Question & Answer #203: from Enlightened Berserkers to the Ethics of Confession

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Language: en
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Okay then I think we are recording. I
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sincerely hope that we are recording.
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Hello and welcome to question and answer
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number 203.
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I am your host Po Basa and
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I have made a conscientious effort to
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work this out so that there is no audio
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lag on this video by rebooting the
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computer right before starting this
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video. Maybe that'll work. Rebooting
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computers actually works wonders
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sometimes. I had to do that at work the
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other day. It wouldn't was wouldn't
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reading my my badge, you know, to get
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into the secret information at work,
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trade secrets and stuff.
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Reboot the computer. Work fine. So,
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let's just hope that it works this time.
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And uh yeah, the CPU is down at 11.8%.
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Everything's fine. Let's just go with
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that. Oh, I forgot to increase the size
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of the print so I won't be squinting
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quite so much.
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Let's see. Get it up to 42 points.
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There we go. Okay, then. And you may
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have noticed that this isn't the usual
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day for me to upload a question and
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answer video because this past weekend,
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I usually do my Q&A videos on Saturday
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or Sunday. I was working 12 and a half
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hour shifts Friday, Saturday, and
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Sunday. So, I was working more than half
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the time and then most of the rest of
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the time I was sleeping. I'm going to
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turn on the fan. That's what I'm going
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to do.
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Nice.
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So, now it's it's right around midnight
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on uh what the hell? I'll put it on
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high.
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So, it's right around midnight on a
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Monday night.
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So, it's going to go out on Tuesday, it
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looks like. I've just got weird hours
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now. And so, we're going to have to be
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flexible with regard to these Q&As's and
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the scheduling of same
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because sometimes I'm going to be
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working 12 and a half hour shifts all
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weekend. It's like half the time and
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half of that time it'll be days, other
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half nights. Like lately I've been
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working nights. It's like 5:30 p.m. to
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6:00 in the morning,
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which is all right. You know, I'm not
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complaining. I prefer
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working nights to having to get up at
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like 4 in the morning, which is going to
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be half the time.
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This is my beverage.
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And I was going to say something else,
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but I don't remember what it was, so I
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guess it wasn't very important.
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So 203 is not a prime number. Some of
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you may have thought it was a prime
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number. You're all geared up to
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celebrate the primeness of it. It's 7*
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29. So get used to it here. I got to
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adjust this a little more.
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Wearing a new shirt that's like two
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sizes too big. My beloved wife
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overestimates me to some degree. I guess
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Freud defined romantic love as
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overestimation of the sex object. And so
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she gets me clothes that are way too
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big. She got me some boots that were
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like an inch too long, at least an inch.
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And now it's this shirt, which of course
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a shirt that's too big is still
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wearable. I guess it's in style to wear
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like baggy shirts. So it's all good.
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And I guess uh may as well just start
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answering questions. This is going to be
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kind of a low-key one. I think I'm not
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going to be as animated as usual
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probably just because it's after
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midnight already and I don't know. I'm
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just this is my first day off after 12
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and a half hour shifts and I'm just kind
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of feeling lazy, you know, just wanting
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to relax all day.
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My only real work project all day was
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cleaning the filter in the pond
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fountain,
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which is uh one of my prides and joys. I
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guess my my wife contributed to it to
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some degree, especially with regard to
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there's like a bog area on one side and
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some floating plants. She did some gave
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some input with regard to the exact size
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and shape of it, but mostly it's it was
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like my inspiration
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and I do spend a lot of time just like
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looking out the window at the pond. It's
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right outside our bedroom window, the
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fountain and the goldfishes swimming
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around. I don't think any loaches
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survived, so I'm going to have to revise
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my strategy with regard to inoculating
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the pond with dojo loaches.
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H somehow endlers, which are like
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guppies, got into the pond and they're
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like having a population explosion,
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which is not particularly good because
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when winter comes, I mean, goldfish can
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survive freezing temperatures. I'm
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pretty sure endlers can't. And so
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there's going to be a die off of
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hundreds of little fishes all at the
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same time when winter hits.
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But we'll just cross that bridge when we
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get to it.
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And I'm just going to start answering
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questions. This is from Siovaken Sipad
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Zidana. And Siovakad Zidana says, "Is it
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possible that there were enlightened
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Vikings or Mongols who committed
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genocide and mass rape? If enlightenment
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has no meaning in a samsaric context and
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the actions of the body just do what it
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does, then this would be a strange
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combination." Well, I mean enlightenment
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obviously has meaning like verbally. You
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can define it verbally in a samsaric
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context. What I'm saying is can it
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really exist within the limits of
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samsara? I mean you can get close to it
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you know it's like a person can become
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wiser and more saintly and wiser and
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more saintly but can they get to the
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point of just absolute perfection
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with regard to their wisdom and purity
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within a samsaric context that is
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another question
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so I mean even using like samsaric
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definitions an enlightened being for one
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thing they they wouldn't have Pink
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Floyd's wall. You know, it's like they
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wouldn't
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they would have compassion. An
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enlightened being would have compassion
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because they wouldn't be like closed off
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to the suffering of other beings around
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them to the extent that beings really
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exist and on and on. It's hard to really
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um
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discuss the mental states of an
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enlightened being, intelligently,
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or coherently
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because again, I mean, second-guessing
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the mental states of an enlightened
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being, which may or may not even really
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exist in a samsaric context, is an
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exercise in futility. But let's just go
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with like a more or less Buddhist
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approach or even just common sense. Like
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an enlightened person is going to be
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wiser than the average person and
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they're not going to be motivated by
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hatred and you know just ill will. You
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know they may have some aggressive
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tendencies. They may you know have human
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emotions to some degree. You know they
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may express anger even though in
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Buddhism terra Buddhism a fully
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enlightened being doesn't get angry they
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I mean they no delusion no greed hate or
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delusion but somebody like Nim Karoli
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Baba up there on top of the on top of
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the bookcase I mean he would yell he
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would hit people he would he would
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giggle
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he would he would cry you know he he
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just had the full spectrum of human
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emotions it seems like I don't know if
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he
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expressed hatred,
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but I mean a lot of the human emotions
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were still, you know, part of his
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repertoire.
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So you would think that a fully
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enlightened being or someone who's very
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close to being a fully enlightened being
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an extremely wise person
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would I mean they would not be motivated
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by you know murderous
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berserker rage for example.
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So, I really doubt that an extremely
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wise person would be participating
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knowingly and willingly in genocide and
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mass. And it's a word I'm not supposed
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to say on YouTube. I've already let it
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slip once. Just it's in quotes, you
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know. I'm not endorsing it in any way.
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So, let's see. Is it possible there were
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enlightened Vikings or Mongols who
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committed genocide and mass surprise
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sex?
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If enlightenment has no meaning in a
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samsaric context, yeah, we already kind
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of discussed that. I mean, obviously has
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meaning. All meaning is samsaric.
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Any meaning is samsaric.
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Meaning is samsara. You could say
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the actions of the body just do what it
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does. And this would be a strange
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combination. Yeah. I don't think so. I
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mean there are cases like tantric sages
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like Padma Sambava would be a good
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example. Nim curly baba up there would
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be another possible example of a kind of
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enlightened person who is not completely
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saintly.
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You know they they behave in ways that
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are considered inappropriate from a
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terra Buddhist point of view. But still
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even Padma Sambba I mean they wouldn't
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be like slaughtering monks at
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monasteries and plundering all the gold
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and and you know the
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treasure stealing treasures that kind of
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thing is they just would have outgrown
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that sort of thing it would seem to me.
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But I mean, if you go with certain
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Mahayana points of view, we're all
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enlightened. Ekart Tollah kind of says
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something similar too. It's like we're
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all enlightened. It's just that for most
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of us, our mind is making so much noise
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that we're distracted by that and don't
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notice that kind of thing.
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So from from like the point of view of
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some Mahayana Buddhists, you would say
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that Vikings and Mongols, Viking
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berserkers, not just the peaceful ones
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that stay at home and catch fish and
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grow barley, but like the berserkers out
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there slaughtering Irish monks, that
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kind of thing.
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or the Mongols who are notorious for
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just being completely ruthless like no
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compassion whatsoever except maybe maybe
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just maybe for their own people.
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Yeah. I mean
00:11:43.839 --> 00:11:45.670
some Mahayana philosophers would say
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that even they have the Buddha nature
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and deep down are essentially
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enlightened.
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But it's like this illusory
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unenlightenment that's masking the true
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enlightenment. That kind of thing.
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But just going with some Sic common
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sense where you've got wiser people and
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more foolish people. Then the people
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that are like hacking farmers to death
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with battle axes, that kind of thing.
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they tend to be down towards the more
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foolish end as a general rule.
00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:26.790
I mean, I won't say that it's absolutely
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impossible.
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Pretty much anything is possible. Like
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David Hume said, anything that can be
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imagined is possible, at least in a
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metaphysical sense.
00:12:39.920 --> 00:12:42.870
So
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I mean the main thing that I would
00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:45.910
disagree with in this question is that
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enlightenment has no meaning in a
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samsaric context. The only meaning
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enlightenment has is in a samsaric
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context.
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But I'm just saying that, you know,
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within the the r scope of samsara, I
00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:04.389
mean, you can have wiser people and more
00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:07.030
foolish people, but can you have someone
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who has completely transcended samsara
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that's still in samsara physically?
00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.550
You know, is it possible to completely
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absolutely
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eliminate all greed, hate, and delusion?
00:13:20.800 --> 00:13:22.069
It would seem that a certain amount of
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attraction and aversion would be
00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.310
necessary just to keep stimulus response
00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:28.710
theory going so that people are still
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:30.710
you know even enlightened people are
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still able to like function.
00:13:34.079 --> 00:13:35.670
So then you had like the Abidama
00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:37.829
scholars who came up with Kirya which is
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a whole different kind of consciousness
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:42.310
that allows enlightened beings to act as
00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.190
though they have desires but they don't
00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:47.670
really have them. Although Kirya is not
00:13:47.680 --> 00:13:52.310
mentioned anywhere in the sutas.
00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:54.470
But did I answer the question? That is
00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:56.310
the question.
00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:58.310
So is it possible that there were
00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:00.949
enlightened Vikings or Mongols who
00:14:00.959 --> 00:14:03.829
committed genocide and mass surprise
00:14:03.839 --> 00:14:05.350
sex?
00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:08.949
And I mean, you could say it's possible,
00:14:08.959 --> 00:14:11.990
at least in a metaphysical sense,
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.590
but
00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.069
I mean, it's hard to imagine unless
00:14:16.079 --> 00:14:18.710
you've got a really unorthodox
00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:20.870
interpretation of enlightenment. You
00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:24.230
know, you're like completely tantric in
00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.230
your understanding of how enlightenment
00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:28.710
works, then maybe. But from the
00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:30.310
Terravada Buddhist point of view, it's
00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.189
just no. There's no way. A fully
00:14:33.199 --> 00:14:35.670
enlightened being can't even pill for
00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:38.069
something worth a penny.
00:14:38.079 --> 00:14:41.590
They can't tell the slightest lie.
00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:43.509
So, they're certainly not going to be
00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.629
slaughtering Irish monks
00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:50.069
or like destroying entire cities, just
00:14:50.079 --> 00:14:52.629
just wiping entire cities off the face
00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:54.710
of the earth, killing most of the
00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.350
people, saving a few that may be useful
00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:05.110
as slaves or ransom.
00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:07.590
Anyways, we're dealing in the the realm
00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:09.590
of hypotheticals, I think, here. And
00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:11.910
it's time to move on to Siobakipad
00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:15.030
Zirna's second question. And this is
00:15:15.040 --> 00:15:17.350
kind of an interesting one. This one
00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:20.150
might actually get closer to people's
00:15:20.160 --> 00:15:23.910
lived experiences.
00:15:23.920 --> 00:15:25.590
He says, "What are the thoughts of
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.990
Burmese monks and people on different
00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.310
traditions like Terravada from other
00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:33.110
countries, Mahayana Buddhism, Vajriana
00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:37.670
Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, etc. Well,
00:15:37.680 --> 00:15:39.509
it's kind of interesting that Burmese
00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.590
monks, a lot of them don't even know
00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:44.470
that the ties are terra Buddhists. They
00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:46.949
kind of think that only Burmese Buddhism
00:15:46.959 --> 00:15:51.430
plus maybe Sri Lanka are real terra.
00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.749
They think a lot of Burmese people even
00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:55.269
though they know they understand
00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:57.509
Terraata Buddhism
00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:00.310
fairly well still they think the ties
00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.189
are Mahayana Buddhists
00:16:03.199 --> 00:16:05.590
a lot of them do and so it's kind of
00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.829
interesting that one time I was at a Sri
00:16:07.839 --> 00:16:11.350
Lankan monastery in California and one
00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.749
of the ladies there a sinhalese lady was
00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.230
surprised that the Burmese are terra
00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:18.710
Buddhists and not Mahayana Buddhists you
00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:20.870
know it's just sort of you assume that
00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:25.910
these is foreigners have wrong view
00:16:25.920 --> 00:16:27.670
which I mean pretty much everybody has
00:16:27.680 --> 00:16:30.230
wrong view
00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:32.790
but what is the the the attitudes of
00:16:32.800 --> 00:16:36.790
Burmese monks with regard to Mahayana
00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:39.269
Buddhism I mean they they think well at
00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:41.430
least it's Buddhism you know it's it's
00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:43.749
gone off the tracks somewhat you know
00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:45.110
it's like a train that's gone off the
00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:50.230
tracks but at least it's still a train
00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.069
So yeah, I mean they don't talk about it
00:16:52.079 --> 00:16:53.590
much. They don't really understand it
00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:55.829
much. I mean the Burmese are very
00:16:55.839 --> 00:16:59.189
hardheaded and they're focused on you
00:16:59.199 --> 00:17:01.990
know their tradition Terravada tradition
00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.309
which they consider the Burmese to have
00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.429
like a monopoly on right view
00:17:07.439 --> 00:17:12.069
maybe the Sri Lankans maybe
00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:14.470
and so they really don't know what
00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.470
Mahayana Buddhism is about much less
00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.189
Hinduism or Dowoism you know Islam they
00:17:19.199 --> 00:17:22.150
kind of have a little bit of a sort of
00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:25.029
stereotype type of what Islam is all
00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:27.590
about. And some of the people, you know,
00:17:27.600 --> 00:17:28.950
they they have some understanding of
00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:30.710
Christianity.
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:31.830
You know, there there are a lot of
00:17:31.840 --> 00:17:33.590
Christian missionaries in Burma and a
00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:36.390
lot of um there's a certain generation
00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:38.470
like around my generation or a little
00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:41.430
younger. Um most of the people in Burma
00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.190
that speak fluent English, especially if
00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.750
they have an American accent, they went
00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:48.150
to Christian schools and mainly just for
00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:49.990
the education. Almost none of them
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.430
converted to Christianity, but they went
00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:54.950
to Christian schools to get a good
00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.590
education and they learned how to speak
00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:00.150
fluent English with an American accent.
00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:01.750
So they they understand something about
00:18:01.760 --> 00:18:03.350
Christianity. They don't really believe
00:18:03.360 --> 00:18:04.789
it. You know, they're just kind of
00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:08.070
locked in to Terravada Buddhism. Uh with
00:18:08.080 --> 00:18:10.310
regard to Hinduism,
00:18:10.320 --> 00:18:12.789
um there is a certain amount of Hinduism
00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:15.510
in Burma. There's a lot of like um
00:18:15.520 --> 00:18:17.750
Indian people, people of Indian ancestry
00:18:17.760 --> 00:18:20.070
who are still Hindus. Like in the town
00:18:20.080 --> 00:18:23.110
of Mayo, there are a few Hindu temples.
00:18:23.120 --> 00:18:27.750
Um one time I was traveling through
00:18:27.760 --> 00:18:30.310
Oh, it's Mahayan. It's it's this big
00:18:30.320 --> 00:18:32.470
forest. There had to be an armed soldier
00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:35.430
with us on the bus to guard the bus from
00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:37.909
bandits as we passed through this
00:18:37.919 --> 00:18:40.230
forest. And it was mostly like a gravel
00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:41.430
road. There were some places where the
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:43.669
road was completely washed out. The men
00:18:43.679 --> 00:18:45.590
on the bus had to get out and pull the
00:18:45.600 --> 00:18:48.789
bus with ropes through the sand where
00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:51.430
the river had washed out the road, that
00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:53.830
kind of thing. But I remember towards
00:18:53.840 --> 00:18:56.470
the beginning of the road, you know, the
00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:57.909
the beginning of the journey through
00:18:57.919 --> 00:18:59.830
this forest, whereas in one of the last
00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:01.590
places in Burma where there's supposedly
00:19:01.600 --> 00:19:03.909
still rhinoceroses,
00:19:03.919 --> 00:19:07.590
tapers, tigers, that kind of thing. Um,
00:19:07.600 --> 00:19:10.630
there was a a shrine to bait the Nome,
00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:13.750
which means black Vishnu,
00:19:13.760 --> 00:19:18.789
and that's more or less Hindu, I guess.
00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:22.070
I mean Vishnu his prototype is found in
00:19:22.080 --> 00:19:23.990
the poly texts I'm pretty sure like in
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:28.230
the um the jagasuta which is one of the
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:30.070
um one of the paras the protection
00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:32.789
chants in terra Buddhism there's mention
00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:36.230
of a of a dva called Isana who I have
00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:38.870
been told is like protovishnu sort of
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:42.710
like rudra was protoshiva
00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:45.029
or whatever the the Sanskrit equivalent
00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:47.590
of Isana would be was like protovishnu
00:19:47.600 --> 00:19:49.990
and he was I guess he was supposed to be
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:52.789
like a brother of Saka king of gods and
00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.110
he lived in Tawatimsa heaven. He was one
00:19:55.120 --> 00:19:56.710
of the leaders of Tawatimsah heaven
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:02.470
although he wasn't the supreme leader.
00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.750
Ah, so I mean the Burmese mainly Burmese
00:20:05.760 --> 00:20:07.350
Buddhists
00:20:07.360 --> 00:20:09.909
they got a firm grasp on orthodox
00:20:09.919 --> 00:20:12.630
terravada Buddhism especially Burmese
00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:15.830
iterations of it and also
00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:19.350
they still follow to some degree the the
00:20:19.360 --> 00:20:22.789
the so-calledNat cult which was a kind
00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.909
of polytheism
00:20:25.919 --> 00:20:28.230
that the Burmese followed before they
00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:31.350
converted to Buddhism. the gnat cult is
00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:33.350
I think it's like 31 maybe it was
00:20:33.360 --> 00:20:35.909
originally 30 gnats and then they added
00:20:35.919 --> 00:20:39.270
saka king of gods as leader of the gnats
00:20:39.280 --> 00:20:42.470
and it's it's kind of interesting the
00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:46.710
the preddhist religion of Burma because
00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.510
um the gnats who are like essentially a
00:20:49.520 --> 00:20:52.710
kind of dava were all um they were all
00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:54.710
humans in their previous life and they
00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:58.149
all died a violent or unnatural death
00:20:58.159 --> 00:20:59.750
which causes them to become what in
00:20:59.760 --> 00:21:03.750
Burmese is called an a sane. And a sane
00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:06.789
is like a powerful ghost or spirit. If
00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:08.710
you die of natural causes, you just kind
00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:11.510
of fade out from old age or sickness.
00:21:11.520 --> 00:21:14.149
Then there's like this smooth smoother
00:21:14.159 --> 00:21:16.549
transition into the next realm. Whereas
00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:19.350
if your life force in full vitality just
00:21:19.360 --> 00:21:22.310
cut off instantaneously, it causes the
00:21:22.320 --> 00:21:27.029
subsequent spirit to be more powerful,
00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:30.630
more have more vitality, and in some
00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:34.310
cases to be scarier and more dangerous.
00:21:34.320 --> 00:21:36.710
And so all of these gnats, you know,
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.190
like Lord of the white horse, Lord of
00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:43.029
the white elephant, um Min Mahagiri is
00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:48.390
one of the the main gnats. um that
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:50.950
I mean all of them were humans who died
00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.350
some kind of unnatural death in their
00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:55.430
previous existence and then became like
00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.630
these deities that were to some degree
00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:00.950
feared and propitiated
00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.870
by preb Buddhist Burmese people and even
00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:08.149
to the present day by a lot of them like
00:22:08.159 --> 00:22:11.350
Unu who was the first prime minister of
00:22:11.360 --> 00:22:13.110
independent Burma after independence
00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:17.590
from the British Raj He was having um
00:22:17.600 --> 00:22:19.750
coconut plantations planted all over the
00:22:19.760 --> 00:22:22.470
country and supposedly it was for the
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:24.630
economy, you know, cultivating coconut
00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:27.510
oil and and this kind of stuff, but deep
00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:30.870
down he was a very devout
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.070
like believer in Burmese religion. And
00:22:34.080 --> 00:22:37.110
Min Mahagiri likes coconuts. He died in
00:22:37.120 --> 00:22:38.870
a fire. He burned to death in his
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:41.669
previous existence. And so coconut milk
00:22:41.679 --> 00:22:43.830
or coconut water is very soothing to him
00:22:43.840 --> 00:22:47.270
and he likes it. So in order to get Min
00:22:47.280 --> 00:22:49.350
Mahagiri on the side of the Burmese
00:22:49.360 --> 00:22:52.310
nation, Unu the prime minister was
00:22:52.320 --> 00:22:53.990
planting coconut trees all over the
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.149
country. Kind of like later on the
00:22:56.159 --> 00:22:58.070
military dictatorship was planting
00:22:58.080 --> 00:23:00.310
castor oil plants all over the country.
00:23:00.320 --> 00:23:01.590
But that was for a different reason. It
00:23:01.600 --> 00:23:03.590
was still kind of a supernatural reason.
00:23:03.600 --> 00:23:05.270
And I'm just completely digressing. I
00:23:05.280 --> 00:23:07.430
don't give a [ __ ]
00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:09.750
But there were the when I was living in
00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:12.390
Burma like in the 1990s early 2000s the
00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:14.630
the military government was forcing
00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:17.029
people to plant castor oil plants all
00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:19.990
over the country and the name for a
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.350
castor oil plant is chetsu bin or just
00:23:23.360 --> 00:23:27.590
cetszu bin just means plant. So castor
00:23:27.600 --> 00:23:31.270
oil plant is cetszu or cetszu I have to
00:23:31.280 --> 00:23:33.990
pronounce it correctly which um the
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.230
Burmese use a lot of name magic and
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:40.710
cetsu has the the initial sounds
00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:43.909
reversed of suchi who was like the Nobel
00:23:43.919 --> 00:23:46.630
Peace Prize winner who was like the the
00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:48.950
figure head of the Burmese democracy
00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:51.510
movement and all that. So, by having a
00:23:51.520 --> 00:23:53.350
plant planted all over the country that
00:23:53.360 --> 00:23:56.950
had the initial sounds reversed, Cetsu
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.549
versus Suchi, it was like neutralizing
00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:03.909
her influence over the country, which
00:24:03.919 --> 00:24:07.510
maybe worked fairly well. And uhoh, I
00:24:07.520 --> 00:24:09.669
noticed that I'm starting to lag even
00:24:09.679 --> 00:24:16.470
though I rebooted the freaking computer.
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:18.149
I really am going to have to get a new
00:24:18.159 --> 00:24:20.390
computer, a stronger computer next next
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:23.029
year sometime. Yeah, the CPU is up to
00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:26.789
49.4%.
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:28.549
Maybe if I just don't move around very
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:31.269
much and talk slowly,
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:33.830
waving my arms too much is just maxing
00:24:33.840 --> 00:24:38.390
out the computer's capacity.
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:39.990
But getting back to co of action
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:43.350
cipadino's second question that he asked
00:24:43.360 --> 00:24:47.269
probably hours ago.
00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:49.830
Um yeah Burmese people in general
00:24:49.840 --> 00:24:52.230
Burmese Buddhists they know their
00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:53.909
tradition and they're just not
00:24:53.919 --> 00:24:55.430
interested in understanding other
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.070
traditions very much. You know I've had
00:24:58.080 --> 00:24:59.830
people tell me you know Hinduism is
00:24:59.840 --> 00:25:02.549
wrong view because they believe in self.
00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:06.310
They have self view. they've got atadi
00:25:06.320 --> 00:25:08.070
and you know I tried to explain to them
00:25:08.080 --> 00:25:11.990
that that the Hindu self view the belief
00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:14.950
in atman you know like in the upanishads
00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.590
it's really not that different from the
00:25:17.600 --> 00:25:19.750
belief in nibbana
00:25:19.760 --> 00:25:21.430
among Buddhists I mean it's it's just
00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:25.510
like this formless void
00:25:25.520 --> 00:25:27.669
but it's that was just a little too
00:25:27.679 --> 00:25:29.110
subtle you know there's nothing really
00:25:29.120 --> 00:25:32.710
they can they can grasp when I try and
00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.549
talk that way. It's just they're just
00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:37.510
not used to it.
00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:40.630
So yeah, Daoism probably most Burmese
00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:41.830
people have never even heard of it. They
00:25:41.840 --> 00:25:46.390
wouldn't even know what it is.
00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:47.830
And so with that, I think I'm just going
00:25:47.840 --> 00:25:49.350
to move on to the next question after
00:25:49.360 --> 00:25:51.669
spending half an hour answering a
00:25:51.679 --> 00:25:54.149
question that Seio Cadza didn't even
00:25:54.159 --> 00:25:56.230
ask.
