Latest / Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast / Entering the Forest of the Heart

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Entering the Forest of the Heart · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

0:08
So I thought in this second-half I would speak in terms of, well,
0:15
I'm going to tell a story, so I will tell a story.
0:18
And do you get to listen to a story?
0:22
It's interesting just noticing people's reactions to me saying
0:27
that. So I definitely got a few smiles
0:29
there. I don't think that will be the
0:32
whole story. So maybe some of you are
0:34
thinking not a story, that's not what I've come for.
0:38
I don't know. So we can have mixed responses
0:43
and relationships to story. So maybe to begin with, I would
0:46
just say a little bit about why I'm choosing to speak in this
0:51
way this morning and why I've chosen to tell a story because
0:55
there's lots of ways. There are lots of ways of
0:57
sitting here and communicating to you something about what
1:01
Buddhism is or what Buddhism is pointing to.
1:05
And, and story is just one way. But the reason I've I've chosen
1:10
to speak this morning in terms of story, partly, partly it's
1:16
just subjective preference. So I have to kind of admit that.
1:21
But also I think, I think there can be a view that story is
1:25
somehow more basic or less important than other ways of
1:30
communicating. Yeah.
1:32
So in a retreat 2 weeks ago, I was also telling a story.
1:38
People enjoyed it, I think. And we laid down before hand and
1:44
somebody said, oh, it was just like being at kindergarten and
1:47
having a story read. So it can have that association,
1:52
can't it, That we are just kind of children.
1:56
It takes us back in some ways to childhood when we might have
1:59
heard more stories than perhaps we do now in a certain kind of
2:03
way. So that can form the impression
2:06
that it's somehow not as grown up or not as important in some
2:13
kind of way. But reflecting on the subject
2:16
this week, I was, I was just remembering all the different
2:19
stories, not all of them, but many of the different stories
2:24
that I've heard in my life and the impact that they've had on
2:27
me and the change that they have initiated.
2:32
And I would say that some of the the key turning points in my
2:35
life have come through actually hearing stories.
2:40
Actually, whether that's reading a story or somebody telling a
2:44
story, they do have the power to Transformers.
2:49
Maybe this is an obvious point, but I think it's worth saying
2:53
that stories do have the the power to Transformers.
3:00
I think that the Buddha knew that.
3:02
So I think I think Buddhism has a tradition of of storytelling
3:07
because sometimes the most powerful way of delivering a
3:11
truth or revealing a certain beauty about the real nature of
3:17
life is through story. Yes.
3:20
So sometimes the Buddha would tell the story of his own life.
3:24
For example, he would tell groups of people what he'd done,
3:29
what had happened to him, and that had a powerful effect on
3:32
them. He also told stories about other
3:37
Buddhas. Yeah, how he knew them, I'm not
3:41
sure. But he would tell stories about
3:43
Buddhas countless aeons ago, in the past and their lives, and
3:50
that also affected people in a certain kind of way.
3:53
He told stories about himself and other people when they were
3:58
in previous lives as animals and the things that they used to get
4:02
up to in the jungle, his friends and his enemies and how there
4:07
are different types of animals and how they all interacted.
4:10
And then at the end he says, and I was the elephant and my friend
4:14
Arnander here was the tiger. And he explains who was who.
4:20
So all these, all these are ways in which the Buddha would use
4:24
story to try to communicate a truth to people, to communicate
4:29
to them what he had seen or experienced.
4:33
And that's carried on throughout the history of Buddhism.
4:36
So I remember reading a book about Thai forest monks, and it
4:42
was describing how their approach to communicate in the
4:46
Dharma to other people was primarily through stories.
4:50
So every so often you'd have this village in Thailand just
4:54
going about his business, and suddenly someone would come out
4:58
of the forest in a robe carrying a bowl, and he would stay for a
5:04
couple of days and just tell stories, maybe the same stories
5:08
about the Buddha and the animals.
5:11
And then he would just disappear again into the forest and people
5:16
would be left with the stories. So that was the the way in which
5:22
these things were passed on. It was only later in the, I
5:27
think, the late 19th century, when the Bangkok government was
5:31
reforming and things were becoming more rational and more
5:34
scientific, that some monks got sent out to tell the
5:39
storytelling forest monks to stop telling stories and to
5:44
communicate the teaching in a different kind of way.
