(EA11)-01-Ordination-in-the-Thai-Tradition

I went to find a Teochew monk who was staying in Ipoh for 20 over years, but he died. So because he couldn't get Malaysian citizenship, he went back to Thailand. So I went to visit him, and then he advised me. I said, if you want to stay in Thailand and practice, you should ordain. Otherwise, you can be accused of being a false monk wearing Thai robes, but you are not ordained in the Thai tradition. So I took the ordination and then I stayed with him for three months. After that, I went to Wat Pa Nanachat, which is a branch monastery of Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Chah is another famous monk in Thailand. And what Pahnanachat is actually translated as the International Forest Monastery, all Western monks. At that time, I went there, I spent my first Vassa, three months there. At that time, 12 of us were there. 10 of them were Western monks, two Malaysians. And then I learned that actually one Malaysian monk had died in there, what, about a year ago. He was from Ipoh. He went on Armstrong and got bitten by a rabid dog. And they didn't realize that the dog was rabid. So he died. It was a very sad case because his parents didn't want him to ordain. And against his parents' wishes, he ordained. And they kind of disowned him. So he died in Thailand, never came back.

(EA11)-02-Contradictions-in-Theravadian-Buddhism

So I spent my first Vassa there. You know orang putih, they like to read a lot. So the library is stocked full of books. So I studied the suttas there. And when I studied the suttas, I found that a lot of contradiction between Theravada and Mahayana teachings. Because I had spent nine years in Mahayana, I was very familiar with the Mahayana teachings. So when I read the Theravada sutras, the discourses of the Buddha, I found a lot of contradictions. Then when I started thinking, then I realized, once he is white, once he is black, both cannot be correct. So you have to think which one is correct. Then I realized that even in Mahayana sutras, there are contradictions. So I was happy to change to Theravada. So now I've been in Theravada for 20 years. And during this time when I was in Theravada, I studied a lot, being one of those monks who who have studied through university, had the capability of studying all the books. So having studied all the books, I realized that even in Theravada, there are contradictions. There are wrong teachings. And these wrong teachings comes about through because of later books. So unless you make an exhaustive study, a lot of things you take for granted to be the Buddha's teachings. may not be. For example, probably all of you believe that the Buddha was a son of a king. Is that true? I think most people have been told that the Buddha was a prince and that his father was the king and he was a brave young man and later he married, and then he saw four sights, and that made him want to renounce. And then in the middle of the night, he stole away from his wife, took a last peep at the wife and the son, and he stole away in the middle of the night. Sounds very romantic, but unfortunately a lot of it is not true. So a lot of, okay, what is the truth, actually? The Buddha belong to the warrior caste, the blue blood. Like in Malaysia, we have Tungkus and Rajas. But are all Tungkus and Rajas the son of a king? No, yeah? When I was working, there was a Raja who was a peon, office boy. a very poor Raja. He was called Raja because he belonged to that royal family. So in the same way, our Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, belonged to the warrior clan, but his father was not the king. In the Majjhima Nikaya, it is stated that the Buddha was a citizen of Kosala, At that time, during the Buddha's time, two countries were prominent, Kosala and Magadha. And sometimes they went to war against each other. So Kosala had only one king, and that was Pasenadi. Raja Pasenadi. He was the same age as the Buddha. And then some people say, okay, if the Buddha's father was not the king, at least he was the chief of the Sakyans. That also is wrong. The chief of the Sakyans was a man called Badiya. And he was a very good friend of Anuruddha. Arahant disciple of the Buddha. So, when Anuruddha decided to renounce, he went to, he asked his parents permission, and his parents loved him so much, they did not want to give him permission. and he kept begging his parents for permission to renounce. So his parents thought his best friend is Badia, the chief of the Sakyans. So they gave him a condition. If your good friend Badia will renounce, we will also let you renounce. So he went to ask his friend Badia to renounce. His friend said, I don't want to renounce. I'm happy as I am. being the chief of the Sakyans. So he kept persuading his friend, he said, if you don't renounce, I cannot renounce. My parents put this condition for me. So being his very good friend, his friend said, you give me seven years to think about it. After seven years, then I will renounce. Then he said, seven years is too long to wait for you. So his friend said, six years, five years, four years, until finally one week. So he said, okay, one week is not too long to wait. So after one week, he put his everything in order in his family. Then Bhadia went to renounce with Anuruddha. And then a few of these royal family princes, they renounced together. And actually Bhadia had such good karma, he was the chief of the Sakyans, that he was the first to become an Arahant. So after he became an Arahant, he was so happy, going around sukha, sukha, sukha. So people started to think, why is Bhadia saying sukha, sukha? Last time he was the chief of the Sakyans, he had so much sukha. Now he must be thinking of all the sukha he left behind. He was complaining, sukha, sukha. So they went to complain to the Buddha. So the Buddha called him and asked him to explain. So he explained, he said, formerly when I was the chief of the Sakyans, my life was always in danger. So I had bodyguards around me all the time. During the day, everywhere I went, my bodyguards followed me. At night or so, my palace was surrounded by bodyguards. In spite of all that, I lived in constant fear for my life. But now, I have no more this fear. I was hinting that he was an Arahant, no more self. He said, I go anywhere, I'm not afraid. So the Buddha confirmed that he had become an Arahant. So you see from here, some of these things you won't know unless you read the Vinaya books. So Bhadia was a chief of the Sakyans. And the other point was when the Buddha decided to renounce, He did not steal away from his family in the middle of the night. Actually, in the Majjhima Nikaya, it is stated, in broad daylight, he decided to walk away from the house. He put on yellow robes, cut off his hair, and his parents pleaded with him and cried and pleaded with him. In spite of his parents pleading with him, He left in full view of them, walked out of the house. Why? Because if you study the suttas, he had to go this way. In the Gatikara Sutta, in the Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha said, that he only actually met only one Buddha. Later books said that he met 24 Buddhas, that he made a vow to become a Buddha and all that. All that is rubbish. In the suttas, he only met one Buddha, and that was Buddha Kasapa. And when he met Buddha Kasapa, at that time he was a Brahmin. And being a Brahmin, he had no faith in the Buddha Kasapa. But his best friend was an Anagamin, disciple of the Buddha, even though he was a lay person, the pot maker, Bhattikara. And his friend asked him many times to go and see the Buddha. He was not interested. He said, why go and see a shaveling monk? So his friend had to pull him, pull him, he pulled back until his friend pulled him by the hair. You know, at that time he was a Brahmin, high caste, and his friend was a pot maker, pariya, low caste. You cannot pull a high caste man by the hair, you know, you can get killed for it. So his friend, this Brahmin, our Bodhisatta, he was shocked. He asked his friend, is it that important? I mean, what he meant was, is it so important you dare to pull my hair? His friend said, yes. He said, okay, okay. He let go of my hand. I'll go and see your teacher. So they both went to see the Buddha Kassapa. So his friend Gatikara paid deep respect to the Buddha and sat down. But our Bodhisatta, he just said, hello, hello, and sat down. So then this Gatikara, he told the Buddha Kassapa, He said, Bhagavata, this is my good friend Jyotipala. He is a Brahmin. Please teach him some Dhamma. Then out of compassion, the Buddha Kasapa taught him the Dhamma. Usually for newcomers, the Buddha will teach a graduated discourse which I have tried to imitate in the book called The Message of the Buddha, culminating in the Four Noble Truths. Just by hearing that discourse, he made a 180 degrees turn, had complete faith in the Buddha, and within a few days, he renounced, became a monk. And during that lifetime under the Buddha Kassapa, he must have attained at least the first jhana. Why? Because after that lifetime, he went to the Tushita Heavens. And then he came back in his last lifetime as a young boy, 10 years old, he could enter the first jhāna under the jambu tree when his father was overseeing the ploughing. You all know that story, isn't it? That is in the Vinaya books. So that confirms that he had attained the first jhāna, at least under the Buddha Kassapa. Now, some people like to say, oh, you attain jhāna, you'll go to the Brahma heavens, you'll go to the form realm. It's very obvious here, you don't go. You only go if you constantly, every day, absorb yourself in the jhāna. Every day you absorb yourself in the jhāna, then you are reborn in the jhāna plane. If you don't absorb yourself every day in the jhāna, you don't get reborn in the jhāna plane, you go to the sensual realm. From there he came back. So the real Bodhisattva in the suttas, in the earliest discourses, if you investigate carefully, the Buddha used this word Bodhisattva only for the last three lifetimes. When he was a disciple of the Buddha Kassapa, then when he went to the Tushita Heaven, and then when he came back for his last birth. So actually what is a Bodhisatta? A Bodhisatta is an Arya. A Bodhisatta is an Arya. If a person is not a Bodhisattva, he's not an Arya. If he's not an Arya, he's not a Bodhisattva. But nowadays they distort the fact and say that the Jataka stories, the Bodhisattva in his past life, he was a deer, he was a rabbit and all that, all that is rubbish. Those jatakas are stories only. Can you believe those stories? A lot of people believe. Why? Because they never have yoniso manasikara. They don't think about it. If you think about it, can animals talk or not? The jataka stories, the animals talk. Animals behave better than human beings. The story of the rabbit, they say that in a previous life, our Bodhisatta was a rabbit. Then he saw the hunter go to the forest and hunt. Whole day he could not get any animal. Then at night he was very hungry. He was cooking his pot, supposed to cook meat, but he had no meat, so he was boiling water. And out of compassion for him, this rabbit jumped into the pot, sacrificed his life for the hunter so that he could fill his stomach. Any logic? If the rabbit are so smart, they won't be born as a rabbit, isn't it? Even stories like the Vesantara, Vesantara Jataka, where they say to perfect his parami, the Buddha in his previous life, gave away his wife and his children to the poor beggar, but the merciless beggar, after giving the wife and the children to the beggar, the beggar would beat them. Any logic or not? I dare say it's rubbish, why? Because it contradicts the Dhamma. If you study the Dhamma, the Buddha's discourses, the Buddha said, a good man's offering, a good man's charity does not harm himself and does not harm others. Just as you cannot go and slaughter a chicken and offer to a monk, you also cannot offer your wife and children to a merciless beggar who will beat them. Yes or no? So it just simply contradicts the Buddha's dharma. In the same way, that story about, the Jataka story about our Buddha and his previous life, he saw the hungry tiger, so hungry had no milk to give the cubs. So the Buddha in his past life committed suicide, jumped down from the hill, killed himself to offer the tiger. That is another stupid story because if he kills himself for the tiger, the tiger having tasted human flesh, tomorrow will look for some more human flesh to eat. And besides, he will cause his parents to a lot of suffering. or his wife and children, a lot of suffering. So all these Jataka stories are no different from Anderson's tales or Grimm's fairy tales. Of course, when we are simple-minded, when we are young, we listen to fairy tales, and they live happily ever after, and we are so happy. So nice, they live happily ever after. There's no such thing. So this is one of those things that we have been taught to believe. There are many other things in the Dhamma that go against the actual Buddha's teachings. So now the Dhamma is very polluted. You have to be very, very careful. You don't have to believe what I say. You can study yourself. But if you want a shortcut, then you can listen to my Dharma talks which I have given to Brother Goh. English and Hokkien. Four MP3s of English and four MP3s of Hokkien. All my Dharma talks since 1988. Not all, most of them are there. and I try to expose some of the wrong teachings. Why? Because I wasted many years. I wasted many years. This is compassion. Some people think I want to talk bad about other teachings. It's not that I want to talk bad. If I know the Dhamma I should teach, what is true Dharma, what is wrong Dharma.

