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Understanding the Buddha · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

• 0:14
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wanted to talk about.
• 0:18
  It's very good to talk about the relationship the Buddha has with
• 0:21
  various. People.
• 0:22
  I mean, we can't. Get the Buddha, we can't
• 0:27
  understand him, it's not possible.
• 0:29
  And he said it himself in quite archaic.
• 0:32
  Well, he it's translated into quite archaic English.
• 0:35
  He said. Those who by my form did see me,
• 0:38
  those who followed me by voice wrong.
• 0:41
  The efforts they engage in me, those people never see.
• 0:45
  So he's saying. You could meet the Buddha, chat
• 0:48
  to him, and you wouldn't guess he's a Buddha at all.
• 0:51
  And in fact that. Happens in the parley Canon
• 0:53
  quite a lot and it makes me smile that the Buddha turns up
• 0:58
  to visit some people and there's a guardian there, a park keeper,
• 1:02
  and he says please go away. There's good people here, you
• 1:04
  know. And that happens a few.
• 1:06
  Times you know you. Cannot see.
• 1:10
  Enlightenment you cannot see spiritual development and.
• 1:15
  One could immediately think, Oh yes, but I know this guru.
• 1:17
  He may or she may be. Charismatic.
• 1:20
  That's not spiritual. They may have a great.
• 1:23
  Presence. That's not spiritual.
• 1:24
  What is spiritual we don't know. But when the Buddha got
• 1:28
  enlightened, his first thought was.
• 1:31
  You can't teach this. It's so.
• 1:35
  Unlikely, you know, but but. With.
• 1:39
  Wisdom comes compassion, and so I won't go into the story now.
• 1:44
  He makes an effort. And I'm trying to be.
• 1:46
  A little bit gentle here because there are people here for the
• 1:48
  first time. Yeah, great.
• 1:54
  So. He.
• 1:56
  He was successful. After a while he, he met some
• 1:59
  early companions and five of them and they all became
• 2:03
  enlightened. That's fantastic.
• 2:05
  You know, they worked together. He taught, they got it.
• 2:07
  And then he taught more people. There were 60 enlightened people
• 2:10
  and it sort of spread, yes, the Enlightenment, you know, more
• 2:14
  people got it. What can I say?
• 2:19
  And he said, you know, he, he, he found sort of the ultimate.
• 2:22
  Goal, you know, enlightenment is the greatest thing that can be
• 2:25
  achieved, he said. It's the greatest bliss.
• 2:29
  He also said Rebirth is destroyed for him.
• 2:34
  Now I don't. Know what you think about.
• 2:36
  Rebirth, I mean. When I first came across it, I
• 2:40
  thought the idea was horrible. I was on my first Buddhist
• 2:42
  retreat, I said. One life is.
• 2:44
  More than enough, you know, And you're telling me there's
• 2:47
  millions not interested, you know, but you know, I slowly
• 2:53
  became convinced the big thing that convinced me was chatting
• 2:57
  to three-year olds, you know, when they've.
• 3:01
  Got total. Recall of a previous life it's
• 3:03
  shocking my flatmate Moksha Sidda, his daughter, as soon as
• 3:07
  she could speak she just wanted to go home she said I want to go
• 3:11
  to my real family and she. Knew the name and he.
• 3:13
  Did research but there were too many people with that.
• 3:16
  So the test suddenly of. Children is very interesting.
• 3:20
  It's very, I mean little Lucy, this is years ago, she told me.
• 3:24
  She said she was in the back of the car.
• 3:26
  She was a three-year old. And she looked out the window
• 3:28
  and she said, oh, look at Maurice Oxford I.
• 3:30
  Had one of those. Now how do 3.
• 3:33
  Year olds know the make and the model, you know.
• 3:36
  So there we go. We'll leave.
• 3:38
  It you and the Buddha never pushed it.
• 3:40
  He just took it like there's gravity, there's rebirth.
• 3:43
  It's not a teaching, you know? It's just there.
• 3:45
  All right? So great, not a big deal.
• 3:49
  Why? Why don't we have it in
• 3:51
  Christian? Countries.
• 3:52
  Because who is it? The Roman?
• 3:55
  Who is this name? Justinian the First made it.
• 3:58
  Anathema. In the year 533, if you believed
• 4:03
  in rebirth, they killed you, you know.
• 4:06
  And it did provide some real. Problems for the church because.
• 4:11
  When the great day of the. Choosing when God was going to
• 4:15
  pick all those to come into heaven, all these souls.
• 4:18
  Which body do you? Come with you've had hundreds,
• 4:21
  thousands, you know, so there were difficulties.
• 4:24
  So out it goes. All right, There we go.
• 4:26
  All right. Good.
• 4:29
  Great. What else was going to say?
• 4:33
  Yes. So talking about the Buddha, I I
• 4:37
  really. Enjoy about reading about the
• 4:40
  Buddha these days I do. And what I have.
• 4:42
  Discovered is that he does have a sense of humour.
• 4:47
  It's quite mild and we'll come to it, but he loves a bit of
• 4:53
  irony and it will come out in this story a little bit later.
• 4:55
  Yeah, but having heroes, it's a funny old business.
• 5:01
  It does engage the emotions more.
• 5:04
  I mean, the Nicharins, they, they just have words.
• 5:08
  On their shrine. I don't know how they do it.
• 5:09
  Yeah. And that's what gets them
• 5:12
  excited, you know? But yeah, it's just a.
• 5:15
  Script. There's no Buddha figure or
• 5:16
  anything. But I like this this.
