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What did the Buddha teach and why? · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

0:10
Yeah. So today I wanted to look at
0:12
what is, well, what was the, the Buddha's first communication.
0:18
Yeah, well, his first substantial communication, you
0:20
could say that his first teaching.
0:22
And I wanted to look at it because, well, we were looking
0:28
at this particular teaching on Tuesday evening as part of the
0:34
foundation year that we're running here.
0:39
So there's a number of people in this room that are doing that.
0:41
It's basically a year of study. Yeah.
0:43
You study the so-called basics of Buddhism.
0:47
And I mean, I, I heard the four noble truths, as they're called,
0:52
probably 25 years ago. It doesn't seem to make any
0:56
difference. I mean, I shouldn't say that.
0:57
It's like, for some reason on Tuesday it was like fresh again,
1:03
but maybe not fresh. There's, there's a kind of,
1:07
there was an experience of it that was different.
1:11
That was mind blowing to use that idiom, you know, So, and I
1:19
think it's interesting that just as a general point with
1:22
Buddhism, with Dharma study, it is progressive, I think over
1:28
time and it is gradual. I think the Buddha himself said
1:31
that practicing the Dharma is like the ocean.
1:36
Yeah. Like you walk into the ocean and
1:38
bit by bit, you go deeper and deeper.
1:41
And yes, maybe there's times where you have like a sudden
1:46
experience. Yeah.
1:47
You have a sudden expansion of consciousness or a sudden,
1:51
sudden, you see the world differently.
1:54
But with Buddhism, it's progressive.
1:55
It's a kind of even still, there's a kind of deepening.
1:58
And I find that encouraging. Yeah.
2:00
So I had a, maybe you could say I had something like that on
2:02
Tuesday, where it's like I saw something that I've seen many
2:06
times again. And in a way, that's all you're
2:09
doing with Buddhism. You're coming in a certain
2:12
sense, you're coming in contact with the Buddha's consciousness
2:15
through his teachings, which is actually, well, thankfully,
2:18
radically different from ours. You know, that's the whole
2:20
point, which is why it's quite difficult sometimes because it
2:24
just bounces off us. We're kind of in our mode and
2:27
then we we come across a consciousness that is greatly
2:30
expanded. So it takes time.
2:33
It's like an acclimatisation to a different world.
2:35
Even there's a different, yeah, there's a, there's, there's,
2:39
there's something very different at play which we'll look at.
2:44
So yeah, Buddhism is difficult. It's hard work, but it works.
2:48
You know, it takes takes time, but it works, which is why I
2:52
think people end up staying with Buddhism.
2:55
If they stay, they just see it. So the four noble truths, before
3:02
looking at them, maybe just to say where they come from.
3:07
Like I say, they're basically the the Buddha.
3:09
There's a whole myth around this, but the Buddha attained
3:12
enlightenment. Well, what we call
3:13
enlightenment. Yeah.
3:14
Nirvana. And in a way, he was going to
3:20
teach anyway. He was going to communicate
3:22
because the other side of wisdom is compassion.
3:24
It's said to be the two wings of Buddhism is wisdom and
3:26
compassion. You can't have one without the
3:27
other. Yeah.
3:28
So compassion from a Buddhist perspective is helping us
3:31
understand why we're suffering and to alleviate our suffering.
3:35
Yeah. So it was going to happen
3:37
anyway. But then there's a there's a
3:38
myth where the Buddha was like, is it even worth teaching?
3:41
Yeah. Is it worth teaching these
3:42
people something so subtle and almost unusual?
3:49
Yeah, to how we regularly live our lives.
3:51
He did decide to teach. He went to some of his old
3:54
friends. And the four noble truths is
3:56
basically his first communication.
3:58
Yeah, I doubt it would have been a systematic as this.
4:02
Yeah, the four noble truths. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
4:05
But that's how it's been codified over time.
4:08
Yeah. Into these 4 noble truths, which
4:10
are actually very useful. I don't know why I get this
4:11
analogy. I sometimes I don't even know
4:15
why I get this, but I think they're a bit like some old
4:17
Soviet truck. Yeah.
4:20
Not particularly beautiful, but they keep going.
4:24
Yeah. They just keep going.
4:25
And you can mend them and fix them and they'll just keep
4:27
going. Forget that.
4:28
Anyway. So yeah, this, it comes from a
4:33
sutta called the Dharma Chakra Pavatana Sutta.
4:36
Yeah, I probably butchered that in a bit, but the Dharma Chakra
4:38
Pavatana Sutta, Dharma means Dharma, which means Buddhism
4:43
essentially. Yeah.
4:44
Dharma, it's the Buddha's teaching Chakra is like wheel.
4:48
Yeah. And pavatana means turning.
4:50
So it's like the wheel turning, sort of.
4:52
The Buddha turned the wheel of the Dharma for the first time.
4:54
Yeah. So he taught these.
4:59
He taught the four noble truths. Yeah.
5:02
And I'm, I'm going to go into them.
5:08
I'll just approach this. I'm not going to them, but I'll
5:11
just read them off the cuff. Yeah.
5:13
Just just just so. So the first noble truth is
5:15
there is suffering. Yeah.
5:17
The second noble truth is there's a cause of that
5:21
suffering, which we in bold type just called craving.
5:25
Yeah. The third noble truth is there's
5:28
a state where there's no more suffering.
5:30
Nirvana. Yeah.
5:30
Extinguishing. No more suffering,
5:33
Enlightenment. Yeah.
5:34
And the fourth noble truth is there's a path that leads you to
5:38
that point. Yeah, So it's hard to believe,
5:41
but what I've just read is the kind of one of the pinnacles of
5:47
spiritual, religious literature and teaching.
5:50
Yeah. It doesn't sound like it, does
5:51
it? It sounds like, I don't know
5:53
what it sounds like, but you would.
5:54
You'd be hard. It'd be hard to believe that
5:57
that is actually mind blowing. Yeah.
6:00
Which is why it needs unpacking. That's why it's important to
6:04
unpack these things, because we can understand all this stuff.
6:09
What I've just read using ChatGPT, like I was saying in
6:12
the WhatsApp group, you can read that it will give you a 32nd
6:15
summary. You can go makes sense, that's
6:16
Buddhism. And then make a cup of tea.
6:18
Done. It doesn't work, does it?
6:21
So, yeah, the the this is basically the form of what what
6:30
what I've just said, what the Buddha is saying is like, yeah,
6:35
like you could say that a peak of spiritual insight or the
6:39
peak. Yeah, I know it's not very
6:41
egalitarian these days to say you think Buddhism is the best
6:46
and religions are actually different, but I don't know what
6:49
kind of Buddhist you would be if you didn't think it was the
6:51
best. You'd be like a pretty half
6:53
hearted Buddhist. So let me go into it.
6:58
Good. So, yeah, it's always a bit
7:03
nerve racking kind of trying to communicate the four noble
7:06
truths. I'll do my best.
7:08
But any kind of failure of you being inspired or understanding
7:13
what's happening is my fault and not the Buddhas.
7:15
Yeah, just to make that clear. He was an extraordinary
7:18
communicator. Obviously he's one of his like,
7:20
genius, geniuses. Yeah.
7:23
So just bear that. And it's probably your fault as
7:24
well because you, you you're not receptive.
7:28
So. But maybe if we both try, we
7:32
might get something. Yeah, I find that oddly
7:34
reassuring, that even in the Buddha's own lifetime, people
7:38
just didn't care. It's great.
7:40
In fact, the first person he came across looked at the Buddha
7:44
and was like, wow, who are you? Yeah.
7:50
And he said, are you a God? And the Buddha was like, no, I'm
7:53
not a God. He said, oh, so you're a human.
