(E06)-01-Who-is-the-Buddha

Today's topic is supposed to be what is the Buddha's teaching. It's like an introduction to the Buddha's teaching. Firstly, I'd like to say about the Buddha. Who was the Buddha? Nowadays, there are a lot of books about Buddhism and unfortunately, many of these books are not accurate. So, a lot of us have been told that the Buddha was the son of a king. And this is not true. The Buddha's father was not a king. The Buddha lived in a country called Kosala. And the king of Kosala was Vasanadi. And the Buddha's father was also not the leader of the Sakyans. The Buddha belonged to a race called the Sakyans. The Buddha's father was just one of the many people in the warrior clan. And just like in Malaysia, we have Tungkus and Rajas. And sometimes you may find a Tungku or a Raja who's a poor Tungku. So in the same way, there are many kind of ordinary people of the warrior clan. And the Buddha's father was one of them. and I think very special. And the Buddha had something from the past that made him want to seek enlightenment. And if we study the discourses of the Buddha, the earliest teachings of the Buddha, we might come to the conclusion actually he was an anagama, a sakadagami, a person who had attained the second Aryan fruition. In the Buddha's teachings, there are four types of, actually eight types of holy men. The first path, the first fruit, second path, second fruit, third path, third fruit, and fourth path, and fourth fruit. So the Buddha appeared to have been Sakadagami, what is called a once-returner. A once-returner is a Arya who comes back to the human birth, comes back to be born as a human being for the last time, after which he must enter Nirvana. It's like a durian, which is ripe, must fall to the ground. So, that being so, that's why in spite of coming from a rich family, having a young and beautiful wife, and the son was just born, yet despite all that, he left all the for the security of the household to seek enlightenment. So, now that we are followers or disciples of the Buddha, how is a person defined as a Buddhist? The Buddha said, we become a Buddhist when we take refuge in the Triple Gem. We take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Taking refuge means we believe that the Buddha was enlightened and then we follow his Dhamma, his teachings. And the Sangha is the community of monks and nuns who practice a lot according to the Buddha's teachings and also teach the Dhamma. So you become a Buddhist by taking refuge. But you don't have to take the refuge with a monk. You can just take the refuge yourself. And then after you become a Buddhist, a normal Buddhist is expected to keep the five precepts, panca sila. Just like the Christians have the Ten Commandments, we have the panca sila and basic precepts. The first one, not to kill. Second one, not to take what is not given to you. Third one is not to commit adultery. Fourth is not to lie. And the fifth is not to take intoxicants. These are the five basic precepts that if we keep these five precepts, then we don't harm other beings, then there will be much more peace in the world.

(E06)-02-God

Now, the other thing, major thing you find different in the Buddha's teachings compared with other religions is concerning God. In almost all religions, you find that the God is the central concept in their religion. You just have to believe in their God and that's it. Don't ask questions. So, when I was young, I was in a Catholic school for 12 years. So I also had to study the Bible and all that. So I developed a love for the Catholic religion and when I was in Form 5 I was convinced in spite of what my mother says, in spite of what my father says, I'm going to be a Catholic. But when I was in Form 6 I started to have a lot of questions. For example, if God is merciful Why did God create hell? God can make everybody go to heaven. Why must God create hell? Another question. God is supposed to be omniscient. He knows everything in the past. Everything in the present and everything in the future is going to happen. He knows. So if God knows everything and He creates a human being, He will know whether this human being is going to heaven or hell. So if he knows that this human being is going to hell and put on hold, don't make him. So all these questions brought up a lot of doubts in me. I gave up religion for many years and then later I came back to religion and started studying all the various religions until I came to Buddhism and I found that the Buddha's teachings is quite different, very different. The Buddha's teachings is quite deep and profound. So a lot of people who are supposed to be Buddhist, we are namesake Buddhists but we don't really understand the Buddha's teachings. Now, in Buddha's teachings, this god is actually a force that governs the world. A force that governs the world. But this force that created this earth and all that is not a being. We are human, so we tend to give human qualities to the God that we don't understand. So we say God is merciful, we say God is omniscient, God is all-powerful, we must be God-fearing and all these things. So we make God as if God is a human being, at least a living being. But in the Buddha's teachings, God is just Mother Nature. Mother Nature is something we need to understand, not to fear. And Mother Nature has certain laws, certain laws of nature that we have to understand very well. And if we understand, then we live our lives skillfully, so that we suffer less. And those people who don't understand the laws of nature, they go against the law of nature by killing, by stealing, by raping and all these things. So eventually they will get what they sowed, as the Bible says, as you sow, so shall you reap. What you give to others, you get back in return. It's a natural law of nature. that the Buddha calls the law of kamavipaka, or in Chinese we call it yin guo. So even Christians recognize this law. In fact, all religions recognize this law. What you give to others, you get back in return. But the problem is Sometimes in other religions, they have some other contrary belief. For example, that there is some super being that can help him. Sometimes they say like they believe in God, and then God can overcome all this law of kamalipaka. For example, if a person has done a lot of evil deeds, then when he's about to die, he's fearful, very fearful. So sometimes you tell him, if you just convert to our religion, heaven is sure for you. You will definitely go to heaven. So when a person is desperate, then he will want to believe that. But then, rather than believe in something that you can't see, why don't we see back in this life itself? Can you find any one particular religion where if you enter that religion, you convert to that religion, then the God will protect you and you won't get cancer, you won't get AIDS, you won't get all kinds of sickness. Can you find any such religion? You can't find? Every religion you can find people with cancer. people with AIDS, people with all kinds of sickness, right? So even in this life itself, you can see very clearly, no one can protect you. Whatever religion you belong to, it's all the same. So in Buddhism, if you don't believe that you can arrive to heaven, tak boleh makan suap, just by believing that you can go to heaven. You have to work for it.

