An Attitude of Fearlessness

An Attitude Of Fearlessness by Ajahn Brahm

Transcription
When you come inside this hall on your way in. You notice the big Buddha statue standing outside. And that statue has its hand raised like this. The hand which is raised with the open palm is called in Buddhist Han heart the attitude of fearlessness. The abhaya mudra is one of the great signs on Buddha statues. In order that this teaching, these explanations, this understanding will bring people to the state of fearlessness. This is our goal to be one who can walk this life without fear. And I think you realize that there's so much fear, which is part of our society, and it creates so much suffering and so many unnecessary problems in our life. That's very important to understand what fear is and why we are addicted to fear. We actually encourage it in our lives. And because we encourage it, we invite it in. We live much of our life with fear, which is impinges on our good health, shortens our lives, and creates too many calamities when really they shouldn't have occurred. So today I'm talking about fear and what it is and why it is. And why the heck can't we let go of it? You notice that in many societies, that fear is indoctrinated into us from the time we are young by our parents who say that if you stay up late at night, sort of, you know, some bad person will come and get you from the fear of monsters under the bed, from the fear of going blind. If you do certain things from all these other stupid fears which are inside of you, and even to the point that some people say if you meditate, the demons are going to enter your mind. So be afraid. Really even remember, I think 25 years ago when I first came to Perth, we had a small Buddhist centre in North Perth in Magnolia Street, for those of you who remember those days. And in that centre we had a Buddha statue he was given by the person who's now the Sanga Raja of Thailand when he visited Perth about 26 years ago. Very beautiful Buddha statue, which was actually now the statue in the room to my left. And that was the only statue we had. And I remember one time this man came. He was a Christian. He was the head cult buster in Western Australia. He was checking us out to see whether we were a cult who indoctrinated people, and so took over their minds where we do indoctrinate people, but we actually free their minds rather than take them over. But when he came here and he was met by our caretaker, who was a very wonderful girl and so Australian that so charming, he thought, this can't be a cult until he went into the room and saw the big Buddha statue. When he ran out in fear. He was terrified. Just because it's a simple Buddha statue. Now, you can go in the room next door and see that Buddha statue. And all the time, which I've seen that it has never moved, it's never bitten, it's never done anything. It's just sat there. I don't know why people are afraid of these things, but you see that that fear can sometimes be indoctrinated into you. And too often human beings have been conditioned by fear, controlled by fear, and they have no freedom. And even I say that sometimes people say that if you meditate, something bad will happen to you. I've been teaching meditation for more than 25 years since I came here. Even 30s, in fact, the first time I ever taught meditation when I was a school teacher and that would have been was 40 years ago, 36, 30 some time about that. Actually, I was teaching maths. I should know how many years ago it was, but I had to take the school assembly. There were 650 children. High school and I decided to take the school assembly for one week and teach 650 children how to meditate. And the first lesson was this meditation on the breath and those 650 children. When I said, sit up straight, all the children sat up straight. When I said, close her eyes, they all closed their eyes. When I said no to that, let go of the past and future. Watch the present moment and watch your breath. 650 children just were watching their breath and after a five minutes they spontaneously clapped. The teachers afterwards asked me, what would you have done if one child hadn't cooperated? And I broke out into a sweat because what it needed is one child to start giggling or laughing at a broken spell. But it was wonderful to be able to do that because I was fearless. I could actually teach something like that, and it worked. But in all those years since I taught meditation, nothing bad has ever happened. Only good things. So why is it that people teach fear and they stop people having a open mind, a free decision to discover for themselves and learn from themselves? You can see that too often fear is used as a means of control. So please fight against such controlling fears. But there's also the fears which we have inside of us. And first, to understand those inner fears. To understand just how counterproductive they are. It seems to be whatever we are afraid of in life. We actually bring about. We make it happen. And if you are afraid of dogs, you tend to meet them. And they bark and chase you. You all know that the animals can know how you feel, and if they sense fear, then they will react accordingly. I remember my aunt, like me, had to live in the jungles of Thailand for so many years. And they were jungles. There's many, many wild animals around. And many of those animals would regard you as lunch. But because you weren't afraid of them, they never harmed you at all. They were your friends. You would tread on snakes. Big ones. They climb up your back. I remember once in a hot season in Thailand, you'd lay down with, you know, just your lower robe on with a bare chest, and the tarantulas would fall on you and I'd walk over your bare chest. There are so tickly. Now, if I was afraid of those animals, then I would tense up, and they would become afraid. And they would bite you. And you'd suffer a lot of problems. But because you weren't afraid. That's why you could live at peace and harmony with things. That's just one example of many of how, when we're afraid, it causes a psychological negativity which actually brings a lot of harm upon ourselves and on others. And it was wonderful living in a society where