Uncertainty | Dharma Talk With Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Brahm explains that the nature of our life is uncertain and teaches us how to accept this as part of our life. Ajahn Brahm is a popular Buddhist teacher to a growing international audience of people keen to learn meditation and develop a deeper spiritual understanding. He is also the founding father of an emergent Australian forest tradition of Buddhism.

Transcript

As always,

After the meditation,

Always some people have to leave.

We'll also see how many more people come in.

So this evening,

I'm in profit.

More people came in than went out.

Yay!

So anyway,

For this evening's talk,

As usual,

Just trying to think of something which I haven't talked about before,

Which is impossible.

I've been giving talks here for I don't know how many years,

And not only here,

Other places as well,

But I thought what came up in my mind today was to talk about one of the characteristics of Buddhism,

The deep characteristics which a lot of people misunderstand,

If you understood it,

It wouldn't be much more than talking about it,

About the factor of anicca,

Which many people say impermanence,

But I'm focusing on a part of that word which my teacher in Thailand,

Ajahn Chah,

Would often focus on and emphasize called uncertainty.

And there's a direct translation of that word,

Uncertainty,

Things which are not reliable,

Predictable,

The fact that life is like a book,

You don't know who did it,

Who's responsible,

Just like these books which I used to read as a kid,

About to see what's going to happen next.

The life is totally uncertain.

And it was wonderful that you didn't know what the last chapter of the book is going to be.

You didn't know just who was responsible,

Who's going to win and who's going to lose,

Because that is the nature of life,

Totally uncertain.

What does that do to people?

A lot of times people just get so tense when they cannot know what the future is going to be.

But many of you who are old enough now to know that you cannot predict the future,

You don't know what's going to happen.

And in a sense,

That makes life far more interesting if your life was all predicted.

And you could find out who you were going to marry and when you're going to divorce.

Why are you laughing?

Relationships are uncertain as well.

How many kids are you going to have?

What are they going to do?

Where are they going to end up?

Who's going to win the election?

Who's going to lose the election?

Who's going to.

.

.

All the uncertainty of life,

That can cause a lot of people a lot of stress and suffering.

Why?

It's because we don't accept the fact that life is unpredictable and uncertain.

And there's too much in our world which we cannot know and own.

So that lets us,

When life is very uncertain,

We accept that.

Actually life becomes one of these wonderful adventure books rather than something you always know what is going to happen in the end.

And in fact,

In life,

In real life,

There are no endings.

There are no needs that Prince Charming and Cinderella fall in love and ride off into the sunset,

Happy ever after.

They don't say what happens when Cinderella has her first baby and Prince Charming has to change the diapers and doesn't really like doing stuff like that and whether they have arguments and stuff and have enough money to live in their palace or whatever happens.

But the uncertainty of life is something which we can fight against and resist.

We can accept as the adventure of our life.

And of course,

Those stories which I learned about uncertainty,

They weren't reassuring at first until you understood how to live with uncertainty and how to value that uncertainty and even celebrate uncertainty.

When you celebrate uncertainty,

You cannot do too much predictions of what's going to happen next.

I know people love predicting things or trying to predict things.

And I remember going to Hong Kong one time and they took me to this street where all the fortune tellers were.

And I looked at those fortune tellers and they were just so ill-dressed,

Poor and some of them were out in the rain and I realised,

My goodness,

You call that a fortune teller?

They certainly can't tell their own fortune.

How on earth can they tell yours?

So,

But also,

If they could tell your fortune.

You know,

Sometimes people say,

Ajahn Brahm,

You're a good meditator,

Surely you must be able to tell the future.

Please,

I'm really struggling with paying the bills.

Surely you know the lottery number.

Do monks know the lottery number coming up next week?

If they did,

I wouldn't tell you.

That's if they did,

Okay,

I'm not saying anything.

But sometimes,

Why?

Sometimes they do say that ghosts and spirits can tell lottery numbers.

Did I tell this story last week about the.

.

.

Did I tell the story about the man who was at home and heard the sound?

Someone tell him,

Go to the casino?

Was that last week's?

No,

You don't know this one?

Wow,

It's amazing.

This guy,

He was at home by himself.

He was just relaxing at home,

His wife was out at work and he heard the sound.

Go to the casino.

Who said that?

No one was at home,

But he heard it again.

Go to the casino.

He thought,

Ma,

Must be some spirit voice,

Some ghost.

As I say,

Ghosts can be really,

Really helpful sometimes.

So he said,

Well,

Why not?

So he got in his car,

Went to the casino.