(E06)-03-Kamma-Vipaka

That's why one of the basic principles in the Buddha's teachings is this law of kamavipaka. So in the law of kamavipaka, in fact one day one man came to ask the Buddha, he said, Bhagavata, why is it that in this world you can see humans are different? Some humans are born handsome or beautiful. Some are ugly. Some are born very intelligent. Some are idiots, born wrong. Some are born into a wealthy family, have a very good life. Others are born into a very poor family. Some have good health. All their life they have good health. But some are born very sickly. From the moment they are born until they die, always very simply, some people are like that. So you ask the Buddha, why? Why is it people are like that? So suppose, for example, if you are born with one eye, one eye blind, then if you think that some creator created you, then you say it's not fair. How can? Workmanship tak bagus. Make me half-blind. But if you believe in the law of karma vipaka, then you will understand everything that you get, every single thing that you get, it's what you deserve. No more, no less. So the Buddha said, it's because of past life karma that beings are born different. If a person has a very bad temper in the past, always angry, what happens when you are angry? You become fierce, isn't it? What happens when you become fierce? Your face becomes fierce. So if your face is angry and fierce, and every day you are like that, then after the matter of habit, you are always making your face very sour, and very fierce, then you'll be born ugly. But if you are very sweet-natured, anything people say, so you laugh and you smile. Sweet-natured, like sugar. So you'll be born beautiful. Again the Buddha said, if you don't know something and you don't inquire, You don't investigate, you don't ask. So it's natural that you won't be very intelligent. But if you don't know something, you inquire, you ask, you try to find out, then you will be intelligent. Also, if you meditate, if you meditate, always keeping your mind focused, If you focus your mind and you focus it well enough, the light will come from within you. That's why you see in the pictures of the Buddha, sometimes they show a light on the top of their head. Even Christians, because I came more from a Christian background, you have pictures of Christian saints with a halo around their head. What is this halo? It's light, aura. So this comes from meditation. Surely Jesus Christ was a great meditator. That's why he could walk on water. Just like some of our Arahants. So, if you meditate, there's a way to being intelligent, wise. Also, don't take liquor, don't take drugs, spoil your brain. You won't be intelligent in the next life. So these are the ways of becoming intelligent. Then, why is a person born into a rich family? Because that person was generous in the past. If you are generous, you are always helping people. So, you'll be born into a rich family where you always have plenty. Or your person is always stingy, don't want to help others. Then you don't create good affinity. Then you're born in a poor family. Then you want to chari makan, so susah. If you have good affinity with a lot of people, people see you only. Muka manis. People like you. Or can they say, ulang ian. El yin. So, if you open a shop or something, everybody wants to come and be your customer. So that is how to have a good life, be wealthy. Why are some people sickly? The Buddha said because they like to torture others. You know, some people they like to torture animals, make their body painful. And then when, like during my parents' time, my grandparents' time, they had slaves. So last time you can buy a slave, a man's slave or a woman's slave. And you think that slave is my slave, I can do anything. Sometimes they beat the slave, torture the slave. So you make other beings have pain in their body. Next time you'll be reborn with a painful body, always sickly. Because you don't torture other beings and then you will have a very healthy body. Why is it some people are born with short life, some with long life? You see, sometimes children, very young, they get leukemia and they get cancer. If you think that we are made by a living being up there, then you see it's not fair. This child, this boy never did any evil. Why must he suffer from cancer? If you understand the law of Kamalipaka, then you know in the past, he did a lot of killing. So he come, he get a short life. You make other beings have a short life, then you will naturally get a short life. If you don't kill, you allow other beings to have a long life, then you will very naturally have a long life. So these are the laws. things in this law of kamavipaka in gold.

