Mental Energy Equals Happiness | Ajahn Brahm

Mental Energy Equals Happiness by Ajahn Brahm

[Note: AI generated transcription – expect errors!]

Here we go. Now, this evening's talk. I decided that I would try and think of something to say before I came in here. I think I arrived about 530 and this was before I even walked in the door. That was it. I got caught taking photos with the visiting Thais, talking with our visiting, um, Singaporeans, talking with people who live here all the time. We should know better. Now that's hard to get to the toilet. Oh, it's a very difficult life as a monk. In fact, I was thinking just how hard among works because after the last, last week. And then I had a quick rest over there, and then got up early to fly to Sydney to give some water hawks over there on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Oh, I worked really hard. So how can you do that? Because this is what we all need to know, actually, how we can cope with the stress of modern, modern life or modern life. But also to be wise, to be happy, to be effective. And I was interesting because tonight's talk is about the how we actually equate real happiness. Real happiness with what we call mental energy. Mind energy. I'm not talking about physical energy. Mind energy and happiness. This is a deep teaching of the Buddha. Because. Very often, those of you who've read some of the original teachings of the Buddha from the suitors would have read again and again the Buddha's saying that the only thing he teaches is suffering and the end of suffering. In other words, suffering and happiness. That was the whole thrust of the Dharma talk by the Buddha about the understanding what suffering is, understanding what happiness is. And I'm now going to teach you the secret of real happiness. And also not just real happiness in the sense of just enjoying yourself, but how real happiness also, it coincides with the energy which can serve others so you can do your duties in this world. And I'm mentioning this because again, in that trip to Sydney, there's actually somebody from Sydney that talks in Sydney here this evening, and they will know the place where I give these talks in Sydney in a little meditation Buddhist centre called Bodihi Kusuma is in the suburb of Chippendale, which is just next door to Redfern and one of the inner suburbs, and it is a rough area. In fact, two doors down from the Buddhist centre is a brothel. And of course, being in such close proximity, I made some comparisons. In fact, I made a comparison because many of you have heard me say this before. It was actually the subject of the presentation I gave at the third Global conference in Singapore. My presentation was Meditation at Bliss better than sex. So really, I was, uh, painting the customers from the brothel two doors over. But I say this is the last bit of bliss in this meditation setting. Get next door. And it's true, more than that, that sometimes she would know that that house of repute. The only reason you would know it was there was because they got the hearts all over the front. That's actually the Buddhist temple. We should have bigger hearts. Because we're much more into compassion. That's real love. And now even notice the heart symbol is a body leaf upside down, looking a blow to thee. Perhaps this is what we really mean by the heart. The body, the wisdom is the real, the heart of compassion. Now what do we actually really mean by that? Is the happiness actually, you get the joy you can get from the practice of Buddhism because of what it was talking about listening, suffering, increasing happiness. You don't really understand what and how we get this inner happiness, the real happiness. One of the themes which I've been teaching my monks down at serpentine for the past three months. These are like an insight which comes from your meditation, which actually, uh, is a powerful insight because it informs many of the things that you do in life and gives you an understanding of how to live the life of a layperson or a monk, a husband or wife or work or whatever. And it's the understanding that mental energy is happiness. Mental energy. Is something which my teacher said and said many, many times, which again was very hard to understand until you can experience by putting this into practice and experimenting with it, he said. If you're going to have a fit body, you have to exercise, you have to do something on the spot. If you just leave this body sitting still, it gets quite sick. The body's health depends upon movement, doing, exercising. But, he said the mind's health is completely opposite. You get mental health by being still, as peaceful as you possibly can. That's where you get the mental health, agility and power. Completely opposite. Sometimes we are taught are maybe you brought in the fact that the more you think, the smarter you will be or the happy you will be. But those of you who have thought or not would have also taken much aspirin or paracetamol. That's what happens when you think too much. And those who think too much, they know very little. We think, but we don't see because most of those thoughts are the words which describe the world, but they're not the world themselves. They confuse us into misinterpreting what's really going on. The menu is not the meal. The map is not the destination. A signpost is not the object which is pointing to your thoughts and not the real thing. But more than that, the more you think, the more you use up your mental energy. You get weak until eventually you get completely depressed. People who get depressed simply think too much. Now, when you understand that mental energy is happiness, how does he develop mental energy? You don't develop mental energy by