• 5:18
  Is maybe not my favorite Buddha, it looks a little bit too much
• 5:22
  like what's his name Cumberbatch.
• 5:23
  But sorry but but anyway, sometimes.
• 5:31
  Funnily enough, the Buddha that. Affected me the.
• 5:33
  Most was an old lamp. It was a lamp.
• 5:37
  With a Lotus coming out of its head.
• 5:38
  And a light and that that actually appeared in my.
• 5:41
  Dreams as a Buddha it really was a good little Chinese.
• 5:44
  The Chinese Buddha's a. Very.
• 5:46
  Friendly, very approachable, you know?
• 5:49
  So there we go. Yeah.
• 5:51
  And heroes. I mean a strange little
• 5:56
  diversion here. I when I was a.
• 5:59
  Young school teacher I was about 2223 and I coached the football
• 6:04
  team of these kids and we, you know, we did competitions of
• 6:07
  that and then I started a girls team and that was shocking, you
• 6:11
  know, the headmaster of football, you know, girls
• 6:14
  football, this is 19771976, you know, and the boys, I loved it.
• 6:21
  Mr. Toomey girls playing. Football Let's.
• 6:27
  Say yeah, they go. And they couldn't conceptualise
• 6:32
  anything, you know, just. So but the girls enjoyed it.
• 6:37
  I enjoyed it, it was great. But just.
• 6:39
  Something on boys what I noticed.
• 6:47
  Because television got very good.
• 6:49
  Quality in those days, suddenly. You know, colour telly arrived.
• 6:52
  And the big screens arrived. And they were good quality.
• 6:55
  Pictures. I mean you what you.
• 6:56
  What you won't know is. A little black and white.
• 7:00
  Murphy Television like this and poor old dad standing with the
• 7:03
  aerial outside the window trying to get a reception, you know,
• 7:07
  But television's got good. And suddenly these kids, they,
• 7:12
  they could hero worship a footballer.
• 7:15
  Yeah, they really. And and and worship adore him.
• 7:20
  And suddenly their footwork was amazing.
• 7:24
  I was. Seeing football that these kids
• 7:26
  were doing that they learnt. From studying their hero.
• 7:29
  On television, you know, And it was.
• 7:33
  It was like love. Was producing, learning, You
• 7:36
  know, it's amazing, but also a funny little thing.
• 7:39
  I'm going to throw this in. It's not necessary for the talk,
• 7:42
  but I love it. Mandelas you've heard.
• 7:45
  Of Mandelas have you Mandelas. So, Buddhist Mandela, you have a
• 7:49
  big Buddha. Figure in the middle, then you
• 7:50
  have smaller figures around him and it's all very artistic.
• 7:55
  Whatever, and. But the point of a Mandela is
• 7:58
  the important characters in the middle and the.
• 8:00
  Minor figures are around it. Well, if you want to see modern.
• 8:05
  Mandelas real. Mandelas you go.
• 8:08
  Into a boy's bedroom. This is going to sound crazy and
• 8:13
  on the wall. Will be a poster let's.
• 8:16
  Say they love Barcelona. Of Lionel Messi, yeah.
• 8:20
  And there's this big picture of Lionel.
• 8:22
  Messi on the wall? And then around him in little.
• 8:25
  Pictures are his team mates, yeah.
• 8:28
  It's a mandala. It's a real mandala.
• 8:31
  And I mean, when you look at medieval art, you've got a huge.
• 8:34
  Big Jesus and a huge big virgin. Mary and all the other Saints
• 8:37
  are tiny and when you first. Come across medieval art, you
• 8:40
  go. That's weird.
• 8:42
  Why aren't they the same size, you know?
• 8:44
  But when you look at a boys football.
• 8:46
  Poster, it's right, you know. Because our our our eye.
• 8:50
  Can accept it. When you get into medieval art,
• 8:52
  it works, but let that be. So just that little.
• 8:54
  Thing on Mandalas, I found it really curious that we do do
• 8:57
  them, you know, but we don't know it.
• 9:00
  So there we go. All right.
• 9:04
  So trying to get to know who the.
• 9:06
  Buddha is, there is. So much.
• 9:10
  Rubbish on the Internet. What the Buddha said.
• 9:12
  It's unbelievable. The rot, the rubbish, that was
• 9:17
  that the Buddha. And last year we had people.
• 9:20
  Sending in things they found of what?
• 9:22
  The Buddha had said. And I think Kirill's was my
• 9:26
  favorite. Yeah, he found one and it said
• 9:29
  the Buddha said there are two types of people and I ignore
• 9:33
  both of them. It's great.
• 9:38
  Isn't it? But there were, there's just
• 9:39
  hundreds of them, so. You really if you want.
• 9:42
  To find out. Who the Buddha is?
• 9:44
  I mean. This to me is fantastic.
• 9:46
  It's the life of the Buddha. Sangaraksha recommended this.
• 9:49
  You can come and look later. It's by Nyanamoli.
• 9:52
  It's. Not a fluent.
• 9:54
  Read I've bought it for people and they don't.
• 9:56
  Like it? Yeah.
• 9:58
  But you it's for dipping. Into and there's some great
• 10:01
  stories in there and I love them.
• 10:04
  And and the the parley Canon, how did it come into?
• 10:07
  Being basically Buddhism happened 2 1/2 thousand years
• 10:12
  ago and fortunately the Buddha had this cousin armed.
