The Process of Rebirth

The Process Of Rebirth by Ajahn Brahm

Transcription

Not knowing what to talk about. Again, somebody asked me just if I came in here. Why is it? According to the Buddhist idea of rebirth or reincarnation, sometimes a person who worked so hard in their life when they do so much effort. But what carries on into their future life? What they you, what you can see in a baby's not much left from their previous existence where you have to walk again. You have to learn all these things again. You have to do all over again. And why is not more kept or what actually is kept from life to life? And I thought I'd use this question as a opportunity to just to explain to us the process of the mind, just how this mind works and how it propels us into a future life, and exactly what's going on here, because there will give us some indication of how to invest for our future. Not only that, but it shows us how we should be investing for our present moment as well. The same spiritual qualities which will drive you forward into a beautiful new existence. The same spiritual qualities which give you happiness and peace and a sense of meaning right now. When people ask not if there is reincarnation or not. That's a question which some of you might know, but others of you will have to wait for a while before you find that question out. And of course, you will find the answer out after you die. While the old joke goes, if you don't believe in reincarnation in this life, don't worry, because it's certainly will in your next life. But I'm going to be talking about like the process of rebirth. And the best simile which I have managed to concoct is the simile of the the two mangoes. Imagine a mango. You eat it today. About you. But I like mangoes. We use many mangoes and similes in Buddhism. I don't know why. Maybe it says something about my cravings and desires, but nevertheless. Imagine a mango and you eat it and enjoy it. And you take the seed and you put it in your garden. And see what that mango. And after a while the mango germinates. And as she comes out and you look after that little sapling and it grows into a nice tree, and eventually the tree flowers, and you have another mango. Now, we know that those two mangoes for one year, eight years ago, and it's descendant on the tree from which it grew. They are connected there. They're connected, but is also totally different from the first mango to the second mango. He compared us to mangoes, the one you ate and the new one from the seed. It's probably not even the same DNA in there. There's always mutations from from time to time. Certainly there's no of even molecules which are in the new mango. They were there in the old mango. So it's a totally different mango. And nevertheless you can see a connection of cause and effect process. So in other words, at any moment in time, you can find the link between where, say, that sapling came from and you know where that sapling is going. To you how this whole chain is connected. Chain of links from the first mango and the seed inside of it to the new mango and the new tree. And this actually this chain of events is cause and effect. Process is how even the Buddha described this life. And also that incredible time where we go over the horizon and this life into what's beyond, into a new life. But first of all, just working on that simile of the mango. You can see if the mango which you ate before is very sweet and juicy. It's very likely the new mango will be to see if the mango ate was sour. It's very likely the new mango will be sour. There has been some tendencies which have gone across from one mango to his descendants, and it's that tendency, what we call the inclinations. This is actually what we always say goes across from life to life. The thing in itself is no connection. There's no there's no sameness there. But there is this connection as cause and effect process which carries with it the tendencies. The character traits are inclinations which we build up in this life. Now, of course, to see ordinary things which are easy to do, which are easy to make. Those things don't get carried over. Anything which is going to last, which is deeply embedded in a human being, are things which have been built up for a long time with a lot of effort. That's why I call on the inclinations and the tendencies and a character know that sometimes people can look at themselves and they think, well, I'm get too angry. I shouldn't get angry. How hard is it to change your character? You can't just decide, oh, I'm never going to get angry again. I'm always going to be kind. I'm always going to be more friendly. These are character traits which take a long time to develop and also a long time to change. The deeper they are, the longer it takes to change. Which is why sometimes it takes a whole lifetime to create these characters, these positive parts of ourselves. Which is why. We have a spiritual life. And if you think about it, a spiritual life is doing good things and being kind and being generous and being peaceful, being wise, which is why many of you are here. This is something which we think is just really important in in what I was taught here. And we can actually feel it when we meditate. And sometimes we can hear a few words from one of the teachers who speaks here, and it inspires us and it gives us a more clarity and direction in our life. There is something really important here, and you can see that what that's pointing to is some of these deeper truths now, which we call now the spiritual truths, which not only give meaning now, but these are the things which are carried on into a future existence. I am not sure that sometimes I, I hesitate to tell stories from my book, open the door of your heart. But whenever I tell these stories, it's amazing just how many people either haven't read that book or if they have read that book. Maybe it's because they're getting old and getting Alzheimer's. They can't remember their stories. So, you know, you should go, you know, an elderly group of people coming to this center. So I'm telling this story about the man with the four wives, the classic story, which