About this talk
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I welcome Venerable Jyotika for the talk this afternoon. I heard he is a very good speaker, and
so that's the reason why many people are here. Everybody wants to be happy, so after his talk you'll be much more happier. So before I take much of your time, I invite Venerable Jyotika to give his talk.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
I'm Dr. Sri Ramachandra, and I'm very proud to be here today.
Dạ, con chào thầy ạ. And invite us to give a talk. Thank you. Right now.
Before the Dhamma talk,
let's take the Triple Refuge and Five Presence.
Namo
tassa bhagavato
arahato
samma sambuddhi.
Namo
tassa bhagavato arahato
samma sambuddhassa.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato
samma sambuddhassa.
Buddham saranam gacchami.
Dhammam saranam gacchami.
Sangham saranam gacchami.
Duthiampi buddham saranam gacchami.
Duthiampi dhammam saranam gacchami.
Duthiampi sangham saranam gacchami.
Tathiyampi buddham saranam gacchami.
Tathiyampi dhammam saranam gacchami.
Tathiyampi sangham saranam gacchami.
Tisaranagarmanam paripurnam
anatipatavramanisikhavadam samadhiyami.
Adenadhanavramanisikhavadam samadhiyami.
Kamesumicchaccharaavramanisikhavadam samadhiyami.
Musawadavramanisikhavadam samadhiyami. Musawadavramanisikhavadam samadhiyami. Suramedaya
madya pamadattana vramanisikhavadam samadhiyami.
Suramedaya madya pamadattana vramanisikhavadam samadhiyami. Tisaranena saha panchasilam dhamam sadhukam katoa apamadena sampadetha.
Can you hear me well? Can you hear well?
Some of you can come forward.
For Malay and Vietnamese. For Malay and Vietnamese. Được. Echo tiếng Nhan. Nghe nói xấu bịa. Echo nghe.
Welcome to the Dhamma talk, everybody. I see many familiar faces here,
many old friends,
and many new friends too, friends that I haven't met before.
We are all friends in the Dhamma, all brothers and sisters in the Dhamma.
Today
I want to talk about what I have been very interested in all my life. Usually when I give a talk, I talk about what I am interested in, what I feel very deeply. So today also
I'm going to talk about
what I have been interested in
since I was very young, since I was in my early teens.
Since I was very young, I've been very interested in
beauty.
Is there anybody here who doesn't like beauty?
Hands up. Anybody? Is there anybody here who doesn't like beauty, who doesn't like something beautiful,
who doesn't want to be beautiful?
Nobody here? Well, that's amazing. So we agree. 100% agreement. Is there anybody here who likes something ugly and repulsive?
Anybody here? No?
Oh.
Nobody likes something ugly and repulsive. So that means all of us like
beauty, something beautiful, and all of us
don't like something ugly and repulsive.
So I've been very much interested in beauty.
When I was younger, I would go to a beautiful and quiet place and look at the beautiful scenery. So that was my first
interest in beauty.
There are many beautiful things
around, but I've been very much interested in beautiful scenery, beautiful sunrise, beautiful sunset.
And
another thing that I've been interested in is
truth. That's what I've been searching all my life. Truth. And another thing that I've been very much devoted to, and wanting, and searching,
and practicing to achieve, is
freedom.
So what I want in my life is beauty,
truth, and freedom.
So today I'll try my best
to express myself. Not really giving a talk, actually, expressing myself
about my thoughts and feelings of
beauty, truth, and freedom.
Usually
when I give a talk,
it takes a long time. So most of you who have listened to my talks already know that sometimes I keep going on and on and on and don't know how to stop. So therefore,
sit comfortably because you will be sitting for a long time. If you are sitting in an uncomfortable position, you'll feel pain, and pain will distract your mind. So
feel free to sit comfortably.
As usual, I've brought a bunch of notes, cards.
I think
I've brought too many, and I'm afraid I won't have enough time to discuss every topic I've written on the cards. But anyway, I'll give you the gist of what
I want to say. So just now I asked you, is there anybody who doesn't like beauty?
Nobody raised a hand.
No one can do without beauty entirely. It is our human nature to love something beautiful, to like it, to want it.
So
there are many different kinds of beauty.
How many kinds of beauty can you think about? Beautiful faces, we know that. When a child is born, we will look at the child and we'll say, "Oh, the child is so beautiful." Don't we say that? A beautiful child.
And we are happy to see the child. When we see a flower blooming, we'll say, "Oh, how wonderful, how beautiful the flower." So whenever we see something beautiful, we feel happy and excited, and it makes us really happy. We appreciate happiness.
So one person said, "Everyone needs beauty as well as bread."
It is that important. So some people eat bread, but most of us Asians eat rice. So I will paraphrase this sentence: everyone needs beauty as well as rice.
We can't live without eating for too long, and in the same way, we can't live without experiencing beauty.
Sometimes we may be living in a very untidy, dirty, ugly place, but whenever possible we will move away, we will go to another place which is clean, neat, tidy, and beautiful. If we have a choice, we will always choose beauty.
And beauty is a function of life. This is very important. Beauty is a function of life.
Which means we must do something beautiful. We must create beauty.
So we make ourselves look beautiful. Even as a monk,
we don't use the word, "Oh, he's a beautiful monk," but we make ourselves neat and clean. So
I try my best to be a clean and neat person
because cleanliness and neatness also implies beauty.
So
this is something we do every day in many different ways. In your home, most of you have altars, like a Buddha image, and you make the altar look clean and neat and beautiful. And you put candles.
Some people use
electric candles.
It's actually electric, but it looks like a candle. And some people put, whenever they can, beautiful flowers in a vase in front of the Buddha image. Because when you go and sit in front of the altar,
you want the altar to be neat and clean and beautiful so that it will influence your mind, and then your mind will be inspired, and you'll feel happy looking at the Buddha image. And then you will sit and think about the good qualities, the high qualities of the Buddha, and you will do some chanting.
Even when chanting, you try your best to make that chanting beautiful.
Because beauty makes us happy and healthy.
So with respect to the Buddha,
beauty is our need. We need to eat. And in the same way, we need something beautiful to nourish our mind. The food nourishes our body, but beauty nourishes our mind. So beauty is like food for our mind.
So what is beauty? If someone asks you the question, "What is beauty?" We use the word beauty all the time.
I will give you a few seconds to think about the answer. What is beauty?
Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy
and a sense of peace simultaneously. So joy and peace at the same moment, at the same time. So when you go and pay respect to the Buddha,
you feel joy,
and you feel peace also. Just now I knelt down in front of the Buddha image, and for a few moments I reflect on the qualities of the Buddha, the quality of the Buddha's lovingkindness, the Buddha's compassion, the Buddha's wisdom, and I thank the Buddha.
Because of you, I have found this beautiful path. And so with gratefulness, I bow down to the Buddha. I felt joy and peace. So that's something beautiful.
So whatever gives you joy and peace simultaneously is beautiful. So beauty is an experience.
It's what you feel deep inside your heart. Joy and peace. So if anything makes you feel
hot and burning inside, that's not beautiful.
Is there anything that makes you feel hot and burning inside?
There are many things. So I won't say that something that makes me feel hot is beautiful.
Beauty gives us not only a feeling of wonder, it imparts to us at the same moment a timelessness, a repose, which is why we speak of beauty as eternal.
So when we are feeling something really beautiful, we forget about the past. We forget about the future. We are not thinking about the past or the future. We are right there. Our mind is totally absorbed in that experience. So when you are totally absorbed in an experience, you are in a timeless state of mind.
Therefore, in meditation also, when you are deeply absorbed in your meditation practice, you feel peace and joy,
and time doesn't exist for you anymore. Maybe some of you who have been meditating for a long time
have experienced that. You sit and meditate, and when you get really deeply absorbed in your meditation practice, and you feel peace and joy,
you don't know how long you've been sitting and meditating. Sometimes it happens to me too. I thought of meditating for an hour, sitting and meditating, but my mind got so absorbed into that meditation practice that
when I came back, so to speak, and I look at the watch, three hours gone. I didn't even know that. And some of my friends
got absorbed in meditation practice for five hours. They don't move, they don't get up, they don't eat, they don't drink, they don't do anything else. They just sit very calmly and quietly and got absorbed in meditation practice. They went into a timeless state of mind. So when you are really experiencing something and get absorbed in that experience, you become timeless.
Beauty is serene and at the same time exhilarating. It increases one's sense of being alive. So this is very important. Being alive. People who are unhappy and sad, who are depressed, they feel dead. They don't feel alive.
But people who feel joy, people who feel peace, people who feel something, people who experience something beautiful feel alive. So especially in meditation practice, when you become more and more mindful, you feel more and more alive. So mindfulness makes you feel alive.
So you know there's one stanza, one gatha in Dhammapada,
and I quote this gatha
most of the time. And the beginning line is, "Abhidhamma dham."
Abhidhamma dham means not forgetting. It means awareness. It means mindfulness. Mindfulness is the cause of not dying,
fully living. Or in a way, mindfulness or abhidhamma dham is the cause of nibbāna.
And "abhidhamma dham macchuno padam." Forgetfulness is the cause of death. So when you are not mindful, when you are lost in thought, when you are drowsy, forgetful, you are dead. You are not really living.
"Abhidhamma dham na miyandi." Those who are not forgetful do not die. This is something very hard to understand.
"Ye pamatha yathā matā." Those who are forgetful are like dead. Like dead. They are not really dead, but they are like dead. They are not really living. They are not fully functioning.
So to feel alive, you must be awake, you must be mindful. And that wakefulness and mindfulness state of mind is itself something very beautiful. Mindfulness is beautiful. Forgetfulness is, dullness is, very ugly.
So when you look at people's faces, you'll feel that some people look really alive and awake. You can see that in their eyes, in their face. They are alive. And you'll see some other people
who are lost. They don't know where they are. They are not paying attention to anything. They are dull. They are half-dead.
So to feel alive is very important. And it feels really good. It feels really good to feel alive.
Simple beauty delights. There are many things very beautiful, but simple beauty delights. To give you an example, have you seen a Japanese garden? I believe most of you have seen a Japanese garden or have been in a Japanese garden or at least have seen a Japanese garden in a picture.
A Japanese garden looks very simple. They try to make it look very simple. It's not easy to do that.
So simple beauty delights. If some things become too complicated, it causes agitation.
So simplicity makes the mind calm and serene and peaceful. Therefore, to live a beautiful life, we must make our life as simple as possible. And Buddha instructed that specifically to monks to live a very simple life.
So make your home very simple and beautiful, and it will be very peaceful. If you make your home too much decoration at home, it makes your mind tired. So simple beauty delights.
Serenity, harmony, and order, sooth. Sooth means it makes your mind become at ease. So serenity.
Serenity is a kind of peacefulness and quietness of mind. So make your surrounding simple and beautiful and serene. Make your mind simple and beautiful and serene.
And harmony. Harmony means no conflict. So this is possible
mostly to those who meditate.
As you meditate, you develop
calmness, peacefulness, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. And when you develop those qualities, naturally you like simple places, you like simple food, you like simple mind too.
And order also. If you don't meditate, you'll be thinking about so many things the whole day. Conflicting ideas, conflicting wishes, conflicting desires. And not all desires can be fulfilled.
And you'll get very tired. At the end of the day, in the evening, you'll be exhausted. But if you meditate, if you practice mindfulness the whole day, your mind will be mostly calm and peaceful and serene, and it will soothe your mind and body.
What is beautiful is also good. And what is good is also beautiful. So by the word beautiful, I don't mean
something you can see with your eyes only. This idea of beautiful goes beyond what you can see, especially
spiritual beauty.
When I use the word beauty, I use all kinds of beauty. Things you can see, things you can hear, things you can smell even, things you can touch, and things you can think also. There are beautiful thoughts and there are ugly thoughts too. There are beautiful minds and ugly minds too. Oh, beautiful mind.
I think there's a movie, Beautiful Mind.
Anybody
know that movie, Beautiful Mind? It's about
a mathematician. His name is... Anybody knows his name? John Nash. Yeah. Beautiful Mind.
I like that movie.
And you'll be surprised that I watched that movie. I watched that because I know about John Nash, and I like him very much. And I like the title of the movie, Beautiful Mind. I like that title because... Why do I like that title?
Because I want a beautiful mind.
When I was younger, I read many books, as most of my friends know. Even now, I read a lot of books. Whenever I come to Singapore,
I buy a big box full of books.
I read all kinds of subjects, but mostly I read about spiritual topics, spiritual subjects, religious subjects. But I read philosophy, I read psychology, I read poems. I even read love poems.