thinking, by using the mind, by working it, by worrying. That's not the way. Try to develop mental energy. In fact, that uses up all of your mental energy, which is why there's so many people suffer depression these days simply because their poor old brain is tired. Worn out has was dry of juice. There's a used teabag. Yeah. And that's what most people's brains are like, isn't it? When you just squirrels squeeze everything you possibly could out of it today and you got hardly anything left. So how can you revive yourself now? I've been. I've had my teabag squeeze today. And squeezed by how many people? The monastery. By the monks. By the Singaporeans, by the Thais. By you guys staying here. Now you're squeezing me again. But it does not matter because I know how to regenerate my back, how to how to build up the mental energy inside. And that mental energy comes from being still. What actually happens if you want to know the underlying power of this. But your life has energy like the life force, if you like. It's actually the Buddha talked about that, the life force you are a certain amount of life force. Where does that go? How do you use the energy of your life? We use too much in thinking, worrying, controlling. Planning, making. Changing. Because we use it all in that area. We've got not enough left for the mind. It's always in the reacting to and controlling. Of course, that is what we have to do a lot of the time. But we don't have to do that all the time, can't we every now and again put down our burden, put down trying to change the world, put on down. Try to change our husband or wife or our kids or our monks or whatever. And God we love just for a few moments to allow things to be. What does that mean by letting things be, by allowing the door of your heart to open to whatever is experiencing, by being at peace with things, by just, uh, being passively aware, being a salt and water, what does that mean? It means not doing anything. Means resting the mind. Most of the time we have to react. But we react too much because we do that all day and sometimes all night. We haven't got any brain juice left. We try. But if you just stop for a few moments, you're not stopping in that putting down the reacting in that, letting go of the levers of your mind which you control yourself in the world. What actually happens then is the energies of your being. They don't go into changing the world. They don't go into controlling and making things any different. You really are allowing the way things are just to be for a few moments. And in allowing the way things are just to be, then things start to change. They start to change because your energies are now going in to the pure knowing the word which I use today, which I've been using in the range retreat for the first time. Not unconditional loving kindness, but unconditional mindfulness. It's a new word. I'll just call it unconditional mindfulness. You heard it here first. What may be unconditional mindfulness. It means like being aware of something. Without demanding it be different. Not a sort of thinking that I'll be mindful of this, but not and be mindful of that. Just whatever you're aware of, opening your mindfulness completely to that as it is without any complaints. Unconditional mindfulness. If it really is unconditional mindfulness, whatever you're watching means you have no business to do. You don't have to react to it. You don't have to do anything about it. You don't have to change it, hold on to it, alter it in any which way, in the same way. Unconditional loving kindness accepts the person who you love as they are. Unconditional mindfulness sees whatever's there as it is without reacting to it. Then if you could try unconditional mindfulness for a little while, you will find that things change by themselves. Because what happens instead? Of the energy of your being being wasted in doing this, getting there, controlling, wanting this, what it means to be different. I'm not good enough. I gotta do this. This meditation is not good enough. I got to do something else. This talk's not good enough. I'm going to go next door. Maybe there's a better talk in a Buddhist center down the road. She'll be watching the TV tonight. Is having really good on the TV tonight? Stop talking like that instead of complaining. Just be quiet for a while. Have unconditional mindfulness. Then the energy is at last start being able to flow into your mind instead of into the doing the controller. When energy starts flowing into your awareness, into the knowing, into the mind, into pure consciousness, whatever you wish to call it, because that is becoming a recipient of your energy, it does become energized. Your mind starts to become bright. It starts to become so bright that you start to see much deeper into things, and also what you see becomes happier. Here we have energy and you also start to have happiness as well. Here's one thing which I have noticed just in my life as a monk. As you meditate more and more you notice. See how the energy of the mind. Comes from stopping doing things. An energy means happiness means more depth in your perception, more richness in your life. I notice, as I told us in Sydney, I know this is first, probably my first meditation retreat in Cambridge over 35 years ago, I think. In that meditation retreat. It was held in a boarding house. And now boarding houses in England in I think 1970 were most noted for how disgusting was the food? Because people, they didn't know how to cook. It was all boiled, boiled potatoes. Boiled peas, and even as if there was anything else to eat, it was absolutely either the least possible work done to make it make it so delicious. Boarding house food was terrible, but ah, this first