(upbeat music) This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for Your Life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you and happy listening. - So I'm going to give a talk this morning, calls, what does that call it in the end? - What does that call it? - Yeah. Okay, it's called Dreaming Angels, each imbued with the mystery of the other. It's just a fancy title, really. (audience laughs) So legend has it that after the Buddha died, when islander was an old man, he passed by a young monk in the monastery, reciting the words of the Dharma Pada. As we know, islander was renowned for his memory. And he realized that the young monk was chanting the Dharma Pada incorrectly. He was chanting, it would be better to live a single day and see a marsh vowel than live a hundred years and not see a marsh vowel. (audience laughs) No, actually I don't really know what a marsh vowel is but anyway, I don't think it's spiritually very important to know what a marsh vowel is. And neither did Ananda. So Ananda corrected the young monk. He said, "No, no, no, it's not like that." He says, "It would be better to live a single day "and see the harsh nature of Samsara "than to live a hundred years "and not see the harsh nature of Samsara." Now the young monk got very confused at this point because his preceptor had taught him about marsh vowels and the importance of marsh vowels. So he went to his preceptor and he said, "Oh, which is the proper way? "What does that verse actually say and what does it mean?" And the priestess said, "Look, Ananda's getting a little old." In fact, he's getting a little on and a little senile and his memory's going. So just go back to the recitation that you know. So the young monk was content with this. He went back to his previous recitation and Ananda came across him again and said to him, "But don't you know, that's not what the Buddha said. "I've already told you, did you not listen to me?" And the young monk said, "Yes, "but my teacher said you were old and decrepit "and could no longer recall the Dharma." And at this point, Ananda, as he said, looked around, he saw that all the old disciples had gone. There was no one to back him up and now was the time to enter into Paranavana. So I wanted to start with a story just like this. (audience laughing) (audience laughing) Actually, yeah, it's funny. I thought it's served to both to kind of bring to mind, illustrate the vanity of youth. (audience laughing) I'd believe Ananda, I just wanted to say. (audience laughing) But also the vanity of youth, but also the general Buddhist view that Buddhism has declined since the time of the Buddha. And this is what this legend apparently came into being to illustrate, that Buddhism has declined, suitors have forgotten the power and magnitude of the Buddha's presence is only imagined. And so it is that the influence of Buddhism has generally decreased and nowhere more so than in the land of its birth. I had a very strong impression of this on pilgrimage because I didn't realize that the state Bihar is a corruption of the word vihara. And everywhere, everywhere in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar there, I'm covering the remains of great stupas and monasteries everywhere, there's just piles of bricks everywhere. And you get this impression that these places used to be great centers for Buddhism with monasteries and stupas. And I imagine the skyline just all these stupas were crowning out a bit like in Burma, I get this, I haven't been to Burma, but I've seen pictures of all these stupas just coming up on the horizon. And now Bihar is more renowned for its poverty, its corruption and its bandits. So yes, Buddhism has declined, but as Banti pointed out in his talk, which he gave in 1999, looking ahead a little way, within the general decline, there are upward trends. There are bright beads of hope, there are upsurges in Buddhism, new inspired Buddhist teachers gathering new sangers. And it's these bright beads that I wanted to focus on this morning, particularly the true Ratna Buddhist order, why it is needed and what it can do. And I have to say I owe a lot to Sibouti and Sibouti and Banti's new papers, particularly the Sibouti's paper, the Dharma Revolution and the New Society and the Buddhist Manifesto. Yeah, so I'm not going to send things particularly original, but then I never actually do, 'cause if it's not Sibouti, it's Banti. There we go. And if it's not Banti, it's the Buddha. So yes. So I wanted to start by going back to the land of the Buddha's birth. And the bright bead here, of course, is Dr. Anbecha. And Dr. Anbecha had thought of himself as engaging in a great struggle to bring about a social revolution. And this revolution was to overthrow oppression, the oppression of the caste system and the oppression of the enslavement of women. He used those words, enslavement of women. He wanted a revolution to change the attitudes of a whole society. Now Dr. Anbecha was the most educated man in India. And he thought long and hard about how he was going to bring about this revolution. And he looked for answers in many places. He looked for political and economic solutions. But he realized that in order to bring about a revolution in society, you first need a change in mind and soul, as he put it. A change in mind and soul. And through the emancipation of minds and souls, society will change. There will be no marginalization, no oppression, and each individual will have the freedom to grow and develop. But what can change minds and souls? Well, Dr. Anbecha looked at all the major religions. He looked at all the religions of the world and he chose Buddhism. He chose Buddhism as a revolutionary force capable of changing mind and soul. Capable of freeing, confining and oppressive attitudes in society and giving freedom to the marginalised and to each individual themselves. And I've been looking a little bit into why Dr. Anbecha chose Buddhism, because I think the reason that he chose Buddhism are the reasons that Buddhism works now. I do recommend that you read the Buddha