Latest / Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast / How do you navigate yourself on the Buddhist Path?

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How do you navigate yourself on the Buddhist Path? · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

0:11
Yeah, it's very good to be here in Berlin.
0:15
Word of these big Saturday morning English speaking classes
0:21
has reached us right over in the West of England.
0:25
And yeah, great to actually see it.
0:30
See you all here. So I'm going to talk about
0:34
finding our way on the Buddhist path.
0:40
So when the Buddha first gained enlightenment, there was no
0:45
Buddhist path. He'd opened up the trail and
0:50
found his own way there. So now there was just him
0:55
dwelling in vast wisdom, compassion, freedom, joy.
1:04
There'd been a profound shift in the very foundation of his
1:09
being, and he asked himself, would anyone else be able to
1:14
understand if he tried to share what he discovered?
1:21
It could be just painful for them not understanding what he
1:25
had to say, and painful for him not being able to communicate
1:31
something so precious. So maybe it would be better not
1:36
to teach. But then he scanned the world
1:40
with his eye of vision, and he saw that there were some with
1:47
but little dust in their eyes, some who were ready, some who
1:53
would understand. So where to begin?
1:58
First of all, he thought of the great meditation teachers when
2:02
he'd set out on his spiritual quest seven years earlier, but
2:07
they had both died, one of them, just very recently.
2:12
Then he thought of the five aesthetics, the five holy
2:16
Wanderers who'd followed him, who'd been his disciples when he
2:20
was following the path of extreme self mortification.
2:25
So following the idea that if you can just crash down all
2:29
desire in the body, the soul would fly free.
2:33
Now this has been a quite a strong idea in religious
2:36
traditions over the centuries. And he really followed this path
2:41
to the very limit. And he realised at a certain
2:45
point, if he pushed any further, he'd die.
2:49
It was a dead end, literally a dead end.
2:53
If he ate any less, you know, his body would collapse.
2:58
So he stopped. He realised this isn't the right
3:01
path and took simple, nourishing food from a villager bowl of
3:08
rice milk. And these five disciples of his
3:12
left him in disgust. They saw him eating wholesome
3:16
food and they thought he's returned to a life of luxury.
3:20
You know he's not worthy about following him anymore.
3:27
So they left him alone and he went on alone, and slowly
3:32
something opened up, a path opened up, and eventually
3:37
enlightenment, this profound knowledge and vision of things
3:43
as they really are, opened up before him.
3:49
So he set out and walked across northern India days, probably
3:57
few weeks to find those 5 in the Deer Park at Sarneth near
4:03
Varanasi, Benares. So there were no established
4:08
teachings, just this wonder of Gotama, not yet known as the
4:14
Buddha. He's enlightened.
4:17
Just a few weeks. And now he was reaching out to
4:21
others from the depths of his wisdom and compassion, trying to
4:26
find words that would lead beyond words, trying to help
4:31
them awaken for themselves to the truth he discovered.
4:38
So according to the tradition that we find in the Buddhist
4:40
scriptures, one of his very first teachings was that of the
4:45
Noble, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
4:52
But actually, I imagine these teachings didn't appear just
4:56
like that, in this lovely, neat way in which we can read about
5:01
them today. I imagine rather an intense,
5:05
engaged communication. You're the Buddha sitting with
5:09
these other men, sometimes talking, sometimes in silence.
5:15
Just try to find words, try to find ways to reach through them,
5:20
to undercut all their assumptions, all their ideas
5:26
about the spiritual life, and open them up to a completely
5:31
different way of being and seeing.
5:36
And one by one, those five aesthetics came to share in the
5:40
Buddha's wisdom and compassion. And the Buddha went on to spend
5:45
the remaining 45 years of his life.
5:50
He was then 35. He died as an old man of 80.
5:55
He spent the remaining 45 years of his life wandering and
5:59
teaching whoever was ready to hear.
6:04
He'd meet people from all walks of life and just respond to
6:08
them, whoever they were, respond to them spontaneously from the
6:13
depths of his wisdom and compassion.
6:17
And these spontaneous, immediate teachings of the moment, these
6:22
compassionate teachings of the day, of the moment, they were
6:25
remembered and passed down in an oral tradition and then
6:30
eventually written down after 500 years.
6:34
So these immediate, spontaneous, very fresh, very vivid teachings
6:41
of the moment, they became the scriptures of our present day.