(E06)-04-Cosmology

There are other teachings of the Buddha which are more on the spiritual path. Before I come to that, I will talk more about this universe. You know, the Buddha, even 2,500 years ago, he had not made radio telescopes. Nowadays, you have radio telescopes in America that can see so far away. But the Buddha had a more powerful telescope inside. And the Buddha talked about expanding world systems and contracting world systems that even scientists don't know yet. So what is this expanding and contracting world system? Firstly, the Buddha talked about a small thousand-fold world system. Then he talked about middling, thousand-thousand-fold world system. Then he talked about great, thousand-thousand-thousand-fold world system. So what is this? The Buddha said one world system consists of one sun. If you look into the sky at night, you find a lot of stars. Every star is a sun. So every star is a world system. And in every world system you can expect to find human beings. So one thousand of these stars makes up a small thousand-fold world system, what scientists nowadays call the galaxy. Right? In other Buddhist books, they talk about Chakravala. This thousand-fold world system they call Chakravala. What is a chakra? A disc, right? So you see, so long ago they already know that the galaxy is a disc. Now only scientists understand that the galaxy is flat like a disc. So what the Buddha was trying to say that 1,000 of these forms 1,000 fold small world system. Then 1,000 of these forms the middling 1,000, 1,000 fold world system. And then another 1,000 of these form the great 1,000, 1,000, 1,000 fold world system. And the Buddha said that time has no beginning and time has no end. And now Professor Stephen Hawking also verifies. Professor Stephen Hawking, by his calculation, now has verified what the Buddha said. And the Buddha also said in the suttas, the discourses, that space is boundless. You cannot find the limits of space. And Professor Stephen Hawking also verified what the Buddha said. But one other thing he has not verified. What the Buddha said? The Buddha said that our consciousness, we can cultivate our consciousness until it becomes boundless. You see, every living being, our consciousness goes to a certain extent. For example, if you think about a line of ants, a line of ants walking. So you stand there and you look at the line of ants. Where are these ants going to? So can the ants look up and look at you? Can they see you? Cannot. Why? Because their consciousness is limited to such a small, they can't see us. So in the same way, our consciousness is not very big also. We can see only to a certain limit. So maybe some deva, some heavenly being up there is looking down at us, and we look up, we cannot see him. Just like the ant. So the Buddha said, if you cultivate your consciousness through meditation, you can expand your consciousness. That can become boundless. So now, this thousand-fold world system, the Buddha says, expands and contracts. What he means by that is that these stars, they go further and further away from each other. and then they go up to a certain limit, then they come closer and closer to each other. So now what the scientists have found out is that they see the stars in our galaxy are expanding, going away from each other. But they start scratching their heads. Is this star going to expand forever? They don't know. They don't know. But the Buddha knew. They will expand up to a certain limit. After that they will contract. So when they contract, what happens? They will keep on contracting and contracting and contracting until the Buddha said one day, you see now we see one sun. Just one sun. These few days already so hot. Tak boleh tahan. So after a long time, the Buddha says, you will see another sun come. Abyss. Sun coming. One sun that will be tahan already, another sun coming into our world. So when the second sun comes, why does the second sun come? Because the stars are contracting. They're coming closer and closer and closer to each other. So when the second sun comes near us, then the plants will die, human beings will die, all the animals will die. After a long time, because the stars keep on contracting, the third sun will come. Then the small rivers will dry up, small ponds will dry up. Then after that, the fourth sun, the fifth, the sixth, until seventh sun. When seven suns are around us, then the world will burn. And they all come together. All these stars come together and they burn and burn and burn, and then they form one One mass, and this mass is a very big, solid, heavy mass. And scientists nowadays, they have discovered this, you know what they call it? A black hole. Black hole is a solid mass in space, which is so big and so solid, that anything flying near to that black hole gets sucked inside. Actually, this black hole is emitting light. emitting a lot of light. But because it's so huge, its magnetic pull is so strong, the light, what they call the photons, the light particles go out and get sucked back, go out and get sucked back. So you can't see, can't see. So it appears like dark, but actually it's not dark. So it keeps sucking things like anything flying by, it gets sucked in. Then after a long time, what happens? Big bang. Then it gets scattered all over the place. Then after a long time, they circle and circle and then stars form again. So this happens from the beginning of time to the end, eternity. It never ends. So this is natural. laws of nature. You know, if you study the Tao Te Ching, it says the Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. So that Tao is actually also God. It's a force, a being. It's not a being, it's a force that governs the world. And the Tao Te Ching says that from the Tao, millions and millions of things are created. So they just call it the Tao, they don't call it God. But actually it's the same thing. So now you understand how the world, our world, is going to end. In the Bible, it says it's going to end by fire, but it's never explained very well. But the Buddha explained very well. very scientifically explained.