00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:00.470
So section cipad zena's third question
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:03.110
for normies life keeps getting faster
00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:05.830
and faster with age and it feels like
00:26:05.840 --> 00:26:08.710
only years have passed when it was in
00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:10.630
fact decades.
00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:13.510
Is this also true for a monk or does
00:26:13.520 --> 00:26:16.070
life for a veteran monk such as yourself
00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:19.110
feel slowed down like in childhood?
00:26:19.120 --> 00:26:20.549
Well, that's kind of an interesting
00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:23.269
question and I remember I was in like
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:27.830
8th or ninth grade and Mr. Whit, no, it
00:26:27.840 --> 00:26:29.830
wasn't Mr. Whitikin.
00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:32.549
It was it was some teacher I had who
00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:35.269
tried to answer this question or tried
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:37.590
to explain this to us and he was saying
00:26:37.600 --> 00:26:40.710
that when you're 5 years old, a year is
00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:44.549
20% of your entire life thus far. When
00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:47.350
you're 50 years old, it's only 2% of
00:26:47.360 --> 00:26:50.630
your life. And so that causes kind of a
00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:53.350
telescoping of past time and makes it
00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:58.149
seem like time is going faster
00:26:58.159 --> 00:27:01.110
for me. I mean, when I was a monk, I had
00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:04.710
I had noticed that the years still went
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:09.510
by fast, but the minutes went by slower.
00:27:09.520 --> 00:27:12.470
And it seems to me that I mean, when
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:14.549
years going by fast, I mean, that's just
00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:17.110
a matter of perspective. And I think
00:27:17.120 --> 00:27:19.110
what my eighth or ninth grade teacher
00:27:19.120 --> 00:27:23.750
was saying may Mr. Whitfield I think
00:27:23.760 --> 00:27:26.390
he's not watching it doesn't matter. I
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:28.710
mean there is some truth to that I think
00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:32.789
but it's like sub the subjective like
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.590
experience of the passage of time I
00:27:35.600 --> 00:27:37.909
think the more conscious you are the
00:27:37.919 --> 00:27:39.909
more slowly it seems to go by. For
00:27:39.919 --> 00:27:42.149
example, you take some consciousness
00:27:42.159 --> 00:27:47.430
expanding chemical like LSD and five
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.029
minutes can seem like it's taking an
00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:53.029
hour because you're experiencing the the
00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:56.870
each moment like in greater detail. You
00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:59.110
know, it's like you're more aware of
00:27:59.120 --> 00:28:01.350
each moment which makes it seem like
00:28:01.360 --> 00:28:02.950
it's going by slower because you're
00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:05.590
experiencing it more fully. you're
00:28:05.600 --> 00:28:08.870
packing in more data, I guess, so that
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:12.470
it seems to be going by more slowly.
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.909
So, yeah, I think probably
00:28:15.919 --> 00:28:19.110
the years go by faster because I'm
00:28:19.120 --> 00:28:20.950
getting up there in age. You know, I've
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:23.350
got the Deva Dutas, you know, gray hair
00:28:23.360 --> 00:28:27.669
and wrinkles and few missing teeth,
00:28:27.679 --> 00:28:29.990
but the minutes go by more slowly, it
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:33.029
seems to me.
00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:35.909
So, it's kind of a trade-off, I guess,
00:28:35.919 --> 00:28:37.590
but it would seem that the more
00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:40.630
conscious you are, the more slowly time
00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:43.350
goes by,
00:28:43.360 --> 00:28:46.230
which makes it kind of I mean, there is
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:48.389
the idea, it's attributed to Albert
00:28:48.399 --> 00:28:50.470
Einstein. He says, if you're sitting on
00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:52.870
a hot stove, you know, a minute seems
00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:54.470
like an hour, but if you're talking to a
00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:56.230
pretty girl, an hour seems like a
00:28:56.240 --> 00:28:59.669
minute. That's relativity.
00:28:59.679 --> 00:29:01.750
So, I mean, if that's the case, I mean,
00:29:01.760 --> 00:29:03.510
it does seem like time flies when you're
00:29:03.520 --> 00:29:07.669
having fun. The old saying that uh going
00:29:07.679 --> 00:29:09.669
with my explanation, when you're
00:29:09.679 --> 00:29:11.510
suffering, you're more conscious than
00:29:11.520 --> 00:29:14.870
when you're not suffering. But it may be
00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:16.149
that when you're suffering, there's just
00:29:16.159 --> 00:29:19.190
kind of more friction seeming to slow
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:21.430
things down
00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:23.029
or you're just kind of aware of the
00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:24.950
unpleasant stuff. Whereas if you're
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:27.750
having fun in an ordinary sense, you
00:29:27.760 --> 00:29:30.630
know, like the normy kind of fun, you
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:32.149
know, so your mind just kind of is
00:29:32.159 --> 00:29:35.029
accepting everything and just kind of
00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:37.269
just I don't know, just kind of you're
00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:39.430
in a euphoria that allows time to just
00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:40.950
go by. You're not fully conscious,
00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:43.269
maybe. I'm not sure. You're going to
00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:44.789
have to ask a psychologist about that
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:46.470
one.
00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:49.350
Why does time go seem to go by faster
00:29:49.360 --> 00:29:51.669
when you're having fun? That's a good
00:29:51.679 --> 00:29:54.870
question.
00:29:54.880 --> 00:29:56.710
But I have noticed back in the day when
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.110
I was taking those kind of substances,
00:29:59.120 --> 00:30:01.350
you know, you take, you know, 500
00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:04.549
micrograms of LSD and it makes an five
00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:07.430
minutes seem like an hour
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:09.750
and we're lagging again and I don't care
00:30:09.760 --> 00:30:12.149
anymore.
00:30:12.159 --> 00:30:13.430
So, I think I'm just going to move on.
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:15.190
Next question.
00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:17.750
I'm sorry I'm not able to like just
00:30:17.760 --> 00:30:20.310
conclusively once and for all answer
00:30:20.320 --> 00:30:22.149
some of these questions because
00:30:22.159 --> 00:30:23.909
sometimes people ask questions that I've
00:30:23.919 --> 00:30:27.190
never really considered or I just don't
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.830
really know the exact answer. You know,
00:30:29.840 --> 00:30:31.590
it's like especially hypothetical
00:30:31.600 --> 00:30:33.510
questions about like enlightened
00:30:33.520 --> 00:30:36.230
berserkers. It's like I mean you're just
00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:38.070
in the realm of conjecture at that point
00:30:38.080 --> 00:30:41.350
it would seem to me and two different
00:30:41.360 --> 00:30:44.149
sages might have two entirely different
00:30:44.159 --> 00:30:45.990
answers like some Burmese would just say
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.710
no flatly impossible whereas maybe some
00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:51.350
Tibetan monk
00:30:51.360 --> 00:30:52.630
he might have a he might be more
00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.149
open-minded on the subject.
00:30:56.159 --> 00:30:58.230
Anyways, I'm moving on to the next
00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:00.789
question which is from Master Poe. And
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:02.950
Master Poe says, "Do you think the brain
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:05.110
creates consciousness or do you see it
00:31:05.120 --> 00:31:07.430
as a receiver?"
00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:09.510
And
00:31:09.520 --> 00:31:10.630
I don't know, it's kind of a trick
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:11.990
question. I mean, I've answered this
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:13.830
question before
00:31:13.840 --> 00:31:16.549
that the brain is like a computer.
00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:19.510
Consciousness is like electricity. So, a
00:31:19.520 --> 00:31:22.389
computer doesn't create electricity. It
00:31:22.399 --> 00:31:25.590
just takes electricity and then like
00:31:25.600 --> 00:31:28.549
complexifies it, organizes it and
00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:32.470
utilizes it. So the brain creates mental
00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:34.389
states at least within this version of
00:31:34.399 --> 00:31:35.830
reality. You know this version of
00:31:35.840 --> 00:31:38.870
samsara you can say the brain creates
00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:42.710
thoughts or mental states but it's not
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:44.710
creating the substance of consciousness
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:47.750
itself. I I'm personally I'm of the
00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:50.310
opinion that consciousness pervades the
00:31:50.320 --> 00:31:52.230
entire universe. It's just that most of
00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:56.710
it isn't like complexified and organized
00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:01.590
into mental states,
00:32:01.600 --> 00:32:04.870
you know, sort of like um in
00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:07.750
uh theoretical quantum physics where
00:32:07.760 --> 00:32:11.909
empty space can contain zero energy or
00:32:11.919 --> 00:32:14.070
infinite energy. You know, it's kind of
00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:16.230
like that with consciousness, too. You
00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:17.990
could say empty space contains zero
00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:20.230
consciousness but also in a sense
00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:22.950
depending on how you do the math it can
00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:25.509
contain infinite consciousness
00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:27.190
and to a religious person that might be
00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:29.190
like the spirit of God pervading the
00:32:29.200 --> 00:32:32.870
universe that kind of thing.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:37.190
So yeah, the brain just going with
00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:39.750
you know our version of empirical
00:32:39.760 --> 00:32:42.230
samsara
00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:45.190
that even then the brain does not create
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:47.110
consciousness and scientists really have
00:32:47.120 --> 00:32:49.430
no idea how the brain could possibly
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:51.830
create consciousness. How do
00:32:51.840 --> 00:32:54.789
electrochemical reactions going on in
00:32:54.799 --> 00:32:57.110
like neurons
00:32:57.120 --> 00:33:01.350
generate subjective experience?
00:33:01.360 --> 00:33:03.909
To this day, scientists don't have a
00:33:03.919 --> 00:33:07.110
clue.
00:33:07.120 --> 00:33:09.509
So, I mean, it would answer a lot of
00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:10.870
questions. You know, it would solve the
00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:13.190
whole brain body problem and all that if
00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:15.909
you just accept that what physicists
00:33:15.919 --> 00:33:19.509
call energy is exactly the same as what
00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:23.669
a psychologist calls consciousness.
00:33:23.679 --> 00:33:26.230
You know, it's the same essence. It's
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:28.549
just that what a psychologist calls
00:33:28.559 --> 00:33:30.630
consciousness usually is all
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:33.669
complexified by a brain. You know, it's
00:33:33.679 --> 00:33:36.630
all turned into mental states
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:38.630
because consciousness is just the
00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:40.389
substance. You know, it's like water.
00:33:40.399 --> 00:33:43.590
Whereas mental states are like the waves
00:33:43.600 --> 00:33:45.590
or going with the computer analogy
00:33:45.600 --> 00:33:47.750
again. It's like what the computer is
00:33:47.760 --> 00:33:49.990
doing ultimately is electricity, but
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:52.389
it's like organizing, you know, it's
00:33:52.399 --> 00:33:54.870
like turning the electricity into usable
00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:56.470
forms
00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:00.710
that's then used and utilized and you
00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:02.470
wind up with the computer actually
00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:07.029
accomplishing something.
00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:08.550
So, I guess I answered that one
00:34:08.560 --> 00:34:11.589
relatively quickly
00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:13.510
and so I'm just going to move on to the
00:34:13.520 --> 00:34:15.669
next question, which is from eventual
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:17.589
muse.
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:19.829
And I am happy to say that the lag thus
00:34:19.839 --> 00:34:21.829
far hasn't really exceeded about 1
00:34:21.839 --> 00:34:25.109
second.
00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:26.550
Those of you who just listen to the
00:34:26.560 --> 00:34:29.829
podcast are lucky because there there
00:34:29.839 --> 00:34:33.750
seems to be lately especially always
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:35.510
some kind of a lag between video and
00:34:35.520 --> 00:34:38.869
audio that comes and goes. it drifts,
00:34:38.879 --> 00:34:41.909
which according to Grock is usually a
00:34:41.919 --> 00:34:44.069
sign that the computer is maxing out on
00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:47.909
its CPU capacity or not not really
00:34:47.919 --> 00:34:51.990
maxing out, but getting so so busy that
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:55.510
it just can't keep up.
00:34:55.520 --> 00:34:59.190
Anyways, eventual muse says, "You've
00:34:59.200 --> 00:35:01.190
said many times that you really can't
00:35:01.200 --> 00:35:04.069
judge or speak for enlightened beings.
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:06.630
And of great interest is several times
00:35:06.640 --> 00:35:08.470
you mentioned that village people
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:11.190
considered you as enlightened, inferring
00:35:11.200 --> 00:35:14.150
that they got you wrong. So my question,
00:35:14.160 --> 00:35:16.790
and I'm mostly serious here, how can you
00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:20.950
be sure that you are not enlightened?"
00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:23.670
And I mean I've never really flatly
00:35:23.680 --> 00:35:25.349
denied being enlightened just because I
00:35:25.359 --> 00:35:26.710
don't want to like shut the door on
00:35:26.720 --> 00:35:28.230
myself because I mean you've got like
00:35:28.240 --> 00:35:30.870
the Mahayana Buddhists and Ehart Tollah
00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:32.310
and those people who are saying
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:34.870
everyone's already enlightened. So if
00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:36.630
somebody back when I was a monk
00:35:36.640 --> 00:35:39.510
especially asked me are you enlightened?
00:35:39.520 --> 00:35:41.349
I mean, nobody asked me that now anymore
00:35:41.359 --> 00:35:43.270
really,
00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:46.630
except for eventual muse here, but it
00:35:46.640 --> 00:35:47.990
used to be if someone asked me if I was
00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.670
enlightened, I'd say, "If I'm
00:35:49.680 --> 00:35:51.430
enlightened, so are you. If you're not
00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:54.310
enlightened, neither am I." That would
00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:56.630
generally be my standard answer to that
00:35:56.640 --> 00:35:59.349
question.
00:35:59.359 --> 00:36:00.630
So, in a sense, you could say
00:36:00.640 --> 00:36:03.430
everybody's enlightened or nobody is.
00:36:03.440 --> 00:36:05.030
You know, it's sort of like either
00:36:05.040 --> 00:36:07.270
everybody's perfect or nobody is. That
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:11.190
kind of thing.
00:36:11.200 --> 00:36:13.750
So, how can I be sure that I'm not
00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:15.270
enlightened?
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.270
Well, I mean, especially those of you
00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:21.910
who have a mate, those most of you guys
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.470
are males. And so, if you've got a woman
00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:27.190
in your life, you may know that women
00:36:27.200 --> 00:36:31.190
seem to specialize in pushing buttons.
00:36:31.200 --> 00:36:34.069
And like almost the only time I ever
00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:36.710
raise my voice is when I'm just getting
00:36:36.720 --> 00:36:38.390
exasperated
00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:41.430
by, you know, some kind of, you know,
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:45.030
female
00:36:45.040 --> 00:36:46.710
I don't I don't I don't even know how to
00:36:46.720 --> 00:36:48.790
say it.
00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:52.390
Pushing my buttons.
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:56.230
So, I mean I mean it's it's fairly
00:36:56.240 --> 00:36:57.670
evident to me that I still have
00:36:57.680 --> 00:36:59.270
preferences.
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:02.870
I still have, you know, better days and
00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:04.870
worse days,
00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:06.069
that kind of thing. I still have
00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:07.910
attractions and aversions. I mean, they
00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:10.230
may be more subtle than the average
00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:12.550
person has,
00:37:12.560 --> 00:37:15.670
but you know, it's still there. I'm
00:37:15.680 --> 00:37:18.390
still human.
00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:21.349
So, I mean, from the terravada, Orthodox
00:37:21.359 --> 00:37:23.510
Terravada Buddhist point of view, I
00:37:23.520 --> 00:37:25.270
couldn't possibly be enlightened because
00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:31.589
I mean, I don't even have perfect sila.
00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:33.589
But like from the Mahayana Buddhist
00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:35.510
point of view, Ekart Tollola, that kind
00:37:35.520 --> 00:37:38.230
of thing, then the enlightenment is
00:37:38.240 --> 00:37:40.150
there, but it's sort of covered over by
00:37:40.160 --> 00:37:44.710
an illusion that isn't really there.
00:37:44.720 --> 00:37:48.390
And I think I have a little more insight
00:37:48.400 --> 00:37:51.910
into that aspect of what enlightenment
00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:54.390
kind of is considered to be than most
00:37:54.400 --> 00:37:55.990
people.
00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:00.470
I'm maybe a little bit uh less opaque
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:02.630
than most people. Although I mean I'm
00:38:02.640 --> 00:38:04.390
not really trying to compare myself with
00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:05.910
others, you know, it's not like any kind
00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:07.910
of contest.
00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:10.390
But 30 years as a monk, you know, a
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.950
conscientiously practicing monk, you
00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:15.910
know, it does have its fruits. It does
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:18.470
have its good results, maybe I should
00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:23.190
say.
00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:25.270
Plus, I mean, you have to have enough
00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:28.150
wisdom or insight or clarity to even
00:38:28.160 --> 00:38:29.349
want to become a monk in the first
00:38:29.359 --> 00:38:33.349
place.
00:38:33.359 --> 00:38:35.349
So, I mean, I'm not sure that I'm not
00:38:35.359 --> 00:38:36.870
enlightened because, you know, you've
00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:38.630
got people like Ekhart Tollah and the
00:38:38.640 --> 00:38:40.710
Mahayana Buddhists saying everybody's
00:38:40.720 --> 00:38:42.950
enlightened.
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.990
But from a orthodox Terravada Buddhist
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:47.990
point of view, I'm not sure I've ever
00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:52.310
met anyone who is fully enlightened.
00:38:52.320 --> 00:38:54.150
So, I'm just going to move on to
00:38:54.160 --> 00:38:57.190
eventual muse's next question.
00:38:57.200 --> 00:38:59.990
He says, or she says, probably he just
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:02.230
going with statistics. Most of my
00:39:02.240 --> 00:39:05.349
viewers are male, like more than 95% of
00:39:05.359 --> 00:39:06.870
them.
00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:09.990
Eventual Muse says, "Help me understand
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:13.190
how it is that many seek, desire, and
00:39:13.200 --> 00:39:16.630
work ceaselessly to become streamlined
00:39:16.640 --> 00:39:19.589
enterers." I think eventual muse means
00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:22.870
stream enterers sodaponas. But the very
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:25.510
desire of wanting this negates the
00:39:25.520 --> 00:39:29.109
entire idea of letting go desires in
00:39:29.119 --> 00:39:31.510
obtaining enlightenment. How do we
00:39:31.520 --> 00:39:33.349
square these conflicting narratives?
00:39:33.359 --> 00:39:35.589
This is a common question and first of
00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:38.630
all a stream enterer is like the lowest
00:39:38.640 --> 00:39:41.030
level of Buddhist saintthood going with
00:39:41.040 --> 00:39:43.349
orthodox terra
00:39:43.359 --> 00:39:46.870
and so they still have desires anyway.
00:39:46.880 --> 00:39:51.109
But I mean the standard question is how
00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:53.589
can you strive for enlightenment? How
00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:56.390
can you desire enlightenment and become
00:39:56.400 --> 00:39:59.990
enlightened? And the question I pretty
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:05.190
much always give is it's like you become
00:40:05.200 --> 00:40:07.670
motivated for enlightenment.
00:40:07.680 --> 00:40:09.030
Enlightenment, the desire for
00:40:09.040 --> 00:40:10.550
enlightenment replaces all your other
00:40:10.560 --> 00:40:12.470
desires. You get rid of you renounce the
00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:15.430
world you know you renounce worldly life
00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:17.270
and you dedicate your life to
00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:20.069
enlightenment. That is your last major
00:40:20.079 --> 00:40:23.990
attachment. You are attached to the idea
00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:26.310
of becoming enlightened and you strive
00:40:26.320 --> 00:40:27.829
and you strive and you strive. You
00:40:27.839 --> 00:40:31.589
purify yourself. You practice hard and
00:40:31.599 --> 00:40:33.670
you fail because you still have this
00:40:33.680 --> 00:40:35.829
obstacle of this desire for
00:40:35.839 --> 00:40:37.750
enlightenment. just this one last
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:41.270
attachment until finally it's like in
00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:45.190
despair you just let go. You know, in a
00:40:45.200 --> 00:40:47.270
way it's like surrender. You know, it's
00:40:47.280 --> 00:40:50.310
almost like giving up
00:40:50.320 --> 00:40:53.349
and it's like this when you hit this
00:40:53.359 --> 00:40:56.870
wall of despair and just let go, you
00:40:56.880 --> 00:40:58.150
know, it's like you can't it's like
00:40:58.160 --> 00:40:59.430
you're beating your head against this
00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:03.190
brick wall. Finally, you just stop
00:41:03.200 --> 00:41:05.430
and it's like your last attachment.
00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:07.670
This, you know, all of your desires and
00:41:07.680 --> 00:41:09.670
attachments kind of coalesed into this
00:41:09.680 --> 00:41:11.750
one big one for desire or for
00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:13.829
enlightenment. And then when you just
00:41:13.839 --> 00:41:16.390
let that last one go,
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:22.230
click, poof, whatever.
00:41:22.240 --> 00:41:24.470
So, it's skillful means, you know, it's
00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:29.910
the it's the raft made of rubbish.
00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:32.390
Ah, let's see. Did I answer the question
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:34.069
sufficiently for me to move on to the
00:41:34.079 --> 00:41:36.950
next one? The very desire of wanting
00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:39.190
this negates the entire idea of letting
00:41:39.200 --> 00:41:41.829
go desires in obtaining enlightenment.
00:41:41.839 --> 00:41:43.270
You know, they become more and more
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:45.589
subtle. You know, it's it's skillful
00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:47.589
means in a way. It's it's there's a a
00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:50.230
certain suta about um you know,
00:41:50.240 --> 00:41:54.230
dismissing unwanted thoughts. And one
00:41:54.240 --> 00:41:57.030
way of doing it is you replace one
00:41:57.040 --> 00:41:59.589
unskillful thought with a more subtle,
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:01.670
more skillful thought. The way a
00:42:01.680 --> 00:42:04.790
carpenter will drive a peg or a dowel
00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:06.950
out of a plank of wood with a smaller
00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:09.270
piece of wood, you know, and then once
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:11.270
the the bigger piece is driven out with
00:42:11.280 --> 00:42:13.430
the smaller piece, you toss both of them
00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:15.109
away.
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:18.950
and using a desire for enlightenment as
00:42:18.960 --> 00:42:21.750
kind of a replacement for all the other
00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:23.910
unenlightened desires of sex, drugs, and
00:42:23.920 --> 00:42:25.510
rock and roll and ice cream and pizza
00:42:25.520 --> 00:42:27.829
and all that. You know, you replace it
00:42:27.839 --> 00:42:29.750
all with a more wholesome, more subtle
00:42:29.760 --> 00:42:34.069
kind of desire or attachment. And then,
00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:35.430
you know, you get as far as you can get
00:42:35.440 --> 00:42:37.510
with that, but eventually you have to
00:42:37.520 --> 00:42:40.710
let that go also.
00:42:40.720 --> 00:42:42.790
And that was something that the Burmese
00:42:42.800 --> 00:42:44.950
really had difficulty wrapping their
00:42:44.960 --> 00:42:46.630
head around. You know, they seem to
00:42:46.640 --> 00:42:49.190
think that at the moment of
00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:52.150
enlightenment, the desires fall away.
00:42:52.160 --> 00:42:53.990
Whereas it's like you can't really
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:56.710
become enlightened until the desires
00:42:56.720 --> 00:42:59.589
fall away. They just think that, you
00:42:59.599 --> 00:43:01.750
know, you're not going to be, you know,
00:43:01.760 --> 00:43:05.349
perfectly saintly until after you become
00:43:05.359 --> 00:43:06.870
enlightened.
00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:09.030
But really, it's like you got to be damn
00:43:09.040 --> 00:43:11.349
near perfect before you become
00:43:11.359 --> 00:43:13.030
enlightened. It seems to me, unless
00:43:13.040 --> 00:43:15.589
there's just some radical transformation
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.470
happens,
00:43:18.480 --> 00:43:22.150
that's an entirely different issue.
00:43:22.160 --> 00:43:27.109
So, yeah, it's skillful means.
00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:29.510
It's just a way of getting closer to the
00:43:29.520 --> 00:43:31.030
goal,
00:43:31.040 --> 00:43:32.950
but eventually you have to let that go,
00:43:32.960 --> 00:43:35.030
too.
00:43:35.040 --> 00:43:37.430
And so I'm just going to move on to
00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:41.270
eventual muse's third question.
00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:43.510
He says, "Do you think a case could be
00:43:43.520 --> 00:43:46.630
made that cows and dogs are enlightened?
00:43:46.640 --> 00:43:48.870
As I'm sure they do not live lives with
00:43:48.880 --> 00:43:51.670
a massive desire to become enlightened."
00:43:51.680 --> 00:43:53.990
Well, Ekhart Tollah in his first famous
00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:57.270
book says that all animals are
00:43:57.280 --> 00:43:59.750
essentially enlightened except for a few
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:02.390
domesticated ones that have inherited
00:44:02.400 --> 00:44:05.190
neurotic symptoms, unenlightenment from
00:44:05.200 --> 00:44:07.829
their from their masters. So, you might
00:44:07.839 --> 00:44:11.030
have some yappy Shih Tzu or something,
00:44:11.040 --> 00:44:13.829
some little maltes that isn't
00:44:13.839 --> 00:44:16.790
enlightened just because it has become
00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:18.550
neurotic from its interaction with
00:44:18.560 --> 00:44:22.069
humans. That's what Echart Tollah says.