5:48
And I'm not judging that, because that different kind of
5:50
way is also effective. But the storytelling tradition
5:56
certainly tailed off. Maybe it's still alive
6:00
somewhere. So throughout the history of
6:04
Buddhism, stories have been told throughout our own cultural
6:07
tradition. In the West as well, stories
6:10
have been told and passed on. Just in the last couple of days,
6:15
I've started reading The Odyssey again by Homer, and it's it's
6:19
the foundational story of basically every story that has
6:24
come since. It's fantastic.
6:26
And that was also kept alive through people just telling it.
6:32
So there we go. That's why I've chosen a story,
6:35
because there's this rich history of storytelling in our
6:39
culture, in the Western world and within Buddhist culture, and
6:44
hopefully it will affect you in some way.
6:47
Hopefully the story will have an effect.
6:53
I just throw in one of the preliminary point, which is that
7:00
last week I was not here present in the Saturday class because I
7:05
was at the cinema with Tara Paleta and we were there all day
7:10
from 10:00 in the morning till 10 at night, watching the three
7:13
Lord of the Rings films back-to-back.
7:18
The directors cuts with 220 minute breaks in between.
7:23
So it was quite an extreme day. And all week, all week, I've
7:29
been existentially challenged and troubled by the impact of
7:35
the story. Because it's, if you know, Lord
7:38
of the Rings, it's, it's quite a story, isn't it?
7:41
And all these interwoven themes of power and corruption and
7:47
friendship and honour and nature and industrialization, life,
7:54
death. It's such a, a rich story.
7:57
And it's been in my mind. And actually Tolkien, who wrote
8:01
The Lord of the Rings, he had an interesting thing to say about
8:05
stories. He said, well, people would
8:09
criticize him and say that his fantasy novels were just
8:12
escapism, You know, people were just escaping from the real
8:16
world. And he said, well, yeah.
8:19
He said, if you were in prison, it would be quite natural that
8:24
you would want to escape. So the point he was making was
8:28
that life without stories and without imagination, it's very
8:34
imprisoning. You know, we narrow ourselves if
8:37
we're not imaginatively alive and open to stories.
8:41
We narrow and contain ourselves in a certain kind of way.
8:44
So he was saying that the novels were one way in which we free
8:48
ourselves. So it'd be quite strange,
8:51
wouldn't it, if Buddhism is all about freeing ourselves and
8:56
liberating ourselves from a limited state of consciousness,
9:01
a limited state of being, a limited imagination, if we were
9:06
to strip it of its stories, that would be a shame because of the
9:12
power they have to help us become free, let's say, from the
9:17
prison of the suffering of ordinary life.
9:24
OK, enough introductory stuff. That was my way of just
9:29
preparing the ground. So I'm going to, I'm going to
9:32
read you a story. I have to admit it's an
9:40
adaptation of the traditional Buddhist story.
9:44
So if you want the original, you have to go and look at the
9:48
Parameter Jyotika, Volume 1 to be specific, which is a
9:53
commentary to a collection of texts called the Sotinipata,
9:58
which is one of the earliest collections of the Buddhist
10:01
teaching. So we have those collected
10:04
teachings. The parameter Jyotika is a
10:07
commentary on those teachings written at a later date.
10:12
And the story we will hear comes from that commentarial
10:16
tradition. And you could, you could just
10:20
read the commentaries in the translation.
10:23
I've adapted it because I'm, I'm trying to do what storytellers
10:31
have done over the years, which is bring the story to life for
10:34
myself. Yeah.
10:36
So to imagine myself into the story and how, how can I
10:40
communicate it to you in a way that's alive, but also it might
10:45
communicate better to you. But you can be the judge of
10:48
that. And if you want the original, if
10:51
you want the pure thing, then there you go.
10:57
Come and ask me for the reference at the end.
10:59
Yeah. So before I read it, an
11:03
invitation to just get comfortable.
11:06
So you can maybe you're comfortable already, but just
11:10
sit comfortably. If there's space and you want to
11:13
lay down, then you can do that too.
11:26
I wonder partly if the power of stories come come sometimes just
11:30
from the fact that we tend to relax before we read them or we
11:35
experience them as a form of relaxation.
11:39
Yeah, it's not very long, just a few minutes.
12:07
Maybe close your eyes just so that you can give your
12:12
imagination a free freedom. A long time ago, when the Buddha
12:28
still walked the dusty roads, a group of monks asked him for a
12:35
quiet place to meditate during the rainy season.
12:42
He sent them to a deep forest at the foot of a mountain, a place
12:49
where silence would gather like water in a still pond.
