Question & Answer #192: from Near Death Experiences to How to Get Rid of Your Money

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Language: en
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Alrighty then.
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Hello and welcome to question and answer
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number 192.
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I am your host Po Basa and this is my
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co-host my beverage.
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So move the paper umbrella.
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And there is a chance that this Q&A is
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going to be interrupted by lots of like
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booping noises because the Discord
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server is hot right now with people
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debating mystical states
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among other things.
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So with that in mind, I guess I can just
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uh start into this wade into this as it
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were.
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How how did that become like a saying as
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it were? It's bad English.
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Ah, so
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let's just start in on this. Uh, we have
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like the average amount of questions,
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the middle path between too many
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questions and not enough questions.
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So, let's just get started here. First
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question is from the sabatur formerly
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known as the sabaturs.
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And the sabatur says, "When you pass
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away and go through the tunnel, some
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near-death experiences experience a
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choice of either passing over the bridge
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or going back into the physical. If they
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choose to pass over permanently, would
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that be considered as selfdeion
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with all the karmic consequences or
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would that be okay?
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So
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already the the forewarned booping has
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been continuing continuing a pace. I
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don't know if you can really hear it,
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but it's kind of distracting like it
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just happened just seconds ago.
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So, someone has a near-death experience
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and they're like in a kind of Bardo
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realm and then they have a choice of
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crossing the confounded bridge or going
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back to their body and continuing life.
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And the sabotur here is asking if just
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opting not to come back would be a kind
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of selfdeion.
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And I don't think so because presumably
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when you're at that stage, you're
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already dead. So it's like you can just
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choose to stay dead so to speak in a
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sense or come back to the body again. So
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yeah, I don't think it would be uh
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selfdeion. And besides, I mean, you're
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not really selfdeing anyway because you
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continue to exist presumably after
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crossing the bridge. you're just going
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into like some other realm. You're just
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continuing your existence
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in some other realm
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going with the whole theory that, you
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know, this is all kind of a a legit
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empirical thing that really happens. And
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really, I should have probably made an
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announcement on the Discord server to
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stop debating voseiferously
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because it just makes a beeping noise
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every single time somebody posts
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something. And there's two people just
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going at it hot and heavy right now in a
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like a debate sort of way.
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So
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yeah, I think I answered this question.
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It's like when you pass over the bridge,
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first of all, I mean, you're already
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dead. So, I mean, you're not killing
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yourself by choosing not to come back. I
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mean,
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I mean, you can come back, which kind of
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makes you not be dead anymore. But while
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you're in this other realm, and it's
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like technically speaking, your spirit,
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however you want to interpret that, has
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left the body. You are clinically dead
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while it's happening. So, I mean, it's
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just a it's just a done deed, so to
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speak. And again, if you cross the
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bridge or you you take the ferry boat
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across the river leafy or whatever, then
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you're not really ceasing to exist.
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You're just continuing your karmic
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momentum in some other some other
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sphere.
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So, it would be okay. I would assume at
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least I would my opinion it would be
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okay. So I'm just going to move on to
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the sabotur's next question.
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Under what circumstances would one end
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up as a yachak
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or hungry ghost after death? I'm not
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sure what language is yak. Is that
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yedish or something?
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But what causes a person to become a
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hungry ghost? And I mean, I do make a
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distinction between a hungry ghost and
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just a ghost, you know, some somebody
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some being in a spirit realm. A hungry
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ghost, I mean, that goes all the way
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back into prehistoric ancestor worship
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where if you don't make food offerings
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to your ancestors, then they become
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hungry and impoverished and miserable.
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So, that's that's where the whole idea
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of hungry ghosts originally came from.
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I'm pretty sure it's I mean even the
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word for ghost in poly is pa which comes
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from the same root as like pate which
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means father you know paternal
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so it's like an ancestral thing that in
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ancient India prehistoric India even
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people would make offerings to their
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ancestors was a big Asian thing for a
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long time in some countries it's still a
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thing
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um even in Burma to some degree you make
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offerings for your deceased relatives on
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on occasion
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mainly for sharing of merit and that
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sort of thing.
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But in like Buddhist mythology, the
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hungry ghost or pa I mean
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even even in the text like in the pato
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watu they're not all hungry. So the
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whole hungryness of these ghosts is just
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kind of vestigial holdover from like
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some kind of botched ancestor worship or
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neglected ancestor worship. But ghosts
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in general. So let's from now on let's
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just deal with ghosts in general. So
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you've got like the Buddhist
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mythological explanation of ghosts in
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general. And then you've got sort of
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like the modern paranormal kind of
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explanation of ghosts in general. I mean
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there's other ways of explaining things
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but these will be the two main
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approaches I'm dealing with like like
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Buddhist orthodoxy terravada Buddhism
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and just what like the paranormal
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researchers and stuff come up with.
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So, a ghost in general. I'm pretty sure.
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Oh, this I think somebody else asked a
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question about ghosts that I noticed and
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I was going getting ready to answer that
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one. But what causes one to end up as a
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as a ghost after death? Um, let's just
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go with Buddhist mythology or you
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Buddhist orthodoxy. Terra Buddhism. One
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of the main reasons for becoming a ghost
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is that you're a virtuous person, but
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they're like you you did this one at
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least one bad thing that kept you out of
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the heaven realms. And so you live a
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kind of devalike existence, but you've
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got this one like really negative trait
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like you you stink, you're always naked
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or like one of my favorite ghost stories
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in the PTO Watu is I' I've told the
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story a number of times about this woman
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who she she was a virtuous woman, but
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she was unfaithful to her husband and
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then lied to him about it. And the lying
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like the false oath was worse than the
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actual adultery according to the text at
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least according to the explanations
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given just sort of inferred from the
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text
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that every I mean she lived in the
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celestial palace you know in this
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wonderful like pleasure grove and she
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had this retinue of like nymphlike
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servants and everything. But every
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single night, she'd go into a kind of
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trance and come down out of her mansion
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and stand by this lotus pond that was in
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the the pleasure the pleasure grove, you
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know, the pleasure park. And this big
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ghost dog would devour her and the bones
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would fall into the pond where they
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would just regrow a new body and then
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she'd climb back out of the pond and go
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back up and and and go back to sleep.
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and they're still debating big time.
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There's there's one person involved in
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this debate who just absolutely has to
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debate everything.
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So that's one way you can become a
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hungry ghost or just a ghost. The pa or
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py is in the feminine is
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um
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just living a virtuous life but then
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like botching it by doing something bad
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enough that you don't get into a heaven
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realm. And in Buddhism there's just this
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continuum. It's like a spectrum where
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the highest ghost and the lowest deva
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are just right up against each other. I
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mean, there's not necessarily even a
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clear line between them, even though one
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is a higher realm and one is considered
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to be a lower realm.
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But then again, there's other kinds of
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ghosts that are mentioned in the texts
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like um like corrupt monks and nuns,
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corrupt judges, you know, people who
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have like betrayed their trust, you
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know, who have been immoral in in
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particularly dishonorable, egregious
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ways that wind up just really afflicted.
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I mean, they're down at the lower end of
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the ghost spectrum, not up close to the
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the davas, you know, like there's one
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mentioned in the text who has
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elephantasis of the scrotum, and he has
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to like fling his scrotum over his
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shoulder to carry it around. And then
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there's like this swarm of like ghost
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crows or ravens or or hawks that are
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like pecking at this scrotum, this kind
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of thing. Or another one is someone just
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flying through the air on fire, you
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know, just in this state of just
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continual distress. I mean, that would
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be practically being like in a hell
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realm and it's just some sort of um you
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know, immorality
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that caused them to wind up that way.
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Um but if you I mean if you just go with
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paranormal like modern paranormal
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research
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um ghosts would be and also this is a
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lot of folklore behind this too that to
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get into the ghost realm often you have
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to have like this strong attachment to
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something in this world like your own
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body or your own possessions which cause
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you to like haunt your spirit just can't
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bring itself to leave and so It will
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haunt the graveyard around the grave
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just to stay near the body that it still
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identifies with. Or it will haunt its
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own house because it has this
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possessiveness over the house. Or
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there's just some kind of unfinished
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business or attachment that causes the
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spirit to just kind of get stuck at this
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in this realm
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while not being entirely in this realm.
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And a lot of what appears to be ghost
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phenomena are really a kind of like
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energetic echo. And I this these people
00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:16.790
are just debating and there's this one
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person who's just absolutely addicted to
00:12:18.959 --> 00:12:21.910
debating and arguing everything.
00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:23.910
So it's kind of distracting because the
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computer just going boop boop boop boop
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over and over again which kind of
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interferes with my chain of thought.
00:12:33.760 --> 00:12:35.670
Schopenhau wrote an entire essay on why
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it is that intelligent people don't like
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noise, but people that aren't as
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intelligent actually kind of like it.
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But I digress.
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So like some of what is considered to be
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ghost phenomena is like energetic
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echoes. You know, there's like some kind
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of strongly emotional event that
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occurred in an old house, for example,
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that just causes people to see this
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apparition. You know, it might be clear,
00:13:06.560 --> 00:13:08.629
it might be just vague and indistinct,
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but this apparition is just doing the
00:13:10.560 --> 00:13:12.230
same thing over and over again. You
00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:15.350
know, it just it's like this this lady
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dressed in mourning, dressed in a long
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black gown, just comes out of a bedroom
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and walks to the staircase and
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disappears. you know, that's all they
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see of her just every time. So,
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something like that is not it's not
00:13:28.079 --> 00:13:30.150
really a being necessarily. It's just a
00:13:30.160 --> 00:13:34.310
kind of energetic or psychic echo.
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Also, uh like poltergeist phenomena
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nowadays like the parasychologists will
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say that that is really not a ghost at
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all. It's like RSPK, recurrent
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spontaneous psychokinesis, usually
00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.949
centered on an emotionally troubled
00:13:50.959 --> 00:13:54.710
adolescent.
00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:57.269
just their inner turmoil is manifesting
00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:00.629
outwardly as just weird things
00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:03.990
happening.
00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:05.750
So
00:14:05.760 --> 00:14:08.069
this question under what circumstances
00:14:08.079 --> 00:14:10.629
would one end up as a hungry ghost after
00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:14.230
death? It depends on how you interpret
00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:17.829
hungry ghost. You know, the hungry ones
00:14:17.839 --> 00:14:20.790
as a general rule go back to like
00:14:20.800 --> 00:14:23.670
neglected ancestor worship or just
00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:26.150
ghosts in general.
00:14:26.160 --> 00:14:32.389
Usually, it's not a highly advanced mind
00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:37.269
that is taking samsara literally
00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:39.269
considers this to be reality. Their
00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:43.189
home, their body is just reality and
00:14:43.199 --> 00:14:45.910
they just cling to it. so that it
00:14:45.920 --> 00:14:49.030
prevents them from like moving on into,
00:14:49.040 --> 00:14:51.910
you know, the next the next realm, the
00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:54.629
next sphere
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:57.829
supposedly. And with regard to yax, I'm
00:14:57.839 --> 00:14:59.189
not I I don't think I've ever come
00:14:59.199 --> 00:15:05.030
across that term before, a yak.
00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:07.990
But my best answer is
00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:09.430
mainly what would cause you to be a
00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:13.750
ghost is not a highly evolved mind that
00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:16.069
is strongly attached to something in
00:15:16.079 --> 00:15:19.030
this world. And
00:15:19.040 --> 00:15:20.949
um a lot of people say like a lot of
00:15:20.959 --> 00:15:22.629
sources will say that a lot of ghosts
00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.470
don't even realize that they're dead.
00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:26.310
They're just kind of like sleepwalking.
00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:28.470
You know, they're not fully conscious
00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:30.470
even to the level of a human being. you
00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:31.990
know, they're kind of like in this murky
00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.629
kind of dream world and they just don't
00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:39.269
realize that they're dead.
00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:41.750
So, I'm just going to move on to the
00:15:41.760 --> 00:15:44.629
next question. This is from Phil
00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:48.389
and Phil says, "Since usually you
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:51.509
weighed into the questions, I must ask,
00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:54.069
is the body of water that the questions
00:15:54.079 --> 00:15:56.949
comprise deep or shallow?" Well, if you
00:15:56.959 --> 00:15:58.629
can wade
00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:01.350
all the way to the other side, you know,
00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:02.949
it's it's not going to be over your
00:16:02.959 --> 00:16:05.990
head, I assume. I mean, I don't know how
00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:07.430
deep the water has to be before you're
00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:09.990
no longer waiting. Waiting usually
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.790
implies that it's, you know, no more
00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:17.509
than about chest deep, I guess.
00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:19.189
But
00:16:19.199 --> 00:16:20.790
I mean, some questions are deeper than
00:16:20.800 --> 00:16:23.670
others. It's a metaphor. Don't take
00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:26.710
metaphors and analogies too seriously.
00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:28.310
And I'm going to move on to Phil Lee's
00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:30.790
next question, which is continuing with
00:16:30.800 --> 00:16:34.870
this theme. Speaking of waiting, if one
00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:37.030
passes through the gateless gate and
00:16:37.040 --> 00:16:39.590
wades deep into the ankled deep ocean,
00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:41.509
can he still cross over to the other
00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:45.430
shore while still dry? And I just say
00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:47.829
that once you pass through the gateless
00:16:47.839 --> 00:16:51.430
gate, all bets are off.
00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:53.030
I'm just going to move on to Phily's
00:16:53.040 --> 00:16:56.790
third question.
00:16:56.800 --> 00:17:00.069
According to certain traditions, if you
00:17:00.079 --> 00:17:02.470
meet Buddha on the road, you ought to
00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:05.510
kill him. What ought one to do if one
00:17:05.520 --> 00:17:09.110
bumps into Buddha up in that club, so to
00:17:09.120 --> 00:17:11.750
speak? And I didn't even know what up in
00:17:11.760 --> 00:17:14.710
that club meant. And he gave his
00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:17.110
explanation for it, which I don't fully
00:17:17.120 --> 00:17:19.110
remember.
00:17:19.120 --> 00:17:21.029
So,
00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:22.789
I'm going to have to hobble along with
00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:25.990
this handicap of not remembering exactly
00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.870
what up in that club means, but I think
00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:31.029
it means
00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:33.990
like on his own terms, you know, you're
00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:38.390
you're like relatively advanced state.
00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:40.070
But he says according let's just get
00:17:40.080 --> 00:17:41.909
back to the start of this question now.
00:17:41.919 --> 00:17:43.430
According to certain traditions, he's
00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:46.470
talking about Zen like medieval Chinese
00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:49.270
Chan or Zen Buddhism. If you meet the
00:17:49.280 --> 00:17:50.549
Buddha on the road, you want to kill
00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:54.150
him. Um I mean
00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:57.270
I mean it seems to me that the whole
00:17:57.280 --> 00:18:00.310
meaning of that is that if the Buddha
00:18:00.320 --> 00:18:03.029
gets in your way, you want to kill him.
00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:05.909
You know, it's like even ideas of
00:18:05.919 --> 00:18:08.630
Buddhahood, of holiness, sacredness,
00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:12.310
dharma, if they become an obstacle, then
00:18:12.320 --> 00:18:15.590
you need to work through that. you know,
00:18:15.600 --> 00:18:19.590
you need to to remove the obstacle.
00:18:19.600 --> 00:18:21.350
So, I mean, it seems to me that the
00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:22.789
saying you if you meet the Buddha on the
00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:26.470
road, kill him. It's I mean, if
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:29.350
attachment to the Buddha gets in your
00:18:29.360 --> 00:18:32.950
way on the path, then that has to be
00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.830
dealt with. And I mean the just your
00:18:35.840 --> 00:18:38.390
attachment to the Buddha or to your
00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:41.909
concept of the Buddha can be an obstacle
00:18:41.919 --> 00:18:43.830
which then has to be removed in order
00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:46.390
for you to continue to progress.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.110
That is how I would understand this. But
00:18:49.120 --> 00:18:50.549
it's like if you meet the Buddha in
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:53.590
samasara, it's not really the Buddha. So
00:18:53.600 --> 00:18:55.590
I mean the Buddha is just as a kind of
00:18:55.600 --> 00:18:58.230
mental concept.
00:18:58.240 --> 00:18:59.669
So I mean you could take it to a
00:18:59.679 --> 00:19:02.230
somewhat deeper level in that any kind
00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:04.470
of concept including the concept of
00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:06.710
Buddha, enlightenment, dharma, all of
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.669
this, you know, it's still basically
00:19:09.679 --> 00:19:14.070
unenlightened and therefore you have to
00:19:14.080 --> 00:19:18.470
remove that or detach from that in order
00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:21.590
to really make progress to reach the
00:19:21.600 --> 00:19:25.110
goal in dharma.
00:19:25.120 --> 00:19:28.150
So what ought one to do if one bumps
00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:31.510
into Buddha up in that club? I mean
00:19:31.520 --> 00:19:33.909
still I mean if you're bumping into some
00:19:33.919 --> 00:19:36.470
being called the Buddha that's not at
00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:40.230
the level of full enlightenment yet. So
00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:43.110
I mean when you when you meet the Buddha
00:19:43.120 --> 00:19:46.310
in samsara that's just a samsaric
00:19:46.320 --> 00:19:49.029
representation and you're not going to
00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:51.430
meet into any individual outside of
00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:53.190
samsara.
00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:57.830
So in a way Buddha is skillful means you
00:19:57.840 --> 00:20:00.070
know just the concept of Buddha is
00:20:00.080 --> 00:20:01.510
skillful means that helps you to
00:20:01.520 --> 00:20:04.310
progress until eventually you are ripe
00:20:04.320 --> 00:20:09.590
to let go even of that concept.
00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:11.270
So if you're fully enlightened, you
00:20:11.280 --> 00:20:14.710
won't bump into Buddha. Um other than
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:16.390
maybe from the point of view of some
00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.590
unenlightened observer
00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:24.230
or maybe in some like illusory way that
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:26.789
is no longer delusional because you are
00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:29.110
enlightened but still it would be an
00:20:29.120 --> 00:20:31.990
illusion. Ultimately there is no real
00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.669
Buddha because there is no real anybody.
00:20:35.679 --> 00:20:41.510
there is no self.
00:20:41.520 --> 00:20:43.029
So I mean if you meet the Buddha in
00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:44.549
samsasara you have to bear in mind that
00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:47.430
it's not really the Buddha. It is your
00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:50.549
unenlightened perception of what you
00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:55.190
consider to be the Buddha.
00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.110
And that would imply down on this planet
00:20:57.120 --> 00:21:00.230
or in any other realm, any other realm
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.789
in samsara, any of the 31 plains of
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:05.270
existence.
00:21:05.280 --> 00:21:06.549
So I guess I'm just going to move on to
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:08.390
the next question.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.710
This is from Fred.
00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:13.830
And Fred says, "Was the Buddha's goal to
00:21:13.840 --> 00:21:16.789
snuff his spirit?"
00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:19.270
And it's hard to say exactly what the
00:21:19.280 --> 00:21:20.789
Buddha's goal was before he was
00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:22.549
enlightened because the man lived
00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:25.830
approximately 25 centuries ago and all
00:21:25.840 --> 00:21:30.230
we really know about him are legends
00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:31.669
plus maybe a little bit of
00:21:31.679 --> 00:21:35.029
archaeological stuff.
00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:38.390
So exactly what the Buddha
00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:42.230
or rather the yettobe Buddha Buddhist
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:45.190
had in mind,
00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:47.190
we can only conjecture. We can only
00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:49.750
guess. I would assume that the Buddha
00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:55.029
was following the kind of like archaic
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:57.510
traumana tradition that had its roots
00:21:57.520 --> 00:22:00.070
going all the way back into prehistoric
00:22:00.080 --> 00:22:02.470
times before the Indo-arian invasion
00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:06.630
that Indians and Hindus will mock at.
00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:11.430
But archaeology is fairly fairly solid
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:14.630
that there was an Indo-Arian invasion of
00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:19.029
northwest India around 1500 BC. And so
00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:22.390
this shana tradition that Buddhism is
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:25.029
largely based on Janism
00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:29.350
uh sananka like proto yoga
00:22:29.360 --> 00:22:32.470
um the the extinct avivaca traditions
00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:36.070
all of those were more based in this
00:22:36.080 --> 00:22:38.950
prehistoric shrama or aesthetic
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:43.430
tradition than in later vism.
00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:46.549
And some of these shamana traditions
00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:49.190
apparently were trying to snuff the
00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:51.830
spirit or just sort of eliminate
00:22:51.840 --> 00:22:53.990
anything samsaric,
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.789
you know, just escape from this world.
00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:59.669
Although if I think about it, it seems
00:22:59.679 --> 00:23:01.430
like the James, for example, they
00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:02.950
weren't trying to snuff their spirit.
00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:05.190
They were trying to purify it so that it
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:07.590
was no longer trapped in this world.
00:23:07.600 --> 00:23:09.750
They believed in a jva, which is like a
00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:13.029
soul. Literally, it means life. that
00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:16.390
when you eliminate all karma weighing
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.149
down the ja, it just floats up into a
00:23:20.159 --> 00:23:22.950
kind of eternal heaven realm. And I
00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:25.430
think the Ajivacas also had some kind of
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.669
similar idea.
00:23:27.679 --> 00:23:32.230
So it may be that this archaic shamana
00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.630
tradition wasn't really trying to snuff
00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:35.990
the spirit. Although I wouldn't at all
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:37.190
be surprised if there were certain
00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.110
schools that were trying to do just
00:23:39.120 --> 00:23:42.789
that. But again, we really can't know
00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:45.750
what the Buddha believed in, for
00:23:45.760 --> 00:23:47.830
example, before he became enlightened,
00:23:47.840 --> 00:23:49.590
before he started the the wheel of
00:23:49.600 --> 00:23:53.990
dharma rolling.
00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:56.149
But I would be kind of skeptical of
00:23:56.159 --> 00:23:57.909
that. It might be more that he was just
00:23:57.919 --> 00:24:01.190
trying to liberate his spirit
00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:05.669
or try to break through some saric
00:24:05.679 --> 00:24:10.070
illusion to get to reality which may or
00:24:10.080 --> 00:24:16.950
may not be interpreted as spirit.
00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:18.070
And I'm just going to move on to the
00:24:18.080 --> 00:24:21.269
next question. This is from Siovakad
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:24.950
Zidana who asks three questions.
00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:27.830
The first question is one word and the
00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:30.710
next two questions are essays. But the
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.269
one-word question is just thoughts and
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.269
he includes like a YouTube short
00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:40.390
um with the entitle with the title of
00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:44.390
life isn't a drug tested sport. And it's
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.549
this young guy apparently like
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:48.950
generation
00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:51.909
X. No, not Gen X. He's younger than
00:24:51.919 --> 00:24:53.669
that. Gen Z. I mean, he's he looks
00:24:53.679 --> 00:24:55.990
younger than a millennial.
00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:58.549
Well, Jyn's millennials are Gen Y, I
00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:00.789
would assume. So, I mean, he's this
00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:03.029
young guy with a wearing a t-shirt, you
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:05.110
know, the kind of young person hair and
00:25:05.120 --> 00:25:07.590
everything. And he's just talking about
00:25:07.600 --> 00:25:10.630
how there's all these kind of health
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.149
supplements and boosters and so forth.
00:25:14.159 --> 00:25:16.310
And because we're not athletes having to
00:25:16.320 --> 00:25:18.470
take drug tests, if it seems to work,
00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:20.950
just go for it cuz all that matters is
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:22.950
results. I mean, that's an exact quote
00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:25.269
from the video. All that matters is
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.549
results. So, if you can make yourself
00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:31.750
seem younger, boost your testosterone,
00:25:31.760 --> 00:25:33.590
you know, make yourself healthier by
00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:35.909
taking these supplements or treatments
00:25:35.919 --> 00:25:40.310
or whatever they are, go for it.
00:25:40.320 --> 00:25:43.430
And I mean, there's some common sense to
00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:45.750
that. I mean, to some degree, I mean,
00:25:45.760 --> 00:25:47.909
the person is hyper samsaric. He seems
00:25:47.919 --> 00:25:50.470
to be just locked into,
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:55.029
you know, some soric virtual reality.
00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.190
Now I got a Roomba that's having some
00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:58.870
kind of technical difficulties back
00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:00.470
there making lots of noise and banging
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:03.750
into the wall.
00:26:03.760 --> 00:26:06.230
Huh. So,
00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:08.310
I mean, the the guy seems to be he's
00:26:08.320 --> 00:26:13.350
just this cocky young guy who is just
00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:15.510
hyper samsuric,
00:26:15.520 --> 00:26:17.430
so to speak.
00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.789
And but and so I mean he doesn't really
00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:22.710
have this idea that we are generating
00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:25.269
our own reality. It's just like if you
00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:28.310
have faith that these things will work
00:26:28.320 --> 00:26:30.390
then in a way you're using that as a
00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:33.269
kind of crutch to get the result that
00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.029
you want although ultimately it's not
00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:39.190
really necessary if you can rise above
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:43.990
the attachment to the samsaric phenomena
00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:46.950
that is all mindmade. Although this
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:48.789
cocky young guy in the video probably
00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.190
doesn't believe that at all that he is
00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:54.710
probably fairly materialistic and so
00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:56.870
long as you are materialistic and
00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:00.149
believing that this stuff is real then
00:27:00.159 --> 00:27:01.750
you have to take medicine when you're
00:27:01.760 --> 00:27:04.310
sick and you can't just faith heal
00:27:04.320 --> 00:27:05.669
yourself because you think it's
00:27:05.679 --> 00:27:07.990
impossible.
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:11.669
So I mean the person and everyone I
00:27:11.679 --> 00:27:13.510
guess should bear in mind that positives
00:27:13.520 --> 00:27:16.070
and negatives balance out. Any positive
00:27:16.080 --> 00:27:17.909
you go for is going to have like
00:27:17.919 --> 00:27:21.110
negative consequences too. I mean this
00:27:21.120 --> 00:27:22.789
it's positive and negative plus and
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:24.470
minuses is always going to balance out.
00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.870
That's how the whole universe exists by
00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:28.630
having all the pluses and minuses
00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:33.350
balance out to zero.
00:27:33.360 --> 00:27:35.110
But I mean, there's nothing necessarily
00:27:35.120 --> 00:27:39.430
wrong with taking health supplements,
00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:41.029
vitamins. People have been taking those
00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.190
for a long time. I mean, just eating
00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:45.669
health food, exercising, breathing fresh
00:27:45.679 --> 00:27:49.669
air. I mean, taking some of these
00:27:49.679 --> 00:27:53.590
technologically innovative chemicals,
00:27:53.600 --> 00:27:56.070
um, you know, like like the guy says in
00:27:56.080 --> 00:27:57.669
the video, a lot of them are just
00:27:57.679 --> 00:28:00.149
thoroughly tested by like the FDA and
00:28:00.159 --> 00:28:01.590
they're safe.
00:28:01.600 --> 00:28:04.310
So, why not? My woman bought some
00:28:04.320 --> 00:28:07.190
creatine gummies recently and I've been
00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:09.590
eating a few creatine gummies every day
00:28:09.600 --> 00:28:11.269
just cuz they're there and it's kind of
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:15.190
like eating candy anyway,
00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:16.549
although I wouldn't have gone out and
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.269
bought them myself.
00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:22.789
So my thoughts on this little video that
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:25.669
Seio of action zipad zirna presented,
00:28:25.679 --> 00:28:29.029
he's really into presenting videos or
00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:31.029
essays or things that can't be cut and
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:32.950
pasted and asking questions about it. So
00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:35.669
that I got to do the work of watching
00:28:35.679 --> 00:28:38.070
the video or reading the reading the
00:28:38.080 --> 00:28:42.630
article or at least typing out like a
00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:47.350
transcript of of this like screenshot
00:28:47.360 --> 00:28:51.669
that he took.
00:28:51.679 --> 00:28:52.870
I mean, there's nothing necessarily
00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:55.669
wrong. It's it's with taking health
00:28:55.679 --> 00:28:58.389
supplements or I mean, you eventually
00:28:58.399 --> 00:28:59.830
it's going to go farther into
00:28:59.840 --> 00:29:02.389
transhumanism where, you know, this same
00:29:02.399 --> 00:29:03.750
guy might be saying, "Well, if it's
00:29:03.760 --> 00:29:05.750
going to boost your IQ 100 points just
00:29:05.760 --> 00:29:07.990
to get the brain implant, get the
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:10.389
computer chip inserted into your your
00:29:10.399 --> 00:29:12.070
cerebrum,
00:29:12.080 --> 00:29:14.310
might as well go for it." But, I mean,
00:29:14.320 --> 00:29:16.310
it's just a decision people are going to
00:29:16.320 --> 00:29:18.710
have to make individually and just do
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:21.750
what feels right.
00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:23.350
And I'm going to move on to Siovak and
00:29:23.360 --> 00:29:25.510
Sipad Zidon's second question which is
00:29:25.520 --> 00:29:30.389
much longer than thoughts.
00:29:30.399 --> 00:29:32.710
See here this one's on Western
00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:36.549
philosophy it seems. He says
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:38.950
I know you really appreciate Hume's
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:41.190
argument that causation can never be
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:43.510
proven and that we can only know a
00:29:43.520 --> 00:29:45.669
sequence of events that are associated
00:29:45.679 --> 00:29:48.310
with one another. essentially that we
00:29:48.320 --> 00:29:50.950
derive causality from a succession of
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:53.830
perceptions and causality is just the
00:29:53.840 --> 00:29:56.710
habit of associating the two events the
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.750
cause and the effect. However,
00:29:59.760 --> 00:30:02.149
Schopenhau says that Hume doesn't
00:30:02.159 --> 00:30:04.789
understand how perception works and
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:07.029
causality is not inferred from
00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:10.310
association of experiences but rather
00:30:10.320 --> 00:30:11.510
just a minute. I'm going to have to
00:30:11.520 --> 00:30:13.190
close this door. The Roomba is just
00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:20.389
going crazy.
