Question & Answer #194: from the Buddha as a Catholic Saint to Confusion about Jhana

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en
00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.390
Alrighty then. Looks like we're
00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:07.269
recording. I'm just going with that.
00:00:07.279 --> 00:00:10.230
Hello and welcome to question and answer
00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:11.749
number
00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:13.589
194.
00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:17.670
I am your host Po Basa. And 194 of
00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:20.390
course is not a prime number. It is in
00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:24.230
fact 2 * 97.
00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:28.150
This is my beverage. Only one beverage
00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.349
here. I'm pretty sure that one is not a
00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:33.350
prime number. One is just kind of a
00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:36.790
weird number that is kind of neither
00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:40.709
prime nor prime apparently.
00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:42.229
And this week has just been a very
00:00:42.239 --> 00:00:44.630
hectic week for me. I haven't really
00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:46.869
been able to relax much this weekend
00:00:46.879 --> 00:00:49.910
either, but we'll just we're going to
00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:55.990
just power through this.
00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.670
So,
00:00:57.680 --> 00:01:00.630
I guess it's a good thing that we don't
00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:02.630
have a whole lot of questions because
00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:07.190
then I can relax afterwards. Be be at at
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:11.270
leisure for a little while.
00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.030
So, I think I'm just going to like dive
00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.750
right into this. It's it's too too deep
00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:17.590
for waiting. I'm going to just dive
00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:19.990
right in. And the first question is from
00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.149
Phil.
00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:24.870
And Phil says, "Are you aware that the
00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:27.910
Buddha was a popularly venerated saint
00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.469
in the medieval Catholic church under
00:01:30.479 --> 00:01:33.590
the name St. Josephhat?" Look it up if
00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:34.789
you don't know already. It's
00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:36.710
fascinating. And I have already
00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:41.270
mentioned St. Josephhat on these videos
00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.469
in the past. And it is somewhat of a
00:01:44.479 --> 00:01:48.389
technical fallacy that St. Josephhat was
00:01:48.399 --> 00:01:52.550
really the Buddha because St. Josephhat
00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:55.109
is based on a previous life of the
00:01:55.119 --> 00:01:59.830
Buddha. So let's say I was Thomas Edison
00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:03.429
in a previous life. Not saying I was,
00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:06.550
probably wasn't, but let's just say it.
00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:08.949
I was Thomas Edison in a previous life.
00:02:08.959 --> 00:02:11.830
So in a to say that I was Thomas Edison
00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:13.910
in a previous life is not the same as to
00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:18.790
say that I am Thomas Edison.
00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:22.550
So the way the Buddha became conflated
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:25.830
with St. Joseph or sort of
00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:27.750
transmogrified
00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:31.190
into St. Joseph who is on the Catholic
00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:33.350
calendar of saints. I think his feast
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:35.509
day is like in November or December.
00:02:35.519 --> 00:02:38.790
He's got at least two churches dedicated
00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:41.830
to him. One is in Sicily, I think, and
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.350
one is like in southern France.
00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:49.190
Also, before I get into the story,
00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:51.750
I have been told that there is a
00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:54.470
monastery, a Catholic monastery in
00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:57.270
Germany somewhere that has a shrine to
00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:59.910
all of the saints. And at the shrine to
00:02:59.920 --> 00:03:02.470
St. Joseph, they've just got a Buddha
00:03:02.480 --> 00:03:03.910
statue, just the Buddha sitting in
00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:05.670
meditation
00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:08.710
representing St. Joseph.
00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:12.149
But again, technically speaking, the
00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:14.869
Buddha and St. Jehoshaphat were not the
00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:18.470
same person. So what happened was you
00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:20.949
have what are called jotica stories. The
00:03:20.959 --> 00:03:24.470
jotica is one of the texts in the
00:03:24.480 --> 00:03:26.470
polytopic
00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:28.149
mainly. I'm pretty sure that the only
00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:30.229
canonical part of the jotas are the
00:03:30.239 --> 00:03:32.949
verses. The actual stories are
00:03:32.959 --> 00:03:35.110
technically commentarial.
00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:37.190
So anyways, I don't even I don't even
00:03:37.200 --> 00:03:40.710
know for sure which um
00:03:40.720 --> 00:03:43.589
which Jotica story
00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.869
wound up with St. Josephhat becoming
00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:49.589
canonized as a saint. But there was some
00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:51.509
I mean the jotica stories at least some
00:03:51.519 --> 00:03:55.190
of them when the Muslims conquered
00:03:55.200 --> 00:03:57.429
northwestern India they liked the
00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.830
stories some of the they liked some of
00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.070
the stories which then got translated
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.390
into Arabic
00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:06.869
and the word bodhic sattva apparently
00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:09.589
they weren't going with terraodin
00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:13.270
uh jotica stories or like the the
00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.469
polytopica because by the time the
00:04:16.479 --> 00:04:18.870
Muslims invaded northwestern in India.
00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:21.509
Terravada had pretty much migrated or
00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:24.230
been pressured southwards into South
00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:28.150
India and Sri Lanka and also parts of
00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.430
Southeast Asia. So it was a different
00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:33.830
school of Buddhism's version of the
00:04:33.840 --> 00:04:37.189
Jotica stories that had these stories
00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:40.790
that some of the like the Arab traders,
00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.189
Arab scholars liked them. They
00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.590
translated them into Arabic and the word
00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:50.310
bodhicattva was translated as bodhisaf
00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:54.790
into Arabic. So then these stories like
00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:59.909
move westwards across caravan routes and
00:04:59.919 --> 00:05:03.189
I've read that by the time it got to I
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:06.790
think it was like Georgia or Armenia it
00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:11.590
became like uh let's see Lodisaf
00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.550
the the just the translation of
00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:16.950
bodhicattva becomes bodhisaf in Arabic
00:05:16.960 --> 00:05:19.029
then like lodisaf
00:05:19.039 --> 00:05:21.670
in like the language of Georgia or in
00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:24.150
Armenian and by the time it got into
00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:26.629
like Western Europe just following the
00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:28.629
the trade routes and so forth just
00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:32.550
stories just people like these stories
00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.909
that it became in in uh
00:05:35.919 --> 00:05:38.230
let's see
00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:41.830
um I think in Greek it was Yosaf and
00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:44.150
then by the time it got translated into
00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:49.350
Latin it was Yosesephatus or in English
00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:51.350
and the story was of
00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:53.510
I mean it was the story of Barlam and
00:05:53.520 --> 00:05:57.990
Josephhat. I don't know who Barlam was
00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.670
but Jehoshaphat was the bodhicattva in a
00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.990
Jotica story and um the people who read
00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.270
these stories just assumed that it was
00:06:09.280 --> 00:06:11.029
all true
00:06:11.039 --> 00:06:16.390
and this this Josephhat was so wise and
00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:18.550
so virtuous they assumed he had to be a
00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:22.710
good Christian. And so this
00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:24.629
uh Josephhat
00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:28.390
from a Jotica story that was translated
00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:32.710
and migrated from India into Europe.
00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:35.430
He was canonized as a saint by some
00:06:35.440 --> 00:06:39.510
medieval pope.
00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:41.430
And as I say, his feast day is in
00:06:41.440 --> 00:06:43.270
November or December. He's got at least
00:06:43.280 --> 00:06:45.990
two churches dedicated to him. But again
00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.710
it's not really the Buddha because it is
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:53.110
the Buddha in a previous life.
00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.390
So I mean also the Buddha has been
00:06:56.400 --> 00:06:58.710
identified as the man in the moon which
00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.189
is also due to a jotica story. In this
00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.110
case I know I've read the jotaka story.
00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.070
is the sasa jotaka or the the hair
00:07:06.080 --> 00:07:09.830
jotaka h a r e like a rabbit
00:07:09.840 --> 00:07:11.990
where in a previous life the Buddha was
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.510
a wise rabbit and he was reward I won't
00:07:15.520 --> 00:07:17.510
tell the whole story but he was rewarded
00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:22.629
by king saka saka king of gods who
00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.510
squeezed the juice out of a mountain and
00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:28.550
drew a figure of a a hair you know a
00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.670
rabbit on the moon so I mean in the
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:33.670
tropics you kind of see the moon sort of
00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.309
sideways. So that the man in the moon,
00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:38.469
he's got like if if you look at the face
00:07:38.479 --> 00:07:40.629
on the moon of the man in the moon, he's
00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:42.550
got like two streaks coming out of one
00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:44.950
eye. Those are the ears of the rabbit.
00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:46.629
You just kind of turn it sideways, it
00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:48.950
looks pretty much like a rabbit. And
00:07:48.960 --> 00:07:50.950
that was also the Buddha in a previous
00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:52.629
life.
00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:55.189
So not only is the Buddha considered to
00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:57.350
be a Catholic saint, he's also the man
00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.790
in the moon.
00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:04.230
Let's see. So, Philist the the question
00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.469
here is are you aware that the Buddha
00:08:06.479 --> 00:08:08.629
was a popularly venerated saint in the
00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:11.110
medieval Catholic Church under the name
00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:14.309
St. Joseph? Well, technically it was a
00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:17.830
previous existence of the Buddha. So,
00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:20.469
it's pushing it to say that it really is
00:08:20.479 --> 00:08:22.390
the Buddha who is a Catholic saint. But
00:08:22.400 --> 00:08:26.070
I used to call myself um you know I used
00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:29.670
to call myself like uh Frey Pobaso de
00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:31.909
las tatanas
00:08:31.919 --> 00:08:34.870
and you know I was a a member of the
00:08:34.880 --> 00:08:37.670
order of St. Joseph. So I I could pass
00:08:37.680 --> 00:08:43.350
myself off as a Catholic monk.
00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.230
So we Buddhists are technically
00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.670
Catholics of the me of the order of St.
00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:52.550
Joseph.
00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:54.310
So, I guess uh I'm just going to move on
00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:56.790
to the next question here. This is from
00:08:56.800 --> 00:08:59.509
My Traa Buddha. And my Traaya Buddha
00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:01.269
says, "What will you do next year when
00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:02.949
your woman's birthday will land on the
00:09:02.959 --> 00:09:06.070
day you do your Q&A?" Well, this year it
00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:09.430
landed on the day I I I do my Q&As's. My
00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.269
woman's birthday was on a Saturday. And
00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.870
I usually, not always, but usually
00:09:14.880 --> 00:09:18.790
record my Q&A videos on Saturday. is as
00:09:18.800 --> 00:09:21.670
of right now while I'm doing this, while
00:09:21.680 --> 00:09:23.509
I'm recording this, it is Saturday
00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:26.150
evening and my woman is at the other end
00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:31.030
of the house wallpapering a hallway.
00:09:31.040 --> 00:09:32.949
So,
00:09:32.959 --> 00:09:36.070
I mean I mean I'm flexible. I can do
00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:39.030
these Q&A videos on Saturday or Sunday,
00:09:39.040 --> 00:09:43.910
but but there can there's there may be
00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:46.550
some real disruption in my schedule
00:09:46.560 --> 00:09:48.790
coming up because
00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:52.070
I've I kind of mentioned in a previous
00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.230
Q&A that I may be getting another job
00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.430
soon. That is still a possibility.
00:09:57.440 --> 00:09:59.910
And if I get that job, I'm going to have
00:09:59.920 --> 00:10:02.630
weird hours. So, I'm going to be working
00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:04.710
weekends sometimes. I'm going to be
00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.190
working. I'm going to have weekends off
00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.670
sometimes and I'm going to be doing day
00:10:09.680 --> 00:10:11.910
shift sometimes. I'm going to be doing
00:10:11.920 --> 00:10:16.069
night shift sometimes. And so
00:10:16.079 --> 00:10:17.910
it's it's going to be weird. I may have
00:10:17.920 --> 00:10:21.750
to like record some of my Q&A videos
00:10:21.760 --> 00:10:25.430
like on a Thursday or a Friday.
00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.509
I'm not exactly sure. I think Sunday,
00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:33.430
Monday is one of the the shifts
00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.550
and then t see Tuesday, Wednesday,
00:10:36.560 --> 00:10:39.829
Thursday is a shift and then Friday,
00:10:39.839 --> 00:10:41.910
Saturday. So, I'd be alternating 4 day
00:10:41.920 --> 00:10:45.430
weeks with three-day weeks. So, I think
00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.710
I'm pretty sure that all the time I'll
00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.550
have Saturday or Sunday off, but the
00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:54.389
hours are just going to be like kaspooy.
00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:56.790
I mean, there's there's no telling. I
00:10:56.800 --> 00:10:58.150
mean, I'm going to have to start doing
00:10:58.160 --> 00:11:00.870
it, assuming that I do start doing it in
00:11:00.880 --> 00:11:02.870
order to find out exactly how this new
00:11:02.880 --> 00:11:06.310
schedule is going to work.
00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:08.870
But no worries, I won't be making you
00:11:08.880 --> 00:11:10.949
guys get up at 5 in the morning to watch
00:11:10.959 --> 00:11:12.949
these videos.
00:11:12.959 --> 00:11:15.030
So, you you have no need to have
00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:18.310
concerns on that score.
00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:19.350
And I'm just going to move on to the
00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:21.430
next question. This is kind of an
00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:25.910
interesting one. I mean it's it's a very
00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:27.990
compound question. I mean you could
00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.069
tease a number of questions out of this
00:11:30.079 --> 00:11:32.870
question. This is from Jeffrey and
00:11:32.880 --> 00:11:35.030
Jeffrey says, "What do you think of the
00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:38.550
idea of Christianity being based upon
00:11:38.560 --> 00:11:41.430
Egyptian history that the teachings of
00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:43.590
Jesus being based in the ancient
00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:47.110
Egyptian wisdom texts, the Essenes, and
00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:50.069
his character being a mix of Thoth,
00:11:50.079 --> 00:11:54.949
Christ of the Essen and Tuton common
00:11:54.959 --> 00:11:57.750
that Abraham is based on Uriah, the man
00:11:57.760 --> 00:12:00.150
from
00:12:00.160 --> 00:12:02.150
So, that's that's quite a number of
00:12:02.160 --> 00:12:05.030
questions here. Um, let's just kind of
00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:06.550
separate them out a little bit. Let's
00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:10.150
just tease these apart, if you will.
00:12:10.160 --> 00:12:12.310
Uh,
00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.269
let's see. His character being a mix of
00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:16.870
Thoth, Christ. Okay, that's a different
00:12:16.880 --> 00:12:20.949
one. Let's just tease that one out. and
00:12:20.959 --> 00:12:24.949
the Abraham is based on Uriah
00:12:24.959 --> 00:12:27.910
the man from okay so technically this
00:12:27.920 --> 00:12:31.190
could be multiplied into four questions
00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.590
which is transgressive
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:35.190
but let's just wait into this because
00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:37.750
it's all like this big lump question
00:12:37.760 --> 00:12:40.790
that's just sort of incoate
00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:42.870
if you will
00:12:42.880 --> 00:12:44.389
so the first part of this question what
00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:46.389
do you think of the idea of Christianity
00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:49.670
being based upon Egyptian history well I
00:12:49.680 --> 00:12:52.550
mean There is a little bit of Egyptian
00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:55.829
legend in the Old Testament, you know,
00:12:55.839 --> 00:13:00.310
like Joseph going to Egypt during a
00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.990
famine and and and becoming like prime
00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.710
minister of Egypt, which of course isn't
00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.509
in any of the Egyptian inscriptions.
00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:12.870
And then, you know, Moses leading the
00:13:12.880 --> 00:13:16.150
the Israelites back out of Egypt, this
00:13:16.160 --> 00:13:18.949
kind of stuff. So
00:13:18.959 --> 00:13:20.949
also
00:13:20.959 --> 00:13:23.750
Israel and Judah, the kingdoms of Israel
00:13:23.760 --> 00:13:26.150
and Judah, which were, you know,
00:13:26.160 --> 00:13:28.150
approximately where the the nation of
00:13:28.160 --> 00:13:31.910
Israel is today. Um, they were under the
00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:34.710
Egyptian sphere of influence a lot of
00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:38.069
the time that sometimes they were under
00:13:38.079 --> 00:13:41.829
like the Assyrian or like Babylonian,
00:13:41.839 --> 00:13:43.509
like they were like a satellite of
00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:45.509
Assyria or Babylonia. Sometimes they
00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:48.389
were like a satellite of Egypt. And in
00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:50.150
their more prosperous times, they were
00:13:50.160 --> 00:13:52.389
just kind of like a neutral buffer state
00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:54.870
in between these two regional powers,
00:13:54.880 --> 00:13:59.189
Egypt and whatever Mesopotamian power
00:13:59.199 --> 00:14:02.230
happened to be like the power at the
00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:03.670
time.
00:14:03.680 --> 00:14:05.509
So, like in the the Chronicles of the
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:07.670
Old Testament, you've got like the bad
00:14:07.680 --> 00:14:10.470
kings who set up pagan shrines, and then
00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.870
you got the good kings who knock down
00:14:12.880 --> 00:14:16.470
the pagan shrines and just follow the
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.590
Jewish or protoJewish religion. A lot of
00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:24.069
that was just political. Like if Israel
00:14:24.079 --> 00:14:27.350
or Judah was a satellite state of
00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:29.990
Assyria, then you pretty much had to
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.790
honor the Assyrian gods or you'd get
00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:35.829
stomped. Or if you were like a satellite
00:14:35.839 --> 00:14:38.310
state of of Egypt, you'd have to have
00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:41.750
some kind of reverence, at least
00:14:41.760 --> 00:14:44.389
superficial reverence, like ritual
00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:47.430
reverence for the Egyptian gods. And so
00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:49.829
it's when it was like a like a neutral
00:14:49.839 --> 00:14:51.910
buffer state in between the two powers.
00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:54.629
That's when you had the good kings who
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:57.509
didn't worship these pagan gods at least
00:14:57.519 --> 00:14:59.990
sometimes.
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.670
Um, I have read that Chris or like the
00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:06.389
the the Hebrews
00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:09.350
got their idea or at least were
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:13.030
influenced towards monotheism
00:15:13.040 --> 00:15:15.269
by the Egyptians, which may sound kind
00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.310
of like counterintuitive
00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.710
or paradoxical because the Egyptians
00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:23.750
were notoriously polytheists with a huge
00:15:23.760 --> 00:15:27.670
pantheon of thousands of deities. But
00:15:27.680 --> 00:15:32.629
back in the the the early days of the
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:35.269
like the the nation of Israel, the
00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:37.430
Israelites, you know, after the time of
00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:40.150
Moses, I suppose. I should have looked
00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:42.790
this up like the dating when when like
00:15:42.800 --> 00:15:45.430
Moses is supposed to have existed
00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:49.189
compared with um the Egyptian experiment
00:15:49.199 --> 00:15:53.430
with monotheism because it was um like
00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:55.430
Jeffrey mentions King Tat, you know, the
00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:58.949
famous King King Tat Tutang Camun and
00:15:58.959 --> 00:16:01.670
his father Akenatan
00:16:01.680 --> 00:16:05.430
was like he he was the one who moved
00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:08.629
away from Egyp the Egyptian pantheon and
00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:10.790
became name a monotheist. He worshiped
00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:14.069
only the sun god.
00:16:14.079 --> 00:16:18.069
And King Tutang Camun who was kind of
00:16:18.079 --> 00:16:20.230
like an unimportant king, but he's
00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:23.670
important to us because his tomb is one
00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:26.550
of the only tombs of a pharaoh that
00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:29.749
weren't raided and robbed thousands of
00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:31.749
years ago.
00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:34.389
So in the the early 1900s they actually
00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.870
found an unplundered
00:16:36.880 --> 00:16:40.069
tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh and that was
00:16:40.079 --> 00:16:42.710
King Tut.
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:46.629
So it may be that Christianity derives
00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:48.710
its monotheism
00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.310
partly through Egyptian influence and
00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:54.870
some of their other ideas are partly due
00:16:54.880 --> 00:16:57.670
to Egyptian influence. But I do not
00:16:57.680 --> 00:17:00.870
think that Christianity is largely based
00:17:00.880 --> 00:17:03.670
on Egyptian history. It's more firmly
00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:08.710
based on like Semitic Canaanite sort of
00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:12.390
religion that possibly migrated
00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:13.990
westwards
00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.350
from Mesopotamia which I mean that's
00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:19.909
what the Old Testament says also because
00:17:19.919 --> 00:17:22.949
Abraham the father of the Israelites you
00:17:22.959 --> 00:17:26.470
know the patriarch the first patriarch
00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:30.150
came from Mesopotamia.
00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.470
So what do I think of the idea of
00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:34.470
Christianity being based upon Egyptian
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:37.029
history? I think there's like some
00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.909
indirect influence of Egyptian history
00:17:39.919 --> 00:17:43.110
and Egyptian religion through like the
00:17:43.120 --> 00:17:45.510
brief experiment the Egyptians had with
00:17:45.520 --> 00:17:48.549
monotheism under Akenatan and Tutang
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.710
Camun.
00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:54.870
But I don't think that there really is
00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:57.830
like a strong link between them like
00:17:57.840 --> 00:18:01.270
like this causes that.
00:18:01.280 --> 00:18:02.630
Which leads to the second part of
00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:04.710
Jeffrey's questions that the teachings
00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:07.590
of Jesus being based in the ancient
00:18:07.600 --> 00:18:10.710
Egyptian wisdom texts.
00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.830
Well, I mean, if you read the ancient
00:18:13.840 --> 00:18:16.470
Egyptian wisdom texts, it's largely just
00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:20.310
kind of mythology and magic. I really
00:18:20.320 --> 00:18:24.230
have not found much actual wisdom in the
00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:27.190
ancient Egyptian religion. Like I've
00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:29.909
read the Egyptian Book of the Dead or at
00:18:29.919 --> 00:18:32.950
least one one English translation of one
00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.430
version of it. And I mean there's not
00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:37.270
much wisdom there at all. I mean for
00:18:37.280 --> 00:18:38.710
that matter there's not much wisdom in
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.430
the Old Testament of the Bible either. I
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:43.830
mean there's some
00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:46.070
but I mean it's it's relatively
00:18:46.080 --> 00:18:49.270
superficial. It's just this elaborate
00:18:49.280 --> 00:18:51.669
like mythology
00:18:51.679 --> 00:18:54.230
of gods and their powers and and like
00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:55.750
spells, you know, it's like some of
00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:59.510
these tombs of I mean not Egyptian
00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:02.150
pharaohs necessarily, but queens or
00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:04.710
highranking ministers of state and so
00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:08.390
forth. The walls of these undestroyed
00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:11.830
tombs are just covered with spells.
00:19:11.840 --> 00:19:15.350
Essentially like incantations that are
00:19:15.360 --> 00:19:19.029
supposed to guide you through like some
00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:23.750
sort of other world into like some sort
00:19:23.760 --> 00:19:27.830
of eternal heaven state.
00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:29.909
And I mean like the ancient Egyptians
00:19:29.919 --> 00:19:31.510
believed that you were going to you
00:19:31.520 --> 00:19:35.270
needed your body intact in order to live
00:19:35.280 --> 00:19:39.190
in this future state and all this like
00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:42.950
paganism you know animalheaded gods and
00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:45.669
so forth. I mean there really was not a
00:19:45.679 --> 00:19:48.150
whole lot of wisdom to it. I mean you
00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:51.750
look at the the early Greek poets and
00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:53.590
you know their stories about the Greek
00:19:53.600 --> 00:19:56.070
gods. There's not a whole lot of wisdom
00:19:56.080 --> 00:19:58.470
there. I mean, the Greek gods were just
00:19:58.480 --> 00:19:59.990
essentially
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:02.710
humans with longer lifespans and more
00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:04.870
power. You know, they were still petty
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:08.789
and sometimes vicious and kind of rapey.
00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:11.510
This kind of stuff. You know, the Trojan
00:20:11.520 --> 00:20:14.630
War supposedly was based on a beauty
00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:16.630
contest between three goddesses and
00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.909
they're all trying to bribe the judge
00:20:19.919 --> 00:20:22.150
and then when he has to pick one, the
00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:24.789
other two want revenge. This kind of
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:25.990
stuff.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:28.630
an Egyptian religion. I mean, there
00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:30.630
might be a bunch of stuff in there that
00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.909
I just haven't seen, but I have failed
00:20:33.919 --> 00:20:37.990
to find any profound wisdom in ancient
00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:40.149
Egyptian religion. It was more just like
00:20:40.159 --> 00:20:42.630
this elaborate mythology and magic
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.630
spells and so forth.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:50.549
So the teachings of Jesus
00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:53.110
again there there may be some slight
00:20:53.120 --> 00:20:56.870
influence like it may be that the Jews
00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:02.149
got sort of got the idea of monotheism
00:21:02.159 --> 00:21:04.630
from the Egyptian brief experiment with
00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:06.630
monotheism
00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:08.789
which didn't last very long after King
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:11.270
Tut I don't think he had any children
00:21:11.280 --> 00:21:13.590
then you had like Ramsy's the great or
00:21:13.600 --> 00:21:16.789
somebody took over and just I mean they
00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:19.909
just kind of defaced the statues of
00:21:19.919 --> 00:21:22.710
these monotheistic pharaohs and just
00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:25.110
pretended like they didn't exist. They
00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:27.350
just went right back to Egyptian
00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:31.510
polytheism.
00:21:31.520 --> 00:21:34.630
So he mentions the Essenes. I mean the
00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:37.669
Essins there has been some
00:21:37.679 --> 00:21:39.590
conjecture that the Essins were
00:21:39.600 --> 00:21:41.510
influenced by Buddhism more than they
00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:43.750
were influenced by ancient Egyptian
00:21:43.760 --> 00:21:47.510
religion that you had King Ashoka of
00:21:47.520 --> 00:21:51.110
India sending missionaries to like the
00:21:51.120 --> 00:21:54.230
the Henistic states
00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.590
um and that it may be that some of the
00:21:57.600 --> 00:22:00.950
the early protojews got the idea of like
00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.630
monasticism that kind of thing from like
00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:08.390
Ashoken missionary efforts through like
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.190
essentially Buddhism more than ancient
00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:12.710
Egypt.
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.830
I mean I I don't see a whole lot of
00:22:15.840 --> 00:22:18.390
similarity between like the Essins or
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:21.190
the early Christians on one hand and
00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:26.789
ancient Egyptian religion on the other.
00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:28.230
I think I already mentioned the the
00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:29.669
Egyptians even when they did become
00:22:29.679 --> 00:22:34.950
monotheistic, their one God was the sun.
00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:38.630
So, and not the son of God, but like the
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.190
star up there that that our planet is
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.310
orbiting around. Although I I'm not sure
00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:46.230
if Jeffrey believes that the earth is
00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:48.230
orbiting the sun. So, I shouldn't I
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:50.950
shouldn't push the issue. So, let's see.
