed to take alcohol or drugs. She misunderstood and thought that meant that her Valium could not be taken on a retreat. It's not a medicinal drugs you're talking about. Not things like Valium or things which are prescribed by your doctor. So she stopped taking that Valium for the nine days on a retreat situation, which is very peaceful, very supportive, in a very quiet location. She managed it. Unfortunately, when the retreat was over. She had to go home. She thought, I've done nine days. Let's see how many more days I can do. Going home and taking a bus into Glasgow and trek to Glasgow station and waiting for a train, and then getting on that train back home. Getting into a busy railway station, even in Perth, could be traumatic enough. When you're just coming off such a drunk. It was just hell for her. She said so often she almost didn't make it. She almost went insane on the platform. She managed to keep herself together, get on that plane, get home. And she said she spent the next two months sitting in an armchair, unable to do anything. Until the effects of that drug were off. The teachings he received on that retreat from this month helped her through those two months. This, too, will pass added impermanence when you know it's going to pass. You can keep on going, knowing it soon to end, soon to end, a soon to end. She kept going and she got off that track once and for all. She said living with that truck compared to how she was existing now, was like being in a crowd. And now that cloud was gone. She could feel, she could see, she could hear. The sensitivity of her mind had been returned to her. She was alive again. Which he came to tell that. Mac. Thank you for saving my life. When I heard that, I realized that was what we call good. And I made a resolution at that time. My resolution was if my whole life as a monk. I can live or till I die. As a monk, you've just. One person comes up to me, just one and says, I turn around. Thank you for saving my life. Then I'll be happy. I didn't need much to be able to serve just one person. If everybody could save another person's life in that way. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world? I've been very fortunate that many people have come up to tell me, thank you, Jim Brown. You saved my life. Imagine what happiness that gives me. Huge amounts of happiness. That's why helping others is good. Survey is good. Creates happiness for yourself. Living a restrained life. We don't hurt yourself and hurt others is good. Charity is good. Even more than that. Just developing this wisdom, the peace to be able to help others. That's good. In. Summary. What is good and what is bad in Buddhism is not just what helps another person helps you is good. What hurts another person or hurts another is bad. What we really saying there is anything which is a step towards enlightenment. It's the ultimate happiness that is good. Anything which walks in the opposite direction. That is bad. Enlightenment is called the ultimate happiness. So if you're going towards more and more inner happiness for yourself, you're creating more happiness for others. You're on the road to enlightenment. Sometimes people say, what is enlightenment? Ultimate happiness. So you know you're going on the right road. If you create more and more happiness to yourself and others. Isn't that a wonderful gift you can give to the world? Your happiness? I was reading an article in the West Australian about Christmas and a lack of role models in the world. All the role models I see a miserable people look all you like. Not one of you is laughing. Come on, smile. And we got no enough role models in the world of happy people. Sometimes it seems almost cool to be miserable. What a terrible role model that is. Sometimes it's cool to be. To shout and to swear. And then we want some other role models, a role model of happiness, of service so we can create a better society, a better world. Why do we think of it as a better world? Because we all know inside of our guts that this is good. When you develop that meditation, when you develop that mindfulness, that sensitivity to read your guts. As I say, the only time I say you should not. Follow your gut feeling is when you've got indigestion. That's the only time not to follow your gut feeling when you've got indigestion or irritable bowel syndrome. Other than that, always follow your gut. Well, I mean your intuition. The more mindful you are, the more alert you are. The more sensitive you are. The more you stop thinking, the more you know what's right and what's wrong. You follow that happiness and it creates a happiness in this world, the happiness in yourself. And that happiness grows higher and higher and higher. It isn't that wonderful to see happy people in the world. Doesn't that pick you up? Aren't you sort of, you know, feel better about yourself? Not only is it good for yourself, it's also good for your immune system. A good laugh actually creates more, uh, defense against these diseases. So coming to the Buddhist society on a Friday, I listen to my children's jokes. That's even better than going to your doctor. You don't need to go to your doctor. Just come here on a Friday afternoon. Not only that, you extend your life as well. I've been telling people that this last year, 2003, was very strange, and other funerals we went to gets less and less every year. As more and more people come to the Buddhist society. What's happening there? You see, Buddhists, they have a hard time dying. Isn't that one of the reasons it is written in Australia? In the newspapers and television, the number of Buddhists are increasing, increasingly