(upbeat music) - This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. - Thank you, Padmashu. I'd just like to start by saying that I could have actually given the talk and thought at its clearest, you know, (audience laughing) just so that you know. I think it was a bit of sort of stereotyping and you know, 'cause loads of people have said to me, "Oh, it's great you're giving the talk at energy." You know, you're really energetic and I thought, "Yes, but I'm other things too." (audience laughing) So I just start by mentioning that. But I'm very pleased to be here to talk about anything really, whatever it might be. And I'm particularly pleased today to talk about something so close to Banti's heart as his poetry. Because I think probably everybody knows that today is Banti's birthday. So I'd like to dedicate this talk to Banti, our oldest order member, as it were, a founding order member, because Banti is an order member. I think sometimes people forget that and think Banti's something kind of apart from the order. You know, he's the founder of the order and he's the, he was the head of the order. He's actually a member of the order as well and he sees himself very much in those terms as I think, at least I'm sure older members know that, but I think sometimes people come, you know, preparing to enter the order, kind of see Banti as very removed. And actually he's very much a member of the order and he loves being a member of the order as do I. So I'm dedicating this talk to Banti and I'm also dedicating it to Ayacanta and to Nyanadakini who's sitting there somewhere, who are two of the newest members of the order. So we have the whole span included, from the oldest to the newest. And it's quite interesting actually, they're both Americans, although one is from Latin America and the other one from North America, or rather the United States of America. I got my terminology corrected in the last retreat, so try to be very careful here. So today I'm going to talk about a line from the wind horse poem. And I shall start with confession, 'cause confession's good for your soul. I don't like Banti's poetry. (audience laughing) I mean, you know, don't get me wrong eyes. I don't actually, particularly like Banti's poetry, has poetry. Now this is a bit of a joke between Banti and I actually, 'cause he knows this. I've never been very good at, this is what's the word in English? Disimulating, no? Is that in English, right, yeah? You know, Hayden, Hayden my feelings. And in 1994, which is when I first met Ariacanta, when I went to the States with Banti to do this, do he read his poetry all the time? Every time he got an opportunity, he read his poetry. So he would say to me as we were gonna look in the carton, "I'm going to do a poetry reading this evening, Paremi." (audience laughing) And a couple of times he'd start saying, "I know one or two people don't rate my poetry very much." So I was smiling at me, I started getting a bit embarrassed by the end of the talk. So I was like, "There are one or two that I quite like, actually, Banti." And that's what happens to mentors, is when they do quite like so. So that's good. And I think it was very interesting, or in that trip, that he did read his poetry so much. I mean, he did a lot, you know? And it was quite interesting, 'cause we went to do retreats and various places from other Buddhist groups. And I think they just couldn't get their head around why he read poetry. You know, it's an odd thing to do if you think about it. I mean, this is an odd thing to do to read poetry, but if you think about, you know, the teacher, the founder of an order, the guru, the llama, whatever you like to think of them as, 'cause we wouldn't, in particular, in case we were in a Zen center doing a retreat, and in other places we wouldn't have to bet and center doing a retreat. And in one of the evenings, Banti was going to be doing something, you know? And we invited the people from those retreat centers to come, so they were sitting at the back, obviously thinking, you know, they're going to get something about the diamonds to throw. I don't know, something really domic, and he'd stand out and say, "Well, I'm going to read a selection of my poems." And they'd kind of go, "Huh?" But actually, it was fascinating, because what he did was he would read a poem, but he would tell you the story of when he'd written it and why he'd written it and where he lived, when he'd written it. And in fact, through the evening he would weave a whole kind of, something quite magical happened. You know, so you'd get the poem, but you'd also get a sense of him as a young man in India. You'd get a sense of him coming back to Britain. You'd get a sense of all the events around the time when he wrote the poem. And so actually, you did get to see a different side to Banti, so I did from that time when I did start to vow you the fact that Banti went to share himself with us through his poetry. I still don't like the poetry, but that's by the way. Okay, so I'm going to read the poem of the mentors, 'cause I know it's been quite a while since you've had the talks, yeah? So I thought I'd start by just reading to remind you of the poem. The song of the wind horse. I am the wind horse. I am the king of space, the master of infinity, traversing the universe with flashing fiery hooves. On my strong back, on a saddle blazing with gems, I bear through the world the three flaming jewels. Once, long ago, my galloping hooves were upheld by the delicate hands of gods, as I bore through the night from home into homelessness, a young prince of the Shakya clan. With elephant, bull, and lion, I stepped stately round the capital of Ashoka's column. We for beasts bearing between us, the mighty eighth-spoked wheel that through heaven and earth rose irresistibly. Nostrils breathing fire, I uphold, quardry form the throne of the jubon conqueror in the south. I am the wind horse. White like a shitting star, I appear in the midst of the darkness of the world. Sometimes I choke, sometimes gallop, sometimes stand stock still in the midst of the heavens, so that all can see me in my glory. My neck proudly arched as white as snow and my flanks gleam like mother of peril. Main and tail are flowing gold and my harness of silver studied with turquoise. My loud names as I pour the clouds echo and re-echo throughout the universe, waking those who sleep, putting to flight the hosts of indolence, apathy, and despair. Hearing the sound of my voice, heroes regain their courage, warriors grasp the spears of keen