retreat which I went to, I thought that we must have been so lucky. So fortunate. We must have hit on one of the boarding house chefs who could know how to cook. But the food was delicious. You know why? After a while, I realized it wasn't the cooks. It was me. When you start to become peaceful. When the mind starts to become energized. When all the energy of your being. Instead of complaining because you're taught to meditate and be quiet and stop doing things. Then I became energized and what I was tasting, I could taste more. Out of that boiled potato, then I could normally do. You didn't need to have gravy or sauces when the mind was alive. When the mind was energized. He could taste things in a potato that no other person could ever taste. That's just in the potato. Those of you who've been on a meditation retreats. Have you ever noticed that our meditation retreats. The food always tastes more delicious than outside? Why is that? And it's not the cook's. The reason. The reason why this tastes more delicious is because of you. Your senses on a retreat are opened out. You got energy, what you taste, what you see, what you hear. Because your mind is clear. You can take more in. Which is why. And if any of you had going out to dinner after this talk, you will find you'll get much more out of the dinner if you meditate. Listen to her talk here. So if you ever go to a five star restaurant, please make sure you come to the Buddha Society first to get your money's worth. And it's true because when the mind gets energized, what you taste is more delicious. You try that out. It had been working really hard and you're tired and you've got the energy in your mind. Whatever you eat is still. If people learn how to meditate and actually put energy into their mind so they can really appreciate the food. There'll be far less divorces in this world. When you appreciate your wife's food. Oh, you're such a good cook wife. Oh, what do you say? Those are delicious. It's not that the food is not delicious. Your mind is not open to the taste because it's tired. You can understand what happens when the mind gets very, very tired. It gets into this spiral of depression. Something goes wrong in your life. And you feel sort of, uh, a bit down and people try to think themselves out of that depression. They struggle with depression because they struggle with depression. What little energy they have is used up in the struggle, in the fight. And of course they have less energy, which makes them more down, more depressed. They get in a spiral. Have deeper and deeper depression. The more they fight, the deeper they go. Which is why, as a man, when people are depressed and say, what's wrong with being depressed? Enjoy your depression. Depression. The door of my house open to you. Come on. So see how depressed we can get. But now when you do that, of course, because you're not fighting, you're accepting. You find the depression gets less and less because you're not wasting the energies which you have in fighting the energies of your being. Have a chance to flow into just knowing. The knowing brightens up. You see more, you see deeper and the greatness of life starts to disappear. It's not that the world is depressing. It's just the way one is looking with low energy. That's why the world is depressing. It's not the world. It's not your life. It's not your husband. It's you. This is why, once you get into this idea of learning how to allow the mind to rest from time to time, allow the mind not to, by resting, I mean not to do things. Stop controlling, stop forcing, stop running. Take your hands off the steering wheel, the feet of the pedals of your life and just let go. Relax. Rest. Don't do anything. Be at peace. If you could do that just a little bit. Every day you find the energies of your mind start to increase. As they increase, not only do you see deeper, do you hear deeper, you don't miss so much in life. We find you get happier as well. You get joyful. Those of you who are coming to see my monastery, then Sunday, those of you are going to see the Messiah on Saturday. Why do you go to such places? Why do you come here? A lot of times, just to see a happy monk. So it's nice being around happy people. It's over. Being around grumpy grin. Some people never smile. Even just when I was giving her the meditation, she's a smile after at the end of the talk. How many of you actually smiled? You grumpy lot? That's better. Now you can see what I mean by energy. The mind starts to get a bit more energized and more happy. When it gets energized and happy, you go out of this place energized and happy. This is not the case. If you really are grumpy. I've been telling people a joke. I heard this in Sydney. Someone told me this in Sydney. So this will make you laugh. I really have to try so hard to make people happy. If this meditation doesn't work, I'll tell them jokes. And there was two Australians. They were lost in the desert. They've been crawling around there for days. They were so hungry, so thirsty. They were close to death and almost deranged by the heat of the sun. When one of them looked ahead and saw a sausage tree. Hey, Sam. So look at that sausage tree. And the other guy said, well, you're mad. There's no such thing as a sausage tree. Yes there is. It's there in front of me. And he walked away. Not what? He crawled towards the sausage tree when he got within five metres of the sausage tree. He could see there was a savala hanging down off that branch. There was a pork sausage off of that branch. As soon as you got within five meters. There was a hail of bullets and he almost shot to pieces. As he called away to tell his friend, he said I was wrong. It wasn't a sausage tray. It was a ham bush, a ham