(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. - The title of this talk, the main title, is preparing to enter the cave of the heart. And the subtitle is, "Drop the story and look again." And I thought as we're focusing on Padma Samba for very much this weekend, I'd start with a quote from Padma Samba. He sometimes gives these very piffy teachings. So this is what he says. "Let these three expressions I do not have, I do not understand, I do not know, be repeated over and over again. This is the heart of my advice. Let these three expressions, I do not have, I do not understand, I do not know, be repeated over and over again. This is the heart of my advice." So we're going on a journey, deep into the mountains, into the snows, into unknown territory. Perhaps eventually we'll get above the tree line and to the cave, where abides the great city, the great master, the great guru, Padma Samba, the lotus born one. And at some point we might even find the courage to enter the dark cave, where hopefully we will come face-to-face with the master and perhaps we'll even get to communicate with him, perhaps even we'll receive a teaching, perhaps even an initiation, a transmission. But first a word of warning, the city or the guru or the master, the teacher, isn't going to fix it for you. He's not the wizard of Oz, and I'm gonna go back a bit further to the Buddha. And this is what the Buddha says about that. From the Dharmapada, one is indeed one's own master. What other master should there be with one's self-well-controlled? One finds a master who is hard to find. That word for master, natto, can sometimes be protector, lord, refuge, Sankarachas is even, I think, slightly provocatively translated it as saviour. I like master, I like the feel of that and what it suggests. But we mustn't misinterpret that, yeah, it's not that we don't need teachers and teaching. What it's really pointing to, that verse, is if we want to get anywhere in the spiritual life, it's up to us, yeah? If we want to move towards freedom and the heart's release, we have to prepare ourselves to enter the cave. We have to do the groundwork and the preparation. We have to find the initiative and we have to take responsibility for our practice. So that's the kind of territory I'm gonna be exploring today. I'm not actually gonna talk very much about the guru. I'll leave that to Maitri Nara and to Padma Vandra. I'm talking about the preparation. And it's all about the preparation. As they say in Zen, when the student is ready, the teacher will come. So how do we prepare for the journey? How do we prepare our hearts and our minds? And I feel before I go into that, I'll just tell a little story. It's a story, it's a story of a journey, a journey that started actually in this shrine room quite some years ago, when I was involved with the Norwich Young Buddhist, so I could still just about claim to be young, if you write me young, and it was great being on the team now. Sanganista was on the team as well. And I mean, he's just a great man, but also he had, well, he was at Padmaloka. So somehow he managed to get us a day retreat at Padmaloka, just the Norwich Young Buddhist men and women. And we came here and being Sanganista, he managed to get Aloka to come. So we had the privilege of being in an audience with Aloka, and Sanganista was just an interview between Sanganista and Aloka, talking about Dharma, talking about art. And it was very good if you've ever heard Aloka speak, how inspiring that can be. And, but one thing really struck me that he said, they were talking about art and the significance of art and how it is sort of spiritual practice, how it can be a spiritual practice to look at art or to practice being creative. And they were talking about great artists, and Aloka just sort of, it almost seemed like in passing, said, "Just go to the national gallery, "and look at Rembrandt's painting of an old lady, "and you will see compassion." I mean, I was just, that just really struck me. I didn't really know what it meant, but it felt like an instruction. And I just thought, I'm gonna do that sooner rather than later. And so that's really what I'm gonna talk about for a little while. So, yeah, not long after that, I managed to have an excuse to go to London. I can't remember if I was visiting my sister in Bath, or if I was buying a bass guitar in Brighton, but I deliberately timed it so I could have a good chunk of time in the capital, but primarily to go to the national gallery in London and do what Aloka told me to do. And I set off on my own. I mean, I love traveling with people, I love road trips or train trips with friends, but there's something, there's a quality that comes with traveling on your own, I'm sure you know. You can get into quite a sort of reflective space, can't you? And your heart can sort of open in a certain way. I don't think I took any reading with me. I'd probably just looked out of the window