Venerable Radha Talk: What Truly Makes Us Happy on 26 January 2026

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:05]The question of where what what truly is happiness? Um question is happiness pleasure.

[00:00:27]So they say the truth have layers just like onions. And most of us spend our life peeling the onions. But what we peel can be a tear of joy, tear of tears, sadness. But instead we have a choice to make it a tear of joy. So uncovering these onions is like discovering ourself. And to guide us we have someone here today vulnerable Rada who has just studied all these layers throughout his life. So Vulnerable Rada before ordining he lived um before ordining he was a successful engineer full of sports music and uh travels. He knows exactly what it's like to choose the worldly happiness. Yet at the age of 50 on the day of Valentine day he he decided to leave it all behind and join Ajan Brown to seek the deeper truth.

[00:01:30]I personally experienced this last year um when where Bante talks about healing of the trauma and I also attended the meditation uh under Bante guidance. I learned that uh the most important thing in in our life is healing isn't about changing the past. It's about taking the courage to look within and let go.

[00:01:58]He doesn't just talk about letting go.

[00:02:01]He is the living example that we live that follows the principle. Please welcome me to to to invite Pante Ver Rada for our speech today.

[00:02:27]Uh yes. Um just quick recap, it's always very um inspiring for a monk to see people take the five precepts.

[00:02:43]Um first when I first went to Australia on that that day and in Bodhinana monks sorry not monks aspiring young men or not very young uh who want to become monks first have to spend one year in service at the monastery and the one year we will do the cooking we will drive the monks around and we'll count the donations stuff that monks can't do themselves.

[00:03:15]But the one uh experience I remember very clearly was when we drove Ajan Brah on Friday night he goes to the city center temple 1 hour away from the monastery and uh he's going to spend every weekend there in Perth to give the Friday night dhamama talk that you see online then to uh have lunch with the city center people where they do the pindat and all that food offering Uh what was very eye opening for me the first time was how you go there on a Friday night and you see all sorts of people. Ajan Brah attracts the Australians, the young and the old women of the whites and then some of the whites will have their Thai girlfriends and then on top of that they will have uh all the Malaysian and Singaporeans which are we are all very familiar with the Thai people young and old the Sri Lankans and then they're all sitting in one hall asking for five precepts and then I was very impressed Yes.

[00:04:25]Because then it's like if you live in a in a community where everybody publicly tells you, I'm taking the five precepts.

[00:04:34]I will not harm you. I will not steal. I will not kill. I will not cheat. I will not tell lies.

[00:04:40]If you live in a community like that, in my mind, you're very lucky, right?

[00:04:48]And then some years later I when I became a monk we we have uh our duties as attendant monks and would follow Ajan Brah to spend the weekend in Namara carry his stuff and wash his bowl and make his tea. That was the how junior monks learn I suppose.

[00:05:11]And then one after lunch as usual after every talk a lot of people queue up to talk to Ajan Brah ask him personal questions and and one of those weekends they were sitting there and the queue waiting for Ajam Brown was 30 people long and then this family young uh this mother with her two children and the children's two friends came up to me and say we don't we don't need to wait for Ajan Brown we rather quickly. But uh these kids, her two children and the children's two friends, they're going to have their exams soon. Can you give them a blessing?

[00:05:55]And I was just having that thought earlier thought, right? I said, they're already blessed. If they live in a house that takes five precepts every week, surely they can study much better than all their classmates, right?

[00:06:15]The mother said, "Oh, I never thought of it that way." Her two children smiled and acknowledged and understood.

[00:06:24]The two friends looked deep into space and didn't smile.

[00:06:31]And uh then I was thinking to myself, maybe I said something wrong.

[00:06:36]But yes, it's very inspiring to see people who take the five precepts and even more impressive eight precepts.

[00:06:44]Okay. Anyway, uh I we have two options whether to do the medit meditation first or give this talk first. The question is are you calm enough to listen to the story first?

[00:06:58]>> No. Do I come? Huh?

[00:07:06]>> We listen to the story first and then then we do the meditation then may maybe then that you'll be inspired for the meditation.

[00:07:14]So uh I'm not sure whether you share the most of okay so I will scroll through quickly and just go through the main points.

[00:07:26]So there was Buddha was in this particular place and there was this other wanderer who is not a Buddhist and he when he saw Buddha's sleeping place he said ah so sad this aesthetic here he's a destroyer of life a life destroyer and then of course the Buddha could hear this from far away and so he was prepared he came and and and and actually asks, "Magandia, did you have this conversation?" And he says, "The eye loves sights, likes to see, likes to enjoy them, but for me it has been tamed. It has been is guarded, it's protected, and it is restrained by the realized one."

[00:08:22]Is that why you call me the Buddha, a life destroyer?

[00:08:27]That's exactly what I'm referring to.

[00:08:30]And why is that? Because the old Indian scriptures said so. Interesting that old Indian scriptures could predict this long before the Buddha appeared.

[00:08:42]So um a lot of times when we read this kind of sutras they may sound too distant from our actual life experience.

[00:08:54]And I like always to say okay when the Buddha says this I like sights it loves them. It enjoys them and has been tamed and guarded. How does it relate to our actual life experience?

[00:09:09]And of course uh in terms of the eyes uh the obvious thing is we love our TV, we love our social media, we love the and we look at everything that we can and enjoy them. So you can relate that the eye likes to see things but the Buddha says is now tamed. It's guarded. It's protected. It's restrained. And he teaches the dharma for its restraint.

[00:09:39]So mandia says exactly you are telling us not to enjoy our lives that's why you're saying our lives you you are a life destroyer then Buddha of course goes through all the other the all the six senses the ear like sounds the nose like smells the tongue loves durian the body likes and the mind likes thinking like thoughts but for the Buddha It has been tamed. It's been guarded. Is that why you call me a life destroyer?

[00:10:14]Exactly. So, okay.

[00:10:18]So he says all right if somebody who used to amuse themsel with sides and then later on having understood where the liking comes from and how the ending of the liking can happen.

[00:10:39]What the gratification, the satisfaction, the attraction of sites and the drawbacks, the drawbacks of having the can't put down your phone at night, therefore lose sleeping hours and then uh there are a lot of I mean drawbacks like that and then he says okay there's actually a way to escape these sides and then having given up the craving having dispelled the passion No longer crave for Tik Tok, no longer crave for Instagram, no longer crave for durian.

[00:11:17]Rid of the thirst. U in this case, the pali word for thirst, tanha, is also the word for craving.