and the future of his religion, if you haven't already read it, because I think it's as important to us as it's important to Dr. Anbecha and the Dalits of India. So there's a lot of reasons, but I just wanted to give you three. And the first one is that you can't take ethics out of Buddhism. Buddhism is based on Karenar, on compassion. It's based on the wisdom of equality. And that applies to everyone, including people who aren't Buddhism, Buddhists. Sorry, you aren't Buddhist. So with other ethical systems, sometimes you can take out that ethical system if it doesn't apply to your own tribe or your own religion. You can treat your brothers and sisters in your religion with ethics, but someone's outside your religion, "Well, they're on their own." But with Buddhism, ethics is part of Buddhism. You cannot take ethics out of Buddhism. The second reason is that Buddhism recognizes liberty, equality, and fraternity. And there's quite a lot in this, why what Dr. Anbecha means by this, but just to sum up, Buddhism speaks to the individual man and woman, each as being in control of their own destiny. It speaks to the individual as being capable of growth and development, as being capable of taking responsibility for their own lives and for their relationships with other people. So there is this emphasis in Buddhism on being responsible for yourself, of being able to lift yourself out of oppressive attitudes of mind, lifting yourself out of greed, hatred, and delusion, changing your own mind and soul. And Buddhism gives you the confidence and the responsibility to do this. And Buddhism accords with reason and science. Dr. Anbecha made the point that if you can't take it seriously, it cannot be a governing force in people's lives. If you can't take religion seriously, it cannot be a governing force in your life. And, but with Buddhism, the modern man and woman can take Buddhism seriously because it's not a superstitious belief system. You can think about it. As Banti says, you use your intuition, your reason, and your experience to fully understand the Buddha's teachings. So he chose Buddhism. He chose Buddhism as a tool to ignite the revolution. And he saw the sangha as the first rank in the fighting forces, the first rank in the fighting forces. And he put that phrase in a letter to a young monk who was living in the foothills of the Himalayas in Kalenpong. And I can imagine that you all know who that young monk was. So yes, he ranked that to Banti. He actually said, well, yes, I'm glad you set up the young men's association in Kalenpong, but really you should do much more than that. The bikus should be in the first rank of the fighting forces. Now, who knows what effect that letter had on Banti? Who knows what effect that kind of discourse had on Banti? But I'd like us to look perhaps in our groups about what effect that kind of discourse has on us. Do we think of ourselves as part of a revolution? Do we think of the sangha as the first rank of the fighting forces in that revolution? Does that kind of language inspire you? Or do you see your life about your own growth and happiness and contentment? And if you do see yourself as part of a revolution, what is your revolution for? What is our revolution for? Well, the most obvious answer to that will be that the revolution is to overcome greed, hatred and delusion, both within our own hearts and in society itself. And as in India, as in all cultures, greed, hatred and delusion are expressed in the attitudes of society. And I've been thinking about what attitudes in our society are the expressions of that greed, hatred and delusion. And I was thinking of two particular current attitudes that in a way characterize modern attitudes in a globalised culture actually, not just this society. So the first attitude is nihilistic materialism. And I think the form that this takes on most regularly is actions don't have consequences. It's okay to put your needs above others and get what you can for yourself. And it's okay to have what you want when you want it, no matter what the cost is to anyone else or to the environment, because you're worth it. (audience laughing) So I should have washed my hair this morning before I have the effect I wanted to. Actually, I could have brushed my hair, that would have been. (audience laughing) So yes, that's the kind of thing, because you're worth it. You have anything you want when you want it. Doesn't matter about the environment, doesn't matter about anyone else. It's okay, you have strawberries in December, you have green beans flown over from Kenya, have the latest gadget, no matter where the metal comes from, whatever dubious sources that metal comes from. I know Vassica wrote about that in a recent chapter, so. Yeah, because you're worth it, because you're important. And greed is good, to quote the film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, greed is good. Greed keeps the economy working. So the whole way that the consumerist society works is that you stimulate demand, and increasing consumer demand leads to economic growth. And the means justifies the end, that actually you just keep on stimulating growth, and then we'll have more stuff in society. People just make sure people want more and more and more. I think that's, one of the things I've been quite distressed that recently is noticing that what the Christian countries are doing is they're selling Christmas to other parts of the world. Because Christmas is good, because it increases demand. So we have whole ship loads of Chinese tat plastic to come over to underneath the Christmas tree, and then little children can open it and break it in about three minutes and throw it in the dustbin. And that's all a good thing, apparently. Yeah, so even Japan is starting to try and bring in Christmas. Even though we use so much wrapping paper at Christmas, we could actually wrap up the world four times in wrapping paper. That's what I've told my family is why I'm using newspaper now. It's not because I'm tight. (audience laughing) So the impression that you get from