I really want to know how people feel about love. Real love. Not lust. Real love.
So lately, I'm collecting as many poems and quotations and books as I can on beauty and love.
So since I was very young, I read a poem, and I will read
a few lines from that poem. And some of you know this poem. I believe it.
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
Anybody heard or read that poem? Oh, so many of you are nodding, yes. Some no, yes. It's quite natural. Some people haven't heard about it or read about it. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." I read this when I was in my early teens.
I was too young to understand the meaning of this poem.
But I like this line very much. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." It's so beautiful. Sounds so beautiful. But a lot of questions came into my mind after I read that. How can a thing of beauty
give a joy forever? Because the word forever is too big. A beautiful thing makes you happy for a few hours, a few days, and then it's gone.
And when it's gone, what happens? You feel sad.
A beautiful person loves you for a few days or a few months or a few years, and then
he or she changes her mind. And what happens to you? You feel unhappy and sad. So I thought, how can a thing of beauty
be a joy forever? Forever is a word you cannot apply anywhere.
But as I practice Dhamma more and more, I found beauty inside. The mind became calm and peaceful. And naturally, when the mind becomes calm and peaceful and pure, it becomes loving and compassionate. And I see that, wow, this is beautiful.
I don't see it as my mind. No. It's not me. It's not attah. It's not ego. It's the nature of mind. So when I practice meditation and found my mind becoming calm and peaceful and loving and compassionate, I felt tremendous joy.
And at the same time, I felt tremendous gratefulness to the Buddha.
And that also gives me joy.
Then I thought, this is the kind of beauty
that is a joy forever. I can live with this forever and never feel sad.
And
anytime I sit and meditate, I can feel it again.
And I hope I will die that way, feeling that peace and joy, feeling that gratefulness, and die very peacefully. So I believe that this beauty is a joy forever.
And another line is, its loveliness increases.
You learn Dhamma, you practice Dhamma. As you go on practicing, your wisdom develops deeper and deeper. Your meditation develops deeper and deeper. Mindfulness becomes stronger and pure. Concentration also becomes stronger and deeper. And wisdom develops more and more. Defilements get weaker and weaker.
So you feel lighter in your heart because defilements, which means greed, anger, pride, envy, jealousy, doubt, and all that, it makes you feel very heavy. It's very heavy. But when they are not there, when your mind is mindful, when there's concentration, when there's wisdom, when there's loving-kindness and compassion, when your mind goes beyond pride and envy and jealousy, there's lightness of mind.
You feel very light. Life doesn't become a burden anymore. Mostly people say that life is so heavy, such a big burden. But I will say that defilements are heavy. Very big burden. Without defilements, it's not that bad. Life isn't that bad. So its loveliness increases.
The more you practice Dhamma, the more beautiful it becomes. The more lovely it
becomes. It will never pass into nothingness. No, it will never pass into nothingness. It will not go away. It will not desert you. It will be with you. As long as you practice it, as long as you develop wisdom, it will be with you.
So what you really have is what you have in your heart. Anything outside, you will lose it someday. Anything. No matter how well you protect it, you will leave it or it will leave you.
But what's in your heart will be with you until the end of samsara.
It will be with you always. So it will never pass into nothingness. It will never become meaningless. It becomes more and more meaningful. It will become more and more nourishing. It will become more and more lovely.
But it still will keep a bower, quiet for us. Bower, B-O-W-E-R, bower.
I think most of you understand what it means. Bower means a shady tree with branches
long and drooping, so that when you go under the tree, you are in a very cool, shady place.
But still will keep a bower, quiet for us. Whenever you feel tired, whenever you feel hot, go there. Your tiredness will disappear.
You feel cool and peaceful. So this Dhamma is like a bower. It's like a shady tree. You go out and do many things and you feel very tired and hot, you go under that tree. You go under the protection of the Dhamma. You meditate and you become very quiet and peaceful and cool.
And asleep, full of sweet dreams. So when your mind is agitated and you sleep, what do you usually dream?
Nightmares.
Most of the people, they wake up with nightmares and they sweat. Their heart pumping very hard. They can't go back to sleep. Bad dreams. Terrifying dreams. Because in the dreams, that terrible experience seems so real. So when you wake up, you said, "Oh, at least it's only a dream."
So many people have nightmares. But if you meditate before you go to sleep, make your mind calm and peaceful and pure, and before you sleep, you practice loving-kindness also. Send loving-kindness to all the people you know and all the people you don't know. And forgive everybody for everything.
Your mind becomes relaxed and calm and peaceful, and you sleep soundly. And you may dream sweet dreams, or you may not dream at all. So in Metta Sutra, Buddha said, "Those who practice Metta,
sukha, subhuti,
they sleep well. They sleep happily."
Suktosa, papam, kinchi, na pasati. And while sleeping, they don't see anything bad. That means they don't dream bad dreams.
So this is beauty. Dhamma is beauty. If you live and practice Dhamma all day and until you fall asleep,
even when you are asleep, it will affect you. You will have a very peaceful, deep, sound sleep. And when you wake up, you feel refreshed. You feel full of energy. You feel rested.
And health. Dhamma makes you healthy, surely. Definitely. Bodily and mentally. And more so, mentally. Even those who practice Dhamma sometimes get sick, but mentally, they are not sick.
Mentally healthy is more important. So those who practice Dhamma and develop all the beautiful qualities of mind
are mentally healthy.
Loving, compassionate, and they
keep precepts. They don't harm anybody. They don't steal. They don't terrorize. They don't commit adultery. They don't take any intoxicants. So they live a life of purity. So when you live a life of purity, you feel happy about yourself.
And that state of mind is a healthy mind.
And another part is, and quiet breathing.
When you think of something that makes you angry, your breathing becomes very hard and fast. Heavy breathing. Fast breathing. And your heart pumps too much. Normally, our heart pumps
70 pulse per minute, usually. But when you are angry,
it will go beyond 100. So when your mind is calm and peaceful, when you live the Dhamma, when you practice Dhamma, it brings your breathing
down. Slow breathing. Peaceful breathing. And your heart will not pump so fast. So
the author was John Keats. This is not the whole poem. This is only part of the poem. The whole poem is a very long one. I don't have time. But I
want to tell you the author, John Keats. I don't know what John Keats really meant. But this is my interpretation. And I think I have the right to interpret this poem in my own way. Because I read Dhamma in his poetry. In his poem. Every word is Dhamma.