00:30:20.399 --> 00:30:22.710
right outside the door getting lost and
00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:25.110
not knowing which way to turn. The new
00:30:25.120 --> 00:30:26.789
Roombas are worse than the old Roombas
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:29.909
and now it's like banging into the door.
00:30:29.919 --> 00:30:31.990
Okay, getting back to this question
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:34.630
though.
00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:36.710
However, Schopenhau says that Hume
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:39.029
doesn't understand how perception works
00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:41.350
and causality is not inferred from
00:30:41.360 --> 00:30:43.430
associations of experiences, but rather
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:45.990
when the sense organs are stimulated,
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.149
the intellect automatically interprets
00:30:48.159 --> 00:30:50.950
the stimulation as an effect and
00:30:50.960 --> 00:30:54.789
instantly projects a cause into space,
00:30:54.799 --> 00:30:57.110
creating an objective representation of
00:30:57.120 --> 00:31:00.470
the world. Thus, causal inference forms
00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:03.669
the basis of perception of objects and
00:31:03.679 --> 00:31:07.269
an outside world itself and isn't just a
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:10.389
habit of association.
00:31:10.399 --> 00:31:13.350
Okay. He is criticizing Hume for
00:31:13.360 --> 00:31:15.029
assuming we derive the principle of
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:17.350
causality from experience and deducing
00:31:17.360 --> 00:31:19.350
it rather than being something that
00:31:19.360 --> 00:31:22.230
forms the basis of perception itself.
00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:24.950
And an assumption the mind makes even
00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:27.750
prior to having successive experiences.
00:31:27.760 --> 00:31:29.990
The mind itself structures the sensory
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:32.310
data to be interpreted in a cause and
00:31:32.320 --> 00:31:34.549
effect manner. This sounds extremely
00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:36.310
autistic and I may have completely
00:31:36.320 --> 00:31:38.149
butchered both their explanations, but
00:31:38.159 --> 00:31:40.149
do you think Schopenhau is correct in
00:31:40.159 --> 00:31:41.909
his criticism of Hume's idea of
00:31:41.919 --> 00:31:44.230
causality as association of events?
00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:46.549
Okay, let's go way up to the top of this
00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:49.350
essay question.
00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:55.269
And um David Hume, one of his more
00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:58.470
ruthlessly radical philosophical ideas
00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:01.029
is that we really don't have any direct
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:03.430
experience of cause and effect. We just
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:07.669
see A followed by B consistently until
00:32:07.679 --> 00:32:09.430
finally we make a connection and it's
00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:11.269
like a post hawk fallacy. after this
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:13.269
therefore because of this and we just
00:32:13.279 --> 00:32:16.310
assume that because B always follows A
00:32:16.320 --> 00:32:19.590
that B is caused by A and H points out
00:32:19.600 --> 00:32:22.149
that even with regard to our own mental
00:32:22.159 --> 00:32:25.830
processes you don't really see the
00:32:25.840 --> 00:32:28.070
causitive force like you have the
00:32:28.080 --> 00:32:29.909
intention to raise your arm and your arm
00:32:29.919 --> 00:32:33.430
raises but you don't really feel the
00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:36.549
positive force between the intention to
00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:38.310
raise your arm or the will to raise your
00:32:38.320 --> 00:32:40.549
arm and the arm actually raising. That
00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:43.830
is just an inference.
00:32:43.840 --> 00:32:46.630
Schopenhau tended to mock other
00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:49.430
philosophers quite a lot.
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:52.549
I mean, especially Hegel, but still, um,
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:54.710
he didn't have a lot of use for Hume,
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:56.389
apparently.
00:32:56.399 --> 00:32:59.269
And he does point out an exception to
00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:02.070
Hume's supposition. I remember in
00:33:02.080 --> 00:33:03.590
reading the world as will and
00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:06.070
representation, Schopenhauer points out
00:33:06.080 --> 00:33:09.430
an obvious example of A following B over
00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:12.710
and over again and nobody really assumes
00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:15.110
that A causes B and that is day and
00:33:15.120 --> 00:33:19.269
night. Night follows day and day follows
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:23.430
night just on a daily basis. But we
00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:26.149
don't start thinking that day causes
00:33:26.159 --> 00:33:30.630
night or that night causes day. So I
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:32.950
don't remember this article that or this
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:37.110
argument that se of action satza raises
00:33:37.120 --> 00:33:38.950
that shopenhau made against hume but I
00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:42.070
do fairly clearly recall that schopenhau
00:33:42.080 --> 00:33:44.870
did point out this obvious exception to
00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:46.549
hume.
00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:49.029
The thing with schopenhau is that I mean
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:51.190
schopenhau and hume had two different
00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:55.509
approaches. Hume was an empiricist.
00:33:55.519 --> 00:33:58.950
Hume just observed what he was able to
00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:03.509
observe and then tried to interpret that
00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:05.750
with as little
00:34:05.760 --> 00:34:08.550
supposition or conjecture as possible.
00:34:08.560 --> 00:34:10.310
Schopenhau on the on the other hand was
00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:12.470
a more old-fashioned kind of philosopher
00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:16.230
where he would just build this system
00:34:16.240 --> 00:34:19.109
largely just because it made sense to
00:34:19.119 --> 00:34:22.790
him but he couldn't really prove a lot
00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:25.270
of it. It was just that it just seemed
00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:28.310
like an elegant theory and he liked it
00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:30.069
better than other theories and so he
00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:32.310
went with it.
00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:34.869
So I mean Hume I mean he really wasn't
00:34:34.879 --> 00:34:37.750
trying to
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:43.030
like work out intellectually a process
00:34:43.040 --> 00:34:46.310
so much as like I mean he was just
00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:48.149
trying to be aware of what there is and
00:34:48.159 --> 00:34:50.069
I have to admit I don't consider Hume or
00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:53.430
Schopenhau to be infallible oracles like
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:57.670
Schopenhau he just mocked the idea that
00:34:57.680 --> 00:35:00.310
organisms arise necessarily arise from
00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:02.390
like spores ors or seeds or something. I
00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:04.950
mean, he was this this arrogant advocate
00:35:04.960 --> 00:35:07.430
for spontaneous generation, which was
00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:09.990
still believed in like the early 1800s
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.069
when he was writing.
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:15.670
So, like maggots arising in raw meat,
00:35:15.680 --> 00:35:18.470
Schopenhauard just scoffed at the idea
00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.870
that there would have to be like mold
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:23.750
spores in order for bread to get moldy
00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:26.230
or for fly eggs in order for maggots to
00:35:26.240 --> 00:35:28.870
arise from rotty meat. I mean he just
00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:31.589
just mocked people who believed this
00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:35.190
stuff. He was not infallible. Also just
00:35:35.200 --> 00:35:38.790
his platonism, his idea in in like
00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:41.190
eternal ideas,
00:35:41.200 --> 00:35:43.829
you know, he had this idea that like the
00:35:43.839 --> 00:35:46.950
the platonic ideal of inanimate matter
00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:49.750
is the element. If I remember correctly,
00:35:49.760 --> 00:35:53.670
when you get into life, most life, the
00:35:53.680 --> 00:35:57.670
platonic ideal of most life forms is the
00:35:57.680 --> 00:35:59.430
species.
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:01.430
But when you get into humans, he
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:04.390
considered the the platonic ideal of a
00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:07.349
human to be the individual human. That
00:36:07.359 --> 00:36:10.950
we are our own platonic ideal, at least
00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:15.430
like our spirit is, our will,
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:17.589
if you will.
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:19.750
So that kind of stuff from Schopenhauer
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:21.910
I wasn't entirely impressed with. I'm
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.950
not a platonist and I do have a degree
00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:27.510
in biology and I know that he was wrong
00:36:27.520 --> 00:36:29.430
with regard to spontaneous generation at
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:32.550
least in most cases. Bread goes moldy
00:36:32.560 --> 00:36:34.710
because mold spores get onto it and then
00:36:34.720 --> 00:36:36.310
the conditions are right with moisture
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:42.310
and so forth. it gets moldy
00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:44.230
or at least bread used to get moldy
00:36:44.240 --> 00:36:46.310
before they added all the chemicals to
00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:48.470
keep it completely fresh for months at a
00:36:48.480 --> 00:36:50.150
time.
00:36:50.160 --> 00:36:52.390
But Hume also I mean some of his
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:54.870
philosophy like he starts off with the
00:36:54.880 --> 00:36:57.750
impression which is kind of his his
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.150
concept for perceptions. You just have
00:37:00.160 --> 00:37:03.030
like this mental mental image or mental
00:37:03.040 --> 00:37:06.230
form like a mental impression.
00:37:06.240 --> 00:37:07.750
And I remember there's this one part
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:10.310
where he's
00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:12.069
trying to differentiate the difference
00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:15.349
between like a sensory perception and
00:37:15.359 --> 00:37:17.589
just sort of like this
00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:19.670
idea that you generate in your own mind
00:37:19.680 --> 00:37:22.069
like during a dream or something. And
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:24.069
the difference is that the sense
00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:26.069
impressions are livelier. I mean he's
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:27.990
not going to just suppose that there's
00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:29.510
an external world out there that's
00:37:29.520 --> 00:37:32.150
causing it. So he just says that our
00:37:32.160 --> 00:37:35.109
sensory perceptions are just have are
00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:37.670
like livelier, you know, they're more
00:37:37.680 --> 00:37:40.790
intense, more vivid than the stuff that
00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:44.069
we're just imagining. But then in
00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:47.589
another chapter of one of his essays,
00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:49.030
he's he's talking about the difference
00:37:49.040 --> 00:37:51.349
between something you believe in and
00:37:51.359 --> 00:37:53.349
just an idol concept. you know, you
00:37:53.359 --> 00:37:56.550
believe that horses really exist, but
00:37:56.560 --> 00:37:59.190
you can have like this
00:37:59.200 --> 00:38:03.349
casual daydreamy kind of image of a
00:38:03.359 --> 00:38:04.870
horse with the head of a cow, for
00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:06.390
example.
00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:08.710
And how do you differentiate between
00:38:08.720 --> 00:38:10.470
something you believe and something that
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:13.030
you're just casually imagining and don't
00:38:13.040 --> 00:38:15.349
really believe in? And again, he uses
00:38:15.359 --> 00:38:17.430
the same explanation that when you
00:38:17.440 --> 00:38:19.589
believe something, it's livelier, it's
00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:21.670
more vivid. And I just don't believe
00:38:21.680 --> 00:38:24.069
that. I think all perceptions are a kind
00:38:24.079 --> 00:38:26.069
of belief. It's just that what we
00:38:26.079 --> 00:38:29.190
consider ourselves to really believe are
00:38:29.200 --> 00:38:31.349
beliefs that are interlock or like
00:38:31.359 --> 00:38:33.030
concepts that are interlocking. You
00:38:33.040 --> 00:38:36.470
know, they form a coherent whole so that
00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:38.230
like this perception is connected to
00:38:38.240 --> 00:38:40.790
other perceptions which I think belief
00:38:40.800 --> 00:38:43.670
works more along those lines. So I mean
00:38:43.680 --> 00:38:45.829
I don't consider Schopenhau or Hume to
00:38:45.839 --> 00:38:49.109
be infallible.
00:38:49.119 --> 00:38:50.390
Let's see here. Here, let's get to the
00:38:50.400 --> 00:38:52.710
actual question now. Now that I've
00:38:52.720 --> 00:38:55.030
critiqued Schopenhau and Hume for the
00:38:55.040 --> 00:38:59.349
past 10 minutes at least,
00:38:59.359 --> 00:39:02.630
uh, Schopenhau based on Seio Cipad
00:39:02.640 --> 00:39:06.310
Zena's account is just claiming that
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:09.829
perception works through let's see,
00:39:09.839 --> 00:39:11.430
let's see if I can find it. It's it's
00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:14.230
such a long question here. Uh, let's
00:39:14.240 --> 00:39:16.069
see. Schopenhauer says that Hume doesn't
00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:18.550
understand how perception works. Yeah,
00:39:18.560 --> 00:39:21.510
Hume is just talking about impressions,
00:39:21.520 --> 00:39:23.829
just a sequence of impressions, not
00:39:23.839 --> 00:39:25.750
necessarily any connective force between
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:27.589
them really.
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:31.270
So anyways, Siovak and Cadena continues
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:33.270
and causality is not inferred from
00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:35.829
association of experiences,
00:39:35.839 --> 00:39:37.910
but rather when the sense organs are
00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:39.829
stimulated, but he doesn't really know
00:39:39.839 --> 00:39:42.069
that these sense organs exist. In fact,
00:39:42.079 --> 00:39:44.870
from his own point of view, sense organs
00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:46.390
would also just be a manifestation of
00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:48.790
will and representation
00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:51.750
because he was an idealist. Anyways, the
00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:53.589
intellect automatically interprets this
00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:56.470
stimulation as an effect and instantly
00:39:56.480 --> 00:39:59.349
projects a cause into space, creating an
00:39:59.359 --> 00:40:03.349
objective representation of the world.
00:40:03.359 --> 00:40:05.829
Thus, causal inference forms the basis
00:40:05.839 --> 00:40:08.630
of perception of objects and an outside
00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:10.470
world itself and isn't just a habit of
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:13.430
association. So, he's kind of taking the
00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:17.190
conten of these categories, you know,
00:40:17.200 --> 00:40:19.270
how this the structure of the mind and
00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:23.430
how it works and using that as a way of
00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:26.550
refuting Hume. I guess
00:40:26.560 --> 00:40:29.670
I it seems to me that with regard to
00:40:29.680 --> 00:40:31.349
this, Hume is standing on more solid
00:40:31.359 --> 00:40:32.790
ground because he's making fewer
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:36.470
assumptions. Although, as I say, he
00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:40.550
really has difficulty
00:40:40.560 --> 00:40:42.390
like explaining the difference between a
00:40:42.400 --> 00:40:45.430
belief and a non-belief or like a
00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:47.430
sensory perception and just an idle
00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:49.910
mental perception, that kind of thing
00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:53.510
that he does have difficulty with that.
00:40:53.520 --> 00:40:55.190
So
00:40:55.200 --> 00:40:57.270
let's just continue here again. He is
00:40:57.280 --> 00:40:59.270
criticizing Hume for assuming we derive
00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:00.790
the principle of causality from
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:03.190
experience and deducing it rather than
00:41:03.200 --> 00:41:05.190
being something that forms the basis of
00:41:05.200 --> 00:41:07.349
perception itself. Well, I mean
00:41:07.359 --> 00:41:09.270
Schopenhau is assuming that I doubt that
00:41:09.280 --> 00:41:11.670
he could really prove it and an
00:41:11.680 --> 00:41:14.470
assumption the mind makes even prior to
00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:17.829
having successive experiences.
00:41:17.839 --> 00:41:19.510
So it's all just part of like a
00:41:19.520 --> 00:41:22.069
categorical contine kind of belief
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:24.230
system just the structure of how the
00:41:24.240 --> 00:41:26.950
mind works according to Schopenhau. The
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:28.950
mind itself structures the sensory data
00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:31.270
to be interpreted in a cause and effect
00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:32.710
manner. But that doesn't really mean
00:41:32.720 --> 00:41:35.829
that cause and effect really exists
00:41:35.839 --> 00:41:37.510
you know any more than space and time
00:41:37.520 --> 00:41:38.950
exists. I mean space and time are
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:41.109
considered to be contean categories that
00:41:41.119 --> 00:41:43.190
don't really have an outward empirical
00:41:43.200 --> 00:41:45.910
existence either. So I'm not even sure
00:41:45.920 --> 00:41:47.829
if Schopenhau is really addressing the
00:41:47.839 --> 00:41:52.309
issue.
00:41:52.319 --> 00:41:53.829
He was addressing the issue when he
00:41:53.839 --> 00:41:55.670
pointed out that day and night are not
00:41:55.680 --> 00:41:57.510
considered by people to cause each
00:41:57.520 --> 00:41:59.670
other.
00:41:59.680 --> 00:42:02.950
So let's see here the final question the
00:42:02.960 --> 00:42:04.710
actual question with the question mark.
00:42:04.720 --> 00:42:06.390
Do you think Schopenhau is correct in
00:42:06.400 --> 00:42:07.990
his criticism of Hume's idea of
00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:11.030
causality as association of events? I
00:42:11.040 --> 00:42:12.950
mean, Schopenhau,
00:42:12.960 --> 00:42:15.109
I mean, he's not really dealing with
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:17.910
empirical reality so much. I mean, he's
00:42:17.920 --> 00:42:20.309
making assumptions to as a way of
00:42:20.319 --> 00:42:22.230
interpreting things. It seems to me
00:42:22.240 --> 00:42:25.589
maybe he does see some empirical
00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:28.470
like convincing evidence
00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:31.670
that cause and effect is just built into
00:42:31.680 --> 00:42:34.069
human perception.
00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:36.150
And he considers the whole world to be
00:42:36.160 --> 00:42:39.510
like will and perception.
00:42:39.520 --> 00:42:41.430
But
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:44.950
I mean, I like Hume's radical skepticism
00:42:44.960 --> 00:42:47.670
that I mean, really, if you got two
00:42:47.680 --> 00:42:49.589
philosophies, the more skeptical of the
00:42:49.599 --> 00:42:52.870
two is more likely to be valid.
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:55.430
Even though I don't consider Hume to be
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:57.430
infall an infallible oracle, I don't
00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:58.710
consider either of them to be an
00:42:58.720 --> 00:43:01.270
infallible oracle.
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:04.790
So
00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:08.790
I think Hume is more correct with regard
00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:10.470
to this in particular even though
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:13.030
Schopenhauer was able to point out an
00:43:13.040 --> 00:43:15.270
exception to the rule.
00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:17.109
But I mean there is a good chance that
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:20.069
Schopenhau is right even though I'm not
00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:23.109
sure how anyone would prove that
00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:27.109
that it's just causality is just an
00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:29.910
aspect of perception
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:32.309
and it's just built in to just the way
00:43:32.319 --> 00:43:35.910
we look at things.
00:43:35.920 --> 00:43:37.589
But
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:39.990
yeah, it's a little a little too deep
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:43.270
diving for me to try and ponder this in
00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:47.030
this Q&A. So I guess COVID caden will
00:43:47.040 --> 00:43:48.630
have to be satisfied with what I've said
00:43:48.640 --> 00:43:50.630
about it already because I'm moving on
00:43:50.640 --> 00:43:53.430
to the next question by Siova Cpadzina
00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:56.630
which is also an essay question possibly
00:43:56.640 --> 00:44:00.309
even longer than the previous one.
00:44:00.319 --> 00:44:02.950
Seovction Cadzer says I was thinking of
00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:04.630
something.
00:44:04.640 --> 00:44:06.790
So that's the first danger sign right
00:44:06.800 --> 00:44:10.710
there. He continues,"I notice that you
00:44:10.720 --> 00:44:12.790
break down things as being good from a
00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:14.950
Buddhist perspective, from a political
00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:17.829
samsaric perspective, etc. For example,
00:44:17.839 --> 00:44:19.750
having soldiers can be good from a
00:44:19.760 --> 00:44:21.990
samsaric political perspective, even
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:23.589
though it is wrong from a Buddhist
00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:26.150
perspective. But if you really believed
00:44:26.160 --> 00:44:27.589
that the Buddha taught about
00:44:27.599 --> 00:44:30.630
enlightenment as end of delusion, giving
00:44:30.640 --> 00:44:32.710
you an understanding of the uncarved
00:44:32.720 --> 00:44:35.109
marble and ultimate reality, then the
00:44:35.119 --> 00:44:36.550
Buddhist framework to attain
00:44:36.560 --> 00:44:38.470
enlightenment and the Buddhist teachings
00:44:38.480 --> 00:44:40.870
wouldn't just be the Buddhist point of
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:44.870
view, but the path to truth and reality,
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:48.390
the ultimately the ultimately only true
00:44:48.400 --> 00:44:51.030
path and set of values because all
00:44:51.040 --> 00:44:54.870
others lead to more lies. eyes. Based on
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:57.349
that, it wouldn't just be Buddhist point
00:44:57.359 --> 00:44:59.430
of view versus samsaric political point
00:44:59.440 --> 00:45:01.829
of view. It would be what is ultimately
00:45:01.839 --> 00:45:05.589
true versus the false illusionary lies.
00:45:05.599 --> 00:45:07.829
Being a soldier would then not just be
00:45:07.839 --> 00:45:09.510
bad from a Buddhist point of view, but
00:45:09.520 --> 00:45:11.829
be ultimately evil and wrong, even if
00:45:11.839 --> 00:45:13.430
the Nazis were coming in to kill
00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:15.990
everyone. Because doing so will only
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:18.069
fuel more delusion in the actions of
00:45:18.079 --> 00:45:21.190
self-defense and of others is based on
00:45:21.200 --> 00:45:23.349
delusion. Ultimately, I don't personally
00:45:23.359 --> 00:45:25.589
see how one can hold two opposing value
00:45:25.599 --> 00:45:27.510
systems at once as it requires a type of
00:45:27.520 --> 00:45:29.190
schizophrenic break from reality to
00:45:29.200 --> 00:45:31.270
acknowledge that both opposite values
00:45:31.280 --> 00:45:32.870
can be held at the same time.
00:45:32.880 --> 00:45:35.030
Ultimately, one must give in and you
00:45:35.040 --> 00:45:36.950
must choose a side and most of us choose
00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:38.950
some saric side false values. At the end
00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:40.550
of the day, while the few people that
00:45:40.560 --> 00:45:42.550
ever be became arhants are the ones that
00:45:42.560 --> 00:45:44.069
fully committed to the ultimately true
00:45:44.079 --> 00:45:45.510
values, I know the Buddha talked about
00:45:45.520 --> 00:45:47.829
the problem of views, but I think he was
00:45:47.839 --> 00:45:49.910
talking about the difference between the
00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:52.150
aesthetic traditions that already agreed
00:45:52.160 --> 00:45:53.750
on almost all their values of being
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:56.230
aesthetics. He wouldn't just say someone
00:45:56.240 --> 00:45:58.790
having a different view and engaging in
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:01.030
drugfueled sex orgies are just as valid
00:46:01.040 --> 00:46:02.630
as a monk who is practicing sense
00:46:02.640 --> 00:46:05.190
restraint. For example, do you agree
00:46:05.200 --> 00:46:06.870
with my criticism of samsaric point of
00:46:06.880 --> 00:46:08.950
view versus Buddhist point of view? And
00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:10.630
I would say that I may have to start
00:46:10.640 --> 00:46:12.790
making a rule that a question can be no
00:46:12.800 --> 00:46:14.870
longer than say
00:46:14.880 --> 00:46:18.470
150 words.
00:46:18.480 --> 00:46:20.309
So
00:46:20.319 --> 00:46:22.950
he's talking about how
00:46:22.960 --> 00:46:24.630
um a person living in the world I mean
00:46:24.640 --> 00:46:27.349
you can have Buddhist values
00:46:27.359 --> 00:46:30.069
but if you're living in the world you
00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:31.990
you are a part you are like a
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:34.069
participating member of the social
00:46:34.079 --> 00:46:36.230
contract
00:46:36.240 --> 00:46:38.550
in some sorrow
00:46:38.560 --> 00:46:42.390
then you have to have like values that
00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:44.309
are to some degree in conformity with
00:46:44.319 --> 00:46:47.109
that. Let's say for example, you have a
00:46:47.119 --> 00:46:49.510
wife and children, you have to protect
00:46:49.520 --> 00:46:52.550
your wife and children. I mean,
00:46:52.560 --> 00:46:54.950
sometimes in the commentaries or I I met
00:46:54.960 --> 00:46:56.950
an Australian man who was like this
00:46:56.960 --> 00:46:59.430
where I mean
00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:01.589
allegedly I mean he wouldn't even defend
00:47:01.599 --> 00:47:05.109
his wife from an attacker because
00:47:05.119 --> 00:47:07.829
violence is wrong. You know, it's like
00:47:07.839 --> 00:47:09.750
if I asked him once, if somebody
00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:11.430
assaulted your wife, I mean, would you
00:47:11.440 --> 00:47:13.829
just stand there? And his his his answer
00:47:13.839 --> 00:47:16.710
was it would be your own karma. I mean
00:47:16.720 --> 00:47:18.950
what kind of a man would be like I mean
00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:20.870
if you shouldn't have a wife and kids
00:47:20.880 --> 00:47:22.550
you should not be a participating member
00:47:22.560 --> 00:47:25.190
of society if you are just
00:47:25.200 --> 00:47:27.589
uncompromising in your insistence on
00:47:27.599 --> 00:47:31.750
absolutely saintly virtue.
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:37.109
Just go out into a forest and meditate.
00:47:37.119 --> 00:47:40.710
But I mean what section here is is
00:47:40.720 --> 00:47:43.589
implying seems to me to be false and
00:47:43.599 --> 00:47:45.109
that he's saying that Buddhist teachings
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:46.630
would be ultimate true with regard to
00:47:46.640 --> 00:47:49.349
right and wrong. But they're not. I mean
00:47:49.359 --> 00:47:51.430
that's just samsara too. It's all just
00:47:51.440 --> 00:47:54.150
samsara. It's all illusory to some
00:47:54.160 --> 00:47:57.109
degree. It's all delusional. I mean the
00:47:57.119 --> 00:47:59.030
striving for enlightenment is
00:47:59.040 --> 00:48:00.950
delusional. If you weren't delusional,
00:48:00.960 --> 00:48:02.309
you wouldn't be striving for
00:48:02.319 --> 00:48:04.550
enlightenment.
00:48:04.560 --> 00:48:07.030
So if you want to become enlightened,
00:48:07.040 --> 00:48:09.349
you have this value system that is
00:48:09.359 --> 00:48:11.750
skillful means. It helps you to become
00:48:11.760 --> 00:48:14.550
enlightened. And like one of the very
00:48:14.560 --> 00:48:17.670
first steps in the holy life is
00:48:17.680 --> 00:48:20.710
renunciation.
00:48:20.720 --> 00:48:21.829
But he's he's talking about how it's
00:48:21.839 --> 00:48:24.390
schizophrenic to have let's see where is
00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:26.230
it?
00:48:26.240 --> 00:48:28.230
Let's try and find it here in this mass
00:48:28.240 --> 00:48:31.270
this wall of words.
00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:33.190
as it requires a type of schizophrenic
00:48:33.200 --> 00:48:35.190
break from reality to acknowledge that
00:48:35.200 --> 00:48:37.430
both opposite values can be held. No.
00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:39.190
See, that's one of the problems with
00:48:39.200 --> 00:48:40.950
people who keep asking the same kind of
00:48:40.960 --> 00:48:42.870
questions over and over and over again
00:48:42.880 --> 00:48:45.910
is that they just cannot cope with
00:48:45.920 --> 00:48:48.069
handling two levels of reality
00:48:48.079 --> 00:48:50.390
simultaneously. kind of like the ancient
00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:52.710
Greeks who thought it was some kind of
00:48:52.720 --> 00:48:55.910
mysterious paradox that a person can be
00:48:55.920 --> 00:48:57.990
taller than one person and shorter than
00:48:58.000 --> 00:49:01.109
another person and thus be taller and
00:49:01.119 --> 00:49:03.910
shorter at the same time. But it depends
00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:08.549
on the context.
00:49:08.559 --> 00:49:11.109
So I mean it's not a schizophrenic break
00:49:11.119 --> 00:49:15.109
to acknowledge that if you are hard you
00:49:15.119 --> 00:49:19.349
know just dead hellbent so to speak on
00:49:19.359 --> 00:49:21.990
becoming enlightened then it helps to
00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:24.150
follow this kind of value system which
00:49:24.160 --> 00:49:27.270
isn't an ultimately real ultimately true
00:49:27.280 --> 00:49:29.349
value system cuz it's all samsaric and
00:49:29.359 --> 00:49:31.750
delusional I mean it's a more subtle
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:35.589
level of delusion maybe but then if
00:49:35.599 --> 00:49:37.750
you're living in the world you don't
00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:39.829
want to see your your wife and children
00:49:39.839 --> 00:49:41.910
get butchered. You don't want your house
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:43.829
to just be robbed or burned to the
00:49:43.839 --> 00:49:46.069
ground. Then you have to adopt a
00:49:46.079 --> 00:49:47.670
different set of values. Like you're
00:49:47.680 --> 00:49:50.150
playing a different game, a different
00:49:50.160 --> 00:49:53.510
set of rules.
00:49:53.520 --> 00:49:55.589
Like with politics, I mean politics has
00:49:55.599 --> 00:49:57.750
its own set of rules. Killing people is
00:49:57.760 --> 00:49:59.589
the right thing to do from the political
00:49:59.599 --> 00:50:01.910
point of view.
00:50:01.920 --> 00:50:03.030
I mean, if you're going to have a
00:50:03.040 --> 00:50:05.910
functioning society, you have to punish
00:50:05.920 --> 00:50:07.750
criminals at the very least. You have to
00:50:07.760 --> 00:50:14.470
defend your borders.
00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:16.870
And it may be delusional,
00:50:16.880 --> 00:50:18.549
but then again, striving for
00:50:18.559 --> 00:50:21.109
enlightenment is also delusional because
00:50:21.119 --> 00:50:22.630
as I say, if you were already
00:50:22.640 --> 00:50:24.309
enlightened, you wouldn't be striving
00:50:24.319 --> 00:50:27.589
for enlightenment.
00:50:27.599 --> 00:50:29.510
You wouldn't be trying to attenuate your
00:50:29.520 --> 00:50:36.390
delusion if you were already undiluted.
00:50:36.400 --> 00:50:39.510
So C of Action Cadina says, "I don't
00:50:39.520 --> 00:50:41.270
personally see how one can hold two
00:50:41.280 --> 00:50:44.069
opposing value systems at once." Well, I
00:50:44.079 --> 00:50:46.309
mean, you play two different games. You
00:50:46.319 --> 00:50:49.990
play by two different sets of rules.
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:53.190
It's not schizophrenic to play Monopoly
00:50:53.200 --> 00:50:56.470
and then play cribage.
00:50:56.480 --> 00:50:58.069
If you try to play Monopoly in
00:50:58.079 --> 00:50:59.589
accordance with the rules of cribage,
00:50:59.599 --> 00:51:00.710
people are going to think you're an
00:51:00.720 --> 00:51:04.069
idiot.