12:56
The monks arrived, spread out their robes beneath tall ancient
13:02
trees, and began their meditation practice.
13:09
But it wasn't long before they discovered that the trees were
13:15
not empty. In their branches lived the
13:21
forest spirits, ancient beings, including mothers preparing to
13:28
bring new spirits into life. For a while the spirits waited,
13:38
but as the days went by they became restless.
13:44
Who were these monks who'd come to their homes?
13:49
And didn't they realise that their presence was stopping the
13:53
mother tree spirits giving birth to baby tree spirits?
14:00
So the spirits did what spirits often do when they feel unseen.
14:07
They began to create disturbances, Flickers in the
14:15
darkness, the sound of footsteps which leave no tracks, cold
14:24
breath on the skin of the monks, the kind that makes the hair
14:30
rise on the back of the neck. Fear began to grow in the monks,
14:39
like a small drum beating inside the chest.
14:46
Then the moment came when they couldn't take it any longer, and
14:51
they fled back to the Buddha. They told him everything, the
14:56
shapes, the shadows, the shivering nights.
15:03
And the Buddha listened quiet, like a stone or a rock listening
15:10
to a river. Then he said, monks, you don't
15:19
need to find a different forest, you need to find a different
15:26
heart. So he taught them about loving
15:33
kindness, meta, a force stronger than fear, a light that doesn't
15:42
burn but blesses. He said that they should
15:48
meditate like this. May all beings be happy and
15:53
secure. He said they should think of
15:57
every living thing without exception, the weak and the
16:03
strong, the small and the large, the seen and the unseen, those
16:11
living now and those yet to be born.
16:16
May all beings become happy. He said they should love others
16:24
like a mother loves her only child.
16:30
He said they should develop an unlimited heart for the entire
16:33
universe, sending Metta above, below, and all around.
16:42
And then finally, he told them, go back.
16:49
Go back to the forest and radiate kindness to those very
16:54
beings who frightened you. And so they went back that same
17:03
night, and they sat beneath the same trees, closed their eyes,
17:10
and let kindness rise in them like a small flame in the
17:15
darkness. May you be well, may you be
17:21
happy, may you be free from suffering, they said.
17:28
You who live in these branches, you who watch from the unseen
17:33
places, may you be free from fear.
17:40
Their words drifted upward through the leaves, and the
17:44
forest spirits felt them, soft as warm rain on the skin.
17:54
The fear melted, The disturbances stopped.
18:01
A quiet joy spread among the trees, and in that peace, that
18:07
shared kindness, the monks hearts opened like flowers
18:13
blooming in the night. The End.
18:40
So if you laid down, you could sit back up.
18:47
So ideally, if we had the all day, ideally we would now just
18:53
pause and people would have an opportunity to share just their
18:59
responses to that, to that story.
19:02
We can't do that unfortunately. So here I am.
19:06
I'll just share my own responses to the story and pick out some
19:10
themes. I think one of the one of the
19:24
strongest images for me from the story is the fact that it takes
19:28
place in a forest. Stories always have a context,
19:31
don't they? They don't take place in a
19:34
vacuum. There's always a location and a
19:37
context. And in this story we have the
19:40
context of the forest. Yeah.
19:44
So let's just be with that image for a moment.
19:48
So forest. I say the word and something is
19:52
evoked. So forest, What does forest do
19:56
for you? What does forest say?
19:59
How does it affect you? So we know that forests are.
20:07
Groups of trees, I guess. I haven't looked it up in the
20:09
dictionary, but let's just say it's a group of trees.
20:14
But they feel more like that, They feel to be more than that,
20:18
don't they? If we go for a walk in a forest,
20:21
they also have a particular atmosphere.
20:24
And that might depend on where the forest is, the time of year,
20:31
the time of day, the types of trees, the types of creatures
20:36
that live in that particular forest.
20:39
So you could say each each forest that we go into has its
20:43
own unique quality or atmosphere.
20:47
Yeah. Or environment ambience.
20:51
I can't help but bring in Lord of the Rings because of
20:55
yesterday and its influence on me.
20:57
But I was struck in watching the films how many different types
21:00
of forests are entered into. You've got the what's it called
21:08
there? Any big fans here?
21:09
Because I might get something wrong.
21:12
Loflaurean is the elves forest, isn't it?
21:15
And that's the kind of magical, wonderful kind of place.
21:21
And then you get the other forests that are much more,
21:26
well, a bit more fear inducing, like the monks here experience.