• 10:17
  Her with this. Amazing memory and he memorised
• 10:20
  everything and he said to the Buddha, when I'm not present,
• 10:24
  you repeat what I missed. So Arnanda got this huge record.
• 10:28
  And they did have great memories.
• 10:29
  They were not a literary people. You know the Buddha didn't know
• 10:33
  how to read or write. You know, it wasn't done, but
• 10:35
  you memorised, you know, the whole geniality of the family.
• 10:38
  You used your memories. And then 500 years later, King
• 10:42
  Ashoka said write it down, you know, because it was all going
• 10:48
  and it can change. You know we call it Chinese
• 10:50
  whispers. In.
• 10:52
  English still a post in Deutsche and it just gets worse and worse
• 10:56
  with every generation. So.
• 10:58
  And just looking at the life of the Buddha and his teachings,
• 11:01
  and basically there were three books came out of it.
• 11:03
  They're huge, enormous, these great tones.
• 11:06
  There's the life of the Buddha. There's the rules that came into
• 11:11
  existence when people did things wrong.
• 11:13
  That's the second one. And the third would be all the
• 11:17
  teachings, all the philosophy. Yeah, and these are the, this is
• 11:20
  the parley Canon, right, These three.
• 11:23
  And I mean it would fill. A bookcase like this.
• 11:25
  Yeah, I've seen pictures of it. I you know, I've just got one
• 11:28
  edition and it's like of the middle length sayings.
• 11:32
  So that's the parley. Canon can't.
• 11:34
  Go into it much more, but that gives you an idea and you read
• 11:39
  it. And this good friend of mine,
• 11:40
  Sagramati, he is such an expert. He said read it.
• 11:44
  As if you're reading literature. Don't take it as fact.
• 11:50
  There are bits in it that. Really work, you know, it's a
• 11:55
  teaching, it's true, you know, cause and effect, the teachings
• 12:00
  on that, the ethics. You can see that the metabarbna.
• 12:03
  Works the stuff that really. Works.
• 12:05
  It's like having, you know, sometimes you find a.
• 12:08
  Good cookery book and the recipes work, you know.
• 12:14
  And this this is. Similarly, but some of the
• 12:16
  stories you think. Is that so?
• 12:19
  Is that so? And you have to use your.
• 12:21
  Judgement, but some of them. That some of them make me laugh
• 12:25
  in this book. Here, the one I just mentioned,
• 12:28
  the Buddha is delivering a teaching to a whole gang of them
• 12:31
  and he sneezes. Now when somebody sneezes, what
• 12:36
  do you say, Roy? Yes, yes, very good.
• 12:40
  Or in German, Gesundheit. Gesundheit.
• 12:43
  Yes, indeed, that's what we say. And these monks?
• 12:47
  They go, I mean, is it meaningful?
• 12:49
  It yes. Is it?
• 12:50
  Yeah, It's because it. Comes from the plague in.
• 12:54
  English. That's what they say, but today?
• 12:55
  The plague's gone, isn't it? It's a bit nonsense anyway.
• 12:58
  Let it be. Yeah, yeah, but but the Buddha's
• 13:01
  giving this teaching and he sneezes and the monks go good.
• 13:05
  Health, Sir, which is exactly the same as.
• 13:07
  Gesundheit, isn't it? Yeah, you know, a good health.
• 13:10
  Sir, and the body. Just stops the teaching.
• 13:13
  He's been interrupted. And he goes.
• 13:16
  Does that work? And they go, No Lord.
• 13:22
  And he sees what useless speech it is, he said.
• 13:24
  It's just for Bolton. He didn't speak German, but he
• 13:26
  said he said it's not on. You know, that's gone.
• 13:32
  Don't do that anymore. Anyway, sometime later, we don't
• 13:35
  know how long I. Love this this this makes it
• 13:37
  feel. Real to me.
• 13:38
  Sometimes later the monks come back and they say, Lord, Lord,
• 13:41
  he said, you know. They said the people.
• 13:43
  In the village, in the. Town, they're saying how rude.
• 13:47
  The monks are because when they sneeze, we don't say anything.
• 13:51
  And the Buddha says, all right, you can say it.
• 13:54
  I love. That, that, that works.
• 13:57
  That probably happened. You know, who would who would
• 14:00
  invent that? And there's another one.
• 14:02
  Yeah, and there's another one. King Pasinardi.
• 14:05
  I really. Like King Pasinardi, he has a
• 14:08
  friendship with the Buddha. It's very clear.
• 14:10
  The Buddha had a few kings as friends, you know.
• 14:12
  And Pasinardi one day does all. These praises of of the Buddha,
• 14:16
  but I'm just going to pick out. One he says he's he's saying how
• 14:20
  good the community of of of. You know the Buddhist community.
• 14:24
  Is and he and he says when I'm in court speaking to my
• 14:31
  ministers, they talk while I'm talking.
• 14:37
  He says now I have power of life.
• 14:38
  And and death over them. You know I can have them
• 14:41
  executed. And I say.
• 14:43
  Ministers do not talk while I'm talking.
• 14:47
  And they keep talking, he says. But I was.
• 14:50
  Watching the Buddha speaking to all his assembly once.
• 14:55
  And a monk cleared his throat, and the next one monk next to
• 14:59
  him stuck his knee. In his back and went.
• 15:01
  Quiet brother, the Lord is speaking.
• 15:04
  He says he is amazing. I like that that knee in the
• 15:08
  back has. Travelled down 2 1/2 thousand
• 15:11
  years. I believe that one, yeah.
• 15:13
  So you have to pick and choose and just use your imagination
• 15:16
  and and. It.