thought against the day of intellectual battle, against the day of the great spiritual war for life, consciousness and vision, when the bow sings and arrows of desire are loosed at immortal targets. I am the wind horse. I am thought at its clearest, emotion at its noblest, energy at its most abundant. I am reverence, I am friendliness, I am joy. I, only among beasts, am pure enough, strong enough, swift enough to bear on my back the three flaming jewels. The pride of the lion is not enough. The strength of the bull is not enough. The splendor of the peacock is not enough. With what joy I sweep through the air, bearing age after age, my thrice precious burden. With what joy, with what ecstasy, I fulfill the greatest of all destinies, plunging or soaring. I leave behind me a rainbow track. So, an energetic point. Thought at its clearest, emotion at its noblest and energy at its most abundant. So today energy at its most abundant. Well, I think even though perhaps they haven't been done in the sequence that they mentioned, I'm glad energy comes at the end, because in fact, it comes from the clarity of thought and the nobility of emotion, that our energy can be not only abundant but focused, not only plenty of it, but energy going in the direction of the good. And with these three lines, we have the three faculties needed to enter and to live the spiritual life. We have the cognitive faculty with clear thought. We have the emotional or the feeling of faculty with the emotion at its noblest. And today we have the volitional faculty, will, very necessary ingredient of the spiritual life. What moves us forward? Because energy, if it's most abundant, is obviously Verea. It's not just a case of having lots of it. It's a case of whether energy's directed. So Verea, energy and pursuit of the good. Probably the most famous exposition of Verea can be found in Shanti Deva in the Bodhicharya Vittara, where he talks about Verea as one of the six pyramitas, the six perfections. One of the six perfections, which are the establishment aspect of the Bodhisattva ideal. The Bodhisattva ideal is a theory is not enough. It needs to be put into practice. And these six pyramitas are how we put that noble and clear ideal into practice in our lives. So Shanti Deva talks about the six pyramitas and he talks quite a lot about Verea. Interestingly enough, the one he talks most about is patience. He talks a lot about patience. It's the longest chapter in the work. And it's interesting to see patience and Verea together, because they do form a pair. They form a couple as it were. If we think of the need for patience and perseverance, perseverance is what keeps our energy directed. And Verea is what allows our patience not to just be passive, to be an active response to the conditions that we find ourselves in. So they go very much hand in hand, patience and Verea. So I'm going to look a bit at what Shanti Deva says about Verea as a way into looking at energy. It's new since I was having to take your space. This is the things about getting a wound, you know. I was 50 last week, by the way. Just thought I'd mentioned that. Not bad, I'm a 50. (audience laughs) Although I should have rather a lot of green hair, as you might notice. That's becoming a private piece of it. (audience laughs) Say no more. (audience laughs) Actually, I've had them for longer, but it's a good one. So after patience, yeah? Patient in this way, one should cultivate vigor, because awakening depends on vigor. Without vigor, there is no merit, just as there is no movement without wind. So without energy, there's nothing. When Banshee talks about this, quite a lot, actually, in different seminars and talks and things. I do remember when it's been in a seminar where I'm using these and he's got, I can't remember which one it was, and somebody said something like, "Oh, you know, people come and they've got no energy." And Banshee said, "Well, they must be dead." (audience laughs) He said, "Because if you're alive, you have energy." And then even into this sort of thing about, you know, energy being a bit of a, you know, people think they understand what energy is, and actually you don't, and you really need to have it anyway. But then, of course, it's not enough just to have energy. It has to be energy in pursuit of the good, yeah? And he joked, but he said when Sagar and Matty, who's a Scotty, should remember that some of you probably know, had complained about how people came to the Buddhist center were so little energy. And Banshee said, "Well, I've never noticed that "in the Scots that I've met." (audience laughs) But I think one of the things about, at least some of the Scots, and certainly has been my case. You can have plenty of energy, but actually don't get very far if it isn't channel, you know? Sometimes you can be a very energetic person, but you don't get very much done. And people who you'd think, they don't have much energy, are just quite gently, quite quiet. They get normal, and at the end of the day, they achieve quite a lot. So I think there's a lot of round energy that we think we know what it is, and we think we know what it looks like, and it's usually kind of loud, and kind of big, you know? It takes up a lot of space. But actually, video isn't necessarily like that. Video can be very directed, very focused, and very quiet, actually. So, just as there's no movement without wind, there is no life without energy, and no spiritual life without energy in the pursuit of the good. So what is vigor? The endeavor to do what is skillful, quite straightforward, you can just finish there. Enough in that, really, isn't it? What is, it's antithesis called, sloth, clinging to what is vile, despondency, and self-contempt? So I'll come back and look at that bit. Sloth comes from idleness, indulging in pleasures, sleep, well, the sleep's allowed, actually, sleep's a good thing, I believe. The longing to lean on others, and from apathy for the sufferings of cyclic existence. So, in a way, this last line of that verse is really the key. We are slothful, we're lazy, we don't have vigor, or video, because we're not disillusioned enough with cyclic existence, and you can see that. This is something very interesting that you can know, as you get to know people who come along and start meditating. People come along and they start meditating sometimes, because they're dissatisfied with their life, yeah? Generally, that's the case. For all sorts of different reasons. And often, and it's not everybody, but often it's because there's some