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  • The topic which has come up for me this evening,

  • on a few experiences over the last week or 2 weeks

  • sometimes people have called me or I've had to talk to them

  • because life can sometimes be quite depressing,

  • things don't really go the way they should.

  • Or there's problems in your life,

  • and people keep asking me what's the purpose of all this?

  • What the heck is this life all about?

  • Can you please give me sort of

  • great overview, the big plan,

  • so I know what the heck I'm doing all this for,

  • and why these things happen to me?

  • So this evening I'm going to talk about the

  • very simple subject of "The meaning of life." [chuckles]

  • Or rather than that,

  • because even that subject

  • is like becomes theoretical,

  • it becomes like some sort of idea,

  • so that is not going to be the slant

  • which I'm going to give to this talk.

  • The slant I'm going to give is

  • not finding the meaning of life

  • but putting the meaning into your life.

  • A totally different idea.

  • The meaning of life is describing to you some theory,

  • some religious view or spiritual view just telling you

  • what to believe or how to look at life.

  • But no, I'm telling you

  • how you put meaning into your life.

  • Because if you don't put meaning into your life,

  • you'll find that life does become quite meaningless.

  • And you just wonder what's this all about

  • what are you doing this for,

  • there's nothing which can really give any drive,

  • any passion in your life,

  • and I say this as a monk, because I'm a very passionate monk. [chuckles]

  • The compassionate one at least,

  • but you know I really put a lot of energy into whatever I do.

  • That is for me what passion is because

  • you understand that

  • how to put something really important into your life,

  • some meaning into your life.

  • And I found out that most people in this life,

  • who they do get depressed, who do sort of get

  • negative, it is because

  • they haven't learned

  • how to put meaning, the real meaning,

  • the proper meaning into life.

  • Yeah, sure that people actually put a lot of energy

  • and struggle in their life just to getting

  • on in this world, to succeed

  • and the trouble is that we don't know really what success is.

  • When you were a kid, at school,

  • you think success is getting your grades at school,

  • or in exams or whatever.

  • And look, I mean that,

  • you should all know by now,

  • because how many of you did really well at school

  • and we can still be happy and find meaning in life?

  • Otherwise if you really have to just to be

  • the A-grade student, if they are the only ones

  • who have meaning in life, you might as well commit suicide

  • after grade 12 if you don't get to university which is a stupid idea.

  • But you find out that,

  • that is not real meaning in life.

  • So you find out, most people they find out,

  • and they try it, and

  • they assume that other people

  • know what the meaning of life is.

  • And they just follow other people like sheep,

  • and because they follow other people like sheep,

  • yeah, you do work hard at school

  • because that's what your parents and

  • teachers tell you to do.

  • And think, if I do this right then I'll

  • find some meaning in life, I'll find happiness.

  • And then afterwards you go to work and you think

  • you can find meaning in just your bank balance

  • or your possessions or whatever else which you

  • start to attain life, and then

  • you start questioning that,

  • that doesn't really give you

  • what everyone promised you.

  • Certainly that was my life, you know, going to school,

  • I did really work, I did work hard, so I got

  • this great degree from Cambridge University.

  • I mean that was just a big downer afterwards.

  • Is this it?

  • You know, all this which I was promised,

  • all that hard work which I did to getting a big degree

  • from a big university?

  • So what?

  • One of the reasons I became a monk,

  • one of the reasons I never went further in

  • academic career

  • is because you could see at universities

  • like Cambridge where you socialised with

  • the lecturers and with the professors and with the dons.

  • Look some of those people have Nobel prizes.

  • I mean, these were the top, the elite of academia.

  • You talk with them and just realised that these people haven't got it together.

  • Yeah, they were brilliant in their field but

  • they were stupid in life.

  • You know just, I'm rambling on here,

  • but one of the people which we met here,

  • with Dennis, our president, Roger Penrose came

  • into town some years ago and he's

  • Mr. Black Hole.

  • He's the guy who discovered black holes.

  • So Roger Penrose, one of the greatest physicists of our age,

  • probably up there with Stephen Hawkins.

  • And he came and Dennis our president,

  • so we went to have dinner with him.

  • And, cause I'm well connected with the physicists over here.

  • It's actually, it's really amazing,

  • this dinner, all the other people there,

  • they were sort of from, they were NASA, they were

  • professor of Physics from all over the place,

  • and I was only, sort of, the Buddhist monk [laughter]

  • or anyone from religion which actually shows

  • just how Buddhism and even just elite Physics,

  • we can actually melt together.

  • But you even look at this person who was so brilliant in his field

  • but you couldn't have a conversation with him.

  • And do you remember this Dennis?

  • We were all just talking with each other,

  • even I was just chatting about all sorts of stuff

  • with these people from NASA

  • and he was actually standing by himself,

  • no one was talking with him.

  • I was wondering that he is brilliant in front of the lecture theatre, apparently,

  • he's brilliant, you know, on a piece of paper

  • but he hasn't got his life together.

  • It was meeting people like that, I thought,

  • that's not the meaning in life, becoming a great academic.

  • It's not the meaning in life becoming really rich people.

  • Also at Cambridge, you know one of other people I knew,

  • he was real Lord, he was an Earl.

  • That's really great going around with a Lord, I mean a real Lord, an Earl.

  • An Earl or a Viscount? I forget what. But he was a pain in the butt.

  • Why do you want to have these honours for if you don't just,

  • a hopeless person to be around.

  • So, you know, for me, I ticked off boxes early on in life.

  • This was not where I was going to find my meaning in life.

  • And it was actually good, ticking off those boxes early.

  • You know, it's just fame, sort of, being a great academic,

  • or being, sort of, it was also these great sports people.

  • There's a college I was at, Emmanuel,

  • it was at that time, it was like a sporting college

  • many top sports people went there.

  • And one of the people I befriended over there

  • was a guy called Majid Khan, he was an international

  • cricketer, played for Pakistan and now I think he's

  • an international umpire.

  • I went to college with this guy.

  • Even at that time, you know, he was playing for Pakistan

  • even though he was in college.

  • And again, even though he was an elite sportsman,

  • he was actually more, he had his act together.

  • He's a lot of fun to be with but still

  • there was something missing there.

  • And then later on as you become a monk, you get

  • into all echelons of society as a monk.

  • The doors are opened to me which will be closed to all of you guys.

  • I can go into autopsies and see bodies being cut up.

  • You know, and that's really fascinating there.

  • I really recommend it, if you were looking

  • for something to do over Christmas period. [laughter]

  • We also actually go and meet these sort of, the top notch people,

  • the very wealthy people.

  • I think, I'm pretty sure that when I went to this dinner over

  • in Canberra once, I going into the toilet,

  • I didn't recognise him at the time but seen pictures afterwards,

  • it was Lachlan Murdoch.