As he was going through the entrance of the casino,

He heard this voice again,

Say,

Go to the roulette wheel,

Go to the roulette wheel.

He heard it but no one else did.

So he went to the roulette wheel and he sat down and then the spirit said,

Put ten dollars on number seven.

Ten dollars on number seven.

If that was you,

What would you do?

That's what he did,

He put ten bucks on number seven.

And then the croupier spanned the wheel,

Threw the ball in,

Ran around and went,

And he landed on number seven.

He won a lot of money.

Wow.

And he could hear the spirit say,

Yes,

Yes,

Wonderful.

Put all the winnings on number twelve.

Put everything on number twelve.

He heard the spirit say that very clearly,

No one else did.

So he put all the winnings on number twelve.

And the croupier turned the wheel,

Threw the ball in,

Ran around and round it went,

And the ball landed on number twelve.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Woohoo,

Woohoo,

Woohoo.

He heard the spirit say,

Has this ever happened to you?

Woohoo,

Woohoo.

And so he then heard the spirit say,

Put all of your winnings on number twenty-three.

All of your winnings on number twenty-three.

And of course,

Who wouldn't put all the winnings on number twenty-three?

He put it all on number twenty-three,

And by this time a crowd had come.

And they were all looking and watching,

Because this was a big bet.

And if it went on number twenty-three,

Oh,

It would be a lot of money he won.

So he put all the money on number twenty-three.

And even the croupier was a bit concerned,

Losing so much money for the casino.

But anyway,

He spanned the wheel.

And he threw the ball in,

Round and round and round it went.

Like it was going round forever,

It took such a long time.

And everybody around the roulette wheel was silent.

They were all really excited.

What would happen?

It went round and round and as the wheel stopped,

He put it on number twenty-three.

And then jumped out into the one next to it.

And then he heard it very,

Very clearly.

Oh,

Shit.

Said the ghost.

See,

When ghosts make mistakes,

You can't trust them.

Because even stronger than the spirit's wisdom is uncertainty.

You never know what's going to happen next.

But anyway,

So with the uncertainty of life,

It gives a greater sense of adventure,

Peace,

Enjoy whatever's happening in life.

It cannot be predicted.

But anyway,

Ajahn Chahal always used to say,

What his prediction of someone's future,

Because people would always harass him to try and get him to use his powers to help.

He did have marvellous powers and I know that.

He could read minds and all sorts of stuff,

What Ajahn Chahal could do.

So what he one day did,

This guy came up to him and said,

Ajahn Chahal,

Can you please read the lines on my palm?

Tell me my future.

Ajahn Chahal says straight away,

We don't do that.

Can't do it,

No,

Won't do it.

And that is when the man came up and said,

But,

But,

You just gave talks on gratitude.

And I've been helping you for so many years,

Giving you donations,

Bringing you food,

Giving you lifts to places.

I've helped and served you.

I've worked for your Buddhist Society so many years.

Surely that's something you can do for me.

Just read the lines on my palms and tell me my future.

So Ajahn Chahal said yes,

I'll do that for you.

Ooh,

Ooh,

Because he knew Ajahn Chahal would not make any mistakes.

Ajahn Chahal was great,

He never made a mistake at all.

He read that guy's future perfectly.

What he did first of all,

He took his hand and he started tracing the lines on his palm,

One after the other.

And every now and again,

He stopped and he looked.

He looked at the guy,

He looked back at the hand,

And the guy was really scared.

Other times he went on another line,

He looked and smiled.

Ahh,

Thought the guy.

After about 10 minutes of reading the palm on this poor man's hand,

The man was just so excited,

He was totally wound up.

Imagine that was you,

With a person,

Like a Buddhist saint,

Who's going to tell you your future,

Exactly what's going to happen to you.

How amazing that would be.

And he could trust it,

That this was a monk who wouldn't lie.

When he finished,

Ajahn Chahal looked at him and said,

Your future?

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Your future sir,

Yes,

Yes,

What's my future going to be?

And I don't make any mistakes.

So Ajahn Chahal said,

I know you don't make mistakes,

Get on with it.

What is my future?

He said,

Sir,

Your future,

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Your future is uncertain.

And Ajahn Chahal said,

Well,

He's totally right.

And that was not just a joke,

That was examples of these great teachers telling stories which were amusing,

But which also had incredibly deep meaning.

Your future is uncertain.

If it was fixed,

I mean you could do nothing with it.

It's as if like you're in a prison of fate,

Rather than somebody who could act,

Speak,

Do something,

Be kind,

To make a very lovely future.

The uncertainty gives opportunities.