society is that all that exists ultimately is matter. All that exists is things. So get as much as you can when you can. Higher values aren't real or important. In fact, higher values are just dangerous 'cause they get in the way of consumerism. They're getting in the way of a thriving economy. It's the things that we can see and touch that are the signs of success. And it's interesting 'cause I think actually this kind of nihilistic materialism in society is no longer quite working. And people are starting to recognize that. And I think that's partly why the government's bringing in these happiness studies. In a way, that's a statement in itself that they're bringing in happiness studies because they're suddenly realizing that more stuff doesn't necessarily make you happy. But there's another attitude that goes along with this, which is a kind of consort of nihilistic materialism and that is individualism. The prioritization of the personal over society. In fact, according to Mrs. Thatcher, who is society? There is no such thing. You should actually say it, I looked it up. Google. So yes, so there's only the individual and the nuclear family. There's no one else. No one, nothing else exists. There's no other structures of society or anything wider than that. It's just the personal. And that's the main thing is to get what you can for yourself. The whole imagination of other people and society itself has gone, that language has gone. And I think this is one of the big changes actually in my generation. We don't think necessarily in terms of society in the way that people used to, particularly post-war, when wonderful things like the NHS came into being, people thought in terms of society. But I think my generation finds it very difficult. So these two attitudes, nihilistic materialism and individualism lead to the marginalization of great swathes of society. So they've got the caste system in India, but we also have our own divisions. We have people on the fringes who can't get rich quick, who can't consume more and more and keep the economy running. Society generally values the young, the bright and the successful and pushes to the edges, the elderly, the uneducated, the disadvantaged and the disabled. So what you get in a modern economic system is that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And there's no such thing as society who can help them. I remember Banti's, I'm sure we all remember Banti's poem, Bodhisattva's reply where he says that people fall like seeds between the wet stones of custom and circumstance. And I think this is what our modern economic system does. It pushes people like seeds between wet stones of custom and circumstance. I have a friend in Sheffield who's a drugs worker for sexually abused children, which basically means child prostitutes. And she told me a very shocking thing, which is never ever left me. She said that outside every care home is a pimp waiting in a car because they can prey on the young, unloved, unattended young women who are just desperate, who are desperate for affection, who are desperate also for things. They've been told that they need stuff, that they'll only be desirable or lovable if they have the latest mobile phone and the latest clothes. So it pushes to the edges, the marginalised and the disadvantage, but this whole society also pushes to the edges, those who can't buy into this story. People who want to live a life inspired by higher values, who do actually care what effect they have on other people. And I think I come into this category actually. I think I came to the Buddhist centre when I was 17. And to sum up my attitude, I actually thought of a song by Nirvana. You know who Nirvana is, please. (audience laughs) Even it's a bit old now. (audience laughs) Anyway, there was this song by Nirvana, it's a band. (audience laughs) It's not enlightenment, it's a band called Nirvana. (audience laughs) And there's a song called Something in the Way, which goes through the sort of attitudes of society. And then he says, but there's something in the way. There's something in the way. And there's this one line where he says, "It's okay to eat fish 'cause they don't have any feelings." And then he says, "Something in the way, something in the way." And I think that was me at that age, actually probably earlier than that, but I certainly came to the Buddhist centre with that attitude. There's something in the way of me just living this life, which is just about getting more and more and more for myself. And I think for me then as now, my greatest horror is to live a meaningless life of no values, of no higher values other than consumerism. It will be death to me to just live a life of being a good consumer, raising more good consumers. (audience laughs) And this is where young people come in because some of them, like me, can't buy into society's attitudes. They want to be part of a revolution. And they see their future ahead of them and still have the belief that they could do something important. I still have the belief I could do something important. I still have the belief we could do something important. And maybe me, maybe other young people, or maybe people even younger than me, maybe we'll all just settle down and maybe we'll all just get over it. But maybe if we have the opportunity not to settle down, maybe if we have an opportunity to join with others who also want a revolution, we might not. There's a chance that those young people, there's a chance that people like me might not settle down. We might live a meaningful life to benefit the world. I do think we need a revolution. That story about the care homes makes me think we need a revolution. We need to overthrow attitudes in society. We need to help them marginalised in the disadvantage. And we need to give support and encouragement to those who want to live by higher values. And actually, I borrowed those three categories from Sabouti, actually, from his essay, "The Dharma Revolution and the New Society." And he suggests that those are the areas in which we can be of help. Society's