The Buddha teaches that possessions, honor, and popularity are like poisoned arrows that pierce the heart of those seeking enlightenment, and that these worldly things are impermanent and will inevitably pass away; by regularly reflecting on the realities of impermanence (death, sickness, old age, loss, criticism, and praise), we can develop inner peace and liberation that is unshaken by life's ups and downs, as our actions (karma) are the only things that truly follow us beyond death.
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The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, w/ Ayya Vaddha本站添加:
Good morning everyone.
Good evening or good night, whatever time it is for you while you're watching this.
Um I hope that you're all doing well, that you're all peaceful, and that you're all enjoying uh your practice, your day, your life.
And today we're going to be uh having our regular uh live stream program at Empty Cloud Monastery, coming to you from West Orange, New Jersey.
And uh today we're going to be talking about what uh the bard of the English language called the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
So this is a well-known Shakespeare quote, uh famous English uh dramatist and poet.
Um but it actually has a parallel in the Buddhist texts as well. The Buddha used a very similar simile uh to talk about something, and this is something that is relevant to really all of us, and that is um you know, exactly as the uh phrase is so well put, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. So the ups and downs, the uh things that hit us, that come at us, that life is throwing at us and uh hurling our way as we make our journey forward.
And um so we'll be talking about dealing with that, and some of the things that the Buddha says about it, some of the reflections that can come up that can be useful for us in our practice as we uh encounter these.
And so if you have any questions during the talk, then please feel free to uh write those in the chat, and I'll address those afterwards. Any comments you're welcome to place as well, and uh please feel free to send in your greetings if you're watching live.
And so before we begin, I will render homage to in the traditional manner to the Buddha, our original teacher.
And then we can go ahead and take a look at some of the Buddha's discourses and hear some reflections on this topic.
Namo Tassa Bhagavato >> [clears throat] >> Okay, so the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, right? Um I'm sure that that phrase can resonate with many of us in terms of um how things go, how things might feel sometimes.
And um one of the phrases that the Buddhist tradition has used for a similar thing uh is the worldly winds, the winds of the world which blow us left and right, up and down, right?
Blowing from the four directions, north, south, east, and west.
And there's a famous verse from the Ratana Sutta, one of the well-known Buddhist uh chants, one of the well-known Buddhist suttas, which is found in the canon. And it's often chanted at uh ceremonies and blessings and daily pujas and services.
And it goes something like uh this. So it says um How does it go? Let's see.
I don't know if I can remember the the whole thing at this time, but um the the point is that it says someone who has like a firmly rooted pillar is planted in the ground and is unshaken by the four winds. So one who has seen the Dhamma is unshaken in this way. So, the point is that um someone who sees the Dhamma, someone who experiences for themselves the Buddhist teaching, then they're like a firmly planted pillar in the ground. And that pillar is not shaken about by the four winds, right? By the winds north, south, east, and west.
And um so, there's this idea that the winds blow us about, right? The winds can shake us about. And um that is very similar to this idea that life or fortune, the fates, right here as it's saying, that are throwing slings and arrows, right?
Hurling different things left and right at us.
And so, the Buddha gives uh different um teachings on this topic.
And one of them is found uh a major version of this is found in the uh Saṃyutta Nikāya, so the collection of uh talks, discourses from the Buddha, which are linked together by topic and theme.
And specifically, the 17th collection.
So, Saṃyutta Nikāya 17, and we can start with 17.1, although there's one sutta in this collection in particular, which kind of directly uses the metaphor of arrows.
Um in reality, they're all connected one another.
And so, I'll just read you the first sutta in this collection, which is called um you know, translated uh variously, but translated, for example, by Bhante Sujato as the linked discourses on gains and honor.
So I have heard.
At one time, the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.
There, the Buddha addressed the mendicants.
"Mendicants." "Venerable sir," they replied.
The Buddha said this.
"Possessions, honor, and popularity are grim, bitter, and harsh.
They're an obstacle to reaching the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.
So, you should train like this.
We will give up arisen possessions, honor, and popularity and we won't let them occupy our minds. That's how you should train.
So, very short sutta, right? Very simple. Um But, so the Buddha then goes on in this collection to give a variety of really colorful, fun, sometimes horrifying similes.
So, for example, the next one the Buddha says, "Possessions, honor, and popularity are grim, bitter, and harsh. They're an obstacle to reaching the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.
Suppose an angler was to cast a baited hook into a deep lake.
Seeing the bait, a fish would swallow it.
And so, the fish that swallowed the hook would meet with tragedy and disaster.
And the angler can do what he wants with the fish.
Angler is a term for Mara the Wicked.
Hook is a term for possessions, honor, and popularity.
Whoever enjoys and likes arisen possessions, honor, and popularity is called a mendicant who has swallowed Mara's hook. They've met with tragedy and disaster, and the wicked one can do with them what he wants. So grim are possessions, honor, and popularity.
Bitter and harsh, an obstacle to reaching the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.
So, you should train like this.
>> [clears throat] >> We will give up arisen possessions, honor, and popularity, and we won't let them occupy our minds. That's how you should train.
>> [clears throat] >> Now, the Buddha goes on to give many colorful similes and stories. So, he talks about a turtle, which is being harpooned. Uh he talks about sheep. He talks about a dung beetle, which is one of the really nice one. And so, I'd like to read you this dung beetle one as well, and then we'll get to the main simile here. So, the Buddha says the same thing. He says, "Possessions, honor, and popularity are grim. They're harsh. They're bitter."
He says, "Suppose there was a dung-eating beetle full of dung, stuffed with dung, and before her was a huge pile of dung.
She'd look down on other beetles thinking, 'For I am a dung-eating beetle full of dung, stuffed with dung, and before me is a huge pile of dung.'
In the same way, take a certain mendicant whose mind is overcome and overwhelmed by possessions, honor, and popularity. They robe up in the morning and taking their bowl and robe enter the village or town for alms.
There they eat as much as they like, get invited back tomorrow, and have plenty of alms food.