Certainty is almost like a death.

When there's uncertainty,

There's always things which you can do to change the future.

To make it better,

It's not fixed,

It's not certain,

You can always change things.

And that becomes a wonderful opportunity for you.

People,

Why don't people accept uncertainty?

It's because of people's fear,

What happens if everything goes wrong.

Have in your life so far,

Things gone totally wrong?

I remember Ajahn Brahmali,

He's next door now,

He reminded me of an occasion when things went wrong for me,

Totally wrong.

And that was for all those years,

And Derrida remembers this,

Good old president,

All those years building up Bodhinyana monastery.

And I've mentioned many,

Many times of just laying the bricks myself,

Just doing the plumbing,

And just all things passing and getting the approvals and building this huge monastery down at Serpentine.

And it was,

What was it,

January 31st,

I think,

1991 I think it was.

The hottest day,

The hottest temperature ever recorded,

Ever recorded in Western Australia on that day.

Now it stands at number 2,

The hottest day in Western Australia,

In this area,

46 point something degrees,

Before the bushfire came.

It was a huge bushfire,

Came into Bodhinyana monastery when I was there.

It was very huge and dangerous.

Trees were exploding,

Like bombs going off,

The crown fire.

And we had to be evacuated.

But I got in the news that evening,

I think,

Dennis,

You saw me on,

Was it channel 7 or channel 9 or something?

Yeah,

I made it on the channel 7 news.

But anyway,

So we were evacuated.

And as we were evacuated,

You could see on top of the hill,

Just the devastation,

Like explosions,

Like a wall going on up there.

Just the trees,

Because they're all gum trees,

Eucalypt trees.

In that type of heat,

All of the oil evaporates and it forms this sheath around the trees of a mixture of gas and oxygen.

Just a spark,

A little spark and it goes bang!

And I remember at that time,

I was only number 2,

Ajahn Chakra was away when this happened.

When he came back,

He didn't know we'd been evacuated,

So he tried to get up the hill,

Kingsbury Drive,

And all the authorities,

The police and the rangers said,

You can't go up there.

He said,

But I have to get up there.

He said,

No you can't,

Another tree exploded,

Bang!

And I said,

Do you want to go up there?

He said,

No.

It's really dangerous.

And I remember Ajahn Bhagwati reminding me that when that happened,

I thought,

Well that's it.

All that hard work,

That was,

I don't know how many years,

1983 we started that,

And 90,

It was back,

It's been later than that,

91.

But anyway,

All those huts I'd built,

The main hall,

The dining room,

I thought,

Why that's it,

It's all been destroyed.

Huge bushfire,

We didn't have any aerial bombing in that day,

We didn't have anything.

But I remember that night,

We were evacuated,

And I thought,

Oh well,

It's worth it.

It didn't matter that it all went wrong.

What mattered to me was we gave it everything we had,

Tried our best,

And then,

Oh well,

We could always build another monastery.

That positive attitude and uncertainty was wonderful.

Maybe it was because of that,

That the following morning when we woke up and the ranger came to pick me up,

To take me to see what was left,

What was left,

Everything was perfect.

The trees were decimated,

There's no green anywhere.

And for those who've been to Bodhinyana monastery,

You know there's so much trees and bushes everywhere,

You can't see very far.

But when all the greenery was burnt off,

You could actually see all the huts,

Like in the distance even,

Because there was nothing obstructing them.

It was really an amazing sight to see.

The most important thing was everything had survived.

And I do remember,

Just because I was in charge with the bushfire recovery there,

Just with the head guy from the bushfire brigade in Perth came along.

I took him around to see the non-damage.

I remember him coming to one of the A-frames,

And as we looked around there,

He looked underneath it,

Because it was just on stilts.

So you could look underneath it,

Looked around it,

He just examined it so much,

Then he stopped and looked at me.

I always remember his words,

He said,

Brahm,

This should not be here.

But it was,

It had survived.

The uncertainty,

You don't know what's going to happen,

Whether the building's going to survive or not survive.

But the point was,

As far as I was concerned,

Either way it was fine by me.

If it was burnt off,

We'd rebuild it.

If it was destroyed,

Then we'd rebuild it.

So if it wasn't destroyed,

We'd just celebrate.

And that was a wonderful thing to do.

I always remember just with that interview,

It was on channel 709 or whatever,

That after,

They asked me what it was like being in a bushfire when things were exploding all over the place.

And it was dangerous.

But then afterwards,

I got a call from that,

The lady who interviewed me on live TV for the news,

And she said,

Can you come and give a talk on another show we're doing?