00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:24.390
From the the Orthodox Terra Buddhist
00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:26.790
point of view, animals are in a lower
00:44:26.800 --> 00:44:28.950
realm. They're not enlightened. I mean,
00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:31.430
Echart Tollah's argument is that animals
00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:33.270
are fully in the present moment. You
00:44:33.280 --> 00:44:34.550
know, they're not worrying about the
00:44:34.560 --> 00:44:37.030
future. They're not regretting the past,
00:44:37.040 --> 00:44:39.990
you know, be here now, the power of now.
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:43.349
And so, um, Earullah says that because
00:44:43.359 --> 00:44:45.589
animals are fully in the present moment.
00:44:45.599 --> 00:44:47.829
Walt Whitmann said similar stuff in in
00:44:47.839 --> 00:44:50.230
Leaves of Grass. If any of you are into
00:44:50.240 --> 00:44:54.470
poetry that has no meter or rhyme.
00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:56.630
Um, but I mean there's more to
00:44:56.640 --> 00:44:58.870
enlightenment than just being in the
00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:01.430
present moment. It seems to me going
00:45:01.440 --> 00:45:02.870
from the Buddhist point of view, they're
00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:05.270
still delusional even though they're not
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:06.790
worried about the future. They're not
00:45:06.800 --> 00:45:08.550
regretting the past. They're not
00:45:08.560 --> 00:45:10.550
wondering what's going on in some other
00:45:10.560 --> 00:45:12.870
part of the world. you know, they're not
00:45:12.880 --> 00:45:14.870
really worried about what some other
00:45:14.880 --> 00:45:16.710
animal thinks of them, that kind of
00:45:16.720 --> 00:45:18.390
thing. You know, they're just be here
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:21.750
now. But still, they're delusional. They
00:45:21.760 --> 00:45:23.829
think that this is reality, for example.
00:45:23.839 --> 00:45:25.829
They still have desires and fears. You
00:45:25.839 --> 00:45:27.670
know, they're they're like most wild
00:45:27.680 --> 00:45:30.630
animals, it would seem, are motivated by
00:45:30.640 --> 00:45:33.109
fear and hunger. Those would be the two
00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:35.589
main ones.
00:45:35.599 --> 00:45:37.910
And so from a orthodox terravada
00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:39.750
Buddhist point of view, animals really
00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:42.790
are kind of in a kind of lower realm.
00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:44.550
And a similar argument could be used for
00:45:44.560 --> 00:45:47.030
like human babies. You know, some people
00:45:47.040 --> 00:45:49.270
think a human baby could be like fully
00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:51.829
enlightened. And you know, there's like
00:45:51.839 --> 00:45:53.750
Wordssworth wrote intimations of
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:55.829
immortality. This ode, it's one of his
00:45:55.839 --> 00:45:58.069
more famous poems. He's considered one
00:45:58.079 --> 00:45:59.589
of the giants of English literature,
00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:01.589
even though probably most people don't
00:46:01.599 --> 00:46:03.829
know who Werdsworth was. Nobody's read
00:46:03.839 --> 00:46:07.430
any words lately.
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:09.270
You know, he wrote this intimations of
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:11.430
immortality about how small children are
00:46:11.440 --> 00:46:13.190
actually closer to enlightenment or
00:46:13.200 --> 00:46:17.109
closer to God than than adults are. And
00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:19.190
there there is some truth to that. I
00:46:19.200 --> 00:46:22.470
mean, humans, we've got this burden of
00:46:22.480 --> 00:46:26.309
concepts that animals and like small
00:46:26.319 --> 00:46:28.150
children really don't have. You know,
00:46:28.160 --> 00:46:30.710
it's like an adult sees a dandelion and
00:46:30.720 --> 00:46:33.190
it's just like weed. you know, it's just
00:46:33.200 --> 00:46:36.309
you just label it as dandelion or weed.
00:46:36.319 --> 00:46:37.829
You know, you just slap the label on it
00:46:37.839 --> 00:46:40.790
as soon as you you recognize what it is
00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:42.870
and that's it. You know, you don't take
00:46:42.880 --> 00:46:44.870
in any of the fine details, anything
00:46:44.880 --> 00:46:47.190
like that. Or to a little kid, that
00:46:47.200 --> 00:46:49.030
dandelion could be a pretty flower and
00:46:49.040 --> 00:46:50.950
they're just like, you know, in awe of
00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:52.630
the miracle of this pretty flower
00:46:52.640 --> 00:46:55.270
they're holding in their hand because
00:46:55.280 --> 00:46:58.150
they haven't learned these knee-jerk
00:46:58.160 --> 00:47:01.349
like reflexes practically. it's just a
00:47:01.359 --> 00:47:03.829
weed, you know, just once once you've
00:47:03.839 --> 00:47:06.950
labeled it and just determine that it's
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:09.750
useless, you know, you just ignore it
00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:15.349
and move on to the next thing.
00:47:15.359 --> 00:47:17.589
But animals,
00:47:17.599 --> 00:47:19.589
yeah, I really don't think that animals
00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:21.430
are fully enlightened. If you get down
00:47:21.440 --> 00:47:23.349
to something that really doesn't even
00:47:23.359 --> 00:47:25.589
have perception, so it doesn't even have
00:47:25.599 --> 00:47:29.430
delusion, you know, like a a tapeworm,
00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:31.109
you know, maybe I shouldn't have picked
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:33.589
a parasite, but still a tapeworm. It's
00:47:33.599 --> 00:47:37.109
it's got no brain. It's it maybe has
00:47:37.119 --> 00:47:39.270
like unrefined consciousness. Like I was
00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:40.950
saying earlier, consciousness can
00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:43.109
pervade the entire universe, but it's
00:47:43.119 --> 00:47:46.470
not like taking that consciousness and
00:47:46.480 --> 00:47:49.910
like mutating it into mental states that
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:54.630
then kind of become the the substance of
00:47:54.640 --> 00:47:59.829
like delusion and unenlightenment.
00:47:59.839 --> 00:48:03.510
So yeah, maybe like plants could be
00:48:03.520 --> 00:48:07.430
enlightened in a sense or some animal
00:48:07.440 --> 00:48:09.829
that's so primitive that it doesn't even
00:48:09.839 --> 00:48:14.069
have a mind and no mental states anyway.
00:48:14.079 --> 00:48:16.069
You know those maybe you could say are
00:48:16.079 --> 00:48:17.589
enlightened just like you could say like
00:48:17.599 --> 00:48:19.670
rocks and bricks are enlightened. They
00:48:19.680 --> 00:48:22.870
have no greed, hate or delusion.
00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:25.109
They could have a kind of unrefined
00:48:25.119 --> 00:48:28.069
primordial consciousness pervading them.
00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:30.790
But they have no greed, hate or
00:48:30.800 --> 00:48:33.829
delusion.
00:48:33.839 --> 00:48:37.349
But even a a cow or a dog, I mean, they
00:48:37.359 --> 00:48:39.190
still have attraction and aversion and
00:48:39.200 --> 00:48:42.390
delusion, it seems to me.
00:48:42.400 --> 00:48:46.790
So the way Ram Doss in one of his early
00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:48.870
books described it is like you start
00:48:48.880 --> 00:48:51.430
off, it's like you imagine a clock, an
00:48:51.440 --> 00:48:54.390
oldfashioned one with those hands.
00:48:54.400 --> 00:48:57.190
And so it's like
00:48:57.200 --> 00:49:01.190
midnight is union with God. And then
00:49:01.200 --> 00:49:03.349
it's like when you get to one minute
00:49:03.359 --> 00:49:07.190
past 12, you're starting to create this
00:49:07.200 --> 00:49:11.510
being that is like delusional and like
00:49:11.520 --> 00:49:14.710
separated from God. At least in their
00:49:14.720 --> 00:49:17.430
own mind. In reality they aren't but in
00:49:17.440 --> 00:49:18.790
their own mind you know it's like they
00:49:18.800 --> 00:49:20.790
they've come up with these mental states
00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:23.510
that have sort of identified with
00:49:23.520 --> 00:49:25.510
themselves consider themselves to be
00:49:25.520 --> 00:49:28.150
like closed off you know it started like
00:49:28.160 --> 00:49:30.150
this spiritual
00:49:30.160 --> 00:49:31.990
journey I don't like using the word
00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:34.230
journey but you know it's it's kind of
00:49:34.240 --> 00:49:37.910
started the the unenlightened beings um
00:49:37.920 --> 00:49:39.910
progression
00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:42.309
and so for the first half all the way
00:49:42.319 --> 00:49:44.549
down to 6:00
00:49:44.559 --> 00:49:45.910
they're getting farther farther and
00:49:45.920 --> 00:49:47.990
farther away from enlightenment or
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:50.309
farther and farther away from ultimate
00:49:50.319 --> 00:49:54.069
reality or God. And then once you get to
00:49:54.079 --> 00:49:57.270
like 1 minute past 6, they start moving
00:49:57.280 --> 00:50:02.790
back up towards, you know, God o' at 12.
00:50:02.800 --> 00:50:06.630
And so animals might be in a sense
00:50:06.640 --> 00:50:08.549
closer to enlightenment. It's like like
00:50:08.559 --> 00:50:10.309
a cow, for example. I mean, they keep
00:50:10.319 --> 00:50:13.510
five precepts perfectly.
00:50:13.520 --> 00:50:15.910
They don't lie. They don't steal. They
00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:17.349
don't kill on purpose. I mean, they
00:50:17.359 --> 00:50:19.430
might eat grass. It's got a snail on it
00:50:19.440 --> 00:50:22.069
or something. They only have sex to
00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:25.349
reproduce.
00:50:25.359 --> 00:50:27.670
You don't have [ __ ] female cows with
00:50:27.680 --> 00:50:29.990
like, you know, plastic udder implants
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:32.710
and that kind of stuff.
00:50:32.720 --> 00:50:35.430
So, I mean, in a in a way, they have
00:50:35.440 --> 00:50:37.430
less delusion than we do just because
00:50:37.440 --> 00:50:40.790
they have less mind to work with. you
00:50:40.800 --> 00:50:43.190
have less mental states, but you've got
00:50:43.200 --> 00:50:45.030
to get farther and farther away until
00:50:45.040 --> 00:50:47.109
you've reached the maximum distance
00:50:47.119 --> 00:50:48.710
before you start coming back the other
00:50:48.720 --> 00:50:50.950
way, closer and closer to God again. So,
00:50:50.960 --> 00:50:53.349
you got to do the full circle. Just
00:50:53.359 --> 00:50:56.790
because some animals only at 1:00,
00:50:56.800 --> 00:51:00.390
whereas a human might be at 7. You know,
00:51:00.400 --> 00:51:02.710
technically they're closer to the
00:51:02.720 --> 00:51:06.470
absolute than a human being is. But in
00:51:06.480 --> 00:51:08.470
order for them to reach that absolute,
00:51:08.480 --> 00:51:09.829
they're going to have to go all the way
00:51:09.839 --> 00:51:12.390
around, you know, all the way around to,
00:51:12.400 --> 00:51:14.630
you know, 2 3 4 5 6 all the way back up
00:51:14.640 --> 00:51:17.270
to 12 again.
00:51:17.280 --> 00:51:19.430
That's not really how Terravata Buddhist
00:51:19.440 --> 00:51:21.510
describes it, but that's how Rahm Doss
00:51:21.520 --> 00:51:23.349
described it, you know, along more
00:51:23.359 --> 00:51:26.309
Hinduistic lines in one of his early
00:51:26.319 --> 00:51:31.190
books.
00:51:31.200 --> 00:51:33.349
But from the Orthodox Terra Buddhist
00:51:33.359 --> 00:51:35.109
point of view, animals are in a lower
00:51:35.119 --> 00:51:37.190
realm. You know, they're much worse off
00:51:37.200 --> 00:51:40.790
than we are. And seems to me that's
00:51:40.800 --> 00:51:44.069
pretty much right.
00:51:44.079 --> 00:51:45.829
So, I'm just going to move on to the
00:51:45.839 --> 00:51:49.270
next question. And this is from Craig
00:51:49.280 --> 00:51:52.069
Mofo. I don't know how to pronounce your
00:51:52.079 --> 00:51:55.510
name. Must be French.
00:51:55.520 --> 00:51:58.710
So, Craig ass mofo says, "Do you no
00:51:58.720 --> 00:52:01.109
longer follow the path of the Buddha?"
00:52:01.119 --> 00:52:03.030
And I no longer follow the path of the
00:52:03.040 --> 00:52:06.150
Buddha along monastic lines. In fact,
00:52:06.160 --> 00:52:09.589
I'm I don't even follow perfectly
00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:12.150
the the the path of the Buddha for for
00:52:12.160 --> 00:52:13.990
lay people.
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:17.270
So, I mean, I still consider Buddhist
00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:19.270
philosophy and Buddhist ethics to be
00:52:19.280 --> 00:52:22.950
essentially correct. Although, I mean, I
00:52:22.960 --> 00:52:26.549
am I do allow myself the privilege of
00:52:26.559 --> 00:52:30.069
critical thought. I am skeptical with
00:52:30.079 --> 00:52:33.910
regard to a lot of it. I have much more
00:52:33.920 --> 00:52:36.309
uh regard for somebody like Jay Krishna
00:52:36.319 --> 00:52:38.549
Murdy than any self-respecting terra
00:52:38.559 --> 00:52:42.549
Buddhist should have.
00:52:42.559 --> 00:52:45.030
But I'm more Buddhist than anything
00:52:45.040 --> 00:52:47.510
else.
00:52:47.520 --> 00:52:49.829
So this kind of leads up to Craig ass
00:52:49.839 --> 00:52:52.470
mofo second question.
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:54.470
He says, "Isn't your claim that you
00:52:54.480 --> 00:52:57.270
cannot change, that you are who you are
00:52:57.280 --> 00:52:59.990
in complete opposition to the teaching
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:02.390
of the Buddha? For example, you claim if
00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:04.710
you are an angry person, something like
00:53:04.720 --> 00:53:08.230
that you said, then you cannot change.
00:53:08.240 --> 00:53:10.630
Seems to contradict everything the
00:53:10.640 --> 00:53:13.190
Buddha taught about the self, about
00:53:13.200 --> 00:53:16.230
following his teachings to change into a
00:53:16.240 --> 00:53:17.990
more peaceful, compassionate,
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:20.549
calm-minded person. Well, Craig Malfo
00:53:20.559 --> 00:53:21.910
wasn't really paying very close
00:53:21.920 --> 00:53:24.230
attention to what I was saying in the
00:53:24.240 --> 00:53:27.910
previous Q&A. I mean, I went through a
00:53:27.920 --> 00:53:31.109
lot of detail about how it takes like
00:53:31.119 --> 00:53:33.190
talking about Battle for the Mind by
00:53:33.200 --> 00:53:34.710
William Sergeant, about how it really
00:53:34.720 --> 00:53:37.829
takes a kind of crisis to knock somebody
00:53:37.839 --> 00:53:40.390
out of a rut. That changing is
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:42.069
difficult. I never said it was
00:53:42.079 --> 00:53:44.630
impossible, that it doesn't happen. But
00:53:44.640 --> 00:53:48.470
for the average person statistically
00:53:48.480 --> 00:53:51.670
it's unlikely that as a general rule
00:53:51.680 --> 00:53:55.030
people don't change unless
00:53:55.040 --> 00:53:56.950
your perception change like I was also
00:53:56.960 --> 00:53:59.030
mentioning Schopenhau's the four-fold
00:53:59.040 --> 00:54:01.190
root of sufficient reason towards the
00:54:01.200 --> 00:54:03.910
beginning of the the comments I was
00:54:03.920 --> 00:54:05.990
making that Craig ass mofo is responding
00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:08.630
to here. So I mean from the very
00:54:08.640 --> 00:54:11.190
beginning of that discussion in the
00:54:11.200 --> 00:54:13.990
previous Q&A I was talking about how it
00:54:14.000 --> 00:54:18.150
does happen it can happen because like
00:54:18.160 --> 00:54:19.990
from from Schopenhau's point of view the
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:21.589
only way you can change your behavior is
00:54:21.599 --> 00:54:24.790
to change your perceptions
00:54:24.800 --> 00:54:28.150
and like William Sergeant says in his
00:54:28.160 --> 00:54:30.390
book battle for the mind as a general
00:54:30.400 --> 00:54:33.349
rule we are governed by habit we just
00:54:33.359 --> 00:54:35.349
cling to these habits we are attached to
00:54:35.359 --> 00:54:37.430
these habits and That's kind of the way
00:54:37.440 --> 00:54:40.390
karma is. It's it's like habit energy,
00:54:40.400 --> 00:54:43.109
the force of habit that lets us run on
00:54:43.119 --> 00:54:46.870
autopilot through most of our lives.
00:54:46.880 --> 00:54:49.190
And the only way to really change that
00:54:49.200 --> 00:54:53.190
is through some kind of crisis, some
00:54:53.200 --> 00:54:55.910
kind of emotional breakdown.
00:54:55.920 --> 00:54:58.710
And I was talking about how John Wesley,
00:54:58.720 --> 00:55:00.790
one of the founders of Methodism, used
00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:03.750
this, you know, it's I mentioned all
00:55:03.760 --> 00:55:05.990
that in the previous Q&A. I don't know
00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:08.790
why Craig ass mofo just took out this
00:55:08.800 --> 00:55:11.829
one bit of that discussion and thought
00:55:11.839 --> 00:55:13.430
that that was all I said about the
00:55:13.440 --> 00:55:15.829
issue.
00:55:15.839 --> 00:55:19.349
So never did I say that is that you
00:55:19.359 --> 00:55:21.829
cannot change.
00:55:21.839 --> 00:55:25.510
But it what does what is necessary is
00:55:25.520 --> 00:55:27.109
you have to change the way you think.
00:55:27.119 --> 00:55:30.710
And as a general rule we resist that.
00:55:30.720 --> 00:55:33.190
And so for a lot of people it takes some
00:55:33.200 --> 00:55:37.109
kind of crisis to just jolt or slam us
00:55:37.119 --> 00:55:39.510
out of this habitual rut that we are in.
00:55:39.520 --> 00:55:42.150
And that can happen accidentally. Like
00:55:42.160 --> 00:55:45.430
most Western people who claim to be
00:55:45.440 --> 00:55:47.510
enlightened or are claimed to be
00:55:47.520 --> 00:55:50.470
enlightened usually get to their state
00:55:50.480 --> 00:55:52.150
accidentally through a near-death
00:55:52.160 --> 00:55:54.870
experience or some existential crisis
00:55:54.880 --> 00:55:56.390
that they weren't planning on, they
00:55:56.400 --> 00:55:58.069
weren't cultivating. It just happened to
00:55:58.079 --> 00:56:00.710
them. Raman Maharshi, another case in
00:56:00.720 --> 00:56:04.549
point, it happened to him accidentally.
00:56:04.559 --> 00:56:06.069
You know, in Buddhism, you're doing it
00:56:06.079 --> 00:56:10.470
deliberately, but I mean, most Buddhists
00:56:10.480 --> 00:56:13.349
go about it in such a comfortable way
00:56:13.359 --> 00:56:15.670
that they don't really trigger the
00:56:15.680 --> 00:56:17.589
crisis. I mean, in the Buddhist time,
00:56:17.599 --> 00:56:19.430
you've got someone who just renounces
00:56:19.440 --> 00:56:21.589
the world, just radical renunciation.
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:23.349
They're wandering around homeless,
00:56:23.359 --> 00:56:25.510
living in tiger and banditinfested
00:56:25.520 --> 00:56:28.390
jungles, this kind of stuff. I mean, the
00:56:28.400 --> 00:56:31.750
crisis can happen pretty easily. But if
00:56:31.760 --> 00:56:34.230
you're just hanging out in like this
00:56:34.240 --> 00:56:36.390
comfortable monastery, knowing where
00:56:36.400 --> 00:56:37.990
your next meal is coming from, knowing
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:39.910
where you're going to sleep that night,
00:56:39.920 --> 00:56:42.150
as a general rule, things are so easy
00:56:42.160 --> 00:56:45.109
and peaceful, you just don't hit the
00:56:45.119 --> 00:56:48.230
crisis point unless you are striving
00:56:48.240 --> 00:56:50.230
with all your might to become
00:56:50.240 --> 00:56:52.069
enlightened or whatever to to attain
00:56:52.079 --> 00:56:54.230
this ideal. You can't do it. And then
00:56:54.240 --> 00:56:56.950
you have like the the crisis of I can't
00:56:56.960 --> 00:56:59.910
do it and then you just kind of let go.
00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:01.349
That's something I was I was mentioning
00:57:01.359 --> 00:57:04.549
a little earlier.
00:57:04.559 --> 00:57:08.390
So
00:57:08.400 --> 00:57:11.030
yeah, I mean people do change. I mean
00:57:11.040 --> 00:57:15.910
they can change but most people because
00:57:15.920 --> 00:57:19.030
either they're unwilling to do what is
00:57:19.040 --> 00:57:21.990
necessary or they just don't have it
00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:24.470
happen to them through some near-death
00:57:24.480 --> 00:57:27.030
experience or some such. You know, it's
00:57:27.040 --> 00:57:29.030
it's sort of like, you know, the fat
00:57:29.040 --> 00:57:31.030
lady on the diet that just struggles and
00:57:31.040 --> 00:57:33.030
struggles and and can't lose weight or
00:57:33.040 --> 00:57:34.950
she'll start to lose weight and then
00:57:34.960 --> 00:57:36.870
gain it all back again. Or someone who
00:57:36.880 --> 00:57:39.109
tries to quit smoking and, you know,
00:57:39.119 --> 00:57:40.710
it's like they quit and then start and
00:57:40.720 --> 00:57:43.190
quit and start or, you know, they try
00:57:43.200 --> 00:57:44.630
to, you know, they're they're an
00:57:44.640 --> 00:57:48.309
alcoholic or something. And most of
00:57:48.319 --> 00:57:50.789
these people, you know, they'll try and
00:57:50.799 --> 00:57:53.910
try and try and they just
00:57:53.920 --> 00:57:56.150
mean they're not wholehearted about it
00:57:56.160 --> 00:57:59.270
in many cases
00:57:59.280 --> 00:58:03.030
or, you know, they just don't take it
00:58:03.040 --> 00:58:05.910
seriously enough to get to that point of
00:58:05.920 --> 00:58:08.470
like the breakdown or the crisis that
00:58:08.480 --> 00:58:10.870
just can allow them to really make
00:58:10.880 --> 00:58:14.230
significant change. Like Rahm Doss said
00:58:14.240 --> 00:58:16.789
in one of his early books that I read
00:58:16.799 --> 00:58:19.670
and it haunted me for for most of my
00:58:19.680 --> 00:58:24.630
life that like absolute despair is a
00:58:24.640 --> 00:58:27.589
pre-erequisite for significant spiritual
00:58:27.599 --> 00:58:29.349
growth.
00:58:29.359 --> 00:58:31.589
And as for many years I hoped that he
00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:35.030
was wrong but it seems that he probably
00:58:35.040 --> 00:58:39.349
was right. Like in my life, most of my I
00:58:39.359 --> 00:58:41.349
I've gone through at least two sort of
00:58:41.359 --> 00:58:44.390
spiritual growth spurts and both of them
00:58:44.400 --> 00:58:49.430
were the result of despair.
00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:51.990
So I never said that you cannot change.
00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:54.230
I'm just saying that for the average
00:58:54.240 --> 00:58:57.510
person it is statistically unlikely
00:58:57.520 --> 00:59:00.069
that it takes more than most people are
00:59:00.079 --> 00:59:02.950
willing to invest
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:04.710
for the sake of changing. And a lot of
00:59:04.720 --> 00:59:05.910
people, they just think you can just
00:59:05.920 --> 00:59:07.990
change. You should just be different.
00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:10.069
You know, it's like people can judge
00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:11.829
others really easily. You know, it's
00:59:11.839 --> 00:59:14.069
like why don't they just be different?
00:59:14.079 --> 00:59:15.589
You know, I I used to think that way
00:59:15.599 --> 00:59:17.910
about like really obese people where
00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:19.510
it's like, man, why don't they just I
00:59:19.520 --> 00:59:20.630
mean, all you got to do is just eat
00:59:20.640 --> 00:59:23.990
less, maybe get a little more exercise.
00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:26.950
And then it was like you have your own
00:59:26.960 --> 00:59:29.910
attachments. And when you're struggling
00:59:29.920 --> 00:59:32.390
with that, then you, you know, after
00:59:32.400 --> 00:59:35.349
like decades of trying to change
00:59:35.359 --> 00:59:38.630
yourself and having limited success,
00:59:38.640 --> 00:59:40.549
then you have more compassion for other
00:59:40.559 --> 00:59:45.430
people who aren't even trying as hard
00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:48.470
or just don't know how to go about it.
00:59:48.480 --> 00:59:50.710
Cuz as a general rule, we are stuck
00:59:50.720 --> 00:59:53.589
being who we are. Mainly because we
00:59:53.599 --> 00:59:56.309
prefer to be to be stuck being who we
00:59:56.319 --> 00:59:57.990
are. It's just
00:59:58.000 --> 00:59:59.829
We're just creatures of habit and we
00:59:59.839 --> 01:00:03.109
just cling to these habits and resist
01:00:03.119 --> 01:00:05.910
change until our habits just aren't
01:00:05.920 --> 01:00:11.910
working anymore, which is the crisis.
01:00:11.920 --> 01:00:14.630
Okay, so I guess I answered that
01:00:14.640 --> 01:00:16.950
question. So, I'm just going to move on
01:00:16.960 --> 01:00:19.349
to the next question. See how we're
01:00:19.359 --> 01:00:21.109
doing here.