indicates now how rebirth happens. So once upon a time, there was a man with four wives. That's a crazy guy. I haven't got one wife. I'm much happier with the. So this poor guy had four wives and is getting towards the end of his life and is actually on his deathbed. He thought he was going to die, and he starts to get worried about what happens after you die. And so he called his his fourth wife, the wife he married later on in life. And she was very, very attractive. In fact, she was so beautiful. She made many, many things possible for him, especially invitations to high society. She was his passport into the alleys of parties and receptions and concerts in the city in which he lived. And so he brought her to her bed, his bedside, and said, darling, I love you very much. You've been so good to me. She said, yes, I love you, darling, too. And he said, I'm about to die. That's so sad, said his fourth wife. And I'll be lonely without you. Will you come with me? Into death. What? No way. I'm not going to die with you. What do you think? But what I will promise you. I will go to your funeral. I promise you that. And I will speak a wonderful eulogy about you. I praise you to everybody. Is that all? Said the man? That's all I can do and all I will do. I thought you said you love me. Get out of here! And he chased his fourth wife out. And he brought his third wife. Then he'd married her before the fourth way. And the third way. There was nothing that was a bit older. But still, she was very attractive. And in fact, some of his older women are very, very attractive to many men. So it gives you hope, doesn't it? And the third wife, the third wife had been really, really helpful for him. And she'd made probably even more things possible. She made him get a comfortable house and a comfortable living or because of, you know, the third wife and what she was. And so he brought his third wife in and said, darling, I love you very much, too. I'm very attached to you. And she said, I love you too, darling. And he said, I'm about to die. I'm afraid. Would you come with me into death? No. It's never been done. And I can't do that. I won't do that. But one thing I can promise you, I won't just go to your funeral. I'll pay for it, and I'll make sure you get a wonderful funeral, he said. But then what would you do? Said, well, after you're dead, I'll probably go with your eldest son. What has a daughter? And I haven't even died yet. Get out of here, you shameless scalawag hussy! Said his third wife, who stood at to to go say, boys in his second wife. He'd married his second wife a long, long time ago, and she was in a pity at all. But she was one of those women who was really wise and helpful. She was always there for him, especially in times of trouble. His second wife said, well, I'm known you for such a long time. I'm about to die, and I'm really afraid of dying and being alone with you. I know these other two said no, but will you please come with me into death? The second wife looked at him and started crying. Darling, I'd really love to. If I could, I would. But all I can do is come to your graveside. That's as far as I can come. I'm sorry. Get out, he said. And he still had one wife left. And this wife, he'd known her for so long, he couldn't remember the time before he met her. And she was very neglected. The two later wives got all of the jewelry and the fine clothes. And so the first wash was very poorly dressed. Bad hair. But behind the scenes, she was working so hard for him. He never really appreciated her. I really supported her, helped her at all. He looked at her and said, you're my last chance. I've known you for so long and I'm so connected to you. And she said, yeah, we've got this very deep connection together. And he asked the question, I'm about to die. Will you come with me into death? And she smiled and said, sure I will. I go with you everywhere. That's why my name is Mrs. Comer. I go with you from life to life. And your second wife misses family. Your family loved you and they will always support you and be there with you. And they can go as far as your gravesite, but no more. You can take them with you. And as for the third wife that was called Mrs. Money. You usually get that later on in your life, and Mrs. Money can pay for a wonderful funeral for you, and Mrs. Murray can do so much for you in this life. But could Mrs. Money go with you into death? No. After you die, Mrs. Money will go with your eldest son, Horace. With one of your children. Maybe it's the lawyer, I don't know. That's the inheritance. And the fourth wife, which you get last of all in life is called Mrs. Fame. Your reputation, who makes many things possible for you. Entry into the A-list society may be for very famous and makes and will give you a good unity, a good word at your death. Who you were and what you did. How can your fame and reputation go with you? No, said the fourth wife. It can't be done. And that's the simile of the man with the fall. While it can be, the woman with the four husbands is only a metaphor. And with all these things which we love and care for and sinker ours, which we attached to her fame and fortune, our family and this thing called karma. That's the only thing. Which you take with you. And if you think it all disappears when you die. I'm not going to go into all the evidence, which is a rebirth. What I am going to say is just how it must be, how it must work. Because as a man who spent had not been a monk for over 34 years, almost 35 years now, and I was meditating a long time before then as a monk, you understand his you know what is his thing inside of you we call a mind what maybe Christians call a soul, the energy within you. And certainly through meditation, you isolate that energy, that mind force, and you could separate it from the body and these deep meditations. And you don't have to go into very deep meditation. Many of you might have been meditating just beforehand and got into a peaceful state where you can't feel your body, and maybe you've not even be able to hear sounds. He actually gone beyond the five senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and physical