I said,

Why?

And she said because she couldn't understand,

She couldn't believe why we had no trauma at the end of that event,

Why I wasn't scared,

Why I wasn't crying,

Oh,

We almost died,

We've lost everything.

She never sort of experienced that before.

So I actually made an impression on her,

Losing everything without any anxiety.

Then I asked our committee,

Should I go on this show?

And apparently it was a show called,

This is many years ago,

The Hinch Report,

And apparently that was a bit of a dodgy show apparently,

So I couldn't go on the TV,

I missed my opportunity because of our committee.

I always remember these little occasions of good fun,

But because you had an understanding of uncertainty,

So you never know what's going to happen next,

You can never know because of that.

You give opportunities for little miracles to happen,

Like the saving of Bodhinyana monastery.

You got little miracles to happen,

Like the purchasing of our nuns' monastery,

Which was totally impossible,

When we saw this land which we had no money to buy,

Not enough anyway,

But then we auctioned,

It was an auction,

And where is he?

Any of the back there?

He was totally irresponsible,

But so lovable,

Because he overbid,

And it was actually just at the cut-off price,

So we managed to get that.

It was looking at uncertainty in life,

Can we afford it?

Treasurer said no.

I said,

Who knows?

That's the uncertainty part of it.

So sometimes you can use uncertainty for your benefit,

And for the benefit of a much better cause.

Instead of always trying to predict things,

Work things out,

And crunch the numbers and think this is what's going to happen,

Sometimes you know that the world doesn't work like that.

The real world sometimes gives you so many surprises,

The unexpected part of life.

So many people I know should be dead,

Having sicknesses and illnesses which were terminal,

But there's something about just how your life lives and ends,

What actually keeps making it keep going on.

This story which comes up was good old Ted,

And he was one of the first people in the hospice over in Murdoch,

And I went to go and see him there,

Because he was,

His daughter was a Buddhist.

And when I went to go and see him in there,

There was only like a one way in and out in a box sort of hospice.

You know,

You're supposed to go in there just for palliative care,

Look after you until you pass away.

I always remember his story,

I remember this,

Because it tells me a lot about the uncertainties of health and especially of diet.

Because poor old Ted,

The first night in the hospital,

His doctors,

His nurse said,

What do you want for dinner this evening?

And Ted replied,

Well,

You know,

I've got diabetes,

So I can't have any sugary stuff,

I've got cholesterol,

So I can't have any oily stuff,

I've got hard arteries,

I can't have any salty stuff,

And gave all this list of stuff which he could not eat because of his health.

And the nurse said,

What on earth are you talking about,

Ted?

You are not going to die of diabetes,

You're not going to die of a heart attack,

Your cancer's going to kill within about three or four days.

So you can eat whatever you want.

And old Ted,

His eyes went wide.

Really?

I mean,

Everything I can eat?

Yeah.

And so the nurse arranged for him to have this really greasy food,

Lots of salt,

Really sugary sweets afterwards,

And for about six days he had this incredible diet of all the stuff which his wife had banned in his kitchen for years.

And he went into remission.

Honest story,

True.

And he walked out of that hospital,

Or that hospice.

Now that is not a cure which is recommended in the West Australian health system.

But nevertheless,

It's the uncertainty of how these things actually happen in this life.

And so when we have,

We don't know what tomorrow's going to bring,

But we're open for surprises of life,

Then that gives our life a much,

Much,

Much better sense of happiness and joy.

When we don't think,

Oh,

This is terrible,

We think we can predict the future.

Can you predict your future?

There's many people here who come on my meditation retreats and sometimes they think they're terrible meditators and they get these amazing meditation experiences.

Total surprise,

Unexpected,

Uncertain.

That's the nature of our life,

There's so much uncertainty.

We think we can control our future,

We can control our meditation,

We can control even our health,

We can control the day we're going to die.

Can you?

I've just known too many people who were supposed to be dead years ago,

But for some reason or another,

Something happens and they recover.

People with tumours,

Really bad ones.

And then something happens,

They find out why they had that tumour,

Not the usual explanation,

But something much deeper,

Understanding the stress of their life and how to overcome that stress,

How to get beyond it,

Past it,

How to get beyond the worry of life.

What is the worry anyway but believing in certainty in the future.

We don't know what's going to happen next.

So enjoy uncertainty.

And the fact that even when you just go on a retreat,

You do some meditation,

Sometimes you have the most amazing experiences when you least expect them.

Even your success in meditation is based on uncertainty.

You can't predict it,

You cannot force it,

You can't make it happen.

You let it occur rather than make things happen.