suffering in their life. Things aren't going very well. Things aren't quite how they'd like them to be. So they come along, they start to meditate, they get their life sorted out. Start to make new friends, nice, buddhisty friends. So things, maybe they've been in a very bad neurotic relationship, they manage to finish with that, they move on from it. Maybe the job hasn't been very satisfying, they leave, they come to win tors, they find immediate job satisfaction. (audience laughs) No, oh well. And, you know, they get things in a certain and in level well sorted out, and then they forget that they were disillusioned with cyclic existence, because they've converted all these good conditions into, that's their life. And we forget quite easily that the reason we're in these good conditions is because we're dissatisfied with cyclic existence. But these good conditions are also cyclic existence, yeah? They will come to an end, you will die. You might not realize that, but you will die. I will die, we will all die. Winter someday, presumably, will not exist. At some point, in some future universe, in some parallel universe, it doesn't even exist. At the moment, as we speak, so nothing's permanent, nothing's fixed, we're not fixed, but we forget that. Sometimes when we find good conditions, we forget that we cannot go for refuge to those conditions. Those conditions are there to help us go for refuge to something beyond those conditions. So very, vigor is reminding ourselves of that. It's reminding ourselves that these good conditions help, but they only help as a luncheon pad to move away from these good conditions. And I don't mean leaving winter or necessarily. I mean, moving away from the conditions that are not ultimately going to give us satisfaction. They're not going to actually solve an existential need for something beyond the mundane. In themselves, they are mundane, yeah? So that's very important, and it's so easy to forget. It's so easy. So we must remember to remember. It sounds like a song, doesn't it? I think there's a song that says that, a Paul Simon song. So I remember to remember. Something like that, anyway. We must remember to remember, to not forget, what we must remember. 'Cause there's a pithy saying for you to take away from this talk. You won't remember it, though, will you? We must remember to remember, not to forget what we must remember. (speaking in foreign language) Okay, just to make sure that everybody's got that. (audience laughs) And it's incredible, really, what we do forget. But as Shanty David tells us, actually, do you not realize even now you have entered the mouth of death? You are already on track for your death. How can we forget that? And yet, do we forget again and again? We have already entered. When Yama is sizing you up, and every time the way is blocked, how can it please you to eat? How can you sleep? How can you make love? And forget that. Even if you abandon your slough, as death is swiftly approaching, his implements prepared. It's quite good, just a good translation, essentially. It will be to it. What will you do? I have not started this. This I started, but it remains half done. Oh, no, I am stricken. Thinking this, tormented by the memory of your own evil, what will you do? I think I'll leave it there. We don't mean it. It's Monday morning after all. (audience laughs) To address your whole weekend. (audience laughs) But it is actually really important to remember that, that we are in the, you know, it's so easy, especially when you're young, 'cause now that I'm 50, I'm bound to remember much more. But I think, you know, when you are young, and even young at 50, it's very hard to think I will be old someday. And it's just not getting older. It's kind of hard to remember that you could just keep getting even older. You think, okay, I've done that now. I've done getting old. 50 now, that's enough, thank you. But it's inexorable that just keeps on happening, if you're lucky. So, to help us remember, Vidia is the antidote to this forgetting. And it's the antidote to three forms of laziness, which I've already read, sloth or indolence, a clinging to what is vile, and despondency and self-contempt. Sometimes, talked about as losing heart. So these are the three lazinesses that Chantideva talks about. And they're quite interesting, really, if you think about them. In fact, Bantid does quote these, I realized last night, there's a line in the poem, which says, "Just that." He says, "I pour the clouds, "waking those who sleep, "putting to flight, "the hosts of indolence apathy and despair." Indolence apathy and despair. So, indolence or sloth, yeah? Just not making the effort. Just not quite remembering what we need to do. Clinging to what is vile and apathy are the same thing. Now, that's quite interesting, isn't it? Because often, it is so much easier to cling to what we know is not creative than to make the effort to be creative. Have you ever noticed that? How easy it is to be negative? I'm great at it. It just comes so naturally, you know? I'd love to be a nice person, but there you go. But it's really easy to just fall into old habits. They've had a long time. Our sanskaris have got a lot of weight behind them, yeah? Positive and negative. But often, it is so easy. And I suppose it's easy in part because the surroundings that we find ourselves in, in the world, I mean, you know, the conditions that we're often in, society kind of encourages the negative much more than it does the positive. It actually requires quite an effort sometimes, not just to slide into the sloth of old habits, the apathy of old habits. And a really interesting laziness is a despondency and self-contempt losing heart. It's kind of quite, it's difficult sometimes to think that that's laziness because it seems so out of control, doesn't it? If we lose heart in something, it often seems like it's not my fault that I've lost heart. It's because it isn't working or because they're not doing what, you know, they should be doing or, well, okay, I've made an effort, but I don't have it in me. I'm not up to it. I can't do this, poor little me. And that's actually laziness. And then the seminar, there's a seminar in the buddy Charlie Evertara, where Bunty goes into this quite a bit and he says at the end, just stop it, stop it. Okay. And it's true because sometimes it's a downward spider, wasn't it? So I think we need to find ways when we're starting to feel, I can't do this, it's too much for me, to object to phy because sometimes it might be too much. Sometimes we