bush. Instead. At least I got spotted anyway. Anyway, someone told me that in Sydney when I was over there. But anyway, you can see. See, I feel, uh. Don't you get energized? So anything you can do things is, in your mind, a bit clearer, a bit sharper. Because what I see happens. Happiness is mental energy. Mental energy is happiness. And one of our problems is not because we do so much. We're working so hard. So much is demanded of us just to survive. That many of us lose our energies. And we get depressed sometimes. Not until the depression where you have clinical depression. We get so depressed we cannot appreciate life. We cannot appreciate the food we eat. We cannot appreciate the people we live with. We can't appreciate anything. That's why we get grumpy. You've just lost the taste of life. Because our senses at the start. They've got no energy. Some rotten way to live a life. However you find in nature to give yourself moments of peace and moments of rest. The natural energies of your life go into the correct place, into the knowing. Because the knowing is energized. The knowing is like a powerful like flashlight instead of the batteries being dull. Now this sort of recharge what it sees you see more of, you see richer, deeper, and of course you enjoy it much, much more. Sometimes people think, ah, the life of the monk must be a terrible life. You can't do this and you can't do that. There's always no, no, no, you can't do this. However. In the inside. Those of you who are those of us who are monks, you know we have a great time. Well, we have a great time because we know just how to appreciate life. We know how just to enhance some of the appreciation of all the great food you give us, all the wonderful, beautiful places we live. Is very few people who got their townhouse on their country estates. This is why townhouse. And I've got my country estate down at serpentine. I remember once as a, as a young as a teacher at the time and I was that's why my friend was visiting me. And we're going down to the beach because, uh, almost summertime, we picked up these two hitchhikers. They happen to be like sadhus, disciples of Ramakrishna. They were like holy people. And they took the took us to the so-called ashram in Devon. It was just this beautiful little house set in a valley with a running stream, meadows, beautiful trees and flowers. There's a sort of place I'd always dreamed that one day if I ever got rich, you could retire into Paradise. I always remember that one of the men turned around to me. He said something I always remember. He said. You have to give up everything to live in a beautiful place like this. And I thought, isn't that a lie? The more you give up, the more beautiful place you live it. I mean the world. We think we have to work really hard to get a mansion. But if you work really hard, you can't appreciate your mansion. You're just too tired, too stressed out, too lonely to really appreciate it. But if you learn how to let go, even your small little huts in the forest becomes your mansion. Because your senses have been empowered, you can appreciate much more. You see more deeply into things. You can even see more deeply into the people you'll influence. Strange, isn't it? Why some people. Are rejected by you. They're no good. They're my enemies. They need to be thrown away. Put them in prison. Throw away the key. Kill them. Exterminate them! They are pests. That's why we call the pest exterminator. Please take my husband. Remember the story of this lady in the hairdressers talking to her friend next door, next in the next seat. So after I got my hair done, I'm going husband hunting. Now that's a very good idea. Here's my address. You can kill my husband while you. Two meanings of husband hunting. But why is it that people don't appreciate each other? A lot of time. It's not because your husband or wife, the person, your office or anybody else. So there's anything wrong with them. Our senses are so dull we can't appreciate them anymore. Whittle down to seeing the goodness in another person. In the same way the boarding house food tastes awful when you're tired, but when you've got mental energy is beautiful. In the same way, when your mind gets empowered and gets energy and you can see the beauty in all people. You haven't got any enemies anymore. You can appreciate those people. You can see the goodness. It's wonderful being a monk, because as a monk you can see the goodness in so many people. As hard as you try to reject anybody in my life as a monk, I've never seen anybody who deserves to be rejected, who hasn't got some goodness in them, some beauty, some purity in them. Which allows them to be my friend. It's not a beautiful way to live. So you just haven't got enemies. You can't see anyone who's worthy of being an enemy. You can't reject anybody. Why? Because you can see the beauty in them. Now, when you're depressed and dull because you've got no mental energy, the whole world, everybody just is wrong, is selfish, is my enemy. I don't like them. Why should I be their friends? When you've got no mental energy, you can't make a friend with anybody. With mental energy. You have such happiness that everybody is worthy to be your friend. It's not the people out there. It's just the way you look at them. The mental energy through which you look at the world. So as you start to let go, more and more, I just start to make more peace as you learn how to rest your mind. The mind becomes empowered. Not only does your food taste more delicious, and also when your food tastes more delicious, you get less problems with your bowels. So you get so many benefits of coming to a Buddhist center on a Friday night, because there's so many people that irritable bowel