So the uncertainty in life,

Of course,

Many people have the good argument,

But Ajahn Brahm,

Uncertainty,

We need to have some degree of certainty to know,

Just we've got a place to go and stay this evening,

We've got a home,

A house.

Sometimes I look at my own life,

My home,

My house,

Where I live,

My health,

You know there are times,

There are times when,

Especially when I go overseas or interstate,

Sometimes I don't have a house or a home.

You don't know where you're going to sleep that night.

You trust other people will pick you up and take you to the right destination.

But sometimes it can be uncertain.

I still remember the story of Ajahn Sujato,

He was going to a conference over in Indonesia.

I don't know how he managed to do this,

But he flew to the wrong airport.

He went to the airport and when he went through there was no one to meet him.

No wonder what the heck's going on.

And of course being a monk has no money,

No mobile phone,

What am I going to do?

Fortunately,

In his case anyway,

Somebody recognised him,

To see a Buddhist monk,

Where you're going,

He said,

It's supposed to be a conference here,

No conference on in this town.

But they managed to find out where the conference was and give him another flight to go to the right place.

I don't know how that can happen.

But it almost happened to me once when I went to leave in London.

When I arrived at London airport,

My brother was supposed to meet me.

I came out and then couldn't see my brother anywhere.

Ah,

What had gone wrong?

Because there's a monk,

You're in big trouble if there's no one there to meet you.

You've got no money,

You can't just eat,

You've got nothing to do,

You can just walk maybe.

It actually reminded me of another story which I haven't said for,

I don't think ever,

But there's some of our monks are just so good at practising uncertainty,

Not making plans.

Because there's one monk,

He was a Japanese monk,

A friend of mine,

And with Ajahn Chah,

He decided to go and visit his family in Japan.

But instead of actually just arranging everything,

He never even told his family he was coming.

His family lived up in the north of Japan.

He just arrived at the airport in Tokyo,

Just got out of the aircraft and just went to the customs and had his passport stamped and then started walking.

Just walked into Tokyo.

And then just where he rested that night,

He was just in the park.

In the morning,

Got up and started walking again.

And he just had no plans,

No money,

First couple of days didn't get anything to eat,

But did go on arms round in Tokyo.

And as he was walking,

Somebody saw him,

And said,

Who are you?

He was Japanese,

He spoke obviously perfect Japanese language.

And then he said he was just a monk,

He was walking from the airport to visit his family.

Of course that was newsworthy,

He got on the news.

And after he got on the news,

The Thai ambassador to Japan saw that.

And so at last,

A real monk,

Someone who just make plans,

Doesn't have money,

Just arrives somewhere and sleep outside and just walk.

And just living with the uncertainty of life.

She took him under her wing and just really looked after him.

And she later on became the Thai ambassador to Australia.

So she came here a couple of times,

That was Sujithra.

And that's where she got her faith in Buddhism again.

Seeing a really good monk,

Practicing in a good way.

And so even one of our monks did that some years ago,

Arrived at Perth Airport.

I knew he was coming sometime,

But he didn't tell me the day he was coming or the time he was coming.

He said he just wanted to just try,

Just living with uncertainty and see what happens.

So he arrived at Perth Airport,

No one to pick him up,

No money or credit card or anything,

Just started walking.

And I think he got to about 50 meters outside of the doors.

And someone stopped him and said,

Hey,

You're a monk,

Where are you going?

And so he said,

I'm going to Serpentine.

I'll give you a lift.

Who needs taxis?

He got this lift all the way there.

So living with uncertainty,

He was actually also the monk,

I mentioned this story to someone today.

He was also the monk,

He was scheduled to give a talk at one of our groups,

Which is in Armidale,

In the Armidale group.

He was in Bodhindana monastery and we had a very wealthy Sri Lankan man came to say hello.

And he came in a Rolls Royce.

So I think it's the only time we've seen a Rolls Royce in Bodhindana monastery.

And so then it was on a Tuesday afternoon,

We said,

Oh,

This monk's got to go to the Armidale group this evening.

Would you like to give him a lift?

So he said,

Yeah,

I can give him a lift.

So Armidale,

As many of you may know,

Is a low socio-economic area.

And so it was really quite a first for a monk to arrive at this group in a Rolls Royce.

And they never let him forget that.

It's not taking a lift,

It's not mine.

Anyway,

So living with uncertainty allows you to travel in Rolls Royces.

You don't know what's going to happen.

It allows you to inspire people that you don't need to have too many plans what's going to happen in the future.

You see what happens next.