[00:11:27]Having got rid of the craving, the mind becomes peaceful inside. What do you have to say to this person who has figured this out?

[00:11:36]Nothing.

[00:11:38]And then of course again goes through all the other senses the sound the smells the taste the touch by the body.

[00:11:44]And in this part of the suta he doesn't say thoughts known by the mind.

[00:11:51]He says what would you say if somebody has restrained the five senses and have given up the craving?

[00:12:00]Nothing. Master Gautama.

[00:12:02]Then the Buddha goes on to explain his own life story as a young prince. He says uh when he was a young prince he had three houses. One for the hot season, one for the cold season, one for the rainy season. In the rainy season, he had in his palace he was entertained by musicians and dancers.

[00:12:26]None of them men for four months. He doesn't come down from that palace.

[00:12:32]And but still sometime later and this is of course after he was enlightened he understood okay why the craving where it comes from uh and how it ends how how okay question origin of craving where does that come from >> try and relate it to real uh experiences rather than conceptual words so that you can take away something that means something that you can work with greed.

[00:13:15]>> My understanding of it is that because all the things that we sense we always have a judgment for it. This is nice.

[00:13:27]This is yep.

[00:13:29]Every time you have that, I want more of this. I want to get away from that.

[00:13:36]And that's your origin, the vena, the the experience of it, the feeling of it because you have a an ability to judge what is nice, what is not. Therefore, you want what is nice.

[00:13:56]And where does the feeling come from this? So then the whole dependent origination story I won't go go there it's a bit too deep the s the fact that we have five or five sense organs therefore we experience the world through those five organs and because each of these five sense organs will say this is nice this is yuck therefore the craving comes up so that's your origin of all your cravings the ending of craving when you understand enough to say yeah this actually is the same as that I don't really care anymore at that point then the craving ends as in okay should should I do I still want to look at something on Tik Tok do I still want that durian or am I happy with white rice and one fried egg and timoon?

[00:15:04]Uh if you come to a point you say actually it's all the same then the craving for the durian stops the craving for any food stops and of course the gratification is the one that pulls you in the drawback is the the one that that makes okay let's talk about drawback drawback also I didn't understand before until I became a monk and then Ajan brah explained it.

[00:15:36]Um a lot of times in our world we consider okay those who are who have money, those who have means uh can therefore enjoy stuff.

[00:15:52]Um but Ajan went and explained it backwards. He says this thing called the will, we call it free will.

[00:16:03]But if to a person who now understands that free will, actually a brah calls it the slave master.

[00:16:17]That's the one that said uh go and get durian now now now. Uh the taste the the taste is waiting for it. And then when when you feel like oh tired but the phone just went thing the free will is driving us around rather than we choosing stuff the and it's because of the craving underneath because there is this experience and vana and choosing this is nice this is not so a A lot of times we don't get to choose. It's chosen for us and we have to act on that choice that is made for us.

[00:17:08]Like how many of you have a choice to say uh I don't like laxa or I don't like durian or I don't like because your condition as a Malaysian chances are because your parents gave it to you and they all say wow nice this one musang king best in the world. So obviously we we we conditioning but understand conditioning in real world terms how it comes to have come to be.

[00:17:39]So along the ways uh the Buddha then says yeah your craving is the reason why you suffer. The the craving puts a distance between where you are and what you want.

[00:17:57]And that gap, the bigger the gap, the more suffering you have.

[00:18:02]Uh the solution though now trying to get rid of this thirst, giving up the craving, dispelling the passion, uh is not so much getting there so that you enjoy and grab what you crave for, but actually just not wanting it.

[00:18:27]And that's that's uh what the Buddha is trying to say in all these sentences.

[00:18:34]He says, "I see other beings who are not freed from sensual pleasures being consumed by the craving for sensual pleasures, burning with passion, indulging in those passion." And it's I don't envy them. I don't even want to enjoy that. Why? Here's the critical part because there is a satisfaction that is apart from sensual pleasures and unskillful qualities.

[00:19:06]Um, and this this I have to tell you is the part that made me uh go from engineer and a very full life to this uh >> turn brown.

[00:19:21]>> Turn brown. Yeah.

[00:19:23]Uh Ajan Brah made a promise uh if I can hold him to that promise.

[00:19:29]He says meditation and Buddhism and end of the path uh gives you bliss better than sex. Have you heard that before?

[00:19:41]>> Uh I haven't had that bliss. So I am still waiting for my turn. But strangely enough, I have taught meditation retreats where people have experienced it.

[00:19:59]And what does it feel like? Sitting there quietly, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. And then you get to a point where you're aesthetic, so happy until tears come out.

[00:20:17]Uh uh yeah I have seen it twice or three times now and it's it's bewildering like how how somebody can be happy just sitting there breathing in and out but it happens.

[00:20:37]uh and the question that how how does it happen and the suta says when you stop craving there's a peace due to seclusion there's a peace that is just due to being contented and that contentment is really really really blissful so here he's trying to explain this to Mandanda and says okay suppose knows the the householders or householder child rich has all the the five senses that he could have, five sense pleasures that he could have. But if he should do good, pass away and be in heaven and enjoy heavenly uh pleasures, would he still want musang king?

[00:21:27]Probably not. Because there is pleasure in heaven that is far better than pleasure on earth.

[00:21:39]Likewise, the Buddha says there is pleasure in beyond the five senses that is way better.

[00:21:47]Then he he went on to use some very interesting um simileies based on leprosy uh which paints a very visceral picture.

[00:22:01]He says somebody leprosy is skin peeling very itchy and cracking and yet you still want to put your hand over a fire to try and stop the itch.

[00:22:15]But if you're cured of the leprosy, would you still want to put your hand over the fire? No. Right?

[00:22:23]So why? Because the itch is no longer there. You don't want it. Uh you don't want the fire.

[00:22:30]But then the the Buddha then asks, "Okay, but suppose u this guy is now cured and a strong man holds his hand and puts it in front of the fire.

[00:22:44]What would he do? He would try and wrigle away and get out. Why?

[00:22:50]Because now the fire is painful. It's no longer nice.

[00:22:55]Then the Buddha says, "Okay, is it that only now the fire is painful or was it painful all along?"

[00:23:07]And of course, the answer is it's painful all along. It's just that when it was itchy, I rather the heat and stop the itch.

[00:23:15]But the fire is painful.