7:55
He said, no, not really, not quite.
7:58
And he's like, well, what are you?
7:59
And he said, I'm a Tatargator. I'm a Jinnah conqueror Buddha.
8:03
And the guy looked at him and said may it, may it be so and
8:07
walked off. So like, it's reassuring, isn't
8:11
it? Not everyone will see.
8:15
OK, good. So before we get into the four
8:19
noble truths, I mean, you probably all heard that
8:23
Buddhist. The first noble truth is
8:25
suffering. Yeah.
8:26
Is everyone familiar to one of everyone?
8:28
But some of you have probably heard that the first noble truth
8:30
is suffering. You read it in these Buddhists
8:32
for Dummies books or like little memes on Facebook or whatever
8:36
where people look at. Yeah, the first noble truth is
8:38
suffering. Yeah, not really.
8:44
The four noble truths. You could say we were talking
8:46
about this on Tuesday. The the four noble truths are a
8:50
way that the Buddha used to describe the nature of reality.
8:57
Yeah. So before you can understand the
8:58
four noble truth, you have to have some some sense, which is
9:01
why it gets 1 needs a bit of kind of of an investigation.
9:05
You have some sense of what it was that actually makes a Buddha
9:08
A Buddha. You know, what makes what, what
9:09
liberated the Buddha from from from suffering.
9:12
You know what liberated him was seeing is not the right word
9:17
because it's too still too up in the head, but a full embodiment
9:20
and knowledge that things are not things.
9:23
Nothing is fixed anywhere in the universe.
9:26
Every everything we see or experience is arising because of
9:33
an infinite number of conditions that have somehow arisen
9:37
together. They cut all these conditions
9:39
coming together. They form a thing.
9:42
You. Yeah.
9:44
And then when those conditions cease, then that thing ceases.
9:47
You, me, we cease. Yeah.
9:48
The world. So it's like this might sound
9:52
like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
9:53
There's another one as, oh, that makes sense.
9:55
Moments, yeah. Which is how we just bounce off
9:57
Buddhism. But it's not an intellectual
10:00
thing. The Buddha's said to have
10:01
experiences with his entire being, which basically means
10:04
you're living in a different world.
10:05
Because I know people, I know actual scientists and people
10:09
that maybe even teach, like systems theory, you know, this
10:12
whole thing of like, oh, everything's like a system.
10:14
And that's like Buddhism, maybe. But the difference is we don't
10:18
behave like that. We behave.
10:21
We grab it. Oh, I want nurse.
10:23
And I don't want, you know, the whole kind of relating to the
10:26
world as if we live in a world of solid objects and fixed
10:30
points. Yeah.
10:32
Preteacher Samit Parda is probably one of the.
10:34
It's probably the only bit of metaphysics in Buddhism.
10:37
Yeah. Which is interesting.
10:39
You don't need to believe anything in Buddhism.
10:40
That's the whole point. Yeah.
10:41
There's no God to believe in. There's no kind of are calling
10:44
for you to have to commit yourself to something you don't
10:47
understand. Basically, Petita Summit Parda
10:49
can be understood rationally. It doesn't mean you've got it,
10:53
but it can be understood rationally that things are not
10:55
things. Yeah.
10:56
Just put it very, very basically.
10:58
Yeah. On a rational level, it kind of
11:00
if you spend enough time, it will probably make sense.
11:02
Yeah, Everything has its time. It comes together dependent on
11:06
conditions. While those conditions are still
11:08
in play, it exists. When those conditions fall away,
11:11
whatever is in the middle, that thing, it just won't exist
11:14
anymore. Yeah.
11:15
There's reasons that things are in in this universe.
11:18
Yeah. And there's reasons why, when,
11:20
when those, when those reasons are not there anymore.
11:22
When those conditions are not there, the thing isn't there.
11:25
Yeah. So in a way, I could just sit
11:28
here banging that in. And that's why we have mantras,
11:31
because you're basically kind of trying to bang this into
11:33
yourself. Because if you can understand
11:35
this, at least to some extent, the rest of Buddhism will make
11:38
sense, you know, and the, the the profundity, the profoundness
11:42
of this, it's hard to grasp immediately, but it basically
11:47
underpins everything. Yeah.
11:50
So in a way, it's the reason why there's no God in Buddhism.
11:53
Yeah. Because Buddhism posits there
11:54
can't be a fixed, a fixed thing, a fixed deity or fixed person if
12:00
everything is changing. Yeah.
12:02
And also what gives rise to a, to a deity, to a God?
12:06
Yeah. So, so there's, there's no,
12:08
there's nothing in existence that is fixed.
12:13
And we'll get into this because this is basically what the four
12:15
noble truths are about. But the reason that is
12:18
liberating is because that applies to you.
12:21
Yeah. And your suffering.
12:22
Yeah. Which I'll get into, but there's
12:26
a reason you suffer. You know, there's multiple
12:28
reasons. There's multiple causes that
12:29
you're suffering. Yeah.
12:30
Whether in subtle ways or gross ways.
12:33
And the Buddha's genius is to define what those conditions
12:37
are, the reason you suffer, and find a way of removing those
12:42
conditions. Yeah.
12:43
So if you remove the, the foundation, the conditions, it's
12:47
just not possible for suffering to arise.
12:48
So you don't suffer. It's not that suffering is
12:51
hidden somewhere and then it's going to come and bite you in
12:53
the arse again. 10 like around the corner.
12:55
It's literally the conditions are not there.
12:58
Yeah, if that makes sense. No conditions.
13:04
The thing can't arise. Your suffering can't arise.
13:06
So when the Buddha attained enlightenment, he said to have
13:08
said the Ridge pole has been shattered.
13:11
Yeah. Meaning there's a house we
13:14
build, we construct our own world and our suffering.
13:17
And the Buddha said in his experience that central Ridge
13:20
pole, which we might call selfhood.
13:21
I don't like all this non self stuff.
13:23
It's too abstract. But the all this kind of the
13:26
central things conditions have just been destroyed.
13:30
So the roof caves and you don't have a house anymore.
13:33
That might sound destructive and it is there's there's the
13:36
Buddha's the Buddha. There is a point of destruction
13:39
in Buddhism. It's not all nicey nicey.
13:40
It's like there is there. The Buddha talks about
13:43
destroying certain, certain functions.
13:48
You might see. Yeah, we have to take this
13:51
subtly because some people get the wrong end of the stick with
13:53
this language. It's like it all becomes very,
13:54
like hard. And obviously it's not that.
13:57
It's like it's obvious, you know, you don't sit there like,
14:00
I want to destroy myself and be happy.
14:02
It's not. That's not how it works, is it?
14:05
So there's nuances. So.
14:10
It's interesting. One of the the Buddha had two
14:12
chief disciples. One of them was called Sharif
14:14
Putra. Yeah.
14:15
And I won't go into the whole story, but Sharif Putra one day
14:19
bumped into one of the Buddha's first disciples called
14:21
Asphajeet. Yeah.
14:22
So Asphajeet was walking along. Sharif Putra saw Asphajeet.
14:26
I thought, wow, he looks amazing.
14:28
Yeah. I want some of what he's got.
14:29
And there was a whole scene at the time, 2 1/2 thousand years
14:33
ago in India. It was like people were really
14:35
interested in this in, in what you might call reality.
14:39
Yeah. They wanted to know what was
14:41
going on. So anyway, he goes to Ashrajeet
14:44
and says, well, he says, who are you, basically?
14:48
Yeah. And Ashrajeet says he has a
14:50
teacher called the Buddha. And he says I am but a novice.
14:56
I mean, he's said to be enlightened, but he's I'm, but I
15:00
am but a novice. I cannot explain much.
