Namo tasa bhagavato ala hato samasambuddhasa namottasa bhagavato ala hato samasambuddhasa Namo tasa bhagavato ala hato samasambuddhasa bhutang dhamang sangangnamasammi. This afternoon when I recalled that I was to give a talk this evening, I wanted to find out what's the subject of the talk. Often I don't like doing subjects for talks, to let the talk kind of grow by itself. But in particular, I wanted to emphasize, now why are you here?
Why do people, or Danish monks, start off with anagarikas and novices and then monks, what's the purpose of this? Of course we do say things like that phrase at the beginning of the novice ordination, sub-adukhanis savenanibana sati karunataya, which is a beautiful phrase. But do we really understand it? Sub-adukhanis savenanib, to be free from all suffering, not just some suffering, but from all suffering. And how can you do that?
Just like Veneral Kimbalar, he never expected, though in there he won't have a serious incident, health incident this evening. At least he's back here now, which is great. But all the suffering which is involved, how can we avoid some of the suffering which somebody put down in the booklet for me? Can I jump around, please have less invitations to funerals? I don't know what it is, but this week is three in a row, maybe four, I'm not sure yet.
And it's, you know, why are we here? And is that what I want to do? And I get tired, as you all know. I'm an old man now, old monk. But nevertheless, you try to think, no, that's a great service to be able to do.
You know, even if it's going into town, coming back again and going into town, and coming back again and going into town, coming back again. And you do that because it creates that happiness and sense of security for all the people who support us, but as society, they know there's always going to be someone there to help them, to care for them when they're in difficulty. And of course, you only do one funeral for a person. And unless, you know, like with Fenwell Kimbala, the chanting is so good he comes back to life again after a few minutes.
So obviously the chanting is powerful, and it's needed. It's wonderful. We can actually offer that to people, give them some support. Now in there, times of distress and suffering, it doesn't get rid of all their suffering, but it certainly lessens it. And often I wonder why is that?
Yes, you know, it gives them chanting for people. Yes, you know, the whole sanger here can actually sit together and chant. And I'm not sure about you, but honestly, when I do that chanting, I mean it. I think that's the best explanation of how I chant.
Make sure it is for the benefit, the happiness, for the health of the people who are listed in that, that reading out which we do. Because once I do that, it does have an effect. I'm not just chanting it, just say words. I know most of those words are what they mean and how powerful they can be, and how was it that time?
One of my old stories, but it still kind of surprised me.
Being tired, this is many years ago before I was old, still getting tired, and doing the marriage blessing for a couple. And during the marriage blessing, I only started realizing I wasn't doing the marriage blessing. I was actually chanting the funeral chant. And it was too late to stop. So I just carried on because that's one of the advantages of chanting in Pali.
No one really knows what you're chanting. And I carried on, and the last time I checked, those couple was still very happily married. And sometimes I wondered about that. I'm not just really being deceived about the power of chanting. It wasn't because I thought it was for the happiness and well-being to make sure that they lived together in peace and harmony.
Because that was where the chanting was coming from. That was was sourcing it, even though the words were different than what I intended. Nevertheless, it had power. And sometimes I felt that's kind of wonderful. You do this chanting, you do this blessing of water, you do this...
I remember this other lady, some of you may remember her. I hope she's not listening, she might get upset. Bronwyn, many of you remember her. She was living not far away from Nara Mahler when I was going to town one weekend. She asked me to stop by and visit.
She had some sort of throat infection and she couldn't speak. And I gave her some holy water. And later on that evening, I think she called up and said, Oh, it worked. I can speak now. And she proved it by saying that sometimes I wondered, did I do the right thing?
Look... I apologize, Bronwyn, if you hear this. But you do see unexpected positive consequences. But is that the reason why I'm a monk? So I can become, you know, what, I tell people like almost like a witch doctor.
And I've been being honest, I mean, it's not just the ordinary doctor. But how does it work? I don't know, I've seen that for so many years. And to Mommaal, if you've seen that happen, or you're chanting in your holy water. I'm sorry, have you seen that happen?
Have you seen that happen with the other nuns around you? It does. Which comes... I know as a scientist, the radical physicist, but you know, you look at the evidence, you look at this, you know, what happened. And there's something there, which means I do have confidence in it.
It does work. But that's not the reason I'm a monk. That's almost like the little extras which are added onto it, where you can serve and help others. The main thing is, you see all these unexpected things, unintended duties. And you leap towards them, help out whenever you can, if at all possible.
