(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. - Particulations of the Dharma and one of the most beautiful of the later floutings, I think, was the increasing emphasis on compassion. In a way, just spelling out the implications of Anitta, but making clear that it's not a withdrawal, that a move away from self is a move towards other. So, Paremi is going to talk about compassion this morning and I'll keep the introduction as brief as that to give her more time to speak. (audience applauding) So, the event has been celebrated, the whole overall title of the event was beating the drum of the Dharma. It was around the idea that the Buddha's enlightenment experience is still, as it were, resonating, down through the ages, across cultures, and landing as it were here. But of course, it lands here not to stop, but to continue reverberating onwards, onwards through time, through space, through geography, through history. We've heard in different ways about the Buddha's enlightenment experience, we had the story told by Ratna Prabha. We've heard from the talks, we had a talk from Ratna Gunna. Two very beautiful talks, actually, Ratna Gunna telling us of the earliest teachings, and the talk yesterday from Kamala Shila about the Buddha's need to absorb that experience of the enlightenment. And today, I want to talk about the implications of the fact that the Buddha decided to teach. So, you could say we've had the wisdom aspect, we've had a kind of insight and absorption aspect, and today the aspect we're focusing on is compassion. So, I'm going to start by just reading a little bit from the Pali Canon, of the moment when the Buddha's making this decision. Then, while he was alone and in seclusion, this line of thinking arose in his awareness. This Dharma that I have attained is deep, hard to see, hard to realize, peaceful, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, is excited by attachment, enjoys attachment. For the generation delighting in attachment, conditionality and dependent co-arising are hard to see. If I were to teach the Dharma, and others were to not understand me, that would be tiresome for me, troublesome for me. As the blessed one reflected thus, his mind inclined to dwelling at ease, and not to teach him the Dharma. So, really try and have a sense of that moment. The future, in a sense, is hanging on a hairs, you know, a hairsbread. It's a moment in which, if the Buddha had decided to dwell in peace and not to teach, how much would have been different? And sometimes when I read this or I think of it, I can really have a sense of the Buddha making that decision. The Buddha just sit in there, and I can only, of course, imagine the sense of peace and ease, and the sense that, well, it might be tiresome and troublesome to teach living beings. Of course, I can't relate to that myself the idea of it might be tiresome and troublesome to teach living beings, and that I'd rather sit and do something else in my own little way. Of course, I can, I'm sure we can all, have a sense of what it feels like to maybe be in the brink of making a decision, and we don't know exactly the consequences of that decision, but we might have a sense that it is going to take a bit of effort, and yet we know in our heart of hearts that that effort is worth it and that we will do it. So fortunately for us, the Buddha was reminded of that effort, and he made the decision. So the story continues, it says, Brahma Sahampati, having known with his own awareness this line of thinking, and the blessed ones awareness thought the world is lost, the world is destroyed, the mind of the tathagata inclines to dwelling at ease, a note to teaching the dharma. He disappeared from his Brahma world and reappeared in front of the blessed one. He knelt down before him, saluted the blessed one with his hands before his heart and said to him, "Lord, let the blessed one teach the dharma. Let him teach the dharma. There are beings with little dust in their eyes who are falling away because they do not hear the dharma. Rise up, hero. Rise up, victor, and battle. Teach the dharma. There will be those who understand." And the blessed one, having understood this invitation, out of compassion for beings, surveyed the world with the eye of an awakened wind. As he did so, he saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties, those with dull, those easy to teach, and those hard to teach. But fortunately for us, whichever of those categories we fall into, he did indeed decide to teach. Through compassion he decides to teach. Now, I have quite a fair trial imagination, so when I imagine this scene, I kind of imagine the Buddha sitting there, and maybe in that moment he remembers, right back to the moment when he left home to seek awakening. And we will remember that he did that through compassion, that the Buddha to be, still know the Buddha, left home and went out to seek an answer to the world's suffering. And I sometimes have this feeling that maybe in that moment when Brahma Sahampa comes to him, it comes back, "Oh yes, of course. "That's why I left home to seek the Dharma." Well, to seek the truth, to seek an end to suffering. And maybe he remembered an experience which had been quite formative for him in leaving home, which was when he remembered, as a child, his father's plowman, plowing a field, and the Buddha to be as a young, quite young child, if I remember correctly, saw the earth being turned up by the plow, and he saw that many small insects and small creatures, homes were disrupted, and their lives, in fact, were perhaps ended by the plow making its furrow through the earth. And he had a vision in that moment in which he thought, "This is how beings are." You know, we kind of go along thinking the earth is a solid place, and then something happens, some plow. The plow of life comes through, and we're upturned. The earth is no