on the train to Liverpool Street. And it actually, it just took on the sort of atmosphere of a pilgrimage. I just felt like I was on a pilgrimage. And yeah, it's hard to explain maybe that word will do. And eventually I found my way to the national gallery. I'm like a kid when I go to London. I get on the tube, I just love it. I just get so excited every time. Maybe it's 'cause I've never lived and worked there. I don't know, but it's just so exciting for me, the big city. And I got to the national gallery. And by then I was just really kind of in quite a sort of a heightened state. I don't think I was high so much, but I just felt, I just got myself really inspired. And I remember just sort of entering the gallery and thinking this place exists. Like here is, I just felt like I was entering a temple to art and beauty. And I just felt incredibly grateful that I could do that. I remember even thinking, you know, and then they'll take my coat and bag and look after it. And I just, I just felt quite sort of overwhelmed with my good fortune. And the fact that, you know, there's many ways we could criticize our culture, but enough people think it's worthwhile for us to have such a place and make it available to everybody. Just just really moved me. I remember I was just, yeah. And then I went to the Lou and I thought there's Lou's as well. And yeah, I don't know if you've ever wept at a urinal, but I was, you know, I was just deeply, deeply moved. And I felt really, really grateful. And so I entered this temple, you know, to art and to beauty. And I knew where I was going. I was going to the Rembrandt room. So two Rembrandt rooms there. And I'd done a bit of my homework the night before. I already know some of Rembrandt's paintings, but you can go online and have a look at what's in the rooms before you go. Maybe a bit like sort of knowing an album before you go and see the band live or something like that. Although, of course, it's good to hear something fresh and see something fresh without expectations. But anyway, I'd prepared myself in that way. So I knew what I was going to see. And I remember as I was walking sort of through the National Gallery through all these rooms. I just couldn't believe it. You know, I was passing these, you know, that Ginsbra, that sort of landscape with a couple. And then there's that corridor of rooms that lead to that great room with those turners and constables. And I knew, well, I was going for a Rembrandt and I was passing all these sort of great masters. I was just in this realm of real abundance of beauty and was very, very moved and getting closer to the Rembrandt room, the Rembrandt rooms. And I got to them. And I got there and I think I could, you know, quickly find where is she, where is she? And I could see the painting of this old woman. And, you know, this is why I'd come. And so I sort of approached this painting thought, I'll have a look. And I remember I turned towards it, the painting. And I didn't like it. (audience laughs) Actually, I thought it was ugly. I thought she was ugly and I didn't like it. And, oh dear, you know, what a build-up. I've come all this way to see this masterpiece. And I don't really like it, oh well. So I thought, well, let's look at some other Rembrandt stuff, the stuff you do like, let's go there. So I went, there's this, that Nebuchadnezzar's feast. It's huge sort of biblical thing, which I liked. So I just was looking around and looking at the other stuff. And I could sort of feel this woman's eyes on me. Like I knew where she was. And I also just, I don't know exactly if I was aware of what was going on, but there was just this weird, like sort of disappointment, but hang on, what's going on here? This isn't what was meant to happen. I don't know what was meant to happen. But yeah, I could sort of feel her sort of looking at me. I still knew where she was in the room. Eventually, I just thought, this is silly. Look, come on, you've come all this way to look at this painting, give it a go. Give it more of a chance than you've given it. So I went back to this painting of an old lady. And it's sort of this oval image, if you ever go. And yeah, I could just really feel my resistance to it. I didn't like it and I thought it was ugly. But I thought I've got to give this a go. I've got to give this at least five minutes, which is no time really to give a work of art, but I thought I'll give her that. And I think at the time, I was also really into Sister Wendy Beckett, who's great. Loads of her videos are on YouTube, so good. And I think I've learned a lot. I think Sister Wendy Beckett and Bante, and I think Tree Ratner have actually taught me to look at art. And I don't know where I got this phrase from in, I don't know if it's from Sister Wendy, or I don't know who it's from, but this phrase just came to mind. Drop your story, or drop the story and look again. So I thought, well, that's what I'll do. And I looked at