When they get back to the monastery, they boast in the middle of a group of mendicants, 'I ate as much as I liked, got invited back tomorrow, and had plenty of alms food. I get robes, alms food, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick, but these other mendicants have little merit or significance, so they don't get these things.'
With a mind overcome and overwhelmed by possessions, honor, and popularity, they look down on other good-hearted mendicants. This will be for their lasting harm and suffering. So grim are possessions, honor, and popularity, bitter and harsh.
And so on. All right, so here the Buddha is saying that someone who is proud of having possessions, getting material supports, um being popular, being honored and famous, he's saying that this is like a dung beetle who's bragging about having a bigger pile of poop than the other beetles, right? And um clearly we don't find that particularly attractive, but a dung beetle thinks that it's the greatest thing in the world, right? And so the Buddha is saying the same of people who are obsessed with popularity, possessions, and um uh praise or honor, a good reputation.
In this case, it's a good reputation that he's talking really.
Uh he's comparing this to a dung beetle, right? Who's proud of dung.
And so then we can go ahead and take a look at one of the similes that I mentioned here in the title.
There's many, many good similes here, so I highly recommend if you have the occasion to take a head to go ahead and look through this collection on praise, honors, and popularity.
But this one again is abbreviated. Most of these share a similar structure, so they're sharing uh the same theme, right? That possessions, honor, and popularity are grim, bitter, and harsh, and that they're an obstacle when they overwhelm and obsess the mind or even just an obstacle in general.
And so here what the Buddha says about them, he says, "Possessions, honor, and popularity are grim, bitter, and harsh.
Let whom be pierced by a poisoned arrow?
Let possessions, honor, and popularity come to a trainee who has not achieved their heart's desire.
Arrow is a term for possessions, honor, and popularity.
So grim are they." So here it's a little bit unclear in the way that it's uh phrased and worded in the translation, but the Buddha is saying that possessions, honor, and popularity are like a poisoned arrow.
Right? That uh pierce the heart of someone who is training on the path in order to obtain enlightenment.
And so this is very similar to our phrase from uh the well-known English uh poet Shakespeare who said that we're met with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Right? So that the Buddha's using the same image. That um in a in a slightly different way, but in the same same general meaning that possessions, honor, popularity, these are like arrows being slung at us. They come at us. They attack us.
And in this case, the thing is that usually we would think it's a good thing, right? So usually if we hear a phrase like the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, then we're thinking about bad things happening to us, right?
We're thinking about um losing loved ones.
Um we're thinking about natural disasters like fires and floods, tornadoes, winds, storms.
We're thinking about uh bankruptcy or the stock market collapsing or the economy going down.
So we're thinking about negative things, right? That's what we think about usually if we if we say, you know, the slings and arrows being thrown at us by life.
But what the Buddha is doing is he's turning that on its head and he's saying, "No, it's really it's true more so on the opposite end of things."
That being hit, being thrown possessions, so material supports, material gains, money, wealth, um you know, whatever the support might be.
So for monastics, then, you know, we don't receive money. Um at least we shouldn't be receiving money. So um you know, for example, here at Abhayagiri, we don't accept money. We don't use money. And so it wouldn't be wealth, but it could be things like um robe cloth, food, um donations of, you know, books or um personal items, and so on. So, there can still be possessions and wealth of a monastery.
Um and all kinds of particular comforts within the monastery itself, right? Um so, possessions and then also honor. So, having a good reputation, being honorable, uh sense of glory, a sense of uh even fame, right? This idea of your reputation um being something that people uh honor, that people respect. That's also, the Buddha says, like a poison arrow, right?
And we'll talk more about why that is.
And then also popularity, right? So, being popular.
And so, this is really turning things on the head, but it's useful because the Buddha is hammering home this point that the good things in life, the things that we might perceive as being pleasant, as being wonderful, as being blessings, as being things that we would hope and wish and pray for, instead, the Buddha says the opposite is true. He says, you should abandon these things and you should not let them overwhelm and overcome your mind.
Um he says, you should train like this.
We will give up arisen possessions, honor, and popularity, and we won't let them occupy our minds. That's how you should train.
Right? And so, this is true for monastics, but it's also true for any of the uh Buddhist disciples, right? So, lay followers included because all people are subject to being um overwhelmed and overcome with a sense of desire, a sense of possessiveness, um taking for granted and relying upon the comforts and pleasures and the uh delight that we feel when we're met with possessions, honor, and popularity, right? So, this is why it's so dangerous that it's it's it's like a poisoned arrow because you don't necessarily know it's poison, right? So, you it's the poison can be hidden.
Right?
It's the Buddha gives it simile for anger where he says that anger, getting angry, is like having licking a honey tip that has a poison root.
Right? Because it can taste very sweet to feel that you're right, that you're angry, that you're justified about something and that you're upset about it, but it actually is poisoning us, right? And it's very similar with possessions, honor, and popularity. They are They can seem very sweet, but they're actually poisonous because within them lies the very likely potential of being overcome with a sense of over-reliance upon these things.
To be swept away even with a sense of egotism, pride, hubris, um comparing yourself to others like the Buddha says with the dung beetle.
Um or being caught on a hook like the Buddha says the fish is caught with the bait. He says that Mara lays the bait of possessions, honor, and popularity, right? So, we can get caught and then we get stuck and trapped in the cycle of wailing over the loss of these things, hankering after more of them, comparing ourselves with others. And the thing is that whenever something swings left, then it's bound at some point to swing right.
Whenever something rises up, at a certain point it's bound to fall down.
Whenever something comes together, at a certain point it's bound to break apart.
And so, whenever we delight in and rejoice in meeting with popularity, honor, praise, possessions, right?
Then it might seem fun at the time, but that means that we're also subject to losing those things. We're subject to people taking them from us, to the natural disasters taking them from us.
We're subject to others getting more than us, and then all of the sudden, where we used to feel proud, now we are actually shamed in the face of others, right?
So, it's kind of like these lists. We have now these lists. You can go on the internet and you can find the wealthiest people in the world, and there's this top person, and then maybe a month later someone else is at the top at the top of the list. And I would imagine for the people on the top of that list, it can easily turn into quite the competition, right? If you're replaced, you're number two now, you're number three now, you're number four, oh, now you're off top five.