(E06)-05-Five-Destinations-of-rebirth

The Buddha said that living beings, we have five places of rebirth or five destinations of rebirth. The highest is the heavenly planes. Heavenly planes are also many many levels of heavens. The heavenly beings in the lower heavens bodies like human beings, but they look like 16-year-old guys and girls from the moment they are born until they die, millions of years later. Life in the heavens is extremely happy and joyful. Next is the human realm. Human beings also are considered a happy destination of rebirth. Below the heavens and the human realm are the three woeful planes of existence. The first is the ghost realm. A human being is reborn into the ghost realm because of lacking blessings or merit. And most human beings are reborn in the ghost realm basically because of not doing charity, buse or dana in Bali. And in the animal realm, human beings are reborn here because of greed, lust, and anger. We notice in the animals these characteristics of greed, lust, and anger. And if we kill or steal, commit adultery, etc., we can be reborn in the hell realm. Here is the worst existence and because it is suffering, extreme suffering in hell. Existence in hell is like eternal. When a being is reborn in hell, he knows exactly why he is suffering in hell. And existence in hell is extremely long. Now of all these five destinations of rebirth, the human realm is very important. Because in the human realm we create much more karma or intentional action. We create much more intentional, we use our will much more than other places of existence. So the human existence, our life here, determines the next few lifetimes that we are going to be reborn into. So that is why we should be extremely careful with human existence. Now the Buddha's teaching is called the Dhamma. And basically, the Buddha teaches the laws of nature, or the laws of God. And If we live our life according to the laws of nature, we have less suffering. If we go against nature, then we have more suffering. Now, the law of nature that affects our life most is the law of karma vipaka, what you call yin guo in Chinese. Karma is intentional action. Every time we act intentionally or using our will, or do something purposely, that is karma, that is creating karma. And vipaka is the fruit or the result of the karma that we do. Now the law of karma, vipaka, says that we get what we give out to others, or as they express it in the Christian Bible, As you sow, so shall you reap.