• 15:18
  Doesn't matter too much because. Some of it is just.
• 15:20
  So true. I'm not going to go into those
• 15:23
  bits, you know, it's, it's independent of witnesses.
• 15:26
  It works today, you know, so pretigious Summit powder
• 15:29
  condition, Co production. It's a teaching that works.
• 15:31
  I'm not going into it. Yeah.
• 15:33
  But you read. Shakespeare you look at Polonius
• 15:36
  gives advice to his son Laertes. It's brilliant advice.
• 15:41
  It's only a. Story.
• 15:42
  It's Hamlet. Yeah.
• 15:44
  But he's saying neither a lender nor a borrower be, you know,
• 15:47
  dress. As well as you can afford it,
• 15:48
  giving him all these tips. It works.
• 15:51
  So even though it's just literature, it's full of truths.
• 15:53
  That's all I'm saying. Yeah.
• 15:54
  So we can read the party Canon like that.
• 15:57
  Good. All right.
• 16:00
  That's me introduction, really so.
• 16:02
  The Discourse. About Megia Megia the Buddha.
• 16:07
  He seems to always. Have a companion, someone like
• 16:10
  they can be a personal assistant because the Buddha is meeting a
• 16:12
  lot of people, kings, you know, peasants, everybody, and he
• 16:17
  usually has a personal assistant, somebody to arrange
• 16:21
  it. Anyway, this time the Buddha's
• 16:22
  off. On a walk or something.
• 16:24
  He's staying elsewhere. He's with Megia.
• 16:27
  And I don't want to go through the whole text because the the
• 16:30
  the language is a bit strange. But Megia 1 morning, He says,
• 16:34
  look. I'm going to go into Jantu Garma
• 16:37
  for. Arms.
• 16:37
  I'm going to go begging this morning.
• 16:39
  And the Buddha says do what it is the time for, and off he
• 16:42
  goes, you know, to beg. Takes his bowl, goes round, and
• 16:45
  he will share this food with the Buddha, no doubt, when he gets
• 16:47
  back. Yeah.
• 16:48
  Goes from house to house, comes back.
• 16:52
  But no wait, on the way he sees this mango Grove.
• 16:58
  Oh, India. Hot, yeah.
• 17:00
  Mango Grove, maybe some water there.
• 17:02
  Shade these fruits hangs, not the cannonballs you get.
• 17:08
  In Liddle and ALDI, these are mangoes that you know, and I
• 17:13
  remember my friend Veera Bhadra in India.
• 17:15
  He said. He said mangoes were so cheap.
• 17:19
  That when you went to buy mangoes, you bought a whole tray
• 17:22
  and you brought them back from the community.
• 17:24
  And I'm not going to mention. The man, another man who is a
• 17:27
  friend of mine, he is. So mean he was able.
• 17:30
  To buy 1 mango. And I don't know if this money
• 17:33
  is. Small enough to buy 1 mango.
• 17:36
  But he managed to. Do it.
• 17:37
  He he's so mean. They made him give a talk on
• 17:39
  generosity at Pablo Loca once I saw that.
• 17:42
  But he could come home with 1 mango anyway.
• 17:45
  Let it be. But mangoes?
• 17:46
  You know, just dripping with. Goodness and sweetness.
• 17:49
  So poor McGee. He's seen this mango.
• 17:51
  Grove and. We do that.
• 17:53
  You know you're going out. When you get into Buddhism,
• 17:55
  you're seeing these old. Houses that could be a Buddhist
• 17:57
  centre, you know. And you're thinking, yeah, 30
• 18:00
  years work. No thanks, you know, But you
• 18:03
  know you have. These lovely.
• 18:04
  Fantasies, and he's seen. This mango Grove, I could get
• 18:07
  enlightened there. So he.
• 18:09
  Comes back to the Buddha and he says, Reverend, Sir, you know, I
• 18:14
  dressed this morning. I went begging.
• 18:16
  I saw this wonderful mango Grove.
• 18:19
  He says surely for a son of. Good family, he calls himself,
• 18:26
  who needs to strive. This is a good place for the
• 18:29
  striving for gaining enlightenment, you know, And the
• 18:35
  Buddha says, no, He says, stay with me.
• 18:39
  Yeah, until another monk comes, you know, then you can go.
• 18:43
  And when I this gave me a problem for years I thought, is
• 18:48
  the Buddha a bit of a? Wuss, you know.
• 18:54
  Why does he have to have a companion?
• 18:57
  You know? Then as you read more and more
• 18:59
  of the text, you realise that they always travel.
• 19:02
  In twos, you know Sarah Putin would go with somebody else.
• 19:06
  They always go in twos. Which is.
• 19:08
  Very good sense because. India is so dangerous.
• 19:14
  There's no phone masts. There's no telephones.
• 19:17
  You know, if you twist your ankle, you're on your own.
• 19:19
  You're probably dead. You know you'll die under the
• 19:21
  sun. Snake bites.
• 19:23
  I looked it up. A little while a.
• 19:25
  Few years back, snake. Bites in India and that year
• 19:28
  there were, I think it was 7. Get it right?
• 19:33
  46,000 deaths. From Snake Bite in India 46,000.
• 19:40
  This is just a few years back, yeah.
• 19:44
  Australia has a really. Poisonous snakes?
• 19:46
  How many? Die in.
• 19:47
  Australia, I'll tell you, 12, yeah, they got hospitals, they
• 19:52
  got anti venoms, you know. But poor old India and.