21:30
Merkwood is the the really bad one in Lord of the Rings.
21:34
Sauron has kind of poisoned the the trees.
21:37
The trees are sick. So so we go into different
21:41
forests and they've got different kind of feelings,
21:43
haven't they, or evoke different kind of feelings for us.
21:48
The other thing I was thinking about forests is how I like, I'm
21:53
assuming none of us live in a forest.
21:56
Yeah, we probably all live in the city.
21:58
Maybe you live on the outskirts, but I don't think any of us
22:02
probably live in forests, although you may have done at
22:04
some time in your life. But for most of us in the modern
22:08
world, the forest is not somewhere we stay.
22:12
So it's somewhere we might go to and enter into.
22:16
Once we've entered the forest, we have to move through it.
22:21
But at some point we also come out.
22:24
Yeah, so. So the forest is a temporary
22:29
atmosphere that we might experience.
22:33
And the more I thought about that during the week, the more I
22:36
realized that actually this metaphor of the forest, it's
22:40
kind of a metaphor for all experience.
22:46
So for example, everyone here this morning entered through the
22:52
door. You could say that we entered
22:54
the forest of the Buddhist centre like an hour ago or an
22:58
hour and a half ago, and we're moving through it.
23:02
And at some point we will leave. Yeah.
23:05
And this place has its own particular atmosphere.
23:09
Depending on the time of day, depending on the people who show
23:12
up, a certain atmosphere gets created.
23:15
Yeah, me, Me giving this talk because I've opened my mouth at
23:23
the beginning and started to speak.
23:25
We've entered something. I've entered into something by
23:29
starting to talk and you have entered into something by
23:33
listening and we're currently navigating that.
23:37
I might get a bit lost sometimes, you might get a bit
23:40
lost sometimes, but at some point it will end you.
23:47
You will all applaud and then we'll all leave out the door as
23:54
well. So just just anything we're
23:58
doing, there's this movement into a certain type or quality
24:03
of experience. We have the experience and then
24:07
we move into another one. Yeah, I was thinking it might be
24:15
relevant to use that metaphor, particularly in terms of
24:18
meditation. So a lot of you will have come
24:21
here to, to learn about Buddhism generally and and probably
24:25
specifically about meditation. It's kind of a big, a big draw
24:29
for people to Buddhism. But we could use the metaphor of
24:33
the forest in relation to meditation.
24:36
So we've all, I think most of us have, have done it this morning.
24:40
And if not, you will have done it anyway at some point for the
24:44
experience of meditation. We sit down, don't we?
24:48
And we enter into something that is not our usual way of being in
24:53
the world. And we step into something and
24:57
then for however long we do it, whether it's 10 minutes or half
25:01
an hour, an hour, we're in something, we're in a particular
25:06
environment. And then the bell goes or
25:11
whatever happens and we stop and we leave it.
25:16
But meditation is quite a curious forest to enter into.
25:20
It's more like there are multiple forests or different
25:23
regions of the forest. So when we sit down to meditate,
25:27
one of the things we might enter into more fully than we are
25:32
ordinarily experiencing is our own body.
25:38
Yeah, so it's a bit strange because we actually stop moving,
25:43
but maybe it's in the stopping moving that we turn towards our
25:47
actual physical experience, whatever that might be.
25:51
Whether we notice we've got pain in the body or lightness in the
25:57
body or restlessness, itching, we start to notice things, don't
26:03
we, that we might miss when we're just on EU barn or doing
26:08
whatever we're doing in our usual routine.
26:13
So there's an entry into that forest that we call the body.
26:18
There's also the entry into the forest of, let's say, the mind
26:22
and thought. We start to see, don't we, the
26:27
the different thoughts that are coming through our mind.
26:32
Easy to get lost in that forest, isn't it?
26:36
Or I'm going around in circles with the different thoughts.
26:42
There's also, I would say the the entry into what we might
26:46
describe as the forest of the heart.
26:49
So when we sit to meditate, yeah, we, we might experience
26:54
the body, we'll experience what's happening in the mind and
26:57
our thoughts. But probably we also start to
27:00
notice what's, what's moving in the heart, to put it poetically,
27:05
or what our emotional experience is.
27:09
Yeah. So we come into contact with
27:12
emotion, yeah. And that is going to be a well,
27:22
a different experience on a different day, a different hour
27:26
of the day. But also for different people,
27:30
we have different relationships. So the quality of our connection
27:34
with our emotional life will be different for different people.