longer solid between our feet, but beneath our feet. Something happens, life challenges us, and we're made to see that things weren't as we thought they were, and we often suffer through this. So perhaps he remembers this. Who knows? It's pure speculation in my part. But through compassion in his heart, he decides to teach. And Brahma Sahampati thinks the blessed one has given his consent to teach the Dharma, and he's obviously delighted. It is also perhaps interesting that the Buddha takes this as an invitation, and maybe that's something to reflect on. That an invitation is sometimes helpful. That receptivity is often also helpful. It's good to know when we need help, and it's good to ask. So Brahma Sahampati, if you like, is every man, perhaps, in this occasion, every person. He comes to the Buddha. He reminds him of the need for compassion in the world. Perhaps he doesn't really need to be reminded. He is, after all, the perfectly awakened one. But nevertheless, this is quite a formative moment. It's a moment when that decision's made, and reverberations are set in motion that are still shaking the earth today. And it's interesting that in this very first moment, it comes from compassion. The Buddha decides to teach from compassion. He doesn't decide to teach because he's had an interest in formula that he thinks would be good to share, or some interest in thoughts that you think people might be interested in. He actually chooses to share his insights through compassion. So compassion is there right from the start, an act of compassion. He decides to go back out into the world and teach. And we see this even through the very, very early scriptures. He exhorts his disciples to go forth for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, from out of compassion for the world and to teach the Dharma. He says to his disciples, work for the good of others, you have accomplished your duties. So in a sense, he's seen those of you who have, to some extent, benefited from having met the Dharma, please continue to make that available for more and more people in wider and wider circles. So the compassion there is active, and the Buddha and his disciples go back into the world. And there are all sorts of examples, some of which I had planned to share, of whether Buddha really engages in a very kind of strong and direct sense with what we might call worldly issues, social issues. But I won't go into those for now, but one thing to maybe reflect is the Buddha's world in some ways was a very different world from our world. The Buddha lived in the Iron Age. Now when we think of it, the world that the Buddha inhabited, that he went back into, was in many ways, many of its particularities and its circumstances, extremely different from the world that we inhabit today. And that world that we inhabit today has changed so dramatically, even over the last century. Somebody said, I can't remember who, that in the 20th century things changed for the better, what was it, things got better and better, and worse and worse, faster and faster than ever before. And perhaps that is, to some extent, a sign. Perhaps that is one of the main characteristics of life in the 21st century. It's better than it ever was in some ways. It's worse than it ever was in some ways. And it jolly well happens faster. It really does happen fast. The speed of change is quite remarkable in all sorts of ways. Although the Buddha lived in a very different world from ours in some ways, we could say, well, sangsara is still sangsara. The details might be very different. The speed might be different. But nevertheless, we could say that greed, hatred and delusion are still pretty omnipresent. I don't think we could say that any less present than the days when the Buddha first went back to teach his teachings. Sangsara still exists. Maybe one change is that greed, hatred and delusion seem to exist in ever more institutionalized forms. Perhaps that's always been the case. Certainly in the world that we live in, we can see massively institutionalized forms of greed, hatred and delusion. And I think sometimes this leaves us feeling very powerless. I think we can sometimes feel very helpless in the face of these massive organizations. You know, nation-states, corporations. Who those different things we can kind of think, well, what can I do in the face of this massive change? Well, I think one thing we can do is we can ask ourselves what would the Buddha do or what would the Buddha see in relation to some of the problems that we face today? It's quite hard to go back to the scriptures and find exact things that we can see. You know, the Buddha said you definitely shouldn't fly because of the carbon emissions and the effect that's having on climate change. And we probably can't point to the exact sutra where the Buddha says, you know, really try and think where what you're buying has been sourced from. Really try and think of the third world. I mean, the Buddha was in the third world except that it wasn't a third world at that point. The Buddha was just in his world. You know, so we probably can't come up and say, look, here is this particular scripture in which the Buddha gave us a lot of teachings about ecological awareness. There are some, actually, that you can do that with, and it's very interesting to do that. But maybe more important is to really try and within ourselves, within our own lives, see what the principles are that the Buddha gave us. And how do those principles apply to the world that we live in? And although the world that we're in is very complex, I think quite often we can apply quite simple, straightforward ethical principles to the things that we are involved in. And you know that saying of, I think it's Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, of Think Global, Act Local. Well, I think that's actually a very good little tenet for