  • I wished I had taken a donation envelope with me for

  • the Bangladesh orphanage.

  • That's Rupert Murdoch's son, you meet all these

  • wealthy people, presidents and stuff.

  • But you think, is that really what life is all about?

  • And it's not, there's something else there.

  • So when you look for meaning in life or when

  • you put meaning in life, make sure that what you're

  • really developing in your life is something

  • which really does have meaning.

  • And to me, just power, fame, wealth,

  • I've ticked off those boxes a long time ago,

  • and that has no real meaning,

  • it has no real satisfaction in the end for you.

  • Now to give you a story about that,

  • there are so many stories about just the, what you might call the

  • disillusionment which comes when you get wealth.

  • There's so many stories about that.

  • The story which I mentioned a few days ago, I think,

  • I'm not quite sure where I said this or what I've said

  • somebody sent me an email about this couple in the UK who won the lottery.

  • They got instant money, about 40 million GBP.

  • So they bought this huge mansion, one year later they sold that mansion.

  • The reason they sold that mansion was they couldn't find their kids.

  • It was just too big.

  • So there they were in this dream mansion,

  • just what sometimes, you'd drool over,

  • you see maybe in the TV or you see in the magazines

  • or you may go past if you go driving down Peppermint Grove.

  • You'd think - wow wouldn't it be amazing living

  • in a huge place like that with manicured gardens,

  • swimming pools, and with people to serve you whatever you needed.

  • But then, you think about what happens to a person in there.

  • And this was someone who'd been there and done that,

  • because the house had so many rooms,

  • they could never find their kids.

  • Almost had to send a search party out to see which room they were in.

  • And because of that, they realised that something was terribly, terribly missing in their life.

  • Family, relationships, a bit of love.

  • I've seen that many times.

  • Another time, this, talking about big mansions,

  • we went to a blessing ceremony in this big mansion

  • in Shelley by the river, one of these very huge ones.

  • When I went in there, was it a Thai or Chinese lady, I forget now.

  • But anyway we went in there to do the blessing ceremony

  • for her new house, she just moved in, she wanted the monks to go in.

  • That was the time when I just come all the way from Serpentine from the monastery to

  • Shelley,

  • One of the first things I did, I said,

  • "Can I use your toilet?"

  • And this is no joke, she had to draw me a map

  • of how to get to the toilet in her house. [laughs]

  • It's ridiculous.

  • But then afterwards when we were chatting together, after doing the ceremony,

  • I said, "How many people live here?"

  • She said, "Only me."

  • And that was, that wasn't funny, that really hurt me

  • cause you know, you have empathy for people.

  • You know, these are the people you care about.

  • And when she said, "Only me", you could see just the pain in that expression.

  • There was a woman filthy rich staying in a huge mansion,

  • all alone.

  • I asked her, "Why didn't anyone else stay with you?"

  • and she said, "I'm afraid of my family.

  • I'm afraid they will ask me for some money, ask me for a loan.

  • I'm afraid of any friends.

  • I don't know if they're my friends because I'm rich and

  • they want a loan or they want to borrow some or want a gift or something.

  • Because I don't trust anybody,

  • not even my family, that is why, I'm alone."

  • And I thought that was a person who was imprisoned by their wealth.

  • They weren't free at all.

  • If I was them, I'd say, "Take that wealth and burn it."

  • And have some freedom, cause what has more meaning in life?

  • Being free and just being able to enjoy your family and friends and have a great time together

  • or having that great wealth.

  • So please in your life, forget about the lottery tickets.

  • You're not going to win anyway.

  • And if you do, that's even worse.

  • Forget about just getting the advancement in your work.

  • Because, yes, you sort of, get the upgrade in your work, and you get a bigger salary

  • but it means, you know, you have to work so much harder, so much longer, with more stress,

  • and you don't see your family, your health goes down.

  • Is that really what you want to do in life?

  • I'm very very impressed with people who actually turn down the promotion.

  • So you know, this is enough for me.

  • I want to be home at 5pm or 6pm to be with my kids.

  • I want to have those holidays where I don't have to worry

  • that you're going to SMS me to come back to the office

  • because there's some important contract to fix up.

  • Because at least they've got some understanding of

  • the meaning of life and they are putting that meaning into their life.

  • I know many people talk about this, but

  • it really is up to you to take hold of your life

  • and not just be a victim and just go along with life

  • and just allow these things to happen to you.

  • You do have that choice.

  • As they say in Buddhism "You are the owner of your karma."

  • It's a very powerful statement which we don't really say enough

  • - you are the owner of your karma.

  • In other words, you know you have it in your hands.

  • You have in your hands to guide into your future

  • and really do put meaning into your life.

  • So yeah, I mean, you need to work

  • please have great jobs, but fulfilling jobs, doesn't mean your bank balance

  • it means, when you go home at the end of the week,

  • yeah, you've got enough money to pay the bills,

  • you feel you're actually doing something useful for the world as well.

  • Cause in those days which I had at university,

  • it was fortunate that we did have time. We had time to reflect.

  • And that's such an important thing in your life

  • to take that time out, not to do things, but just to stand back and

  • just to reflect upon your life and which way it's going

  • and how it's going and

  • what is really important to you in life.

  • Because we're coming to the end of this year, you know, December already.

  • And it's a great time, when things end,

  • it does give the opportunity to stop

  • and reflect because life goes on so fast,

  • it's like a train which never stops so you can't get out and think,

  • "Where the heck am I and which way am I going?"

  • This time of the year is great for that.

  • You have holidays, and so don't fill your holidays up with all these activities.

  • Don't just think,

  • I have to get this out of the way, I have to get that out of the way,

  • all these jobs which have been building up for the year.

  • If you just get jobs out of the way,

  • you'll find that life gets out of the way.

  • That's one of the things which I've seen myself doing in the monastery

  • cause I've got lots of business.

  • I've got lots of responsibilities and work to do.

  • Lots of things to fix up and to settle and to do.

  • But sometimes I catch myself,

  • I say, I've got to get this out of the way and that out of the way

  • and then I'll meditate.

  • And you find that you don't meditate at all, you don't stop.

  • So I decided, no, I get peace out of the way, first of all. [chuckle]

  • I get that done first of all then I do all my other jobs.

  • Reminds me of one of the old monk jokes.

  • They aren't actually real Buddhist jokes.

  • This is a joke about,

  • I may have told this a couple of weeks ago,

  • but I'm losing my mind, I don't mind

  • but if I've told last week what I told this week,

  • who cares anyway, but such a good joke. If you've heard it before,

  • it's a golden oldie.