6:47
And some teachings were found to be especially effective and
6:50
helpful, and they were expanded and developed by the Buddha
6:54
himself and the disciples who came after him.
6:58
But we always have to remember that these teachings always pass
7:03
beyond themselves to this wordless vision and
7:06
understanding. So gradually a path was laid out
7:14
and over time we see the teachings refreshed, renewed
7:18
again and again as the Dharma, the way to enlightenment, was
7:23
communicated in different cultures in different times.
7:28
And now 2 1/2 thousand years later, we're inheritors of the
7:33
whole Buddhist tradition. We can see that there's many
7:37
versions of the Buddhist path, many different approaches to the
7:42
same goal. So for a moment, just let's go
7:49
back to India, but nearly 2 1/2 thousand years after the Buddha.
7:54
It's late 1948, early 1949, and a 23 year old Englishman calling
8:04
himself Dharma Priya, lover of the path for teaching, together
8:09
with his Bengali friend Satya Priya, lover of the truth,
8:13
they've given themselves these sort of holy names.
8:17
They're living the life of homeless spiritual Wanderers,
8:21
and they're visiting a really remarkable holy man called
8:25
Ramdas. And one morning 1 of Ramdas's
8:31
disciples asks him a question. Why does he say is it so many
8:37
people set out on the path, yet so few seem to reach the goal?
8:44
And these two very idealistic young seekers after truth,
8:50
they're really listening very carefully to what Ramdas has to
8:54
say. And his answer is very clear and
9:00
simple. Ramdas says that people fail to
9:05
meet, meet make any real progress for two reasons.
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Firstly, because they've no clear idea of the goal they wish
9:15
to reach, and secondly because they've got no clear idea of how
9:20
to get there. So those of you who've been
9:26
coming along here for a while may have guessed that a few
9:31
months later this young Dharmapriya was to be ordained
9:36
as a a novice Buddhist monk and given the name Sangarashita.
9:41
And almost 20 years on, he was to found what is now the Tri
9:45
Ratna Buddhist community that runs this Buddhist centre.
9:52
So Ramdas emphasised the importance of a clear goal and a
9:57
clear path, the need for clear guidelines and instructions on
10:02
how to walk the path. And in the Buddhist tradition,
10:06
these instructions for the path can seem very straightforward
10:11
and complicated. The goal is enlightenment.
10:15
Maybe finding out what enlightenment is is a bit more
10:18
complicated, but enlightenment, the wisdom and compassion of the
10:23
Buddhas. So that sounds good, that sounds
10:26
pretty clear. And then we have the Noble
10:30
Eightfold Path, the Threefold way of ethics, meditation,
10:34
wisdom. We have the bodies at the path
10:37
of the six perfections, generosity, ethics, patience,
10:43
energy, meditation, wisdom, and so on.
10:50
But actually it's not quite so simple in in real life, and
10:57
you've probably all noticed us human beings, we're complex,
11:01
aren't we? Life itself is complicated.
11:08
So quite some years back, I think when he was still in
11:13
India, Sanga Rekshta wrote a poem, which I'm going to read to
11:17
you reading some books. You think the Buddha way as
11:23
though macadamized, you know that sort of nice smooth service
11:27
surface ran smooth and white straight as an arrow, billboards
11:33
left and right and that yellow buses thrice a day world past
11:38
the milestones whose smoke faces say Nirvana. 15 miles by 10
11:46
tonight you'll all be there, good people and a light outside
11:50
the Peace Holster Hotel where you ought to stay.
11:55
But those who read their hearts in Be wise know that the ways a
12:00
hacked path roughly made through densest jungle deep into the
12:07
unknown. So no smooth trip down the
12:14
spiritual motorway. Rather a rough path hacked
12:20
through thick jungle into the unknown.
12:24
So that's what you're letting yourself in for if you set off
12:28
on the Buddhist path. I certainly started off with a
12:33
rather romantic view of the path.
12:36
It just seems so very simple. You know, one's young and
12:39
idealistic. You wonder what all these older
12:41
people are doing, messing about. You know, a few years I thought
12:46
a little bit of effort and then some sort of breakthrough.
12:50
And from then on, I'd be this wonderful spiritual being, you
12:53
know, dispensing wisdom and happiness to all.