(EA11)-03-Speaking-Out-for-the-Dhamma

The Buddha also had the courage to do the same thing. In the suttas, we find there were six external sect teachers during the Buddha's time. They were very famous in India. But some of them thought rubbish, like there's no kamma, there's no kamma-vipaka, there's no afterlife. After you die, there's nothing left. All these kind of teachings. And the Buddha dared to scold them. The Buddha said that fool Makkhali Gosala Putta is leading all the people into the woeful plains because of his teaching of no-karma vipaka. The Buddha said, just like a net that the fishermen use to trap the fish, They put all these bamboo stakes and all that. The fish will follow, follow, follow, and then it go into a trap and it cannot come out. So the Buddha said in the same way, Makkhali Gosala Puttha, that fool, is trapping all these people into wrong views and leading them into the woeful place. So because the Buddha dare to talk like that, a lot of people used to scold him. That is why in the Sutta the Buddha said, I do not quarrel with the world, the world quarrels with me. He who teaches the Dhamma does not quarrel with the world. Also in the Anguttara Nikaya the Buddha said, those monks who teach what is Adhamma, as Dhamma, they are leading a lot of humans and devas into wrong view. they are causing hardship and suffering to all these people and they create a lot of demerit for themselves. But those monks who say what is Adhamma, is Adhamma, then they bring happiness and bliss to humans and devas and they create a lot of merit for themselves. So the Buddha is encouraging us to point out what is our Dhamma as our Dhamma, what is Dhamma as Dhamma. But sometimes, because I dare to speak out, I create enemies. But we teach the Dhamma not to be popular, not to become famous. We teach the Dhamma because we are disciples of the Buddha. We are not disciples of some Ajahn or we are not disciples of some Sayadaw. We are Sakya Buddha, sons of the Sakyan. That is the Buddha's teaching. The Buddha said, be a lamb unto yourselves, be a refuge unto yourselves, with no other refuge. Take the Dhamma as your lamb, take the Dhamma as your refuge, with no other refuge. So the Buddha said, rely on yourself and rely on the Buddha's teachings. Don't rely on anything else.

(EA11)-04-Sutta-Vinaya-Our-Teacher

In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha said, in the future, there may be some monk who is very senior and very famous, so famous that he has a lot of disciples, monk disciples, nun disciples, and layperson disciples, a large following. And he may be very learned in the scriptures, in the books, but in spite of all that, he still can have wrong view. So don't think that some monk is world famous, that everything he teaches is correct. That is why when the Buddha was about to enter Nibbāna, Venerable Ananda asked him, Bhagavata, after you are gone, whom should we follow as our teacher? They probably thought that the Buddha was going to appoint Venerable Kassapa or somebody as the successor. The Buddha said, no. The Buddha said, after I'm gone, take the Dhamma Vinaya as your teacher. Also in another Sutta, in Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha said, if some monk says that such and such is the Buddha's teachings, Don't welcome it, but don't scorn it also. Compare what he says with the suttas and the Vinaya. If it is in agreement with the suttas and it is in agreement with the Vinaya, take that to be the Buddha's words and follow it. But if it contradicts the suttas and it contradicts the Vinaya, then you can be sure that it's not the Buddha's words and reject it. So Vinaya, you see, concerns monks. Nowadays, only monks. So for lay people, your teacher, now that the Buddha is not around, is the suttas. And I've tried to point this out in a book I wrote called Liberation. I did not bring many copies because books are heavy to carry. I gave four copies to Brother Goh and another four copies on meditation to Brother Goh. If you are interested, you can either photostack it or reprint it. It doesn't cost very much to reprint, less than a dollar, provided you print 2,000 or 3,000 copies. So, I think I'll take a breather and invite any questions.

(EA11)-05-Buddha's-Advice-on-Politics

What is the Buddha's advice concerning politics? Politics is something that is okay for lay people to go into, but not for monks. If monks go into politics, they put themselves at great risk. You see, in Myanmar, in Burma, monks like to go into politics, and also in Sri Lanka. But what happens is that, like in Myanmar, many of them get jailed, and also in Sri Lanka. But besides getting jailed, I have heard that some of them get hauled up for questioning in the middle of the night, and they never come back. So it is not the monks' business. to be involved with politics because politics is a worldly matter. The Buddha said a monk's job is to practice the Noble Eightfold Path, to look for liberation. One thing good about monks in Thailand generally is that Thai monks don't get themselves involved with politics. That is why a few years ago, when there was political unrest in Thailand, particularly in Bangkok, there was a photo taken. There was curfew, and nobody was allowed to go into the streets. But the monks, as usual, every morning, they come out on arms round in the bath. And the soldiers would not shoot them. The soldiers would not obstruct them. They can go on their arms around because the soldiers know and the government knows that the monks don't dabble in politics. They still can chari makan. They still can practice. But like in Burma, there's hardly any forest monasteries now. Not like in Thailand. Thailand, you go to remote areas, you find everywhere forest monasteries. In Myanmar, if you are a monk there and you try to be a forest monk, you go from district to district, you know what happens? You go to one district, they suspect you of being a government spy. They ask you some questions in their local dialect. If you can't answer properly, they kill you. So Thailand, even though there are some Thai monks who go wrong with corrupt monks, but actually the percentage is much less. Thailand is a country with between 200,000 to 300,000 monks. So even you take 1% of monks who are corrupt, how many already? 1% is not much. But Thailand being a country where they are quite open, if a monk gets out of line, they'll publish it in the newspaper. Not that monks in Sri Lanka or Myanmar don't do the same thing. They do the same thing but nobody publishes it in the newspaper. So there is a saying among Theravada countries, if you want to study the Suttas, go to Sri Lanka. If you want to study the Vinaya, go to Thailand. If you want to study the Abhidhamma, go to Myanmar.

(EA11)-06-On-Politic-(DalaiLama-ChiefRev)

The Dalai Lama has been used because of politics. They have given him so much publicity in the newspapers and probably that all is due to the American media. They play up the Dalai Lama because of politics with China. They want to make him appear like a victim of China's inhumane policies. So they always give a lot of publicity to the Dalai Lama. Actually, the Dalai Lama is only the head of the Gelugpa sect in Tibetan Buddhism. In Tibetan Buddhism, there are four sects, the Gelugpa sect, the Nyingmapa sect, the Kagyupa sect, and the Sakyapa sect. And each one of these has got a head. And our Dalai Lama is only the head of one sect only. So he doesn't represent very many followers, even in Tibetan Buddhism. So how can he represent the rest of the world Buddhists, right? So in the same way, like our chief reverend in Bigfields, Kuala Lumpur, sometimes they report him as the chief high priest of Malaysia and Singapore. That is also terribly wrong. He is only the chief priest for the Siam Nikaya, In Sri Lanka, there are three main sects. The Siam Nikaya, whose monks are mainly from the high caste. Then you have the Amarapura Nikaya. And then you have the Ramanya Nikaya. Now, our terrible chief Dhammananda, he doesn't even represent the Amarapura sect or the Ramanya sect. He only represents the Siam Nikaya and he cannot speak on behalf of the monks who come from the Burmese tradition or the Thai tradition. So some people don't know because they read in the newspaper that he's the Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore and they assume that he can speak for all the monks. He cannot. He can only speak for those few Siam Nikaya monks in Malaysia and Singapore, which is only a handful.

(EA11)-07-On-Past-Life-Kamma

Another question here is, if we can't change past life kamma, why do we keep looking back to the past life? Actually, our life, very much of our life is decided by our past kamma. For example, where we are born, what type of family we are born into, whether our body is beautiful or ugly, whether we are sickly or healthy, whether our life is long or life is short. Many of these factors are dependent on past karma. However, not all of our life is dependent on past karma. If our life is totally dependent on past karma, then we can't do anything. Our life is already destined, right? But it's not. Maybe 60, 70% of our life is determined by past karma. Maybe for some people, 90% who are not active. But if you strive and you make a lot of effort, that present karma that you create now can change your life, can change your life. For example, because of not very good karma, our low Boon Siew had a low position in life when he was younger. He was poor, he was a poor man, only a poor man. But because he was very hardworking, and quite honest. He impressed the Japanese. So because he was so hardworking and the Japanese liked him so much, they gave him that dealership for Honda. And from there he became a very rich man. So he changed his life because of his, that karma that he created in this life. So whatever kamma that has occurred in the past we cannot change and we don't even know. What we can do now is try very hard to create new kamma. But the problem is most people we don't make the effort. So most people your life can be read on the palms of your hand. You know, you go to somebody who's very good at palm reading, they can tell you exactly what is going to happen to you. But they say you can never read the palm of a cultivator. 朽横一郎, you cannot read his palm. Why? Because a person who is striving in the holy path, he's changing his karma, he's changing his character. And because a cultivator is changing his character drastically, even the lines on his hand can change. That's why a fortune teller won't read a monk's hand.

(EA11)-08-Vipassana-Past-Lives-Sati-Sutta-Studying

Well, if you practice vipassana, you don't want to get jhāna, right? And if you don't get jhāna, you're not going to know your past life. You can only know your past life because of concentration. If your concentration is good, then slowly your memory comes back. A lot of people practice, but they don't bother to study the suttas. I ask you, what is sati? You ask, what is sati? Most people will say mindfulness. The Buddha never said sati is mindfulness. In nine suttas, the Buddha defines sati. And how did he define sati? He said a person who has sati remembers what was said and done a long time ago. A person who has sati remembers what was said and done a long time ago. Sati has to do with remembering. It has nothing to do with mindfulness. Mindfulness actually is another word, sampajanya. In the suttas, the Buddha said, a person who has sampajanya, when he walks, he knows he's walking. When he's sitting, he knows he's sitting. When he stretches his arm, he knows he's stretching his arm. When he eats, he knows he's eating, etc. That is sampajanya. Pasati has to do with the quality of remembering. Why? Firstly, you must know, it is coming into meditation. another sensitive topic.

(EA11)-09-Type-of-Meditation-Praised-by-the-Buddha

What is the type of meditation praised by the Buddha? Do you all know? I think you all don't study the suttas, that's why you don't know. In the Majjhima Nikaya, Venerable Ananda was asked, what is the type of meditation praised by the Buddha? And Reverend Ananda said the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the third jhāna, the fourth jhāna. Now that is the type of meditation praised by the Buddha and that is Buddhist meditation. That alone is Buddhist meditation.

(EA11)-10-Mindfulness-and-What-Do-We-Have-To-Be-Mindful

What is mindfulness? Some people say they want to practice mindfulness. You don't need to practice mindfulness. Why? Because you are mindful all the time. I assure you that you are mindful all the time. But what is the problem? The problem is Sometimes you are mindful of the wrong thing. For example, here I am teaching the Dhamma. You should be mindful of what I am saying. But sometimes your mind runs to your office, so you are mindful of your office problems. Sometimes your mind runs to your family problems, and you are mindful of your family problems. But you're still mindful, isn't it? Yes? Because that is pulling your attention. So whatever comes to your attention, you are mindful. You are mindful every moment of the day. Unfortunately, very often, you are not mindful of the right thing. That is why you have to practice sati. Sati is remembering. Why remember? You have to remember to practice the right thing. To remember the right thing, to be mindful of the right thing. And what is the right thing to be mindful of? Buddha said the body, the nature of the body, the feelings, the mind, and Dhamma. Dhamma is the teachings of the Buddha. And that is the most important, the teachings of the Buddha. Why? In the suttas, the Buddha said, there are five occasions when a person is liberated. You see, these basic things, if you don't know, how can you practice meditation? How to get liberated also you don't know. How can you say you're practicing meditation? What are these five occasions when you are liberated? The Buddha said, one is listening to the Dhamma. Second time is teaching the Dhamma. The third time is repeating the Dhamma. The fourth occasion is reflecting on the Dhamma. And the fifth occasion you get liberated is during meditation, when you are reflecting on the Samadhi Nimitta. And then, after that, you get liberated. So you see, out of these five vocations, when a person gets liberated, four of them have to do with Dhamma. So actually, if you study the suttas more like I have done, you may come to the conclusion like I do. that Vipassana has nothing to do with meditation. Vipassana in Chinese is called Kuan. Samatha Vipassana in Chinese is Chir, Kuan. Chir is stilling the mind, tranquility, meditation. And Vipassana is Kuan, contemplation. And Kuan means these four things, listening to the Dhamma, teaching the Dhamma, reflecting on the Dhamma, and repeating the Dhamma. Vipassana meditation was created by Masi Sayadaw about 30 years ago. 50 years ago, nobody heard of Vipassana meditation. Do you realize that? 50 years ago, 100 years ago, nobody heard of Vipassana meditation. Just like 50 years ago, nobody heard of Yiquan Tao, Dian Tao. Now, they have formed Yiquan Tao. They say that is Buddhism. Can it be? Can Yiquan Tao be Buddhism? It is crafted by them. So, Sati means remembering to put your mindfulness in the right place. And the right place is these four objects. So for example, if you are practicing breath meditation, then you try to always, whenever your mind is able to, for example, if you are working in the office, you can't meditate at all, right? But if you are not working, not busy with something, then remember to put your mindfulness on one of these four objects.