  • - about the monk who was called up in his monastery by someone,

  • "Can you please come round to do a blessing at my house?"

  • The monk said, "I'm sorry, I'm busy, I can't come."

  • And the caller said, "What are you doing, monk?!"

  • He said, "I'm doing nothing. That's what monks are supposed to do, nothing."

  • And the caller understood and he appreciate, "Monks are supposed

  • to be left the world and find peace and not just be in the monastery doing things all

  • day.

  • That's the purpose of being a monk or a nun,

  • to sit out there and just to contemplate life

  • and to be still and to be peaceful and to let go of things

  • and just sit under a tree and just watch the trees grow, that's what we're supposed to

  • be doing.

  • So the man actually understood that.

  • and said, "Ok, very good monk."

  • So he rang the next day, he said,

  • "Look, I really need you to do a blessing, can you come to my house?"

  • He said, "No, I'm busy."

  • "That's what you said yesterday, what are you doing?"

  • "I'm doing nothing" said the monk.

  • "But you said that's what you were doing yesterday!".

  • And the monk replied, "Yes, but I'm not finished yet." [laughter]

  • That's not just a funny joke.

  • That has a meaning to it, that has oomph behind it.

  • So, look, somebody, sort of your wife says, "Can you come give me a hand?"

  • "Darling, but I'm busy."

  • "What are you doing?"

  • "Nothing."

  • "How long is it going to take?"

  • "I don't know, maybe all my life."

  • [laughter]

  • Maybe that's going too far but isn't it really important?

  • Actually, to have these great opportunities to

  • actually do nothing.

  • So you can actually stand back and just allow life to actually reflect itself on you.

  • Only when the water is still can you actually stand over and see your face clearly.

  • Now only when you stop rushing around doing things,

  • you can actually see what you're doing.

  • And see what the meaning of life truly is.

  • That is why, you know, we have monasteries where you can go and stay,

  • that's why we have retreat centres.

  • Retreat centres are not so you can enlightened,

  • not so you can get jhanas.

  • The retreat centres is there, so you can stop

  • and just do nothing and just see what's going on.

  • Cos everywhere else, you just,

  • if you do stop, people say, "What are you doing?"

  • "Do nothing?"

  • "Can you come give me a hand then?"

  • [laughs]

  • They don't allow you to be peaceful.

  • They don't allow you to be still.

  • So, these are places where you can be still.

  • And it's in those stillnesses you find

  • what the meaning of life is.

  • And once you know what the meaning of life is,

  • you can put it into your life.

  • So when people get very depressed

  • or they lose their way in life,

  • please go to the monasteries

  • which we have over here, they're great places

  • where you can just come,

  • sit, you don't have to stay the night,

  • you just go to the meditation hall,

  • and just sit and do nothing.

  • And don't ask for the meaning of life, don't go seeking it.

  • Just be still so you can know it.

  • Because the point is the meaning of life is not a theory.

  • It's not some sort of view you can write in a book,

  • that's why we don't write books in meditation monk monasteries,

  • It's not a bible, it's not a Koran,

  • as I've told you many, many times.

  • People ask me, when you go to schools or universities, and they say the old question,

  • yeah in Christianity we have the Bible, in Judaism we the Torah or the Kabbalah,

  • in Islam we have the Koran,

  • so what do you have in Buddhism?

  • We have Arahant, that's what we read, that's our holy book, right in here.

  • In other words you stop reading outside.

  • If you have a book, it's just a mirror so

  • you can experience what's inside.

  • So it's the experience, especially in stillness, that's our holy book.

  • That's why we don't argue so much.

  • That's why Buddhism doesn't really have wars,

  • I mean real Buddhism, not organised Buddhism.

  • Real Buddhism doesn't have wars because

  • how can you have a war over what you read in your own heart?

  • If it's out there on a piece of paper, yeah, you can argue with,

  • you can get theologians who argue and try to

  • work out what it all means.

  • But experience, we know what experience is.

  • So meaning of life, what really has

  • meaning for you in life?

  • Straight away you find it's not the fame or the

  • money or the other stuff,

  • the greatest meaning in life

  • is when you've really served and helped someone.

  • It's not just thinking compassion, it's actually succeeded in compassion.

  • You've cared for someone and it's changed them.

  • I know that it's been one of the greatest motivators of my life.

  • I learned that early on when I went to a

  • Buddhist talk when I was still a student,

  • and I had heard all these great professors and

  • monks give talks and quite frankly,

  • many times, I went to sleep.

  • Maybe that experience was why I try

  • to give interesting talks, and if I find

  • you getting dull,

  • that's when I tell jokes to wake you up.

  • Cos I've been there, listening to very boring

  • talks and just falling asleep myself.

  • But I remember one of the talks which I heard

  • which I would never forget, it didn't say

  • very much about Buddhism at all.

  • Not as I'd expected it, it didn't say about

  • Four Noble Truths or seven enlightenment factors

  • and all these other stuff which you can read in books anyway.

  • It was just this old English woman, who was

  • a Tibetan nun who was running an orphanage

  • with very poor kids in Sikkim.

  • And the way that she described her compassion was really inspiring.

  • I realised from that time that Buddhism isn't a theory,

  • Buddhism is actually what you do,

  • how you behave, just your kindness, your virtue,

  • your peace, your forgiveness,

  • that's what Buddhism is.

  • It's not what you find in the books.

  • What you find in the interaction between two

  • very kind and caring people.

  • I didn't realise at that time

  • but she taught Buddhism more eloquently than

  • any professor or any monk at that time which I knew.

  • So that's why, the day after, I was so inspired,

  • I went to my bank and took 10 pounds out of my account.

  • Now this was in 1969, I was a very poor student,

  • that was 2 weeks food money for me.

  • So I went hungry. I make up for it these days.

  • But you know, [laughter], I was really hungry,

  • I wasn't starving but I didn't have as much

  • as I would normally have, and it hurt.

  • And because it hurt, I got so much happiness

  • out of that, so much joy, I put 10 pounds for

  • this little orphanage for poor kids.

  • That was meaning,

  • that was purpose, that was something which

  • made life have a resonance, and something very solid which I could respect.

  • It was a pointer to how I could find deeper meaning in my life.

  • Cause giving 10 pounds to an orphanage,

  • yeah, it helps them, it's important.

  • There's also, there's more you can do.

  • It's great we have donations and, look,

  • we've got, somebody's left this in here,

  • we must be doing the Bangladesh orphanage appeal soon,

  • we always do it at Christmas, is it this week, Dennis?

  • Bangladesh orphanage appeal, look if you give whatever to

  • this orphanage we've been looking after for a long time

  • it just makes you so happy when you get the pictures

  • and see that these are kids,

  • boys and girls

  • who've got absolutely no parents and in

  • Bangladesh of all the countries, one of

  • the poorest countries in the world.