take things on and we're just not able to do them. But we need to find the line, we need to learn how to discriminate between trying to do something which is not, we're not up to, which can in itself be undermining. And, you know, just letting yourself off the hook too quickly. And I think it's impossible to do that on your own. I think it's only possible to do that unless you're really developed and really individual. But I think generally speaking, we really need friends to tell us to help us with that. We need what makes and friends and community members and people who know us really well to say, "Look, Parnie, I do think, you know, "do you think you can do this one?" Or, "Well, she can, you know." So we need to be able to help each other object to fire the experience in that level and know when we can do something and when we can't and push ourselves that little bit more, yeah? So the hosts of Inland's apathy and despair, but the wind horse wakes us up. Very, it reminds us of what we're doing. It is very easy to lose heart and to forget, yeah. On this retreat that I've just been in, we were studying the group I was in, the Spanish-speaking group, we were studying, what is the order? And at the end, we were talking about the new society. You remember that phrase, the new society. Call me old-fashioned, I like it, you know? I got involved in our movement to a large extent because it had the offer of a new society. I wasn't especially interested in Buddhism. I mean, I wasn't interested in Buddhism, obviously. But I wasn't interested in personal development. That was never really what interested me. In fact, I had to work a bit at that bit. But what interested me really was within that personal development to have the opportunity to create something which had its effect on the world. My background was political. Like quite a few people here I know had quite a strong political background. I'd got very disillusioned by left-wing politics, but I didn't get disillusioned with the idea of finding a better world, you know? That's really what drove me, in a way, quite strongly. That was kind of the myth. The wind, the horse that I rode in on was the idea of the new society. And what was so wonderful about the F.W.B.U. and about Banti's approach to Buddhism was that there was a strong possibility of self-development. The necessity of self-development. There were methods to do that. It wasn't just an idea. There were actually methods. But there were also things which opened that out and took it into the world. And the idea of right livelihood, co-ops, do you remember co-ops? Really excited me. I just thought it was amazing. I thought it was a wonderful kind of ideal. And for all sorts of reasons, some of them quite erroneous. Because to some extent it fitted in quite well with my socialist background. But also because there was something genuinely really exciting about the idea of forming something together and actually taking that into the world. And I think sometimes people may be coming into wind or sea volition now. They come into something so formed, or at least which seems so formed. It probably isn't. The structure probably isn't actually that stable in some ways. But it is stable. There's a lot behind it. There's a lot in it. There's been an enormous amount of work over a long time put in to create these conditions. But, you know, in the very Italy days, it was all kind of like, I mean, I remember when it was an old Ford road. You know, it was just a few, a couple of rooms were stuffing them. And that was like the basis of it. And it's amazing to think what that, you know, has come to an air with this fantastic way. It's just so lovely. So great. But it's come because a few people were stupid enough. And idealistic enough to believe that it could happen. The LBC happened because Sabote was stupid enough. And brave enough. And idealistic enough to think that he could do it. And he did it. We're a lot of help from a lot of people. This has got here a lot of help from a lot of people. So, I believe in the new society. So there. (audience applauding) I just finished there. And let me just read you something which Banti says in a seminar in 1981. If we are going to transform the world, if we are going to transform society to any extent, we must introduce right livelihood. You must practice right livelihood. You must practice in co-ops. The co-ops seems to be the archetypal form for right livelihoods. If you don't feel enthusiasm for right livelihood, it means you have retreated into a rather subjective and quite personal view of the spiritual life. Isn't that interesting? So there you go. I thought it was interesting about the co-ops 'cause that came up in a retreat as well. We were talking a bit about why we don't have co-ops anymore. I liked co-ops. I liked the structure. I remember when we changed it, actually I was dead against it 'cause I had to bow to superior wisdom. And, you know, it's true. The reason why co-ops wouldn't walk is because in a co-op, everybody has an equal voice. It's a democracy and we know we're not a democracy, don't we? And it's important that the decision-making processes, and it's important that the power in inverted commas in a secular sense is in the hands of people who have spiritual authority, yeah? So it was important that the order members in a situation who generally speaking as a general rule are the ones who have, generally speaking, some level of spiritual authority, would hold the decision-making power. I think it was obviously the right decision, but there's something, I think, it's important to try and keep alive, although the structure might be inappropriate, the spirit of co-op, I think, is really important. And it was very exciting. I mean, I remember going to quite a few right livelihood things, disability, and various people, right, do you remember we did these kind of right livelihood workshops and we went off to, there's a thing called Aikom, which is the independent cooperative movement, which was co-ops, what was co-ops in Britain? So a couple from the Basque Country, which were actually part of that, and various other things. And we used to go off, I remember going to these things, and the very first time we went, this is just a bit of history, it's quite interesting. Damirati and Sidi Ratner designed a little right livelihood booklet to hand it to people, and it had, it was like a sick hammer and a sickle, but it was actually a hammer, and what was it, it was a hammer in or something else. There were tools from Friends