(E09)-01-Introduction

Good evening brothers and sisters in the Dharma. Tonight's talk, as Brother Ho mentioned, is learning life's spiritual lessons, or just life's spiritual lessons. Today, you see me here as a monk. Probably we have met, according to the Buddha, many, many lifetimes, countless lifetimes. So, Some people ask, why did you become a monk? So the real answer is life itself made me a monk. The long journey of samsara, the cycle of rebirth made me a monk today. And I'm sure Most of you, or all of you, one day also will become monks and nuns. We all go through this same process, evolving, learning life's lessons, lifetime after lifetime. So as we evolve, as we suffer, because if we don't suffer, we don't learn. We have to get the head knocked. Then we feel the pain, and we start thinking, why, why? Some people say, why me, why me? And Ajahn Brahm says, why not? So... According to what the Buddha says, we have been on this long journey in samsara, countless lifetimes, to have evolved to such a high spiritual level that we are interested in the Dhamma. Not everybody is interested in the Dhamma. talk to some people, they may not be spiritually evolved to this level where they are interested in the Dhamma. That's why the Buddha, when he was first enlightened and he wanted to preach the Dhamma, he contemplated the minds of living beings and he found that most beings are not really interested in the Dhamma. few beings evolved highly enough to be interested in the Dhamma.

(E09)-02-Lessons-in-This-Life

Now, these spiritual lessons in life, I'm sure all of you, as you grow older, those oldies like me, would know that even in this life itself, we can see that we have learned some lessons. When we were young, we tended to be a bit rash. We liked to have things our own way. we tended to be selfish. You look at a baby, a child, you give him something, you ask him to share with another baby, he won't share. So, that is the normal way of things. Nature has made each one of us to protect ourselves. So nature has made it such that every one of us has got this ego, this self. And because we have a self, we want to protect ourselves. So we do all sorts of things. to protect this self. Sometimes, when our life is at stake, we are even willing to do anything to protect this self, even to kill, to protect ourselves. On the other hand, you will find somebody like the Buddha, or an Arahant, who has got rid of this concept of the self. As the Buddha says, if you were to try to kill an Arahant, you take a dagger and you want to stab him. Buddha said an Arahant will not cry out for help. He has lost this ego, he has cut off this ego, so he does not need to protect himself. So that's why the Arahant is the highest evolved being in the world. There's nobody higher than an arahant or a buddha. A buddha is also basically an arahant, a self-enlightened arahant. So actually, some people don't understand. They say an arahant is selfish. An arahant has no self, so it's impossible, entirely impossible for an arahant to be selfish. On the other hand, the most compassionate being in the world is actually an Arahant. Why? Because he has eliminated, cut off that selfishness that is associated with the self. So because he has totally no selfishness at all, he has compassion for all beings which he sees like himself. That's why Arahant is the most compassionate and highly evolved being in the world. So just now I was saying about the lessons that we can see in our own life. That when we are young, we tended to be selfish and we want things our own way and we have a lot of anger. When we are young, we tend to quarrel and sometimes fight with others. And we have a lot of not so good qualities. As we grow up through life, we find that these bad qualities in us are stumbling blocks. For example, if a person has a lot of anger and he works in a big corporation, It's not likely to get promoted. The boss is not going to promote somebody who has a lot of anger, right? The boss is going to promote somebody who's very friendly with everybody, who can get along with everybody, who can joke, who's popular with everybody. So even when we are working, we see already that's one lesson we learn. I mean for a working person, we want to come up in the social ladder. So we have to be popular. So these are some of the things we learn. We learn to, instead of wanting a situation where you win and other people lose, then slowly you find that it's best you have a situation where you win and other people win also, right? So everybody is happy. You also are happy. And then, slowly you see also, if you, if you have good qualities that people appreciate, then It helps you through life, not only getting promoted in life, but also in many other situations. If you are nice to people, you are helpful to people, you have kind words instead of nasty words with people. And then slowly you find that things go your way. You know, everybody is friendly to you, everybody wants to help you because you want to help people. So in life, these are some of the things that we learn. So in the Buddha's discourses, he gives many parables or similes. So in the same way, I'll also give you one simile, the simile of the pebble, the river, the pebble in the river. You see, yeah, if there's a stone in the river and it is carried along by the water, the river water, and then it rolls, and it rolls up, it slowly grinds and becomes more and more round, yeah. So people like to look for pebbles in the river because they are very nice, very round. So in the same way, as we go through life, all our jagged edges get knocked. You have some quality in you which people don't like, then people will give you a knock in one way or another, either tell you openly or scold you or anything. And then slowly you learn to to be more round. So this simile is like the pebble in the river. As it rolls along, it gets more and more round. So in life also, as we are swept along by the current of life, we get knocked here and we get knocked there, and we learn. We learn to improve ourselves. We become more popular with people, to be nicer to people, et cetera. So even in this life itself, we can see that there are many lessons that we learn. But one lifetime itself, we don't learn enough. One lifetime itself, we don't learn enough.