  • And they don't get government support.

  • And actually, this particular orphanage,

  • I think it's something like 95% funded by you guys.

  • So this is the one which we,

  • the Buddhist Society, we look after.

  • But you do that and you help someone,

  • and you sort of, you go and see them afterwards,

  • and you get teary.

  • For those of you who've been here a long time,

  • remember we had the tsunami,

  • that we raised funds over here.

  • And when we raised the funds,

  • we didn't know exactly what organisation to give them to.

  • But the other organisation I'm associated with

  • in Singapore, the Buddhist Fellowship,

  • they were also raising funds,

  • and the Singapore Red Cross,

  • they had this deal that,

  • if you would put, sort of, had, sort of,

  • any amount of money for the tsunami appeal,

  • in one of the countries there,

  • they would match it 4 to 1.

  • So our Buddhist Society, we're very clever,

  • we sent our donation over to Singapore to

  • our Buddhist Fellowship, we donated to them

  • we joined in with them,

  • so for every dollar we collected here,

  • we got another 4 dollars from the Red Cross.

  • So I don't know how, it was a couple of

  • million or something, eventually we got.

  • So we looked after this orphanage,

  • I think it was in Khao Lak in Thailand, I think.

  • I know, there was, we also did one,

  • building homes in Sri Lanka as well.

  • We did that too.

  • In Sri Lanka, forget the name of the village we looked after.

  • But also in an orphanage.

  • Twice I've been to that orphanage.

  • I went actually to just to see people's donations

  • and you see little kids,

  • sweet little kids,

  • without mother and father,

  • but they have each other.

  • And you see this huge family, about,

  • 30 or 40, everyone from different parents,

  • but just behaving like brothers and sisters

  • and having a whale of a time

  • and doing sort of a Thai dance

  • which was not properly done,

  • not like any professionals at all

  • it's kids trying to do their very best.

  • But it makes you cry

  • it's just so sweet and beautiful

  • you've given them happiness

  • you've given them a life

  • you've given them a future.

  • So when I do that,

  • people say "you must be tired,

  • you're teaching retreat at the same time, travelling".

  • What do you mean, tired?

  • That's where you get your energy from

  • that's where you get your passion,

  • that's where you get your inspiration from.

  • So every time you do something like that,

  • you've found meaning.

  • And it's because of that,

  • I've been telling people for a long time now

  • if any of you are under clinical depression,

  • or extreme depression,

  • go and get some pills

  • but just ordinary depression or you're a bit fed up,

  • or your life isn't going well,

  • or like someone told me today,

  • "England aren't doing so well in the Ashes."

  • And always the other thing Australia,

  • no Australia's not doing so well in the Ashes or something.

  • Someone's not doing so well in the Ashes,

  • someone's always depressed in sport.

  • The other thing, was that Australia never got the World Cup or whatever.

  • So instead of getting depressed,

  • cause life is like that at times.

  • For those of you who're really, really down,

  • just go and do some charity work.

  • Just get off your bums,

  • and go to an old people's home,

  • or go to a hospital

  • or somewhere and just serve.

  • It's a great thing to the able to serve.

  • Cause what it actually does,

  • not only does it teach you about what life is all about,

  • but it gives you this great sense of worth.

  • You're actually helping someone.

  • Again, just when I was at university,

  • I was the only Buddhist,

  • I knew at that college.

  • So it was very lonely.

  • So, you had your friends

  • and you have great philosophical arguments.

  • There's one guy who was a very close friend,

  • he was Christian.

  • So we had these great discussions.

  • It wasn't sort of antagonistic,

  • but it was animated.

  • And when I heard he was going to the local mental hospital

  • to do voluntary work,

  • I thought I'd better go along as well.

  • I'm a Buddhist, I'm supposed to be compassionate,

  • even though you are very busy and

  • all this other stuff you're supposed

  • to do at university, I went.

  • And I enjoyed it so much

  • that I kept going for 2 years,

  • those Christians, they just actually dropped out.

  • And I went for 2 years, sometimes,

  • "what are you trying to prove?" they asked me.

  • And I think about it,

  • actually it went way beyond doing service,

  • I wasn't there to do service,

  • I was actually getting joy out of this.

  • It gave my week meaning,

  • just to go and hang out

  • with Down's Syndrome kids,

  • and that's really all I was doing.

  • I wasn't an expert,

  • I wasn't trying to do anything much with them,

  • except just be with them.

  • And to this day,

  • I credit that with teaching me

  • what I call like "emotional language".

  • So if I'm a good teacher, 4 years,

  • not just the way you speak,

  • anyone can say words,

  • it's just where they come from.

  • These were kids who can't speak,

  • in the same way,

  • at least these kids,

  • were institutionalised,

  • couldn't speak the same way as I speak to you

  • if you come to ask me a question

  • or we just talk about whatever.

  • They didn't have the vocabulary

  • or the way to articulate their thoughts.

  • But they communicated through their emotions,

  • through their hugs,

  • through their facial language.

  • And my goodness, they were just so clever.

  • I remember many times, just going there and they,

  • they sized me up straight away,

  • if I was in a bad mood,

  • they'd know - what's wrong.

  • They'd give me hug.

  • It was the first time as a man

  • I'd allowed another man to hug me.

  • I was a heterosexual.

  • I was afraid of, sort of homosexuality.

  • That's just the way I was conditioned

  • and they had to allow, as a male,

  • a young male in 1969 or 70,

  • allow another male to hug you.

  • That was tough, you're English, stiff upper lip

  • and all that.

  • But it was so wonderful for me to learn

  • just how to be loved.

  • I got so much from those kids.

  • I really thank them so much.

  • So I thought I was giving

  • when I first went there.

  • No, I got heaps and heaps,

  • I got enormous gratitude,

  • what I learnt when I gave

  • that's where you start to understand what meaning is.

  • I know I just, I do travel around a lot.

  • After teaching here, ok, on Sunday,

  • I'll travel to Bangkok

  • and just give this whole series of talks all day

  • and teach retreats, like a meditation workshop,

  • and then you have an hour probably for a shower

  • and then you have another talk in the evening.

  • Look, if you looked at that schedule,

  • if I was member of the union,

  • Kevin Reynolads [?] or whatever,

  • he would actually say,

  • no, you're exploiting Ajahn Brahm,

  • you can't do this,

  • it's too much work.

  • No member of any union would work as hard as I do.

  • But is it exploitation?

  • No, please, give me more,

  • I keep on saying to them.

  • Why? Because you get so much energy and joy out of this.