• 19:55
  When I was in India, you can see the dead snakes where people
• 19:57
  have whacked them. And the snakes are not
• 19:59
  attacking. They're they're they're trying
• 20:01
  to. Hide.
• 20:01
  But you know, you open the cupboard door, you know they're
• 20:05
  frightened and you die. Yeah.
• 20:07
  Funnily enough. I then found this text by the
• 20:10
  Buddha. This is bizarre.
• 20:11
  And it's like a metabarvna for snakes.
• 20:15
  And he's he's got four different families of snakes and you wish
• 20:18
  all the different families of snakes.
• 20:20
  Well, OK, it may not work that well but.
• 20:23
  It develops your imagination. And you know that this.
• 20:27
  Sort of snake hides in your shoe.
• 20:29
  This sort of snake hides in the cupboard.
• 20:31
  This in the long grass. So by doing that metabarvna,
• 20:34
  you're probably more aware of snakes.
• 20:35
  Anyway, I did find it amazing. So there we go.
• 20:38
  But. I'm losing my point now.
• 20:41
  God, that was too exciting. But India is dangerous.
• 20:44
  You know, you could die of sunstroke.
• 20:46
  There are bandits if there's two of you.
• 20:48
  They can think one might run off and.
• 20:50
  Escape and come back with the King's men, which is what
• 20:52
  happens, you know, So you always go into it.
• 20:54
  So the Buddha is not a wuss. Also one day somebody unleashes
• 20:59
  a bull elephant that's crazy to kill the Buddha and this tusker
• 21:02
  comes charging down. And the Buddha.
• 21:05
  We we did the meditation last week, just does the meta bar now
• 21:09
  and this huge mad elephant is just tamed immediately and the
• 21:13
  text. Says Tusker met Tusker.
• 21:16
  You know, and so the Buddha, you know, he, he's tough enough.
• 21:20
  He he has. No Fear.
• 21:23
  That is a Buddha. It doesn't exist, so there we
• 21:26
  go. So just that, but.
• 21:28
  Here we have the Buddha saying stay.
• 21:31
  Stay, you know, and poor old McGee, he goes on.
• 21:35
  He starts this whole blinking emotional blackmail.
• 21:38
  He's going. It's all right for you.
• 21:40
  You've done it. I haven't.
• 21:42
  It's my turn now. And the Buddha is saying stay,
• 21:46
  stay. Yes, Yeah.
• 21:48
  And. Three and three times he.
• 21:51
  Asks him. Yeah, and and the Buddha says no
• 21:56
  and then. Suddenly, now the English.
• 21:58
  I don't know Parley, but I've got the English translation,
• 22:01
  I've got the German translation, and the English translation is
• 22:04
  so weak it's awful. Yeah, because Mcgehee suddenly
• 22:09
  says Lord. I want to.
• 22:11
  Meditate and the Buddha goes. What can one?
• 22:13
  Say with such language, do what it is the time for.
• 22:16
  The German one is much better, yeah, he says.
• 22:21
  I'll just give you the little bit in German, he says.
• 22:24
  So most ish mission to yenam Mangoheim, begaben, some
• 22:29
  Geistiger kampfer geistiger kampfer.
• 22:34
  They the spiritual, the mental fight, the battle.
• 22:38
  Now that's language. Yeah, no, I.
• 22:40
  Want to meditate? You know, yeah, I want that.
• 22:44
  Guys to gain comfort and then it makes sense then it then the
• 22:48
  text makes sense when the Buddha says oh what?
• 22:52
  Can one say against such words, do what it is the time for?
• 22:58
  Off you go. Yeah.
• 23:00
  And yeah, yeah, yeah, I I love it.
• 23:03
  And I think this is absolute irony on the Buddha's.
• 23:06
  Part what? Can one say against such
• 23:09
  language? This is the Buddha.
• 23:12
  He got enlightened without any help.
• 23:15
  He found the path to the transcendental.
• 23:17
  Without being helped by anybody on the transcendental path.
• 23:21
  He did it. He the highest achievement on
• 23:23
  the planet. Yeah, probably in history, yeah.
• 23:28
  And McGhee. Won't follow his advice, you
• 23:32
  know? Yeah, I know better.
• 23:35
  Yeah. And so there, there we go.
• 23:39
  But. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:40
  So, and I'm sure the Buddha knows.
• 23:44
  Exactly what's going to happen. So off goes old Megia, you know,
• 23:48
  gets down there down to the manga Grove, and he's meditating
• 23:53
  away and before he knows it, his mind, I've lost the place.
• 23:58
  So I just remember. He starts getting desire for
• 24:03
  sensual experiences. Could be sex, could be food.
• 24:08
  We don't know. Yeah.
• 24:10
  When you've got a new girlfriend or a boyfriend, it's usually
• 24:13
  sex. Yeah, But when you work in a
• 24:15
  restaurant, you're eating everything as I did.
• 24:17
  Yeah, but. Yeah, desire for sensual
• 24:21
  pleasure or. And he gets ill will and even
• 24:26
  cruelty. Yeah, and.
• 24:29
  He just does. It's a nightmare, yeah.
• 24:32
  So he's there on his own in his own nightmare and it's lovely.
• 24:35
  He just comes back to the Buddha and sits next to him.
• 24:39
  And what I really like is the Buddha doesn't say told you so
• 24:45
  it's lovely, isn't it? He doesn't say you should have
• 24:48
  listened. He doesn't do.
• 24:49
  Any of that. Yeah.