00:51:04.079 --> 00:51:07.270
So
00:51:07.280 --> 00:51:10.230
I mean you have to deal with the context
00:51:10.240 --> 00:51:14.870
in which you are in this virtual reality
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:16.950
of samsara.
00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:19.589
If your context is a householder, you're
00:51:19.599 --> 00:51:21.270
going to have to play by somewhat
00:51:21.280 --> 00:51:24.549
different rules than if you are a saint
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:26.790
living alone in a cave or a forest
00:51:26.800 --> 00:51:29.430
somewhere.
00:51:29.440 --> 00:51:34.710
It's just it's practicality.
00:51:34.720 --> 00:51:36.230
So,
00:51:36.240 --> 00:51:40.069
I guess I ranted enough about that.
00:51:40.079 --> 00:51:43.349
So, the very the very the question here,
00:51:43.359 --> 00:51:45.109
the the one-s sentence question at the
00:51:45.119 --> 00:51:46.790
end of this, do you agree with my
00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:48.470
criticism of samsaric point of view
00:51:48.480 --> 00:51:49.750
versus Buddhist point of view? No, I
00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:52.549
don't. That they're both delusional and
00:51:52.559 --> 00:51:54.309
they have different purposes. They're
00:51:54.319 --> 00:51:56.630
like different rules to two different
00:51:56.640 --> 00:51:59.430
games. And it's not schizophrenic
00:51:59.440 --> 00:52:02.470
to acknowledge this and to play each
00:52:02.480 --> 00:52:04.950
game in accordance with its own rules. I
00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:07.430
mean, you have to have priorities. And
00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:08.950
if your priority is to become
00:52:08.960 --> 00:52:11.510
enlightened and you are committed to the
00:52:11.520 --> 00:52:13.430
belief that the Buddhist way is the
00:52:13.440 --> 00:52:17.030
right way or at least a right way, then
00:52:17.040 --> 00:52:20.390
you should just opt out of society
00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:22.390
and follow those rules as strictly as
00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:25.349
you can.
00:52:25.359 --> 00:52:27.990
But still, it's it's just a kind of a
00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:29.910
different kind of delusion. It's a more
00:52:29.920 --> 00:52:32.470
wholesome, more subtle kind of delusion,
00:52:32.480 --> 00:52:34.710
but it's still delusional. And it's not
00:52:34.720 --> 00:52:36.390
the
00:52:36.400 --> 00:52:43.750
true like ethics or or morality.
00:52:43.760 --> 00:52:45.030
And I'm just going to move on to this
00:52:45.040 --> 00:52:48.549
question. This is from Yoshi Buouie.
00:52:48.559 --> 00:52:51.349
And Yoshi Buouie says, "Do you really
00:52:51.359 --> 00:52:53.270
believe that Islam is better than
00:52:53.280 --> 00:52:55.030
neo-Marxism?
00:52:55.040 --> 00:52:57.510
In my view, they're both intolerable,
00:52:57.520 --> 00:53:00.150
but since neo-Marxism can be overthrown
00:53:00.160 --> 00:53:02.630
by the populace given enough time and
00:53:02.640 --> 00:53:06.230
Islam cannot or extremely improbable,
00:53:06.240 --> 00:53:09.349
new Marxism or neo-Marxism would seem to
00:53:09.359 --> 00:53:11.910
be more better."
00:53:11.920 --> 00:53:14.710
Well,
00:53:14.720 --> 00:53:16.870
I do still consider Islam to be
00:53:16.880 --> 00:53:19.589
preferable to neo-Marxism partly because
00:53:19.599 --> 00:53:23.910
Islam still has a certain
00:53:23.920 --> 00:53:26.230
morality or ethic to it. I mean,
00:53:26.240 --> 00:53:28.710
neo-Marxism does too, but it's the
00:53:28.720 --> 00:53:30.790
ethics in neo-Marxism has been pretty
00:53:30.800 --> 00:53:32.950
much replaced by just unrefined feminine
00:53:32.960 --> 00:53:34.549
sentiment. But still, you know, there's
00:53:34.559 --> 00:53:37.510
the concept of nonharming, you know, not
00:53:37.520 --> 00:53:39.589
even hurting the feelings of people who
00:53:39.599 --> 00:53:41.750
believe in neo-Marxism. Although hurting
00:53:41.760 --> 00:53:44.150
the feelings of you know vile heretics
00:53:44.160 --> 00:53:47.750
is still okay but still Islam has more
00:53:47.760 --> 00:53:52.710
of a moral foundation. Also I mean
00:53:52.720 --> 00:53:55.109
feminism is [ __ ] up western
00:53:55.119 --> 00:53:59.670
civilization royally at present and
00:53:59.680 --> 00:54:02.950
Islam at least deals with the problem of
00:54:02.960 --> 00:54:06.950
too much feminism. Neoarxism is just
00:54:06.960 --> 00:54:11.910
thoroughly feminist at this point.
00:54:11.920 --> 00:54:13.670
So
00:54:13.680 --> 00:54:17.109
it it boils down to I mean Muslims
00:54:17.119 --> 00:54:19.430
dislike of dogs that's definitely a mark
00:54:19.440 --> 00:54:21.270
against them. Although the neo-Marxists
00:54:21.280 --> 00:54:23.270
are saying it's immoral to keep pets
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:24.630
because they're contributing to the
00:54:24.640 --> 00:54:26.549
greenhouse effect by breathing and
00:54:26.559 --> 00:54:29.510
farting.
00:54:29.520 --> 00:54:31.589
So the neo-marxists aren't much better
00:54:31.599 --> 00:54:33.109
off with regard to their attitude
00:54:33.119 --> 00:54:37.190
towards dogs as the mus Muslims
00:54:37.200 --> 00:54:39.349
at least. Uh, I think there's stories of
00:54:39.359 --> 00:54:44.710
Muhammad liking cats.
00:54:44.720 --> 00:54:46.470
But get to the problem here. I mean,
00:54:46.480 --> 00:54:48.710
Yoshi Buouie is saying the main reason
00:54:48.720 --> 00:54:53.190
why neo-Marxism is more better than
00:54:53.200 --> 00:54:55.589
Islam is that it's easier to get out of
00:54:55.599 --> 00:54:59.829
a neo-Marxist system. And maybe although
00:54:59.839 --> 00:55:02.549
when the system is just emasculating and
00:55:02.559 --> 00:55:05.109
disarming and just taking away the spine
00:55:05.119 --> 00:55:08.069
of everybody in the society,
00:55:08.079 --> 00:55:09.910
I mean even nowadays you've got people
00:55:09.920 --> 00:55:11.990
that consider themselves to be
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:15.430
right-wing conservatives or alt-right
00:55:15.440 --> 00:55:17.750
kind of people who nevertheless have
00:55:17.760 --> 00:55:19.430
been culturally conditioned into this
00:55:19.440 --> 00:55:22.150
feminized like degenerate kind of
00:55:22.160 --> 00:55:24.390
society so that Donald Trump starts
00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:26.790
acting like a Roman emperor and they're
00:55:26.800 --> 00:55:28.309
just I mean they don't know how to deal
00:55:28.319 --> 00:55:29.670
with it. They'll just say, "Oh, he's
00:55:29.680 --> 00:55:31.430
just kissing the ass of Israel. He's
00:55:31.440 --> 00:55:33.750
Israel's bitch." They just can't cope
00:55:33.760 --> 00:55:37.750
with an actual man acting like actual
00:55:37.760 --> 00:55:40.390
men used to act when they were the head
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:43.510
of state. Even the right the so-called
00:55:43.520 --> 00:55:45.270
conservatives can't cope with it. They
00:55:45.280 --> 00:55:47.589
just don't know how to deal with someone
00:55:47.599 --> 00:55:49.349
who actually has a spine and a set of
00:55:49.359 --> 00:55:51.430
balls anymore.
00:55:51.440 --> 00:55:54.390
And that's largely the blame of
00:55:54.400 --> 00:55:56.309
neo-Marxism.
00:55:56.319 --> 00:55:58.470
But let's get back to how easy it is to
00:55:58.480 --> 00:56:01.750
dig out. I mean, there have been cases
00:56:01.760 --> 00:56:04.390
in which a society has been ruled by
00:56:04.400 --> 00:56:07.349
Islam and then they overthrew it. Like
00:56:07.359 --> 00:56:09.750
the Spanish reconista, Spain and
00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:12.309
Portugal were almost entirely ruled by
00:56:12.319 --> 00:56:14.549
Muslims. You know, there was Atoria or
00:56:14.559 --> 00:56:17.430
some little country up in the north of
00:56:17.440 --> 00:56:19.589
of Spain that never was fully conquered
00:56:19.599 --> 00:56:22.870
by the Muslims. But most of Spain and I
00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:25.270
think all of Portugal
00:56:25.280 --> 00:56:28.309
Islamic at least ruled by the Muslims,
00:56:28.319 --> 00:56:32.069
you know, like um the Balkan states, you
00:56:32.079 --> 00:56:34.470
know, Greece was part of the Ottoman
00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:36.789
Empire. You know, most of the Balkan
00:56:36.799 --> 00:56:39.109
states, maybe all of them part of the
00:56:39.119 --> 00:56:42.069
the Ottoman Empire, which was Muslim,
00:56:42.079 --> 00:56:44.309
but they were able to overthrow that
00:56:44.319 --> 00:56:46.710
with the help of Western Europe, I
00:56:46.720 --> 00:56:51.190
suppose. But still, Sicily was all ruled
00:56:51.200 --> 00:56:53.670
by the Muslims. Malta, North Well, I
00:56:53.680 --> 00:56:55.190
guess North Africa is still ruled by the
00:56:55.200 --> 00:56:57.030
Muslims.
00:56:57.040 --> 00:56:59.270
But I mean, it is possible to overthrow
00:56:59.280 --> 00:57:03.589
Islam. And it's going to be actual men
00:57:03.599 --> 00:57:06.309
overthrowing it because you're not going
00:57:06.319 --> 00:57:09.349
to have a bunch of emasculated cultural
00:57:09.359 --> 00:57:11.430
unics that like the ones that are
00:57:11.440 --> 00:57:13.750
produced by neo-Marxism overthrowing
00:57:13.760 --> 00:57:15.430
much anything.
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:19.750
It's like the brave new world.
00:57:19.760 --> 00:57:22.950
So, I really don't see how
00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:25.109
neoarxism is all that easier to
00:57:25.119 --> 00:57:28.230
overthrow, especially once it's been
00:57:28.240 --> 00:57:29.910
established.
00:57:29.920 --> 00:57:31.510
So, that the populace is pretty much
00:57:31.520 --> 00:57:33.990
just emasculated, had their their
00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:36.950
vertebrae removed, I mean, and did
00:57:36.960 --> 00:57:41.109
disarmed.
00:57:41.119 --> 00:57:45.510
So, Islam is more
00:57:45.520 --> 00:57:48.150
masculine. I mean, of course, a feminist
00:57:48.160 --> 00:57:50.630
wouldn't see that as a plus, but it
00:57:50.640 --> 00:57:53.190
still has more of a kind of moral
00:57:53.200 --> 00:57:56.470
foundation to it than neo-Marxism where
00:57:56.480 --> 00:57:58.390
you're teaching gay pornography to
00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:01.750
little kids
00:58:01.760 --> 00:58:05.829
at school.
00:58:05.839 --> 00:58:07.990
So, I still consider neo-Marxism to be
00:58:08.000 --> 00:58:11.190
worse than Islam.
00:58:11.200 --> 00:58:12.470
Although, I really don't have a whole
00:58:12.480 --> 00:58:15.430
lot of use for any of the Abrahamic
00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:18.710
monotheistic spiritual systems. I do
00:58:18.720 --> 00:58:21.589
have some certain amount of respect for
00:58:21.599 --> 00:58:23.270
certain Christians and certain schools
00:58:23.280 --> 00:58:25.109
of Christianity,
00:58:25.119 --> 00:58:27.910
but um still.
00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:29.670
And I think I'm just going to move on to
00:58:29.680 --> 00:58:31.990
the next question.
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:33.589
I seem to be a little more excitable
00:58:33.599 --> 00:58:35.430
than usual today.
00:58:35.440 --> 00:58:38.150
Not sure why that is. I only had one cup
00:58:38.160 --> 00:58:41.270
of coffee before starting this.
00:58:41.280 --> 00:58:43.990
Anyways, the next question is from Star,
00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:47.030
also known as Mr. Pronov.
00:58:47.040 --> 00:58:50.150
And Star says, "Thoughts on astrologers
00:58:50.160 --> 00:58:53.190
who read hands to predict the future of
00:58:53.200 --> 00:58:55.510
a person." So that's Palm Street palm
00:58:55.520 --> 00:58:57.750
readers. And there's plenty of monks in
00:58:57.760 --> 00:59:00.789
Burma, also plenty of non-mongs in Burma
00:59:00.799 --> 00:59:03.589
that read palms.
00:59:03.599 --> 00:59:04.950
And first of all, with regard to a
00:59:04.960 --> 00:59:06.710
Buddhist point of view, the texts are
00:59:06.720 --> 00:59:08.630
very clear that monks should not be
00:59:08.640 --> 00:59:10.789
doing any kind of fortuneelling, any
00:59:10.799 --> 00:59:12.950
kind of prognosticating, you know, using
00:59:12.960 --> 00:59:16.789
signs and omens and like the zodiac, any
00:59:16.799 --> 00:59:20.630
of that. That's not a monk's job. Monks
00:59:20.640 --> 00:59:22.710
shouldn't be doing that.
00:59:22.720 --> 00:59:25.190
So it's considered kind of animal
00:59:25.200 --> 00:59:29.510
knowledge kirana vija in in
00:59:29.520 --> 00:59:32.870
terra Buddhism
00:59:32.880 --> 00:59:37.349
and so there there is that but also I am
00:59:37.359 --> 00:59:39.670
very skeptical of the idea that the
00:59:39.680 --> 00:59:43.190
lines on the palm of your hand have any
00:59:43.200 --> 00:59:45.750
more to do with your destiny than the
00:59:45.760 --> 00:59:48.789
situations of stars
00:59:48.799 --> 00:59:51.190
billions of miles away or even the
00:59:51.200 --> 00:59:54.150
planet Neptune. tune. I mean, what
00:59:54.160 --> 00:59:55.589
effect is that going to have on your
00:59:55.599 --> 00:59:58.390
life? It's just a kind of cipher and
00:59:58.400 --> 01:00:00.870
it's a kind of gimmick
01:00:00.880 --> 01:00:04.630
that if skillfully used allows some sort
01:00:04.640 --> 01:00:09.990
of psychic talent to to be chneled by
01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:12.710
the the astrologer or or the the palm
01:00:12.720 --> 01:00:15.270
reader or whatever it is. I wrote I
01:00:15.280 --> 01:00:17.829
wrote a philosophical essay on this once
01:00:17.839 --> 01:00:20.230
with regard to Ouija boards and tarot
01:00:20.240 --> 01:00:22.789
cards and astrology and all this that
01:00:22.799 --> 01:00:27.270
really tarot cards for example. I mean
01:00:27.280 --> 01:00:29.510
there's no machine at the factory making
01:00:29.520 --> 01:00:31.589
these cards that stamps any kind of
01:00:31.599 --> 01:00:34.069
psychic abilities into these cards. It's
01:00:34.079 --> 01:00:36.950
just cardboard and ink and some plastic
01:00:36.960 --> 01:00:38.710
lamination.
01:00:38.720 --> 01:00:41.430
So any kind of fortune-telling ability
01:00:41.440 --> 01:00:44.150
that is manifested through these tarot
01:00:44.160 --> 01:00:47.589
cards is done by the person reading the
01:00:47.599 --> 01:00:49.670
cards and to maybe a lesser degree the
01:00:49.680 --> 01:00:51.270
person who's having the reading done on
01:00:51.280 --> 01:00:55.030
them or for them. So the lines in your
01:00:55.040 --> 01:00:58.950
palm is just a kind of I don't know a
01:00:58.960 --> 01:01:03.430
kind of scribble that um a talented
01:01:03.440 --> 01:01:06.870
someone with like genuine psychic talent
01:01:06.880 --> 01:01:10.950
will use as just a kind of cipher to
01:01:10.960 --> 01:01:14.630
just channel some kind of genuine
01:01:14.640 --> 01:01:18.950
psychic ability. So that if any correct
01:01:18.960 --> 01:01:21.990
prognostications are made or any correct
01:01:22.000 --> 01:01:24.309
claims are made with regard to the lines
01:01:24.319 --> 01:01:27.349
on your palm, it's done more through the
01:01:27.359 --> 01:01:29.510
psychic talent of the palm reader and
01:01:29.520 --> 01:01:32.789
not the actual wrinkles on the palm of
01:01:32.799 --> 01:01:35.270
your hand.
01:01:35.280 --> 01:01:37.270
I really don't see how if you're going
01:01:37.280 --> 01:01:39.430
to have three kids, it's going to you're
01:01:39.440 --> 01:01:40.710
going to have different lines on your
01:01:40.720 --> 01:01:43.589
hand than if you have six kids or don't
01:01:43.599 --> 01:01:49.910
have any kids at all.
01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:52.870
So, those are my thoughts on astrologers
01:01:52.880 --> 01:01:57.430
who read hands or pal palmists, I guess
01:01:57.440 --> 01:01:59.349
it'd be called.
01:01:59.359 --> 01:02:02.069
Um, yeah, I mean, the Buddha discouraged
01:02:02.079 --> 01:02:03.750
it. At least it's he discouraged it for
01:02:03.760 --> 01:02:05.349
for monks. It's just considered to be
01:02:05.359 --> 01:02:07.109
animal knowledge. It's not really
01:02:07.119 --> 01:02:10.230
dharmic. It's it's just kind of, you
01:02:10.240 --> 01:02:13.510
know, superstitious stuff. But also I
01:02:13.520 --> 01:02:17.910
mean there can be accurate or genuine
01:02:17.920 --> 01:02:20.470
like useful information derived but
01:02:20.480 --> 01:02:23.589
still I think it's more the the psychic
01:02:23.599 --> 01:02:27.109
talent of the palm reader rather than
01:02:27.119 --> 01:02:28.710
the actual wrinkles on the palm of your
01:02:28.720 --> 01:02:31.349
hand or the positions of the stars at
01:02:31.359 --> 01:02:35.109
the moment of your birth.
01:02:35.119 --> 01:02:36.470
And so I'm just going to move on this
01:02:36.480 --> 01:02:40.069
question. This is from Trzasquez,
01:02:40.079 --> 01:02:43.750
formerly known as Tzasquez,
01:02:43.760 --> 01:02:46.950
and he says, "Why do you think politics
01:02:46.960 --> 01:02:49.430
is a topic that brings out the worst in
01:02:49.440 --> 01:02:51.270
people?"
01:02:51.280 --> 01:02:54.069
And um I already mentioned to him that
01:02:54.079 --> 01:02:57.589
it's because I mean partly in joke in
01:02:57.599 --> 01:02:59.270
justest.
01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:01.270
I said, 'Well, it's because politics has
01:03:01.280 --> 01:03:04.230
replaced religion in the west and
01:03:04.240 --> 01:03:05.910
religion has brought out the worst in
01:03:05.920 --> 01:03:09.270
people too. You know, there's, you know,
01:03:09.280 --> 01:03:11.589
the Holy Inquisition and and just
01:03:11.599 --> 01:03:14.150
burning of witches and all this horrible
01:03:14.160 --> 01:03:15.990
intolerance, blood flowing in the
01:03:16.000 --> 01:03:18.870
streets in Byzantine
01:03:18.880 --> 01:03:20.470
Anatolia
01:03:20.480 --> 01:03:23.349
over whether the Holy Spirit emanates
01:03:23.359 --> 01:03:25.510
directly from the father or indirectly
01:03:25.520 --> 01:03:27.670
from the father through the son. There
01:03:27.680 --> 01:03:29.750
are people that killing each other over
01:03:29.760 --> 01:03:31.670
this stuff.
01:03:31.680 --> 01:03:33.510
So politics is a topic that brings out
01:03:33.520 --> 01:03:34.950
the worst in people because people
01:03:34.960 --> 01:03:37.109
believe strongly
01:03:37.119 --> 01:03:40.710
about politics. Just as people more in
01:03:40.720 --> 01:03:42.710
the past than in the present, but to
01:03:42.720 --> 01:03:44.870
some degree in the present now believe
01:03:44.880 --> 01:03:47.029
strongly about religion. Anything that
01:03:47.039 --> 01:03:49.670
people believe strongly about, they're
01:03:49.680 --> 01:03:52.069
going to have more vehement and
01:03:52.079 --> 01:03:55.190
sometimes violent attitudes with regard
01:03:55.200 --> 01:03:59.670
to people who disagree with them.
01:03:59.680 --> 01:04:03.670
So that in my opinion is why and I'm
01:04:03.680 --> 01:04:06.069
going to move on to Taskis is his second
01:04:06.079 --> 01:04:08.789
question. He says, "Does perception more
01:04:08.799 --> 01:04:11.270
or less equal delusion illusion?" Yes,
01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:13.910
that's an easy one. I mean I've just a
01:04:13.920 --> 01:04:17.029
few Q&A videos ago I was saying that I
01:04:17.039 --> 01:04:19.990
mean perception is delusion is some
01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:22.069
sorrow. I mean there the three are
01:04:22.079 --> 01:04:23.750
equivalent.
01:04:23.760 --> 01:04:27.109
So it's not so much more less. more that
01:04:27.119 --> 01:04:30.630
perception is delusion or illusion. Just
01:04:30.640 --> 01:04:33.029
assuming just secondguessing the mental
01:04:33.039 --> 01:04:35.430
states of a fully enlightened being, we
01:04:35.440 --> 01:04:37.670
could say that, you know, if they still
01:04:37.680 --> 01:04:40.710
are perceiving houses and trees and
01:04:40.720 --> 01:04:42.950
clouds and birds and all that, then it
01:04:42.960 --> 01:04:45.349
would be an illusion rather than a
01:04:45.359 --> 01:04:47.430
delusion because they no longer believe
01:04:47.440 --> 01:04:52.150
that it is ultimately real.
01:04:52.160 --> 01:04:54.870
But yeah, perception is delusion or at
01:04:54.880 --> 01:04:57.670
least illusion.
01:04:57.680 --> 01:05:00.150
It's just conjuring up some symbol that
01:05:00.160 --> 01:05:05.270
people mistake for reality.
01:05:05.280 --> 01:05:08.549
Okay.
01:05:08.559 --> 01:05:10.150
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean like the purpose
01:05:10.160 --> 01:05:13.430
of dharma like of meditation, holy life,
01:05:13.440 --> 01:05:16.230
spiritual practice is to attenuate
01:05:16.240 --> 01:05:19.430
perception until you can see through it
01:05:19.440 --> 01:05:22.390
and then you are no longer deceived by
01:05:22.400 --> 01:05:25.430
it.
01:05:25.440 --> 01:05:27.430
So I'm just going to move on to Tresas
01:05:27.440 --> 01:05:30.789
is his third question.
01:05:30.799 --> 01:05:32.309
Okay, this is the question that I
01:05:32.319 --> 01:05:33.829
thought I was answering above because I
01:05:33.839 --> 01:05:35.270
remember seeing this question. I forgot
01:05:35.280 --> 01:05:36.630
that there were two questions about
01:05:36.640 --> 01:05:38.230
ghosts.
01:05:38.240 --> 01:05:41.990
Trezas is asks, "With people reborn in
01:05:42.000 --> 01:05:44.549
ghost realm, are they reborn as infants
01:05:44.559 --> 01:05:46.630
and grow there like humans and animals
01:05:46.640 --> 01:05:49.670
there?" And I think I can to some degree
01:05:49.680 --> 01:05:51.670
just combine
01:05:51.680 --> 01:05:54.789
Buddhist tradition with, you know, what
01:05:54.799 --> 01:05:57.270
the the evidence, modern evidence
01:05:57.280 --> 01:05:58.950
indicates
01:05:58.960 --> 01:06:02.069
that I don't think you have baby ghosts
01:06:02.079 --> 01:06:06.309
unless maybe a baby died and became one.
01:06:06.319 --> 01:06:09.190
Uh, like I said in answer to the first
01:06:09.200 --> 01:06:12.549
ghost question, a lot of ghosts are
01:06:12.559 --> 01:06:14.309
beings that don't even know that they're
01:06:14.319 --> 01:06:15.750
dead. You know, they're just like a
01:06:15.760 --> 01:06:17.270
continuation
01:06:17.280 --> 01:06:20.950
of the same person through a more subtle
01:06:20.960 --> 01:06:24.230
sort of body, you know, and definitely a
01:06:24.240 --> 01:06:27.349
kind of crder kind of sleepwalking kind
01:06:27.359 --> 01:06:31.750
of mental state.
01:06:31.760 --> 01:06:33.829
So, yeah, they'd be just spontaneously
01:06:33.839 --> 01:06:36.470
arisen. You know this I think in in
01:06:36.480 --> 01:06:38.549
terra Buddhism you got four kinds of
01:06:38.559 --> 01:06:42.630
life. There's born of moisture which
01:06:42.640 --> 01:06:45.109
kind of goes with Schopenhau spontaneous
01:06:45.119 --> 01:06:47.430
generation theory. Born of moisture,
01:06:47.440 --> 01:06:50.470
born of eggs, born of a womb and
01:06:50.480 --> 01:06:53.109
spontaneously arisen which is like in
01:06:53.119 --> 01:06:55.190
the da realms and apparently also in the
01:06:55.200 --> 01:06:57.349
ghost realm probably in the hell realms
01:06:57.359 --> 01:07:00.470
also where you just poof into that realm
01:07:00.480 --> 01:07:03.190
fully grown. I guess some of the lower
01:07:03.200 --> 01:07:05.510
dava realms you can have baby davas. I
01:07:05.520 --> 01:07:08.549
do recall a story in Vineia of a tree
01:07:08.559 --> 01:07:11.430
spirit like a a low-level dva, a
01:07:11.440 --> 01:07:14.309
terrestrial dva that did have a baby. I
01:07:14.319 --> 01:07:15.589
think there's more. There's several
01:07:15.599 --> 01:07:19.430
stories like that. So animals, humans
01:07:19.440 --> 01:07:22.150
and terrestrial davas
01:07:22.160 --> 01:07:25.910
can have babies, but ghosts and like
01:07:25.920 --> 01:07:27.910
brahas,
01:07:27.920 --> 01:07:29.750
hell denisens probably, I don't know
01:07:29.760 --> 01:07:31.430
about assuras. They don't really you
01:07:31.440 --> 01:07:33.750
don't hear a lot about assuras in the
01:07:33.760 --> 01:07:37.829
texts that they're just manifest fully
01:07:37.839 --> 01:07:40.549
fully grown fully developed.
01:07:40.559 --> 01:07:43.670
Poof.
01:07:43.680 --> 01:07:45.270
So
01:07:45.280 --> 01:07:48.549
yeah, I'm pretty sure that um if you're
01:07:48.559 --> 01:07:51.190
reborn in the ghost realm that as a
01:07:51.200 --> 01:07:53.190
general rule, you're you're like a
01:07:53.200 --> 01:07:58.870
version of your previous existence.
01:07:58.880 --> 01:08:01.349
Um, that seems to be the indication.
01:08:01.359 --> 01:08:03.349
I've never heard of a a baby ghost
01:08:03.359 --> 01:08:06.950
before other than like ch child ghosts,
01:08:06.960 --> 01:08:08.150
you know, like you watch the ghost
01:08:08.160 --> 01:08:10.870
shows, ghost hunters and all that.
01:08:10.880 --> 01:08:14.230
Occasionally, or like Kindred Spirits or
01:08:14.240 --> 01:08:16.309
what's the Dead Files, there's all these
01:08:16.319 --> 01:08:18.390
ghost shows you can watch. I've seen
01:08:18.400 --> 01:08:20.229
most of them cuz my woman is really into
01:08:20.239 --> 01:08:22.229
that. She likes falling asleep to ghost
01:08:22.239 --> 01:08:24.630
shows. So, she falls asleep 10 or 15
01:08:24.640 --> 01:08:25.990
minutes into the show and I wind up
01:08:26.000 --> 01:08:28.870
watching the whole rest of it.
01:08:28.880 --> 01:08:31.269
women, I mean, once they get horizontal,
01:08:31.279 --> 01:08:33.430
they cannot watch anything longer than
01:08:33.440 --> 01:08:34.470
30 minutes because they're going to be
01:08:34.480 --> 01:08:36.309
asleep by the time it's it reaches the
01:08:36.319 --> 01:08:38.390
end.
01:08:38.400 --> 01:08:41.990
But I mean, watching these shows, there
01:08:42.000 --> 01:08:45.269
are cases of like a child who died of
01:08:45.279 --> 01:08:48.550
like scarlet fever or diptheria or was
01:08:48.560 --> 01:08:50.789
murdered or something. And so there's
01:08:50.799 --> 01:08:53.749
apparitions of a child, but that's just
01:08:53.759 --> 01:08:56.070
the age they were at when they died or
01:08:56.080 --> 01:08:57.590
maybe shortly before they died. You
01:08:57.600 --> 01:08:58.789
know, it's kind of the age that they
01:08:58.799 --> 01:09:04.070
most identified with, I suppose.
01:09:04.080 --> 01:09:06.390
So, I think I answered that question and
01:09:06.400 --> 01:09:07.510
I'm just going to move on to the next
01:09:07.520 --> 01:09:09.430
one. This is from Ken and I think
01:09:09.440 --> 01:09:11.590
they're debating again on the Discord
01:09:11.600 --> 01:09:13.990
server because it's it's booping
01:09:14.000 --> 01:09:16.470
mightily.
01:09:16.480 --> 01:09:19.829
Quzen says, "Are you familiar with
01:09:19.839 --> 01:09:23.590
Joseph of Certino? His crazy levitations
01:09:23.600 --> 01:09:26.390
were legendary and well documented, yet
01:09:26.400 --> 01:09:29.669
I wasn't even aware of the guy despite
01:09:29.679 --> 01:09:32.070
being raised Catholic."