(E09)-03-Rebirth-Lessons

That is why we have to go through the round of rebirths many, many lifetimes. But there are some religions which don't believe in this cycle of rebirths and they say that at the end of this life either you go to heaven or you go to hell and you stay there forever and ever. But you can see However good a person can be, in one lifetime actually, we cannot learn enough. And also sometimes whatever evil we do also, however evil a person is also, we can see that it is not really fair to put him in hell forever and ever, isn't it? Because we make mistakes in life. So if you think there is a compassionate God, then you can't be compassionate if you put somebody in hell forever and ever, isn't it? Because these qualities that we have, who gave them to us also is God, isn't it? God made us full of greed, full of anger, full of delusion, if God is the creator. So if we follow our tendencies that God gave us, for example, God made us lustful and we follow our lustful tendencies and then we are put into hell forever and ever, it doesn't seem very fair. But if you think in terms of rebirth, then even if a person goes down to hell, he's not going to stay there forever. After he has suffered enough, then he has another chance again. One day he may come back again as a human being. That is more fair, right? So the Buddha says that when we pass away, we can take rebirth in five different places, five different destinations. The best destination of rebirth is heaven. And heavens also, there are many, many levels. And then the second best is human plane. Like today, we are born as a human being. These two, the heavenly plane and the human plane are called Sugati, happy destinations of rebirth. The other three are called Dugati, from the word Dukkha. woeful destinations of rebirth. The three are the ghost realm and then worse than the ghost realm is the animal realm and worse than the animal realm is the hell realm where you suffer for a very very long time. So the beings who go to hell are those usually who have done a lot of evil. When we say done a lot of evil, we mean that they have made a lot of people suffer or they have made a few people suffer a lot. And people who go to hell, are more usually those who are in a prominent position and who are liable to exercise great evil. And who are these people? One class of people is powerful politicians. Powerful politicians because if a politician is very powerful, he can do a lot of things. The whole country, the whole army is behind him, isn't it? What cannot he do? So, politicians are in a very vulnerable, dangerous position. They don't realize. Some people, they sit up there, their head become very big. How crazy, like Hitler. Caused the death of how many hundred millions of people. So, politicians is one. Another one is high government officers. High government officers, if you are corrupt, The money you eat is from the pockets of how many people. So many people contribute in taxes and some people are really poor. So if you take this type of money, corruption money, it's also a very great evil because it affects so many people. Then some are like big businessmen or big businesswomen, where they can cheat a lot of people. And then like top gangsters, tai ko, also. And then don't forget monks and nuns also. People in yellow robes are also found in hell. Why? Because monks and nuns are very much respected. They are supposed to be very virtuous. And then if they are corrupt, then they cheat a lot of people. So sometimes if a monk or a nun cannot uphold the conduct expected of a monk or a nun, then it is better that he or she disrobe. For example, if as a lay person you engage in sex or something with somebody consenting, It's not a great offence, but for a monk in robes to do that is a terrible offence. You're cheating others, you're cheating yourself. So monks and nuns also are in a very dangerous position. So people in a position of power, authority, are more likely to go to hell. Then who are the people who go to the animal realm? They are people, you look at the nature of animals, a lot of anger, a lot of lust, a lot of delusion, some very violent. So such type of people are because they have what we call gu ke, ngau jing, So we have that nature, so animal nature. So we are reborn, natural to be reborn in the animal realm. So when we are reborn in the animal realm, we suffer. We suffer. You look at the buffalo or bullock cart. In those days they had bullock carts. Many years ago when I was newly ordained monk in Thailand, sometimes we have to go to the kampong. In fact, every day, because in Thailand, the monks have to beg for their food every day. It's a very good practice, very honorable practice. So as we walk along in the kampong, sometimes we find that somebody is using a bullock cart and he's got Two bullocks. One is a trained bullock. The other one is a new one. The new one, the young bullock, the male bull. He's not used to being tied up like that and pull the bulok, you know. So he's trying to rebel. He doesn't want to pull and he gets agitated being tied up like that. So what happens? The owner will take a stick and beat him or take something sharp and poke him. So have to train him, discipline him. So imagine if you are reborn as a bulok like that. So you get hurt, every day you get hurt until you learn to pull the pulok. Obediently, every