Metabravana, for universal loving kindness. You know, we can think globally, we can really think that everything we do has a global effect, and yet all we can really do in a way is act where we can act. And it seems to me that sometimes because we're aware of the global needs, we don't act at all. You know, we stop ourselves from acting. And if I may quote somebody from a completely different religious tradition, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who said to somebody once, people say my actions are but a drop in the ocean, and I replied the ocean is made only of drops. So when we act, our own little drop in the ocean, when we act in line with ethical principles, then we are in fact a drop in an ocean, and that ocean needs to have those drops within it. We can apply clear ethical principles. And we do, in Buddhism, we have very strong and very clear principles in the five ethical precepts. And you could say that these principles are applicable in many different levels. In a book I was having a look at recently called Engaged Spiritual Practice, the author, Donald Rothberg, puts forward the idea that we can practice our ethics from a personal perspective, a relational perspective, and a collective perspective. And each of the precepts and ethical principles can be looked at on those levels. They're obviously very intertwined, and the actions that we take personally do of course have an effect relationally, and those relational effects will have a broader effect on the collective that we're part of. But I think it is quite a good way of actually thinking about ethical actions and to just realize that every action that we make, whether it's skillful or unskillful, will have an effect on us personally, it will have an effect on our relations and the people that we're in close relationship with. And this is perhaps the one that's harder to always see, but it will have an effect collectively. I'm just going to say that Buddhist ethics tends to be praxis rather than theory. In the Buddhist tradition, the Buddhist tradition very much has the taste and see attitude to many things. And ethics are also, in that sense, taste it and see. Which doesn't mean just do anything you like and see what happens. It doesn't mean just, well, do anything. Oops, that caused a lot of harm, audio. Obviously, we can apply it a little bit more intelligently than that, but it does have the sense of we can very definitely feel pretty immediately the effects of our actions if we have a sensibility to that. And Buddhist ethics you could see is roughly a virtue-based ethics, rather than some of the other styles of ethics that we have in Western moral philosophy. And a virtue ethics is an ethics based on the development of character. It can be seen as the transformation of character through the development of good habits through time, so that our negative patterns become replaced by positive patterns. So a transformation of personality through the development of good habits over time, so that our negative patterns are replaced by positive patterns. So Buddhist ethics are a mind-based ethics. So what we're actually doing is working in such a way that our mind-states become more and more positive, more and more skillful to use that term, that they're more and more based on clarity, care, kindness, understanding, solidarity, and that our actions and our mind-states are always less and less based in greed, and craving, hatred, delusion, competitiveness, one-upmanship, fear, envy, resentment, et cetera, et cetera. So we can see from that that the precepts give us a way of working with that. The precepts stay very clearly in their negative form. The actions that we will try to disassociate with, that we will undertake to not do acts of cruelty, acts of, yeah, you know the precepts. And they also, in their positive counterpart, state quite clearly actions of loving kindness, of generosity, contentment, truthfulness, mindfulness, ways of actually acting in the world that will have an effect on our mental state, will have an effect on our heart. So in that sense, Buddhist ethics, although a mixture of different kinds, is probably closest to virtue ethics. And the virtue that we could see that the heart of this ethical practice is the virtue of love and compassion. And there are many different ways of thinking about compassion. There are many different levels of compassion. In its most basic sense, there's a level of compassion known as situational or episodic compassion. Situational compassion is when our heart is full of matter, full of love, full of kindness, full of care, and we meet suffering. And our heartfelt response to that suffering is an appropriate response of compassion. And we act in accordance with that appropriate response of compassion. But it's coming in response to something seen externally. And it's a wonderful level of compassion, and it's the level of compassion at which most of us, most of the time, will act. However, there's a deeper level of compassion, and it's important to be open in ourselves to that deeper level of compassion. And that great compassion comes from a very deep understanding, a very deep level in which we're able to feel compassion beyond polarization. We're able to feel compassion not only to those who perhaps are suffering, but more challengingly, more radically. We're able to open our hearts in compassion to those who might be causing suffering. This level of compassion is the level of compassion of the Bodhisattva. It's the level of compassion of the being who is dedicated to going beyond the separation of self and other. It's a level of compassion which completely transcends polarities, a compassion in which we're able to resonate and feel with not only the victim to use that term, but the perpetrator. And we all live at times of victims, at times of perpetrators, in small and larger ways. This level of