01:09:32.080 --> 01:09:34.709
I have read
01:09:34.719 --> 01:09:37.030
people just debating like crazy. I
01:09:37.040 --> 01:09:38.550
really should have made an announcement.
01:09:38.560 --> 01:09:42.550
Please don't engage in like rapid fire
01:09:42.560 --> 01:09:45.349
vehement debates because I'm going to be
01:09:45.359 --> 01:09:48.709
doing a Q&A video.
01:09:48.719 --> 01:09:50.550
Let's see. So, Ken asked me if I'm
01:09:50.560 --> 01:09:52.870
familiar with Joseph of Certino. And I'm
01:09:52.880 --> 01:09:55.030
not sure if this is the same person. I'm
01:09:55.040 --> 01:09:58.229
guessing maybe it is, but there was some
01:09:58.239 --> 01:10:01.030
Catholic saint kind of early modern
01:10:01.040 --> 01:10:03.669
times like Reformation, Renaissance
01:10:03.679 --> 01:10:07.669
times, I'm pretty sure, who was famous,
01:10:07.679 --> 01:10:10.390
infamous for levitating a lot. So that
01:10:10.400 --> 01:10:12.070
there was some sort of highranking
01:10:12.080 --> 01:10:14.950
government minister who hid under a
01:10:14.960 --> 01:10:16.470
staircase
01:10:16.480 --> 01:10:19.590
in order to watch him levitate. And I
01:10:19.600 --> 01:10:21.430
mean, he saw him levitating. He was
01:10:21.440 --> 01:10:23.350
hiding under a staircase, you know, kind
01:10:23.360 --> 01:10:24.790
of spying on him cuz he wanted to see
01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:27.430
him levitate. Sure enough, the saint
01:10:27.440 --> 01:10:30.709
levitates or I don't know if he was uh
01:10:30.719 --> 01:10:33.030
canonized or not. And then of course,
01:10:33.040 --> 01:10:36.229
he's just I'm sold. He's he's the real
01:10:36.239 --> 01:10:39.990
deal. He's the real levitator.
01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:42.630
But whether that was the same person or
01:10:42.640 --> 01:10:45.350
not, I don't know. I do recall reading
01:10:45.360 --> 01:10:47.590
that on a number of occasions St. Teresa
01:10:47.600 --> 01:10:50.790
of Avula would go into such ecstasies on
01:10:50.800 --> 01:10:54.390
taking the the sacrament, you know, the
01:10:54.400 --> 01:10:56.390
the little wafer that she would just
01:10:56.400 --> 01:10:58.390
levitate up into the air in the midst of
01:10:58.400 --> 01:11:01.990
an entire church congregation.
01:11:02.000 --> 01:11:05.590
So there I I do think it's possible even
01:11:05.600 --> 01:11:09.430
though science cannot explain it.
01:11:09.440 --> 01:11:11.990
And it's like every five seconds
01:11:12.000 --> 01:11:13.590
somebody is posting something on the
01:11:13.600 --> 01:11:16.229
Discord server mainly arguing with each
01:11:16.239 --> 01:11:20.070
other
01:11:20.080 --> 01:11:22.070
generally with one person involved
01:11:22.080 --> 01:11:23.669
because he wants to argue everything
01:11:23.679 --> 01:11:27.669
with everybody at any time.
01:11:27.679 --> 01:11:31.669
So the next question is from PSA.
01:11:31.679 --> 01:11:34.070
I mean he'll ask me a question and then
01:11:34.080 --> 01:11:35.590
I'll answer and then he'll just argue
01:11:35.600 --> 01:11:38.950
against the answer.
01:11:38.960 --> 01:11:41.669
Next question is from PSA.
01:11:41.679 --> 01:11:43.750
Did you ever fulfill your dream of
01:11:43.760 --> 01:11:45.430
hitting people with a stick while
01:11:45.440 --> 01:11:47.350
dressed in black and riddling them with
01:11:47.360 --> 01:11:49.910
coons? No, I went a different direction
01:11:49.920 --> 01:11:52.790
in life. I became a terra Buddhist monk
01:11:52.800 --> 01:11:55.830
who dressed in a kind of yellowish
01:11:55.840 --> 01:11:58.070
reddish brown and and it was against the
01:11:58.080 --> 01:11:59.510
rules for me to hit anybody with a
01:11:59.520 --> 01:12:02.310
stick. I did talk in riddles sometimes,
01:12:02.320 --> 01:12:05.510
but not very often.
01:12:05.520 --> 01:12:07.669
So that's what you get when you become a
01:12:07.679 --> 01:12:10.870
terabato Buddhist. Just I mean the
01:12:10.880 --> 01:12:12.470
options of hitting people with sticks
01:12:12.480 --> 01:12:15.110
are greatly diminished.
01:12:15.120 --> 01:12:17.910
PSA's second question.
01:12:17.920 --> 01:12:19.750
I just watched a few minutes of your
01:12:19.760 --> 01:12:22.310
first Q&A video when you were still a
01:12:22.320 --> 01:12:25.110
monk and it's
01:12:25.120 --> 01:12:27.750
it's the same guy. The same guy. And
01:12:27.760 --> 01:12:29.430
he's arguing. I can read like what he
01:12:29.440 --> 01:12:32.070
wrote up in the corner of the computer.
01:12:32.080 --> 01:12:34.390
arguing.
01:12:34.400 --> 01:12:38.070
I just Okay, PSA says, "I just watched a
01:12:38.080 --> 01:12:40.229
few minutes of your first Q&A video when
01:12:40.239 --> 01:12:41.669
you were still a monk, and it's
01:12:41.679 --> 01:12:43.830
incredible how much you've changed."
01:12:43.840 --> 01:12:46.709
Yeah, I'm I'm hairier now, for starters.
01:12:46.719 --> 01:12:49.430
Right now, you appear way more relaxed,
01:12:49.440 --> 01:12:52.310
loose, and maybe even happier. Every
01:12:52.320 --> 01:12:54.950
five seconds, the Discord server is
01:12:54.960 --> 01:12:59.430
going boop boop boop.
01:12:59.440 --> 01:13:01.990
I'm going to have to start over. I just
01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:03.910
watched a few minutes of your first Q&A
01:13:03.920 --> 01:13:05.430
video when you were still a monk, and
01:13:05.440 --> 01:13:08.070
it's incredible how much you've changed.
01:13:08.080 --> 01:13:10.310
Right now, you appear way more relaxed,
01:13:10.320 --> 01:13:13.030
loose, and maybe even happier, a little
01:13:13.040 --> 01:13:17.510
a little bit frazzled, and distracted.
01:13:17.520 --> 01:13:20.149
Is this a correct assessment, or was
01:13:20.159 --> 01:13:22.950
your former rigidity due to your serious
01:13:22.960 --> 01:13:24.790
commitment to observing the precepts
01:13:24.800 --> 01:13:26.470
while you were a monk, and it had
01:13:26.480 --> 01:13:28.070
nothing to do with your inner level of
01:13:28.080 --> 01:13:29.590
contentment?
01:13:29.600 --> 01:13:31.830
Okay. Yeah. my early Q&As's I was still
01:13:31.840 --> 01:13:36.790
a monk and yeah I mean I was more formal
01:13:36.800 --> 01:13:40.470
less emotional you know just kind of I
01:13:40.480 --> 01:13:42.149
almost said flatlining but that mean
01:13:42.159 --> 01:13:44.149
doesn't mean monotone kind of talking
01:13:44.159 --> 01:13:46.630
more in a monotone
01:13:46.640 --> 01:13:49.750
and partly it was because I was just
01:13:49.760 --> 01:13:51.510
starting these Q&A I was just starting
01:13:51.520 --> 01:13:54.550
doing videos really maybe I was kind of
01:13:54.560 --> 01:13:57.590
doing doing some back and forth dialogue
01:13:57.600 --> 01:13:59.350
videos with Brian Rue before I started
01:13:59.360 --> 01:14:01.430
doing Q&A videos. Yeah, I'm pretty sure
01:14:01.440 --> 01:14:04.630
I was. But still, just doing a solo
01:14:04.640 --> 01:14:06.229
video where I just sit in front of a
01:14:06.239 --> 01:14:10.229
camera and just talk to an invisible
01:14:10.239 --> 01:14:11.910
multitude
01:14:11.920 --> 01:14:15.110
if that's not self flattering referring
01:14:15.120 --> 01:14:19.030
to you guys as a multitude.
01:14:19.040 --> 01:14:21.350
Hundreds of you. Anyway,
01:14:21.360 --> 01:14:24.790
the I mean it was a little bit I mean I
01:14:24.800 --> 01:14:26.870
wasn't like used to it yet. So there was
01:14:26.880 --> 01:14:30.149
a little bit of that just kind of the
01:14:30.159 --> 01:14:34.149
formality of just giving a speech to,
01:14:34.159 --> 01:14:36.229
you know, when I wasn't used to it yet.
01:14:36.239 --> 01:14:39.030
So there was some of that. Also, just
01:14:39.040 --> 01:14:40.630
the fact that I was a monk. I mean, I
01:14:40.640 --> 01:14:43.990
had to have more of a monastic demeanor.
01:14:44.000 --> 01:14:46.709
So there was some of that. And also I
01:14:46.719 --> 01:14:50.390
was living at a little Burmese temple in
01:14:50.400 --> 01:14:52.790
California where I was a fish out of
01:14:52.800 --> 01:14:55.030
water. I mean, I couldn't really live
01:14:55.040 --> 01:14:58.310
the holy life the way a monk is supposed
01:14:58.320 --> 01:15:00.709
to, you know? I was just like sitting in
01:15:00.719 --> 01:15:03.110
this trailer on the out just kind of in
01:15:03.120 --> 01:15:05.270
the backyard of what was essentially a
01:15:05.280 --> 01:15:07.830
Burmese cultural center more than a kind
01:15:07.840 --> 01:15:10.470
of monastery.
01:15:10.480 --> 01:15:13.830
And so, I mean, it
01:15:13.840 --> 01:15:17.270
was sort of like my my slide out of the
01:15:17.280 --> 01:15:19.750
SA had already begun at that time. And
01:15:19.760 --> 01:15:23.270
there was sort of this kind of fish out
01:15:23.280 --> 01:15:25.270
of water kind of feeling that I had
01:15:25.280 --> 01:15:27.110
pretty much the whole time that I was
01:15:27.120 --> 01:15:29.910
living in California at this Burmese
01:15:29.920 --> 01:15:34.149
cultural center/monaster.
01:15:34.159 --> 01:15:36.390
You know, I just didn't really fit in.
01:15:36.400 --> 01:15:37.990
So, yeah, it was it was a combination of
01:15:38.000 --> 01:15:41.189
factors. First, just sort of not really
01:15:41.199 --> 01:15:44.950
being comfortable giving solo videos
01:15:44.960 --> 01:15:46.870
yet. I wasn't really used to it yet. It
01:15:46.880 --> 01:15:49.430
was a new thing at the time. Second,
01:15:49.440 --> 01:15:52.310
just having to have a monly demeanor,
01:15:52.320 --> 01:15:55.750
you know, not being so flamboyant,
01:15:55.760 --> 01:15:57.590
waving my arms around like this. I, you
01:15:57.600 --> 01:15:58.870
know, a monk isn't supposed to wave his
01:15:58.880 --> 01:16:00.790
arms around like this. I can do this if
01:16:00.800 --> 01:16:03.910
I want to now.
01:16:03.920 --> 01:16:06.870
And also, it was just kind of being in a
01:16:06.880 --> 01:16:09.270
a weird situation where I didn't really
01:16:09.280 --> 01:16:11.830
fit in and it was just increasingly
01:16:11.840 --> 01:16:13.910
obvious it wasn't going to work. So
01:16:13.920 --> 01:16:15.750
there was kind of that kind of pressure
01:16:15.760 --> 01:16:21.189
too that made my early videos seem less
01:16:21.199 --> 01:16:25.910
laidback and relaxed, less like free
01:16:25.920 --> 01:16:29.110
flowing and natural than now
01:16:29.120 --> 01:16:32.870
if you will.
01:16:32.880 --> 01:16:35.110
But I mean some of my greatest
01:16:35.120 --> 01:16:37.430
contentment was when I was a monk just
01:16:37.440 --> 01:16:39.510
like living alone in a cave and my
01:16:39.520 --> 01:16:42.630
meditation was going well then yeah it
01:16:42.640 --> 01:16:45.430
was there was I would be very noticeably
01:16:45.440 --> 01:16:48.630
different then from now also with now
01:16:48.640 --> 01:16:51.030
not being necessarily looking better
01:16:51.040 --> 01:16:54.070
than then.
01:16:54.080 --> 01:16:56.470
So I don't want to like you know
01:16:56.480 --> 01:16:59.350
denounce the effects of being a monk or
01:16:59.360 --> 01:17:01.350
anything like that.
01:17:01.360 --> 01:17:03.430
So, I'm just going to move on to PSA's
01:17:03.440 --> 01:17:05.990
next question.
01:17:06.000 --> 01:17:08.310
If you had to live in only one country
01:17:08.320 --> 01:17:10.630
for the rest of your life, including the
01:17:10.640 --> 01:17:12.870
US and Myanmar,
01:17:12.880 --> 01:17:14.709
which country would you pick and why?
01:17:14.719 --> 01:17:17.350
So, he's asking, "If I had to live in
01:17:17.360 --> 01:17:19.270
one country for the rest of my life, oh,
01:17:19.280 --> 01:17:23.030
excluding the US and Myanmar?"
01:17:23.040 --> 01:17:25.590
That's a tough one. And and I remember
01:17:25.600 --> 01:17:28.470
seeing this question asked and
01:17:28.480 --> 01:17:30.310
I really didn't come up with an easy
01:17:30.320 --> 01:17:33.030
answer. I mean, might have been Italy
01:17:33.040 --> 01:17:37.110
before it was invaded by North Africans.
01:17:37.120 --> 01:17:40.950
Um, Denmark maybe before I mean, it's
01:17:40.960 --> 01:17:43.669
not as grotesqually feminized as some
01:17:43.679 --> 01:17:45.830
other EU countries, but it gets damn
01:17:45.840 --> 01:17:48.709
cold in the winter time.
01:17:48.719 --> 01:17:54.229
Um, Bali is nice in Indonesia, although
01:17:54.239 --> 01:17:56.709
Indonesia is just it's like living on
01:17:56.719 --> 01:17:58.550
top of Yellowstone. I mean, you don't
01:17:58.560 --> 01:18:00.390
know when the next big explosion is
01:18:00.400 --> 01:18:02.709
going to happen.
01:18:02.719 --> 01:18:05.110
Um, it's possible that it would be some
01:18:05.120 --> 01:18:09.189
little island country, some some tuvalu
01:18:09.199 --> 01:18:11.030
or something. I don't know, just some
01:18:11.040 --> 01:18:13.110
little island nation out in the Pacific.
01:18:13.120 --> 01:18:15.910
Just some little tropical paradise.
01:18:15.920 --> 01:18:17.430
I could live out there. You don't
01:18:17.440 --> 01:18:19.110
supposed to like sit underneath coconut
01:18:19.120 --> 01:18:20.950
trees, though, cuz the coconuts actually
01:18:20.960 --> 01:18:24.630
can fall.
01:18:24.640 --> 01:18:27.510
So, yeah. I mean, I really it's a hard
01:18:27.520 --> 01:18:29.669
question to answer. I mean, I sure as
01:18:29.679 --> 01:18:31.430
hell wouldn't want to live in Canada. I
01:18:31.440 --> 01:18:35.270
mean, most modern Western countries are
01:18:35.280 --> 01:18:38.390
in a much worse state socially than
01:18:38.400 --> 01:18:40.390
America.
01:18:40.400 --> 01:18:42.709
I mean, if if you're fine with with like
01:18:42.719 --> 01:18:45.750
living in a kind of castrated feminized
01:18:45.760 --> 01:18:48.390
dystopia that's very comfortable in
01:18:48.400 --> 01:18:51.110
certain respects, although less so
01:18:51.120 --> 01:18:53.750
because of the the like aggressive
01:18:53.760 --> 01:18:55.750
migrants who hate your culture and hate
01:18:55.760 --> 01:18:58.070
you
01:18:58.080 --> 01:19:00.870
that are just invited in with open arms
01:19:00.880 --> 01:19:02.630
because diversity is somebody's
01:19:02.640 --> 01:19:07.430
strength, maybe not mine.
01:19:07.440 --> 01:19:09.030
So
01:19:09.040 --> 01:19:12.310
gosh. Yeah. I mean, possibly some
01:19:12.320 --> 01:19:16.630
obscure like island country,
01:19:16.640 --> 01:19:19.430
although not Iceland,
01:19:19.440 --> 01:19:23.590
some warmer obscure island country.
01:19:23.600 --> 01:19:25.030
Or maybe I mean, if you just don't want
01:19:25.040 --> 01:19:27.430
to live in a place where there's lots of
01:19:27.440 --> 01:19:29.669
problems like Albania. I noticed like
01:19:29.679 --> 01:19:32.709
you never hear any news about Albania.
01:19:32.719 --> 01:19:34.950
Nothing ever happens in Albania. Albania
01:19:34.960 --> 01:19:37.030
could have sunk into the ocean, sunk
01:19:37.040 --> 01:19:41.110
into the Mediterranean Sea like months
01:19:41.120 --> 01:19:44.310
ago and nobody would even notice.
01:19:44.320 --> 01:19:46.470
So, I mean, if nothing ever happens
01:19:46.480 --> 01:19:48.070
there, I mean, that would mean that
01:19:48.080 --> 01:19:51.510
nothing bad happens there. So maybe some
01:19:51.520 --> 01:19:53.270
place like Albania, although I guess
01:19:53.280 --> 01:19:55.110
technically Albania is supposed to be an
01:19:55.120 --> 01:19:57.990
Islamic country, but I've been I've read
01:19:58.000 --> 01:19:59.750
somewhere that they're the most lukewarm
01:19:59.760 --> 01:20:02.310
Muslims in the world,
01:20:02.320 --> 01:20:03.910
so I guess that wouldn't be too much of
01:20:03.920 --> 01:20:07.430
a problem.
01:20:07.440 --> 01:20:12.470
H Argentina maybe.
01:20:12.480 --> 01:20:14.790
It's hard to say. I mean, I'd have to
01:20:14.800 --> 01:20:18.149
really like investigate, have to do some
01:20:18.159 --> 01:20:21.189
studies like what country maybe I could
01:20:21.199 --> 01:20:23.750
just ask Grock, just feed in my
01:20:23.760 --> 01:20:26.470
preferences and ask Grock what country I
01:20:26.480 --> 01:20:28.790
should live in and it'll spit out an
01:20:28.800 --> 01:20:32.229
answer, but I haven't done that. So, I'm
01:20:32.239 --> 01:20:35.270
guessing maybe
01:20:35.280 --> 01:20:40.229
maybe like Albania, Argentina, or maybe
01:20:40.239 --> 01:20:43.270
some tropical island country of which
01:20:43.280 --> 01:20:46.630
there are many.
01:20:46.640 --> 01:20:47.990
And I'm just going to move on. Next
01:20:48.000 --> 01:20:52.229
question. This is from Romeo.
01:20:52.239 --> 01:20:53.830
I was just checking the time. Not
01:20:53.840 --> 01:20:55.189
because I'm getting bored or anything. I
01:20:55.199 --> 01:20:57.590
just It's good. It's a good idea to to
01:20:57.600 --> 01:21:00.310
like know how far into this. Like if I'm
01:21:00.320 --> 01:21:03.510
being too long- winded, so it's taking
01:21:03.520 --> 01:21:05.750
like a very long time just to answer one
01:21:05.760 --> 01:21:07.510
question. It's good to know because I
01:21:07.520 --> 01:21:12.149
don't want have a 4-hour long Q&A video.
01:21:12.159 --> 01:21:14.390
Uh, and my first beverage is a dead
01:21:14.400 --> 01:21:16.310
soldier.
01:21:16.320 --> 01:21:18.149
And I didn't make coffee before this, so
01:21:18.159 --> 01:21:21.110
I'm going with two energy drinks. And
01:21:21.120 --> 01:21:23.590
I've done it before and I know from a
01:21:23.600 --> 01:21:28.310
fact for a fact that it is generally
01:21:28.320 --> 01:21:33.030
non-lethal.
01:21:33.040 --> 01:21:35.669
I remember as a monk sometimes I mean
01:21:35.679 --> 01:21:39.510
the Red Bull in in Burma and Thailand is
01:21:39.520 --> 01:21:41.910
has a different formula than here and I
01:21:41.920 --> 01:21:43.830
think early on before Red Bull became
01:21:43.840 --> 01:21:45.910
famous internationally it would have
01:21:45.920 --> 01:21:47.750
been illegal in this country. I mean,
01:21:47.760 --> 01:21:50.709
there's like I mean, they they say
01:21:50.719 --> 01:21:52.229
there's steroids in it, but even like
01:21:52.239 --> 01:21:54.070
vitamin D is a steroid, so that doesn't
01:21:54.080 --> 01:21:55.430
mean very much. I think they put
01:21:55.440 --> 01:21:56.950
nicotine in it just to get people
01:21:56.960 --> 01:21:58.790
addicted. There was something along the
01:21:58.800 --> 01:22:00.629
lines of amphetamines in there, too,
01:22:00.639 --> 01:22:02.310
because if you drank more than about two
01:22:02.320 --> 01:22:03.590
of them, you weren't going to sleep that
01:22:03.600 --> 01:22:07.750
night.
01:22:07.760 --> 01:22:10.950
But I I digress.
01:22:10.960 --> 01:22:13.430
Romeo says,
01:22:13.440 --> 01:22:15.750
"As both a Buddhist and someone who
01:22:15.760 --> 01:22:18.390
recently had a near-death experience,
01:22:18.400 --> 01:22:20.149
glad and relieved that you survived it
01:22:20.159 --> 01:22:22.390
unscathed, by the way, and I still do
01:22:22.400 --> 01:22:25.110
have like a slight bruise from the the
01:22:25.120 --> 01:22:29.110
the shoulder strap." I was in a The car
01:22:29.120 --> 01:22:31.189
was total we just less than a week ago,
01:22:31.199 --> 01:22:33.750
we got info from the insurance agency
01:22:33.760 --> 01:22:36.870
saying the car was a total loss. The car
01:22:36.880 --> 01:22:40.709
was just wiped out.
01:22:40.719 --> 01:22:42.629
I got in a wreck, hit the hit this
01:22:42.639 --> 01:22:45.030
truck. I'm going down the highway 45
01:22:45.040 --> 01:22:47.510
miles an hour and at night driving home
01:22:47.520 --> 01:22:49.270
from work and this pickup truck just
01:22:49.280 --> 01:22:51.430
cuts right across the highway. I try to
01:22:51.440 --> 01:22:53.590
swerve out of the way, but of course
01:22:53.600 --> 01:22:56.229
he's going that way too.
01:22:56.239 --> 01:22:59.510
We collide at like 40 miles an hour. And
01:22:59.520 --> 01:23:02.229
the only slight injuries I received were
01:23:02.239 --> 01:23:05.030
like abrasions and bruises from the the
01:23:05.040 --> 01:23:07.430
safety stuff, the the airbags and the
01:23:07.440 --> 01:23:09.510
the the seat belt and that sort of
01:23:09.520 --> 01:23:12.229
thing. Although it was I mean it was
01:23:12.239 --> 01:23:13.990
definitely like a near-death experience
01:23:14.000 --> 01:23:18.149
because I mean that last second when a a
01:23:18.159 --> 01:23:21.590
collision at relatively high speed is
01:23:21.600 --> 01:23:23.669
inevitable and it's just like this
01:23:23.679 --> 01:23:25.669
heightened awareness. You could say
01:23:25.679 --> 01:23:28.070
things slow down, but it's just like
01:23:28.080 --> 01:23:30.790
timeless in a sense. You don't know if
01:23:30.800 --> 01:23:32.310
you're going to still be alive five
01:23:32.320 --> 01:23:35.270
seconds from now, you know? It was a
01:23:35.280 --> 01:23:37.669
weird experience. But I'm going to have
01:23:37.679 --> 01:23:39.830
to like start Romeo's question all over
01:23:39.840 --> 01:23:41.110
again now.
01:23:41.120 --> 01:23:43.270
>> And they're still arguing away on on
01:23:43.280 --> 01:23:45.910
Discord. I wish there was I knew of some
01:23:45.920 --> 01:23:49.110
way of silencing the the boop alert
01:23:49.120 --> 01:23:51.030
thing. Although it's on my woman's
01:23:51.040 --> 01:23:53.189
computer, not mine.
01:23:53.199 --> 01:23:54.790
I've already got my computer muted,
01:23:54.800 --> 01:23:56.149
otherwise the feedback from the
01:23:56.159 --> 01:23:57.910
microphone would just be screeching
01:23:57.920 --> 01:24:01.030
right now.
01:24:01.040 --> 01:24:03.510
So, Romeo says,
01:24:03.520 --> 01:24:05.350
"As both a Buddhist and someone who
01:24:05.360 --> 01:24:07.830
recently had a near-death experience, I
01:24:07.840 --> 01:24:09.669
am wondering if you could give your
01:24:09.679 --> 01:24:12.470
thoughts on a recent interaction I
01:24:12.480 --> 01:24:14.149
overheard
01:24:14.159 --> 01:24:16.070
at the Buddhist temple I go to for
01:24:16.080 --> 01:24:18.709
meditation."
01:24:18.719 --> 01:24:20.470
One of the participants explaining why
01:24:20.480 --> 01:24:23.590
he hadn't been in the temple in a while,
01:24:23.600 --> 01:24:26.709
excuse me, mentioned that he was in a
01:24:26.719 --> 01:24:29.510
serious car accident and almost died. He
01:24:29.520 --> 01:24:31.669
said something to the effect, quote,
01:24:31.679 --> 01:24:33.750
"You know, the Buddhists are right. You
01:24:33.760 --> 01:24:35.669
don't see a white light or anything like
01:24:35.679 --> 01:24:38.470
that. You just look into a void. That's
01:24:38.480 --> 01:24:42.950
all there is, a void."
01:24:42.960 --> 01:24:45.189
And Mr. Arguy Pants is still going for
01:24:45.199 --> 01:24:46.470
it.
01:24:46.480 --> 01:24:49.030
Okay. Anyways, Romeo continues,
01:24:49.040 --> 01:24:51.590
"Overhearing this was a bit unsettling
01:24:51.600 --> 01:24:53.910
for me and it got me wondering whether
01:24:53.920 --> 01:24:56.950
that this whether what this person
01:24:56.960 --> 01:24:59.030
recounted is accurate from a Buddhist
01:24:59.040 --> 01:25:01.430
perspective regarding what happens when
01:25:01.440 --> 01:25:04.149
one reaches the other side. There are
01:25:04.159 --> 01:25:05.830
countless survivors of near-death
01:25:05.840 --> 01:25:08.470
experiences that describe more than just
01:25:08.480 --> 01:25:11.990
witnessing a void. was what this person
01:25:12.000 --> 01:25:14.229
experienced due to his lack of belief in
01:25:14.239 --> 01:25:17.110
Jesus or God. In other words, would he
01:25:17.120 --> 01:25:19.510
have been would he have seen a glowing
01:25:19.520 --> 01:25:22.629
white light had he been a believer in
01:25:22.639 --> 01:25:25.110
the Christian sense? Even though I was
01:25:25.120 --> 01:25:27.189
raised Catholic, Christianity never
01:25:27.199 --> 01:25:29.030
really resonated with me. But hearing
01:25:29.040 --> 01:25:32.709
this made me think of Pascal's wager and
01:25:32.719 --> 01:25:35.270
that I'd be better off trying my best to
01:25:35.280 --> 01:25:38.950
have faith in Jesus or God just in case.
01:25:38.960 --> 01:25:40.950
Buddhism is more rational and following
01:25:40.960 --> 01:25:42.950
its tenants leads to less suffering in
01:25:42.960 --> 01:25:45.270
this life. But Christianity is much more
01:25:45.280 --> 01:25:48.149
comforting and hopeful about the next
01:25:48.159 --> 01:25:51.430
one. Thoughts? Well, first I'll address
01:25:51.440 --> 01:25:52.629
this very last statement here.
01:25:52.639 --> 01:25:54.070
Christianity is much more comforting and
01:25:54.080 --> 01:25:55.350
hopeful about the next one. How about
01:25:55.360 --> 01:25:57.270
many are called but few are chosen. If
01:25:57.280 --> 01:25:59.510
you go with the actual Bible, not just
01:25:59.520 --> 01:26:01.510
what Christians believe nowadays where,
01:26:01.520 --> 01:26:04.629
oh, he's in heaven now. According to
01:26:04.639 --> 01:26:07.110
Jesus himself in the Bible, most people,
01:26:07.120 --> 01:26:08.950
including most Christians, are going to
01:26:08.960 --> 01:26:12.310
burn in hell forever,
01:26:12.320 --> 01:26:15.830
which was kind of a poke in the butt for
01:26:15.840 --> 01:26:17.590
a lot of those medieval saints. I mean,
01:26:17.600 --> 01:26:19.910
they were convinced, you know, this is
01:26:19.920 --> 01:26:21.990
our only chance. It better be a saint or
01:26:22.000 --> 01:26:25.189
I'm going to go to hell.
01:26:25.199 --> 01:26:28.629
So, let's see. You had the a Buddhist
01:26:28.639 --> 01:26:30.950
who has a near-death experience and all
01:26:30.960 --> 01:26:33.430
they see is void.
01:26:33.440 --> 01:26:35.189
Um,
01:26:35.199 --> 01:26:41.430
yeah. I don't think that that was
01:26:41.440 --> 01:26:43.669
necessarily a Buddhist experience. I
01:26:43.679 --> 01:26:45.750
mean, it may just been I mean, when you
01:26:45.760 --> 01:26:48.310
have a near-death experience, a lot of
01:26:48.320 --> 01:26:50.709
it is you see what you expect to see.