touch which define your body. Very, very often when you were a young monk, you most had to do that. I remember this time as a young man in first year in Thailand. This was again 34, 35 years ago. We started this new monastery in the jungle and in the jungle there were these mosquitoes, not 1 or 2 hundreds, thousands of them. And our teacher, I turned churches, gave no help to the Westerners. You just be like us. So he had no special privileges at all. And worst of all, in this monastery, when it first started, there was no hall. There were no toilets. There were no huts. We'd have a mosquito net where we'd sleep under. I remember many times putting a mosquito net in the jungle, laying down and seeing these deadly snakes slither by a few inches from your nose, just protected by this thin sheet of mosquito netting. Scary sometimes. You are so tired you went to sleep anyway. Who cares? And I always remember when we did have hearts. Even though there were hearts, it still wouldn't keep the insects and they made the snakes out. I remember once during one of the ceremonies, we were doing some chanting and a snake crawled up this monk's back, and as a snake I saw it because I was watching the monkey just behind his shoulder. A snake's head popped up. And this man looked at the snake, and the snake looked at the man, and they eyeballed each other. It was one of those amazing moments that if you had a we didn't have video cameras. Obviously, in those days we'd gone on the funniest home movie, for sure. We'd have won a prize. The snake and the monk. I bought each other because both were really surprised, wondering what to do next. And of course, what the snake did is the monkey. Just because a very kind of dentist pushed his robe off, the snake fell off without hurting it and just slithered away. And we had a very good relationship with snakes in those days, because this is one of the nice spiritual things about a monkey can be kind, and that means they wouldn't worry you at all. I remember another snake story. I know it's nothing to do with reincarnation, but it almost killed me. So I suppose it's got something to do with Viper. And at the time when Creed used to stay up all night once a week, meditating was a very, very tough monastery, a very tough training we had. We'd go without sleep for about 36 hours once a week. So you can imagine, after staying up all night and meditating and the hot jungle was really sweaty. Mosquitoes around you and stuff. You got up early in the morning and I know you got off from your meditation. And of course, you know, you just went outside to have a urinate and it was just at dawn. So there's two things to remember about this story. Number one, I hadn't slept all night, so I wasn't that mindful. And it was dawn, so the light wasn't very strong and there were no toilets. So he just went into the forest, squatted down and did your business. And I really did think that I was urinating on a stick. But when the stakes started to roll, I realized, oh my goodness, that was a snake. And if you think about it especially, you men hear that snake's mouth was only a couple of inches from the most sensitive part of a man's body. That was scary. But of course, the state never bit me. Authorities to the day when it looked actually quite happy. And I realized now why it was happy. Because this was. Thailand is a Buddhist snake. That snake probably thought it just impressed with holy water. Well, you can't get more holy than the water body. So that was the time of night. And there's many other stories like that. But actually, going back to the the mosquitoes are sometimes when you're meditating in that jungle, there's no mosquito net. So we don't need to actually sleep out of the mosquito net. The rest of the time, we'll be outside. And we do these all group sittings, group meditation, usually in the evening. I don't know why I teach you how to sit. About 6 p.m. was just the time when the mosquitoes came out. They came out for that dinner and I was their dinner. And as I've mentioned here before, think about it again. Sort of as a monk, you've got more exposed skin. We have a bare shoulder, we have no hair. So literally it's more seats at the dinner table for the mosquitoes. That's number one. More importantly, this. We were some of the first Westerners in that area. I went I remember many visitors, which are where I went. People had never seen a white man before. I remember just going on arms round. And when people go mouse go and arms round, people put food in the bowl. They're supposed to do it mindfully. But these people had never seen a white man before. So they're just looking at me and all the food dropped outside the bowl, so I went hungry. This is very disappointing. Don't worry about what I look like. I'm hungry. But imagine the mosquitoes as well. That was the first time. There was Western food in that forest. So know what it's like when there's a new cuisine. Then everybody wants to try it out. Those mosquitoes were trying out the new Western cuisine, and they knew that it was safe, because we're not even allowed to swap them. It's really unfair. They take advantage of our compassion. So it was seriously. It was very, very tough to bear. It was with another might be used to count the mosquitoes on our arm in the head and get to somewhere like 60 or 70 at once. You could not count because they were too close together. You couldn't distinguish from. All you could do is hear this slurp slurp surface. Your blood was being drained from your body. That, of course, was my imagination. But the only way I could cope was actually by really meditating properly. In other words, I didn't have any opportunity to be down or to lose my mindfulness and to be restless and think of all sorts of things. Because if my mind went away from my meditation object, which was a breath straight away, you'd feel you're irritating, really itchy, and with so many mosquitoes on it. So he told me how to meditate and go. Deep enough you could let go of your body so you wouldn't feel it anymore. You'd be deep inside with your mind and you couldn't feel or hear. Oh, no. Have any of the senses that you were