compassion is very beautifully and poetically reflected in a poem by Ticknhat Han where he's able to identify imaginatively and compassionately with a child, a 12-year-old girl who's been raped by a sea pirate and who throws herself off the boat. But he's also able to open his heart to the pirate who raped, and he's able to identify with that pirate, and he's able to say, "Well, I too, under certain conditions and circumstances, under different formation of character, might too have ended up in that place." So it's a level of compassion where the heart can open not only to -- can open beyond polarity. I'll just briefly share a little dream that I had once, which is quite a good illustration of this thing. Years ago, I was doing a solitary retreat, and I had a dream in this retreat. And in this dream, it seems to have been megalomaniac when I share it. But anyway, it was a dream. You're allowed to be a megalomaniac in your dreams. And my dream was that my task was to sing songs to help the dying, okay? So then I was in some way hovering above the world, singing songs, and, you know, spirits of the dying would arise, and I would sing to them, and they would go off to their next rebirth. Anyway, there I was that night over Nicaragua. Now, this was at some point in the 1980s. And as I was there, hovering, and the spirits were coming towards me. I was saying, "Okay, are your Sandini still a contra?" And if they said they were from the Sandinistas, I would say, "Okay, land, land, land, land." And if they could go to their next rebirth. However, if they were unfortunate enough to admit to be in Contras and probably funded by the CIA, I'm afraid my voice just stopped and I didn't sing for them. Well, I was horrified when I woke up. I was totally shocked by the fact that my compassion, and sinner, and singing, were so conditioned and limited, because I had my own prejudices. It doesn't matter if you don't understand or know the reference to that particular conflict. The point was that I had taken sides. Now, it might well be that I could make an objective analysis and decide that I felt one side had as it were. Oh, anyway, I'll shut up. The point was that I had, in fact, taken sides. And I realized my compassion was so limited in my meta. My loving kindness was so limited by my opinions and my points of view. And I made a vote of myself when I woke up and I meditated that morning that I would really try to learn to feel compassion and meta beyond my limited points of view. I haven't always managed it, but I have tried to keep that. And I have some examples of where I've managed to sometimes feel meta for certain personalities, but I'm not, in fact, going to share that with you today. But in all seriousness, this demand in a heartfelt sense to go beyond our opinions and polarities is a massively radical challenge. And yet it seems to me that given the world that we live in, it is the challenge for the 21st century. It's the challenge that really could make such a massive difference that the problems that we face, whether they're environmental, whether they're world poverty, whether they're domestic violence, whether they're all those problems, come when we do not manage to identify solidarity with those with whom we have differences. And where we arm ourselves, whether that armament is simply words, or why that it's armament to the extent that nation-states arm themselves against their competitors, that all of those things come from a lack of ability to go beyond the polarization of self and other. And that polarization is, well, it's part of human nature, so it's a huge demand to go beyond that. And yet it seems to me to be what really needs to happen in this century. Shanti Deva, in his work, the Bodhicharya Vittara, beautifully illustrates that in many different ways. And one thing he says, and this is a quote that I have given to the translators, part of the quote, just the opening, in the opening part of the Bodhicharya Vittara, Shanti Deva says that in this particular translation he says, although constructive behavior is constantly weak, while negative forces are extremely strong and most unbearable. Except for the full-body chitter in, can anything else constructive outshine this? In other translations he says something like, to paraphrase, the power of evil or darkness is remarkably strong, the power of good is weak. If it were not for the awakening heart and mind, how else could we overcome this? And this is wonderful. Many years ago Banti gave a seminar in this text. And in this, if I remember correctly, he says, well, this verse is a crucial verse. And what Shanti Deva is saying here is that we can not overcome the powers of darkness, the forces of evil to use those expressions by sheer psychological goodness. We cannot overcome them on their own level. We cannot overcome polarity while we are within polarity. The only way we can really, truly act against these forces is to transcend that polarity and that difference. And the only way to do that is to work as hard as we possibly can in whatever way possible, whatever conditions we are in, so that that awakening heart arises, so that the body-chitter arises, that our heart awakens to the calls and the cries of the suffering of the world. The body-chitter, the awakening heart, awakens when we are able to stay connected to that suffering, when we are able to really open our eyes, open our ears, open our heart to what is happening in the world around us, while staying centered and clear in our ethical principles and centered in our ability to act in the face of these seemingly unbearable and overwhelming forces. And this body-chitter, this heart comes from the recognizing of the interconnectedness of all beings. Now interconnectedness, it seems to me, has been somewhat sentimentalized recently. I've got a bit fed up here in the bit interconnectedness. Only in the sense