01:26:50.719 --> 01:26:54.070
You see what you think you ought to see.
01:26:54.080 --> 01:26:56.470
And so there have been weird like
01:26:56.480 --> 01:27:00.149
near-death experiences of after you rise
01:27:00.159 --> 01:27:02.470
above your body, you go into the bright
01:27:02.480 --> 01:27:04.070
light, you know, you go into like the
01:27:04.080 --> 01:27:05.510
tunnel with the bright light at the end
01:27:05.520 --> 01:27:07.270
and come out into like this heaven
01:27:07.280 --> 01:27:09.990
realm. And there was one case I read
01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:12.310
about where she gets there and she meets
01:27:12.320 --> 01:27:14.550
her grandma who's like her spirit guide
01:27:14.560 --> 01:27:16.390
and and she leads her through this
01:27:16.400 --> 01:27:19.030
heavenly like a housing development with
01:27:19.040 --> 01:27:22.070
prefab houses and like little landscape
01:27:22.080 --> 01:27:24.709
gardens and stuff.
01:27:24.719 --> 01:27:26.870
That was that was what her imagination
01:27:26.880 --> 01:27:29.350
caused her to to see like the Tibetan
01:27:29.360 --> 01:27:31.750
book of the of the dead, which is
01:27:31.760 --> 01:27:33.510
Tibetan Buddhist. I mean, it's Tibetan
01:27:33.520 --> 01:27:35.669
Buddhist, but still Buddhist. You know,
01:27:35.679 --> 01:27:37.430
it's more like the traditional
01:27:37.440 --> 01:27:39.430
near-death experience, the bright light,
01:27:39.440 --> 01:27:41.030
and you're seeing all these different
01:27:41.040 --> 01:27:43.350
beings. You should remind yourself that
01:27:43.360 --> 01:27:44.950
they're not real, but still, you're
01:27:44.960 --> 01:27:46.310
going to see all these beings like
01:27:46.320 --> 01:27:48.629
Buddhas and demons and populating
01:27:48.639 --> 01:27:52.310
couples and all this.
01:27:52.320 --> 01:27:54.550
So I think that this person who just saw
01:27:54.560 --> 01:27:57.590
a void just kind of thought that was
01:27:57.600 --> 01:28:00.070
deep down just thought that's what they
01:28:00.080 --> 01:28:01.510
ought to see and so that's what they
01:28:01.520 --> 01:28:03.189
saw. But from the Buddhist point of
01:28:03.199 --> 01:28:06.229
view, let's see. There's a certain let's
01:28:06.239 --> 01:28:08.950
see
01:28:10.560 --> 01:28:12.149
okay overhearing this was a bit
01:28:12.159 --> 01:28:13.750
unsettling for me and it got me
01:28:13.760 --> 01:28:15.669
wondering whether what this person
01:28:15.679 --> 01:28:17.510
recounted is accurate from a Buddhist
01:28:17.520 --> 01:28:19.110
perspective regarding what happens when
01:28:19.120 --> 01:28:21.350
one reaches the other side. Well, in
01:28:21.360 --> 01:28:24.310
terra Buddhism, I mean there hardly even
01:28:24.320 --> 01:28:26.390
is another side. There is no Bardau
01:28:26.400 --> 01:28:28.709
realm really in Buddhism or Terravada
01:28:28.719 --> 01:28:30.149
Buddhism like in Tibetan Book of the
01:28:30.159 --> 01:28:33.590
Dead. Yeah, but in terabata Buddhism, if
01:28:33.600 --> 01:28:36.790
you die, the very next moment, you are
01:28:36.800 --> 01:28:39.510
taking rebirth as another being. So,
01:28:39.520 --> 01:28:41.510
this whole near-death experience stuff
01:28:41.520 --> 01:28:43.430
really doesn't fit into Terraata
01:28:43.440 --> 01:28:46.950
Buddhism very well, which to some degree
01:28:46.960 --> 01:28:49.510
would have me a little more skeptical of
01:28:49.520 --> 01:28:51.590
the terra explanation of things cuz
01:28:51.600 --> 01:28:54.709
since there's such a a a wealth of
01:28:54.719 --> 01:28:56.470
information of people having near-death
01:28:56.480 --> 01:28:57.830
experiences where they're going through
01:28:57.840 --> 01:28:59.350
all these similar things, the bright
01:28:59.360 --> 01:29:01.990
light and the the spirit guide and all
01:29:02.000 --> 01:29:04.470
this kind of stuff.
01:29:04.480 --> 01:29:06.149
So
01:29:06.159 --> 01:29:08.390
I would say that in this case the person
01:29:08.400 --> 01:29:10.870
maybe was not a particularly imaginative
01:29:10.880 --> 01:29:12.470
person and didn't really have any
01:29:12.480 --> 01:29:15.030
subconscious expectations
01:29:15.040 --> 01:29:19.030
and they just went into a kind of blank
01:29:19.040 --> 01:29:20.790
and then just assumed that they were
01:29:20.800 --> 01:29:22.229
seeing what a Buddhist is supposed to
01:29:22.239 --> 01:29:24.950
see.
01:29:24.960 --> 01:29:26.950
But I'm pretty sure all Buddhists
01:29:26.960 --> 01:29:29.270
wouldn't see that.
01:29:29.280 --> 01:29:33.590
Not even all Terraata Buddhists.
01:29:33.600 --> 01:29:35.189
See, but I really don't think
01:29:35.199 --> 01:29:37.430
Christianity, at least not biblical,
01:29:37.440 --> 01:29:41.270
scriptural, official Christianity is
01:29:41.280 --> 01:29:42.870
much more comforting and hopeful about
01:29:42.880 --> 01:29:46.070
the next one. Partly because
01:29:46.080 --> 01:29:47.830
most people are going to go to hell,
01:29:47.840 --> 01:29:49.750
including most Christians, and it's
01:29:49.760 --> 01:29:54.709
going to last forever.
01:29:54.719 --> 01:29:56.629
So,
01:29:56.639 --> 01:29:58.390
yeah, Christianity, I mean, I couldn't
01:29:58.400 --> 01:30:00.550
really believe it. I mean, it just did
01:30:00.560 --> 01:30:02.629
not make sense.
01:30:02.639 --> 01:30:06.790
that this Jewish carpenter's son who
01:30:06.800 --> 01:30:09.270
lived in a some podunk province of the
01:30:09.280 --> 01:30:11.590
Roman Empire is the creator of the
01:30:11.600 --> 01:30:13.110
universe
01:30:13.120 --> 01:30:14.790
who died for our sins, especially
01:30:14.800 --> 01:30:16.550
original sin, which supposedly was
01:30:16.560 --> 01:30:19.750
caused by a man made from earth and a
01:30:19.760 --> 01:30:21.430
woman made from a bone being tricked by
01:30:21.440 --> 01:30:23.030
a snake into eating a certain kind of
01:30:23.040 --> 01:30:25.590
fruit.
01:30:25.600 --> 01:30:27.510
and they're still just arguing away on
01:30:27.520 --> 01:30:29.350
Discord,
01:30:29.360 --> 01:30:31.669
especially the guy who's absolutely
01:30:31.679 --> 01:30:35.990
freaking addicted to arguing.
01:30:36.000 --> 01:30:38.070
So, I mean, I even warned him last time,
01:30:38.080 --> 01:30:40.709
you just reconcile yourself to being
01:30:40.719 --> 01:30:43.110
just alone and celibate for the rest of
01:30:43.120 --> 01:30:44.870
your life. I mean, just going on a first
01:30:44.880 --> 01:30:46.390
date where you're just arguing against
01:30:46.400 --> 01:30:49.590
anything that the woman says,
01:30:49.600 --> 01:30:51.430
it's just not going to work. It does not
01:30:51.440 --> 01:30:53.590
work with human beings as a general
01:30:53.600 --> 01:30:57.270
rule.
01:30:57.280 --> 01:30:59.270
Anyways,
01:30:59.280 --> 01:31:00.629
what is the actual question here?
01:31:00.639 --> 01:31:02.550
There's got to be a question mark. When
01:31:02.560 --> 01:31:05.910
in doubt, search for the question mark.
01:31:05.920 --> 01:31:08.629
Let's see.
01:31:08.639 --> 01:31:11.510
Here's one. Was that person experiencing
01:31:11.520 --> 01:31:13.430
was what this person experienced due to
01:31:13.440 --> 01:31:16.950
his lack of belief in Jesus or God? No.
01:31:16.960 --> 01:31:19.830
Because even like a Tibetan Buddhist has
01:31:19.840 --> 01:31:23.030
that whole BO experience partly because
01:31:23.040 --> 01:31:24.470
that's what they think they ought to
01:31:24.480 --> 01:31:26.709
experience.
01:31:26.719 --> 01:31:28.950
Like a like a hardcore materialist might
01:31:28.960 --> 01:31:31.750
just experience just blankness or
01:31:31.760 --> 01:31:34.390
blackness or something. It's just you
01:31:34.400 --> 01:31:35.910
experience what you think you ought to
01:31:35.920 --> 01:31:37.590
experience because it is all mind
01:31:37.600 --> 01:31:41.590
generated.
01:31:41.600 --> 01:31:43.189
So let's see here. In other words, would
01:31:43.199 --> 01:31:45.510
he have seen a glowing white light had
01:31:45.520 --> 01:31:47.350
he been a believer in the Christian
01:31:47.360 --> 01:31:51.750
sense? Not necessarily.
01:31:51.760 --> 01:31:54.310
Depends on the individual, I think, and
01:31:54.320 --> 01:31:56.229
depends on the reality that that
01:31:56.239 --> 01:31:58.470
individual is generating for themselves.
01:31:58.480 --> 01:32:04.149
Depends on their karma, for example.
01:32:04.159 --> 01:32:07.270
Man, I really am sorry that this Q&A is
01:32:07.280 --> 01:32:10.790
I'm being so distracted by people just
01:32:10.800 --> 01:32:13.669
arguing non-stop or debating, let's use
01:32:13.679 --> 01:32:16.390
the polite word, debating philosophical
01:32:16.400 --> 01:32:18.870
concepts non-stop on on the Discord
01:32:18.880 --> 01:32:23.430
server.
01:32:23.440 --> 01:32:26.229
Anyways, next question is from Master
01:32:26.239 --> 01:32:30.550
Poe, formerly known as White Ash Piper.
01:32:30.560 --> 01:32:33.430
He says, "Can you we us love someone
01:32:33.440 --> 01:32:37.030
without knowing them?" Yeah, I to some
01:32:37.040 --> 01:32:39.430
degree. I mean, there are like saintly
01:32:39.440 --> 01:32:41.189
people who love the entire human race
01:32:41.199 --> 01:32:43.189
without having met most of the entire
01:32:43.199 --> 01:32:46.229
human race. You can love dogs without
01:32:46.239 --> 01:32:49.510
having known all dogs. I mean, you don't
01:32:49.520 --> 01:32:52.870
even didn't even know most of them.
01:32:52.880 --> 01:32:56.070
So, yeah. I mean, love in my opinion, in
01:32:56.080 --> 01:32:57.990
my interpretation of the word is
01:32:58.000 --> 01:32:59.910
acceptance.
01:32:59.920 --> 01:33:02.149
So you can just accept total stranger.
01:33:02.159 --> 01:33:04.229
Let's say you're just walking through a
01:33:04.239 --> 01:33:06.629
a a store and you're in one of those
01:33:06.639 --> 01:33:08.790
situations where you you come across
01:33:08.800 --> 01:33:10.470
someone coming the other way and then
01:33:10.480 --> 01:33:12.550
you both step to one side which is the
01:33:12.560 --> 01:33:15.030
same side and then both just kind of
01:33:15.040 --> 01:33:16.870
step the other way so that you just keep
01:33:16.880 --> 01:33:18.149
being in each other's way and then you
01:33:18.159 --> 01:33:20.310
just kind of smile at each other cuz you
01:33:20.320 --> 01:33:22.310
understand what's going on. There
01:33:22.320 --> 01:33:24.229
there's sort of like this connection
01:33:24.239 --> 01:33:25.750
even though you don't know each other at
01:33:25.760 --> 01:33:27.510
all. You're never going to meet each
01:33:27.520 --> 01:33:29.669
other again probably. But still there's
01:33:29.679 --> 01:33:31.910
like this kind of brotherhood or
01:33:31.920 --> 01:33:34.550
acceptance going on between you which I
01:33:34.560 --> 01:33:35.750
mean to the extent that there is
01:33:35.760 --> 01:33:40.310
acceptance there is love in my opinion.
01:33:40.320 --> 01:33:43.030
So yeah I think you can love someone
01:33:43.040 --> 01:33:45.590
without knowing them.
01:33:45.600 --> 01:33:47.510
I mean it depends on what kind of love
01:33:47.520 --> 01:33:49.030
it is. I mean if you're like madly in
01:33:49.040 --> 01:33:50.470
love with someone without knowing them
01:33:50.480 --> 01:33:53.430
then that's I mean maybe like a movie
01:33:53.440 --> 01:33:55.990
star or something. You got some
01:33:56.000 --> 01:34:00.470
13-year-old girl who's mad has this
01:34:00.480 --> 01:34:04.390
crush on some famous pop singer or
01:34:04.400 --> 01:34:06.950
clvicular or something and they don't
01:34:06.960 --> 01:34:08.390
know them at all other than just what
01:34:08.400 --> 01:34:10.629
they've seen about them on YouTube or
01:34:10.639 --> 01:34:13.189
whatever. I mean, you can call that
01:34:13.199 --> 01:34:14.790
love. I mean, most people would just
01:34:14.800 --> 01:34:16.790
call it like infatuation. But to the
01:34:16.800 --> 01:34:18.390
extent that there really is some kind of
01:34:18.400 --> 01:34:19.990
acceptance,
01:34:20.000 --> 01:34:22.470
openhearted acceptance, you're putting a
01:34:22.480 --> 01:34:24.550
making a at least a window in Pink
01:34:24.560 --> 01:34:27.830
Floyd's wall, an opening in Pink Floyd's
01:34:27.840 --> 01:34:31.270
wall that would qualify as love to some
01:34:31.280 --> 01:34:34.550
degree in my book.
01:34:34.560 --> 01:34:37.830
And so like a fully enlightened being,
01:34:37.840 --> 01:34:39.110
they don't have Pink Floyd's wall
01:34:39.120 --> 01:34:40.390
anymore. They just knocked down the
01:34:40.400 --> 01:34:42.629
whole wall. And so in a sense, they love
01:34:42.639 --> 01:34:47.270
the entire universe.
01:34:47.280 --> 01:34:50.229
without necessarily knowing all the
01:34:50.239 --> 01:34:51.430
inhabitants of the universe
01:34:51.440 --> 01:34:54.790
individually.
01:34:54.800 --> 01:34:56.950
But I'm sure there are like subtleties
01:34:56.960 --> 01:34:58.709
and complications depending on, you
01:34:58.719 --> 01:35:01.110
know, how you define love and that sort
01:35:01.120 --> 01:35:03.030
of thing.
01:35:03.040 --> 01:35:04.070
But I'm just going to move on to the
01:35:04.080 --> 01:35:05.510
next question. This is from Dhamma
01:35:05.520 --> 01:35:09.510
Riverh.
01:35:09.520 --> 01:35:11.830
And Dama River says,
01:35:11.840 --> 01:35:14.470
"I was reading the book 60 songs of
01:35:14.480 --> 01:35:17.350
Millerpa and this quote struck me.
01:35:17.360 --> 01:35:20.390
Quote, because I do not wear the lofty
01:35:20.400 --> 01:35:23.910
garb of priesthood, I am happy."
01:35:23.920 --> 01:35:26.229
That line is deep, dangerous, and
01:35:26.239 --> 01:35:28.550
powerful. He is stating that freedom
01:35:28.560 --> 01:35:30.629
from being an ordained monk gives him
01:35:30.639 --> 01:35:33.189
happiness. It's so counterintuitive, but
01:35:33.199 --> 01:35:36.310
leads to reflection. He proceeds to talk
01:35:36.320 --> 01:35:38.870
about other reasons why he's happy which
01:35:38.880 --> 01:35:40.870
are mostly related to renunciation
01:35:40.880 --> 01:35:42.709
similar to the wander alone like a
01:35:42.719 --> 01:35:45.430
rhinoceros suta or the horn of the
01:35:45.440 --> 01:35:48.229
rhinoceros in my opinion. What is the
01:35:48.239 --> 01:35:50.310
right way to interpret this quote in
01:35:50.320 --> 01:35:53.510
your opinion? Well,
01:35:53.520 --> 01:35:56.390
Millera was definitely a renuncient. He
01:35:56.400 --> 01:35:58.709
was not a lay person. I mean, you read
01:35:58.719 --> 01:36:00.790
his autobiography
01:36:00.800 --> 01:36:03.590
and he was just a hardcore aesthetic
01:36:03.600 --> 01:36:06.470
renuncient living in a cave in Tibet. He
01:36:06.480 --> 01:36:08.790
was living mostly on nettles for a long
01:36:08.800 --> 01:36:11.590
time to the extent that he just turned
01:36:11.600 --> 01:36:13.750
green. His clothes just rotted off of
01:36:13.760 --> 01:36:16.070
him. So, he was like this emaciated
01:36:16.080 --> 01:36:19.669
green naked man living in a cave. And of
01:36:19.679 --> 01:36:20.950
course, the villagers, you know, the
01:36:20.960 --> 01:36:22.390
locals all thought he was some kind of
01:36:22.400 --> 01:36:24.149
monster,
01:36:24.159 --> 01:36:27.510
but he was really into it. you know, it
01:36:27.520 --> 01:36:30.950
wasn't like he was just going to disc or
01:36:30.960 --> 01:36:33.590
something. He was like really a
01:36:33.600 --> 01:36:35.510
renunciate.
01:36:35.520 --> 01:36:37.270
And so
01:36:37.280 --> 01:36:40.310
for him, I mean, to to be a monk, to be
01:36:40.320 --> 01:36:43.270
a member of the SA was superfluous, you
01:36:43.280 --> 01:36:44.629
know, it's like he was already
01:36:44.639 --> 01:36:47.669
practicing like at his full potential
01:36:47.679 --> 01:36:49.830
or, you know, as close to his full
01:36:49.840 --> 01:36:51.990
potential as he was going to get. He
01:36:52.000 --> 01:36:54.950
didn't need all these extra rules, all
01:36:54.960 --> 01:36:57.910
these ceremonies and rituals, just kind
01:36:57.920 --> 01:37:01.350
of like it'd be a kind of a burden to
01:37:01.360 --> 01:37:03.590
him.
01:37:03.600 --> 01:37:05.590
But I mean it's definitely helpful for
01:37:05.600 --> 01:37:07.109
most people to have some kind of
01:37:07.119 --> 01:37:09.030
structure. You know, if you don't have
01:37:09.040 --> 01:37:12.470
the talent to become like an enlightened
01:37:12.480 --> 01:37:15.910
sage or a near to enlightened sage just
01:37:15.920 --> 01:37:18.709
on your own, just following your own
01:37:18.719 --> 01:37:21.669
inclinations, it's definitely helpful to
01:37:21.679 --> 01:37:24.149
have like rules of monastic discipline
01:37:24.159 --> 01:37:27.510
and just kind of a structured system of
01:37:27.520 --> 01:37:31.910
practice developed for you to follow.
01:37:31.920 --> 01:37:33.990
But you read the atawaga of the sudin
01:37:34.000 --> 01:37:36.229
pata and it's kind of similar. I mean
01:37:36.239 --> 01:37:40.950
the atikawaga argue arguably like it
01:37:40.960 --> 01:37:43.910
states the danger of following rules of
01:37:43.920 --> 01:37:46.070
having these rules that are in a kind of
01:37:46.080 --> 01:37:48.070
encumbrance.
01:37:48.080 --> 01:37:51.750
So like in the time of the aikawaga
01:37:51.760 --> 01:37:54.229
the the the vinia rules probably had not
01:37:54.239 --> 01:37:56.550
been formulated yet. This was you know
01:37:56.560 --> 01:37:59.430
very early stuff and so monks were
01:37:59.440 --> 01:38:01.910
pretty much like Millera. I mean, there
01:38:01.920 --> 01:38:03.350
wasn't a whole lot to it. You'd get
01:38:03.360 --> 01:38:05.350
ordained. You might, you know, receive
01:38:05.360 --> 01:38:07.030
instruction from a teacher for a time,
01:38:07.040 --> 01:38:09.189
especially the Buddha himself, and then
01:38:09.199 --> 01:38:11.910
you'd go off and and just go alone like
01:38:11.920 --> 01:38:14.870
the horn of the rhinoceros.
01:38:14.880 --> 01:38:18.790
But I mean, if we if we can believe like
01:38:18.800 --> 01:38:21.109
the canonical history of the first
01:38:21.119 --> 01:38:25.270
council after the Buddha died, might as
01:38:25.280 --> 01:38:27.990
well just say die after the Buddha
01:38:28.000 --> 01:38:30.470
passed away. Um, you know, the
01:38:30.480 --> 01:38:33.109
enlightened monks accepted it with
01:38:33.119 --> 01:38:34.550
equinimity, that's just the way of the
01:38:34.560 --> 01:38:37.590
world. A lot of the unenlightened monks
01:38:37.600 --> 01:38:39.430
were grieving because their teacher had
01:38:39.440 --> 01:38:42.149
died. But there was this one old monk
01:38:42.159 --> 01:38:44.070
who was ordained when he was old. And
01:38:44.080 --> 01:38:47.910
those are kind of notorious in the SA.
01:38:47.920 --> 01:38:50.470
He was he was just saying I mean why is
01:38:50.480 --> 01:38:52.229
everyone so sad? We can do whatever we
01:38:52.239 --> 01:38:55.109
want to now. We don't have master God
01:38:55.119 --> 01:38:57.030
saying do this, don't do that all the
01:38:57.040 --> 01:39:00.709
time. And Mahakasapa heard this old monk
01:39:00.719 --> 01:39:04.149
saying that and he was as alarmed as an
01:39:04.159 --> 01:39:06.870
enlightened being could be I suppose and
01:39:06.880 --> 01:39:08.390
he realized that something has to be
01:39:08.400 --> 01:39:10.310
done. There has to be some kind of
01:39:10.320 --> 01:39:12.390
formal structure added. And that's why
01:39:12.400 --> 01:39:14.070
the first council is called the vineyia
01:39:14.080 --> 01:39:16.870
saniti. It's the convocation on monastic
01:39:16.880 --> 01:39:19.109
discipline. And in my opinion, even
01:39:19.119 --> 01:39:21.750
though the text and the tradition
01:39:21.760 --> 01:39:24.149
doesn't state this,
01:39:24.159 --> 01:39:26.390
the purpose, the main purpose of the
01:39:26.400 --> 01:39:28.870
first council was just to get some basic
01:39:28.880 --> 01:39:30.790
rules of monastic discipline established
01:39:30.800 --> 01:39:33.270
like ordination protocols and that kind
01:39:33.280 --> 01:39:37.109
of thing. maybe the padim mocha
01:39:37.119 --> 01:39:38.629
just because you have to have some kind
01:39:38.639 --> 01:39:40.550
of structure if you don't have a
01:39:40.560 --> 01:39:43.590
sufficiently wise person holding
01:39:43.600 --> 01:39:45.669
everything together. And in Millerpa's
01:39:45.679 --> 01:39:48.229
case, he just had talent. He could just
01:39:48.239 --> 01:39:49.990
go off and do it alone after receiving
01:39:50.000 --> 01:39:52.709
some basic instruction, you know, and
01:39:52.719 --> 01:39:54.229
towards the beginning of his career, he
01:39:54.239 --> 01:39:56.310
just went off alone and really didn't
01:39:56.320 --> 01:40:01.350
need any of the formal structure.
01:40:01.360 --> 01:40:03.669
So yeah, it doesn't really strike me as
01:40:03.679 --> 01:40:07.990
counterintuitive that to some degree the
01:40:08.000 --> 01:40:09.990
like the the formal structure of
01:40:10.000 --> 01:40:13.830
orthodox terra is the lesser of two
01:40:13.840 --> 01:40:15.510
evils. I mean it can still be an
01:40:15.520 --> 01:40:16.950
attachment. It can still be an
01:40:16.960 --> 01:40:18.550
incumbrance especially if you cling to
01:40:18.560 --> 01:40:22.149
it but still it's it's like the lesser
01:40:22.159 --> 01:40:23.990
of two evils. It's way better than just
01:40:24.000 --> 01:40:26.470
wallowing in sensuality. And a lot of
01:40:26.480 --> 01:40:28.470
people need a certain amount of
01:40:28.480 --> 01:40:31.830
structure imposed upon them. Like me for
01:40:31.840 --> 01:40:34.790
example, I knew myself well enough
01:40:34.800 --> 01:40:38.790
that I wouldn't practice as correctly
01:40:38.800 --> 01:40:41.189
just as a free agent just going solo on
01:40:41.199 --> 01:40:44.310
my own without like really adopting some
01:40:44.320 --> 01:40:48.550
kind of tradition to lend stability and
01:40:48.560 --> 01:40:52.229
support to my practice.
01:40:52.239 --> 01:40:54.709
But some people don't necessarily need
01:40:54.719 --> 01:40:56.790
that. And the whole idea that if you're
01:40:56.800 --> 01:40:59.830
not an ordained Terravada Buddhist
01:40:59.840 --> 01:41:01.590
monastic, you have no hope of
01:41:01.600 --> 01:41:03.750
enlightenment. I consider that to be
01:41:03.760 --> 01:41:06.790
Terraata Buddhist propaganda. I do think
01:41:06.800 --> 01:41:08.470
it is possible to become enlightened
01:41:08.480 --> 01:41:11.109
without being a member of the Terravada
01:41:11.119 --> 01:41:15.350
Buddhist Sana.
01:41:15.360 --> 01:41:18.390
So
01:41:18.400 --> 01:41:21.510
I guess uh I guess I interpreted that
01:41:21.520 --> 01:41:23.510
quote. So I'm just going to move on to
01:41:23.520 --> 01:41:25.109
the next question.
01:41:25.119 --> 01:41:28.149
This is from Scudamain and Scooain says,
01:41:28.159 --> 01:41:30.870
"Are Buddhism related tattoos
01:41:30.880 --> 01:41:33.189
paradoxical?"
01:41:33.199 --> 01:41:35.350
And
01:41:35.360 --> 01:41:37.990
not necessarily.
01:41:38.000 --> 01:41:39.669
Um,
01:41:39.679 --> 01:41:41.270
I mean, you can say, I mean, if you got
01:41:41.280 --> 01:41:43.430
a tattoo of the Buddha, then that's
01:41:43.440 --> 01:41:45.510
paradoxical because there is no Buddha,
01:41:45.520 --> 01:41:47.189
because there is no self, there is no
01:41:47.199 --> 01:41:49.510
individual being, that kind of thing. I
01:41:49.520 --> 01:41:51.990
mean, that's kind of a relatively deep
01:41:52.000 --> 01:41:54.310
philosophical paradox.
01:41:54.320 --> 01:41:56.550
But I mean
01:41:56.560 --> 01:41:58.790
lots and lots of tattooed Buddhists in
01:41:58.800 --> 01:42:00.870
places like Burma. The founder of the
01:42:00.880 --> 01:42:02.709
tradition in which I was ordained, Tom
01:42:02.719 --> 01:42:06.390
Puliato, he followed the tradition.
01:42:06.400 --> 01:42:07.910
Uh that was a Buddhist tradition up
01:42:07.920 --> 01:42:10.550
until around World War II that he was
01:42:10.560 --> 01:42:14.229
fully tattooed from just below the knee
01:42:14.239 --> 01:42:17.189
up to the waist that you wouldn't see
01:42:17.199 --> 01:42:20.310
it. Um, I knew a a disciple of Tom
01:42:20.320 --> 01:42:23.030
Puliato, you know, while Tom Pulucato
01:42:23.040 --> 01:42:25.350
was still alive and he was unaware that
01:42:25.360 --> 01:42:28.310
Tom Puliato was that fully tattooed
01:42:28.320 --> 01:42:30.870
until he had to lift his lower robes to
01:42:30.880 --> 01:42:32.790
wait across the creek. And then it's
01:42:32.800 --> 01:42:35.830
just like solid tattoos above the knees,
01:42:35.840 --> 01:42:38.390
which was just standard in Burma up
01:42:38.400 --> 01:42:41.830
until around World War II.
01:42:41.840 --> 01:42:43.030
But I guess they wouldn't all be
01:42:43.040 --> 01:42:46.390
Buddhism related. Although in Burma,
01:42:46.400 --> 01:42:48.870
traditional village Burma, you know,
01:42:48.880 --> 01:42:50.310
everything has got at least some
01:42:50.320 --> 01:42:55.430
indirect relation to Buddhism.
01:42:55.440 --> 01:42:57.750
But a lot of a lot of Buddhists will
01:42:57.760 --> 01:42:59.590
have like
01:42:59.600 --> 01:43:02.229
um protection tattoos. Like there was
01:43:02.239 --> 01:43:03.910
this village lady who was one of my main
01:43:03.920 --> 01:43:06.229
supporters. She when she was a little
01:43:06.239 --> 01:43:09.030
girl, she went to a fair and a tattoo
01:43:09.040 --> 01:43:10.870
artist, I guess you call them an artist,
01:43:10.880 --> 01:43:13.669
just tattooed like three dots, three
01:43:13.679 --> 01:43:15.750
green dots on the back of her wrist and
01:43:15.760 --> 01:43:17.590
that was just symbolic of, you know, the
01:43:17.600 --> 01:43:19.830
the triple gem, the triple treasure. And
01:43:19.840 --> 01:43:21.350
that was just protective, you know, it's
01:43:21.360 --> 01:43:23.830
kind of like a reminder Buddha Dama Sa
01:43:23.840 --> 01:43:26.149
on the back of her wrist.