day pull the pulok. Like some of them, the water buffalo, every day they have to pull the plow. You go to Thailand, you see they still use the water buffalo to pull the plow to plant paddy. So, You see this buffalo, even being beaten and all that, he quietly obeys. He has a lot of delusion. He's not a human being. A human being, he thinks one day he'll take revenge. But the poor buffalo, he gets beaten. The most, he sheds tears. Then obediently he pulls. So that's the price you have to pay, like these gangsters and all that. They have this animal nature, likely to be reborn as animals. Then who gets reborn in the ghost realm? Most of us get reborn in the ghost realm. Why? Because as a human being, we are enjoying the fruits of our good karma in the past life. So every day as a human being, you enjoy life comparatively, compared to animals and ghosts. Anytime you want, you can go and eat Kentucky fried chicken or ice cream or whatever. So we are using our good karma, our blessings, our bank of blessings every day. And unless we replenish our bank account of blessings by doing charity, by keeping sila, by good conduct, helping others, studying the Dharma, so that we can improve more meditation to discipline our mind, etc. Then unless we do these things, then at the end of life, we find that our blessings has gone into the red already. So we have no more blessing as a human being. So when we pass away, we won't come back as a human being. So the Buddha said, if you want to come back as a human being or as a deva, two things are the minimum criterion you have to practice. One is generosity, dāna, in other words charity, helping others. And the second thing is sila. Moral conduct, restraining yourself from doing evil. These two basic things makes a person a human being. They say, bì hèo zhòu lǎng, some people, bù shìk zhǒu yǎn, bù shìk zhǒu yǎn, tài bái mǒu kì huǐ zhǒu yǎn. So we have to behave as a human being, then only we can come back as a human being. So if we, for most people, unless we learn the Dhamma, most people tend to be selfish, and most people have a small heart. and we get jealous easily, and when people are better than us, we are not happy. So people with a small heart, they cannot have much blessings. So because of that, Buddha said most of us will be reborn in the ghost realm, even though you don't do any evil. You don't have to do any evil to be reborn as a ghost. As long as you don't do enough good, you will use up your blessings and naturally fall into the ghost realm as easy as you fall off a chair. That's why we Chinese also believe when your relative passes away, you say expect him to come back after seven days. So they all get very excited. Seven days later, we are waiting for the relative to come back. But sometimes it's not seven days. Sometimes one day only he come back. Sometimes two days. I have a lot of ghost stories to tell. Why? Because as a monk, a lot of people come and tell me their experience. So... So that is people are born in the ghost realm. Now, human realm, we get reborn in the human realm because we have a plus in our bank account, our blessings bank account. In other words, we are generous, we keep our sila, so we are reborn as a human being. Now, if you want to be reborn as a deva or a devi, a heavenly being, then you have to behave like a Deva or a Devi. You can see that in some people. Some people are very sweet. Their nature is very sweet, very helpful, very kind, very compassionate. Last year, we had two Germans in our monastery who came to stay for a few months. One was a German monk. He had been a monk for about 42 years. He was 60 over years old. And the other one, same age also, was a German layman. But I could see that this German layman had the nature of an angel. Speak very gently, very polite, and very helpful to the monastery. Always willing to help. So you can see such a person, he has come from the Deva realm. He has brought that nature with him. So... Okay, so that's how to be reborn as a deva, we have to act like a deva. Now, as we go through the cycle of rebirth, lifetime after lifetime, we learn from each lifetime. Each lifetime we come, we learn our lesson. And then the Buddha said, if we fall into hell and we are suffering in hell, the Buddha said, when you are suffering in hell, you will realize why you are in hell. For example, a person has committed adultery with a lot of other people's wives or husbands, and then one day that person is in hell, then he suffers. And then next time when he comes back as a human being, even he has the chance to commit adultery, you find he dare not commit adultery. Even though he does not remember, but it's not far from his memory. That's why there are some people like that. Even you give them the chance to do certain evil, they dare not do. Something instinct inside there tells them that it cannot be done. So in this way, lifetime after lifetime, we learn our lessons and then we evolve spiritually more and more mature. Certain things, evil things, we naturally dare not do. Because if we do them, we are going to land up in hell. or in the animal realm and suffer there for a very, very long time. Especially these two, hell and animal realm. The Buddha said once you fall into the animal or hell realm, it will be a very, very, very long time before you can come out of that place. So one example is this Mahamoggalana, the