(EA11)-11-Different-Between-Sati-And-Satipatthana

Now some people think Sati and Satipatthana is the same, but there is a difference between Sati and Satipatthana. Satipatthana means intense state of recollection or intense state of mindfulness. Why intense? Because in the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha gave a parable, a simile on how to practice Satipatthana. This parable goes like this. The Buddha said, one day the most beautiful girl of the country came out. And then all the men saw and they clapped their hands. And maybe the girls also clapped their hands and shouted, the most beautiful girl of the country. And that attracted more people. So more people came out and clapped and shouted, the most beautiful girl of the country. And then some people asked her to sing and dance. So she started to sing and dance. And people clapped their hands and more people came out to see and to hear her singing and dancing. Then the Buddha said, an ordinary guy came along. This ordinary guy, meaning that he is a person who does not like to suffer, who likes to live. And then the soldiers caught him. And having caught him, they forced him to carry a bowl of oil. And this bowl of oil was filled to the brim, to the very brim. And they told him, now you carry this bowl of oil in between the great crowd of people who are crying and cheering the most beautiful girl in the land. And I'm going to walk behind you, the soldier said, with an uplifted sword. If you cause even one drop of oil to spill, I'm going to chop off your head. So the Buddha said, now this man fearing for his life, he has to walk with this bowl full of oil in between the great crowd of people. Does he dare to look at the most beautiful girl of the land? Does he dare to look left and right? So he just has to concentrate on this bowl, nothing else. He has to walk, every moment his attention must be on the bowl, otherwise his life will be gone. That is how to practice Satipatthana in the sutra. Concentrate on one object to the exclusion of everything else. Don't say when someone comes, nod, nod, nod the sound. Don't even bother to nod. Just concentrate on your object of meditation. Why? Because in another sutra, the Buddha said, a skillful monk who practices satipatthana will attain one-pointedness of mind, meaning jhana. If a monk is not skillful, he practices satipatthana, he will not end up with jhāna, one-pointedness of mind. Why is it so important to attain jhāna, one-pointedness of mind? Because in the sutras the Buddha said, When a person attains the Jhanas, he cuts down the five hindrances. He may not have pulled out the roots, but he has cut down the five hindrances, just like you cut down lalang. If you're walking and there's a lot of tall lalang, just obstructing your path, right? You find it difficult to walk. But if you cut down that lalang, it's free and easy to walk. So in the same way, the Buddha said, we have delusion, we are stupid because we cannot see things clearly. And why is it we cannot see things clearly? Because of the five hindrances. Sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry and doubt. These five things envelop us so that we cannot see things as they really are. And the only way to get rid of these five hindrances is to attain Jhāna. Now after a person attains Jhāna, the next thing he has to do, actually whether before or after he attains Jhāna, he should study the suttas all the time.

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Now, if a person does not attain jhāna and he listens to the Dhamma, listens to the Four Noble Truths, the chances are that he is going to gain stream entry, the first path. And in the suttas, if you attain the first path before you die, It might be immediately, it might be one year later, it might be 10 years later, it might be 20 years later, but the latest, before the stream-enterer dies, he will become a Sotapanna, a first-fruit-attainer. In other words, the path will turn to fruit in that same lifetime. So if a person has not attained Jhāna and he listens to the Dhamma, if he listens to the Four Noble Truths, he will attain Sweet Entry. But if a person has attained Jhāna and he listens to the same Dhamma, he will either become an Anagamin or an Arahant. That's the difference. So if you study the Vinaya books, you will find that the first thousand over arahants of the Buddha, the first thousand over arahants mentioned in the Vinaya books, all of them attained arahanthood by listening to the Buddha's discourse. All of them, not a single one by meditation. Okay, I tell you, we start off with the first one. The first one the Buddha decided to teach was the five monks, the five bhikkhus. And those five monks had been following the Buddha for many years. And having followed the Buddha for many years, I would assume that the Buddha, having learned Jhāna, would have taught them Jhāna, all the stages of Jhāna. So when the Buddha was enlightened, the Buddha came to them and told them to sit down. I will teach you the Dhamma. The first discourse the Buddha taught was the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the turning of the Dhamma wheel. Out of the five monks, one of them during that was called Danya. He was the first one to become a stream enterer. And then for the next few days, the Buddha kept teaching them the Dhamma day after day. And it is mentioned in the Vinaya books, the five monks plus the Buddha, six of them. Sometimes two of them will go and beg for food to feed all the six. Sometimes three of them will go and beg for food to feed all six. But every day the Buddha taught them the suttas. And after teaching them the Anattā-Lakṭhāna Sutta, all the five of them became Arhats.

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Now after these five arahants, the Buddha looked around. The next person he wanted to teach was Vyasa. Vyasa was the son of a very rich man in that town and he was enjoying life. He had four beautiful wives. and every day he was living a life of luxury. He had so many slaves, they would dance and sing for him, and every day he would look at them, enjoy their music, maybe get drunk, and then at night they would entertain him until he falls asleep at night. So when they see the Master having fallen asleep and they are so tired, they also all fell asleep around him. So the Buddha probably used his psychic power. In the middle of the night, this Yasa woke up. And when Yasa woke up, he looked at all the slaves around him, half-naked. Some saliva flowing out of their mouth, their hair all disheveled. and half-naked bodies. And because he must have been a cultivator in the past life, and I believe the Buddha chose people like him because in the previous life he must have attained Dharma. So one look at all the slaves, he was repelled because he must have contemplated death, must have contemplated corpses in the previous life. So it reminded him of corpses. So this feeling of Dukkha arose in him. So he didn't want to see, he walked out of the house. And then the Buddha must have used his psychic power to draw him. He kept walking and came to the city gates. You know city gates normally are locked at night, but the city gates opened by themselves. So he walked out of the city gates and he walked into the forest where the Buddha was waiting for him. And when he came to the Buddha, the Buddha said, Nyasat, sit down here. There is no Dukkha here. So when he heard there is no Dukkha, he gladly sat down. Then the Buddha preached to him the graduated discourse on the Four Noble Truths. Hearing it the first time, he attained stream entry. So he stayed with the Buddha. Then the next morning, his parents were very sick. They looked all around, they couldn't find him. So his father went looking for him, and along the way found his slippers. So his father kept walking until he came to the Buddha. And Yasod was sitting next to the Buddha. But the Buddha used his psychic power to shield Yasod, so that Yasod's father could not see Yasod. So Yaśā's father asked the Buddha whether he had seen Yaśā, and the Buddha said, sit down here, maybe in a short while you will see Yaśā. So when he heard that, he thought there's a chance he's going to see Yaśā, and he sat down. Then the Buddha taught him the same graduated discourse, and upon hearing it the first time he became a Shri Antara. And Yaśā hearing it the same discourse second time became an Arahant. You see, just listening to the Dhamma, never asked Yasa to meditate, just listening, he gave an empowerment. So after that, Yasa's father could see Yasa in the Buddha and lifted his psychic power. Then he asked Yasa to go home, said, your mother is very cheap for you. And the Buddha told his father, he said, Yasa is no more the same person. hinting that their son had already become enlightened. So his father understood, his father did not persuade him to go back, so he renounced. So after he renounced, his close friends, there were 54 of them, must have been his fellow companions in the holy life, in the previous holy life. So when they heard that he renounced, they thought, fantastic, the richest man in town, the son, the richest family in town can renounce and become a monk in spite of having four wives and all. So they thought his teacher must be very special. So they all came to see him. When they came to see him, I don't know whether all together or one by one, he brought them to see the Buddha. In the same way when the Buddha discoursed to them, one by one all the 54 became Arahants. Just by listening to the Dhamma, all became Arahants. So Yasa and his friends made up of 55, plus the first five months, the first five arahants, 60. When there were 60 arahants, the Buddha asked them to walk and teach the Dhamma to the world. He said, don't two of you walk by the same road, go by different roads and preach the Dhamma for the happiness of humans and devas. So they went to preach the Dhamma.

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the Buddha contemplated whom should he teach next, the ascetics living by the side of the Ranjara River. These ascetics were Jatilas, matted-haired ascetics, and they worshipped the fire. They had wrong view. But why the Buddha wanted to teach them? Because they practiced Jhāna. And because they practiced Jhāna, the leader probably had psychic power. some psychic power, and because of that, he believed that he was an Arahant. So the Buddha went to live with them, and during a period of a few weeks, the Buddha slowly showed his psychic power to them. For example, one night, four great heavenly kings came in the middle of the night to visit the Buddha and pay respect to the Buddha. Of course, the Buddha must have used his psychic power to make them come. So these ascetics, they could see this bright light coming to visit the Buddha. And after that, go away. So the next morning, they asked the Buddha, who are those devas who came to see you? And the Buddha said, oh, the four great heavenly kings. They came to pay respect and to ask questions. Then these ascetics thought, wow, this Samana is great. Four great heavenly kings also can come and worship him. But then the leader thought, you know, this Samana might be great, but he's not an Arahant like me. So another night, Sakka Devaraja came, brighter still, made the whole place bright, and after visiting the Buddha he left. Next morning again they asked, and when they heard it was Sakka Devaraja, they were even more impressed. Then another night, Brahma, great Brahma came, lighting up the whole place, and they were even more impressed. Like another time, because they were impressed with him, this chief of the ascetics, in the morning, every morning he would come and invite the Buddha for breakfast. So the Buddha said, you go first Kassapa, I'll join you. So Kassapa, the ascetic, he walked to the dining hall. By the time he reached the dining hall, he saw the Buddha sitting there. And the Buddha was holding a flower for him. And the Buddha offered the flower to him. And he looked at the flower, I've never seen this flower before. And the Buddha said, yes, it's from the Tavatimsa heaven. I just went to Sakadevaraja's heaven and brought back this coral flower just for you. Then he thought, wow, this tamana. Great, he can go to heaven and come back before I can even reach the dining hall. So in this way, after a period of a few weeks, he was so impressed by the Buddha, then the Buddha gave him a slap in the face. How? The Buddha said, Dasapa, you've been thinking all this time you're an Arahant, but you're not an Arahant, and you're not walking the path to become an Arahant. Nobody had given him this slap before. You woke him up, no? This Samana must be greater than me. So he decided to shave his hair like the Buddha and become a follower of the Buddha. So when his disciples saw that, every one of them did the same. One thousand of them became disciples of the Buddha. So the Buddha accepted them as monk disciples. After that only the Buddha taught them the Dharma. And the Buddha taught them one sutta only. Hearing one sutta, all 1,000 of them became Arahants. See how fantastic. The Buddha never asked them to meditate. Buddha just asked them to listen. I will teach you the Dhamma. Listen carefully. So they listened carefully and all 1,000 became Arahants. After that, the Buddha brought them to see King Bimbisara. King Bimbisara at that time was the king of Magadha. So King Bimbisara threw a large dana for all of them and invited all the people of Rajagaha to come out and pay respect to the Buddha and his Arahant disciples. So according to the Vinaya books, About 120,000 people came. 120,000 people came. So after the Dan, the Buddha preached this graduated discourse on the Four Noble Truths to all of them, and according to the Vinaya book, all of them attained stream entry. All of them. So you see, stream entry is attained by listening to the Dhamma, basically on the four Noble Truths. There is a Sutta where it is mentioned that there was a person who used to drink, and then he passed away, but he was a follower of the Buddha. And after he passed away, he came to ask the Buddha, What is his fate? Where has he gone for rebirth?" And the Buddha said, don't worry about his name Saratani. The Buddha said, he was a strange winner, a Suttapanna. So when some people heard that Sarakani, the drinker, was a Sotapanna, the Buddha said, they got very annoyed. How can a khaki bottle also become a Sotapanna? They started to doubt, started to criticize the Buddha. So word came back to the Buddha. You know what the Buddha said? Why shouldn't Sarakani become a stream-enterer, a stream-winner? The Buddha said, Sarakani has been learning the Dhamma for a long time and has been practicing the Dhamma. The Buddha said, why? Even if I taught these trees the Dhamma, they also would become stream-winners. The Buddha said, even if I pop the dharma to trees, if they can listen, they also will become stream-winners. So you see, stream-winning is from listening to the dharma. Not by meditation, but if you want to go higher, second fruit, third fruit, fourth fruit, you must meditate now, but not the first fruit. Of course, if you can meditate as well, then the chances of becoming a stream-winner are even more. But the emphasis is on listening to the Dhamma. That is why the Buddha called all his disciples, whether monk disciples or nun or layperson disciples or what, called them Savakas, hearers, hearers of his Dhamma. If you don't hear the Buddha's Dhamma, you are not a disciple of the Buddha.