going deep in meditation now? Those meditation taught me about what this actual mind is and its energy, and how it is really independent of your body? You can see that force and see the energy and see how it develops and how it moves, how it evolves. You can see what makes it go the way it does. We call it habits, and the habit is nothing more than what we call in Buddhism conditioning. It's actually all those influences which which are on top of us that actually moves us in certain directions. That's the that channels the energy of our mind, you know, into, into places, which causes a lot of suffering and a lot of distress. We can channel it into sort of some positive modes of thinking and being. And when we understand the power of that mind is so important to use this conditioning process, the influence of our environment, actually to channel it into good areas, areas which can give you peace, satisfaction and happiness. We actually can see it when the body disappears. It's very easy to understand. There's very easy thought to direct that mind. For example, you can see just how much is complaining and negativity. Once you get into it, you will start to complain about more and more and more and more. We call that sort of in meditation. The fault finding mind once you get into it, is so easy to find another and another thought and another thought on another thought. And that is why relationships are so hard. Because once you start to see the first thought in your partner, then you can start to see all other thoughts as well. And it becomes just full of thoughts. Your. Why? Why on earth did I ever marry such a person? I must have been blind. And the answer is yes. You were. That's what they say, isn't it? That love is blind. You've heard that saying before. So if love is blind, what's marriage but an institution for the blind? I should have said that. Now you can still have some fun. But if you know how to channel your energy. Don't be blind. And it's amazing what you can do even with the relationship. You know, you can actually channel the energy of the mind. Not to be so full, but to be more positive. As if the mind can look to the left. Or it can look to the right, but it can't look in both directions at the same time. If you get into that hole and looking to the left side, then of course over there, the thoughts over there, and of course over there you find you get more thoughts as you go along. Once you get into it. It's like a negative energy which infects a mind like a cancer. And a tumor grows and grows and grows and grows. You get more and more negative. And I see people like that. I see people. You know, they have a difficulty in their life. Something goes wrong, and then they get into this, this feedback of negativity. And the negativity starts with a small little sound and ends up with a war inside their mind, and it expresses themselves with the anger which they have towards other people, towards life. And they may not show the anger towards so simple that negativity instead of that. Now many of you have been coming here long enough, and you train our minds into a more positive way and it all needs a bit more conditioning, a bit more sort of influence. Okay, let's be frank about it. More brainwashing. Every time you come here on a Friday night, you're being brainwashed. It's true, isn't it? You know this. Nobody's brainwashed in a nice way and freeing you, giving you more energy, more positive ways of looking at life. Which is why people come here. They want to be brainwashed, but brainwashed in a beautiful way. There's an old story from the Buddhist canon about this elephant. You know, in those days people didn't have BMW or Porsches, they had elephants. And this was a key. So this was now really a high class elephant. Now the Kings don't have any rubbish for their vehicles. And that's actually how you get places on elephants. So this king had a really nice set of, you know, probably bought it from a very good dealer, you know, with all the extras. And, uh. He brought a very expensive elephant. It was fine for a while, but after sort of a few years in the garage, it started to develop problems, and he tried to get it service. But, you know, even the elephant trainers, they couldn't fix up the problem. The elephant was just not behaving and not doing what and was being very willful and negative and causing all sorts of problems. So the king wanted to get rid of that elephant. But there was a wise minister. There's always a wise minister, and he's put his stories to shame. We don't have wise ministers in our state government, in our in our other governments. Maybe they have. But anyway, this is a very wise minister in the old King's government, and the wise men have said, just leave it with me for a while. This is really strange. How come this elephant changed character? So the wise minister, he just camped out next to the elephant store overnight just to see what was going on, and he found out where he was camping. There. He heard a noise late at night. He investigated. That was a meeting place behind the elephant store of a group of thieves who had meet there late at night and planned their robberies later on that evening. And because of the way they spoke, was so negative that was actually influencing the elephant. Even though the elephant couldn't understand human language, the elephant could still get what we call the vibes, the energy of these bad people. And obviously that had been going on so long after so many nights. The minister understood what had changed the elephants character. So the following day he told the king they had to seize arrested. But that wasn't enough. They had to change the character in another way. So the king invited the monks every evening to go and meditate behind the elephant store. Do a bit of chanting and discuss some dogma and the influence of those monks. Every evening for many weeks, behind the elephant store. And then the elephant became very peaceful and calm, just like the monks. And that's how they fixed up the wanton elephant. But actually, that's the old story. As you can see how it works, how we do influence each other, how our minds