27:39
For me, the whole area of emotion has been quite elusive,
27:46
and actually coming into a relationship to it takes some
27:50
work because all this stuff can be going on kind of down here in
27:56
the depths, the emotional churnings away.
27:59
But I don't always notice that, to be honest.
28:05
I love this poem by Charles Bukowski, quoted in the WhatsApp
28:09
group The Bluebird. Let me see if I can remember it
28:14
and I will share it with you. There's a Bluebird in my heart
28:22
that wants to get out, but I'm too tough for him.
28:28
I say stay in there. I'm not going to let anybody see
28:33
you. There's a Bluebird in my heart
28:37
that wants to get out, but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
28:43
cigarette smoke, and the whores and the bartenders and the
28:47
grocery clerks never know that he's in there.
28:53
There's a Bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I'm
28:57
too tough for him. I say stay down.
29:01
Do you want to mess me up? You want to screw up the works?
29:06
You want to blow my book sales in Europe?
29:11
There's a Bluebird in my heart that wants to get out, but I'm
29:15
too clever. I only let him out at night.
29:19
Sometimes when everyone's asleep.
29:22
I say, I know you're in there, so don't be sad.
29:31
And then I put him back in, but he's singing a little in there.
29:37
I haven't quite let him die. And so we sleep together like
29:43
that with our secret pact, and it's nice enough to make a man
29:49
weep, but I don't weep, do you? Whenever I do that, off the top
30:03
of my head, my Bluebird starts thumping.
30:13
But it's strong, isn't it? Strong stuff.
30:18
So maybe you relate to that kind of disconnection from what's
30:23
going on down there, what's chirping away, trying to get our
30:28
attention and the difficulty that we can experience in
30:32
allowing that to come out. Maybe you can also experience
30:39
emotion quite vividly and actually overwhelming kind of
30:43
emotion, which would be a different, would require a
30:46
different poem. You know, I think the, the point
30:54
I wanted to make in, in talking in that way and, and referring
31:00
to the poem is that when we sit to meditate and we come into
31:04
contact with our emotions and what's really going on there,
31:09
we're coming into a closer relationship to it.
31:12
And there can be all kinds of things.
31:16
And often if we experience what we might describe as disturbing
31:19
emotion or emotion that we might not want to find in meditation,
31:25
we can assume that we're getting it wrong.
31:28
Yeah. That we're doing something wrong
31:30
or that the meditation doesn't work or that we're not good
31:35
enough at it. But I don't think it's like
31:40
that. I think that's what meditation
31:44
is, is an entry into the forest of the heart and coming into
31:49
contact with our real emotional experience and emotional life.
31:55
And, and we don't have to be scared of that.
31:59
In a way, the meditations that we're doing, they open that up.
32:04
They open that up. So the whole range of our
32:06
experience. And it's not just disturbing
32:09
emotion that we encounter or disturbances in the body or
32:12
disturbances in the mind, We also experience lightness in the
32:18
body, joy in the body, clarity in the mind, great thoughts,
32:24
like really good thoughts and ideas and clarifications and
32:29
really strong positive emotions as well.
32:33
So, so through meditation, through Buddhism, we're opening
32:36
up to the whole range of what it is to be human, the whole
32:41
possibility of, of human experience.
32:45
So we're not getting anything wrong if that happens.
32:49
And the meditations are giving us, particularly the metabavna,
32:53
it's giving us a container in which all that can be
32:57
experienced a bit more fully and worked with creatively and
33:03
positively. Not to say we might not need
33:07
other forms of help with some of that, but the metabarvner and
33:13
and meditation in general is, is helping us come into
33:16
relationship more fully with who we are and what we experience.
33:27
So the monks in our story, their predominant experience in the
33:31
meditation and in the forest, there was fear, and when they
33:39
experienced the fear, just kind of Fair enough, isn't it?
33:42
Like, I was thinking about my own experiences on solitary
33:47
retreats, where usually you're out in the middle of nowhere in
33:52
a little Hut on your own, not necessarily in the forest, but
33:57
away from other people. And yeah, you can get scared.
34:06
The worst time for me is the first night when the sun goes
34:11
down and you have to go outside to pee.
34:16
So there's never toilets in solitary retreat cabins.
34:19
They're always outside. Or you just pee anywhere.
34:23
And it's fine in the day, isn't it?
34:25
But then as soon, as soon as the sun goes down and it's dark out
34:28
there, I start holding it. But then there's nothing to be
34:38
afraid of, I discover. But just night.
