When Your Worldview Starts to Crumble: a Chance to Wake Up | Br. Phap Linh (Br. Spirit)

[Music]

good morning dear s today is the 10th of

December in the year 2023 we are in the

full moon meditation Hall in New Hamlet

Plum

Village and we are uh maybe more than

halfway through our Reigns Retreat 2023

2024 with the theme of

um Buddhist

ethics or Global Ethics how do

we

uh what kind of offering can we make to

the world towards a global

ethic

um so some of you have been following

Tai's uh talks

every uh

Wednesday and maybe some of you have not

so I'll do a little bit of

review uh

with what we've been what we've been

building up over the last few

weeks and

um I

uh yeah some some of you who know me you

might be a little bit

worried because I have a a bad

reputation for um giving talks that are

very

long so uh I'm going to do my best not

to go on too long I it's quite hard to

see the clock from here so you might you

might have to help

me

uh so why do we need

ethics right because we we want to do

the right thing we don't want to do the

wrong

thing and it turns out that that's not

very

easy it should be easy maybe we think it

should be easy I I know what the right

thing to do is

mostly but maybe sometimes we don't know

exactly it's not so

easy um it feels maybe as if we should

be able to

um to know intuitively just to feel in

every moment what is right what is wrong

to make decisions based on

that but I

just I just want to point out that

[Music]