[00:23:18]So now we look back. Okay, the stuff that we crave for, is it pleasurable now? Is it pleasurable later when you see through them?

[00:23:30]Uh or is it the case that um while we are suffering we want a any kind of a pleasure that distract from other suffering rather than to try and just cure whatever suffering we already have.

[00:23:53]meaning to say um there are things that we are not happy with in life always the boss is not the boss is not fair the government okay don't talk to her but the next driver is unpleasant and then after that we we we start looking for distraction on a little screen distraction in food distraction in anything thinking that we Now the the the distraction helps us stop the itch.

[00:24:32]It's okay. It's okay.

[00:24:35]Yeah.

[00:24:38]Rather than to go to a place where we are healthier, rather than to use distractions.

[00:24:51]So the Buddha then goes on to say the sensual pleasures are actually painful to touch.

[00:24:59]But because we have a distorted perception that they appear pleasant, the distorted perception in this case probably means we don't see a higher pleasure. So we accept putting our hands over the fire.

[00:25:24]Okay. Um, there's this other part of the suta that's even more interesting.

[00:25:31]The more they indulge in sensual pleasure, the more their craving grows, the more they burn with passion.

[00:25:42]Still they derive a degree of pleasure and gratification from those five kinds of sensual stimulation.

[00:25:51]It seems to describe addiction, right?

[00:26:03]And if we are honest with ourselves, that's what it feels like when we are in front of a screen and when there's food on the table.

[00:26:12]Um, or if you want to go a bit further, some of us might treat our work that way. Some of us might treat our anger and resentment that way.

[00:26:30]Even though we know the anger and resentment is, but I still need to teach him a lesson. I can't I can't forgive yet. and you hold on to.

[00:26:41]For some reason, those kind of pleasures seem to grow as the more you indulge in it.

[00:26:54]Okay. Uh I'll skip past all that. And so here here he says in the end the Buddha says health is the ultimate blessing extinguishment the ultimate happiness of the path the ultimate eight sorry the the eight-fold path is the ultimate it leads to safety it leads to deathlessness and then maganda says yes yes I agree health is the ultimate blessing it's amazing because again the Indian scriptures outside of Buddhism apparently also says the same thing.

[00:27:33]Health is the ultimate blessing, extinguishment, the ultimate happiness.

[00:27:38]Except that the Buddha then says suppose a man was born blind. If you know get cheated, they think a dirty cloth is a is a white cloth.

[00:27:53]What the Buddha was trying to say here is when he said that health is the highest happiness.

[00:28:04]What he meant was health of the mental kind.

[00:28:10]He says this body is a disease. This body is an absess a pass is misery is affliction. How can you say this body is the uh ultimate health what so as I was saying what the Buddha is saying is we are not talking about the body's health here we're talking about mental health we're talking about something far removed from the five senses And then okay long story short u mandanda asked the Buddha can you please teach me what do you mean what is what is the highest happiness then the Buddha says well mandiab you should associate with good people you should hear the true teachings and then when you hear the true teachings you will practice in line with the teaching And when you practice in line with the teaching, you will see and know for yourself these are diseases boils darts. Here's where the diseases the boils the darts cease without anything left over. That's nibbana.

[00:29:38]And then when grasping ceases, rebirth ceases.

[00:29:47]When rebirth ceases, all your suffering cease.

[00:29:53]So that's the advice the Buddha gave to Mandanda at the end.

[00:29:59]So uh a bit of a depressing story on a Thursday night during Chinese New Year.

[00:30:09]Uh but it's it's it's a reminder of where the Buddhist Buddhist path actually leads.

[00:30:19]A lot of us think okay um we take the five precepts and then we're done. But the Buddha says that is the stepping stone. The the five precepts is important. As I said earlier, the the five precepts is a very important stepping stone. You will realize that those who can't take the five precepts yet are not ready to hear the message.

[00:30:50]When you are ready to hear the message, you are you have already heard enough to say yes happiness is not somewhere there in the world or at least there's a possibility that happiness is there's more happiness elsewhere. Let's go look for it and then take the five precepts.

[00:31:09]Guard yourself against too much noise in the world.

[00:31:15]Then you can hear the hear the Buddha's message.

[00:31:19]There's another part of u the bigger story inside this mandias uh uh suta.

[00:31:31]The question of where what what truly is happiness? Um question is happiness pleasure? Is is musang king happiness?

[00:31:46]For most of us it is right.

[00:31:53]>> Yeah.

[00:31:57]Uh but when you go out there and see the world and and and look at who are the happy people in the world and who are the unhappy people in the world, you realize the ones who are truly unhappy have a lot of problems and a lot of problems that they are angry about.

[00:32:22]They seem to be the one who don't get along with their neighbors, don't get along with their family, don't get along with their bosses.

[00:32:34]And then you compare that kind of suffering versus okay today didn't get musing.

[00:32:41]It's the the happinesses that having a peaceful life compares to those kind of lives is a very big difference.

[00:32:54]And we don't we don't sometimes appreciate that difference.

[00:33:00]And the the Buddha is saying um as you move along the Buddhist path, as you hear the Buddhist teaching, Buddha's teaching, as you take the five precepts, as your life becoming becomes less and less troublesome, recognize that peace and contentment and that that form of happiness that is not the temporary musanking happiness, but the long-term uh having lots of friends, having a place to hang out, having good teachers, having uh considerate friends who also take the five precepts.

[00:33:40]Those are big happinesses that we sometimes underrate and don't recognize.

[00:33:48]the one the one one thing from last year's uh workshop and then in the in my short monkhood life I've come across people with a lot of family issues a lot of mental health issues that I never noticed when I was before I turned brown as I was saying to some of my other friends went to a class uh went to engineering school, went to work in a big MNC corporate firm. So I never saw people with mental health issues. I never saw a suicidal person, a depressed person. At least when I saw them, I never noticed them. I couldn't recognize them.

[00:34:36]But when I got into the monastery, the monastery attracts a lot of them because they all are looking for a solution.

[00:34:46]And I start talking to a lot of them and you realize a lot of their problems you can almost say self-inflicted.

[00:35:00]Two persons may have the same life condition. One happy and one depressed.

[00:35:06]The happy one has got family support, has got friends, has got a good mental habit.

[00:35:15]They come across a problem, they try and solve it, they ask friends for help. The other one will blame the boss, blame the the parents, blame whoever it is and get stuck uh trying to solve their life's problem alone, get angry, and because of their angry, they don't have friends.