Building Services, FPS. One of the people working in that, in the illustrious business, was a very unvadricative. And there's this photograph of them all working this time. Looking like workers, you know, building team. It's great, actually. I've found when a while ago, it's really good, it's incredibly ideal, I say. And we put an advert in the Aikom newsletter, which said, "The opate of the people have arrived." (laughing) And we sort of went off there to tell the cooperative movement about Buddhism. It was great, actually, it was very, very alive, and very sort of energetic. There was a lot of energy in those kind of ideals. And I think it's really good to try and keep that spirit alive, and not to kind of just think, "Oh, well, I'll walk at a desk and, you know, "or I'll sell goodies in an evolution shop," you know? But actually try and keep alive, that sort of sense. So, what are we doing? Well, they shouldn't, what are we actually trying to do? And I just sort of feel so inspired by the idea of changing the economy of the world, you know? Probably we'll never do it. But is that any reason not to try? It's that we probably won't save all sentient beings. But is that any reason not to try? So, come your old-fashioned. So this all kind of fits in, doesn't it, to the whole work as tantric guru? And I'm not going to that, 'cause I know you're probably a little sicker here than that, working in winter. I mean, it's a great phrase, isn't it? It's not quite as good as the opate of the people have arrived, (laughing) but it's quite good. (laughing) Work as tantric guru. So this makes us think about Padma Samba, and I wanted to talk a little bit about Padma Samba, but first I also wanted to share a few comments of Banti about energy and how we lose it, yeah? So this is from a talk called Poetry and Devotion, the 74 Putra, something like that. It's very old talk, and Banti talks in that, and he really gets into a role in it. He talks about ways of wasting energy. I thought I'd just share them with you, 'cause it's a great list. So here are some ways of wasting energy. I'm going to tell you this so you'll know how to do it. (laughing) 'Cause we probably know. It's a checklist so that we catch ourselves when we are doing it, yeah? Grumbling. It's quite good, isn't it? You know this sort of thing, don't you? I'm a terrible grumbler, actually, I confess. I'm a grumbler. I'm a grumbler. And I'm also the next one as well. Carping criticism. You know, it's like when you know how things should be done and they don't know how to do it, and they do it. But rather than just kind of getting into some dialogue, you sort of think, I don't know why they're doing it like that. It's never going to work. (laughing) And if it does, it's a fluke. (laughing) And I think one of the things that can come into this kind of Carping criticism, if we don't catch it, is cynicism. And it's so easy to be cynical. And it is actually the antithesis of vigor. I think cynicism eats away at a very rare. It's impossible, I think, to have very rare and be cynical. I think they don't go together at all. And it's so easy to be cynical if you're idealistic. I can't remember exactly the Oscar Wilde quote, but cynics. Anyway, often we're cynical because we're idealistic, but our ideals aren't quite being met, or we're not quite able to put them into practice. So rather than just seeing that as something that needs more work, we kind of back over from it and get a bit cynical about it. You know, it's a good defense mechanism, really cynicism, isn't it? 'Cause if you're cynical, nobody can get to you. It's a very good defense mechanism. But I think actually it creates a wall through which our energy can not move as well. So I think cynicism is something. It's quite a disease, I think, that needs to be cured. And then there's dismal jimmeism. Apparently this was an expression used in the war and talks about that. But it's that kind of, well, it's not gonna work anyway. I mean, I don't know, what's the point, really, you know? I mean, it's, the shop's never gonna work. You know, we're never gonna be able to get into profit. We're never gonna this, we're never gonna that. You know, the order's never gonna really be a proper order. It's never gonna be this. It's never gonna be that, you know? I'll probably never get a dent. Probably never, there's probably never that. So I think it is very much that laziness of despondency, dismal jimmeism. And then there's gossip. Now gossip is fascinating, really. Well, that's what it is, it's fascinating. That's why we do it, isn't it? And when you live in a world like the F.W.B.O., you know, to the extent we live within that, if we can call it a world, but to the extent that our network of relationships is such a shared network of relationships. And of course, when we get together with friend A, we're almost certainly gonna talk about friend B because that's our life and it's normal, yeah? And I'm gonna talk about friend B if something's happened between me and friend B. I'm gonna talk about that to friend C. And then friend C is probably gonna mention that friend D because, you know, she's been affected by the fact that I've been affected and she knows friend B and isn't it surprising that friend D would do that. And then when friend D goes to her group that night and she mentions friend D, and it just, you know, and it's gonna happen. And I think to some extent, we kind of need to accept that it's gonna happen because that is how it is. So I think the important thing is to be very, very careful about what it is we send out into that network, you know? And be very careful about when we talk about ourselves, that we talk about ourselves. It's like when you do confessions. Remember, like, you're doing confessions saying chapters or in a GFR group or something. It's very easy for your confession to turn into a run about the person that's made you be whatever it is you've been, you know? So I went to confess to I haven't broken the fourth precept. My speech hasn't been very good. And why hasn't it been very good? Well, it was because soon so said to me, such and such, and do you know? I mean, can you believe that they'd say that? I mean, it's not surprising really that I broke the speech precept, you know? So I think we have to rein it back in somehow and very much be careful that what we're actually confessing or talking about or gossiping about is about me and about what's happening with me and just bring some kind of level of sensitivity. Personally, I think it's impossible to expect the FWA to exist without gossip. I mean, gossip in the sense of talking about other people. It's what we do, isn't it? So much of the time. I mean, we seldom, that's what we do because our friends are other people's friends. So I think it's important to recognise that and to make sure it isn't gossip in the negative sense and that it comes from a basis of care and not from a basis of showing yourself to be better or from a basis of kind of, you know, showing up the likes and the other person or something. Anyway, the other than last one is nagging. And I think that can happen in work quite easily, can't it? Nagging, I think, be a bit of a shorthand. So rather than having to repeat something that you've already gone through, you just kind of get into it, I told you that before. You know, it's this, it's this. Why do I just do it? Nag, nag, nag. Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, that's Banti's list. And again, he says, just stop it. He says about these. So the important thing about this list, grumbling criticism, dismal jimmyism, gossip and nagging, is that they work against creating harmony, yeah? So in a way, they need to be turned on their head because harmony is very much what we're trying to create, yeah? So to go back to Padma Samba, I'm not going to go into great descriptions 'cause I'm sure Padma Samba is very familiar to everybody here. Probably there are quite a lot of people here who devotees a Padma Samba, I would imagine. But it just means to say that he felt very present on this last retreat that we've just been in the ordination retreat. I just found myself again and again and again, chanting the Padma Samba, the mantra. And I have no particularly strong connection with Padma Samba as such. But every day, I'd find myself just chanting the mantra, just chanting the mantra. It was like, he was so present. And then I suddenly realized actually what it was, was it was Banti who was present. And somehow Banti and Padma Samba had become very identified or connected for me. Being in that situation on a retreat where I was about to ordain people for the first time. 'Cause I realized very early on the whole thing about becoming a private preceptor that I'm not up to being a private preceptor and that I can only do it in a way if I'm doing it because of the trust putting me by Banti and by the public preceptors. And in a way, all I'm doing is acting as a channel because I'm very close to Banti. And I feel that I can do that. I can be that. I can be that to the people who have redeemed. I can help them to have a channel through me to something much more transcendental than I am. And that felt very important to kind of feel that. And it felt like on this retreat, that really opened up for me. And I just felt so much Banti's presence and so grateful to Banti really. And funnily enough, I came across in Sibiti's Bhukun Sangerachthon bringing Buddhism to the west where he talks about when Banti first came across a Pabma Samba Vatanka or a Pabma Samba Varupa. And there is a very strong sense of Banti talking about coming home. He sees Pabma Samba and something in him resonates with that. It really made me feel like, in a way, we're so lucky with Banti, you know. He really can give us an opening into something Pabma Samba like into something transcendental. You know, to talk about what is a tantric guru is not just a nice saying. It's not just a nice way of thinking my work's boring, tired and, you know, exhausting, but it's good because it's transforming me. Actually, we have access to something through Banti, which is really Pabma Samba like. And we can actually take that and do something with it. So, Pabma Samba very much a transformation of energies. We know that, don't we? I thought, I don't know why that everybody knows the best story of Pabma Samba Var. So just very briefly. Amitabha, the Buddha of Love, is meditating. He's in a deep, deep meditation. And from his tongue, a ray of pure, brilliant red light shines forth. And this ray of red light falls to the centre of a lake, Lake Danakosa. And an island arises in this lake. An island covered in golden grass with three springs of clear turquoise water. And from these springs of water, in the middle of this golden island, a lotus springs forth. And as the lotus springs forth, a dodgy, a Vajra falls from Amitabha's heart into the centre of the lotus. And when the lotus opens, a young boy of eight years old is sitting within the lotus, holding a Vajra in holding an initiation of us. Fascinating. Fascinating. First of all, it comes from Amitabha. So the transformation of Pabma Samba comes from love. The throne in Pabma Samba's face is a throne of love. He really wants to know what's happening. He really wants to help. And he wants to get it right. So he's really concentrating. It's a throne, a wrathful concentration. It comes from Amitabha's tongue. I think that's fascinating. It's an expression or something. It's communication. So Pabma Samba's transformation comes from communication. It comes from working together. It comes from cooperation. It comes from co-ops. It's light. The elements are present. Everything's there. Everything's there in Pabma Samba's birth. And he's born from a lotus. And we know that Pabma Samba took Buddhism to Tibet. And we know that he took it there after Chantarakshita had tried to take it there. But he came behind Chantarakshita. And at the end of the day, when Buddhism is taking place because Pabma Samba has been able to tame the demons and put them to walk in the service of the Dharma, he then turns to Chantarakshita. And he thanks him. There's mutual appreciation between these two faculties. Pabma Samba didn't do it on his own either. He did it alongside and after Chantarakshita. So if Chantarakshita is that cognitive faculty, because what he tried to do was take Buddhism, Dharma, in terms of teachings, in terms of lists, and in terms of, well, things like conditioned co-production, the very basis of the Dharma, but it wasn't enough until the form of Pabma Samba. It wasn't enough until the emotional faculty, the feeling faculty was fully involved. And through the marriage, if you like, these two faculties, the cognitive faculty, and the feeling faculty, the volitional faculty came into birth. So energy that's most abundant are rose through this meeting of the other two faculties. Head and heart came together. And Banti tells us that it's clearly not enough to study the Dharma, to listen to lectures and to read books. We must plumb the depths. We must meditate. Chant, puja, engage