01:00:21.119 --> 01:00:23.990
Not too bad, I guess. Been going for an
01:00:24.000 --> 01:00:28.309
hour. CPU is at 42%.
01:00:28.319 --> 01:00:30.950
Next question is from drip walker and
01:00:30.960 --> 01:00:33.910
dripwalker says can you consider the
01:00:33.920 --> 01:00:36.549
natural state of the mind to be
01:00:36.559 --> 01:00:40.230
nepapancha and nepapancha
01:00:40.240 --> 01:00:42.230
is literally means something like
01:00:42.240 --> 01:00:44.390
nonprololiferation
01:00:44.400 --> 01:00:45.990
nondiffiation
01:00:46.000 --> 01:00:49.670
which is a synonym for nirvana.
01:00:49.680 --> 01:00:51.589
So do I consider the natural state of
01:00:51.599 --> 01:00:53.990
the mind to be nepapancha? consider the
01:00:54.000 --> 01:00:56.630
natural state of consciousness to be
01:00:56.640 --> 01:01:00.390
nepa panchcha. I mean most consciousness
01:01:00.400 --> 01:01:02.069
I mean assuming that the universe is
01:01:02.079 --> 01:01:04.630
pervaded by it that even a a hydrogen
01:01:04.640 --> 01:01:07.190
atom has like this little primordial
01:01:07.200 --> 01:01:09.829
spark of conscious to it then yeah all
01:01:09.839 --> 01:01:12.150
of that would be nepapanchoncho or
01:01:12.160 --> 01:01:15.190
nirvana enlightenment whatever it's only
01:01:15.200 --> 01:01:19.750
when you get into like a delusional mind
01:01:19.760 --> 01:01:23.349
a delusional mental state that
01:01:23.359 --> 01:01:26.150
um you know you get perceptions
01:01:26.160 --> 01:01:28.069
perceptions and volitions
01:01:28.079 --> 01:01:30.150
then you get papancha. That's what
01:01:30.160 --> 01:01:33.430
perceptions do. They differentiate.
01:01:33.440 --> 01:01:36.950
They proliferate.
01:01:36.960 --> 01:01:40.390
So enlightenment or or nirvana going
01:01:40.400 --> 01:01:43.270
with the the term nepopja is just
01:01:43.280 --> 01:01:45.670
nondiffiation.
01:01:45.680 --> 01:01:47.670
When you start dividing the universe up
01:01:47.680 --> 01:01:50.549
into parts, you're in delusional
01:01:50.559 --> 01:01:54.789
samsara.
01:01:54.799 --> 01:01:58.230
So the natural state of just
01:01:58.240 --> 01:02:01.270
consciousness is nepapancha. The natural
01:02:01.280 --> 01:02:03.750
state of perception or mental states is
01:02:03.760 --> 01:02:07.589
papancha or illusion or unenlightenment
01:02:07.599 --> 01:02:11.910
delusion.
01:02:11.920 --> 01:02:14.309
So yeah I'm not exactly sure what drip
01:02:14.319 --> 01:02:15.990
rocker had in mind with regard to the
01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:18.069
mind. Does he mean consciousness or does
01:02:18.079 --> 01:02:20.549
he mean mental states?
01:02:20.559 --> 01:02:22.630
I think most people would equate mind
01:02:22.640 --> 01:02:26.069
with mental states. Although personally
01:02:26.079 --> 01:02:28.549
I mean there's a deeper level of mind
01:02:28.559 --> 01:02:30.789
than mental states which is just
01:02:30.799 --> 01:02:32.710
consciousness itself which is like the
01:02:32.720 --> 01:02:35.990
essence of the mental states.
01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:38.710
So consciousness is essence and mental
01:02:38.720 --> 01:02:40.549
states are form the forms that
01:02:40.559 --> 01:02:43.030
consciousness takes.
01:02:43.040 --> 01:02:47.190
Kind of like this cup is it ceramic or
01:02:47.200 --> 01:02:49.990
is it a mug? I guess it's more of a mug
01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:52.549
than a cup. So, which which is it? Is it
01:02:52.559 --> 01:02:55.349
ceramic or is it a mug? Well, it's both.
01:02:55.359 --> 01:02:58.309
The essence is ceramic
01:02:58.319 --> 01:03:03.270
and the form the function is mug. It's
01:03:03.280 --> 01:03:06.069
holding my coffee,
01:03:06.079 --> 01:03:08.230
which is now lukewarm coffee. But that's
01:03:08.240 --> 01:03:10.390
all right. We're still going through a
01:03:10.400 --> 01:03:13.190
kind of heat wave in upstate South
01:03:13.200 --> 01:03:16.549
Carolina.
01:03:16.559 --> 01:03:18.150
So,
01:03:18.160 --> 01:03:21.349
I guess I answered that question. And
01:03:21.359 --> 01:03:22.870
so, I'm going to move on to Drip
01:03:22.880 --> 01:03:25.589
Walker's second question. He says, "The
01:03:25.599 --> 01:03:29.270
house on fire is the goal to put out the
01:03:29.280 --> 01:03:31.349
fire rather than getting out of the
01:03:31.359 --> 01:03:33.510
house, if you know what I mean." Well,
01:03:33.520 --> 01:03:38.069
he's referring to is the uh traditional
01:03:38.079 --> 01:03:40.710
Buddhist metaphor. It's uh I think
01:03:40.720 --> 01:03:43.910
probably the most famous version of the
01:03:43.920 --> 01:03:46.710
house on fire is from the Lotus Sutra
01:03:46.720 --> 01:03:49.349
which is a Mahayana text. Although the
01:03:49.359 --> 01:03:52.069
Buddha's third discourse after his
01:03:52.079 --> 01:03:54.069
enlightenment according to tradition was
01:03:54.079 --> 01:03:56.390
the fire sermon where he's saying you
01:03:56.400 --> 01:03:58.309
know the the universe is on fire. The
01:03:58.319 --> 01:04:00.950
world is on fire.
01:04:00.960 --> 01:04:04.789
The fires of greed, hate and delusion.
01:04:04.799 --> 01:04:07.190
So just going with the metaphor, we're
01:04:07.200 --> 01:04:09.910
trapped in a burning building. And so
01:04:09.920 --> 01:04:12.630
the Buddhist answer is you get out of
01:04:12.640 --> 01:04:14.309
the building.
01:04:14.319 --> 01:04:18.549
Um part of the like the analogy or the
01:04:18.559 --> 01:04:20.549
metaphor is I mean putting out the fire
01:04:20.559 --> 01:04:23.190
really isn't an option. You know one
01:04:23.200 --> 01:04:27.029
person can't just cure somes sorrow for
01:04:27.039 --> 01:04:29.589
everybody else. So that's one reason why
01:04:29.599 --> 01:04:31.109
it's escaping from the building rather
01:04:31.119 --> 01:04:32.470
than putting out the fire because you
01:04:32.480 --> 01:04:34.549
put out the fire all the beings in the
01:04:34.559 --> 01:04:37.510
universe are now safe. you know, no more
01:04:37.520 --> 01:04:39.190
suffering, no more greed, hate, and
01:04:39.200 --> 01:04:40.710
illusion. And it doesn't work that way.
01:04:40.720 --> 01:04:43.349
All you can do is save yourself.
01:04:43.359 --> 01:04:46.470
So, it could be that a better analogy
01:04:46.480 --> 01:04:48.710
than putting out the fire or even
01:04:48.720 --> 01:04:50.150
escaping the burning building would be
01:04:50.160 --> 01:04:52.630
to become fireproof.
01:04:52.640 --> 01:04:54.470
You know, that would that would do it.
01:04:54.480 --> 01:04:55.750
You know, an enlightened being, you
01:04:55.760 --> 01:04:56.950
know, they're still kind of in the
01:04:56.960 --> 01:04:58.630
burning building. It's just they don't
01:04:58.640 --> 01:05:00.549
get burned anymore. They're they're like
01:05:00.559 --> 01:05:04.150
flame retardant. They're fireproof.
01:05:04.160 --> 01:05:05.589
So I think that might be a better
01:05:05.599 --> 01:05:13.190
analogy than putting out the fire.
01:05:13.200 --> 01:05:14.789
But yeah, it's like an enlightened being
01:05:14.799 --> 01:05:18.710
still is kind of in the burning building
01:05:18.720 --> 01:05:20.950
or or just like going with Plato's cave
01:05:20.960 --> 01:05:23.430
analogy where you know the enlightened
01:05:23.440 --> 01:05:26.309
being is you know first they get loose
01:05:26.319 --> 01:05:28.470
from being chained up facing the wall
01:05:28.480 --> 01:05:30.309
and thinking that the flickering shadows
01:05:30.319 --> 01:05:32.470
are reality. you know, they the the
01:05:32.480 --> 01:05:34.549
first stage of their enlightenment might
01:05:34.559 --> 01:05:37.589
be just the the awareness that they're
01:05:37.599 --> 01:05:39.750
chained up. Then they get loose, but
01:05:39.760 --> 01:05:42.470
they're still kind of in the dark cave,
01:05:42.480 --> 01:05:43.910
the flickering shadows and everything.
01:05:43.920 --> 01:05:45.910
Then they go outside the cave, you know,
01:05:45.920 --> 01:05:47.430
that's kind of escaping from the burning
01:05:47.440 --> 01:05:49.910
building, but then sort of like the
01:05:49.920 --> 01:05:51.990
enlightened being, they come back in and
01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:55.589
try to help others. So, you know,
01:05:55.599 --> 01:05:58.789
they're escaping the fire, escaping the
01:05:58.799 --> 01:06:01.990
burning building. Um,
01:06:02.000 --> 01:06:05.029
yeah, I think just becoming flame proof,
01:06:05.039 --> 01:06:07.750
but then again, I mean, part of the
01:06:07.760 --> 01:06:10.789
analogy is that like if you're trapped
01:06:10.799 --> 01:06:14.789
in a burning building and I mean, it's
01:06:14.799 --> 01:06:16.789
better I mean, if you want to help
01:06:16.799 --> 01:06:19.029
others, first you got to find a way out
01:06:19.039 --> 01:06:21.109
of that burning building. Then if you
01:06:21.119 --> 01:06:25.029
des if if you want if you think it is
01:06:25.039 --> 01:06:26.950
appropriate you can come back into the
01:06:26.960 --> 01:06:29.430
burning building and rescue others by
01:06:29.440 --> 01:06:31.910
showing them the way out. But there are
01:06:31.920 --> 01:06:34.710
a lot of people who they just think that
01:06:34.720 --> 01:06:36.390
staying in the burning building and
01:06:36.400 --> 01:06:38.870
applying first aid to the burn victims
01:06:38.880 --> 01:06:42.630
is the moral thing to do. Whereas from
01:06:42.640 --> 01:06:44.789
the Buddhist point of view, you find a
01:06:44.799 --> 01:06:48.230
way out and then maybe you come back in
01:06:48.240 --> 01:06:49.750
and you help rescue other people.
01:06:49.760 --> 01:06:53.430
Although in reality, most people don't
01:06:53.440 --> 01:06:55.190
know the building's on fire, don't want
01:06:55.200 --> 01:06:57.109
to be rescued, just think that you're a
01:06:57.119 --> 01:06:59.190
nut.
01:06:59.200 --> 01:07:01.190
Sort of like the the people that are
01:07:01.200 --> 01:07:03.510
still chained up in Plato's cave. You
01:07:03.520 --> 01:07:06.470
got the person who's like sort of
01:07:06.480 --> 01:07:08.630
dazzled by the bright sun for the first
01:07:08.640 --> 01:07:10.789
time in his life. He comes back into the
01:07:10.799 --> 01:07:13.029
cave and he's going to seem just like
01:07:13.039 --> 01:07:16.069
disoriented and and just kind of stupid
01:07:16.079 --> 01:07:17.750
to the people that are still chained up
01:07:17.760 --> 01:07:20.630
in there.
01:07:20.640 --> 01:07:22.950
Most people don't want to be
01:07:22.960 --> 01:07:25.109
enlightened. Most people do not want to
01:07:25.119 --> 01:07:27.990
escape from samsara or to transcend
01:07:28.000 --> 01:07:30.630
samsara. They like it. In fact, that's
01:07:30.640 --> 01:07:33.430
why we're here. As a general rule, we're
01:07:33.440 --> 01:07:35.270
not unenlightened because we don't try
01:07:35.280 --> 01:07:36.950
hard enough to become enlightened. We're
01:07:36.960 --> 01:07:39.190
unenlightened because we just want to be
01:07:39.200 --> 01:07:42.549
unenlightened.
01:07:42.559 --> 01:07:44.789
partly just because
01:07:44.799 --> 01:07:47.270
don't know any better as a general rule
01:07:47.280 --> 01:07:52.390
or just force of habit.
01:07:52.400 --> 01:07:54.390
Anyways,
01:07:54.400 --> 01:07:55.670
with that I think I'm just going to move
01:07:55.680 --> 01:07:57.990
on to the next question. This is from
01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:00.470
practice meta
01:08:00.480 --> 01:08:03.270
and practice meta says
01:08:03.280 --> 01:08:06.069
I'm wondering how one knows whether a
01:08:06.079 --> 01:08:08.710
particular monastery is truly the right
01:08:08.720 --> 01:08:11.589
place to ordain. In my case, I've
01:08:11.599 --> 01:08:13.670
already visited several temples in
01:08:13.680 --> 01:08:16.229
Thailand. I found one that felt
01:08:16.239 --> 01:08:18.789
intuitively right and asked to ordain
01:08:18.799 --> 01:08:21.269
there, but they weren't set up to ordain
01:08:21.279 --> 01:08:24.789
foreigners and redirected me elsewhere.
01:08:24.799 --> 01:08:26.789
Since then, I've been thinking about
01:08:26.799 --> 01:08:29.349
continuing to go from temple to temple,
01:08:29.359 --> 01:08:32.070
hoping for a clear lightningbolt moment
01:08:32.080 --> 01:08:34.630
of certainty that tells me this is
01:08:34.640 --> 01:08:37.510
exactly where I belong. But I'm
01:08:37.520 --> 01:08:39.590
wondering if this is a foolish way to go
01:08:39.600 --> 01:08:41.829
about it. Would it be wiser to simply
01:08:41.839 --> 01:08:43.829
pick a suitable monastery even if it
01:08:43.839 --> 01:08:46.149
doesn't feel perfect and allow the path
01:08:46.159 --> 01:08:49.269
to unfold from there? You mentioned that
01:08:49.279 --> 01:08:51.669
you were you just went to your local
01:08:51.679 --> 01:08:53.430
monastery and everything worked out well
01:08:53.440 --> 01:08:55.910
for you. At the same time, it seemed
01:08:55.920 --> 01:08:57.669
like you might not recommend that same
01:08:57.679 --> 01:08:59.430
straightforward approach for someone
01:08:59.440 --> 01:09:02.550
else. Is that correct? Well, first of
01:09:02.560 --> 01:09:04.470
all, I'll mention this last paragraph
01:09:04.480 --> 01:09:07.669
here. Um, I mean it wasn't a local
01:09:07.679 --> 01:09:09.669
monastery. There were no Terravada
01:09:09.679 --> 01:09:13.110
Buddhist monasteries in Washington State
01:09:13.120 --> 01:09:15.669
at that time that I'm aware of. I had to
01:09:15.679 --> 01:09:16.950
go to California. It was the only
01:09:16.960 --> 01:09:19.110
Terravada Buddhist monastery I even
01:09:19.120 --> 01:09:22.789
really knew of in the United States. Mat
01:09:22.799 --> 01:09:24.870
Meta hadn't started yet. The Ajan Cha
01:09:24.880 --> 01:09:27.349
places hadn't started yet. There was
01:09:27.359 --> 01:09:30.390
Tomulu Cab Monastery in Boulder Creek,
01:09:30.400 --> 01:09:33.110
California. Um, I found out about a
01:09:33.120 --> 01:09:34.870
couple other places. there was Bawana
01:09:34.880 --> 01:09:37.829
society over like in what West Virginia
01:09:37.839 --> 01:09:40.789
or something like that.
01:09:40.799 --> 01:09:43.669
Um so I just went to the only place I
01:09:43.679 --> 01:09:46.709
really knew of it at the time could have
01:09:46.719 --> 01:09:50.309
very well been the best forest monastery
01:09:50.319 --> 01:09:53.269
in a terra Buddhist tradition in the
01:09:53.279 --> 01:09:55.350
United States.
01:09:55.360 --> 01:09:57.510
It might have been at the time. Like I
01:09:57.520 --> 01:09:59.750
said this is back before Watt Meta or
01:09:59.760 --> 01:10:03.270
Abayiri or any place like that.
01:10:03.280 --> 01:10:05.990
So, I went there and was ordained there.
01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:08.470
I mean, it was pretty much the obvious
01:10:08.480 --> 01:10:09.990
choice. It was pretty much the only
01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:12.310
place I knew of that I had been to and
01:10:12.320 --> 01:10:16.390
looked at. And I mean, it didn't really
01:10:16.400 --> 01:10:19.590
go all that well. It was it was uh one
01:10:19.600 --> 01:10:21.110
of the monastery attendants referred to
01:10:21.120 --> 01:10:23.830
the place as a [ __ ] accelerator. It's
01:10:23.840 --> 01:10:26.790
like you go to a spiritual place like an
01:10:26.800 --> 01:10:29.430
ashram or a monastery and everyone is
01:10:29.440 --> 01:10:32.390
like restrained. Everyone can't just act
01:10:32.400 --> 01:10:34.630
as they please the way they would, you
01:10:34.640 --> 01:10:37.590
know, to a greater to they can act as
01:10:37.600 --> 01:10:39.590
they please to a less degree than if
01:10:39.600 --> 01:10:41.270
you're out in the world, you know,
01:10:41.280 --> 01:10:43.189
living a worldly life, you know, you're
01:10:43.199 --> 01:10:45.590
more restrained through moral restraint
01:10:45.600 --> 01:10:49.510
and all that. And so it like accelerates
01:10:49.520 --> 01:10:54.630
neurosis and and just [ __ ]
01:10:54.640 --> 01:10:57.270
So yeah, it didn't go very well. And at
01:10:57.280 --> 01:11:00.790
the time that I I left Tomulu Kaba a
01:11:00.800 --> 01:11:02.950
monastery, it was just I mean the
01:11:02.960 --> 01:11:05.110
Burmese people were in open rebellion
01:11:05.120 --> 01:11:06.790
against the board of directors. They're
01:11:06.800 --> 01:11:08.470
trying to just take control of the
01:11:08.480 --> 01:11:09.990
monastery,
01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:11.669
you know, regardless of who owns the
01:11:11.679 --> 01:11:13.990
deed or the property and all that. So it
01:11:14.000 --> 01:11:17.430
was like this uproar going on. You had
01:11:17.440 --> 01:11:20.070
um a German nun there with just a
01:11:20.080 --> 01:11:22.149
classic textbook case of schizophrenia
01:11:22.159 --> 01:11:26.630
who was causing all kinds of just havoc,
01:11:26.640 --> 01:11:29.189
wreaking havoc, you know. It was just
01:11:29.199 --> 01:11:31.110
the place was just it was a [ __ ] storm
01:11:31.120 --> 01:11:33.510
going on at the time that I left. And I
01:11:33.520 --> 01:11:35.189
mean the monks really weren't practicing
01:11:35.199 --> 01:11:36.550
very hard. They weren't following the
01:11:36.560 --> 01:11:38.149
rules of monastic discipline. It was
01:11:38.159 --> 01:11:40.630
just kind of like easygoing Burmese
01:11:40.640 --> 01:11:44.790
cultural center kind of an atmosphere.
01:11:44.800 --> 01:11:46.870
So yeah, I mean it didn't work all that
01:11:46.880 --> 01:11:49.430
well for me. Although in the long run it
01:11:49.440 --> 01:11:52.310
worked out okay,
01:11:52.320 --> 01:11:55.030
but let's uh get up higher up on this
01:11:55.040 --> 01:11:56.790
scroll here with regard to this
01:11:56.800 --> 01:11:59.830
question. Let's see. Been thinking
01:11:59.840 --> 01:12:01.350
continue going from temple to temple
01:12:01.360 --> 01:12:03.030
hoping for a clear lightning bolt
01:12:03.040 --> 01:12:06.630
moment. Um well this reminds me of a
01:12:06.640 --> 01:12:09.990
Vietnamese monk I met in Burma. I was
01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:13.110
senior monk at WBO Wildlife Refuge
01:12:13.120 --> 01:12:16.390
Monastery, WBO Bet Do Jang in
01:12:16.400 --> 01:12:18.870
northwestern Burma. And this Vietnamese
01:12:18.880 --> 01:12:25.030
monk showed up and he was just
01:12:25.040 --> 01:12:26.870
he he had like this phobia of lay
01:12:26.880 --> 01:12:28.950
people. Like he'd be sitting out in
01:12:28.960 --> 01:12:31.430
front of his cave eating his meal. A lay
01:12:31.440 --> 01:12:33.189
person would come to pay respects. He
01:12:33.199 --> 01:12:35.590
would just abandon his food, go into the
01:12:35.600 --> 01:12:37.270
cave, and hide for the whole rest of the
01:12:37.280 --> 01:12:39.030
day. his food would just be baking in
01:12:39.040 --> 01:12:43.030
the sun, you know, for hours because he
01:12:43.040 --> 01:12:45.110
was just terrified of having to deal
01:12:45.120 --> 01:12:47.990
with lay people. And he was extremely
01:12:48.000 --> 01:12:49.910
fussy. I mean, he was he was kind of
01:12:49.920 --> 01:12:52.790
eccentric. Let's just put it that way.
01:12:52.800 --> 01:12:55.510
And he had been in Burma for less than a
01:12:55.520 --> 01:12:57.110
year. He'd already been to more places
01:12:57.120 --> 01:13:00.550
than I had been to in 10 years. And he's
01:13:00.560 --> 01:13:02.709
just, where is a good place? Where is a
01:13:02.719 --> 01:13:05.990
good place? And I told him it's like if
01:13:06.000 --> 01:13:08.550
you have been to that many places
01:13:08.560 --> 01:13:11.350
already and still haven't found a
01:13:11.360 --> 01:13:14.630
suitable place, it may be the problem is
01:13:14.640 --> 01:13:17.189
not with the places but with your own
01:13:17.199 --> 01:13:20.390
mental states.
01:13:20.400 --> 01:13:23.430
because he had been to pretty much every
01:13:23.440 --> 01:13:26.310
reputable monastery in Burma, at least
01:13:26.320 --> 01:13:29.270
the well-known ones, and always finding
01:13:29.280 --> 01:13:31.750
something wrong with each place, never
01:13:31.760 --> 01:13:33.990
finding a place that that he really
01:13:34.000 --> 01:13:36.550
considered to be satisfactory. But he
01:13:36.560 --> 01:13:38.470
was just relentlessly driven to just go
01:13:38.480 --> 01:13:40.229
from one place to the next to the next
01:13:40.239 --> 01:13:42.950
in search of a perfection that he was
01:13:42.960 --> 01:13:44.630
never going to find because his own mind
01:13:44.640 --> 01:13:47.430
wasn't perfect.
01:13:47.440 --> 01:13:50.630
So I think I mean if you haven't found a
01:13:50.640 --> 01:13:52.709
place that just clicks as this is the
01:13:52.719 --> 01:13:55.110
right place. It just feels completely
01:13:55.120 --> 01:13:57.350
right. I mean you may have to go with
01:13:57.360 --> 01:13:59.189
the idea of the first noble truth.
01:13:59.199 --> 01:14:01.590
Everything is dooka. You know no place
01:14:01.600 --> 01:14:05.189
is going to be completely satisfactory.
01:14:05.199 --> 01:14:07.830
And uh you know just find a place where
01:14:07.840 --> 01:14:12.229
at least you've got an abbott who you
01:14:12.239 --> 01:14:15.189
know is a a good teacher has some wisdom
01:14:15.199 --> 01:14:18.229
where the monks are actually practicing
01:14:18.239 --> 01:14:19.750
following the rules of monastic
01:14:19.760 --> 01:14:21.110
discipline. I mean that was another
01:14:21.120 --> 01:14:22.950
problem for me is my own abbott or my
01:14:22.960 --> 01:14:25.270
own preceptor who was the abbott didn't
01:14:25.280 --> 01:14:27.910
particularly even like me. He didn't
01:14:27.920 --> 01:14:29.830
like foreigners in general. He didn't
01:14:29.840 --> 01:14:31.590
like westerners as a general rule
01:14:31.600 --> 01:14:36.310
because we just weren't Burmese enough.
01:14:36.320 --> 01:14:40.070
So yeah, I mean just if you cannot find
01:14:40.080 --> 01:14:43.189
the place that just feels intuitively
01:14:43.199 --> 01:14:47.189
like this is the place, then just find a
01:14:47.199 --> 01:14:51.270
place where at least you've got a wise
01:14:51.280 --> 01:14:54.149
wise good teacher who is willing to
01:14:54.159 --> 01:14:56.470
ordain you and where you know there's
01:14:56.480 --> 01:14:58.630
some discipline, some genuine practice
01:14:58.640 --> 01:15:01.750
going on there and then
01:15:01.760 --> 01:15:03.910
just take it from there.
