Peace Beyond Prejudice And Fear

We'll notice that if we can keep our minds here,

Grounded in the present moment,

Then we won't be experiencing suffering.

We'll be able to stop our thoughts and just know the breath as it comes in and leaves.

And there won't be any suffering or stress here now.

But it's when we allow our minds to go off and think,

To proliferate,

To go and bring up memories from the past or to imagine things in the future,

That's when this stress can arise in our hearts,

Because we're attached to our emotions.

Like anxiety,

For example,

Or fear,

Getting anxious about things that may occur in the future.

And even though they haven't yet arisen,

We're experiencing this pain and stress here in the present moment because of it.

There are many monks who go to practice in cemeteries or charnel grounds in order to face fear,

The fear they may have of ghosts.

And for some monks who are very afraid of ghosts or spirits,

They start getting afraid even before they've gone into these cemeteries.

They think that,

Tonight I'm going to go practice in this place,

In this scary place.

They haven't even gone in there yet,

But already they're suffering because of it.

For some,

Their hands start shaking,

And for some,

They're so terrified,

They even get a fever because of it.

So we should train our minds to not worry,

Not get anxious about these things,

Because the Buddha taught that for someone who brings up effort and energy for just one day a night to keep their minds here in the present moment and experience the peace of that,

That single day has more value,

More worth,

Than a hundred years of a life lived without any peace.

So what this shows us is that the affairs of our heart are very important.

If we look around us,

We can notice quite easily that those people who have a genuine interest in the Dhamma are very few.

There are many people who like to give and be charitable,

And when we get to the level of sila or morality,

The people who have an interest in that drop significantly.

We'll see that the world in its present state is very chaotic and agitated,

And it's because people harm each other.

They make this separation between us and them,

And when we discriminate like this,

It's a cause for chaos and agitation to arise.

These days there's a lot of importance placed on complexion and skin color,

And some people have white skin,

Some people black skin,

Some people brown,

Others yellow.

And this can be a cause for conceit to arise,

Thinking that because I have this skin color,

I'm better than they are,

Then we are better than them,

Or we are worse than them.

And this is this discrimination separating things out between us and them,

Me and you.

But really it's just based on the color of our skin,

And if we look at it,

The skin,

It's not even ours.

If we scratch the surface of our bodies,

Get below the skin,

Then we'll see that these bodies of ours,

They're all the same.

The blood that we have,

No matter what ethnicity we are,

It's all of the same color.

And the bones beneath our skin,

We can't tell what race they are,

They're just bones.

If we look at an even deeper level,

We can see that the inner Buddha,

This nature of awakening,

Exists within the hearts of all beings,

Whether animals or humans.

And so all of us are the same in this regard,

And that we all have the seed of awakening there within our hearts.

So when the people of any country get involved in prejudice,

Separating out into groups,

Us and them,

This is a cause for chaos to arise in that country.

Even though there may be a democracy operating there,

It really comes down to the state of people's hearts within that country.

And it's also really important that the leader is a good leader as well,

That they're endowed with the four brahma-viharas.

And these four divine abidings are that of kindness,

Of compassion,

Of empathetic joy and equanimity.

If the leader is endowed with these qualities,

Then the public will experience peace and happiness.

There'll be prosperity in that country.

And the Buddha,

In some of his previous lives,

He became a great monarch,

And he governed the empire that he was leading through the Dhamma.

He didn't cause any harm to any people,

And this was a cause for there to be peace and joy within the people.

So therefore all of us should endeavor to cultivate these qualities in our own hearts,

To have kindness and compassion,

Empathetic joy and equanimity there as well.

Because our bodies are made up of four properties.

We have the solidity,

The liquid parts,

The gaseous,

And the heat of our bodies.

So we need these four properties of heart,

These four divine abidings of kindness,

Compassion,

Empathetic joy and equanimity,

Looking after,

Caring for,

The four physical properties of our bodies to keep them in a healthy state.

Because if our hearts don't have these qualities,

They're not endowed with kindness or compassion.

If they give rise to prejudice and discrimination,

Then it'll be very easy for other unwholesome qualities to enter in as well,

For there to be a lot of anger,

For example.

When there's anger in the heart,

Then the body heats up as well,

And it causes our bodies to become unwell.

We experience pain,

Both physical pain and mental pain,

And none of us want to experience this.

So this pain,

Or stress,

Is a noble truth that the Buddha pointed to,

And it functions according to laws of nature,

That if there's a cause for stress,

Then stress will arise,

And if that cause ceases,

Then stress will vanish.

So all phenomena arise from a cause.