attitudes, they're marginalised in the disadvantage, and those who have a longing for a higher human life. So maybe the Sanger could be in the first rank of the fighting forces, and maybe we could be the ones to have a significant effect on those people. But I also recognise, I'm not the sufferer from doubt, it's got to be said, but I do recognise that there is a problem with this revolutionary language. Personally, I find it really exciting. Maybe it is, because I am from cheating. And there was that TV programme called "Citizen Smith," apart from "Bunty," you know, "The Great Revolutionary." Lots of good things come from cheating. So I think, "Yeah, revolution, bring it up." "Oh, you know, I'm awake and I'm there." But I can also recognise that it's very easy to feel this heartened. It's very easy to feel like, you know, you start talking about the revolution, and you feel like this little ant in the face of a big, angry elephant. We look at our small lives in the face of the attitudes of society, in the face of the marginalised, in the face of the horror and of meaningless lives, and we can start to feel very, very overwhelmed. But I propose that we're much more than ants. I think we're an army of ants. (LAUGHTER) In fact, I think we're more than an army of ants with the 11-headed, thousand-armed Avolekiteshva, at least in potential. And I think we have everything we need to engage in this revolutionary struggle. We have the order. We are part of a united order with Avolekiteshva's body, with the Bodhi Chitta at his heart. And the order was set up by far more than Bunty. His life of whole-hearted engagement with the Dharma set up conditions for something much, much bigger to come into being. Though his life set up the conditions for the movement to arise, and not as part of his own ego project. You know, Bunty didn't set up the order because he thought, you know, "Well, I'm a bit bored. "It's got time for a new project." He set up the order because his life allowed something bigger than him to work through him, a force beyond him as an individual. So we heard that reading last night from my relation to the order, where he says, "There are times when, "far from feeling that it was I who took on the responsibility, "I feel that it was the responsibility that took on me. "There are times when I am dimly aware "of a vast overshadowing consciousness "that has, through me, founded the order "and set in motion our whole movement." So this is what we hold to our hearts in the order. We hold to our hearts the bodhicitta. And it's the bodhicitta that's set up this order. It's not even Bunty. And that's the jewel that shines at our hearts. And I think we'll be hearing a lot more about this in Sabouti's new paper. And I think we are a united body. Yes, we do have disharmony in the order, but we are working to create harmony. And we can work together to be of use to the world. And we have a thousand arms. We have a thousand arms, each with a different gift or tool to offer to the world. And actually, looking around the room, I see many, many fine women as part of this order. And I have tremendous confidence that there are many fine men and women as part of this order. And last night in the Puja, I was just watching people make offerings. You're allowed to do that. You're being a bit creepy. Anyway, I wasn't being creepy. I was just looking at people making offerings. And I felt moved because I thought, here is substantial people. But I also think that we have the gifts of the order itself. And I think that we can have a greater impact on society if we work together and use what we have in common, the gifts of the order. And what I suggest the gifts of the order are, are the five pillars. So that's what I'm going to talk about. It's the five pillars. So does everyone remember the five pillars? Does anyone remember the five pillars? A talk given in 1991 that we all used to study from it to study? Cool. Are they? Well, then they must be true. (audience laughing) The five pillars of the FWBO. Yeah, so in 1991, Vantigeva took all the five pillars of the FWBO, in which he drew out five fundamental things that lie at the heart of our movement. And I think they're not just pillars, but they're also our gifts. So I don't have time to go into them in enormous depth, but I just wanted to go through each one and say how I think they can influence the attitudes of society, the marginalised, and those who long for a higher human life. So the first one are ideas. So not just complex intellectual ideas, but simple ideas that make a real difference to people's lives. And Vantigeva makes the point when he gave that lecture that ideas can set people free. I certainly found that myself. I sometimes give the story of reading, introducing Buddhism on the top of the number 37 going down F road. Actually, I went there last week with my parents. I told them they had to go to a pilgrimage to Efra Road. I think they got the point, but I'm not quite sure. Anyway, so yes, and I read this introducing Buddhism, and I stood up on that bus and I said, this is it. And it was like something in me had just been completely set free. He was a young woman who longed for a higher human life, who longed for deeper values than I was currently presented with, and here they were. And it was the three actioners. And when I was doing the beginners course at Sheffield Buddhist Center, on the first evening we would present three simple ideas. And those simple ideas were we can change, happiness comes from the inside, and happiness comes from cultivating connection with each other. We can change, happiness comes from the inside, happiness comes from cultivating connection with each other. And I think that's quite interesting and quite typical in a way of the tree rat in a Buddhist order, because that's a basic Buddhist teaching. It's the three actioners. So we're using ideas common to all Buddhist schools, common to the Buddhist tradition as a whole, but we're using it in a particular kind of tree ratna emphasis or expression. And I think one of the things