• 24:51
  He just goes straight. Into a teaching, he said.
• 24:57
  For he whose freedom of mind is not fully mature, McGee, there
• 25:02
  are 5. Things that lead to maturity
• 25:05
  What 5 What 5? He said Here, McGee, a monk has
• 25:11
  a good. Friend, a good companion, a good
• 25:14
  comrade, for he whose freedom of mind is not fully mature.
• 25:19
  McGee, This is the first. Thing that leads to maturity
• 25:24
  find a spiritual community if you can and this is a spiritual
• 25:29
  community it's not so strict you know on Saturdays it's a
• 25:32
  community yeah OK temporary but you know there's.
• 25:35
  Links and I've. Got my thank you.
• 25:39
  Sorry. There it is and.
• 25:43
  I remember this, I remember this.
• 25:46
  I remember. This there was me, a total
• 25:48
  beginner, and one night I popped into the centre and it was Doe
• 25:54
  Phillips. She was a real.
• 25:55
  Artist. Yeah, made sculptures.
• 25:57
  Beautiful stuff. There's a there's a ship called
• 26:00
  the Cutty Sark. It was the fastest.
• 26:02
  Sailing vessel in the world in its time.
• 26:05
  She used to bring home bits of the Cutty Sark.
• 26:08
  And gold, gold leaf them. You know, she was working on the
• 26:11
  the Cutty Sark. She used to bring bits home.
• 26:12
  Yeah. So she's a real artist.
• 26:14
  There was Andy, her her boyfriend.
• 26:16
  And Pad Mirage, our chairman. And in that it you could take
• 26:22
  paintings out of the local library and borrow them for a
• 26:25
  month. In those days, yeah.
• 26:27
  And they brought home a. Painting.
• 26:29
  And it was. Standing there and the three.
• 26:31
  Of them were looking at it and I'm just quietly in the back,
• 26:33
  you know, they're just talking about this painting.
• 26:36
  Now I did three years. Art at college, Yeah.
• 26:40
  My art. Lecturers, I don't think they
• 26:42
  had a clue as to why they did art or they didn't tell me, you
• 26:45
  know, I tried. To I said why paint?
• 26:47
  Why do this I I could, you know, three years of.
• 26:50
  Confusion. I got nothing.
• 26:52
  I came. Up with my own definition.
• 26:54
  That a work of art has an. Effect.
• 26:57
  It's not very good, is it? I mean a white.
• 26:59
  Canvas has an effect, yeah. So.
• 27:02
  I didn't have a definition until I came to Buddhism, then I found
• 27:05
  one. But.
• 27:06
  These three people were just talking about art now.
• 27:10
  I've just got to lay out this experience.
• 27:12
  You know about crying? Yeah, we cry.
• 27:15
  Do you know the word sobbing to SOB?
• 27:19
  It's much more than crying. The whole body goes.
• 27:23
  What? What?
• 27:24
  You SOB. Yeah.
• 27:26
  And I'm listening to these three people talking about art and
• 27:29
  suddenly a single SOB started in me from.
• 27:34
  Way, way down and it went and suddenly said.
• 27:47
  It's all right, John. It's OK.
• 27:49
  And I was home. Yeah, I was home.
• 27:53
  And so many people have this. Experience of finding the
• 27:56
  Dharma. And it's like coming home, they
• 27:58
  say. That you know, I'm, I'm, I'm,
• 28:00
  I'm moving out, Sorry, but you know.
• 28:03
  Finding your. People after all these years.
• 28:06
  So this is what he's saying, the Buddhist saying you need.
• 28:09
  Good friends, Megia. Yeah.
• 28:11
  You need good friends, He he gives him five things, he says.
• 28:14
  You need to be virtuous. You need to follow ethics, you
• 28:18
  know, Just being truthful makes the life simpler.
• 28:21
  Makes. Your mind clearer, you know.
• 28:22
  Not stealing. Not thinking, you know.
• 28:24
  It makes life simpler and. Clearer you're building an
• 28:27
  ethical basis for your meditation.
• 28:30
  He says you need suitable talk now.
• 28:33
  I love the talk. I love.
• 28:35
  The talk because these old Buddhists, they were alive
• 28:38
  before the. War.
• 28:39
  They'd gone through World War 2. And their humour was so
• 28:42
  different and it really made me, it was totally different and.
• 28:46
  They they there was just wisdom and experience there.
• 28:48
  They made me laugh. Old jokes, yeah.
• 28:52
  And yeah, yeah, I mean. Today we don't have that so
• 28:56
  much, but we do have study groups.
• 28:58
  Where you can pick up the experience of.
• 29:00
  Others and that was it, they can share their life.
• 29:03
  Experience and it's fun. It's easy.
• 29:06
  It's. Enjoyable.
• 29:08
  You're getting an education. And it's.
• 29:10
  Not hurting, you know, it's just nice to be with them.
• 29:13
  So I I do remember that. Yeah.
• 29:18
  I remember one of my first visits, I offered to cook a meal
• 29:20
  for them. And I had this recipe and it was
• 29:23
  Chilli sin Khan. You know, meat without.
• 29:28
  I know spice without meat and. I got the I, I.
• 29:31
  Instead of teaspoons, I put in dessert spoons of all the spices
• 29:35
  and I blew their heads off and they're all so.
• 29:37
  Polite. Tablespoon of chili, tablespoon
• 29:42
  of coriander. Anyway, there you go.
• 29:44
  Got it wrong. But I remember that.
• 29:46
  But they were so kind. But just that gentleness of of
• 29:50
  these these older men. And they were so kind to me.