34:43
Night carries a certain fear with it, doesn't it?
34:46
We've probably got these deep primal fears and, and presumably
34:49
that's what's getting triggered for these monks.
34:53
And it's interesting, their response is to leave.
34:57
And sometimes we can experience fear so strongly that we just
35:01
have to get out of the situation.
35:03
So I'm not saying under all circumstances, whenever we
35:06
experience fear, we should just be there and experience it.
35:13
But what I'm interested in is how quickly they leave according
35:16
to the story. So they've gone there with the
35:20
intention of doing a rainy season retreat which would be 3
35:24
months, and presumably this happens fairly soon in the story
35:28
that the the forest spirits can't start creating the
35:32
disturbances and the the monks leave.
35:36
So the the actual commentary doesn't say this, but I wonder
35:41
what was their motivation like? They obviously had the
35:45
enthusiasm. They asked the Buddha to tell
35:47
them where to go, but then they leave quite soon.
35:53
So either it was just really overwhelming and scary and if if
35:58
there were tree spirits, I'm sure they can create a lot of
36:02
mischief, or maybe they were just not so into it.
36:10
It's hard to hard to say, isn't it?
36:13
But in any case, it's like that. I don't think they're fully in
36:16
touch. Maybe this is unfair and I'll
36:19
come back to it. Maybe they're not fully in touch
36:21
with their deepest motivation. Yeah.
36:25
The first sign of trouble. It's like, Oh yeah, I'll go
36:29
somewhere else. So.
36:33
So again, when when we ourselves exploring Buddhism experience
36:38
things that we might not expect. One thing that I think is really
36:42
useful is to be in touch with why we're here in the 1st place.
36:47
Because all of us here, we'll have some deeper motivation for
36:53
being here than just to have a good time.
36:57
Yeah, assuming you are having a good time.
37:00
But there'll be a deeper motivation for why you've
37:03
decided to come here this morning.
37:05
There are millions of things you could have done this morning,
37:08
but you're not doing them, you're doing this.
37:12
So why? Again?
37:15
It's listening to the Bluebird, isn't it?
37:17
But why? Why do we find ourselves on this
37:20
day in a Buddhist centre listening to Padmasagra
37:24
speaking? And can we keep in touch with
37:28
that, that deeper motivation, whatever it might be?
37:32
Probably if we asked ourselves what that motivation is, it's
37:39
not so easy to to kind of put into words.
37:43
Maybe you'll get a word or two or an image or just a feeling
37:49
that that being here is a value. But then if you ask again, maybe
37:55
you get a further clarification. We were doing this on Monday
37:59
night in the meditation course, asking what's our heart's
38:02
deepest wish? And it felt like we really,
38:06
people really touched into a deeper place, which was not
38:11
always comfortable, by the way. But just asking that question,
38:16
what do I really want? What do I want?
38:18
What do I really desire? Yeah, it's quite strong stuff.
38:29
But I would imagine for all of us, if we asked that question
38:31
enough and get deeply down enough, we find that there's
38:36
some real richness there and strength there and courage
38:40
there. And probably the reason is not
38:44
just to do with us and our life, but has broader, bigger
38:49
implications. Another Lord of the Rings
38:55
moment. It's quite striking.
38:58
When you watch the three films back-to-back, one of the things
39:02
we both noticed was how much of A burden carrying the Ring
39:07
becomes for Frodo. Yeah, you really see that
39:11
unfolding. He's got the wound from the
39:16
sword, but also his neck is just becoming more and more red.
39:23
And yeah, he's just becoming more and more weighed down by
39:25
the weight of the burden. But also you see his
39:31
determination throughout just getting stronger and stronger.
39:37
Like he's a reluctant hero, isn't he?
39:39
In the the film, there's a moment where he's with Galadriel
39:45
and she shows him in the water pool, the Shire on fire and
39:52
being destroyed. And he says, after seeing that
39:56
vision, he says, then I know what I have to do.
39:59
He has to destroy the ring. So it's not just about him.
40:05
And in fact, he begins to see that he's not going to get back.
40:10
It's a a deeper motivation to surrender himself for something
40:17
greater. And Sam as well, he does the
40:21
same, doesn't he? It's just his devotion towards
40:25
his friend. He's just going to risk
40:28
everything. And there's there's this moment
40:31
where he he's giving out the bread.
40:37
I'm saying it as if we all watched it last week and maybe
40:42
some of you don't even know the story.
40:44
Anyway, there's, there's this ring, right?