01:43:26.159 --> 01:43:30.790
And I mean, it's not necessarily
01:43:30.800 --> 01:43:32.629
paradoxical unless you just want to
01:43:32.639 --> 01:43:34.470
believe that it's all paradoxical.
01:43:34.480 --> 01:43:36.470
Everything for anything to exist is
01:43:36.480 --> 01:43:38.229
paradoxical. For this entire
01:43:38.239 --> 01:43:40.950
multiplicity of some sar to exist is a
01:43:40.960 --> 01:43:42.950
kind of great paradox.
01:43:42.960 --> 01:43:45.430
Why does anything bother to exist? At
01:43:45.440 --> 01:43:48.310
least that's what uh Stephen Hawking
01:43:48.320 --> 01:43:49.750
used to say. I mean that was like his
01:43:49.760 --> 01:43:52.470
main question. Why does the universe
01:43:52.480 --> 01:43:55.590
bother to exist in the first place? I
01:43:55.600 --> 01:43:57.430
mean my answer is the uncarved block of
01:43:57.440 --> 01:44:00.229
marble, but I don't want to start
01:44:00.239 --> 01:44:04.950
beating that horse to death again.
01:44:04.960 --> 01:44:08.390
Oh, somebody's taking off in jeep.
01:44:08.400 --> 01:44:12.229
H hope it's my woman
01:44:12.239 --> 01:44:14.470
because otherwise our car is now being
01:44:14.480 --> 01:44:16.550
stolen.
01:44:16.560 --> 01:44:18.310
So getting back to Scooter's question
01:44:18.320 --> 01:44:21.590
though, are Buddhism related tattoos
01:44:21.600 --> 01:44:24.070
paradoxical?
01:44:24.080 --> 01:44:26.149
Yeah, I mean
01:44:26.159 --> 01:44:30.229
not necessarily. I mean just any if any
01:44:30.239 --> 01:44:33.350
if any excuse me if anything is
01:44:33.360 --> 01:44:36.310
paradoxical that would include I mean if
01:44:36.320 --> 01:44:37.990
everything is paradoxical that would
01:44:38.000 --> 01:44:40.550
include Buddhist tattoos but I don't
01:44:40.560 --> 01:44:42.390
think there's any kind of contradiction
01:44:42.400 --> 01:44:45.109
in a Buddhist Buddhism related tattoo
01:44:45.119 --> 01:44:48.149
necessarily other than at some deep
01:44:48.159 --> 01:44:51.109
philosophical level.
01:44:51.119 --> 01:44:52.390
So I'm just going to move on to the next
01:44:52.400 --> 01:44:54.790
question. This is from Raphael and
01:44:54.800 --> 01:44:57.830
Raphael says, "Do you believe that hate
01:44:57.840 --> 01:45:01.030
stems from envy most of the time, if not
01:45:01.040 --> 01:45:02.629
always?"
01:45:02.639 --> 01:45:04.790
Um, well, from the Buddhist point of
01:45:04.800 --> 01:45:08.870
view, I mean, dosa or aversion is
01:45:08.880 --> 01:45:11.590
generally translated as hate or hatred
01:45:11.600 --> 01:45:13.430
in English.
01:45:13.440 --> 01:45:18.950
And I mean it's so generalized, it's so
01:45:18.960 --> 01:45:23.510
broad in spectrum, in scope that no, it
01:45:23.520 --> 01:45:25.430
would not. I mean, if you hate a
01:45:25.440 --> 01:45:28.310
mosquito or a fly, you're not envious of
01:45:28.320 --> 01:45:31.189
that mosquito or a fly. Um, you hate the
01:45:31.199 --> 01:45:32.870
weather. I mean, when I lived in Burma,
01:45:32.880 --> 01:45:35.830
I lived in this blazing hot furnace like
01:45:35.840 --> 01:45:37.990
wasteland of central Burma much of the
01:45:38.000 --> 01:45:40.550
time. And I personified the weather just
01:45:40.560 --> 01:45:43.350
to curse it more easily, Mr. weather. I
01:45:43.360 --> 01:45:45.910
cursed Mr. Weather up one side and down
01:45:45.920 --> 01:45:49.510
the other. And so, I mean, it wasn't I
01:45:49.520 --> 01:45:51.750
was envious of the weather. I just hated
01:45:51.760 --> 01:45:53.990
it cuz it was it wouldn't rain in the
01:45:54.000 --> 01:45:55.830
rainy season. It was just blazing hot
01:45:55.840 --> 01:45:57.430
all the time except for in the middle of
01:45:57.440 --> 01:46:00.470
wintertime.
01:46:00.480 --> 01:46:01.830
You think it was going to rain, you
01:46:01.840 --> 01:46:03.590
know? You'd even smell the rain in the
01:46:03.600 --> 01:46:08.870
air and then it would just nothing.
01:46:08.880 --> 01:46:12.870
So just hate in general like dosa or
01:46:12.880 --> 01:46:15.750
aversion in general does not stem from
01:46:15.760 --> 01:46:19.510
envy most of the time.
01:46:19.520 --> 01:46:21.750
But with regard to like fellow humans
01:46:21.760 --> 01:46:23.990
maybe Raphael is referring to hatred of
01:46:24.000 --> 01:46:26.149
fellow humans specifically not even
01:46:26.159 --> 01:46:30.310
hatred of certain dogs but just humans.
01:46:30.320 --> 01:46:33.830
hatred of humans even then I mean with
01:46:33.840 --> 01:46:36.149
some people some people are just envious
01:46:36.159 --> 01:46:38.629
by nature and so probably most of their
01:46:38.639 --> 01:46:41.830
hatred of others would include envy.
01:46:41.840 --> 01:46:44.790
I think women are more stereotypically
01:46:44.800 --> 01:46:47.189
notorious for this kind of stuff, but it
01:46:47.199 --> 01:46:49.669
happens with men, too.
01:46:49.679 --> 01:46:51.910
But still,
01:46:51.920 --> 01:46:53.910
I don't think envy, you know, it's like
01:46:53.920 --> 01:46:56.950
somebody molested your daughter. God
01:46:56.960 --> 01:46:59.109
forbid. I mean, it's it's you're not
01:46:59.119 --> 01:47:04.390
going to hate that person out of envy.
01:47:04.400 --> 01:47:08.229
So yeah, for some people most hatred of
01:47:08.239 --> 01:47:13.510
other humans may be based on envy most
01:47:13.520 --> 01:47:17.990
of the time, but I'd be skeptical of
01:47:18.000 --> 01:47:22.310
even half the time for most people just
01:47:22.320 --> 01:47:24.629
directed at other humans just letting us
01:47:24.639 --> 01:47:27.270
leaving alone flies and mosquitoes and
01:47:27.280 --> 01:47:30.950
and bad weather and you know criminal
01:47:30.960 --> 01:47:35.030
atrocities and that kind of
01:47:35.040 --> 01:47:39.030
Like a lot of right-wingers
01:47:39.040 --> 01:47:42.870
hate a certain ethnicity.
01:47:42.880 --> 01:47:45.430
And I mean, would you call that envy? I
01:47:45.440 --> 01:47:47.990
mean, maybe resentment.
01:47:48.000 --> 01:47:50.149
I mean, resentment and envy are, you
01:47:50.159 --> 01:47:52.149
know, kind of similarly, you know,
01:47:52.159 --> 01:47:54.550
they're not too far apart. I suppose I
01:47:54.560 --> 01:47:57.350
guess they can overlap.
01:47:57.360 --> 01:48:00.070
But I think in some people who are just
01:48:00.080 --> 01:48:04.149
envious by nature, sure that hate for
01:48:04.159 --> 01:48:06.790
other humans would stem from stem from
01:48:06.800 --> 01:48:08.950
envy most of the time. But with regard
01:48:08.960 --> 01:48:13.350
to humans in general, especially males,
01:48:13.360 --> 01:48:18.310
I would be skeptical of that.
01:48:18.320 --> 01:48:19.590
And so I'm just going to move on to the
01:48:19.600 --> 01:48:22.149
next question. This is from Cole.
01:48:22.159 --> 01:48:24.709
And Cole says, "Now that you aren't a
01:48:24.719 --> 01:48:26.950
monk anymore, I'm wondering what your
01:48:26.960 --> 01:48:30.629
relationship to basic cravings is like.
01:48:30.639 --> 01:48:32.629
For example, you no longer have to eat
01:48:32.639 --> 01:48:35.350
what is offered and you get to choose.
01:48:35.360 --> 01:48:37.430
Do you have cravings for simple things
01:48:37.440 --> 01:48:39.510
like different foods that you will
01:48:39.520 --> 01:48:41.510
indulge in or do you practice
01:48:41.520 --> 01:48:43.350
restraint?" Well, even monks have
01:48:43.360 --> 01:48:45.510
cravings and can indulge their cravings
01:48:45.520 --> 01:48:48.149
to some degree. You get like a big bowl
01:48:48.159 --> 01:48:50.470
of food. You go for alms in the village.
01:48:50.480 --> 01:48:53.030
you get this big bowl of food, you're
01:48:53.040 --> 01:48:54.390
gonna like the scrambled eggs and the
01:48:54.400 --> 01:48:56.149
peanuts and maybe not like the the
01:48:56.159 --> 01:48:58.709
nondescript bamboo shoot glop or the
01:48:58.719 --> 01:49:02.790
bitter gourd stuff so much. And so you
01:49:02.800 --> 01:49:05.750
might preferentially target the the
01:49:05.760 --> 01:49:08.790
scrambled eggs and the peanuts with rice
01:49:08.800 --> 01:49:11.910
and kind of not and kind of go easy on
01:49:11.920 --> 01:49:15.350
the nondescript icky glop like the
01:49:15.360 --> 01:49:21.270
stewed eggplant glop that kind of stuff
01:49:21.280 --> 01:49:24.709
chitlins or whatever.
01:49:24.719 --> 01:49:26.390
So I mean there is some of that even as
01:49:26.400 --> 01:49:28.229
a monk
01:49:28.239 --> 01:49:32.149
even monks are allowed to or able to
01:49:32.159 --> 01:49:33.910
indulge their preferences to some
01:49:33.920 --> 01:49:36.629
degree.
01:49:36.639 --> 01:49:38.709
Also of course a monk is even allowed to
01:49:38.719 --> 01:49:42.550
ask for certain food if he is sick or if
01:49:42.560 --> 01:49:44.629
the person he's asking has given him
01:49:44.639 --> 01:49:47.189
prior permission to ask. And there were
01:49:47.199 --> 01:49:48.950
a few times in Burma just in a moment of
01:49:48.960 --> 01:49:51.030
weakness explaining peanut butter for
01:49:51.040 --> 01:49:53.669
example. I remember I explained peanut
01:49:53.679 --> 01:49:55.189
butter to this Burmese school teacher
01:49:55.199 --> 01:49:57.030
and she was skeptical. She just thought
01:49:57.040 --> 01:49:58.550
you get peanut flour, you grind up
01:49:58.560 --> 01:50:00.310
peanuts. She came back later with this
01:50:00.320 --> 01:50:01.830
look of amazement on her face. You were
01:50:01.840 --> 01:50:06.310
right. It's like you said.
01:50:06.320 --> 01:50:07.830
So,
01:50:07.840 --> 01:50:10.390
let's see. Do I have cravings for simple
01:50:10.400 --> 01:50:12.709
things like different foods that I will
01:50:12.719 --> 01:50:14.790
indulge in or do you practice or say? I
01:50:14.800 --> 01:50:16.470
mean, I do have certain foods that I
01:50:16.480 --> 01:50:19.270
like. Like there's just a cheese and
01:50:19.280 --> 01:50:22.229
mayonnaise and salt sandwich.
01:50:22.239 --> 01:50:24.229
I ate two of them for breakfast today. I
01:50:24.239 --> 01:50:26.629
just It's just a convenient, easy kind
01:50:26.639 --> 01:50:29.750
of food that tastes good enough.
01:50:29.760 --> 01:50:31.590
And my woman, she's always wanting to
01:50:31.600 --> 01:50:35.189
like accentuate food, you know, add
01:50:35.199 --> 01:50:37.350
subtle flavor profiles and this kind of
01:50:37.360 --> 01:50:39.350
thing, but I'm like a minimalist, you
01:50:39.360 --> 01:50:41.350
know, bread, cheese, mayo, a little bit
01:50:41.360 --> 01:50:44.070
of salt. Good to go. It's It's good
01:50:44.080 --> 01:50:47.750
enough. I like it. I just That's it. And
01:50:47.760 --> 01:50:49.189
she's like wanting to experiment.
01:50:49.199 --> 01:50:50.629
Wouldn't you want to like mix a little
01:50:50.639 --> 01:50:52.709
horseradish in with that mayonnaise, you
01:50:52.719 --> 01:50:55.510
know, put some of this this seasoning
01:50:55.520 --> 01:50:57.990
salt stuff on it? It's like, no, this is
01:50:58.000 --> 01:51:00.310
good. This is just this is this is good
01:51:00.320 --> 01:51:03.350
enough. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
01:51:03.360 --> 01:51:07.350
So, yeah, I do have preferences
01:51:07.360 --> 01:51:08.790
and you might be in the mood for
01:51:08.800 --> 01:51:10.390
something which you could call a kind of
01:51:10.400 --> 01:51:12.629
craving.
01:51:12.639 --> 01:51:15.990
So, yeah, I mean,
01:51:16.000 --> 01:51:18.709
why not?
01:51:18.719 --> 01:51:21.669
It is. I remember when I one of the most
01:51:21.679 --> 01:51:23.590
amazing things to me when I stopped
01:51:23.600 --> 01:51:26.149
being a monk was just all of a sudden
01:51:26.159 --> 01:51:29.669
after 30 years I can just walk into the
01:51:29.679 --> 01:51:32.950
kitchen anytime I want. Just open the
01:51:32.960 --> 01:51:35.350
refrigerator, look inside. It's like any
01:51:35.360 --> 01:51:38.870
of this I can consume now
01:51:38.880 --> 01:51:41.510
if I want to.
01:51:41.520 --> 01:51:43.669
So that that was like a miracle. It just
01:51:43.679 --> 01:51:45.030
seemed like a miracle at first. I mean,
01:51:45.040 --> 01:51:47.270
it's still it's it's really a kind of
01:51:47.280 --> 01:51:49.990
luxury just to be able to walk into a
01:51:50.000 --> 01:51:52.550
kitchen and just go through the
01:51:52.560 --> 01:51:54.709
cupboards in the refrigerator, which
01:51:54.719 --> 01:51:56.709
generally is fairly well stocked in our
01:51:56.719 --> 01:52:00.390
house, and just pick whatever you want.
01:52:00.400 --> 01:52:01.830
In a way, it's kind of a miracle that
01:52:01.840 --> 01:52:04.310
I'm not just morbidly obese at this
01:52:04.320 --> 01:52:09.669
point.
01:52:09.679 --> 01:52:11.830
So, yeah, I mean, even monks have
01:52:11.840 --> 01:52:15.430
cravings for simple things. Um, but I
01:52:15.440 --> 01:52:18.390
mean I indulge in it a little more now.
01:52:18.400 --> 01:52:20.950
I'm not just wallowing in it. But still,
01:52:20.960 --> 01:52:22.629
if I'm in the mood for a cheese sandwich
01:52:22.639 --> 01:52:25.510
or a to nuke a frozen burrito or
01:52:25.520 --> 01:52:26.550
something, I mean, you got to eat
01:52:26.560 --> 01:52:28.070
something. You might as well eat
01:52:28.080 --> 01:52:31.669
something that you taste good. I'm not
01:52:31.679 --> 01:52:33.750
going to I'm not such a renuncient or an
01:52:33.760 --> 01:52:35.589
aesthetic at present that I would just
01:52:35.599 --> 01:52:37.990
deliberately force myself to eat food
01:52:38.000 --> 01:52:41.589
that I consider to be disgusting.
01:52:41.599 --> 01:52:43.830
So, yeah. Yeah, I mean it's fairly
01:52:43.840 --> 01:52:45.589
moderate.
01:52:45.599 --> 01:52:49.109
I'm not like a gourmand. I mean, I'm a
01:52:49.119 --> 01:52:51.510
pretty much of a minimalist in my tastes
01:52:51.520 --> 01:52:54.629
anyway. So,
01:52:54.639 --> 01:52:57.109
yeah, a little bit. And so, I'm just
01:52:57.119 --> 01:52:58.070
going to move on to the next question.
01:52:58.080 --> 01:53:00.229
This is from the protose monk, formerly
01:53:00.239 --> 01:53:03.750
known as Cool Whip. And I learned
01:53:03.760 --> 01:53:07.189
recently that um most people who speak
01:53:07.199 --> 01:53:10.470
English no longer pronounce the h in wh
01:53:10.480 --> 01:53:14.709
words like like the word white. Most
01:53:14.719 --> 01:53:16.149
people don't even say that anymore. They
01:53:16.159 --> 01:53:20.709
just say white as though it's just wi t.
01:53:20.719 --> 01:53:24.070
But it turns out that white
01:53:24.080 --> 01:53:27.430
or cool whip is actually more correct
01:53:27.440 --> 01:53:30.070
because of protoindo-uropean
01:53:30.080 --> 01:53:32.709
having a kind of kind of a guttural
01:53:32.719 --> 01:53:35.990
sound or it's like in in like the the
01:53:36.000 --> 01:53:38.310
Latinbased languages it turned into a Q
01:53:38.320 --> 01:53:41.750
quu like question words start with qu as
01:53:41.760 --> 01:53:44.629
a general rule in romance languages.
01:53:44.639 --> 01:53:49.189
It's the same as the wh in in English
01:53:49.199 --> 01:53:51.270
because question words start with like
01:53:51.280 --> 01:53:54.870
this or
01:53:54.880 --> 01:53:57.510
I'm digressing like like a crazy person
01:53:57.520 --> 01:53:59.990
at present. Let's just get back to the
01:54:00.000 --> 01:54:04.550
protoseud formerly known as cool whip.
01:54:04.560 --> 01:54:07.270
He says, "I am very close to moving to
01:54:07.280 --> 01:54:09.990
Sri Lanka to ordain as a Buddhist monk
01:54:10.000 --> 01:54:13.189
upon completion of my degree. I might
01:54:13.199 --> 01:54:15.350
have asked this before. Forgive me for
01:54:15.360 --> 01:54:18.070
asking again. You can skip the essay for
01:54:18.080 --> 01:54:20.790
the Q&A. Well, not going to happen, I
01:54:20.800 --> 01:54:24.070
guess. I cannot imagine any other life
01:54:24.080 --> 01:54:26.709
besides that of a biku right now. Any
01:54:26.719 --> 01:54:29.750
attempt to live an ordinary worldly life
01:54:29.760 --> 01:54:32.149
would appear as an evident lie and
01:54:32.159 --> 01:54:34.470
indulging in ignorance and delusion.
01:54:34.480 --> 01:54:36.390
However, I am so conditioned to my
01:54:36.400 --> 01:54:38.790
western upbringing that I feel like I am
01:54:38.800 --> 01:54:41.990
possibly about to waste my life. I think
01:54:42.000 --> 01:54:43.910
doubt is the result of excessive
01:54:43.920 --> 01:54:46.550
thinking. In moments of clarity, this
01:54:46.560 --> 01:54:48.629
belief disappears.
01:54:48.639 --> 01:54:50.950
I think it comes down to truth and doing
01:54:50.960 --> 01:54:53.510
good for the world. Some imagined
01:54:53.520 --> 01:54:56.550
optimal life. The path of a biku only
01:54:56.560 --> 01:54:58.709
seems to be of highest value if karma
01:54:58.719 --> 01:55:01.669
and rebirth is true. It is all or
01:55:01.679 --> 01:55:04.629
nothing. Either the most worthy life or
01:55:04.639 --> 01:55:07.830
the most wasted life. I have the highest
01:55:07.840 --> 01:55:11.030
conviction in karma and rebirth. samsara
01:55:11.040 --> 01:55:14.149
and nirvana it is my working hypothesis
01:55:14.159 --> 01:55:16.149
but of course there is no way of proving
01:55:16.159 --> 01:55:19.510
this I think what's most difficult is
01:55:19.520 --> 01:55:21.910
that I have to go against the stream
01:55:21.920 --> 01:55:25.030
opposed to my peers to society and my
01:55:25.040 --> 01:55:27.350
culture denying my attraction to women
01:55:27.360 --> 01:55:29.830
to have children denying family and
01:55:29.840 --> 01:55:32.070
friendships renouncing all my many
01:55:32.080 --> 01:55:34.629
interests intellectual artistic and so
01:55:34.639 --> 01:55:38.870
on to live an alien life to test it out
01:55:38.880 --> 01:55:41.030
as you succinctly put it from the quote
01:55:41.040 --> 01:55:44.390
from Avalon. Quote, "What do you think
01:55:44.400 --> 01:55:46.790
is the best? A game you think you can
01:55:46.800 --> 01:55:49.510
finish but never do or a game that seems
01:55:49.520 --> 01:55:53.189
impossible to win but isn't unquote." I
01:55:53.199 --> 01:55:55.109
think it comes down to having faith that
01:55:55.119 --> 01:55:57.589
the bishop's question is ultimately true
01:55:57.599 --> 01:55:59.669
in the movie Avalon. Excellent movie, by
01:55:59.679 --> 01:56:01.830
the way. I am prepared to take the
01:56:01.840 --> 01:56:04.790
gamble and dedicate my life to this path
01:56:04.800 --> 01:56:07.109
just to find out if this is indeed
01:56:07.119 --> 01:56:10.229
false. But I fear this being false. I
01:56:10.239 --> 01:56:12.870
would have given up a family life or
01:56:12.880 --> 01:56:14.629
romantic partner, friendships, life
01:56:14.639 --> 01:56:16.950
experiences, a successful job and doing
01:56:16.960 --> 01:56:18.950
good in the world as much as I can with
01:56:18.960 --> 01:56:22.149
my place in society materially through
01:56:22.159 --> 01:56:25.109
my work, progeny, etc. There is also the
01:56:25.119 --> 01:56:28.790
fear of missing out fo
01:56:28.800 --> 01:56:30.149
I don't know what that means. on the
01:56:30.159 --> 01:56:33.589
richness and pleasures of life believing
01:56:33.599 --> 01:56:35.830
somehow an ordinary life that requires
01:56:35.840 --> 01:56:37.750
some selfishness is best for the
01:56:37.760 --> 01:56:41.750
development of oneself in the world.
01:56:41.760 --> 01:56:45.109
Please sir, what is your advice? How can
01:56:45.119 --> 01:56:48.070
I get out of this doubt caused mainly by
01:56:48.080 --> 01:56:50.070
this intellectual belief that becoming a
01:56:50.080 --> 01:56:52.709
monk is selfish despite not having any
01:56:52.719 --> 01:56:55.990
attachment to being in this world? How
01:56:56.000 --> 01:56:58.149
can I commit to this path wholeheartedly
01:56:58.159 --> 01:57:00.790
without having these answers? Does this
01:57:00.800 --> 01:57:03.430
doubt have any veracity? I don't know
01:57:03.440 --> 01:57:05.830
where this belief of duty comes from. I
01:57:05.840 --> 01:57:07.510
think it's just the default setting we
01:57:07.520 --> 01:57:09.189
learn from society. Please can you
01:57:09.199 --> 01:57:11.589
clarify how the life of a biku is the
01:57:11.599 --> 01:57:13.589
most worthy life assuming one succeeds
01:57:13.599 --> 01:57:16.470
in reaching nibbana. I feel like if I
01:57:16.480 --> 01:57:18.870
believe if I become a monk, I can no
01:57:18.880 --> 01:57:20.550
longer be of service to the world. I try
01:57:20.560 --> 01:57:22.229
and think how this is not true. As a
01:57:22.239 --> 01:57:24.470
monk, you can teach dharma to a small
01:57:24.480 --> 01:57:25.910
poor village. Though this is not my
01:57:25.920 --> 01:57:28.310
ambition, but it seems small compared to
01:57:28.320 --> 01:57:30.390
what is possible in a capitalistic
01:57:30.400 --> 01:57:32.229
western world. I say these words with no
01:57:32.239 --> 01:57:33.990
belief.
01:57:34.000 --> 01:57:35.750
I say these words with no belief in
01:57:35.760 --> 01:57:37.350
them. It is simply how the doubt
01:57:37.360 --> 01:57:39.430
appears. I am very much fed up with the
01:57:39.440 --> 01:57:41.270
western world and disenchanted with it.
01:57:41.280 --> 01:57:43.430
Most people think and behave like fools.
01:57:43.440 --> 01:57:45.030
Though humans have some goodness, there
01:57:45.040 --> 01:57:46.390
is a level of selfishness and
01:57:46.400 --> 01:57:47.990
insincerity that makes me ill. And I
01:57:48.000 --> 01:57:50.070
seek the company of saints or solitude.
01:57:50.080 --> 01:57:52.629
Mara is having its last fight. as this
01:57:52.639 --> 01:57:54.470
is a one-way ticket for me. I cannot
01:57:54.480 --> 01:57:56.149
postpone this any longer. The forest is
01:57:56.159 --> 01:57:57.830
calling me, but it will cost me
01:57:57.840 --> 01:57:59.510
everything.
01:57:59.520 --> 01:58:01.510
So, this is a heartfelt question, a
01:58:01.520 --> 01:58:03.750
sincere question, a good question, but
01:58:03.760 --> 01:58:09.589
still try to be concise.
01:58:09.599 --> 01:58:11.350
I really should have a limit of no more
01:58:11.360 --> 01:58:14.550
than 150 words per question.
01:58:14.560 --> 01:58:16.709
I mean, this could have been condensed
01:58:16.719 --> 01:58:19.189
quite a lot and still contain
01:58:19.199 --> 01:58:20.310
essentially the same amount of
01:58:20.320 --> 01:58:22.709
information.
01:58:22.719 --> 01:58:25.030
Anyways, let's see here. I mean, I'm
01:58:25.040 --> 01:58:27.189
reminded of
01:58:27.199 --> 01:58:29.430
a few things here. First of all, is a
01:58:29.440 --> 01:58:31.669
statement of by St. John of the Cross. I
01:58:31.679 --> 01:58:33.750
mean, cool whip here. I mean, uh, this
01:58:33.760 --> 01:58:35.830
protose pseudo monk, protose pseudo
01:58:35.840 --> 01:58:38.709
monk, who apparently is going to be just
01:58:38.719 --> 01:58:41.589
the monk because he won't be proto or
01:58:41.599 --> 01:58:44.709
pseudo anymore if he really is ordained.
01:58:44.719 --> 01:58:46.950
I mean, why go to Sri Lanka? I don't
01:58:46.960 --> 01:58:49.430
fully understand that. I mean it seems
01:58:49.440 --> 01:58:51.669
to me like Thailand might be a better
01:58:51.679 --> 01:58:53.510
bet than Sri Lanka. I mean there's just
01:58:53.520 --> 01:58:57.510
a healthier SA there. It seems to me
01:58:57.520 --> 01:59:01.109
there are some really serious like
01:59:01.119 --> 01:59:03.430
reform movements going on in Sri Lanka
01:59:03.440 --> 01:59:05.669
but you're surrounded by a sea of just
01:59:05.679 --> 01:59:09.750
utter corruption in the SA seems to me
01:59:09.760 --> 01:59:15.189
but he wasn't asking about that. Um,
01:59:15.199 --> 01:59:17.030
one thing
01:59:17.040 --> 01:59:19.830
is, I mean, even if you are ordained as
01:59:19.840 --> 01:59:22.229
a monk, if it's just not working out at
01:59:22.239 --> 01:59:25.189
all after five or 10 years, I mean,
01:59:25.199 --> 01:59:27.750
you're not taking lifelong vows. It's
01:59:27.760 --> 01:59:29.589
not like being a Catholic monk where you
01:59:29.599 --> 01:59:31.510
have to get express permission from the
01:59:31.520 --> 01:59:35.270
pope himself to drop out.
01:59:35.280 --> 01:59:36.790
All you have to do if you are an
01:59:36.800 --> 01:59:40.470
ordained monk is just tell somebody else
01:59:40.480 --> 01:59:43.030
in a language they understand that
01:59:43.040 --> 01:59:45.910
you're not a monk anymore and mean it
01:59:45.920 --> 01:59:47.669
and you're not a monk anymore. That's as
01:59:47.679 --> 01:59:50.790
easy it as it is to disrobe in terab
01:59:50.800 --> 01:59:54.709
Buddhism. So, I mean, you're not
01:59:54.719 --> 01:59:56.390
necessarily
01:59:56.400 --> 01:59:58.470
throwing the rest of your life away,
01:59:58.480 --> 02:00:00.950
even if it turns out that being a monk
02:00:00.960 --> 02:00:04.470
is not like your lifelong path. That if
02:00:04.480 --> 02:00:07.189
you are a sincere monk conscientiously
02:00:07.199 --> 02:00:09.430
practicing for five or 10 years, I don't
02:00:09.440 --> 02:00:12.229
know how old the protose monk is. I
02:00:12.239 --> 02:00:15.189
would guess he's not ancient yet. That
02:00:15.199 --> 02:00:17.189
after five or 10 years, you're bound to
02:00:17.199 --> 02:00:19.589
to be making progress.
02:00:19.599 --> 02:00:21.830
And you say that in like your more lucid
02:00:21.840 --> 02:00:23.990
moments, you have no doubts. It's just
02:00:24.000 --> 02:00:25.990
like when you're in kind of a more
02:00:26.000 --> 02:00:27.750
negative mental state, like a less
02:00:27.760 --> 02:00:30.229
clear, have less clarity, then that's
02:00:30.239 --> 02:00:32.149
when you have the most aversion for the
02:00:32.159 --> 02:00:35.189
idea of renouncing the world, which is
02:00:35.199 --> 02:00:37.910
fairly telling. You know, it's like when
02:00:37.920 --> 02:00:39.510
I was a monk, sometimes I'd be disgusted
02:00:39.520 --> 02:00:41.270
with it all, but I would remind myself
02:00:41.280 --> 02:00:46.629
it's only when I'm in a bad mood that I
02:00:46.639 --> 02:00:48.790
don't like being a monk. It's like when
02:00:48.800 --> 02:00:51.830
when you know I'm in a state of clarity
02:00:51.840 --> 02:00:54.709
when I'm most wise
02:00:54.719 --> 02:00:57.910
then obviously you know being a monk is
02:00:57.920 --> 02:01:01.669
is good.