increasing. That's one of the reasons why they're not dying. But so isn't that good? Is good for your health? Because you know what's happiness for you is happiness for others. If you're miserable, then you create misery in this world. So out of compassion for others, be happy. Be good. And if you're doing that, you're knowing how to contribute in this world. And as you develop that mindfulness, that sensitivity, you in the end, you don't need to listen to a teacher anymore. You don't need to listen to the books you read your heart. And all of these questions, his ethical dilemmas which people have in this world, whether it's abortion, whether it's euthanasia, but anything which is on the edge of what's right and what's wrong, you look at your heart and you find out what's right and what's wrong. It's right there inside of you because you know that this can't be good. This is hurting. This is harming. You know, this is good. This is helping. This is making for a better world, a more caring. I'm more compassionate, a tolerant world. Look at forgiveness. Every time you forgiven something. Isn't that something almost like holy? Really wonderful, very beautiful. It takes a lot to do that, to forgive someone who's hurt, hurt you. But why do you do that? My goodness, that creates so much joy in the world. So much peace, so much hope. We've got to start with ourselves to forgive our own faults. Let's be content with who we are, but try to be somebody who never makes mistakes but realize, yes, I make. I make mistakes. That's why the only way out of this is to forgive. To learn. Forgive yourself or forgive others. In that way, we can create more love in this world. Why is it that people finding it so hard to live with other people these days? Why there's so many divorces? Same reason why it's lack of self-esteem. Well, people get into depressions. They don't know how to care. So it is what he said. We also learn how to care. This is also marriage guidance counseling for free. You can. Okay. So this is actually what we're doing here. Creating goodness in the world. We know that's good. You ask a kid. You're a young child. This. I remember this one kid once. He came to my dharma school for children many years ago. And I said, what's wrong with divorce? I asked the kids, and this little player must be 6 or 7 year old, came up and said, divorce is terrible. Because sometimes when I get angry at my mum, I got no doubt to go up to. Okay. Kids need to. Little kid said that. He said I did too, because sometimes my mom gets angry at me and he said, I got my dad and can love me. And they need both. Why is it that we can't live together? Why is it because we don't learn how to care? This is good. We know this is good. We have to learn these techniques and the skills. Because it's in our interest to do what is good and stop to once bad stock sale is stupid things to each other. Be careful the way you speak. If you are going to criticize your partner, balance every criticism with three bits of praise. It's like if you cut down a tree plant and three. If you do that, there'll always be lots of forests in this world. But if you cut down a tree and cut down a tree and cut down a tree in every plant, any, this place is going to be a desert. If you always criticize your partner, criticize, criticize, criticize, there's no love there. It's just a desert anymore. You got to plant trees of love. And this is why it's important. So actually to do what's good. You know, praise is good. I don't know whoever came along and said, you know, if you praise somebody that's, you know, really go to just to make them even more. Egotistical then before. That's not the case where we haven't been praising for the last 5000 years. We've all got into this lack of self-esteem. We feel awful. We can't even live with ourselves, let alone live with somebody else. We can't even live with other countries. We end up sort of criticizing this country, that country. Why can't we praise other countries? Instead of the Australian Prime Minister say how good we are. Why can't they press other countries as well? How wonderful New Zealand is. What a wonderful country that is. He said. So slagging each other all the time. Why can't religions pray to each other? To a wonderful Christianity is how wonderful Islam is. Instead of slagging each other all the time. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world? So this is actually how we make goodness in this world. When whenever you see like people of different religions, different faiths, different cultures, so-called enemies coming together and they meet together in peace and harmony. Isn't that inspiring? Here's a nice little stunner, which is good. You know it's good. It feels so in your heart. And people celebrate that. And that time when I gave the sermon in Saint George's Cathedral. When we pack that to schedule out in person. And there is half of the people, there were Buddhists from the center, half were Christians, and no one knew who they were. Now's marvelous. Shoulder to shoulder. Just be people being friends. Giving a talk together. And that's why it was a beautiful experience. Everyone. They knew it was good. There were two idiots outside saying that the dean of the cathedral would go to hell and had for me it was already a given conclusion. I go to hell. Okay, so I didn't even have to say that wasn't a wonderful time. I need two idiots so people realize that that was wrong. That was bad. What those guys were doing, boys inside was good. It was harmony. It was peace. So this is what good and bad is. Whatever goes on the. The path to enlightenment takes you one step closer