Arahant. Actually, Before our Sakyamuni Buddha, our Gautama Buddha, the previous Buddha was Kasapa Buddha, and before that was Konagamana Buddha, and before that was Kakusanda Buddha. All in this world period, this world cycle. So When Kakusanda Buddha was around, Mahamoggalana was born as Mara. Mara by the name of Dusin. Mara in Christianity would be Satan. Mara is a very powerful Deva. He exerts a lot of influence and he has great psychic power. But why is he evil? He must have done a lot of good in the previous life to be reborn as Mara, because Mara is a very high deva. But he did not cut off, cut or reduce the ego. So if a person, for example, practices meditation and learns the Dhamma, but does not reduce the ego, that's very dangerous. He might end up as Mara's gang. So our Mahamoggalana during the time of Kakusanda Buddha was born as Mara Dusin. And because of the ego, he saw that the Buddha were teaching his disciples to become arahants and to have psychic power greater than him. So he was jealous. He didn't want them to be so highly evolved. So he kept disturbing our Buddha and his disciples. And the Buddha, because of the Buddha's psychic power, he knew. So every time Mara came to disturb, he would tell his disciples how to counter Mara. If Mara wanted his disciples to behave in a certain way, they would not do it. So because he was not successful, he was very angry, this Mara Dusin. So one day, when the Buddha, Akusanda, and his chief disciple was walking on arms round, begging for their food, this Mara entered a layman. So after entering the layman, he took a big rock and came from behind the Buddha's disciple and knocked him on the head until the head was bleeding a lot of blood. So the Buddha Kakusanda was very unhappy. He turned around and stared at this Mara. When he stared at this Mara Dusin, immediately Mara Dusin died. And then Mara Dusin was reborn in hell. And he was there for a long time with a fish head and a human body. That is what our Mahamoggalana related. So during our Buddha Kesapa's time, he was reborn as a human being again. And because of his great merit from past life, he was able to become the Buddha's disciple. And when he became an Arahant, he had the greatest psychic power. So one day he was in the forest monastery, in the kuti, the monk's hut. He was, he had just taken his meal and then he went to, he was taking a walk, you could say doing a walking meditation. Suddenly he felt his stomach very heavy. He thought, what happened? Why my stomach suddenly so heavy? So he went inside his kuti and sat down. And because his psychic power was so great, immediately he sat down, he could see Mara inside his stomach. So he told Mara, he said, Mara, don't come and disturb me. Get out of my stomach. Then Mara thought to himself, how can he know so fast that I'm in his stomach? Even if I had entered his master, the Buddha's stomach, the Buddha also could not know so fast that I was in his stomach. Then again Mara told him, Moggallana, the Arahant told Mara, he said, Mara, you just thought to yourself in this way. So he repeated exactly what Mara thought. Then again he told Mara, he said, get out of my stomach, don't disturb the Buddha's disciple. So Mara had no choice, he realized that he knew he was there, so he... came out and he was standing at the door of the kuti, holding like that. And he used his psychic power to make himself invisible. But because the Arahant's psychic power was greater, even though he tried to make himself invisible, the Arahant Moggallana could see him and then told him, Mara, you are standing there at the door, holding the door, and you think I can't see you. I can see you. And Arahant Moggallana told him, don't disturb the Buddha's disciple because you're creating a lot of bad merit. Don't think I don't know who you are. I know exactly who you are. Your mother's brother was the Mara Dusin, and the Mara Dusin was me in the previous life. And then Moggallana told him what he did during the Buddha Kakusanda's time and then landed up in hell for a long time. Eventually was reborn as the Arahant Moggallana. So you can see that if a person does not reduce our ego, it's very dangerous. We can go down to hell again. So we, through lifetime after lifetime, we learn our lessons and then we evolve until we become more and more spiritually mature. Now sometimes you read in Buddhism certain stories like in the, I think, Dhammapada commentary. He said that there was a monk during the Buddha's time who was very attached to his robe. And then because he was very attached to his robe, the next lifetime he was born as a flea. attached to the rope. This kind of a story to me is a bit childish. If a person has already evolved to the level of a human being, I don't think it's likely that you're going to be reborn as a cockroach or a flea or something which is so low on the spiritual ladder, isn't it? To have come to the level of a human being, we have passed through so many lifetimes to come to this level that we are able to use our brain. So it is possible that we might be reborn in hell, or as a ghost, or as an animal, like a buffalo or a dog. Because animals also, they have some capacity to think, but not a cockroach or a flea. So some of these stories in Buddhism, because nowadays our Buddhism is 2,500 years old. There's a lot of corruption. So we have to be careful.