that Banti's done for us is he doesn't see conditionality purely in terms of the negative expression, you know, from the ceasing of this, that ceases. But he uses positive trends within conditionality to encourage the individual to grow, to encourage the individual to come together with others and bring about positive changes. So we have that kind of language in the tree ratna Buddhist community. And I don't think we necessarily know how special it is. When I was at school, someone from the Wimbledon Vahara came to give a talk. And the first thing he said to us, he says, "All life is suffering." Now, you try and say that to a group of 16-year-old girls. And also, I used to take quite a lot of recreational drugs at that time. And I quite thought, well, maybe you just haven't tried the right substances. (audience laughing) My notions of happiness have changed, that's what I'd say. But, you know, it was all so kind of negative and suffering, all life is suffering, and it's caused by craving, but craving can cease. (audience laughing) And I remember going out with all my little druggie mates who were saying about, you know, going, oh, that's really boring, wasn't it? (audience laughing) So, hopefully, we wouldn't have that for more order. But what we've got, which we put a lot of emphasis on, and I think it's a particular tree ratna emphasis, is we've got the 12 positive nadanas, unfolding positive mental states, joy and bliss and rapture. I'm folding positive mental states that lead the individual to grow and develop into a very, very beautiful vision. We also have a very strong emphasis on the four sanger of Vastis. So, Munisha told me about this, and she said, "Google's sanger of Vastis," and I Google sanger of Vastis. And what I noticed is that it was only the tree ratna in the Buddhist order that really had said anything about the sanger of Vastis. And I think it's because we have put so much emphasis on the practice of gathering a community. So, we have these emphasis, that the positive path and practicing together to build a community. And these two things work directly on the views that there are no higher values than consuming, because it shows you a positive path that's based on unfolding positive mental states. And it also works against the view that we are isolated because it shows you how to bring a community into being that's based on more than just getting more stuff and unhealthy competition. So, Buddhism, the tree ratna Buddhist order also takes Buddhist ideas and brings them to secular context to reach people who wouldn't necessarily come to learn about Buddhism. And of course, breath works is the outstanding example of this. Breath works uses very, very simple teachings, like the two arrows, and don't drown or identify with negative emotions, but don't block them either. So very, very simple ideas, our mindfulness, but they're radical, they change people's lives. And it's not that the tree ratna Buddhist order has the monopoly on those teachings, but I do think the tree ratna Buddhist order has a very clear grasp of the dharma as principle and can relate it to the modern situation very, very effectively. So those are ideas. But we also have practices. And again, not just complex techniques, but practices that are tried and tested and really work. The mindfulness of breathing, the metabhavana, body scans, just sitting. And it's easy to forget just how revolutionary these things are. I remember part of the reason I'm a Buddhist is because I did sort of wash up at the Buddhist center, the South London Buddhist center, the Amra Pushpa, who's here. And I remember my first Buddhist class, and we did the metabhavana, and I just thought, how amazing, how amazing that this somewhat disparate group of people have come into this room. And instead of, you know, back-biting of gossiping, going down the pub, or just watching endless television, actually what they're doing is that they're cultivating love and kindness, and it's possible. I remember this. It's possible to cultivate loving kindness. I always thought before that somehow you were born with a certain quota. You know, you're either a loving person or a bit greedy and selfish, and that was it. You know, that's the way God created you. But actually, no. No, it's much, much more than that. You can cultivate loving kindness. I was listening to another of Banti's talks called The Fields of Creativity. And in Fields of Creativity, which he gave him, the LBC in 2002, he talks about not just meditation as a field of creativity, but also the practice of the arts and spiritual friendship as a creative practices. So we have the practice of the arts. And I think this is very important because we don't have to then sever ourselves from our own culture. We don't have to pretend we're Tibetan. I don't want to be a Tibetan. I don't want to be a Sri Lankan. I don't want to be Japanese. I want to be who I am. I want to be a Buddhist. And I want to use what's in my culture to actually deepen my understanding of the way things are. And I think one of the things that Banti's done is he's given us permission to do that. He's given us permission to go see a film, walk around an art gallery, read poetry, and think that we are speaking the Dharma. We are listening to the Dharma. We can use what's best in our culture to further our practice of the Dharma. And he also talks about spiritual friendship. And I think if there was anything that I could really see standing out as a transformational force in my life, it is deepening communication with not just my teachers, but also my friends. Friendship in terms of a continuing creative act. And I feel so lucky, I feel so lucky to have friends because it's so rare in modern society to have that forum, to have that field of creativity. And I think there's so much in modern society that works against the practice of friendship. I think just looking at my family, I think the things that tend to work against their practice of friendship are their long working hours and the demands of the nuclear family. And I've watched how my