Because that gives you that compassion, that love and kindness, which we often praise about Buddhism. You know, we give love and kindness to anybody. And that's so important in our lives. It gives it meaning, and it gives it respect. You know, often, you know, when you start to look at other temples, the thing which is in front of my mind this evening, was, you know, I just did a call to Ajahn Mooto this morning at 10am.
And he has been applying for Harley Dijk's blog. I've been, can I say that? Or is it giving in advertising to the planning company down in Albany, to the boss who used to be a counselor before, a planning officer. And he said that it's now the right time, simply because for months, for years, it was following a bit of advice which I gave him, make sure you work with the local people first of all.
Let them see you, let them get to know you, give talks, do that binder-batta, which he does, through the center of town every Saturday morning. And those of you who have had the privilege of going with him on that binder-batta, it's kind of fantastic how many people, you know, invite them into their shops, give them some food, and just, obviously, that he's no part of the neighborhood. He's a welcome site on a Saturday morning. He's got to work with the locals.
And you can't go past that time when he went to the Elica Grasmeer, the rate pass or whatever it's association, they're having some sort of meeting. And I'd always encourage them, go into those meetings, let yourself get known. And then they interrupted him and said, excuse me, but you have to leave because this is our AGM. And we're electing our new committee for next year, and it's only for members, just like the BSWA. We're having our AGM next Saturday, and really only the voting members can go in there to choose the next committee, or to be on the amazing committee of Agem Brans Funeral Preparation Committee, sub-committee, sorry.
You have to be a member first of all, so if you haven't joined up yet, I'm sorry, you miss the opportunity. I can't go on that committee because that's conflict of interest. And then he went in there and they said, you've got to be a member. And he said, I am a member, he got one of the Anagavicas to pay his membership fee, he'd already joined up a couple of years early. And so the fellow who was running the meeting sort of said, okay, I nominate you for being the president next year of Elica Grasmeer Association, residence association or something.
So I was nominated to be the president for next year. And how can you get out of that? It was, he couldn't say no because that would just be going against my advice and to help them out, don't be an Aesayer. Support them whenever you can. So he responded, okay, I will stand for being president next year in one condition.
That as soon as I'm elected, we won't have any more beer being drunk at our committee meetings. And then there was silence in the room. And then all the locals started chanting, all together, boom, boom, boom. And they laughed and they said, okay, we don't have to stand. So his nomination of president of the Elica Grasmeer Association never stood.
But at least he made contact with everybody. They got to know him. So it wasn't just as if he wanted their favour. He was serving them and people got to know he was serving them. And I said, that's one of the main reasons why you get that recognition.
You get the people understand here, this is what you do. There isn't so much more chance that you'll be able to get all these development approvals in, which you're now going to get this planning company to submit. So I think that's quite an interesting way of dealing with these things. It's like working with the people first of all, how come we've got these monasteries here in Serpentine? And you all know that story.
And just our mayor, Mr. Klem Kentis, came to check us out on the first few months we were here. And Ajahn Jagua was very smart, he was my senior. He'd invited Ajahn Ghanha to come and visit. So Ajahn Ghanha was here who could not speak any English. And the mayor came and they were both very similar.
The mayor and Ajahn Ghanha, they were both very fat. And I shouldn't say that for about Ajahn Ghanha. The word entice, somboon. Somboon means appropriate to your meritorious status. So please don't ever call me fat.
I'm also somboon. Is that correct, Ajahn Bumani? Yes. So anyhow. And then I was there, I saw it, I could not stop it if I was close by, I would have stopped it.
Because Ajahn Ghanha walks right up to the mayor, in a nice suit with the front button of his jacket about to burst. Because he was really quite stretched in the front. And he rubbed him on the belly. That's not what you do. And if you see an honorable person coming into the monastery.
You know, whatever you do that to Donald Trump, because he's quite somboon, isn't he? Is he? I won't say he said it. But anyway, so, and you saw that I was scared. And I put all the plans in for the hall.
And then he saw Ajahn Ghanha rubbing the mayor's belly. And see the mayor just gurgled. He loved every pat of his belly. He became a very close friend of this monastery. He said he wasn't particularly Buddhist at all.
He really respected us. The kindness worked. And that's one of the reasons why we've had so much success in this monastery over the years. Now we can get more permissions to do this and to do something else. People get to know us.