syndrome these days. And why is that? And it is because they don't appreciate their food. Because I've never seen biology at school. When you start to appreciate your food, when it's delicious, immediately you start to think of your favorite food right now. And. Think of it to all those people in Singapore. Your favourite noodles? Can you actually see them steaming in the bowl? You can always smell that. Can you smell them now? It's a long way away, you know, for your favourite noodles. But nevertheless, can you see the saliva come up in your mouth now? Seekers. When you appreciate something, the body starts to work, saliva starts to come out or the juices in the gut start to come out, and then you can digest the food if you don't like it. It may be your favorite food. Be just too dull to really appreciate it. And then those juices don't come out. You don't digest the food at all. So even I was one of our monks once. He had something wrong with his bowels. He went to have one, I think a barrier meal. It's called. They put this disgusting liquid down his throat and it's supposed to be radioactive. And it's supposed to put this X-ray on him to try and find out where it goes and see how his guts work. However, they made a big mistake of actually giving the appointment in the afternoon. And because monks don't eat in the afternoon, that bone meal just sat there. It didn't do anything. Because no Primark has been around for quite a few years now. Your stomach learns if it's after 12:00, it rests. It doesn't do anything. So just sitting there. And these nurses don't know what to do because usually no things are moving all the time in a normal person. Aren't they? So this. So this for the there was a nurse there. She had like great inspiration, insight. All she said was think of your favorite food. And as soon as he started to think of his favorite food, they're going all start moving again. Going down here. Going down there. Actually, Tracy was what I was doing in this house. It actually showed as soon as I even thinking of your favorite food and appreciating it, then your bowels move. So now you understand that if you start meditating here and getting a lot of happiness and joy, then you won't have irritable bowel syndrome anymore. And you. It's amazing. What you learned in this sport is that when you go home this evening. So what did AJ Brown talk about? Is that irritable bowel syndrome? And I had to go with it. And that is Buddhism, because the Buddha taught about suffering and the end of suffering. And this is what Buddhism is all about in all different ways. But anyway. And so when you start to appreciate your food, your body starts to become more healthy and sort of your life becomes more rich. You get more happiness. You appreciate things much more. So I say, if you are going to a good restaurant, meditate before you go to get your money's worth. Are you going to listen to sort of a symphony orchestra, sort of play Beethoven or Mahler or something to really appreciate that? Meditate. First of all, let go. Make your mind nice and bright. If you go there when you're really dull, if you had a really hard day at work or hard day with your husband or wife or whatever, you can't appreciate it at all. Her mind is not ready. It's not open. So I'm saying this to show you that mental energy. He is happiness. The more you energize that mind by resting it, by giving it some peace, by allowing it to add to to recharge its energies. The more happiness you begin to feel, the more you appreciate life, the more you appreciate the little forest in which you live, a little house in which you live. You start to lose your negativity to life. Isn't it a case that when you are negative, it's not just negative to the foods you eat, it's negative to your job, negative to your house, negative to your face? Look in the mirror and saying, I'm not beautiful enough if you're a girl. You say you're not handsome enough if you're a boy? What does the market think? I don't know, but whatever it is, you always are negative. Where does that negativity come from? It comes from the lack of energy, the lack of happiness inside of you. Whatever you look at, whatever you do, wherever you go, you're boring. And that's what happens to many people in our life, because the life is no fun for them. It. Always escaping into alcohol, into drugs, into doing something else, always running away. He got no happiness in the moment. Are you one of the escapees of life? Who is running away from the moment? Into fantasies. Into dreams. Anything to take me away from now. You get down. You get depressed. You can't appreciate the finer things of life that we master now. That energy can get even greater. The more you let go, the more the energy comes into your mind. And as you let go, more and more as you rest the mind, more and more your mind gets more energized, more happy. And that's what I always meant when I started saying that. Spending, uh, evening at the Buddhist center is much better than spending the evening at the brothel. You get the bliss better than sex. You get a happiness of the mind. That energy builds up and builds up. Your energized. And you start to really get into the ecstasy states. But it's not just energise and ecstasy for its own sake, because with that energy you can see deeper into things. It's not just the food tastes more delicious. It's not that the leaves on the trees look more green. It's not just like the night sky twinkles much more than it should there. Your mind is energized. Awake. Alert. You start to see more into the nature of life. With the energized mind. You get the insights. Some of those insights are so strong they'll make you even enlightened. On the energized mind. How on earth does it? You