  • because I am serving,

  • and I am being with people,

  • I am getting my meaning in life,

  • so I really thank you

  • for coming here and letting me get high

  • of giving a talk to you. [laughs]

  • Now you can understand when you put this meaning in life,

  • it's amazing,

  • when you don't ask anything back in return,

  • but you, sort-of give care,

  • you just give your energy,

  • non-judgemental,

  • it's amazing just how much meaning you find

  • in just the ordinary things in life

  • of just being with someone,

  • caring for them,

  • being with them,

  • just learning and growing from each other.

  • And it's never ever any idea of superiority.

  • It's never about me being better than you

  • or you better than me.

  • As I keep on saying,

  • the secret of any relationship,

  • even if it's just ,

  • talking with somebody on the bus,

  • it's never me,

  • it's never them,

  • it's always us.

  • Always try to remember that.

  • So it's not me talking down to that person,

  • or talking up to them.

  • It's never about me or you,

  • it's always about we, us.

  • It's a whole, not the parts.

  • That changes the whole way we look at interactions

  • it's not interactions, as Thich Nhat Hanh says,

  • it's interbeing,.

  • which we have with each other.

  • And there you can find a great amount of meaning.

  • One of the reasons you have that extra amounts of meaning

  • because in those interactions,

  • when you disappear and the other person disappears,

  • it's never self, it's never about me.

  • That terrible, terrible idea in life about ego, me and mine,

  • it's unfortunate we learn when we're very young at school,

  • that's where we start gaining our personal identity

  • and thinking we are actually separate from other beings.

  • We get our name.

  • I remember I got my peg at the school yard where I had to hang my raincoat

  • and had my own name underneath it.

  • And I realised that I had to put my name on the books,

  • I developed my identity,

  • the thing which separated me from other beings.

  • I was told to go to male's toilets not the female,

  • had the male playground

  • not the female playground in the primary school.

  • So that separation gave me identities.

  • You know how separation causes all the problems in this life.

  • I'm not saying that the men you should go

  • into the female toilets tonight. [laughter]

  • That'll get you into a lot of trouble,

  • As though girls going into the men's toilets. [?]

  • What I'm actually saying over there

  • is the separation into sort of you're a Buddhist,

  • you're a Catholic, you're a Muslim,

  • you're a boy, you're old, you're English,

  • you're Australian, you're whatever.

  • That's where the suffering of

  • the Ashes cricket test comes from,

  • that's where the suffering of who gets the World Cup.

  • Cause we separate ourselves out into this nation,

  • and that nation, into this religion, that religion,

  • this race, that race.

  • It's not that Australia lost the World Cup.

  • It's that the world gained the World Cup.

  • The world won the Ashes cricket,

  • we won it, not someone.

  • That way, isn't there something very, very beautiful?

  • Instead of competition,

  • there is this beautiful sense of co-operation in this world,

  • being with people, rather than being against people.

  • And there you actually see the sense of ego and separation is,

  • and now you're actually understanding what the

  • meaning of life is.

  • So in the meaning of life,

  • if you want to put meaning of life,

  • take yourself out, number one,

  • it's not about you anymore.

  • Take the other person out as well,

  • it's not about them.

  • I know that many people misunderstand

  • compassion in Buddhism.

  • They think compassion in Buddhism,

  • thinking about everybody else,

  • which means you get burnt out,

  • people use you as a rug,

  • a doormat, or whatever,

  • and you get abused,

  • you don't count,

  • cause you're always the self effacing person

  • in the sense that, you know,

  • you think about everybody else,

  • after a while you get burnt out,

  • you get depressed, you get in a real mess.

  • That is not compassion,

  • about just sacrificing yourself for other people.

  • Compassion is

  • looking yourself no more, no less,

  • looking at the whole, everybody,

  • it's all about us,

  • you disappear.

  • The other person disappears.

  • It's about community, family,

  • a whole race,

  • a whole beings,

  • all sentient beings,

  • a whole earth looked upon as one organism,

  • with many different parts

  • like the ants' nest, all working together,

  • never thinking of yourself as an individual or the other.

  • It's amazing, the ants' nest,

  • just how intelligent they are.

  • Years and years ago,

  • at our monastery in Serpentine,

  • there were many ants' nests,

  • there was this one visitor,

  • he decided to give the ants an intelligence test.

  • Cause you know, the ants' nest,

  • he put a sugar cube on top of the ants' nest.

  • The ants love the sugar.

  • It's like one of these hard cubes,

  • I wonder what they would do with this.

  • Would they break it up to take it into the small holes,

  • to take it into the centre of their nest?

  • What would they do?

  • And he really couldn't believe their intelligence

  • their engineering prowess.

  • What the ants did,

  • they excavated under the sugar cube.

  • So day by day, the sugar cube got lower

  • and lower and lower and lower.

  • When the top got below the surface,

  • they put the earth on top again.

  • Now it's exactly the same way,

  • I think the Vietcong buried the American tanks,

  • during the Vietnam war,

  • they actually drew them underground.

  • That was just a community of ants,

  • who've never seen a sugar cube before, ever.

  • Incredible intelligence

  • when we can work together.

  • Isn't it terrible that we work against each other so often?

  • Especially in our companies,

  • in our businesses,

  • in our religions?

  • We work against each other,

  • we never get anywhere,

  • we work together,

  • there's no end of successes.

  • So meaning in life,

  • giving you success

  • is learning

  • to work, not just me working with you,

  • always about us.

  • Change the whole mindset.

  • That's one of the reasons why in Buddhism

  • we stress sort-of non-self,

  • we stress compassion,

  • the two go together.

  • It's not a theory,

  • it's actually the way we experience life,

  • a different framework for looking,

  • which is why that when you do service,

  • that's where you find meaning,

  • because you disappear. You vanish.

  • But if you ever do any service,

  • and you think, I am doing this for my merit

  • for my good karma

  • you won't get very much out of that,

  • because it's again, personal,

  • it's just what we call, what this monk calls

  • "spiritual materialism".

  • It's a great word

  • because once you have the word

  • you can see so many things

  • which you can actually put under that

  • that umbrella, the spiritual materialism.

  • I can actually see you doing that sometimes.

  • I don't know how many people go on to a retreat

  • and they're really trying so hard

  • to get nimittas, these beautiful lights in the mind,

  • they try to get jhanas,

  • spiritual materialist again.

  • You're trying to get something.

  • That's one of the reasons why,

  • if you ever go on a retreat led by me,

  • I'll repeat something which Ajahn Chah,

  • he was a great teacher, said,

  • "You meditate not to get things

  • but to let things go."

  • Not to get but to lose things

  • which is one of the reasons,

  • why I said at our monastery today,

  • I said, monks and nuns

  • we are the biggest losers. [laughter]

  • We've lost everything.