00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:53.350
Then the next part was the character of
00:22:53.360 --> 00:22:57.190
Jesus being a mix of Thoth, Christ of
00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:00.950
the Essen or the Essen maybe and Tuton
00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:04.230
Camun. And no, I don't I don't see that
00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:07.270
at all. I think I mean there's there's
00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:11.190
almost no mention of Egyptian religion
00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:13.750
in the Bible like the New Testament.
00:23:13.760 --> 00:23:17.350
It's like Jesus was I assume Jesus
00:23:17.360 --> 00:23:21.830
really existed. And I would also accept
00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:25.350
that some of the details of the life of
00:23:25.360 --> 00:23:27.909
Jesus and the teachings of Jesus may be
00:23:27.919 --> 00:23:30.549
conflated to some degree with other
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:32.710
teachings especially John the Baptist. I
00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:34.870
think John the Baptist was like the
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:37.830
spiritual teacher of Jesus. You know
00:23:37.840 --> 00:23:40.070
Jesus I think I've mentioned this in the
00:23:40.080 --> 00:23:45.029
previous Q&A. Jesus probably Yeshua was
00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:47.350
a carpenter's son living in this small
00:23:47.360 --> 00:23:51.190
town of Nazareth in I mean north of
00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:53.029
Judea.
00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:56.230
I mean he was in Galilee which in more
00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:58.149
ancient times was essentially the
00:23:58.159 --> 00:24:00.070
kingdom of Israel which was distinct
00:24:00.080 --> 00:24:02.789
from the kingdom of Judah.
00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:05.190
But he was spiritually oriented. He was
00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:08.070
not satisfied being a carpenter. He
00:24:08.080 --> 00:24:10.710
hears about John the Baptist as a great
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:13.350
teacher and he goes and joins John the
00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:15.909
Baptist's spiritual camp or whatever.
00:24:15.919 --> 00:24:19.029
And while he is there, the spirit of the
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.430
Lord descends into him like a dove. In
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:23.510
other words, he has some kind of
00:24:23.520 --> 00:24:26.310
profound awakening experience.
00:24:26.320 --> 00:24:28.789
And then when John the Baptist gets
00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:32.070
thrown into prison, Jesus becomes the
00:24:32.080 --> 00:24:33.990
leader of the group. But Jesus kind of
00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:36.310
went his own way. He I mean he took some
00:24:36.320 --> 00:24:38.630
of the disciples. I mean, um, there is
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:40.870
some disagreement in the four gospels
00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:43.590
with regard to how Jesus got his
00:24:43.600 --> 00:24:45.350
apostles. Like, I think it's in the
00:24:45.360 --> 00:24:48.470
synoptic gospels where it says Jesus is
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:49.750
just walking along and he sees some
00:24:49.760 --> 00:24:51.350
fishermen mending their nets and he just
00:24:51.360 --> 00:24:53.750
says, "Follow me." And they just get up
00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:57.750
and follow him. But more realistic is
00:24:57.760 --> 00:25:00.070
hints at least in the gospel according
00:25:00.080 --> 00:25:03.350
to John that some of his apostles at
00:25:03.360 --> 00:25:05.909
least like Peter were originally
00:25:05.919 --> 00:25:08.310
disciples of John the Baptist. They met
00:25:08.320 --> 00:25:11.830
at John the Baptist camp and then when
00:25:11.840 --> 00:25:14.549
John the Baptist was imprisoned. Jesus
00:25:14.559 --> 00:25:16.710
decided not to just stay out in the
00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:18.549
desert but go into the towns and preach
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:22.390
the gospel. some of these previous
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:24.710
disciples of John the Baptist became his
00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:30.149
first apostles and followed him.
00:25:30.159 --> 00:25:31.669
So
00:25:31.679 --> 00:25:33.510
let's see here. Yeah, I don't think
00:25:33.520 --> 00:25:34.870
there's a whole lot of thought. I mean
00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:37.669
there can be like indirect cultural
00:25:37.679 --> 00:25:39.190
things
00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:42.549
that are just slight in my opinion. I
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:45.430
don't know who Christ of the Essin is. I
00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:49.750
mean Christ is a based on a Greek word
00:25:49.760 --> 00:25:52.230
Christos which just means anointed and
00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:55.029
is like the Greek translation of the
00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:58.149
word Messiah or the original Hebrew of
00:25:58.159 --> 00:26:00.310
the word Messiah.
00:26:00.320 --> 00:26:03.350
You know the anointed,
00:26:03.360 --> 00:26:06.789
the king of Israel, king of the Jews.
00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:09.830
And Tutong Kamun again I mean he was
00:26:09.840 --> 00:26:11.909
really like an insignificant pharaoh. He
00:26:11.919 --> 00:26:13.669
died as a teenager. he didn't accomplish
00:26:13.679 --> 00:26:17.990
very much. Um, so yeah, I don't think he
00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:19.669
really made much of a much of an
00:26:19.679 --> 00:26:21.750
impression
00:26:21.760 --> 00:26:24.710
1300 years later during the time of
00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:27.430
Jesus of Nazareth.
00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:30.789
You know, just the like the Egyptian
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.710
experiment with monotheism may have
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.909
influenced Hebrew monotheism. That's
00:26:35.919 --> 00:26:37.669
about as far as it would go in my
00:26:37.679 --> 00:26:39.830
opinion. And Tuton Kamun was one of
00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:43.750
these monotheist pharaohs,
00:26:43.760 --> 00:26:46.149
but he lived like over a thousand years
00:26:46.159 --> 00:26:50.789
before the time of Jesus.
00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:52.310
So
00:26:52.320 --> 00:26:55.430
yeah, I think the character of Jesus was
00:26:55.440 --> 00:26:57.990
pretty much the character of Jesus that
00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:01.269
was glorified when he was considered to
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:03.990
be the son of God, especially by the in
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:06.070
the gospel of John where Jesus is the
00:27:06.080 --> 00:27:07.510
creator of the universe. He is the
00:27:07.520 --> 00:27:09.909
logos.
00:27:09.919 --> 00:27:14.710
And I mean what Jesus taught probably a
00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:17.110
lot of it he got from his teacher which
00:27:17.120 --> 00:27:18.789
was probably John the Baptist. And John
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:20.870
the Baptist probably got a lot of that
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:23.750
from his teachers which some of whom at
00:27:23.760 --> 00:27:28.950
least were possibly Essenes.
00:27:28.960 --> 00:27:30.470
So let's just move on to the next part
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:33.350
of this question. Abraham based on
00:27:33.360 --> 00:27:36.950
Uriah, the man from well, the only Uriah
00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:39.110
I know in the Bible is Uriah the
00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:40.789
Hitittite
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:42.549
who who lived during the the time of
00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:45.269
King David. You know, he was the the
00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:48.549
husband of Ba Sheeba of of Ba Sheeba
00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.830
gate fame.
00:27:51.840 --> 00:27:54.710
So yeah, I don't I don't think that
00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:58.230
Abraham would be based on that Uriah
00:27:58.240 --> 00:27:59.909
especially because that Uriah wasn't
00:27:59.919 --> 00:28:02.230
even considered to have come from but
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:05.830
from like Hati that like the the kingdom
00:28:05.840 --> 00:28:08.870
of the Hittites which would be centered
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:12.950
in what is now Turkey.
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:15.990
So I mean Abraham as the the patriarch
00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:19.990
of um you know the Hebrews and
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:22.789
essentially the Arabs also you know the
00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:24.950
Arabs were Ishelites you know they're
00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:28.070
they're also descended from Abraham.
00:28:28.080 --> 00:28:29.669
Um,
00:28:29.679 --> 00:28:31.269
yeah. I think it might be just a
00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:32.870
coincidence
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:36.070
that Uriah in the Old Testament has the
00:28:36.080 --> 00:28:38.310
same two letters at the beginning of his
00:28:38.320 --> 00:28:46.230
name as the city of in Sumeriia.
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:47.750
Yeah. I mean, you know that there
00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:49.510
there's just a different Uriah that I'm
00:28:49.520 --> 00:28:52.310
unaware of, but I'm pretty sure the only
00:28:52.320 --> 00:28:54.630
the only famous Uriah in the Old
00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:57.029
Testament would be Uriah the Hitittite,
00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:00.230
who King David gets killed because he
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.190
was a soldier in King David's armies so
00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:05.110
that King David could mess around with
00:29:05.120 --> 00:29:08.070
Ba Sheeba and marry her after she became
00:29:08.080 --> 00:29:11.190
a widow.
00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:13.909
Uh, so yeah, who Abraham is ultimately
00:29:13.919 --> 00:29:16.870
based on that I don't know that's just
00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:20.389
lost to in the mists, the murky mists of
00:29:20.399 --> 00:29:25.669
of time, ancient prehistory.
00:29:25.679 --> 00:29:27.430
So
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:29.590
I guess I kind of answered the the
00:29:29.600 --> 00:29:32.789
multiple the compound question there as
00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:35.110
well as I am able and so I'm just going
00:29:35.120 --> 00:29:36.630
to move on to the next one. This is from
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:40.310
Siovak and Cypad Zeta
00:29:40.320 --> 00:29:44.870
and Siovac and Cipad Zeterina says
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.190
you excuse me he didn't do that.
00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:50.470
Seovioax did not cough.
00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:51.990
Seioza
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:55.110
says you say the good and bad have to
00:29:55.120 --> 00:29:57.750
cancel out but can you tell me how that
00:29:57.760 --> 00:29:59.750
would work for what the Buddha calls
00:29:59.760 --> 00:30:02.789
blameless pleasure of the Janna? The
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:05.190
first three Jonas come with immense
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:07.430
pleasure and there are seemingly no
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.470
downsides whatsoever if it is blameless.
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:13.110
It makes the idea of it all balancing
00:30:13.120 --> 00:30:16.310
out seem at least not to match with the
00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:17.990
dharma.
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:20.870
Well, first of all, the first three Jas
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:23.430
don't necessarily come with immense
00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:26.389
pleasure. I mean, you are able to
00:30:26.399 --> 00:30:29.029
experience pleasure and pain up until
00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:33.830
you get into fourth J.
00:30:33.840 --> 00:30:35.750
And then I mean the pleasure and pain is
00:30:35.760 --> 00:30:37.669
just physical and not mental in third
00:30:37.679 --> 00:30:40.789
John if I remember correctly. I mean if
00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:42.630
I just remember what it says in the
00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:45.269
texts correctly.
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.870
So I mean there is PT which is a kind of
00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:51.750
like sometimes it's translated as
00:30:51.760 --> 00:30:53.590
rapture. I mean it could be a sort of
00:30:53.600 --> 00:30:56.230
like like pleasurable interest or
00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:58.950
enthusiasm that kind of thing. But I
00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:01.510
have found in my own practice as a monk
00:31:01.520 --> 00:31:04.389
that that PT happens like in the early
00:31:04.399 --> 00:31:06.310
stages when you're not used to it yet.
00:31:06.320 --> 00:31:08.470
But then when you get used to it, it
00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:10.870
just becomes more of a neutral state.
00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:13.990
Janna is is not so much you're just
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:17.350
wallowing in pleasure that it's largely
00:31:17.360 --> 00:31:21.350
neutral.
00:31:21.360 --> 00:31:23.590
So anyways, let's just say that there is
00:31:23.600 --> 00:31:25.190
pleasure. You know, I'm sure a lot of
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:26.789
people get a lot of bliss. they just get
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:28.870
blissed out when they meditate. So,
00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:30.310
let's just kind of go with with that
00:31:30.320 --> 00:31:31.990
angle.
00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.630
So, I mean, how do you get there? It's
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:37.430
it's it doesn't just go one way. It's
00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:40.549
just if you have pleasure, there must be
00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:43.909
pain that that comes after that or or
00:31:43.919 --> 00:31:46.470
accompanies it. I mean, it it so long as
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:48.310
it balances out in the long run. So,
00:31:48.320 --> 00:31:49.909
it's in a case like that, you're
00:31:49.919 --> 00:31:51.909
starting off with the pain. You're
00:31:51.919 --> 00:31:54.070
starting off with like rigorous
00:31:54.080 --> 00:31:57.350
austerity and self-restraint
00:31:57.360 --> 00:32:00.310
which is damned unpleasant sometimes.
00:32:00.320 --> 00:32:02.549
And so the payoff
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:05.350
of that unpleasantness
00:32:05.360 --> 00:32:09.190
is this blissed out state of meditation.
00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:11.190
It's like Jesus talks about this sort of
00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:13.110
thing like in the sermon on the mount
00:32:13.120 --> 00:32:15.029
where he's talking about how it's good
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:17.909
to be miserable now in order to go to
00:32:17.919 --> 00:32:20.870
heaven later. In his case, it's not
00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:23.350
really an like an equitable trade
00:32:23.360 --> 00:32:25.509
because you're just talking a few
00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:28.230
decades of being miserable now for an
00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:30.789
eternity of pleasure, which doesn't
00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:33.430
balance out. But we're not talking
00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:35.669
Christianity here. Well, I guess I kind
00:32:35.679 --> 00:32:38.230
of was, but we're talking Buddhism more
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:41.750
than Christianity,
00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:43.350
even though the pre the previous
00:32:43.360 --> 00:32:46.789
question was about Christianity.
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:49.430
So yeah, I mean it would be you're
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:51.509
you're blissed out in your meditation
00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:55.350
which helps to compensate for just this
00:32:55.360 --> 00:32:59.430
like discomfort and sweat and bugs
00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:02.549
biting you and just austerity in general
00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:04.630
as a monk.
00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:06.149
Of course there are some people that
00:33:06.159 --> 00:33:08.950
like live in Marin County, California.
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:11.830
They do yoga on the beach, you know.
00:33:11.840 --> 00:33:15.669
They they have like a sahai berry
00:33:15.679 --> 00:33:17.430
smoothies,
00:33:17.440 --> 00:33:18.710
you know, they're they're living in a
00:33:18.720 --> 00:33:22.789
kind of a a lower level heaven realm.
00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:25.110
And some of those people might be able
00:33:25.120 --> 00:33:26.789
to just go right into Jonah and be all
00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:30.470
blessed out. And in a case like that,
00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:32.070
you know, it's still the principle of
00:33:32.080 --> 00:33:34.710
subjective equilibrium applies where
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:36.070
they're going to be having other stuff
00:33:36.080 --> 00:33:38.470
that balances that out when they're not
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:41.590
meditating.
00:33:41.600 --> 00:33:43.110
Anyways, just about any kind of
00:33:43.120 --> 00:33:45.590
pleasure, just pleasure in and of itself
00:33:45.600 --> 00:33:49.430
is blameless because that's just the
00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:52.470
fruition of past karma or present karma,
00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:54.549
but it's just like the the result of
00:33:54.559 --> 00:33:57.110
something
00:33:57.120 --> 00:33:59.190
and it's just kind of an involuntary
00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:01.430
thing that happens
00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:04.789
so to speak.
00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:07.990
So, seemingly no downsides whatsoever.
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:09.669
If it is blameless, it makes the idea of
00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:11.669
it all balancing out seem at least not
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:14.149
to match with the D. No, not really. I
00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:16.790
mean, section
00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:19.270
I mean, if he's going with the the
00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:21.270
Janna's in the texts, then he should
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:23.430
also be going with the the biku's life
00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:25.909
in the texts, which is a rough
00:34:25.919 --> 00:34:29.510
unpleasant life a lot of the time. So,
00:34:29.520 --> 00:34:32.149
this is the bliss of the Jonas is a kind
00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:33.990
of payoff. You know, it's it's
00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:38.389
compensation for all this austerity that
00:34:38.399 --> 00:34:41.430
and self-restraint and frustration that
00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:43.669
monks are having to go through enduring
00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:46.790
heat and cold and sickness and thirst
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:50.069
and hunger and all the rest
00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:51.750
and then they get into this bliss of
00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:54.230
meditation.
00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:56.069
So it could still be said to balance
00:34:56.079 --> 00:34:59.030
out.
00:34:59.040 --> 00:35:01.510
And like I said, even if you get into
00:35:01.520 --> 00:35:04.390
these these blissful states, I mean, if
00:35:04.400 --> 00:35:06.310
you're really good at it, I mean, it
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:08.230
just you get used to it and it just
00:35:08.240 --> 00:35:12.069
becomes neutral.
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:13.430
So I'm just going to move on to sea of
00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:16.710
action. Cupad Zena's next question here.
00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:19.270
Please make the best argument you can
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:22.390
that idealism is true and that there is
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:24.390
nothing outside of conscious experience
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:27.589
that actually exists. I'm curious why
00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:31.349
you think what we can experience is all
00:35:31.359 --> 00:35:33.910
that actually exists. I know the
00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:36.390
alternatives are also not provable but
00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:38.550
I'm curious for the case of idealism
00:35:38.560 --> 00:35:40.550
itself. Well, there's there's various
00:35:40.560 --> 00:35:41.990
ways you could you could approach this.
00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:45.270
It was sort of like Emanuel Kant.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:47.670
Emanuel Kant was I I can't remember
00:35:47.680 --> 00:35:50.950
exactly what kind of idealist he he is
00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:54.150
called because he didn't deny that
00:35:54.160 --> 00:35:55.510
there's physical matter. He's just
00:35:55.520 --> 00:35:57.109
saying we can't know it. We can't
00:35:57.119 --> 00:35:58.870
possibly know that physical matter even
00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:01.750
if it does exist. All we can know is
00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:03.990
mental states.
00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:07.109
And so um you know it's just kind of
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:10.230
like this assumption that there's
00:36:10.240 --> 00:36:12.710
physical matter out there. But his
00:36:12.720 --> 00:36:14.950
successors, you know, like Schopenhauer
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:17.910
and Hegel being the two most famous, I
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:19.750
mean, it was like it's redundant. I
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:21.670
mean, it's unnecessary.
00:36:21.680 --> 00:36:23.430
You know, it doesn't even do anything
00:36:23.440 --> 00:36:25.990
really necessarily. I mean, whether
00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:28.950
there's matter out there or not, our
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:32.950
experiences are exactly the same
00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:35.190
because I mean, all we really know is
00:36:35.200 --> 00:36:38.069
mental states. So it was like the the
00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:41.670
German idealists of the the 19th century
00:36:41.680 --> 00:36:44.069
mainly. I mean it was just it just
00:36:44.079 --> 00:36:46.630
seemed redundant. It was like now why
00:36:46.640 --> 00:36:49.430
even bother even like discussing it when
00:36:49.440 --> 00:36:51.510
I mean it's it's so problematic you
00:36:51.520 --> 00:36:53.910
can't possibly prove it's there. Might
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:55.270
as well just assume it isn't there. It's
00:36:55.280 --> 00:36:57.589
like AAM's razor just simplifies things.
00:36:57.599 --> 00:36:59.670
And also it simplifies things like
00:36:59.680 --> 00:37:02.150
psychic powers or not even psychic
00:37:02.160 --> 00:37:03.510
powers. I mean, how does your
00:37:03.520 --> 00:37:05.030
consciousness
00:37:05.040 --> 00:37:07.670
like control physical matter through
00:37:07.680 --> 00:37:10.230
your nervous system even? I mean, let
00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:14.870
alone like moving objects, you know, by
00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:18.710
psychic means like psychokinesis. I
00:37:18.720 --> 00:37:21.030
mean, even moving your own body like I'm
00:37:21.040 --> 00:37:22.630
waving my arms around. I mean, in a way,
00:37:22.640 --> 00:37:25.349
that's kind of psychokinesis, too. So,
00:37:25.359 --> 00:37:27.349
there's no way really to explain it. And
00:37:27.359 --> 00:37:30.470
scientists really don't know how to
00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:35.589
explain how like conscious experience
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:38.950
relates to the physical system of our
00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:41.829
body. So I mean that's a complication.
00:37:41.839 --> 00:37:43.510
It still doesn't prove anything like
00:37:43.520 --> 00:37:46.790
like Siobach says you can't prove
00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:51.190
anything like I think it was Spinosa was
00:37:51.200 --> 00:37:53.990
one of the first modern philosophers to
00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:56.550
point this out. Hume also like pounded
00:37:56.560 --> 00:37:58.550
away at this that the only thing you can
00:37:58.560 --> 00:38:00.710
know for sure is what is completely
00:38:00.720 --> 00:38:03.430
contained within your own mind. So I
00:38:03.440 --> 00:38:04.790
mean you could work out theories of
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:07.270
Uklid. You could prove that you can
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:10.790
cause a checkmate in chess with your
00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:12.310
opponent having only a king and all
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:14.150
you've got is a king, a bishop and a
00:38:14.160 --> 00:38:16.310
knight. You can you can work that out
00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:18.790
entirely in your head. And so you can
00:38:18.800 --> 00:38:21.750
kind of prove that conclusively. But
00:38:21.760 --> 00:38:24.470
with regard to matters of fact existing
00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:27.030
out there somewhere, you can't prove
00:38:27.040 --> 00:38:29.349
[ __ ]
00:38:29.359 --> 00:38:31.670
I mean, it's just beyond your
00:38:31.680 --> 00:38:34.310
experience. Your experience is what you
00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:35.829
are experiencing, which is mental
00:38:35.839 --> 00:38:39.109
states.
00:38:39.119 --> 00:38:42.710
So I do think that one of the
00:38:42.720 --> 00:38:45.670
best bits of evidence
00:38:45.680 --> 00:38:48.310
that that
00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:50.790
mind is all there is. I mean just
00:38:50.800 --> 00:38:53.190
setting aside like Buddhist texts
00:38:53.200 --> 00:38:56.470
especially Mahayana Buddhist texts
00:38:56.480 --> 00:38:58.790
the Mahayana Buddhists were kind of like
00:38:58.800 --> 00:39:01.109
I mean like the Terraata Buddhists or
00:39:01.119 --> 00:39:02.710
like the Buddha himself was sort of like
00:39:02.720 --> 00:39:05.990
Kant where you know mind is the emphasis
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:08.790
but he wasn't like openly denying the
00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:10.630
existence of physical matter. His
00:39:10.640 --> 00:39:12.550
successors in this case Mahayana
00:39:12.560 --> 00:39:14.950
Buddhists they just denied physical
00:39:14.960 --> 00:39:17.109
matter.
00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:18.950
And one of the reasons for that is how
00:39:18.960 --> 00:39:22.069
do you explain how mind
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:25.750
can like influence matter? I mean it's
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:28.790
like nobody knows
00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:30.870
other than just saying that mind is just
00:39:30.880 --> 00:39:32.550
an epipenomenon
00:39:32.560 --> 00:39:35.589
of electrochemical processes in a gray
00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:38.950
lump of meat.
00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:40.790
But I mean that's not really persuasive
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:45.670
to me either. But again, just
00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:48.470
another another angle of this is
00:39:48.480 --> 00:39:51.190
something that I pound away at a lot
00:39:51.200 --> 00:39:53.510
that a lot of people just don't get, I
00:39:53.520 --> 00:39:55.349
think, and that multiplicity is
00:39:55.359 --> 00:39:57.829
necessarily perceptual.
00:39:57.839 --> 00:40:00.069
Any kind of variation, any kind of
00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:04.069
difference is necessarily an artifact of
00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:07.030
perception. Because in order for you to
00:40:07.040 --> 00:40:09.829
have two things or even just to have one
00:40:09.839 --> 00:40:12.710
thing, you've got to have like
00:40:12.720 --> 00:40:14.310
relations.
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:16.790
That one thing has to be same as or
00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:19.349
different from in order for it to exist
00:40:19.359 --> 00:40:22.790
as a discrete entity. And same as and
00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:25.670
different from do not exist out there
00:40:25.680 --> 00:40:29.030
somewhere. That's in your mind. So you
00:40:29.040 --> 00:40:30.550
want to believe that there's like some
00:40:30.560 --> 00:40:33.030
multiplicity of things out there and
00:40:33.040 --> 00:40:36.390
forces and and particles or whatever. I
00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:38.790
mean it's not really possible. What
00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:40.950
people are doing is they're trying like
00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:44.069
a scientist is trying to understand the
00:40:44.079 --> 00:40:46.470
universe if there was no human mind
00:40:46.480 --> 00:40:48.470
there. Just originally like modern
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:50.550
science was trying to see the world the
00:40:50.560 --> 00:40:53.109
way God sees it. But that kind of has
00:40:53.119 --> 00:40:55.430
fallen by the wayside.
00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:57.109
So, you just want to know what's really
00:40:57.119 --> 00:40:59.270
there. But what's really there, what
00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:02.150
they're trying to do is dismiss human
00:41:02.160 --> 00:41:04.870
perception and then sneak it back in
00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:07.109
through the back door because you can't
00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:09.990
I mean, without human perception, it's
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:12.790
just void.
00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:15.510
And any kind of multiplicity I mean,
00:41:15.520 --> 00:41:17.510
I've I've pounded away at this, but I I
00:41:17.520 --> 00:41:19.829
don't think I'm very persuasive.
00:41:19.839 --> 00:41:23.030
Any kind of multiplicity requires
00:41:23.040 --> 00:41:24.790
relations.
00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:29.829
It requires perception to differentiate.
00:41:29.839 --> 00:41:31.829
And without perception, there is no
00:41:31.839 --> 00:41:33.750
differentiation.
00:41:33.760 --> 00:41:35.829
Without same as and different from,
00:41:35.839 --> 00:41:37.510
which don't exist out there, but are
00:41:37.520 --> 00:41:39.910
artifacts of perception, there is no
00:41:39.920 --> 00:41:42.870
same as or different from. It's just
00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:48.550
void.
00:41:48.560 --> 00:41:51.190
So it just seems way more elegant, more
00:41:51.200 --> 00:41:55.190
explanatory and more likely to me
00:41:55.200 --> 00:41:58.950
that the the universe or some sorrow as
00:41:58.960 --> 00:42:01.270
we experience it is a manifestation of
00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:07.030
perception.
00:42:07.040 --> 00:42:09.430
Sweet tea, you got to drink it in the
00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:12.390
south.
00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:14.150
the machine at work in the break room
00:42:14.160 --> 00:42:16.550
ran out of sweet tea last last week and
00:42:16.560 --> 00:42:19.510
just all hell broke loose,
00:42:19.520 --> 00:42:21.670
but I digress.
00:42:21.680 --> 00:42:23.030
So, there was something else I was going
00:42:23.040 --> 00:42:26.950
to say with regard to this,
00:42:26.960 --> 00:42:30.790
but now I can't recall what it is.
00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:34.630
So, yeah, I guess I should just move on.
00:42:34.640 --> 00:42:36.470
And this this is the third question from
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:40.309
Siobakan Sepad. He says, "Please analyze
00:42:40.319 --> 00:42:42.630
the karma of Epstein." And technically,
00:42:42.640 --> 00:42:43.910
that's not a question. There's no
00:42:43.920 --> 00:42:45.430
question mark at all. It's it's a
00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:49.190
request, but let's not quibble. Please
00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:52.309
analyze the karma of Epstein.