15:02
Maybe that's actually true. Maybe his way of communication.
15:05
Not everyone is gifted with communication.
15:07
Just because someone might be spiritually advanced, they might
15:10
not be incredibly gifted with communication.
15:12
Anyway, he says I'm but novice. I cannot explain much, but my
15:16
teacher says this being that becomes from the arising of this
15:21
that arises, this ceasing that ceases.
15:27
Yeah. And then he goes and say of
15:29
those things which arise from a cause, the Buddha has told the
15:32
cause, and also their cessation. Thus teaches the great skeptic,
15:38
Yeah. So this being, yeah, this being
15:44
that becomes this not being that does not become.
15:47
Yeah. Super.
15:50
Simple. Yeah, Super simple.
15:52
Super difficult. Super difficult.
15:57
So it's a. Universal principle.
15:59
That's the point. The point is prestigious Samit
16:01
parda condition, Co production, the Buddha said, applies to
16:05
everything on this level in this world.
16:07
There is nothing it does not apply to.
16:09
Yeah, he said, look, in the way the Buddha was very good.
16:12
He wasn't asking people to believe him.
16:14
He would literally say to them, don't take it on faith.
16:17
Go and test it in your own experience.
16:19
Like a Goldsmith tests gold. Yeah, really test it.
16:22
Yeah. Have a look for yourself.
16:23
Is there anything in experience that is permanent and unaffected
16:27
by conditions around it or dependent on conditions around
16:30
it? According to the.
16:32
Buddha, the answer is no. Yeah.
16:36
Everything. Is dependent on conditions.
16:38
Everything. Yeah.
16:40
Our bad mood, Yeah. Our little grumps, they're all
16:42
dependent on conditions, yeah. Our suffering is dependent on
16:45
conditions. Our happiness, everything is
16:47
dependent on conditions, yeah. And so we come to the first of
16:51
the four noble truths. Suffering.
16:52
Yeah, basically the Buddha has taken this universal principle
16:58
that applies to a cup. I gave the amazing example on
17:01
Tuesday of a carrot. Yeah.
17:04
Anyway, I thought it was amazing.
17:05
It wasn't amazing anyway. But a carrot, Yeah.
17:07
There's a reason for a carrot. You have a there's loads of
17:09
reasons for a carrot. Carrots don't just come out of
17:11
nowhere, do they? There's soil, there's rain,
17:14
there's sun, there's a seed, there's temperature, There's a
17:18
planet, there's a universe, there's a sun out there, there's
17:21
stars, there's a Big Bang, blah, blah, blah.
17:23
There's a whole infinite array of conditions that have led to a
17:25
carrot existing. Yeah.
17:27
And then there's also conditions.
17:29
Once those conditions are not in play anymore, the carrot doesn't
17:31
exist anymore. You know, there's a whole kind
17:33
of. Anyway, I'm not going to repeat
17:35
this so. That's the.
17:38
Universal principle, yeah, but then what the Buddha does, he
17:42
basically takes that universal principle of condition Co
17:45
production and applies it to the human scale.
17:48
Yeah, He applies it to humans because the reason the Buddha or
17:53
Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, left home in the 1st
17:55
place was to find an answer for suffering.
17:58
Yeah. He wasn't interested in having
18:00
big groovy cosmic experiences. And it was quite practical.
18:03
He, he his the whole point he left.
18:07
The whole point he left was to discover an answer for
18:12
suffering. Yeah.
18:19
Yeah. So that's the application.
18:21
Yeah. And that's the in a way, you
18:23
could say that's the the Buddhist compassion.
18:26
Yeah. It's like our people suffer.
18:28
Yeah. We suffer for all kinds of
18:29
reason. What's the reason?
18:31
He found the causes and then communicated that if you knock
18:34
those causes out, then you don't suffer anymore.
18:36
Yeah. I have to say.
18:39
Like my just as a little side note, this whole business of
18:45
suffering. It used to be.
18:48
Like 10 years ago, I've been, we've been living in this
18:51
interesting, where we have been living in this interesting sort
18:53
of neoliberal bubble in the past 20 or 30 years perhaps where you
18:57
had to kind of at least in Europe and Western Europe, yeah.
19:00
You had to convince people that there was a thing called
19:02
suffering. It's amazing.
19:04
Like be like, yeah. So the first noble truth,
19:06
suffering and people like, yeah, OK.
19:09
You know, like when you have the your favorite chocolate and your
19:11
friend might eat it and they're like, Oh, yeah, maybe suffering
19:16
these days. You don't have to convince
19:17
anybody of any of this anymore. It's like, I mean, literally,
19:20
it's over the past five years. Everyone's like, yeah, yeah, we
19:23
understand again. It's like old school.
19:24
We're old school again. Yeah.
19:25
Which is a relief. It makes teaching the Dharma
19:28
much easier. You don't have to kind of,
19:30
you're not really competing with kind of like cosy holidays and
19:35
flat screen, whatever it was then widescreen TV's and like
19:39
careers that are going to go on forever, never ending money.
19:42
Yeah. It's like you're not competing
19:43
with that anymore. You're competing with, you're
19:45
just like, you can be clear and people go, yeah, this.
19:47
I understand suffering. Yeah.
19:49
So that's a relief. And I mean, really though, I
19:54
think a lot of people have genuinely suffered over the past
19:57
couple of decades. I have so many friends of mine
19:59
and myself that I've really suffered mentally and
20:02
emotionally with all kind of because you know when
20:05
something's under the carpet or you know, it's like.
20:08
This picture is weird. Yeah.
20:10
This whole picture, this whole system where this is weird,
20:12
people start going weird. You know, you start, you don't
20:14
feel right, You don't feel well. And I'm glad I'm, I mean, I'm
20:18
not glad we're suffering. I'm.
20:19
I'm glad that whole charade of somehow we're just going to
20:22
create this little neoliberal bubble in Europe and just be
20:25
kind of happy here is kind of going or gone.
20:28
Yeah. You feel more alive, perhaps, at
20:32
least with the Dharma, you know, And also, I have to say my, my
20:37
in terms of my first response to hearing this in Buddhism, it was
20:40
also a relief because like, sometimes you can feel you're
20:43
like, you're doing your life wrong if you're suffering.
20:45
Yeah. There's this whole thing, like,
20:46
especially on this kind of parallel insane universe of
20:50
Instagram where you've got these dipsticks, like, filming
20:53
themselves having the best. You're just like, where's this?
20:57
Yeah. And you think, am I doing
21:00
something wrong? You know, am I?
21:02
Because I don't, I'm not smiling on a beach with a cocktail and,
21:05
like, what's going on? And you think, oh, no, it's it's
21:07
nice to hear that you're not living your life wrong if life's
21:11
not easy. Yeah.
21:13
That's the whole Buddha's whole point.
21:14
Yeah. Anyway, yeah, so.
21:20
The Buddha wasn't interested in, like, a bit of spiritual
21:23
experiences just for the sake of it.
21:25
There was a reason. Yeah.
21:26
There was a reason. And the reason was to basically
21:28
find an answer to suffering, the whole whole mess of suffering,
21:34
not just temporarily but permanently.
21:36
Yeah. So if you can imagine such a
21:37
thing, that's basically a Buddha, you know?
21:40
A Buddha doesn't suffer. There's other qualities in play,
21:43
which we'll look at, but you're not suffering, you know?
21:49
And that's what the Buddha wanted.
21:50
That's sometimes why he's called the great healer.
21:52
Yeah. Or the Great Physician.
21:53
Physician. Yeah.
21:56
Because the disease of this world is suffering, essentially.
21:58
That's what we all suffer from. It's like the central pain.
22:02
Yeah. It's pain.