in ritual. We need to find our own ways, because when person's ritual is another person's boarding night out, we need to find ways that touch our hearts and that open that faculty so that it's not good enough just to go and sit in a pajal. You know, I'm a Buddhist, I've got to do a pajal. You know, if actually, you know, your mind's somewhere completely different, we need to find our own ways of entering that world of myth and magic, that world that opens up our feeling faculty and puts it at the service of our volition. The dakinis, we need to meet our own dakinis. We need to find ways of being full-blooded. When Banti gave this talk at the LBC, years ago Banti gave a talk at the LBC, or in Padma Samba, you were probably there, my dad, she was probably there as well, yeah. And he really, I mean, I can't remember exactly what he told me. I remember him talking about, what do you call them? You know, there's things that Padma Samba left, lying a bit, 'til it is ten must be. I don't think that's the end of my life. Anyway, he talked about that, I do remember that, but it was like, something happened. It was absolutely magical, that talk. It was a Padma Samba of a festival. And I think for some reason Banti gave a talk, which he hadn't been planning together or something. So vaguely remember that he just started to talk. He talked for every, he talked for about two and a half hours. But Padma Samba was just so present, and at the end we chanted the Padma Samba of a mantra, and I've never heard the Padma Samba of a mantra like that. It was amazing, it really was quite something. So I think in that occasion, Padma Samba was present, the Dakinis were present, there was certainly energy. You could have fueled a nuclear sub with the energy that was in the room. Fortunately, it was going towards the good. So Padma Samba of that kind of energy, transformation, communication, cooperation, head and heart together in service of our volition. But the line of the poem says, "At its most abundant." And that made me think of Ratna Samba of a, you know, the dual born one. So it's not only Padma Samba of a, but Ratna Samba of a generosity, hm? A softer, a more opening, a more abundant, giving out, yeah? So that energy is focused, but it's also moving outwards. It's constantly moving outwards. There's nothing in turn about this energy at its most abundant. And of course, that's very much the central practice of working a wind horse, of working an evolution. You know, it is very much a practice of generosity. It's a practice which allows other things to happen. It's a practice which fuels other practices. I went to the pictures last night, actually. And there's this advert, which I had never seen before, for Berkley's Bank, with Samuel L. Jackson. Have you seen anything? Money and evil. It's a bit weird because it's an advert for Berkley's Bank. But if you forget that it's for Berkley's Bank, we could use it as an advert. I thought it'd be quite good for wind horse, you know? Money isn't evil. Money's just what you do with it, you know? So that's what we do with generating something which is not going to Berkley's Bank. It's going to create the movement. It's going to create the new society. Throughout the summer, there was also present in the poem, you know? We're told by the wind horse that he's the bo-horses that carry the dual-born Buddha of the south, yeah? So we have a lotus-born and we have a dual-born. So we have a dual and a lotus. We have another bodhisattva. We have avocateshva. An avocateshva, as we know, is the symbol of the order. Thousand avocateshva. It's a little fact for those of you that like statistics. If nobody's died or resigned since Saturday, there are 997 members of the Western Buddhist order. Three to go. So it will almost certainly happen in Tuscany. Somebody in Tuscany will be the thousandth hand of avocateshva. But that's not the end of the story because a thousand is only symbolic. It's really infinite. So we've got way to go. Way to go. But he's that archetypal bodhisattva. He's the archetypal bodhisattva. He's volition will at its highest because he's the volition, the will of bodhicitta. And that's the gift that the wind horse bears. That's the jewel. The three jewels are one jewel. They're the jewel of the bodhicitta that he carries when he's back. And that's the gift that Banti has given us. That's the gift that we have available to us. The movement that we have, the new society that we're creating is Banti's gift. He says himself that the movement is his work, the work of his life, his main work of his life. And it is his bodhisattva work. When in this trip that I talked about before in the States in '94, I gave a talk on the occasion of Caledavian ceremonies or donations with three talks. Manjavajra talked about the importance of these ordinations for the United States. I talked about the importance of ordination for the world. And Sabote of course talked about the importance of ordination for the cosmos. I was all right with the world. It was quite funny being sandwiched between the two of their magic. But anyway, in this talk, I was talking about the private ordination ceremony. In fact, it came back to me just last week, strangely enough. And I was saying how, in a way, what we're doing with that is very much on our own level, what Shanti Devas doing in the Bodhi Chariya Vittara, when he says today my life has born fruit, no? And he talks very much about being born into the Buddhist family and acting in a way that will not stay in this family. And in a sense, that's what the ordination is. It's been born into a family, unfortunately, a note-perfect family, but a family which is geared towards creating the conditions for that to happen. And I said in this talk that I'd felt very much that, that in a way, being ordained for me was very much saying to Banti, I went to help you and your Bodhi sat for work. And it was quite interesting because he was sitting there because he didn't introduce the speakers. And I felt a bit risky actually seeing that because I felt it could sound a bit, you know? Kind of had to know something. Anyway, I said it because I believe it. And he was sitting there nodding, which was quite satisfying. And in a way, I felt, well, yes, it is. You know, it is his Bodhi sat for work. It's the outpouring of his Bodhi sat for heart. That's the opportunity we've got, yeah? So I'd like to just before finishing read from my relation to the order. When Banti's talking about forming the order, setting up the order. So he says, "When I look back