00:42:52.319 --> 00:42:53.910
And he's talking about the famous
00:42:53.920 --> 00:42:55.430
Epstein
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:59.510
who had the little St. James Island and
00:42:59.520 --> 00:43:01.670
the the teenage girls performing
00:43:01.680 --> 00:43:05.030
massages on wealthy celebrities and so
00:43:05.040 --> 00:43:06.950
forth.
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:09.990
Karma of Epstein. I mean,
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:12.309
in a way, he's kind of like a a human
00:43:12.319 --> 00:43:16.390
mara figure. And I mean, I should
00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:18.710
elaborate. I mean, I should kind of be a
00:43:18.720 --> 00:43:20.470
little more specific that Mara, you
00:43:20.480 --> 00:43:23.270
know, the Buddhist devil, so to speak. I
00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:25.030
mean, he's not really the god of evil.
00:43:25.040 --> 00:43:27.109
He's called Mara, the evil one, because
00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:30.150
in a way, he's the god of samsara. But
00:43:30.160 --> 00:43:32.550
Mara, he's not in hell. He is in a high
00:43:32.560 --> 00:43:34.790
heaven realm with his three voluuptuous
00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:37.190
daughters. He's living in the highest
00:43:37.200 --> 00:43:41.510
heaven realm of the sensual sphere.
00:43:41.520 --> 00:43:44.790
And so some beings they just have like
00:43:44.800 --> 00:43:46.309
this
00:43:46.319 --> 00:43:49.270
very hypers samsauric
00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:52.630
sensual success kind of momentum going
00:43:52.640 --> 00:43:55.030
which is their karma. I part of their
00:43:55.040 --> 00:43:57.750
karma anyway. You know it's like how do
00:43:57.760 --> 00:43:59.589
you get to be a rock star? How you get
00:43:59.599 --> 00:44:01.910
how do you get to be a king? You know,
00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:04.230
it's it's you just have this karma that
00:44:04.240 --> 00:44:09.109
leads you into this realm of plenty and
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:12.230
not necessarily satisfaction, but but
00:44:12.240 --> 00:44:15.430
sensual pleasure and so forth. This
00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:17.670
relative power,
00:44:17.680 --> 00:44:20.390
wealth, that kind of stuff that he was
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:22.230
born into that and had this momentum
00:44:22.240 --> 00:44:24.790
going of
00:44:24.800 --> 00:44:27.510
sensual pleasure. I mean, he liked girls
00:44:27.520 --> 00:44:29.270
apparently,
00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:31.510
including teenage girls.
00:44:31.520 --> 00:44:33.589
And that I mean there there are some
00:44:33.599 --> 00:44:35.589
people who argue that most of the
00:44:35.599 --> 00:44:38.230
dallying with teenage girls wasn't so
00:44:38.240 --> 00:44:41.589
much for blackmailing
00:44:41.599 --> 00:44:43.990
like celebrities or politicians, but he
00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:47.750
he just was into them himself.
00:44:47.760 --> 00:44:50.150
Um but even so, I mean with regard to
00:44:50.160 --> 00:44:52.390
the the blackmailing and him being a
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:55.030
MSAD agent and all that, a lot of this
00:44:55.040 --> 00:44:57.670
is just conjecture. A lot of it is just
00:44:57.680 --> 00:45:00.309
kind of lurid imagination.
00:45:00.319 --> 00:45:03.510
And I don't know where fact and lured
00:45:03.520 --> 00:45:06.069
imagination I mean where what is the
00:45:06.079 --> 00:45:08.870
dividing line with regard to Epstein
00:45:08.880 --> 00:45:11.589
Jeffrey Epstein.
00:45:11.599 --> 00:45:13.270
Well, I mean, he was really I mean, he
00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:16.309
had supposedly I remember when they
00:45:16.319 --> 00:45:19.190
first raided his his townhouse in New
00:45:19.200 --> 00:45:22.230
York City, I think it was in they talked
00:45:22.240 --> 00:45:25.430
about having this like seizing a video
00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:27.430
library.
00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:29.190
And I mean, whatever happened to that? I
00:45:29.200 --> 00:45:31.109
mean, that just disappeared. That
00:45:31.119 --> 00:45:34.790
probably got just erased, burned,
00:45:34.800 --> 00:45:36.710
whatever.
00:45:36.720 --> 00:45:40.390
I mean, assuming that it even existed.
00:45:40.400 --> 00:45:43.750
So I mean I Epstein I mean there there's
00:45:43.760 --> 00:45:45.030
there have been lots and lots of
00:45:45.040 --> 00:45:47.030
Epstein. I mean there have been like
00:45:47.040 --> 00:45:50.790
kings and and rock stars and lots of
00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:52.309
people who have just been doing all
00:45:52.319 --> 00:45:55.270
kinds of like the medi you go back to
00:45:55.280 --> 00:45:57.670
like Renaissance Italy a lot of those
00:45:57.680 --> 00:46:01.109
those politician types I mean they they
00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:04.470
put Epstein to shame some I mean there's
00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:06.470
stories of like the Medici having like
00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:09.670
these pleasure barges on a river between
00:46:09.680 --> 00:46:11.510
two political jurisdictions so that they
00:46:11.520 --> 00:46:13.750
were in like a legal no man's land and
00:46:13.760 --> 00:46:16.630
they'd be like molested ing nuns or like
00:46:16.640 --> 00:46:18.790
torturing people for entertainment on
00:46:18.800 --> 00:46:21.910
these barges. This kind of stuff. Roman
00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:23.589
emperors.
00:46:23.599 --> 00:46:27.270
I mean, there have been no no shortage
00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:30.630
of just sociopathic kings and so forth.
00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:31.990
They could just do whatever they want.
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:35.510
Like Caligula, for example. I mean, some
00:46:35.520 --> 00:46:37.349
of the stuff about Caligula may be
00:46:37.359 --> 00:46:39.750
exaggerated, but even if 20% of it
00:46:39.760 --> 00:46:42.069
turned out to be true, I mean, Caligula
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:46.630
was way beyond Epstein.
00:46:46.640 --> 00:46:48.550
So I mean like some of these kings I
00:46:48.560 --> 00:46:50.470
mean they just see they see some teenage
00:46:50.480 --> 00:46:52.309
girl that they like or a teenage boy
00:46:52.319 --> 00:46:54.550
it's just like bring them to me and
00:46:54.560 --> 00:46:57.190
there's nothing anyone can do. He is the
00:46:57.200 --> 00:47:00.230
law.
00:47:00.240 --> 00:47:03.430
So yeah Epstein was pretty much along
00:47:03.440 --> 00:47:06.150
those lines. I mean what he was doing
00:47:06.160 --> 00:47:08.470
that was like with regard to
00:47:08.480 --> 00:47:11.670
blackmailing and that kind of stuff I
00:47:11.680 --> 00:47:14.309
really can't say. Some of it may have
00:47:14.319 --> 00:47:16.630
been going on for all I know, but still
00:47:16.640 --> 00:47:18.470
just because people are saying it on
00:47:18.480 --> 00:47:20.309
social media doesn't necessarily mean
00:47:20.319 --> 00:47:23.190
that the thing is true or he was like a
00:47:23.200 --> 00:47:26.710
MSAD agent. Maybe he was. I can't know
00:47:26.720 --> 00:47:30.870
for sure.
00:47:30.880 --> 00:47:33.109
But just think of Mara in in like
00:47:33.119 --> 00:47:34.950
Buddhism or some of the even the kings
00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:37.349
in the Buddhist time. Even the Buddha
00:47:37.359 --> 00:47:41.510
himself before he renounced the world he
00:47:41.520 --> 00:47:43.270
lived in a man I just according to the
00:47:43.280 --> 00:47:46.390
legend he lived in he had three palaces
00:47:46.400 --> 00:47:48.870
and only beautiful young women lived in
00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:51.349
these palaces with him harums of
00:47:51.359 --> 00:47:55.270
beautiful dancing girls
00:47:55.280 --> 00:47:57.270
probably some of them teenage because
00:47:57.280 --> 00:48:00.069
back then it wasn't considered to be
00:48:00.079 --> 00:48:02.470
that that outrageous of a thing you know
00:48:02.480 --> 00:48:05.030
some in the some of the polyutas is
00:48:05.040 --> 00:48:06.870
describing a woman at her peak of
00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:08.950
attractiveness. It's describing a woman
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:14.550
that's like 15 or 16 years old.
00:48:14.560 --> 00:48:16.470
So, I mean, there have been so many
00:48:16.480 --> 00:48:19.510
Epstein and it's just like Mara, the
00:48:19.520 --> 00:48:21.589
evil one. I mean, what kind of karma got
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:25.430
him to be like overlord of Samsara, so
00:48:25.440 --> 00:48:27.910
to speak, overlord of the sensual realms
00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:32.069
anyway?
00:48:32.079 --> 00:48:33.829
L trying to lure people away from
00:48:33.839 --> 00:48:37.750
enlightenment.
00:48:37.760 --> 00:48:40.870
So yeah, I mean you can't really analyze
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:42.790
the karma of someone you don't know very
00:48:42.800 --> 00:48:44.630
well,
00:48:44.640 --> 00:48:47.829
but I mean there have been countless
00:48:47.839 --> 00:48:49.750
Epstein in this world. I mean it's not
00:48:49.760 --> 00:48:51.109
like he's some sort of singular
00:48:51.119 --> 00:48:53.829
phenomenon.
00:48:53.839 --> 00:48:56.150
I'm sure there have been a lot a lot of
00:48:56.160 --> 00:49:00.309
people more depraved than Epstein
00:49:00.319 --> 00:49:03.270
in just that are walking the streets
00:49:03.280 --> 00:49:05.270
right now.
00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:08.790
Powerful people, you know, musicians,
00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:11.990
for example, rich ones, not poor
00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:15.030
musicians, not the guy with like his
00:49:15.040 --> 00:49:17.030
guitar case open on the sidewalk playing
00:49:17.040 --> 00:49:20.630
the guitar for handouts. Not that guy.
00:49:20.640 --> 00:49:23.589
Rock stars, this kind of thing. P.
00:49:23.599 --> 00:49:27.030
Diddy.
00:49:27.040 --> 00:49:29.910
So,
00:49:29.920 --> 00:49:31.430
I mean there's really not much else I
00:49:31.440 --> 00:49:33.750
can say I suppose. Not that I can think
00:49:33.760 --> 00:49:35.430
of anyway. So, I move on to the next
00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:38.309
question. This is from Drip Walker. And
00:49:38.319 --> 00:49:40.309
Dripwalker says, "Are there any
00:49:40.319 --> 00:49:43.510
spiritual benefits of going vegetarian?
00:49:43.520 --> 00:49:45.589
To give you some context, someone said
00:49:45.599 --> 00:49:48.069
their meditation improved after becoming
00:49:48.079 --> 00:49:50.470
a vegetarian, but I am not sure if it
00:49:50.480 --> 00:49:52.549
was Buddhist meditation or some other
00:49:52.559 --> 00:49:55.589
weird esoteric meditation. Back then, I
00:49:55.599 --> 00:49:58.069
was not that spiritual as now to go into
00:49:58.079 --> 00:50:01.510
specifics, but somehow he said he is a
00:50:01.520 --> 00:50:04.309
Buddhist. Also, keep in mind this is a
00:50:04.319 --> 00:50:06.549
guy from California. Hope that helps in
00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:08.790
any way. Well, Mahayana Buddhists tend
00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:11.510
to be vegetarian.
00:50:11.520 --> 00:50:14.790
So yeah, the early Buddhists like
00:50:14.800 --> 00:50:16.950
Terravada Buddhists
00:50:16.960 --> 00:50:19.750
um they weren't vegetarian just because
00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:21.990
it was so early that India in general
00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.309
wasn't vegetarian. Monks were beggars.
00:50:24.319 --> 00:50:26.870
Beggars can't be choosers and so they
00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:29.030
weren't allowed to eat meat that was
00:50:29.040 --> 00:50:31.430
killed on their behalf. But if it was
00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:33.430
just leftovers from somebody else's
00:50:33.440 --> 00:50:37.109
meal, then it was allowable. The Buddha
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:39.829
himself apparently ate meat. So with
00:50:39.839 --> 00:50:41.750
going with Buddhist ethics, I mean if
00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:44.230
you can do something without unh
00:50:44.240 --> 00:50:47.910
wholesome mental states like eating food
00:50:47.920 --> 00:50:49.349
with without unh wholesome mental
00:50:49.359 --> 00:50:51.670
states, you're doing nothing wrong. I
00:50:51.680 --> 00:50:53.349
mean if you're just wallowing in the
00:50:53.359 --> 00:50:56.549
pleasure of some vegan gourmet dish, I
00:50:56.559 --> 00:51:00.870
assume vegans have gourmet cooking.
00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:03.750
Then I mean that is unethical. I mean,
00:51:03.760 --> 00:51:05.750
that's that's like you're doing
00:51:05.760 --> 00:51:09.109
something worse by just wallowing in the
00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:13.109
sensuality of being a vegan foodie than
00:51:13.119 --> 00:51:17.349
you are by just eating meat that is
00:51:17.359 --> 00:51:19.990
leftover from somebody else's meal and
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:22.470
you're just eating it just in a neutral
00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:24.549
mental state in order to keep yourself
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:25.910
healthy so that you can continue
00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:29.670
practicing dharma.
00:51:29.680 --> 00:51:32.549
Um I have I do remember reading in a
00:51:32.559 --> 00:51:34.710
book by Ramdas
00:51:34.720 --> 00:51:38.150
one of my first spiritual teachers
00:51:38.160 --> 00:51:42.150
who was born Jewish incidentally
00:51:42.160 --> 00:51:45.349
but he said that uh the main benefit of
00:51:45.359 --> 00:51:47.349
being vegetarian
00:51:47.359 --> 00:51:51.190
is like a spiritual benefit is that when
00:51:51.200 --> 00:51:53.430
animals are killed let's say there's an
00:51:53.440 --> 00:51:57.030
animal like a cow at a slaughter house
00:51:57.040 --> 00:51:59.030
and they are freaked out. I mean, they
00:51:59.040 --> 00:52:00.710
smell the blood. They know that things
00:52:00.720 --> 00:52:02.630
are not good. You know, they're trying
00:52:02.640 --> 00:52:04.710
to get away. They're scared. And so,
00:52:04.720 --> 00:52:07.589
you've got these like hormones, fear
00:52:07.599 --> 00:52:09.349
hormones. I think Ron Doss called them
00:52:09.359 --> 00:52:12.309
purines going through their system. And
00:52:12.319 --> 00:52:13.990
then when you eat that, you're eating
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:15.589
some of that which is going to be
00:52:15.599 --> 00:52:17.750
influencing your mind somewhat because
00:52:17.760 --> 00:52:19.670
cow hormones really aren't so different
00:52:19.680 --> 00:52:21.750
from human hormones because we're both
00:52:21.760 --> 00:52:24.150
mammals.
00:52:24.160 --> 00:52:27.030
Genetically, a cow and a human are I
00:52:27.040 --> 00:52:28.549
would guess somewhere in the the range
00:52:28.559 --> 00:52:33.270
of 90% identical
00:52:33.280 --> 00:52:37.030
definitely up in the 80s. Anyhow,
00:52:37.040 --> 00:52:40.309
so from the point of view of Rahm Doss
00:52:40.319 --> 00:52:41.829
anyway,
00:52:41.839 --> 00:52:43.910
that that would be the main spiritual
00:52:43.920 --> 00:52:47.510
detriment of eating meat is you're
00:52:47.520 --> 00:52:50.150
eating these
00:52:50.160 --> 00:52:53.750
like chemicals that can influence your
00:52:53.760 --> 00:52:57.109
mind. And like going with like yoga,
00:52:57.119 --> 00:52:58.470
you've got three different kinds of
00:52:58.480 --> 00:53:01.589
food. You've got like satvic food which
00:53:01.599 --> 00:53:05.270
is like dairy products, fruits, grains,
00:53:05.280 --> 00:53:07.829
nuts, this sort of thing. Then you've
00:53:07.839 --> 00:53:12.230
got um rajasic food which is causes like
00:53:12.240 --> 00:53:14.630
increase of passion and that would be
00:53:14.640 --> 00:53:18.470
meat and also like spicy food. And then
00:53:18.480 --> 00:53:21.190
you've got tamasic food which is leads
00:53:21.200 --> 00:53:24.309
towards darkness and lethargy
00:53:24.319 --> 00:53:28.470
and um it would be like stale or like
00:53:28.480 --> 00:53:32.470
food that's kind of going off. I had one
00:53:32.480 --> 00:53:35.349
um I think it's he was like a Ayurvedic
00:53:35.359 --> 00:53:38.230
kind of guy in California said that
00:53:38.240 --> 00:53:41.030
mushrooms are tamasic. You know they
00:53:41.040 --> 00:53:42.710
just you know they grow in the darkness
00:53:42.720 --> 00:53:44.549
and [ __ ] and this kind of stuff. You
00:53:44.559 --> 00:53:46.870
know, I was thinking maybe blue cheese,
00:53:46.880 --> 00:53:48.630
maybe something like that might count as
00:53:48.640 --> 00:53:50.390
tamasic,
00:53:50.400 --> 00:53:53.190
but
00:53:53.200 --> 00:53:55.589
um meat would be rajasic, which would
00:53:55.599 --> 00:53:59.190
increase like amount the amount of
00:53:59.200 --> 00:54:02.549
passion in your system if you go with,
00:54:02.559 --> 00:54:06.390
you know, like yogic interpretations of
00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:09.670
the the influence of food on the system.
00:54:09.680 --> 00:54:12.549
But I mean, the Buddha ate meat. Jesus
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:14.390
apparently ate meat.
00:54:14.400 --> 00:54:18.309
Most Tibetans like living in Tibet have
00:54:18.319 --> 00:54:21.270
have eaten meat because you know crops
00:54:21.280 --> 00:54:24.470
just don't grow very well on the Tibetan
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:27.349
plateau.
00:54:27.359 --> 00:54:28.950
So I mean it is possible to become
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:31.030
enlightened while eating meat. It's just
00:54:31.040 --> 00:54:33.589
that it could be
00:54:33.599 --> 00:54:35.750
it could have like subtle influences on
00:54:35.760 --> 00:54:39.349
on like your your mind or your system.
00:54:39.359 --> 00:54:41.510
But also, I think the main detriment of
00:54:41.520 --> 00:54:43.910
eating meat is people that feel like
00:54:43.920 --> 00:54:47.030
it's wrong somehow and do it anyway. And
00:54:47.040 --> 00:54:48.790
if you feel like it's wrong and you do
00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:50.309
it anyway, then there's just going to be
00:54:50.319 --> 00:54:52.390
like this guilty conscience kind of
00:54:52.400 --> 00:54:54.870
stuff that is going to interfere with
00:54:54.880 --> 00:54:58.309
with your practice. So I mean if you
00:54:58.319 --> 00:55:01.750
think eating meat is wrong, you know,
00:55:01.760 --> 00:55:05.109
deep down you have like trepidation or
00:55:05.119 --> 00:55:08.069
doubts about whether it's it's cool to
00:55:08.079 --> 00:55:11.910
be eating meat or not, then maybe you
00:55:11.920 --> 00:55:13.990
should avoid eating meat. I mean when in
00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:17.430
doubt, you know, avoid the situation in
00:55:17.440 --> 00:55:24.150
from a moral point of view if possible.
00:55:24.160 --> 00:55:25.430
But I mean from the point of view of
00:55:25.440 --> 00:55:29.510
early Buddhism um killing is wrong but
00:55:29.520 --> 00:55:31.270
eating meat is not. And then of course
00:55:31.280 --> 00:55:33.589
you got modern people saying well if
00:55:33.599 --> 00:55:35.430
killing is wrong and you're eating meat
00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:37.829
you're endorsing killing but Buddhist
00:55:37.839 --> 00:55:41.750
ethics do not work that way. I mean,
00:55:41.760 --> 00:55:44.150
western even a lot of western Buddhists
00:55:44.160 --> 00:55:46.230
just cannot wrap their head around the
00:55:46.240 --> 00:55:49.589
idea that western utilitarian ethics,
00:55:49.599 --> 00:55:51.990
modern western utilitarian ethics are
00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:54.390
not the only
00:55:54.400 --> 00:55:58.069
valid ethic to go with. And from the
00:55:58.079 --> 00:56:00.309
Buddhist point of view, it's just
00:56:00.319 --> 00:56:02.630
subjective. If you can do something
00:56:02.640 --> 00:56:04.470
without unh wholesome mental states, you
00:56:04.480 --> 00:56:07.829
have done nothing wrong.
00:56:07.839 --> 00:56:09.430
It's just that some things are very
00:56:09.440 --> 00:56:11.430
difficult to do without unh wholesome
00:56:11.440 --> 00:56:14.710
mental states like attacking somebody,
00:56:14.720 --> 00:56:20.069
telling lies, this kind of thing.
00:56:20.079 --> 00:56:24.230
So, I guess I answered that question.
00:56:24.240 --> 00:56:25.510
I'm just going to move on to Drip
00:56:25.520 --> 00:56:27.109
Walker's second question, which is kind
00:56:27.119 --> 00:56:28.470
of a followup on the first one. He says,
00:56:28.480 --> 00:56:31.510
"What kind of meat do you eat?"
00:56:31.520 --> 00:56:36.309
And I mean, I'm not really fussy.
00:56:36.319 --> 00:56:39.510
Um, my woman might argue that she was
00:56:39.520 --> 00:56:41.349
going to cook up something with eggplant
00:56:41.359 --> 00:56:43.750
in it today and I told her eggplant's
00:56:43.760 --> 00:56:45.510
better if you fry it and not like put it
00:56:45.520 --> 00:56:47.190
into curry because it turns into this
00:56:47.200 --> 00:56:48.789
mush when you put it into curry. So then
00:56:48.799 --> 00:56:50.950
she just kind of thought that I was
00:56:50.960 --> 00:56:53.589
being fussy.
00:56:53.599 --> 00:56:56.230
But uh yeah, I mean I eat pretty much
00:56:56.240 --> 00:56:58.789
all kinds of meat. Although I've never
00:56:58.799 --> 00:57:01.670
really liked pork all that much.
00:57:01.680 --> 00:57:04.710
Possibly I was like a who knows there
00:57:04.720 --> 00:57:07.990
was some sort of pig taboo in in my
00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:10.710
culture and a previous existence.
00:57:10.720 --> 00:57:13.510
Who knows? But I was never really much
00:57:13.520 --> 00:57:16.630
into pork and and watching documentaries
00:57:16.640 --> 00:57:19.990
about factory farms. Also just the way
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:22.230
they treat pigs is horrible. Also
00:57:22.240 --> 00:57:24.710
chickens. I had my mind poisoned against
00:57:24.720 --> 00:57:28.230
chicken by watching these documentaries.
00:57:28.240 --> 00:57:30.870
Although nowadays, partly because of
00:57:30.880 --> 00:57:32.870
these kind of documentaries, the
00:57:32.880 --> 00:57:35.349
treatment of chickens has improved in
00:57:35.359 --> 00:57:37.030
that a lot of eggs that you buy at the
00:57:37.040 --> 00:57:38.390
grocery store now, you know, say
00:57:38.400 --> 00:57:39.910
freerange
00:57:39.920 --> 00:57:41.589
chickens, you know, it's like they're
00:57:41.599 --> 00:57:43.990
not in these little cages anymore.
00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:45.750
Although, what does free range mean? It
00:57:45.760 --> 00:57:46.870
could just mean that they're wandering
00:57:46.880 --> 00:57:48.789
around in the dark in a big warehouse or
00:57:48.799 --> 00:57:51.510
something.
00:57:51.520 --> 00:57:55.270
Steak. I eat beef. I like steak. I have
00:57:55.280 --> 00:57:57.910
to admit I was a vegetarian for many
00:57:57.920 --> 00:58:00.230
years up until I became a monk. I was a
00:58:00.240 --> 00:58:03.670
vegetarian as a monk for maybe two
00:58:03.680 --> 00:58:06.870
years. But then when I'm in Burma, I was
00:58:06.880 --> 00:58:09.190
living in central Burma which is just
00:58:09.200 --> 00:58:12.630
dirt poor. Just I mean one reason why
00:58:12.640 --> 00:58:14.630
it's so poor is because it's semi-
00:58:14.640 --> 00:58:19.109
desert that is very aid there and at
00:58:19.119 --> 00:58:21.270
least one out of every three years the
00:58:21.280 --> 00:58:25.109
crops fail due to lack of rain. And so
00:58:25.119 --> 00:58:27.910
if you don't eat meat, I mean your
00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:30.230
options are very limited trying to
00:58:30.240 --> 00:58:34.789
survive in like central Burma,
00:58:34.799 --> 00:58:38.630
Laymina village for example or Pendle
00:58:38.640 --> 00:58:41.510
village or let's see what was the other
00:58:41.520 --> 00:58:45.349
one, Tzu village. It's like you get pink
00:58:45.359 --> 00:58:48.150
chewy rice. These are very poor people.
00:58:48.160 --> 00:58:51.510
Pink chewy rice, some badass cookies.
00:58:51.520 --> 00:58:54.309
just most most Westerners would choose
00:58:54.319 --> 00:58:58.950
not to eat these cookies and like pork.
00:58:58.960 --> 00:59:00.950
I mean, I've I've eaten every edible
00:59:00.960 --> 00:59:03.349
part of a pig, I'm sure. Maybe not
00:59:03.359 --> 00:59:05.670
eyeballs, but aside from that, I've
00:59:05.680 --> 00:59:07.589
pretty much eaten every edible part of a
00:59:07.599 --> 00:59:09.990
pig.
00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:13.589
Pig brains, just like pig spleen, pig
00:59:13.599 --> 00:59:15.750
blood that has been congealed into
00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:17.270
something that looks kind of like liver
00:59:17.280 --> 00:59:19.829
but isn't.
00:59:19.839 --> 00:59:21.670
So
00:59:21.680 --> 00:59:24.549
yeah, I've I eat pretty much any kind of
00:59:24.559 --> 00:59:26.069
meat that's is put in front of me
00:59:26.079 --> 00:59:28.309
really. I wouldn't want to eat octopus.
00:59:28.319 --> 00:59:30.309
I like octopi.