fear was not encouraged, when fear was not a use as a means of controlling people, when fear was recognized for what it is. Something which is a disease of the mind, and should be lessened to the point where the fear disappears. I know that sometimes people say, well, you should be afraid of snakes. You should be afraid of, say, forest fires in Australia. You should be afraid of the traffic. No, fear is the wrong word. You should respect the power of the truck. The venom of the snake and the danger of a fire. Respect it. But don't be afraid. Because the fear is another emotion which creates a negativity in the mind, which usually respond in a completely. I won't say irrational way. I say an unwise way, an unskillful way which doesn't produce the effects which it is supposed to protect. Project. But why is it that people have fear? It is conditioned into us from an early age. We have fear of punishment, and that's one thing which you should never have. Even in Buddhism especially, no matter what you do in this place, you will not be punished. You will not be excommunicated. Even though sometimes I think maybe you should be. But no, I will not do that on principle. And the classic story to show how fear of punishment is not part of our agenda. Not part of the way we do things. And to show why it's not part of our agenda and how instead we deal with problems, is a story many years ago of one of the anagarika, one of the people in white, who's trained to be a monk, of putting on a monastery in serpentine. When you become a monk, you have to train for a minimum of two years beforehand, one year wearing white, keeping eight precepts, the next year in brown, keeping ten precepts, and afterwards after two years. Maybe you can ordain as a full monk. There was one young man, an Australian man, who was starting his training as an anagarika. Eight precepts. One of those precepts is you're not allowed to eat any solid food from noon until the dawn of the following day. You can't eat in the afternoon at nighttime. So I was the abbot. One afternoon this new Anagarika young man came up to me and said. I have something to confess. I've done a terrible crime. I know you're going to probably throw me out the monastery and not let me be a monk, because one afternoon I was hungry. I went to the kitchen with no one seeing me and made myself a sandwich. And to him it was like some cattle offense. And so what did I do? I told him, I said, doesn't matter. Thank you for letting me know. Now maybe eat some more food in lunchtime, you know, before lunch where we have our meal. Eat some more so you won't be hungry in the afternoon. If you are hungry, you can have some. Some. A cup of tea with some sugar, some fruit juice or something. Some chocolate. So you don't have to eat in the afternoon. So it was a mistake. You admit it. Fine. Have some strategies in place so it doesn't happen again. Okay. You can go now. And this young man looked at me and said, I'm sorry, that's not good enough. He said, if you don't punish me, I will do it again. I need a penance because he knew himself. He spent all his life only being trained by punishment. And he said, if you don't let me go like that, I'm sure one day I will do it again. So I had to think very quickly of a solution to that problem. And as it was, I'd been reading a book. A very well known Australian book called Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes, which was telling the early history of Australia. And I got to that point about the convicts who were here in Australia and the harsh punishments meted out to them. So I looked at that young man in white clothes with a bald head. And I said, if you want a punishment, I will give you a traditional Australian penance. 50 strokes of the cats and this young man. His face went whiter than the clothes he was wearing because he didn't know too much about Buddhism. And he thought, oh my God, how John Brahms gonna whip me? He's gonna ask me. But then I told him what 50 strokes of the cat mean in a Buddhist monastery? We have three cats in our monastery. Choose whichever one you want and stroke it 50 times. Their cat, their pussy. Three for love. Some compassion and kindness. Because that's the only thing which will overcome your need for punishments and pain. It's because you don't know kindness and compassion. Do you think that fear is the only way to train you? I say we don't do fear. With her compassion and kindness as a far greater teaching tool. Be kind to yourself. Allow mistakes to happen. Don't be afraid of them and you'll find you will make less mistakes. How many of you? Maybe when you were having a driving test. Or maybe you're only having some other exam or some interview. Anything which is tense when you get afraid. You stuff up. Which is why that some children who are doing their examinations now, their tea or whatever they're doing. I think I'm a bit too late for this. They've already done it. But nevertheless I say, what is an examination anyway? It's just a game, just a test. Just like you may be playing a game of tennis. What's the difference between a game of tennis and, say, an examination in science? It's just the competition. You against the others. But why is it when you're playing tennis or you playing footy or whatever, you don't tense up because it's a game? You enjoying it? So why not look at examinations in the same way as fun as a game? It's only because our parents say, you better pass or else it's a fear which comes in to these things we have to do in life, which makes us do under our potential. We don't reach a potential when we're afraid. We tense up and we don't achieve what we could achieve. So first of all, give it a game. Make it fun. Number two look at the outcomes. Be wise. If it is an examination you only got two options. You pass or you fail. If you pass. Wonderful. No, your parents say what a wonderful person you are. You've passed. Your friends say congratulations. Fine. But if you fail, fine. At last. You don't have to do any more examinations. If you do pass, you always have another examination to do next year. In fact, a lot of life is doing examinations until you actually fail one, then you can give up and have a good time. But