are conditioned by the environment which we're in. So if on a Friday night you come here a week after week after week, I can guarantee that your character will become more peaceful, more kind, like the monks and nuns. But if you go and spend Friday evening down the pub or in the nightclub, then your mind will go in a different direction. I can guarantee that. And if you don't believe me, you can come here for many weeks. And if you don't change, you can get your money back. But of course you don't pay any money, so there's nothing to give you back. I don't I don't say these things. If I couldn't actually follow them through. But anyway, I can understand how we do affect one another and that the way our environment affects us. You see this, that, that how that pushes the mind. It doesn't affect your body as much as this thing inside of you. And it's not just your environment because you create that environment the way you choose to think and to do things. A common thing, which I say here on a Friday night, is when you get anger and want revenge against someone who hurt you. What does that do to your mind inside? People keep saying it eats me up inside and easy to use, like an acid which is corroding you know your heart, making it smaller and more rusty. And it becomes a very difficult place to stay for you. It's simply because the influence from outside and also from yourself is really negative. What does it cost to let things go? To let that pain of the past go? What does it cost you? Nothing. What do you gain? You gain peace of mind. An ability to untie the shackles which link you to that painful experience of your past and set you free. And it's a wonderful thing to let that pain of the past. The wonderful for you when you learn how to do this. This is just the first part of the ability to let the mind be free and not be shackled to the negativity. There is a lot of pain in life. There is a lot of disappointments. There is a lot of frustration. And t I know about frustration trying to get this reset to finish in time for you. Well, that's really hard work, but you just give it your best and if it doesn't work out, the retreat center isn't finished. I've always got my air ticket to escape on Friday. But no, that won't happen. But what it does happen is you have this positive attitude no matter what happens. You don't need to bind yourself to the negativity and disappointments of the past. When you learn how to let go of those things. This is what we call really making good karma. What are you going to take? The ability to let go of things which you can't control, which are going to hurt you. And the ability to take a more positive attitude towards life. To enjoy life and to see the beauty in things rather than the the dullness in things. I remember an experience when I went to visit England for the very first time, after I became a monk, about 7 or 8 years as a monk. And we had a monastery over there, which was just building up. And so the the abbot over there just took me off with him to a tour of the north of England and Scotland, who was visiting some more remote, some more remote Buddhist groups. And we went to this coal mining town of Darlington. We went there on a weekend for a retreat, and the first thing which the locals told us, it's very rare for someone to visit that that run down city on a weekend. Most people do get out on the weekend and go somewhere else. So we went to that town and then we went for a walk in the morning after breakfast. We went to the gardens and we found a beautiful little church to go and have a look inside. And when we went back, our host, where did you go? To a walk for a walk. We told him. He said, oh, you went to the most beautiful part of town. And that's very indicative of your characters, because there was a monk here a few months before. And when he went for a walk, he went down to the gasworks and the rundown old canal in the industrial area. And we laughed and said, yeah, that's his character's of a negative mouth. He could see just where you gravitate towards. Now, for those of you who remember at Glastonbury, to a few of you and myself, you may be positive beings. So, you know, given a chance to go to a walk, you know, you just go to the beautiful parts of town. Now you can understand the inclinations of where you go in your mind, in your life, with your body. Where do you inclined towards the beauty of life or to the gasworks of life? And you can actually see that, because sometimes people get into some of the bad memories of the path, they get into negativity. And if that's what you're doing, those inclinations, what would happen when you die? Same inclinations happen. You just get blown into that area. They often say that that moment of death is just the sum total of how you've lived. If you lived a very positive, peaceful, forgiving life, of course it's easy to let go of the past. In this case, let go of your life and go forward with a sense of freedom. You've always been so negative and so sort of upset and angry. You just can't let go. Be careful because if you really can't let go of some the unfinished business of life, you might come back as a ghost and ghosts of people who just cannot let go. Some type of attachment they have, they cannot let go of the past. I don't know how many of you have ever seen. Or heard of God. I don't know if he's here this evening, but one of our members, he's got a great ghost story. One of his friends. Let's go back for earlier. His friend I moved to to Australia. To Perth from England. Two young men. They were friends, so they shared a house together as they shared a house. These two guys, you know, they weren't gay or anything. They were just, um, to, uh, save on read where now and had a great time. But one of them developed cancer very young. He died, but before he died, he always says, I would have come back and haunt you. You know, like what some young people say, I'm going to come back and haunting you. And apparently he did. And he was, you know what you call those? Larrikin. Always like doing practical jokes. And so the other fellow who kept the house and his girlfriend moved in after his mate