Actually, they haven't got to know us that well recently. The people in Sopotyne know us obviously. But the people over in the rest of the show. We used to go there so often to do things. And they did get to know us, know who we are.
And they accepted us into their community. And that's a beautiful thing to know that, like a religion, we'd say, don't really understand where it's from, what we do here. At least they respect us. And that's a gorgeous thing to have. And all those people, they would help you if, if ever we needed their help.
And I've seen that before. So anyway, that's one thing which we do. You know, we just create that care so that other people can understand what we're doing here. And thereby we support and promote and spread that beautiful love in kindness which we do towards anybody. For any reason, at any time, we really try and help as much as we can.
And that gives me something which, it's word is like, proud, but not really proud. Because it's not just me, it's all of you as well. It makes me happy. It's one of the benefits of monastic life, of Buddhist life, which is showing us how beautiful it is to be kind to one another, to help one another, to even rub other people's tummies.
You know, but with so much joy and happiness, it bends people's kindness inside and they're very, very, very wonderful and nice to us as well. And you have all these examples of this, one of these monks, I think his name was Samangalow, a long time ago. And when he came back from visiting his family in New Zealand, he went to Perth Airport, he never told me. The flight, the timer is going to arrive, or even the date.
So I couldn't sort of send anybody to pick him up. He said, no, don't send anybody. I want to see what happens if I just walk. I say, this is where that suggestion comes from. It's not out of trying to give you a hard time.
He actually did that. He said, I'm just going to see him. I'm a wife at Perth Airport. See what happens. I just walk out the airport carrying my baggage and see what happens.
He said he got about 100 metres down the road. Maybe less. I'm not sure exact number. A car stopped and so you would put his mind and say, yes, you go to serpentine, yes. Well, hop in if you want.
And they took him all the way to the monastery. This was from the straight-up side of Perth Airport. And he was so happy. He could help but tell me that. Inspired him, he gave his life meaning.
And this is not just ordinary stuff which you're doing as monks and nuns. But it's amazing. Just how many people get to know you? They recognise you. And they will really, really, really help in whatever way they can.
That's a beautiful part of this life. It's not the end of that life. It just makes us suffering a bit more joyful with all these stories. When you do hearth, the story I was telling the last couple of days, and I told it this morning as well to the people who bought the food.
The last time I went to a hospital to go there for a few days, I was under Dr. Mendez, gynecologist. I really found out what that word meant during my stay because everybody asked me, you know, why are you under a gynecologist? You're a man. Are you going to have a baby?
No. I never had a baby. I did get better, though, whatever it was. But nevertheless, you had some joy and happiness when you were there. You could spread that joy and happiness.
Being able to spread that when it really happens, how does that affect you? A good example of that is just, please excuse me, a sankata. Oh, no, sorry, sankata. The North as we all did a couple of days ago, seeing your mum and your sisters and your niece, how they reacted to your ordination.
I think many people have told me that was the best part of the ordination, you know, how your family responded. And it was a very beautiful ordination. The way they responded was again very beautifully, mum crying. And so, there are some things about what you do in this monastery, as a Buddhist, as a Buddhist monk.
It does make your eyes just watery and inspires you. And it's just by being a nice, kind, good person. And when you can do stuff like that, you realize it hasn't overcome the suffering. You can lessen it quite significantly.
And when it lessens the suffering, you tend to have that extra happiness and the heels much. Heels, whatever sickness, whatever problem you have, much more easily. And that does mean that you live a longer, happier life. So, honestly, present to be next year, Prem, we can have that committee about Ajahn Brahmavar
The more you care for me, the more you care for each other, the more you care for body, the more you care for the body, the happier and healthier it is. That's why we do these things. But it's more than that. It's why we even keep precepts. Why do you have these precepts?
What benefits are they? It wouldn't be easier to say, well, you know, if you really need to eat something in the evening, well, it's not every day, so it's okay to have a little bit. Is it okay to sit on high and make sure you're seats? Is it nice to have a bigger bed?
Maybe, eh, some of you have seen some of the beds they have in these hospitals and stuff. You can press one button and this goes up and another button gets warm and another button gets cool. Would it be nice to have one of those beds? That's why I always, whenever there's any meditation retreats, I always notice and make a comment about the meditation cushions.
Those daffus, they've been around for centuries. Can we not do better than that? And have high-tech cushions, a bit bigger and also with remote control. So you've got many buttons to press. Sometimes that's why I feel like that.