01:15:03.920 --> 01:15:06.070
It may be that it'll just you'll just
01:15:06.080 --> 01:15:07.910
kind of settle in and it will become the
01:15:07.920 --> 01:15:10.709
right place or I mean at the very least
01:15:10.719 --> 01:15:12.630
you've got a good start. At least you're
01:15:12.640 --> 01:15:15.510
starting with a a strict tradition and a
01:15:15.520 --> 01:15:18.070
wise teacher and all that and then maybe
01:15:18.080 --> 01:15:19.669
few years down the road it may be
01:15:19.679 --> 01:15:22.870
appropriate to go somewhere else.
01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:24.630
But if you can't find the perfect place,
01:15:24.640 --> 01:15:26.470
then go for a place that isn't perfect,
01:15:26.480 --> 01:15:30.149
but at least kind of fits the the
01:15:30.159 --> 01:15:32.950
requisites for a place where you'd want
01:15:32.960 --> 01:15:34.550
to ordain. I mean, you don't want to be
01:15:34.560 --> 01:15:37.110
ordained at some sloppy monastery where
01:15:37.120 --> 01:15:42.950
the monks aren't practicing.
01:15:42.960 --> 01:15:45.110
If you've got uh like a preceptor who
01:15:45.120 --> 01:15:47.270
will be your teacher, who really is like
01:15:47.280 --> 01:15:49.030
a meditation master, then that's
01:15:49.040 --> 01:15:50.870
excellent.
01:15:50.880 --> 01:15:55.910
you're already way ahead of the game.
01:15:55.920 --> 01:15:57.110
So, I'm just going to move on to the
01:15:57.120 --> 01:15:59.750
next question. This is from Romeo.
01:15:59.760 --> 01:16:02.950
And Romeo says, "In your last Q&A
01:16:02.960 --> 01:16:05.030
number 202,
01:16:05.040 --> 01:16:06.950
the first question you addressed was
01:16:06.960 --> 01:16:09.189
about some overlap between Buddhism and
01:16:09.199 --> 01:16:12.149
Dowoism. One of the concepts in Daoism
01:16:12.159 --> 01:16:14.550
that I think is on the mark is the idea
01:16:14.560 --> 01:16:17.189
of yin and yang. that there exists a
01:16:17.199 --> 01:16:19.510
kind of cosmic balance of opposite but
01:16:19.520 --> 01:16:22.790
complimentary forces in the world. Yin,
01:16:22.800 --> 01:16:25.590
the more passive and receptive and more
01:16:25.600 --> 01:16:28.550
traditionally feminine energy and yang,
01:16:28.560 --> 01:16:31.750
the a active and more traditionally
01:16:31.760 --> 01:16:33.910
masculine energy. Does Buddhism
01:16:33.920 --> 01:16:36.470
encompass or address,
01:16:36.480 --> 01:16:39.590
excuse me, the existence of the concepts
01:16:39.600 --> 01:16:42.310
of yin and yang or something similar?
01:16:42.320 --> 01:16:45.110
And I've discussed this before. Um there
01:16:45.120 --> 01:16:47.510
really is nothing
01:16:47.520 --> 01:16:49.750
like clearly
01:16:49.760 --> 01:16:52.790
mirroring the idea of yin and yang in
01:16:52.800 --> 01:16:55.910
terra Buddhism. It's mainly terra that
01:16:55.920 --> 01:16:57.510
that I'm familiar with. I'm most
01:16:57.520 --> 01:17:01.910
familiar with terra and there's nothing
01:17:01.920 --> 01:17:05.750
that's central to Buddhist philosophy
01:17:05.760 --> 01:17:09.030
in like orthodox tradition that compares
01:17:09.040 --> 01:17:11.430
to yin and yang. Probably the closest is
01:17:11.440 --> 01:17:15.910
the locama. It's like five I think it's
01:17:15.920 --> 01:17:19.350
five pairs of opposites like praise and
01:17:19.360 --> 01:17:21.750
blame, success and failure that kind of
01:17:21.760 --> 01:17:25.510
thing where um you're going to be
01:17:25.520 --> 01:17:30.630
encountering you know like both in a pro
01:17:30.640 --> 01:17:33.510
more or less equal measure.
01:17:33.520 --> 01:17:37.510
Locadama, you can look that up. L O K A
01:17:37.520 --> 01:17:41.830
D H A M A. So that's pretty much the
01:17:41.840 --> 01:17:44.470
closest you get to like a dowist idea of
01:17:44.480 --> 01:17:47.910
yin and yang in orthodox terravada.
01:17:47.920 --> 01:17:52.070
But it seems to me that yin and yang
01:17:52.080 --> 01:17:54.870
dependently coarise. That's why they
01:17:54.880 --> 01:17:56.950
exist in the world. It's like according
01:17:56.960 --> 01:17:59.270
to the da jing from the dao you have the
01:17:59.280 --> 01:18:01.590
one. From the one you have the two. From
01:18:01.600 --> 01:18:04.709
the two came the 10,000 things. So yin
01:18:04.719 --> 01:18:06.870
and yang are sort of like the two that
01:18:06.880 --> 01:18:08.790
gives birth to the entire universe of
01:18:08.800 --> 01:18:11.910
duality.
01:18:11.920 --> 01:18:15.189
And I mean that's dependent core rising
01:18:15.199 --> 01:18:18.630
at least from my understanding of it in
01:18:18.640 --> 01:18:21.750
orthodox terra dependent core rising
01:18:21.760 --> 01:18:26.310
kind of oified into the 12 nidana theory
01:18:26.320 --> 01:18:28.550
where this leads to this leads to this.
01:18:28.560 --> 01:18:30.390
sort of like this chain of cause and
01:18:30.400 --> 01:18:35.189
effect that keeps us trapped in samsara.
01:18:35.199 --> 01:18:37.590
But it seems to me that the Buddha
01:18:37.600 --> 01:18:39.990
really didn't teach dependent core
01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:43.750
rising as these 12 links that that was
01:18:43.760 --> 01:18:45.990
just caused by people not really
01:18:46.000 --> 01:18:48.310
understanding dependent core rising. It
01:18:48.320 --> 01:18:51.110
was just too abstract or something. And
01:18:51.120 --> 01:18:54.149
according to legend, the Buddha almost
01:18:54.159 --> 01:18:56.870
didn't teach Buddhism right after his
01:18:56.880 --> 01:18:58.630
enlightenment because he figured nobody
01:18:58.640 --> 01:18:59.990
was going to understand dependent core
01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:06.790
rising and he was pretty much correct.
01:19:06.800 --> 01:19:10.550
So I do think that dependent core rising
01:19:10.560 --> 01:19:13.030
in a way I mean it accounts for dualism
01:19:13.040 --> 01:19:15.590
which would include yin and yang. I mean
01:19:15.600 --> 01:19:19.669
opposites like dependently coarise. You
01:19:19.679 --> 01:19:22.870
can't have positive without negative.
01:19:22.880 --> 01:19:24.630
You can't have inhaling without
01:19:24.640 --> 01:19:27.189
exhaling. They dependently coarise. It's
01:19:27.199 --> 01:19:31.189
like this duality, this like dualistic
01:19:31.199 --> 01:19:33.270
pair of opposites.
01:19:33.280 --> 01:19:34.870
I mean, they support each other. It's
01:19:34.880 --> 01:19:36.070
sort of like the particle and the
01:19:36.080 --> 01:19:38.790
antiparticle coming out of empty space
01:19:38.800 --> 01:19:42.870
in quantum physics.
01:19:42.880 --> 01:19:44.470
you know, out of nothing, you get the
01:19:44.480 --> 01:19:46.229
particle and the antiparticle, which
01:19:46.239 --> 01:19:48.229
usually come back together and
01:19:48.239 --> 01:19:49.830
annihilate each other, and then you
01:19:49.840 --> 01:19:52.709
you're back to zero again.
01:19:52.719 --> 01:19:54.709
But that's that's more along the lines
01:19:54.719 --> 01:19:57.030
of how I interpret dependent cool rising
01:19:57.040 --> 01:20:00.310
or padicha samopata, the whole 12 nidana
01:20:00.320 --> 01:20:02.229
thing. I mean, the evidence really
01:20:02.239 --> 01:20:04.229
doesn't support it very well in my
01:20:04.239 --> 01:20:07.189
opinion.
01:20:07.199 --> 01:20:11.430
I've I mean possibly my greatest
01:20:11.440 --> 01:20:13.030
contribution
01:20:13.040 --> 01:20:18.870
academically to Buddhistic studies is my
01:20:18.880 --> 01:20:22.790
theory of like how the 12 nidana theory
01:20:22.800 --> 01:20:26.950
arose as the standard orthodox
01:20:26.960 --> 01:20:29.590
explanation for padicha samupata or
01:20:29.600 --> 01:20:31.430
dependent co- arising but I think
01:20:31.440 --> 01:20:34.149
originally you know it's this arising
01:20:34.159 --> 01:20:38.149
that arises this being that is you know
01:20:38.159 --> 01:20:41.189
this this cease or this not being that
01:20:41.199 --> 01:20:43.350
is not and this ceasing that ceases
01:20:43.360 --> 01:20:46.709
that's like the the the simple formula
01:20:46.719 --> 01:20:48.149
of dependent core rising that you can
01:20:48.159 --> 01:20:50.390
find in the sutas
01:20:50.400 --> 01:20:53.750
but again it's sort of like how dualism
01:20:53.760 --> 01:20:56.870
arises like pairs of opposites like the
01:20:56.880 --> 01:20:59.110
particle and the antiparticle you know
01:20:59.120 --> 01:21:01.270
they dependently coarise you can't just
01:21:01.280 --> 01:21:03.830
have the antiparticle appear without the
01:21:03.840 --> 01:21:05.350
particle balancing it out and
01:21:05.360 --> 01:21:11.270
maintaining everything at the same zero.
01:21:11.280 --> 01:21:14.709
So originally it may be that dependent
01:21:14.719 --> 01:21:17.030
core rising could have accounted for yin
01:21:17.040 --> 01:21:20.149
and yang could have included a kind of
01:21:20.159 --> 01:21:23.830
yin and yang sort of idea in early
01:21:23.840 --> 01:21:27.430
Buddhist philosophy but apparently going
01:21:27.440 --> 01:21:30.310
with my theory it was abandoned because
01:21:30.320 --> 01:21:32.790
it wasn't really understood and you wind
01:21:32.800 --> 01:21:36.790
up with this 12 links that that is kind
01:21:36.800 --> 01:21:39.990
of just sort of insert erted into suda
01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:41.990
after suda the same verbatim block of
01:21:42.000 --> 01:21:45.590
words for dependent core rising and
01:21:45.600 --> 01:21:47.910
Buddhist monks like in Burma will
01:21:47.920 --> 01:21:49.830
memorize the 12 links and think they
01:21:49.840 --> 01:21:52.229
understand dependent core rising when
01:21:52.239 --> 01:21:54.870
the Buddha more wisely assumed nobody
01:21:54.880 --> 01:21:56.229
was going to understand dependent core
01:21:56.239 --> 01:22:00.229
rising
01:22:00.239 --> 01:22:04.870
so within traditional orthodox terravada
01:22:04.880 --> 01:22:07.350
probably the 10 loadamas are about as
01:22:07.360 --> 01:22:08.629
close as you're going to get to yin and
01:22:08.639 --> 01:22:11.990
yang Yang, but I do think originally
01:22:12.000 --> 01:22:14.390
Dependent Core Rising had a kind of yin
01:22:14.400 --> 01:22:20.950
and yang um energy to it, so to speak.
01:22:20.960 --> 01:22:22.149
And so I'm just going to move on to the
01:22:22.159 --> 01:22:23.990
next question.
01:22:24.000 --> 01:22:26.390
This is what also from Romeo. And I
01:22:26.400 --> 01:22:27.750
think I may have already answered this
01:22:27.760 --> 01:22:30.390
one because Romeo says, "Regardless of
01:22:30.400 --> 01:22:32.390
what Buddhism says about the existence
01:22:32.400 --> 01:22:35.030
of yin and yang, what is your take on
01:22:35.040 --> 01:22:37.110
the existence of yin and yang?" And
01:22:37.120 --> 01:22:40.149
it's, you know, pairs of opposites in a
01:22:40.159 --> 01:22:44.390
dualistic samsara. That samsara is based
01:22:44.400 --> 01:22:46.790
on dualism. You can't have beauty
01:22:46.800 --> 01:22:49.030
without ugliness. You can't have good
01:22:49.040 --> 01:22:51.270
without bad. You can't have bad without
01:22:51.280 --> 01:22:54.629
good. I mean, it's if you somehow
01:22:54.639 --> 01:22:57.750
eliminated all ugliness from the world,
01:22:57.760 --> 01:22:59.430
which isn't going to happen, but if you
01:22:59.440 --> 01:23:01.990
somehow eliminated all ugliness, like
01:23:02.000 --> 01:23:04.629
just the concept of ugliness disappears.
01:23:04.639 --> 01:23:07.510
the concept of beauty I mean it's that
01:23:07.520 --> 01:23:09.430
concept is going to disappear also
01:23:09.440 --> 01:23:12.390
without ugliness beauty has no meaning
01:23:12.400 --> 01:23:16.709
without badness goodness has no meaning
01:23:16.719 --> 01:23:19.189
so it's it's essentially dualism which
01:23:19.199 --> 01:23:26.629
is from the two came the 10,000 things
01:23:26.639 --> 01:23:27.910
and I hope that's a good enough
01:23:27.920 --> 01:23:31.030
explanation in addition to the the long-
01:23:31.040 --> 01:23:34.070
winded kind of explanation I gave to the
01:23:34.080 --> 01:23:37.110
previous question.
01:23:37.120 --> 01:23:39.990
Um, yeah, I mean just yin and yang has
01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:41.669
like, you know, the the flag of South
01:23:41.679 --> 01:23:45.510
Korea has that on it, you know, just I
01:23:45.520 --> 01:23:47.750
think it's it's more complex or more
01:23:47.760 --> 01:23:49.430
subtle than that. You know, it's not
01:23:49.440 --> 01:23:53.910
just, you know, sort of masculine active
01:23:53.920 --> 01:23:57.590
element and feminine passive element.
01:23:57.600 --> 01:23:59.350
You know, I think, you know, it's just
01:23:59.360 --> 01:24:01.750
any pairs of opposites would fit would
01:24:01.760 --> 01:24:03.350
fit yin and yang. I mean, it maybe they
01:24:03.360 --> 01:24:05.910
just for the whatever reason they chose
01:24:05.920 --> 01:24:09.510
that particular version of a dualistic
01:24:09.520 --> 01:24:12.390
pair of opposites to help explain why
01:24:12.400 --> 01:24:14.229
the universe is the way it is. Sort of
01:24:14.239 --> 01:24:15.990
like in physics, you've got positive and
01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:18.229
negative, you know, positive particles
01:24:18.239 --> 01:24:20.790
and or antiparticles or even the the
01:24:20.800 --> 01:24:23.669
atom has like the positive proton
01:24:23.679 --> 01:24:26.070
balanced out by the negative electrons.
01:24:26.080 --> 01:24:28.550
This kind of thing, you know, it's just
01:24:28.560 --> 01:24:32.390
all through empirical reality. that you
01:24:32.400 --> 01:24:34.390
have to have this kind of paired
01:24:34.400 --> 01:24:37.750
opposites and either yin and yang in
01:24:37.760 --> 01:24:40.950
dowoism represents that in general or if
01:24:40.960 --> 01:24:42.790
they just singled out one particular
01:24:42.800 --> 01:24:46.870
pair of opposites as a kind of cosmic
01:24:46.880 --> 01:24:50.550
you know I don't know sort of a cosmic
01:24:50.560 --> 01:24:55.750
balance kind of thing.
01:24:55.760 --> 01:24:57.750
So I mean with regard to the orthodox
01:24:57.760 --> 01:25:00.149
Dowist yin and yang I mean that's kind
01:25:00.159 --> 01:25:03.910
of a metaphor in a sense whereas I do
01:25:03.920 --> 01:25:07.430
think it's quite you know it's it's
01:25:07.440 --> 01:25:09.430
quite valid
01:25:09.440 --> 01:25:14.229
that this world of samsara is based on
01:25:14.239 --> 01:25:16.070
dualism
01:25:16.080 --> 01:25:17.910
you know just just to perceive anything
01:25:17.920 --> 01:25:19.510
you have to have the dualism of figure
01:25:19.520 --> 01:25:22.149
and ground
01:25:22.159 --> 01:25:23.669
at the very least you have to have that
01:25:23.679 --> 01:25:26.790
much and Then all the the value
01:25:26.800 --> 01:25:28.629
judgments of good and bad, beautiful and
01:25:28.639 --> 01:25:33.270
ugly, all that gets thrown in also.
01:25:33.280 --> 01:25:34.470
And I think I'm just going to move on.
01:25:34.480 --> 01:25:37.350
Next question. This is from Ethiopian
01:25:37.360 --> 01:25:40.950
fake TIG. And Ethiopian fake TIG says,
01:25:40.960 --> 01:25:43.430
"Can you perhaps point out the problem
01:25:43.440 --> 01:25:46.950
in this Hindu conversation? It's trying
01:25:46.960 --> 01:25:51.350
to solidify the concept of an atman."
01:25:51.360 --> 01:25:53.910
So the student says
01:25:53.920 --> 01:25:56.390
it is a matter of daily experience that
01:25:56.400 --> 01:26:00.550
on waking up the world suddenly appears.
01:26:00.560 --> 01:26:03.990
Where does it come from? Then Maharaj
01:26:04.000 --> 01:26:07.430
says before anything can come into being
01:26:07.440 --> 01:26:10.310
there must be somebody to whom it comes.
01:26:10.320 --> 01:26:12.550
All appearance and disappearance
01:26:12.560 --> 01:26:14.870
presupposes a change against some
01:26:14.880 --> 01:26:17.830
changeless background. Then the student
01:26:17.840 --> 01:26:21.270
says before waking up I was unconscious.
01:26:21.280 --> 01:26:25.030
Then Maharaj says in what sense having
01:26:25.040 --> 01:26:28.470
forgotten or not having experienced
01:26:28.480 --> 01:26:30.390
don't you experience even when
01:26:30.400 --> 01:26:32.950
unconscious? Can you exist without
01:26:32.960 --> 01:26:36.550
knowing a lapse in memory? Is it a proof
01:26:36.560 --> 01:26:38.390
of non-existence?
01:26:38.400 --> 01:26:40.790
And can you validly talk about your own
01:26:40.800 --> 01:26:43.510
non-existence as an actual experience?
01:26:43.520 --> 01:26:45.590
You cannot even say that your mind did
01:26:45.600 --> 01:26:48.310
not exist. Did you not wake up on being
01:26:48.320 --> 01:26:50.870
called? And on waking up was it not the
01:26:50.880 --> 01:26:54.870
sense I am that came first. Some seed of
01:26:54.880 --> 01:26:57.270
consciousness must be existing even
01:26:57.280 --> 01:27:00.870
during sleep or swoon. On waking up the
01:27:00.880 --> 01:27:04.870
experience runs. I am the body in the
01:27:04.880 --> 01:27:07.270
world. It may appear to arise in
01:27:07.280 --> 01:27:09.030
succession but in fact it is all
01:27:09.040 --> 01:27:11.030
simultaneous. A single idea of having a
01:27:11.040 --> 01:27:13.270
body in a world. Can there be the sense
01:27:13.280 --> 01:27:18.149
of I am without being somebody or other?
01:27:18.159 --> 01:27:23.750
Okay, so Ethiopian fake TIG
01:27:23.760 --> 01:27:25.750
asks, can I perhaps point out the
01:27:25.760 --> 01:27:28.390
problem in this Hindu conversation?
01:27:28.400 --> 01:27:30.149
Well, first of all, there's a few things
01:27:30.159 --> 01:27:33.910
here. I mean, the the Hindu swami is
01:27:33.920 --> 01:27:35.510
called Maharaj. I don't know if that's
01:27:35.520 --> 01:27:37.910
Nisara Data Maharaj or some other
01:27:37.920 --> 01:27:41.430
Maharaj. I mean Maharaj is like Maharaji
01:27:41.440 --> 01:27:43.990
up there. Maharaj is very common title
01:27:44.000 --> 01:27:45.910
for some sort of spiritual teacher in
01:27:45.920 --> 01:27:48.709
India. Just means great king. According
01:27:48.719 --> 01:27:51.270
to Ram Das even like barbers can be
01:27:51.280 --> 01:27:53.350
called Maharaj. You know just anybody
01:27:53.360 --> 01:27:56.390
you you want to like brownnose anyone
01:27:56.400 --> 01:27:58.310
you're being really polite to you can
01:27:58.320 --> 01:28:00.390
call them Maharaj. So it's not
01:28:00.400 --> 01:28:03.510
necessarily Nisarata Maharaj. But
01:28:03.520 --> 01:28:05.510
another thing I would point out is that
01:28:05.520 --> 01:28:08.550
this Maharaj is correct that when you're
01:28:08.560 --> 01:28:10.310
in even when you're in a deep sleep,
01:28:10.320 --> 01:28:13.350
you're still conscious. Otherwise,
01:28:13.360 --> 01:28:15.270
nobody would be able to wake you up. You
01:28:15.280 --> 01:28:17.350
wouldn't hear the alarm clock. You
01:28:17.360 --> 01:28:19.669
wouldn't feel somebody shaking you. You
01:28:19.679 --> 01:28:21.350
wouldn't hear somebody calling out your
01:28:21.360 --> 01:28:23.270
name. You wouldn't feel somebody sleing
01:28:23.280 --> 01:28:25.669
you down with a bucket of ice water.
01:28:25.679 --> 01:28:29.669
You'd be like in a coma.
01:28:29.679 --> 01:28:32.229
So even dreamless sleep is still a kind
01:28:32.239 --> 01:28:36.070
of consciousness.
01:28:36.080 --> 01:28:37.510
But let's just get to the actual
01:28:37.520 --> 01:28:39.430
question here. What is the problem in
01:28:39.440 --> 01:28:41.430
this Hindu conversation? It's not really
01:28:41.440 --> 01:28:43.990
a problem. It seems to me he says that
01:28:44.000 --> 01:28:46.709
there has to be some sort of I mean
01:28:46.719 --> 01:28:48.870
there has to be a subject for an object
01:28:48.880 --> 01:28:50.629
is essentially what he's saying. Which
01:28:50.639 --> 01:28:53.430
reminds me of the sins Ming attributed
01:28:53.440 --> 01:28:56.310
to the third Chinese patriarch of Zen
01:28:56.320 --> 01:28:58.149
Buddhism.
01:28:58.159 --> 01:29:01.189
who says in the sen the subject is a
01:29:01.199 --> 01:29:03.350
subject for the object the object is an
01:29:03.360 --> 01:29:05.590
object for the subject again it's
01:29:05.600 --> 01:29:08.870
duality dependent coarising subject and
01:29:08.880 --> 01:29:11.830
object arise simultaneously and depend
01:29:11.840 --> 01:29:13.830
upon each other for their existence they
01:29:13.840 --> 01:29:16.470
cannot exist independently to have a
01:29:16.480 --> 01:29:18.229
subject there must be an object to have
01:29:18.239 --> 01:29:21.030
an object there must be a subject
01:29:21.040 --> 01:29:24.229
so I mean that seems to fit what Maharaj
01:29:24.239 --> 01:29:26.629
here is talking about it's not implying
01:29:26.639 --> 01:29:29.669
there has to be pre-existent self or
01:29:29.679 --> 01:29:33.430
atman. It just means that for there to
01:29:33.440 --> 01:29:37.990
be any awareness of any object. I mean a
01:29:38.000 --> 01:29:40.390
subject has to arise at the same time or
01:29:40.400 --> 01:29:43.910
or be present at the same time.
01:29:43.920 --> 01:29:45.669
But I mean you get rid of the object and
01:29:45.679 --> 01:29:47.910
the subject disappears also. It's just
01:29:47.920 --> 01:29:49.669
that Maharaj is saying that when you're
01:29:49.679 --> 01:29:51.910
in a deep sleep there's still going to
01:29:51.920 --> 01:29:54.709
be a subject. And it may be that he's
01:29:54.719 --> 01:29:56.070
not implying that there has to be an
01:29:56.080 --> 01:29:58.950
object too, but you can't have one
01:29:58.960 --> 01:30:01.430
without the other. You have to I mean
01:30:01.440 --> 01:30:03.669
it's it's sort of like in in terabata
01:30:03.679 --> 01:30:04.870
Buddhism where it's talking about
01:30:04.880 --> 01:30:08.229
consciousness in terab teraba Buddhism
01:30:08.239 --> 01:30:11.669
like wyana the the aggregate of
01:30:11.679 --> 01:30:13.189
consciousness it always has to be
01:30:13.199 --> 01:30:15.910
consciousness of something that the
01:30:15.920 --> 01:30:17.510
object and the consciousness have to
01:30:17.520 --> 01:30:21.830
arise simultaneously.
01:30:21.840 --> 01:30:24.950
So let's see here. Where is the problem
01:30:24.960 --> 01:30:27.510
that Ethiopian fake TIG says exists
01:30:27.520 --> 01:30:29.030
here?
01:30:29.040 --> 01:30:31.030
See, before anything can come into
01:30:31.040 --> 01:30:32.950
being, there must be somebody to whom it
01:30:32.960 --> 01:30:36.310
comes. Well, that's not necessarily true
01:30:36.320 --> 01:30:39.270
because it doesn't the somebody to whom
01:30:39.280 --> 01:30:42.310
it comes doesn't have to exist before
01:30:42.320 --> 01:30:44.790
anything can come to being. They arise
01:30:44.800 --> 01:30:46.470
simultaneously.