to happiness, to harmony, to peace, to contentment, to freedom. All those wonderful words which you feel a happiness inside of you. Whatever goes in that direction, that is good. So you go for that. Whatever is bad you feel in your heart. Is bad. Don't follow the politicians. Don't follow the bishops. Don't follow the monks. Don't follow God or any other sort of high being out there. It's up to you. You follow your heart. The truth is inside of you. The Buddha said all of the teachings of the Buddha lie within your own body. Powerful teaching of the Buddha. So they lie within you. I'm really a con man coming up here and telling you when you know already. So why do you keep coming every Friday? Sometimes because you forget. That's why they come. Just need reminding. The goodness is in your heart. The truth is in your heart. Knowledge. Wisdom is in your heart. That's a path to enlightenment. His insight. That's why I say this path of Buddhism is like getting on. Getting on an aircraft. Because I've been in lots of aircraft. When you get on this craft, you just sit down and enjoy the Insight service, not the in-flight service in the same service. Understanding what's going on inside of you, seeing inside, and when to become sensitive to your inner world and you know what's right and what's wrong. You just can't do anything which is wrong anymore becomes impossible. The more sensitive to you are to yourself. That's why it's a natural law which applies to all people in this world, no matter what religion, race, gender, age. That sensitivity called insight. Knows when it's right and knows what is wrong. And as such it will be your guide. A guide which you can trust. So please take responsibility. You are the owner of your karma, the owner of your destiny, the owner of your goodness and badness. No one else. So you listen to your heart. All those ethical decisions you have to make every day. Sometimes. Ask yourself, is this good? Is this bad? Is this going to lead to happiness to myself and others? Who is just going to hurt? You find that way that you already know what's good and what's bad? The only thing was before you weren't listening. Now you know how so? That is Buddhist teachings. Teachings of the heart. What is good and what is bad. Was that a good talk? Okay. Thank you. So now is a time for questions and comments about this evening's talk. What is good and what is bad? Any questions about this evening's talk? Questions are always good. There's no such thing as a bad question. So nothing's a stupid question. It's only stupid. If you've got a question you don't answer because then you become stupid that way. So there's no such thing as a stupid question to ask a stupid person who doesn't ask them. So any questions? Yeah. Oh! My back. Yeah. The meat industry. I like to think of the meat industry. For those people who have actually worked in a slaughterhouse, what's it like? You ask a person who has worked in a slaughterhouse. Well, you'd actually go there and feel the vibes. And then you'll be able to tell yourself whether it's good or whether that's bad. I don't know if you've ever raised chickens. I'm taken to be slaughtered. Sometimes you raise him because you want to get some chickens to eat. I want you to raise him. You can't kill him anymore. Even like kangaroos. Somebody once brought kangaroo meat to the monastery. But there's so many kangaroos around there. No way that you can eat kangaroo. Me for your friends. I can't hear my friends. So it's up to you to know what the industry is. What about the arms industry? Is that good or bad? Know for yourself was a story that one of the people here that are here this evening must be on a holiday to work for Samaritans. But six months to no must be more than six months ago. A year ago or something. Six months ago? Yes. Right. Six months ago, they received a call one night. Somebody suicidal. No, just so depressed. So anxious because. They were one of the inventors, one of the small group of people who invented the cluster bomb. An Englishman who migrated to Perth. Had he saw those cluster bombs and what they did. And the news coming from Iraq during the recent war. When he saw what they had done. Imagine how he felt. And he invented them. My goodness, that hurts so bad. Killing kids. I mean sometimes also the meat industry. As many types of meat industries in this world. Sometimes people call the sex industry the meat industry. What's that like? So you can know for yourself. Check your heart. I saw, you know. Well, I'm celebrating happiness and all and create so much stupidity in this world because people follow books. Oh, they know because it says in the Bible that it's okay to sort of to kill the animals because it says in this book that's wrong to do this, but it's right to do that. It's check your heart. It's all books come from the heart. The best books I've read is in here. So know that for yourself and my goodness will be so. Less stupidity in the world if people only focus on what's inside. Be mindful and then you know what's good and what's bad news. Can't do bad things anymore. Becomes impossible. You can't hurt anybody. If you're really mindful and alert. You can't even get angry. Angry is hurting somebody. Why do you get angry at someone? Someone I respect and love. I can't hurt you. You're my friends. I think he. He also. You can't hurt yourself either. So that's how to be a good boy and a happy person as well. So how is your question? Sort of. Okay. But sometimes people want a pronouncement from on high. What does that say about the meat industry? I never knew that answer. I'll tell you how to find out for yourself.