(E09)-04-Dukkha-Leads-to-Spiritual-Search

So when a person has become mature, spiritually mature, then when we suffer, we think about it, you know, why? Why am I suffering? Or just now I said, why me? Why me? So we start thinking and we start searching, searching for answers. As we start searching for answers, and if we make the effort, then slowly the answers will start to come. In the Bible, it is stated in the Christian Bible, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you. But you have to seek and you have to knock, So like myself, from young, I had this tendency to be interested in religion. I was in a Catholic school for 12 years from Standard 1 to Form 6. And at that time, we had orang putih, Christian brothers, Irish and Canadian and French and all that. And they were very decent people, very good people. And I was profoundly influenced by them. So I even was determined that I would become a Catholic, that I was going to be baptized. But when I was in Form 6, I started to think, and I had a lot of questions. I asked them, they could not answer me satisfactorily. For example, if God is so compassionate, why did he make hell? He doesn't have to make hell, make everybody go to heaven. If God is compassionate, there's no logic why he must make hell and put you in hell to suffer forever and ever, yeah? So this type of questions, like for example, if God, they say God is omniscient, he knows the past, he knows the present, he knows the future. So if God knows everything, when he's creating a person, he knows in future this person is going to heaven or going to hell, isn't it? If he's going to hell, put on hold. Yeah, don't make him suffer, isn't it? So a lot of these things, they could not answer me satisfactorily. So I left Christianity for many years. And then I was without a religion for many years. And then lived quite a worldly life. until things started to show me the way again. It's very funny, life, when your karma is such that it leads you in a certain direction. For example, when I was a young man, I see people gambling. I was so tempted to gamble, so I go and gamble. Each time you gamble, you lose. Every time you gamble, you lose. So I got fed up, don't want to gamble anymore. So you see, my karma is so good, that every time I gamble, I lose. But stupid people think, your karma no good. Actually, it's very good, because after that, I never gamble. But sometimes, you're tricked by winning. You win, you're tempted to gamble more and more, and suddenly, you become bankrupt. Everything is gone, and then you got to commit suicide. So after that, I was so worldly that I used up a lot of blessings. After I used up a lot of blessings, you know what happened? At night when I dream, I start to dream of ghosts. Night after night, I dream of ghosts. Now only I realize why, you know, why? Because you use up all the good karma, you've gone to that level where you're going to be reborn as a ghost. So you've gone to that frequency. So because of that, this warning starts coming already. So if people start seeing ghosts also, you have to be very careful. Your karma is no good, that's why you see ghosts. If your karma is good, you'll see deva instead of ghost. So because of that, I started asking myself, why am I dreaming of ghosts night after night? Then I started to think, maybe I'm not happy inside. Outside, everybody see me, young bachelor, got a good job, a lot of girlfriend, should be very happy, isn't it? But inside, I was not happy because my nature is such that I have to walk this way. So I went back on this spiritual journey again, and to study the Bible, and to study the Koran, study Hindu books, study Tao Te Ching, study the Sikh religion, study Baha'i, until eventually I came to the Buddha Dharma. And when I came to the Buddha Dharma, then I learned a lot of lessons, spiritual lessons from the Dhamma. Everything is impermanent. Because everything is impermanent, it gives us dukkha, suffering. Then, because I was led to this, I have to walk this path. So, when I was new in the Dhamma, all these things started to show. In my office, one by one, the workers died. One died of cancer. Another one was working in this big septic tank, and I was watching them working, a few workers working. Suddenly, one guy, he was about 50 years old, very tough Malay guy, he went to one corner and squatted down, clutching his heart. So I could see he was not well, so I left him alone. Half an hour, I had a look, he's still there. 