22:03
It's suffering. Yeah.
22:05
And so that's why he's called the great Healer.
22:07
Yeah. It's quite interesting.
22:11
Because you know, there's, it's interesting, the whole medicine
22:14
Buddha phenomenon. And like, like the Medicine
22:20
Buddha, Yeah. On the one level, the medicine
22:23
Buddha in a, in a certain sense is a kind of archetypal Buddha
22:27
connected directly with healing. But also you could say the
22:30
Medicine Buddha is also an aspect of the Buddha.
22:32
Yeah. And I have to say that when I
22:36
was living in, when I was living in the UK in this kind of semi
22:39
monastic community, there was this incredible gallery called
22:43
the Sainsbury's Centre in this place called Norwich.
22:45
Yeah. In the in the in the in the East
22:47
of England. And in this gallery, they had
22:49
what? A medicine Buddha.
22:51
Yeah, about this big. And it was like a bronze plate,
22:54
a bronze plaque with this Buddha.
22:56
I don't know how you call it. Wasn't a statue.
22:59
What's the what's the word like? Not engraving, but the figure
23:02
comes out of the piece of metal. What relief.
23:08
Thank you. Thank you.
23:10
OK. Like a relief.
23:10
Yeah, And it was had. It was the most.
23:13
It's it's still like the most extraordinary Buddha I've ever
23:15
seen. Yeah.
23:16
And maybe you don't find the same.
23:17
It's small. Such a beautiful face.
23:20
Yeah. With this kind of posture like
23:21
this and these two vases. And I used to just stand in
23:24
front of it for ages like it had some kind of.
23:28
Something. Coming off it, I thought, oh,
23:29
well, maybe it's been in people's sick, you know, in
23:32
people's places where they've been sick.
23:34
Or there was just something about it that was so beautiful.
23:39
So it has something to do. With healing, you know.
23:43
Good. All right, so let's get into it.
23:47
Let's talk about suffering. So the.
23:51
The the Buddha was very thorough about suffering.
23:54
Yeah. So there's 3 levels of Buddhas,
23:58
3 levels. There's 3 levels of suffering
24:00
according to the Buddha. Yeah.
24:04
Which probably cover any kind of, they cover any kind of
24:07
imaginable suffering you can imagine.
24:09
Yeah. So the first level is just
24:13
straightforward suffering. Yeah, Dukka.
24:15
Dukka means suffering. It means actually means
24:18
something like unsatisfactoriness.
24:21
Yeah, it's said to, I don't know if it is true, but it's said to
24:23
be connected with an ancient Indian word for a wheel, a bad
24:27
wheel, like a bumpy wheel. So not a nice smooth wheel, but
24:31
a badly made wheel that's kind of going like this.
24:33
And then if you want an ancient Indian Rd., like a dirt track
24:36
and you're going like this, it's kind of like, not great.
24:39
Yeah. But the first level of Duka of
24:44
suffering is Duka, Duka. Yeah.
24:46
It's a bit like 1984 double plus bad.
24:48
Yeah. It's like they just use the word
24:50
twice. And Duka, Duka is just
24:52
straightforward Vadnais. Yeah.
24:56
You step on a nail. Yeah.
24:58
There's no way. That's nice.
25:00
Yeah. Oh, maybe you get beaten up.
25:03
Yeah. That's not unless you're a
25:05
complete sadist. That is like really unpleasant,
25:08
getting beaten up. Yeah, that's a very unpleasant
25:11
experience. So there's nothing good about
25:13
it. It's just straightforward
25:14
suffering. So that's one level, yeah.
25:16
You can decide how you take the experience.
25:18
But the experience itself, like if anyone's had a horrible
25:21
operation, you'll know what I'm talking about.
25:24
There's nothing nice about it. Yeah, you can't.
25:27
You can't put an angle on it. Yeah.
25:30
So there's that. There's that level of suffering.
25:32
Yeah. And it's really important to
25:33
nail these in because I think the half our problem is you're
25:36
trying to, we're trying to avoid suffering by plastering over it
25:40
with temporary pleasant experiences.
25:42
We're desperately trying to avoid suffering in all, all our
25:44
all our own ways. Yeah.
25:46
So it's good to just. I find it a relief to look at it
25:48
straight in the eyes. Yeah.
25:50
Death, pain. Just look at it.
25:52
Yeah, that's what the Buddha's telling us to do.
25:54
Just look at it clearly. You don't have to be squeamish,
25:56
but just take a good look at it. Yeah.
25:58
Because then you will live differently.
25:59
That's what you're saying. Yeah.
26:01
So that's the first level. It's just straightforward
26:04
rubbish pain. We don't want that.
26:06
Yeah. The second level is basically,
26:08
it's kind of called the suffering of change.
26:10
You know, it's like you have something you love.
26:14
Anyone want to name something they love or someone, someone
26:17
but something they love? No.
26:20
What do you like? Do you like health?
26:22
Having an apartment, Having an apartment, that's going to
26:26
change. It will.
26:30
Change. Maybe you'll get a nicer
26:32
apartment, but you know, things change, don't they?
26:35
Having a healthy body, Yeah, that's not doesn't last forever.
26:40
This is ridiculous. But I was remembering earlier,
26:42
like in my teenage years, I wasn't, like, pampered.
26:45
I'm just, I had plenty of suffering, like all of you.
26:48
But I used to like, white trainers.
26:50
Yeah. I used to go to these jungle
26:51
raves, and I used to get these, like, I wanted my trainers to be
26:54
pristine white. Yeah.
26:56
And they were for the first day. And like, I don't know, trainers
27:00
these days are insanely expensive.
27:01
Like, it's kind of clinically, it's just insane how much people
27:06
pay. But anyway, it was enough back
27:08
in the day. It was like 50 lbs for a pair of
27:09
trainers. Yeah, that's like, enough.
27:12
And I was like, I love these. I love these trainers.
27:14
Yeah. They're so white and so
27:16
beautiful and fresh. And then you go to a club and
27:19
someone steps on them and it's like, oh, God.
27:21
And then over three weeks, they just degenerate.
27:23
And then over a month they start looking horrible.
27:26
And I used to stress me out. I used to be like, it was like
27:30
that. I didn't like it.
27:32
Yeah. It was like a really unpleasant
27:35
experience. So yeah, I don't.
27:38
Know, maybe you built a house and then there's a some tragedy
27:42
in the house collapses or people you love.
27:44
Yeah, maybe it's the works the other way.
27:46
Maybe there's like the Buddha says, there's the suffering when
27:49
you get what you want. Yeah, you get what you want.
27:52
You shouldn't do any suffering. But there is suffering because
27:54
you're going to lose it one day, and you know that.
27:56
And it hurts already, even in the midst of your embrace.
27:59
Maybe it's your your lover, your, your family.
28:02
There's some there's people that you love.
28:04
There's things you love and you will lose that.
28:07
It will change. It just has to.
28:09
Yeah, that hurts. That's suffering.
28:13
You could say about civilizations.
28:15
You have the periods in civilizations where everything
28:17
seems nice. Yeah, everyone's being nice.
28:19
Just kind of nice to each other. And then it gets brutal and
28:22
harsh again. Yeah.
28:23
And then it flips again. But there's there's this.
28:25
There's this. The suffering of change.
28:26
Yeah. So he saw that clearly.
28:29
So you have two levels. The first level is just pain.
28:31
Yeah, unpleasant. The second level is change.
28:33
Yeah, just the way it is. It's just how it is, you know,
28:38
beautiful things. They they they don't last.
28:40
Yeah, they can't last. So it's that and then the third
28:45
level, which is maybe the deepest level, at least
28:47
according to the Buddha, the deepest level is what you might
28:49
call the existential level. Yeah.