  • I've lost my degree,

  • I've lost, you know

  • any possibility of having a wife and kids,

  • I've lost sex, I've lost movies,

  • I've lost everything.

  • But you still can lose a bit more,

  • cause you can always lose a bit more

  • and you can see what it means

  • you're letting go more,

  • you're detaching more

  • and so, it's really incredible,

  • that we talk about the biggest loser

  • being like something very negative.

  • If you call someone a loser,

  • that's one of the worst things that you can call a person

  • in our modern society.

  • If someone calls me loser,

  • I'll say "Yeah, you've got it.

  • Thank you for that wonderful accolade and piece of praise.

  • I'll really try more to lose more things

  • so thank you for calling me a loser."

  • That's, in monastic terms,

  • that's actually a compliment.

  • So if anyone on the street calls you a loser,

  • means your spiritual practice is going very well. [laughter]

  • You know it gives you a lot of meaning in life,

  • to be free.

  • Have you ever felt freedom?

  • I don't mean thinking freedom.

  • Cause you can actually read the philosophical books

  • about freedom, and the different ideas about freedom.

  • Have you ever felt free?

  • How does it feel like?

  • When did you feel like that?

  • You know one of the first times I felt free,

  • going back to my experience in childhood

  • I had this afternoon off school

  • and at lunch time,

  • I did all my homework.

  • So as I walked out those school gates,

  • and actually had nothing to do,

  • and nowhere to go,

  • I had no appointments,

  • no business which I needed to complete.

  • I remember that afternoon even now

  • I was then about 13 or 14 at the time

  • it was my first experience of freedom.

  • I could do whatever I wanted,

  • go wherever I wanted

  • with no constraints at all

  • no force, no compulsion,

  • totally free.

  • It's a beautiful feeling.

  • Can you ever feel like that?

  • You don't have to achieve anything

  • you don't have to fulfill any duties,

  • complete any projects

  • you can just be.

  • That told me what freedom was.

  • At least it gave me a taste of freedom.

  • That word, a taste of freedom,

  • you know that's an important Buddhist word.

  • Even actually, I think, Ajahn Chah's first book,

  • we gave it that title, "The Taste of Freedom."

  • It's actually a term by the Buddha,

  • Vimutti rasa in Pali.

  • Cause I give these talks,

  • sometime I have to quote Pali,

  • just to say I know my stuff,

  • this is actually from the suttas,

  • I'm not just a monk who speaks from his own ideas,

  • this is all based on the Buddha's teachings.

  • So the taste of freedom

  • what actually is that?

  • If you understand the taste of freedom,

  • you understand a deeper meaning in life.

  • Where all of this craving and wanting

  • and ill will, all these stuff which agitates the mind

  • and stops you being,

  • which is always making you do things,

  • and go places

  • and fix things

  • and mend things,

  • all that stuff

  • after a while that just drives you crazy

  • when ever will there be an end

  • of all this having to fix up things?

  • That was one of the reasons why

  • another little anecdote,

  • the former abbot of Bodhinyana monastery,

  • Ajahn Jagaro, he was a great monk.

  • When he disrobed,

  • and I was left looking after the monastery,

  • again, I would work very hard

  • cause I had all my ideas I'd like to do for that monastery,

  • I worked very hard.

  • So from Monday to Friday,

  • I'd work like a dog for that monastery,

  • building and looking after the place

  • and being abbot at the same time.

  • Many of those buildings there,

  • I did, built myself, made the bricks,

  • Dennis knows that,

  • he's seen me down there,

  • he's our President,

  • and then on the weekend, I'd come here,

  • Friday, give the talk,

  • Saturday, Sunday, just counsel people,

  • talk with people, do ceremonies,

  • so go back late Sunday evening,

  • Monday morning, back to work again.

  • It was 7 days a week

  • and because of that

  • sort-of I could never enjoy that monastery.

  • So much so, I thought, when people came,

  • you know you come sort-of to visit the monastery

  • to bring danna, you're all relaxed.

  • Because you relaxes it's your day off

  • and you come to the monastery

  • to feed the monks

  • or to feed the nuns

  • and have a peaceful time

  • maybe go to the meditation hall,

  • do a bit of meditation,

  • have a walk around, to relax

  • and I got jealous of you.

  • And so you come to that monastery

  • and you're relaxed and I've got all these jobs to do.

  • I've got to talk to you,

  • I've got to fix things up,

  • And I realised that there's something wrong with my life.

  • My life was always getting things done

  • and doing things.

  • So I remember just seeing that

  • having enough space

  • just to look back and seeing the mistakes that I was making in my life.

  • I made this resolution,

  • every Monday morning

  • when I, Sunday, Saturday,

  • Sunday just working here,

  • Monday morning, I'd go back to that monastery

  • and that'll be a doing nothing morning.

  • And I'd walk around that monastery,

  • not looking for the things which needed to be fixed up,

  • not looking for the letters which needed to be written,

  • not looking for the telephone calls which I had to make,

  • no, this was not my work time.

  • So I wanted to see that monastery

  • with the same eyes that a visitor on holiday

  • could see that monastery.

  • That was a hard thing to do,

  • but you learnt how to do that.

  • Cause when you go there,

  • you can't see all the things which need to be done.

  • It's not your monastery.

  • So I did that

  • and found, wow, that's how I can be free.

  • Not with the fault finding mind,

  • but the opposite,

  • a mind of compassion,

  • which can accept things as they are

  • and see the value in things as they are.

  • To realise,

  • not everything

  • every moment needs to be fixed up.

  • It does not need to be changed,

  • you don't need to make it better

  • you don't need, to sort of,

  • push it forward,

  • leave it as it is,

  • for goodness sake!

  • And at first it was a tough thing to do,

  • to leave things as they are,

  • because you think, that's being lazy.

  • Our society,

  • it creates depression and anxiety

  • because we don't allow people to be lazy.

  • I want to create a Lazy People Society.

  • So lazy people's rights,

  • so you have right to be lazy,

  • at least one day of a week

  • or one morning of a week.

  • So you can actually sit

  • and actually do nothing

  • and have permission to do nothing.

  • If you really want to

  • I'll give you a certificate.

  • Ajahn Brahm hereby gives you permission

  • to do nothing one morning a week.

  • You can show it to your partner,

  • I've got permission, so [laughter].

  • Cause if we don't do that,

  • you're not enjoying anything in life.

  • I could not enjoy the place which I lived,

  • cause it was also a work place for me.

  • I couldn't even enjoy my body,

  • because I always had to wash it, take it to toilet,

  • do something with it.

  • I could never enjoy my life,

  • cause it was always something to improve.

  • You're missing out on the meaning of life,

  • when you're so active in doing things,

  • making things better.