Um, and people can feel a sense of pride. And that's the same with us in our miniature scenarios, right? So, maybe you have your own neighborhood dynamics. Who has the prettiest lawn, right? That's a common suburban phenomenon of comparing uh house decorations and lawns, or within the city, right? There're going to be all kinds of intercity dynamics.
Within the country, there can be all kinds of country dynamics. So, it doesn't matter where we are, whether we're in the city, we're in the country, we're in the uh suburbs, um, whatever particular nation or group of people that we're living within, residing with, interacting with, the reality is that these dynamics of, you know, who has more possessions, who has more wealth, who has nicer things, who is more popular, who is more honorable, who is more famous, who has a better reputation, these things can sway our minds, and they can sway our social interactions in negative ways that obstruct our progress on the path, right?
Because they distract us.
They're shiny, they're glamorous, but they distract us.
And recently I have been um torturing people with a story that I think is very useful and very um relevant. And so, I know many people will have heard it, but I don't think I've given it on the live streams. So, I'm going to give it now, because I think it's really nice. I think it's very useful and applicable. I've adapted it from another monk, um to be a little bit different. But this is a story about uh, these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and how we can prioritize the wrong things.
So, the story goes something like this.
That once there was a man, a wealthy man, relatively wealthy man, and he had three children.
And the this man his first child he had in his first marriage.
And then he divorced and in his second marriage he had a second child.
And finally he divorced and had a third child.
And the third child was his last child.
It was the one who he loved and cherished the most, his most beloved dear child of all the three.
And then his second child he loved the second most.
And his first child, his firstborn, he loved the least. But he still loved his first child. He was the least loved of all three.
And when this man was dying on his deathbed, he called his third child to come and visit him.
And he said to his his most beloved dear child, he said, "Child, I've always loved you dearly. You're my most cherished child of all. And when I pass away, it's set the majority of my inheritance will go to you.
But I don't want to pass away alone.
Your old father doesn't want to die.
Would you please accompany me as I go into the arms of death?"
And the third child looks at his father and says, "Father, I'm sorry I cannot go with you. But I can promise you that with all of your money I will purchase for you a very exuberant, decorative, fantastic coffin. It'll be the most expensive coffin that we can find with the finest woods, the finest ornaments and decorations, and it will be adorned with the most wonderful, magnificent, rare flowers and incense and perfumes, and your body will be wrapped in the most expensive imported cloth. It will be the most expensive, delightful funeral trappings and coffin that we can find."
And so, the father sends away his third, his most beloved child, and he calls his second most child, his second most loved, and he says the same thing. He says, "Child, I don't want to pass away alone.
Would you please come with me?"
And this child also says, "Father, I'm sorry.
I cannot go with you.
But I can promise that your funeral will be the most full of people of any funeral our city has ever seen.
We will invite the most esteemed names, the most powerful people in the city and the town surrounding. We'll invite the middle-class folk and the merchants to come. We'll even have food and invite all the common folk to attend. It'll be the most populous, full funeral that anyone has ever seen."
And so, the father sends away his second child. He's not satisfied, and he calls his last child, the one he loved the least, but it was worth a shot anyway.
And this one, he asks, "Child, you're my firstborn, the first love a father has ever had.
Would you please go with me into death?"
And this child says to their father, "I'm sorry, Dad. I cannot go with you.
But I will promise that, no matter what you may have done or said in life, at your funeral, I will offer the most beautiful eulogy, the most beautiful praises extolling your virtues, not one word of criticism will I share with the crowd, and I will invite the most elegant speakers of our city to come and extol all of the wonderful, marvelous, charitable, philanthropic, uh virtuous character that you had.
All of the virtues that you displayed, and so your eulogies will be beautiful.
This is my promise to you.
And the father was not satisfied with these things.
And downcast, he sent away his children.
Until he called in his servant.
And he told his servant, he bid his servant go into the city, into the slums where the poor people lived, to go to the house of a particular woman, and to bring forth a young boy.
Because he remembered that he had had an illegitimate child, a child that he never recognized was his, even that he had denied the smallest portion of an of his inheritance to.
But he remembered he had this child, and he called his child forth to visit him as one last shot in his dying moments.
And when the child arrived, he told the child, he confessed, he said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, child. I've abandoned you all of these years. I've never recognized you. But now you and I are in the same boat. My own children have abandoned me to die, too.
We're both two abandoned soldiers lost at sea. Would you please reconcile with me and follow me into the jaws of death?"
And his illegitimate child, the one who he had no relationship with, who he had betrayed, and never cared for, looked at his father and said, "Father, I will go with you."
No matter the past.
Take my hand and let's journey into death together.
And the father was shocked by this.
The old man was shocked. Why would this child do this? Why would he have such mercy on him?
And he remembered the names of his children.
That his most beloved child, the third one, who promised that he could not go into death with him, but he could offer the most expensive coffin at his funeral, was named money.
And the second most child, who he loved second most, who could not follow him in death, but who could promise the most popular full funeral, was named popularity.
And the third child, who couldn't follow him into death, but who could offer him a pretty eulogy, was named praise.
And the final child, the one who would follow him no matter how little or how much he cared for him, was called karma.
And so, the point of this story is that, as it says, our actions will follow us no matter what. Whether we care or intend to them or not, our actions can follow us. They're the most loyal to us.
But money, in the end, will just get us an expensive funeral.
Popularity will get us a busy funeral, and praise will get us a nice eulogy.
That's where these things end up.
And so, um that's probably one of the last times I can tell the story cuz I've been telling it so often these last few weeks.
So, sorry for those who've heard it before.
But um this is something that we can remember, right? It's just it's very useful to remember. When we come into praise, when we come in Well, I should start. When we come into money, when we come into possessions, you can say, "This will make an a wonderful decoration on my coffin."
"This will make a wonderful uh budget for an expensive casket."
Or uh this inheritance will uh make a wonderful decoration at a nice yard sale.
And this is the tragic thing is that um I've met many people who they work and work their whole lives to uh give things to their children, and then the children don't actually want it.