can actually see the truth and things when the mind is dull and that mind is dull because it works so hard, it's got no energy left. Traditionally in Buddhism and becomes enlightened by stilling their mind. Sometimes people say, how can you get enlightened by studying the mind? Now you will know from that stillness, from that resting of the mind energy. Start to build up because energies can build up so much in the mind. You get blissed out. But with that bliss, you're not sort of dial. You're energized. Whatever you look at, whatever you see, whatever you think of, if you look inside. Wow, you can see such detail. Of who you are to want to know who you are. How on earth you think you can see with a dull mind. Start looking through the forest with a dull flashlight which you can hardly see, even just a foot in front of you, let alone see the whole forest. Why is it that we still keep getting into problems in life? Just like in a forest, just stubbing our toe on rocks, tripping over logs, always stumbling. Over the obstacles of our life. Getting into pain, into difficulty. Suffering in all its myriad of forms. Why do we do that? Because our flashlight's not bright enough. Our mind is not strong enough to see what we're doing. Sometimes. If I remember going to these movies when I was young, and sometimes you could see like the, the, um, uh, the hero, he was going to get into trouble. There was somebody sort of waving behind a bush with a gun or something, and you shout out to, hey, look out, there's someone behind the bush! You knew they were doing something stupid, but you couldn't stop them. Sometimes that's like me as a monk, seeing you do something stupid. So don't go that direction. There's someone with a gun behind the rock. You can't stop them. So don't get angry at your husband. Don't shout at your wife. So don't get down upon what happens to in life. Just let go as part of life. Leave it alone. But I still go and walk behind the rock and get shot again and again and again. Because you can't see it. The mind is not bright enough. Not enough energy. Not enough power. So the insights can really see what's going on in your life so you can avoid those obstacles. They don't need to suffer in life. Okay. Something goes wrong. Big deal. So that today your wife left you. Your son sort of failed his exams. You've got the sack. You just found out you've got cancer. You've only got one month to live. Oh, isn't that wonderful? One month. You've got no worries anymore. Someone else can worry about it afterwards. So why is it that people make such a big deal of these things? So where we have insight, we have the brightness of the mind. Since we have so much insight into the nature of life, the things don't worry us anymore. We actually can see beyond the suffering of life and all those insights which you hear from, uh, people sitting here. Those nuggets of wisdom which you read about in the books, all of the teachings of the wise people of the past. Now they are yours. You see those because your mind is energized. The energy has gone into the knowing. Mindfulness is empowered so you can actually see clearly into what needs to be done. Not only that, but for those of you who are in business, who are working, if you want to be rich, if you want to be rich beyond your wildest dreams. To give your mind energy so you can actually see exactly what's going on so you can be smarter than the average CEO. Well, the average sales person or the average, whatever you are. That's what happens. I must have had a natural mindfulness from the past because I was alert. People tell me those who went to school with me said I was a happy boy, even at school. It wasn't just happy, I was alert as well. Even when I was listing to the classes which my teachers taught, I had an incredible memory. They could actually say something. And when it came time for the examinations, not only do I remember the answer, I could recall when the teacher said that. And that's actually one of the reasons why I always sort of went and did very well through school and through university. I had a very strong memory. Why? Because I was happy. My mind was sharp. It was empowered by the happiness I had, mental energy as well as that happiness because I had that mental energy. My mindfulness was strong to pay full attention to what was going on. So incredible just how dull people are. You know what the word Buddha actually means? It means awakened. Awaken one. Are you awake? How many Buddhas are there here today? How many people are really, really awake? It's incredible that those of you who've been on meditation retreat. So just get a taste of deep meditation. You get a taste of what happens when the energies really start to go into the mind. You probably know just how dull we usually are. And how, because of that darkness, we don't see what's really going on. We make so many mistakes. We create the suffering in our lives because of our dull and sleepiness. So how do we overcome that? It is. Get in there. Give your mind a break. A break. Maybe it's because I came from England. Because in England we always have a tea break in the morning, a tea break in the afternoon, and then the other excuse for a tea break. That's very civilized. Give your mind a tea break. In other words, give it a bit of rest. Look what happens at school. If you're at school, didn't you have playtime? Recess? Why do you have recess when you are at school? Because you're just mine. Can't take all that work. And now, after hour after hour. So even in my monastery, when it's time for retreats, I always say there's a time for playtime in a monastery. If monks are getting too stressed and meditation is not working, they're getting too tall. Give yourself pray