01:30:46.480 --> 01:30:50.310
Subject and object dependently co-arise.
01:30:50.320 --> 01:30:54.070
So I guess that could be seen as a
01:30:54.080 --> 01:30:57.430
problem where Maharaj here is implying
01:30:57.440 --> 01:31:00.550
that there has to be an atman first
01:31:00.560 --> 01:31:03.270
before anything arises were actually
01:31:03.280 --> 01:31:05.910
from a more Buddhistic point of view
01:31:05.920 --> 01:31:11.189
subject and object arise simultaneously.
01:31:11.199 --> 01:31:13.189
So let's see here having forgotten or
01:31:13.199 --> 01:31:14.149
not having experienced don't you
01:31:14.159 --> 01:31:16.950
experience even when unconscious? Yeah.
01:31:16.960 --> 01:31:18.709
So he seems to be agreeing with me
01:31:18.719 --> 01:31:19.990
there.
01:31:20.000 --> 01:31:24.470
Um, can you exist without knowing? Yeah.
01:31:24.480 --> 01:31:28.709
So, I mean, it seems to me that it may
01:31:28.719 --> 01:31:31.750
be because he's a Hindu, he is assuming
01:31:31.760 --> 01:31:35.189
that there is a pre-existent Atman.
01:31:35.199 --> 01:31:37.669
But the arguments he's using seem to
01:31:37.679 --> 01:31:40.470
support the idea, at least equally as
01:31:40.480 --> 01:31:43.350
well, as his own theory, that subject
01:31:43.360 --> 01:31:49.830
and object dependently coarize.
01:31:49.840 --> 01:31:52.149
And so, you know, if there's no object,
01:31:52.159 --> 01:31:53.510
there's no subject. And if there's no
01:31:53.520 --> 01:31:57.510
subject, there's no object.
01:31:57.520 --> 01:32:00.229
I guess that that is the problem that
01:32:00.239 --> 01:32:03.750
I'm supposed to point out. Um, so I
01:32:03.760 --> 01:32:05.590
guess I did that. And so I'm just going
01:32:05.600 --> 01:32:07.510
to move on to Ethiopian fake Tig's next
01:32:07.520 --> 01:32:08.870
question.
01:32:08.880 --> 01:32:12.229
He says, "You once said since there is
01:32:12.239 --> 01:32:15.590
no free will in Buddhism and that people
01:32:15.600 --> 01:32:18.070
aren't even in control of their valition
01:32:18.080 --> 01:32:22.470
as well. If all this is true and there
01:32:22.480 --> 01:32:25.669
also is no self and karma is a
01:32:25.679 --> 01:32:28.070
collection of energies and it's the
01:32:28.080 --> 01:32:31.510
karma that is truly real, then what the
01:32:31.520 --> 01:32:34.870
heck is karma really?" Someone once said
01:32:34.880 --> 01:32:37.110
the only real thing is consciousness
01:32:37.120 --> 01:32:40.709
since everything that is only can appear
01:32:40.719 --> 01:32:43.430
in conscious. Everything that is only
01:32:43.440 --> 01:32:45.830
can appear in consciousness. But karma
01:32:45.840 --> 01:32:47.910
seems to be the only real thing in
01:32:47.920 --> 01:32:50.310
Buddhism when you strip away everything
01:32:50.320 --> 01:32:54.470
else that is an illusion.
01:32:54.480 --> 01:32:57.590
Well, in orthodox terra Buddhism, karma
01:32:57.600 --> 01:33:01.270
is real because vition is real. Um I
01:33:01.280 --> 01:33:02.629
mean there's a few things I can mention
01:33:02.639 --> 01:33:06.070
here. Let's see. He says there is no
01:33:06.080 --> 01:33:08.950
free will in Buddhism. Uh it seems to be
01:33:08.960 --> 01:33:11.669
ruled out like in the anata lakanasuta
01:33:11.679 --> 01:33:13.350
considered to be the Buddha's second
01:33:13.360 --> 01:33:14.790
formal discourse after his
01:33:14.800 --> 01:33:16.950
enlightenment. He points out that with
01:33:16.960 --> 01:33:18.709
regard to all of the five condas
01:33:18.719 --> 01:33:22.310
including volition including um which
01:33:22.320 --> 01:33:24.390
one is it? Sankara
01:33:24.400 --> 01:33:26.470
you cannot say let it be this way let it
01:33:26.480 --> 01:33:29.189
not be that way and have it reliably
01:33:29.199 --> 01:33:32.470
happen I mean he's not saying that you
01:33:32.480 --> 01:33:34.550
don't have ab he's not saying that you
01:33:34.560 --> 01:33:38.550
don't have any free will at all
01:33:38.560 --> 01:33:40.310
um it's like with regard to like
01:33:40.320 --> 01:33:43.510
rupaconda your body I mean most of the
01:33:43.520 --> 01:33:46.629
time it's it's like let my arm go up it
01:33:46.639 --> 01:33:49.990
goes up but it's like you get old and
01:33:50.000 --> 01:33:51.830
sick and maybe you're going to say let
01:33:51.840 --> 01:33:53.270
it go up and it's not going to go up
01:33:53.280 --> 01:33:56.070
that time. So it's it's sort of like
01:33:56.080 --> 01:33:58.629
that or like volition you can say you
01:33:58.639 --> 01:34:00.629
know let me not ever be angry ever
01:34:00.639 --> 01:34:02.870
again. Well that's not going to work.
01:34:02.880 --> 01:34:04.629
You can't just decide these kind of
01:34:04.639 --> 01:34:06.709
things.
01:34:06.719 --> 01:34:08.709
So you don't have complete control over
01:34:08.719 --> 01:34:09.990
everything. He's not saying you don't
01:34:10.000 --> 01:34:12.070
have any control over any of the five
01:34:12.080 --> 01:34:13.830
condas. He's just saying you don't have
01:34:13.840 --> 01:34:16.070
complete control over it so that you can
01:34:16.080 --> 01:34:18.310
say that it is you. I mean if it was
01:34:18.320 --> 01:34:21.270
really you if it was really yourself
01:34:21.280 --> 01:34:23.110
according to the argument you'd have
01:34:23.120 --> 01:34:25.750
complete control over it.
01:34:25.760 --> 01:34:27.270
So that's kind of the argument of the
01:34:27.280 --> 01:34:28.950
anatalasuta
01:34:28.960 --> 01:34:32.149
and sort of terra Buddhist terra
01:34:32.159 --> 01:34:35.110
Buddhism's like official position with
01:34:35.120 --> 01:34:39.590
regard to that. Um but he says see if
01:34:39.600 --> 01:34:41.750
all this is true and there also is no
01:34:41.760 --> 01:34:43.590
self and karma is a collection of
01:34:43.600 --> 01:34:45.750
energies and it's the karma that is
01:34:45.760 --> 01:34:48.550
truly real. Well I don't think that
01:34:48.560 --> 01:34:50.950
karma is truly real. I don't think that
01:34:50.960 --> 01:34:54.550
any mental state is truly real.
01:34:54.560 --> 01:34:58.950
Orthodox terra has like I think it's 128
01:34:58.960 --> 01:35:01.270
ultimate realities which would include
01:35:01.280 --> 01:35:05.590
volition which is karma. But I mean
01:35:05.600 --> 01:35:08.390
according to Abidama, you know there's
01:35:08.400 --> 01:35:11.030
128 ultimate realities. So you've got
01:35:11.040 --> 01:35:13.590
nirva nibbana itself. You've got
01:35:13.600 --> 01:35:15.669
consciousness. There's supposedly only
01:35:15.679 --> 01:35:17.350
one kind of consciousness, but it's
01:35:17.360 --> 01:35:20.229
still there's various like flavors of it
01:35:20.239 --> 01:35:22.070
in Abidama. It's kind of weird the way
01:35:22.080 --> 01:35:23.910
they worked that one out. You've got I
01:35:23.920 --> 01:35:26.629
think it's 28 different kinds of matter.
01:35:26.639 --> 01:35:28.470
You know, earth element, fire element,
01:35:28.480 --> 01:35:31.030
wind element. Even the space between
01:35:31.040 --> 01:35:33.110
molecules is considered to be an
01:35:33.120 --> 01:35:35.189
ultimate reality.
01:35:35.199 --> 01:35:37.750
Um, and then I think it's 52 mental
01:35:37.760 --> 01:35:39.669
states which includes volition and also
01:35:39.679 --> 01:35:43.750
includes perception and and a whole slew
01:35:43.760 --> 01:35:45.510
of other mental states including wrong
01:35:45.520 --> 01:35:47.750
view,
01:35:47.760 --> 01:35:50.149
tongue sensitivity, eye sensitivity, you
01:35:50.159 --> 01:35:51.830
know, with regard to the sense organs.
01:35:51.840 --> 01:35:55.030
That's all rupa I'm pretty sure.
01:35:55.040 --> 01:35:58.390
So um from the orthodox terraodern point
01:35:58.400 --> 01:36:01.669
of view karma is not the only reality.
01:36:01.679 --> 01:36:04.310
From my point of view
01:36:04.320 --> 01:36:07.270
consciousness would be what is real.
01:36:07.280 --> 01:36:11.350
That consciousness is the essence like
01:36:11.360 --> 01:36:15.189
porcelain no ceramic earthn wear is the
01:36:15.199 --> 01:36:18.229
essence of this mug. The form is the
01:36:18.239 --> 01:36:23.510
mental state.
01:36:23.520 --> 01:36:27.350
Or let's say you've got the the uncarved
01:36:27.360 --> 01:36:30.390
block of marble. I beat this one to
01:36:30.400 --> 01:36:33.189
death. A lot of people hear me say it
01:36:33.199 --> 01:36:35.430
probably dozens of times by now. They
01:36:35.440 --> 01:36:37.030
still don't fully understand it. Some
01:36:37.040 --> 01:36:39.270
people probably don't. It's just a weird
01:36:39.280 --> 01:36:41.830
idea. The human brain was not designed
01:36:41.840 --> 01:36:44.310
to understand this kind of stuff.
01:36:44.320 --> 01:36:46.709
But you've got this uncarved block of
01:36:46.719 --> 01:36:48.870
marble and contained within that block
01:36:48.880 --> 01:36:52.870
of marble are every possible statue in
01:36:52.880 --> 01:36:56.149
virtual potential conditional form. You
01:36:56.159 --> 01:36:58.790
know, it's every molecule is already in
01:36:58.800 --> 01:37:01.189
the right place for that statue. You
01:37:01.199 --> 01:37:03.669
know, you got, you know, Myron's discus
01:37:03.679 --> 01:37:06.629
thrower. You've got the the Venus demo
01:37:06.639 --> 01:37:09.430
with and without arms. You've got Leia
01:37:09.440 --> 01:37:12.310
Coan and his sons being eaten by snakes.
01:37:12.320 --> 01:37:13.910
You know, you've got Rodan's the
01:37:13.920 --> 01:37:16.070
thinker. You got every possible statue
01:37:16.080 --> 01:37:18.629
in there. Every possible one, including
01:37:18.639 --> 01:37:20.550
an infinite number of statues that
01:37:20.560 --> 01:37:22.790
nobody's ever bothered to carve in real
01:37:22.800 --> 01:37:24.310
life,
01:37:24.320 --> 01:37:26.550
but they're all in there in potential
01:37:26.560 --> 01:37:28.070
form.
01:37:28.080 --> 01:37:32.390
So, perception would be singling out one
01:37:32.400 --> 01:37:35.350
of these statues out of this uncarved
01:37:35.360 --> 01:37:38.310
block, you know, using imagination. And
01:37:38.320 --> 01:37:41.910
karma or volition would be it'd be sort
01:37:41.920 --> 01:37:45.189
of like the momentum of that perception
01:37:45.199 --> 01:37:48.310
as the perception changes. So you've got
01:37:48.320 --> 01:37:51.030
a a a statue that's dancing. I mean you
01:37:51.040 --> 01:37:53.350
got dancing statues in that block of
01:37:53.360 --> 01:37:54.790
marble also. I mean nobody could really
01:37:54.800 --> 01:37:58.070
carve one but still all I mean it's in
01:37:58.080 --> 01:37:59.830
there in that block of marble. Every
01:37:59.840 --> 01:38:01.990
possible statue even a bunch of
01:38:02.000 --> 01:38:04.149
impossible ones. You've got statues
01:38:04.159 --> 01:38:06.070
moving around doing all kinds of stuff
01:38:06.080 --> 01:38:08.470
in there.
01:38:08.480 --> 01:38:11.830
And so karma or valition is kind of like
01:38:11.840 --> 01:38:16.229
the momentum of one form of a statue
01:38:16.239 --> 01:38:23.030
that is like undergoing change.
01:38:23.040 --> 01:38:24.950
So karma would be the v it would be like
01:38:24.960 --> 01:38:28.870
the momentum of a kind of perceived
01:38:28.880 --> 01:38:31.910
entity.
01:38:31.920 --> 01:38:34.790
But all of it is just I mean only the
01:38:34.800 --> 01:38:37.030
block of marble would be ultimately real
01:38:37.040 --> 01:38:39.669
going with the the metaphor or the
01:38:39.679 --> 01:38:42.870
simile.
01:38:42.880 --> 01:38:44.950
So let's see what is the actual question
01:38:44.960 --> 01:38:48.629
here. What the heck is karma really?
01:38:48.639 --> 01:38:51.669
Yeah, it's the momentum of perceptions
01:38:51.679 --> 01:38:56.870
really.
01:38:56.880 --> 01:38:58.550
So I guess I answer that question. I'm
01:38:58.560 --> 01:39:00.149
going to move on to the next question.
01:39:00.159 --> 01:39:02.550
This is also from Ethiopian fake TIG.
01:39:02.560 --> 01:39:04.629
And Ethiopian fake Tig is asking long
01:39:04.639 --> 01:39:06.950
questions this time.
01:39:06.960 --> 01:39:10.390
I mean, I probably won't do it, but it
01:39:10.400 --> 01:39:12.070
would probably be helpful to me to have
01:39:12.080 --> 01:39:14.870
like a a limit, you know, no more than
01:39:14.880 --> 01:39:18.709
like 120 words per question, something
01:39:18.719 --> 01:39:20.950
like that. I haven't bothered to count
01:39:20.960 --> 01:39:22.870
these. It may be that they're within 120
01:39:22.880 --> 01:39:26.709
anyway. But Ethiopian fake Tig says the
01:39:26.719 --> 01:39:29.990
first time Carl Young and Freud met,
01:39:30.000 --> 01:39:33.350
they spoke for 13 hours nonstop. Well, I
01:39:33.360 --> 01:39:35.830
hope they at least like stopped to drink
01:39:35.840 --> 01:39:38.310
tea or something. Every once in a while,
01:39:38.320 --> 01:39:39.430
one of them might have to go to the
01:39:39.440 --> 01:39:41.350
bathroom.
01:39:41.360 --> 01:39:42.950
Anyways,
01:39:42.960 --> 01:39:45.189
he says, he continues here, and Jung
01:39:45.199 --> 01:39:48.470
explained his idea of synchronicity. He
01:39:48.480 --> 01:39:50.870
went on to explain that once a big table
01:39:50.880 --> 01:39:53.669
in his kitchen completely split in half
01:39:53.679 --> 01:39:56.470
spontaneously. And he said it was the
01:39:56.480 --> 01:39:58.870
psychic energies of the family being
01:39:58.880 --> 01:40:01.830
manifest in real life. Then Jung would
01:40:01.840 --> 01:40:04.629
go on to point out that another one of
01:40:04.639 --> 01:40:06.790
these synchronicities would happen right
01:40:06.800 --> 01:40:10.629
then and there while talking to Freud.
01:40:10.639 --> 01:40:14.390
And then soon as he said that a very
01:40:14.400 --> 01:40:17.109
loud bang would be heard from one of the
01:40:17.119 --> 01:40:19.830
bookshelves in Freud's room. What are
01:40:19.840 --> 01:40:21.669
your thoughts about this phenomenon? So
01:40:21.679 --> 01:40:25.669
it's synchronicity sort of an aausal
01:40:25.679 --> 01:40:27.910
see connecting principle. I think Jung
01:40:27.920 --> 01:40:29.430
caused it. It was sort of like
01:40:29.440 --> 01:40:32.950
significant coincidence.
01:40:32.960 --> 01:40:35.990
And now according to a different legend,
01:40:36.000 --> 01:40:38.950
Einstein went to talk with Young and and
01:40:38.960 --> 01:40:41.270
persuaded him to publish his essay on
01:40:41.280 --> 01:40:43.750
synchronicity because it was still in
01:40:43.760 --> 01:40:50.149
accordance with science at the time.
01:40:50.159 --> 01:40:52.229
Anyways, let's see what's the actual
01:40:52.239 --> 01:40:53.430
question. What are your thoughts about
01:40:53.440 --> 01:40:55.270
this phenomenon of synchronicity? I
01:40:55.280 --> 01:40:57.830
guess anything is possible. I mean from
01:40:57.840 --> 01:41:00.790
from my point of view the world we're
01:41:00.800 --> 01:41:02.870
living in is is like a manifestation of
01:41:02.880 --> 01:41:04.870
our own mental states. I'm not a
01:41:04.880 --> 01:41:06.629
materialist. I do not consider physical
01:41:06.639 --> 01:41:09.189
matter to be real.
01:41:09.199 --> 01:41:12.070
The the world we live in is essentially
01:41:12.080 --> 01:41:13.590
perception.
01:41:13.600 --> 01:41:19.030
Perception is some sorrow.
01:41:19.040 --> 01:41:20.629
So,
01:41:20.639 --> 01:41:22.950
um I mean I could kind of use the
01:41:22.960 --> 01:41:26.550
arguments of one of my favorite books,
01:41:26.560 --> 01:41:28.390
The Trickster in the Paranormal by
01:41:28.400 --> 01:41:31.590
George P. Hansen, who who says that I
01:41:31.600 --> 01:41:33.510
mean, we're living in a world that needs
01:41:33.520 --> 01:41:36.310
order. It needs rules. It needs laws to
01:41:36.320 --> 01:41:41.830
just kind of stave off dangerous chaos.
01:41:41.840 --> 01:41:43.510
You know, the world we're living in in
01:41:43.520 --> 01:41:45.590
our waking consciousness is more stable
01:41:45.600 --> 01:41:48.070
than our dream state where, you know,
01:41:48.080 --> 01:41:49.750
you can be riding a boat and all of a
01:41:49.760 --> 01:41:51.830
sudden it turns into a bus. You know,
01:41:51.840 --> 01:41:53.270
you didn't get off the boat and onto the
01:41:53.280 --> 01:41:54.790
bus. It just turned into one when you
01:41:54.800 --> 01:41:56.550
weren't noticing. You're talking to
01:41:56.560 --> 01:41:58.709
somebody who stops being that somebody
01:41:58.719 --> 01:42:00.390
and starts being somebody else while
01:42:00.400 --> 01:42:02.070
you're having the conversation with
01:42:02.080 --> 01:42:04.390
them. That kind of thing. And there's
01:42:04.400 --> 01:42:07.910
less order in our dream states than in
01:42:07.920 --> 01:42:11.109
this waking state. But still this waking
01:42:11.119 --> 01:42:14.149
state is not just completely absolutely
01:42:14.159 --> 01:42:17.510
stable. We've got laws of physics so to
01:42:17.520 --> 01:42:20.149
speak, laws of nature, let's say,
01:42:20.159 --> 01:42:22.470
because the physicists aren't making the
01:42:22.480 --> 01:42:24.790
laws. They're just trying to discover
01:42:24.800 --> 01:42:26.629
them.
01:42:26.639 --> 01:42:29.189
Um, and then but apparently according to
01:42:29.199 --> 01:42:31.669
like George P. And even just the laws of
01:42:31.679 --> 01:42:35.109
nature are not enough to fully lock down
01:42:35.119 --> 01:42:38.070
our world into something stable enough
01:42:38.080 --> 01:42:41.910
to hold scary weird like paranormal
01:42:41.920 --> 01:42:45.830
events, chaos at bay. And so we've got
01:42:45.840 --> 01:42:49.189
to have human rules, human laws,
01:42:49.199 --> 01:42:52.149
traditions, taboss, that kind of thing.
01:42:52.159 --> 01:42:55.910
Just like cultural norms and beliefs to
01:42:55.920 --> 01:42:58.709
further stabilize the world we're living
01:42:58.719 --> 01:43:01.590
in. But still, you can't have absolute
01:43:01.600 --> 01:43:04.709
complete stability because then it's
01:43:04.719 --> 01:43:10.149
like the inspiration of like being alive
01:43:10.159 --> 01:43:11.830
would just I mean it' just be like a
01:43:11.840 --> 01:43:15.030
some dead robotic kind of world. There's
01:43:15.040 --> 01:43:18.310
always going to be cracks and weak spots
01:43:18.320 --> 01:43:23.030
between the rules that can allow like
01:43:23.040 --> 01:43:26.950
chaos or magic, the paranormal to to
01:43:26.960 --> 01:43:30.709
kind of seep through into our reality.
01:43:30.719 --> 01:43:33.590
And like George P. Hansen points out in
01:43:33.600 --> 01:43:35.750
his book, there are some people like,
01:43:35.760 --> 01:43:37.669
you know, traditionally witches who
01:43:37.679 --> 01:43:40.790
would deliberately violate taboss. He
01:43:40.800 --> 01:43:42.550
points out that a lot of talented
01:43:42.560 --> 01:43:44.709
psychics, you know, they've got like
01:43:44.719 --> 01:43:46.709
sexual kinks and so forth, you know,
01:43:46.719 --> 01:43:48.310
they're they're never completely
01:43:48.320 --> 01:43:52.229
straight. You know, they sort of create
01:43:52.239 --> 01:43:55.590
limonality. They create weak spots in
01:43:55.600 --> 01:43:58.870
the rules that allows, you know, more
01:43:58.880 --> 01:44:00.870
paranormal stuff to come through.
01:44:00.880 --> 01:44:03.270
Witches would would like harness that,
01:44:03.280 --> 01:44:05.990
channel it, and and utilize it to
01:44:06.000 --> 01:44:08.070
accomplish their their goals, that kind
01:44:08.080 --> 01:44:10.149
of thing.
01:44:10.159 --> 01:44:11.669
You know that's one reason why human
01:44:11.679 --> 01:44:13.750
sacrifice was considered so powerful. It
01:44:13.760 --> 01:44:15.510
was very liinal thing. You know it was
01:44:15.520 --> 01:44:18.229
you were sort of tearing the fabric of
01:44:18.239 --> 01:44:21.750
normality by doing this kind of stuff.
01:44:21.760 --> 01:44:24.149
And then if you were skillful enough you
01:44:24.159 --> 01:44:26.870
could then harness like the chaos energy
01:44:26.880 --> 01:44:28.629
coming through into this version of
01:44:28.639 --> 01:44:31.189
reality to you know accomplish some
01:44:31.199 --> 01:44:36.550
paranormal paranormal goal so to speak.
01:44:36.560 --> 01:44:39.030
So yeah, I think that that
01:44:39.040 --> 01:44:40.629
synchronicity, I mean, it does happen.
01:44:40.639 --> 01:44:42.310
I've I've had like lots of weird
01:44:42.320 --> 01:44:46.390
synchronicities in my life. So
01:44:46.400 --> 01:44:48.310
yeah, I think it does happen. It's it's
01:44:48.320 --> 01:44:50.149
mainly we're like in a more
01:44:50.159 --> 01:44:51.669
sophisticated,
01:44:51.679 --> 01:44:53.750
more conscious level of a dream state,
01:44:53.760 --> 01:44:56.550
but we're still not in ultimate reality.
01:44:56.560 --> 01:44:58.550
that the world we're living in is still
01:44:58.560 --> 01:45:01.030
a kind of dream state or like the matrix
01:45:01.040 --> 01:45:03.830
or some such
01:45:03.840 --> 01:45:07.830
a virtual reality, not an ultimate one.
01:45:07.840 --> 01:45:10.310
So this kind of stuff can come through
01:45:10.320 --> 01:45:13.750
especially for liinal sort of people
01:45:13.760 --> 01:45:17.750
that are like not completely playing by
01:45:17.760 --> 01:45:22.470
all the rules.
01:45:22.480 --> 01:45:25.109
So, I guess I explained that well enough
01:45:25.119 --> 01:45:29.350
for the purposes of this video, I hope.
01:45:29.360 --> 01:45:30.790
And so, I'm just going to move on to the
01:45:30.800 --> 01:45:33.590
next question. And this is from Susan.
01:45:33.600 --> 01:45:36.790
And Susan says, "Hi, I'm a mother who
01:45:36.800 --> 01:45:38.950
listens to your channel." Hi, Susan.
01:45:38.960 --> 01:45:40.709
You're one of the few women that do
01:45:40.719 --> 01:45:42.229
listen to this channel. It's really It's
01:45:42.239 --> 01:45:45.910
like 98% male who listen to this these
01:45:45.920 --> 01:45:49.030
Q&A videos for whatever reason. I'm not
01:45:49.040 --> 01:45:52.229
exactly sure why that is,
01:45:52.239 --> 01:45:55.030
but Susan says, "First, what is your
01:45:55.040 --> 01:45:59.109
favorite movie?" And traditionally, my
01:45:59.119 --> 01:46:01.510
favorite movie is Monty Python and the
01:46:01.520 --> 01:46:03.990
Holy Grail.