that it seems to be coming at me from everywhere. And in some senses, it seems to me to be almost trivialized and almost sentimentalized to the extent that we think, "Oh, where all beings are connected, how beautiful, you know, let's just act in accordance with this principle and everything will be fine." And actually that's very, I mean that's beautiful, but how much of a call and a rally to action is that, really? And my fear sometimes is that when that happens, what happens is we almost just expand our ego. But rather than finding ways of cutting through the ego that keeps us separate, we expand our ego so that not only am I the center of the universe, but I am everything and the center of the universe. That I've overcome this dichotomy by including everything in me so that my ego has become expanded, fattened, made huge to the extent where it might burst. And I don't think that's quite what interconnectedness is about, myself. Interconnectedness is based on a realization of the emptiness of all phenomena. It's based on the realization, going right back to the Buddha's very first teaching, going right back to that experience that the Buddha had under the Bodhi tree, that we've had already a couple of times, that moment where the Buddha vibrated with all beings. And the Buddha realized the truth of the impermanent nature of conditioned existence. And when he realized the insubstantial nature of conditioned existence, when he realized that there is no independent origination, when he realized that all phenomena arise within, all phenomena arise in dependence upon conditions, and that with the cessation of those conditions, the phenomenon ceases to exist. Let me illustrate this with an illustration that Banti uses in the three jewels, when of his books. And in the Dharma section and the nature of existence, Chapter 11, if I may refer you to it, he talks about this, he uses the illustration of a leaf, a leaf on a tree. If we imagine a leaf, all of us can have a sense of what that leaf is. We've all of us touched and smelled and fell and maybe even tasted a leaf. It begins in a particular way, it starts its life where a particular form, a particular shape, a particular texture. Time passes, the conditions change and the leaf changes. Its color changes, its form changes, its texture changes. Everything changes. Time passes, the conditions change, the leaf changes. So the leaf that was perhaps white as a bud and became green as an open leaf becomes orange or golden or brown. Its texture changes, it goes from smooth to crinkly. Eventually the conditions are such that it falls from the tree to become part of the conditions for the horizon of the new leaf. If we imagine and think of that leaf, what the Buddha says will not only does the Buddha say that in that leaf, that that leaf doesn't last forever, it arises and it falls with conditions. The Buddha says, the Buddha's teaching says, in that leaf there is nothing beyond the attributes that come together to create that leaf. There is no essential leaf within that around which this color and shape and form become attached. There is only the arising of the conditions, the arising of the form, the arising of all those things, those attributes. There is a leafness that is processed. There is a leaf that comes into being because the conditions were right that passes and that when the conditions cease to be such, the leaf itself ceases to exist. And this is true for every phenomenon in the phenomenical world. It's true for you, it's true for me, it's true for universities. Everything within the conditioned existence arises and falls in dependence upon other conditions. So we can see that within that there is nothing which is inherently separate from the conditions within which the horizon. Because of that, the other side of that, if you like, is that we are all part of the connected nature of those conditions and without entering the metaphysics of all that, it is a truth which perhaps we can feel in a heart sense that to the less we cling to our separate existence, then the more we're able to open to the existence of conditions that arise and that fall, the more we're able to be in the flow of that arising and falling and the awakening heart is the heartbeat of that arising and falling. It's that the heart of the Bodhisattva is able to stay beating in the face of those phenomena arising and phenomena falling. And this emptiness is beautiful and it's full and it's rich. Huineng says of emptiness, the emptiness includes the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets. It includes the great earth, the mountains and the rivers. So everything arises within emptiness and everything ceases within emptiness. But based on that interconnectedness comes, if we really allow our heart to open to it, comes an imperative to act. And this is where our ethics come into play. There's an imperative to act in the world. The Buddha, moved by compassion, came back into the world. We're here, we're enjoying a weekend together, we're practicing together, we're having moments of peace and mindfulness together and tomorrow we'll go back into the world. What do we take back into the world with us? Well, let's hope we take back clear ethical principles. We take back a heart that bit more committed, a heartbeat more in tune with the awakening heart. And I'd like to read you a quote from Banti before I conclude, which talks of this interconnectedness and in a very particular and very beautiful way. In 1983, Banti gave a talk called Buddhism World Peace and Nuclear War. I was reading this a couple of years, last year I think it was because there was a debate going on about Trident missiles here in the UK. And I'd wanted to remember what Banti had said in that talk, which had had a great impact on me when I was there listening to it. And when I reread it, again had an enormous impact, and I went