[00:35:37]Because they don't have friends, they got nobody to talk to and nobody to help them.

[00:35:41]And then you wonder, okay, this thing called the eight-fold path, right speech, right action, right livelihood, it actually does a lot to get you into a right place where you can have friends and have support. It makes a big difference. Uh I notice it because I talk to both uh kinds of people in my monastery.

[00:36:10]They look for advice and the angry ones very hard to help.

[00:36:16]The ones who are friendlier, they at least pay attention and listen and are receptive to advice.

[00:36:27]The angry ones too much in their thoughts, stuck, very hard to get out, can't forgive.

[00:36:39]So yes uh associate with good people and hear the true teaching and then try and relate the teachings to your personal lives because a lot of these words when I first read them also it's like uh okay five senses what what can't relate very hard to relate to your own lives if you don't see where the Buddha was trying to get to.

[00:37:02]I also understand now of because when the Buddha said all these things, he was already so peaceful and calm.

[00:37:10]For him to look at an intention or to look at a pleasure from a taste or pleasure from a sight, he has got a long time sit down an hour, one image in his head, analyze it fully. We don't have the kind of patience or the depth of of uh stillness of mind to see it yet.

[00:37:32]But as I always say, this genius has seen it and has tried to explain it to us up to yeah slowly slowly understand.

[00:37:47]Um, the quieter your mind, the more the deeper you connect with what he's trying to say and the deeper you understand, the less likely you self-inflict suffering in the mind.

[00:38:03]Okay. Anyway, that's 45 minutes. So, uh, I'm targeting for you to go home at 9:30. Is that right? We do a meditation.

[00:38:15]Good.

[00:38:18]Um, thank you.

[00:38:25]If you need the toilet, yeah, now's a good time.

[00:38:38]The rest of you, if you want to stretch or stand up and bend, whatever, please carry on. Make yourself as comfortable as possible.

[00:39:04]Now I am not sure how many of you do meditation regularly.

[00:39:12]Um and I imagine some of you have all of us have had different teachers in the past.

[00:39:20]Uh I now take Ajan Brah as my teacher and I would like you to experience it the way I learned it from Ajan Brah and the way Ajan Brah teaches it is to make sure you enjoy your meditation as in don't think of it as a chore think of it as rest and relaxation.

[00:39:45]So when you do this, try not to it's too hard on the body and it's very hard to hold.

[00:39:54]The idea is to rest.

[00:40:00]I will also sit back and rest.

[00:40:07]Um in addition Ajan Brah also says when we want to pay attention to the breath when the breath is seen like oh I'm just staring at a stone or I'm staring at a flower pot. If you don't have any affinity to that flower pot or the stone, it's very hard to look at it for 45 minutes.

[00:40:37]But if you had a cat, I don't know if you if any of you have cats or dogs, and the cat is sitting there on your lap, it's very easy to hold that cat and connect with it for half an hour, especially if nobody else is in the room making noise. this the handphone doesn't go ping and uh you have no craving for the world. So after hearing what the Buddha had to say about about the five sense pleasures, the idea of revulsion or dispassion, you you you would have seen those words if you read the sutas. The idea that yeah, the world no longer interesting.

[00:41:33]The interesting part is in the sixth sense, in the mind sense or in the heart sense, when you feel stuff like joy, when you feel stuff like kindness, the idea of kindness has got a very soft feeling on the heart.

[00:41:55]The kindness of contentment.

[00:41:58]If you're contented, if you don't have anything to chase for, then you can actually sit down and relax.

[00:42:11]So lean the mind towards kindness, contentment, having gratitude, counting the blessings that we are here in this nice airorn place.

[00:42:26]Um amongst friends, amongst people who have publicly declared, I will not hurt, I will not harm, I will not lie, I will not steal, I will not cheat. You're in good company. You're in safe company.

[00:42:42]No need to watch over your handbag or your handphone. Nobody's going to steal.

[00:42:47]Everybody have declared.

[00:42:52]Right. So yes. So so as you're sitting there, close your eyes, relax.

[00:43:05]And the first place I would like you to bring your attention to is your abdominal area.

[00:43:18]The abdominal muscles, your stomach muscles, the six-pack in front and the lumbar muscles behind behind your kidneys. See if you can relax all these muscles such that you can remain seated upright with as little effort as possible.

[00:43:53]Relax even the muscles on the sides of the abdomen.

[00:44:02]All our muscles work in opposites. So that you one pulls you forward, the other one pulls you back, one pulls you left, the other pulls you right.

[00:44:11]We just want to remain upright. So as little effort as possible in those muscles.

[00:44:24]And when you relax those muscles, the first thing that you notice is your breath.

[00:44:39]The breath is moving in and out.

[00:44:47]And the more you relax, the nicer is the experience of the breath.

[00:45:03]It actually feels pleasant.

[00:45:20]And I encourage you to enjoy that sensation of the breath.

[00:45:29]Even though earlier we said we should restrain ourselves from the five senses.

[00:45:36]Take the breath as a stepping stone.

[00:45:40]It's a nice anchor for the mind that is very pacifying.

[00:45:51]That's soothing.

[00:46:09]and enjoying the breath. You notice your thinking has stopped or is quietened down.

[00:46:27]The mind is in an observing mode, input mode rather than a talking output mode.

[00:46:39]Because you're observing something very pleasant.

[00:46:58]And as you enjoy quietly like that, your sensitivity increases.

[00:47:10]You might even be able to feel dinner going down the stomach and the intestines.

[00:47:34]And sometimes if you have had a an exciting day or a stressful day, you might feel stress or the stress hormones coming into your bloodstream. The leftover stress from the day.

[00:48:18]Some of these sensations of the body is actually uncomfortable, the tiredness, the achings.

[00:48:36]But when you have a heart of compassion to towards this body, the mind doesn't say yuck. On the other hand, the mind says tries to calms calm it down and have matter towards the body.

[00:49:07]I have compassion TLC towards this tired old body.

[00:49:20]So when compassion meets discomfort, the attention doesn't run.

[00:49:33]The attention is one of caring and you can allow that feeling of compassion to develop.

[00:49:57]Allow the heart to soften and become warm towards this suffering body.

[00:50:43]You might want to allow the attention to expand a little bit upwards towards the chest area.

[00:51:03]to also allow the muscles in the rib cage, on your chest, on your back to also enjoy the same relaxation.

[00:51:47]As you breathe in and out, Imagine the breath as the carrier for the compassion and the caring.