00:59:30.319 --> 00:59:31.829
So I wouldn't eat that. I mean, I
00:59:31.839 --> 00:59:34.390
wouldn't I wouldn't eat like dog meat or
00:59:34.400 --> 00:59:36.789
something, you know, but the standard
00:59:36.799 --> 00:59:40.069
kinds of meat, you know, chicken, pork,
00:59:40.079 --> 00:59:43.990
beef, lamb sometimes, you know, I eat
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:46.870
that stuff. My my woman does, too. And
00:59:46.880 --> 00:59:49.109
she's a very good cook. She makes She
00:59:49.119 --> 00:59:55.670
makes steaks that are just to die for,
00:59:55.680 --> 00:59:57.750
especially for the cow to die for, I
00:59:57.760 --> 00:59:59.910
guess.
00:59:59.920 --> 01:00:02.230
I mean, I eat burger, fast food burgers
01:00:02.240 --> 01:00:04.950
occasionally.
01:00:04.960 --> 01:00:06.789
Just the other day at work, we got a
01:00:06.799 --> 01:00:10.950
safety snack, which was like Zachby's
01:00:10.960 --> 01:00:13.750
chicken sandwiches, and I eat mine. I
01:00:13.760 --> 01:00:16.789
was I was a good boy.
01:00:16.799 --> 01:00:19.910
So anyways, you know, I just eat meat
01:00:19.920 --> 01:00:22.950
nowadays and fish
01:00:22.960 --> 01:00:26.150
even even when I was a vegetarian. I was
01:00:26.160 --> 01:00:28.549
a vegetarian from from my teenage years
01:00:28.559 --> 01:00:30.549
up until I was a monk for like two
01:00:30.559 --> 01:00:32.390
years. So it was like 10 years that I
01:00:32.400 --> 01:00:34.630
was vegetarian. But still I would eat
01:00:34.640 --> 01:00:36.710
like invertebrates
01:00:36.720 --> 01:00:39.990
like shrimp, that kind of thing. I
01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:43.510
suppose maybe I can
01:00:43.520 --> 01:00:46.390
see if we can get this computer to stop
01:00:46.400 --> 01:00:48.710
making the beeping noises cuz somebody
01:00:48.720 --> 01:00:52.950
is beeping away on Discord.
01:00:52.960 --> 01:00:55.190
So, let's just go like this. See if this
01:00:55.200 --> 01:00:56.710
works.
01:00:56.720 --> 01:00:59.829
Okay.
01:00:59.839 --> 01:01:03.670
Yeah, I don't hear it anymore.
01:01:03.680 --> 01:01:07.270
I'm on the ball. I've got what it takes.
01:01:07.280 --> 01:01:08.870
So, I guess I should just move on to the
01:01:08.880 --> 01:01:10.870
next question.
01:01:10.880 --> 01:01:13.990
This is from Dama River. And Dama River
01:01:14.000 --> 01:01:16.230
says, "What are your thoughts on the 22
01:01:16.240 --> 01:01:18.630
Sri Lankan monks caught at the airport
01:01:18.640 --> 01:01:20.710
smuggling drugs?" Well, I'm not
01:01:20.720 --> 01:01:22.789
surprised. I mean, I have mentioned more
01:01:22.799 --> 01:01:27.270
than once in these Q&A videos that
01:01:27.280 --> 01:01:30.549
Sri Lanka has probably the highest
01:01:30.559 --> 01:01:33.510
proportion of crooked monks of any
01:01:33.520 --> 01:01:36.069
Terraata Buddhist country. you know,
01:01:36.079 --> 01:01:37.910
you're going to find them anywhere you
01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:39.670
find Terraata Buddhist monks pretty
01:01:39.680 --> 01:01:41.270
much.
01:01:41.280 --> 01:01:44.549
Um, but still in Sri Lanka, it's just
01:01:44.559 --> 01:01:49.030
mainstream that you you can see in like
01:01:49.040 --> 01:01:51.270
some some big city in Sri Lanka like
01:01:51.280 --> 01:01:53.910
Columbbo, you can see a monk just
01:01:53.920 --> 01:01:55.510
walking down the street with a briefcase
01:01:55.520 --> 01:01:57.990
who has a job. He's earning a salary.
01:01:58.000 --> 01:02:02.150
This kind of thing. In fact, um I knew
01:02:02.160 --> 01:02:05.349
this one American monk who told me that
01:02:05.359 --> 01:02:07.270
he had a teacher who was a Sri Lankan
01:02:07.280 --> 01:02:10.470
monk who said that even having sex is
01:02:10.480 --> 01:02:12.789
allowable for monks so long as they
01:02:12.799 --> 01:02:15.829
practice cois interruptus, the sin of
01:02:15.839 --> 01:02:20.870
Onan, which is just nonsense.
01:02:20.880 --> 01:02:23.109
But I mean, you're going to find crooked
01:02:23.119 --> 01:02:25.670
monks in Thailand. You're going to find
01:02:25.680 --> 01:02:28.069
crooked monks in Burma also. Just
01:02:28.079 --> 01:02:29.829
because somebody is ordained as a monk
01:02:29.839 --> 01:02:32.069
doesn't necessarily mean that they are a
01:02:32.079 --> 01:02:36.069
saint or a saintly person. A lot of a
01:02:36.079 --> 01:02:39.270
lot of like Asian people who are
01:02:39.280 --> 01:02:41.510
ordained as monks, you know, just who
01:02:41.520 --> 01:02:43.510
are born and raised in a terra Buddhist
01:02:43.520 --> 01:02:45.750
culture, they'll become monks not
01:02:45.760 --> 01:02:48.789
because they have like a vocation like a
01:02:48.799 --> 01:02:52.549
spiritual calling, but just because
01:02:52.559 --> 01:02:54.950
I mean they want to live an easy life or
01:02:54.960 --> 01:02:56.950
they want the free education of a
01:02:56.960 --> 01:02:59.990
monastic university. They want higher
01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:02.390
social status. They don't want to be a
01:03:02.400 --> 01:03:04.950
subsistence farmer working their ass off
01:03:04.960 --> 01:03:07.190
to eat crappy food when they could just
01:03:07.200 --> 01:03:09.829
be a monk sitting around having good
01:03:09.839 --> 01:03:12.230
food handed to them.
01:03:12.240 --> 01:03:14.630
So there's a lot of a lot of monks that
01:03:14.640 --> 01:03:16.870
are like that, especially the ones that
01:03:16.880 --> 01:03:18.710
were born and raised in terara Buddhist
01:03:18.720 --> 01:03:21.190
cultures. like western monks, the amount
01:03:21.200 --> 01:03:23.270
of crooked western monks is
01:03:23.280 --> 01:03:26.069
proportionally less than the amount of
01:03:26.079 --> 01:03:30.150
of crooked like monks who were born and
01:03:30.160 --> 01:03:31.829
raised into a terra Buddhist culture
01:03:31.839 --> 01:03:34.710
because a western monk or anybody who
01:03:34.720 --> 01:03:37.430
was not raised in a Buddhist culture is
01:03:37.440 --> 01:03:39.510
having to go against their own culture
01:03:39.520 --> 01:03:41.270
possibly going against the wishes of
01:03:41.280 --> 01:03:43.270
their own friends and family. I mean,
01:03:43.280 --> 01:03:46.789
they have to really be serious about
01:03:46.799 --> 01:03:48.950
becoming a monk. And usually, it's not
01:03:48.960 --> 01:03:51.109
just because they want to live an easy
01:03:51.119 --> 01:03:53.589
life.
01:03:53.599 --> 01:03:55.510
They were jilted at the altar. And so,
01:03:55.520 --> 01:03:57.510
in disillusionment, they just join a
01:03:57.520 --> 01:03:59.510
monastery. One of my teachers was like
01:03:59.520 --> 01:04:01.670
that. He or maybe he wasn't jilted at
01:04:01.680 --> 01:04:03.750
the altar, but he told me it was he was
01:04:03.760 --> 01:04:06.230
one of my my first teachers. He's my
01:04:06.240 --> 01:04:09.349
first teacher of monastic discipline who
01:04:09.359 --> 01:04:12.230
said that he became a monk because um
01:04:12.240 --> 01:04:13.990
his girlfriend dumped him and so he was
01:04:14.000 --> 01:04:18.549
disillusioned and joined the monastery.
01:04:18.559 --> 01:04:19.990
Another one of my teachers told me that
01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:22.549
he became a monk just because his family
01:04:22.559 --> 01:04:24.390
was poor subsistence farmers living in
01:04:24.400 --> 01:04:27.910
some remote arid village. So they just
01:04:27.920 --> 01:04:29.349
decided they wanted to live an easy
01:04:29.359 --> 01:04:32.150
life.
01:04:32.160 --> 01:04:35.109
So with regard to these 22 Sri Lankan
01:04:35.119 --> 01:04:37.430
monks, I mean
01:04:37.440 --> 01:04:39.589
um I mean I know little more about the
01:04:39.599 --> 01:04:41.270
situation than what is right here in
01:04:41.280 --> 01:04:42.789
this question. You know, it was it was
01:04:42.799 --> 01:04:44.950
in the news a few days ago. 22 Sri
01:04:44.960 --> 01:04:47.029
Lankan monks were arrested for trying to
01:04:47.039 --> 01:04:49.510
smuggle some god-awful amount of
01:04:49.520 --> 01:04:54.230
cannabis into Sri Lanka. I mean it was I
01:04:54.240 --> 01:04:56.390
mean it was it was a lot. I don't
01:04:56.400 --> 01:04:57.750
remember how much it was. I think it
01:04:57.760 --> 01:04:59.349
might might have been more than a 100
01:04:59.359 --> 01:05:04.150
pounds. It was it was a lot.
01:05:04.160 --> 01:05:06.230
But for some reason, this reminds me of
01:05:06.240 --> 01:05:09.910
a story somebody told me about of there
01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:12.470
was a a monastery in in Montreal,
01:05:12.480 --> 01:05:16.069
Canada, where they brought over it was
01:05:16.079 --> 01:05:19.190
like 12 novices. I think they were from
01:05:19.200 --> 01:05:22.950
from Sri Lanka. And so they they invite
01:05:22.960 --> 01:05:24.950
these 12 novices to live at this
01:05:24.960 --> 01:05:27.750
monastery in Toronto. I think it Toronto
01:05:27.760 --> 01:05:30.230
or Montreal. I don't remember which.
01:05:30.240 --> 01:05:33.029
And as soon as they got the Canadian
01:05:33.039 --> 01:05:35.910
equivalent of a green card, every single
01:05:35.920 --> 01:05:38.870
one of them dropped out because I mean
01:05:38.880 --> 01:05:40.549
that was it. I mean, they just wanted to
01:05:40.559 --> 01:05:42.950
to live in Canada and have like an easy
01:05:42.960 --> 01:05:46.150
comfortable life.
01:05:46.160 --> 01:05:48.470
But there are some some I I mean, I've
01:05:48.480 --> 01:05:50.069
told some horror stories. I mean, I
01:05:50.079 --> 01:05:52.150
don't want to really poison people's
01:05:52.160 --> 01:05:53.510
minds against the song because there
01:05:53.520 --> 01:05:56.390
there are really wise saintly monks
01:05:56.400 --> 01:05:58.470
also. I mean, it's sort of like the
01:05:58.480 --> 01:06:00.549
situation in Burma, especially, I have
01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:01.990
the most experience with Burma. It's
01:06:02.000 --> 01:06:04.950
it's like medieval Europe when it was
01:06:04.960 --> 01:06:08.230
Catholic, you know, it's like in in
01:06:08.240 --> 01:06:10.789
medieval Catholic Europe, you had some
01:06:10.799 --> 01:06:14.150
genuine saints and the the lay people
01:06:14.160 --> 01:06:16.309
just had unquestioning faith in their
01:06:16.319 --> 01:06:19.190
religion. It's but the the clergy as a
01:06:19.200 --> 01:06:21.829
whole tended to be pretty damned
01:06:21.839 --> 01:06:23.589
corrupt.
01:06:23.599 --> 01:06:26.309
And that's the way it is in Burma. And
01:06:26.319 --> 01:06:29.029
it may be even worse in Sri Lanka. There
01:06:29.039 --> 01:06:31.430
are some reform movements in like the
01:06:31.440 --> 01:06:34.630
forests of of central Sri Lanka where
01:06:34.640 --> 01:06:38.230
you've got serious monks again. But most
01:06:38.240 --> 01:06:41.589
of the the monkhood in Sri Lanka is just
01:06:41.599 --> 01:06:44.069
kind of degenerated
01:06:44.079 --> 01:06:46.630
due to largely cultural reasons and just
01:06:46.640 --> 01:06:50.230
human nature, anthropological reasons.
01:06:50.240 --> 01:06:52.789
And so new monks that are joining the
01:06:52.799 --> 01:06:54.390
SA, they're just following along with
01:06:54.400 --> 01:06:56.069
what the other monks are doing. And so
01:06:56.079 --> 01:06:57.750
they just follow along with corruption.
01:06:57.760 --> 01:06:59.430
And so it just the corruption is
01:06:59.440 --> 01:07:01.589
perpetuated or gradually gets worse
01:07:01.599 --> 01:07:03.270
because it's easier to go downhill than
01:07:03.280 --> 01:07:07.190
uphill.
01:07:07.200 --> 01:07:09.510
But there are wise
01:07:09.520 --> 01:07:13.510
good saintly monks out there too.
01:07:13.520 --> 01:07:14.710
And I'm just going to move on to next
01:07:14.720 --> 01:07:17.109
question. This is from RFS.
01:07:17.119 --> 01:07:20.309
And RFS says, "At what point in time do
01:07:20.319 --> 01:07:22.230
you think the majority of terraovaded
01:07:22.240 --> 01:07:25.670
monks beame began handling money?" And
01:07:25.680 --> 01:07:28.309
it's hard to say, but I mean, it just
01:07:28.319 --> 01:07:30.710
reminds me of the the canonical story of
01:07:30.720 --> 01:07:32.950
the second council. It's like the last
01:07:32.960 --> 01:07:36.309
chapter of the Vineia Chula Vaga in the
01:07:36.319 --> 01:07:39.430
the Vineapitica of the Polytopica.
01:07:39.440 --> 01:07:42.230
It's the canonical history of the second
01:07:42.240 --> 01:07:45.510
council which happened about 70 years
01:07:45.520 --> 01:07:48.309
after the time of the Buddha's passing
01:07:48.319 --> 01:07:50.870
from this world
01:07:50.880 --> 01:07:55.430
his paribana his final enlightenment
01:07:55.440 --> 01:07:59.029
and according to the story leading up to
01:07:59.039 --> 01:08:01.430
the second council like 70 years after
01:08:01.440 --> 01:08:04.309
the time of the Buddha you had this monk
01:08:04.319 --> 01:08:08.069
from the west like a prototer monk who
01:08:08.079 --> 01:08:09.190
travels
01:08:09.200 --> 01:08:12.309
east into like Maha Sanangika territory
01:08:12.319 --> 01:08:15.190
or proto Maha Sanangika territory in
01:08:15.200 --> 01:08:18.950
like further further east in India and
01:08:18.960 --> 01:08:21.110
there had been some sort of donation
01:08:21.120 --> 01:08:25.430
event and so the monks were divvying up
01:08:25.440 --> 01:08:28.070
the money and then so they they offer
01:08:28.080 --> 01:08:30.309
this visiting monk from the west his
01:08:30.319 --> 01:08:32.070
share of the money and he refused to
01:08:32.080 --> 01:08:35.510
take it and this offended those monks
01:08:35.520 --> 01:08:38.630
and it started this kind of a a legal
01:08:38.640 --> 01:08:41.269
battle between the w the monks of the
01:08:41.279 --> 01:08:44.309
west and these these eastern monks over
01:08:44.319 --> 01:08:46.149
whether or not monks should be allowed
01:08:46.159 --> 01:08:48.630
to handle money. And I mean it's right
01:08:48.640 --> 01:08:50.390
there in the text. It's it's it would be
01:08:50.400 --> 01:08:53.829
odd that the second council would really
01:08:53.839 --> 01:08:55.669
be over the issue of whether monks are
01:08:55.679 --> 01:08:57.030
allowed to handle money considering that
01:08:57.040 --> 01:08:58.390
it's right there in the potty mocha
01:08:58.400 --> 01:09:01.030
rules that it is strictly forbidden for
01:09:01.040 --> 01:09:03.110
monks to handle money except under very
01:09:03.120 --> 01:09:06.070
rare circumstances. For example, you
01:09:06.080 --> 01:09:08.950
find a wallet or some money lying on the
01:09:08.960 --> 01:09:11.749
ground inside the monastery precincts,
01:09:11.759 --> 01:09:14.070
it is your duty as a monk to pick up
01:09:14.080 --> 01:09:16.709
that money and and like put it somewhere
01:09:16.719 --> 01:09:18.550
safe so that when the owner comes back
01:09:18.560 --> 01:09:21.430
for it, it can be returned to him. I
01:09:21.440 --> 01:09:22.950
mean, it's your duty to handle money
01:09:22.960 --> 01:09:24.789
then, but it's not your money and you're
01:09:24.799 --> 01:09:25.910
not going to do anything with it other
01:09:25.920 --> 01:09:27.990
than put it somewhere safe so the owner
01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:30.390
can get it back.
01:09:30.400 --> 01:09:33.749
So it just it is kind of strange that
01:09:33.759 --> 01:09:38.309
according to the terraovvada polytopica
01:09:38.319 --> 01:09:40.950
monks had already started like entire
01:09:40.960 --> 01:09:43.269
monasteries had already started handling
01:09:43.279 --> 01:09:44.870
money
01:09:44.880 --> 01:09:47.030
within 70 years of the time of the
01:09:47.040 --> 01:09:49.590
Buddha or I mean some people would say
01:09:49.600 --> 01:09:52.950
100 years but within a century of the
01:09:52.960 --> 01:09:56.709
Buddha's own time ancient India
01:09:56.719 --> 01:09:58.550
apparently monks were already starting
01:09:58.560 --> 01:09:59.910
to handle money cuz it's Just one of
01:09:59.920 --> 01:10:02.550
those things that a lot of monks they
01:10:02.560 --> 01:10:04.870
just they just can't resist the
01:10:04.880 --> 01:10:09.030
temptation. I remember one time I was
01:10:09.040 --> 01:10:11.189
living at a school monastery near
01:10:11.199 --> 01:10:13.350
Mandandalay. I was a junior monk at the
01:10:13.360 --> 01:10:15.189
time. I'd only been a monk a few years
01:10:15.199 --> 01:10:17.750
and some Sri Lankan monks came to visit
01:10:17.760 --> 01:10:19.669
and one of the Burmese monks told them
01:10:19.679 --> 01:10:21.189
that he doesn't handle money. He's very
01:10:21.199 --> 01:10:23.510
strict in his his vineia. He doesn't
01:10:23.520 --> 01:10:25.669
handle money. And the Sri Lankan monks
01:10:25.679 --> 01:10:27.669
just stared at me in amazement. And it's
01:10:27.679 --> 01:10:30.550
like, how do you manage?
01:10:30.560 --> 01:10:32.070
It's like, how did the monks in the
01:10:32.080 --> 01:10:34.709
Buddhist time manage? I mean, for one
01:10:34.719 --> 01:10:36.550
thing, if you follow the rules strictly,
01:10:36.560 --> 01:10:38.149
people have more respect for you and
01:10:38.159 --> 01:10:41.669
they're more I mean, they're more eager
01:10:41.679 --> 01:10:44.550
to support you. Not that that's why you
01:10:44.560 --> 01:10:45.590
shouldn't handle money. You shouldn't
01:10:45.600 --> 01:10:46.870
handle money just because monks aren't
01:10:46.880 --> 01:10:48.790
supposed to handle money. But it's just
01:10:48.800 --> 01:10:51.430
like this side effect. It's like good
01:10:51.440 --> 01:10:54.149
karma. is meritorious to follow the
01:10:54.159 --> 01:10:55.750
rules and you just wind up more
01:10:55.760 --> 01:10:58.790
fortunate because of it.
01:10:58.800 --> 01:11:01.830
But when monks started handling money,
01:11:01.840 --> 01:11:05.350
it's it's hard to say fairly early on it
01:11:05.360 --> 01:11:07.189
seems. Although even in the Buddhist
01:11:07.199 --> 01:11:08.950
time, money was kind of an innovation in
01:11:08.960 --> 01:11:10.790
India. Money was sort of a new
01:11:10.800 --> 01:11:14.070
technological advancement in in India,
01:11:14.080 --> 01:11:18.709
Indian society in the Buddhist time.
01:11:18.719 --> 01:11:20.149
I mean, it had been around a little bit.
01:11:20.159 --> 01:11:22.149
it was still kind of like hadn't been
01:11:22.159 --> 01:11:23.669
fully worked into the system. There's
01:11:23.679 --> 01:11:25.510
probably a lot of barter and so forth
01:11:25.520 --> 01:11:28.950
still going on as as like mainstays of
01:11:28.960 --> 01:11:35.910
the Indian economy in the Buddhist time.
01:11:35.920 --> 01:11:39.669
But it's hard to say. I mean probably
01:11:39.679 --> 01:11:41.830
you had monks even in the Buddha's own
01:11:41.840 --> 01:11:45.270
time. I hope a tiny minority who are
01:11:45.280 --> 01:11:48.550
already like handling money and maybe a
01:11:48.560 --> 01:11:51.189
few even good monks were handling it a
01:11:51.199 --> 01:11:52.790
little bit before it became against the
01:11:52.800 --> 01:11:55.030
rules.
01:11:55.040 --> 01:11:58.149
You know, even an Araant was uh the at
01:11:58.159 --> 01:11:59.669
least
01:11:59.679 --> 01:12:01.830
he he was like responsible for the
01:12:01.840 --> 01:12:04.630
making of one rule where there was this
01:12:04.640 --> 01:12:06.870
enlightened monk who would go for alms
01:12:06.880 --> 01:12:08.709
round like once a week, something like
01:12:08.719 --> 01:12:11.350
that, and then he would just save his
01:12:11.360 --> 01:12:13.990
leftovers. He'd dry the rice out in the
01:12:14.000 --> 01:12:16.229
sun so it would keep and then just eat
01:12:16.239 --> 01:12:18.790
that for the rest of the week. And then
01:12:18.800 --> 01:12:20.070
the Buddha said, "No, you're not
01:12:20.080 --> 01:12:23.189
supposed to do that." So, I mean,
01:12:23.199 --> 01:12:26.630
there's nothing technically immoral
01:12:26.640 --> 01:12:30.070
about handling money
01:12:30.080 --> 01:12:31.750
or just like there's nothing technically
01:12:31.760 --> 01:12:35.189
immoral about eating food that has been
01:12:35.199 --> 01:12:38.630
stored overnight.
01:12:38.640 --> 01:12:40.229
But it just became against the rules at
01:12:40.239 --> 01:12:41.990
some point. And it may be that before it
01:12:42.000 --> 01:12:43.189
became against the rules, there were a
01:12:43.199 --> 01:12:45.990
few even like wise monks who are
01:12:46.000 --> 01:12:50.950
handling money a little bit.
01:12:50.960 --> 01:12:53.350
But I mean, who knows? I mean, this is
01:12:53.360 --> 01:12:56.390
just lost in the the mists of antiquity.
01:12:56.400 --> 01:12:57.590
And I'm going to move on to the next
01:12:57.600 --> 01:12:59.669
question. This is from PSA. What is the
01:12:59.679 --> 01:13:02.630
sound of one hand clapping? PSA is the
01:13:02.640 --> 01:13:04.630
wise guy.
01:13:04.640 --> 01:13:06.390
And it's a question that technically has
01:13:06.400 --> 01:13:09.270
no correct answer, and PSA can't hit me
01:13:09.280 --> 01:13:10.950
with a stick if I answer incorrectly
01:13:10.960 --> 01:13:12.709
anyway. So, I'm moving on to the next
01:13:12.719 --> 01:13:14.870
question.
01:13:14.880 --> 01:13:17.590
PSA's second question. Can an animal
01:13:17.600 --> 01:13:19.830
make merit if it circumambulates a
01:13:19.840 --> 01:13:22.149
Buddha statue three times? For example,
01:13:22.159 --> 01:13:24.550
if you take a dog for a walk with you
01:13:24.560 --> 01:13:27.030
around a Buddha statue three times, does
01:13:27.040 --> 01:13:28.470
it help the animal come out of the
01:13:28.480 --> 01:13:30.950
animal realm faster?
01:13:30.960 --> 01:13:33.270
And
01:13:33.280 --> 01:13:36.550
probably not. I mean, the the dog just
01:13:36.560 --> 01:13:38.630
hanging out with humans probably helps
01:13:38.640 --> 01:13:41.270
them to get out of the animal realm um
01:13:41.280 --> 01:13:44.390
more than the dog circumambulating a
01:13:44.400 --> 01:13:48.070
pagod or a shrine or a Buddhist statue.
01:13:48.080 --> 01:13:50.630
I had a a conversation
01:13:50.640 --> 01:13:53.430
um with with a monk friend of mine in
01:13:53.440 --> 01:13:54.870
Burma back when I was living at the
01:13:54.880 --> 01:13:58.390
school monastery near Mandalay where I
01:13:58.400 --> 01:13:59.910
think if I remember correctly he was
01:13:59.920 --> 01:14:02.390
talking about how animals are stuck in
01:14:02.400 --> 01:14:04.630
in the animal realm partly because they
01:14:04.640 --> 01:14:06.229
do this demerritorious stuff without
01:14:06.239 --> 01:14:08.709
realizing it. Like a cow can walk
01:14:08.719 --> 01:14:10.630
through a monastery and just [ __ ] on the
01:14:10.640 --> 01:14:14.390
ground. And I was saying I mean the cow
01:14:14.400 --> 01:14:16.310
really doesn't even know it's in a
01:14:16.320 --> 01:14:19.030
monastery. has no concept of of being in
01:14:19.040 --> 01:14:21.189
a monastery. I mean, it hasn't done
01:14:21.199 --> 01:14:23.030
anything worse than if it shat on the
01:14:23.040 --> 01:14:25.350
ground right outside the monastery or if
01:14:25.360 --> 01:14:27.669
it shat on the ground like in its own
01:14:27.679 --> 01:14:31.990
pasture. I mean, like morals, ethics in
01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:34.709
Buddhism is based on intention.