it, you know, my story was, it was ugly, well, let me drop that. Let me just look again, you know. And there was this disappointment. Oh, let me just look again. And I just, I just kept doing that. So I just look at it, look at it. And I could just feel a strong resistance to the painting, which I didn't really understand what was going on. And yeah, you know, and then you think of maybe clever things to tell people when you get back home about the painting. Well, you know, and then I dropped that, and, you know, can do ideas, sort of look again. You know, some commentary would come, okay, fine, and look again. And then what started to happen was that I I began to see something else that I hadn't seen. So there was this resistance, but that started to kind of change into and. Well, I started looking at this person that had been painted and I could see this, the suffering in her eyes. And it was strong. I don't know how Rembrandt did it. You know, it's just paint. But somehow, like he showed me the suffering in this woman's, like her, her life. And yeah, what held with such sort of dignity. Yeah, and it just really, and I, it was painful to see. But then I sort of understood my resistance, you know, to look at this. And I just, I stayed with it this time, not just stayed with it. And and strangely, the painting got more and more beautiful. So, yes, so thank you, I look. Yes, so that was kind of a penny drop, a significant penny drop moment for me, actually. Even in just the way I looked at art, I used to think people were being pretentious when they saw things in pieces of art that I couldn't see. You know, something that day sort of unlocked for me with Rembrandt. And I started to look at the other Rembrandt in a different way and, I mean, I think it's probably my favourite painter. Yeah, so I just, you know, spent the next hour or so just going around those two rooms and just sort of taking in this, this, I don't know if enjoying is the right word, but maybe it is just sort of breathing in the Rembrandt and letting them speak to me. But I also, I think I realised that day, I mean, it's kind of sort of basic dharma in a way, but this dropped the story and look again. It was like, this isn't just about art, this is about everything. This is about, well, certainly true in meditation, isn't it, with all ideas? But it also true with people. And, you know, my opinions and judgements and likes and dislikes were fine. But, you know, do I dare drop my story and look again? So it felt like, oh God, is this sort of the essence of something here? But I also realised that that was just the beginning, actually, you know, there's no use to me thinking, aren't I cool, I've had this experience with Rembrandt and I can tell people about it. You know, and I might well think that, but that's, you know, that's just something for me to let go of. And I think it's only of use if I can really do something with it, which brings me to another pithy, Padma Samba teaching or phrase, descend with the vision, ascend with the conduct, descend with the vision, ascend with the conduct. And this is very similar, I think, territory to Bante Sangerachte's teachings on vision and transformation. So we have this vision, you know, maybe I could talk about that experience with the Rembrandt painting. Maybe I'm sure each of us have got something that has given us a, at some moment, we've had a glimpse of something greater, you know, within ourselves, something's opened up that suggests there's so much more going on and life is about so much more than what we thought. So we have these visions, these moments of perfect vision Bante caused them. But our job is to really let that percolate into our lives, into every aspect of our lives. And he also talks about it, it's sort of raising ourselves and our whole lives and all aspects of our lives to the level of perfect vision. And that's really, you know, and that's the part of transformation. Here, Pama Samba was saying, descend with the vision, ascend with the conduct. So it's the conduct, that's a nice word, nice phrase. So we sort of move back towards this vision by our conduct. So I wanna talk about sort of three things today in terms of, you know, how do we prepare. Humility, courage and friendship. And they're very connected, I think. So humility, so specifically the humility to admit how little we really do know. And I'm not just talking about how little dharma we know, just how little we know ourselves and how little we know other people. And I'm sure you've heard of Socrates, probably the most famous Western philosopher. And the oracle at Delphi declared that no one was wiser than Socrates. And when he heard about this, he was deeply puzzled. How can this be the un-the wisest? And he knew, you know, how can it be that I'm the wisest when I know so little? And yet the oracle doesn't lie. He knew the oracle doesn't lie. So there's truth in what the oracle has said. And