that's only a bit of a joke. But remember, just doesn't matter. All this idea of success and failure. So what if you pass the exam? Fine. If you fail the exam, you can still live a peaceful, happy life. How many of you have failed examinations? Maybe the time you thought that was the end of the world. But really, you've lived a very happy and wonderful life. How many times have you worried yourself silly about an interview and you didn't get the job and you're so happy you didn't afterwards? How many times was I afraid when I saw a nice girl at a party and went to talk to her, and because I was afraid, sort of. I never got her, although I was so fortunate because otherwise I would never made it to be a monk. But all. It's why you're so afraid and why? Sometimes the fear is counterproductive. So these days when you face difficult situations, I look at the alternatives. The options are two or 3 or 4 things which might happen. And I realized no matter what the outcome is, it's not worth the fear. I can always deal with it no matter what happens. You go flying throughout the world and I think you've heard me say before, I'm not afraid of flying. Remember, if you do have a terrorist on board your flight and the plane gets blown up on 300 zero feet, the three advantages of dying at 30,000ft. Number one is instant cremation. So you don't have to bother with getting a funeral director and making all these arrangements. Karrakatta, Fremantle or Pinnaroo. It's done on the spot for you. Very efficient. Number two cremations. Funeral services cost a lot of money. This one is not just done for free. Your family actually get paid for your cremation, the insurance payout, so you actually your family make money out of your death, which is, you know, a good thing. And third, and most importantly, dying at 30,000ft. You're so close to heaven, it's easy to get up there. So you're not afraid of dying at 30,000ft? Sometimes when I came back from Japan, the host there, they they gave all these gifts and they packed them all up. So I didn't actually know what was inside of them. And I got to customs and say, what's inside these things? I said, I don't know. And I was honest. And there could be drugs inside, but I'm am I afraid in case somebody puts drugs inside of my my packages? Of course I'm not afraid. Because well know what can happen. I go to jail, and in jail I get three meals a day instead of just one and a half in a monastery. And you don't have to go do all this hard work. You know, you can sit there and you can watch a TV in jail. You don't have any TVs in the monasteries. I'm afraid of this. No, bring it on. Let's just. So what if you do know if it's in Singapore and you get executed well, you got to die anyway. And I never really liked the idea of an old people's home. So I can die in the prime of my life. What a wonderful time to die. Because, you know, sometimes people, they have to sort of go to this place, I think Dignitas in Switzerland to get sort of euthanised, you know, because nowadays, you know, you can't do it in Australia. You should be able to do it in Northern Territory, but this is actually done for you for free. So you're going to die anyway. So why are people so afraid? Because when we don't really look at the options, the outcomes and realize doesn't matter what the outcome is, I can always deal with this. It's no big problem really. How many people are afraid of the so-called economic crisis? It's not an economic crisis. It happens all the time. Shares go up, shares go down. It's always going to be that way. Always has been that way. But sometimes we don't look at history. So why are you really afraid? You know. You know, it's not going to go that far down. It never will, never has. And I promise you that. It just goes down. Away. And then it bounces up again. You know why? Because people don't want it to go down too far. Never underestimate the power of human desires. It's incredible when everybody's thinking in the same way. That that does have an effect on the world. So only goes down at the moment. And you'll know why. Because people are too afraid. And when we're afraid, we panic. And when we panicked, we made what we were afraid of happen. I can't help but mention that story, which is an opening the door of your heart about the TV story, which I saw was a young man called Kung Fu. I think with David Carradine, I think my memories was good. I remember this particular scene, which was all about the power of fear in this particular scene. So they took this young monk, this novice monk who's called grasshopper, and he had a master, this blind, very, very wise Buddhist monk who was teaching him all sorts of interesting things about life. But this was real Buddhism. It was not theory, it was actually live practice. So on this one episode, he taught little grasshopper inside a room, a secret room which was normally kept locked, and no novice was allowed to go in. And as he opened the door and took little grasshopper in, and obviously the camera followed in this little movie TV sort of series. And when the lights became easy to see, the master asked grasshopper, because the master was blind. Said grasshopper, what can you see? What can you see? And grasshopper and I, looking at the TV, grasshopper said, A swimming pool is like a pool. And the master said, be very careful, but go to the edge to what you see in the bottom. And grasshopper very carefully went to the edge of the pool. And I say, he said, I see bones, lots of bones in a poor master. Exactly, said the master. Those are human bones, because that isn't water. That is acid. Strong concentrated acid. Be careful. Of course, grasshopper stood back because this is dangerous. What else do you see? Said master. And I see a crank, said grasshopper, stretching from one side of the pool to the other side. Exactly. Said to master. This is going to be a test for you. As all novices have to pass this test, you have to walk on that plank across the pool of strong, concentrated acid. And I don't want you to fall in and add your bones to the bones of all the other young novices who fell in. And if I'm not, grasshopper, look very scared. And I must admit, watching the TV, I got scared