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If you attain Jhāna and you listen to the Dhamma, you might become an Arahant, but you don't need to aim for Arahanthood. The first stage to aim for is stream-winning, and stream-winning is by studying the Siddhas. Dikayas, study the Dikayas. Dikayas are not like storybooks, you don't read them once and throw them away. You keep reading again and again until you finish your lifetime. There is nothing more precious than the Dhamma, nothing more precious than the words of the Buddha. So don't think that they are dispensate words. If the words of the Buddha are not around, then what is the purpose of the Buddha's teaching? If words are not important, the Buddha would not have spent 45 years teaching 5,000 over discourses to us. through the efforts of a lot of arahants, was transmitted generation to generation to generation in its pure form down to us. And we don't make use of this opportunity. We have wasted this opportunity as a human being. In the suttas it is mentioned that when devas pass away, You know, devas, they have shining bodies, and they have beautiful, clean bodies. But when they are about to pass away, their clothes begin to get dirty. They start to sweat, their body odor, and their minds become very restless. So when other devas notice, they know that their friend is going to pass away. And then they give this friend who is going to pass away three advice according to the Buddha. Firstly, try to get rebirth as a human being if you can, because if they have enough good karma left, they can still take a human rebirth. If they don't have that good karma, they can become a ghost or an animal. That's the first advice. Secondly, have saddhā in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. In other words, go and become a Buddhist. Third one is to attain stream-winning. And how to attain stream-winning? Stream-winning is an ārya, and the lowest form of ārya In fact, all Āryas, the basic condition for an Ārya to become an Ārya is to get right view. If you don't have right view, you are not an Ārya. Right view means understanding the Four Noble Truths. In one Sutta, the Buddha said, in one of his previous lives, he was a Brahmin and he gave so much dāna. He gave 84,000 bucketfuls of gold, 84,000 bucketfuls of silver, 84,000 bucketfuls of precious stones. And the cows and the goats and the sheep and the chickens and the ducks, he gave away for countless. And the food and drinks, he gave away and flowed like the river, the big river. In spite of all that, the Buddha said his merit was very small. Why? Because there was no person with right view to receive it. In other words, no Arya or Cittudvana. The Buddha said the merit would have been greater if he had given food to one street enterer. So actually, you can make dāna through a stream-enterer. It's not that a stream-enterer immediately becomes a fruit-attainer. If a path-attainer immediately becomes a fruit-attainer, you have no chance to do dāna through a path-attainer.

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And in another sutra, the Buddha said to attain right view, there are two conditions. One is listening to the Dhamma. The second condition is having yoniso manasithara. Yoniso manasithara, you can say, is thorough attention, thorough contemplation, thorough consideration. So when you are listening to the Dhamma, you must pay thorough attention. Don't be like some people, when they are cooking, they put on the Dhamma. Of course, if you have no time, there is better than nothing. But stream will never blend in. Bhullasutapanna is one of those, I think, terms that were created later. What we have in the suttas is there are eight types of ārya, the first path attainer, the first fruit, second path, second fruit, third path, third fruit, fourth path, Now, if a person has attained stream-winning, the first path, he has not eliminated any of the factors. It takes some time to turn into fruit. When he attains fruit, then the three factors are eliminated. Sakkaya, Diti, Siddha, Bhatta, Paramahamsa are in doubt. Now, but if a person understands the basic Dhamma and has become a street winner, then he becomes a different person. He will realize that the most precious thing in the world is the Dhamma. And the most important duty of us as human beings is to practice the Dhamma. That is your most important duty, because it's very hard to meet the Dhamma, very hard to get a human body, and even more hard to meet the true Dhamma.

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Once a person has attained stream entry, he has unshakable faith in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. He will never change his religion. The other thing, another characteristic mentioned in the suttas of a stream-winner is that he will not look for a teacher anymore. He will know that the Dhamma is his teacher. People who have not attained stream entry, who have not attained understanding of the Dhamma, always go all over the world. So after my experience, I refused to look for any other teacher, and I studied the Buddha's words. And at that time when I was studying the Buddha's words, some monks, they criticized me for not looking for teachers and all that. But after studying the Buddha's words, I realized that I was following the Buddha's instructions. The Buddha said, be a lamp unto yourselves, be a refuge unto yourselves, with no other refuge. Take the Dhamma as a lamp, take the Dhamma as a refuge, with no other refuge. When you study the Buddha's words and you understand them, you also look for another teacher, the Buddha and Sādhu teacher. That's why the Buddha said, after I'm gone, take the Dhamma and Vinaya as your teacher.