And,

You know,

Sometimes,

Now maybe I'm getting old now,

Sometimes I look at Bodhinyana monastery where I live,

All the buildings which have been done there,

All the hard work of so many years,

And just to think,

How did that happen?

And sometimes if I started with a plan,

That plan would never have been finished.

But instead of having a plan,

You do a bit of brick work today,

A bit of plumbing tomorrow,

A bit of painting today,

Day by day.

And then after so many years you have this incredible house called Bodhinyana monastery where so many people can come and live and stay and practice and visit.

It's a beautiful place.

But it was never planned.

It kind of happened out of uncertainty.

It's the same with our life.

All you can do is lay one brick of peace today.

Tomorrow you lay another bit of peace or kindness or wisdom.

The next day another one.

You don't know where you're going to lay it,

How it's going to fit in.

We put it together.

And after so many years of your life,

So many uncertainties,

But just making peace with it,

Being kind with it,

Being even joyful with it.

You have this beautiful edifice called the Buddhist Society of West Australia or Bodhinyana monastery or Dhammasara.

It's wonderful.

There's something which is organic about that,

How it evolves,

How the next day that something happens and you can go left instead of right,

Instead of always making this huge plan of where you're going to go and how you're going to do it and where it's going to happen.

Instead you just evolve day by day,

Reacting in a good way.

So the only certainty which we can have is actually to making sure we do grow in these qualities like kindness and peace and love and joy because those are the qualities which empower us,

Empower us to be able to deal with any problems which happen in life,

Any problems which occur in our life.

So the doctor comes and says,

You've only got a few days to live.

Are you sure?

Of course you're never sure.

Too many people I've seen have not died.

And what certainty is there in life?

The only certainty there is in life is that even,

When somebody says that taxes and death are the two certain things in life,

No they're not.

I don't pay taxes.

I don't have any money to pay taxes with.

That's not certainty.

But the uncertainty in life far outweighs what is certain,

Which means you cannot predict what's going to happen next.

You don't know,

I don't know what I'm going to eat tomorrow.

Don't know who's going to come for the lunch tomorrow,

Except for ten nuns are coming tomorrow,

That's pretty uncertain if that actually happens.

But anyway,

There's so much uncertainty in life.

I accept that,

Live with that,

Embrace it,

Celebrate it,

Never knowing what you're going to do next and how it's all going to work out.

But enjoying every moment of it.

One thing which I can do is to make peace with whatever happens.

To be kind to whatever happens or whoever you meet.

And be gentle to whatever experience occurs in your life.

To make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle.

Which for those of you who don't know,

Is a decent translation of the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha.

Make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle.

So whatever you have to deal with in life,

That's not certain.

You don't know what's coming round the corner.

What interesting,

I don't call it interesting,

Interesting challenge is waiting for you.

But what you always know you can do is you can make peace with it.

Whatever it is,

You can make that,

Lay that brick of peace.

You can always be kind to it.

You can always be gentle.

Whatever happens to you in this life,

Which means you can always survive and make it a wonderful experience.

But if you demand it always to go in a particular way,

Then you're asking for trouble.

You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

But you can always make peace with what happens tomorrow.

Be kind to it,

Be gentle.

That becomes our life.

So what we're teaching here,

What we're learning here is equipping you to deal with uncertainty and not to deny the uncertain nature of life.

Not to demand it always occurs according to the laws,

Even laws of nature,

Just one of the books that I saw today when I went to somebody's house for a wonderful dharma was our book by,

Called the Ten Delusions of Science.

But I remember that because when I was a student,

One of the best lectures I ever went to was by this gentleman,

Who,

He was the location professor of physics at the time,

Fred Hoyle.

He was incredibly brilliant and he was putting all these amazing heretical views out into the world,

Such as,

I'm not sure if I'm going too over your heads,

But the law of gravity,

The universal gravitational constant,

Big G,

That he was saying why should it be constant?

Why should it be a fixed number?

And then this time later,

This gentleman actually found out that it wasn't constant.

People assume it is,

But it's not.

There's too much uncertainty,

Even with fundamental laws of physics.

And I say that as a physicist.

I say that because why do people deny that when the evidence is strong that even fundamental laws of physics are uncertain?

Because when you allow uncertainty into life,

It makes you feel a bit vulnerable,

A bit scared,

You don't really know everything which is happening.

And being able to have kindness and peace and gentleness,

That is what equips you with dealing with strange stuff.

So even the uncertainty of things you don't know and don't understand,

Which you'll never know and understand,

Things like ghosts,

Are you scared of ghosts?

If so,

Why?