01:46:04.000 --> 01:46:06.950
Um, but the thing is, it's sort of like
01:46:06.960 --> 01:46:08.950
a favorite song where you've listened to
01:46:08.960 --> 01:46:10.709
it so many times that it just doesn't
01:46:10.719 --> 01:46:12.709
have the same effect anymore. I've
01:46:12.719 --> 01:46:14.709
watched Montipython and the Holy Grail
01:46:14.719 --> 01:46:17.910
several times and so, you know, it's
01:46:17.920 --> 01:46:20.870
kind of the freshness of it is kind of
01:46:20.880 --> 01:46:23.270
worn thin.
01:46:23.280 --> 01:46:24.950
Another favorite movie, possibly number
01:46:24.960 --> 01:46:27.270
two, would be The Matrix.
01:46:27.280 --> 01:46:29.109
And some people might think, well,
01:46:29.119 --> 01:46:30.790
Montipython and the Holy Grail and The
01:46:30.800 --> 01:46:32.950
Matrix are like two very different kind
01:46:32.960 --> 01:46:35.109
of movies, but there's similarities
01:46:35.119 --> 01:46:37.030
between MontiPython and the Holy Grail
01:46:37.040 --> 01:46:39.109
and The Matrix. Like both of them are
01:46:39.119 --> 01:46:40.709
dealing with different levels of reality
01:46:40.719 --> 01:46:44.390
within the within the movie.
01:46:44.400 --> 01:46:47.189
Both very imaginative,
01:46:47.199 --> 01:46:50.870
kind of supernatural in certain ways.
01:46:50.880 --> 01:46:52.310
But yeah, Montipython and the Holy
01:46:52.320 --> 01:46:54.390
Grail, especially the whole scene with
01:46:54.400 --> 01:46:56.550
Tim the Enchanter
01:46:56.560 --> 01:46:58.470
is just from from beginning and the Tim
01:46:58.480 --> 01:47:01.430
the Enchanter stuff is is probably my
01:47:01.440 --> 01:47:04.149
favorite part of my favorite movie.
01:47:04.159 --> 01:47:09.430
There are some who call me Tim
01:47:09.440 --> 01:47:11.189
And I'm just going to move on to Susan's
01:47:11.199 --> 01:47:13.510
next question here.
01:47:13.520 --> 01:47:16.870
Next, she says, "I have a son who has
01:47:16.880 --> 01:47:19.510
spent time as a Buddhist, a novice
01:47:19.520 --> 01:47:22.390
Buddhist monk, and identifies as a
01:47:22.400 --> 01:47:25.189
Buddhist. He now has a girlfriend I
01:47:25.199 --> 01:47:28.390
think is abusive. What kind of advice
01:47:28.400 --> 01:47:31.510
can I give him about this? I know that
01:47:31.520 --> 01:47:34.229
he has thought deeply about dedicating
01:47:34.239 --> 01:47:37.109
his life to being a monk. I don't think
01:47:37.119 --> 01:47:39.990
he thinks I understand him, but I only
01:47:40.000 --> 01:47:43.109
want him to find peace and happiness.
01:47:43.119 --> 01:47:46.550
Okay, so you've got a young man who has
01:47:46.560 --> 01:47:50.709
uh a girlfriend that his mother thinks
01:47:50.719 --> 01:47:54.070
may be abusive. And I mean my experience
01:47:54.080 --> 01:47:56.390
as a young man with girlfriends is I
01:47:56.400 --> 01:47:58.790
mean there's a certain amount of
01:47:58.800 --> 01:48:01.750
abusiveness that's going to be I mean
01:48:01.760 --> 01:48:05.030
women kind of use
01:48:05.040 --> 01:48:07.990
well not all women but it's fairly
01:48:08.000 --> 01:48:10.790
common for women to kind of use a
01:48:10.800 --> 01:48:12.390
certain kind of abuse you know just
01:48:12.400 --> 01:48:15.350
getting pissed off and like having
01:48:15.360 --> 01:48:18.470
scenes or certain ways of trying to
01:48:18.480 --> 01:48:20.390
manipulate the guy this kind of stuff. I
01:48:20.400 --> 01:48:27.030
think that's just natural human nature.
01:48:27.040 --> 01:48:29.430
Yeah, I definitely the one of the main
01:48:29.440 --> 01:48:32.790
girlfriends I had like in college. Yeah,
01:48:32.800 --> 01:48:34.629
my my brother considered her to be
01:48:34.639 --> 01:48:37.830
abusive.
01:48:37.840 --> 01:48:39.189
But the thing is you can learn from
01:48:39.199 --> 01:48:41.350
that. I mean, if he's got some wisdom, I
01:48:41.360 --> 01:48:43.830
mean, he's probably going to either
01:48:43.840 --> 01:48:46.149
realize that she's abusive and do
01:48:46.159 --> 01:48:49.430
something about it, or like like I was
01:48:49.440 --> 01:48:51.750
doing throughout much of my time with
01:48:51.760 --> 01:48:53.270
that particular girlfriend I had in
01:48:53.280 --> 01:48:55.350
college is you just consider the abuse
01:48:55.360 --> 01:48:58.629
to be worth it overall.
01:48:58.639 --> 01:49:00.550
So,
01:49:00.560 --> 01:49:03.750
I mean, a lot of it I mean, it seems
01:49:03.760 --> 01:49:05.189
like throughout the history of the human
01:49:05.199 --> 01:49:07.270
race, you know, men and women, it's it's
01:49:07.280 --> 01:49:09.109
just kind of amazing to me that the male
01:49:09.119 --> 01:49:12.149
and the female psychology still there
01:49:12.159 --> 01:49:14.629
after a million years of human beings on
01:49:14.639 --> 01:49:17.669
this planet, they still just don't fit
01:49:17.679 --> 01:49:19.590
together very well. you know, there's a
01:49:19.600 --> 01:49:22.550
certain amount of like
01:49:22.560 --> 01:49:25.830
friction or just not fitting correctly
01:49:25.840 --> 01:49:27.990
that I mean, it has worked sufficiently
01:49:28.000 --> 01:49:31.030
to keep the perpetuate the species.
01:49:31.040 --> 01:49:32.950
Maybe it's even promoted that to some
01:49:32.960 --> 01:49:35.910
degree, but you'd think that after a
01:49:35.920 --> 01:49:38.310
million years or more that I mean it
01:49:38.320 --> 01:49:39.830
would be a kind of a smoother
01:49:39.840 --> 01:49:41.830
interaction,
01:49:41.840 --> 01:49:44.070
you know, kind of a more functional
01:49:44.080 --> 01:49:48.470
symbiosis like storks or geese have than
01:49:48.480 --> 01:49:52.709
the the weird kind of just sort of I
01:49:52.719 --> 01:49:54.390
don't know what what you call it. I keep
01:49:54.400 --> 01:49:56.470
wanting to say the word anomaly where
01:49:56.480 --> 01:49:59.189
it's just like this anomalous
01:49:59.199 --> 01:50:04.310
fit or it's weird,
01:50:04.320 --> 01:50:07.109
but I mean people just think it's it's
01:50:07.119 --> 01:50:08.470
worth it. You know, sort of like the old
01:50:08.480 --> 01:50:09.990
saying men have about women. You can't
01:50:10.000 --> 01:50:11.030
live with them and you can't live
01:50:11.040 --> 01:50:13.750
without them.
01:50:13.760 --> 01:50:15.830
I mean, you can live with them and you
01:50:15.840 --> 01:50:17.669
can live without them, but you know,
01:50:17.679 --> 01:50:20.550
it's the saying and most men choose not
01:50:20.560 --> 01:50:22.470
to live without a woman.
01:50:22.480 --> 01:50:28.149
I choose not to live without one.
01:50:28.159 --> 01:50:30.629
So, let's see what I'm I'm not exactly
01:50:30.639 --> 01:50:32.950
sure how she is abusive. So, that's one
01:50:32.960 --> 01:50:35.430
thing. You know, if she's just sort of,
01:50:35.440 --> 01:50:37.270
you know, getting mad at him in order to
01:50:37.280 --> 01:50:40.470
like manipulate him, this kind of stuff.
01:50:40.480 --> 01:50:42.709
Um, or pretend to be mad at him or, you
01:50:42.719 --> 01:50:44.390
know, threatening to break up. And then,
01:50:44.400 --> 01:50:46.149
you know, you got the passionate kiss
01:50:46.159 --> 01:50:47.830
and makeup love scene, which is the
01:50:47.840 --> 01:50:51.830
payoff, especially when you're young.
01:50:51.840 --> 01:50:54.149
I mean, it kind of the the the
01:50:54.159 --> 01:50:56.390
passionate kiss and makeup love scene
01:50:56.400 --> 01:50:58.550
really. It's it's sort of like the
01:50:58.560 --> 01:51:00.870
dependent core rising or the the duality
01:51:00.880 --> 01:51:03.510
of the it's like the payoff to to the
01:51:03.520 --> 01:51:06.070
suffering that comes before.
01:51:06.080 --> 01:51:07.910
But exactly how the girlfriend is
01:51:07.920 --> 01:51:13.350
abusive, I'm not sure. Um, I mean, as as
01:51:13.360 --> 01:51:15.189
a mother, I mean, you shouldn't just
01:51:15.199 --> 01:51:18.470
think I I think she's abusive because I
01:51:18.480 --> 01:51:19.750
don't think he's going to have much use
01:51:19.760 --> 01:51:21.669
for that. But I don't know what what the
01:51:21.679 --> 01:51:24.950
son is like either. I mean, probably the
01:51:24.960 --> 01:51:27.990
the most that you could do without
01:51:28.000 --> 01:51:29.910
seeming obtrusive is, you know, what's
01:51:29.920 --> 01:51:31.669
what's the deal with this? you know,
01:51:31.679 --> 01:51:34.229
just kind of casually ask him a question
01:51:34.239 --> 01:51:37.109
about, you know, some sort of um
01:51:37.119 --> 01:51:39.510
spectacle that you observed or some
01:51:39.520 --> 01:51:42.870
such. But I mean, if he is I mean, he's
01:51:42.880 --> 01:51:45.990
young, he's probably all doped up on
01:51:46.000 --> 01:51:49.910
hormones as young people tend to be. So
01:51:49.920 --> 01:51:52.950
I mean so long as he doesn't um you know
01:51:52.960 --> 01:51:55.669
accidentally get her pregnant and be
01:51:55.679 --> 01:51:59.189
like honor driven to do the right thing
01:51:59.199 --> 01:52:03.589
that kind of thing then uh I mean
01:52:03.599 --> 01:52:05.589
some people I mean people as a general
01:52:05.599 --> 01:52:09.030
rule I mean we tend to learn from our
01:52:09.040 --> 01:52:12.390
mistakes more easily than we learn from
01:52:12.400 --> 01:52:15.510
somebody else's mistakes.
01:52:15.520 --> 01:52:18.070
So, I mean
01:52:18.080 --> 01:52:19.990
I mean I really don't know what the son
01:52:20.000 --> 01:52:22.550
is like, what the possibly abusive
01:52:22.560 --> 01:52:24.950
girlfriend is like. So, I can't really,
01:52:24.960 --> 01:52:27.510
you know, talk about, you know, exactly
01:52:27.520 --> 01:52:31.430
what's going on. Um but I mean if he
01:52:31.440 --> 01:52:32.870
does have wisdom, he apparently has
01:52:32.880 --> 01:52:34.629
enough wisdom that he he has already
01:52:34.639 --> 01:52:37.830
been ordained as a novice monk and
01:52:37.840 --> 01:52:39.990
considers himself to be a Buddhist has
01:52:40.000 --> 01:52:42.870
you know a mind kind of directed towards
01:52:42.880 --> 01:52:47.189
dharma to some degree then I mean I mean
01:52:47.199 --> 01:52:49.030
unless something is really getting out
01:52:49.040 --> 01:52:53.430
of hand then I mean I suppose you should
01:52:53.440 --> 01:52:56.870
have faith in his wisdom and also just
01:52:56.880 --> 01:52:59.589
kind of allow young people to be young
01:52:59.599 --> 01:53:02.950
and do stupid stuff sometimes.
01:53:02.960 --> 01:53:05.430
But I mean, if there is some danger of,
01:53:05.440 --> 01:53:07.669
you know, him getting like permanently
01:53:07.679 --> 01:53:11.030
entangled or, you know, really getting
01:53:11.040 --> 01:53:13.589
like messed with or something, then even
01:53:13.599 --> 01:53:15.510
then, I mean, it's better just kind of
01:53:15.520 --> 01:53:18.390
ask him what's up, this kind of stuff
01:53:18.400 --> 01:53:20.790
than, you know, being too much of a mama
01:53:20.800 --> 01:53:23.030
bear.
01:53:23.040 --> 01:53:25.510
But yeah, it's it's uh I mean I think
01:53:25.520 --> 01:53:29.350
I'd have to have more data to really
01:53:29.360 --> 01:53:32.310
come up with anything more concrete or
01:53:32.320 --> 01:53:35.510
or certain than that. Um you know I
01:53:35.520 --> 01:53:37.910
survived I survived a few girlfriends
01:53:37.920 --> 01:53:41.030
before I became a monk.
01:53:41.040 --> 01:53:44.870
I mean you learn things.
01:53:44.880 --> 01:53:47.990
I I res uh well I I should say it now.
01:53:48.000 --> 01:53:50.390
I'm I resist I was resisting the urge to
01:53:50.400 --> 01:53:53.910
to mention that every man there's one
01:53:53.920 --> 01:53:57.109
YouTube video every man should see to
01:53:57.119 --> 01:53:59.350
help them understand how to how to deal
01:53:59.360 --> 01:54:01.669
with women or you know what woman to
01:54:01.679 --> 01:54:04.310
choose to to live your life with that
01:54:04.320 --> 01:54:06.390
kind of thing. Just look up hot crazy
01:54:06.400 --> 01:54:07.990
matrix
01:54:08.000 --> 01:54:11.189
on YouTube is everything a man needs to
01:54:11.199 --> 01:54:14.149
know about women supposedly.
01:54:14.159 --> 01:54:16.870
But it's some one thing in particular
01:54:16.880 --> 01:54:20.070
from that video has really been helpful
01:54:20.080 --> 01:54:24.229
to me in life and that is that
01:54:24.239 --> 01:54:28.149
with on a scale of 1 to 10 all women at
01:54:28.159 --> 01:54:31.030
least from a man's perspective all women
01:54:31.040 --> 01:54:34.950
are at least a four crazy.
01:54:34.960 --> 01:54:37.109
I mean that just just bearing that in
01:54:37.119 --> 01:54:39.830
mind can cause a man to be much more
01:54:39.840 --> 01:54:43.750
patient and less demanding that I mean
01:54:43.760 --> 01:54:46.629
why isn't she making good sense here?
01:54:46.639 --> 01:54:50.709
That kind of thing.
01:54:50.719 --> 01:54:54.470
But I mean if he is a he's got wisdom
01:54:54.480 --> 01:54:56.229
and that sort of thing. So long as he
01:54:56.239 --> 01:54:59.350
doesn't make some really grave mistake
01:54:59.360 --> 01:55:01.430
like getting her pregnant and then
01:55:01.440 --> 01:55:03.830
feeling duty bound to marry a woman that
01:55:03.840 --> 01:55:06.229
just really is not compatible with him,
01:55:06.239 --> 01:55:08.950
that sort of thing. Then I mean to some
01:55:08.960 --> 01:55:10.550
degree he should be allowed to make his
01:55:10.560 --> 01:55:14.709
own mistakes I think
01:55:14.719 --> 01:55:17.830
man.
01:55:17.840 --> 01:55:19.109
So I'm just going to move on to the next
01:55:19.119 --> 01:55:20.950
question now.
01:55:20.960 --> 01:55:23.270
This is from Phily's
01:55:23.280 --> 01:55:25.669
and Philes says, "If you get good at
01:55:25.679 --> 01:55:27.669
Buddhism, is it like living in this
01:55:27.679 --> 01:55:29.589
world and never feeling a drop of
01:55:29.599 --> 01:55:32.390
cortisol again?" And I'm not exactly
01:55:32.400 --> 01:55:34.629
sure what cortisol is. It's just one of
01:55:34.639 --> 01:55:38.709
those kind of a neuro receptor brain
01:55:38.719 --> 01:55:41.270
modifying hormone kind of thing going on
01:55:41.280 --> 01:55:43.189
up there.
01:55:43.199 --> 01:55:44.950
I guess
01:55:44.960 --> 01:55:47.830
really haven't been uh studying cortisol
01:55:47.840 --> 01:55:49.750
lately.
01:55:49.760 --> 01:55:52.149
Um, you know, it's, you know, I kind of
01:55:52.159 --> 01:55:53.750
put it in the same category as
01:55:53.760 --> 01:55:56.149
endorphins, you know, just one of those
01:55:56.159 --> 01:56:00.870
kind of brain chemicals.
01:56:00.880 --> 01:56:03.589
Let's see here. So, if you get good at
01:56:03.599 --> 01:56:05.510
Buddhism, is it like have leave living
01:56:05.520 --> 01:56:07.189
in this world and never feeling a drop
01:56:07.199 --> 01:56:10.149
of cortisol again? Well, well, I guess
01:56:10.159 --> 01:56:11.669
he's not saying if you're enlightened.
01:56:11.679 --> 01:56:12.870
He's just saying if you're good at
01:56:12.880 --> 01:56:15.510
Buddhism. And I'm not exactly sure what
01:56:15.520 --> 01:56:17.270
cortisol does. I suppose I should have
01:56:17.280 --> 01:56:19.109
looked it up. Maybe I should just see if
01:56:19.119 --> 01:56:25.589
I can do this. Just uh see C O R T I S O
01:56:25.599 --> 01:56:28.709
L. Everybody should have a
01:56:28.719 --> 01:56:31.270
Everyone should have a dictionary handy.
01:56:31.280 --> 01:56:34.070
Okay. Biochemistry noun. Another term
01:56:34.080 --> 01:56:36.550
for hydrocortisone. So let's look up
01:56:36.560 --> 01:56:38.390
hydrocortisone. Fortunately, I can just
01:56:38.400 --> 01:56:40.470
click the blue link there. says, "A
01:56:40.480 --> 01:56:43.030
steroid hormone produced by the adrenal
01:56:43.040 --> 01:56:46.070
cortex and used medically to treat
01:56:46.080 --> 01:56:48.870
inflammation resulting from eczema and
01:56:48.880 --> 01:56:51.430
rheumatism."
01:56:51.440 --> 01:56:55.910
What the actual freak,
01:56:55.920 --> 01:56:58.229
huh? So, it's a steroid hormone produced
01:56:58.239 --> 01:57:04.149
by the adrenal cortex used to treat
01:57:04.159 --> 01:57:07.030
skin disorders.
01:57:07.040 --> 01:57:08.870
Okay?
01:57:08.880 --> 01:57:11.589
So if you get good at Buddhism, is it
01:57:11.599 --> 01:57:13.510
like living in this world and never
01:57:13.520 --> 01:57:16.790
having a skin disorder? Or see, if you
01:57:16.800 --> 01:57:18.550
never feel a drop of cortisol, maybe you
01:57:18.560 --> 01:57:20.629
got rheumatism and skin disorders that
01:57:20.639 --> 01:57:22.229
you just can't cure because you don't
01:57:22.239 --> 01:57:25.669
have any freaking cortisol.
01:57:25.679 --> 01:57:27.589
I maybe he's talking about endorphins or
01:57:27.599 --> 01:57:29.669
or maybe it's sort of like what's the
01:57:29.679 --> 01:57:31.270
opposite of endorphins that make you
01:57:31.280 --> 01:57:33.430
feel unpleasant. You know, like you got
01:57:33.440 --> 01:57:36.310
the those gruesome experiments on live
01:57:36.320 --> 01:57:38.310
monkeys where they cut off the top of
01:57:38.320 --> 01:57:40.229
their skull and then they put on this
01:57:40.239 --> 01:57:42.470
like cap with electrodes on and they
01:57:42.480 --> 01:57:44.550
have them strapped into this cage where
01:57:44.560 --> 01:57:47.109
they can only like move one finger or
01:57:47.119 --> 01:57:48.870
something. And then they've got to like
01:57:48.880 --> 01:57:51.750
push a button to get like this squirt of
01:57:51.760 --> 01:57:53.830
fruit juice into their mouth. And then
01:57:53.840 --> 01:57:55.270
after they get used to it, they learn
01:57:55.280 --> 01:57:56.629
how to push the button at the right time
01:57:56.639 --> 01:57:58.470
to get the squirt of fruit juice.
01:57:58.480 --> 01:58:00.390
Monkeys like fruit juice. Then they
01:58:00.400 --> 01:58:02.310
switch it up and put salt water into
01:58:02.320 --> 01:58:06.390
their mouth and then it's like the brain
01:58:06.400 --> 01:58:07.830
parts of the brain light up. They're
01:58:07.840 --> 01:58:10.470
like this is something's going wrong
01:58:10.480 --> 01:58:12.550
kind of a thing goes on. Maybe that's
01:58:12.560 --> 01:58:14.390
what Phil is talking about. It's like
01:58:14.400 --> 01:58:17.430
the something going along warning
01:58:17.440 --> 01:58:19.270
cuz I don't know why he would bring up
01:58:19.280 --> 01:58:21.750
like a treatment for rheumatism and what
01:58:21.760 --> 01:58:26.950
was it? Eczema.
01:58:26.960 --> 01:58:29.030
So if you get good at Buddhism, is it
01:58:29.040 --> 01:58:30.470
like living in this world and never
01:58:30.480 --> 01:58:32.629
feeling a drop of cortisol again? Well,
01:58:32.639 --> 01:58:35.189
I mean it's sort of like
01:58:35.199 --> 01:58:37.589
I mean to I I hesitate to say it, but to
01:58:37.599 --> 01:58:38.790
some degree it's sort of like micro
01:58:38.800 --> 01:58:41.350
doing on acid
01:58:41.360 --> 01:58:43.270
where you know it's sort of like I was
01:58:43.280 --> 01:58:44.709
saying earlier where you're you're
01:58:44.719 --> 01:58:48.390
living in each moment more fully.
01:58:48.400 --> 01:58:50.229
And I mean there's certain things you
01:58:50.239 --> 01:58:52.149
take to heart if you're good at Buddhism
01:58:52.159 --> 01:58:55.350
like regret is always bad. It's always
01:58:55.360 --> 01:58:57.430
bad karma just makes things worse.
01:58:57.440 --> 01:59:00.550
Regret and remorse, that kind of thing.
01:59:00.560 --> 01:59:02.790
Um, get good at Buddhism, you have more
01:59:02.800 --> 01:59:04.709
compassion.
01:59:04.719 --> 01:59:07.510
I mean, you can you have more Christian
01:59:07.520 --> 01:59:09.830
charity. I mean, that's one of the main
01:59:09.840 --> 01:59:12.070
benefits that being a monk for 30 years
01:59:12.080 --> 01:59:14.629
has had on me
01:59:14.639 --> 01:59:17.510
is that I mean, I tried for 30 years to
01:59:17.520 --> 01:59:19.910
be a perfected saint and it just didn't
01:59:19.920 --> 01:59:22.310
go as planned. partly for reasons I
01:59:22.320 --> 01:59:24.629
discussed earlier on in this video where
01:59:24.639 --> 01:59:26.870
changing yourself is much easier said
01:59:26.880 --> 01:59:29.270
than done and to some degree we are
01:59:29.280 --> 01:59:34.950
stuck being who we are.
01:59:34.960 --> 01:59:39.430
So it's like if I tried for 30 years
01:59:39.440 --> 01:59:43.030
to become a saint and it just I do not
01:59:43.040 --> 01:59:44.790
have a saintly character. I just do not
01:59:44.800 --> 01:59:46.629
have a saintly temperament. I'm not
01:59:46.639 --> 01:59:49.589
saintly by constitution.
01:59:49.599 --> 01:59:52.709
So I mean if I tried for 30 years to be
01:59:52.719 --> 01:59:55.510
just have everything all worked out,
01:59:55.520 --> 01:59:58.390
have everything you know
01:59:58.400 --> 02:00:01.030
just be completely fine.
02:00:01.040 --> 02:00:03.270
I mean, how can I expect that of other
02:00:03.280 --> 02:00:06.550
people that I mean, I have much more
02:00:06.560 --> 02:00:08.070
compassion
02:00:08.080 --> 02:00:11.189
for messed up people whose lives are in
02:00:11.199 --> 02:00:13.669
a shambles
02:00:13.679 --> 02:00:15.430
or or whatever, you know, they've got
02:00:15.440 --> 02:00:18.709
these really bad habits,
02:00:18.719 --> 02:00:20.870
you know, just character defects or
02:00:20.880 --> 02:00:25.189
whatever. It's like I just have it like
02:00:25.199 --> 02:00:28.229
this deep feeling now that to some
02:00:28.239 --> 02:00:32.390
degree I should just accept that and not
02:00:32.400 --> 02:00:34.149
expect them to change because they're
02:00:34.159 --> 02:00:37.510
not going to. As a general rule, most of
02:00:37.520 --> 02:00:39.510
them aren't going to change. At least
02:00:39.520 --> 02:00:41.270
they're not going to get rid of this
02:00:41.280 --> 02:00:44.629
character defect.
02:00:44.639 --> 02:00:46.149
So, I mean, some people you're better
02:00:46.159 --> 02:00:47.830
off just not associating with them.