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Sometimes some people think that if you enter the state of Jhana, you are wasting your time. This is very far from the truth. Suppose now, I ask you, suppose if a person were to enter a state of Nibbana, I mean now when he is still alive, if he can spend his time in the state of Nibbāna, is that a waste of time? No. Because that is the goal of the holy life, yes? Yes. And actually a person can spend his time in the state of Nibbāna. And what is this state of Nibbana that a person can spend his time in? It is a state called Nirodha Samabhati. Have you all heard? What is Nirodha Samabhati? This state is defined as cessation of perception and feeling, right? or sometimes in short, just cessation. So when there is cessation of perception and feeling, it also means that there is cessation of consciousness. And this consciousness refers to the six consciousnesses, the seeing consciousness, the hearing, the smelling, taste, touch, and thinking consciousness. So when this Sixth Consciousness stops, the world stops. As far as that person who enters that state is concerned, there is no world. That is the state of Nibbana. And that is the state where sometimes arahants enter, like the Buddha. to enter this, for example, immediately after the Buddha was enlightened, he spent 49 days, actually more than 49 days, but you can say 49 days. The first seven days, he would just go into this state and just experience it and enjoy it. Because it is the most blissful state you can experience. The Buddha says, Nibbana paramam sukham. Nibbana is the highest bliss. And then some people ask him, how come? In Nibbana there is no perception, there is no feeling, there is no consciousness. How come it's the highest bliss? The Buddha said yes. Even though there is no feeling, there is no consciousness, still it is the highest bliss. How can we understand this? To give us an idea how nirvana is the greatest bliss, we compare it to sleeping. When we go to sleep at night, there are two types of sleep. Much of the night is spent in a dreaming state. So the first type of sleep is when you fall asleep and you have a lot of dreams. And scientists say this is necessary because when we dream, we break down all the compounds, all the dirt in our brain. We clean our brain when we dream. This dream state is not a very blissful state because when you are dreaming, sometimes it can be unpleasant dreams, sometimes it can be frightening dreams, exciting dreams and all that. So because you are dreaming, it's not a very restful sleep. However, there is another type of sleep, which is a very deep state of sleep. And in this very deep state of sleep, there is no dreaming. It is so deep that you are not aware of anything, and not even aware that you exist. It is precisely because you are not aware that you exist that it is so blissful. When that I arises, that me arises, dukkha arises. So in that deep sleep state, it's so blissful. And you are not aware. Suppose now you are in that deep sleep state and somebody calls you. You are not even aware somebody calls. He has to shake you hard, then only you can get up. So it is because of this very deep sleep state that sleep is very enjoyable. So when we get up in the morning, say like your mother or your husband or your wife wakes you up, time to go to work, and you wake up, then you want to fall asleep again. Because it's so enjoyable, you want to go back to sleep. Not because of the sleep state, because of the deep sleep state. So this deep sleep state where you're not aware of anything, you're not even aware of yourself, that can be likened to nibbana. Only thing, nibbana is much more deep. So, That is why the Buddha said, nibbanam paramam sukham. So arahants and anagamins, only these two classes of people can attain this state of nirodha samvapatti, and they abide in this state for a maximum of seven days. And when they are in this state, Not only has the body stopped, even the heart also has stopped beating, and then the breathing has stopped, and the consciousness has stopped. So if you see a person in this state, you might think that he is dead. But there is one difference between this person and a dead person, and what is that? If you touch this person, you feel his body is still warm, whereas if a person is dead, his body will turn cold. And this state is a very, very special state. It is mentioned in the sutras that one of the disciples of a previous Buddha, he entered this state deep in the forest. Then these people who went into the forest to find firewood and raise their cows and all that, they saw this monk in this state of nirodha samapatti in the forest. And he was not moving, so they came up to him, called him, also no response. So they felt his breath, no breath, and they touched his heart, no heartbeat. So they assumed that he was dead. So they collected a lot of wood, dead wood, and they piled it on top of him and set it on fire. They thought, give him a good send-off. So they went back to their village. The next morning, they saw this monk coming for alms round Pindapatta. They got a shock. They thought the ghost came. And then later talking with him, they found that fire cannot harm a person in that state of nirodhasamapatti. Nothing can harm him. So it's a very, very special state, and very, very few people can attain that state. So arahants who can attain that state, they like to abide in that state. That is nibbana here and now. Now, there are other stages, states, which are slightly less than this, but in the nature of this state of nirodha samapatti. And these are called jhanas. The four rupa jhanas and the four arupa jhanas. When a person attains these jhana states, He goes into a deep state and leaves the world behind him. Because this world is the world of the six senses. We ask ourselves, how do we know that the world exists? We must come to that conclusion that we only know that the world exists because we can see, we can hear, we can smell, we can taste, we can touch. And these five senses tell us there is an outer world. And the thoughts make us realize that there is an inner world also. But actually in the Buddha's teachings, these six senses are all external, not only the five external senses, even the six. Because when we meditate and we go deep into our mind as we practice Samatha meditation, we practice concentrating on the breath. We keep putting our attention on the breath and slowly as we are able to do this, we go deeper and deeper into our mind. And it's not easy to go into our mind. The mind is a little similar to the ocean. If you try to go deep into the ocean, what happens? Firstly, you run out of breath. Then suppose you send something which doesn't have to breathe, a submarine. You send a submarine into the ocean. If it's not strong enough, when it goes deeper, it gets crushed, completely crushed. So the ocean is so strong. And also, the ocean doesn't like you to go inside the ocean. For example, you pull a ping pong ball, you pull it into the water, and then you release it, the water will push the ping pong ball out. So in the same way also, when a person dies in the ocean, the ocean also will push it up to the surface. So in the ocean, we only use the surface of the ocean. We swim on the ocean, the ships fly on the ocean, and we are only on the surface of the ocean. So we don't realise how powerful the ocean is down there. In the same way, we only use the surface of our mind, our thinking mind, our everyday mind. It's only on the surface of the mind. But when we meditate and we stop noticing the sights, the sounds, the smells, the taste, the touch and the thoughts, Then we just concentrate on one object, keep on concentrating on one object, then you are going back to your original home, and going back into the mind, deeper and deeper and deeper into the mind. And as we go deeper into the mind, you will begin to realize how powerful the mind is. You begin to feel the strength of the mind. There is nothing more strong than the mind. Because if you go into their mind, then the whole world is inside their mind. And when you begin to go inside your mind, slowly, you are not only aware, you are not only cut off all awareness of the outside world. Slowly, you cut off even awareness of your own body. So your thoughts will stop. So the world of the six senses, slowly you withdraw from the world of the six senses and you go deeper, deeper, deeper into your real self, the real mind. So then you attain the various levels of samadhi, the first jhana. In the first jhana, there is still a little bit of, you could say, thinking, but the Buddha says it is only skillful thinking. You don't have unskillful thoughts, meaning that you don't think everyday things like thinking about your work or your house or your duties and all that. You don't think of those things. But you might think, ah, I have attained this state. It's so pleasant. I must remember. to retrace my steps. I must remember how I attained this state so that I can repeat it. But when you go deeper, when you go into the second jhana, the mind becomes so strong and unshakable that even the thoughts also cannot arise. And then you feel piti and sukha. And this piti and sukha is deep. But it is subtle, not like later books they say, oh, it's so strong and all that. It's a subtle feeling. That's what the Buddha said in the Suttas. So when a person enters these states of jhāna, these steps of jhāna are actually halfway stations to nibbāna. If you keep going deeper and deeper and deeper, it ends up in that nirodha-samābhakti, a state of cessation. So just now I said that if you were given the choice whether you can experience nibbāna here and now, you definitely would want to. So in the same way, these halfway stations to Nibbāna, if you can experience them, you'll also want to experience them. So those arahants who have become liberated, they have a lot of time, they're waiting for the day to pass away. So every day they spend their time in either the various stages of jhāna or in nirodha-samāpakti. We look into the Sāṅhitānikayā, like on Sariputta, you find sometimes one whole day he spends in the first jhāna, another day he spends in the second jhāna, another day he spends in the third jhāna, fourth jhāna, and arūpa jhānas. So there was one day when he and the Arahant Moggallana, both of them were in the forest. And monks during the Buddha's time, during the day they go Pindapatta, they get their food, they come back, they eat, and then the rest of their day they meditate. And then when the sun goes down, they will come together and discuss the Dharma. So Venerable Moggallana and Sariputta came together, And Venerable Moggallana asked Venerable Sariputta how he spent his day, and he said he spent his day abiding in the first or the second or the third jhana. And Venerable Sariputta asked Venerable Moggallana in return, and, how about you? How did you spend your day? And then he said, oh, today I did not abide in jhana. I spent the day in the world of the six senses. Then Venerable Sariputta asked him, how did you spend the day in the world of the six senses? Then he said, I spent the day discussing Dhamma with the Buddha. Then Venerable Sariputta said, but we are here so far from the Bhagavata. How did you manage to talk to the Bhagavata? Did you go to the Bhagavata or did the Bhagavata come to you? And then he said, I did not go to the Lord and He did not come to me, but just as Our Lord can see me from far with His psychic power, so I can also see Him from far with my psychic power. Just as He can hear me with His psychic hearing, I also can hear Him with my psychic hearing. So in this way we converse with each other. Then our Venerable Sariputta prays our Venerable Moggallana. for having such great psychic power. He said, myself, even a mud sprite, a spirit in the mud, that's why I cannot see. But well, Sariputta, even though he has no psychic power, he has all the jhanas, all the jhanas, and Nirodha Sampaji. Only thing is he did not cultivate the psychic power. So some people think that if you have jhāna, you must have psychic power, no? So you see, these arahants, if they know that the world of the six senses is the world of dukkha, so they don't want to abide in the world of dukkha, so they abide in jhāna every day, or in nirvana, sattvapatti. So it's not a waste of time like some people think. In fact, in the Sutta, the Buddha said there are two types of pleasures. One is worldly pleasures. That, the Buddha says, he does not encourage his disciples to enjoy. Why? Because it ends in dukkha. As Hopkins said, 淘滴博弈, beginning is sweet, the end is bitter. But the spiritual path is the opposite. If you practice the spiritual path, the beginning is very hard, a lot of hardship, a lot of dukkha, but the end is very sweet.

(EA11)-19-Two-Types-of-Pleasures

The Buddha said there are two types of pleasures. One is worldly pleasure, the other one is the bliss of jhāna, the bliss of meditation. The Buddha said that he encourages his disciples to enjoy the bliss of meditation. Why? Because he says there are four advantages from enjoying the bliss of meditation. Sotapanna, Sakadagamin, Anagamin, and Arahant. So if you continually practice the jhanas and you listen to the dhamma, it must end with getting the various stages of Ariya Buddha.

(EA11)-20-Characteristics-of-a-Stream-Winner

Yesterday I tried to explain a bit the characteristics of a stream-winner. And I said that firstly the Buddha says a stream-winner has unshakable faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Secondly, the Buddha says once you have that understanding of the Four Noble Truths, you have right view, then the Buddha says you become independent of others in the Buddha's teachings. In other words, you don't need to look for a teacher. You know yourself exactly how to walk this path. And you also know that the Buddha is your real teacher, and to constantly study the suttas to get his advice. If we study the suttas, it is as though the Buddha is sitting next to us and speaking to us. Another thing is I mentioned last night that if you have this right view of the Dhamma, then you will realise that the most precious thing in the world is the Dhamma, meaning the suttas, and there is nothing more important to do in the world than to practise the Noble Eightfold Path. to study the suttas and to meditate. So these are some of the characteristics which will give you some confidence.

(EA11)-21-Be-Wary-of-Nibbana-as-explained-in-the-Commentaries

Some people have been taught that to attain this stage of three-winner that you must have a certain experience. The commentaries like to say that you see the sign of Nibbāna, but they cannot explain what is the sign of Nibbāna. But just now I mentioned Nibbāna is the state where the consciousness ceases. So if you have not attained jhāna, you cannot experience this. So it is not possible for a stream-winner to experience Nibbāna. So you must remember some of these statements. If they come from the commentaries, if they come from the later books, you must take it with a pinch of salt. Don't simply swallow it. We have to study the suttas, and the suttas say that this practice of the holy path is a very gradual training. The Buddha said just as you walk into the ocean, the ocean gets deeper and deeper, and slowly gets deeper and deeper. It does not suddenly sink very deep. So in the same way, the Buddha says our progress on this spiritual path is very gradual. And after some time of practice and study, then you have that confidence that you have unshakable faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. You have the confidence that you know enough Dharma that you can practice on your own, relying on the words of the Buddha and yourself. You don't need a teacher. Then you can say that you have the confidence that you have entered the stream

(EA11)-22-Significance-of-our-Dreams

Most of our dreams are not very significant. You see, in Malaysia, generally, about the age of seven, we go to school. Now, there are some people, before that age, before the age of going to school, sometimes things from the past life, they come more easily. So some people, including myself, we have certain dreams, certain sometimes convictions about yourself in the past that could be quite accurate, and then sometimes After going to school, some of those dreams that you used to have before going to school, they cease, they stop because when we start going to school, then we make a lot of friends and we our attention is caught by many things, worldly things. So our interest in all these worldly things start to increase, and so we forget some of those things from our past life. But sometimes if we meditate and we attain good concentration, and then As I said last night, the definition of sakti by the Buddha is that if a person has sakti, he remembers what was said and done a long time ago. So when we have very good concentration, sometimes memories of things that we have forgotten so long ago, when even before we were one year old, they come back, they come back very clearly, without any effort to remember. And then sometimes also in the dreams, you dream about your past life. For example, you dream that you were in a certain country, but you've never been to that country, but you're sure that you were in that country. And so when the mind becomes sharper, then we tend to remember better. But most of our dreams are not worth thinking much about it.

(EA11)-23-Reincarnation-of-the-Tibetan-Lamas

But for them, because they say that their Rinpoche, the precious one, must take rebirth again and again, so they start looking, and some of the ways they employ, A bit like Taoism, because I've seen Tibetan books where they get these lamas who go into a trance, go into a trance, and then they put water in them. They put water, and then they look into the water, and they can see things. For them it's important, to us it's not important. Sometimes we find it a bit hard to believe because in the last few years in America, some of these lamas, they go there and they don't keep their moral precepts well. There was one who used to sleep with a lot of women because a lot of women wanted to have another Rinpoche. When they have a son with this Rinpoche, then it's also another, somebody very special. So they become famous. So a lot of women lined up to sleep with that lama. So as a result of not keeping his precepts, he was drinking and all that. So before he died, his body had a lot of disease. That being the case, we would not expect him to come back in the human form.

(EA11)-24-Contradictions-in-the-Buddha's-Life-Story

See, it's very easy to repeat what another monk says. So most monks, most teachers, you hear some monk says this and you just repeat it. So the Buddha says just like in other religions, It's just like the case of a line of blind men. The first to the last are blind. The blind leading the blind. So we just keep following. Most people do not take the trouble to investigate so much. And also in many of our traditional Buddhist countries, this has been handed down generation after generation. So there is no reason for people to doubt, right? But like in my case, I was different because I was disappointed by my first teacher. So because I was disappointed by my first teacher, I did not rely on any other monk as my teacher. Instead, I went to the books and studied. Because whatever a monk can teach you, he has also learned it from the books, isn't it? So instead of relying on him, I went back to the books and I studied all the books. Now, when people study the books, for example, you study a sutta. When you study the sutta, there are several things that the Buddha says, and sometimes Usually, the first time we study that sutta, we don't grasp certain important points in that sutta. We don't see the importance of certain statements that the Buddha made. Then when you study it a second time, you might catch more points in that sutta. Then when you study it a third time, you again catch more points. Then you wonder, how come I didn't notice this before? So in the same way, sometimes people study the suttas and then they fail to notice certain important things. So it is for some of these reasons. Also, sometimes if you bring up some of these things, you make some people angry because some famous monk may have written that book, and then you go and say something different, you are challenging that famous monk, so you become unpopular. And besides, very few people will believe you also because you are not so famous. That's why nobody wants to be the bad guy. Everybody wants to be the popular guy.