02:01:01.679 --> 02:01:04.149
So there's that too. I mean just because
02:01:04.159 --> 02:01:05.750
I mean most people are not a monk for
02:01:05.760 --> 02:01:08.390
their entire life.
02:01:08.400 --> 02:01:12.550
So I mean be a monk for 5 years and see
02:01:12.560 --> 02:01:14.229
how it goes. Be a monk for 10 years. I
02:01:14.239 --> 02:01:16.070
mean if it's still working you're still
02:01:16.080 --> 02:01:19.430
making progress. If these renunciations
02:01:19.440 --> 02:01:22.550
that seem so difficult at first
02:01:22.560 --> 02:01:24.390
don't all of a sudden seem easy after
02:01:24.400 --> 02:01:26.310
you've already done it, which is was the
02:01:26.320 --> 02:01:28.790
case with me in a lot of cases. You
02:01:28.800 --> 02:01:29.830
know, there are some things that was
02:01:29.840 --> 02:01:31.910
very hard to part with until you part
02:01:31.920 --> 02:01:34.390
with it and then you it's like a relief
02:01:34.400 --> 02:01:36.870
that you parted with it. So, there's
02:01:36.880 --> 02:01:38.229
that. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff
02:01:38.239 --> 02:01:40.070
I could mention here. I mean, I've
02:01:40.080 --> 02:01:44.149
experienced a lot of this myself.
02:01:44.159 --> 02:01:46.790
is it I am reminded of a statement of
02:01:46.800 --> 02:01:49.589
St. John of the cross the prose monk
02:01:49.599 --> 02:01:51.990
talks about how he wants to benefit the
02:01:52.000 --> 02:01:53.589
world that being a monk really doesn't
02:01:53.599 --> 02:01:55.990
benefit the world but St. John of the
02:01:56.000 --> 02:01:58.870
Cross said you got two people and I'
02:01:58.880 --> 02:02:01.350
I've mentioned this before. Two people.
02:02:01.360 --> 02:02:05.510
One of them is like feeding the hungry,
02:02:05.520 --> 02:02:08.070
tending to the sick, you know, providing
02:02:08.080 --> 02:02:09.589
clothes to the people that don't have
02:02:09.599 --> 02:02:11.350
clothes, providing homes to the people
02:02:11.360 --> 02:02:14.310
who do not have homes, just doing acts
02:02:14.320 --> 02:02:18.310
of goodness and charity, just every
02:02:18.320 --> 02:02:21.189
waking moment of every day.
02:02:21.199 --> 02:02:23.750
That's one person. The other person is
02:02:23.760 --> 02:02:27.030
alone in a cell contemplating or
02:02:27.040 --> 02:02:29.750
practicing high contemplation.
02:02:29.760 --> 02:02:32.070
You know, just what in Buddhism would be
02:02:32.080 --> 02:02:35.030
at least second Janna, I'm pretty sure.
02:02:35.040 --> 02:02:37.109
And St. John of the Cross says in all
02:02:37.119 --> 02:02:39.750
seriousness, that second person living
02:02:39.760 --> 02:02:41.910
alone in in a state of high
02:02:41.920 --> 02:02:45.109
contemplation is benefiting the world
02:02:45.119 --> 02:02:48.870
more than the person who is like tending
02:02:48.880 --> 02:02:50.390
the sick and feeding the hungry and all
02:02:50.400 --> 02:02:52.070
that.
02:02:52.080 --> 02:02:53.430
And there's a similar statement in the
02:02:53.440 --> 02:02:56.470
diamond cutter sutra, the vajra chedika
02:02:56.480 --> 02:02:59.270
praa parita sutra where it's saying that
02:02:59.280 --> 02:03:01.109
you know you again you've got the two
02:03:01.119 --> 02:03:02.870
people one of them is doing just like
02:03:02.880 --> 02:03:04.550
the first person in St. John of the
02:03:04.560 --> 02:03:06.629
Cross's comparison, you know, tending
02:03:06.639 --> 02:03:09.030
the sick and feeding the hungry and just
02:03:09.040 --> 02:03:11.030
on and on and on, doing all these acts
02:03:11.040 --> 02:03:13.270
of goodness and charity, and the other
02:03:13.280 --> 02:03:16.070
person just memorizes one verse of the
02:03:16.080 --> 02:03:18.390
Diamond Cutter Sutra and explains it to
02:03:18.400 --> 02:03:20.870
others, and he is helping the world more
02:03:20.880 --> 02:03:23.510
than the first person. It's it's a
02:03:23.520 --> 02:03:27.109
matter of I mean, the first person is
02:03:27.119 --> 02:03:30.709
essentially putting band-aids on like a
02:03:30.719 --> 02:03:33.669
terminally ill patient.
02:03:33.679 --> 02:03:35.589
uh just it's just superficial stuff and
02:03:35.599 --> 02:03:38.070
he's not dealing with the the ultimate
02:03:38.080 --> 02:03:40.229
cause of the suffering, you know, he's
02:03:40.239 --> 02:03:41.990
just kind of putting band-aids on the
02:03:42.000 --> 02:03:45.430
surface. The other person is like
02:03:45.440 --> 02:03:47.350
raising the level of consciousness of
02:03:47.360 --> 02:03:50.470
the planet.
02:03:50.480 --> 02:03:53.109
So I mean there is that I mean it it is
02:03:53.119 --> 02:03:56.870
a valid a valid argument. It seems to me
02:03:56.880 --> 02:03:59.750
that the person living alone in a state
02:03:59.760 --> 02:04:02.149
of high contemplation is helping the
02:04:02.159 --> 02:04:05.270
world more than a person who is kind of
02:04:05.280 --> 02:04:07.589
wallowing in samsara and stuck in it
02:04:07.599 --> 02:04:10.870
himself and just kind of helping people
02:04:10.880 --> 02:04:13.109
at a superficial level. But it all
02:04:13.119 --> 02:04:15.109
balances out. All the pluses and minuses
02:04:15.119 --> 02:04:17.270
ultimately have to balance out.
02:04:17.280 --> 02:04:20.149
So every good thing added to the world
02:04:20.159 --> 02:04:22.470
just unintentionally
02:04:22.480 --> 02:04:27.109
adds a corresponding evil.
02:04:27.119 --> 02:04:29.350
And also another thing I would say is
02:04:29.360 --> 02:04:32.470
that even if like karma and rebirth and
02:04:32.480 --> 02:04:36.310
all this are just like a a cultural
02:04:36.320 --> 02:04:37.990
mythology,
02:04:38.000 --> 02:04:41.189
the four noble truths are still true
02:04:41.199 --> 02:04:43.669
that you know the less suff the less
02:04:43.679 --> 02:04:45.750
desire and attachment you have the less
02:04:45.760 --> 02:04:47.830
suffering.
02:04:47.840 --> 02:04:50.870
So if being a monk caused you to have
02:04:50.880 --> 02:04:54.950
less less desire and attachment then
02:04:54.960 --> 02:04:57.030
that's the way to go. If you don't want
02:04:57.040 --> 02:04:59.750
to suffer, if you want to have like a
02:04:59.760 --> 02:05:02.629
relatively content life, if being a monk
02:05:02.639 --> 02:05:04.229
makes you even more frustrated, let's
02:05:04.239 --> 02:05:07.109
just you're just horny as hell and just
02:05:07.119 --> 02:05:09.510
yearning to get involved in politics or
02:05:09.520 --> 02:05:11.910
something, then it might not be so good.
02:05:11.920 --> 02:05:13.910
But even then, it's you're helping to at
02:05:13.920 --> 02:05:17.510
least combat these attachments that are
02:05:17.520 --> 02:05:22.470
like karmic momentum.
02:05:22.480 --> 02:05:24.470
So,
02:05:24.480 --> 02:05:27.589
let's see.
02:05:27.599 --> 02:05:30.950
Where is the actual question? I mean,
02:05:30.960 --> 02:05:32.470
it's kind of down towards the bottom,
02:05:32.480 --> 02:05:34.870
but not all the way at the bottom. What
02:05:34.880 --> 02:05:37.109
is your advice? How can I get out of
02:05:37.119 --> 02:05:38.790
this doubt caused mainly by this
02:05:38.800 --> 02:05:41.030
intellectual belief that becoming a monk
02:05:41.040 --> 02:05:45.589
is selfish? I mean to some degree I mean
02:05:45.599 --> 02:05:47.669
it was Paul Low used to say that to some
02:05:47.679 --> 02:05:49.270
degree I mean if you really want to be
02:05:49.280 --> 02:05:51.910
liberated you want to become enlightened
02:05:51.920 --> 02:05:53.430
it does require a certain amount of
02:05:53.440 --> 02:05:55.589
selfishness which is ironic because
02:05:55.599 --> 02:05:57.589
ultimately there is no self and the monk
02:05:57.599 --> 02:06:02.470
is like penetrating the truth of that.
02:06:02.480 --> 02:06:05.750
So, it's just kind of ironic that people
02:06:05.760 --> 02:06:07.189
will say, "Oh, the monk's life is
02:06:07.199 --> 02:06:11.350
selfish." When really the the whole goal
02:06:11.360 --> 02:06:12.950
of being a monk is to be utterly
02:06:12.960 --> 02:06:15.270
selfless.
02:06:15.280 --> 02:06:16.709
So, how can I commit to this path
02:06:16.719 --> 02:06:18.229
wholeheartedly without having these
02:06:18.239 --> 02:06:20.950
answers? Well, it's I guess I've already
02:06:20.960 --> 02:06:24.470
addressed that because first of all, I
02:06:24.480 --> 02:06:27.430
mean, just do do it for five or 10
02:06:27.440 --> 02:06:29.669
years. That's kind of what I did. I
02:06:29.679 --> 02:06:31.669
mean, I was I didn't just like commit to
02:06:31.679 --> 02:06:33.589
a lifelong
02:06:33.599 --> 02:06:36.790
or even 30 years of being a monk, you
02:06:36.800 --> 02:06:39.510
know? It's like do it until
02:06:39.520 --> 02:06:42.390
it just doesn't work anymore. I remember
02:06:42.400 --> 02:06:44.149
my preceptor asked me if he thought I'd
02:06:44.159 --> 02:06:45.350
be a monk for the rest of my life and
02:06:45.360 --> 02:06:47.589
he'd say, "Well, if I'm unhappy at it
02:06:47.599 --> 02:06:52.229
for a long time, maybe I'll drop out."
02:06:52.239 --> 02:06:54.069
So, I mean, you can't really know unless
02:06:54.079 --> 02:06:56.870
you at least try, dedicate five or 10
02:06:56.880 --> 02:06:59.990
years, see how it goes. And if it's if
02:07:00.000 --> 02:07:02.629
it's turns out that it was good, keep
02:07:02.639 --> 02:07:04.629
going.
02:07:04.639 --> 02:07:06.950
Turns out that it wasn't good. I mean,
02:07:06.960 --> 02:07:08.629
five or 10 years. I mean, it's not your
02:07:08.639 --> 02:07:12.390
whole life. I don't know how old protose
02:07:12.400 --> 02:07:14.790
monk is. I would assume that he's fairly
02:07:14.800 --> 02:07:17.990
young.
02:07:18.000 --> 02:07:19.990
Time may be on your side with regard to
02:07:20.000 --> 02:07:23.510
that. Also, like St. John of the cross
02:07:23.520 --> 02:07:25.270
and the diamond cutter sutra says like
02:07:25.280 --> 02:07:27.430
raising the level of consciousness, you
02:07:27.440 --> 02:07:29.270
know, it's sort of like in in the Old
02:07:29.280 --> 02:07:31.030
Testament, you know, it's like God will
02:07:31.040 --> 02:07:33.350
spare Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of
02:07:33.360 --> 02:07:35.990
one good man.
02:07:36.000 --> 02:07:41.589
You can be that one good man.
02:07:41.599 --> 02:07:43.350
And also, I mean, the four noble truths,
02:07:43.360 --> 02:07:45.589
I mean, second noble truth, desire is
02:07:45.599 --> 02:07:46.790
the cause of all suffering. I mean,
02:07:46.800 --> 02:07:48.390
that's true regardless. I mean, that
02:07:48.400 --> 02:07:50.229
should be fairly self-evident to anyone
02:07:50.239 --> 02:07:54.069
capable of introspection.
02:07:54.079 --> 02:07:56.629
So, you combine all that plus maybe a
02:07:56.639 --> 02:07:58.870
few things I haven't thought of and I
02:07:58.880 --> 02:08:02.550
mean it's it doesn't strike me as
02:08:02.560 --> 02:08:04.550
uh any scenario where you're really
02:08:04.560 --> 02:08:06.069
risking a whole hell of a lot. I mean,
02:08:06.079 --> 02:08:08.550
if you're already 60, but then again,
02:08:08.560 --> 02:08:09.510
how are you going to have kids when
02:08:09.520 --> 02:08:13.030
you're 60 anyway?
02:08:13.040 --> 02:08:16.870
So, let's see. Does this doubt have any
02:08:16.880 --> 02:08:19.589
veracity?
02:08:19.599 --> 02:08:23.990
I mean, your doubt would have veracity
02:08:24.000 --> 02:08:27.189
if your personality, your character
02:08:27.199 --> 02:08:30.229
traits just are not in harmony with the
02:08:30.239 --> 02:08:33.669
monk's life, then maybe it could just
02:08:33.679 --> 02:08:36.790
make you miserable. Also, where you are
02:08:36.800 --> 02:08:38.950
ordained, you know, why you are
02:08:38.960 --> 02:08:41.990
ordained, but where you are ordained is
02:08:42.000 --> 02:08:43.750
a big deal. I mean, if you you can have
02:08:43.760 --> 02:08:45.510
the best intentions in the world and you
02:08:45.520 --> 02:08:49.109
may have like real like ready to live
02:08:49.119 --> 02:08:50.950
the holy life and then you get ordained
02:08:50.960 --> 02:08:53.430
to into a monastery that's just corrupt
02:08:53.440 --> 02:08:54.950
and none of the monks are practicing
02:08:54.960 --> 02:08:56.229
correctly and they're just kind of
02:08:56.239 --> 02:08:57.910
shameless and not following the rules of
02:08:57.920 --> 02:08:59.669
monastic discipline and all that. I
02:08:59.679 --> 02:09:01.270
mean, you can just get very bitter and
02:09:01.280 --> 02:09:03.750
disillusioned and just drop out in
02:09:03.760 --> 02:09:06.470
disgust thinking the entire SA is this
02:09:06.480 --> 02:09:08.709
way when really you just picked the
02:09:08.719 --> 02:09:11.350
wrong monastery.
02:09:11.360 --> 02:09:13.669
But if if I I've said it before back
02:09:13.679 --> 02:09:15.669
when I was a monk, it's like a desire
02:09:15.679 --> 02:09:17.830
for enlightenment is not necessarily the
02:09:17.840 --> 02:09:20.709
best reason for becoming a monk because
02:09:20.719 --> 02:09:23.189
things generally don't work out the way
02:09:23.199 --> 02:09:26.149
you plan. You know, however they think
02:09:26.159 --> 02:09:28.550
of it, it turns out otherwise. I mean,
02:09:28.560 --> 02:09:30.550
that's that's a statement you find, I
02:09:30.560 --> 02:09:32.470
think, twice in the suta in two
02:09:32.480 --> 02:09:33.750
different contexts. It's just kind of a
02:09:33.760 --> 02:09:35.990
saying that gets inserted into these two
02:09:36.000 --> 02:09:40.310
different sutas that I mean, really
02:09:40.320 --> 02:09:44.149
just Having this idea of a goal, goal
02:09:44.159 --> 02:09:47.030
oriented dharma and using that as your
02:09:47.040 --> 02:09:49.510
reason for being a monk, it's not
02:09:49.520 --> 02:09:53.109
necessarily the best reason. Just
02:09:53.119 --> 02:09:55.990
two of the best reasons for becoming a
02:09:56.000 --> 02:09:58.870
monk, it seems to me. One is just a
02:09:58.880 --> 02:10:00.790
sense of sacred duty. You know, it's
02:10:00.800 --> 02:10:03.270
just my I'm able to become one. It's
02:10:03.280 --> 02:10:06.149
just my duty to do the best I can, get
02:10:06.159 --> 02:10:08.069
as close to enlightenment as I am able
02:10:08.079 --> 02:10:10.069
in this life.
02:10:10.079 --> 02:10:13.510
Period. And then one of the other best
02:10:13.520 --> 02:10:15.270
reasons for becoming a monk is that the
02:10:15.280 --> 02:10:17.589
monk's life is just in harmony with your
02:10:17.599 --> 02:10:19.910
personality. I mean, you're just drawn
02:10:19.920 --> 02:10:21.430
towards
02:10:21.440 --> 02:10:25.189
solitude and simplicity
02:10:25.199 --> 02:10:27.510
and meditation.
02:10:27.520 --> 02:10:29.750
then that will get you farther in the
02:10:29.760 --> 02:10:32.550
monk's life than this idealistic desire
02:10:32.560 --> 02:10:36.629
for enlightenment.
02:10:36.639 --> 02:10:39.750
So
02:10:39.760 --> 02:10:41.589
yeah, I mean wallowing in the world I
02:10:41.599 --> 02:10:44.149
mean
02:10:44.159 --> 02:10:47.270
samsara cannot be fixed. It is the
02:10:47.280 --> 02:10:50.870
nature of samsara to be messed up and
02:10:50.880 --> 02:10:53.350
any kind of fixes you add any goodness
02:10:53.360 --> 02:10:56.229
you add is gonna be met with a
02:10:56.239 --> 02:10:58.550
corresponding evil because that's just
02:10:58.560 --> 02:11:02.950
the way samsara works.
02:11:02.960 --> 02:11:05.910
So yeah my advice first be very careful
02:11:05.920 --> 02:11:08.069
in choosing the correct environment in
02:11:08.079 --> 02:11:12.069
which to be ordained and just try it for
02:11:12.079 --> 02:11:14.550
five years. Commit yourself to five
02:11:14.560 --> 02:11:16.870
years. you just do like a five-year
02:11:16.880 --> 02:11:20.390
renewable contract and if after five
02:11:20.400 --> 02:11:24.390
years things are going fairly well, keep
02:11:24.400 --> 02:11:28.950
going.
02:11:28.960 --> 02:11:31.589
So that's the best advice I can think of
02:11:31.599 --> 02:11:33.350
right now
02:11:33.360 --> 02:11:36.229
and good luck to you and I do hope that
02:11:36.239 --> 02:11:40.550
you are successful in in your practice.
02:11:40.560 --> 02:11:41.669
And I'm just going to move on to the
02:11:41.679 --> 02:11:43.189
next question. This is from Stellar
02:11:43.199 --> 02:11:46.550
Supreme, formerly known as Liberlam.
02:11:46.560 --> 02:11:49.109
He says, "Have you ever perceived smoke
02:11:49.119 --> 02:11:52.870
or vapor in meditation?"
02:11:52.880 --> 02:11:55.030
And first of all, I would say remember
02:11:55.040 --> 02:11:59.350
the rule I before E except after C
02:11:59.360 --> 02:12:03.510
because he's spelled perceive wrong. But
02:12:03.520 --> 02:12:06.229
after that I mean I can give like an
02:12:06.239 --> 02:12:09.350
easy obvious answer in perceiving smoke
02:12:09.360 --> 02:12:11.350
in meditation is that one meditation
02:12:11.360 --> 02:12:13.750
device I have used before is just light
02:12:13.760 --> 02:12:16.629
an incense stick and then just let your
02:12:16.639 --> 02:12:20.149
gaze rest upon the rising smoke just
02:12:20.159 --> 02:12:21.910
it's like a meditation of seeing it
02:12:21.920 --> 02:12:23.830
would be kind of waiting a new upasa I
02:12:23.840 --> 02:12:26.550
guess so I've done that before you know
02:12:26.560 --> 02:12:28.550
sort of like the yogic meditation of
02:12:28.560 --> 02:12:31.750
just gazing upon a candle flame except
02:12:31.760 --> 02:12:34.470
in my case I was gazing ing upon incense
02:12:34.480 --> 02:12:37.510
smoke rising from the stick. So that's
02:12:37.520 --> 02:12:40.629
kind of a cheat answer, I guess.
02:12:40.639 --> 02:12:42.709
Aside from that, the only the the thing
02:12:42.719 --> 02:12:44.790
that's closest to smoke or vapor in
02:12:44.800 --> 02:12:47.109
meditation that I have ever perceived, I
02:12:47.119 --> 02:12:50.629
did perceive what would be classically
02:12:50.639 --> 02:12:53.830
would be known as the nima
02:12:53.840 --> 02:12:56.950
of like access concentration according
02:12:56.960 --> 02:12:58.310
to the commentarial tradition. I don't
02:12:58.320 --> 02:12:59.750
think it's mentioned in the text
02:12:59.760 --> 02:13:02.310
according to or the sutas according to
02:13:02.320 --> 02:13:04.310
the commentarial tradition there's this
02:13:04.320 --> 02:13:06.950
stage of upachara samadei which is right
02:13:06.960 --> 02:13:09.350
before first Janna I'm skeptical of the
02:13:09.360 --> 02:13:11.510
whole idea but I mean there is some
02:13:11.520 --> 02:13:14.390
validity to some of what it's saying
02:13:14.400 --> 02:13:16.870
because when you get to access
02:13:16.880 --> 02:13:19.669
concentration you tend to see a nimita
02:13:19.679 --> 02:13:23.030
or sign and
02:13:23.040 --> 02:13:25.430
I apparently did see one of these signs
02:13:25.440 --> 02:13:27.189
while meditating and it was it was just
02:13:27.199 --> 02:13:28.390
sort of like
02:13:28.400 --> 02:13:31.109
an oval kind of shaped like a duck egg.
02:13:31.119 --> 02:13:33.430
Just kind of a kind of like a gray
02:13:33.440 --> 02:13:37.350
cloud. Just an ovalshaped
02:13:37.360 --> 02:13:40.709
like light gray
02:13:40.719 --> 02:13:43.669
and just kind of a cloud like nima. Some
02:13:43.679 --> 02:13:45.430
people I mean that's one of the most
02:13:45.440 --> 02:13:47.669
common nimitas that you see if you
02:13:47.679 --> 02:13:50.390
attain upachara samadei is just kind of
02:13:50.400 --> 02:13:53.189
a circle or an oval of light or just
02:13:53.199 --> 02:13:55.589
kind of like a cloud looking thing. But
02:13:55.599 --> 02:13:57.270
you can also see images of the the
02:13:57.280 --> 02:13:58.870
Buddha sitting in meditation other
02:13:58.880 --> 02:14:01.589
things also. But that's the closest I
02:14:01.599 --> 02:14:03.589
ever perceived to smoke in meditation
02:14:03.599 --> 02:14:06.310
other than just gazing upon incense
02:14:06.320 --> 02:14:09.669
smoke as a meditation device.
02:14:09.679 --> 02:14:11.189
And I'm just going to move right on to
02:14:11.199 --> 02:14:13.350
the next question. This is turning into
02:14:13.360 --> 02:14:15.589
a longer one than I was expecting. I
02:14:15.599 --> 02:14:17.669
mean, we only had like in the low 30s,
02:14:17.679 --> 02:14:18.709
you know, kind of like the average
02:14:18.719 --> 02:14:21.750
number of questions, but I'm being more
02:14:21.760 --> 02:14:28.870
verbose than usual. I guessh.
02:14:28.880 --> 02:14:31.030
So, and also I'm just d Yeah, I'm just
02:14:31.040 --> 02:14:34.229
digressing a lot. So, this this question
02:14:34.239 --> 02:14:36.229
is from Arpad
02:14:36.239 --> 02:14:39.830
RP A and he says, "Did the Buddha
02:14:39.840 --> 02:14:42.229
approve celibacy for lay people or
02:14:42.239 --> 02:14:44.310
should those stick to being married
02:14:44.320 --> 02:14:46.069
householders if they can't become
02:14:46.079 --> 02:14:48.709
monks?" And I am reminded of a statement
02:14:48.719 --> 02:14:50.470
I have made a number of times on these
02:14:50.480 --> 02:14:54.069
Q&A videos where I think it's in Vineia
02:14:54.079 --> 02:14:55.990
where the Buddhist says, "If you're able
02:14:56.000 --> 02:14:58.709
to become a monk, by all means become a
02:14:58.719 --> 02:15:01.109
monk. If you're not able to become a
02:15:01.119 --> 02:15:04.069
monk, at the very least avoid sexual
02:15:04.079 --> 02:15:06.390
intercourse the way you would avoid
02:15:06.400 --> 02:15:09.270
falling into a pit, a deep pit with
02:15:09.280 --> 02:15:11.910
glowing coals at the bottom of it. But
02:15:11.920 --> 02:15:14.950
if even that is too much, at the very
02:15:14.960 --> 02:15:18.310
very least stay away from the wives of
02:15:18.320 --> 02:15:20.790
other men.
02:15:20.800 --> 02:15:22.470
So I mean that's right there in the
02:15:22.480 --> 02:15:24.310
texts.
02:15:24.320 --> 02:15:26.550
And so yeah, the Buddha approved
02:15:26.560 --> 02:15:29.830
celibacy for lay people also like
02:15:29.840 --> 02:15:31.990
especially once you start getting into
02:15:32.000 --> 02:15:33.750
the Arya levels. Even if you're not a
02:15:33.760 --> 02:15:35.430
monk, you're you're just a lay person,
02:15:35.440 --> 02:15:38.069
but you become like a sakura or
02:15:38.079 --> 02:15:40.950
something. Then even then as a general
02:15:40.960 --> 02:15:43.669
rule in the texts it is stated that they
02:15:43.679 --> 02:15:46.870
have become celibate.
02:15:46.880 --> 02:15:51.350
So I mean c sex you know it's desire is
02:15:51.360 --> 02:15:53.189
the cause of all suffering and desire
02:15:53.199 --> 02:15:55.270
for sex is one of the strongest desires
02:15:55.280 --> 02:15:57.990
that people have. So obviously within
02:15:58.000 --> 02:16:00.790
the context of the four noble truths a
02:16:00.800 --> 02:16:03.510
person is better off not having sex than
02:16:03.520 --> 02:16:06.709
having sex. It is true like in a
02:16:06.719 --> 02:16:09.589
agricultural sort of society like
02:16:09.599 --> 02:16:11.990
ancient India
02:16:12.000 --> 02:16:13.990
that your children would be your social
02:16:14.000 --> 02:16:15.750
security. There were no pensions or
02:16:15.760 --> 02:16:17.430
anything like that. You would be
02:16:17.440 --> 02:16:19.109
supported by your children when you got
02:16:19.119 --> 02:16:22.229
old. So there is that that is a
02:16:22.239 --> 02:16:25.030
consideration at least if you're living
02:16:25.040 --> 02:16:29.430
like in a an agrarian society with no
02:16:29.440 --> 02:16:31.830
kind of pensions or socialism or
02:16:31.840 --> 02:16:33.190
anything like that to support you in
02:16:33.200 --> 02:16:38.629
your old age.
02:16:38.639 --> 02:16:40.709
So pretty sure I answered that one.
02:16:40.719 --> 02:16:43.509
Let's move on to Arpad's next question.
02:16:43.519 --> 02:16:45.349
Where is celibacy for lay people
02:16:45.359 --> 02:16:47.750
discussed if at all in the sutas? Well,
02:16:47.760 --> 02:16:49.270
there is that statement from the Buddha
02:16:49.280 --> 02:16:53.429
which I think is in the vineia. Uh it's
02:16:53.439 --> 02:16:55.990
probably in in sutas also, but I do not
02:16:56.000 --> 02:16:59.910
recall exact suta references.
02:16:59.920 --> 02:17:02.549
So it's in there. You know, when the
02:17:02.559 --> 02:17:05.030
Buddha says, you know, even if you can't
02:17:05.040 --> 02:17:07.750
become a monk, avoid sex as though
02:17:07.760 --> 02:17:09.990
avoiding a deep pit with glowing coals
02:17:10.000 --> 02:17:11.669
at the bottom. That's fairly
02:17:11.679 --> 02:17:13.110
straightforward. That's easily
02:17:13.120 --> 02:17:15.750
interpreted to mean that the Buddha
02:17:15.760 --> 02:17:19.429
encouraged celibacy for lay people.
02:17:19.439 --> 02:17:21.669
And then just at the very very least, if
02:17:21.679 --> 02:17:24.549
celibacy you you just can't manage it,
02:17:24.559 --> 02:17:27.669
then at the very very least stay away
02:17:27.679 --> 02:17:30.549
from the wives of other men.
02:17:30.559 --> 02:17:32.150
I mean Jesus said something kind of
02:17:32.160 --> 02:17:34.389
similar in the New Testament where he's
02:17:34.399 --> 02:17:36.950
saying three kinds of Unix. There are
02:17:36.960 --> 02:17:39.349
those who are born Unix, those who are
02:17:39.359 --> 02:17:41.990
made Unix, and those who are Unix for
02:17:42.000 --> 02:17:44.790
the sake of the kingdom of heaven with
02:17:44.800 --> 02:17:47.349
this being celibate people. And then he
02:17:47.359 --> 02:17:49.669
says right after that, but it's not for
02:17:49.679 --> 02:17:51.270
everybody.