Because ghosts can be such wonderful beings who do really help and reassure.

And one of the last stories is a story which I didn't tell last week when I was telling lots of stories about ghosts.

And I had permission of the gentleman involved to tell this story because it was a beautiful story.

The story of which happened just around the corner from here in Nana Way in Nana Mara.

And this gentleman,

He lived alone in his house.

And he was a ranger for one of the shayas.

And he told me that when he woke up in the middle of the night,

He saw his mother standing at the end of the bed.

His mother lived in Essex in England.

He said it was the first and only time he'd seen a ghost.

But it was his mum.

He didn't see her just like in a vision,

It was very clear,

Like she was really standing there,

Like a full human being.

But he said the most wonderful part of that experience was she was smiling at him.

And he was receiving his mother's love,

He knew it was a ghost because she was on the other side of the world.

But just laying in bed,

Just lined up against the backrest of the bed,

The light was on,

Just looking at his mum.

She was smiling at him for about five or six or seven minutes.

And then she faded away and disappeared.

He knew his mother must have died.

So what did he do?

What does an English man do in such a situation?

Makes himself a cup of tea.

I don't know why they do that.

So he made himself a cup of tea and as he was drinking the tea,

The telephone rang.

He said,

Sister,

Pete,

Pete,

Mum's dead.

I said,

Yeah,

I know,

She just visited me.

What?

And it was totally true that he'd seen his mum as a ghost for about five or six minutes,

Expressing her love to him and he to her silently for that beautiful experience.

So I said,

What would you do if you saw somebody you loved who just passed away?

Would you be afraid?

Would you say,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No.

Or would you accept the uncertainty and be able to enjoy by making peace,

Being kind,

Being gentle with whatever you experience.

So that's how to deal with the uncertainties of life.

Okay,

So that's enough.

So now we have the questions from overseas or from here.

I know that one time one person here,

They sent a question from the floor but they could never get that question answered so they asked it online.

From Latvia,

Sri Lanka,

United Emirates and Brazil.

First of all,

From Latvia,

How to help people who are way too concerned with world issues,

Politics for example,

And even fight others over uncertainty in how things will progress.

This politics is,

Sometimes it's important to actually to vote and to do the right thing but even the monks were getting involved with what happened in,

What's happening or happened,

I don't know,

What's how it's sorted out in United States.

Why?

We can't do anything about it.

Even today somebody asked me,

Ajahn Brahm,

Can you please chant,

Chant,

Chant,

So one of the candidates gets over the line.

I said,

I can't do that,

Why not?

Because when I ever do chanting for somebody,

I'm actually chanting to make them happy.

If I was chanting to make them happy,

I'd say,

May you both lose.

They don't have the responsibilities.

I still remember,

Many of the politicians I met,

What was it,

John Hyde,

Used to be the representative for Perth.

And he was really helpful in this society here and also with the Thai community and eventually he lost his seat.

That's the best thing which ever happened to him.

A few years later,

After he lost his seat,

I was in Bangkok giving a talk and this guy came up and said,

Do you remember me?

And I said,

No.

Please don't be offended if I ever say that.

He came up to me and said,

Do you remember me?

And I said no,

Because I meet many people,

I can't remember everybody.

And he said,

No,

It's not,

It was John Hyde.

He said,

I was John Hyde.

And as soon as he said that,

I could recognise him.

Yeah,

You look so much younger.

And he did,

He lost in about five years when he wasn't in politics.

So you know,

Sometimes you look at politics and say,

Isn't there a better way?

I don't know,

But anyway,

Sometimes the people get so worn out.

But anyway,

He was just,

Got a job with the United Nations over in Bangkok and was having a wonderful time.

Anyway,

With worldly issues,

Politics,

For example,

Even fight others over uncertainties of how things will progress.

Fighting others?

What happens when we fight?

Who's right and who's wrong?

Sometimes,

You might say we're both wrong.

Must be some other ways.

I mean,

What was it?

Winston Churchill always used to say,

Jor,

Jor,

Jor,

Don't war,

War,

War.

In other words,

Just talk things over.

From Sri Lanka,

Lay people need to continue with planning and think about certainty up to a limit.

Yeah,

I think we take the limit a bit too far.

Otherwise,

It would be hard to earn a living in the corporate world.

Kindly advice.

You have some plans,

But I remember reading an article once from a business person who said,

But you have to in our modern world be able to,

I think they called it,

Turn on a dime.

In other words,

To change your policy almost immediately because the world changes so fast and events happen really,

Really quickly.

If you don't know how to adapt fast,

You lose.