[00:52:04]Let the breath massage different parts of the body.

[00:52:09]Wherever there's tension and aching, let the breath go there.

[00:52:26]Bringing with it the soothing and relaxing feeling.

[00:53:02]And this relaxed body again is very pleasant.

[00:53:14]As you notice that sensation, do enjoy that feeling.

[00:53:22]Ajan Brah says that indeed this kindness, this relaxation is the glue for the attention, is the anchor for the attention.

[00:53:49]Just like when you're looking into a cat's eye or a kitten's eye or puppy's eye.

[00:53:57]Having a connection with your breath keeps the mind here in the present moment effortlessly.

[00:54:25]Let's move the attention further up to the neck to the jaw the jaw muscles.

[00:54:47]There are these muscles around the face, jaw that we use as a bulletproof mask.

[00:54:58]But since we are sitting amongst five preceptors, we can remove that mask. And let our facial muscles breathe and relax.

[00:55:24]The eyeballs, the muscles that hold the eyeballs and roll the eyeballs, relax those. Allow them to loosen and then your frowning muscles up at the forehead.

[00:55:57]See if you can unfrown the forehead.

[00:56:22]Now let's go an inch behind the forehead to the brain.

[00:56:36]Some of us who have worked very hard today, who had to solve a lot of problems, will feel tiredness here.

[00:56:58]And my own experience is that these tiredness up here are quite stubborn.

[00:57:04]They don't relax as easily as the abdominal area.

[00:57:12]The trick I use is to try and imagine the breath going up the nostrils flowing past the cranium area.

[00:57:29]before it goes down to the rest of the body.

[00:57:40]It's a bit like opening the windows to a store room that hasn't been open for a long time, letting the stale air out and the fresh air to come in.

[00:58:22]So are you doing this work in partnership with your breath?

[00:58:32]The mind has good intentions of meta and karuna, kindness and compassion.

[00:58:40]And the breath transports it there and massages the tired parts.

[00:59:01]Heat. Heat.

[00:59:25]Fire.

[00:59:41]Fire.

[01:00:01]Sometimes it comes to a point when there's this idea of diminishing return.

[01:00:12]The the brain has relaxed a bit.

[01:00:17]Still a mess, but I wouldn't let go anymore.

[01:00:32]And the observer who is doing this meditation might get a bit tired too.

[01:00:45]You notice that there's the breath which is going in and out.

[01:00:51]And the observer, the one who's listening, the one who's directing the attention.

[01:00:58]And this observer also gets tired, maybe a bit agitated, coming back from an evening of hard work and still have to meditate.

[01:01:14]So here I like to introduce a trick which is to give kindness and compassion to that observer.

[01:01:31]The observer becomes the recipient of the matter from the breath.

[01:01:41]Allow the the observer to close close uh its eyes and rest.

[01:01:58]Allow the breath to cradle this observer, cuddle this observer.

[01:02:09]And give it matter. Give it soothing and relaxation.

[01:02:25]It's as if the observer is inside the breath.

[01:02:40]And just let yourself relax and rest.

[01:03:19]Ajan pointed out that being cradled by this breath is very soothing.

[01:03:29]Very likely because of somatic memory of the time when you were a baby being held in your mother's arms.

[01:03:56]Feel the rising and falling of the breath and allow yourself to let go completely.

[01:04:41]Stop.

[01:04:52]Heat.

[01:05:17]Heat.

[01:05:19]Heat.

[01:05:37]Heat.

[01:06:05]Okay.

[01:06:09]Heat. Heat.

[01:06:50]Some of us by this point our minds may start getting restless.

[01:07:01]If your mind is restless, then you can do a further experiment.

[01:07:08]If you're nice and peaceful and you like this feeling, you can continue resting within the breath.

[01:07:21]But if you want to try the experiment, let's bring our attention to our heart area, the seat of our emotions.

[01:07:43]Even though we have relaxed the chest area before, now if we look for emotions specifically.

[01:08:06]You might find a different kind of tiredness.

[01:08:30]a burden, a tightness that we have not yet let go of.

[01:08:46]In the same way that we have relaxed the different parts of the body starting with the abdominal area in the beginning, we can also give the same matter and compassion to our hearts.

[01:09:11]Heat. Heat.

[01:09:49]The idea is not so much to get carried away by the stories but to soothe the tiredness and to soothe the tensions. s to allow ourselves rest.

[01:10:13]to allow the tiredness to flow away.

[01:10:38]Heat.

[01:11:00]Heat.

[01:11:04]for And you'll probably realize that stuff in the heart, stuff in the brain takes a bit more work before they let go.

[01:12:01]These things we've been carrying for a long long time and they're a bit more stubborn before they go.

[01:12:10]But even so, I like you all to reflect now the state of being that you are in now versus when we started.

[01:12:32]Could this be the kind of health that the Buddha was talking about?

[01:12:40]Mental health.

[01:12:52]And you're more relaxed.

[01:12:59]less worried, more contented.

[01:13:12]Would this be a kind of happiness that you would want to pursue?

[01:13:31]Okay, we are going to finish in about a minute.

[01:13:44]Please enjoy your last few breaths.

[01:13:48]Truly cherish them once the bell rings.

[01:14:16]Open my eyes.

[01:14:20]Heat.

[01:14:40]Heat.

[01:14:56]doesn't work.

[01:14:59]All right, your minute is up.

[01:15:02]I don't have a Okay, here's a question. Do you find it easier to smile now than 1 hour ago?

[01:15:18]Does that make you happier?

[01:15:24]The lady over there reminded me I taught an taught a group of Malaysians who went over to Perth last year in May and uh they came one week before Wayisak and spent whole whole week at Janna Grove which is a retreat center.

[01:15:41]And so when they came they sister Dolly went up to Ajan Brahma and said uh a few beginners here can you teach? Ajan Brahm looked down the line and said you Malaysian go and teach.

[01:15:53]So I me and and Jayo from Pinang. So we took turns and thought and then on day four I think I can't remember I was looking at everybody. Uh you are in Janna Grove which is basically meditation tint tong. How come still cannot smile on day four.

[01:16:16]>> So uh yeah Ajan says >> how do you tell whether people can meditate or cannot meditate?

[01:16:25]Look at the corner of their lips whether pointing up or down.

[01:16:32]And uh after I pointed that out to that group uh interestingly I didn't expect a few people asked to speak privately and then I realized a lot of people were carrying old injuries in their hearts not yet let go cannot smile.