28:50
The suffering of our own spiritual ignorance.
28:56
Not, not to throw any shade on all of us here, but you know,
28:59
our own ignorance, our own spiritual unenlightenment, It's
29:03
painful. It's actually painful.
29:05
It's like, you can have everything, can't you?
29:08
You can't have, well, I wish, but you can have everything.
29:11
You can have status, looks, health.
29:13
You can have the whole Shibuzo. Yeah.
29:15
And that's what we were trying to do most of the time.
29:17
We're trying to have it all, as if that's going to get rid of
29:19
suffering. But it doesn't work, does it?
29:22
All these, we've got all these amazing stories about Midas and,
29:24
you know, gold. Everything turns to gold.
29:26
And really, you're then left alone.
29:28
The point is, there's always something in your experience
29:30
that's that's not quite satisfied.
29:33
There's an unsatisfactoriness. Yeah.
29:35
It's not about putting a brave face on it, like, oh, just be
29:38
grateful for what you've got. That's nonsense, man.
29:40
That's like face. That's like Yogi T advice, isn't
29:43
it? You know, just like put a brave
29:45
face on it. There's something, there's a
29:47
calling, there's some kind of, you know, your potential.
29:50
And the Buddha says, in a way, this is the worst suffering, you
29:53
know, you know, there's potential in you.
29:55
You know, there's something trying to grow and emerge.
29:57
You know, there's more in you. And you're kind of ignoring it.
30:00
And the time's running down. Yeah.
30:02
And that hurts. Yeah.
30:03
Maybe not even out of your own, no condemnation.
30:06
Maybe it's not even out of your own choice.
30:07
Maybe there's just life is on you and you have to respond and
30:11
you're just snowed under. You have to do things.
30:13
You've got people to take care of.
30:14
But you also know there's there's something in me that
30:17
wants to blossom. Yeah.
30:18
Which the Buddha would say is your potential.
30:21
Yeah. And he's basically.
30:28
Saying nothing will hit that spot other than a spiritual
30:32
journey, even if conditions are difficult, you know, there's,
30:35
there's so many cases of people, even in our own lives of a in a
30:39
very difficult situation, very, very difficult situations.
30:43
And yet they still, they're still practising full pelt.
30:48
You know, they're fully by sticking to their principles and
30:51
practices even in the midst of a hard difficulties.
30:54
Yeah. There's kind of wars, there's
30:56
all kind of madness going on. So there's a mistake with modern
30:58
Buddhism that people think it's for good times.
31:00
Like, oh, I can only practice because if I've got my special
31:04
green tea like me anyway. And like, you know, this needs
31:07
to be perfect and I need this to be right.
31:09
And there's this kind of idea, like it's a luxury.
31:12
Yeah. The Buddha would completely
31:13
reject that. Yeah.
31:14
Buddhism is not a luxury, so. Even when.
31:18
Things are tough and there's other kind of suffering.
31:21
That kind of suffering can be alleviated, the suffering of
31:23
your own kind of purpose, lessness and meaninglessness.
31:26
Yeah. So the Buddha saying that,
31:27
that's the probably the worst kind.
31:31
And don't we know? It because look at the state of
31:33
our culture. Yeah, it's a, it's a complete in
31:36
some respects, it's a like cynicism, for example, is a
31:39
disease. You know, it's a nightmare to be
31:41
a cynical person where you live your whole life where you just
31:44
refuse to trust anything or believe anything because you
31:46
want to be streetwise and like, oh, I don't believe anything
31:49
because therefore I can't be wrong.
31:51
Cynicism eats your soul. Materialism eats your soul.
31:55
So we've got all these things going on that.
31:59
Yeah, they just don't. Work.
32:00
It's not, it's not good for us. So that's another that's A cause
32:04
of suffering. Well, better move on.
32:08
So he's basically saying, all right.
32:11
You have all these. Sufferings, yeah.
32:12
And essentially the second noble truth is the 'cause, you know,
32:16
he's saying the cause, the cause of all this is really to is it
32:22
gets put into shorthand is craving.
32:24
Yeah. So we have this world.
32:26
It's completely changing. Nothing is stable.
32:29
You can't rely on the ground underneath you.
32:30
You can pray for it. It's not going to work.
32:32
Everything's changing. But we're still grabbing.
32:34
You know, we still treat the world as if it's solid.
32:37
So we find someone, we find a belief or we find a place.
32:41
And we're like, I'm holding onto this for dear life.
32:43
Yeah. And it changes and it lets us
32:46
down. It's not a safe place.
32:48
Yeah. And we do that with our
32:51
personality. We want to be a certain way.
32:53
We do it with other people. And so we suffer, you know, we
32:56
suffer because we're basically it's to to do delusion.
32:59
Essentially, we're trying to grab things that are
33:02
ungrabbable. You know, we live in a cloud
33:03
world, you know, and it's natural.
33:06
It's completely normal. I saw this.
33:08
I was looking at Instagram, but I saw this.
33:10
I saw this the only good videos as people cliche, say animal
33:15
videos, aren't they? But there's this little baby
33:17
tiger and it was clinging to this guy's arm, like for dear
33:21
life as he was walking along like his old sugar, His his kind
33:24
of owner, or he's not his owner, his helper or something.
33:28
He was so sweet. And I thought, that's just like
33:29
us, isn't it? We're just like, yeah.
33:35
So we're looking for a safe place as well.
33:37
Yeah, that's the whole point, this clinging.
33:38
We're looking for a refuge. We're looking for somewhere we
33:40
can rely upon. Yeah.
33:43
Something that is exists outside of all these changes, you know,
33:47
that we can just hold onto, you know?
33:50
So the Buddha is saying that's not really going to work.
33:56
In a way the only. Thing like the whole point of
33:58
Buddhism. The only thing you can rely on
34:00
is change itself. Again, it sounds like a Yogi T
34:02
Cliche, but. We'll get into it.
34:05
I think, funnily enough, I think it was this this thought that
34:10
led me to Buddhism because it was interesting when I was
34:12
younger, I kind of wanted to believe in God.
34:14
I was like, I just want to believe in God.
34:16
Yeah, the whole culture, the ritual.
34:20
I didn't grow up religious. I didn't have any kind of hang
34:23
ups about it. It just seemed to me like, wow,
34:26
yeah, I want to believe in it. But then it just kept dawning on
34:29
me that even God changes. Yeah, there's like there's been
34:34
gods from 10,000 years ago that we don't even know about.
34:37
And I thought, oh, it's going to be the same with Christian gods
34:40
and all the other gods. It's like, so it's not forever,
34:44
you know? And Buddhism is different.
34:47
So it's important to understand that Buddhism, it doesn't
34:49
require belief, you know, it's really important to understand
34:53
that it's not a philosophy, you know, it doesn't require belief.
34:56
It's a law. Yeah.
34:58
Whether you choose to accept that law or not.
35:00
The Buddha says that's fine. He doesn't need you to believe
35:02
what he's saying. That's his whole point.
35:04
You can do whatever you want. And he was always very open with
35:06
that, with people. You don't have to come and do
35:09
what I'm doing at all. Yeah, but it's like gravity.
35:11
You don't have to believe in gravity either.
35:13
It's up to you. You can walk on the roof.
35:15
You can test it. You can don't test it, but you
35:18
can test it. You can jump off and see if it
35:20
works or not. Yeah.
35:22
And it's the same. It's the same with, with the
35:27
Dharma, Yeah, with, with this, with this, this law.
35:33
I was, you know, I was. Talking to some, some, some
35:35
someone you, some of you know called Aria Bandu the other day
35:37
and I said, what should I say? What's what would be interesting
35:39
to talk about the four noble truths and what would you say,
35:43
what's interesting for you about it?