too. But, said the master, come outside. And outside in the monastery courtyard there was another plank, exactly the same size and length, only just put on two bricks. Practice, said the master to grasshopper. You have seven days. No other duties. Let's practice walking on this plank, because in seven days time you'll have to walk over the acid. Strong, concentrated novice eating acid. So he practiced for seven days. No problem, but tired after half a day. Easy to balance. But on seven days it was a real thing. And the master took grasshopper into the room once again, and the master ordered grasshopper stand on the edge of the plank. And you could see that novices legs start to wobble out of terror, because this was not just on a plank of a hard concrete in the courtyard. This was over acid and one slip, one little error and he would fall in and die a horrible death. Walk said. The master and grasshopper turned around and he could read. Read the look on grasshoppers face. Don't. Please, master, don't let me walk. Walk, said the master. So grasshopper started walking unsteadily at first, but as he got closer to the middle, it was even more unsteady as his legs appeared to start to give way. You could see him shake and then wobble and then sway, and it really looked like he was about to fall in. And that's when. It stopped for the commercial breaks. I hated those commercial breaks on Skippy, and so you had to watch stupid advertisements for soap powder and sort of toothpaste before you could go back and find out what really happened to grasshopper. So after an interminable wait on these stupid advertisements, you were back in that terrifying room, but usually just 3 or 4 seconds behind where they left off. You can start to see grasshopper. He wasn't swaying it. He was just wobbling. And as it got closer to the middle of the pool, he wobbled and swayed even more, and it looked like he was going to fall in. You know what happened? He fell in. He fell into the pool of acid. And what did the compassionate master do? He just laughed as grasshoppers splashed around and master laughed even more. And grasshopper realized he was being burnt. Master, said grasshopper. You found out now it's only water. It was a it wasn't acid, it was just water. And as for the bones, we just threw them down there for special effects to make you scared. Why did you fall in, little grasshopper? Fear pushed you in. Fear made you fall. Only fear. And I was a wonderful lesson which I took on board. Seeing that how when we are afraid. We actually make what we want to. We afraid of. We make it happen. Fear pushes us in. Too often it's fear makes us lose our money on the stock market. It's fear gives us the cancers. Doctors have told me I've seen this in in reports that people have had cancers for years and they've just been quite benign. But as soon as you get diagnosed with a cancer, it flares up. Why? Because of fear. A lot of time, it's fear that kills you, not the disease. I remember reading that in a great story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red death. Only a short story. And I remember taking her some board in time. It was a story about the plagues which hit Europe during the Middle Ages, which devastated 20, 30, 40% of the population of cities. And then this little scene from the play. There were the demons, the devils who were supposed to be spreading this plague. And they met together in a clearing in the forest and one after the other. You've been to Paris. How many people did he kill? Their thousand. You've been to London. How many killed? Er. 2000. You've been to some other city, Frankfurt. How many killed? I was only killed about 50. But fear killed 20,000. I remember that saying. And how true that is. How fear kills more people than diseases themselves. So we all know the danger of fear and how it creates problems for us. How when we make decisions, we make the wrong decisions out of fear. Why do we do that? It's not just conditioning because we can break condition if we want to. One of the things as a monk I know by meditating is that we like to be afraid. There's the pleasure of fear. The fun of having something to worry about. You know this because you can go to amusement parks with the death drop. With these. These rides, which they do. Hurtling down to imminent doom. And at the last minute, it stops. You get people bungee jumping. You get people going to these restaurants in China where you eat these. I think they're they're frog livers and they're fatal if they're not prepared. Right. And every time somebody's going to die. But people love that. They pay a lot of money just to scare themselves to death. And sometimes they do die. You go to these movies which put you at the edge of the seat when special effects merchants like Steven Spielberg managed to scare you so much? Why do you people like doing that? We have an addiction to fear. Why is that? Because we don't know how to appreciate peace. We're bored when things go well, and we think a bit of crisis will actually create this more sense of I'm worth something, I am something, I'm doing something. A lot of time is to. Restlessness of humanity creates the fear and worry which destroy humanity. We just afraid of being content, peaceful and happy. One reason is because many of us have been conditioned since our early childhood to think we don't deserve to be at peace. We don't deserve to be happy. So when happiness comes to us, we want to destroy it. That's nothing to do with Buddhism. Please understand that you have a right to be happy. You deserve to be happy. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. You don't deserve to be flogged with a whip, but you can earn 50 strokes of the cat to learn some compassion for yourself and others. To be kind to yourself. To grant yourself not just a moment of peace. The whole life of peace. You don't need to destroy the happiness by inventing all these things to worry about and make yourself afraid. Otherwise, why is it that people tune in to the horror movies, to the ghost movies, that they go to these terrifying places? Why is it that people do extreme sports good on motorbikes? I remember one of the most stupid sports events I ever saw, when I was still a student who was doing night speedway on on motorbikes, and he was on an ice track. I think. And the only way I could do this was actually putting a chain around the wheels with spikes on it. That's the only way it was on ice. I don't know how fast around the track Speedway on ice, that every now and again someone would fall off and get spiked as crazy thing to do. Well, why do people do that? Because they like the rush of excitement and the fear. And why do people watch it? Because they're waiting for someone to be injured. We're afraid and we feed on that fear. And that's a terrible curse for human beings. So the only way to stop that addiction to fear is one, first of all, recognize it. Many of us like being afraid. When things are going well, we'll make ourselves afraid by thinking of all the things which will go wrong. You may be having a relationship with someone, a nice partner, and you're afraid what will happen if if she leaves me or if he finds another partner? And because of that fear in your relationship, you destroy that relationship. You destroying the trust, which is important. Amazingly important part of the relationship. Because you're afraid what will happen if he doesn't like me? If something goes wrong. If she leaves, if she sees somebody else. And you've been in relationships where fear controls the relationship and you noticed how stifling that is, how there is not really the bond of trust granting each other freedom, which will keep that relationship together. How many of your own relationships have been destroyed by fear, and why do you do that when it's going well? We still are addicted to this fear and recognize that when you're sick sometimes, yeah, the doctor comes up. You're afraid of what the doctor is going to say in the report, but nevertheless, when you have that come up, wow. You're alive. You've got something to do, something to be afraid of. Very often we are addicted to fear, and you can see how that comes up in the way we live our lives. The only way to overcome that addiction to fear. First of all, recognize it. Recognize that it's counterproductive. That it's irrational. It's not fair. It's not wise. It's not compassionate. And have another option. The option of actually being at peace and understanding as a human being. It's amazing how adaptable we are. Does it matter which way the dice falls? Doesn't matter what happens. We can and we have and we will always adapt. There's always some you can do with whatever life throws at you so you lose your money. Many of you have been there before. The world has been there before. I can't help but remember this. My own parents who lived through not just depression, but the Second World War. People sometimes refrain of terrorist attacks. My mother used to tell me it was like a terrorist attack every evening with bombs falling from the sky. Night after night after night in the Blitz. Terrorist attacks like 911 multiplied a thousandfold. Night after night after night. And I think you all know from your history that I was most one of the most wonderful times in London. It seems that, yes, sometimes you lose some things, but you always gain something else at the same time. Clouds do have silver linings in the terror of that period of the Blitz. And there was an equal terror in Germany when the British bombed back. No one was guilt free for what happened in those wars. There are no victors. Both sides are losers. In that time, the communities came together. There was incredible. Just esprit de corps friendship, working together, looking after one another. And people who lived through that time look back upon it with some. Tenderness. It wasn't all bad. In fact, there was much of it which was so meaningful and beautiful and wonderful to see. This is always the case when the world changes. Even if you do get sick. Yeah, there's the pain of the sickness. But there's also something wonderful happens whenever, you know, the prognosis is, yeah, you've got cancer and it's bad because what happens then? It's amazing just what you learn from that experience and how many friends come around, and how you realise just how many people really care for you, and you experience being the center of that care in a very, very bad illnesses which will come to each one of us sooner or later. There is something beautiful in that experience. Please remember that many of you have had the bad cancers and got through it. Many of you have known other people dying in these deaths, but there's always something wonderful there, as well as the pain as well as the negative. There's always something positive there. Remember both. And then, you know, whatever the outcome is going to be. There's always something beautiful there that would overcome a lot of the fear, because the fear is it's going to be terrible. It's going to be hopeless. Hopeless. I don't know how I'm going to cope with this. Check out what other people have done. Check out what history has taught you and you realize there is nothing to be afraid of. Even what my teacher used to tell us. The times when you were sick in hospital, when he would come and visit you, and what he used to say, you're either going to get better or are you going to die? Why be afraid? Sickness wasn't going to last. And now it's Buddhist. So you die. So what? You get reborn again. So a big deal is just like changing your car or moving house. So what are you afraid of? Sometimes it's because of our cultures. They make these things like loss of money, like sickness, like death. They make it into being such a thing to be afraid of. They make it so negative that cultivates fear. My meditation retreat down at third North Perth re teaching people about what happens when you die. And several people there have had so-called near-death experiences, you know, a heart attack, an accident somewhere floating out of your body. And everybody who has those experiences, they always report them as the most beautiful and peaceful and wonderful time of their life. I just remember one lady saying, oh, it's just so blissful and beautiful being out of my body. She was in a hospital with some terrible sickness, and her husband was racing to the hospital to try and catch