40 minutes, 45 minutes, I went to see, he was still clutching his heart. So I went to him and asked him, what's wrong? And he was scratching his heart, sweating, cold sweat. He said, sakit tuan, sakit. So I asked him, boleh jalan? Can you walk? He said, yeah. I said, you walk into the room and lie down. I went to the room and lie down. I phoned for the, at that time I was in charge of the electrical and mechanical installations in the big army camp in Kuantan. and comprised the Air Force, the Brigade, and the Recce units. So it was a very huge army and military complex. So they had these army doctors and all that, so I phoned him to come. The doctor came, examined him, then said he got a heart attack. Then said I have to send him by ambulance to the general hospital. So because he had lain down for half an hour or more, when the ambulance came, he went inside the ambulance. Then he happened to know the person inside the ambulance who carries the stretcher. He started talking with that guy and he sat up. You know when you have a heart problem, you must lie down. Once you sit up, the heart has to pump up and down. By the time he reached the hospital, another attack. Then he passed away. So one by one, this was the second one. Another one, also a Malay worker, he had just bought a motorcycle from an office mate. The first morning he used the motorcycle, he was knocked from behind by a lorry and dragged along underneath until he died. So I came to office at 8 o'clock, I heard he passed away. So I went to the hospital, the mortuary, to see with some office mates. So you know when a person passes away, they have to get somebody to identify the body. So they got the grandmother. So you know Malays, if their relative passes away, they are not allowed to cry in front of the family. corpse, you know. When the grandmother saw the grandson all scraped like that and died, she shouted, choo choo, choo choo, oh choo choo, and started crying and bawling away. So when we saw that, all our hearts all went soft. So it's another lesson I learned in life, that life is so fragile. Then another time, I was driving from Kuantan to KL for an office meeting. You know, in those days, the East Coast Road, very winding, near Maran there, Maran, Temerloh. Very winding and very lonely road. There was a 10-wheeler lorry in front of me. I wanted to overtake, but very hard to overtake because the road was winding, winding, winding. So I kept looking, looking for a chance to overtake. Suddenly I saw one motorcyclist come out of the corner. As he came out of the corner, there happened to be a boulder, you know, a stone in the road. He hit the stone, went out of control, went in front, fell in front of the lorry. The lorry hit him so hard. He fell and then the lorry brake and stopped some distance away. So I jumped out of the car and went to help this man. When I came to him, I saw the concussion so forceful that his helmet fell off. Not only that, it knocked him so hard. the skull opened up, you know. Opened up, I could see the brain. The white brain immediately turned red as the blood started flowing out. This fellow was shaking, shaking and dying like a dying rat. So I just stood there and did some chanting for him. At that time I was following Mahayana, Tai Ta Pei Chow. So I stood there, chanted, chanted, chanted. And then the The lorry man came. When the lorry man saw him, he was shocked. The lorry man tried to explain to me, not his fault and all that. I just shook my head and continued chanting. Then he walked away into his lorry and drove away. When he drove away, then I realized I didn't take down his number. So I chanted until this man passed away. No car came, you know, that road, so lonely, the East Coast. So after that, I drove to another five miles, I think, to the nearest town and reported to the police. So I think this thing happened so often, the policeman asked me to write a report and said, never mind, you go and pick up the body. After that, they never called me. So then, another lesson. How many already? Four already, you know, four persons died. And then the fifth one, you know, I was in this military air base, the Kwantung Airport, this landing strip. So we are in charge of all the runway lights. So I asked the men to change the lights there. I was walking on the runway, seeing them doing the work. Then there was a big important day coming up. So these airplanes were all training. At that time, the one jet, They come down and then when it's near the VIP stand, they flip over like that and then go up vertically. So one by one, the planes were coming down like that. So I was just standing, I was just walking there. Then suddenly one plane came down. Then when it flipped, the wing hit the ground. When it hit the ground, it somersaulted and burst into flames. Then I saw, I got a shock. I said, this can't be real. It's like a TV show. Suddenly, one man shouted, it's going to explode. Asked everybody to lie down. So we all lay down on the ground. Then after that, the fire brigade came and put out the fire. Then later we learned from the Air Force, there were two pilots inside. When it somersaulted, one of them, the head was cut off. The other one burned to death. So when we saw that plane burning, you have a very difficult feeling, you know, somebody needs your help, but you can't go near because it can explode anytime. So all these made me ready to renounce all these scenes of death.