12:57
But yeah, it's proved a lot more untidy and challenging and slow
13:04
and awkward than that, you know, even if, yeah, very deeply
13:07
satisfying. So there's a saying, the map is
13:13
not the the territory, you know, looking at a map or you know,
13:18
looking at Google on your Google Maps on your phone these days.
13:24
It's very different from navigating your way through a
13:27
living landscape. So going back to what Ramdas had
13:32
to say, it seems we need not only a reliable map, but an
13:35
understanding of the nature and the process of a spiritual life,
13:40
of a life in the Dharma, if we're going to avoid
13:44
frustration, disappointment, confusion in navigating that
13:52
territory. And of course, it's not made any
13:58
easier by the fact there are so many different maps, so many
14:03
different descriptions of the path on offer.
14:07
You know, Buddhism has, over 2 1/2 thousand years, met many new
14:12
cultures, New Times, and sought to respond from great depths of
14:17
wisdom and compassion in a way that was fresh and meaningful
14:22
and helpful in these new situations.
14:26
So different schools of Buddhism offer very different maps even
14:31
to what is the same goal. And now in the age of the
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Internet, of course, there's a proliferation of spiritual
14:40
teachers and teachings available.
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I'm sure that quite a few of you here have probably done a bit of
14:47
surfing around the Internet and trying this teacher and that
14:51
teacher and this idea and that idea and well, where to begin,
15:00
how to make sense of it all. So it actually seems that this
15:05
is nothing new. People once came to the Buddha
15:11
as he travelled from town to town, village to village around
15:14
North India. And very politely, people were
15:18
very polite in those days, much more polite than we often are in
15:22
our in our cultures. They said last week, a a
15:28
wandering holy man came through and said, listen, this is the
15:32
truth. Believe me, follow me.
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The week before there was another holy wanderer and he
15:40
said exactly the same thing. Now here you are.
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It just goes on and on. We're confused and perplexed.
15:51
And the Buddha was sympathetic. He said you're very right to be
15:55
perplexed and confused. You know, it's a difficult
15:58
business, but he put the responsibility back on.
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Then he said you just have to use all your faculties, your
16:08
reason, your experience, your intuition, your sense of right
16:13
and wrong, your experience of life, and really test things out
16:18
for yourselves. If teachings and practices lead
16:24
to inner peace, calm, a lessening of greed and anger and
16:29
restlessness, well, try them out, follow them up, but then
16:36
stop way up. Is this working?
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Is this taking me where I want to go?
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Am I becoming a happier, healthier human being?
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Is something changing in me or not?
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And he said, just carry on in this way, gradually taking your
16:54
understanding, taking your experience deeper until you come
16:58
to the point where you really trust wholeheartedly in those
17:03
teachings and in that path. And then then you can commit
17:07
yourself wholeheartedly. And it's only when you're able
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to make that wholehearted commitment that you're really
17:14
able to step into the unknown, leave behind all those things
17:19
you find security in, all those ideas and attitudes and
17:23
feelings. Only then are you able to step
17:27
beyond all that and really embark on the true spiritual
17:31
path. So yes, in this talk, I'm just
17:35
going to try and continue to share a few things that I've
17:39
found helpful myself on my own journey.
17:44
So one key understanding for me has been that the person who
17:48
sets out on the path will not be the person who reaches the goal.
17:54
You know, I think when I gave that description of my rather
17:58
romantic idea when I first set out, it was very much me
18:03
becoming something wonderful. But I was sort of adding on all
18:06
this wonderful spiritual stuff to me.
18:10
But it's not like that. The Buddhist path is a path of
18:15
transformation. With every step we're changed.
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We leave behind old habits, old patterns, old attitudes.
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Leave behind clinging so tightly to people, possessions, beliefs
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that we've found security in. And it's a progressive path, the
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one with many ups and downs. It needs patience.
18:40
It needs continuity and consistency.
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You probably all know the fable, the story of the hare and the
18:48
toy toys who had to decided to have a race and the hare speed
18:55
off but then got distracted by this and that and then fell
18:59
asleep under a tree and the toy toys just kept plodding on and
19:05
won the race. And Sangarakshita once said that
19:09
he thought he probably preferred those disciples who were more
19:14
like tortoises than hares. With toy toises, you know where
19:18
you stand. Hares can get inspired and
19:23
exciting and have lots of energy, but then they can also
19:26
shoot off in all sorts of directions and you never know
19:29
quite where they are. Whilst, you know, a good steady
19:33
toy toys, if they're going in the wrong direction, you just
19:37
pick them up, put them and off they go.