her before she died, but she had already died. She was away having a wonderful time. But then she came back when she was wondering what her husband was up to. I mean, in a good way. And we're not saying that he was playing around, but, you know, whether he was worrying about her, whether he was coming and that brought her back. But, you know, she tells her afterwards, that's the most wonderful experience of my life. And I said, yeah, probably you, like everybody else, has had those experience and no longer afraid of death. Yes, he said, I'm not afraid of death. Why should he be afraid of death? Well, you know, it's going to be nice. Are you afraid of death? You will be when you don't understand what it is. If you are conditioned by our society, which makes you afraid of so many things, or when you like to be afraid. So when we have a bit of wisdom, we understand what's going to happen, and we sort of understand that a lot of the fear which we give is an addiction, because we're afraid of just being at peace. We want something to worry as something to concern ourselves. And when you also understand that fear actually makes things worse, it actually makes you fall in the pool. Though maybe you can let go of fear. You know that you don't have to. Or whatever happens. Stock market, wars, economy, your relationship, whatever happens. There's always something you can do. That's what life is. You've done it before. Things have gone terribly wrong. You have picked herself up. You have started again. You do make it work. When you understand that where can fear control your ever again by telling you that you can survive anything, live can even survive death with rebirth, that you can deal with the darkest, most terrible thing which happens in this world. You can deal with it. You've dealt with it. Other people have dealt with it. There is no more fear. And when there's no more fear, you feel free. Just like the Buddha, you become fearless when it comes down to it. The basic teaching is that the world outside you can't control. No one can control the stock market. People think they can, and they charge you a lot of money because they assume they're an economist and they know what's going on, just how stupid they are. They've found to be. Sometimes people think you can control your body, and you go to health clubs and eat brown rice and vegetarian food, and you still get sick. Sometimes people say you can control your kids. Ha ha ha ha ha. You can't control the world. Even at my meditation retreat. I've been teaching for seven days. You can't even control your mind, can you? They realize they can't. So if you can't control your mind, what can you do? You can control your attitude to these things. You can't control life, but you can control the way you look at life. You can't control the stock market, but you can control your reaction to the ups and downs. You can't even control the health of your body, but certainly you can control the way you look at health and sickness. You see attitude to these things which the Buddha was talking about. So we don't put fear in that space between you and the world. Nor do you put anger. Nor do you. You put the idea of controlling instead, in the space between you and the world, between you and your partner. You and the stock market. You and your body. You and your own mind. You put things like peace. Kindness and gentleness. So I've been teaching my retreat since. Sometimes you can't even watch the breath. Sometimes you're very tired. Sometimes you just can't. Just doing loving kindness meditation. There's one thing you can always do. Or three things you can always do. You can always be at peace with this. You can always be kind to what you're experiencing. You can always be gentle. You can do that at any time. If you're peaceful, if you're kind, if you're gentle. That, in a nutshell, is the second factor of the Buddhist Eightfold Path. Right. Intention. Intention. The Buddha said his karma. Right intention. His skillful calm. When you're making peace, when you're being kind, when you're gentle, you are making good karma. Every time. And as a Buddhist, I know the law of karma works. If you make good karma, you achieve prosperity, happiness, good health, positive results. Which means that doesn't matter what I'm experiencing. Doesn't matter. Stock market going up, going down. I'm sick. I'm healthy. People are listening. People are not listening. I'm giving a talk. They're walking out the door. Who cares? I can always be peaceful. Be kind and be gentle. No matter what's happening outside. That's how I make good karma. That's how I create prosperity, health and well-being. I'm making good karma. Dismember when I get afraid. When I get angry. When I get negative. When I put fear between me and this moment. That is bad karma. That is negative karma. It's going to create bad outcomes. I know that this is a basic physics of life. The more we are afraid, we put fear between me and that snake. Me and that sort of am tumor. Me and that problem in my marriage. The more I put fear there, it's bad karma. It's going to lead to worse results. You should have enough experience to realize that by now. That's why fear produces terrible results. It's not necessary at all. Instead, we we know good karma. We know how to put peace, kindness, and gentleness between us and whatever we experience in life, even our own death. You can't stop the death, but each can be peaceful with it. You can be kind to this whole process of nature. You can be gentle with your death. You can always do that. You can't control the world, but you can control your attitude towards it. The way you react to it, the way you look at it. And that is where we can be positive. So whatever is happening. Stock market life, health, the Buddhist society. Be very careful how you're reacting to it. Always make peace and you'll find you will have peace. I sometimes made the simile of building a house. A house in Western Australia is usually made of bricks. Hundreds, thousands of bricks laid one by one by the bricklayer. And after many thousands of individual actions, of laying one brick at a time. You have your house. Every moment you lay a moment of peace. Your building, the