um if we look at the state of the world

now it seems that

uh not everything is going well right

there is some suffering going

on and so if ethic was so

easy you know maybe we would be in a

better

situation so in a way there's plenty of

evidence that shows us that it's not

that easy to do the right

thing I remember one time Tai shared a g

with

us um that kind of sums up the whole of

the Buddhist

teaching and if I remember rightly it

goes something like this the good things

do them

the bad

things don't do

them purify your mind this is the

teaching of all

Buddhists seems so

straightforward the good things yeah

just do them bad things don't do

them so why is it so

hard because we don't always

know uh what the good things are and we

don't always know what the bad things

are so we need a system of Ethics to try

to help us figure

out how to decide how to

distinguish the good from The Bad The

Helpful from the

harmful and um even if we know sometimes

what the good things

are and what the bad things are

sometimes we still do the bad things

even though we know or the good thing we

we struggle to do it even though we know

so

why because we have

habits we have very strong

habits and we have blind

spots we have a kind of uh ignorance

about

ourselves so hopefully in the course of

uh today's session we can look a little

bit more

into the nature of those blind

spots um and help each other to see

them all right so this is

review so we have uh normative

ethics

and hopefully by now everybody knows

what that refers to um but basically

it's it's the the rules what's written

down the precepts the mindfulness

trainings and so on what can be written

down and

systematized um but and we know we're

very lucky you know Tai offered us a

beautiful set of uh mindfulness

trainings the five mindfulness trainings

the 14 mindfulness trainings

they're very very

good

um but they're not perfect and we know

that there are some situations where

it's hard to tell uh what we should do

how to behave how to decide um so we

have applied

ethics and that is May maybe we can say

that that is

um uh the willingness to look at the

difficult

cases and to um make

exceptions and to try to decide Case by

case so that means that we are going to

uh make a determined effort to look at

the cases that are hard to decide and

then we want to have a way to figure out

in those cases that are hard to decide

what

uh sort of how to decide how to think

about those difficult cases so in the

course of the last few weeks T has been

offering us um these

wonderful principles or pairs of

principles um to help us figure

out these difficult cases so I'm not

going to mention all of them but

um we start with

uh pain and pleasure so in principle we

know that we want to do things that

reduce harm suffering pain and increase

well-being and

happiness so it should be should be

fairly

straightforward this is

cor and

lack and then

um but as T has given many examples

we

we know that there are some kinds of um

suffering that are actually beneficial

for us that we need some suffering to

learn to grow uh and to develop our

compassion so it's not enough just to

decide on the basis of pain and pleasure

we need to ask ourselves is it

beneficial or

unbeneficial

no

hi but how do we even know if it's

beneficial or unbeneficial there are

times we might think something is

beneficial um out of

uh uh out of

self-interest but we might not have a

clear mind we might not have the clarity

to even decide or we might be yeah we

might be being selfish

unconsciously so we need to know whether

we are

deluded or

awake

so in a sense this

uh this pair of principles

informs this pair of principles we know

that we we are not going to be able to

make a good decision about whether

something is beneficial or unbeneficial

for example if we're

angry or if we're very

upset we know in that moment is probably

not the best time to try to determine

what is beneficial and what is

unbeneficial we need to take care of

that emotion

first we want to be clear

we want to have Clarity we know that we

need Clarity in order to determine

what's beneficial or

unbeneficial uh and to

determine what leads ultimately to

well-being or to Ill

beinging and um we have another

pair which is to

open or to Bar the

way

which means that

um we know that in principle this system

cannot be perfect we know that there

will be some exceptions to the rule we

need we know that we need some

flexibility uh and that in some

situations we will need to uh um

adapt the rule is not going to cover

every possible

circumstance so it's a kind of uh

there's a kind of humility in this

there's a humility about the status of a

normative ethic there's a humility even

about language about the ability our

ability to account for every

possibility in a in a written system so

we know that language is a map of

reality right it's it's a we can uh sort

of make an attempt to describe the

nature of reality in

language but we also know that language

is not the reality right the name is not

the thing if I say apple that's not a

real

apple right it's just a sign that points

towards

an

experience that you may or may not have

had if you've never eaten a kiwi and I

say

kiwi it's not much use to

you I could even describe I could use a

lot of language I could write a whole

book about you know a kiwi it's like a

little bit sour it's kind of sweet it's

green it's

juicy little bit furry on the outside

and you're like what what is this thing

but it's not Apple it's not really an

orange it's nothing like a

banana I could go on and on and on for

days and it would be essentially

useless maybe a little bit helpful but I

can't describe to you the experience of

kiwi no matter how many words I use you

have to

bite you have to see for

yourself so we know that language is

limited

and um so we know that anything we write

down any system of rules no matter how

careful we are no matter how much effort

we make is going to be limited it won't

account for every possibility and we

recognize that so we recognize that

there are some situations where we will

have to uh be flexible to

adjust

um and then I added uh to

uphold

and to

break

G

found

so

um in a sense this this is uh we apply

this pair of principles as a first

approximation so we know that

um the simplest thing that we can do is

to try to keep the precept right so we

have the precept we we try to keep it

whole we try not to break

it but when we apply all of the other

pairs of principles we may find that in

some rare situ situations to keep the

precept in the letter is actually to

break the precept in the spirit so Ty

gave the example that you know if in a

war

situation uh there is a

somebody uh trying to uh kill somebody

else and they they've hidden themselves

and you see where they where that person

is hidden and the uh assassin comes and

asks you where they are

right so in principle we don't lie so

our our commitment is to not

lie so we want to tell the truth so to

keep the precept in that situation is to

say oh yes they're hidden over

there but that's pretty obvious that at

a deeper level we are breaking a more

important precept which is to protect

life so in fact in order to keep the

precept we need to break the precept we

need to lie in some

situations so

um these these pairs of principles and

there's a few others that T's introduced

give us a kind of

uh a way to

um a way to work with the difficult

cases the cases that the rule the

written rule doesn't completely account

for but even that even these pairs of

principles although they are very very

helpful they're not quite enough so we

also need meta

ethics and this is maybe

where some people's eyes glaze

over and they're kind of like do we

really need to do we really need meta

ethics what the heck is that and meta

ethics has different branches so it

includes

Antics and

epistemology

oops and

ontology

um and so there's different systems of

meta ethics but uh we we have our meta

ethics and and Tai uh is trying to help

us to see what is our meta

ethics

um so in in Buddhist teaching we have a

we have semantics epistemology and

ontology as well so semantics we've

already looked at a little bit this

morning because in a sense it's the um

the UN the understanding of the status

of language

so what do we um how much trust do we

have in language to describe the true

nature of

reality and um in Buddhist terms maybe

not

much so we have What's called the

conventional

designation

which is

um the recognition that the the name of

a thing is not the thing we've already

looked at that a little bit with the

Apple

um and uh so we are a little bit uh wary

about language about how useful it is

and we're cautious that it might it

might lead

us in terms of epistemology we

um there's a lot of uh Buddhist

epistemology I'm not going to go too

much into it right now but we have

um in a sense it's it's how do we uh

determine what is knowable and what is

not

knowable what kind of deduction can we

rely on

can we use inference and deduction or is

there such a thing as direct insight

into the nature of a

thing

um and

uh and then we

have yeah so this is

the the

knowable and the not

knowable

it's like what is the what is the status

of our

knowledge how much do we rely

on on knowing even how much do we put

our faith in uh in

knowledge and then in terms of

ontology in a sense ontology could refer

to uh our worldview what do we believe

about the nature of

reality um and how do we determine the

nature of

reality so the

simplest uh thing that we could point to

here is is the notion of Right

View we are uh

instructed to uh to cultivate Right View

and I heard recently that one of uh one

of my brothers shared on the monastic

day that um after how many years of

practice 10 or 12 years that uh he

doesn't know what Right View is and he

doesn't know if he has it or not and he

doesn't know how to get

it so maybe it's worth looking at

because it seems to be quite

important um and how would we know if we

had

it and what what constitutes Right

View so when we take these three things

together the written system of Ethics

the precepts the mindfulness trainings

the applied ethics which is the

investigation of you know particular

cases difficult

cases and the way of

applying these pairs of principles right

because these pairs of principles on

their own if they're not applied

skillfully they don't they could

actually do more harm than good right so

the it's it's not enough uh just to have

a system we also need to have some kind

of uh

wisdom we need to have this right view

whatever it is and because maybe we

don't have it or we don't have it

completely we need a way to cultivate it

so in a sense if we ask what is our meta

ethics we could say well our meta ethics

is you know I think Ty said it's kind of

summed up by the HRA and so we could say

well it's the

uh

uh uh the view that is free from the

ideas of being and

non-being birth and

death uh and so on so we have all of

these pairs of principles pairs of uh

opposites in the heart sura that we

train to free ourselves

from

um but again even the heart Sutra if you

just read it over and over again it

won't

necessarily take you to the other Shore

somehow we need to have a a way to

practice it we need to have a way to

cultivate that Insight

together

um so all of these all of these things

function together any any one of these

on their own is not enough they all rely

on each

other

so what is it uh that prevents us from

having Right

View I spoke right at the beginning

about um our blind

spots and our

habits to me it's interesting to ask

myself how do

I how do I

know what my world view

is and how do I

know what my blind spots

are the point about blind spots is you

can't see them

right it's kind of obvious but so how do

I see them if I can't see

them well that's where you lot come in

it's very helpful having other people so

I asked myself this and I it seemed to

me that the only real time I see my

blind spots is when I make other people

suffer when I make other people suffer I

don't necessarily see my blind

spots but I could see my blind

spot I have a

chance if I have enough humility in that

moment to

pause and to ask

myself

oh what did I what did I do why why is

it that I made the other person

suffer if I'm not very curious then

maybe my first response is to say oh

well that's their problem

they have a wrong

perception they don't understand you

know I didn't I didn't mean to make them

suffer or maybe that's their

karma this is a Buddhist uh Buddhist

bypassing they need to suffer it's good

for

them see be

careful be careful with this not

necessarily

helpful so I need to have a little bit

of humidity and ask myself well am I

sure that

um am I sure that I see myself

clearly what if there's something that I

haven't seen so in a way it's the first

warning flag

uhoh something I've done or said seems

to have caused some Ripple in the world

of discomfort of Mones

of uh of suffering maybe I should check

maybe I can use this as a

mirror when I ask myself about my

worldview worldview is very interesting

because I think most of

us most of the

time don't realize that we even have a

world

viw because there is a kind of uh

assumption that what we see is the

world right that we are in touch with

reality and that

is the nature of things and you know

that that our perception is essentially

accurate but the Buddha comes along and

says no you know most of your

perceptions are wrong

perceptions and we go yes yes yes look

at all these people with wrong

perceptions

I can see that they have wrong

perceptions I don't know about

them so when when do I get to see my

worldview or when do we collectively get

to see our worldview in a sense I'm

putting it a little bit in the same

category as your blind

spots but it's a collective blind

spot so as long as things are

going more or less

okay as long as our culture is

relatively

unchallenged our world viiew is

essentially

invisible the time that it becomes

visible

is when it starts to

break when things start to go wrong

or when it's

challenged so it can be just by

um in the course of history as different

cultures mix our worldviews are

challenged because suddenly we are

confronted with people who have a very

different

worldview and again we have an

opportunity in that moment to see oh I

actually have a

worldview right but that's only one

possible reaction the other possible

reaction is look at all these people

they're so wrong they don't agree with

me they are bad and evil I Must Destroy

them and we've had that reaction many

times we still

do but if we take it as an

opportunity it may allow us

to to actually see something that we

couldn't see

before so

um maybe take a slightly less charged

example we can look at um scientific

progress so

um science

uh formulates

theories

hypotheses which we then translate into

experiments we do the

experiments um we make a prediction we

do the experiment and we test the

prediction right was the prediction

accurate or

inaccurate so the theory provides the

prediction and then we test the

prediction with an

experiment and um if the theory is good

it makes good predictions all the

experiments go

well we we and we keep making more

experiments until at a certain point we

make an experiment we make a prediction

we test it and uh theed ition

fails

oh what

happened maybe I should do the

experiment again

check maybe I made a mistake in my

measurement maybe I need to redo my

calculations based on the

theory and it goes wrong again I make

another wrong prediction so again I am

faced with a choice I could

say well it's obviously not a very

important

experiment let's not worry about that

let's focus on all the experiments that

make nice predictions and they're all

good we're going to that must be a

special case not very

important and we've done that many many

times and we have

refused to look at the evidence which is

in front of

us um for example we had a theory that

uh the Earth was the center of the

universe right and the the sun went

around the earth and all the other

planets too and and we had a very nice

Theory called telic epicycles it's

actually quite complicated to account

for the movements of the planets and the

Sun but you can do it if you try really

hard and you kind of squint and you

know but then there started to be am

mounting uh accumulation of evidence

that showed other things for examples

for example that the moons of Jupiter

were orbiting

Jupiter not

us and the first thing that we did was

to deny the evidence and say no no no no

no

no that must be wrong that's not

happening that's not happening because

the theory is right the theory is good

everybody agrees

please don't you know don't rock the

boat these are being very

inconvenient um but if we uh

accept to question the theory then we

have a chance to

see the

Paradigm which which is the kind of

hidden context for that theory

the world viw that

underlies the way that theory is

constructed so

um the point I'm making here is that we

only see the Paradigm when it starts to

fail when it starts to break so in the

present

moment one of the

uh paradigms perhaps that we

live

within is that

um growth economic growth is

good that's a kind of uh

Paradigm but we could look at the

evidence and say

well we seem to

be

uh having an increasing uh gap between

the very wealthy and and the very

poor we seem to be

destroying uh our environment at a rapid

rate we seem to be destroying

um many different species uh many

different species are at risk of

Extinction in the course of our

lifetimes uh the last 40 50 60 years the

population of wild animals on our

average has reduced by

2/3 it's an

absolutely

horrendous

number it would be much more convenient

and comfortable just

to ignore

that it's profoundly uncomfortable to

realize that the way that we are

living the Privileges that we enjoy the

comfort that we enjoy the fact that we

get to to travel go on a holiday have

more than one house more than one

car that these our our way our very way

of

life may actually be destroying the

possibility of life for ourselves and

for perhaps

everyone but the evidence is

mounting that there's a

problem right that we're destroying the

uh the fabric of Life on this planet so

again we have an

opportunity and perhaps the opportunity

is to

recognize the kind of worldview the kind

of Paradigm that has given rise to this

way of

life that until it causes problems it's

not challenged we don't see it it

remains hidden like our blind

spots but when it starts to break and it

is breaking

now I think we we feel the

Brokenness in

ourselves when we start to allow

ourselves to feel that

pain then we we have an opportunity to

ask

ourselves what is this uh worldview that

has given rise to this situation what is

this way of thinking where

perceiving could

it could it change could there be

another worldview another way of seeing

another way of understanding that would

do that would give rise to less harm

less

damage let's enjoy the sound of the bell

and don't worry if it's not

clear uh because we're going to we're

going to go over this a few times in in

a few different ways and I hope yeah by

the end of the session will be a little

bit clearer what I'm getting

[Music]

[Music]

at

[Music]

[Music]

there's

a passage in the the

Bible in the um Gospel of

Luke um which tells the story of when

Jesus was on the cross he was being

crucified and

um the

soldiers were

uh uh had taken all his

clothes and were casting lots to uh to

who would get to keep his clothes and

and sell them so he's already on the

cross and he

says forgive them

Father for they know not what they

do forgive

them for they know not what they

do so what does that

mean

it's first of all it's quite

extraordinary that he's on the cross

he's been whipped and beaten and uh

humiliated

and um

tried unjustly and now he's essentially

being tortured he knows he's going to

die and yet in that moment he doesn't

think of himself he thinks of these

soldiers who are the ones who have just

nailed him to the

cross and his thought is not of blame or

hatred but it's of

forgiveness it's quite

extraordinary in itself but what does it

mean because at first

it kind of seems obvious but then the

more you look at it it's not so obvious

they know not what they do why not they

do know they they nailed him to the

Cross they know exactly what they did so

what does he mean he doesn't mean

that you know literally they don't know

what they

did let's say that uh you're a

soldier and and um you have to press the

bomb you press the button that drops a

bomb and you know that

uh civilians will be killed

children right we know there are people

in that situation right now and they

still press the button that drops the

bomb do they not know

what they're

doing of course they know they know

they're pressing the the button they

know what's going to happen they know

that

a a bomb will be or a missile will be

launched they know that an explosion

will happen they know that people will

be killed they know that civilians will

be

killed so what does it

mean CU those soldiers who put Jesus on

the cross crucified

him

and they knew what they were

doing but they were just following

orders right they didn't really have a

choice as far as they

knew uh Jesus had been tried along with

the two other criminals who were beside

him you know they were just just another

day but the implication here is

that

if they

knew if they really knew what they were

doing they wouldn't do

it so what is

it what what would they have to

know in order to not

do what they

did what would you have to know

in order to not press the

button what would you have to know in

order to

disobey the

order in order to take

responsibility and in order

to probably lose your job or be

punished may be

worse there's a very beautiful film

um called a hidden Life by Terrence

Malik the director Terrence Malik and it

tells the story of a Catholic uh

Pastor Austrian who lived in a remote

Village in the Alps at the time of the

second world

war and

um his name was

France apologies for my pronunciation if

you're German or Austrian

uh

France yeah that's right

um so the film is about his story and

it's a true

story uh during the second world war

there was uh all men were conscripted

into the army and one of the things they

had to do was um pledge their allegiance

to Adolf

Hitler they had to um you know declare

their uh

their

uh yeah their

allegiance and he

refused he said no I won't I won't do

that and um it was very

inconvenient and all the people in the

village said uh oh come on just you know

just say it you don't have to mean

it right it doesn't mean like you just

say it just you know it's going to make

a mess it's going to be very

awkward

um so just say it just get it over with

it's fine but he said no I I won't do

it I don't

uh I don't feel

that what is happening is in accord with

my deep

values this is not in accord with

uh with my commitment to

love to the teachings of

Christianity I feel like my ethics are

being compromised and I won't do

it and the case

escalated so um first it went to the

local Village

Authority

and um the mayor it made everybody in

the village very uncomfortable because

of course everybody else had done

it whether they believed it or not but

they had all done

it you know and then the Jews were

expelled disappeared

graded the men were conscripted had to

go to the Army he was taken he was

conscripted he put in put on the UN form

and then when they lined them all up in

the barracks and they had to pledge

allegiance and he said no I won't do

it but then it's very awward for the

commander because here's this man he

hasn't done the thing so now you have to

imprison him you have to have a trial

you have to have a court

Marshal and every time somebody would

try to convince him the bishop tried to

convince him different friends would

come and say come on just don't be so uh

rigid

think of your

family you're making it so difficult for

them what if you get thrown in prison

and they don't see you anymore your two

daughters your

wife do it for

them but he said no and he said no I'm

saying no for

them and the case escalated and

escalated and

escalated and eventually he was executed

and he was given so many

opportunities to back

down and he knew exactly what was

happening but he never backed

down and the final uh you know the

general who was head of the Court

Marshal the

tribunal said but look this achieves

nothing your act of resistance is

useless it's invisible you will die in

the

dark nobody will

see it won't make any

difference and

still he refused to

compromise his

principles and U at the end of the film

there's a quote from uh George Elliot

from the book Middle March it's very

beautiful I'd like to read it to

you it goes like this for the growing

good of the

world is partly dependent on

unhistoric

acts the growing good of the world I

hope the good is growing in the world is

partly dependent on unhistoric Acts

it means the things that we don't see

that we don't read

about and that things are not so ill

with you and me as they might have

been is half owing to the number who

lived Faithfully a hidden

life and rest in unvisited

tombs the English is a little bit it's

like old little bit Old English I hope

hope you can understand is it clear do I

need to translate it one more

time for the growing good of the world

is partly dependent on

unhistoric

acts and that things are not so

ill with you and me as they might have

been things are not as bad as they could

have

been right so we imagine things could be

worse than then this right actually is

pretty good right now this not so

bad and how come it's this

good is it because of the big dramatic

acts the things that we read about in

history books or is it lots and lots and

lots and lots of tiny hidden actions

that we will never know

about that's what this is pointing to

that things are not so ill

with you and me as they might have been

is half owing to the number the people

who lived Faithfully a hidden

life and rest in unvisited tombs

unvisited Graves it means no nobody reme

remembers them nobody remembers their

name but what they did

mattered and it it created this

tapestry of

good

and the interesting thing about this act

is that actually throughout the whole

film as you are learning about this

story what you realize is

that in fact his act was not

forgotten the story was told it's being

told

now that's not why he did

it but it was much more powerful than

every everybody around him thought

everybody around him said this will be

erased it will make no difference you

will be executed and

forgotten you are

powerless but he knew he had a different

kind of power that his Integrity had

power

so what what did he

know that allowed

him to

resist even

until

death to pay that

price and if we think about um the

situation of the world

now right now uh the cop is happening in

um in the United Arab

Emirates um and one of the things that's

being decided that's being discussed is

whether or not to

agree on the language about uh phasing

out fossil fuels so so far the fossil

fuel Lobby has been successful in all of

the previous cops until now

fossil fuels in fact have not even been

mentioned it's quite

remarkable so what they are happy for us

to put in the agreements is to talk

about the

emissions right carbon

dioxide so they say yes yes we should

reduce

emissions but they are very

resistant to

including the cause of those emissions

which is fossil

fuels they don't want us to look at that

and they want us to instead look at uh

you know how we can draw down carbon

from the atmosphere

with essentially unproven carbon capture

Technologies for the moment I think uh

the best carbon capture mechanical

carbon capture that we have um can uh

over the course of a Year's operation I

think it can absorb absorb um the last

uh 12

seconds of greenhouse gas

emissions

so not quite sure that that one's going

to work but that's what the fossil fuel

industry would like us to to

believe because then it allows us to

keep burning more fossil fuels and in

fact there's a letter that was just

leaked uh recently by OPEC OPEC is the

uh you know sort of group of oil

producing

Nations um it's a cartel essentially and

uh they were writing to all of their

member

states and saying uh we in fact you know

we want you to resist and refuse this

language of phasing out fossil

fuels this is very

bad bad for what bad for business

bad for their

business but are they are they the enemy

these people are they

evil are they the

problem are they going

to be the ones to tip us over the brink

to

catastrophic climate breakdown tipping

points

it would be in a sense

uh

convenient to see this group of people

as the

enemy to blame somebody to have somebody

to

blame the oil CEOs the billionaires the

corrupt politicians the corrupt

journalists

and

um how is it that they can do what

they're

doing and one of the things that is

being said for example about the company

Exxon is that they

knew in the 80s already they had done

lots of scientific studies and they they

knew uh about the consequences of

emitting carbon dioxide of of burning

more oil that it would cause heating

that it would cause potentially

catastrophic

uh breakdown of our life support system

they already knew in the in the ' 80s so

can we forgive

them if they

knew again the implication of this is

that

if they had really

known they wouldn't have done it and

they wouldn't be doing it

now so what is

it what is it that they didn't know what

is it that they don't know what is it

that we don't

know that allows us to

continue

with our

lifestyle to continue to

uh pretty much ignore the problem we

could do a little bit of recycling and

you

know feel bad about taking the

plane

right still take the plane but we feel

bad about

it so what would we have to no in order

to

[Music]

stop I want to talk about

um cognitive

dissonance so

um

cognitive dissonance is is fundamentally

a feeling of

discomfort it's the feeling of

discomfort when we recognize that there

is a mismatch between our

actions and the values that we claim to

hold

right fundamentally it is a feeling in

the body of

discomfort and we don't like

it when we encounter cognitive

dissonance there's a few different ways

that we can

react so let's say for

example

um

that we've decided uh to go on a diet

right and

yet suddenly you find yourself eating a

donut right so suddenly it's like I

don't know how it happened but there you

are with your

[Music]

donut so maybe for a moment you feel a

little bit

uncomfortable well you know I was going

to do this diet but donut so good so you

have some

options I'm broadly these kind of

there's four four ways that this can go

so first of all you can change your

behavior no more

donut put it down don't have to finish

it uh but you know

maybe see let's see if we have any other

options oh we could

justify we could justify our

actions I shouldn't be too

rigid come on I'm a human being I had a

hard

day I should be kind to myself right

don't we practice

self-compassion come

on don't be so dog

atic I'm allowed to

cheat I'm a

[Music]

human of course we never do

that or we

justify

by

adding other

behaviors so we say oh it's okay I'll go

for a run

later whether or not we actually go for

the run it's another question but in

that moment ah it's fine I'll

compensate right I'll plant a tree take

the flight plant a tree it's

okay so in that moment we feel better we

may or may not do the thing but in that

moment the cognitive dissonance is

resolved and that's our main aim we just

don't like the

feeling of not being in accord with our

own

values so we will do all kinds of things

to avoid that

feeling we can also

ignore or

deny the

evidence right you remember looking at

the moons of Jupiter going around said

no no no

no that's obviously not

happening was it

cernus who was um burned by the church

is it kernus or capler kernus no Galileo

Galileo Galileo galile

sorry he said

um something like this a

and yet it

moves when he was put on

trial and the church said we will burn

you for heresy you have to deny

recant repent your heretical views and

he said and yet it

moves I cannot deny the evidence look

there it is going

around what am I going to what do you

want me to do about it look I am not

prepared to deny

it and so he was

killed or not no he wasn't killed right

they just threatened him but he thought

he was going to be

killed he was so he spent a long time

house arrest right still not good and he

still wouldn't recant so my history is a

little

vague but with the donut we could be

like oh Donut's not so bad you

know it's not that

unhealthy just make something

up

adjust so we need to know that we do

this to avoid

an uncomfortable

feeling

right there's

another uh principle I want to offer us

which is uh called the Pyramid of

choice this is a

pyramid so this is a a

metaphor that um describes what happens

to us when

we uh it it's to account for our

Behavior and the way that we adjust our

views and our

values to account for our Behavior so we

used to think that humans people are

motivated by reward and punishment

that's

behaviorism right so that we we do

things because either we think that

we're going to be rewarded or or

punished we do things or we don't do

them turns out this is not the whole

story so to illustrate this we think

take a take a case uh of uh two young

people students who have to take an

exam and

um they are very similar in their

beliefs their ideology their

politics ethics they essentially you

know they have the same they hold the

same kind of views

and in the exam they come across a

question that uh they don't know how to

solve right they blank uhoh and they

know like if I don't answer this

question I will

fail right so this is a hypothetical

situation we imagine Just Go With It

okay so they know I'm going to

fail and they have an opportunity to

cheat it's easy they won't get

caught right so they know that they can

can cheat and they can get away with

it and so they're in a

dilemma is

uncomfortable right ethically I you know

I shouldn't really cheat

but if I do then I pass I can get a good

job everything will be great and if I

don't I'm going to fail is going to be

really over big problem and so the

choice the moment of choice is

uncomfortable and typically what happens

to us at a moment of discomfort is that

we jump to a conclusion just to avoid

the discomfort of having to make that

decision and the choice might be almost

random it's not

really

uh it we we we don't make the choice

based on some deep uh reflection we just

make the choice in order not to feel the

the awkward situation of being uh

undecided so to get rid of that disc

Comfort we just decide so one of them

decides to cheat one of them decides not

to

cheat so then what happens typically is

that we

adjust our views and our values to fit

the choice that we

made right usually we think it's the

other way around we think we have

beliefs and values and we make choices

based on those beliefs in fact very

often we make

decisions sometimes

without thinking through them very

carefully in a rush because we don't

like being undecided and then we adjust

our values and our views to justify the

decision that we already

took and what can happen over time is

that our values and our our belief

systems can so in the case of these two

people they are standing at the top of

the

pyramid and they have to decide either I

cheat or I

don't and they have the same values and

opinions and they make their decision

and then after some time maybe after a

few

weeks uh their values and their beliefs

start to

diverge

so if you think about it they both have

to give up something

in order to get something else so one of

them gives up their

integrity in order to get the

grade the other one gives up the the the

grade the exam in order to keep their

integrity

and if you've given up your integrity

what can happen is that after some time

in order to reduce the discomfort of

that the cognitive dissonance of

that you decide that actually cheating

is not so

bad

cheating in some

cases is okay didn't cause any harm look

I got a job now I have a family I have a

career I wouldn't have been able to do

any of this if I hadn't cheated so it's

not that

bad right and then you look at um people

who are very dogmatic about never

cheating as being kind of

like you know why is so

rigid you may even start to dislike

people like

that for the person who didn't cheat

they sacrificed passing the exam and so

gradually they find themselves being

more and more judgmental about people

who

cheat those people are

bad because they were tempted and they

know they could have gone that way but

didn't so they need to feel good about

not having made that

decision so you

entrench cheating is

disgraceful you know we can come to

dislike or even hate the other person

and we find that our views become very

very

Divergent so

um

this can maybe help

us

to to understand that our our views the

world view that we

have is

also um being adjusted constantly to

justify the choices that we

made let's say you're a monastic in PL

Village and maybe at some point you were

tempted to leave monastic

life but you

stayed but maybe you were tempted and

maybe at a certain point you start to

feel that anybody who lives monastic

life has betrayed their aspiration how

could they you you become a little harsh

a little critical about those people and

let's say you went the other way you

actually left you decided to

leave you know maybe at some point you

really believed in the monastic life but

then you decided to leave and you need

to justify that decision you say a look

at all those monastics in Plum Village

trapped you know they're not really

free look at them just following

rules what kind of life is that you need

to justify to yourself the decision that

you already made so I think it's very

important just as a mirror to realize

that our our

beliefs might be more fluid than we

think let's enjoy the sound of the

Bell

[Music]

[Music]

so the question to me is when we when we

know that we have these

Tendencies what do we what do we do

about it how can we train

ourselves to be able to resist these

tendencies in

ourselves um

if I ask

myself what it was that the soldiers who

crucified Jesus

didn't

know I think

partly the way I can relate to it is

by

[Music]

um is by looking at cognitive dissonance

and looking at how

we uh avoid knowing what we do in fact

know and one of the ways that we do that

is to basically avoid feeling

anything because our body doesn't

lie right our feelings don't

lie and um cognitive dissonance is

fundamentally that it's a feeling of

discomfort the body is telling us

hey something's

up so one of the things that we can do

is ignore

that and our culture really helps us to

do

that there's so many ways is that we can

ignore what we're feeling that we can

distract ourselves we can distract

ourselves with work we can distract

ourselves with

entertainment um with consumption of

various kinds there all kinds of ways to

avoid feeling what we are

feeling and we are profoundly averse to

any kind of

discomfort especially a kind of moral

discomfort so we will go to Great

Lengths to avoid avoid feeling what

we're feeling so if we put this the

other way around if we ask ourselves

well what would I do if I knew about

this tendency in myself I would want to

find a way of training

myself to accept

discomfort I would want to find a way to

train myself to be

comfortable with discomfort to allow

myself to feel

it

and I would want to investigate and ask

myself what uh I I want to look very

carefully at the kinds of things I do to

avoid feeling

it and the ways I have of justifying my

behavior so

um we know that we are interested in the

cultivation of right view okay and you

know everybody's heard the heart suut a

few times I me know it's something

something to do with emptiness right T

said the other day that emptiness

Embraces form and form Embraces

emptiness this is into beinging of

emptiness and

form and uh we know that understanding

emptiness has something to do with

letting go of the notion of self right

because emptiness is emptiness of what

only one

thing separate self right okay you know

all this this is

good so it has something to do with self

there must be something about the view

of self which is not right view okay so

we can look a little bit more deeply

into self View and Buddhism is great

because it has lots of lists and there's

a list of four different kinds of self

view that may be an

obstacle

in modern psychology

um we can look at uh the Pyramid of

choice as being a way to maintain our

self positivity bias so the self-

positivity bias is basically the belief

that I'm okay I'm a good

person I may be better than other people

right

basically um and it's it self-

positivity bias is uh what's operating

you know in every kind of action movie

or in pretty much every movie right

there's goodies and baddies and it's

very clear right and it's very easy that

we we can all identify with the goodies

that we are basically on the side of the

good and the right and the baddies are

very

clear it's morally unambiguous and we

feel so

good our self- positivity bias is

confirmed we like

that um but there's a problem with the

self- positivity bias because it implies

an other negativity

bias right if we're the good guys it

means somebody else maybe the oil CEOs

are the bad

guys and if we are committed in a deep

way to nonviolence and to peace on Earth

then we know that maybe this is not the

way to

go not to take the path of blaming

others

of making others responsible for all the

bad things we have to see in the light

of

interbeing we have to be able to see in

the face of the person that we think of

as our enemy our own

face we have to learn learn to see the

world as a

mirror that when we ask what Am I who am

I it's not just this but it's also

that so we want to uproot the self-

positivity bias and Buddhism is a bit

more precise so we have

um self-

ignorance this is

uh

Atma

mooha and that is the wrong view that I

am this body this body is me I am these

feelings these feelings are

me I am these perceptions I am these

thoughts I am this

consciousness

right so you have these passages in the

sutras they're very challenging you get

the opposite it's like I am not this

body this body is not me right I am not

these feelings these feelings are not me

I am not these perceptions these

perceptions are not me and you kind of

like

really how does that work we should be

challenged by that it should be maybe

interesting because this self- ignorance

this belief that I am this and I am not

that

leads to the belief that what happens to

other people effectively doesn't really

matter to

me it's not really of any concern to

me doesn't affect

me so I can do it because nothing's

happening to me I can press the button I

can drop the bomb

doesn't affect

me so if we don't want to drop the

bomb we have to challenge that we have

to learn to see the other as ourself we

have to free oursel from the idea that

this is me and that is

not so we have self

View

[Music]

this is

better self view is uh

Atma the false view that self is eternal

and

independent right so it's not so

dissimilar to self- ignorance but it's a

little bit it's pointing out the belief

in an independent and eternal

self as a potential obstacle then we

have self-

pride at

Mano and this is the attitude that we're

better more intelligent more beautiful

more

important um it's very interesting that

uh at least In some cultures this is

very very very strong so they did some

experiments with the teaching staff at a

university I think the University of

Nebraska in the

US

68% of the teaching staff rated

themselves in the top

25% of uh for for teaching

ability it's interesting right so 68%

believe that they are the top

25% there's a

problem 94% of them believed that they

were above

average

intelligence okay relative to the

university 87% of

uh students at Stanford I think in the

business

school

87% rated their performance as above

average

really interesting huh so we could ask

ourselves in the sang How do we rate our

practice definitely above average

right but if you know 95% of us rate

ourselves as above average and we have a

uh self- Pride

problem

maybe the average is very

high then we have

self-love at

Massa doesn't sound good does it

Adas so it's when our actions our speech

reflects constantly that we are

self-obsessed

so it's a a mirror to look

into and um yeah maybe it makes us a

little bit

uncomfortable to

look but I believe because of this when

we know about this means we we should be

inclined to go to towards our discomfort

the kinds of things that we want to

avoid maybe are things that we should

pay attention to look

at change our views

about so

um

I would

suggest that the attention we pay to the

world is a moral

act

attention because the kind of attention

we pay changes the nature

of what is

manifested right we know that according

to

non-duality the perceiver and the

perceived arise

together they co-

arise and so the quality and the nature

of our attention determines to a great

extent what it is that we perceive and

how we perceive it why is this

important let's say we've been

hurt maybe we've

suffered maybe

um we've experienced some

trauma that can give rise

to uh feelings of not being

safe feelings of uh

shame feelings of intense bodily uh

horror

discomfort and um the way we relate to

those

feelings may be

important if

we consistently position

ourselves as the victim

of what

happened then we may never have a chance

to to get out of that suffering of

course we can we can calm and we can

soothe the nervous system up to a point

and that's good and

helpful but we won't be able to liberate

ourselves from what happened as long as

we maintain the belief that we are the

victim of that

situation so let's say that uh an

unpleasant feeling

arises the quality of attention that I

give to that feeling matters it makes a

difference if I believe

that the object of my life is not to

feel any

discomfort to avoid at any cost all

discomfort

then I am at

risk of this of cognitive dissonance of

this I am at risk of doing things and

allowing myself to do things that are

fundamentally and profoundly against my

values my

beliefs because I've trained myself to

avoid discomfort but there is an

alternative

path so uh T off off us the Mantra this

is a happy

moment right which is very difficult if

you're

suffering especially let's say you've

suffered some serious

trauma and when that flashback or that

memory is

present it seems like uh a little bit

unrealistic to say this is a happy

moment I know that when I first heard

that teaching from Tai I did not like it

one

bit like this is not a happy moment this

is a suffering moment and I have a right

to

suffer but um I believe that part of our

meta ethic part of our system of

training for the cultivation of Right

View and the cultivation of uh the

ability

to apply the pairs of criteria that Tai

has offered us

effectively is a training in learning to

be comfortable with

discomfort right we know that our

current Paradigm is leading us on the

path of

destruction and we know we need a

change but it's very challenging very

uncomfortable to resist the force of

collective habit which is sweeping us

along it's much easier to say well you

know I just need to look after number

one I need to take care of my family I'm

going to take that job at the

bank yeah it's not completely in line

with my ethics but you

know it can't be that bad you know

probably those scientists are

exaggerating you know maybe it won't be

such a catastrophe we have all kinds of

ways to avoid the fundamental discomfort

of what we already

know so if we are determined to resist

if we are determined to be part of that

new paradigm that needs to

emerge we need to be comfortable with

the discomfort so what is the training

that allows

us to do that what is the training that

allows us to change our

views right what is the training that

allows us to face our cognitive diss

dissonance and go you know what I have

been ignoring the

evidence I was

wrong I'm okay with that I want to learn

from that I want to feel that oh I did

cause these people to

suffer let me investigate that let me

use that as a mirror to see my blind

spots

so yes

time okay let's make this

short this is a happy

moment might be too

challenging so I have a sequence for you

you can experiment with it might be

easier

this is a survivable

moment when you're really

suffering everything every cell in your

body is screaming out

for anything to avoid this feeling you

want to pick up your phone you want to

grab a book you want to get something to

eat you want to have a conversation go

somewhere just do something but just

don't allow myself to feel this it's

it's

unbearable so what is the step that we

can take in that

moment to avoid the path that we know so

well the path of distraction the path of

Avoid of avoidance the path of business

as usual individually and

collectively so for me that first step

is something like okay I don't like

it but this is a survivable moment

I really don't like it

but it's not going to kill

me even though I kind of feel like it

will but I can I can try as a hypothesis

let me just test that hypothesis okay

okay I

survived okay so what's next this is a

tolerable

moment yeah okay it's tolerable yes have

to give a dama talk

but it's okay I can bear

it this is an okay

moment see

gredy like yeah

okay it's okay it's not that bad so

staying with the feeling we're training

ourselves to learn to be comfortable

with discomfort because we know that

that's an antidote to cognitive

dissonance we know that this is the this

is the root of Paradigm change of being

willing to change our

views is being able to

tolerate the discomfort of the evidence

that contradicts or the gap between our

actions and our

values so we need to to learn how to do

this it's survivable it's tolerable it's

okay this is an interesting

moment okay oh yeah I don't still don't

like it much but I could get a little

curious about it okay this is an

interesting

moment this is a new

moment oh impermanence it's a little

little tiny seed of insight coming in

this moment is not the same as the last

moment it's a new moment that makes it

more

bearable I can stay with it a little bit

longer maybe I can even challenge the

feeling of not being safe by noticing

that this is a safe

moment I am not in danger

this is an okay

moment maybe this is a nonu

moment

oh

oh that's

interesting maybe I am not the victim of

this moment

maybe there is no ey which is standing

outside of and independent From This

Moment being the victim of this moment

instead what is AR

[Music]

Rising maybe this is an interdependent

Co Rising

moment oh that's interesting see a

little bit of heart Sutra getting in

there it's a way that we can apply these

insights actually experience it directly

check look at what you are seeing and

feeling

now this is a nonu

moment what I see is not me I see

you in

here right what you see is not you it's

me and everyone

else we are made of each other in this

moment it's very interesting

this is a fascinating

moment maybe even this is a wonderful

moment and maybe this is a happy

moment that we need to be

creative to find a

way to transform our

view about the nature of suffering

to realize that it is not something that

we have to avoid it may be our greatest

teacher it might not even be

suffering not in the way that we thought

of

it the belief that this suffering is

intolerable and should not be

endured is only only works from the

point of view of of being a separate

self and being a

victim so if we can find ways to

challenge

that then

maybe we have the possibility of

becoming

free and realizing that that thing that

we called intolerable is

tolerable the thing that we called

uncomfortable is actually

fine the gap between our

actions and our values is

interesting that actually what calls us

really is to change our way of

acting to be more in tune with our deep

values maybe once we start to release

that view of all these different views

of self what results is love the Insight

of into

being

maybe this is what they didn't

know they didn't know that they were

doing it to

themselves if you think that you are

separate you can do terrible things but

if you know that you're

not maybe you can't do those things

anymore maybe you can't drop that bomb

anymore so we have to find a way of

training ourselves practically every day

in this Insight of into being like we

all get it intellectually it's not that

hard but can we maintain that Insight in

the moments when we are uncomfortable

when we are suffering when we believe

ourselves to be the

victim because until we

do I think we will continue business as

usual

so maybe this becomes forgive

them for they do not have Right

View pen refuses to

comply forgive them for they do not have

the Insight of into

being and maybe we can in the them we

include

ourselves forgive

us for we do not yet have the Insight of

into

being

we don't live by it

fully and the Insight of into being is

love and so I come back to this notion

of our attention the quality of our

attention that we

bring to ourselves to the other to our

own suffering is a moral

act when we Face our

suffering although the thing that we

want to do is avoid it when we can

follow this progression like this

tolerable it's okay

survivable okay I can be with it then

maybe we have a chance to love it

to see oh my poor moment my poor present

moment I have neglected you I have

avoided

you and all you wanted was love but

that's a that's a quality of

attention which changes the

world which can maybe allow us to hold

true to our deeper values

maybe allow us to do what France yeisha

did thank

[Music]

you

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

for

for