  • So I left it alone,

  • you know what I found on those Monday mornings?

  • That monastery was beautiful,

  • why did I keep wanting to change it?

  • It's alright to do some duties and work

  • but not every moment of your life,

  • for goodness sake.

  • Please, stop.

  • When you stop,

  • you realise life is much more beautiful

  • than you ever thought.

  • Please stop.

  • And you'll find your partner

  • is not as bad as you thought they were.

  • You stop and you find out

  • my god, you're beautiful as well.

  • I realised, the great insight,

  • I am good enough.

  • It's a beautiful thing to understand,

  • to realise I am good enough.

  • I don't need to change and be perfect.

  • I am good enough.

  • If you want something to write,

  • on a piece of paper

  • and put by your bed,

  • so you can see it

  • every night before you go sleep

  • and every morning

  • the first thing you look at

  • when you wake up,

  • "I am good enough".

  • Ahh, good people have been telling me all

  • my life, I'm not good enough.

  • Even I got good marks at university,

  • come on, you can go higher,

  • you can work harder.

  • You're a genius,

  • but you can be a super genius.

  • Come on you can do better

  • you give a good talk,

  • you can give a better talk.

  • You get meditation,

  • but you can do better meditation.

  • You can levitate,

  • but not high enough. [laughter]

  • Gee, where is the end

  • to all of this? [chuckle]

  • So it's a great and wonderful thing to realise,

  • I am good enough.

  • I don't need to make things better any more.

  • I can actually have a taste of freedom.

  • My goodness, it tastes delicious,

  • to realise you don't have to change anything,

  • be anything, do anything.

  • I'm good enough.

  • The amazing thing is

  • once you see you are good enough,

  • you notice how many other people,

  • are also good enough, [laughs]

  • which means you can love others.

  • Are you in love with someone?

  • If you want to change them,

  • you're not really in love with them.

  • If you're trying to make them better,

  • fix up their faults,

  • all those irritating things in life,

  • which really upset you,

  • your love hasn't made the grade.

  • If you look at your partner and say,

  • and you really mean it,

  • "You are good enough to love

  • and be my partner",

  • what a wonderful thing that is.

  • Your partner realises they don't have

  • to change for you,

  • they're good enough.

  • You look at yourself,

  • I don't need to change either,

  • this is me, who I am,

  • I am at peace with myself.

  • Peace,

  • coming from freedom.

  • That's to me,

  • one of the deepest meaning of life.

  • You know, people always want to find

  • peace of mind,

  • where the heck can you find peace of mind?

  • You have to make yourself perfect

  • before you have peace of mind.

  • You have to go through

  • therapy courses for the rest of your life

  • before you can get your act together.

  • You have to be wealthy, rich,

  • beautiful, have botox treatments.

  • Do you have to sort of

  • lose your weight before you can be perfect enough?

  • No, I'm good enough. [chuckle]

  • It's beautiful, having a feeling

  • that you're good enough.

  • Because then you find the taste of freedom,

  • is, the freedom from this,

  • being told you have to do this,

  • you have to go there,

  • you have to be something different,

  • than you really are.

  • Do you know how much suffering that is?

  • Thinking that you are not good enough,

  • and you have to change

  • and be different?

  • That's your life, isn't it?

  • Being told by so many people

  • you're not good enough.

  • And you come here

  • and you're told

  • you should meditate deeper.

  • Get jhanas, Ajahn Brahm says,

  • "you should get jhanas".

  • I'm not good enough,

  • I haven't got jhanas yet.

  • Now, please,

  • you're good enough.

  • I'm very proud and happy

  • and honoured that you are here this evening,

  • members of our Buddhist Society,

  • so you are all good enough.

  • I'll give you that certificate,

  • Good Enough certificate.

  • If you don't believe it,

  • I'll sign one for you. [laughs]

  • So you get this wonderful taste of freedom.

  • How many other places

  • can you actually feel free?

  • How many other places

  • you think that someone's judging you,

  • they are sort of criticising you,

  • trying to sort of make you different,

  • at work, always having you to work harder,

  • at home, please in a home,

  • love each other

  • and don't always try and sort-of

  • make each other different.

  • The rest of the world

  • make you do that.

  • Not at home, please,

  • let that be like your holy place,

  • your shrine, your sacred area.

  • A home should be like a temple,

  • a temple of love,

  • where people are accepted and not criticised.

  • So if you can actually do that

  • you understand what

  • a taste of freedom is,

  • and then you do find these moments,

  • deep moments of peace in mind.

  • Just like that afternoon I had

  • free from school.

  • Total peace,

  • nothing was missing,

  • I didn't need to do anything,

  • didn't fix anything up.

  • That's why I remember that,

  • first time I probably knew peace of mind.

  • Sitting there,

  • just being at peace

  • not needed to get anywhere

  • or do anything.

  • And please

  • when you meditate

  • that's how you meditate too.

  • These days

  • that's where I find the deepest meaning of my life.

  • You meditate there,

  • you're sitting in my cave

  • where I live,

  • you're sitting in your room

  • somewhere,

  • you're not thinking

  • what talk

  • I'm going to give this evening.

  • I'm not sort of

  • thinking just what I'm to going to pack

  • for going to Thailand on Sunday.

  • I'm not

  • thinking of what talk I'm going to give

  • when I get there.

  • I'm not talking about how I can fix all the problems

  • in the Buddhist Society

  • or wherever.

  • I don't think like that.

  • I just, it'll sort itself out.

  • You know, a lot of times,

  • when you're totally irresponsible,

  • life goes on much better?

  • [laughs]

  • But when you actually try and get involved

  • and fix things up,

  • it gets worse?

  • Have you ever noticed that in life?

  • I've noticed that too many times.

  • It's better I get out of the way.

  • I'm not indispensable.

  • In fact,

  • the more you dispense with me, the better.

  • In other words,

  • get out of the way,

  • just let things roll on,

  • it's nature.

  • Life is like that.

  • So when I sort of,

  • just leave things alone,

  • there's a beautiful sense of peace.

  • I know how to meditate,

  • cause that's the biggest

  • skill which I developed

  • over these years.

  • I never meditate but

  • like this,

  • never,

  • please don't try

  • to be something,

  • or get somewhere.

  • Don't put forth this terrible effort.

  • Where does that effort come from?

  • What are you trying to achieve,

  • anyway?

  • "I want to be peaceful.

  • Come on,

  • be peaceful!

  • Be peaceful!!

  • Be peaceful!!!"

  • [laughter]

  • I just exaggerate there,

  • just to show what you're doing

  • when you meditate

  • which is why people don't get peace

  • in meditation.

  • How do you get peaceful?

  • Just put things down,

  • leave them alone!