(E06)-06-Four-Ariyan-Truths

Now, we come to the core of the Buddha's teachings or the central doctrine in Buddhism. This is the Four Aryan Truths or the Four Noble Truths. This is the most important teaching in Buddhism. The first truth is the truth of Dukkha, that all existence is Dukkha, basically. The Buddha said, not getting what one wants is Dukkha. and we can understand even getting what you want is also dukkha because eventually it will change because of the impermanent changing nature of life for example you may get a beautiful partner in life but after some time that person would pass away either because of sickness or because of old age and then when that person passes away then you will have much Dukkha. Associating with the disliked is Dukkha. In other words, if somebody you dislike is always associating or coming near you and that is Dukkha. And dissociating from the liked is also Dukkha. In other words, somebody that you love goes away from you and that is Dukkha. And basically this body and mind is Dukkha. This body and this mind gives us Dukkha. Now the second truth is the cause of Dukkha. The Buddha said that the cause of Dukkha is craving of attachment. This is the time of your life as university students, when the guys chase after the girls and the girls chase after the guys. Now, suppose a girl knows a handsome guy and it is not her boyfriend, and she just knows him as a friend and one day she sees him joking and laughing with another girl and that's no problem for her because she does not consider him as her boyfriend but suppose later she has a crush for him an attachment for him then you can see dukkha arising why? because if she sees this boyfriend laughing and joking with another girl, then dukkha arises. Or if she's going steady with him, and then somebody seals him away from her, in other words, potong jalan, then again, dukkha arises. So we were talking about potong jalan. Suffering comes about through attachment. And we attach to anything and it changes. then we suffer. Now the third noble truth is there is a state which is no dukkha. And this state of no dukkha is called nibbana or nirvana. Nibbana is Pali, nirvana is Sanskrit. And this is a state of no suffering. And this no suffering state comes when you realize no self, that essentially there is no self in this being. And this state of Nibbana is the highest bliss. The Buddha said the state of Nibbana is the highest bliss. And actually, like the Buddha, he has entered Nirvana, his consciousness has stopped. And yet the Buddha says that is the highest place. How do you understand that? To understand that, I'll give you a simile. You know when we go to sleep at night, there are two types of sleep. One is the dream state. When we go to sleep, we must dream. So when you dream, you're quite agitated. It's like seeing a show with yourself acting in the show. You're chased by a ghost or something and get all excited. So it is not a very restful sleep. At the end of that type of sleep, you get up, you still feel tired. But there is another type of sleep, a very deep state of sleep. In this deep state of sleep, you have no dreams at all. No dreams at all. It's so deep that you don't even know that you exist. But it's so sweet that when you get up, you want to sleep again. So that gives you an idea of what Nibbana is like. Whenever you have that self, there is suffering. Trying to protect the self all the time. Even in your dream also you want to protect the self. So that is the third truth. The fourth truth is there is a path leading out of suffering. And this path is called the Noble Eightfold Path. There are eight factors in this path, but it can also be simplified into three sections. The three sections are called Sila, Samadhi, Pannaya. Sila is moral conduct. Samadhi is concentration. Concentration comes from meditation. You learn to focus your mind. Our minds are normally not focused. That's why we don't see things very clearly. Our IQ is not very high. But if your mind is focused, then you have a strong mind. Like Albert Einstein. Probably in the past life, he meditated a lot. So his mind is so good, sometimes long calculations, we need a calculator. He will close his eyes and do all the calculations in the computer here, and come out with the answer. How many of us can do that? and it shows his mind is really focused. So that comes from meditation, concentration. So the third part is pannaya. Pannaya is wisdom. Wisdom. So the pre-condition for wisdom is focused mind. When your mind is focused, then you can see things very clearly. So that is part out of suffering, the Noble Eightfold Path. So these are the four Noble Truths.

(E06)-07-Dependent-Origination

Now, because of impermanence, the Buddha said, everything in this world is dependently arisen. Everything in this world is dependently arisen. A lot of us, we don't really think about it, but what does this mean? It means that every single thing in the universe was not actually created by somebody. It came about through causes and conditions. Can you find anything in this room which existed by itself? For example, you look at this mug. It was made by some factory, right? Now, before it was made by that factory, what was it? Maybe clay. Where did that clay come from? Also, that clay has a history of its own. It was something else and then maybe leaves and all that fell into the ground and then over a long period of time, the leaves mixed with the soil and then due to the compression of the earth, it formed clay. Then before that clay was formed, what was it? Again, the soil and the leaves and all that. And before that soil and the leaves, again it was something else. So everything in this world, You cannot find a single thing that exists by itself. Everything is causally arisen, conditioned. Everything is conditioned in this world. So that is another fact of life that the Buddha taught.

(E06)-08-Six-Senses

Now the one is the Buddha talking about the six senses. Six senses. That the whole world, everything arises within the six senses. Okay. What does it mean? Actually it means that we have six consciousness. At our six organs, you see, for example, the eye. From the eye, you get the seeing consciousness. From the ear, you get the hearing. Nose, the smelling. The tongue, the tasting. The body, the touch, contact. And the mind, the thinking. So the Buddha says, the whole world is within these six senses or the six consciousness. Now if I ask you, where is the world? You say, the world is all around me. Where are you? This one. So you see, you are aware of the world because firstly you see the world. And then you hear the sounds of the world. You smell the smells of the world. You taste all the food of the world. You can touch. This table is solid to me, how can you say it doesn't exist? It's real to me. And then the mind is our internal world. Now, so most of us, we think that the eye sees the world, our eye sees the world, right? But if your eye actually can see the world, bring you to the operation theater, have a quick operation, take out your two eyes, put on the table, See, see. Look, look. Can see or not? Can your two eyes see? Can't? Your eyes cannot see? Your eyes help you to see, just like the spectacles. Spectacles help me to see, but after spectacles, go and see the world. Can you see? Cannot see, yeah? Actually, you don't need your eyes to see. Why? Because at night, when you go to sleep, you start dreaming. You see another world. But your eyes are closed. How come you can see another world? So actually, you don't need your eyes to see. It's the consciousness that makes you see. That's why some people, when they are about to die, and then they see hell coming in front of them, they're going to be reborn in hell. They scream. They scream before they die. So it is consciousness that makes you see, that makes you hear, and smell, taste, etc.