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So he said he probably preferred working with students who are
19:46
more like tortoises than hares, or at least students who
19:49
appreciated the value of, you know, patient, steady
19:53
application rather than those who are just full of energy and
19:56
inspiration but just weren't really very grounded at all.
20:03
So intensity can also be important.
20:07
You know, continuity, intensity, it's not that we need to be
20:10
living, you know, creating a sort of spiritual pressure
20:13
cooker. When I when I was ordained, I
20:17
went on the first of the these long ordination retreats we now
20:22
run. It was the very first one and we
20:24
all thought we were going to be stepping into a spiritual
20:28
pressure cooker. You know, everything was going
20:31
to sort of explode around us. But actually it wasn't like
20:35
that. We just did the things we
20:37
usually do on retreats. You know, we meditated, we
20:40
studied, we went for walks. But then after about two or
20:45
three weeks, it's like what's happening?
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What's happening here? You know, just a quiet intensity
20:51
built up just because we were on retreat and we knew we were
20:55
going to be on retreat for another 2 1/2 months.
20:58
And so sometimes it's just this very simple, simplifying our
21:02
lives, you know, just like going on retreat.
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I mean, to start with, even a weekend retreat can seem really
21:09
intense. And as time goes on, though, we
21:12
can just find how creating certain conditions just allows
21:17
us to go steadily deeper and really begin to know ourselves
21:21
and understanding teachings are, Yeah, just that much more
21:26
deeply. And even sort of the, these very
21:29
simple teachings like the precepts, it's like, you know,
21:33
not to harm others, to cultivate kindness and so on.
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It's I, I found the process goes on that I think are, I didn't
21:42
understand this before, but now I understand it.
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And then maybe a few more months down the line, oh, now I really
21:49
understand it. I didn't understand it before,
21:52
but now I do. And that just seems to go on,
21:54
you know, sort of levels of understanding of the teachings
21:58
and practices that unfolds as oneself, if you like.
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There's more of more of us present.
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There's more of us available to enter into the teachings, enter
22:09
into the practices. And yes, along with this,
22:15
there's this understanding that the spiritual process is an
22:20
organic 1 of unfolding that can't be forced.
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You know, you found very helpful.
22:28
It's just the image of a flower opening.
22:30
No, it's no use. You know, if you think, oh, I
22:33
want it to open and you start forcing the petals open, you
22:37
kill it. You know, it's the same with the
22:39
spiritual life. We have to actually find that
22:42
sort of contact, that inner process of unfoldment and sort
22:47
of honour that work with that. Recognise you can't force force
22:51
things, but actually you can just steadily work with the
22:56
conditions that allow something mysterious and profound to
23:01
unfold from within us. And this path beyond self
23:07
clinging is a path of unselfishness, increasing
23:12
unselfishness, of growth in kindness, Open handed, open
23:16
hearted generosity. Forgiveness comes more easily.
23:21
Gratitude arises and wants to be expressed.
23:26
One becomes more at ease with oneself and the world and other
23:30
people. So these are reliable signs, I
23:33
think of, of actual progress, you know, not having wonderful
23:37
visions, profound meditations. I mean, that's great if it
23:41
happens. But I think the real measure is,
23:45
you know, am I kinder? Do I forgive more easily?
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Am I more generous? I think those are the real signs
23:51
of, of spiritual progress. So just a couple more thoughts
23:58
in the teachings about the Noble Eightfold Path you will have met
24:05
in Traratna. If you've studied with us for
24:07
very long, you'll find a teaching on the path of vision
24:11
and the path of transformation. So the path of vision refers to
24:17
those sort of intuitive glimpses, sometimes momentary,
24:21
sometimes profound, that wake us up to another way of being and
24:27
seeing, and really can. Sometimes it's these that set us
24:32
off on a spiritual journey. We don't quite know what to make
24:37
of them even sometimes, but there's something there that
24:40
seems really significant. But the path of transformation
24:45
involves the patient process of bringing that vision, those
24:49
glimpses of a broader, wiser, more expansive, kinder way of
24:55
being, bringing that into how we live, how we act, how we relate
25:03
to others, how we relate, relate to the world around us, bringing
25:08
it to life in every aspect of our being.