40:52
Let's let's not go into anyway, Sam, Sam's dishing out the
40:56
bread. And he says to Frodo, oh,
40:59
there's enough. And Frodo says, enough for what?
41:01
And he says for the journey home as well.
41:04
Then later in the film, there's another moment like that.
41:08
And Frodo says something like, what about the journey home?
41:12
And he says, well, I'm starting to think there's not going to be
41:15
a journey home, but he's not stopping.
41:18
They're still going to destroy the Ring, save the world.
41:26
So what there is in the end, yeah, without wanting to spoil
41:33
it. So I think all of us are in
41:42
touch with something of that. There's a deeper current in all
41:47
of our lives. So let's move on a bit.
41:59
And I just want to pick up on what the Buddha says in the
42:02
story as well, because again, I think there's some interesting
42:08
points for us. It sounds so UN poetic.
42:12
Does it? Anyway, the Buddha tells them to
42:17
go back. They don't need a different.
42:22
This was my own playing around with it.
42:25
You don't need a different forest.
42:26
You need a different heart or a different quality of heart.
42:30
It's not about changing where you are.
42:32
It's about changing how you see things, how you relate to
42:35
things, is what he says to them. And I think that's really
42:41
interesting that the Buddha is essentially saying just be
42:44
there. Can you go back and can you just
42:47
be there and experience what you experience?
42:52
And in a way, I think Buddhism begins there with us just
42:56
stopping and just starting to notice.
43:01
It's so easy, isn't it, to get caught up in life and busyness
43:06
and routine and habit. So can we just find ways of
43:11
breaking that, stopping and just noticing?
43:18
That's kind of the first step in a way you could say the monks
43:21
have not. They weren't really in the
43:23
forest to to project, to project my own habits onto them.
43:31
Maybe they were just going there with this good idea that they
43:35
were going to do this long retreat and have some great
43:39
experiences and become enlightened like the Buddha.
43:44
Maybe they were never really in the forest, they were just in
43:47
their own idea of what was there.
43:49
And when the disturbances start happening, they also project
43:53
certain ideas onto what's happening.
43:57
So the Buddha's saying just just be there and really notice
44:00
what's going on. Just stop.
44:10
I'll throw in another poem. I don't know this one by heart.
44:16
We also had this on the recent retreat.
44:22
This is Pablo Neruda. Now we will count to 12, and we
44:30
will all keep still. For once, on the face of the
44:34
earth, let's not speak in any language.
44:37
Let's stop for a second and not move our arms so much.
44:43
It would be an exotic moment. Without rush, without engines,
44:50
we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.
44:55
Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales, and the man
44:59
gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.
45:04
Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire,
45:09
victories with no survivors would put on clean clothes and
45:15
walk about with their brothers in the shade doing nothing.
45:21
What I want should not be confused with total inactivity.
45:25
Life is what it is about. I want no truck with death.
45:32
If we were not so single minded about keeping our lives moving
45:36
and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might
45:42
interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of
45:47
threatening ourselves with death.
45:51
Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead
45:56
and later proves to be alive. Now I'll count to 12 and you
46:02
keep quiet and I will go. I really love that poem and this
46:21
idea of just being still, keeping quiet, just noticing.
46:26
And the images he gives us, they're so sensory, aren't they?
46:31
So the man looking at his hands, really feeling the experience of
46:37
the pain that has come through gathering salt, the the
46:44
fishermen in the cold sea killing whales, noticing a whale
46:49
is the biggest mammal in the world, isn't it?
46:51
The blue whale? Maybe, maybe just
46:56
metaphorically, we don't see when we are doing damage to the
47:00
biggest thing. It's kind of an incredible
47:04
image, this idea of not being so single minded, keeping our lives
47:10
moving and for once just just stopping and doing nothing.
47:18
Yeah. So just stopping and noticing
47:23
and really seeing what's going on, coming into our senses that
47:28
that can have quite an effect. I think maybe things are not
47:33
what they appear to be when we when we learn to do that more
47:37
and more. But the Buddha doesn't just say
47:42
go back and just be there. He does it.
47:46
He teaches them the meta barvner in a sense.
47:49
He teaches them meta and to radiate meta in all the
47:54
different directions, to care for others as a mother would
48:01
care for her only child. So there's this lovely interplay
48:06
between stopping and noticing and actually being there, but
48:11
also the creative, imaginative act of opening, opening to
48:17
others. For me, that teaching the Buddha
48:26
gives on Mehta, It's a call to imagine.