• 29:52
  Yeah. Good.
• 29:55
  He so the talk. Is good, the talk is.
• 29:57
  Helpful and also this is gold. They could tell you stories
• 30:03
  about our teacher that I would never have heard.
• 30:07
  You know. There were bits of old.
• 30:09
  History there I. Can't go into many of them, but
• 30:11
  they also told me about a man. Called Zengo who I just missed.
• 30:15
  And he became a. Guest in this community as.
• 30:17
  Young Zen Buddhist who was the most amazing meditator and they
• 30:22
  said even the old ladies at the back of the room opening their
• 30:26
  boiled. Sweets before meditation, they
• 30:28
  went into super conscious states yeah, and he.
• 30:32
  Became a bit of a myth. One day, Ratnapani told me, he
• 30:35
  went to bow. To the shrine and just got
• 30:37
  stuck. In bliss for ages, the whole
• 30:40
  room's waiting what we did earlier.
• 30:42
  But you know the the guru is like you know he.
• 30:45
  Went oh, too much bliss. You know, he came out and said
• 30:47
  that. And another.
• 30:49
  Day they were on retreat. And there was a pneumatic.
• 30:51
  Drill outside the window, you know.
• 30:53
  And it was impossible. BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM.
• 30:56
  Bom the whole house shaking yeah in the street outside.
• 30:59
  And Zengo take. No notice, Yeah.
• 31:03
  Boom, boom boom and suddenly. Huge explosion, blue flash and
• 31:07
  silence. And earlier we went, they
• 31:11
  thought he'd done it, you know, who knows?
• 31:13
  But so these and these stories, they come in and I'm not going
• 31:17
  to go into the Sangaracture stories, but, you know, it's,
• 31:20
  it's it's for free. Yeah.
• 31:22
  He says you, that's number, that's three of them.
• 31:25
  Then, he says, you develop. Energy, yeah.
• 31:28
  Energy for. The right things, you know.
• 31:31
  And and you're. Encouraged to find energy.
• 31:34
  The The place has energy. This class has energy.
• 31:37
  How are we doing? Yeah, good, he said.
• 31:43
  You know, doing all this maturity.
• 31:44
  Will come and the last one. Wisdom, you will become wise in
• 31:50
  this environment, yeah. And this is quite.
• 31:52
  Curious this. This this gets subtle, he says.
• 31:57
  You will understand the arising and falling.
• 32:01
  Of things, this ordinary little sentence is absolutely profound.
• 32:09
  Yeah, the basically. We live in a world of.
• 32:14
  Objects. That's a normal human.
• 32:17
  It's not just humans, it's animals.
• 32:19
  You know you put down a bowl of dog food and older Rover.
• 32:23
  You know they're objects. Lives in a world.
• 32:25
  Of we live in a world of objects.
• 32:27
  We even turn lovers into objects, yeah.
• 32:32
  I want you. I must have you.
• 32:33
  You are mine, you know. And, and we live in this whole
• 32:38
  world. We even turn things like.
• 32:41
  Love into an object? Yeah.
• 32:45
  We think we can have even The Beatles saying, you know, money
• 32:48
  can't. Buy me love, didn't they?
• 32:49
  You know, but. Everything is process.
• 32:56
  Everything is process. This is the teaching.
• 33:00
  Everything is rising and falling.
• 33:04
  And our mind goes no. No, no, it's fixed.
• 33:08
  It's all right. You know, that's my girlfriend.
• 33:09
  Yeah. Oh yeah, she's mine.
• 33:11
  Who's she talking to? Over there, yeah, but yeah.
• 33:16
  But we live in this. Rigid world of objects.
• 33:19
  It's very. Crude software.
• 33:21
  It's 3.11, you know. It's not even Windows. 10 or 11,
• 33:25
  you know it's crap, Yeah. And we're living in this very
• 33:29
  simple, wrong world. That very simple world was.
• 33:32
  Very, very good. Once Upon a time it allowed us
• 33:34
  to run away from tigers and eat rabbits.
• 33:37
  Yeah, great. But now.
• 33:39
  For the subtle life, it doesn't work.
• 33:41
  Everything is processed and this is what the Buddha is saying.
• 33:44
  You see the? Arising of things and their.
• 33:48
  Cessation. Yeah.
• 33:49
  Friends come into existence and they disappear.
• 33:53
  Yeah. We have a a lovely mug oh I
• 33:56
  bought. This you know, Where'd you get
• 33:57
  that? You know.
• 33:58
  And then it's broken. Yeah, it came.
• 34:00
  It went. That mug was once clay.
• 34:03
  From under the ground, you know, torn in Deutsche.
• 34:05
  Yeah, it was. Fired.
• 34:06
  It's a mug. It's in the middle of its life
• 34:09
  story. It will be in the dustbin.
• 34:11
  In the moon soon, yeah. And gone.
• 34:13
  Yeah. So and that so everything is
• 34:17
  processed. And I once made a joke.
• 34:19
  And it worked quite well for people, I said.
• 34:21
  When you buy a vase, you go into a shop, you get a nice, really
• 34:24
  good. One, you know, sort of Crystal,
• 34:27
  Yeah. Crystal, you know it's €2530,
• 34:30
  Yeah. The shopkeeper should say to
• 34:32
  you. By the way, it comes with its
• 34:35
  own. Breakage.
• 34:39
  This will smash they. All do, yeah.
• 34:45
  And then one day there's your lovely vase on the mountain.