01:14:34.719 --> 01:14:36.630
So, I mean, if if the cow was taking
01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:38.790
this the [ __ ] with the same placid
01:14:38.800 --> 01:14:41.189
bovine mental states that it would that
01:14:41.199 --> 01:14:43.830
it would [ __ ] anywhere else, it hasn't
01:14:43.840 --> 01:14:45.990
really done anything worse by [ __ ]
01:14:46.000 --> 01:14:48.870
on monastery grounds than than if it
01:14:48.880 --> 01:14:50.950
were like taking a crap out in its own
01:14:50.960 --> 01:14:54.070
pasture. And it's the same. I mean, for
01:14:54.080 --> 01:14:56.149
a dog to walk around a Buddhist statue
01:14:56.159 --> 01:14:58.470
three times, it has no concept of what
01:14:58.480 --> 01:15:00.709
it's doing. I mean, there might be a
01:15:00.719 --> 01:15:02.390
certain empathy, you know, it might get
01:15:02.400 --> 01:15:08.070
a kind of subtle spiritual vibe from you
01:15:08.080 --> 01:15:10.550
if you have that kind of attitude when
01:15:10.560 --> 01:15:12.310
you're circumambulating and then that
01:15:12.320 --> 01:15:14.470
might kind of the dog might pick up on
01:15:14.480 --> 01:15:16.630
that a little bit. But there is
01:15:16.640 --> 01:15:19.110
something that dogs do that I think
01:15:19.120 --> 01:15:21.189
might earn the merit and that's when a
01:15:21.199 --> 01:15:24.310
dog bows to you. You like a dog as a as
01:15:24.320 --> 01:15:27.430
an act of submission. I assume that you
01:15:27.440 --> 01:15:29.590
know it'll like put it his paws out in
01:15:29.600 --> 01:15:31.910
front and just kind of like bow to you.
01:15:31.920 --> 01:15:33.590
And I' a lot of the time, especially
01:15:33.600 --> 01:15:35.669
when I was in Burma and I was a monk and
01:15:35.679 --> 01:15:37.750
some scy village dog would do that, you
01:15:37.760 --> 01:15:40.310
know, we like practically prostrate in
01:15:40.320 --> 01:15:42.870
front of me, I'd say, you get kudo point
01:15:42.880 --> 01:15:45.669
for that one. You know, kudo is cusakama
01:15:45.679 --> 01:15:47.910
in in Burmese.
01:15:47.920 --> 01:15:49.590
So, I mean, it's possible. I mean, if
01:15:49.600 --> 01:15:51.270
they really are not necessarily because
01:15:51.280 --> 01:15:52.390
you're a monk, they probably don't have
01:15:52.400 --> 01:15:54.390
any concept of that, but you know,
01:15:54.400 --> 01:15:56.709
they're considering you to be somebody
01:15:56.719 --> 01:15:59.590
that is, you know, like superior to them
01:15:59.600 --> 01:16:01.990
or higher than them, somebody that they
01:16:02.000 --> 01:16:04.550
kind of respect and trust, and then
01:16:04.560 --> 01:16:06.950
they're like prostrating in a way, kind
01:16:06.960 --> 01:16:10.390
of bowing to you, then
01:16:10.400 --> 01:16:13.270
yeah, I think that that might be
01:16:13.280 --> 01:16:16.229
meritorious for that dog. I mean, even
01:16:16.239 --> 01:16:18.630
for a dog to just love you, you know,
01:16:18.640 --> 01:16:21.350
dogs have a purer love for their master
01:16:21.360 --> 01:16:23.270
than most humans have for each other.
01:16:23.280 --> 01:16:24.790
You know, you can kick your dog, you can
01:16:24.800 --> 01:16:26.790
abuse it, you can ignore it, the dog
01:16:26.800 --> 01:16:29.110
still loves you. It's just
01:16:29.120 --> 01:16:31.510
unquestioning,
01:16:31.520 --> 01:16:33.350
unconditional really, so long as you
01:16:33.360 --> 01:16:36.310
keep feeding it anyway.
01:16:36.320 --> 01:16:39.750
So, I do think that hanging out with
01:16:39.760 --> 01:16:43.510
humans can help dogs and other animals
01:16:43.520 --> 01:16:45.590
to get out of the the animal realm. just
01:16:45.600 --> 01:16:47.750
because, you know, there's like this
01:16:47.760 --> 01:16:50.229
subtle infiltration of higher mental
01:16:50.239 --> 01:16:54.149
states kind of entering their world.
01:16:54.159 --> 01:16:55.990
But for a dog to just walk around a
01:16:56.000 --> 01:16:58.630
Buddhist statue isn't going to get any
01:16:58.640 --> 01:17:00.550
more merit than the cow is going to get
01:17:00.560 --> 01:17:03.430
demerit from crapping on the ground in a
01:17:03.440 --> 01:17:05.590
monastery instead of crapping on the
01:17:05.600 --> 01:17:08.229
ground outside the monastery. It could
01:17:08.239 --> 01:17:11.430
be just like subtle empathic, you know,
01:17:11.440 --> 01:17:13.030
like
01:17:13.040 --> 01:17:16.070
uplifting mental states just from being
01:17:16.080 --> 01:17:17.669
with a human being that's having
01:17:17.679 --> 01:17:20.470
uplifted mental states. That would be
01:17:20.480 --> 01:17:23.030
much more likely.
01:17:23.040 --> 01:17:24.950
Now, I'm just going to move on to PSA's
01:17:24.960 --> 01:17:27.590
third question. Why are birth rates
01:17:27.600 --> 01:17:28.870
falling all over the world? Well,
01:17:28.880 --> 01:17:30.790
they're not falling all over the world.
01:17:30.800 --> 01:17:34.310
Subsaharan Africa is exploding with its
01:17:34.320 --> 01:17:36.310
population still. I mean, if you look at
01:17:36.320 --> 01:17:39.990
a map of like birth rates all over the
01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:42.310
world with like bright red being the
01:17:42.320 --> 01:17:44.790
highest birth rates and like blue being
01:17:44.800 --> 01:17:46.790
the lowest birth rates, most of the
01:17:46.800 --> 01:17:50.310
world is blue. Subsaharan Africa is just
01:17:50.320 --> 01:17:54.630
ruby red. Plus a few like undeveloped
01:17:54.640 --> 01:17:56.870
parts of Asia,
01:17:56.880 --> 01:17:59.590
just a few. maybe Afghanistan, some some
01:17:59.600 --> 01:18:01.830
area around in there might still have
01:18:01.840 --> 01:18:04.630
like a positive birth rate.
01:18:04.640 --> 01:18:08.709
But I think it's largely sort of like
01:18:08.719 --> 01:18:11.750
the comforts of modern
01:18:11.760 --> 01:18:14.229
modern society, modern c modern
01:18:14.239 --> 01:18:15.750
technology.
01:18:15.760 --> 01:18:19.110
Part of it is that
01:18:19.120 --> 01:18:21.270
um I mean in the west it's like
01:18:21.280 --> 01:18:23.270
testosterone levels in men are
01:18:23.280 --> 01:18:25.830
plummeting for I mean there could be
01:18:25.840 --> 01:18:27.830
some conspiracy
01:18:27.840 --> 01:18:29.669
You know, it could be that something's
01:18:29.679 --> 01:18:31.830
getting put into our water, that kind of
01:18:31.840 --> 01:18:34.310
thing. Or it could just be that we're
01:18:34.320 --> 01:18:37.030
just kind of decadent. You know, it's
01:18:37.040 --> 01:18:39.669
like masculinity is frowned upon
01:18:39.679 --> 01:18:42.390
nowadays. It's toxic.
01:18:42.400 --> 01:18:44.950
So, you know, it's it's sort of like and
01:18:44.960 --> 01:18:47.110
then of course
01:18:47.120 --> 01:18:49.590
in like progressive liberalism or
01:18:49.600 --> 01:18:50.950
whatever you want to call it, which is
01:18:50.960 --> 01:18:53.750
pretty much global at this point, you've
01:18:53.760 --> 01:18:56.709
got um
01:18:56.719 --> 01:18:59.590
feminism. You know, women, I mean, they
01:18:59.600 --> 01:19:01.110
want a career and all that. They don't
01:19:01.120 --> 01:19:03.590
want to get tied down with kids. I mean,
01:19:03.600 --> 01:19:05.110
when I was young, I didn't want to have
01:19:05.120 --> 01:19:07.590
kids. Partly because I mean partly it's
01:19:07.600 --> 01:19:11.510
just this huge like karmic thing that I
01:19:11.520 --> 01:19:13.910
mean it's you it takes a like heavy
01:19:13.920 --> 01:19:15.669
responsibility to have children. It's
01:19:15.679 --> 01:19:17.189
not something you should do lightly. I
01:19:17.199 --> 01:19:19.990
mean not just like animals that just you
01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:22.149
know have sex and next thing you know
01:19:22.159 --> 01:19:24.870
they got they got offspring.
01:19:24.880 --> 01:19:26.950
I mean I was thinking about you know the
01:19:26.960 --> 01:19:28.709
world is so overpopulated. Back in the
01:19:28.719 --> 01:19:31.669
80s when I was a young man, it was like
01:19:31.679 --> 01:19:33.830
the overpopulation is it's people are
01:19:33.840 --> 01:19:35.510
going to be starving by the billions by
01:19:35.520 --> 01:19:38.070
the year 2000. This kind of thing which
01:19:38.080 --> 01:19:41.110
never really happened.
01:19:41.120 --> 01:19:44.790
Technology and also ironically the the
01:19:44.800 --> 01:19:47.189
increase in carbon dioxide has increased
01:19:47.199 --> 01:19:49.750
the amount of plants that grow which has
01:19:49.760 --> 01:19:53.110
largely staved off mass starvation and
01:19:53.120 --> 01:19:56.229
famine in this world.
01:19:56.239 --> 01:19:58.149
But also, I mean, it was like the Cold
01:19:58.159 --> 01:19:59.990
War was still going on in the 80s, you
01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:01.750
know? It's like, you don't know what the
01:20:01.760 --> 01:20:03.510
world's going to be like 20 years from
01:20:03.520 --> 01:20:05.990
now. It could be like this radioactive
01:20:06.000 --> 01:20:09.030
like nightmarish wasteland for all I
01:20:09.040 --> 01:20:12.950
knew.
01:20:12.960 --> 01:20:14.310
And there's still some of that. I think
01:20:14.320 --> 01:20:17.350
it's largely cultural. Plus, maybe if
01:20:17.360 --> 01:20:18.950
it's something besides the culture
01:20:18.960 --> 01:20:22.149
that's causing male testosterone rates
01:20:22.159 --> 01:20:24.709
to plummet, you know, their testosterone
01:20:24.719 --> 01:20:27.669
levels. I mean, that's that's probably a
01:20:27.679 --> 01:20:30.709
factor, too.
01:20:30.719 --> 01:20:32.709
But, I mean, I'm probably not the
01:20:32.719 --> 01:20:35.189
correct person to ask. I mean, you'd
01:20:35.199 --> 01:20:36.950
probably get a better answer if you
01:20:36.960 --> 01:20:40.070
asked Grock why birth rates are falling
01:20:40.080 --> 01:20:43.110
all over the world except in subsaharan
01:20:43.120 --> 01:20:46.070
Africa and a few like underdeveloped
01:20:46.080 --> 01:20:49.030
Asian countries.
01:20:49.040 --> 01:20:50.229
And I'm just going to move on. Next
01:20:50.239 --> 01:20:53.270
question. This is from Stellar Supreme.
01:20:53.280 --> 01:20:54.950
And this is kind of a strange question
01:20:54.960 --> 01:20:58.470
and it really it's it's a very compound
01:20:58.480 --> 01:21:01.430
question. There could be any number of
01:21:01.440 --> 01:21:03.510
question marks in this if one were
01:21:03.520 --> 01:21:07.030
inclined to include them. But Stellar
01:21:07.040 --> 01:21:08.550
Supreme
01:21:08.560 --> 01:21:11.990
says, "What is the most dharmic insect,
01:21:12.000 --> 01:21:16.790
reptile, mammal, amphibian, bird, plant,
01:21:16.800 --> 01:21:19.030
fish, arachnid, crustaceian, mollisk,
01:21:19.040 --> 01:21:21.590
and nidarian?" And for those of you who
01:21:21.600 --> 01:21:25.030
are unfamiliar with like biological
01:21:25.040 --> 01:21:27.669
taxonomy, a nidarian would be like a
01:21:27.679 --> 01:21:32.550
jellyfish or a coral or a sea anemone.
01:21:32.560 --> 01:21:34.070
And then he includes here, no wrong
01:21:34.080 --> 01:21:35.830
answers, just creativity points
01:21:35.840 --> 01:21:40.229
question. So idle curiosity maybe an
01:21:40.239 --> 01:21:42.149
entertainment value kind of a question.
01:21:42.159 --> 01:21:44.310
So what is the most darmic insect? I
01:21:44.320 --> 01:21:46.790
would guess like a honeybee, you know? I
01:21:46.800 --> 01:21:48.550
mean, they're not like killing other
01:21:48.560 --> 01:21:49.910
insects except for maybe in
01:21:49.920 --> 01:21:51.990
self-defense, defense of the hive, that
01:21:52.000 --> 01:21:53.910
kind of thing. Making honey. They work
01:21:53.920 --> 01:21:57.030
hard, you know.
01:21:57.040 --> 01:21:59.030
So, yeah, let's let's go with the honey
01:21:59.040 --> 01:22:00.870
bee is the most dharmic insect. Most
01:22:00.880 --> 01:22:03.030
dharmic reptile.
01:22:03.040 --> 01:22:06.229
Gosh, maybe some kind of land tortoise.
01:22:06.239 --> 01:22:08.310
I mean, in order for it to be dharmic,
01:22:08.320 --> 01:22:11.270
it probably wouldn't be a predator.
01:22:11.280 --> 01:22:14.709
Most reptiles are like predatory, at
01:22:14.719 --> 01:22:16.870
least on insects. I mean, you've got
01:22:16.880 --> 01:22:19.910
like the the marine iguana of the
01:22:19.920 --> 01:22:23.430
Gopagos Islands that feeds on seaweed,
01:22:23.440 --> 01:22:26.390
but then you've got plenty of tortoises
01:22:26.400 --> 01:22:29.669
that that feed on plants and so forth,
01:22:29.679 --> 01:22:31.669
and they're kind of slow and chill. So,
01:22:31.679 --> 01:22:33.110
let's just go with some kind of giant
01:22:33.120 --> 01:22:35.590
land tortoise. I mean, the Galopagos
01:22:35.600 --> 01:22:37.669
Islands apparently has the most dharmic
01:22:37.679 --> 01:22:39.510
reptiles.
01:22:39.520 --> 01:22:43.830
So the most dharmic mammal humans
01:22:43.840 --> 01:22:46.310
also probably the most adarmic mammal is
01:22:46.320 --> 01:22:47.830
also the human because there's a lot of
01:22:47.840 --> 01:22:50.709
variation in humans. Let's see the most
01:22:50.719 --> 01:22:53.990
dharmic amphibian.
01:22:54.000 --> 01:22:57.110
Oh the frog god. Let's just go with uh
01:22:57.120 --> 01:23:00.629
Buddhist mythology Buddhist legend. the
01:23:00.639 --> 01:23:02.790
frog who was listening to the Buddha
01:23:02.800 --> 01:23:04.790
give a give a talk and he didn't
01:23:04.800 --> 01:23:06.629
understand the words but he was uplifted
01:23:06.639 --> 01:23:09.189
just by the vibe so to speak you know
01:23:09.199 --> 01:23:11.669
soothed by the melodious tones of the
01:23:11.679 --> 01:23:15.430
Buddha's speech and so as the frog was
01:23:15.440 --> 01:23:17.110
like squatting there and wrapped
01:23:17.120 --> 01:23:18.950
attention listening to the sounds of the
01:23:18.960 --> 01:23:20.709
Buddha's speech that he couldn't really
01:23:20.719 --> 01:23:23.189
understand some shepherd accidentally
01:23:23.199 --> 01:23:25.510
squished the frog's head with his stick
01:23:25.520 --> 01:23:26.950
not even knowing what he was doing he
01:23:26.960 --> 01:23:28.870
didn't look down he just shifted his
01:23:28.880 --> 01:23:30.629
stick and killed the frog
01:23:30.639 --> 01:23:33.030
The frog became a dava, landed in a
01:23:33.040 --> 01:23:35.910
heaven realm, became the frog god. So
01:23:35.920 --> 01:23:38.390
that would be the most dharmic amphibian
01:23:38.400 --> 01:23:40.870
that I can think of. The most dharmic
01:23:40.880 --> 01:23:42.709
bird
01:23:42.719 --> 01:23:46.310
man. I mean, you've got the the hamsa or
01:23:46.320 --> 01:23:48.870
the the ruddy shell duck, which is
01:23:48.880 --> 01:23:51.669
considered more or less sacred in
01:23:51.679 --> 01:23:54.950
Buddhist cultures in India. I think it's
01:23:54.960 --> 01:23:57.830
like the like the what is it like the
01:23:57.840 --> 01:24:02.629
mascot bird of of the god Brahma.
01:24:02.639 --> 01:24:05.270
Um I mean they probably do eat some some
01:24:05.280 --> 01:24:07.110
animals like invertebrates and so forth
01:24:07.120 --> 01:24:09.830
but
01:24:09.840 --> 01:24:11.830
the associations with Buddhism are are
01:24:11.840 --> 01:24:13.669
fairly good.
01:24:13.679 --> 01:24:15.510
Let's see. The most dharmic plant would
01:24:15.520 --> 01:24:19.270
be the bodhi tree ficus religiosa.
01:24:19.280 --> 01:24:22.149
See the most dharmic fish.
01:24:22.159 --> 01:24:24.870
Gosh. Well, I mean the Buddha was a a
01:24:24.880 --> 01:24:27.270
fish in a previous existence. He was the
01:24:27.280 --> 01:24:29.430
fish king.
01:24:29.440 --> 01:24:31.910
So yeah, maybe we should just going with
01:24:31.920 --> 01:24:33.590
that like like the most dharmic bird.
01:24:33.600 --> 01:24:35.430
Maybe it was like a quail. There's the
01:24:35.440 --> 01:24:37.750
Buddha was a quail more than once
01:24:37.760 --> 01:24:39.510
according to the Jotica stories in his
01:24:39.520 --> 01:24:42.229
previous existences.
01:24:42.239 --> 01:24:44.790
So most dharmic fish, I don't know,
01:24:44.800 --> 01:24:47.189
maybe maybe like an odo sinkless algae
01:24:47.199 --> 01:24:48.629
eater because you know they're just
01:24:48.639 --> 01:24:50.070
helpful little fish. They're
01:24:50.080 --> 01:24:52.149
unobtrusive, you know, they don't have
01:24:52.159 --> 01:24:57.030
an attitude and they just eat bofilm
01:24:57.040 --> 01:25:00.310
like bacteria and datoms and and algae
01:25:00.320 --> 01:25:02.870
and that kind of stuff. So if if we're
01:25:02.880 --> 01:25:04.310
not going to go with the Buddha's
01:25:04.320 --> 01:25:06.870
previous existence as the fish king,
01:25:06.880 --> 01:25:10.470
let's go with an odtosynlas.
01:25:10.480 --> 01:25:13.750
The most dharmic arachnid.
01:25:13.760 --> 01:25:15.990
Let's go with I think I think a daddy
01:25:16.000 --> 01:25:19.189
longlegs a harvestmen is technically an
01:25:19.199 --> 01:25:21.750
arachnid and they're dried. You know,
01:25:21.760 --> 01:25:24.390
they're not predators. They're not like
01:25:24.400 --> 01:25:27.030
stinging things to death, biting them
01:25:27.040 --> 01:25:29.830
and injecting digestive fluids, that
01:25:29.840 --> 01:25:31.750
kind of thing. You know, they're just
01:25:31.760 --> 01:25:34.070
harmless little They look kind of like
01:25:34.080 --> 01:25:35.990
spiders, but they're not. The difference
01:25:36.000 --> 01:25:38.629
between a a daddy longlegs harvestment
01:25:38.639 --> 01:25:41.110
and an actual spider is a spider's body
01:25:41.120 --> 01:25:43.350
is divided up into a head and a sephilo
01:25:43.360 --> 01:25:45.510
No, a syphiloth thorax and an abdomen
01:25:45.520 --> 01:25:47.189
just two parts. You know, everyone knows
01:25:47.199 --> 01:25:49.030
that an insect's body is divided up into
01:25:49.040 --> 01:25:51.750
three parts. The head, the thorax, and
01:25:51.760 --> 01:25:55.510
the abdomen like a spider or other. Now,
01:25:55.520 --> 01:25:56.629
let's just go with spiders. You know,
01:25:56.639 --> 01:25:58.310
they got the the sephiloththorax. The
01:25:58.320 --> 01:26:00.629
head and the thorax are fused into one,
01:26:00.639 --> 01:26:02.310
and then they got the abdomen. A
01:26:02.320 --> 01:26:04.709
harvestman is all just one lump. It's
01:26:04.719 --> 01:26:07.030
all fused.
01:26:07.040 --> 01:26:08.470
Yeah. So, let's just go with that. the
01:26:08.480 --> 01:26:10.870
daddy longlegs. The most darmic
01:26:10.880 --> 01:26:13.350
crustation.
01:26:13.360 --> 01:26:15.669
Well, my ammono shrimp, I mean, they're
01:26:15.679 --> 01:26:17.830
like the the crustation version of an
01:26:17.840 --> 01:26:21.830
otosyncless little aquarium algae eater.
01:26:21.840 --> 01:26:23.910
So, yeah, some of these little shrimps
01:26:23.920 --> 01:26:27.910
that just feed on algae or detritis, you
01:26:27.920 --> 01:26:29.669
know, just they're just like part of the
01:26:29.679 --> 01:26:32.790
cleanup crew of the ecosystem, you know,
01:26:32.800 --> 01:26:34.629
they're just helpful little beings,
01:26:34.639 --> 01:26:39.669
unobtrusive, mind their own business.
01:26:39.679 --> 01:26:42.629
The most dharmic mollisk.
01:26:42.639 --> 01:26:45.910
Gosh, this is this is so weird. The most
01:26:45.920 --> 01:26:48.870
dharmic mollisk.
01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:51.669
How about an oyster?
01:26:51.679 --> 01:26:53.910
Although they they do handle pearls, I
01:26:53.920 --> 01:26:55.669
guess.
01:26:55.679 --> 01:26:59.110
And the most darmach and nidarian. Gosh.
01:26:59.120 --> 01:27:04.070
Well, you got your choice of jellyfish.
01:27:04.080 --> 01:27:06.149
Let's see. The Portuguese man of war
01:27:06.159 --> 01:27:08.390
wouldn't be it.
01:27:08.400 --> 01:27:10.470
um sea anemmones
01:27:10.480 --> 01:27:12.629
or
01:27:12.639 --> 01:27:14.790
corals,
01:27:14.800 --> 01:27:18.950
some kind of coral, I guess. Who knows?
01:27:18.960 --> 01:27:21.669
Like the Buddha's palace before he
01:27:21.679 --> 01:27:23.830
renounced the world probably had coral
01:27:23.840 --> 01:27:26.149
in it. That kind of coral because it's
01:27:26.159 --> 01:27:28.870
associated with a Buddha somehow.
01:27:28.880 --> 01:27:30.310
And I'm just moving on to Stellar
01:27:30.320 --> 01:27:32.470
Supreme's next question, which uh let us
01:27:32.480 --> 01:27:37.030
hope is not as weird as that one. Well,
01:27:37.040 --> 01:27:39.510
actually, I guess it kind of is. What is
01:27:39.520 --> 01:27:41.990
your favorite creature from the Cambrian
01:27:42.000 --> 01:27:44.629
explosion? The organisms of this time
01:27:44.639 --> 01:27:46.629
period are so diverse and interesting
01:27:46.639 --> 01:27:51.270
looking. Consider anomalid
01:27:51.280 --> 01:27:53.990
and opabinia.
01:27:54.000 --> 01:27:55.590
Well, I really don't know what those
01:27:55.600 --> 01:27:59.270
are. And I haven't really studied the
01:27:59.280 --> 01:28:02.229
extinct filyla of the Cambrian explosion
01:28:02.239 --> 01:28:03.990
very much. I remember there was a kind
01:28:04.000 --> 01:28:06.629
of it was it's sort of like an armored
01:28:06.639 --> 01:28:09.910
worm that had a mouth like the iris of
01:28:09.920 --> 01:28:12.550
an oldtime camera, you know, that it
01:28:12.560 --> 01:28:14.229
just it was like a circle that opened
01:28:14.239 --> 01:28:18.070
and closed by like the same kind of iris
01:28:18.080 --> 01:28:22.229
um movements of like a camera iris.
01:28:22.239 --> 01:28:25.110
So, I mean that was kind of cool.
01:28:25.120 --> 01:28:26.550
I don't know what it would be called
01:28:26.560 --> 01:28:31.030
though, but I think brachopods arose
01:28:31.040 --> 01:28:33.750
from the the Cambrian explosion. You
01:28:33.760 --> 01:28:36.790
know, the brachopod is is really this
01:28:36.800 --> 01:28:39.350
super ancient
01:28:39.360 --> 01:28:41.510
kind of of animal. It's sort of like a
01:28:41.520 --> 01:28:44.870
clam that's got like a stalk or I would
01:28:44.880 --> 01:28:47.510
guess that even what do you call them?
01:28:47.520 --> 01:28:50.870
The the feather stars, kryinoids. I
01:28:50.880 --> 01:28:53.350
would I would guess that kryinoids arose
01:28:53.360 --> 01:28:54.790
during the Cambrian explosion. They're
01:28:54.800 --> 01:28:59.350
also like a really early sort of animal.
01:28:59.360 --> 01:29:00.870
Um,
01:29:00.880 --> 01:29:04.070
yeah, maybe a brachopod or a kryinoid,
01:29:04.080 --> 01:29:06.229
but
01:29:06.239 --> 01:29:07.590
it's it's something I don't really think
01:29:07.600 --> 01:29:09.350
about much. You know, what's my favorite
01:29:09.360 --> 01:29:12.629
creature from the Cambrian explosion?
01:29:12.639 --> 01:29:14.149
So, let's just move on to Stellar
01:29:14.159 --> 01:29:15.750
Supreme's next question, which is
01:29:15.760 --> 01:29:18.709
something entirely different. He says,
01:29:18.719 --> 01:29:22.390
"Can celestial nymphs get pregnant?"
01:29:22.400 --> 01:29:24.870
And this is kind of based on a
01:29:24.880 --> 01:29:27.590
discussion we were having on the discord
01:29:27.600 --> 01:29:30.470
server. And
01:29:30.480 --> 01:29:34.310
I think going with orthodox terraovada
01:29:34.320 --> 01:29:38.390
celestial nymphs like in the tawatimsa
01:29:38.400 --> 01:29:40.550
heaven realm for example the most famous
01:29:40.560 --> 01:29:42.550
celestial nymphs are from tawatimsa
01:29:42.560 --> 01:29:44.470
heaven. I don't think that they get
01:29:44.480 --> 01:29:47.669
pregnant because according to Orthodox
01:29:47.679 --> 01:29:50.629
Terravada or so I was told by a German
01:29:50.639 --> 01:29:54.070
monk in Burma many years ago that
01:29:54.080 --> 01:29:56.390
celestial nymphs and also the demons in
01:29:56.400 --> 01:29:59.270
hell are not real beings. They're just a
01:29:59.280 --> 01:30:01.750
kind of apparition.