on those early days and think of the difficulties I had to experience, note that I always thought of them as difficulties. I cannot but feel that they're coming into existence with the Western Buddhist order was little short of a miracle. Not only did the lotus bloom from the mud, it had to bloom from the mud contained within a small and inadequate port. Perhaps it had to bloom just then or not at all. And perhaps this particular port, which he's talking about himself, was the only one available. Now hundreds of lotuses are blooming, nearly a thousand. Some of the bigger and more resplendent flowers being surrounded by clusters of half-opened buds. During the last 22 years, 'cause it was in the 22nd anniversary of the order that he gave this talk. During the last 22 years, a whole lotus lake has come into existence, or rather a whole series of lotus lakes. Alternatively, the original lotus plant has grown into an enormous lotus tree, not unlike the great four-branched refuge tree. In fact, a whole forest of lotus trees. Contemplating the series of lotus lakes, contemplating the forest of lotus trees and rejoicing in the strength and beauty of the flowers, I find it difficult to believe that they really did all originate from that small inadequate port, which some people went to smash the bits, or cast into the dustbin, or bury as deep as possible. In brief, dropping the metaphor and speaking plainly, when I see what a great and glorious achievement the order represents, despite its manifest imperfections, I find it difficult to believe that I could have been its founder. I spoke of my having taken upon myself the onerous responsibility of founding the Western Buddhist order. I indeed took that responsibility upon myself, and it was indeed an onerous one. Nevertheless, there are times when far from feeling that it was I who took on the responsibility, I feel 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, Banti very much talks in those terms, that consciousness, the bodhicitta, working through him, working through us, working through every single person in this room to create the conditions. Yeah? So, consciousness, volition, will. We each of us have that volition personally. We each of us have will. Sometimes we're quite willed. Sometimes we lack willpower. But nevertheless, we all have volition. If not, we wouldn't be here. So, the relationship of our personal will to the relationship of that cosmic will that Banti talks about, and I hope you will please be patient with that kind of terminology. I know some people find it rather repulsive even. Personally, I like it. I was a fan of the Holy Ghost when I was a Catholic. So, (audience laughs) you know, I find the image of a great in vast consciousness at work in the world, inspiring rather than horrifying. Yeah? But I think it is sometimes for people a bit of a kind of an image. But Banti talks about the place of the individual will in relation to that, and he says, it's not by any egoistic exertion of the will, but rather by making oneself receptive to the one cosmic will to enlightenment, and allowing it to take possession of one. And as it were, walk through one. This does not mean that there is no place for the individual will, but only that it's true function in relation to the Bodhisattva ideal is that of removing the obstacles to receptivity, and creating within the individual life continuum the best conditions for the horizon of the Bodhicitta. So, will has a place, but the place of the will, the place of volition is in service of noble emotion and in service of clear thought. It's a result of clear thought and a result of noble emotion, and its purpose is to create yet clear thought, and yet noble emotion. So, the three of them come together. They come as a unit, yeah? Ever feeding the other. Our clarity of thought, feeding our nobility of emotion, our nobility of emotion, allowing our volition to be directed in the best possible way. So, it's not suggesting that we give up that thinking faculty, or that our feeling faculty become submerged to some great big consciousness in the sky. It's very much an integration of our individual clarity of thinking faculty and feeling faculty. And it's fascinating to think that we can create the conditions where that can really happen and really manifest. On the 1999 Order Convention, Banti talked very much about the conditions necessary for the survival of the order and the movement, and he talked about the need for harmony, and he talked about the need for the horizon where the bodhicitta to become real and not only effective within the order. So, if we really think that Buddhism's a good thing, and we must, or we wouldn't be here, if we really think that the three jewels, or the wind bright shine in jewel of the bodhicitta, can be the elixir for the suffering of the universe and the world and all beings, then it is our job as it were to create the conditions whereby that jewel can shine ever more brightly, to create the conditions whereby it won't die out with the last of this generation. We only pioneers. Probably most of us in this room will not see the fruits of the work that we put in, and that's part of it, and that's okay. We need to have a vision that goes beyond our own tiny life continuum and our own tiny life span, and the tiny life span in universal terms of wind horse evolution. Wind horse has to carry the jewels. Wind horse has to allow for evolution on a much larger scale, on a cosmic scale, or at the very least in a world scale, and I'm not talking about world domination, I'm talking about world alleviation. So, we have the gift of the wind horse. We have the gift of taking up the reins, actively and abundantly putting our energy to the service of the good. I am the wind horse, white like a shooting star. I appear in the midst of the darkness of the world. Sometimes I troat, sometimes gallop. I am the wind horse, thought at its clearest, emotion at its noblest, energy at its most abundant. So, let us clarify our thoughts again and again, let us create nobility and our emotions, and may our energy be abundant and in pursuit of the good. May we create conditions that go beyond our lifetime so that we leave our legacy for future ages. The world needs the Dharma, and we have the opportunity. We have the opportunity to send that wind horse, carrying its bright shine and jewel ahead of us and into the universe. Let's do it. - We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community, and thank you. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