(E06)-09-Five-Aggregates-and-No-self

The Buddha said, whenever we refer to ourselves, what is it that you call yourself? We always refer to ourselves as the body. This body is me, or this mind is mine. So we always refer to the body and the mind as ourselves, whether it's in the When you talk about yourself in the past life, or the present life, or the future life, always refer to this body and this mind. This body and this mind is called the five aggregates, wǔ yīn in Mandarin. And this wǔ yīn is shì, shòu xiǎng xíng shì. So it's the body, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. The last four is the mind. The first one is the body, body and mind. Now, the Buddha said, in your body and in your mind, can you find the core? Can you find a soul that exists by itself, that never changes? Now we come to the core of the Buddha's teachings that makes the Buddha's teachings surpass all other religions. Why? The Buddha talked about Anatta, no-self. Anatta is something very hard to understand and very hard for us to see and very hard for us to admit. Why? Because we hold on to the self, our ego. We cling to this ego. And this is the cause for suffering in the whole world. We fight with each other because of our ego, our self. We think that there is a I here, there is a me here, and my child, my family, my race, my religion, everything, and people fight. All because of the ego, the self. But Buddha says actually there is no self. How do you understand this? The Buddha likened our body, gave the simile of foam. You know when you wash your clothes, you wash with fat, there's a lot of foam. The Buddha said our body is just like that. Now when you examine our body, what do you find? Inside our body is millions and millions of cells, si pao, cells. And these cells arise and Some die, some are born, some are dying. Just like the foam. Foam, the bubbles, some burst, some are formed. Some burst, some are formed. So our body is also like that. And scientists tell us that these cells are changing and changing. And every seven years, all the cells in your body are completely changed. Every seven years, you get a new body. So now, can you find anything in your body that you call me? This is me. This is I. And this thumb is me. Seven years later, you got a new thumb. Where is that me? So, when you analyze the cells again now, what do you find? Inside the cells, you find atoms. Atoms. So our whole body is made out of atoms. Nowadays, scientists tell us that atoms are like space. When you look into the sky at night, you find that 99.99% of space is empty. Here and there, you see a star. See a star here. So far away, you see a star. But 99.99% is empty. So atom is also like that. Inside the atom, you have particles of energy. You have electron, you have proton, you have neutron, you have photon, you have meson. You have particles of energy moving here and there, moving here and there. But 99.99% is empty. So because your body is made up of atoms, you are 99.99% empty, man. Fantastic, isn't it? That's a fact. So how is it you see yourself as this beautiful body? The Buddha said we are dreaming. Because that 99.999% emptiness is consciousness. Thousands of years ago, the Hindu saints already said, we are pure consciousness. But we don't see our real nature. Our real nature is all emptiness. You see, like somebody like the Buddha, because he has understood it, he has made his mind boundless, so he can know what's happening on some other place that normal human beings would not know. So this is the height of the Buddha's teachings, to understand your real nature inside you. So when you understand your real nature inside you, you have actually seen God face to face. That's why when the Buddha was enlightened, he said, O house builder, thou art seen. He has seen this body he calls the house. So this house builder, the Buddha has seen. He said, you will never build this house again. So the Buddha has woken up from the dream. That's why the Buddha is called the awakened one. We are still dreaming. So you see how deep is the Buddha's teachings? So because of our feeling that we have this self, We are struggling from the moment we are born until we die. We are struggling so hard to protect this self. And not only this self. That everything that is associated with the self, my family, those of my race, those of my religion, my countrymen. So people go to wars and kill each other. All because of not understanding their real nature. So somebody like the Buddha who is enlightened, he has no self. Or you can say, all the beings in the world is his real self. So there is one holy Hindu saying, he said, an ordinary person sees himself in the world, but an enlightened person sees the world in himself. The whole world is inside himself. That's why the Buddha had a disciple called Anuruddha. His psychic power was so great, he could see the 10,000 world-fold systems like in the palm of his hand, so small. He could see the whole world, 10,000 world systems in the palm of his hand. That's why this story about the monkey god. He couldn't jump between the two fingers of the Buddha. So okay, stop here. We don't have questions.