brothers and friends of mine, they start off with good close friends, good close friends in university and school. And then I can just see it sort of sliding away because they work so hard. Their work involves a lot of travel as well. And then they've got their nuclear family, their kids. And particularly my brothers, my brothers are very, very good, impressive, ethical, upstanding young men. And I can see that they end up having to put all their energy into their children because they're working so hard. They have very limited time. And of course, it's going to go towards their children and their wives. And so it should. But what that does mean is that friendship becomes much harder in those conditions. And people often have very underdeveloped friendships. And it means also that more and more emotional demands are placed on sexual relationships. And that's not healthy for those relationships themselves. We all need friends. We all need something broader than just our partner. And if we don't have that broader context, well, of course, it's going to put so much pressure onto this one person who's got to be everything to you. And it ends up being this sort of scenario of just you, your partner, and against the world. So yes, friendship is very, very important as a practice and a very, very effective practice. I mean, in my case, I would say the most effective practice in my life. I wouldn't be half the person that I am now without my friends in the sangha. So yes, so Banti talks about the arts and spiritual friendship as fields of creativity. And of course, they're also the distinctive emphases of the tree around the Buddhist community. But he also talks about another field of creativity. He talks about another field of creativity being the setting up and maintaining of institutions. - Institutions. (audience laughing) - So yes, so it's easy. I even had an argument with my dad about this last week, but it's very easy to associate the word institution with oppression. (audience laughing) We were talking about horror movies just before this, but I'm bringing, obviously it's gone into my consciousness. The horror movie of the institution. (audience laughing) 'Cause as I said to me, well, in an institution, your institution lies. It just gets worse and worse. (audience laughing) What's going on, huh? But actually, institutions are just ways in which human beings cooperate. They're just places in which human beings come together to bring a common vision into being. They're not that bad. They're quite soft and friendly, really. (audience laughing) They're just ways in which we create environments in which to thrive, in which to bring about our vision into being, in which to come together. And at T-Ratt and Loka, we often watch the history DVDs, do you remember them? The history movies. Great fun. You can sort of, I did watch them in my "Mitch of the Study Group" in Sheffield. We were all young women and we all did that thing. We watched them and then, oh, we were born then. (audience laughing) And then at the end, I sort of said to them, so what did you think you know what it is? And they said, well, and then they started to go in through who they thought was quite good-looking when they were younger. (audience laughing) But that is privileged information, and I'm not giving it to anyone. (audience laughing) Unless you give me chocolate. (audience laughing) So, yes. Anyway, the history DVDs. So you get the impression within the DVDs that Bunty didn't kind of set up the order and then come up with the institutions. (audience laughing) He actually, they emerged from a real need. They emerged from a real need of a bunch of hippies wanting to live and work together. And what a beautiful flowering. What wonderful institutions have come into being. And we all take part in them. Chapters, confession groups, going for refuge groups, all the weekends, retreat centers, a kashivana. We all take part of them, and they're very, very beautiful things. But there's the three sort of obvious ones, the three C's as they used to be called. And the first is Buddhist centers. So Buddhist centers as being a kind of a weighties in a mad world. Remember once, at Sheffield, we decided, normally what centers do is they send us a wine down over Christmas. But we thought, let's just do the opposite and see what happens. So what we decided to do is we ran these winter mornings they were called, and they were 10 to one all over Christmas, the Christmas period, sort of 10, 11 days over Christmas. And what we found is that people loved them. They were desperate to come to them because they said actually at Christmas things get madder and madder and madder. And it was like, you just come into the Buddhist center and there is sanity. So I think that's what Buddhist centers do apart from anything else. They're a weighties. They're a kind of a weighties of sanity in the midst of a very, very mad world. They're very, very important things. And communities, a way of living that means we can share resources, that we don't have to live the family life if we don't want to. And that we can have support and emotional warmth without having to live with a sexual partner. So there's communities. There's team-based right livelihood business enterprises. And again, these mean that we can work together in a supportive environment to make money not just for ourselves, but also to support Buddhist centers and to support altruistic activity in the world. And it very, very much goes against that kind of attitude of get as much as you can and give nothing back. It's actually a quote from the parts of the Caribbean. (laughing) Same. So, okay, so we've got the Buddhist centers, communities and team-based right livelihoods. And sometimes people talk as if they are a failed experiment. But I don't think they're over yet. I don't think we've heard half of it from the three seas. And I don't think we should dismiss them that quickly. One of the points that Banti makes about institutions is that they take a long time to develop. And Banti certainly hasn't given up on