died. And the little things would happen. I could be in the shower and he would turn from the hot to cold. So he turned the hot on and he'd be boiling a little silly things like that. But he said, and he's quite sure about this. One day he went out to work. When he came home, all the furniture from the lounge room was in the garden. And there's the silly little things, but sometimes, you know, if it's a male friend, they do this little jokes on you. And his wife apparently could see him. His wife never knew him and could see this specter in the in the house and described he said, oh yeah, that's him. And so they just after I just accommodated these people, this member of our Buddhist society, if ever say who it is, he went to visit his friend. He said, I don't believe in ghosts, that he's just making it up. He was having coffee with his friend at the time and his friend said, look, he's he's around. I'm sure he's around. And he asked his friend, come prove to this visitor that you exist. There's a pot plant on the table. A leaf fell off that pot. Horizontally and then went down on the edge of the table. Half on, half off. And the visitor said, oh, that's just that's just a weird coincidence. And then another. And then went vertically down exactly on top of the. Secondly. Charles. Stack. And the same horizontal straight down on the edge of that leaf. And our friend who comes here said, I've got to go. And do something is bad and just put the foot on the edge. Just read it right away. You have nothing to be afraid of. This just goes playing around. But they're around because they're attached to things. So if you can't let go, that's kind of a test when you understand how it works. You attach to these things, you attach to these places, something happen and you will not leave it alone. If it becomes an obsession for you, then those obsessions, they will keep you attached to places and people for a long time after you're dead. Why? It's because the obsessive attachment to things. We just will not let them go. So those of you who come to places like this, you taught how to let go of these things. You can let go of anything. And it just so freeing to let go. So you can never, never have to be a ghost anymore. You know that so of mine can be free. Is that what we mean by that? The karma which you take with you. Ah, you don't take things with his his inclinations. Another good example. If you know how to be kind. That is something which you build up over many, many months, years of your life. A kind person is someone who practices and generates compassion. When you really get into it, it is a self-reinforcing spiritual practice. Because when you start to be compassionate and kind, other beings are and people are kind to you. It's really fun to be compassionate and kind people if you're kind to other people. People show you their kind side as well. That's why that it's amazing. Just the life of a monk, you know, in all types of society. You know, you're with builders or with prisoners. You go overseas and it's amazing how many people are kind to you and will help you out, even though you're just a monk and they may not even know know you. So many people are kind of compassionate to you. Even just when I was going to Sydney last week, last week, after giving a Friday night talk, the following morning after Sydney to give some talks, you get to the airport. And of course, the monks don't have any money. So how can a monk get himself a cup of tea? So you look around and kind to somebody. Now, I do want a cup of tea. That'd be very nice. Thank you. It's amazing, actually. Really, if you have a lot of compassion, you don't even need to have a credit card. So one of our marks was trying this because we always have these, um, you know, sort of almost like competitions to see whether this actually things actually work. And he decided he came back from overseas to Perth International Airport. He did not tell anyone of his flight details whether it was going to arrive. He just said, I'll make my own way. From Perth Airport to Burgenland Monastery, the serpentine. And he thought, no, it's a long way. It's about 50km. He didn't put his finger out to hitchhike. He just walked. Just to see how powerful kindness was. He got about 100m from the airport when a car stopped. Where are you going? And gave him a lift all the way to Bodi Nanna monastery. And he was just so impressed. Just how powerful kindness is. You see? So even if you're a monkey. I did have a car or a driver. You just go walking and people stop and pick you up. It's amazing life as a monk. Are we? Try this out. It works. How does it work? Would you like to sort of, you know, help out a monk or a nun? If so, why? It's something kindness and compassion and giving an example of something which is pure and lovely, which you like to support, which you like to sort of hang out with you and see just how that compassion and kindness that brings out kindness in others. Which is why when you start now, part of compassion, kindness is the reinforcing part in the other kind people. And it's fun to be kind for the nicest things you could do. Many people have done experiments. I think there was one done in, I think it was Yale University, and they gave all the students has to be done in United States. You could never afford this in Australia these days. They gave every student $100. Half the students spend it on yourself. Half the others. You spend it on somebody else. And afterwards, the chapter was happiest. Have you had $100 spread on somebody else or spend it on yourself? Which is the best, the biggest bang for your backs? It is so clear. When they did the test afterwards and their happiness levels. Those who gave it away spent on charity to somebody else were far more happy. I mention that because, said the building site today I heard on their radio. I think that the the government's $900 to every human being, to every taxpayer is coming through, sir. So what are you going to do with your $900? Are you going to spend it on yourself and waste the opportunity of becoming happy? Are you going to make some good karma you find? Actually, if you think about it, you