02:17:51.280 --> 02:17:53.349
So, I mean, if you're the kind of
02:17:53.359 --> 02:17:55.830
person, and I think our pad here is
02:17:55.840 --> 02:17:57.990
French, if you're the kind of person
02:17:58.000 --> 02:17:59.830
that's I mean, if even if you are a
02:17:59.840 --> 02:18:01.110
celibate, you're just going to be like
02:18:01.120 --> 02:18:02.790
climbing the walls and just horny all
02:18:02.800 --> 02:18:04.950
the time and just obsessed with sex
02:18:04.960 --> 02:18:07.990
because you can't have it, then it may
02:18:08.000 --> 02:18:09.750
be more of an obstacle than anything
02:18:09.760 --> 02:18:12.709
else. Although I mean if you just have
02:18:12.719 --> 02:18:15.429
this deep feeling that I must be
02:18:15.439 --> 02:18:17.270
celibate just because it's my sacred
02:18:17.280 --> 02:18:18.950
duty and then you then you're like
02:18:18.960 --> 02:18:21.190
climbing the walls and miserable then
02:18:21.200 --> 02:18:22.790
nevertheless you are making some
02:18:22.800 --> 02:18:24.950
spiritual progress by combating this
02:18:24.960 --> 02:18:27.270
strong attachment
02:18:27.280 --> 02:18:29.270
but it comes at a price because you're
02:18:29.280 --> 02:18:34.309
going to be horny and frustrated.
02:18:34.319 --> 02:18:36.230
So, I mean, some people that just cannot
02:18:36.240 --> 02:18:39.349
manage celibacy, your best bet. Find the
02:18:39.359 --> 02:18:41.110
right girl, settle down, and live
02:18:41.120 --> 02:18:44.150
happily ever after. Be faithful to each
02:18:44.160 --> 02:18:47.910
other.
02:18:47.920 --> 02:18:49.190
And I think I'm just going to move on to
02:18:49.200 --> 02:18:51.750
the next question here. This is also
02:18:51.760 --> 02:18:53.509
from Arpad. And this one, I think, might
02:18:53.519 --> 02:18:56.070
be a joke question. He says, "How much
02:18:56.080 --> 02:18:58.549
of the movement for the revival of
02:18:58.559 --> 02:19:01.190
Terravada nuns do you think is in fact a
02:19:01.200 --> 02:19:03.030
fetish?"
02:19:03.040 --> 02:19:04.870
And I think one of the reasons why this
02:19:04.880 --> 02:19:07.110
came up is that some wise guys,
02:19:07.120 --> 02:19:09.110
including me, I have to admit, were
02:19:09.120 --> 02:19:14.230
posting like pictures of Catholic nuns
02:19:14.240 --> 02:19:16.150
that were obviously not really nuns. You
02:19:16.160 --> 02:19:17.910
know, they're like packing guns and this
02:19:17.920 --> 02:19:20.070
kind of thing. And some of them were
02:19:20.080 --> 02:19:22.389
pretty.
02:19:22.399 --> 02:19:24.469
I mean, real nuns tend not to be very
02:19:24.479 --> 02:19:26.389
pretty. That's one way you can tell the
02:19:26.399 --> 02:19:28.230
difference between real nuns and fake
02:19:28.240 --> 02:19:30.150
nuns. The really pretty ones tend to be
02:19:30.160 --> 02:19:32.150
fake ones.
02:19:32.160 --> 02:19:34.709
But anyways, with regard to how much of
02:19:34.719 --> 02:19:36.549
the movement for the revival of terrain
02:19:36.559 --> 02:19:39.110
do I think is in fact a fetish
02:19:39.120 --> 02:19:42.309
maybe a tiny trace amount. I mean it's
02:19:42.319 --> 02:19:45.830
mostly feminism. It's mostly it's mostly
02:19:45.840 --> 02:19:49.270
like this western modern drive for
02:19:49.280 --> 02:19:52.550
gender equality which has reached the
02:19:52.560 --> 02:19:56.070
perverse stage of demanding the revival
02:19:56.080 --> 02:19:58.710
of an order that grossly discriminates
02:19:58.720 --> 02:20:00.790
against women for the sake of gender
02:20:00.800 --> 02:20:03.030
equality.
02:20:03.040 --> 02:20:05.590
Because of course they revive the bikuni
02:20:05.600 --> 02:20:07.830
order sort of you know they create a
02:20:07.840 --> 02:20:10.150
replica of it to some degree and then
02:20:10.160 --> 02:20:13.910
just stop following the rules correctly
02:20:13.920 --> 02:20:16.630
because they discriminate against women
02:20:16.640 --> 02:20:19.110
which is just silly.
02:20:19.120 --> 02:20:21.590
But we don't need to get into a rant
02:20:21.600 --> 02:20:23.429
regarding the revival or attempted
02:20:23.439 --> 02:20:27.910
revival of the Bikuni SA.
02:20:27.920 --> 02:20:31.910
But I think very little of it is a
02:20:31.920 --> 02:20:35.190
sexual fetish. I think technically a
02:20:35.200 --> 02:20:38.070
fetish is sexual arousal by something
02:20:38.080 --> 02:20:43.590
that is not explicitly sexual
02:20:43.600 --> 02:20:46.309
like nuns for example. I guess there is
02:20:46.319 --> 02:20:49.429
a thing for that considering the high
02:20:49.439 --> 02:20:54.230
number of like sexy nuns or fake nuns
02:20:54.240 --> 02:20:56.389
that you that you can find easily on the
02:20:56.399 --> 02:21:00.870
internet sometimes without even looking.
02:21:00.880 --> 02:21:02.870
So let's just go on to the next
02:21:02.880 --> 02:21:05.349
question. This is from this is from
02:21:05.359 --> 02:21:07.750
Dripwalker.
02:21:07.760 --> 02:21:10.550
Dripwalker says, "If telekinesis is
02:21:10.560 --> 02:21:13.590
possible, why haven't one of one of
02:21:13.600 --> 02:21:18.389
those cash prizes rewards or awards?"
02:21:18.399 --> 02:21:21.429
So, if if telekinesis, well, I mean, it
02:21:21.439 --> 02:21:22.870
wouldn't really be telekinesis, though,
02:21:22.880 --> 02:21:25.830
in this case. Let's just say if psychic
02:21:25.840 --> 02:21:28.630
powers are possible, why hasn't anyone
02:21:28.640 --> 02:21:30.550
used that to win the lottery? I mean
02:21:30.560 --> 02:21:32.950
this I'm paraphrasing it into plain
02:21:32.960 --> 02:21:35.590
English here
02:21:35.600 --> 02:21:39.190
and maybe some of them have
02:21:39.200 --> 02:21:43.190
but my theory of how like the paranormal
02:21:43.200 --> 02:21:45.510
works is based on a book by George P.
02:21:45.520 --> 02:21:46.870
Hansen I've got on the bookcase back
02:21:46.880 --> 02:21:49.270
there trickster in the paranormal. It's
02:21:49.280 --> 02:21:51.270
I consider to be one of the most one of
02:21:51.280 --> 02:21:55.030
the 10 most important paradigm shifting
02:21:55.040 --> 02:21:58.150
books I've ever read. According to him,
02:21:58.160 --> 02:22:02.389
the paranormal exists, but it like exit
02:22:02.399 --> 02:22:05.510
it like seeps into this version of
02:22:05.520 --> 02:22:10.309
reality through cracks in the structure.
02:22:10.319 --> 02:22:12.950
Oh, there's a bird outside. So, you've
02:22:12.960 --> 02:22:16.150
got all these rules. You got like rule,
02:22:16.160 --> 02:22:18.469
laws of nature, and that's not enough
02:22:18.479 --> 02:22:19.670
for people because we're too
02:22:19.680 --> 02:22:21.110
complicated. So we also have to have
02:22:21.120 --> 02:22:23.910
like cultural rules, social taboss, this
02:22:23.920 --> 02:22:25.910
kind of stuff to increase the amount of
02:22:25.920 --> 02:22:29.750
structure to keep everything predictable
02:22:29.760 --> 02:22:33.910
and relatively safe and non-scary.
02:22:33.920 --> 02:22:36.070
But still, you can't have complete
02:22:36.080 --> 02:22:38.309
rigidity because that would just be like
02:22:38.319 --> 02:22:41.110
death. You can't have absolute rigidity.
02:22:41.120 --> 02:22:43.429
there's going to be like gaps and weak
02:22:43.439 --> 02:22:46.150
spots between these rules that
02:22:46.160 --> 02:22:49.190
regularize the structure of of our
02:22:49.200 --> 02:22:51.429
version of samsara. And that's where the
02:22:51.439 --> 02:22:53.429
paranormal gets in is through these gaps
02:22:53.439 --> 02:22:57.190
in weak places. And so witches, for
02:22:57.200 --> 02:23:00.309
example, traditionally will violate
02:23:00.319 --> 02:23:03.590
taboss in order to widen those gaps to
02:23:03.600 --> 02:23:05.990
increase the amount of juju that can get
02:23:06.000 --> 02:23:09.510
get through into our version of reality.
02:23:09.520 --> 02:23:12.070
Also like things like human sacrifice
02:23:12.080 --> 02:23:14.550
were another way of just kind of making
02:23:14.560 --> 02:23:19.670
holes in the this rigidity of structure.
02:23:19.680 --> 02:23:22.790
You violating taboss and so forth that
02:23:22.800 --> 02:23:25.750
would then increase the amount of
02:23:25.760 --> 02:23:28.469
psychic power that can be harnessed
02:23:28.479 --> 02:23:31.910
ideally or potentially.
02:23:31.920 --> 02:23:33.750
So
02:23:33.760 --> 02:23:36.950
science is never going to really lock
02:23:36.960 --> 02:23:39.270
down the paranormal because it's always
02:23:39.280 --> 02:23:42.469
going to be like avoiding the rules that
02:23:42.479 --> 02:23:44.950
science depends on. Science is looking
02:23:44.960 --> 02:23:47.750
for patterns and rules that can be
02:23:47.760 --> 02:23:49.910
turned into mathematical equations, for
02:23:49.920 --> 02:23:52.870
example. And it just doesn't work that
02:23:52.880 --> 02:23:55.110
way. It's always going to be on the on
02:23:55.120 --> 02:23:56.950
the verges. It's always going to be like
02:23:56.960 --> 02:24:03.429
in your peripheral vision, so to speak.
02:24:03.439 --> 02:24:08.469
So it it would just be too much of a
02:24:08.479 --> 02:24:11.590
uh like getting into like mainstream if
02:24:11.600 --> 02:24:14.710
if it just people start using it to win
02:24:14.720 --> 02:24:17.110
at the casinos. This kind of thing. I
02:24:17.120 --> 02:24:19.429
mean to some degree it just sort of like
02:24:19.439 --> 02:24:22.870
a barely detectable level it might
02:24:22.880 --> 02:24:25.429
happen. You know, it's like some people
02:24:25.439 --> 02:24:27.830
are just good at guessing cards or good
02:24:27.840 --> 02:24:30.870
at guessing rolling dice, that kind of
02:24:30.880 --> 02:24:33.510
thing. It might just be a like a a
02:24:33.520 --> 02:24:35.910
fraction of a percentage point above
02:24:35.920 --> 02:24:37.590
what you would expect from random
02:24:37.600 --> 02:24:40.070
chance, but still it is quantifiable,
02:24:40.080 --> 02:24:42.230
detectable, even though science really
02:24:42.240 --> 02:24:45.590
can't explain it
02:24:45.600 --> 02:24:49.750
other than just sort of the perceiver is
02:24:49.760 --> 02:24:52.230
sort of collapsing the state vector. You
02:24:52.240 --> 02:24:54.550
know, it's sort of the the the observer
02:24:54.560 --> 02:24:57.190
is affecting reality in that sense that
02:24:57.200 --> 02:25:00.389
somehow is is like incorporated into
02:25:00.399 --> 02:25:07.030
quantum physics at least.
02:25:07.040 --> 02:25:11.190
But yeah, and there's even less psychic
02:25:11.200 --> 02:25:14.550
powers manifest now than there were back
02:25:14.560 --> 02:25:16.469
in preodern times before people
02:25:16.479 --> 02:25:19.429
converted to scientism and a belief in
02:25:19.439 --> 02:25:22.070
magic was more mainstream. there was
02:25:22.080 --> 02:25:24.550
more faith, you know, you have more
02:25:24.560 --> 02:25:27.510
faith than in something, it makes it
02:25:27.520 --> 02:25:30.550
more possible. So, it could be that I
02:25:30.560 --> 02:25:33.429
mean to some degree the paranormal was
02:25:33.439 --> 02:25:35.670
almost kind of mainstream when more and
02:25:35.680 --> 02:25:38.389
more people believed in it,
02:25:38.399 --> 02:25:40.950
but still it was scary and so still you
02:25:40.960 --> 02:25:42.469
had to have the structure to keep out
02:25:42.479 --> 02:25:45.750
the scary unpredictable stuff.
02:25:45.760 --> 02:25:50.309
So even in ancient times when magic was
02:25:50.319 --> 02:25:53.349
believed in still the wizards and the
02:25:53.359 --> 02:25:55.510
witches were considered to be scary and
02:25:55.520 --> 02:26:01.910
dangerous.
02:26:01.920 --> 02:26:03.990
So I do think that telekinesis and other
02:26:04.000 --> 02:26:06.389
psychic powers are possible and that
02:26:06.399 --> 02:26:08.389
they do exist in this world. It's just
02:26:08.399 --> 02:26:09.990
that they'll never go mainstream and
02:26:10.000 --> 02:26:13.830
they'll always be on the fringes.
02:26:13.840 --> 02:26:15.349
There'll never be something that you can
02:26:15.359 --> 02:26:17.750
really just lock down and say there you
02:26:17.760 --> 02:26:23.670
see there it is.
02:26:23.680 --> 02:26:25.990
So I'm just going to move on to the next
02:26:26.000 --> 02:26:27.910
question.
02:26:27.920 --> 02:26:29.990
This is from RFS
02:26:30.000 --> 02:26:31.270
and I think yeah we're getting down
02:26:31.280 --> 02:26:33.830
towards the bottom here. This this will
02:26:33.840 --> 02:26:35.670
inshallah this will be less than three
02:26:35.680 --> 02:26:37.750
hours long.
02:26:37.760 --> 02:26:41.750
So, RFS says, "I have noticed that many
02:26:41.760 --> 02:26:43.830
practitioners whom I regard as
02:26:43.840 --> 02:26:46.790
spiritually mature speak of their own
02:26:46.800 --> 02:26:51.270
future rebirth as human. This is because
02:26:51.280 --> 02:26:53.590
either one, they are being humble and
02:26:53.600 --> 02:26:56.950
avoid presuming a heavenly destination.
02:26:56.960 --> 02:26:59.429
Two, they see the human realm as
02:26:59.439 --> 02:27:01.349
uniquely supportive for practice and
02:27:01.359 --> 02:27:05.750
thus aim to return. or three or because
02:27:05.760 --> 02:27:07.429
leaving the human realm is rare and
02:27:07.439 --> 02:27:10.150
difficult. So,
02:27:10.160 --> 02:27:13.429
RFS wants to know why it is that many
02:27:13.439 --> 02:27:15.429
practitioners whom he regards as
02:27:15.439 --> 02:27:17.110
spiritually mature speak of their own
02:27:17.120 --> 02:27:19.590
future rebirth as human. Well, it's hard
02:27:19.600 --> 02:27:20.870
to say exactly. I mean, I've never
02:27:20.880 --> 02:27:23.510
really come across any spiritual
02:27:23.520 --> 02:27:26.630
teachers that I consider to be advanced
02:27:26.640 --> 02:27:28.710
or not advanced
02:27:28.720 --> 02:27:30.550
speaking of their own future rebirth as
02:27:30.560 --> 02:27:33.590
human. I mean, if you're being really
02:27:33.600 --> 02:27:35.270
wise about it, it would seem, unless
02:27:35.280 --> 02:27:37.830
you're just like really highly advanced,
02:27:37.840 --> 02:27:40.790
but if you're just kind of being wise
02:27:40.800 --> 02:27:43.270
and not completely enlightened and still
02:27:43.280 --> 02:27:44.630
somewhat humble, I mean, you don't
02:27:44.640 --> 02:27:47.510
really know. It's going to depend on
02:27:47.520 --> 02:27:50.070
factors that are maybe beyond the scope
02:27:50.080 --> 02:27:53.270
of your conscious awareness.
02:27:53.280 --> 02:27:54.710
So, maybe you get into a heaven realm.
02:27:54.720 --> 02:27:56.230
Maybe you'll be born as a human again.
02:27:56.240 --> 02:28:00.710
Maybe, who knows?
02:28:00.720 --> 02:28:04.070
So with regard to his three options, the
02:28:04.080 --> 02:28:05.429
first one they are being humble and
02:28:05.439 --> 02:28:07.830
avoid presuming a heavenly destination.
02:28:07.840 --> 02:28:10.550
Some of them maybe I think the second
02:28:10.560 --> 02:28:14.150
one might be more significant though
02:28:14.160 --> 02:28:16.070
which is they see the human realm as
02:28:16.080 --> 02:28:17.990
uniquely supportive for practice and
02:28:18.000 --> 02:28:20.309
thus aim to return. or maybe they just
02:28:20.319 --> 02:28:23.030
have like human karma going, human
02:28:23.040 --> 02:28:25.349
interests, and so they want to continue
02:28:25.359 --> 02:28:28.389
as humans just because of unfinished
02:28:28.399 --> 02:28:30.309
business or that sort of thing. So that
02:28:30.319 --> 02:28:32.790
might that would come closest to RFS's
02:28:32.800 --> 02:28:35.030
second option here.
02:28:35.040 --> 02:28:37.110
Um because leaving the human realm is
02:28:37.120 --> 02:28:39.670
rare and difficult, not so much, I
02:28:39.680 --> 02:28:43.190
think. So I would guess that it's partly
02:28:43.200 --> 02:28:47.349
one but mostly two in the sense that
02:28:47.359 --> 02:28:51.429
um the human realm I mean it is
02:28:51.439 --> 02:28:55.030
supportive for practice but also a lot
02:28:55.040 --> 02:28:56.469
of teachers I mean they just they're
02:28:56.479 --> 02:28:58.309
humans now they think like humans
02:28:58.319 --> 02:29:00.550
they've got human intentions and desires
02:29:00.560 --> 02:29:03.510
and goals and so they're just projecting
02:29:03.520 --> 02:29:07.349
that forwards in time which just
02:29:07.359 --> 02:29:09.429
naturally winds up being another human
02:29:09.439 --> 02:29:10.790
existence.
02:29:10.800 --> 02:29:14.870
That would be a a fairly conservative
02:29:14.880 --> 02:29:17.590
guess as to why they're doing this, but
02:29:17.600 --> 02:29:19.110
I don't even know who he's referring to.
02:29:19.120 --> 02:29:21.830
I haven't seen any real context, so I
02:29:21.840 --> 02:29:24.150
can't say for sure. Maybe if they're
02:29:24.160 --> 02:29:26.710
like Buddhist monks or something, it
02:29:26.720 --> 02:29:29.429
might be really what he's saying with
02:29:29.439 --> 02:29:32.230
regard to the second option here that
02:29:32.240 --> 02:29:33.910
the human realm is uniquely supported
02:29:33.920 --> 02:29:36.309
for practice. Because according to
02:29:36.319 --> 02:29:39.429
Terabata Buddhism, human existence
02:29:39.439 --> 02:29:42.550
conveniently for us humans is the ideal
02:29:42.560 --> 02:29:44.870
situation for practicing dharma. Because
02:29:44.880 --> 02:29:47.190
the lower realms, I mean, they're so
02:29:47.200 --> 02:29:51.110
distracted with torment and survival and
02:29:51.120 --> 02:29:54.309
ignorance that they don't have nearly as
02:29:54.319 --> 02:29:57.270
much opportunity to practice dhamma. You
02:29:57.280 --> 02:29:59.910
know, they're just I mean, it's just not
02:29:59.920 --> 02:30:01.349
really much of an option for most of
02:30:01.359 --> 02:30:02.950
them. But in the higher realms,
02:30:02.960 --> 02:30:05.429
everything is so nice. you know, they
02:30:05.439 --> 02:30:09.910
don't have as much exposure to misery in
02:30:09.920 --> 02:30:12.230
the higher like the heaven realms that I
02:30:12.240 --> 02:30:13.990
mean, they're just not as inspired. They
02:30:14.000 --> 02:30:16.389
don't have that fire lit under them to
02:30:16.399 --> 02:30:19.349
motivate them to practice more.
02:30:19.359 --> 02:30:22.389
Although, I'm somewhat skeptical of that
02:30:22.399 --> 02:30:24.630
because, you know, it's like even in the
02:30:24.640 --> 02:30:26.230
31 Plains of Existence, some of the
02:30:26.240 --> 02:30:28.870
highest heaven realms are beings that
02:30:28.880 --> 02:30:31.190
are soon to be enlightened. They're
02:30:31.200 --> 02:30:33.110
going to be become enlightened from that
02:30:33.120 --> 02:30:37.349
realm. And you've got gods, davas
02:30:37.359 --> 02:30:39.910
that really I mean they they should be
02:30:39.920 --> 02:30:41.670
up there partly because they're wiser
02:30:41.680 --> 02:30:45.110
than us.
02:30:45.120 --> 02:30:48.389
So it's just might be just kind of what
02:30:48.399 --> 02:30:51.270
is it? Anthropocentrism
02:30:51.280 --> 02:30:54.230
to say that because that we are people
02:30:54.240 --> 02:30:56.389
and being a person is the ideal
02:30:56.399 --> 02:31:00.150
situation for practicing dharma. Um I'm
02:31:00.160 --> 02:31:04.309
a little bit skeptical of that.
02:31:04.319 --> 02:31:06.389
But I mean there's some truth to it. I
02:31:06.399 --> 02:31:08.309
suppose I wouldn't just flat out reject
02:31:08.319 --> 02:31:11.110
it completely.
02:31:11.120 --> 02:31:14.150
But in in answer to RFS's question, I
02:31:14.160 --> 02:31:16.309
mean why
02:31:16.319 --> 02:31:18.309
that many practitioners whom he regards
02:31:18.319 --> 02:31:19.990
as spiritually mature speak of their own
02:31:20.000 --> 02:31:23.270
future or birth as human? I mean, maybe
02:31:23.280 --> 02:31:25.349
just because they are human, they've got
02:31:25.359 --> 02:31:27.429
human karmic momentum going, which in
02:31:27.439 --> 02:31:29.349
all likelihood will result in them being
02:31:29.359 --> 02:31:31.510
human again if they're not fully
02:31:31.520 --> 02:31:33.910
enlightened and if they are not just so
02:31:33.920 --> 02:31:36.070
spiritually advanced that they're going
02:31:36.080 --> 02:31:38.710
to wind up in a heaven realm.
02:31:38.720 --> 02:31:42.070
But really, I can't really say for sure
02:31:42.080 --> 02:31:44.630
because I'm not haven't been exposed to
02:31:44.640 --> 02:31:47.910
these people or what they're saying. And
02:31:47.920 --> 02:31:49.990
all I know about them is what RFS has
02:31:50.000 --> 02:31:53.349
said in this relatively brief question.
02:31:53.359 --> 02:31:55.270
And so I'm just going to move on to the
02:31:55.280 --> 02:31:59.750
last question from Practice Meta.
02:31:59.760 --> 02:32:02.070
And Practice Meta says, "I am wondering
02:32:02.080 --> 02:32:05.429
what is the optimal way to rid oneself
02:32:05.439 --> 02:32:07.750
of money and material goods before
02:32:07.760 --> 02:32:09.270
ordination?
02:32:09.280 --> 02:32:11.670
Should I give it to my immediate family?
02:32:11.680 --> 02:32:14.309
Should I try a merit maximizing approach
02:32:14.319 --> 02:32:16.230
and give it to centers of Buddhism in
02:32:16.240 --> 02:32:17.990
the West? Dhamma teachers, etc. So,
02:32:18.000 --> 02:32:20.230
we've got at least two questioners on
02:32:20.240 --> 02:32:24.630
this Q&A that are apparently planning on
02:32:24.640 --> 02:32:28.309
becoming ordained monks soon. So, I say
02:32:28.319 --> 02:32:32.389
sadu sadu sadu to that. And uh my
02:32:32.399 --> 02:32:35.030
blessings are upon everybody who tries
02:32:35.040 --> 02:32:37.590
it cuz I mean to be a bad monk is easy
02:32:37.600 --> 02:32:41.830
but to be a good monk is difficult.
02:32:41.840 --> 02:32:45.110
Anyways, practice meta.
02:32:45.120 --> 02:32:47.110
What is ask what is the optimal way to
02:32:47.120 --> 02:32:49.830
rid oneself of money and material goods?
02:32:49.840 --> 02:32:51.830
Well, I mean one of the first things
02:32:51.840 --> 02:32:54.710
that came to mind is Jesus in the New
02:32:54.720 --> 02:32:57.830
Testament who was giving this advice
02:32:57.840 --> 02:33:00.150
pretty often it seems like and he would
02:33:00.160 --> 02:33:02.630
say sell all that you have give the
02:33:02.640 --> 02:33:06.950
money to the poor and follow me.
02:33:06.960 --> 02:33:08.710
So,
02:33:08.720 --> 02:33:11.030
I mean, in my case, I just donated my
02:33:11.040 --> 02:33:12.550
money and my pickup truck to the
02:33:12.560 --> 02:33:14.870
monastery where I was ordained just to
02:33:14.880 --> 02:33:16.550
compensate to some degree for the
02:33:16.560 --> 02:33:18.550
hardship of having to deal with me for
02:33:18.560 --> 02:33:21.349
the next few years.
02:33:21.359 --> 02:33:24.950
So, I mean, that's one thing to consider
02:33:24.960 --> 02:33:26.630
is you could just donate it to the
02:33:26.640 --> 02:33:29.670
monastery or I mean, if your family is
02:33:29.680 --> 02:33:32.469
poor, you can give it to your family if
02:33:32.479 --> 02:33:34.150
they if they need it. my family didn't
02:33:34.160 --> 02:33:36.309
really need it at the time, so I gave it
02:33:36.319 --> 02:33:38.309
to the monastery.
02:33:38.319 --> 02:33:41.670
Um, or I mean, if there's other poor
02:33:41.680 --> 02:33:43.910
people that you think you could help,
02:33:43.920 --> 02:33:46.630
then you can do it that way. But I mean,
02:33:46.640 --> 02:33:47.990
from the Buddhist point of view, it's
02:33:48.000 --> 02:33:49.190
really not that important. I mean, you
02:33:49.200 --> 02:33:50.550
could just take all your money and just
02:33:50.560 --> 02:33:52.230
throw it out in the street if you want
02:33:52.240 --> 02:33:54.389
to so long as you don't have anymore by
02:33:54.399 --> 02:33:56.790
the time you become a monk. Monks are
02:33:56.800 --> 02:33:58.630
not allowed to own money, even though
02:33:58.640 --> 02:34:00.469
most of them do because most of them
02:34:00.479 --> 02:34:04.790
don't follow the rules correctly.
02:34:04.800 --> 02:34:08.469
So the optimal way I mean one thing that
02:34:08.479 --> 02:34:10.710
a monk is allowed to say with regard to
02:34:10.720 --> 02:34:13.750
other people's money is like a lay
02:34:13.760 --> 02:34:15.510
person comes to a monk and says what
02:34:15.520 --> 02:34:17.990
should I do with my money venerable sir
02:34:18.000 --> 02:34:21.190
the monk is allowed to say do whatever
02:34:21.200 --> 02:34:23.750
makes you happy.
02:34:23.760 --> 02:34:27.190
So I mean whatever you feel best about
02:34:27.200 --> 02:34:29.750
would be the the best thing to do with
02:34:29.760 --> 02:34:32.230
it. So I mean if that's giving it to
02:34:32.240 --> 02:34:33.910
your family if you're especially if your
02:34:33.920 --> 02:34:37.349
family has need of the money then that's
02:34:37.359 --> 02:34:39.750
good. Give it to the monastery just as a
02:34:39.760 --> 02:34:41.990
kind of compensation for having to
02:34:42.000 --> 02:34:45.590
support you that's good. Giving it to
02:34:45.600 --> 02:34:48.309
the poor like Jesus would advise that's
02:34:48.319 --> 02:34:50.550
that's good. I mean even throwing it out
02:34:50.560 --> 02:34:52.389
in the street I mean at least you're
02:34:52.399 --> 02:34:56.150
doing you're getting rid of it.
02:34:56.160 --> 02:34:58.950
So it it depends on you and whatever
02:34:58.960 --> 02:35:02.630
makes you happy. I suppose. And uh I
02:35:02.640 --> 02:35:06.309
guess I'm done. So by golly, we're done.
02:35:06.319 --> 02:35:08.389
We done.
02:35:08.399 --> 02:35:10.230
And so as I should always say at the
02:35:10.240 --> 02:35:13.110
beginning and pretty much never do, you
02:35:13.120 --> 02:35:15.429
think I can answer a question especially
02:35:15.439 --> 02:35:19.110
about like dharma, dharma, Buddhism,
02:35:19.120 --> 02:35:23.110
philosophy, that kind of stuff.
02:35:23.120 --> 02:35:26.389
Me personally, just feel free to ask and
02:35:26.399 --> 02:35:30.550
try to keep it concise, you know. Maybe
02:35:30.560 --> 02:35:32.790
150 words or less. I mean, I haven't
02:35:32.800 --> 02:35:34.790
counted words. Maybe a 100 words or
02:35:34.800 --> 02:35:37.590
less. I'm not sure.
02:35:37.600 --> 02:35:39.349
But no more than three questions per
02:35:39.359 --> 02:35:41.830
person per episode. Please like and
02:35:41.840 --> 02:35:43.429
subscribe if you have not done so
02:35:43.439 --> 02:35:47.110
already. And you do actually like this
02:35:47.120 --> 02:35:48.870
or even if you if you like hate watching
02:35:48.880 --> 02:35:51.270
it, I mean, you might as well subscribe
02:35:51.280 --> 02:35:52.870
anyhow.
02:35:52.880 --> 02:35:55.270
And uh check out the URL links below
02:35:55.280 --> 02:35:58.710
which includes the Amazon link to my new
02:35:58.720 --> 02:36:03.429
book. And uh be happy.
02:36:03.439 --> 02:36:05.429
And now I will push the button and stop
02:36:05.439 --> 02:36:08.439
recording.