[01:16:55]uh and then just very recently in January I was teaching the Armadil meditation group online.

[01:17:04]So I was giving the same instructions I gave you have a good relationship with your breath when you are friends with your breath and you sit down your attention will just stay your hanging out with your best friend.

[01:17:16]What else can be more can be more difficult or what else can be more easy?

[01:17:22]If you're sitting in a room with your enemy, with your boss that you don't like, of course, then 5 minutes is too long, right? But you're sitting at your best friend, an hour is easy.

[01:17:35]But then one girl raised her hand and said, "What if the breath don't want to be friends with me?

[01:17:48]And then we laugh. Most of us laugh. I also laugh. Don't quite understand. But let me think about it. So I ask her back a question.

[01:17:57]My guess is you probably have an enemy inside which you can't sit with in the same room.

[01:18:05]Uh something some self-perception you don't like. Some part of yourself. some anger, some haven't let go. So the inside space is not homely, it's not comfortable.

[01:18:22]Anyway, she didn't say anything more. So I started meditation. At the end of meditation, any question, any comments?

[01:18:28]I I will ask you that same question in a moment. Then she raised her hand again.

[01:18:33]uh what you said just now uh I like to when I was small my father told me I don't want you as my daughter and she carried that for I don't know how old she is but and then she said probably from her own realization I didn't know that can affect meditation what do I do now so uh check for yourself what you're carrying. If if you struggled to sit inside, if you didn't find it peaceful inside, check for yourself if there's something inside you don't like.

[01:19:17]Yeah.

[01:19:21]Anyway, in in her case, the I asked her then the question, what do you know about your father's life? What was his childhood like? Then she started shaking her head and uh she said, "I don't know very much about the father, but the mother's life was really tough. Uh was a farmer, worked for other people's farm and raised kids and probably as a single parent." She didn't say.

[01:19:47]So then she's then I pointed out to her, "Can you blame your father for saying those things for that sentence?

[01:19:58]Chances are he probably heard something similar from his own parents.

[01:20:04]So you're the first generation who can understand it and break free from it.

[01:20:10]The generation before probably two, three, four generations before survived World War I, World War II trying to come from China to Malaysia and be an immigrant in a new land.

[01:20:23]She's the first so-called generation to actually go to university and learn meditation. So, do you blame or do you count your blessings?

[01:20:35]And she understood that.

[01:20:40]So, yeah, no point blaming, no point holding on to all this stuff. after you realize what you hold on to it. The space inside is not even comfortable for meditating.

[01:20:54]Okay. Anyway, any comments? Any questions?

[01:21:03]>> No.

[01:21:04]>> Yes.

[01:21:04]>> Okay. Good.

[01:21:06]>> I think I think we open the floor for everyone to question. I think we have one left.

[01:21:18]Monday, it's good to see you again.

[01:21:19]Happy New Year.

[01:21:20]>> Happy New Year.

[01:21:22]>> Actually, so sorry.

[01:21:30]>> Uh my first question is actually so so what do we do? So, so the the participants question you were raising like oh I've been carrying this pain for many years and know what do I do now? So so what do we do? Yeah.

[01:21:42]>> Okay. The standard answer is to forgive.

[01:21:45]Don't carry. When you know you're carrying hot coal in your own hands, it burns you more than it burns the other person for not forgiving.

[01:21:53]Uh a lot of times we are forced to forgive without understanding.

[01:22:01]I personally find that quite difficult as well. But when I ask her the question about her father's childhood that gives us an idea of where it came from.

[01:22:14]And therefore when you understand where it came from then you realize if I want to blame father then I got to blame grandfather. If I want to blame grandfather then I got to blame the Japanese who tortured him. I want to blame the Japanese tortured him. will blame the emperor in and then we will blame the emperor's father.

[01:22:35]So the chain goes very far back. So when you understand that yeah this blame thing most of us don't start out wanting to do evil. It's just as the Buddha says ignorance and delusion is the is the root cause of all the suffering.

[01:22:57]So it comes generations back and and sometimes it comes down your bloodline, sometimes it comes down your boss's bloodline. You won't know. But when you realize where all this comes from is because the rest of them have not heard messages like these, have not met friends like these.

[01:23:19]Yeah.

[01:23:21]So then it's easier to have compassion for them.

[01:23:27]Yeah.

[01:23:29]Yes.

[01:23:32]Hi, Bundy. Thanks for for talking about this topic, right?

[01:23:36]>> No, no, that that doesn't amplify. It's just for recording.

[01:23:39]>> For recording.

[01:23:40]Yeah.

[01:23:41]>> Okay.

[01:23:42]>> I heard a very similar story uh 3 four years ago, right? Three four years ago, >> there was this lady in her 40s and she went up on stage and she spoke to over 100 people. M >> and when she went up she says that uh I've been suffering um for very much part of my life because I was uh abused. She said she was abused abused abused by uh her father >> also her relatives.

[01:24:09]>> Yes.

[01:24:09]>> And what was more tragic was that she said that the abuse continued for um when she was a small kid until she was a teenager. And what really was difficult for her was that um the abuse continued until she was an adult and her parents did nothing about it. Right? And and then she says, you know, I'm trying to live my life now and the abuse that I bring now, it's not only to myself, but it's to my partners.

[01:24:40]And she did mention that you know as she has grown out in life having partners uh uh her abuse continued uh into her life with her partners and I think it it's taken a lot of I think uh uh a lot of courage for this lady to go up on stage to share her story in front of 100 people >> and she says that my my my uh learning out of this is that I can continue blaming my father uh my uncles uh and my my mother who said nothing about it for not doing anything about it. Isn't it? Um and the outcome of that was that I then became the abuser you know to my partners in my life.

[01:25:20]>> But I've then I think at the time when she she shared that she was almost 50 she said that uh I've now found peace that I've forgiven >> um my father uncles even my mother who did nothing about it. uh and I found that making a amends is not only forgiving them but being kind to my next partner or the next person that I know.

[01:25:46]So very similar to I I think what what I've heard from you Banti. Thank you very much. It's a bit uh extreme but I'm just sharing what I heard from someone who is also finding ways to recover from such a tragic uh life.

[01:25:59]>> Thank you. As a monk I've heard that story so many times now. people who want to talk to a monk and tell us their stories and then because I've come across some research about childhood adverse childhood experience uh that I go look out for it and invariably it's there uh I've just hung out with a few classmates friends Chinese and he tells me something else that's interesting thing.