01:30:01.760 --> 01:30:04.070
They're just a kind of a virtual being
01:30:04.080 --> 01:30:08.229
with no subjective experience or karma.
01:30:08.239 --> 01:30:10.950
They're just sort of a manifestation of
01:30:10.960 --> 01:30:14.149
your karma. that's sort of projected out
01:30:14.159 --> 01:30:17.590
there somehow. So the celestial nymphs
01:30:17.600 --> 01:30:20.709
of Tawatimsa heaven according to this
01:30:20.719 --> 01:30:25.669
German monk's account of like the the
01:30:25.679 --> 01:30:29.189
terraodin commentarial tradition
01:30:29.199 --> 01:30:32.470
that yeah they wouldn't get pregnant
01:30:32.480 --> 01:30:35.110
that they're just kind of like animated
01:30:35.120 --> 01:30:38.149
love dolls or something.
01:30:38.159 --> 01:30:40.390
But I'm kind of skeptical of that. I
01:30:40.400 --> 01:30:44.149
think just some commentator just cooked
01:30:44.159 --> 01:30:46.390
that up.
01:30:46.400 --> 01:30:50.229
So I mean I do not think that even in
01:30:50.239 --> 01:30:52.790
Tatimsa heaven you have pregnant
01:30:52.800 --> 01:30:54.310
goddesses
01:30:54.320 --> 01:30:58.310
that I think you just um manifest
01:30:58.320 --> 01:30:59.910
spontaneously
01:30:59.920 --> 01:31:02.149
as a youth. You know you're already
01:31:02.159 --> 01:31:04.310
pretty much full grown when you just
01:31:04.320 --> 01:31:07.189
appear in in a a heaven realm like
01:31:07.199 --> 01:31:09.189
tawatims.
01:31:09.199 --> 01:31:10.709
However,
01:31:10.719 --> 01:31:12.790
it is my understanding based on what
01:31:12.800 --> 01:31:15.750
I've read in the in the poly texts that
01:31:15.760 --> 01:31:18.229
the the heaven realm or the the deva
01:31:18.239 --> 01:31:21.510
realm just one level above us the the
01:31:21.520 --> 01:31:24.229
level of the five the four great kings
01:31:24.239 --> 01:31:28.070
not five the four great kings just one
01:31:28.080 --> 01:31:31.110
level above us the lowest level of small
01:31:31.120 --> 01:31:33.510
G gods which includes like terrestrial
01:31:33.520 --> 01:31:37.189
deities like tree spirits nature spirits
01:31:37.199 --> 01:31:39.590
this kind of stuff they get pregnant and
01:31:39.600 --> 01:31:41.830
have children because I remember there's
01:31:41.840 --> 01:31:44.870
the rule against a monk like damaging
01:31:44.880 --> 01:31:47.189
green plants. It is a patchidia rule.
01:31:47.199 --> 01:31:49.669
It's in the potty mocha rules. A monk is
01:31:49.679 --> 01:31:52.790
not allowed to damage green plants. And
01:31:52.800 --> 01:31:54.629
the story
01:31:54.639 --> 01:31:56.709
which may be considerably different from
01:31:56.719 --> 01:31:59.430
the actual reason for this rule being
01:31:59.440 --> 01:32:02.070
laid down. But according to the story,
01:32:02.080 --> 01:32:03.830
there was a monk who was going to chop
01:32:03.840 --> 01:32:05.990
down a tree. And there was a tree
01:32:06.000 --> 01:32:09.510
spirit, a female, like a a tree goddess,
01:32:09.520 --> 01:32:12.149
uh, a rukadea, ruka davi, because she
01:32:12.159 --> 01:32:13.990
was female.
01:32:14.000 --> 01:32:16.629
She lived in that tree. And she's trying
01:32:16.639 --> 01:32:19.270
to talk the monk out of cutting down her
01:32:19.280 --> 01:32:22.709
tree. And she holds out her baby
01:32:22.719 --> 01:32:24.950
to say, "Look, my baby and I live in
01:32:24.960 --> 01:32:26.950
that tree." But the thing is, the monk
01:32:26.960 --> 01:32:29.350
had like a crude mental state. you know,
01:32:29.360 --> 01:32:31.430
apparently hadn't mastered Janna. And so
01:32:31.440 --> 01:32:33.110
he didn't even see them. You know, he
01:32:33.120 --> 01:32:36.310
couldn't see or hear these davas. And so
01:32:36.320 --> 01:32:38.310
he accidentally, if I remember
01:32:38.320 --> 01:32:41.030
correctly, chops off the baby Dava's arm
01:32:41.040 --> 01:32:43.430
with his axe. You know, he's just
01:32:43.440 --> 01:32:45.830
swinging away at the tree, the the fe
01:32:45.840 --> 01:32:47.830
the goddess who was irresponsible for
01:32:47.840 --> 01:32:49.270
holding her baby out in front of a
01:32:49.280 --> 01:32:51.669
swinging axe.
01:32:51.679 --> 01:32:54.550
Um,
01:32:54.560 --> 01:32:57.830
so I mean there there are baby small G
01:32:57.840 --> 01:33:01.270
gods, baby davas like at the terrestrial
01:33:01.280 --> 01:33:04.310
level and up in like the Himalayas, that
01:33:04.320 --> 01:33:05.910
kind of thing where a lot of these
01:33:05.920 --> 01:33:08.950
beings supposedly live, then you can
01:33:08.960 --> 01:33:11.189
have pregnant davas
01:33:11.199 --> 01:33:14.070
according to the texts.
01:33:14.080 --> 01:33:17.669
But I mean, if you're going to reject
01:33:17.679 --> 01:33:21.030
the authority of the texts, then I mean,
01:33:21.040 --> 01:33:22.870
what are you going with with even
01:33:22.880 --> 01:33:25.750
talking about celestial nymphs?
01:33:25.760 --> 01:33:26.870
I mean, you don't have personal
01:33:26.880 --> 01:33:30.950
experience of them, I suppose.
01:33:30.960 --> 01:33:32.470
So,
01:33:32.480 --> 01:33:33.669
I think I'm just going to move on to the
01:33:33.679 --> 01:33:36.390
next question. This is from
01:33:36.400 --> 01:33:39.030
Andrain says, "When did the Egyptian
01:33:39.040 --> 01:33:41.830
religious timeline begin in relation to
01:33:41.840 --> 01:33:43.350
the start of Buddhism?" So, this is
01:33:43.360 --> 01:33:46.629
another ancient Egypt question.
01:33:46.639 --> 01:33:47.990
Maybe we'll have to have a thumbnail
01:33:48.000 --> 01:33:51.110
with an ancient Egyptian theme.
01:33:51.120 --> 01:33:52.870
Arin says, "When did the Egyptian
01:33:52.880 --> 01:33:55.350
religious timeline begin in relation to
01:33:55.360 --> 01:33:56.790
the start of Buddhism?" Well, the
01:33:56.800 --> 01:33:58.950
ancient religious timeline began in
01:33:58.960 --> 01:34:01.430
prehistoric times,
01:34:01.440 --> 01:34:03.830
whereas the start of Buddhism was, you
01:34:03.840 --> 01:34:07.430
know, fifth or sixth century BCE.
01:34:07.440 --> 01:34:10.790
So, at the during the Buddha's lifetime,
01:34:10.800 --> 01:34:13.110
I think like the Great Pyramid of Giza
01:34:13.120 --> 01:34:15.350
was already
01:34:15.360 --> 01:34:17.750
it was like what at least 2,000 years
01:34:17.760 --> 01:34:20.390
old. I mean, the Great Pyramid
01:34:20.400 --> 01:34:22.070
supposedly, I mean, going with
01:34:22.080 --> 01:34:24.709
mainstream archaeology, wasn't it?
01:34:24.719 --> 01:34:27.350
Wasn't it built like it was either 2500
01:34:27.360 --> 01:34:31.669
BCE or 3500 BCE? So, it make it like at
01:34:31.679 --> 01:34:34.229
2 or 3,000 years before the time of the
01:34:34.239 --> 01:34:36.709
Buddha. And Egyptian religion had
01:34:36.719 --> 01:34:39.350
already started. I mean, they they
01:34:39.360 --> 01:34:42.550
already had this idea of you're going to
01:34:42.560 --> 01:34:44.390
have to take your body with you into the
01:34:44.400 --> 01:34:45.910
next life. And so, they're trying to
01:34:45.920 --> 01:34:48.950
preserve mummified pharaohs and that
01:34:48.960 --> 01:34:50.790
kind of thing.
01:34:50.800 --> 01:34:52.629
Some people out there think that that
01:34:52.639 --> 01:34:55.830
the pyramids were not burial tombs just
01:34:55.840 --> 01:34:58.310
partly because they've never found the
01:34:58.320 --> 01:35:00.870
remains of, you know, a mummy or
01:35:00.880 --> 01:35:03.910
anything in these in these uh
01:35:03.920 --> 01:35:05.430
in these pyramids. Although they did
01:35:05.440 --> 01:35:08.070
find like a mummified foot in one. But I
01:35:08.080 --> 01:35:10.149
mean the main reason I mean it's it's
01:35:10.159 --> 01:35:12.229
fairly well documented even in like
01:35:12.239 --> 01:35:15.189
ancient Egyptian inscriptions
01:35:15.199 --> 01:35:17.189
that these were burial tombs. And the
01:35:17.199 --> 01:35:20.310
reason why you haven't found like a a
01:35:20.320 --> 01:35:23.669
mummy like an intact mummy inside of a
01:35:23.679 --> 01:35:26.310
pyramid is because all of these periods
01:35:26.320 --> 01:35:28.790
these pyramids were plundered thousands
01:35:28.800 --> 01:35:31.270
of years ago. That's why they eventually
01:35:31.280 --> 01:35:33.430
stopped using pyramids and started
01:35:33.440 --> 01:35:35.990
burying their their pharaohs in the
01:35:36.000 --> 01:35:37.910
valley of the kings like in hidden
01:35:37.920 --> 01:35:40.390
places underground or in the mountains
01:35:40.400 --> 01:35:42.790
because if you have a pyramid I mean
01:35:42.800 --> 01:35:44.470
it's just like this big advertisement
01:35:44.480 --> 01:35:46.709
there is priceless treasure inside this
01:35:46.719 --> 01:35:48.950
thing.
01:35:48.960 --> 01:35:51.350
So every single pyramid got plundered
01:35:51.360 --> 01:35:55.030
long ago.
01:35:55.040 --> 01:35:57.189
So when did the Egyptian religious
01:35:57.199 --> 01:35:59.270
timeline begin in relation to the start
01:35:59.280 --> 01:36:00.790
of Buddhism? Well, literally it would be
01:36:00.800 --> 01:36:02.629
thousands of years before the time of
01:36:02.639 --> 01:36:05.669
the Buddha. I mean probably pre-dynastic
01:36:05.679 --> 01:36:08.870
times already the Egyptians had some of
01:36:08.880 --> 01:36:11.750
their pantheon intact. Some of their
01:36:11.760 --> 01:36:15.110
religious beliefs already intact.
01:36:15.120 --> 01:36:17.270
When exactly is hard to say because it
01:36:17.280 --> 01:36:19.510
would be literally prehistoric,
01:36:19.520 --> 01:36:21.270
but it would be thousands of years
01:36:21.280 --> 01:36:24.070
before the advent of Buddhism.
01:36:24.080 --> 01:36:25.990
So, let's just move on to Arin's second
01:36:26.000 --> 01:36:28.629
question. Is there one word that
01:36:28.639 --> 01:36:31.510
describes what their religion was called
01:36:31.520 --> 01:36:34.390
over such a long span of time? Well,
01:36:34.400 --> 01:36:37.110
what the Egyptians themselves called
01:36:37.120 --> 01:36:39.110
their religion.
01:36:39.120 --> 01:36:40.950
I don't know. It might just be like the
01:36:40.960 --> 01:36:43.430
ancient Egyptian equivalent of religion
01:36:43.440 --> 01:36:45.270
because I mean that was it. That was
01:36:45.280 --> 01:36:47.590
their religion.
01:36:47.600 --> 01:36:49.669
Um, from a modern point of view, I don't
01:36:49.679 --> 01:36:52.950
think there's one word that would
01:36:52.960 --> 01:36:56.390
describe ancient Egyptian religion. I
01:36:56.400 --> 01:36:57.590
mean, that would that would be it. It'd
01:36:57.600 --> 01:36:59.430
be three words. Ancient Egyptian
01:36:59.440 --> 01:37:01.990
religion.
01:37:02.000 --> 01:37:03.990
I mean, if you had if you were forced to
01:37:04.000 --> 01:37:08.149
use just one word, then like Egyptian,
01:37:08.159 --> 01:37:10.870
but then modern Egyptian religion is
01:37:10.880 --> 01:37:12.550
Islam. And then there was like a
01:37:12.560 --> 01:37:17.510
Christian period between the like early
01:37:17.520 --> 01:37:20.550
ancient Egyptian polytheism, you know,
01:37:20.560 --> 01:37:22.550
the little experiment with just
01:37:22.560 --> 01:37:25.350
worshiping the sun god back to Egyptian
01:37:25.360 --> 01:37:27.669
polytheism and then you had like
01:37:27.679 --> 01:37:32.070
Christianity and then Islam.
01:37:32.080 --> 01:37:34.790
Maybe a little bit of the uh classical
01:37:34.800 --> 01:37:37.270
religion got and some of the classical
01:37:37.280 --> 01:37:39.590
religion got added into Egyptian
01:37:39.600 --> 01:37:41.830
religion when the pharaohs started
01:37:41.840 --> 01:37:44.550
becoming Macedonians or Greeks you know
01:37:44.560 --> 01:37:48.310
the the tomic dynasty.
01:37:48.320 --> 01:37:51.030
So one word that describes their
01:37:51.040 --> 01:37:52.709
religion was called over such a long
01:37:52.719 --> 01:37:57.030
period of time just Egyptian I guess.
01:37:57.040 --> 01:37:59.830
So Aran's third question, it seems like
01:37:59.840 --> 01:38:01.910
the ancient Egyptian religion was the
01:38:01.920 --> 01:38:03.910
complete opposite of Buddhism when you
01:38:03.920 --> 01:38:07.109
compare the main tenets. Is this true or
01:38:07.119 --> 01:38:08.870
can you come up with another religious
01:38:08.880 --> 01:38:10.950
school that contradicts Buddhism even
01:38:10.960 --> 01:38:13.350
more? I'm thinking of their veneration
01:38:13.360 --> 01:38:16.229
of the soul versus no self, their burial
01:38:16.239 --> 01:38:18.070
practices that attempt to preserve the
01:38:18.080 --> 01:38:20.470
body and material possessions forever
01:38:20.480 --> 01:38:23.590
versus impermanence and renunciation of
01:38:23.600 --> 01:38:26.149
materialism. their goal of the soul
01:38:26.159 --> 01:38:28.470
reaching the field of reads where they
01:38:28.480 --> 01:38:30.229
achieve some kind of immortal heaven
01:38:30.239 --> 01:38:33.430
realm for the soul their polytheism
01:38:33.440 --> 01:38:35.109
etc.
01:38:35.119 --> 01:38:38.470
Well, I mean,
01:38:38.480 --> 01:38:40.070
gosh, this is this is kind of a
01:38:40.080 --> 01:38:41.750
difficult question. I mean, what
01:38:41.760 --> 01:38:44.070
religion is the most opposite to
01:38:44.080 --> 01:38:46.470
Buddhism? Is is like the the short form
01:38:46.480 --> 01:38:48.950
of this this question? I think I think
01:38:48.960 --> 01:38:50.950
that's what this question boils down to
01:38:50.960 --> 01:38:54.390
is was the ancient Egyptian religion the
01:38:54.400 --> 01:38:57.430
farthest from Buddhism that has existed
01:38:57.440 --> 01:39:00.070
or was there a religion even more
01:39:00.080 --> 01:39:02.229
different from Buddhism than the ancient
01:39:02.239 --> 01:39:05.750
Egyptian religion?
01:39:05.760 --> 01:39:08.229
And I have said already
01:39:08.239 --> 01:39:09.910
with regard to the earlier questions
01:39:09.920 --> 01:39:12.310
about ancient Egypt that really I have
01:39:12.320 --> 01:39:15.910
not found a whole lot of genuine wisdom
01:39:15.920 --> 01:39:19.669
in ancient Egyptian religion.
01:39:19.679 --> 01:39:21.350
Much like I never really found a whole
01:39:21.360 --> 01:39:23.189
lot of wisdom in the Old Testament
01:39:23.199 --> 01:39:26.229
either. I mean Ecclesiastes, you get
01:39:26.239 --> 01:39:28.709
some like superficial worldly wisdom
01:39:28.719 --> 01:39:32.790
like in Proverbs, that kind of thing.
01:39:32.800 --> 01:39:35.350
But let's see here. I don't think
01:39:35.360 --> 01:39:36.870
there's any religion that would be the
01:39:36.880 --> 01:39:38.310
complete opposite of Buddhism. They
01:39:38.320 --> 01:39:40.149
would believe the the opposite of
01:39:40.159 --> 01:39:42.790
Buddhism on every point.
01:39:42.800 --> 01:39:45.510
Like polytheism that's that's mentioned
01:39:45.520 --> 01:39:47.750
on the list here. I mean Buddhism also
01:39:47.760 --> 01:39:50.629
has it accepts the existence of a
01:39:50.639 --> 01:39:52.790
multitude of deities. I mean even more
01:39:52.800 --> 01:39:55.430
than Egypt probably because there's just
01:39:55.440 --> 01:39:58.629
like essentially just an infinite number
01:39:58.639 --> 01:40:00.870
throughout throughout the cosmos. You
01:40:00.880 --> 01:40:04.070
know, there's just countless
01:40:04.080 --> 01:40:06.070
superhuman beings out there, most of
01:40:06.080 --> 01:40:08.790
whom don't give a damn about us, don't
01:40:08.800 --> 01:40:11.910
pay any attention to us.
01:40:11.920 --> 01:40:14.629
So, see, veneration of the soul versus
01:40:14.639 --> 01:40:17.750
no self. And most religions believe in
01:40:17.760 --> 01:40:19.910
an eternal soul. Buddhism is one of the
01:40:19.920 --> 01:40:23.030
few exceptions on with regard to that.
01:40:23.040 --> 01:40:25.270
the burial practices. Yeah. In in
01:40:25.280 --> 01:40:27.910
Buddhism, it was
01:40:27.920 --> 01:40:31.669
largely cremation, especially for monks.
01:40:31.679 --> 01:40:33.830
Like in Burma,
01:40:33.840 --> 01:40:35.830
monks and the parents of monks are
01:40:35.840 --> 01:40:38.550
cremated while lay people are are
01:40:38.560 --> 01:40:41.430
buried.
01:40:41.440 --> 01:40:44.229
But
01:40:44.239 --> 01:40:47.910
gosh, yes, Buddhism is puts a lot more
01:40:47.920 --> 01:40:51.030
emphasis on impermanence,
01:40:51.040 --> 01:40:53.830
that's for sure. See the goal of the
01:40:53.840 --> 01:40:55.830
soul reaching the field of reeds where
01:40:55.840 --> 01:40:57.270
they achieve some kind of immortal
01:40:57.280 --> 01:41:01.030
heaven realm for the soul. Yeah. I mean
01:41:01.040 --> 01:41:04.629
um I guess I mean the the approach I
01:41:04.639 --> 01:41:06.149
would take to answering this question is
01:41:06.159 --> 01:41:08.070
just try to think of a religion even
01:41:08.080 --> 01:41:10.950
more different from Buddhism than the
01:41:10.960 --> 01:41:14.790
ancient Egyptian religion. And
01:41:14.800 --> 01:41:17.270
I mean maybe sort of like you'd have to
01:41:17.280 --> 01:41:19.430
have like an amoral religion. And there
01:41:19.440 --> 01:41:21.189
have been plenty of amoral religions.
01:41:21.199 --> 01:41:22.550
With regard to ancient Egyptian
01:41:22.560 --> 01:41:24.950
religion, I'm not even sure if they had
01:41:24.960 --> 01:41:28.149
like moral precepts, you know, like
01:41:28.159 --> 01:41:31.270
don't kill, don't steal, don't lie, this
01:41:31.280 --> 01:41:33.109
don't commit adultery, you know, the
01:41:33.119 --> 01:41:36.390
basics that most religions have. I mean,
01:41:36.400 --> 01:41:38.870
I really don't know enough about ancient
01:41:38.880 --> 01:41:40.790
Egyptian religion to even know what
01:41:40.800 --> 01:41:43.109
their basics were with regard to ethical
01:41:43.119 --> 01:41:45.350
conduct.
01:41:45.360 --> 01:41:47.030
I mean, the pharaohs were the ones that
01:41:47.040 --> 01:41:48.470
were getting their main shot into
01:41:48.480 --> 01:41:50.790
immortality. And I mean, they were
01:41:50.800 --> 01:41:54.310
commanding armies and so forth,
01:41:54.320 --> 01:41:56.709
marrying their own sisters, that kind of
01:41:56.719 --> 01:41:58.629
thing.
01:41:58.639 --> 01:42:01.430
So, it could be that you could be even
01:42:01.440 --> 01:42:04.070
more different if you got into just an
01:42:04.080 --> 01:42:06.310
amoral kind of religion, sort of like
01:42:06.320 --> 01:42:08.470
the cult of the emperors in ancient
01:42:08.480 --> 01:42:11.910
Rome. I'm not sure what kind of ethical
01:42:11.920 --> 01:42:14.229
conduct there would be. I mean,
01:42:14.239 --> 01:42:15.510
especially you got somebody like
01:42:15.520 --> 01:42:18.950
Caligula declaring himself a god and you
01:42:18.960 --> 01:42:22.629
like requiring people to venerate him to
01:42:22.639 --> 01:42:24.950
offer incense at his altars and so
01:42:24.960 --> 01:42:27.830
forth. I mean, something like that would
01:42:27.840 --> 01:42:31.669
probably be farther from Buddhism than
01:42:31.679 --> 01:42:34.470
an Egyptian religion that really was a
01:42:34.480 --> 01:42:37.669
religion that kind of,
01:42:37.679 --> 01:42:39.510
you know, it it sort of stabilized
01:42:39.520 --> 01:42:42.310
society. you know, it added a kind of
01:42:42.320 --> 01:42:45.270
cultural structure to society that kind
01:42:45.280 --> 01:42:47.990
of strengthened the the culture, that
01:42:48.000 --> 01:42:51.270
kind of thing. So,
01:42:51.280 --> 01:42:53.270
yeah, I mean, maybe some kind of really
01:42:53.280 --> 01:42:55.750
warlike religion, you know, like the the
01:42:55.760 --> 01:42:58.470
religion of the ancient Huns. I think
01:42:58.480 --> 01:43:00.470
their their symbol of their god, they
01:43:00.480 --> 01:43:02.310
didn't really have statues because they
01:43:02.320 --> 01:43:04.790
just really probably couldn't even make
01:43:04.800 --> 01:43:08.070
statues very well. I have read that. I
01:43:08.080 --> 01:43:11.430
mean their their like shrines or their
01:43:11.440 --> 01:43:13.430
religious imagery was essentially just a
01:43:13.440 --> 01:43:17.430
sword stuck into the ground
01:43:17.440 --> 01:43:20.149
or venerating the the the eagles in the
01:43:20.159 --> 01:43:22.629
Roman legions, something like that. So
01:43:22.639 --> 01:43:26.229
it'd be some kind of amoral sort of
01:43:26.239 --> 01:43:30.149
religion would be farther from Buddhism
01:43:30.159 --> 01:43:32.310
than probably ancient Egyptian religion
01:43:32.320 --> 01:43:34.790
because I mean ancient Egyptian religion
01:43:34.800 --> 01:43:36.950
was you know it was a stabilizing
01:43:36.960 --> 01:43:40.709
religion for mainly like an agricultural
01:43:40.719 --> 01:43:44.229
society. So I would assume that there
01:43:44.239 --> 01:43:47.750
was some emphasis on just being honest
01:43:47.760 --> 01:43:49.910
and not stealing and not murdering
01:43:49.920 --> 01:43:53.510
people that kind of thing. Whereas some
01:43:53.520 --> 01:43:55.990
more primitive kind of religions, more
01:43:56.000 --> 01:43:58.790
barbarous sort of religions that were
01:43:58.800 --> 01:44:01.590
amoral or you know like the cult of the
01:44:01.600 --> 01:44:03.910
emperors again, especially if you've got
01:44:03.920 --> 01:44:06.070
like some sociopathic
01:44:06.080 --> 01:44:10.070
kind of egoomaniac sort of emperor who's
01:44:10.080 --> 01:44:13.430
got some kind of cult going then yeah,
01:44:13.440 --> 01:44:15.270
that would be more different from
01:44:15.280 --> 01:44:17.910
Buddhism, I think. But it's hard to say.
01:44:17.920 --> 01:44:19.669
I mean, I don't I'm not familiar with
01:44:19.679 --> 01:44:21.750
all religions, but I would assume that
01:44:21.760 --> 01:44:24.070
you'd have some kind of, you know, you
01:44:24.080 --> 01:44:26.070
you could even say that like Satan
01:44:26.080 --> 01:44:30.390
worship would be a kind of religion, in
01:44:30.400 --> 01:44:33.030
which case Satan worship might be
01:44:33.040 --> 01:44:35.910
farther from Buddhism than than just
01:44:35.920 --> 01:44:37.830
about any other. or just have some kind
01:44:37.840 --> 01:44:42.550
of religion that like reveres some
01:44:42.560 --> 01:44:44.390
amoral
01:44:44.400 --> 01:44:47.510
warlike violent kind of being and kind
01:44:47.520 --> 01:44:49.990
of emulates that.
01:44:50.000 --> 01:44:52.229
But exactly which religion comes goes
01:44:52.239 --> 01:44:53.910
farthest from Buddhism is the most
01:44:53.920 --> 01:44:56.709
different from Buddhism? I mean I would
01:44:56.719 --> 01:44:58.950
have to do some considerable research
01:44:58.960 --> 01:45:02.390
and get back to you on that one.
01:45:02.400 --> 01:45:03.590
So, I'm just going to move on to the
01:45:03.600 --> 01:45:05.350
next question.
01:45:05.360 --> 01:45:08.709
And this is from Ethiopian fake TIG. And
01:45:08.719 --> 01:45:10.390
I'm going to finally check and make sure
01:45:10.400 --> 01:45:11.830
we are recording. And yes, we are
01:45:11.840 --> 01:45:13.590
indeed.