after a lot of thought, he interpreted that to mean that he is wise in the sense that he recognizes the extent of his own ignorance. And Bante, Bante Sangarach to her in an early series of talks around Zen, he's sort of playfully suggested that you could, you know, put aside everything you've ever learned from books and newspapers and magazines and radio and TV, or forget all your dharma talks, forget the lectures and the discussions and ask yourself what's left? You know, how much knowledge do you have left after that? Bante says very little indeed. If we were to perform the experiment regularly, the experience would be a very solitary one. We should then realize how little we really know. To know that we do not know is the beginning of wisdom. I've heard Aloka say things like, you know, have you ever had an original thought? And we've, and also, Bante also tells us about the story of the Zen, that the intellectual visiting the Zen monk. You know the story, you know, this intellectual coming to get a teaching. And the monk performing a sort of a tea ceremony and preparing tea for the intellectual and tipping the tea pot and beginning to fill this cup of tea and it filling up and you just pause and pause and it starts to spill over and the intellectual's a bit surprised now and the monk just doesn't stop, yeah? And so you've just got this cup filling over and spilling over and eventually the intellectuals, like, stop what's going on here? What are you doing? It's spilling over and the monk says that, well, how can I teach you anything if you're already full? So, yeah, I think that's just very, very important. And let's not think that our foolish intellectual, like that is, this is about us. I often think that I've read the book and done study with of the vision and transformation that book, the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. And I always tell people this book is great 'cause it's not just for beginners. And I always tell them, I think, I always think, each time I read it, that it's, I know what's in it. Or each time I listen to the talks, 'cause they're originally talks. I always think, you know, I know this really, it's basic Buddhist stuff, I know this. And each time I get surprised and there's something else I haven't seen that comes out. I even, we did this recently with our Mitra group and listening to the talk, so I just had this sense, I don't know what Bante's up to, there's something else going on in these talks. As well as the Dharma, he's doing something else. He's up to some kind of Dharma mischief, I don't know, but there's something else going, you know, there's more going on, I just had this, I couldn't say exactly what it was. And yeah. Yeah, and I remember once somebody gave a talk at Norwich Buddhist Center and I thought, oh, here we go. Why has it got to be this person? Why can't it be somebody inspiring, right? Why they're so timid, you know, oh. I think at the time I was particularly, you know, wanting to see courage in people or something like that, I was working with a lot of anxiety and I was just, oh, here we go. And then I caught myself, I'd sort of internally, I had this kind of, you know, prove it to me, attitude. And yeah, I felt quite ashamed. And then I thought, well, this is ridiculous 'cause even if there is some Dharma, I'm assuming there isn't, even if there is, I'm blind to it because I've already decided there isn't any. So that was actually quite a penny drop moment for me. And I just, so I now just listen to, I think it's worth listening to people when they talk Dharma. It just is without, you know, let myself be surprised. So from the survey, just a little line. The ideal student of Buddhism would be one who was prepared to admit the possibility of a spiritual experience which would transcend the physical senses and the rational mind and who would be willing to give unprecedented consideration to the Buddha's claim that he had achieved this experience himself and that by following his teaching, others might achieve it for themselves too. So yeah, I said I'd talk about courage, but in a sense, you know, courage and humility, I think they're similar things or they overlap. I'll talk a bit more about courage in a moment. But just to say that there are plenty of opportunities on this weekend to practice water practice humility. And each time we do, we're sort of approaching that cave. So, and each time we're sort of willing to or drop the story and look again, there can be, you know, we're stepping into the unknown. There's a kind of a little death. Like you could say even a spiritual death. And that's, you know, that's the preparation for entering the cave of the heart. And it's, of course, possible to be at Pamaloka and not really be at Pamaloka as well. You know, we've come all this way. But it is possible to sort of stay safe, I think. I've experienced this in myself as well, sort of just assume I'm here, so sorted. But I