time. Oh, that's wasting time. It's not wasting time. It's investing. Time. Play. Have a little bit of fun. We have a little bit of fun. You get happiness. A little bit of happiness. You feel alert, alive. With that aliveness and alertness, somebody becomes empowered. You start to see things more clearly. You don't make so many mistakes. Life is not so grumpy anymore. And you become more sharp, more alert. So this is actually where we find that equivalence between mental energy. And happiness when people are depressed. If you have a hard day. Please, please don't fight it. You know that old simile which the Buddha gave, which I wrote in that book, opening the door of the heart, about the demon who came into the Emperor's palace. You most of you know that one. If you don't know that one, I'm not going to say it today by the book which is on sale. That's a marketing ticket to those outside of the library. It's $25. But seeing as how you're all here today, especially if those people in Singapore has a special offer for the weekend. 24.99. If. How did you get it started as well? But where we empower the mind with happiness. Then you are awake. You feel alert. Look, I should have been wiped out. Sort of giving this talk just now. I'd had such a busy, busy, busy day. Had many of you sort of have seen me in action sometimes. And you have to sit up here and you've got three other people waiting to have a nice time. Come and listen to a talk. Somebody come all the way from Singapore to listen to a talk. And I must admit that when I came through that door, sort of about a half ago, I thought, I can't give a talk tonight. I just I'm just so wiped. I'm so tired. So when I meditated, I meditated properly at the end of the meditation because I let go. It's very hard to begin with and start to feel the energies coming up. It's a great to know how to do this. You can be really, really wiped out. It doesn't sit down for half an hour. First of all, you feel terrible. Then the energies start to come and you start to see the mind brighten up and become sharper and sharper. Then the bliss starts to come. And then, you know it's going to be a good talk. Or that this happened years ago when I was in Canberra giving some talks. A particular occasion. You know what Canberra is like. Those of you coming from Singapore don't visit Canberra. It's freezing and it was freezing. And of course, just after a short time I got a terrible cold. And because people didn't, I was supposed to give all these talks. So just because I had a cold, it didn't actually stop people trying to squeeze as much out of me as they possibly could, because they took me all over Canberra and they took me to this monastery, and I was there all day, and by the time I actually got to this place, was supposed to give a talk is 15 minutes. I hadn't showered, hadn't had a cup of tea, nothing. And had all these people waiting to listen to a talk. Well, I think someone gave me some Chinese tea. A quick Chinese tea that also. And I was up in front of all these people sneezing, coughing. The nose was running. It's very embarrassing to have a runny nose when everybody's watching you. Yeah. And I remember clearly. I just couldn't put two sentences together properly without having to sneeze. And it's terrible trying to give a talk and trying to get some continuous continuation of continuity, rather trying to get a theme together, try to make it inspiring. You know, when you sort of got this volcano happening in your nose. And so I was supposed to give a talk first and then do some meditation. I said, stop, we'll do a meditation first. 20 minutes of the most fun and most hopeless talks on a given. But when I meditated, I know how to meditate and how do I meditate or just let go? Just don't do anything. Don't try and allow all the energies to start going to the mind of the mind. If the nose wants to dribble, dribble. Doesn't matter. That's why my robes are proud because I have to wash them so often. So, you know, it's just to happen. And. So credible is amazing, is wonderful to be able to do this after half an hour and have meditated and I was energized and the nose had stopped. Running to the cold was just way over there somewhere. I was a long way away from it inside and I didn't get this really nice talk. I remember the person who was taking me around. Did you notice anything? Said, yeah, I saw that you were terrible before you meditated. You looked terrible too. But afterwards you gave this wonderful talk. And that's how I work. That's how you can work. She now had to energize her mind. It's amazing how successful you can be in your career. Well, it's a monk career. Whether it's, uh, sales, whether it's just being a a family person, a father. Whatever you do with your life. Energize the mind to learning how to be still. No need that. You can be a very successful. In your spiritual life as well. You know the secret of inner happiness. You know the secret of wisdom. Seeing clearly and deeply into the nature of things. And also appreciating things as well. This is a panacea. The snake oil, which gives you everything you ever wanted in your whole life. But in success in life. But this appreciation of the richness of life, the deep insights into the nature of things. And enlightenment itself. According to the teachings of the Buddha. This, he said, is a path without groaning. If you think this is actually one of the things of the Buddha, this path, this eightfold path is a path without groaning. If you're groaning, you're not practicing properly. You know you've forgotten the words of the Buddha. The path of the Buddha is the path not of complaining, of groaning, but a path of greater acceptance, greater happiness. Normal. But. Wow. No, we don't have