(E06)-10-Questions-and-Answers

Here I've got a question. I want to ask, why somebody can see ghosts but why somebody cannot? Is it from, is it that it's kind of karma or what? Yes, yes. That is what you call yam-yong-an. And yam-yong-an is not psychic power. Because, like the Buddha and his disciples, they have psychic power. They can see devas and devis. But this person with yam-yong-an, he only sees ghosts. He cannot see devas. Why is that? Because I think his frequency is the ghost frequency. He has been born in the ghost realm so many times. His affinity is with the ghost. So if he's not careful, he will be reborn in the ghost realm again. So it's not a good thing. I want to ask whether Buddhism believes in rebirth? Oh, definitely. We believe in rebirth. In fact, somebody like Jesus Christ actually also believed in rebirth. There was a man in America many years ago called Edgar Cayce. They call him the sleeping prophet. He could heal people. by sleeping and telling them about their sickness. Sometimes doctors could not heal somebody. This man would go into a deep sleep state. Initially he had to be hypnotized to go into a deep sleep state. Later he became quite good and did not need to be hypnotized. Then when people had certain sicknesses which doctors could not cure, he talked about past life, about past life karma. But he was a Christian. So, you know when he was in that deep sleep state, he would talk, and then when he wakes up, he doesn't remember what he said. So his family members have to tell him what he said. Then he scratched his head. How come I talk about karma and rebirth? And then, being a Christian, he thought there should be no rebirth. Then he started investigating. the earliest Bibles. And then he found that actually early Bibles did talk about rebirth. Then there was a time when Emperor Constantine, the Roman Emperor, he didn't like this thing about rebirth. He deleted it from the Bible. In those days, the Roman Emperor was very powerful. But in spite of trying to delete this, because last time I also studied the Bible for my exam, there is a section in St. John gospel according to Saint John, where a priest came to see Jesus in the middle of the night. Jesus was like a rebel, you know. He was quite different from other priests. So people don't like to associate with him, you know. Just like nowadays, Ayyapin. They're going to associate with Ayyapin and get in trouble. So, so they This priest at night, he came to see Jesus and he asked Jesus, he said, Lord, are we to believe that man must be reborn again before he can enter the kingdom of God? And then Jesus said, truthfully I say unto you, unless a man be reborn again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Then again the priest asked him, what? You mean we have to go into the womb again? And Jesus again said, yes. Again, Jesus said, truthfully, I say unto you, a man must be reborn again before he can enter the kingdom of God. Then Jesus told him, you are supposed to be a priest, a man who knows holy things, such ordinary things you don't understand. How can you understand higher things? And Jesus said, unless a man be reborn of spirit and of water, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now, born of spirit and of water, nowadays Christians interpret that to mean that water means you must baptize, then only you can go to heaven. And spirit means probably you have to drink when you go for Mass, Holy Communion, you have to drink that wine. The wine, they say, is the blood of Jesus Christ. So that is their belief. But if you study the Buddha's words, then you can understand. The Buddha said there are four types of birth. The lowest one is born from eggs. Born from eggs. We know birds, certain reptiles, snakes, and all that, born from eggs. And then after that, born from womb, thai, born from the womb, just like human beings, like horses and all that, born from the womb. And then after that, born from vapor or water. And then the last one, born of the spirit, is direct transformation. And suppose now I'm going to be reborn in heaven. The moment I die here, I will immediately be reborn as a Deva. I don't need to go and wait inside the womb. I don't need to wait inside an egg. Straight away, that's born of the spirit. And then the Buddha said, this direct transformation and born of vapour is higher than the other two, higher than egg-born and womb-born. So egg-born and womb-born, it's like you can see in animals. But this vapour and direct transformation, the Buddha is talking about devas. Maybe there are some devas born in the clouds. So that is the vapour. And then the direct transformation one is directly you see yourself as a beautiful or handsome deva or devi. In fact, there are some things in the Bible that you will understand better after you study the Buddha's words. Then you can understand what Jesus was trying to say. Okay? If you have any questions, you can write down if you are shy to ask. Actually, this Phong San, is in Theravada Buddhism, we don't really do it because like this fish or birds that you try to liberate, seems like not much good can come out of it. Last time in Kuala Lumpur, the Brickfields Temple, every Visak day, the chief monk will release a lot of birds. Then later, some of his supporters told him, Every time Vesak day comes, the bird shop will be full of birds. That means they go and catch. They know you're going to release, they go and catch a lot of birds. So you don't buy, they don't catch. So also, from my experience, I have seen that many occasions they release these birds and all that. The birds have been kept in the cages for so long, they don't know how to chari makan. They don't know how to chari makan at all. So some of them have been caged for so long, they can't even fly. They don't have muscle