01:45:13.600 --> 01:45:15.750
That's good.
01:45:15.760 --> 01:45:19.350
Ethiopian fake TIG says, "In one pseudo,
01:45:19.360 --> 01:45:21.270
there are stories of the Buddha meeting
01:45:21.280 --> 01:45:23.430
some Brahman and one of them treating
01:45:23.440 --> 01:45:25.830
him badly and some spirit appearing
01:45:25.840 --> 01:45:28.229
before them to smite the young, ignorant
01:45:28.239 --> 01:45:30.229
Brahman. Since the Buddha asked him a
01:45:30.239 --> 01:45:33.270
simple question about his chase, I don't
01:45:33.280 --> 01:45:35.030
know what that means, that he couldn't
01:45:35.040 --> 01:45:38.550
answer. If spirits recognize the Buddha
01:45:38.560 --> 01:45:41.750
as a datagata and very bizarre
01:45:41.760 --> 01:45:44.629
occurrences like these happen, why do so
01:45:44.639 --> 01:45:46.390
many people who meet the Buddha never
01:45:46.400 --> 01:45:48.709
see anything special about him? There
01:45:48.719 --> 01:45:50.229
are countless stories of people
01:45:50.239 --> 01:45:51.990
questioning him and doubting his
01:45:52.000 --> 01:45:53.910
enlightenment. But there are also many
01:45:53.920 --> 01:45:56.070
things that are otherworldly that happen
01:45:56.080 --> 01:45:58.310
all around him. I can't seem to
01:45:58.320 --> 01:46:00.790
reconcile that.
01:46:00.800 --> 01:46:02.870
Well, I mean, when I first looked at
01:46:02.880 --> 01:46:05.590
this question, like when I was cutting
01:46:05.600 --> 01:46:09.590
and pasting it onto the list here, um it
01:46:09.600 --> 01:46:13.030
struck me as a question asking why so
01:46:13.040 --> 01:46:15.350
many people treated the Buddha as though
01:46:15.360 --> 01:46:17.830
he were just an ordinary person whereas
01:46:17.840 --> 01:46:21.350
like Davas, higher beings treated him
01:46:21.360 --> 01:46:23.669
with reverence. And the answer to that,
01:46:23.679 --> 01:46:26.310
I mean, just within a Buddhist con
01:46:26.320 --> 01:46:29.750
context, you could say that davas, you
01:46:29.760 --> 01:46:31.270
know, they have some mind readading
01:46:31.280 --> 01:46:33.510
ability. They can see subtle things that
01:46:33.520 --> 01:46:36.070
humans can't see. And so even if they
01:46:36.080 --> 01:46:39.109
have a mind readading ability and they
01:46:39.119 --> 01:46:41.270
just look into the Buddha's mind, look
01:46:41.280 --> 01:46:43.510
into his spirit and that it's just like
01:46:43.520 --> 01:46:46.709
this unreadable void.
01:46:46.719 --> 01:46:48.550
Like in in the text it does say that
01:46:48.560 --> 01:46:50.470
when a Buddha is is like deep in
01:46:50.480 --> 01:46:53.189
meditation even the gods don't know what
01:46:53.199 --> 01:46:56.149
his mind is resting upon. You know it's
01:46:56.159 --> 01:46:59.590
like they're just hit this wall or just
01:46:59.600 --> 01:47:02.870
sort of this this empty space so they
01:47:02.880 --> 01:47:04.390
would know there was something unusual
01:47:04.400 --> 01:47:08.070
about this this person.
01:47:08.080 --> 01:47:11.590
Um I mean if we're going with Buddhist
01:47:11.600 --> 01:47:14.950
tradition it it doesn't make much sense.
01:47:14.960 --> 01:47:17.030
You know it's the Buddha according to
01:47:17.040 --> 01:47:18.310
Buddhist tradition according to the
01:47:18.320 --> 01:47:22.070
commentaries he was like 27 feet tall
01:47:22.080 --> 01:47:25.189
which is just impossible.
01:47:25.199 --> 01:47:28.709
So I mean why would brahinss be like
01:47:28.719 --> 01:47:32.229
having con insulting the Buddha
01:47:32.239 --> 01:47:35.669
you know if he was 27 feet tall
01:47:35.679 --> 01:47:39.430
you know you shaveling you skin head
01:47:39.440 --> 01:47:42.870
this kind of stuff and no or like in the
01:47:42.880 --> 01:47:45.510
the beginning of the samaya palasuta
01:47:45.520 --> 01:47:48.149
where king ajata wants to meet the
01:47:48.159 --> 01:47:51.510
Buddha. So the doctor
01:47:51.520 --> 01:47:55.189
Jivaca takes King Ajata Satu to meet the
01:47:55.199 --> 01:47:57.109
Buddha. And when they get to where the
01:47:57.119 --> 01:48:00.790
SA is is assembled,
01:48:00.800 --> 01:48:02.310
Jipka doesn't know which one is the
01:48:02.320 --> 01:48:05.030
Buddha. And so I mean I mean Ajata Satu,
01:48:05.040 --> 01:48:06.790
King Ajatasu doesn't know which one is
01:48:06.800 --> 01:48:08.950
the Buddha. And so Jiba points him out
01:48:08.960 --> 01:48:11.830
as he's the one, you know, facing east.
01:48:11.840 --> 01:48:13.189
I don't remember what direction he's
01:48:13.199 --> 01:48:14.709
facing. You know, leaning against that
01:48:14.719 --> 01:48:16.149
pillar. He's sitting back against that
01:48:16.159 --> 01:48:17.590
pillar over there. He doesn't say, "Oh,
01:48:17.600 --> 01:48:19.350
he's that gigantically huge one up
01:48:19.360 --> 01:48:23.109
there."
01:48:23.119 --> 01:48:25.750
But with regard to spirits recognizing
01:48:25.760 --> 01:48:28.550
the Buddha as the dutagata, I mean, they
01:48:28.560 --> 01:48:30.310
can see things that ordinary people
01:48:30.320 --> 01:48:31.510
can't see. You know, they're more
01:48:31.520 --> 01:48:33.910
sensitive. They've got the divine eye
01:48:33.920 --> 01:48:35.750
and so forth. You know, they maybe see
01:48:35.760 --> 01:48:39.350
this this blazing aura or whatever. But
01:48:39.360 --> 01:48:40.950
I mean it's you're getting into the
01:48:40.960 --> 01:48:43.750
realm of you know legends and mythology
01:48:43.760 --> 01:48:46.229
and so forth that I mean it's like an
01:48:46.239 --> 01:48:49.910
academic thing.
01:48:49.920 --> 01:48:51.750
Let's see. So where's the actual
01:48:51.760 --> 01:48:53.750
question mark before I move on? I should
01:48:53.760 --> 01:48:58.149
at least I should at least make sure
01:48:58.159 --> 01:49:00.550
here it is. If spirits recognize the
01:49:00.560 --> 01:49:04.070
Buddha as a datagata and very bizarre
01:49:04.080 --> 01:49:06.550
occurrences like these happen, why do so
01:49:06.560 --> 01:49:08.149
many people who meet the Buddha never
01:49:08.159 --> 01:49:11.910
see anything special about him? Well,
01:49:11.920 --> 01:49:15.270
with regard to davas and humans, yeah,
01:49:15.280 --> 01:49:16.790
it's it's sort of like that where the
01:49:16.800 --> 01:49:19.430
davas have a more spiritual eye. They
01:49:19.440 --> 01:49:22.149
can see subtleties that some crude human
01:49:22.159 --> 01:49:25.750
can't see. But I mean this getting more
01:49:25.760 --> 01:49:29.270
towards like ordinary human human beings
01:49:29.280 --> 01:49:31.270
like
01:49:31.280 --> 01:49:34.870
Nim Curly Baba up there. I mean he was
01:49:34.880 --> 01:49:37.990
he was like an extremely highly advanced
01:49:38.000 --> 01:49:40.550
human being spiritually. He was like a
01:49:40.560 --> 01:49:44.149
spiritual superman in my opinion. And
01:49:44.159 --> 01:49:46.310
according to the testimonies of many
01:49:46.320 --> 01:49:48.229
people including Rahm Das who I consider
01:49:48.239 --> 01:49:51.510
to be an honest human being, he could do
01:49:51.520 --> 01:49:55.270
just these amazing feats, you know, that
01:49:55.280 --> 01:49:57.270
would be called miracles, psychic
01:49:57.280 --> 01:50:00.310
powers, that kind of thing. But a lot of
01:50:00.320 --> 01:50:02.229
people, I mean, they just didn't have
01:50:02.239 --> 01:50:04.310
faith in him. They just weren't open to
01:50:04.320 --> 01:50:07.030
that. They just did not have the karma
01:50:07.040 --> 01:50:09.750
to be influenced by a saint like that.
01:50:09.760 --> 01:50:11.109
You know, they were just closed off to
01:50:11.119 --> 01:50:12.629
it. And and they they would just see
01:50:12.639 --> 01:50:15.669
this old fat man
01:50:15.679 --> 01:50:20.310
and that's it. That's all they'd see.
01:50:20.320 --> 01:50:22.629
And sometimes Nim Karoli Baba or
01:50:22.639 --> 01:50:24.229
Maharaji, I mean, he would just kind of
01:50:24.239 --> 01:50:26.870
like make sure they wouldn't see. I
01:50:26.880 --> 01:50:28.229
mean, it was like he knew that they
01:50:28.239 --> 01:50:29.910
weren't going to see anything. and he
01:50:29.920 --> 01:50:32.790
just he would just do things that would
01:50:32.800 --> 01:50:35.750
trigger them, you know, just for for
01:50:35.760 --> 01:50:38.229
whatever reason.
01:50:38.239 --> 01:50:40.310
I I have this a certain story in mind. I
01:50:40.320 --> 01:50:41.830
probably shouldn't repeat the whole
01:50:41.840 --> 01:50:47.189
story, but
01:50:47.199 --> 01:50:48.790
yeah, I I won't I won't tell the whole
01:50:48.800 --> 01:50:49.990
story. It would it would take too long,
01:50:50.000 --> 01:50:53.510
I think. But I mean, he had his reasons.
01:50:53.520 --> 01:50:55.910
And so there were some people that were
01:50:55.920 --> 01:51:00.310
just ripe to encounter a sage that would
01:51:00.320 --> 01:51:03.750
be profoundly influenced by him. And
01:51:03.760 --> 01:51:04.870
then there were other people that were
01:51:04.880 --> 01:51:06.629
just closed off. They just weren't
01:51:06.639 --> 01:51:08.149
ready. You know, they they were like
01:51:08.159 --> 01:51:10.070
completely locked into materialism or
01:51:10.080 --> 01:51:11.669
whatever. You know, they didn't even
01:51:11.679 --> 01:51:13.910
believe that such such human beings are
01:51:13.920 --> 01:51:15.990
possible. You know, they just see this
01:51:16.000 --> 01:51:18.390
old fat man.
01:51:18.400 --> 01:51:21.590
In fact, and there is one story and and
01:51:21.600 --> 01:51:23.590
what the hell I mean this there aren't a
01:51:23.600 --> 01:51:25.430
whole lot of questions. There's a story
01:51:25.440 --> 01:51:29.109
by I think his name was Larry Brilliant.
01:51:29.119 --> 01:51:32.149
He was a he was a doctor. It was is the
01:51:32.159 --> 01:51:34.149
story of how he came to be a disciple of
01:51:34.159 --> 01:51:36.310
Maharaji
01:51:36.320 --> 01:51:40.470
and I think his his Sanskrit name his
01:51:40.480 --> 01:51:42.629
disciples name was like Subramanyam or
01:51:42.639 --> 01:51:44.070
something like that. But he was married
01:51:44.080 --> 01:51:45.750
to an Indian woman. This was back in the
01:51:45.760 --> 01:51:49.189
late 60s you know they were hippies.
01:51:49.199 --> 01:51:52.070
and his wife was just a devote of
01:51:52.080 --> 01:51:56.390
Maharaji. And so this American doctor
01:51:56.400 --> 01:51:58.310
who was married to the Indian lady, I
01:51:58.320 --> 01:52:00.149
mean, he's, you know, he he wants he
01:52:00.159 --> 01:52:02.229
loves his wife. He's going to give it a
01:52:02.239 --> 01:52:03.750
shot. He's going to go and and meet
01:52:03.760 --> 01:52:07.830
Maharaji. And it's like he's just
01:52:07.840 --> 01:52:09.910
completely turned off by Maharaji. It's
01:52:09.920 --> 01:52:11.669
like he's just this old fat man and
01:52:11.679 --> 01:52:13.109
these these people are just like
01:52:13.119 --> 01:52:17.430
brainwashed into a cult. And so finally
01:52:17.440 --> 01:52:19.990
he's he just kind of calls in sick one
01:52:20.000 --> 01:52:21.430
day, you know, he just doesn't show up.
01:52:21.440 --> 01:52:23.030
He he gives the excuse, "I'm not feeling
01:52:23.040 --> 01:52:25.189
well. I think I'll just stay at the the
01:52:25.199 --> 01:52:27.910
hostel or the the hotel or whatever."
01:52:27.920 --> 01:52:30.070
And he just kind of goes for a walk
01:52:30.080 --> 01:52:33.270
around this lake and he's just sort of
01:52:33.280 --> 01:52:35.830
soulsearching, so to speak. You know, he
01:52:35.840 --> 01:52:38.310
thinks in my wife, she's she's like
01:52:38.320 --> 01:52:41.430
brainwashed into this cult. I it's like
01:52:41.440 --> 01:52:42.950
my marriage is going to come to an end
01:52:42.960 --> 01:52:46.709
over this. what should I do? And then he
01:52:46.719 --> 01:52:50.149
thinks it's like he does something kind
01:52:50.159 --> 01:52:51.830
of experimentally for the first time
01:52:51.840 --> 01:52:54.629
since he was a kid. He actually prays.
01:52:54.639 --> 01:52:57.910
It's like God give me a sign and then
01:52:57.920 --> 01:52:59.510
he's like looking around for like a
01:52:59.520 --> 01:53:00.870
rainbow or something and nothing
01:53:00.880 --> 01:53:02.870
happens. So finally he just goes back
01:53:02.880 --> 01:53:04.790
home and the next day he's just going to
01:53:04.800 --> 01:53:06.629
go and have it out with Maharaji and
01:53:06.639 --> 01:53:10.070
just say goodbye and go back to America
01:53:10.080 --> 01:53:11.830
because Maharaji had just been ignoring
01:53:11.840 --> 01:53:14.229
him the whole time. You know, ever since
01:53:14.239 --> 01:53:15.750
he got there, he'd been there for like a
01:53:15.760 --> 01:53:17.990
week at least. Maharaji had hardly even
01:53:18.000 --> 01:53:20.550
looked at him. So this young American
01:53:20.560 --> 01:53:22.550
doctor, he he goes one last time. He
01:53:22.560 --> 01:53:24.070
gets there before anybody else. He just
01:53:24.080 --> 01:53:27.430
wants to have it out with him. And
01:53:27.440 --> 01:53:29.910
uh I should say that before I get to
01:53:29.920 --> 01:53:32.870
Maharaji meeting with him that one thing
01:53:32.880 --> 01:53:35.030
that used to bug this doctor more than
01:53:35.040 --> 01:53:37.109
anything else was people bowing and
01:53:37.119 --> 01:53:39.430
touching Maharaji's feet. You know it's
01:53:39.440 --> 01:53:42.229
just to an American like graveling like
01:53:42.239 --> 01:53:44.229
that. It just rubbed him the wrong way.
01:53:44.239 --> 01:53:46.709
He did not like to see it. So anyway, he
01:53:46.719 --> 01:53:48.390
gets there early. Maharaji hasn't come
01:53:48.400 --> 01:53:51.430
out yet out of his his little cabin. and
01:53:51.440 --> 01:53:52.950
people had already offered some fruit
01:53:52.960 --> 01:53:54.790
and there was an apple that had fallen
01:53:54.800 --> 01:53:57.430
off the platform and was on the ground.
01:53:57.440 --> 01:53:58.950
So he he's just going to pick it up and
01:53:58.960 --> 01:54:00.709
put it back onto the platform. He
01:54:00.719 --> 01:54:02.629
reaches out to pick up this apple and
01:54:02.639 --> 01:54:04.950
that's exactly when Maharaji comes out
01:54:04.960 --> 01:54:06.870
and puts his foot on top of this
01:54:06.880 --> 01:54:10.870
doctor's hand. And so the doctor is in
01:54:10.880 --> 01:54:12.629
this position that he always hated to
01:54:12.639 --> 01:54:15.109
see the most touching Maharaji's foot.
01:54:15.119 --> 01:54:16.470
You know, he's down on his knees
01:54:16.480 --> 01:54:19.669
touching Maharaji's foot.
01:54:19.679 --> 01:54:23.030
So then Maharaji just sits down and he
01:54:23.040 --> 01:54:26.229
starts talking with this this doctor and
01:54:26.239 --> 01:54:27.910
he asks him like why weren't you here
01:54:27.920 --> 01:54:32.070
yesterday? Did you go to the lake? And
01:54:32.080 --> 01:54:34.390
this doctor I mean when Maharaji says
01:54:34.400 --> 01:54:37.189
lake it just he gets like this weird
01:54:37.199 --> 01:54:38.709
feeling like there's this surge of
01:54:38.719 --> 01:54:40.870
energy starting to go through him and
01:54:40.880 --> 01:54:43.589
then Maharaji is just kind of toying
01:54:43.599 --> 01:54:44.790
with him a little bit and he says what
01:54:44.800 --> 01:54:47.030
did you do at the lake? Did you go
01:54:47.040 --> 01:54:50.470
swimming? And the doctor says no. And
01:54:50.480 --> 01:54:53.109
did you go boating? And the doctor says
01:54:53.119 --> 01:54:56.390
no. And then Maharaji says did you go
01:54:56.400 --> 01:54:59.189
horseback riding? And the doctor says
01:54:59.199 --> 01:55:01.990
no. And then Maharaji leans over and
01:55:02.000 --> 01:55:03.830
says very quietly looking intently at
01:55:03.840 --> 01:55:07.350
him, did you talk to God?
01:55:07.360 --> 01:55:09.990
Did you ask for something? And this
01:55:10.000 --> 01:55:12.870
doctor had asked for a sign. And he
01:55:12.880 --> 01:55:14.709
hadn't told anybody about this. There's
01:55:14.719 --> 01:55:16.629
no way Maharaji could have known this
01:55:16.639 --> 01:55:19.430
through ordinary means according to the
01:55:19.440 --> 01:55:22.870
story here. And he said it was just like
01:55:22.880 --> 01:55:24.709
he just fell to pieces. I mean, he
01:55:24.719 --> 01:55:26.870
starts like crying like a little kid.
01:55:26.880 --> 01:55:29.910
And Maharaji is like stroking his beard
01:55:29.920 --> 01:55:31.990
cuz he's a he's a hippie doctor, you
01:55:32.000 --> 01:55:33.990
know? So he's like Maharaji is just kind
01:55:34.000 --> 01:55:35.510
of like pulling on his beard and just
01:55:35.520 --> 01:55:37.189
saying over and over again, did you ask
01:55:37.199 --> 01:55:39.830
for something? Did you ask for
01:55:39.840 --> 01:55:41.669
something? And he's just crying and
01:55:41.679 --> 01:55:43.750
crying. And by this point, other
01:55:43.760 --> 01:55:45.350
devotees have arrived and they're all
01:55:45.360 --> 01:55:47.270
just sort of like kind of putting their
01:55:47.280 --> 01:55:49.669
hands on his back and just kind of kind
01:55:49.679 --> 01:55:51.270
of caressing him a little bit, you know,
01:55:51.280 --> 01:55:54.709
just kind of lending support because
01:55:54.719 --> 01:55:56.550
most of them had gone through a similar
01:55:56.560 --> 01:55:58.229
event where their mind just gets
01:55:58.239 --> 01:56:00.709
completely blown wide open by some
01:56:00.719 --> 01:56:02.709
inexplicable
01:56:02.719 --> 01:56:04.229
miracle
01:56:04.239 --> 01:56:06.709
performed by Maharaji.
01:56:06.719 --> 01:56:09.910
So, getting back to this question, it's
01:56:09.920 --> 01:56:12.390
like some people, they're just not open
01:56:12.400 --> 01:56:14.070
to it. They just don't have the right
01:56:14.080 --> 01:56:17.350
karma to realize that they're in the
01:56:17.360 --> 01:56:20.310
presence of a of like a very advanced
01:56:20.320 --> 01:56:22.709
being. And you really can't know for
01:56:22.719 --> 01:56:24.470
sure that someone is advanced just by
01:56:24.480 --> 01:56:25.750
looking at them, unless you're as
01:56:25.760 --> 01:56:28.070
advanced as they are. Because there are
01:56:28.080 --> 01:56:30.470
a lot of fakes out there who can pass
01:56:30.480 --> 01:56:33.750
themselves off as enlightened beings,
01:56:33.760 --> 01:56:39.270
and they really aren't.
01:56:39.280 --> 01:56:41.669
So anyways, Dr. Larry Brilliant became a
01:56:41.679 --> 01:56:44.310
disciple of Maharaji after that and got
01:56:44.320 --> 01:56:46.950
the poly name of or the Sanskrit name of
01:56:46.960 --> 01:56:51.030
Subramanion I think it was.
01:56:51.040 --> 01:56:54.950
So I hope I answered that question.
01:56:54.960 --> 01:56:56.229
I'm just going to move on to the next
01:56:56.239 --> 01:56:59.669
one. This is also by Ethiopian fake TIG.
01:56:59.679 --> 01:57:03.030
He says, "I did a deep dive into Daniel
01:57:03.040 --> 01:57:05.589
Ingram and his claim into being an
01:57:05.599 --> 01:57:08.390
Araant. In an interview, he talks about
01:57:08.400 --> 01:57:10.629
how many of his teachers, some of which
01:57:10.639 --> 01:57:12.870
were Burmese, were said to have had
01:57:12.880 --> 01:57:15.350
many, many achievements, and even the
01:57:15.360 --> 01:57:17.350
Buddha himself actually would point out
01:57:17.360 --> 01:57:19.109
the many different achievements of the
01:57:19.119 --> 01:57:22.070
monks in his SA and that it was not
01:57:22.080 --> 01:57:25.510
anything that taboo." In his book,
01:57:25.520 --> 01:57:28.709
Daniel talks about arantship as if it's
01:57:28.719 --> 01:57:30.390
something you can attain with enough
01:57:30.400 --> 01:57:33.669
practice. And the famous monkupida, who
01:57:33.679 --> 01:57:36.070
apparently hated you, but also taught
01:57:36.080 --> 01:57:38.790
Sam Harris loved Sam Harris and thought
01:57:38.800 --> 01:57:41.669
Sam was actually at stream entry in the
01:57:41.679 --> 01:57:44.070
practice. Sam spoke about this with
01:57:44.080 --> 01:57:46.950
Joseph Goldstein in a podcast and how
01:57:46.960 --> 01:57:50.310
was wrong. But if stream entry can be
01:57:50.320 --> 01:57:52.229
attainable within five to six years of
01:57:52.239 --> 01:57:54.709
rigorous practice, won't that mean our
01:57:54.719 --> 01:57:57.669
hunt ship is just a few miles away and
01:57:57.679 --> 01:58:01.030
to now ask an actual question? If all
01:58:01.040 --> 01:58:03.030
this is so, could our hunt ship be
01:58:03.040 --> 01:58:04.709
simpler than we thought? Well, our hunt
01:58:04.719 --> 01:58:06.470
ship is completely simple. The problem
01:58:06.480 --> 01:58:11.109
is that our delusion is complicated.
01:58:11.119 --> 01:58:13.430
Let's see. I looked like I was lagging a
01:58:13.440 --> 01:58:16.310
little bit. I think maybe I am.
01:58:16.320 --> 01:58:18.070
But I mean, just look at this here. I
01:58:18.080 --> 01:58:20.149
mean the question kind of debunks itself
01:58:20.159 --> 01:58:23.990
a little bit. It seems to me that I mean
01:58:24.000 --> 01:58:25.990
Ethiopian fake TIG is says well if
01:58:26.000 --> 01:58:29.350
stream entry is that easy but Sam Harris
01:58:29.360 --> 01:58:31.270
who was declared a stream entry by
01:58:31.280 --> 01:58:34.709
Upandida Sam Harris says no I'm not a
01:58:34.719 --> 01:58:37.990
stream entterita was wrong in fact I've
01:58:38.000 --> 01:58:39.750
met two other people who were declared
01:58:39.760 --> 01:58:43.430
to be aras by upandid who came to the
01:58:43.440 --> 01:58:46.550
conclusion that was mistaken
01:58:46.560 --> 01:58:48.550
and in one case it was fairly obvious I
01:58:48.560 --> 01:58:50.870
knew this Burmese monk in Burma
01:58:50.880 --> 01:58:53.830
who completed the course at Upida and
01:58:53.840 --> 01:58:57.270
Upida himself declared him to be an Arya
01:58:57.280 --> 01:58:59.430
and he actually believed he was an Arya
01:58:59.440 --> 01:59:01.910
for a while although it would be pretty
01:59:01.920 --> 01:59:03.350
obvious to most people that he wasn't
01:59:03.360 --> 01:59:06.149
cuz he was very crusty. I mean he was he
01:59:06.159 --> 01:59:08.149
gave me the insight that hate and anger
01:59:08.159 --> 01:59:10.390
are very different cuz he would just see
01:59:10.400 --> 01:59:13.189
with hatred for certain people while not
01:59:13.199 --> 01:59:15.270
really being angry. It was just when
01:59:15.280 --> 01:59:17.030
he's talking, you could just see the
01:59:17.040 --> 01:59:20.390
muscles clenched in his in his cheeks as
01:59:20.400 --> 01:59:22.709
he's talking through gritted teeth at
01:59:22.719 --> 01:59:25.830
this person that he just despised.
01:59:25.840 --> 01:59:28.229
But Upaniva declared him to be an Arya.
01:59:28.239 --> 01:59:30.229
And this this monk thought, well, maybe
01:59:30.239 --> 01:59:32.470
I really am an Arya up until he finally
01:59:32.480 --> 01:59:34.870
had enough intelligence and objectivity
01:59:34.880 --> 01:59:36.870
and common sense to realize that he
01:59:36.880 --> 01:59:39.189
wasn't really one. And the other person
01:59:39.199 --> 01:59:41.510
who was declared to be an Arya by
01:59:41.520 --> 01:59:43.750
Upandida who realized that he was wrong
01:59:43.760 --> 01:59:47.270
that I have met was Pa Aliato.