actually get more happiness if you're generous and kind to others. So what you can do go with a friend said, I will spend it on you if you spend it on me. I'd have to be compassionate at the same time. Does it work that way? So you can still be kind. And now we're developing an inclination. Is that kindness? That is, you know, what is almost inside the DNA, which goes from life to life. That's the sweetness of the mango. If your first mango is sweet, you know, your second mango. You know its descendants are also going to be sweet. Your first mangoes, the sour mango. Their descenders are going to be sour. That is actually what goes across. So we're actually building things up in your life. You know, sometimes what actually goes across there from right to life is those inclinations. This is actually the nature of the mind, how you're influencing it, conditioning and pushing it in a certain direction. And his ability to let go. To be kind, even to be gentle. Now, sometimes in life, you know, we're put in a difficult spot. Are we something to be too forceful? And that force which we sometimes have to generate. You know, in our work, it's this terrible thing. We have to do this. But that forcefulness, that aggressiveness, if you have to do that in your workplace to get by, you take that aggression back with you home and you visit it on your partner and unfortunately, sometimes on your kids, a terrible, terrible thing that we live in such a world which is so aggressive and so competitive. Wouldn't it be lovely if our workplace could be reasonably peaceful and kind? And that's our attitude, which we have during the day. So when we come home at night, the same attitude, that same conditioning can be with the people we love and the love which we have with our family. We could take that into our workforce with us. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing? Can be done. Never have gone to a human resources conference. I got all sorts of weird events with business when I went to this big human resource conference in London a few years ago. They bought all the tickets for me. The biggest HR group in the whole of Europe invited me to give a masterclass, and I presented there this wonderful story of a British engineering company. I still remember their name and. They got a prize. Best business practice for that year. Because in 12 months they had doubled their profits, trebled their turnover. It's pretty good for a company to double your profits and treble your turnover. And they interviewed the MD. How did you do that? How can you increase your profits so much in 12 months? He said. A very, very simple strategy. Innovative but unique, he said. We banned all overtime. No one in the company was allowed to work above their set hours. Nor were they permitted to take any work home. And in 12 months they travelled. Their turnover doubled their profits. That simple strategy. Radical. But think about it. What it were and how would it work? It's quite obvious when you think about it. If you get stressed out at work by doing too much work when you come home, take it out on your wife, your husband, your family. Have a terrible time at home. Those problems, that stress which gives a lot of negativity for most people. You visit that on your family. You have family problems so you don't sleep well at night. You go to work in the morning carrying all this unfinished business into the workplace that stresses you out. Your performance goes down. The negativity takes away your ability to work, to communicate with others. You just become a negative person. And all they needed to do was to ban overtime so people could spend time with their family without being so tired. So they went to work in the morning refreshed, energized, so they could perform to a higher standard. The output per hour increased. Not only that, they said the star turnover fell to nil. No one wanted to leave such a company. The company was caring for them. So what do you do if you're with a group of people or a company who actually care about you? You want to stay with them. You might not get as much money, but the quality of your workplace experience is so good you don't want to leave. That's why a simple act of compassion, of kindness and bearing over time is saying, oh, you won't get as much work done. Profits will go down opposite. You can't be a workforce. Look after them. Increase their productivity. And then they'll say, and also, when people leave a workforce, you know, you may have been in a company or an office and some of these key people, it takes such a long time to hire another person and train them so they can perform. It takes a long time for you to know your job. That's why we try to retain people. And how do you retain people? Simple compassion and kindness, that's all. So it actually works. It actually works in the workplace. It works in the home. That's why such a positive thing. And if we can train ourselves like this, those are the inclinations which after a while become embedded in us and we become a kind person. Now, you may have many of you may have had children. I've mentioned this. I never had children myself. Obviously not that I know about. I wasn't always a man when I was young, but a long time ago now. That. When you witness your baby being born, maybe even a grandchild. Can you look at that being? It's not a it's not a clean slate, is it? You come into this life with a character, with a personality that some of you may have seen these beings and realize these are old beings. There's a character inside of them. Inclinations. Those are the signs of where they've been before and throughout their life. You have babies grow up into kids, adolescence into adulthood. They are just generous. They are kind. Or they may be mean or they may be bullies. And where did that come from? These are the inclinations which they have built up in their previous lives. So those sorts of things, that type of karma, which you invest lots and lots of effort in, is never lost. Maybe a knowledge of how to fix cars, or your knowledge how to kick a football that might so disappear. But the qualities of kindness and knowledge and peace, that