think Pamaloka's asking a lot more of us. So, yeah, just invite us all to really, really enter this space and to this realm. Pamaloka's is a place of deep significance, but only if we're willing to sort of treat it as a place of deep significance and, you know, enter it with that sort of sense of respect. So, ways we could, of course, you know, we're with people, aren't we? So, that's a great opportunity. We're on dinner walks and chatting with people. Yeah, maybe we could just take people in. I think I could take people in more, drop my story. And really look again. Are you up for something a bit challenging? So, this is from the Noble Eightfold Path. This is from the Noble Eightfold Path in Bante Sangarachita. And he's talking about communication, various levels of communication. He says, speaking with affection or love means speaking the truth in its fullness, with complete awareness of the person to whom you are speaking. How many of us can do this? If we think about it, we realize that when we speak to people, we do not usually look at them. And I don't think he's talking here just about, you know, making eye contact. I think it's a much broader, you know, looking at here is another human being. Yeah, we have this phrase in English. "To know someone like the back of your hand." Like, as if we could possibly know someone. I mean, I don't even know if I know the back of my hand. You know, if I had to draw it, I probably couldn't. But just the idea that you can know someone like the back of your hand. You know, and we think we do. We really do. But in this, there's not time to read it all. But Bante goes on to be quite challenging to suggest that even sort of our nearest and dearest who we think we know like the back of our hands. You know, we think we know what makes them tick, which is another ghastly phrase. We, you know, we do not know these people. And he suggests actually what we know is just our projections. You know, on our mother, our father, children, brothers, sisters, friends, even people we like. You know, we like them because they do what we want them to do. So, yeah, maybe we could use this opportunity being on retreat as an opportunity to, you know, practice this. You know, maybe this is, this is your, the way you approach the cave, the cave of the heart. So let these three expressions. I do not have. I do not understand. I do not know. Be repeated over and over again. This is the heart of my advice. Yeah, another great place for this is discussion groups and study groups. I remember at Gucculocra, it just occurred to me that I love study groups, but I also hate them. And I find them really frustrating and the people frustrating. If only they could do things the way I wanted them to do. And then I kind of clicked. I realized that, you know, there's something in this. There's more to the study than the study than what we're studying. And I think that's what makes study tantric study, actually. So, of course, we have to revere the dharma that we're studying. I can't force you to revere the dharma, but at least respect the dharma and take it seriously and clarify thinking, learn basic dharma. But something else is going on. You get a bunch of guys together in a group. There's a lot more going on, and there's a lot more to learn. And it's on many levels. There's all sorts of things going on. On one level, you've got a group of beasts who want to tear each other apart. Yeah, and on another level, you've got a group of beasts that are petrified but they're going to be torn apart. And on another level, you have men yearning to connect deeply with one another. And I don't mean sort of a needy, you know, lonely thing. I just mean a really heart-to-heart sort of meeting. So, yeah, let's make study groups and discussion groups, tantric study groups and tantric discussion groups. And again like Maitrinara, I make no claims to know anything about tantra. So what I mean by that really is that let's bring all our energies, the whole of us to what we're studying. And ritual, that's another place we can perhaps drop our story and look again. And silence. I used to have this rant. I used to, in my mind, rant about people who rant about Trump. So I'd get all self-righteous about people who get all self-righteous. And that was my little thing, I thought I was great. I do it less, I do it that one less. I mean I've got my own madness, but I do that one less. But yes, so silence is a great way to just have a look at all that stuff. But there's more to silence than that. It's not just about looking at the mind. You know, this is a way to be with one another and ourselves in quite a profound way. I just want to read something from T.S. Eliot. This is from the Four Quartets. It's got quite a sort of Christian framework with faith, hope and love, but I think it's, and of course faith I think is quite a different thing in Christianity to what we call Shraddha. But it doesn't matter, this is poetry