The Buddha gave this teaching to his very first group of disciples,

That all phenomena arise from a cause,

And this is what allowed them to see into the Dhamma,

To see into truth for themselves.

So for all of us,

We're all experiencing phenomena arise constantly.

The thing is,

We take it personally.

In truth,

Though,

They all arise from causes and conditions.

All of the happiness,

All of the stress that we experience,

That comes from a cause,

And when those causes disappear,

Then that experience will vanish.

So we see that it's anatta,

It's not self.

Do you understand this?

Do you see it?

We can't just cover these things up.

We hear that now in the world,

There's a lot of information that's being suppressed and hidden away in various places,

But these feelings of happiness and suffering,

We can't suppress that.

When we take all these things personally,

Then our memory can become a big problem for us as well.

This memory or perception,

It gives meaning to our experiences.

We remember that previously this person had harmed us,

So all we have to do is just see their face,

And this brings up aversion in our hearts.

Maybe this even came from a past life,

Or it could have come from this life as well.

And then anyone who has any similar facial features to them,

We dislike them as well.

It's the same for the people that we like.

If there are people who look similar to those we like,

We like them too.

This all just comes from our memories.

These memories,

They arise,

They last for a while,

And then they cease.

But the problem comes when we get caught into this realm of ego,

Taking these memories as being me and mine.

So the sense of self,

It sneaks in every time and gives us endless problems,

And it's fast as well.

So it's important then that we cultivate our minds,

Bring them to stillness and to peace.

Even though this can be very difficult for us to do,

Even though it's more difficult than being generous,

Than keeping the moral precepts,

Still we try to cultivate it.

We try to lift up the level of our hearts and do this every day.

Some people have a lot of external wealth,

And the physical things that they own are very abundant,

But this becomes a cause for fear,

Fear of death.

It hasn't yet reached the time for them to die,

But still right now in the present moment they're afraid,

And if any illness comes along,

Then they're worried,

Thinking that this will be the cause for their death,

And they'll have to be separated from all the things that they love and hold dear.

But actually fear isn't the problem.

We can let fear come up as strong as it wants.

What's important,

Though,

Is that we have wisdom in our heart as this is happening as well.

There was a time that Venerable Ajahn Chah went to practice in a cemetery,

And he was terrified there,

The most afraid that he'd ever been in his life,

Scared that ghosts would come and get him.

To the point that he even took his arms ball as his best friend.

Even though there was this terror present,

His mind still managed to gather together to collect into a state of samadhi,

Which was a cause for wisdom to arise.

And so he asked himself,

What are you afraid of?

And the answer came,

I'm afraid of death.

So then he asked further,

Well,

Where is it then?

The place that you won't die.

Where is that?

And his mind responded,

It doesn't exist.

There's no place in this world that death can't follow me.

With that fear vanished,

And after that point he was never afraid again.

There was also a period of time where there was great fear about a communist invasion from Laos.

And the people in Ubon Ratchatani province,

Where Ajahn Chah's monastery was,

Were very afraid.

But Ajahn Chah would ask them,

What are you afraid of?

The communists have been here ever since we were born.

What he meant was,

Death has been with us.

When we're afraid of the communists,

We're afraid of someone coming to hurt us.

But really this death has been with us ever since we were born.

So why be afraid?

Those people who experience a lot of fear also need to raise up wisdom to deal with this.

And if wisdom doesn't come up,

Then we can take up a chant or a mantra.

We can recollect the Buddha,

Recollect the great wisdom and the purity that he had.

So we take up that chant and we chant it over and over and over again.

And even though the fear will still be there in the beginning,

It will gradually lessen.

And the fear of death will just dissipate all by itself.

If we're someone who has a lot of anxiety,

Who thinks about the future without end,

Then we should use this to train our hearts to gather into peace,

Bring up this chanting and go through it over and over and over again without stop.

And the more we're afraid,

The more we chant.

And keep doing it.

And this will slowly change our thoughts.

They will move our thinking away from this anxiety over the future to the object of the chanting,

To the Buddha instead.

In not long we'll be able to experience peace and joy in our hearts,

And wisdom will be able to come up.

Even though there are these very strong emotions there,

If we have enough wisdom,

Then this will be enough for our hearts to become bright and clear.

Even though we may be in a very dark place,

If we take a light and we shine it,

Then we'll be able to see clearly.

Someone once said to Ajahn Chah that the people overseas are so deluded in various sights and sounds and tastes and touches and thoughts.

And Ajahn Chah responded that if people are very deluded,

Then the hearts are very dark.

But the darker their minds are,

If we get a light and shine it in there,

They'll see even more clearly.