25:12
And we're many layered beings. You know, we are these complex
25:17
beings. We've got many layers and we're
25:19
not in touch initially with all of those layers, those energies
25:24
and forces at play within us and all of them on the path to
25:28
enlightenment. All of them have to be
25:31
transformed. You know, it's not a matter of
25:33
sort of cutting off everything that seems a bit dark that we
25:37
don't really like about ourselves and other human beings
25:41
and just being these sort of light angelic beings.
25:44
You know, it doesn't work that way.
25:48
We really have to, as it were, face the darkness of our human
25:52
nature, of what human beings can do to each other, what human
25:56
beings can be. All of that, you know, those
25:59
sort of energies that have allowed us to evolve, you know,
26:03
from fighting the dinosaurs or whatever, You know, all those
26:07
energies that have allowed us to evolve as a human race, They're
26:11
still there, still at play in us.
26:14
And we need to get to know, recognise, work with, transform,
26:19
bring those energies into the service of the spiritual path,
26:23
which is why it is, you know, a long, patient but actually
26:29
profoundly satisfying task. So in a a seminar that
26:35
Sangarakshita LED in 1976 when he was still laying out the the
26:41
teachings of Buddhism to members of a very young order of
26:45
movement, he spoke of this path of vision and transformation as
26:50
a process of ascending and descending.
26:54
Ascending refers to how we can work to set up the conditions
26:58
through meditation, through ethical practice, study and
27:02
reflection, friendship, going on retreat, through all these
27:06
aspects of the spiritual life, all the things that we can do
27:10
that set up the conditions where these moments, glimpses of
27:15
another way of being can arise. So that's the the the ascending.
27:23
But it's important that we recognise these insights,
27:26
however dramatic, they're not the end.
27:29
They're really just the beginning.
27:32
The real work of the spiritual life is in grounding them in our
27:36
being, making them a part of our life in all of its difficulties
27:41
and complexity. And this is the descending, the
27:43
bringing of those, if you like, highest moments into our
27:48
everyday life. So more and more they inform and
27:51
colour and become part of who we are.
27:56
And our spiritual life then is a constant process of ascent and
28:00
descent, sometimes with the ascending, you know, descending
28:04
and ascending currents sort of overlapping and interweaving.
28:10
So with this discussion of vision and transformation,
28:14
ascent and descent, we begin to come close to one of the great
28:19
paradoxes of the spiritual life. So if you've explored the
28:24
Buddhist tradition, you'll have come across teachings that say
28:28
there is no goal, no path, no effort or of will to be made.
28:33
You just have to wake up here and now, in this moment, to who,
28:38
to what you really are. So.
28:42
And we also certainly find such teachings in other spiritual
28:46
traditions and sometimes stated quite strongly, yes, certainly
28:50
by some of the teachers you might meet on the Internet these
28:53
days. And on the other hand, we have
28:56
those teachings that insist on dedicated practice, commitment,
29:03
continued steady effort. So it's as if we have these two
29:07
principles. We have a principle of
29:10
Buddhahood that is outside of time in the dimension of
29:17
eternity, and we have a principle of the Buddhist
29:20
practitioner in the dimension of time.
29:26
So the principle of Buddhahood, eternity, it's transcendent.
29:34
It's just stands outside completely of all our usual
29:39
experience. It represents perfection,
29:43
eternally complete, eternally achieved.
29:48
The principle of the Buddhist practitioner is inside time, the
29:53
principle of growth, evolution, development, something emerging
29:57
from us out of our own life and practice.
30:01
And this represents perfection everlastingly in the process of
30:06
achievement. And the two are a discontinuous,
30:13
which that's one of the things that's quite hard to make sense
30:19
of, you know, Buddhahood, the Buddhist practitioner, eternity,
30:23
time. But actually they can't be
30:25
merged or blended in into each other.
30:29
Rather it's a question, and this is the great paradox that we
30:33
have to sort of work with. It's a question of realising
30:38
them both simultaneously, of having this sense of a
30:42
Buddhahood, of a state of complete wisdom and compassion
30:45
that stands outside of time above all our conditioned
30:49
existence. And this principle of the
30:53
Buddhist life and practice where we're working with ourselves,
30:58
with each other to actually try and develop into that wisdom and
31:05
compassion. But just trusting we just have
31:07
to set up the conditions and something will eventually
31:11
happen. You know, we can experience a
31:14
process going on, but actually the end of the process is
31:18
something completely beyond us as we are now.