them. And I think there might be a bit of change of heart. I think there might be a bit of change of heart because of the recession. And because people are beginning to realize that there is more to life than me and my wealth. They're beginning to realize that there's no such thing as job security. And they're beginning to realize that it just is not worth it. It's not worth it to live, to work long hours in a job and find soul destroying just so you can buy the latest iPad. So I think it might change. I think it might change. These things do come and go. And I also think that that actually we could do a lot more to create new institutions. I think there's different models we can follow. We don't have to follow the same models as we have in the past. I think there's a lot more scope for experimentation. And I think that if we really develop those institutions that even if most people aren't in them all, 'cause we will partake of them to some extent, but even if most people aren't living in communities working in team-based right livelihoods, going to a Buddhist center, having some people living and working together has a huge effect on the order as a whole. Part of the reason that I decided to move to T-Rattner Locros, because my friend Ginny moved to Tara Loker and Ginny started coming back to Sheffield and she started to talk about her practice in a way that I hadn't heard for years. And I was Mitch Convener in Sheffield Buddhist center. So it wasn't like I was doing anything particularly worldly, but I was working in a team-based right livelihood. But hearing Ginny talk about that practice, I thought, God, I haven't heard that kind of vibrancy and that kind of vitality in someone's practice for years. In fact, I haven't really heard that kind of talk since I lived in a community and worked in evolution in Sheffield. And then I realized actually that kind of intensity comes from living and working together. And it had a huge effect on me because what I realized was I needed that in my life. That kind of intensity couldn't come from anything else but living and working together. So I decided to move to T-Rattner Locros. And I've noticed also that the T-Rattner Locros team itself also have an effect. They have an effect on the women that come on, retreat to T-Rattner Locros that can't be contrived. It's not like you can all kind of sit together in a team meeting and go, what are we going to behave in this particular way? And people are going to be really impressed and they're really going to get something out of it. It's just the way we are. It's just the way we live and work together and that kind of intensive Dharma life that has an effect on people that choose to come and retreat with us. It's a natural effect of the way we live. And I think that the movement needs those little pockets. It doesn't need everyone to do it but it needs to have those pockets and it also needs to be able to provide choice. It needs to be able to provide people with choice about how they live because they'll always be institutions and creating Buddhist institutions means that we have a choice about the ones we engage with, that the ones we're part of. And I think that especially for us as women and especially for me personally because what this movement means, what the institutions of the movement means is I can choose not to get married or be a nun and that there's genuine alternatives for that. There's genuine warmth and intimacy and communal living on the basis of real shared values that we're putting into practice. So yes, it's very, very important that at least some of us work in those institutions and build new institutions so that people have a choice about how they live because all of us at some point have taken part in institutions, have benefited from institutions and we need to keep some of them alive so that people can plug into that when they can. But there could be so much more, schools, old people's homes, doctors, you name it, we could go so much further. Which brings me on to the fourth pillar, or gift of the true young, the Buddhist community, which is experiment. Because the world is changing and the movement is meeting new people and new cultures and the movement has to change in some ways to meet them. And this is true in all of Buddhist history. Buddhism has always adapted its forms when it's come into contact with a new culture. And this movement will also have to adapt. We will have to adapt. But we'll have to adapt in the spirit of what has gone before, not change for changes sake or because we're a bit odd. Or because we've forgotten that we benefited from those things in the past. So we'll have to really understand the Dharma in order to apply it to new situations. And I think actually the true Ratna Buddhist order is especially free to do this. It's especially free to understand what the Dharma really is in order to apply it to new situations. Because we're not constrained firstly by the Vinaya. We're not constrained by the monk lay split. And we go back to the centrality of going for refuge. And the centrality of going for refuge means that we can live a whole hearted Buddhist life without having to live a monastic life. Without having to just be sort of chained by these slightly contradictory ancient rules. Actually we can go back to commitment. We can go back to the three duels and what the three duels really mean. We can bring all the Buddhist teachings back to the Buddha and to the central Buddhist core teachings such as Praticha Samapada. And we're not tied to a particular cultural expression of Buddhism. And that's what Banti's done for us. He's enabled us to go back to what the three duels really are, what they really represent. So that we can apply it to new situations. But that also means that we need to use our imagination. And that's the fifth pillar of the true Ratna Buddhist order. So that's quite interesting when he talks about the imagination in this context. He talks about the imagination as mystery, magic and myth. And it reminds me a bit of what was said about the Buddha that