So I see Dhamma as the most beautiful thing that we can have in our life. Therefore, I thank Buddha for giving us the most beautiful thing. And Buddha himself is very beautiful. Himself was, I mean. But in my mind, he is still alive.
Whenever I think of the Buddha, I feel like he's still there.
He's still alive.
And John Keats said, "Beauty is truth. Truth, beauty."
That's all you know on earth and all you need to know. And I interpret this again as Dhamma. Beauty is truth. Truth is Dhamma. Dhamma is truth. Four noble truths. You know that. Four noble truths. Because this is truth, it is beautiful.
Truth is beauty. And what's the opposite of truth? Lies or deceptions. Lies or deceptions, they are ugly, repulsive.
So truth is beauty. Beauty is truth.
How beautiful that is.
So I thank John Keats very much for writing these simple sentences. And it inspires me so much and it makes me feel so happy.
And again, John Keats said, "I can never feel certain of any truth, but from a clear perception of its beauty."
Only when I see beauty in something, then I can see that this is truth. Because truth is beautiful.
And before I see truth, I think, first I see the beauty of it.
We can experience beauty more easily than experience the truth. So when I first read the teaching of the Buddha, I did not understand everything because it's too deep. I was very young. I was only in my teens. But whenever I read the teaching of the Buddha, I felt very happy because it's so beautiful and simple.
It's seemingly simple. So when I was younger, whenever I felt unhappy, I will read Anatta Lakkhana Sutra.
Whenever I felt sad or unhappy or frustrated, I'll take Anatta Lakkhana Sutra book and I'll see that things will not happen the way I want them to happen. They have their own way. I can't say, "Be like this or be like that." Especially other people. I can't tell, "Behave like this or behave like that."
They will do whatever they like. I have no control. Even my body, I don't have real control. So whenever I feel unhappy, I'll read Anatta Lakkhana Sutra. And after reading it and thinking about it for a while, I felt calm and peaceful. But that doesn't mean that I was really meditating. I was thinking about it.
So even thinking about Anatta makes me feel calm and peaceful. Makes me feel, makes me let go. Let go of it. I will do what I can. The rest
is not under my control. I will do the best I can. And the rest take care of itself.
And about
people, here's another poet,
Khalil Gibran. I don't know whether you have heard of him. Maybe some people who are interested in poems have read it. I have got a book of his poems, Khalil Gibran. He said that beauty is not in the face. Beauty is a light in the heart. It's not in the face.
And this is true. I've met some Black African Americans in America. They are Black. But
they are so kind. Therefore, they are very lovely.
Very lovely. Very beautiful. So beauty is not in the face. Beauty is a light in the heart. So if you want to be beautiful,
develop that light in the heart. Then no matter how old you become, you will still be beautiful. I know many older people. And I'm getting older. Therefore, I'm getting more and more interested in older people. I watch them very closely. They are old. How are they living their life?
What do they do? What do they think? What do they feel?
And I found many older people who are so loving, so kind, so accepting, so forgiving, that their face glows.
You can see the glow of their loving-kindness. You can see the lightness of their heart in their face. And I can watch them for a long time with deep interest and joy. And I said, "I want to be like them." And I've met many old teachers, old masters.
And some of you also have met old teachers, old monks, old Sayadaws.
Some of them visit Singapore regularly. They are so kind, so loving, so wise.
Therefore, when you look at their face, you feel happy. You feel joy.
And here is another quote. So I've been collecting all this. So I'm sharing this with you.
"The ideals that have lighted my way time after time
have given me
new courage to face life cheerfully." Think carefully of every word. "New courage to face life." You need courage to face life. You agree? Yes. You are nodding.
I agree too. You need a lot of courage to face life. There are so many difficulties and disappointments
in our life. So to face all those difficulties and painful experiences and disappointments, we need a lot of courage.
So
courage to face life cheerfully. Courage to face life cheerfully is not easy. I know that.
To face life cheerfully is not easy. When everything is going well, you are happy. You are in bliss. You feel that you are in devil world. When something goes wrong, you feel like you are in hell. How can you keep my mind cheerful when something is going wrong in your life? A lot of wisdom and courage.
You need that.
And I'll read it again. "The ideals that have lighted my way time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully have been." So have been means the ideals.
Kindness, beauty, and truth.
If you have kindness and beauty and truth, you will have that courage to face life cheerfully.
So we need to develop kindness, beauty, and truth. So by practicing the teaching of the Buddha, we can develop kindness, we can develop beauty, and we can develop truth. Truth means wisdom.
So really practicing the teaching of the Buddha helped me to face all the difficulties in my life. There are still many difficulties in my life. Just because I'm a monk, don't think that I have no difficulties. I'm living in a human world, dealing with human beings.
Some of them are very kind. Some of them are very cruel.
I feel a lot of loss again and again. I felt many times great losses in my life, again and again. And every time when I felt a loss and I felt very discouraged, and even sometimes I thought, "It's better to die than to live. What's the point of living anymore?"
But every time I read Dhamma and it reminds me, then I practice meditation. And it gives me strength, courage to go through all that. Then I said to myself, "This will be over.
I will learn something and I will come out stronger." So I read another philosopher who said that, "Bad wish does not kill me, makes me stronger." Oh, I'm still alive. I can still do a lot.
What does it matter? What does loss matter? I'm still alive.
I can still practice Dhamma.
So I can give up everything. If I can still practice Dhamma, life is still worth living.
Another proverb. This is a French proverb. Well, sorry. I want to honor the person who said that. Nobody can guess it. I know that. Albert Einstein said that. The scientist, the great physicist,
said that. You see, he was not just a physicist. He was a very spiritually highly developed person.
And another point. "Beauty without virtue is a flower without perfume."
So these days, people
spend more money and time to make themselves look beautiful on the surface.
So it's like a flower without perfume.
So if you want to be really beautiful, you must develop your heart, your good qualities. Loving-kindness, compassion, and keep the precepts. Practice meditation.
Treat people kindly and honestly and justly.
Good looks are worth less if unsupported by good character. Good looks are worth less. It doesn't worth anything if unsupported by good character. So if you want to make friends with another person, learn about that person's character.
No matter how beautiful that person may be, if his or her character is not good,
don't become friends. But don't become enemies either. Because Buddha said, "Asevanacha bala nam." Don't associate with fools because they will give you a lot of troubles. No end. There's no end. Trouble after trouble.