and it's more universal than that. I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope. For hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without love. For love would be love of the wrong thing. There is yet faith, but the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought. So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness of the dancing. So we need courage to practice humility. And well, where do we find that courage? I suggest we find it through friendship. So that's the sort of last area I want to talk about, particularly spiritual friendship. And I was very moved to see this photo of Bante and his teacher, Dada Rinpoche, on the shrine. I think it's a beautiful image. And I think it, like the whole of Tree Ratna is in that. The photo. I think the spirit of Tree Ratna is in this photo of these two men delighting in each other's company. And two men who love the Dharma. And love one another. And of course we have the great stupa in the courtyard. You can't miss it. So we have a reminder there of Bante's teacher, Dada Rinpoche, who Bante considered a real living bodhisattva. And I'm sure you know, no harm in reminding ourselves that the story of Ananda and the Buddha. So Ananda was the Buddha's companion for the last 40 years of his life. He was his cousin as well, but he was his attendant. And yeah, much more than that. He was just, he was a true friend of the Buddhas and deeply devoted to the Buddha. And just wasn't willing to serve the Buddha no matter what. And he once was thinking about spiritual friendship. And he declared to the Buddha, "Lord, you know, spiritual friendship is a wonderful thing. Truly it is half of the spiritual life." And the Buddha said, "Say not so Ananda. Say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life." And it's through spiritual friendship that we can really, well, the Buddha said, "Practice the eightfold path." Yeah, so practice the dharma and it's through spiritual friendship we really learn to open our hearts. Learn to be human again. Yeah, I wanted to just talk about friendship in three ways. A horizontal friendship, vertical friendship, and what I call diagonal friendship. I'm not quite sure of that phrase just yet, but I'll try it out on you. So you might already know we talk about the vertical and horizontal spiritual friendship. So, yeah, the vertical is our people who inspire us, particularly our teachers. You know, maybe there's just something about people who have been practicing for years. I find really, there's a twinkle in their eyes. But it's more than that, there's like this sort of particularly order members I look up to. They've got this just nobility to them. And we can learn a lot from them in many ways. And then there's, I could say a lot about that and a lot has been said about that. And then we have what we call horizontal spiritual friendship, which is a sort of brother's friends you've come with here, friends you're on the path with. It's a really beautiful thing, yeah, to have dharma buddies. It's really, you know, a bloody, it's a lovely word, but it doesn't meet, what it's pointing to. Yeah, comrades, brothers. And yeah, and the third diagonal friendship, what am I talking about? Well, we're surrounded in this room by images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So you could say maybe you could call it transcendental friendship. And I think this is another friendship we need to develop. You don't need to wait till you're an order member and you've given a sardina practice, I think. I'm sure you all feel some kind of connection with a Buddhist figure, or maybe have kind of a go-to mantra when things are getting hard. So, yeah, and as Machinara said, these are, you know, these are portals. Don't take them too literally. I think that they're opening us up into something else. Alakha has spoken of them as maps, whatever that means. And I think just as we can with our friends and our teachers, we can learn to be more authentic in their company and grow. I think we can also learn to be, we can become authentic in the presence of these great figures. And we can cultivate a friendship, if not even an intimacy with them. And I just want to go back to Bante and Dada Rinpoche. So, to begin with, they just had this kind of polite thing going on between you. This is what I was listening to Bante talk about this. Just polite, you know, very respectful relationship. But it wasn't until they spent time together doing a tour of India, sort of a government-sponsored tour of India. I think was it with the relics of the Buddha? Was that what they were? They were like, show a picture of India. So, they had show a picture of Madhgalyana's relics, and they were doing a tour of India, sponsored by the government. So, they spent a lot of time in each other's company. You know, days and days and days, sharing the same compartment in the train that was taking them around, and they just spent all