(E09)-05-Right-View-Leads-to-Nibbana

When we come into the Dhamma and we learn the Dhamma, then we realize that there is such a thing as a Noble Eightfold Path, that there is a path out of samsara, out of the round of rebirth. And then when you study the Dhamma, then you will get right view. Why is it? What makes us search and come to the Dhamma? The Buddha said because of dukkha. Dukkha in life comes about because of impermanence. There's one characteristic of the whole world which is outstanding, is that everything is impermanent. And because everything is impermanent, It brings about dukkha. Why? Because when we have happiness, we want to hold on to that happiness. For example, you have sons and daughters which you love very dearly. You want to hold on to the sons and daughters. But suppose suddenly one of them passes away. you will get a lot of grief. So that is the type of suffering that really makes us want to turn the other way from the normal way of life. You know, as a monk, I've gone to a number of funerals. And then during a funeral, when they bring out the body, you see the family crying. There is no sorrow as much as that type of sorrow. You see they cry uncontrollably. So that is a real dukkha. So the Buddha said dukkha is because we grow old, we age, because we become sick, because we die, and also because we are separated from those that we love. And because we have to associate with our enemies, those people we don't like. And not getting what you want, For example, you love a certain girl or you love a certain man and you can't get, that also is great dukkha. So these things bring us along this path to renunciation. If there is no dukkha in this world, we will not want to renounce the world, right? But on the other hand, if there is no sukha in this world, we also don't want to cling on to life. It's because of the sukha that we can experience in this world that when most of us are dying, we don't want to die. We want to cling on to life. We cling very strongly, so strongly that the moment we pass away, this force, this clinging brings us immediately to rebirth. So we all go through this process. It's very strange. All of us dream and sometimes the dreams that we have tell us about our past. Although in this life I've never married, yet there was a time I dreamt that I had a wife and my wife passed away. And I carried the body and I cried uncontrollably. So when I woke up, I asked myself, how come? It must have happened a long time ago. Another time, I dreamt I had a daughter. And I loved the daughter more than my own life. So from there, I can tell those people who have very cute children, they will love their children so much, more than their own life. There was another time I had a dream. I was in China. I'd never been to China, but I knew for sure I was in China. And I was a very poor man and so hungry. And I came to a big house where the landlord was so rich. And I was so hungry, I was looking for something to steal. But because I made some noise, they woke up and they all started chasing me. So I ran and went to hide under a bridge. And after that I woke up. So you see, we go through life, we experience all this dukkha and slowly we evolve. I also dreamt once that I was an Indonesian. Strange. So just like that, we go through this long cycle of life. When the Buddha was enlightened, he looked into his past and he said he had been in samsara for so long, there was no kind of rebirth, he had not been been reborn before, except only the Suddhavasa heavens. And he said the Suddhavasa heavens, the pure abodes, only anagamins, those people with sako, third fruit ariya, are reborn there. And once you are reborn there, you never come back again as a human being. You are never reborn as a human being. Only that place he was not reborn, otherwise every kind of being he had been reborn. So for us to come to this state where we are interested in the Dhamma, I'm sure most of the animals and different types of ghosts and everything also we have been through already. So when we come into the Dhamma, we learn and understand the Dhamma. And when we come into the Dhamma, the most important thing is to really study the Buddha's words and get right view. Once you get right view, un-nyao, secure. Why? Because you are in the ariya. And Arya, once you are in an Arya, you'll never be reborn in the three woeful planes, as a ghost, as an animal, or in hell. That time you take a slow boat out of samsara, never mind, because you'll only be reborn as either a human being or as a Deva or Devi. So can enjoy after that. So it's very important to get an understanding of the Dhamma, to get right view. And the Buddha said there are only two conditions to getting right view. One is to listen to the Dhamma, investigate the Dhamma, in other words, the Buddha's teachings. And the second one is to pay thorough attention. When you are learning the Dhamma, you pay full attention so that it can penetrate your mind, you can understand. Then once you get that understanding, you are one of the rare persons in the world, an Arya. and once you get right view, you are on your way out of samsara. The Buddha gave a simile of a log. One day the Buddha was walking with his disciples in the forest and there was this river, must be a big river because he was carrying a log. So the Buddha told his disciples, he said, you look at the log, it's flowing along and it is going to end up in the ocean unless one of a few things happens to it. Either it gets stuck on the near bank or it gets stuck on the far bank or it gets stuck in the middle sand bank or it becomes rotten and sinks, or it is pulled away by human beings, or it is pulled away by non-human beings, or it comes into a whirlpool and is sucked down. Unless these things happen, it's going to flow down to the ocean. So in the same way, the Buddha said, once you get right view, you are going to flow down to eventually Nibbana. Once you get right view, at most seven lifetimes, you will turn on the cycle of rebirths, the most seven lifetimes, and then you will enter nirvana. So understanding this, you all should make more effort to study the Buddha's words in the Nikayas and get right view. Once you get right view, you don't have to worry about the cycle of rebirth anymore. The remaining dukkha that you're going to experience is very, very little. So I shall end my talk here and hope you all have a lot of questions.