Sometimes the back is just a bit too low. It needs to be lifted up a bit more. So you can press a little button and air comes out somewhere and it actually just lifts up your backside. Or like I've experienced this in cars, vehicles, very fancy vehicles.
Press another button and you have a massage. It releases some of the pain on the backside. Or you can have another button and just your left leg goes up or your right leg goes up. And I always said mentioned about the overcoming the hindrances button.
You have another little button. You press when you have anti-swath and torpor. And you press that and you've got some other sub buttons. Latte, flat white, straight-ankantee, with condensed milk.
So you can press a little button and straight away you have your cup. And you have the coffee or tea you really like. Would you like that during a meditation retreat? It's called innovation at seeing the tendency for progress and future improvements in the meditation cushion.
And you know if the British Society of Western Australia started innovating on meditation cushions, I'm sure there's a big possibility of making lots and lots and lots of money to get some gardeners at Dhamma Loka. Because apparently you're telling us it's not enough volunteers to do things like gardening in the city centre. And more drivers for the poor and nuns. So you don't have to just hopefully that someone will turn up in the car.
You'll have your own self-drive car. Would that be a good idea? So we should innovate. Is that a good idea? That's not the purpose of being a monastic.
That's just one of the byproducts. What is the main purpose of being a monastic? That is when you start these little ways of kindness, joy and happiness. And it makes it so easy to sit down quietly by yourself in a comfortable body.
And once your body is comfortable, oh my goodness. And how wonderful it is to get some nice meditation. You're experiencing something, experiencing the sense that this is a happy place to be, a comfortable place to be. And a soft place to be.
It means that your energy, which is sitting still, becomes natural and powerful. You've heard me giving similar thoughts for years. It's about the importance of joy and comfort as a precursor to deep meditation. Because what happens when you sit comfortably and peacefully, the mind is easy to let go of the body.
That's why a lot of people pointed out that why did the Buddha, the Buddha, our teacher, why did he sit under a bodhi tree? Why did he go to a place like Bauddaya? I was fortunate and I must mention this, it's pretty accurae. When I first went to pilgrimage to Bauddaya, it was in 1970 I think, in 1970?
Yeah, probably 1970. When I went there, it was hard to get to. I managed to get a bus or something to Gaya and then had to get a ritual to take me to Bauddaya. It was very, very cheap, fortunately.
I paid them a bit extra. Can you please wait here for a few hours? It was hardly anybody in that park. You could hear the river flowing outside. This was a big building for the other person who built his little retreat there.
You could hear the river and it was cool, it was pleasant, it was silent at that time. I don't know why. It was a Burmese monastery close by, but it was hardly a fraction of the people who went there the next time I went on pilgrimage to Bauddaya. But it was so peaceful.
You get a feeling for what that place was like when the Buddha went there. That's why he chose that place. It was very peaceful and comfortable. That what I try anyway, to recreate in a place like Bodhinyana monastery or even Jana Gita.
It was a little bit harder there. But over here, there are places in this compound called Bodhinyana monastery which are peaceful. Whether the bodied can feel comfortable. And always remember just even our food which we eat here, which is good food I think for each one of you.
We have plenty of food here with different flavors for different people. I see the potato, it's actually primarily Caesar dal. And I'm really happy that there's dal potatoes for everybody and anything else like spaghetti or whatever. I would say that because one of the reasons why the Buddha would have got fully enlightened,
because his meal was a meal which was created or prepared for heavenly beings like Sujata. She brought this heavenly food and she gave it to the Buddha at the time, Sujata Gautama, which he ate before he became fully enlightened. I don't know why people don't actually emphasize that. It was a good meal.
Not indulgent but it was a good meal. Nice and hot, you could eat that and his stomach was happy, energized. And he could actually develop some deep meditation. For that comfort of the body comes the ability to let it go.
Don't let it go. It is sitting there and it's hardly any feelings, any sort of pains or aches. It's so much easier to let go of this body when there is no sudden discomfort. And when you're sitting like that perfectly comfortable, sitting under the shade of the tree, a bodhic tree, and in a cool air of a nice garden by the riverside,
with no one bothering you, hardly any noise, enclosure eyes and the body is comfortable. Of course it's easy to disappear. And the body does turn off. And that's what the next thing I want you to experience in this monastery, wherever you are, whether it's in your heart or in this hall or even up in the earth of the dinosaur.