their time together. And I think in that time, their friendship really cemented. It was cementing, it's the wrong word, it sounds a bit fixed, doesn't it? I think something maybe really was activated between them in that time. And later, Dada Rinpoche gave Bante initiations and became his teacher. But first they were friends. And Dada Rinpoche, I've heard, was actually quite surprised. He'd not had a relationship with a student like this before. And they remained friends once they were students. So, sorry, once Bante was his sort of disciple of students. And why am I saying this? Well, to me this is those two figures and the stupor and these great beings were surrounded by. This is reminding us that whether you realise it or not, when you come to Pamoloka, you're taking part in a lineage. And whether you like it or not, you're taking part in a lineage. And it's a lineage that is based on spiritual friendship. You have friends, you have teachers, they inspire you, they themselves are inspired. They were ordained by others. Then Bante started this all off, this tradition. He was the first to ordain people in the western Buddhist order, now a tree ratna. But he himself had teachers, his Dada Rinpoche. And he had other great, great, eminent 20th century Buddhists were among his teachers. And they very much gave him their blessing to start a new movement. So you've got this lineage of inspiration and friendship that goes back. They had teachers who had teachers and so on. And then we come back to the Buddha, who was the first teacher or the first true spiritual friend. So you've kind of gone a bit around a few of those. We have a horizontal article in our diagonal or perhaps our transcendental friendships that we can cultivate. And I was wondering if this one thing that kind of sums this all up, one thing in Buddhism that sums this all up. And I think there is. I think there isn't a single act that you could say sums this all up. And that is a bow. So when we bow to the Buddha, it's something very simple. And when I say simple, I'm not pretending to fully understand it. But I think this is sort of the heart of what we're doing. I've often thought that I love study meditation. I work on my ethical practice. I work on friendships and all these essential things. But I do feel that underneath actually what I'm really doing is bowing. And that's what I'm doing. And these are just sort of an expression of that somehow. There's something about a bow that sort of everything is distilled into a bow. And of course I could say I bow to the Buddha out of gratitude. He was a man who was alive and he discovered something and then very creatively taught others to so creatively in fact that 2,500 years later we're still practicing and it's still effective. And a gratitude of course for the lineage that has kept this practice alive. But I think also bowing the practice of humility is expressed through a bow. And also, and I think that's sort of the last thing I want to touch on is that I also don't know what I'm bowing at. But it's very beautiful and I know it's good. And I don't want, we certainly don't want people to feel obliged to bow. By the way, I just want to say that. I know for some people it's a thing. So I'm not, you know, if you think what I'm saying is you've got a bow. Or if you think what Sri Ratna wants from you is for you to bow. You know, drop your story and look again, brother, because that's not what we're interested in here. But I think it's very difficult to, I don't think it's possible to, what am I trying to say? And people are very welcome to take part in pooges and just sit there and witness them. But I don't think it's possible to be passive in a pooja, even if you don't do anything. Because you're watching, unless you've got your eyes closed, you're going, beep, beep, beep, beep. You know, you're watching men sincerely bowing to the Buddha and sincerely bowing to the path. And sincerely bowing to the belief that it is possible to be free. And it's possible for our hearts to open. And it's a very strong thing actually. I think this is why people feel resistance to bowing. Because it's the most challenging thing in a sense. I know people, there might be a lot of reasons why people don't say they don't like bowing, but I think fundamentally, it deeply challenges us. Because I think fundamentally, you know, we want, we yearn for freedom. And yet, strangely, we do this thing where we don't want it. And that's the kind of, that's the conflict of the spiritual life. We sort of want this thing, we don't want it. And I think to bow is just, and it's bowing is something we do over and over again, isn't it? We don't just do it once. We do the puja over and over again. So yeah, where does that leave us? Well, I think we're at the, perhaps even at the entrance to the cave. The cave of the heart. And, well, what else can we do? But bow. We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