So for example, in Italy, there's a very sweet man.
He worked all of his life to support his family, and he built a kind of wonderful stone uh house structure. With it even has a church attached to it. It's like a farmhouse.
He built it himself to give to his children. It was his life's work and his most proud kind of um heirlooms, so to speak, you know, that he was handing on.
And his children didn't want it. They just wanted to sell it.
And it's the same. I've seen this many occasions, many times that, you know, people will store things. They'll say, "Oh, we'll give this to the children."
And then the children don't want it, right? So often the thing is that these possessions that we can work so hard for, even when we want to pass them on, they don't go on.
And uh when they do go on, then, you know, they just pass, but they they just they don't go with us, right? They just pass to the next hands. And then our children, if we have children and we pass it on to the children, then they'll die, and the money won't go with them.
It'll go to their children. And so the money goes on, but the people can never carry it with them.
But our actions follow us, right? So this is the point of these of these uh warnings from the Buddha that um possessions, honor, popularity, these seemingly good things, right? These seemingly pleasant, nice things, they're actually being thrown at us and they're dangerous bait that we can get hooked into.
Um because we think that uh we are benefiting from them.
We think that these things are our service, but really we end up serving them, right? So, money doesn't serve us, we end up serving money.
And possessions don't end up serving us, we end up serving the possessions.
And the same with our reputation, right?
And so, how often do we know like people who will um they will at the expense of their own goodness, at the expense of their own virtue, at the expense of their own actions to protect their reputation, they'll say lies, they'll do wrong things, they'll go behind backs, right? They'll steal, they'll kill just for power, just for popularity, just for praise, just for honor, just for money, just for possessions, property, land.
So, these things we think that we want them.
Um we think that we are doing, you know, that these things are serving our needs, but we end up serving the needs to get these things. So, it kind of does this uh flip on us. And so, the Buddha is reminding us, "Oh, this is dangerous, right?"
And then like I said, when they get torn away from us, then we we fall with it, right? So, we rise up with them, we get very elated and happy, and then we have to fall down and crash when they're torn away from us.
Right?
And so, this is where we have the famous uh teaching from the Buddha that what is dear and beloved to us brings us suffering, right? So, you have um a well-known sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya where Queen Mallika, I believe it is, um she agrees with the Buddha and she says that uh oh, who the people who are dear to us, they cause us suffering.
And King Pasenadi says, "Oh, that's humbug. That's ridiculous." He'll disagree with anything the Buddha says.
And, um, the Buddha ends up talking about this, right? And it all starts where he says that there was someone in the city who, they, uh, you know, lost their relatives, they lost their close child, and they started, uh, grieving and wailing and lamenting and falling into despair.
And the Buddha said, "Yes, this is how it is. The ones who are dear to us cause us suffering." And the person said, "No, no, no, no, that's ridiculous. No, the ones who are dear to us, they bring us happiness.
Our loved ones bring us happiness."
And, um, you know, they don't agree with the Buddha, and they go to a group of gamblers, and the gamblers say, "Oh, yes, of course, our loved ones bring us happiness. They don't bring us suffering."
And the Buddha goes on to explain how he gives a list of all the different dear and beloved people to us, how when we lose them, when they change, when, uh, they're taken from us in some way, how it brings us immense suffering, right?
And how the the people who are not dear to us, they don't have the same effect on us.
And so, this can manifest in all kinds of different ways, and I'm sure that all of us are familiar with it in one form or another, right?
Um, but it's the same for the the possessions which are dear to us, with the reputation which is dear to us, with the popularity that is dear to us, with the the praise that is dear to us, right?
And so, it's a useful thing to remember, like, when people, when we get things, we remember, "Oh, this will not go with me when I pass."
So, it doesn't mean that we can't have anything, but we remember, we we prioritize the quality of our hearts, the goodness of our intentions. We prioritize the Dhamma above the world, right?
So, instead of the, uh, loka dhammas, right? The worldly dhammas, uh, Uh, we prioritize the Dhamma over the loka. We We put the Dhamma over the world.
Um, because that is what's what's really going to be bringing us true satisfaction, true pleasure, you know, lasting sense of ease and peace and delight and joy. And it's what's going to benefit others as well more than anything else.
And so, it's something very simple that many of us will recognize, but it's so crucial to remember because we can so easily be thrown around by the winds of the world. We can so easily be bruised and beaten by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
And, um, we have to do our best to ride these waves smoothly, right? We have to do our best to navigate the rough terrain of life.
And on this point, you know, we will meet things which we find difficult. So, there's the danger of the positive, but there's also the more stereotypical dangers or, uh, perhaps a better word would be the upsetting quality, you know, the upset, the sadness, the sorrow, the despair that can come when we meet the opposite, right? So, when we meet that, what are we to do, right? What are we to do when we meet the opposite things?
So, we're to protect our minds from being overwhelmed and overcome by the good things, just like the dung beetle, right? Bragging about his big pile of poop. And the Buddha says, "This is really nothing to brag about."
Uh, in the same way, we protect our mind not to be boasting and bragging and becoming prideful about, uh, the good things that we come by.
Uh, remembering that really these things are just coming to us from past deeds.
They're not coming to us because of our own, you know, inherent, um, superiority to others. No. All of us make different karma. We do different things.
And we've all done good things. We've all done bad things, and the results of our karma come to us, right? They ripen.
And so, it's really nothing personal.
It's just cause and effect. It's just nature playing out.
Um but we can also then fall into the negative side, remembering that uh how do we handle how do we handle that?
And so, one of the things is um when we remember what the Buddha taught us about the frequent recollections, right? The frequent reflections.
So, the Buddha said, in Pali he says, "Abhinham paccavekkhitabba." These are to be reflected upon again and again.
These are to be reflected upon regularly.
And specifically, there's a list of five that the Buddha gives, where he says, you know, um I am subject to death.
I am not exempt from death.
Marana dhamma mhi, maranang anatito. So, I am of the nature to die.
It is my very nature to pass away. I am not exempt from dying. And why is it worded in this way? Well, because usually we say, "Oh yes, everyone dies.
We all must die. Everyone passes. Life is, you know, life is not eternal."
But when we word it like that, it's almost a distancing phrasing, right? We phrase it in a way where it's Oh yes, this happens to everyone.
Right? Instead of saying, "I will die. I am not exempt. I am not beyond death."
Because when we see people dying, when we see people passing away, we often forget that this same will happen to us, right? We don't like to think about it like that.
Because when we think about, "Oh this will happen to me," it can be frightening, right? It can be scary. So, we would rather pity the people who die.
We would rather feel sorry for them. But we don't really like often to reflect that no, we will be in the same shoes.
We'll be in the same spot, right? And so this is why the Buddha words it in this way. I am of the nature to die. I am not beyond dying.
I am of the nature to get sick.
I am not beyond illness. I am not exempt from sickness.
Right? Um And yeah, sickness uh of course it refers to things like cold and a sniffle and a sneeze.
But it also it also refers to you know, cancers and terminal illnesses and um surgeries and losing our legs and our limbs. It refers to um you know, having unexpected uh conditions that will affect our lives.
Um and so sickness is not just the small things. It's the big things as well if not more so. And so the Buddha's reminding us it's important to remember I am not beyond these things. I'm subject to these things.
And then also old age, right? Aging.
So I am not beyond old age.
Uh I am subject to old age. It is my very nature to get old.
Right?
Um And there's a nice um poem by the American poet Robert Frost where he says Nature's first green is gold.
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower, but only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down today.
Nothing gold can stay.
So this poem is you know, it has the very Buddhist theme because he's saying, "Nothing gold can stay, right?" So, nature's first green is gold.
Her hardest hue to hold. What does that mean? Well, when spring first starts blossoming, right? When the buds first start coming out, the leaves are like a golden yellowy green.
But, it's the hardest hue to hold, right? Because that color cannot be held for very long. It cannot be maintained for very long. Soon, it passes away.
Her early leaf's a flower, but only so an hour. Because when the leaves start budding, they have a flower shape, but they only last in that kind of flowering bud for a very, very brief time. Then, leaf subsides to leaf. Then, they turn into normal leaves, large leaves. The flower, the beauty, the golden hue is gone.
Right?
And he says also, "So, dawn goes down today, right?" The beautiful rosy, the brilliance of dawn, it comes up, but it goes to a more normal day, right?
The dawn lasts for a very brief time, and then it subsides to day, and day subsides to night. And so, these cycles go on. And the beautiful things, what this poem is really saying is not just that everything is impermanent, which is true, but it's touching on this theme that the Buddha is is kind of mentioning here. He's specifically emphasizing "Nothing gold can stay." It's the beautiful things which are most marked by their impermanence.
Right? Because it's the beautiful things that we tend to, you know, be most attracted to, and also that when we rise with them, when we are joyful at them, that we tend to sink down the lowest when they pass, that we tend to mark and note their passing and their fleeting nature the most. It's the most important things, right? Because what really matters is not just that things are impermanent, it's that things which we cherish, things that we love, things which are dear to us, like our health, like our lives, like our friends, like our reputation, like our popularity, that these beautiful things cannot last, right? That nothing gold can stay. That's what really matters most to us on an emotional level. And so that's why the Buddha is saying, it's useful to remember I am not beyond these ordinary, plain realities of impermanence. That my body will get old, that my body will get sick, that my body will die, right? That I will be separated from the things I love.
But the thing is that this is not meant to be pessimistic.
Right? That's what's so counter that this is not like, "Oh, let's all revel in the horrible things.
Let's all, you know, paint our eyelids black and and dye our hair purple and red and, you know, listen to heavy metal music and and kind of grovel about how things are horrible." This is not the point, right?
The point that the Buddha is making is that by reflecting on these things which usually would be upsetting, which usually would be tragic, we can actually be liberated. We can find a sense of freedom. We can find inner peace and inner ease and inner fortitude and inner strength which is not shaken about by the winds, just like the Buddha says in the Ratana Sutta, right?
Um Yeah, so I believe it is Yatinda Kilo Patavim Sitossiya Chatubbi Vatebiya Sampakampiyo.
Uh something like this. So, uh the just as this firmly rooted pillar is not shaken by the four winds, right? We can, this is what the Buddha is saying, someone who focuses on, someone who sees and discovers in their heart the profundity and the reality of the Buddha's teachings, so in other words, who reflects on the nature of life and sees the truth of things, right? Who accepts the truth.
By accepting the truth, it's actually liberating. It's not something that's depressing. It's not something which brings us down into a kind of sullen, you know, sulking state, but it liberates us.
So, something like death isn't doesn't become a dreary, you know, remorseful regret that just unfortunately exists, but instead death becomes this opportunity for us to sharpen our wisdom, to become more compassionate people, to become more free and liberated and unshakable.
And in this way, by reflecting on the inevitable nature of the negative, so-called negative, unfortunate, the things that we don't like, the things which are generally perceived as undesirable.
By reflecting on the inevitable nature, the inevitable reality of these things passing by us, coming to us, then we actually can become liberated, unshakable, and strong, right? And also more compassionate. So, this is where the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune really it all comes down to the same thing, right? There's the good and there's the bad. The good will come and then it will not stay. It will pass.
The bad will come and it will also pass. But both of these are our teachers. Both of these are teaching us not to become um self-obsessed.
When we get the good, not to become self-obsessed with uh kind of being intoxicated, being drunk on the pleasures of life, right?
Being drunk on youth, thinking, "Oh, we're young. We'll never get old." Being drunk on health, thinking, "Oh, we're not we're not going to get sick." You know, we don't want to see sick people because that would be too close to home.
We don't want to see dead people that would be sorry and remind us of our mortality. But instead, we don't be we're not drunk, but we be sober-minded about these realities. And the same of the the good things that when we come by the good things that we're not drunk uh on them.
Uh but we we see them clearly. And the negative things we're not remorseful of, but we see them clearly, right? So, this even headed balanced clear, peaceful, joyful attitude that we can develop towards life.
This is kind of our barrier against the slings and arrows, right? This is what protects us. This is what fortifies us.
And um the Buddha recommends that we do this through the practice of frequent recollection, through the practice of reflecting frequently and regularly upon these realities. And because the reason is that when we reflect upon these things, then slowly they impress themselves upon our hearts.
And slowly they begin to etch themselves into our memory with deeper and greater clarity and with more and more emotional maturity.
That at first when we encounter death and sickness and loss, separation, old age, right? When we encounter these things, we might shun away from them out of a sense of fear, out of a sense of sorrow, out of a a sense of remorse.
But as we begin to bring them closer to the light of our mind and shine them upon ourselves and bring them inward to um adhere to us personally.
As we do that, then actually we mature as people and we come to recognize that there's no reason to try to escape, to try to run from these things.
But by running, we're just making the collision meet us with a harder, faster impact when it when it comes at us, right?
But actually, by facing these things squarely and directly, we're able to be liberated by them because we don't fear them.
Because we don't run away from them, right?
So, by not running away from things, by facing them, we find freedom. It's kind of like, you know, the boogeyman where you're running away from your own shadow.
And because you're afraid to face your own shadow, you're running and running and running and running and running. And every time every step that you take, you're more and more afraid because it's not getting away, it's getting closer and closer and closer. And can you handle this? How much longer can you go?
Oh my goodness. But then when you finally stop and you turn around and you realize, oh, it's just a shadow.
All of your fear drains out of your body and melts away. And you're filled with a sense of relief and ease that you were running from something that you never had to be afraid of.
And so when we're running and chasing um some imaginary horizon where we never have to meet old age, sickness, and death. Where we never have to meet loss. But more so on this point, where we never have to meet, you know, criticism.
Where we never have to meet a bad reputation.
People not liking us.
People uh not wanting to associate with us, not being popular.
Um losing, you know, our money, losing our possessions, losing our uh loved ones.
So, it's not just us getting old and sick and dying, um but also reflecting upon these worldly winds, right? Reflecting on these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune because when we reflect on the fact that not only are we subject aging, sickness, and death, but we are also it is normal. It is regular. It is to be expected.
We will not be popular sometimes. We will be criticized sometimes. We will be unfairly blamed sometimes. We will be accused sometimes, rightly or unrightly.
We will lose things sometimes.
Then we are able to lose our fear.
And we're able to just accept, oh, this is normal.
It's just as normal as feeling the wind blow this direction and then blow that direction.
Right?
And one of the reasons I like the phrases the phrase worldly winds is because things like praise and popularity and people, you know, talking good about you or talking bad about you.
It is literally just wind, right? It's just wind passing through the folds and flaps of flesh in someone's body.
And as the wind passes out of their mouth, we hear it as sound waves, which we interpret as words. And we take that wind so seriously, right?
So, if the wind comes out in the shape of criticism, we get upset.
But, if the wind comes out and it bears the sound of praise, then we're happy and elated.
So, it's just as silly, really, as when the wind is blowing north, we all hip hip parade, we raise our arms in the air, and we party. And then when the wind blows south, we all get depressed and, you know, start sulking and crying.
This doesn't make much sense, right?
But, we do it, right? Because the thing is that people they will praise us, and it's just wind. It's just it's just air coming out of a bunch of flesh. And they will criticize us, and it's the same.
And the Buddha famously says, he says, if you speak a lot, if you talk a lot, people will criticize you.
If you speak just a little bit, people will criticize you.
And if you speak just a just the right amount, just a medium amount, people will criticize you.
No one escapes criticism.
And he also says, "The wise are criticized.
The fools are criticized."
And we might even add the fools are also praised.
No one escapes criticism. It So, it doesn't matter what kind of person you are. Even the Buddha was criticized.
Even all the great people, the great role models, you know, that we trust and love and that we uh look up to, they will be criticized. And all the horrible evil people, they'll be praised.
And the same is true vice versa, right?
So, good people are praised and they're also criticized. Bad people are criticized and they're also praised.
It's just the directions of the wind.
It's just how the wind blows, right?
It's just how things work. It's just the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
And um the more that we recognize this, the sooner that we come to terms with this, and the more regularly and frequently that we reflect upon it as a daily practice, like people will criticize me. I am not exempt from criticism.
People will praise me. I am not to be overwhelmed by praise.
I will be popular.
I am not to be overwhelmed by popularity.
I will be unpopular.
I am not to be upset by being unpopular.
I will come into, you know, money, possessions, fortune, nice things. I'm not to be overwhelmed by that. I will come into losing things. I'm not to be overcome by that. So, we remember these things regularly. This is the Buddha's advice. So, just as we can do breath meditation, we can do loving-kindness meditation, the Buddha recommended reflecting regularly um on certain realities. And I would I would really recommend that we regularly reflect on the worldly winds, right?
Because in our times nowadays war is very common um on a global scale.
Really war has been common for all of history um but it's even more common um in terms of our attention because it's being drawn to us all over the place by the news, right? It's being drawn to us by articles, um by people talking about it, gossiping about it, mentioning it, politicians mentioning it, friends mentioning it, workplaces. So the news is bringing us the winds of the world not just from our corner of the earth, but the winds are blowing all the way from across the globe, right? And we're hearing the noises that are blowing across the winds even further than ever before because of, you know, the internet, because of how we're so globalized and connected.
And so we're feeling not just the normal winds, but even more winds. All of the winds are coming at us. And so for this reason, friends, like it's useful that we remember and we recollect these things. Not just once, not just twice, not just three times, but that we regularly do it. Abhinam pacca vicikita bhavanam, this is to be remembered and reflected upon again and again because the more that we do it, the more accustomed we get to it. And we start to see, it's like exposure therapy, we start to see that we're cornered.
Like it doesn't matter if we're afraid or if we're not afraid, it's going to happen either way.
It doesn't matter if we like it or we don't like it, it's going to happen either way.
The good and the bad will come, right?
It doesn't matter.
And at any point the good can be torn out from under our feet.
And at any point the rain the bad can rain down on us.
And at any point the rain can stop and clear and there's a beautiful sunny day with a beautiful rainbow.
And then at any point a storm can blow through. So it like it just goes back and forth and back and forth. And if we're swaying with it, it's we're not going to be peaceful, we're not going to be happy, right?
That's why we remember. Like we remember, "Oh, it's sunny today."
And we can be That's okay. We don't have to be Again, we're not to be depressed about these things. That's Okay, it's beautiful.
But we remember the sun will pass, the night will come.
So dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay.
Right?
Um So when these things pass by us, we remember not to be overwhelmed by them. That's the important thing. So when we see news of the war, when we see news of corruption, when we see news of cruelty, we remember our world is subject to cruelty.
It is not exempt from cruelty.
Our world is subject to corruption. It is not exempt from corruption. Our world is subject to war. It is not exempt from war. Our world is subject to unjustice.
Our world is not exempt from injustice, right? So remembering these things regularly, remembering that ultimately the money just gets us an expensive coffin.
The praise just gets us a pretty eulogy.
The popularity just gets us a busy funeral.
What matters is our actions, our in our attitude towards life, cuz that we carry with us, and that can bring us a sense of solace, a sense of peace, even a sense of joy and and happiness and and ecstasy and pleasure and rapture, right?
We can be so happy even in the face of tragedies because we recognize that there's we It's going to happen anyway, so we might as well be happy, right? We might as well be happy to be able to practice the Dharma, to be able to elevate and lift our minds above these worldly winds, right? That's something to rejoice in. That's something to be happy about. That there are people, there are teachers, there are practices, there are practitioners who are practicing and and developing these things and realizing them in their own hearts and lives. That's something to be happy about, right?
Um rather than the the currents of the wind at this time.
So, that's my recommendation that based off the Buddha's advice that we recollect both the good and the bad and that we remember not to be overwhelmed by the good nor the bad. And that both are normal, both are inevitable. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, you'll meet both, right?
And it doesn't really mean much, it's just wind.
So, those are some reflections.
And I thank all of you for your kind attention and your care and your enthusiasm for these teachings.
And at this time I'll look and see if there's comments and questions to respond to.
And I see nice greetings from Madeline.
Greetings to you, Madeline. Hope you're well.
And Rebecca, Cathy, Gregory and Monal. Hello to all of you.
Uttara, Maria, Bumika, Caio, Julie, Rick, Saheel, Hannah. Hello, Hannah.
And Madeline also shares another Shakespeare says, "Golden lads and girls all must as chimney sweepers come to dust."
Yes, exactly, right? So, sometimes the wisdom of our culture, the wisdom of the different sayings and expressions that have come to us over the centuries, we can easily forget that actually this wisdom is there, right?
The Buddha is pointing it out in a clear way and he's he's kind of shining light on it for us to use it in a very practical means, but often the truths of the Dhamma are so evident, right? So, as one of the well well-known monks Ajahn Chah of the last century said, "The body is speaking to us all the time, but we don't speak its language.
We speak in language of words, the body speaks in the language of Dhamma.
But the body is always yelling out, 'I'm not yours. You don't I don't belong to you.
Right? Cuz when the body hurts, when the body's painful, we we complain about it, but we don't realize the body is just speaking the language of Dhamma. It is telling us, I'm a need to do I don't belong to you. You can't rely on me.
So, it's actually teaching us Dhamma, but we don't usually speak that language. And so, it's kind of the same, right? There's so much wisdom dormant all around us in our culture and in the experiences that we have in the sayings and expressions and so on. But, we have to incline our mind to be able to see it in the right lens, and then so much is there for us to mine.
Okay, and then Rebecca says, >> [clears throat] >> "My non-Buddhist friends are much wealthier than me.
When they talk about their money, I get annoyed.
Mudita is helping.
Any other advice for when I'm with them to reduce negativity?"
Yeah, great question, Rebecca, and thank you for this. Um because it's just so true to life, you know, the the realities of these things that sometimes we don't necessarily talk about it. It can kind of brood inside, but it's just such a normal, regular reality that um so many of us will be facing is that, you know, things like um feeling jealousy or feeling a sense of humiliation or feeling a sense of comparison, feeling a sense of superiority. Uh all these things are just such normal social dynamics. That's why I said like it doesn't really matter where you are in the suburbs, in the city, in the country. We all have our ways of doing this uh in our different social groups and cultures. And so, you know, thank you for mentioning like a real-life example of how it's something that we face and that um we have to learn to deal with.
And um So, you mentioned Mudita, which is a wonderful thing. I think that's really great. Uh for those who don't know, Mudita is rejoicing in the goodness of the world. It's appreciating the goodness.
And the Buddha says that Mudita can be appamana, boundless, immeasurable, less measurable I should say, which means that it can be without a why, without restrictions, without a reason, without conditions, right? So, without terms. We don't You know how nowadays you go on a website or you go on, you know, you sign up for a contract and they say you must read the terms and conditions. You must agree to these if you want to use this service. Well, the Buddha is saying we can appreciate the goodness of life and we don't have to read a 20-page essay on the terms and conditions. There are no terms and conditions. We can always appreciate the overpouring stream of goodness that exists in the world and the hearts of ourselves and in others.
So, I said that for those who are less familiar or just as a refresher. So, Mudita is a wonderful thing and that's great and I'm so glad that it's been helping Rebecca for you because it is one of those of the It's one of the four divine sublime emotions and attitudes that the Buddha recommends. That is often forgotten.
It's often left aside because it has this big sister and big brother, you know, the compassion and the love. Those really stand out. So, then the rejoicing and the appreciation, that is kind of left in the in the corner. It's sort of like the supporting sibling. And so, um that's something that we can really try to mind and meditate on and develop both in our private seclusion meditation with our eyes closed and also while walking, standing and even lying down to develop. And we can develop it reflectively by, you know, thinking about the good things to to appreciate.
And we can also develop it with more of an emotional tone, right? So, there's different ways of developing Mudita.
And I would recommend developing Mudita not just for the friends, but also for yourself. Like the more you appreciate and rejoice in the goodness that you have then the less reason we have to covet or be jealous or be um um feel ashamed or whatever emotion it might be, right? There's so many ways it can go, but we have less reason to feel negatively about our own situation when we appreciate the wonderful blessings that we have, right? Um so this is the thing about mudita. It's often framed in terms of sympathetic appreciation, right? And it specifically is usually framed in terms of appreciating the good that others meet.
But the Buddha, like I said, he says it is measureless.
It is boundless.
It has no limits. It has no distinctions. So it doesn't And the thing with the Brahma Viharas, the divine emotions and attitudes, they apply just as much to ourselves as to others, right? So when we say, "May all beings be happy and well," we are part of all beings, right? And that's well known. But the thing with mudita is it's less often recognized.
We It is rejoicing in appreciating it regardless, right? Not paying attention to who or where.
So we can mudita applies to our own situation as well. So mudita is very closely tied to gratitude.
And beautifully tied to gratitude because gratitude is the sense of appreciating, rejoicing in the goodness of life, but it's not falling into this kind of hubris and intoxication that I was mentioning before, right? When we're grateful, it means we appreciate something while recognizing that it could not be there. That's why gratitude is so wonderful. Gratitude has within it the wisdom of anicca, the wisdom of impermanence.
Because you can't be grateful for something that you take for granted.
Gratitude means you recognize it's not always there. It couldn't always be there. It hasn't always been there, right? So mudita, like gratitude, it's a form of a of rejoicing and appreciating the goodness, but it doesn't fall into the extreme of intoxication.
So, it's a wonderful example of like a positive emotion rejoicing in things that's not dangerous, right? It's not dangerous.
So, I really recommend that you mind that mudita that's helping. Mind it not just for others, but for yourself as well. Like, really appreciating the beautiful wonderful things, not just material, but spiritual, right? That you have in your life, the people, and so on.
Um and then other things to remember is like remembering that um you know, the riches and the wealth and the comfort, that these are not sources of of uh this is not where the comfort comes from.
Right? Um like remembering the Buddha was poor, right? The Buddha lived He wasn't even poor, he was penniless.
So, the Buddha often spent time even the Buddha, right? He was a the uh He was the Buddha, right? And he would, you know, live under trees. He would sleep in potter's sheds. He would share rooms with junior monastics.
That's all in the suttas.
So, um the Buddha himself, he wasn't like living this extravagant luxurious life all the time just because he was the Buddha. The Buddha was often living in very meager circumstances, even more so some of the great disciples, right?
Very famously, Mahakassapa, but also just normal disciples, right? And so, the monastics, you know, what you know, if if happiness came from the riches, of course, then the Buddha would have said that we should all be rich. We should all start businesses.
But that's not what the that's not where the real happiness comes from. So, wealth is not bad, it's not evil or anything like that. Um but it can be intoxicating and it's not the source of joy. The joy, it comes from somewhere else. So, even people who have wealth, like their comfort, their happiness isn't coming from the wealth, right?
Um and so, it's coming from their mind's relationship to their life.
Cuz we all, I'm sure, know that there are very very wealthy people who are absolutely miserable.
And there are very poor people, case in point, the Buddha himself, who are absolutely ecstatic with happiness.
So, it's our relationship to the things that we have, right? And so, wealth can of course help, you know, we need certain requisites to be able to live, to be at ease, to support our families, but even in the most meager dire of circumstances, we can still have a happy mind.
Right? Um so, that's the power of the Dharma. So, it can also help you just remember like well, really even the people who are happy and they're wealthy, their happiness, it's coming from the relationship. It's not coming to those things. It's not coming because of the wealth in and of itself. Cuz they could be miserable and be wealthy at the same time.
Um and to remember the transience of these things, right? The transience.
Uh that uh ultimately such things, what it will really buy them is an expensive coffin, an expensive outfit in their coffin, right? That's the best they can really do when they pass.
And um to remember that as well. So, not in not with a sense of scorn, but with a sense of balancing the mind out, right? Making it more peaceful and remembering ultimately these things will pass.
Um And so, there's a lot of reflections I could give up we're over time, so I apologize for that. Um and I'll have to stop here, but I hope that that's somewhat useful and that I encourage you also to mind your own wisdom um to look and see what works, what's effective, right? Different things will work at different times.
And then in brief, I'll go lightning round. Uh Greg says, "Wind implies that it is random." Is it right to say the winds are due to our past actions?
Um so, the um the image of winds is a is a a Buddhist image to talk about how it can, you know, the winds are even winds are not random, right? Technically, winds obey by the laws of physics. And the laws of physics, you know, technically, they could be um kind of predicted quite precisely, the winds most likely, right? If we had the the means to kind of know that, right?
So, um maybe not perhaps exactly, but a lot of times the winds are predicted.
That's why we have meteorologists and so on, right? So, even the winds are not random, but the thing is that our experience of them is that they blow us about, but they can destabilize us, and that often they they're changing in a very rapid way. And so, in the same way, the good and bad things we come by, yes, they are connected to the actions that come that we do, which is another really important thing to remember.
If you get something, remember it's not this thing which is what brought it to you. It's not, you know, just you're not you're not lucky or better, it's the karma, right? And the same with the bad, right? So, remembering the karma is it's almost like whenever we get something behind it, there's a lesson, which is if this is good, uh I should act better.
I should remember that this is something reminding me to act in a good, kind way.
And if something bad happens, oh, this is my teacher. It's reminding me I don't want things like this to happen to me, so I should be careful with my actions, right? So, yes, definitely the karma is connected, but um often the karma is not manifesting in a way that we will necessarily recognize, right?
And um then someone asks, Chintana asks, "Could you speak a little bit more about physical pain?" That's a good question, Chintana. Um and it's something that we could talk about in a future live stream, and perhaps even in a monk chat, if you'd like to leave that for our Friday uh morning monk chat coming up, then you're welcome to put that in advance, and we can also address that there.
So, thank you everyone for listening again, for your attention, your kindness, your enthusiasm. I'm wishing you all uh a peaceful, happy, joyful practice in Dhamma, and I will see you for this evening's live stream if you're there.
All right. Have a good day.
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