02:00:47.840 --> 02:00:50.550
That's fine. But I mean it's, you know,
02:00:50.560 --> 02:00:52.790
it's just sort of like, you know, go in
02:00:52.800 --> 02:00:54.790
peace, live your own life and I'll go
02:00:54.800 --> 02:00:59.990
this way kind of a thing.
02:01:00.000 --> 02:01:04.390
So that's one aspect of being uh good at
02:01:04.400 --> 02:01:07.189
Buddhism. I guess at least he didn't ask
02:01:07.199 --> 02:01:10.229
me, you know, um what's being fully
02:01:10.239 --> 02:01:12.709
enlightened like?
02:01:12.719 --> 02:01:14.470
Maybe he did that on purpose. Maybe he's
02:01:14.480 --> 02:01:16.950
he's already heard me talk about just
02:01:16.960 --> 02:01:19.109
the futility of trying to second guess a
02:01:19.119 --> 02:01:22.229
fully enlightened being.
02:01:22.239 --> 02:01:23.430
I mean, you're definitely going to be
02:01:23.440 --> 02:01:25.589
more mindful. And that's another thing
02:01:25.599 --> 02:01:27.109
if you're good at Buddhism, this is
02:01:27.119 --> 02:01:31.430
might be another really important one is
02:01:31.440 --> 02:01:33.510
you're kind of like observing yourself
02:01:33.520 --> 02:01:37.030
all the time. It's like if anger or
02:01:37.040 --> 02:01:38.870
greed or something arises, there's a
02:01:38.880 --> 02:01:41.350
certain part of your mind that's just
02:01:41.360 --> 02:01:43.669
observing that, you know, you just get
02:01:43.679 --> 02:01:46.070
so used to being mindful that anything
02:01:46.080 --> 02:01:48.390
that arises, I mean, you can still be
02:01:48.400 --> 02:01:53.750
angry or greedy or whatever or lustful,
02:01:53.760 --> 02:01:55.910
but there's more pronounced of this
02:01:55.920 --> 02:01:57.990
other part of your mind that's just
02:01:58.000 --> 02:01:59.669
observing the whole thing without any
02:01:59.679 --> 02:02:01.669
kind of judgment,
02:02:01.679 --> 02:02:04.390
just being aware of it. And it's from
02:02:04.400 --> 02:02:06.629
that from the perspective of that part
02:02:06.639 --> 02:02:09.030
of your mind, the anger or the greed or
02:02:09.040 --> 02:02:11.030
whatever isn't you, you know, it's it's
02:02:11.040 --> 02:02:13.669
you're like an actor playing a part,
02:02:13.679 --> 02:02:17.030
playing a role, but you're not like
02:02:17.040 --> 02:02:18.950
completely fully identified with it
02:02:18.960 --> 02:02:21.270
anymore.
02:02:21.280 --> 02:02:24.390
So that would be one symptom of having
02:02:24.400 --> 02:02:26.470
practiced Buddhism intensively for many
02:02:26.480 --> 02:02:29.510
years or just being good at it. I think
02:02:29.520 --> 02:02:31.750
for some people it might be like a duck
02:02:31.760 --> 02:02:33.430
takes to water. you wouldn't need to do
02:02:33.440 --> 02:02:34.950
it for many years. You're just good at
02:02:34.960 --> 02:02:36.390
it automatically. Like some people are
02:02:36.400 --> 02:02:38.550
just automatically just they have the
02:02:38.560 --> 02:02:43.910
talent to be good meditators.
02:02:43.920 --> 02:02:46.790
So
02:02:46.800 --> 02:02:48.550
I I'm not sure about the cortisol though
02:02:48.560 --> 02:02:50.390
and I'm going to move on to Phil Lee's
02:02:50.400 --> 02:02:52.310
next question.
02:02:52.320 --> 02:02:54.550
So Phily's second question is do you
02:02:54.560 --> 02:02:57.109
have an internal monologue? Do you think
02:02:57.119 --> 02:02:59.189
it is a good thing? Well, I do get head
02:02:59.199 --> 02:03:02.149
thinkings. Head thinkings is like when
02:03:02.159 --> 02:03:03.750
there's like talking in your head.
02:03:03.760 --> 02:03:05.350
You're like talking inside your own
02:03:05.360 --> 02:03:07.350
head. That's what head thinkings is
02:03:07.360 --> 02:03:12.149
like. Yeah, I get those. But I think I
02:03:12.159 --> 02:03:15.350
mean I've read that some people just
02:03:15.360 --> 02:03:17.189
don't have an internal monologue. I mean
02:03:17.199 --> 02:03:19.750
it's like an alarmingly high percentage
02:03:19.760 --> 02:03:22.709
of humans. I think there might be like
02:03:22.719 --> 02:03:26.310
certain like cultures in this world
02:03:26.320 --> 02:03:28.709
where it's way less common than in the
02:03:28.719 --> 02:03:30.870
west. Western people tend to be
02:03:30.880 --> 02:03:33.350
compulsive thinkers. So that western
02:03:33.360 --> 02:03:35.109
people are much more likely to have an
02:03:35.119 --> 02:03:38.390
internal monologue. And throughout my
02:03:38.400 --> 02:03:40.950
life I have had an internal monologue.
02:03:40.960 --> 02:03:44.390
Although um there are times when I'm
02:03:44.400 --> 02:03:47.830
just not thinking in words. So that you
02:03:47.840 --> 02:03:49.189
know it's like I'm just looking at
02:03:49.199 --> 02:03:50.870
something looking out the window at a
02:03:50.880 --> 02:03:52.790
tree kind of swaying in the breeze or
02:03:52.800 --> 02:03:55.030
whatever and I'm just not thinking in
02:03:55.040 --> 02:03:59.270
words. So, sometimes my my woman, my
02:03:59.280 --> 02:04:01.109
wife will ask me what I'm thinking
02:04:01.119 --> 02:04:02.950
about. And at the time, I just honestly
02:04:02.960 --> 02:04:04.149
have to say, I mean, I wasn't really
02:04:04.159 --> 02:04:06.709
thinking anything. I was just looking at
02:04:06.719 --> 02:04:09.109
the tree or or whatever it was, you
02:04:09.119 --> 02:04:12.070
know, just feeling feeling comfortable
02:04:12.080 --> 02:04:16.070
under the blankets or whatever. So,
02:04:16.080 --> 02:04:18.310
being a monk for many years has reduced
02:04:18.320 --> 02:04:21.030
my internal monologue. I don't think as
02:04:21.040 --> 02:04:23.830
much. Although when it's necessary to
02:04:23.840 --> 02:04:26.629
think, I definitely think.
02:04:26.639 --> 02:04:29.030
And do I think that having an internal
02:04:29.040 --> 02:04:31.510
monologue is a good thing? I don't think
02:04:31.520 --> 02:04:33.430
it's necessarily good or bad. I mean, it
02:04:33.440 --> 02:04:36.470
can be used or abused.
02:04:36.480 --> 02:04:39.669
Um, I think ultimately you'd be better
02:04:39.679 --> 02:04:41.669
off just in a state of intense
02:04:41.679 --> 02:04:43.910
mindfulness so that you'd only be
02:04:43.920 --> 02:04:45.510
thinking when there was a need to be
02:04:45.520 --> 02:04:47.589
thinking about something.
02:04:47.599 --> 02:04:50.790
So, you know, it's from that extent to
02:04:50.800 --> 02:04:53.270
that extent it might be less of a good
02:04:53.280 --> 02:04:56.709
thing, but I mean some people it's like
02:04:56.719 --> 02:04:58.070
they haven't got to the internal
02:04:58.080 --> 02:04:59.990
monologue level yet. Sort of like I was
02:05:00.000 --> 02:05:03.030
talking about animals and like the clock
02:05:03.040 --> 02:05:04.790
that starts at midnight and has to go
02:05:04.800 --> 02:05:06.709
all the way around to get back to to
02:05:06.719 --> 02:05:09.990
like God again. That was quite some time
02:05:10.000 --> 02:05:12.229
ago in this video that I mean it could
02:05:12.239 --> 02:05:13.750
be that some people who are without an
02:05:13.760 --> 02:05:15.669
internal monologue just haven't gotten
02:05:15.679 --> 02:05:19.030
down to like five or six yet. Could be
02:05:19.040 --> 02:05:21.189
something like that.
02:05:21.199 --> 02:05:22.790
So in their case it wouldn't be all that
02:05:22.800 --> 02:05:23.990
great of a thing because they haven't
02:05:24.000 --> 02:05:28.629
even you know reached that level yet.
02:05:28.639 --> 02:05:32.390
I'm not I mean maybe most animals are
02:05:32.400 --> 02:05:33.990
better off not having an internal
02:05:34.000 --> 02:05:35.910
monologue. I mean they don't think in
02:05:35.920 --> 02:05:38.470
words. So most animals would not have an
02:05:38.480 --> 02:05:40.390
internal monologue unless it's just
02:05:40.400 --> 02:05:42.550
like, you know, visual images going off
02:05:42.560 --> 02:05:44.709
in their head, that kind of thing. But I
02:05:44.719 --> 02:05:46.470
mean, what kind of monologue would they
02:05:46.480 --> 02:05:49.270
have? It's just, you know, there dogs
02:05:49.280 --> 02:05:52.390
dream at night. I've read that the
02:05:52.400 --> 02:05:54.629
American possum spends more time
02:05:54.639 --> 02:05:57.270
dreaming than it spends awake. But I
02:05:57.280 --> 02:05:58.390
mean, what are they dreaming about?
02:05:58.400 --> 02:06:00.149
They're just dreaming about, you know,
02:06:00.159 --> 02:06:02.709
eating dog food off of back porches,
02:06:02.719 --> 02:06:04.790
that kind of stuff.
02:06:04.800 --> 02:06:10.070
getting trapped in garbage cans maybe.
02:06:10.080 --> 02:06:11.510
But ultimately having an internal
02:06:11.520 --> 02:06:13.669
monologue is neither good nor bad. I
02:06:13.679 --> 02:06:15.510
mean it depends on whether you use it or
02:06:15.520 --> 02:06:17.830
abuse it.
02:06:17.840 --> 02:06:20.310
But I do think a fully enlightened being
02:06:20.320 --> 02:06:22.870
would be thinking in words only when it
02:06:22.880 --> 02:06:25.189
was necessary for
02:06:25.199 --> 02:06:27.270
you know performing some action that
02:06:27.280 --> 02:06:30.709
required thinking in words.
02:06:30.719 --> 02:06:32.149
And I'm just going to move on to the
02:06:32.159 --> 02:06:33.910
next question which is from Raphael.
02:06:33.920 --> 02:06:36.310
This is kind of an easy one. Can you do
02:06:36.320 --> 02:06:39.430
a chat talk roundtable on Discord? And
02:06:39.440 --> 02:06:41.589
we've done at least one. I think we've
02:06:41.599 --> 02:06:44.870
done one or two in the past on Discord
02:06:44.880 --> 02:06:47.750
just like an audio chat. I think the
02:06:47.760 --> 02:06:49.510
last time we did it was probably at
02:06:49.520 --> 02:06:51.990
least two years ago. That that room in
02:06:52.000 --> 02:06:55.270
Discord does not get used much at all.
02:06:55.280 --> 02:06:57.109
But yeah, it's doable. I mean, we'd have
02:06:57.119 --> 02:07:00.950
to work out some kind of schedule. Um, I
02:07:00.960 --> 02:07:03.669
noticed that I mean, we have a lot of
02:07:03.679 --> 02:07:05.830
people in Europe and in like the Eastern
02:07:05.840 --> 02:07:09.030
Hemisphere in the group. So, we'd have
02:07:09.040 --> 02:07:13.669
to work out a time like gosh, like late
02:07:13.679 --> 02:07:15.990
morning, my time, which would then be
02:07:16.000 --> 02:07:17.990
like early evening in Europe, that kind
02:07:18.000 --> 02:07:20.709
of thing. Maybe that would work. and it
02:07:20.719 --> 02:07:24.229
would have to be like like agreeable to
02:07:24.239 --> 02:07:27.669
my weird work schedule now.
02:07:27.679 --> 02:07:29.350
But yeah, it's possible. I mean, that
02:07:29.360 --> 02:07:31.430
could be discussed on Discord itself, I
02:07:31.440 --> 02:07:34.069
suppose. So, I think I'll just move on
02:07:34.079 --> 02:07:36.550
to the next question. And this is the
02:07:36.560 --> 02:07:38.870
last question
02:07:38.880 --> 02:07:41.669
after a little over two hours.
02:07:41.679 --> 02:07:43.510
And I am happy to say that rebooting the
02:07:43.520 --> 02:07:45.350
computer apparently at least helped a
02:07:45.360 --> 02:07:49.669
little bit in that the the lag rarely
02:07:49.679 --> 02:07:52.310
got more than about 1 second.
02:07:52.320 --> 02:07:54.310
So anyways, this last question is from
02:07:54.320 --> 02:07:56.229
Vtoro
02:07:56.239 --> 02:07:59.830
and Vtoro says is there any positive
02:07:59.840 --> 02:08:02.470
karmic benefit for a Catholic to go to
02:08:02.480 --> 02:08:04.069
confession
02:08:04.079 --> 02:08:06.550
and personally I think yeah it is
02:08:06.560 --> 02:08:10.069
beneficial to confess your misdeeds. In
02:08:10.079 --> 02:08:12.229
fact in terraata Buddhism especially
02:08:12.239 --> 02:08:15.990
among monks then I mean monks are
02:08:16.000 --> 02:08:17.750
required to make confession.
02:08:17.760 --> 02:08:20.390
Unfortunately in terravada Buddhism
02:08:20.400 --> 02:08:23.270
confession has degenerated into this
02:08:23.280 --> 02:08:27.109
ritual formula of blah blah blah in pi
02:08:27.119 --> 02:08:30.229
that means practically nothing.
02:08:30.239 --> 02:08:32.069
Like in in Burma especially it's
02:08:32.079 --> 02:08:33.830
venerable sir I have committed various
02:08:33.840 --> 02:08:36.629
offenses of various types. And that's
02:08:36.639 --> 02:08:38.550
that's as much of a confession as you
02:08:38.560 --> 02:08:41.189
make. I just I broke some rules of
02:08:41.199 --> 02:08:43.109
various sorts
02:08:43.119 --> 02:08:45.350
and I mean you're not saying what the
02:08:45.360 --> 02:08:47.990
rules are in the in the original poly
02:08:48.000 --> 02:08:55.109
it's I it's seeandeanoi
02:08:55.119 --> 02:08:57.589
which is venerable sir I committed an
02:08:57.599 --> 02:09:01.030
offense of such and such name I confess
02:09:01.040 --> 02:09:03.350
it which means you're supposed to say
02:09:03.360 --> 02:09:05.910
what you did in Thailand they get a
02:09:05.920 --> 02:09:07.910
little closer where they'll just say
02:09:07.920 --> 02:09:09.189
what category
02:09:09.199 --> 02:09:11.669
But then they kind of [ __ ] that up by
02:09:11.679 --> 02:09:15.189
just listing every category. So they'll
02:09:15.199 --> 02:09:17.830
they'll just say I I committed offenses
02:09:17.840 --> 02:09:19.750
of this category then I committed
02:09:19.760 --> 02:09:21.910
offenses of this category whether they
02:09:21.920 --> 02:09:23.910
even broke any rules or not in that
02:09:23.920 --> 02:09:25.669
category. You know they'll confess
02:09:25.679 --> 02:09:28.629
pyania offenses. There's a total of four
02:09:28.639 --> 02:09:32.149
pyania offenses that are very obscure
02:09:32.159 --> 02:09:33.750
and
02:09:33.760 --> 02:09:36.470
nobody breaks them anymore, but they
02:09:36.480 --> 02:09:39.910
still confess them. And so it's still
02:09:39.920 --> 02:09:42.870
just meaningless blah blah blah,
02:09:42.880 --> 02:09:45.189
which is unfortunate because I do think
02:09:45.199 --> 02:09:48.149
like if you read the texts, monks are
02:09:48.159 --> 02:09:50.390
supposed to confess when they break a
02:09:50.400 --> 02:09:54.709
rule. And even lay people can confess
02:09:54.719 --> 02:09:58.550
some misdeed that they have perpetrated
02:09:58.560 --> 02:10:02.950
to a monk or a wise teacher as a way of
02:10:02.960 --> 02:10:07.189
helping them to come clean and like help
02:10:07.199 --> 02:10:10.870
them to restrain themselves in future.
02:10:10.880 --> 02:10:14.229
So I do think that it is helpful for
02:10:14.239 --> 02:10:18.229
somebody who has done something wrong to
02:10:18.239 --> 02:10:20.229
confess it. And if you're confessing to
02:10:20.239 --> 02:10:23.589
like a priest or a fellow monk, um
02:10:23.599 --> 02:10:25.669
someone who's compassionate and on your
02:10:25.679 --> 02:10:28.550
side, then some things that I mean you
02:10:28.560 --> 02:10:30.629
wouldn't be able to mention really. You
02:10:30.639 --> 02:10:33.990
know, I I committed this atrocity
02:10:34.000 --> 02:10:35.510
that you know, at least you're
02:10:35.520 --> 02:10:37.669
unbburdening your heart and being open
02:10:37.679 --> 02:10:39.910
and honest about it to at least this one
02:10:39.920 --> 02:10:42.310
other person who may be under a vow of
02:10:42.320 --> 02:10:44.149
not divulging what you did like a
02:10:44.159 --> 02:10:47.189
Catholic priest is supposed to be.
02:10:47.199 --> 02:10:51.430
But still I do think that it has a
02:10:51.440 --> 02:10:53.430
positive effect
02:10:53.440 --> 02:10:55.830
and from the Buddhist point of view one
02:10:55.840 --> 02:10:57.189
of the main reasons for making
02:10:57.199 --> 02:10:59.669
confession is just to help you to
02:10:59.679 --> 02:11:02.390
restrain yourself in future. It's like I
02:11:02.400 --> 02:11:04.550
did this thing and then you're supposed
02:11:04.560 --> 02:11:07.030
to promise that you will restrain
02:11:07.040 --> 02:11:09.350
yourself in future which is another bit
02:11:09.360 --> 02:11:11.589
of meaningless blah blah blah in the
02:11:11.599 --> 02:11:13.990
formula that monks do nowadays where
02:11:14.000 --> 02:11:16.069
it's like you know in the future you
02:11:16.079 --> 02:11:19.430
should restrain yourself and then it's
02:11:19.440 --> 02:11:21.510
like yes sir very good sir I will
02:11:21.520 --> 02:11:24.149
restrain myself when mostly it's they
02:11:24.159 --> 02:11:25.910
just break the same rules over and over
02:11:25.920 --> 02:11:27.589
again it's like a yearslong habit
02:11:27.599 --> 02:11:29.430
sometimes it's like keeping money they
02:11:29.440 --> 02:11:30.790
have no intention of getting rid of
02:11:30.800 --> 02:11:34.550
their
02:11:34.560 --> 02:11:36.149
But
02:11:36.159 --> 02:11:38.629
um so long as it's an honest confession,
02:11:38.639 --> 02:11:40.310
I think the kind of confession that
02:11:40.320 --> 02:11:42.149
terra Buddhist monks make where it's
02:11:42.159 --> 02:11:44.069
just a meaningless blah blah blah at
02:11:44.079 --> 02:11:46.470
best and at worst it's just flatout
02:11:46.480 --> 02:11:47.990
lying,
02:11:48.000 --> 02:11:51.030
then yeah, you're better off not lying
02:11:51.040 --> 02:11:55.910
or just indulging in meaningless babble.
02:11:55.920 --> 02:11:58.470
But if it's a genuine confession, you
02:11:58.480 --> 02:12:01.990
know, I did this, you know, misdeed and
02:12:02.000 --> 02:12:04.950
I promise I will try harder in future to
02:12:04.960 --> 02:12:08.310
restrain myself, then I think there is
02:12:08.320 --> 02:12:11.510
positive results to be expected of that.
02:12:11.520 --> 02:12:14.229
So I do think that there is a benefit. I
02:12:14.239 --> 02:12:16.709
mean karmic benefit. He asked is there a
02:12:16.719 --> 02:12:19.910
positive karmic benefit? I would assume
02:12:19.920 --> 02:12:23.030
so. I mean like some things it's just
02:12:23.040 --> 02:12:24.790
hard to admit that you did something
02:12:24.800 --> 02:12:26.149
wrong.
02:12:26.159 --> 02:12:30.069
So you force yourself to overcome this
02:12:30.079 --> 02:12:32.069
pride or fear of punishment or whatever
02:12:32.079 --> 02:12:34.229
it is then that would have a karmic
02:12:34.239 --> 02:12:37.990
benefit of you know it's like this
02:12:38.000 --> 02:12:40.310
brutal honesty that is to your own
02:12:40.320 --> 02:12:43.270
detriment that I mean some people just
02:12:43.280 --> 02:12:46.069
cannot go there at all. Some people have
02:12:46.079 --> 02:12:48.470
specialized in like Rahm Doss, one of my
02:12:48.480 --> 02:12:50.870
first spiritual teachers as a teenager.
02:12:50.880 --> 02:12:53.990
He had this amazing
02:12:54.000 --> 02:12:56.870
tendency to just admit really
02:12:56.880 --> 02:13:00.390
embarrassing things about himself that I
02:13:00.400 --> 02:13:03.589
admired. You know, it's like, man, you
02:13:03.599 --> 02:13:05.750
didn't have to say that. That's like TMI
02:13:05.760 --> 02:13:09.270
or some such. But still, I had to admire
02:13:09.280 --> 02:13:12.310
that in him that I mean, it wasn't
02:13:12.320 --> 02:13:14.870
pride, you know, he was just kind of
02:13:14.880 --> 02:13:18.390
admitting the worst stuff about himself.
02:13:18.400 --> 02:13:21.189
And I mean, honesty is definitely
02:13:21.199 --> 02:13:23.669
there's karmic benefit to honesty,
02:13:23.679 --> 02:13:25.030
especially if it's coming with
02:13:25.040 --> 02:13:26.950
difficulty. You know, you're having to
02:13:26.960 --> 02:13:31.830
like force yourself to like blurt out
02:13:31.840 --> 02:13:35.270
this thing that I mean, it could be very
02:13:35.280 --> 02:13:38.390
much damaging to your reputation or
02:13:38.400 --> 02:13:40.390
whatever. You know, you're admitting to
02:13:40.400 --> 02:13:42.069
having done this thing that people are
02:13:42.079 --> 02:13:44.069
wanting to know who did it, that kind of
02:13:44.079 --> 02:13:46.790
thing. Um, I mean, it wouldn't be so
02:13:46.800 --> 02:13:49.189
much that way for a a Catholic
02:13:49.199 --> 02:13:50.870
confession because it's kept a secret.
02:13:50.880 --> 02:13:53.510
I'm pretty sure even like a murderer can
02:13:53.520 --> 02:13:55.990
confess to a Catholic priest. I'm pretty
02:13:56.000 --> 02:13:57.510
sure the priest isn't supposed to go to
02:13:57.520 --> 02:14:00.149
the police. You know, the mass murderer
02:14:00.159 --> 02:14:02.310
that you've been looking for. Yeah, he
02:14:02.320 --> 02:14:04.790
made confession to me the other night. I
02:14:04.800 --> 02:14:06.629
don't think that they're even supposed
02:14:06.639 --> 02:14:09.669
to do that.
02:14:09.679 --> 02:14:11.910
But still, I do think there is a kind of
02:14:11.920 --> 02:14:15.669
catharsis or a closure
02:14:15.679 --> 02:14:18.790
or or at least a it helps you to be
02:14:18.800 --> 02:14:21.669
honest and maybe to restrain yourself in
02:14:21.679 --> 02:14:25.830
future to just confess some misdeed that
02:14:25.840 --> 02:14:28.950
you have done to somebody else.
02:14:28.960 --> 02:14:31.430
And that's it. That's the last question
02:14:31.440 --> 02:14:33.589
and I'm done.
02:14:33.599 --> 02:14:35.030
So, like I should always say at the
02:14:35.040 --> 02:14:36.870
beginning and pretty much never do, if
02:14:36.880 --> 02:14:38.629
you have any questions you think I can
02:14:38.639 --> 02:14:43.030
answer about dharma, essentially,
02:14:43.040 --> 02:14:44.950
philosophy,
02:14:44.960 --> 02:14:47.430
uh certain other things, you know, I've
02:14:47.440 --> 02:14:49.510
got a fair acquaintance with Western
02:14:49.520 --> 02:14:51.350
philosophy, western literature, that
02:14:51.360 --> 02:14:53.189
kind of stuff. I can maybe answer
02:14:53.199 --> 02:14:55.430
questions about that. No more than three
02:14:55.440 --> 02:14:57.990
questions per person per episode. Please
02:14:58.000 --> 02:14:59.910
like and subscribe if you have not done
02:14:59.920 --> 02:15:01.830
so already.
02:15:01.840 --> 02:15:03.589
although I don't like it. If you didn't
02:15:03.599 --> 02:15:06.229
really like it, that might be dishonest.
02:15:06.239 --> 02:15:08.790
And uh check out the URL links below,
02:15:08.800 --> 02:15:10.470
which includes the books I have for sale
02:15:10.480 --> 02:15:13.990
on Amazon, my other links, links to X
02:15:14.000 --> 02:15:16.550
and other kind of socially kind of
02:15:16.560 --> 02:15:22.440
things. And uh be happy.