to just share a little bit of that talk with you just now before I conclude. So this is the quote that begins for the translators, "Peace has become a seamless garment." I wouldn't read all of it. "Peace has become a seamless garment, and the world has either to wear the whole garment or go naked to destruction." There can no longer be any question of a scrap of peace covering one part of the world's nakedness and not another. This makes it impossible for us to think in merely geo-political terms. We have also to think in geo-ethical terms. Since peace is indivisible, the stark choice before us is either world peace or no peace, one world or no world. And we shall be able to achieve this only if we realize that humanity too is indivisible. And if we consistently act on that realization, we must regard ourselves as citizens of the world. We have to identify ourselves more closely with all living beings and love them with a more ardent and selfless love. We shall have to be a louder and clearer voice of sanity and compassion in the world. Above all, we shall have to intensify our commitment to the great ethical and spiritual principle of non-violence, both in relations between individuals and in respect to relations between groups. So that was in 1983 when to give that talk 25 years have passed. My own feeling is that the world is not in a better place. He concludes that talk by saying the situation in which we find ourselves today is dangerous in the extreme. Perhaps more dangerous for humanity than any other period in history and time is running out. So 25 years have passed since that talk. Perhaps time is still running out. I don't want to end on a note of, you know, worry and... Oh my goodness, it's all in a terrible state and everything. But nevertheless, for our heart beat to be open, for us to really create the conditions for the awakening heart, we need to know the world in which that heart will awaken. It doesn't awaken away from the world, it awakens within the world. And I believe the world needs this more and more. One way we can do this is to really try and see the world through the eyes of the Bodhisattva. And when Avala Kateshra looked at the world, the archetypal Bodhisattva, who symbolised his compassion, looked at the world, he wept. And sometimes that's our only response. But that weeping gave rise to Tara. That weeping gave rise to another figure of compassion. And that figure of compassion had one leg in meditation and one leg stepping into the world. It was active compassion, but compassion based on peace and clarity and kindness. When inner peace, meditative states, the fusion, the marriage if you like, of inner peace and outer activity. So perhaps that's what we can take away from here. Perhaps we can open our eyes to the world, open our ears to the cries of the suffering of the world. And within that, remember that we do have clear ethical principles. We do have meditation practices that help us live in the world and that the extent that we're able to gain that inner peace. Although that might be a poor reflection of the Buddha's enlightenment experience, nevertheless it is a reflection. And so as we move outwards and we act in the world, let us do that with the Buddhist peace in our heart. Let us do it with Avala Kateshra and Tara's compassion in our heart. We're a realisation that we too are part of the conditions of the world. And as we step back into the world, let us do that with love, with compassion and with peace. And I'd like to finish by just dedicating any meager merits gained by me talking this morning and by us being here this morning to peace in the world. May our teachers be healthy and have long life. May our efforts for practice heal ourselves, heal our world, and may the Bodhi Chitta arise where it has not yet arisen, where it has arisen, may it flourish, and where it flourishes, may it never die. Thank you. (Applause) So the compassionate thing to do is to keep this very short. But I didn't want us to leave without one last chance to say thank you, actually thank you to Pari Mee for evoking bringing our attention to that crucial response. And I also wanted to thank Banti one more time. I live in the same house as Banti, so in a way it's a real privilege. I moved there, I have to say the main reason for moving to Birmingham is to have a chance to be closer to my teacher. And I'm aware of just a practical thing. Banti very seldom sees people for more than an hour these days. Still surprised at how many people he manages to see. But for more than an hour it starts to be a drain on energy. So it tends to see people for an hour. So I'm just aware of Banti, you don't need me to tell you how significant the talk was. But maybe just to tell you that to go to the trouble of coming up here this morning to spend the time thinking about the talk and giving the talk and to spend the last couple of hours with us. It's a real commitment of his time and his energy that I'm very grateful for. And I just sort of struck that I hope I'm not being rude and mentioning this. But you know Banti's getting on a bit and watching him coming into the tent. It's a sugary bit of floor. I've almost hit the deck myself. I'm watching him being supported. But I was thinking of compassion means anything. When Banti stands up here you're not listening to a frail man. You just feel the substance of depth of Dharma practice. And I had this image actually of my own faltering steps into the Dharma being supported by his experience. And just watching that depth of experience being brought here and passed on as a flame to light our own, growing flame, our own growing practice. I'm very, very grateful indeed for the support that I've had through my whole life as a practitioner, the support that we've had this morning. So thank you once more to Paremi and to Bandai. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