01:59:47.280 --> 01:59:50.310
P Aliato also as a relatively junior
01:59:50.320 --> 01:59:53.189
monk went to Upandida went to Pandida
01:59:53.199 --> 01:59:55.510
Rama or maybe this was when Upandida was
01:59:55.520 --> 01:59:58.790
still at the Rangun Mahasi center and he
01:59:58.800 --> 02:00:01.030
finished the course was declared to be a
02:00:01.040 --> 02:00:06.629
sodapana and in that case um Piato knew
02:00:06.639 --> 02:00:10.629
right away that no I'm not a sodapana.
02:00:10.639 --> 02:00:14.629
So I mean upandid turned out a lot of
02:00:14.639 --> 02:00:18.950
fake aryas. The the mahasi tradition
02:00:18.960 --> 02:00:23.109
turns out fake aryas. I mean I I won't
02:00:23.119 --> 02:00:26.229
go so far as to say all of them are fake
02:00:26.239 --> 02:00:28.790
but I mean the mahasi tradition you used
02:00:28.800 --> 02:00:30.629
to actually hand out a diploma when you
02:00:30.639 --> 02:00:33.270
finished the course then they just
02:00:33.280 --> 02:00:35.350
assumed that you were already like at
02:00:35.360 --> 02:00:37.750
least a sodapana. You were literally an
02:00:37.760 --> 02:00:40.629
arya like a Buddhist saint.
02:00:40.639 --> 02:00:43.510
But I mean there was one teacher I I
02:00:43.520 --> 02:00:45.350
heard about this one teacher at the
02:00:45.360 --> 02:00:47.910
Mahasi center and if you're a teacher
02:00:47.920 --> 02:00:50.629
then you pretty much have to be an Arya.
02:00:50.639 --> 02:00:52.950
It's weird. In order to be a teacher of
02:00:52.960 --> 02:00:54.550
the Mahasi tradition you have to be an
02:00:54.560 --> 02:00:56.790
Arya at least like at the Mahasi center
02:00:56.800 --> 02:00:59.430
the main Mahasi center itself. And then
02:00:59.440 --> 02:01:01.990
one fine day he went into the office and
02:01:02.000 --> 02:01:03.830
stole a bunch of money and disappeared
02:01:03.840 --> 02:01:07.189
with one of the female meditators
02:01:07.199 --> 02:01:10.790
supposedly an Arya. So just because
02:01:10.800 --> 02:01:14.310
upandid or just the mahasi tradition in
02:01:14.320 --> 02:01:17.109
general considers someone to be a stream
02:01:17.119 --> 02:01:19.830
enterer then it doesn't really mean very
02:01:19.840 --> 02:01:22.709
much.
02:01:22.719 --> 02:01:24.709
So I mean that kind of undermines the
02:01:24.719 --> 02:01:27.030
whole question here. If stream entry can
02:01:27.040 --> 02:01:28.790
be attainable within 5 to six years of
02:01:28.800 --> 02:01:31.030
rigorous practice won't that mean our
02:01:31.040 --> 02:01:33.990
hunt ship is just a few miles away?
02:01:34.000 --> 02:01:36.550
And if this is so, could our hauntship
02:01:36.560 --> 02:01:39.750
be simpler than we thought?
02:01:39.760 --> 02:01:43.430
I mean, again, I mean, people are they
02:01:43.440 --> 02:01:45.830
this they kind of overlook the fact that
02:01:45.840 --> 02:01:47.990
I don't even consider the four stages of
02:01:48.000 --> 02:01:53.430
aryahood to be likely to be genuine to
02:01:53.440 --> 02:01:56.310
be authentic teachings of the Buddha. I
02:01:56.320 --> 02:01:57.910
just don't think so. like the somaya
02:01:57.920 --> 02:01:59.350
palasuta that I mentioned where it's
02:01:59.360 --> 02:02:02.310
talking about the fruits of like the the
02:02:02.320 --> 02:02:05.669
monk's life in ascending order. It
02:02:05.679 --> 02:02:07.109
starts with you know you get more
02:02:07.119 --> 02:02:08.629
respect and this kind of thing and it
02:02:08.639 --> 02:02:09.990
goes all the way up to enlightenment.
02:02:10.000 --> 02:02:12.310
The four stages of our [ __ ] are not even
02:02:12.320 --> 02:02:16.629
mentioned.
02:02:16.639 --> 02:02:20.790
So I mean a stream enterer probably was
02:02:20.800 --> 02:02:24.229
kind of like just someone who had just
02:02:24.239 --> 02:02:26.470
like a new convert to Buddhism. you know
02:02:26.480 --> 02:02:29.030
they had started practicing started
02:02:29.040 --> 02:02:31.350
interpreting life along spiritual lines
02:02:31.360 --> 02:02:34.149
that kind of thing
02:02:34.159 --> 02:02:36.790
in my opinion. So this whole question is
02:02:36.800 --> 02:02:38.870
just kind of this weird academic sort of
02:02:38.880 --> 02:02:42.550
question based on declarations by
02:02:42.560 --> 02:02:46.070
upandid that even the question itself uh
02:02:46.080 --> 02:02:49.270
indicates was probably a false
02:02:49.280 --> 02:02:52.629
conclusion jumped to by upandid
02:02:52.639 --> 02:02:54.790
and upandid really did despise me. He
02:02:54.800 --> 02:02:56.149
didn't like me at all when I was when I
02:02:56.159 --> 02:02:58.870
was there. I was told he didn't like
02:02:58.880 --> 02:03:01.990
westerners in general unless they spoke
02:03:02.000 --> 02:03:05.830
fluent Burmese.
02:03:05.840 --> 02:03:07.350
Maybe maybe I was just kind of like a
02:03:07.360 --> 02:03:09.510
toll westerner too. So maybe he just
02:03:09.520 --> 02:03:12.870
didn't like that. I'm not sure exactly.
02:03:12.880 --> 02:03:15.830
It's in it's in my my recent book. a
02:03:15.840 --> 02:03:17.990
fellow at Upandid or a fellow at Panda
02:03:18.000 --> 02:03:20.149
Rama is the the name of the chapter that
02:03:20.159 --> 02:03:22.950
discusses my my two months of intensive
02:03:22.960 --> 02:03:25.669
meditation at Panda Rama in Rangon
02:03:25.679 --> 02:03:29.830
dealing with the notorious Upandida.
02:03:29.840 --> 02:03:33.109
So why Upa love Sam Harris I don't know
02:03:33.119 --> 02:03:36.709
unless Sam was just like experiencing
02:03:36.719 --> 02:03:38.709
what he was supposed to in accordance
02:03:38.719 --> 02:03:40.790
with the cookbook method. That can
02:03:40.800 --> 02:03:43.750
happen too. But I I wasn't experiencing
02:03:43.760 --> 02:03:45.589
what I was supposed to be experiencing
02:03:45.599 --> 02:03:47.990
in the proper order and so forth. And so
02:03:48.000 --> 02:03:50.149
I was just seen as just kind of a waste
02:03:50.159 --> 02:03:53.669
of his his time.
02:03:53.679 --> 02:03:56.629
So
02:03:56.639 --> 02:03:58.790
yeah, I mean stream entry I mean I don't
02:03:58.800 --> 02:04:00.950
even consider this to be just even a
02:04:00.960 --> 02:04:02.550
valid interpretation of stream entry.
02:04:02.560 --> 02:04:06.070
It's a traditional orthodox one. But in
02:04:06.080 --> 02:04:08.629
this case, I do not consider a stream
02:04:08.639 --> 02:04:12.070
enterer to be to have attained some
02:04:12.080 --> 02:04:17.669
superhuman mental state.
02:04:17.679 --> 02:04:20.390
I mean there there could be different
02:04:20.400 --> 02:04:22.229
levels of like partial enlightenment
02:04:22.239 --> 02:04:23.750
where you're starting to get glimpses.
02:04:23.760 --> 02:04:25.270
You've reached a kind of point of no
02:04:25.280 --> 02:04:27.350
return, that kind of thing. And that may
02:04:27.360 --> 02:04:29.830
have been how stream enterer got
02:04:29.840 --> 02:04:32.629
reinterpreted to mean
02:04:32.639 --> 02:04:34.390
But I don't think that it was originally
02:04:34.400 --> 02:04:37.350
taught by the Buddha himself for various
02:04:37.360 --> 02:04:40.070
reasons.
02:04:40.080 --> 02:04:42.470
Araant ship. I mean just because Daniel
02:04:42.480 --> 02:04:45.109
Ingram declares himself to be an Ara
02:04:45.119 --> 02:04:47.109
doesn't mean that Daniel Ingram was an
02:04:47.119 --> 02:04:49.430
Arahant any more than Sam Harris was a
02:04:49.440 --> 02:04:51.750
soda plant. I mean Daniel Ingram just
02:04:51.760 --> 02:04:55.189
brags about how enlightened he is. And
02:04:55.199 --> 02:04:57.109
you should think that an arant wouldn't
02:04:57.119 --> 02:04:58.550
be bragging about how enlightened he is.
02:04:58.560 --> 02:05:00.709
Even though the Buddha in the text is
02:05:00.719 --> 02:05:02.870
just bragging, bragging, bragging in
02:05:02.880 --> 02:05:05.830
certain sutas about just that and about
02:05:05.840 --> 02:05:08.229
how enlightened he is. But Daniel
02:05:08.239 --> 02:05:10.629
Ingram, it used to be on his website,
02:05:10.639 --> 02:05:13.030
just the homepage of his website. He's
02:05:13.040 --> 02:05:14.790
just listing off all of his attainments.
02:05:14.800 --> 02:05:16.149
And being an arhant wasn't even the
02:05:16.159 --> 02:05:19.270
highest attainment, apparently.
02:05:19.280 --> 02:05:21.430
So, I think Daniel Ingram is is sort of
02:05:21.440 --> 02:05:25.030
like a a clever con man type if I had to
02:05:25.040 --> 02:05:26.870
guess. I mean, maybe he's got some kind
02:05:26.880 --> 02:05:30.070
of attainments, but fully enlightened, I
02:05:30.080 --> 02:05:32.229
would be surprised.
02:05:32.239 --> 02:05:33.750
I won't insist that he's not fully
02:05:33.760 --> 02:05:34.790
enlightened. I don't want to be
02:05:34.800 --> 02:05:36.390
slandering a fully enlightened being,
02:05:36.400 --> 02:05:39.589
anything like that, but still, I'm
02:05:39.599 --> 02:05:41.830
pretty skeptical of Daniel Ingram. Just
02:05:41.840 --> 02:05:45.030
I mean, I've seen him on on videos and
02:05:45.040 --> 02:05:46.870
he just seems like this fidgety, nervous
02:05:46.880 --> 02:05:55.189
kind of guy. Anyway, but who knows?
02:05:55.199 --> 02:05:58.390
But Ara ship, I mean, if Arahant ship
02:05:58.400 --> 02:06:00.629
were so easy, there'd be a hell of a lot
02:06:00.639 --> 02:06:03.189
more Arahanss in this world. Seems to me
02:06:03.199 --> 02:06:04.870
most people just aren't ready for it.
02:06:04.880 --> 02:06:07.510
They don't even want it. But even the
02:06:07.520 --> 02:06:09.669
people that are trying for a hardship,
02:06:09.679 --> 02:06:12.550
the overwhelming majority of those do
02:06:12.560 --> 02:06:15.669
not succeed
02:06:15.679 --> 02:06:17.510
just because they're just not right for
02:06:17.520 --> 02:06:19.030
you. I mean, just it's hard to blame
02:06:19.040 --> 02:06:22.950
Buddhism for that.
02:06:22.960 --> 02:06:25.669
It's just that most people just deep
02:06:25.679 --> 02:06:28.229
down they just want to stay in samsara.
02:06:28.239 --> 02:06:30.229
It's we It's not like we we're not
02:06:30.239 --> 02:06:31.669
enlightened because we're not trying
02:06:31.679 --> 02:06:33.990
hard enough to become enlightened. We're
02:06:34.000 --> 02:06:35.910
unenlightened right now because we're
02:06:35.920 --> 02:06:37.350
continually trying to stay
02:06:37.360 --> 02:06:42.470
unenlightened.
02:06:42.480 --> 02:06:44.870
Uh so that's this that whole question is
02:06:44.880 --> 02:06:47.750
just kind of a a strange
02:06:47.760 --> 02:06:51.430
kind of conditional you know sort of a
02:06:51.440 --> 02:06:53.830
conditional traditional kind of question
02:06:53.840 --> 02:06:56.310
based partly on what is declared to be a
02:06:56.320 --> 02:06:58.870
falsehood in the question itself and
02:06:58.880 --> 02:07:00.870
then comparing that with something
02:07:00.880 --> 02:07:05.830
different that also is conjecture
02:07:05.840 --> 02:07:07.270
and so I'm just going to move on to the
02:07:07.280 --> 02:07:11.589
next question which is the last question
02:07:11.599 --> 02:07:14.790
also by Ethiopian fake TIG you got in
02:07:14.800 --> 02:07:18.229
under the wire today.
02:07:18.239 --> 02:07:20.229
So here's the question. There is a lot
02:07:20.239 --> 02:07:22.709
of confusion about Janna due to Buddha
02:07:22.719 --> 02:07:24.790
Gossa who apparently thought it was a
02:07:24.800 --> 02:07:27.109
one ina- million kind of experience. But
02:07:27.119 --> 02:07:29.430
in the sutas even first Janna is
02:07:29.440 --> 02:07:32.470
described as something very easy
02:07:32.480 --> 02:07:33.910
that the Buddha would sometimes
02:07:33.920 --> 02:07:36.790
experience as a child. Was Buddha just
02:07:36.800 --> 02:07:39.430
wrong or could Janna really be something
02:07:39.440 --> 02:07:41.589
that rare?
02:07:41.599 --> 02:07:43.830
Well, again, this is another one of
02:07:43.840 --> 02:07:47.910
those things where Orthodox Terravada
02:07:47.920 --> 02:07:51.270
and I part ways. You know, I don't
02:07:51.280 --> 02:07:53.030
really think that the four stages of
02:07:53.040 --> 02:07:56.069
saintthood are an authentic teaching of
02:07:56.079 --> 02:07:57.990
the Buddha.
02:07:58.000 --> 02:08:00.390
And with regard to the four Jonas being
02:08:00.400 --> 02:08:03.430
superhuman mental states, even first
02:08:03.440 --> 02:08:05.669
Janna being a superhuman mental state, I
02:08:05.679 --> 02:08:08.310
I just I think that probably and I've
02:08:08.320 --> 02:08:11.109
said this several times that Janna
02:08:11.119 --> 02:08:13.350
originally just meant meditation. The
02:08:13.360 --> 02:08:15.589
four Jonas were just the four stages of
02:08:15.599 --> 02:08:19.430
meditation. And stage one would be even
02:08:19.440 --> 02:08:22.149
elementary meditation that you're doing
02:08:22.159 --> 02:08:23.669
correctly.
02:08:23.679 --> 02:08:25.910
And in first John, you're still
02:08:25.920 --> 02:08:29.270
thinking. you're still thinking in words
02:08:29.280 --> 02:08:32.790
in many cases, you know, it's so it's I
02:08:32.800 --> 02:08:35.270
mean it's not that exalted. You know,
02:08:35.280 --> 02:08:36.790
you you haven't gotten into any kind of
02:08:36.800 --> 02:08:40.069
deep mystical states yet.
02:08:40.079 --> 02:08:41.990
Like with the with the Catholic
02:08:42.000 --> 02:08:44.149
contemplative orders, they don't even
02:08:44.159 --> 02:08:46.069
get into what they call contemplation
02:08:46.079 --> 02:08:49.109
until you have stopped thinking. So
02:08:49.119 --> 02:08:50.870
Catholic contemplation wouldn't even
02:08:50.880 --> 02:08:54.950
start until at least second John.
02:08:54.960 --> 02:08:57.430
So I do think that Janna originally just
02:08:57.440 --> 02:08:59.990
meant meditation. The four Jonas were
02:09:00.000 --> 02:09:03.589
just the four levels of meditation and I
02:09:03.599 --> 02:09:04.709
mean they weren't necessarily
02:09:04.719 --> 02:09:06.790
superhuman. I mean obviously humans are
02:09:06.800 --> 02:09:08.709
attaining these things especially first
02:09:08.719 --> 02:09:11.910
Janna. Also if you read the mahasarati
02:09:11.920 --> 02:09:14.390
batanosuta which is the bible to to
02:09:14.400 --> 02:09:17.030
weasa meditators
02:09:17.040 --> 02:09:20.149
and it it defines the eight-fold path
02:09:20.159 --> 02:09:21.830
each step on the eight-fold path it gets
02:09:21.840 --> 02:09:24.069
a definition. The definition of sama
02:09:24.079 --> 02:09:26.709
samadei right concentration is the four
02:09:26.719 --> 02:09:30.470
jas. So I mean why would like right
02:09:30.480 --> 02:09:32.550
concentration require a superhuman
02:09:32.560 --> 02:09:34.870
mental state? It just means meditating
02:09:34.880 --> 02:09:39.669
correctly in my opinion.
02:09:39.679 --> 02:09:41.589
And then of course the abidama scholars
02:09:41.599 --> 02:09:44.310
invented a new janna. So they had five
02:09:44.320 --> 02:09:47.030
and then like the formless jas get added
02:09:47.040 --> 02:09:50.470
on top of the four basic ones. But I
02:09:50.480 --> 02:09:52.229
mean everyone tradition had already
02:09:52.239 --> 02:09:53.990
settled on four. So they had to make the
02:09:54.000 --> 02:09:56.470
formless realms or the formless
02:09:56.480 --> 02:09:59.750
contemplations like like annexes of
02:09:59.760 --> 02:10:01.430
fourth Janna. You know they're just like
02:10:01.440 --> 02:10:06.790
varieties of fourth Janna.
02:10:06.800 --> 02:10:09.030
But Buddha goes I mean he was a scholar
02:10:09.040 --> 02:10:11.109
monk. I don't know how much he actually
02:10:11.119 --> 02:10:14.069
practiced you know. I mean nowadays if
02:10:14.079 --> 02:10:16.550
you go with nowadays most scholar monks
02:10:16.560 --> 02:10:18.790
are notorious for not practicing much.
02:10:18.800 --> 02:10:20.629
That's why they become scholars like
02:10:20.639 --> 02:10:23.030
Bikub Bod even I mean he doesn't
02:10:23.040 --> 02:10:25.030
practice much.
02:10:25.040 --> 02:10:27.109
He I mean he has admitted that he can't
02:10:27.119 --> 02:10:29.270
meditate. He gets like killer headaches
02:10:29.280 --> 02:10:31.830
if he tries to meditate.
02:10:31.840 --> 02:10:33.830
So he's a scholar, you know, that's how
02:10:33.840 --> 02:10:35.910
he he dedicates his time and at least
02:10:35.920 --> 02:10:38.390
it's in a relatively wholesome direction
02:10:38.400 --> 02:10:41.510
of, you know, translating and explaining
02:10:41.520 --> 02:10:43.430
texts,
02:10:43.440 --> 02:10:45.669
but it's not based on his own personal
02:10:45.679 --> 02:10:47.270
experience in many cases because he
02:10:47.280 --> 02:10:50.390
doesn't have very deep spiritual
02:10:50.400 --> 02:10:54.229
experience as far as I know
02:10:54.239 --> 02:10:56.470
like Ajantisro's translations would be
02:10:56.480 --> 02:11:00.629
better at least um with regard to how
02:11:00.639 --> 02:11:02.629
much of it is based bas on his own
02:11:02.639 --> 02:11:04.629
experience and understanding based on
02:11:04.639 --> 02:11:08.629
his own experience.
02:11:08.639 --> 02:11:12.390
So let's see yeah Buddha like Buddha
02:11:12.400 --> 02:11:14.470
Gossa's main text his most famous text
02:11:14.480 --> 02:11:18.149
is the Wudi Maga and it does seem to me
02:11:18.159 --> 02:11:22.229
that the m Wisudi Maga is a kind of
02:11:22.239 --> 02:11:25.910
manual on self-hypnosis.
02:11:25.920 --> 02:11:28.310
It seems to me
02:11:28.320 --> 02:11:30.069
I could be wrong. I know more about
02:11:30.079 --> 02:11:32.310
hypnosis than most meditators do. My
02:11:32.320 --> 02:11:34.229
father was a hypnotist among other
02:11:34.239 --> 02:11:35.830
things.
02:11:35.840 --> 02:11:38.390
And so I do think that there was a lot
02:11:38.400 --> 02:11:40.149
of confusion
02:11:40.159 --> 02:11:42.149
from ancient times up to the present
02:11:42.159 --> 02:11:45.750
time like in Burma where people just
02:11:45.760 --> 02:11:48.390
cannot differentiate between like a
02:11:48.400 --> 02:11:51.430
johnic state and a hypnotic trance like
02:11:51.440 --> 02:11:52.950
self-hypnosis
02:11:52.960 --> 02:11:55.510
like someone who goes into a state where
02:11:55.520 --> 02:11:57.990
you almost stop breathing your pulse and
02:11:58.000 --> 02:12:00.550
almost stops you know you're oblivious
02:12:00.560 --> 02:12:02.870
to everything around you. I mean that's
02:12:02.880 --> 02:12:06.709
a deep hypnotic state.
02:12:06.719 --> 02:12:08.709
my father's third, no, my father's
02:12:08.719 --> 02:12:11.510
second wife, not my mother.
02:12:11.520 --> 02:12:13.990
She'd go into these deep trance states,
02:12:14.000 --> 02:12:16.149
hypnotic states, where it was just like
02:12:16.159 --> 02:12:17.589
that. She was like a hibernating
02:12:17.599 --> 02:12:20.550
squirrel. Her breath rate and her her
02:12:20.560 --> 02:12:22.310
pulse would almost stop. They'd become
02:12:22.320 --> 02:12:24.629
almost undetectable. And then, I mean,
02:12:24.639 --> 02:12:26.790
she did have like some kind of like
02:12:26.800 --> 02:12:29.589
Edgar Casey type abilities while she was
02:12:29.599 --> 02:12:31.510
in these states
02:12:31.520 --> 02:12:37.030
or while she was in similar states.
02:12:37.040 --> 02:12:39.910
But I mean I do not consider that to be
02:12:39.920 --> 02:12:42.069
necessarily some aamati. I mean my
02:12:42.079 --> 02:12:44.390
father's second wife according to his
02:12:44.400 --> 02:12:46.870
testimony was a hardcore alcoholic with
02:12:46.880 --> 02:12:52.069
the morals of an alleycat
02:12:52.079 --> 02:12:53.830
in addition having talent similar to
02:12:53.840 --> 02:12:58.870
Edgar Casey.
02:12:58.880 --> 02:13:02.149
So did I answer the question? Was Buddha
02:13:02.159 --> 02:13:05.030
just wrong? I think Buddha Gossa was
02:13:05.040 --> 02:13:07.350
wrong with regard to a lot of things.
02:13:07.360 --> 02:13:09.910
The commentarial tradition is is just
02:13:09.920 --> 02:13:12.069
laughably wrong with with regard to a
02:13:12.079 --> 02:13:14.149
lot of things. Sometimes they're just
02:13:14.159 --> 02:13:15.910
making guesses, but they won't admit
02:13:15.920 --> 02:13:18.149
that they're guessing.
02:13:18.159 --> 02:13:20.069
Um, sometimes they're just cooking stuff
02:13:20.079 --> 02:13:22.470
up.
02:13:22.480 --> 02:13:25.669
So, let's just get to the see make sure
02:13:25.679 --> 02:13:28.149
that I answered this question.
02:13:28.159 --> 02:13:30.390
See, a lot of confusion about Janna due
02:13:30.400 --> 02:13:32.069
to Buddha Goa. Well, due to a lot of
02:13:32.079 --> 02:13:34.149
things, especially the inability to
02:13:34.159 --> 02:13:36.870
differentiate between sama samati and
02:13:36.880 --> 02:13:38.950
mitas samadei, right and wrong
02:13:38.960 --> 02:13:42.870
concentration or between like a an
02:13:42.880 --> 02:13:45.430
expanded superconscious mental state and
02:13:45.440 --> 02:13:47.189
being in a hypnotic trance where you're
02:13:47.199 --> 02:13:48.550
like a hibernating squirrel and
02:13:48.560 --> 02:13:51.990
oblivious to everything around you.
02:13:52.000 --> 02:13:53.350
See, I mean, the fourth genre is
02:13:53.360 --> 02:13:54.790
supposed to be the perfection of
02:13:54.800 --> 02:13:56.470
mindfulness,
02:13:56.480 --> 02:14:00.390
not being a hibernating squirrel.
02:14:00.400 --> 02:14:03.430
even a hibernating squirrel who is like
02:14:03.440 --> 02:14:07.430
channeling or whatever.
02:14:07.440 --> 02:14:09.109
So
02:14:09.119 --> 02:14:11.750
yeah, I do think that the four Jas were
02:14:11.760 --> 02:14:13.830
originally just the four stages of
02:14:13.840 --> 02:14:15.830
meditation with first Janna just being
02:14:15.840 --> 02:14:17.669
like elementary meditation that you're
02:14:17.679 --> 02:14:20.069
doing correctly.
02:14:20.079 --> 02:14:24.229
But that's not what tradition says.
02:14:24.239 --> 02:14:27.830
So I am a heretic. I make make no secret
02:14:27.840 --> 02:14:31.109
of the fact that I do not believe
02:14:31.119 --> 02:14:35.830
everything in the texts.
02:14:35.840 --> 02:14:39.270
So, I guess we're done. Might as well
02:14:39.280 --> 02:14:42.229
might as well be done. And so, as I
02:14:42.239 --> 02:14:43.669
should always say at the beginning, and
02:14:43.679 --> 02:14:45.270
pretty much never do, if you have any
02:14:45.280 --> 02:14:47.189
questions you think I can answer,
02:14:47.199 --> 02:14:50.790
especially with regard to dharma in the
02:14:50.800 --> 02:14:53.750
broadest sense of the term, then feel
02:14:53.760 --> 02:14:57.350
free to ask in the comments below. No
02:14:57.360 --> 02:15:00.390
more than three questions per person per
02:15:00.400 --> 02:15:03.430
episode, please. And like and subscribe
02:15:03.440 --> 02:15:05.189
if you've not done so already. and check
02:15:05.199 --> 02:15:07.189
out my URL links which includes the
02:15:07.199 --> 02:15:09.910
Amazon link to my new book which is
02:15:09.920 --> 02:15:12.149
largely autobiographical with regard to
02:15:12.159 --> 02:15:14.470
my life as a monk.
02:15:14.480 --> 02:15:19.639
And uh be happy.