to get up in the morning, but. Wow. Another day. Zippity doo dah. Another day. All of you people from Singapore. You've paid so much money to come over here to Perth. Wow, what a wonderful day. When you wake up tomorrow morning, don't look at the clock. Get out of bed. Jump out. Get your money's worth of this trip. And. Now you start putting energy into the mind, energy into line. Your breakfast, I will guarantee, would taste even more delicious than you did expect when you go to see the sights are the beast is so much more enjoyable. And when you go and have your dinner, don't forget to meditate for half an hour beforehand. Mhm. That's delicious. You really know how to appreciate life and you get so empowered, so full of energy. Whatever you do in life, you'll be able to succeed in. And you'll be someone who's attractive. Because who likes grumpy people? Do you like grumpy people? Are you married to a sourpuss? If you are 92, divorced them, taken to the next meditation retreat and I will take your sourpuss head nine days into this. Happy, wonderful. Energized. If it's like all the TV advertising is there. But if it happens, this is true because mental energy is happiness and mental energy comes from being still. He learned to be still from time to time. You will never get depressed, fed up, or grumpy ever again. You'll be a person who doesn't get angry. Anger comes from depression. Set up with somebody or with the world. You overcome those things. And you'll be able to appreciate life more and more. The path to enlightenment is a path of ever increasing happiness. However, increasing appreciation of the world and its people. Ever increasing friendliness. Compassion. Freedom. Her supportive environment. So the more happy you are, the inner happiness that would be the outer happiness, the more you're treading on the path of the Buddha. The path without quoting. The path of enduring suffering and a rising happiness. Until one day you get the ultimate happiness. The monks who come with the Buddha said, was enlightenment. Make your mind still and it gets happier and happier, richer and richer, deeper and deeper. So he gets the happiness. Of the Supreme Enlightenment. May there be yours. Thank you. Second. Now you know what I say. If you're going to do something. Do it properly. If you're going to clap, clap with everything you've got. Go on. 8s If you're going to shout boo! So there you go. Okay, so that's the talk this evening. Now are there any questions, comments or complaints. On mental energy equals happiness. How to overcome depression. How to enjoy your meal and how to overcome irritable bowel syndrome. Any questions? Yeah okay. One question in the front. Yeah. Yeah. You said irritable, irritable bowel just comes from constipated mind. Yeah, well that's true. It also has some irritable mind as well. If you have an irritable mind. Easily irritated. What is one of the sayings in that little book? And actually, I think I mentioned to you that our premiere here, that Jeff Garner wrote back to me and said, that's the one thing he really appreciated. When I told him that I think of the book, he said, why allow other people to control your happiness? And he wrote back to say, that's a very good. Now I will never allow the media to control my happiness. No matter what they say about we are going to be happy no matter. So that's true. Why allow life to control your happiness? Why be irritated? There was a point in being irritated. You have got a choice. You can allow life to irritate you. If you want, you can say no. I'm going to rebel. Life. I will refuse to be irritated by you. It was a hot day. I'm going to think what a wonderful day it is. It's hot because I've got a cool head, so you're not irritated by it. And if it's very, very cold. Especially some of you. Singapore is used to hot Singapore. Sometimes the weather does change. In some it gets very cold. If it's very cold, just say that's fine. I'm not going to be irritated by the cold because I'm going to have a warm heart. When it's cold. Make sure you have a warm heart when it's hot. Basically, have a cool head and that way you're never irritated. So why be irritating, am I? You're just creating suffering for yourself. You say life hurt me. The dog barks and think, that stupid dog, why did he bite to said, what? I'm meditating. And I said, oh dog, thank you for teaching me the dog. I can't control that dog out there. Okay. Thank you. Now that's what you should do when your husband barks at you. When your kids start to sort of get sort of, you know, really not naughty at the kids, what do you expect? That you had those kids. So why are you complaining? Should it become a monk or a nun if you didn't want kids? But why allow life to irritate you? You don't have to. So when you've got an irritable mind and have an irritable bowel and you have a very irritating mouse, we just started running things about others. So never allow. The world to control your happiness. Be like a Buddha. Because no matter what people say about him, it doesn't matter if he's sick, healthy. Doesn't matter what happens in the world. He'll be happy no matter what. Why not? Makes sense to me. Yeah. Um. That's very nice. That's right. Um, I'll give you some mindfulness. That's very good. That's the acronym for unconditional mindfulness. Um. Very smart. How could you say you're happy because of happiness? Your mind has been energized because of the energized. You've had this wonderful insight that additional mindfulness equals, um, state works. So you woke up? Very good. Okay, I think that's enough for tonight because it's 9:00 and now's the time for announcements. So please don't go for the door yet. There are some important announcements coming your way.