35:47
And. Basically, he said what blows
35:50
his mind is that we live in an ethical universe.
35:52
Yeah. Not that.
35:54
The universe itself is ethical, far from it, but if you behave
36:00
ethically as a self reflective human being.
36:05
Something will. Happen, yeah, the the condition
36:07
you'll you will set up conditions for something to
36:10
happen. If you behave unethically, you
36:12
will set yourself up for new for other things, other fruit.
36:15
Yeah. And he said that's mind blowing.
36:18
That's absolutely mind blowing. Like, if you really sat down and
36:20
thought about that, that's extraordinary.
36:23
Yeah. So it's not a belief.
36:24
You don't have to believe in Buddhism at all.
36:26
That's the Buddhist point. You, you just test it.
36:28
You can test it this week. You can go around and be the
36:31
worst scumbag you can imagine. Yeah.
36:33
Just push people out the way. Just like, be really horrible to
36:36
your friends, your colleagues at work, you know, just spit on
36:40
people. Like, just do what you want.
36:42
Just do what you want. Don't forget about everyone
36:44
else. Yeah.
36:45
Do your thing. Yeah.
36:46
And see what the result is. Maybe keep that up for a few
36:49
weeks you see what the result is.
36:51
You probably won't have a. A human.
36:54
Life to speak of. Yeah, it just will be.
36:57
There'll be fruits to that. And it's the same with the
36:59
opposite. If you bet, if you really took
37:01
Buddhism seriously, if I took it seriously and you really behaved
37:04
in a sense of like, you care about people and you really want
37:07
to look out for people and you care about yourself, you will
37:10
have a very different experience.
37:11
So it's not a belief, you know, that's the whole point.
37:13
It's something to test. Good.
37:21
So craving. You could also say craving is a
37:24
shorthand basically for what are also called the three poisons.
37:27
Yeah, really and truly you have suffering.
37:32
And then the cause is what is called the three poisons, which
37:35
you could say is sounds a bit weird, but like spiritual
37:38
ignorance. Yeah.
37:38
And when you leave today, the on, if you look at the red wall,
37:41
there's a big wheel. Yeah.
37:43
And in the middle of this wheel, there's, like, a cockrel, a
37:46
snake and a pig. Yeah.
37:48
And so the cockrel represents greed, you could say neurotic
37:52
craving. Yeah.
37:53
The snake, Well, snakes anyway. The snake represents hatred.
37:57
Yeah. And the pig represents spiritual
37:59
ignorance. Yeah.
38:01
And I think this is important because sometimes the way we
38:05
talk about craving, it sounds so neat.
38:06
It sounds so technical. Oh, yeah.
38:08
Buddhism. What does Buddhism say about
38:10
suffering? Also, when you because you're
38:12
craving, then you suffer. No, that makes sense.
38:14
And it's all very heady. You can read it in a book.
38:16
It's kind of like tidy, actually.
38:19
What we're dealing with is some kind of wild beast.
38:23
It's wild. You've got tentacles everywhere.
38:26
Maybe craving? Is the root, yeah.
38:28
You don't get what you want and you get aggressive, you start
38:30
pushing people away. So that's like where the hatred
38:33
comes in. And you could say that those two
38:36
things basically arise on spiritual ignorance.
38:38
You just don't see how the world is.
38:40
So you're trying to pull things towards you and push things
38:41
away, but they're all kind of one thing.
38:46
Oh my God. OK, good.
38:50
That's number two. So we've got suffering, and
38:53
we've got a reason for suffering, which is basically
38:56
our unenlightened state, which results in craving.
38:59
Yeah, we're not satisfied. You can have all the Scrooge
39:03
Mcduck swimming pools of money. You can have all the states you
39:06
can have. You can have everything and it
39:08
will not touch it. Yeah.
39:09
So there's something else that needs to happen.
39:13
OK, it's #2 but. #3 And the third noble truth is there's a
39:17
state where you're not suffering anymore.
39:19
Yeah. 0 suffering. Nirvana means extinguishing.
39:22
Yeah, you've extinguished all the causes that lead to
39:24
suffering. Maybe unimaginable.
39:26
But the point is you get glimpses of it, practising
39:28
Buddhism over time. You get moments where you're
39:30
like, oh, wow, I am actually not full of craving and hatred.
39:35
And I feel like expansive. There's an expansion to this,
39:39
yeah. Like an expanded consciousness
39:41
which doesn't need anything. It literally doesn't need
39:44
anything. It's like when you have those
39:46
moments, you feel like I could do this forever, you know, I
39:49
just want to be in this state forever.
39:51
And in a way that's just a glimpse.
39:52
Yeah. It's a taste of what you might
39:54
call enlightenment. Yeah.
39:56
So that's what the Buddha's saying.
39:58
The Buddha's then saying there was a there was a state beyond.
40:03
Oh, God, it's cut. There was a state beyond
40:07
suffering and craving. Yeah.
40:11
And yeah, you can have. All kind of.
40:14
Technical conversations, but maybe it's better to just say
40:17
use analogies the Buddha gave. Yeah, because the Buddha
40:20
sometimes in the West, I think we have this kind of tendency to
40:22
pick out the rational and the the bits that make sense
40:25
intellectually. And we we've kind of left out
40:27
the poetry. It's a big mistake.
40:29
Yeah. And the Buddha.
40:30
The Buddha never talked like that.
40:31
Just to be clear, the Buddha used poetry, used images.
40:34
That's part of his genius. You know, find different ways
40:36
into US. You know, maybe we all the.
40:37
What I've just said, it just bounces off of your board.
40:39
You're like, oh, was this bloody talk and finish?
40:42
Yeah, but there's other ways to. There's other ways in.
40:44
Yeah. So the Buddha would talk in.
40:47
Images as well, he'd say. It's like being thirsty in a
40:50
desert, for example. Yeah.
40:52
And you find water. Yeah.
40:53
Very simple. Very simple image.
40:55
Yeah. You're dying of thirst and you
40:57
find water. Yeah.
40:59
He also said it's like being freed from debt.
41:01
Yeah. You have this huge, crushing
41:02
debt on you, and someone pays your debt.
41:05
You're clean. You have.
41:05
I don't know about you, but being in debt is a horrible
41:07
experience. Yeah.
41:08
So it's just like, you can imagine the lightness.
41:11
You can breathe again. Yeah, There's a sense of
41:13
lightness. He also said it's like being
41:15
released from prison, and you've been in prison in this horrible
41:18
place for a long time. You've got used to it.
41:21
You know, you've got used to your prison.
41:22
You kind of tried to make it cosy, and then you're suddenly
41:24
freed. Yeah.
41:26
Or he said it's like putting down a burden.
41:28
You've been carrying this huge thing on your back, and for some
41:31
reason, you just wake up. You're like, oh, I'm actually
41:34
carrying this enormous weight on my back, and it just.
41:36
It falls off you. Yeah.
41:39
So nothing. Remains, you know.
41:47
Yeah. So you could say it's it's.
41:50
Without kind of advertising. It too much.
41:53
It's basically. Everything that we want in life,
41:55
you know, everything we. Want in life is basically not.
41:59
To suffer and to have a sense of wholeness and an expansed.
42:06
State. I don't.
42:07
Know about you, but I can't imagine anyone here likes
42:09
feeling contracted. You know that horrible feeling
42:11
when you're just in yourself. It's all about you kind of lost
42:14
what kind of shrinking in and your mind's cramping.
42:17
It's the horrible state to be in.
42:19
You know, I don't like being in that state.
42:20
And it's if you can. Imagine the complete.