(E09)-06-Question-and-Answer

I read somewhere that there are 84,000 Dharma doors. So could you please elaborate on that? Okay, there are 84,000 Dharma doors. This is something that appeared very much later than the Buddha's time. This was not something that was spoken by the Buddha. When we talk about Dharma doors, we are meaning the way out of samsara, the way out of this cycle of rebirths. And in the original Buddha's teachings, there is only one door, and that is the Noble Eightfold Path. This Noble Eightfold Path, consists of eight factors, which can also be classified as three sections. Sila, Samadhi, and Panniya. Moral conduct, concentration, and wisdom. So, to practice this Noble Eightfold Path, we have to practice the factors one by one. And these eight factors start off with Right View. If you don't have Right View, you have not entered the Noble Eightfold Path. And Right View means understanding the Four Noble Truths. In other words, understanding the basics of the Buddha's teachings. Once you get this Right View, you are an Arya. And in the original Buddha's teachings, that is a Bodhisattva, that is a Bodhisatta in Bali, one who has become an Arya. In the earliest discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha referred to himself as a Bodhisatta or Bodhisattva only in the last three lifetimes. Not before that. When he was a disciple of the Buddha Kassapa, then after that when he was reborn in the Tusita heaven, and after that when he came back the last time as a human being, only these three lifetimes, the Buddha referred to himself as the Bodhisattva. But later books, like the Jataka stories, Jataka tales, they talk about him being an animal and calling him a Bodhisattva. That is not a real Bodhisattva. A real Bodhisattva is an Arya. So once you have attained Right View, then that will lead you to the second factor, which is Right Thoughts. Once you have a right view, then you will have right thoughts. And when you have right thoughts, it will lead you to right speech. And when you have right speech, then you will be followed by right conduct. Right conduct, that means you don't kill, you don't steal, you don't commit adultery. then that will bring you to right livelihood. That means the way you earn a living is not at the expense of other living beings. Then after you have these five factors, then you come to right effort, that is making an effort to do away with the unwholesome states of mind and to cultivate wholesome states of mind. And then after that, you have right recollection. Right recollection means always remember. With all due respect, Bhante, how do you define evil? We are told not to commit evil, but what is the yardstick? For example, we have this viewpoint that stealing is evil. Yet, with the early Arabs, Arab jahiliya, I don't know, I don't know what it is called in English, look at stealing as a duty all must perform. So what exactly is evil? Is there a true yardstick or does it depend on the views of the society? How will we truly know what is right and good and what is wrong and evil? Sadhu. Evil in the Buddha's teachings is different from say Christianity or Islam. Those religions that believe in God say that if you don't believe in their God, you are evil. But in Buddhism, it is different. In Buddhism, If you harm others, you make others suffer, that is evil. And if you help others, that is good. So talking about this stealing and all that now, or lying, it depends on the situation. For example, if you see a man being chased by gangsters who want to kill him, Okay? So he runs past you and he go and hide in, say for example, in a room. Then after that, the gangsters come and ask you, have you seen this man? Where did he go? What would you do? You don't tell him, oh, he's hiding in that room, isn't it? You tell them the opposite. You say, oh yeah, he went the other way. So you are actually lying, but you are lying to help somebody. So that is good. Not always lying is bad. So have to see the situation. Sometimes you cari makan also have to lie. What you're selling is not very good. You say, wah, the best. You want to promote your product. That is what is known as a white lie. Because of cari makan, you have to lie a bit. Not a very big evil. Because you want to cari makan. So like in this case, they say, some people say like this, they say stealing is a duty. That because maybe their way of life is such that if they don't steal, they tak boleh cari makan. Everybody steal from each other. So because their karma is so bad, because they steal, people also steal their things. So they have to steal other people's things because their things also get stolen. But if your karma is good, you don't steal, people also don't steal your things. What you do to others, you get back. So because they keep stealing other people's things, their things also keep being stolen all the time. So the Dhamma teaches us the correct way. So evil is harming other living beings. Good is helping other beings. Human rebirth and animal rebirth. Now human rebirth, it is mentioned in the Buddha's discourses that that being who is going to be reborn in the womb has to wait, has to wait for the right time. When the mother and father come together and the mother is in the right season, then only he can go into the womb and get reborn. How long he has to wait is not stated. And when he is waiting, he has a body called antarabhava, intermediate existence. Don't ask me what it is, it is not a ghost, it is not a human being, it is not this, it is not that, it is just an intermediate existence waiting to go into the womb. So that being the case, since that being who is going to be reborn as a human being has to wait for the right time to enter the womb, so maybe for animals also the same. If he's going to go into the womb of an animal, also he has to wait. for the mother and father to come together, and the mother to be in the right season, then only he can take rebirth in the womb. So only these two he has to wait, human and probably animal rebirth. Other than that, the other three should be immediate. So generally, if our relative has passed away, and then after a few days, he comes back, And normally when they come back, they let you know by footsteps, or the window opening by itself, or the light switch on by itself, or the fridge door open by itself. In that case, you could say definitely that person has been reborn as a ghost. Because as it goes only, he comes back. Otherwise, he has no chance to come back.