  • Stop disturbing the process.

  • So you get out of the way,

  • you don't do anything,

  • just leave things alone.

  • Be kind to this moment.

  • Allow this moment to be.

  • So you're not trying to get anywhere,

  • do anything,

  • not striving or struggling,

  • trying to make your mind different than it is,

  • if you've got a stupid mind

  • and it's all over the place

  • or it's tired,

  • leave it alone!

  • It's none of your business.

  • Just like my monastery

  • Monday morning, it's not my business.

  • I just look at it as if I'm a visitor.

  • I don't try and change it.

  • Cause I didn't try and change it

  • I notice its beauty.

  • Just like you notice its beauty

  • when you visit there.

  • So with my mind

  • I stop trying to change it

  • I'm not the abbot of my mind,

  • I'm not the manager,

  • the controller, the boss,

  • so when I visit it,

  • I see it's beautiful as you see it

  • the beautiful monastery

  • in which our monks and nuns live.

  • Your mind is already beautiful,

  • why are you trying to change it for?

  • So change your attitude instead.

  • Make peace with your mind

  • exactly as it is.

  • Just like me

  • I found my monastery

  • was just so beautiful,

  • I found peace of mind.

  • Not by trying to get peace of mind

  • but stopping the getting,

  • stopping the wanting

  • and realised peace of mind

  • was there all the time.

  • Then I'd just been looking somewhere else.

  • Always trying to find peace of mind,

  • over here, over there, anywhere.

  • But instead of just in this moment,

  • with my mind as it was.

  • That is the most powerful meaning of life,

  • stillness,

  • inner peace,

  • realising there's nothing to get,

  • nowhere to go,

  • the end of craving,

  • the end of wanting,

  • realises it's there for you all the time

  • you're just looking in the wrong place.

  • You're looking to try and achieve things

  • rather than letting go of all that

  • wanting to achieve.

  • That's real meaning of life.

  • So whatever I do

  • in my busy, busy life,

  • all of the struggles,

  • and I have struggles as well,

  • you know I do a lot of work,

  • trying to push this Buddhist Society forward

  • and also all the other societies

  • which I get involved in.

  • I'm a very stupid monk,

  • people ask me to do things

  • and I usually say yes.

  • I get into big trouble all the time.

  • But that's part of my life

  • you to try and push Buddhism,

  • the world, life, forward,

  • whether it's ordaining bhikkhunis or

  • supporting voluntary euthanasia or

  • this other stuff

  • which I put out there,

  • and sometimes you get criticised for,

  • but in the end

  • I just always just go into my meditation, and just,

  • "Ok, my work is done,

  • I've done what I thought was right.

  • Now's the time, just to stop."

  • In stopping,

  • you find the deepest meaning of life.

  • Not just doing things

  • not trying to find meaning,

  • just stopping

  • and being the meaning

  • you're searching for.

  • Try it.

  • That's why Buddhism was such a successful

  • path over its many years.

  • Not just because it went on the path

  • of trying to achieve things

  • Because it knew how to stop all this craving

  • and wanting business.

  • Every time you do that,

  • you find out what the monks and nuns experience,

  • when you stop all this wanting

  • you stop all this searching

  • you stop all this spiritual materialism,

  • you'd find the deepest meaning of life,

  • stillness,

  • peace of mind,

  • nirvana.

  • You don't get nirvana

  • by running after it.

  • You get it through stopping.

  • I'll finish with one of my favourite similes,

  • which I usually only talk about at retreats,

  • but it works here this evening.

  • It's a nice little story

  • just to finish with.

  • It's a story,

  • one of my favourite stories

  • of the donkey and the carrot.

  • Those of you who know the story

  • because you've been on the retreats,

  • it's also in the book of

  • "Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond."

  • You know that donkeys are very stubborn animals,

  • that's why they say in English -

  • as stubborn as a donkey.

  • You hit them with a stick,

  • they won't move.

  • So the only way you get donkeys to move,

  • is you tie the stick to their back,

  • so the front of the stick is about 2 feet,

  • in front of the donkey's head,

  • at the end of the stick you put a string,

  • on the end of the string, a carrot.

  • So there's this donkey,

  • seeing this carrot 2 foot in front of it ,

  • craving is what drives the donkey,

  • not fear of punishment.

  • So there the donkey moves forward

  • to try and get the carrot

  • but because this carrot is

  • on the end of the stick,

  • and the stick is tied to the donkey,

  • it doesn't matter how fast

  • the donkey moves forward,

  • the carrot goes at the same speed

  • so it's always 2 foot in front of the donkey's head.

  • But it's stupid enough to think,

  • well, if I run a bit faster I might catch that carrot.

  • You understand the simile -

  • that's called your life [laughter]

  • chasing a carrot.

  • Do you ever get it?

  • Now it's always 2 foot in front,

  • you almost get it, sometimes,

  • just perfection you know,

  • happiness,

  • even deep meditation,

  • it's almost there,

  • and you just go a bit further,

  • and it goes further away from you.

  • But many donkeys have actually heard my talks

  • on YouTube. [laughter]

  • And they now know how to catch the carrot!

  • How to find meaning in life.

  • You know how you do that?

  • The donkey's already been running really fast,

  • and the donkey hears the word, "stop",

  • stop chasing that carrot, "stop"

  • so the donkey stops.

  • You know what happens when you stop?

  • The carrot moves further away

  • than its ever been before.

  • If you've got patience and

  • trust and faith,

  • you've heard Ajahn Brahm,

  • you actually believe he may be on to something,

  • so you stop.

  • And as soon as it's 4 foot away from you,

  • twice as far as it's ever been

  • you get a little bit of doubt,

  • is this going to happen,

  • is it true?

  • But then something amazing happens,

  • the carrot starts coming towards you.

  • And soon it's in its normal position,

  • 2 foot in front of your mouth,

  • but now it's coming at great speed

  • [laughter]

  • towards you,

  • you don't have to do anything,

  • you just sit there,

  • And just at the right moment,

  • you remember the most important phrase,

  • "The door of my mouth is now open to you, carrot"

  • [laughter]

  • And the carrot gets into your own mouth!

  • That's how you find meaning in life.

  • You stop,

  • the meaning just goes further away from you at first,

  • but be patient,

  • then it comes towards you,

  • you don't chase it,

  • you stop.

  • At the right moment,

  • with a bit of compassion,

  • thank you,

  • that's how you become enlightened.

  • Thank you for listening.

  • >> Audience [laughter] "Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu".

  • >>Ajahn Brahm: So any questions or comments about

  • putting meaning into life and

  • finding meaning in life?

  • Any questions?

  • Going, going,

  • ok, gone.

The topic which has come up for me this evening,

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