42:23
Opposite indefinitely. Not that you become some kind of
42:27
vague cloud. I think that's one of the
42:29
misunderstanding about enlightenment.
42:30
People think that the Buddha's just merged into the universe.
42:33
It's like some kind of cosmic vegetables.
42:35
It's like like a cloud, you know, I don't think so.
42:39
When you read about the Buddha, you had very clear faculties of
42:42
reason. He understood regular life.
42:46
But he just. Wasn't in in it in that sense at
42:49
all. Yeah.
42:51
And again, I keep banging on about this, but it's important
42:54
because it's what the Buddhism rests on.
42:57
It's not temporary, you know, It's about conditions.
42:59
It's like if you knock out the conditions that lead to your
43:03
ignorance and your suffering, then you're free, you know?
43:07
That's the whole point which leads us to.
43:10
The final of the 4th. Yeah.
43:11
So we have suffering, we have causes of suffering.
43:17
We have a state that the Buddha says there is no suffering, you
43:22
know, not that you don't have physical pain.
43:24
I'm not talking about that, but I'm just talking about
43:26
suffering, you know, as in suffering, suffering what you
43:28
bring to it, you know, because it is possible.
43:30
Regardless of what we were talking about earlier, it is
43:33
possible to be in physical pain and not suffer from that as
43:35
well, which is kind of mind blowing, but it is possible.
43:39
Even little old me has had a glimpse of that, which blew my
43:42
mind. Yeah.
43:43
So it is possible anyway. So no more suffering.
43:45
But crucially #4 is the path. Yeah.
43:50
The most important part of all of this, All this stuff would be
43:54
irrelevant if there was nothing to do.
43:55
So the 4th noble truth is there is a path.
43:58
Yeah, there's a path which basically entails.
44:03
Every aspect of your life Buddhism.
44:05
Is hard work. It's not quick, even though you
44:09
might get temporary, you might get flashes and insights and
44:12
breakthroughs coming along. It's graft, yeah.
44:14
It's like it's not for everybody.
44:16
That's the point. And it is for everybody.
44:18
But it requires everything. I would say it's worth
44:22
everything, but it requires everything so.
44:27
If you, if you was, if you were inspired.
44:29
By the Buddha then, well, people were.
44:32
That's what they did. So traditionally, you could call
44:36
it the path. Yeah.
44:37
The path of vision and transformation.
44:39
You have a vision. Yeah.
44:40
You see things clearly for a split second.
44:42
Maybe whatever that reason is, maybe your loved one has died
44:45
here and you're suddenly what am I doing in my life?
44:47
What am I actually doing in my life?
44:48
Yeah. Well, you suddenly, maybe you
44:50
get ill all of a sudden and all your career aspirations, you're
44:53
just like, this is madness. I don't have long on this planet
44:56
anyway what I'm actually doing. Yeah.
44:58
Or you have like some spontaneous kind of vision.
45:02
Yeah. The weird, I was thinking about
45:03
this the other day. I had this big tattoo done in my
45:05
arm about 25 years ago. And because of that, because I
45:09
was focused, because I had to be, because if I drifted, I was
45:13
in pain. And if I was too focused on it,
45:15
I was in pain. So I got into the.
45:16
I was actually meditating for 8 hours straight.
45:18
Yeah. I didn't even know this.
45:20
And I came out and I was in a completely elevated state of
45:23
consciousness. Yeah.
45:24
Like, I won't go into it, but it was, I've never had anything
45:27
like it since, unfortunately. Yeah, it was astonishing.
45:31
And so you have a vision, you have something.
45:33
So it could be a a pain or it could be a vision and it would
45:36
changes you. But the crucial part is then you
45:39
have the path of transformation. Yeah.
45:41
It's not enough to have a vision.
45:42
It's not enough to have groovy spiritual experiences.
45:44
It's like they come and go like, you know, you can do, you can
45:47
get them in 10 minutes. That's not difficult.
45:49
The Buddha's basically saying it needs to change your life.
45:52
And if you're serious about it, overcoming suffering and
45:56
attaining liberation freedom, you will have to work for it.
46:01
Yeah. And he's saying he basically
46:02
said it's the hardest thing you can do in his life.
46:04
Yeah. The hardest, Yeah, according to
46:07
the Buddha. And he, he pushed it.
46:09
You know, basically what you're doing is you're getting involved
46:13
with every aspect of your life consistently.
46:16
Yeah, So you have this perfect vision.
46:20
Yeah. Then there's the.
46:21
Then I'll just run through them quickly because we don't have
46:23
time. You're then getting into your
46:25
emotional life. Yeah.
46:27
You're really looking at your emotional life, your negativity,
46:30
your positivity, whatever it is, and you're working with it.
46:33
Yeah, you're actively working with it.
46:35
Like you can change your emotional life.
46:38
We don't often understand that. And if we do it, it's like, I
46:40
know vaguely understanding, but I've, I've been thankfully been
46:44
involved with this long enough to watch myself and other people
46:47
radically transform, which is mind blowing to me.
46:50
I used to be very different. Yeah.
46:52
It's not just age. I don't know, loads of people
46:53
that got older and got worse. So it's not like there's, you
46:56
know, they get more grumpy and more crushed in on themselves.
46:59
Do you know what I mean? Like, not that.
47:01
It's like if you do practices like the metabathna, you
47:04
actively cultivating compassion, you're trying to be as generous
47:08
as possible. Yeah.
47:09
You're trying to not make yourself the centre, the
47:11
universe and realise, oh, other people are the centre, the
47:12
universe as well. Yeah.
47:14
You do that. You can transform, transform
47:16
your emotional life. Yeah.
47:17
We don't often think about that. We don't even value that, which
47:19
is mental because that your life is your emotional life
47:23
essentially, even in terms of regular happiness.
47:25
Yeah. But we're like, I don't have
47:27
time for that. So anyway, so yeah, you're
47:30
working on your emotional life. You're taking that seriously.
47:33
Yeah, the the third one, this is the third one.
47:37
The eightfold path is speech. You're taking your speech
47:40
seriously. Yeah.
47:41
You're not lying because it makes it easier, these little
47:44
white lies, as they're called. And yeah, hard work again, very
47:47
hard work. You need courage.
47:48
So you're not lying. You're not, you're not being
47:50
bastard, basically. You're not being harsh to people
47:52
and horrible all the time. Yeah.
47:55
What else is there? You're not.
47:58
You're you're saying stuff that's helpful.
48:01
Yeah, you're not just like, what do they call it?
48:03
Verbal diarrhoea? You're not just over people's
48:06
heads. And they're just like, Oh my
48:07
God, please stop. Yeah, you're not doing that.
48:09
Yeah. And also, your speech is
48:12
harmonious. Yeah.
48:13
When you're talking about other people, your goal is to try and
48:15
bring other people together. Not just like, I can't believe
48:18
what, you know, you're not trying to split people apart.
48:21
Yeah, it's a very. It's I it's one of those things
48:24
in my cell. I don't think I do it so much
48:26
anymore. I hope not.
48:27
I don't think so, but it's a terrible trait.
48:29
Yeah. When I saw it in myself, I
48:31
thought, this is pathetic. Yeah.
48:32
I don't want to be this person anymore.
48:34
Yeah. So you've got to work on your
48:35
speech. That's what the Buddha is
48:36
saying. Yeah.
48:38
Perfect action. Karma, yeah.
48:40
So you conduct yourself in a way that is in accordance with the
48:44
precepts. Yeah.
48:46
Trying to be generous again, intelligent with people.
48:49
You're trying to act in a good way, basically trying to be in a
48:51
good person. I know good is not a sexy word,
48:54
but you're trying to be a good person.
48:55
Yeah, OK. We're moving on.
48:57
We're flying through these. Perfect livelihood.