to fly. So sometimes, I've seen, they fly up to a branch. The next day, after one day or two days, because he doesn't know how to chari makan, he's so weak, fell to the ground. Then they see the cat or the dog coming to eat, so they have to go and catch and put in a cage again. So not much good comes from it. But if you so happen to see somebody going to slaughter a sikyokusei or a tortoise or something, then you buy from him just to save that animal. It's okay. But if you buy it regularly, then people will catch waiting for you to buy. If you always do all the good things in this life, right, can you make sense of all the... can you make sense of all the good in the future, any of the defects in the future? Yes, sometimes not only in the future, sometimes you can see it in this life also. For example, some people... They do a lot of social work. They help others and all that. Now itself you can see that they are very happy. Whereas other people you see they are very selfish. Only care for themselves and don't help others and all that. You can see they are very miserable. Sometimes you see, nowadays especially, a lot of people they get into depression. Why do people get into depression? Because they are unhappy. Why are they unhappy? Because they don't do enough good deeds. One thing you must realize in life, that we are reborn as human beings, because we have good karma from the past. So we brought the good karma, so we are now reborn as human beings. And every day that we live, and we enjoy life, we are using up our store, our bank account of merit. So you have to be very careful, you keep on using. One day I have this red account. So it's very easy for human beings to become a ghost after we die. Because a lot of people, they don't know this law of kamavipaka. So we don't do enough good deeds. When we die, we become ghost. That's why we have a Chinese belief. If your mother or your father passes away, seven days later he'll come back. Sure enough, come back. Very often come back. But not necessarily seven days. Sometimes one day, two days, three days, come back. And then when they come back, they let you know they come back. They make some noise in the house. Sometimes they switch on the light. Sometimes they switch off the light. And hear the fridge opening, closing. And hear the door, the window opening, closing. Why? Why they want you to know? Because they are suffering. They're suffering and they want you to help. But I have a question. Do curse really exist in this world? Curse? Or something with real energy like... we... the Hokkien, in Hokkien ah, gong tau, zhan tou. Is that really exist? The first question you ask is, do ghost exist ah? Curse. Curse ah? Oh... gong tau lah. Gong tau ah. A lot of these things we don't believe until we get it. Just like a lot of people don't believe in ghosts until they see them. So from my experience talking with other people, I think it exists. There was a man who came to me. He was a Christian. His family was Christian. Then his brother worked in a factory in Penang. And his brother got promoted. And when the brother got promoted, other people got jealous. So made kong tau on him. So he became sick, very, very sick. So this man, he went to his pastor and all that for help. Couldn't get any help from the pastor or priest. So he was desperate, he came to Buddhist monks for help. But unfortunately he came to our Chinese monks in Penang who don't know how to cure this Kong Tao. And also it so happened that he went to that monk who doesn't know about which monks can cure. There are some Thai monks, They do this kind of thing sometimes. So, he told me, the brother one day went to the toilet. I didn't come out from the toilet for about one hour. So the wife got worried. Wife called him. No response. The wife took a chair, went on top of the door and looked down. Instead of seeing the husband there, I saw an old man squatting there. So, like he was possessed, there was another person inside him. Another time, he told me the wife was looking after this husband at night. Sometimes at night, from the sleeping like that, from the end of his feet, can see something coming out, some spirit coming out. So eventually he died, that man died. So there are such things from what I hear, people's experience. So firstly, a person to get this kind of gong tau shows what in Hokkien we call ji un ke, wan sou tai. And what is this? What is this? What does it mean? 万寿贷 or this 寄婚贷 It means your store of blessings, your store of merit is very low. Very low. That means for a ghost to harm you, that means you are probably going to be reborn as a ghost or as a human being. But if a person, for example, Siu Hing Chia, Tsao Hung Chia, a monk who meditates, who keeps his precepts, then Ji Un Kwan, Van Sok Ko, that means this person is going to be reborn as a deva. So this spirit wants to harm you, he can see because they are psychic. This ghost wants to harm you. So he sees, wow, if I kill this human being, he's going to be reborn as a deva, he's going to How do you say? Xin shou. He's going to come back and take revenge on me. I better don't play a fool with him. That's why you see certain monks who practice meditation, they go to the forest, deep forest alone, or stay in a dark cave alone. No spirit harm. In fact, spirits come and protect. Because they are psychic, they know your mind. You cannot cheat them. What type of person you are, these devas and ghosts, they can read your mind. So it's just like you go to a certain area with gangsters. You are thin, small size. The Thai Kor want to bully you. But if you are big size and you are strong, Thai Kor will think twice before he wants to bully you. So it's the same. If our mind is strong, we have muscles inside here. The deva or the ghost want to harm you, so think twice.