(EA11)-25-How-to-Handle-Such-Contradictions

You can continue to teach what is in those books, but you can explain to the children, this is the legend about the Buddha's life. It is not necessarily true. This is the legend that they have passed down. And usually legends, they like to write beautiful things. They like to put the hero high up in the cloud. So the funny thing is, Recently, you all must have heard about the Da Vinci Code, yeah? For 2,000 years, Christians believed that Jesus was born of a Virgin Mary, yeah? And all the good things about Jesus. Now, people start to make research and found that in the Bible, it is actually stated that when Joseph Mary, that she had already conceived. So Joseph was not the father of Jesus. So because she had already conceived, they assume that God made her pregnant. Now after doing a lot of research, scholars come to the conclusion that she was either raped or seduced by a Roman soldier. So that makes Jesus an ordinary person. So why for 2,000 years nobody dug this up? Why 2,000 years everybody believed, millions and billions of people believed, now somebody comes up with this statement, shock everybody. Because he took the trouble to go and investigate. Most people never want to take the trouble, they just follow what the book say. The book say like that, I also follow like that. But very few people in the world will take the trouble to go and research and actually find out whether it is like that or not. So I'm one of those stupid people who go and do research and find out this kind of thing and become unpopular.

(EA11)-26-How-to-Make-the-Dhamma-as-our-Teacher

Now you have not come to that stage where you don't need a teacher. Now you need a teacher. We can't understand the sutra if we don't study it. We may not have that intelligence to understand. And the sutra is open to interpretation. Even the Shantikamsa Sutra, people love to have that kind of interpretation. Exactly. So we need to go for teaching. But you look for the teacher, that is another interpretation. So you must go back to what the Buddha said and study exactly what the Buddha said without all the distortion added by other teachers. If I study myself and I make my own interpretation further on, it will be even more further on than if I learn from a learned monk. Okay. I'm one of those few monks who stress on the sutta, so I have taught some suttas. So if you look at the four MP3s that I have brought, in the English one you will find two MP3s on the Anguttara Nikaya. I spent about 55 hours reading and explaining the suttas in the Anguttara Nikaya, not every single sutta, but most of the suttas. So if you listen to those tape talks, it would be much easier for you to understand the Anguttara Nikaya than if you were to read yourself, because this Orang Putih, their English is very high class, so sometimes you read those books, sometimes a bit hard to understand. So sometimes when I find some difficult words, I use a simpler word, simpler English word. And then those points that are doubtful, I try to explain and quote from other suttas to compare. So if you listen to my tape talks, it's much easier. Suttas are discourses of the Buddha. The words of the Buddha. Yes, original words of the Buddha. Because sometimes the Buddha would just discourse, just teach the people something. Sometimes people come and ask questions and then he replies. Now all this is the words of the Buddha.

(EA11)-27-Jesus-is-a-Meditator

Jesus was a meditator and he had at least the four jhanas. That's why he had some psychic powers like walking on the water. He didn't seem to have all the psychic powers like the Buddha had, but he had some of them. So he could have entered that state where his breath stopped and people thought that he was dead. Then after a few days, he'd wake up again.

(EA11)-28-How-and-When-Rebirth-Takes-Place

This view that rebirth takes place immediately is not a standard Theravada view. It is a view of those who follow the Abhidhamma. Those monks who follow the Abhidhamma, they say that rebirth is instantaneous. And they also say that just like one consciousness stops here, another consciousness starts somewhere else, that there is nothing that goes from here to there. Some of these ideas, if you study the suttas, you find it's not true. In the suttas we find that the Buddha said there are four types of beings. One enters the womb unknowing. He is not conscious of entering the womb. And then he stays in the womb unknowing. He doesn't know he is in the womb. And then he comes out of the womb unknowing. When he comes out also he doesn't know. That means his mind is not very clear, not very concentrated. Then there's another type of being that comes in the womb knowing, but he stays there unknowing, and then he comes out unknowing. Then there's another type that enters the womb knowing that he enters the womb. And when he's inside the womb, he also knows that he's inside the womb, but when he comes out, He's not mindful. He doesn't know. It's unknowing that he comes out. Then the third type is the best, like the Buddha. When he enters the womb, he knows. Probably he has chosen the womb to enter. When he's inside the womb also he knows. When he comes out also he knows. So that shows there is something that enters the womb. It's not that there's nothing that enters the womb. Okay, and then in the suttas, the Buddha says, if a being is to be reborn as a human being, okay, if there is going to be a human birth, three conditions must exist. Firstly, the mother and father must come together. Secondly, the mother must be in the right season, fatale. Thirdly, there must be this being that is waiting to enter the womb, only with these three conditions that the human birth can occur. So this being which is due to be reborn in the womb, when he dies, he has an existence called an antarabhava. Antara bhava means intermediate existence, intermediate existence. In our early suttas, there are five destinations of rebirth. Heavenly being, human being, these two are sukhati, happy destinations of rebirth. Then there are three woeful destinations of rebirth, the ghost, the animal, and the hell realm. So there are only five destinations of rebirth. But in the Abhidhamma, they added one more, just like in Mahayana books. So you can know that this is a later idea, they added the asura. It was not mentioned by the Buddha. Asuras are actually devas, definitely devas in the Digha Nikaya, it's mentioned. So, if a person is due for a human rebirth, the moment he dies, he has an intermediate existence, which is not one of these five. And the Buddha never bothered to explain this existence. He just says it is not one of these. It is just like a temporary stage waiting to enter the womb. So, Since this being that is entering the womb must wait for the right conditions, maybe if a person dies and is due to be reborn as an animal, he also may have to wait for a chance to enter the animal womb. So these two have to wait, not immediately. How long he has to wait, we don't know. It depends on the conditions. But there are some people like Professor Ian Stevenson. He is a professor in America. He has funds for research on rebirth. Whenever he hears of somebody who remembers a previous life, and there is enough evidence that this is a true case, Then the university will give him funds. He will fly to whether it's Burma or Thailand or anywhere to interview and find out. So another person who has written about rebirth is this Francis Story, one Englishman. And Francis Story has a book called Rebirth. And in this book there are cases of people who remember their past life. So it is mentioned there about one man who died. He said after he died, he had a body which was very small. And he came out of the body and he saw his previous corpse lying there, and then he saw the funeral, everything, and after that he didn't know where to go. He didn't know where to go, so he was waiting around, waiting around. One day he saw somebody from his sister's home going to a market and coming back with the na, with the basket. So he jumped into the basket. At that time when he died, the sister was pregnant. But somehow he went back to the house and became the sister's son. So it looks like he went inside and pushed out the other being. How? I don't know. Now, in the Sutta, it is also mentioned by the Buddha that if a being, his karma is so bad that he's going to die and be reborn in hell, then the Buddha said, hell beings will come up and drag him down to hell. So actually, gu dhau be bin bu. Ngau Tau Ma Min, Gu Tau Be Bin. So there are such things. And I have one supporter in Kampa, she told me a few days before the father died, he saw this Gu Tau Be Bin waiting for him at the door. So a few days after that, he passed away. So you see, this is mentioned, that if you go to hell, hell beings will come and drag you down. And it's also mentioned, the human rebirth, if you're going to be reborn back into the womb, you will have an intermediate body and you have to wait for your time to jump into the womb. So these two are mentioned clearly. What about the others? From people's experience, we have heard, like in the case of one very good Buddhist in Penang, he was dying of cancer. So the wife was looking after him, then the wife went to market. So the wife asked the neighbours who were Christians, an old couple, to come and look after him for a short while, then she went to market. And then later, after his funeral, this Christian couple related that when they were looking after him, they saw devas coming down, making offerings to him. So maybe people who are due to go to heaven, devas will come and bring you to heaven. that human rebirth, then ghosts. I've heard stories of one person who was a very fierce woman, very, very fierce. So two days before she died, two days before she died, her teeth came out, two long teeth came out like Dracula. And the family was very scared, tried to close the teeth, could not close. And she was sleeping, and two days later she died. Immediately after she died, the teeth also disappeared. That shows she had taken the form of that ghost and still in the body, but already taken that form. So it looks like ghost also should be immediate. So animal, animal probably have to wait and then hell will be dragged down. So this is the early Buddha's teaching. Not all is immediate.

(EA11)-29-Most-are-Reborn-to-the-Woeful-Planes

This being, in Chinese we call a ling-hun. This ling-hun is just a bundle of energy. This bundle of energy is ever-changing, right? But it carries with it the memories, carries with it the characteristics of that person, the DNA of that person. So if that person has a particular phase, so it's inside that ball of energy. So when he takes rebirth, also he will have that same kind of phase. Now coming back to what you said about the father, we Chinese believe that if your relative passes away, after seven days he comes back. Most of the time it's true, but not necessarily seven days. Sometimes after one day, sometimes after two, sometimes three, four, five. And most of our humans, we come back as ghosts. Why? The Buddha did mention in the suttas that all beings, after we pass away, most of us will go into the woeful planes. It's very easy to go to the woeful place. Very few come back as human beings, and fewer go to heaven. The higher you go, it's like a pyramid. The higher you go, it's less. The lower you go, more. So, why is it so easy for human beings to be reborn as a ghost? It's very simple to understand. It's that, just now I mentioned that heavenly beings and human beings are in that destination of rebirth called Sukkati, happy destination of rebirth. The other three are Dukkati, from the word dukkha, woeful destinations of rebirth. So because we are in a happy state of existence, every day that we live, we are using up our hokki, using up our good karma, our blessings. So the Buddha says heavenly beings, because of their very much blessings that they are enjoying life in the heavens, you hear about the deva having 500 devis as wives and all that, so having very nice time up there. Every day he enjoys himself, he's using up his karma. One day when his karma is used up, cannot stay as a deva anymore, he will fall down, he will die. So same with human beings, we enjoy life, we use up our karma. The moment we die, even though you don't do much evil, but your karma, good karma has been used up, so you must go lower down. And the next one is ghosts. Ghosts is not as bad as animals, so it's natural to go into the ghost realm. If your person is very violent character, very lustful, bad tempered, then you go into the animal realm. Then if you cheat people, kill people, then you go to the hell realm. So like if a person dies and immediately is reborn as a ghost, that ghost usually is very attached to the body. He will stay inside the body for some time. So like you said, you talk to your father and you see him to respond. It's not surprising if he's still inside the body, but he may have died and turned into a ghost.