49:02
Yeah. Your job.
49:03
Yeah. The Buddha said there's a lot.
49:05
There's a list of jobs that are bad.
49:07
Yeah. Don't do them.
49:08
Yeah. Selling in the Buddha's day.
49:11
Swords, arrows, poison. Yeah.
49:14
So we've got our own. You could.
49:16
I could, you couldn't. Look up a whole list of jobs
49:18
that don't do them. They're bad.
49:20
Like selling guns. You know, that's not great.
49:22
I don't think anyone here is. Hopefully I would say selling
49:25
drugs, yeah, Depends what you mean by drugs, but, you know,
49:29
crack drugs, selling drugs, manipulating people, using
49:36
people. Yeah.
49:37
Using people because you want something from them.
49:39
Yeah. Like that kind of work, any kind
49:43
of work that stimulates craving in people.
49:46
I know that's not really nice to hear, but anything that makes
49:50
people want something they don't need.
49:52
Yeah. You'll think about that.
49:54
All right, So that's livelihood. Good.
49:57
We're doing well. We're nearly there.
49:59
Perfect effort. Then you need to look at how you
50:01
how you use your energy. Yeah.
50:04
Are you like, driving, driving the gears too hard?
50:07
Are you like, a bit, like flopped out and not doing much?
50:11
You're trying to work out your energy.
50:13
How to actually engage. Yeah.
50:14
How to engage in. Definitely how to engage in
50:16
meditation, but how to engage in the world.
50:18
Yeah. Consistently.
50:19
It's a whole art form, isn't it? So.
50:22
And it's like perfect effort is about conducting your energy
50:26
towards the good, you know, things that are beneficial for
50:29
you, that are beneficial for other people, you know, perfect.
50:33
Mindfulness. We're nearly there, don't worry.
50:35
Perfect mindfulness. Perfect mindfulness.
50:42
It is basically, if you were perfectly mindful, you would be
50:46
mindful all the time, yeah. You'd be mindful of what you're
50:49
doing right now with your body. How does your bum feel on the
50:51
cushion? How's your legs feeling?
50:52
You'd be mindful of your physical experience right now.
50:55
That would be a given, yeah. If we were perfectly mindful
50:58
like that, then we'd be mindful of like the mood we were in, the
51:00
particular emotional atmosphere we're in, that you know what's
51:04
going on here. Yeah.
51:06
You'd be mindful of the thoughts you're having.
51:08
You'd be mind, you'd be mindful of the kind of flavour of your
51:11
experience right now. Is it pleasant, bit unpleasant
51:15
or just a bit Nothing. Yeah.
51:17
Be aware of that. And also the Buddha said
51:21
mindfulness of reality itself. So everything we've just been
51:23
talking about for teachers, I'm a part of the condition called
51:26
production, the nature of reality.
51:28
You would have that in the back of your mind or maybe in the
51:29
forefront of your mind. Yeah.
51:31
So that's why it's a practice, because it's hard work.
51:34
Yeah. Because we drift and we're being
51:36
pulled out all the time. But that's the point, you know?
51:39
And then perfect samadhi, it gets put down to meditation in
51:44
terms of a unified consciousness that's able to penetrate into
51:47
reality. But Sangarachita also says you
51:50
could. It could also be synonymous for
51:52
the end of the path. Yeah.
51:58
Yeah. OK.
52:01
So where have we been? We've been all over the place.
52:03
Haven't we? So yeah, we suffer.
52:06
That's what the Buddha is basically saying.
52:08
He's basically just saying, be honest about that.
52:10
Yeah, It's not. You're not failing at life
52:12
because you suffer. There's nothing actually wrong.
52:15
It's just like he's basically saying that's the nature of our
52:17
life and our human existence is we suffer.
52:20
It's just the way it is, you know, in gross ways, in subtle
52:23
ways, you know, he's then saying.
52:27
There's. Reasons, yeah.
52:28
It's not random. You aren't randomly suffering.
52:30
There's reasons for this, you know.
52:32
There's causes. The cause, essentially, is what
52:34
you might call ignorance. Craving hatred.
52:38
Yeah. These, these little animals,
52:40
well, you see outside, these animals biting each other's
52:42
tail. Yeah.
52:43
They're kind of our response. Yeah.
52:46
So you have suffering. You don't get what you want.
52:48
I want this thing. You don't get it.
52:49
Then you have a response. Yeah.
52:50
Craving hatred. Whatever it is, that's the cause
52:53
#3 you have a state beyond all of that where you're not
52:57
suffering anymore. Hard to imagine, but you can
52:59
have a glimpse of that in your own experience.
53:00
And when you do have a glimpse for, for some people, for some
53:03
Buddhist, it's enough to change their whole life.
53:05
Yeah. Like I say, it could come off
53:07
the back of a tragedy or it could come off the back of a
53:09
heightened experience. Either of them will do.
53:12
Yeah. So you have a state where you
53:13
see for yourself. Yeah.
53:15
So it's a Buddhist saying there's a state beyond
53:17
suffering. And then he's saying there's a
53:19
path. The most important point is
53:21
there's a path. Yeah, that's why it works.
53:24
It wouldn't work. The Buddha is very clear.
53:26
It's like, and you can engage where you are.
53:29
That's the whole point. The Buddha says there's no point
53:31
trying to be some spiritual person.
53:32
You know, don't try and be, I'm a Buddhist holy.
53:36
You just start from where you are and you work diligently and
53:38
consistently. In a context, I would say a
53:41
friendship. The Buddha said himself
53:43
spiritual friendship was the whole of the spiritual life.
53:46
And we were saying this on Tuesday.
53:48
It's so important. I cannot, you cannot emphasise
53:51
more how important it is. Yeah.
53:53
In terms of friendship, if you don't have spiritual friendship,
53:56
people you can practice with, you will not get far at all.
53:58
You probably won't get anywhere. Yeah.
54:01
The only reason. And a certain people say, oh,
54:02
what? The Buddha.
54:03
The Buddha was extraordinary. Yeah.
54:05
Like, I'm not saying you're not extraordinary.
54:07
But we need friends because sometimes we don't know what
54:10
we're doing. We really don't.
54:11
And we don't. And we don't know whether we
54:13
should carry on or not. We think, oh, I haven't changed
54:15
at all. What's the point of all this
54:16
rubbish? And then someone turns around to
54:18
you and says, that's weird because you actually look really
54:20
good. You know what I mean?
54:21
You seem like a much, you're much like kinder and upright and
54:24
friendly and robust. And they're like, and you're
54:26
like, you hear that yourself? You're like, I wouldn't have
54:29
seen that, But someone told me, yeah.
54:31
So you have a path, which basically the path is, you could
54:36
say the path is friendship. You know, it's the same thing.
54:39
Everything we've been talking about, this whole path
54:41
essentially is about looking at the nature of reality, but it's
54:45
also about ethics. And what are ethics?
54:47
Ethics are the way we engage with the world.
54:49
What is quote, UN quote, the world.
54:50
It's people, isn't it? You know, it's friends.
54:52
It's essentially people around you.
54:54
It's how you engage with people around you.
54:56
And the most people that the people that you're going to
54:58
engage with the most is your friends.
55:00
Yeah. So friendship is really the kind
55:03
of the the cauldron, it's the pot where we can test all this
55:06
stuff out. You know, sometimes we get it
55:07
wrong, but friendship is essential, you know, and if
55:11
without it, one's spiritual life is going to be next to
55:14
impossible. Yeah.
55:16
So I hope some of that was helpful.
55:20
And if not, it's not the Buddha's fault.
55:22
Like I said, it's my fault. Yeah.
55:24
And it's your fault. Remember that.
55:26
So.