With every choice every day, you are creating a unique work of art. What is that?
With every choice every day, you are creating a unique work of art. What is that work of art?
Your life. With every choice, you are creating your life every day. So your life is your art. Your life must become your masterpiece. So make your life beautiful. So where do you begin? You learn the Dhamma.
And you practice Dhamma. Keep five precepts. Meditate. And be mindful everywhere, anywhere. No matter what you are doing.
And with mindfulness, you will do the right thing. Because when you are mindful, when you are aware, there is wisdom. You will do the right choice. So with every choice means sometimes we make the right choice, sometimes we make the wrong choice. And depending on the kind of choice you make, you create your life.
So you must ask yourself every moment whenever you have to make a choice, "Am I making the right choice?" Because that will
make my life
the unique work of art. So we must learn to live our life beautifully. A beautiful life. Not only a beautiful mind, but a beautiful life. So that's what I want to do. I want to live my life beautifully.
So all the time I think about that. How can I make my life beautiful?
A simple life. A virtuous life. Growing in Dhamma.
Learning Dhamma, practicing Dhamma, developing wisdom, developing loving-kindness and compassion, developing forgiveness and acceptance. That way we can make our life beautiful. So you may have met some people who are living their life very beautifully. I have met a few.
And here is another very beautiful saying. It's so beautiful.
"May your world always be as beautiful as you make it for others."
It's a prayer.
It's a wish for another person. Have you ever heard this wish? When I read that, I felt so happy.
"May your world always be as beautiful as you make it for others." So if you want your world to be beautiful, what will you do? You make it beautiful for others. Oh, that's really wonderful. So if each of us try our best to make the world beautiful for others, our world will also be beautiful automatically.
So don't do anything that will make other people's world ugly,
dirty. Don't corrupt another person's world. Don't corrupt another person's life. Because if you make another person dirty, you make yourself dirty. If you make another person ugly, you make yourself ugly. If you make another person
angry,
you will be also angry. There's no way you can escape it.
It's like picking up
a burning hot amber and throwing it to another person. Before you throw it and hit another person, you burn yourself.
The moment we appreciate beauty, we become more than we were. So I understand this statement in my own way.
When I was younger,
I read many philosophy books, including materialistic philosophy books.
In those days, in the
late 50s and early 60s,
materialism was very popular.
How do you call that in another name?
Communism.
Sounds very good because commune is a good. Community, commune, communist. It sounds very good. So I read those books.
But they don't only talk about living in harmony in a commune.
There are a lot of wrong views in the books. So I started believing that there's no past life, there's no future life. This is the only life. So do whatever you like.
You can get away with anything, but watch out for the police.
I didn't do anything really bad because
I never wanted to hurt other person. I never wanted to take advantage of other people. I want to be a very friendly person. I have a lot of friends since I was very young. So in that sense, I have always been very fortunate because I haven't done any serious mistakes in my life.
But anyway,
later I learned Dhamma.
I still have a lot of doubts about whether this is true or not. But gradually, as I learned more and more Dhamma and started practicing meditation,
I began to understand
what Buddha nature means, what Buddha means. And the more I learn about the Buddha,
the more I want to be like him, so to speak.
So because Dhamma is so beautiful and Buddha
excuse me for using the word beautiful again regarding the Buddha. Because Buddha, or understanding the nature of the Buddha also, is so beautiful that it uplifts my mind, my heart. I want to become a better human being. I want to do something better and better. Not only something good, but something better and better.
So I study Dhamma and practice Dhamma, spend more time practicing meditation. Even when I was studying engineering in a university, I practiced meditation every day. No matter how busy I was, I meditated every day.
Sometimes I studied the whole day and laid into the night, very tired. Just before I fall asleep, I meditate and fall asleep. And sometimes in between the studies, sometimes I study for an hour and rest for 10 minutes. In that 10 minutes, I meditate. So because meditation is restful, when you meditate, you feel recharged.
Your mind becomes rested. You feel more energy. Then you go back to study. You can study better. You absorb more. You remember more. You can think more creatively.
So since I was younger, I
practice meditation whenever I can, wherever I can, no matter what I'm doing.
And that way, because I felt the beauty of Dhamma,
I became more than I was.
So you become a better person. So beauty helps you become a better person. Ugliness makes you become worse.
Therefore, today, explore ways to see your world differently. Let your eyes drink in the beauty that surrounds you.
Look for something beautiful every day. The moment you wake up, meditate. Don't get up from bed. Stay in bed. The moment you wake up, meditate. Don't think of all the worries and cares and problems in your life. Your worries and cares and problems will always be there and they can wait.
Don't worry, they will not run away. They'll be waiting for you.
So the moment you wake up, the first thing to do is to meditate.
Buddha gave this advice specifically in Mahā Satipatthāna Sutta. Buddha said, "Jāgṛte samvajānā kāri hoti." When waking, be mindful. The moment you wake up, you must learn and practice to wake up with mindfulness.
Don't start thinking of all the worries and problems and cares.
So that way you wake up beautifully. And then get up from bed mindfully, go to the toilet, wash yourself, and
meditate for a while, even for 5 minutes. Don't think that 5 minutes is too little to be effective. If you do that every day, I can assure you it will change your life. It will change you. It will change your mind. It will change your heart.
And if you change, if your heart change, your life will change.
And one thing that I do is after meditating, I open the door and look out. I get up very early every day. Sometimes 3 o'clock in the morning, sometimes 4 in the morning. When I wake up, I don't go back to sleep anymore. I wake up. Enough sleeping.
So I'll do what I love to do, meditate. And then the dawn. I love to watch the dawn. The sky is becoming brighter and brighter, especially when I live in the forest. Dawn. So beautiful. I'll go up the hill and watch the dawn. It's becoming brighter and brighter. And then the sun coming up.
It's so beautiful. So even now, every time I get a chance, I watch sunrise. I watch dawn because it's so beautiful. It will always be beautiful. I've been doing that for many, many years, for more than 30, more than 40 years. And I never lose interest in watching the dawn.
Another day, a new day. How precious, how wonderful. And I will do many good things today.
You remind yourself. You decide that because you need to remind yourself. You need to suggest yourself or request yourself to do good things. Another day, another new day. I will do my best to do whatever good I can do. If you do that, you will find out that gradually you'll be doing more good things every day, more good thoughts every day.
And here's a beautiful poem because it's so long I cannot write on the card. So I wrote it on a piece of paper.
The title is "A Window Away." Only a window away. So I told you, in the morning I opened the window. I drew the curtains away and I look out. So this poem is "A Window Away,"
written by Sandy Vander Sluis.
I look out my window. What do I see? A cardinal. A cardinal is a kind of bird. A blue jay. It's a kind of black bird. Looks very similar to crows. And a chickadee. A chickadee is a small bird. Chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick. Made the sound like that.
A chickadee. They sit on my feeder or in my tree.
They are fun to watch and company. So sometimes I go to walk in Bukit Batok Nature Park in the morning. And there are so many birds, so beautiful and so tame. They come close to you. You can get close to them. And they will sing. They sing with real joy.
They sing with all their heart. You can listen and feel that they are singing with all their heart. They are not trying to impress anybody. They are not trying to become popular. They are singing just because they are feeling so much joy. So when I listen to the bird, their joy becomes my joy. I feel so joyful.
And I usually meet a young lady there too. She sings. I don't know her name, but I greeted her many times and she greeted me many times.
And she is so joyful and happy.
Another
part of it is, "When singing their pretty song, my worries and care are gone." Yeah, this is real too. That's what I'm telling you. When you listen to the birds singing, your worries and cares are gone.
Hummingbirds enjoy my flowers. Hummingbirds are very small, tiny birds. They fly very fast. Their wings beat very fast. They suck the nectar from the flowers. So hummingbirds enjoy my flowers. Succulent nectar they love to devore.
The chipmunk fills his cheeks with the seeds that he seeks. Chipmunks is a kind of squirrel, small squirrel. They are plenty in Bukit Batok Nature Park.
He carries away back to his den, then comes back for seeds again. So I watch squirrels going around looking for food. Rabbits run, hop, and play on this wonderful sunny day.
Mother Nature is a wonder away. It's a window away. Mother Nature is a window away or just a mile away. So you can walk for a mile and get to a park. I'm thankful for this very day. So in the morning, look for something beautiful.
Look for something lovely that will uplift your mind, that will improve your mood. Otherwise, you'll feel gloomy and depressed and hurry, hurry to the work.
It's not good to start a day like that. So early in the morning, look out and look for something beautiful. Dawn, sunrise, birds.
This is another quotation. If the only prayer you ever say in your life is thank you, it will be enough.
A thankful mind is a beautiful mind.
How many times do you say thank you and really mean it? People have learned to say thank you, but most of them say that mechanically. But anyway, to say thank you is good. Even though you say that out of habit, it's good. But you must learn to say that with all your heart, not only to people.
Sometimes I listen to the bird and I say thank you to the bird.
I really say that. That little bird is making my world wonderful, beautiful. Because of that little bird,
my world is richer because of the bird and because of other people too. So
to be thankful is not as easy as most people think. People take things for granted. Therefore, they don't feel thankful. Of course, they should do that. Why should I feel thankful?
It's their duty. It's their responsibility. If they don't fulfill their duty or responsibility, you will blame them. But if they do what they need to do, you take it for granted. No, never take anything for granted.
Be thankful. And
there's another person. I forgot his name, sorry. But he said, "Gratefulness is heaven itself." When you are grateful, there's heaven in your heart. You are happy. You are a better human being. So learn to be grateful.
Practice. You need to develop that. It will not happen automatically. I don't think so. I think most people are naturally
forgetful. They forget to feel thankful. Not that they don't want to. They just forget it. So don't forget to be thankful.
So thank you. The word thank you is very beautiful. It's a beautiful word. It makes you beautiful. It makes another person happy. So when another person is happy, he's also beautiful. So you are beautiful and that another person is also beautiful.
It's so simple. It sounds so simple.
I must ask the time. How much time do I have? 5 minutes. And I might need to go to the bathroom. Okay. I still have some time. So environments make a difference. The physical environment deeply affects our thoughts and feelings. So your home is your environment.
The most important environment you have is your home. Make your home clean, really clean,
because cleanliness is next to
godliness. Right. Thank you very much. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Godliness means something very high and pure. Gods are clean and pure. So if you live
in a clean environment and if you are bodily clean, physically clean, and if you are also mentally clean and pure, then you are like Endeavour Wall. Then you are like God. So I take these sayings very seriously.
I take them into my heart. I keep them in my heart. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Therefore, I must try my best to keep my body and mind clean, to keep my place clean, to keep my surrounding clean. And I must help to keep the environment clean.
Therefore, I should not throw trash. Many people, not in Singapore, I think. Singapore is quite clean. But in some other places, wherever you go, it's full of trash and dirty things everywhere. People don't understand the importance of cleanliness.
Whenever you see something unclean and dirty, it makes you feel upset. It makes you feel angry.
And being upset and angry is not beautiful.
And if you are living in a surrounding, in an environment which is not clean, which is ugly, it really makes you physically and mentally sick. So if you want to help a person recover from sickness, keep him in a clean and, if possible, beautiful surrounding and help that person to develop
beautiful states of mind. So I sometimes go to the hospital and teach the patients to practice meditation,
to practice loving-kindness. I said, "Send your loving thoughts to everybody around you. Send your loving thoughts to your family. Send your loving thoughts to the nurses, to the doctors." So when a person is thinking of loving thoughts, that loving thoughts helps the person to recover from illness. So beauty is healing.
It's really definitely sure. Beauty is healing. Ugliness, uncleanliness, dirtiness is
sickening.
Here, depression may gradually overcome by exposure to beauty, nature, and
pleasing relationships. That's very important. If a person is depressed, it is very important for that person to have exposure to beauty. Beauty in every way. Beautiful things to see, beautiful things to hear, and even beautiful things to eat. When I was in Japan, sometimes my friend took me to a Japanese restaurant, traditional Japanese restaurant.
So we sat on the floor. The floor was so neat and clean.
I think
Japanese restaurants that I've been in Kyoto
were
the most clean restaurants I've ever been to. So I look around and didn't see any dirt, any trash, any scrap of paper, any stick of match, any bit of cigarette butts.
Clean. There are plants everywhere. The room is clean. No dust, no cobwebs.
And the table
is polished with lacquer and clean. And I was sitting there and my friends ordered the food. So we had to wait for about 15 minutes or 20 minutes. And then they brought the food on the tray and put down
very respectfully, with lovingly. And the owner of the restaurant and the whole family, the man, the wife, and their daughter, all three of them came and served me the meal. And they put down the tray on the table. I look at the food, the plates, the cups. Everything looks so beautiful.
So before I eat, I look at the food and it looks so beautiful. I said to my friend, "Bring the camera. Bring your camera. Take a picture."
And I still have that picture. I really have that picture. The way they prepare the food is so beautiful. So this is important. What you eat is important. And what you eat looks ugly and repulsive
will make your stomach upset.
And sometimes when I look at some food, I felt, "Ugh. How can I put that into my mouth and swallow it?"
But sometimes when I look at some food, "Oh, it's so beautiful." I look at it, I smell it, I put it in my mouth, I savor the taste and I swallow. And I know that it will nourish my body and it will nourish my mind too.
So don't take it lightly. Beauty is one of the most important things in our life. Make your life beautiful. Make everything around you beautiful. Make your mind beautiful. Develop beauty. So
depression may gradually overcome by exposure to beauty, nature. Nature is very important. Nature is healing. Whenever I go into the forest and walk, I feel healthier. So sometimes I go to Bukit Batok, Bukit Timah and climb the hill. Sometimes I walk around the Bukit Timah. There's a small track they call bike track.
Usually young men riding bikes. But I walk on the track. It's all bush around. It looks
like natural, nothing artificial. So you go to nature and you feel it. It makes you healthy. So nature is healing. If possible, go to a wild forest. Walk in the forest.
So when I was in America, I went to walk in Redwood Park, Redwood National Park. They preserve the forest and the trees are so big and tall. Some of them are more than 340 feet tall. You won't believe it until you see it. More than 340 feet tall.
And I look at the tree and said, "Oh dear venerable plant.
Really dear and venerable. They have been living here for thousands of years." Some of the trees are more than 2,000 years old. Can you believe that? More than 2,000 years old. So I love and respect the tree very much. So whenever I go into the forest, I forget about the rest of the world.
So nature is healing. And another thing, pleasing relationships.
Relationships can make you sick and also relationships can make you healthy, depending on what kind of relationship that is. So learn to develop good relationships with people. Bad relationships are sickening.
So beautiful relationship. Again, you can apply beauty to relationships again. Beautiful relationships are very important. Honest, open, trustworthy relationships. Loving, kind, forgiving, understanding relationships.
That is very important. But you must learn to develop it. Don't just wait for it to come to you. You must be that kind of person. A loving person, a compassionate person, an understanding and forgiving person, a virtuous person, an honest and open person. If you are not loving, then don't expect others to love you.
So first, we must develop all these beautiful qualities in us. I must become a loving person, a compassionate person, a trustworthy person, an honest person, a just person, a forgiving and understanding person.
Then whoever meets me will be happy to meet me. Then I'll be a joy to be around.
Oh, here is another one. So, so, so beautiful. If you recognize a flower's beauty, it's because you are beautiful at that moment. You look at the flower. You get absorbed. You pay all your attention. You pay complete attention. At that moment, you are not thinking about anything else.
When you look at a flower with all your attention, that beautiful flower becomes your world at that moment.
So if you want your world to be beautiful always, what can you do?
Look for beautiful things. If you look for ugly things, you'll find them everywhere and your world will be ugly. So depending on your mind, you experience the world. So how you experience the world depends on how much you have developed your mind.
So even when you see somebody who is doing something wrong,
you may get angry and upset and hate that person. But if you have developed your mind, if you have practiced Dhamma, when you see somebody doing something wrong, you feel sorry for him. You feel compassion for him. "Oh, this person is doing something wrong and it will hurt him so much. How can I help that person to understand better and to give up doing something wrong, to stop doing something wrong?"
You want to help that person to stop doing something wrong, but you don't want to force him to do that. You want to help him. You cannot force somebody to do anything. There's a proverb I've heard a long time ago. You can take the horse to the water. You know a lot of proverbs.
You must be reading a lot of books. So you can take the horse to the water, but you can't make it drink.
So you cannot force a person
become a... I mean, you cannot force a person to stop doing something wrong. You can only help him
to understand that it is not worth doing it. It will hurt him.
And this is another one about flower again. When you take a flower in your hand
and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.
The two are quite similar. The first one is if you recognize a flower's beauty. The beauty is already there, but most people do not recognize it. But if you recognize a flower's beauty, it's because you are beautiful at that moment.
Wonderful.
And this one is when you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.
Here's another very important point. I will tell you first who said this. It's the philosopher, the Greek philosopher Plato.
Some people call him Plato, but some people call him Plato.
He said, "The aim of all education is to teach us to love beauty.
The aim of
all education is to teach us to love beauty. And the aim of the teaching of the Buddha is to teach us to develop beauty in our heart,
to learn to live a beautiful life. And therefore, the teaching of the Buddha is the best education.
It teaches us to be virtuous. The teaching of the Buddha teaches us to meditate, to become calm and peaceful and pure in mind and pure in wisdom." I would say that the Dhamma that I think of it as the true wisdom.
Well,
these days
I notice that
younger people are becoming more and more interested in beauty.
They are making themselves very beautiful. And
people think that only younger people are beautiful, but that is not always true. Here's another quote by Joseph Campbell. He said, "As a white candle in a holy place, so is the beauty of an aged face."
Aged face means old face.
And I noticed that
many times. And especially
old monks who
have been
meditating all his life. And you look at that monk's face, serene and calm, gentle and kind. So beautiful that you can sit and look at him for hours. Not only monks. I've met many other older people. They have been through so much and learned so much
that they have become really loving and compassionate, really accepting. They can accept anything.
So
no matter how young you are, you are growing older every second. One day you'll be an old man or an old woman
and learn to become a beautiful old man and a beautiful old woman. Gracious old man and gracious old woman.
I have much more to say, to share with you. This is not teaching you. This is not a Dhamma talk. This is just a sharing. This is what I have been interested in and
learning and finding about more. So
the monk in charge said that I have only 10 more minutes. So I'll tell you a story
as the conclusion.
I've read a story, a Greek story, because I've read a lot of books about Greek culture and Greek literature. And in one Greek story,
the story tells about the Greek god. Anybody knows about the Greek god, the biggest, the greatest Greek god? His name begins with Z, Z. Zeus. Zeus. Yes, yes, that's right.
Z-E-U-S, Zeus. I want to know who you are.
You must have read a lot. You are a very literate person.
Well, one day, so to speak, the story is the Greek god
created the world. The earth, the sea, the mountains, the plants, the animals, the birds,
the trees, and all the human beings. And then
that Greek god Zeus said, "Now I have created truth and beauty,
but I want to hide it away somewhere so that it could not be found easily."
So in the meeting with all other gods, the god Zeus said, "I want to know
which place is the best place to hide away truth and beauty." And some people say that, "Put it on the top of the mountain." And another said that, "Oh, human beings are very curious.
They'll go up the mountain and find it
easily, no problem." And another god said, "Hide it deep under the sea."
And other god said, "Oh no, human beings are very curious. They'll go deep down into the sea and find it, no problem." And then a young god said,
"Dear sir, may I speak?" Because he's so young that he needs to ask for permission to speak. And the Greek god Zeus said, "Speak up." He said, "I know a good place to hide truth and beauty." And the Greek god Zeus said, "What is that place?"
He said, "In the human heart." I like that story very much. So the Greek god
put truth and beauty hidden in the human heart. And this young god said that that's the last place people will look for, truth and beauty. They will look for truth and beauty. That's the last place. Only those who are diligent and work hard to find will find it there.
So as a conclusion,
I'll wish for you, all of you, may you find truth and beauty deep in your heart.
Well, I'm very sorry. I still have much to say. I have let some of the best things unsaid.
But anyway, I enjoyed this evening very much to see so many of you, the room so packed and full, and all of you listened to me with so much interest that it encouraged me to talk and to meet and talk with you again. I'm not a professional public speaker.
I don't know how to talk. I just express myself.
Question collection.
Well, they say that some of you may want to ask a few questions.
Anybody want to ask a few questions?
Yes, please.
When
will I be going back? I'm not sure, but I will visit Penang on the 5th of May, and I will come back to Singapore on the 10th. And I'll stay in Singapore for a few more days, but I'm not sure the exact date
of when I'll be going back.
You are welcome to come to U Tejaniya and the Momo Yi's home.
You want to come, you can come. You can ask for the address.
So my question is, do I have to tell you to invite you to my home? Oh, to invite me to your home.
I would like to very much, but I'm also quite busy.
But I would like to see you again. So why don't you come? Please do. Please do.
I have so many friends in Singapore now, more and more friends. And it's really wonderful to have so many friends. It makes my life so rich. And
what's the Korean teaching?
Actually, it's the teaching of the Dhamma.
They just say when a friend has great fortune, he will be blessed with many friends. So I think that you are welcome to come to the Dhamma class. Any more questions? Yes, please. But you must speak louder. I won't hear you. Please come closer.
Very difficult.
Okay. I'm
what you call a novice as far as Buddhism is concerned. I'm not really very deep into Buddhism, but recently I've taken some interest in the subject. Yes. And while I enjoy your talk about truth and beauty, I'd like very much to request that if you next come here, can I request you to talk about a subject which interests me very much, which is mind, body, and soul?
Thank you. Yes, I accept your request.
Dear devotees, Syadow is open questions. Please feel free to ask questions or Dhamma-related questions. You can raise the questions to Syadow. Thank you.
Well,
beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Somebody asked me this question, how to relate that beauty to Dhamma. Well, we have physical eyes. We also have mental eyes.
We also have Dhamma eyes.
In this saying, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, this person is talking about physical beauty only. And it is true. We see something beautiful. We see beautiful people. We see beautiful plants. We see beautiful houses, beautiful flowers. It's in the eye of the beholder, which means
somebody can see it, somebody cannot see it. It depends on the person.
So this is also true. But by beauty,
it doesn't mean what we can only see with our physical eyes.
There are many other things that are very beautiful which cannot be seen. So when I use the word beauty, I use the word in a very broad meaning. So it includes every kind of beauty. So I like to see beautiful things too.
And beauty is in the eyes of the beholder also means that a person finds another person very beautiful, but some other person will think that, no, he is not handsome, she is not beautiful. So it depends on the person. So
what this sentence mean is, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder means it's all relative.
True. Physical beauty depends on who looks at it.
And how to relate that beauty to the Dhamma. Well, just now I said, when you look with all your attention to a beautiful flower, at that moment, it's because you are beautiful.
When you are beautiful, then you can see beauty.
When I see a bird, I love it so much. It's not just an animal. It's something wonderful. It's a mystery. Everything is a mystery.
I think
we don't have much time left. So anybody want to ask any more questions?
If nobody asks any more questions, we will conclude our Dhamma talk.
Wow, this is something mind-boggling.
Pain is joy. Joy is pain.
You have to know one to understand the other.
Well, I can understand that. Let me tell you a very short story about a person. The person's name is
Dr. Frankel.
I don't remember the first name. His name is Dr. Frankel.
He was a Jew, and he was sent to
one of the concentration camps
in the Second World War. He lost all of his family, including his wife with a child in her womb. But he survived. The only person in the family survived. He came out
after the end of the Second World War. And because of that tremendous loss and pain he suffered, he became a better person. And he found living, just living, just being alive, joyful, wonderful. And he lived a long life. He lived for more than 90 years.
And he remarried, but he loved people for who they are, not for what they are.
He loved everything. He wrote many books.
So some people become
some people learn to be joyful after they have been through tremendous pain.
So sometimes pain is a kind of lesson to wake us up. Come on, wake up. Wake up. And also sometimes pain is a lesson to let us to teach us to let go. Let go, let go. Why are you holding on to something so painful? This is not the only thing you have in life.
There are so many other things in life. You can be happy.
And joy also, if you get attached to it, it will become the cause of your pain again. Even when something makes you happy, don't get attached to it. It's okay to enjoy it, to feel it, but also let go of joy.
Don't hold on to joy. You cannot hold on to anything, either on pain or on joy.
So the teaching of the Buddha is to let go. So to learn to enjoy something without wanting to own it is a good way to live your life. You will be happier if you learn to enjoy something without wanting to possess it.
Just like looking at the moon. I enjoy looking at the moon, but I can't have it.
So thank you for whoever wrote this. I'll keep it. It's really wonderful.
Sayadaw U Jotika was born on August 5, 1947, into a Muslim family in Myanmar. In his youth, he was sent to study at a Christian seminary, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering and conducting extensive research in science, psychology, and Western philosophy.…