(EA11)-30-Any-Way-to-find-out-the-Rebirth-of-our-Relatives

There is no way to find out. If you try to find out, you get cheated. But if your relative is in the ghost realm and your relative is suffering and wants your help, He or she will let you know, either through dreams or coming back to the house and walking around to let you know. Sometimes the window opens by itself, the light opens by itself, the fridge open and close and all that, just to let you know. So why do they want you to know? Because they are in a state of suffering. However much we suffer as a human being, it is sub-sub-zero, very little compared to the ghost realm. Ghost realm, they have nothing to eat. Every night they must walk the streets and eat the shit, C-K-C-R and all that, the corpses and all the dirt they have to eat. During our grandparents' time, our parents' time, they didn't have these modern toilets. They had these rubber buckets containing all the shit. Sometimes people walk into the toilet and then they are doing their job and then they look down, they see a ghost there and they faint. So you see, ghosts go to such dirty places to eat all the dirty things because they have nothing better to eat. So when they are in that state, they come back. I give you many real case stories. About two years ago, my friend in Kuantan called me up, a friend in the Buddhist Society. He had just retired, so his mother passed away. And then after keeping in the house for a few days, then they buried the mother. One day after burying the mother, the mother came back and entered the sister's body and called his name. So he got shocked. The way the mother spoke, the lips moving also exactly like the mother, the voice also exactly like the mother. And he told my friend, he said, I have something very important to talk to you about. And I'm very sorry I have to borrow, mention the daughter's name, I have to borrow her body to speak to you, but I have no choice. I know it makes her very tired, she said. She said, I have to speak now, otherwise later I have no chance to speak. Then she said, she's really suffering a lot. She comes back to the house, even her own house also she cannot enter. There's this house spirit, when you are a human being, you are the boss, you walk in and out. After you become a ghost, it's in a different state already, the house spirit will block you, you cannot enter, don't recognize maybe. So she was feeling a lot of dukkha. So my friend, being very ignorant of the Dhamma, He said, mòu biên, mòu biên. He said, continue to walk. Where it's bright, you go. Where it's dark, you don't go. I was thinking, in the ghost realm, everywhere is dark, isn't it? We have a bright place. So the mother realized that he couldn't help her, so she left. Ghost stories are very interesting, you know. I'll tell you another one. Many years ago in Penang, I had one lady supporter. Actually, she's a very pleasant Thai lady, married to a Malaysian Chinese in Penang, and the husband was not a very straightforward guy. So he would bring the wife to the temple and let her do dana, then he'd go away, and two, three hours later, he'd come and pick her up. So he himself never wanted to go into the temple, but one day he got sick, very sick to the point where he coughed blood. Then he thought he was going to die, so he prayed to heaven for life, and he made a vow that if he lived, he would change his ways. He would not cheat people. He would come to the temple to do dana and learn the dhamma and all that, and then he lived. So after that he started coming and he used to see me regularly and ask me a lot of questions about Dhamma. I started to teach him the Dhamma and I was learning quite fast. And then Chinese New Year came. The sister came back from KL, went to visit the mother in the old wooden house. When she entered the house, after a short while a ghost entered her and started calling for the brother's name. The mother got a shock. and asked him who he was, and he mentioned his name. Actually, he was this man's younger brother who died 10 years ago. He also used to join bad company and drink liquor and all that, and one day he got drunk. Coming back on the motorcycle, he got run over by a lorry and he died. So he called for his brother and he told the mother, he said, he's suffering. He's very hungry and his abdomen is in pain. Probably the lorry went over him. I still can feel the pain. So he said he wanted his brother to help him. So the mother got a shock, and the mother didn't know what to do. And the mother said, please go back wherever you came from, go back. So he saw that the mother could not help him, so he left. So later this man, The brother heard and he came to see me and told me about it. I said, you see, 10 years your brother never look for you. Now you learn the Dhamma, your brother comes to look for you. Why? Now got hope. Now this person learn the Dhamma, there's a chance that he can help his brother. Formerly when he doesn't know the Dhamma, even the brother came to him also, he wouldn't know how to help the brother. So I told him, your brother needs your help. You have to do some dana and transfer the merit to him. But before you do the dana, for the next few nights, every night, you light an incense and pray and tell him that you want to do dana on his behalf. In a few temples, the merit is his. That means he represents the brother to do the dana. So I told him to go to those temples where there are a few monks, and offer food, and offer either a piece of cloth or a robe on behalf of the brother, and every time he does that, transfer the merit. So he did that for a few days, then after that he transferred the merit, and then the brother didn't come back. So you see, it's interesting. After 10 years or so, they still keep an eye on you, waiting for the chance and you can help them. There's a chance when they come back. In Temo, where I stay, these villagers told me that 15 years ago, two sisters, about 15, 16 years old, around our area there, it's the Kinta Valley, a lot of axe mining ponds. So these two sisters, they want to gather this lotus flower, the seeds. People like to eat the seeds of the lotus flower. So the two of them, they didn't know how to swim. thrown a sampan to the middle of the pond, the big lake, to gather these lotus seeds, and then they died. The boat capsized and they died. Fifteen years later, one day they came back to the house. And they were seen standing outside the gate there, with their clothes all wet. The neighbour was surprised, who are these two young girls, peeping into the house, looking very anxiously at the gates there, looking into the house. So the neighbor looked carefully and got a shock, realized that these two girls died 15 years ago, and they still come back. After that, they went away. Then the neighbor told the grandfather. The grandfather was very surprised. So he, you know, a lot of our Chinese, they are not Buddhists, they don't know what to do, they were engaged They're more lower. Sai Kong come and pray. But ghosts, you pray for them, they don't want all your prayers. Just like you go to Africa, the Africans are hungry. You do chanting for them, they're happy or not. They want makan, isn't it? They want clothes, isn't it? So we should offer these two things, food and clothing.

(EA11)-31-How-Our-Past-Relatives-Get-Transferred-Merits

You see, like in these cases, they do once, they don't come anymore. You see, okay, I tell you one sutta. There's one sutta where a Brahmin came to see the Buddha, and this Brahmin told the Buddha, he said, Lord, we Brahmins have a custom. When our relative passes away, We offer food for them and we burn all the food. Will they get it?" he asked the Buddha. The Buddha said, whether they can get it or not depends on their rebirth. If they are reborn in heaven, they won't need it, isn't it? If they are reborn as human beings, they won't get it. If they are reborn as animals, they won't get it. If they are reborn in hell or so, they won't get it. Only if they are born as ghosts, they can get it. Then this man asked the Buddha, he said, what if my relative is not reborn as a ghost? Then the Buddha said, if this relative of yours is not reborn as a ghost, most likely you have other relatives in the ghost realm and they will get it. Then the Buddha said, even in the extreme case where you don't have any relative in the ghost realm, because you do this charity, you get the merit. So the Buddha did not explain why only ghosts can get. But I believe because only ghosts come back. If your relative is reborn as a dog, he might be fighting there with another dog. How to know what you are doing? That's enough. Even like today you are in this Buddhist society. Now you make a cup of coffee and you offer to your mother at home. Can your mother know that you are offering this cup of coffee? She doesn't know how can she get to drink. She must know that you offer it to her and she must accept. Then only you can drink. Yeah? She can drink. So only ghosts come back. So you see the Buddha mentioned that your relative can get it. So if it's not your relative, that ghost is not going to expect you to help. So he's not going to come to you. That ghost comes to you because he's a close relative or a close friend. So he expects you to help him. So somebody asked me, how come you transfer merit they can get? That's an interesting question. Because this world actually is like a dream. Everything is mind made. They have done experiments using hypnotism to put people to sleep. So if a person is asleep, and then in a state of deep sleep, then the doctor tells that person, I'm going to take a piece of metal to touch your hand, and this metal, I'm going to burn it until it's red hot. I'm going to touch your hand. And then he takes a pencil and he touches this person's hand, but the hand gets burned. Because the mind, the power of the mind, he believes that it's a red hot metal touching his hand. You touch him with pencil, also he gets burned. It's not surprising because in your dream, I'm sure many of you will experience in your dream, suppose in your dream somebody punches you in the face, during the dream actually you feel the pain, isn't it? But nobody punched you and yet in the dream you actually felt a punch or stabbed you or anything like that. So the mind, the power of the mind.

(EA11)-32-Right-Way-to-Transfer-Merits

If you want to send merit, you must have merit. You cannot go to the shop without any money and say, I want to buy something. So you must create that merit. Either you make offering to monks or anything and you transfer, or like that Brahmin, if you have no chance to make offerings to monk, then you burn a piece of cloth or you burn food and then you pray and offer it. But you must mentally tell them because they are psychic, they can read your mind.

(EA11)-33-Meat-Eating-and-Killing

The Buddha's teachings, offering meat or eating meat is alright, provided there are three conditions. You don't see, you don't hear, and you don't suspect that the being was purposely killed for you. So if you want to offer meat, for example, you go to the market, you buy the dead fish, You're not buying, you're not causing the death of the fishman. You're buying a dead fish and you offer, it's alright. meat that's already slaughtered. Now, some people say that if you eat meat, that creates the demand. Okay? That has economics, nothing to do with Buddhism. Why? Because if you use that argument, then you cannot sit in a car, you cannot own a car, you cannot even sit in a bus. Why? Because every day in this world, 2,000 human beings are killed on the road every day by vehicles. And not to mention innumerable animals are killed on the road every day by vehicles. So if you use a vehicle, you are encouraging the motor industry, more cars to be made. And more cars are made, more people will be killed. So are you guilty of killing human beings if you drive a car? That's the same argument, right? Then there's another simile I'd like to give you. Many years ago when I was working in government service, I was sent to Intan for training in the government training centre. And I met a prison officer from Taiping prison. And at that time, I'm not sure now, at that time, Tai Ping Prison, they hang people, you know, death sentence. So I was talking to him now about hanging people, whether prison officers do it. He said, no, no, no, we never do it. I asked him, who does it? He said, oh, we pay somebody from outside to do it. And he says it's a very simple job. On the day when this person is due to be hanged, so this person who is recruited to do the job, he follows the prison officer to that cell. Then the prison officer will open the cell door and bring out that person. This person, he knows he's going to be hanged. He's already half dead. Oops. They bring him out and they bring him to a place where he has to stand. And this place where he has to stand, actually there is a trap door where he is standing. So that person who is recruited to hang him will tie his hands and then blindfold him and then put the noose around his neck. Tighten the nose, then go to one corner and pull the lever. The trap door will open. Open, this man falls a few feet, maybe three or four feet. That's enough to jerk the neck and break the neck, the spinal bone. How to do that process? Huh? How to do that process? The cervical goes. Yeah. Maybe you can try something. Oh, I don't know about that, I haven't done it. So he hangs there for some time before he dies. Now this man who did the killing, the execution, he goes back that night, he cannot sleep. Second night also he cannot sleep. Third night also he cannot sleep. If he cannot sleep for three nights, very susah. So he has to drink himself drunk and fall asleep. Then next time, you invite him to come and do this job. This job is maybe half an hour job and gets paid 100 Ringgit. You ask him to come and do again, he'll never want to do again. But this prison officer told me there is one man who has done it for more than 10 years. And this prison officer told me that if you look at this man's face, you dare not look at him a second time. You see, for most of us, even to kill a chicken, we are scared. To kill a human being, you have to make your heart very hard to kill somebody. And to do it a second time, you have to make your heart stronger still to kill somebody. So he keeps doing this, so he becomes very hard inside. That's affected his face and change. Now I bring you this case which concerns you. Suppose now there is a serial rapist and a killer on the loose in Kuching and goes about raping women and killing, and even men also he kills, and he can strike at any moment and he has killed many people, okay? So what is the police going to do? Going to look for him, isn't it? So they spend some time investigating, looking for clues, everything. One day, finally, he's caught, okay? So then he's put into prison. After that, there's a long proceedings in the court, criminal proceedings. And finally, the judge says to be hanged until death, okay? So now, in the same way, this person goes to the prison and then one day he's hanged. Okay? So who has the biggest karmic offence for the death of this man? Is it the man who pulls the lever and hangs him? Or is it the judge? Or is it the policeman? All these have a share, isn't it, in the killing of that person? And you'd be surprised, you also have a share. Why? That man has to die because of you, because of the protection of your life, that the police have to catch that man and kill him before he kills you. That's enough. Yeah? Okay? So are you guilty? If not for you, the men don't have to die? Yes or no? So if you analyze the case, it may come to the conclusion that the biggest karmic offence is done by the man who pulls the lever, because ultimately he is the man who kills the hanged man, he is the man who kills that killer. So second heaviest karmic offence is the judge, because the judge passed sentence, even though He may be doing his job. Of course, one day he might say, I'm only doing my job only just to cari makan for my family. In the same way, the person who hanged that man, he also says, next day when he goes to see King Yama in the hell, he will argue his case also. He said, I only for 100 ringgit cari makan for my wife and my children, that's why I do this job. Will King Yama excuse him? You don't have to do this job. You can go and do some other job. Why must you do this job? And then if he says, it's not I who killed him, it's the judge. The judge passed sentence, you know. King Gyama would say, the judge only opened his mouth. You are the fool who pulled the, isn't it? So the second heaviest coming offence is the judge because he passed the sentence. How about the policeman? Policeman had no intention to kill him. Policeman only catch him because he has to do his duty, isn't it? So policeman should not have any karmic offense. How about you? Because of you, finally he has to die. You cannot have any offence if you didn't even know that you were caught and all that. So in the same way, when an animal is killed, the person who has the biggest karmic offence is the person who slaughters the pig or slaughters the chicken. He has the biggest karmic offence. The second heaviest karmic offence is the person who rears that animal. Some people rear chickens, rear pigs and all that, and they sell to the slaughterhouse to be slaughtered. That's why the Buddha said rearing animals for slaughter is one of the businesses, trades, that a layperson should not do. But you, makan that meat, you have no offence, even though because people want to eat meat that their animal was slaughtered. Just in the case line, the same case of that person is hanged basically to protect you, but you have no coming offence.