is something which is an investment that carries on from life to life to life. And personally, I was meeting this in Sydney recently. It's a very radical and revolutionary idea. I mentioned this because I gave a talk and there was quite a few elderly people at the top, and I said, if our governments would only realise. That investing in you, you people are 80, 90 years of age is an investment for our future. You are tomorrow's use. This too, isn't it? They would actually put more funds into old people's homes and look after the elderly. Instead of thinking what a waste of a resource is looking into the after the elderly, just put them in a home. Forget about them. Because you know what? What does the country get out of you afterwards? Nothing. I often think when people people complain about the youth, about, you know, juvenile delinquents or kids who don't respect their parents, where does that come from? Remember, all those children were elderly people who weren't respected. Now they're just getting their own back from how they were treated as elderly people. Now they're young. You never respected them. Now they're not respecting you. Makes a bit of sense to me as a generalization, but who knows? But you can see just how the whole idea of, like, rebirth and the karma, the conditioning, is the way that people are built. Not physically, but mentally. That becomes such an important thing that this is actually how we can lead society, the long term plan, not just this one lifetime for goodness sake, but many lifetimes. And you solve the problems in this world by developing kind. Of peaceful, more wise, more sensitive human beings and going for the long term plan. Maybe not this lifetime, but a future lifetime. The people who value peace more than the people who are kind and value the the sheer pleasure of kindness, and people who value peace above possession, who realize that the whole purpose of working hard is to find places of contentment where we can go home at night and really rest and be with the people we love not in separate rooms, but in a close. We used to have at the hearth side people together. It owned a big house to be together. You don't need much. You have the beautiful and wonderful things of life. You don't need to be rich. We need to do is to be wise. We value wisdom above wealth. We value kindness now, above aggression. And of course, this will be a wonderful place. But this is actually why we encourage these things and why we invest, especially spiritually, in people of all ages. No matter how old you are, you'll be back here again later on. So we look for the big picture, the long term plan to get people's inclinations moving in a more beautiful direction. Are there things he won't carry with you? You'll forget. For the inclinations, the kindness, the generosity, the peace. Ability to forgive you build that up in this life. May not be perfect, will be there for you in your next one. That's the most important. And that's how I see classic Buddhism. Why? This spiritual practice is a long term proposition, but it does make you happier now and happier later on. It creates a more peaceful world. That's a little about the process of rebirth. The power of conditioning and how it creates a more peaceful and happy world. So thank you for listening. Does anyone got any questions or comments on the talk this evening about how it all works? The big picture. Yes. And back over there. They're asking about the ripening of karma. Some people think the karma is in this life. In other words, you do something bad and get it back straight away pretty quick. Or is it arriving in past lifetimes? The first comment on the question. Why do people always think that karma is bad? Things happen because you've done bad things. And even today it is talking to the builders at the retreat center that they told me they'd never heard of good karma. They'd only had a bad karma. You know, you got cancer. No, because he does something really bad in the past. I like the other way of looking at karma. Are you happy? Are you healthy right now? You deserve that. Why? Because you've done some beautiful things in your past. Now, if you are no reasonably well off, you deserve it. It does something beautiful to deserve that happiness and well-being. And if you're fortunate enough to be in a beautiful relationship, a very sensitive and caring and very communicative relationship with another person, well done. You've made that happen. You've built it up, you've made good karma, and now you're experiencing the results. So let's look at the good karma. So yes, if you do some good karma in this life, you know, you give a donation to some orphanage or you just let somebody come in in front of you in the traffic. Simple things you're just kind to. Someone at work is really in a bad space, and you spend time with them at the expense of your own work. How do you feel at the end of the day? Instant reward acts of good karma. Of course you get a reward from it many, many times. Every time I've gone out of my way to help someone, I would tell me in Sydney, I'd been in in Sri Lanka and they'd know. Saw the video of my trip over there and that gave many, many talks. But the thing which really impressed them was when a Sri Lankan old woman like woman wanted to come up and just bow to me. My mind is that I was tired of trying to push her away and I told my mind is no lover. Come. It doesn't matter if I'm tired. She may have come such a long way. It's that little out of kindness, she said that was better than all your talks that made such an impression on him. Little acts of kindness are huge, that a kindness makes you very happy, and many other people very happy. Instant karmic reward. Now that's the thing I encourage you to investigate. Not that I've got a sort of. I got a hay fever. Therefore I must have punched the holy person in the nose in my last lifetime. Because that's sort of negative karma that. Just come on. How about the beautiful karma? Every time you're happy and enjoying life, remember, you deserve that. Why? Find out why. For your happiness comes from. And that's the beautiful part of karma. The forgotten side.