[01:26:34]He says a lot of times when we are anxious, the body is is in a low uh level of stress. You still have adrenaline flowing and you still worry about people around you and you see you you don't trust people as easily. There's always this worry about who's trying to scare me or who's trying to whatever me.

[01:26:57]uh when you have that level of stress even though it's very low grade but consistent throughout your morning and night your body suffers inflammation.

[01:27:08]Your body uh is always in a fight of fright or flight mode and never in a rest mode, never in a recovery mode.

[01:27:20]So you have inflammation in your joints, you have if you go and read this the studies, it says check yourself on your childhood, five things about uh your growing up and five things about your environment. Were you physically abused, sexually abused, emotionally abused, emotionally neglected?

[01:27:46]Uh physically neglected, something like that. So if you didn't have enough to eat, you didn't have fresh clothes, if you didn't sleep enough, if you didn't have anybody to talk to, you were just scolded and scolded and scolded.

[01:27:59]If your family is broken as in parents divorced and if somebody has gone to jail if there's depression if there's alcohol drug abuse if there's domestic violence any of if there is present you count if okay I've been physically abused I parents uh separated there was domestic violence count that as three if there's some neglect count as four by counting the number of scores, right? Just like that. Uh they can predict uh your longevity, they can predict your mental health, they can predict a lot of your autoimmune diseases like um rheumatoid arthritis, like diabetes.

[01:28:49]Uh they can predict your substance abuse likelihood. They can predict the number of marriages you will have or they will predict how many uh job changes you will have, your attempts at suicide, the whole works. It's all correlated. So when friends try and tell me, hey uh you shouldn't have so many eggs a day. I said that's a small thing.

[01:29:15]You shouldn't have so many coffee a day.

[01:29:17]That's a small thing.

[01:29:20]When you count four or five of this, right, your your lifespan is likely to be 15 years shorter or something like that. That's how bad it is.

[01:29:32]So, um if and it's it's it's not that it is fated once you have all this in your childhood.

[01:29:41]The problem is you can't get out of it.

[01:29:43]Therefore, you keep the that level anxiety and that level of grudge and the level of resentment. If you can let it go, get into a circle of good friends, then your stress level and your anxiety level will drop. So, learn to respond.

[01:30:02]Get into a meditation class wreck. What you have done just now, right? In the meditation, you are now sensitive to what goes on inside. Most of us are not.

[01:30:16]I asked another classmate who was in in the UK who lives in the UK. How is he?

[01:30:22]Retired, very relaxed, no problem. But he has joint pains. He's younger than I by one or two years. He has uh issues here and there. Then I asked him, uh, how your daughters?

[01:30:37]The foster daughter that he took on has passed away just last year. the other two daughters uh substance abuse one of them still trying to recover and I asked him what so when you said you're relaxed and enjoying life I think not so easy there right and I can see the signs and symptoms in his body he's suffering it there there's also other studies that says this Harvard adult development study. You want to go and look it up in t.com.

[01:31:16]Um it he says he Howard universities studied people from their 20 years old up to the time they die and they looked at interview went and interview all of them initially every year and then every second year and then when they interview they don't just make a phone call they go to their house sit in the house and talk to them and find out again the same thing how are your children have you remarried how's your job how's your health and then he says okay now that these guys are in 80 years old what in the data of their 50 years old can predict whether they are healthy and happy or not at 80. Is it their cholesterol level? Is it their blood pressure? Is it their it turns out the biggest indicator whether they have friends whether they have good friends?

[01:32:09]Whether they're happy with their relationships.

[01:32:12]If they're happy with their relationships at 50 years old, they will be happy at 80 years old. That's the strongest correlation. All the data they collected.

[01:32:24]Incredible, right? So the the idea that this mind has a huge influence on this body, what we think, what we worry about, what we are angry about on this body is huge.

[01:32:41]So then again when we talk about happiness we don't ask questions like that we think happiness means something iPhone anyway okay uh I was trying to end at 9:30 9:40 now any more questions yes Uh thank you Bonte for leading us through the meditation just now. So this is a person personal experience that I had recently um as I meditate I tend to enjoy it more.

[01:33:20]>> Good >> that's good right? Yeah. Yeah. However being a working person um time is a limitation right and somehow even during working hours I crave for the time to meditate.

[01:33:32]>> Very good. That's not good because I don't have the time to meditate. So my question is is this considered craving?

[01:33:45]>> Ajan Brah repeats this very often?

[01:33:49]What is the outcome of craving for meditation?

[01:33:55]>> Peace, happiness, calmness.

[01:33:59]>> Stream winner once returner non- returnturn.

[01:34:07]And it's in the sutas. It's not something he created.

[01:34:13]>> Okay.

[01:34:13]>> Very good.

[01:34:18]>> Now scratching it to find time.

[01:34:22]>> Thank you. Thank you.

[01:34:26]Anyone have any last final question?

[01:34:33]You >> uh s um I'm not too sure how applicable this is to the rest of the audience, but I realized that um recently right in in youth because I'm part of the youth outreach team. Um this sadness and this anxiety from like a situation called ghosting is quite prevalent and a bit harder to sort of like use because suta last time we have like all the abuse all those we have examples but this ghosting is a relatively say new phenomena of like all these like text messages because last time you can just speak to the person and the person will just give you a response if the person don't like you they also give you a response but then Now it's like people might just sort of flute thick or then like just be gone. Then that leaves the other person kind of like hanging, not too sure what's happening. And then a lot of things are swept under the carpet also not really discussed and then that affects like the person's like mental health and also like the like friendship relationships and stuff like that. Um so I was just wondering if they have any sort of thoughts on that. Chinese year.

[01:35:48]I also asked my classmates uh all 59 years old.

[01:35:53]Uh they they all have children university age age.

[01:35:59]One of them grandma already. But anyway uh because I am out of touch with that technology that that part of life now. I also asked the question is it the case how is it because in terms of material comfort I think this generation compared to all the generations prior you have the nicest beds and house and toilets and whatever right and education so what is it that Gen Z seems to be reporting the highest depression and personally I also don't quite understand but so I also go and read but if I would answer I'm giving you a reinterpretation of what I read but yeah there's this perception that the friendship is not very robust the relationships are not very robust somehow not playing the long kang together and not catching spiders together and somehow the they're they're just not so tight, right? I don't know if that's how you feel it.