• 34:48
  Please. The cat tries to squeeze behind.
• 34:50
  Crash. We're upset and disappointed the
• 34:54
  vase did what all vases. Do it's their nature?
• 34:58
  Yeah, right. So there we go.
• 35:01
  So, so so this this is and seeing the arising and falling
• 35:04
  and when you see the arising and falling of things attachment.
• 35:08
  Is reduced, craving is reduced, and as the Buddha said, craving
• 35:14
  is the cause of. All.
• 35:15
  Suffering. Yeah, that's where the Buddha
• 35:19
  works. The Buddha doesn't work on
• 35:21
  suffering, you know. The Buddha says suffering exists
• 35:26
  because underneath it there's. Craving.
• 35:28
  Yeah. And he works on the craving.
• 35:30
  You know he works. He's got the 8 fold path. 8
• 35:32
  attacks on craving. Yeah.
• 35:34
  And undermines it that way. Good.
• 35:37
  All right, So almost there then. So we've had these five ways and
• 35:42
  then he says. When you really have friendship,
• 35:48
  it will make these stages all so much easier.
• 35:52
  Yeah, you'll see. You know, You're you're you're.
• 35:55
  Well, he's already sort of said it.
• 35:56
  I don't know why he repeats it, but it'll be just much easier
• 36:02
  because you're. Yeah, that's what I was going to
• 36:04
  say. Very often an insight can arise
• 36:07
  in a community. It's much easier if there's a
• 36:12
  gang of you. Working on an insight.
• 36:14
  That's why we have. Friendships.
• 36:16
  Yeah, and you do? With really good friends
• 36:22
  telepathy becomes normal. I mean my.
• 36:26
  Girlfriend. The other week, we're in a cafe.
• 36:28
  It's a restaurant with her cousin, her sister, the nephew.
• 36:34
  It's going all right. And I'm thinking we should go to
• 36:38
  Kerner Park. I can pop home, get some
• 36:40
  sparkling water and some coffee. And she turned around.
• 36:43
  We should go to Kerner Park. I went.
• 36:45
  Yeah, we've both done it at the same time, you know, and.
• 36:50
  Why? Kerner Park.
• 36:52
  But anyway, yeah. But with really good friends you
• 36:56
  overlap and insights come more. Easily.
• 36:59
  So that's it really. Then the Buddha does, just right
• 37:02
  at the very end. Of this text, he throws in a
• 37:04
  number of meditations. I'll just mention them and then
• 37:07
  we're done quite early. He said there's a meditation we
• 37:12
  don't do. The first one is.
• 37:14
  Meditating on the unattractive? Yeah, and this is to stop monks.
• 37:20
  Craving after cream buns and things like that, you know, they
• 37:24
  sort of reflect on the next stage of the cream bun when it's
• 37:27
  all chewed up, you know, And all right, we don't do that one.
• 37:30
  We do something called the six element practice, which is like
• 37:33
  just looking at the impermanence of things.
• 37:35
  We do that one instead, but the others are all ours.
• 37:37
  Yeah, he says. And and that one will.
• 37:39
  Reduce. Passions.
• 37:42
  He says the metabarvner. Which we did last week and next
• 37:45
  week will remove ill will. That's.
• 37:49
  Very, very good. The mindfulness of breathing.
• 37:51
  This one surprised me. Will.
• 37:53
  Cut off thoughts, I thought, Who wants their thoughts cut off?
• 37:57
  Then I thought, when you're in meditation, it would be lovely
• 38:01
  to be sitting there in this completely peaceful environment,
• 38:06
  just loving that piece of it without thinking of shopping in.
• 38:13
  ALDI after the class, you know, so the mindfulness of breathing
• 38:17
  will stop the thoughts. Yeah, great.
• 38:20
  Cutting off thoughts, he says. If we reflect on impermanence,
• 38:25
  then the whole thought of I am this conceit of I.
• 38:28
  Am will be reduced and and a sort.
• 38:32
  Of a It sounds awful. But there'll be an experience.
• 38:35
  Of sort of non self. I might.
• 38:42
  Have had it once, yeah. I thought it was caused by a
• 38:46
  virus. I don't know.
• 38:50
  But the experience was like somebody turned off.
• 38:53
  The bloody radio. You know when the builders are
• 38:56
  next door and they got radio eints on, it's all day long.
• 39:01
  No, I, I just said, I said to you, we've had this bloody bird
• 39:05
  across the road for three years. This bird, it's so loud.
• 39:11
  None of the other. Birds can get in.
• 39:13
  And it's been going for. Three years doing every bird.
• 39:16
  Song there is. It might be electronic.
• 39:18
  Might not be a real bird. And two months ago it stopped.
• 39:22
  And I hope it's dead. Sorry.
• 39:27
  Oh. And it's been reborn as an
• 39:29
  albatross or something like that, and it's miles away.
• 39:32
  Yeah, it's a seagull. But the peace and today I heard
• 39:36
  the crows come back and I love crows and I thought yes, back to
• 39:42
  normal so. All right.
• 39:46
  Well, how do I? Get on to that.
• 39:50
  But sorry, but just this. No self experience happened.
• 39:54
  That's what it was, and it was like the radio being turned.
• 39:56
  Off I just this this. Piece, you know, Lovely.
• 40:01
  And he says, if you really can get rid of that conceit of I am,
• 40:05
  he said In this very life you reach emancipation,
• 40:09
  enlightenment, the highest bliss.
• 40:13
  That's it. Finished 10 minutes early.
• 40:15
  Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed.