Putting Meaning Into Life | Ajahn Brahm | 03-12-2010

[kungfooman]

Being a buddhist monk opens up possibilities: seeing autopsies
What people really want: family, relationships, a bit love
13:00 You are the owner of your Karma
Its a very powerful statement that we dont really say enough
helping downsyndrom kids -> they detect emotion -> thinking you are giving, but you are receiving lots
Not just compassion, but succeeding in compassion
Take yourself and others out of the equation
People think compassion is about other people, they take you as a rug or doormat, burned out, depressed, that is not compassion (sacrificing yourself for other people)
Compassion is looking yourself, no more, no less, looking at the whole, everybody, its all about us, you disappear. The other person disappears. It's about community, family, a whole race, a whole beings, all sentient beings, a whole earth looked upon as one organism with many different parts, like the ant's nest, all working together, never thinking of yourself as an individual or the other
Work together, isn't it terrible that we work against each other so often? Especially in our companies, in our businesses, in our religions? We work against each other, we never get anywhere, we work together, there's no end of successes. So meaning in life, giving you success is learning to work, not just me working with you, always about us. Change the whole mindset. That's one of the reasons why in Buddhism we stress sort of non-self, we stress compassion, the two go together. It's not a theory, it's actually the way we experience life, a different framework for looking. Which is why when you do service, that's where you find meaning, because you disappear. You vanish. But if you ever do any service, and you think, I am doing this for my merit, for my good karma, you won't get very much out of that, because it's again, personal, it's just what we call , what this monk calls, "spiritual materialism".
You meditate not to get things, but to loose things
42:30 Taste of freedom... if you understand that, you understand a deeper meaning in life. Where all this craving and wanting, and ill will, and stuff which agitates the mind and stops you being which is always making you do things.
You missing out on the meaning of life, because there is always something to improve when you are so active in doing things, making things better. And when you stop you realize that life is much more beautiful than you ever thought.
To understand "I am good enough"
Even I got good marks at university, come on, you can go higher, you can work harder.
You're a genius, but you can be a super genius.
Come on you can do better.
You give a good talk, but you can give a better talk.
You get meditation, but you can do better meditation.
You can levitate, but not high enough.
Gee, where is the end to all this?
So it's a great and wonderful thing to realise, I am good enough.
I don't need to make things better any more, I can actually have a taste of freedom. My goodness, it taste delicious.
And once you see that you are good enough, you also see that other people are good enough, which means you can love others.
Are you in love with someone? If you want to change them, you are not really in love with them. If you are trying to change them, fix up their faults, all those irritating things in life, which really upset you, your love hasn't made the grade. If you look at your partner and say, and you really mean it, You are good enough to love and be my partner...
I am at peace with myself, coming from freedom. Thats for me one of the deepest meanings of life.
You are all good enough, I'll give you that certificate, Good Enough Certificate. If you don't believe it, I'll sign one for you.
And if you meditate, that's how you meditate too. These days that's where I find the deepest meaning of life. You meditating there, you're sitting in my cave wher I live, you're sitting in your room... I just, it'll sort itself out
It's better I get out of the way, I'm not indispensable, in fact, the more you dispense with me, the better.
How to become peaceful? Just put things down, leave them alone. Stop disturbing the process. So you get out of the way, you don't do anything.  Be kind to this moment.
I am not the abbot of my mind, I'm not the manager, the controller, the boss, so when I visit it, I see it's beautiful as it is.
56:10 I found peace of mind, not by trying to get peace of mind but stopping the getting, stopping the wanting, and I realized peace of mind was there all the time, then I'd just been looking somewhere else.
That is the most powerful meaning of life, stillness, inner peace, realising there's nothing to get, nowhere to go, the end of craving, the end of wanting, realises it's there for you all the time you're just looking in the wrong place. You're looking and trying to achieve things, rather than letting go of all that wanting to achieve. That's real meaning of life.
Ok, my work is done, I've done what I thought was right. Now's the time, just to stop. In stopping, you find the deepest meaning of life. Not just doing things, not trying to find meaning, just stopping and being the meaning you are searching for. Try it. That's why Budddhism was such a successful path over its many years. Not just because it went on the path of trying to achieve things, because it knew how to stop all this craving and wanting business.