[01:37:18]I don't know. Uh so and and all this I suppose the way you call it ghosting appearing and but not really appearing uh conversational skill seems to be getting lost. One thing I did observe and and is this is that people become intolerant as in if somebody say something unpleasant instead of trying to resolve it.

[01:37:49]A lot of people don't have this the conversational tools to resolve it and still keep the relationship. A lot of people will just say do I care about him anymore? and then you just cut the relationship and a lot of people then becomes in smaller and smaller circles and then you worry about them.

[01:38:11]But I don't know I I I did come across recommendations and schemes that they have tried to bring young people together again to learn these skills and develop resilience.

[01:38:24]And the resilience comes from having friends, having good uh relationships.

[01:38:31]But to implement them, the ideas are there. There people have done it and they report success.

[01:38:40]But personally, I don't know. That's not quite a dharma question. So I'm not sure.

[01:38:45]>> But that's a very >> pro analysis. Yeah. Because like what mentioned the whole because I'm trying to figure out this issue. So what is the issue right which is like the fragmentation of the relationships of like young people nowadays because you can hide behind the screen you can just disappear like you have no responsibility over the other person's well-being. If you just do something and you just disappear you cannot even see that other person is suffering >> but the other person might be suffering on the other side of the screen. Uh, yellow. Yellow.

[01:39:15]>> Yeah.

[01:39:15]>> Uh, so how how to get your kids to to prioritize face-to-face interaction?

[01:39:25]Get yourselves to prioritize face to face interaction >> gathering.

[01:39:31]>> The one of the test some I've heard before was this. In time of in the time of an emergency, how many people can you really call on for help?

[01:39:44]If that number is less than three, uh, do something about it.

[01:39:52]Seriously. Um, one, one conversation I had just before I came back, this uh, lady who's from Hong Kong living in Canada spoke to me for one hour every day after after lunch. And I kept hearing the phrase, I don't want to trouble my children, therefore I must be fit. I don't want to trouble my children, so I live alone. I don't want to trouble my children. Then I, after hearing that phrase for a few times, I asked her, "What is it that you fear? Don't you know that however much you don't want to trouble your children your last two years of your life, somebody still has to buy groceries for you, somebody still has to come and bathe you and somebody still has to come and however much you don't want to trouble your children. Last two years of your life is you're going to need help.

[01:40:44]Uh but and and then I discovered what it was.

[01:40:51]her husband passed away when her son and daughter's her daughter were 20 and 17 or something like that. And since then they couldn't they didn't have the language to talk about death.

[01:41:05]So she couldn't discuss her own old age with her children.

[01:41:12]So there's now a gap between her and her children. So therefore I don't want to trouble my children. I need to be independent.

[01:41:21]which yeah it's unrealistic now if you ask me and most of us don't have the language to talk about death my own mother is 89 I try to talk to her about death she is not inclined as well >> yeah so I don't know I I guess the more you are you are authentic in your conversations the more problems we bypass the more you don't talk about and then people worry about what does he think about me what what what they how they offend her face to face get get people to prioritize close friends rather than online distant friends that you don't actually eat.

[01:42:23]>> Okay.

[01:42:27]>> Yes.

[01:42:32]>> Uh, as I always say, those who need to go, please go. Don't.

[01:42:36]>> Uh, okay. I have a question. I hope it's a quick one. I'm not sure. So, let me let me bring it back. Let me bring it back to the suta. Uh so so in in in the first part of your talk you you talked about how Ajan Brah made the promises of this great happiness and uh you you might not have seen it yet but you have seen people have it for example and then like um I look at the I look at the suta and uh there's this line which caught my eye. The Buddha was saying like the wonders of other paths are all blind and sightless. Okay. So sometimes when I when I see that kind of sentiment I I I start to think is it really that difficult to to see this reality that okay the body is not like ultimate happiness and then okay so there are times in there are times in my dharma practice when you're doing you're experiencing a lot of joy right okay meditation for example pilgrimage to India with vante okay um or you know when I'm when I'm sharing the dharma preaching the dhamma okay that's really really enjoyable and and I can almost see it very obviously okay definitely not not the body right not the five senses okay okay That's okay. Obviously, my my devil practice is not all the time like that. Uh unfortunately, so there are times when it's really difficult to see it. I don't know like I I feel like those blind and sightless wonders of other paths and like like oh I can't really see it. It's it feels so difficult to believe that uh you know there is this happiness apart from the body. So I guess my question is would your advice be like okay just just be be more patient sort of wait for more joy and dharma to sort of build up or like I guess my question is how do I make myself believe more strongly if that's the right way to ask to phrase it like how do I sometimes I I I can't see it so >> um I guess it's easy to like forget sometimes I don't know >> yeah uh uh I I being engineer I always go back to first principles and first principle for me is four noble truth afold path the path to the end of suffering is the eight-fold path a path says right uh feel right so all those things need to be developed slowly um but the evidence points there straight away just that meditation said tells you if you slow down the mind be contented you are in a better place already than when you started that's not difficult to see and then when you see a few more things then you realize this genius has seen a lot more things than we have uh you may not have seen it yet but many people have and you have met those people and it's like uh and then he meets someone at the Ajan Brah. I'm very sure he doesn't lie. I'm also very sure he's not deluded. So when he when he tells us what he knows, what he has seen, it's very convincing for me. Yeah.

[01:45:47]Um but whether other people I've I've I've also understood what you have mentioned just now somebody asked the question so how do you convert other people uh and I've learned that Buddhism is is very unique in that when you have suffered enough then you will look for it Which is why Buddhism hardly goes over 3% of the population or something like that. Yeah. It's it's only when you have seen enough and that's also in the sutas. It suffering leads to enlightenment.

[01:46:32]If there's no suffering, we won't be looking.

[01:46:36]But most people don't believe that yet.

[01:46:39]When you are sitting with your musang king, the world is good.

[01:46:44]>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Like sometimes when you're in the in the in the midst of the the sensual addiction, it's like you you you forget everything else. It's like you can't believe it, you know.

[01:46:53]>> So the Ajan Brah also makes it very clear to me. I told him yeah when I sit got back pain I sit and now even after 9 years then he tells me 9 years is a very short time in in Buddha Buddha language in Buddha scheme of things 9 years is a short time don't worry about it that as you travel along hang around with good friends listen to the dharma the Buddha's magic will do its work yeah just put yourself in the right condition don't rush So do thank you and okay you can have this.

[01:47:39]>> All right. Okay. Thank you mate for his profile sharing. SU.