he had a kind of conversion magic. Sometimes it was an accusation. Sometimes it was a positive thing. But he had this kind of conversion magic. And I think we've got that kind of conversion magic too. I was thinking, well, where does that come from? Where did that conversion magic come from? It's a little bit mysterious, but I think I noticed that magic most of all in communication. When Banti talks about communication in the Sangha, he says that in communication, people explore together a dimension which neither could have explored on their own. A dimension is eventually reached in which distinctions between the people involved no longer have any meaning. Such distinctions have been transcended. And I think that's what can sometimes happen in the Sangha. We get to a point where the distinctions between each other no longer have any meaning. Such distinctions have been transcended. And sometimes I think that's a very mysterious and wonderful thing. It reminds me of Deniz Levotov poem. So in this poem, there are two angels. And one of the angels has wings of green and blue, peacock-colored, sea-colored wings. And the other angel has wings of amber, of red and gold, flame-colored wings. And when they meet in the sky, there's a moment of strangeness. There's a moment of uviness of these two angel meetings with such different colors. But then they start to communicate. And in the wings of gold and the wings of flames, you catch a slight vision of peacock green and blue. And in the wings of the sea, in the wings of blue and green, you suddenly catch a slight flame, a slight color of amber, of red and gold. And Deniz Levotov says, "And they're discovering pools, "and the speech, their silent interchange of perfection was, "never became a shrinking to opposites. "And they remained free in the heavenly chasm, "remained angels but dreaming angels, "each imbued with the mysteries of the other." And I think that's the kind of communication that we can have. Sometimes, sometimes we can have it. We can sometimes be dreaming angels, dreaming of a future, dreaming of a new way of being, dreaming of changing attitudes in society and freeing the marginalised and living meaningful lives. And these dreaming angels can come together, each imbued with the mysteries of the other. And when these dreaming angels come together, we can communicate a different vision. We can communicate a different vision of what is possible because we all live in a box of our own making. Society lives in a box of its own making. And the sphere of what we imagine to be possible is so small. And actually, what Buddhism can do for people, what this order can do for people, what we can do for people is expand that box, to expand that vision and who knows, maybe we could break it down altogether. So perhaps there is an overall decline in Buddhism, but I think that we can have confidence in our order as an upward trend within that. We can see ourselves as a bright bead, as a garden in the wilderness. And we can have confidence that we have the tools to change attitudes in society. We have the tools to help the marginalised and the disadvantaged. We have the tools to help people find meaning in their lives, to live a life of higher value. And we can have confidence in our order that it was founded by much more than one individual, but we can have confidence that our order was founded on the Bodhi Chitta, a force much greater than one person working through Banti. And all we have to do is to take what we have been given and take it further. We, all we have to do is give up on the wrong project, as my friend Ginny would say. All we have to do is give up on the ego project, but work together to bring something much more beautiful into being. All we have to do is get out of the way and let the Bodhi Chitta do its work. So the young Dharma Choronese were asked to leave this National Order Weekend. And I just wanted to reiterate again that the Young People's Project is not because young people can't talk to old people or they need something special or the Dharma has to be wrapped up in a different way so they'll understand it. Actually, I think what the Young People's Project is about is about developing friendship and building confidence. And it's building people's confidence that they don't have to trample on their idealism. They don't have to just settle down and get on with it like everyone else does. But actually, they can work together. They can build friendships. They can do something together. And the image that I have of this is one of the Young People's Projects, which is street meditation, which might have been done in your cities, but where the Young People go into a kind of flash mob. They go into the city centre. There's all this shopping and craziness going on. They just get their cushions. They sit down and they meditate. And it's a wonderful image and it's also a wonderful kind of expression of confidence. It's an expression of confidence that we've got something worthwhile that people need to hear. And they don't have to shout about it or ram it down people's throats. They are there. They are practising and that will have an effect on others. There's a quote from Jagdish Kashup, where he says that the Sri Lankan Sangha are a troop of monkeys sitting on the treasure, the value of which they do not understand. Well, I hope that we understand the value of the treasure that we've got. And I think the Young People are beginning to understand the value of the treasure that they have got. And I hope that we're not just a troop of monkeys who just sit on it. I hope that we can actually open that treasure and make it available to others. So I'll just finish with another quote that we had last night from Bunty, from his talk on looking ahead a little way. It is up to you. I need hardly say how much the world needs the Dharma. Needs such an order, such a movement as ours. I have done what I can. I have started the order, started the movement, the future of the order of the movement is in your hands. 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