house of peace. The house of peace is made by many, many, many moments. But no matter what you're listening to, what you're feeling, what you're knowing, you make peace with it. Like the barking of the dog. For years, that dog has been barking on a Friday night and on a Saturday afternoon. No way could I control that dog. But I certainly can make peace with that dog. Be kind to be gentle to it. And when I'm making peace, being kind, being gentle, the problem is gone. Do you understand? Stock market. Thank you. Dog. Dog barking. That's what dogs do. They bark. That's what stock markets do. Go up. Go down. That's what your body does. Get sick. Gets healthy. Get sick. Gets healthy. That's what the body does. It gets born and dies. What's the problem? Thank you. They saw the way they react to it. So you may have a boss at work who shouts at you. That's what bosses do. You are somebody else who has a boss. Do exactly say bosses are right. So why make problems? They're in trouble. You can always be kind. You can always be gentle. You could always be peaceful. And that way you are free. If you get angry, afraid and have lots of fear. You're no longer free anymore. You're a prisoner. A prisoner of this painful fear of what's happening to you, what's going to happen in the future? What's going to happen to your body, your relationships? Do you really want to live like that? So you have an alternative the end of fear. You can do that and it's not hard to do. Cultivate these right intentions. When you meditate, you really cultivate this very, very strongly. So no matter what happens, kind of making peace, being gentle. And then you find fear can never come up. They can take away your body, they can take away your wealth. They never could take away your peace, your kindness, your gentleness. That is your true wealth. Why do you have money for anyway? To create some comfort in this world, some peace. You can have that anyway. Just like me. A monk with no shares. A monk with no credit card and monk with no bank account. A monk who, every time I write off to renew my healthcare card. Because I'm low income. When I write in all the boxes. How much money do you earn a week? Nil. How much money do you earn from rental property? Nil. How much money do you earn from shares? Nil. How much money do you earn from other sources? Nil. Sum. Total of your yearly income. Nil. And I love sending that form off. When we first did it, we'd get the letter back. Can you please explain how you've supported yourself? And I said very wonderfully, very peacefully. And I'm fat. So if I can do this. What are you worried about? Understanding that you can understand. Really? There's nothing to be afraid of in life. Buddhism is a path without fear. Thus our goal that's on offer here. How to live with no fear at all. It's not positive stupidity because sometimes some people have no fear because they're stupid. I can't help telling this story. I'm going over time in Thailand. Many years ago, when I was there, about five years as a monk, that all the buses in the northeast were very old because, you know, they just tried use them until they could, you know, literally not run anymore. So they're very old buses. And it happened that one bus caught fire because it wasn't well-maintained. And actually people got incinerated inside. And I don't know why it was, but one bus after another, there was a whole spate of these buses suddenly catching fire. I know one of the monks, um, I was, uh, practicing with in the monastery. He was actually on one of those buses. He managed to get out, but I think his bowl and his robes all got burnt in the fire. And he got some compensation from the bus company. That's how dangerous it was. And I was on one of these buses once. As a monk, they always put you in the front seats. You know why that is? So that you can stop people having head on collisions. Because you've got good karma. You protect all the people around the back. But. There was a fire in the back and they shouted out, fire! Fire! And the bus driver slammed on the brakes. He almost went through the window, but you know, you managed to stop yourself. He slammed on the brakes and he was out the window himself and all the people. They rushed out of the door and it was actually another mount with me. Now as a mark, we're not supposed to get in contact with women and that nuns aren't supposed to get in contact with men. So lots of women on the bus. But this man sitting next to me, he did mighty was out, but I was known as a very well-behaved mark. And now let the other people go out. First of all, you know, I was born in England being a gentleman. But most of the reason why I didn't get out because my tie wasn't that good. I wondered what all the commotion was about, because I didn't understand fire and I hadn't read a newspaper. So how many people got killed? So I just sat there quite peacefully, and actually I was not. I wasn't the last one out. I was the second last one out because there was another man lingered in the back and he looked at it. It was only a small amount of smoke as of smoke. And he shouted out to other people, and everyone was out except me and this guy. And he said, it's only a cigarette. It's not sort of a real fire, just a cigarette smoke. And so when people heard, they put the cigarette out and everyone started coming in, I was sitting in the front seat and said, oh, they say the our heart, the holy enlightened West, and like, oh, you're so wonderful. You had no fear. Not like that other scallywag monk who ran out and touched all of us. There was a wonderful moment for me, but to be honest, I wasn't a hero. I was just stupid because I didn't know what was going on. So sometimes, sometimes fearlessness is actually stupidity. And that's not what we recommend here. We mean the real fearlessness. You know what's going on? It doesn't matter what happens. You can always do something with it. You're not afraid. You're going to die. You live. You're going to die anyway. You're going to live. Maybe you die. Maybe you get sick and you get healthy. It's only paid. You can deal with that big deal. Things come, things go. So please use your wisdom and please practice making peace, being