31:29
So yeah, just to, it's got very profound, hasn't it?
31:35
There's another aspect of the path or no path we found.
31:39
We find Sanger Exeter emphasizing again and again we
31:44
need to make sure our path includes joy and happiness.
31:49
So this doesn't mean that we should always be skipping around
31:52
with a big smile on our faces. But if our spiritual life is
31:57
just becomes a sort of dull worthy plod, you know, we're
32:00
trying to be good Buddhists, trying not to, you know, do this
32:04
and not to do that. And, you know, getting really
32:08
worried about, you know, what to do about mosquitoes and, you
32:12
know, sort of torturing ourselves over every little
32:15
thing, you know, it, it can just become we lose, we lose our our,
32:23
our sense of where we're trying to go.
32:26
So, yeah, sometimes Buddhism can feel like hard work.
32:30
But there needs to be this taste of joy and happiness in there.
32:34
At the very least, when it's difficult, we can hopefully have
32:40
the sense of satisfaction that I'm really living the life I
32:43
need to live and really doing what I need to do.
32:49
And probably at the heart of it all is something that we touch
32:53
on with that meditation we did earlier with the Metabhavna what
32:57
what in Buddhism we call Kaliana mitratar, or spiritual
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friendship. So we can actually see the whole
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of the Buddhist tradition as a personal communication.
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You know, it started with the Buddha engaging with those five
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aesthetics, really trying to find a way to reach through to
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them and enable this sort of flow of a current of spiritual
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energy through them. And eventually through many
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other disciples down over the centuries, through teacher and
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disciple, on and on down to us. There's a story of how Ananda,
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the Buddha's younger cousin and his constant companion over the
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last 25 years of his life, once came to the Buddha wanting to
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share a wonderful new insight with him, saying, it's wonderful
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Lord, it's wonderful spiritual friendship, Kalyanamitutar, It's
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half of the spiritual life. And the Buddha responds, say not
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so Arnander. Say not, say not so poor
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Arnander. Oh no, I've got it wrong again.
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But the Buddha carries on. It's the whole of the spiritual
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life, the whole of the spiritual life.
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So yes, this human connection on the basis of meta and
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understanding, it's, it's a current, if you like, running
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through Buddhism in which we, we try to keep alive.
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So how to find a spiritual friend?
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Well, again, we can all like to think we're a bit special,
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aren't we? You know, more spiritually
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gifted than others. And well, really only the best,
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the highest teacher will do for us.
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But in fact, all we really need to make progress is contact with
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someone a bit further along the path than us.
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Someone who can help us in understanding it's twists and
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turns and ups and downs and joys and disappointments and help us
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to see what we need to do next. And yes, Sangarakshita has
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really guided and encouraged us in establishing a whole network
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of Kaliana Mitrata, A whole network of friendship based on
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spiritual values and practice. Where we can learn not just from
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our closest friends, from many who are on the same path, and
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where we can also start to offer help and encouragement to those,
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you know, just coming along, just those less experienced than
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ourselves. So our spiritual friends can
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know us as we are in our day-to-day life, with all the
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sort of struggles and joys this human life brings.
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And to the extent they've absorbed the living spirit of
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the Dharma into their own way of being, they can help light up
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the way for us in in specific in our own particular life and
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circumstances. And it's not that they always
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have to be giving us advice and guidance.
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Yeah. And it's not that we always have
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to be on the phone to them. Sort of.
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What should I do now? Often it's more that they can be
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more like mirrors in which we can see ourselves more clearly.
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You know, sometimes. Yeah, it's just having someone
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we can talk to. They don't even need to say
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anything. Sometimes they don't even need
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to talk to them. Sometimes we just observe what
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they're doing, how they're responding to life.
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That's enough to tell us. What am I up to here?
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And talking things through with our spiritual friends can often
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often means that we come to see ourselves.
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They don't have to tell us, you know, just being able to talk
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things through with someone we really trust, we can see for
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ourselves what the next step is. So a talk like this can't really
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replace spiritual friendship, Kallion and Mitratar any more
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than reading lots of books or watching endless YouTube videos.
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But maybe it can at least offer something for you to think about
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and also to talk about with your friends, your spiritual friends
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and companions on the way. So I'm going to leave it there,
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I think. Do we want to have any
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questions?