I was up there early this morning because I had an early phone call. And it's quiet up there. It's comfortable. There are so many places here where you can just sit quietly and let the body vanish. And what happens then?
Oh my goodness, you all know this. I keep talking about this again and again and again. Then you're experiencing things. You're not just reading about them and figuring them out. The body vanishes, the thought vanishes as well.
Not just thought, but time vanishes. My goodness, how much of a prisoner of time are we? I know I am sometimes. I'm going to go and meet somebody at a certain time. There's a phone call coming.
I've got to get into town by the time. And the time is just so hard and unforgiving if you're late. Fortunately, I've only once got close to missing a flight. Once I actually missed a flight because the time always changed the timing and they never told me. So anyhow, it's lovely not to be a prisoner of time at all.
That's one of the nice things about when you don't travel anywhere, not even to another mile. And when you're on retreat, that's beautiful on retreat. When I did my six months of retreat, it didn't go anywhere. So the time lost its meaning to me.
I knew some time, okay, somebody's left a bowl of food in there, the box for me. I'm not for you, I'm you. So, but if I was a bit late, it didn't matter. It was always before noon. And just aimed my food and afterwards, just put it back again.
And that was the only time slot which really mattered, just food time. Other than that, time had no meaning. I remember that and noticing it. The freedom from something which tortures us in this world, right time. And so when I was free of the burden and the compulsion of what time was telling me,I've got to get here now, I'm sleeping too much, I'm talking too much. When you get rid of time, life is much more free. And you get rid of thought. Oh my goodness. I thought so much in my life.
Most of it has been rubbish. The silence has always been more meaningful. And when you get more into the silence, that is where the emotions come up. And it's not just emotions and joy. That's where you start to be able to recollect previous lives.
Wouldn't you like to remember a previous life and be certain about it? No, just, oh, maybe I was this in my previous life. But actually, you know, I don't know why more monks don't do that. Because it's not that hard to do. Number one, you all know you were before you were born.
You all have faith that previous lives exist or existed. But then real, would not you write to know? There's a way of doing it. And that's why I mention that. A lot of people won't tell you, and they've had this previous life experiences or not.
But it's great when you do, and you have your own certainty of who you were before and what happened in your previous life. It gives you more data to understand the depth of this Buddhism and why things happen and why people die. And what happens, you're not afraid of it anymore. And you can do that, just get some deep meditation.
You're going to get some deep meditation one day anyway. Next time you do, get blissed out. And before you come out, just say, what's my earliest memory and just see what pops up. Kind of simple. You just need that deep meditation first of all, and you're doing that anyway here.
Some of you can get some great meditations, get your past life memories as well. And then you're experiencing something. You feel it. You know it. And those kind of sensations, that's dumb out of shouting at you.
And then as a result of that, you tend to be able to let go more and more and more and more and more and more. And more you let go. What's more simple than letting go? You're not doing anything. Not holding anything.
I keep on trying to demonstrate. I pick up a cup which is heavy. I let it go. Put it down. That's such a simple thing to do.
And after a while, you get the hang of it. How simple it is to let go, put things down. And now it's made, please, be kind, be gentle. And then, you see, hang on. This is actually the Buddha's teaching.
Second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. Keep repeating that so often too. That's why I love that teaching. And then you find it works. If it was to strive, then okay, fair enough, that's hard work.
That's why I don't do striving. Make peace. Be kind. Be gentle. That is an old monk.
I can do that. I'm a bit too old to strive. To make peace. To let go, announce. Yeah, I can do that.
Be kind. How much striving does that take? Zero. Be gentle. Easy.
A hingsaker. So those are the things which are this monastic life. Actually works even when you're old. There's very few practices. You can do it at 75.
You're playing tennis, playing football. What else do you want to do when you're really old? Just play chess. I don't know, I think, when you get old. You know, just many of the qualities which are needed for those types of pastimes who have gone past you.
The ability to make peace be kind, be gentle. It's going to be there forever. Even when you are really old, laying in a bed, in a nursing home, you can still make peace, be kind, be gentle. That's an option for you. And that's a beautiful way of creating happiness, peace, more wisdom.
So when you develop these qualities, they're going to last you right until the time. That you let go for the last time. And let go so peacefully, so beautifully, with no pain. And that striving, wanting, which people sometimes praise, it's the aim for what it really is.
You can let go. And you disappear with it. And that's the end. And that is really worthwhile. Thank you for listening.
Excellent. Thank you.