kind beings. And you can always do that. And don't get sucked in into making anger. Making fear. That kills you. And that also starts prosperity in the world. And it stops harmony in this world as well. So you can overcome fear. And just like the Buddha outside. No fear. That's the talk this evening on letting go of fear. Okay. Is anyone got any comments or questions on this talk this evening? And I sometimes one of the biggest fears is fear of public speaking. I don't mind that. Or fear of getting getting questions. One of the questions we got at the retreat center said, why are you at John Brown? You've been many, many years as a monk, but why is that? Your robes always fall off. But those other two monks sitting next year, they've got really neat ropes. So they always ask questions which are sort of trying to sort of, uh, test you out. So I just said, oh, it's because, you know, after many years as a monk, you learn how to let go and keep loose and to be simple. They just play around. You know, when you play around, you're not afraid of anything. So keep your sense of humor and then you never get afraid. Any other questions coming up now? What are the most frightening things to not just public speaking, but live interviews on TV? That's one of the most frightening things, because if you make one mistake, if you pick your nose or something, then actually they they record that and they send it to all the other networks. I think there's a show called bloopers or something or Big Mistakes. So imagine that you're on TV and all your friends, the whole world is watching you. So anyway, you know when you're on TV, you just make fun. Yeah. You know the. Horror. Yeah. Okay. You're saying that once you went into this horror movie theater or whatever, or exhibition or theme park or whatever. And you were scared of. So you came into the present moment. You were right here. Yeah. You're in the present moment, but you're tense. You're not free. That's not the way to get in the present moment. I know that some Zen monasteries. You're facing the wall. There's someone walking behind you with a stick now that makes you terrified. Sure, you're in the present moment, but you're not peaceful. You never get enlightened that way. There's the same sort of thing. That's why we don't have a stick here. Sometimes I think we should have, but no. Otherwise we get sued in this place. So really? Yeah. You're in the present moment. Just like you're riding a motorbike, you know, really fast. Yeah, you're in the present moment. But how do you feel? You feel tight and tense. There's no freedom. There is excitement. There's no happiness. It's great that we know the difference between excitement and real happiness. Don't make that mistake. Bungee jumping. You're really right in this moment. But you're not free. You're not relaxed. So you can be in the present moment and relax at the same time. Yes. At the back? Absolutely. I can guarantee this. I give you money back. Guarantee? If you don't believe in God, you will not go to hell. Absolutely, 100%. I know what I'm talking about. So you don't have to worry about that rubbish. So, 100%. So you're free now? You can trust me. I don't tell lies. So. But again, people say that. And some of it just in case. And that's called fear. But if you come to the Buddhist society here, you go to heaven, the highest of heavens. Just look at the heavenly monks in front of you. And this are the blissful, serene people. So this is the way you want to go. Because by example, I remember the the advertisements I used to see between these lovely stories about grasshopper. And I was saying, you know, if you get this toothpaste, you know, you'll be happy and peaceful. It's actually the end product you want to see before you buy the goods. And here you got the end products. So happy and peaceful and free. So basically that's a lot of rubbish. People start saying those things. And why do they say things? Do we ever say that sort of in this Buddhist place, if you don't come to the temple, you go there. If you don't meditate, you'll burn for eternity. We don't say that. We don't need to because we don't need to use fear. In fact, the whole idea of using fear is is really unethical. Instead, we have the positive look, if you let go of these things, you'll be happy. And you can you know that for yourself in this life. So it's obvious you can test it out in this life. You don't have to worry. Isn't it wonderful? You have a path here, which is? Find out for yourself. In this life, you can know happiness. You can know peace. Know what it feels like to be a heavenly being. Many of those meditators are missing out about those prayers. You know, I heard you say before the bliss better than sex. A couple of people have had that. He died in North Perth. Less than six. Wow. This is. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Oh, give me more of this. And you can experience that in these retreats, so it's don't have to believe it. It's not negativity. You know, if you say it's sort of, you know, I just you're going to go to hell. I mean, what does that do to you? Do they give you any bliss that turn you on? You have to be really weird if that turns you on. Yes. At the back over there. Absolutely. Because it's when you get afraid, you get lots of worry lines. That's what they call worry lines. So it's amazing when you don't have be afraid or worry about things. Of course you know your facial muscles, muscles, they last longer. Look at my robe. I kept tearing it like this and pulling and pushing. It wouldn't last very long. I keep it nice and loose and this is last for a couple of years. So if you keep your face nice and loose, you know it lasts for a long time. So that's really, you see the secrets of youth. You don't have to go to beauty parlor. Forget Botox, meditation, Dharma. And it's much cheaper. I don't know how much does Botox cost these days. I had, you know, the answer is you could go to the stupid places. You don't need Botox. 500. You could save a lot of money, lady, by coming here every. Every Friday evening. Okay, go. Better finish off now. Okay. Well, thank you for listening, everyone. And thank you for that lovely question and answers afterwards.