(EA11)-34-Killing-and-the-Value-of-Human-Life-Compared-to-Animal-Life

In the Vinaya, the Buddha mentioned that before he was enlightened, he was very scrupulous, that he would take a lot of care not to kill any being, even to the extent not to step on a puddle of water in case there were any beings inside. But in the Vinaya books after he was enlightened, the Buddha said that if you cannot see, if it's so small like bacteria you cannot see, it's alright, doesn't matter. Sometimes we have to use our wisdom. In the Vinaya books, it is mentioned that sometimes monks who live in the forest, when they come out of the forest to go to the town to beg for their food, sometimes they come across the carcass of a deer which was killed by a tiger, and the tiger had eaten half of the meat. Usually these tigers, when they eat a deer, it's too big to finish. They will eat as much as they can and after that, They have to wait for a few days for the food to digest before they can eat some more. So they will hang around that area to protect that deer from being eaten by other animals. He wants to lay a claim on that deer. But sometimes these monks pass by and they see the deer half-eaten and it's good meat, freshly killed. So they take that that deer meat and they bring it back to the monastery to be cooked for the monks. So some monks started thinking this is not right because the tiger having killed that deer, he wants to eat, the tiger wants to eat the rest of the deer. So you take that deer meat from that Tiger is like stealing from the tiger. So they complained to the Buddha. And what did the Buddha say? He said, it's alright. It's alright to take from animals. What that indicates is that human life is more important than animal life. Human life is more important. That's why, like in the monk's precepts, if a monk kills a human being, it's automatically no more a monk. He has to be destroyed, and he can never ordain as a monk again in this lifetime. But if a monk kills a bird, it's a small offence. Or if a monk kills a dog, it's considered a relatively small offence that he has to confess to another monk. And that matter is closed. So there is a difference between killing a human being and lesser beings. So to save a human life, I think bacteria is a very minor thing. For example, if you have worms and all that, I think even worms also you take whatever medicine is necessary. to take care of yourself, that is using your wisdom. Sometimes, you know, this killing process, in fact all the precepts, you cannot observe 100%, it's impossible to observe 100%. Suppose now your house has been attacked by white ants, are you not going to get somebody to come and spray and kill the white ants, otherwise your house is going to collapse? Yeah? Or if, for example, there is dengue fever, so you find some mosquito, what do you call it, lava in your garden in a bottle. It might be dengue, right? You might have to kill it rather than to take the risk of the dengue mosquito biting your son or your daughter. What is disallowed by the Buddha is unnecessary killing.

(EA11)-35-On-the-Precept-of-Consuming-Intoxicants

Drinking, actually in the suttas and the Vinaya, we find that the Buddha originally did not set up a precept against drinking. Instead, for laypeople, the Buddha set up seven precepts. Seven, not five. Three was bodily precepts and four verbal. The first precept, not to kill, not to steal. Actually, it's not not to steal. It's not to take what is not given to you. Third one, not to commit adultery. These three are bodily precepts. And then four, verbal, not to lie, not to carry tales to cause people to quarrel, not to speak coarse or vulgar language, and not to idle gossip. So originally there were seven precepts that lay people had to observe. Then one day the Buddha brought his disciples to a certain place, and I think the Buddha knew that there was a certain hermitage where the external ascetics prayed to a Naga. So the Buddha allowed one of his disciples with psychic power to go to that hermitage and stay in the shrine hall of that hermitage with the Nāgā there. So in the middle of the night, the Nāgā tried to attack the monk. He sent out smoke, and the monk sent out smoke also. He sent out fire, the monk also sent out fire, and there was a big battle in the night. Then the next morning, they thought the monk had died, but the monk came up and then showed that the Nāgā was caught inside his bowl. So after that, the monk became famous because of his psychic power. So when he went for an alms round the next morning, the villagers there were very impressed and wanted to make special offerings to him and ask him whether there was anything special that they could give him. By being a practising monk, he wasn't interested in anything special. But there were a few bad monks following him, and then they followed him and they heard that there was something special they could ask. They asked, what, toddy or not? So these people often drink. So they drank and this monk also drank. So this monk not being used to drinking, by the time he walked out of the city gates, he collapsed. Drunk. Had to carry him back to the monastery. So the Buddha called the monks and asked the monks, Now Sagatha is dead drunk. Can he fight with the Naga now? I think Sagatha, I think S-A-G-A-T-H. I don't think he was in Arahan because if he was in Arahan, I don't think he would be drunk. Because Arahan has got sati 24 hours a day. So from there onwards the Buddha set up the precept against liquor. It is also mentioned in the suttas that there was a follower of the Buddha called Sarakani. I think it's mentioned in my book, Liberation, Sarakani. This man could have been a monk before because it is said that he failed the training. So he disrobed and then he took to drinking, even though he was a disciple of the Buddha. And then when he died, the people asked what happened to him, and then the Buddha said, oh, he's a sotapanna. I mentioned last night that he's a sotapanna. So the people were upset. So from here you can see actually even a person drinks also can be a sotapanna. So the precept is not so much that you cannot drink even a drop. My interpretation, I may not be correct, but I'm always a bit liberal and I tend to want to follow the middle path. They say the guitar string must not be too tight, the guitar string must not be too loose. So some lay people, sometimes you have no choice, you have to entertain customers. Some people are doing sales, have to bring the customer to karaoke and all that. So they have to drink a bit. But if you understand that there is such a precept, at least you will tarik break. You don't go and get drunk. So you drink also, you drink a little, not too much. And then there are some people who enjoy a little bit of wine every night. But they still want to be Buddhist. But they don't get drunk. It's just a little bit of enjoyment. So I think it's all right. But for monks, different. For monks in the Vinaya, the Buddha said if there is a smell of liquor, there's a taste of liquor, then it's not allowed. But if you cook a dish for a monk, you put some liquor, usually it's alright. When you cook it, it evaporates.

(EA11)-36-Role-of-Catu-Maharajikas

They are not called Dharma protectors, they are called Chatu Maharajika, the four great heavenly kings. They are the lowest heaven in the sensual heavens. In the sensual heavens, there are six levels of heaven. The lowest one is this Catumaharajika. They are the four kings in this world of devas. And this world of devas are the low devas, like the Nagas. Nagas are snake devas, then the Garudas, Garudas are the bird devas, and then cloud devas, river devas, yakas, mountain devas, and all these. These are the low devas. And among these low devas, actually there's a lot of killing. There's a lot of killing. Some of them, like Yakas and all that, they kill to eat, just like Nagas. Nagas also kill to eat. And like Garudas also, they eat Nagas also. So they don't really protect the Dhamma. Yeah, Sitaikimkong, which is Chatumaharajika. People like to pray to them because people are afraid if we get disturbed, it's normally by these low devas, like mountain devas, river devas, earth devas, tree devas, and all that. So they come under these four Sitaikimkong, these four Jatumaharajika. So we pray to their king so that we ask their king to protect us from them. That's all.

(EA11)-37-Protection-from-Every-Precept-and-Virtue-Practised

Actually, if you practice Dhamma, we practice to be virtuous. And there's an Indian belief, and I believe it's true, that every precept that you keep, there'll be one Deva guarding you. It's not that they are following you all the time, but when there's any danger, there are unseen beings, what we call Kui Jin, protecting us. So every precept that we keep, there will be some protection for us. And every virtue, not only precept, every virtue you keep, for example, if you are humble, that itself is one quality that will give you added protection. Then if you are generous, there is another virtue where there will be more protection. Then if you are helpful to others, then there will be more. Then other qualities, if you are meek, you are not fierce, you are very meek, gentle type also. So it's good to practice virtue and good qualities. You see, like there are certain monks who go deep into the forest or go deep into caves to practice alone, and they are at the mercy of all these fierce devas and fierce ghosts. And yet, if they are virtuous enough, their virtue protects them. It's not the thangkaya or anything outside. Inside thangkaya is the best. And that comes from cultivation of your own self, the heart. Why? Because these beings are psychic. Whatever type of person you are, they can read your mind. So if you are virtuous, for example a monk is practising very hard, So this monk who's practising hard, at the very least, he will take rebirth as a deva. So these other beings, these unseen beings, they read his mind, they know, if I kill this man, he's going to turn into a bigger deva than me. He will wallop me. I better don't touch him. So sometimes, you know, you read in the newspapers, some people, they catch a big python, or they kill, and they kill the big python. A few days later, this man dies a mysterious death. I remember many years ago, there's one Indian, he killed a big snake, and he was found dead. kind of tied up. Why? Because some of these big pythons, they are Nagas. The Buddha said some of these heavenly Nagas, they come down to our human world to enjoy themselves. So if you kill them, their karma as a Naga has not finished. They will take immediate rebirth as a Naga again. Then they come and take revenge on you.

(EA11)-38-Contemplation-of-Past-Lives-by-the-Buddha

our Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, he said that he contemplated his past lives, not only his past lives, he contemplated the past, and he mentioned he contemplated 91 world cycles. You know, one world cycle is a very, very long time, extremely long time, very hard to imagine how long it is. So for him to contemplate 91 world cycles, he must have spent the whole night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., 12 hours contemplating, contemplating. And he said that he saw six past Buddhas. six past Buddhas. So only six past Buddhas actually were mentioned by the Buddha, but later books talk about 24 Buddhas, 28 Buddhas, and all that. And out of these six Buddhas, our Buddha Sakyamuni, he only met one Buddha, and that was a previous Buddha called Kassapa. And this is mentioned in the Gathikara Sutra, I mentioned last night. He was reborn as a Brahmin, and that he had no faith in the Buddha, but his friend managed to pull him to see the Buddha. And after listening to one discourse, he must have entered the stream. And then because he had attained the first jhana, he must have attained the Sakadagamin, second fruit. And I believe that all Buddhas, Sasakas, the Dhammin, they come back, they must enter Nibbana. That is why they will naturally go and become a hermit and practice. But after they become a Buddha, 99.99% of them refuse to teach. Refuse to teach. Because even like our Buddha, even though he was such an enlightened person, when he taught, also he got a lot of scolding from people. Even Devadatta tried to kill him. So it was mentioned after that he went to the Dusita Heavens. I mentioned last night that shows it doesn't mean a person gets jhāna, is born in the jhāna heavens. Sometimes if he does not indulge the whole day in jhāna, he can be reborn in the sensual heavens. Then he comes back as a human being the last time and enters Nibbāna. But that is mentioned. It's also mentioned in the sutra, the Buddha said, human lifespan starts with about 80,000, average lifespan of human beings, 80,000 years old. And then because of bad karma, it reduces, reduces, reduces until 10 years. Human lifespan can go down to 10 years. At that time, women, five-year-old can bear children. At that time, people will kill each other. And there's so much killing that some people will start to think. We remember last time our grandparents used to say that in the past, our forefathers had longer lifespan. By that time, they did not kill each other so much. So some people with a bit of wisdom, they run to the hills and start a commune where they keep the precepts and they don't kill. And then because of keeping precepts, their age starts to increase again. And then in the future, when human lifespan is 80,000 years old again, and then the Maitreya Buddha will come. In Bali, it's Maitreya Buddha, Melekut, will come at that time.