48:30
It's an invitation to imagine really, really deeply.
48:35
He's giving it to a group of monks, isn't he?
48:37
So a group of guys. And he says it's just like a
48:40
mother's love for her only child, which they can't know
48:45
from direct experience it it's asking them to imagine.
48:52
He's saying send meta in all the directions, up, down, in all
48:58
sides to all sides. So, so when we think like that,
49:02
our imagination immediately starts projecting different
49:06
directions, doesn't it? So we're, we're stretching our
49:10
sense of ourselves. So Mehta, when we're doing those
49:14
phrases, it's, it's an instruction or an invitation to
49:18
really imagine into the lives of others.
49:23
And if we've stopped and if we've come to our senses and
49:27
noticed what is really going on and how life is affecting us,
49:33
and then we open up to how that's happening to other
49:36
people, they are very powerful basis of, like Tolkien said,
49:45
escaping the narrowness of 1's own subjectivity.
49:50
We don't want that really, do we?
49:53
I don't want to just be me and this.
49:56
I want to feel the connection with something beyond and the
49:59
relationship with that which is beyond.
50:05
So the Meta Barn is helping us to do that.
50:07
We can do it in meditation, but you can do it all the time.
50:11
So can we just notice what it's like for others?
50:18
Do it now. Like, what do you think it's
50:20
like for me to be sat here looking?
50:25
I don't know how many people are in here.
50:27
Probably about 80 or something. 100 OK And what what do you
50:34
think it's like that will be different?
50:41
Some of you will be like, gosh, terrifying.
50:45
Others will be like, yeah, I'd quite like to do that.
50:51
And I can think, well, what's it like for you to be sat there
50:55
kind of anonymous in the crowd, but then I can pick you out
51:02
instead of me. I like to do this thing when I'm
51:09
walking around in the streets, particularly in winter when
51:14
everyone's got their winter coats on and their hats and
51:17
their scarves and their bags. Just imagining, like, what was
51:20
it like on the day when that person bought that bag?
51:24
And they're sort of imagining them looking in the mirror, like
51:28
here. Or they opened the present, they
51:35
took the wrapping paper off and they're like, ah, yeah, it's a
51:38
nice present from somebody. You could say, well, that's just
51:41
fantasy because you don't know and you're just speculating.
51:46
But the act of doing that, the act of imagining, has an effect
51:51
on me. Doesn't matter if it's true or
51:55
not. What matters is that I'm seeing
51:57
this is another person just like me, and in connecting in that
52:02
way, then something has changed in my experience of myself and
52:06
my experience of life. So it's a very, it's a powerful
52:12
teaching, the Buddha's teaching on Meta, but it's also a
52:16
wonderful invitation to to have an invitation to imagine more
52:23
creatively. That is like gold, isn't it?
52:29
How many times in your life have you been told to stop
52:32
fantasizing and get real? Well, now I'm saying unleash the
52:43
imagination. Really imagined, but not in the
52:48
way that we might ordinarily do, which is to get lost in the
52:52
forest. Or if you want to get lost in
52:55
the forest, be creative with it and think of others.
53:00
Do it with an open heart, with a metaphor heart.
53:06
There's more to say. There's more I could say.
53:09
I think the story's a bit too tidy at the end for me that he
53:13
gives the teaching, they go back and then everything's fine.
53:16
The fears stop, the disturbances stop.
53:20
Maybe it was like that for the monks because they got the
53:23
teaching directly from the Buddha.
53:26
For me, it's more complicated than that.
53:28
There's this constant coming and going and yeah, but, but I don't
53:34
have time to tell that story, so that we'll have to wait for
53:39
another occasion. So we're just about there.
53:45
And like I said, we entered a forest together this morning.
53:51
We've been moving through it and we're about to leave it and move
53:55
on. But like any any great story,
54:00
when we turn the last page, we're left with something.
54:04
Maybe we're left with more than one thing, but many things to
54:09
take forward and to carry out with us and to to go on the next
54:13
stage of the journey. So hopefully there have been a
54:15
few of those things in this little exploration of this
54:19
story, particularly this thing around the heart.
54:25
The hearts wish our deeper motivation, the invitation to
54:30
stop, to notice, come to our senses, and then to imagine and
54:34
to imagine intensely and to imagine from the heart into
54:40
relationship more and more fully with ourselves and with other
54:44
people. So go into the forest of
54:49
Kreutzberg and see what happens next.
54:53
But thank you.