He was able to turn around this whole way of thinking.

And we can see that Ajahn Chah considered things in a different way than most people.

And that's really how it is,

The way he taught,

That the darker things are,

The brighter they'll become when we shine light in there.

Ajahn Chah was then able to take the Dhamma and to spread it overseas,

Firstly to England and then around Europe,

To Italy,

Switzerland,

Portugal,

And now over to Brazil,

To Norway,

To Ireland,

Australia,

New Zealand,

America.

And this is all because of the great wisdom that he had.

When the Buddha told his disciples to go out and to spread the Dhamma,

What kind of disciple was that?

It was the arahants,

The fully awakened beings.

And that's what is needed to meet with complete success.

So when we can bring up this recollection of the Buddha,

The Dhamma,

Or the Sangha,

Then any fear or anxiety that we have in our heart is able to disappear and vanish.

It's important,

However,

That we stay in the present moment as much as we can.

If we think about the Buddha a lot,

Bring up this recollection of his qualities.

It's very easy for joy and a sense of fullness to imbue our hearts.

We can use the meditation mantra of Buddha,

And just this,

Just this one word,

Is enough for there to be happiness and rapture arise,

For our minds to gather together into a collected state.

We can also recollect the goodness that we've done,

That we build goodness on a regular basis and we've benefited the lives of others.

And some days that we're not able to do these good acts,

Then we can bring up this recollection to make our minds full of joy.

If they don't experience this inner fullness and contentment,

Then we need to go out and do more good things,

To be more generous,

Until it comes to the point where all we have to do is just recollect these things that we've done and we experience the happiness that comes from it.

There are many people who put in the effort to sit in meditation every day,

And for these people whose hearts are peaceful,

Then all it takes is just one small act of goodness and they can feel happy throughout the entire day.

So this merit or goodness has the ability to strike at the things that bind and cover over our hearts,

That cause us internal confusion,

And it's able to disperse them,

To bring our minds to a state of brightness.

From this we can then see that the good deeds that we do bring results right here in the present moment,

That we don't need to wait for results to come up in the future.

They happen right here.

For those who don't see this,

Then they'll be waiting for things to come back,

The results of their good actions to come back in the future,

But it's not necessary to do that.

It's like if we're feeling really hot and sweaty and we take a shower,

Then we'll feel cool and at ease here in the present moment.

So the more good things we do,

The more results we get back,

Right here and now.

It's like if we're feeling hungry today and we eat today,

Then we'll feel full today as well.

If we're feeling thirsty and hot and we drink cool water,

Then that'll be enough to quench our thirst right here and now.

So the good actions that we commit bring us happiness and joy in this world and also the next world as well.

Our good actions also bring our minds to see and understand the truth.

So the Buddha taught about this,

He encouraged us to create skillful actions and good actions,

To be generous and to have moral integrity.

And all of these wholesome things that we do,

They create heaven,

They create beauty and happiness.

When we have many good things in our lives,

Then those beings who are endowed with wisdom will be able to see that these things are not sure as well,

That they're unstable.

But those who don't have this wisdom will experience fear,

Fear of being separated from all of these good things.

When we're born into the world,

We live for maybe 60 years,

70 years,

It's very rare to find someone who lives more than 100 years.

And we know that the world is like this.

The thing is when we come into this world,

We start taking possession of it,

We start claiming ownership over the things of this world.

But really we can see in this world that everyone who is born will have to,

At some point,

Meet with death.

And when they die,

No one's able to take any of the things of this world with them.

Still though,

When we're born into this world,

We just want to gain more and more,

We want to heap things up.

If we look at it,

It's kind of like children who are playing with one another.

They're pretending that they've opened up a shop,

And they're selling this and that and making a huge profit,

And they're laughing and having a great time.

But the adults looking on are confused.

They see it all as just being the games of children.

What's there to get excited about?

There's no reality to it,

There's no substance to it.

So for us humans,

We fight with one another,

We struggle against each other,

Like it's something that's really serious.

And the devas,

Or the angels,

They're looking down on us,

They're confused,

They're wondering,

Why are they scrambling for things that are worth almost nothing?

There's no value to it.

What they have there is worth far more.

Really these devas see that the Dhamma,

That understanding the truth,

Is worth more than anything else.

So when we're able to raise up our minds to the point where we can see into the noble truths,

Then we'll understand that what's worth the most is wisdom,

Is knowing things in line with truth.

This is of great value that nothing else can compare to.

So may you all have sincerity in this path,

In building up goodness and raising up the level of your minds,

And may you all see the truth.