All the people who invested or wanted to have their careers in hospitality and because of COVID,

You can't have that career at the moment.

Or in the aircraft industry,

Or what was it in those industries which had,

Remember the old films we used to take?

And you had to go and take them to a shop to develop them,

Kodak?

And they had to change pretty quickly because the world changes so quickly.

So you can plan,

But make sure,

As they said in the sattva,

If there are any plans,

Make them out of rubber,

Never out of concrete.

You can bend them and change them as quickly as you can to be able to be adaptable to the changing situations of life.

And certainty is just pretty much a delusion.

And that way you can understand uncertainty,

Accept uncertainty and make a very good career out of it.

From United Arab Emirates,

How does one keep a positive attitude towards uncertainty about the future in a society where people are always worried and concerned about what might happen next?

What would it be like if we didn't worry and get so concerned about what might happen next?

It will still happen,

But if you didn't worry about it,

You will be far saner,

More at peace,

More at ease with life,

Instead of just wasting so much energy about worrying about things which you cannot change,

Instead of thinking about things where you make no difference at all,

And instead of accepting the uncertainty of this life,

And that as human beings we do have an amazing ability to change,

To adapt to so many different situations and circumstances of life.

Even I still remember my family talking to me about the Second World War in the UK,

I was born just afterwards,

And they said there was so much destruction at that time,

So much uncertainty,

Whether you're going to survive the day because of the Blitz,

Just to make the point,

Even my mother and my grandmother were in a terraced house when the bomb hit next door,

And people next door,

The neighbours,

Instantly killed.

My mother's arm was apparently gashed with the broken glass,

But they survived.

But it's at that time when the uncertainty of whether you're going to live tomorrow or the next day,

They changed a whole lot of the way that they related to one another in that world.

And they said it was the most wonderful time,

With no fun,

Joy,

Strangely,

They didn't know just what was going to happen next in their life.

And they couldn't plan because there's a war going on.

But there was some way that they weren't,

The worry and concern wasn't as strong as it is these days when these small things happen.

Obviously COVID created a lot of uncertainty for people.

They couldn't plan so much where they're going to go,

What they're going to do and how they're going to do it.

But it was a,

Hopefully it's a great teaching for us.

And there's many benefits which I'm sure each one of you have noticed.

And from Brazil,

How to embrace our uncertainty,

Sometimes this feeling is so strong it drives me to madness.

It's the uncertainties of life when you cannot predict life,

Just like those days when there were wars,

Still are wars in some places unfortunately,

But sometimes when there's such gross uncertainties,

It sometimes arouses in human beings just another aspect of their kindness and ability to work together,

To forgive and to realize the nature of this world.

It never was,

This world never is so clear and predictable and safe.

I don't know how many of you like the cartoonist,

Australian cartoonist,

Lunick,

But just at the start of COVID,

He wrote this wonderful cartoon with a guy talking to a duck.

And of course the duck was far wiser than the guy.

And especially I kept a copy of that cartoon somewhere in my room and where the guy was saying,

Oh,

Life is so uncertain with COVID.

It's always been uncertain.

It's not COVID,

There's some other reason for it to be uncertain.

But,

But,

But it's all going wrong.

Life always goes wrong.

And so it was a sense of sometimes the duck was more at ease and more accepting of the general nature of life.

Many,

Many times we always try and control the uncertainties of life.

In other words,

To put in safety procedures,

Things which we can do when life tends to go wrong,

Ways of we think of dealing with,

Not to deal with uncertainties,

But to obliterate them and to make life nice and safe and sure for everybody.

I think that that is going against the truth of our world.

We do live in an uncertain world.

Times are always uncertain.

Maybe it's because I'm a monk that I can live with uncertainty,

There's much greater freedom.

But the truth of the matter is,

As the Buddha said,

Anicca,

This world samsara is uncertain.

And if we can embrace that,

We don't go mad,

Like the fellow from Brazil was saying.

In fact,

We're much more at peace.

We try and deny uncertainty,

Deny the truth of our world,

Then that's where craziness comes in.

Madness,

Suffering is asking from this world what it can't give you.

And that certainty is what this world is unable to supply.

Any questions from the floor?

Okay,

So I think that's enough for this evening.

So thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed it.

And I hope you have a wonderful evening,

But it's uncertain.

So how do you say samsara?

S-A-S-A-S-S-A-S-S S-A-S-A-S-S-A-S-S M-I-L-A-V-A-G,

S-A-S-S-S-A-S M-I-L-A-V-A-G,

S-A-S-S-S-A-S

Reviews

Bless you and thank you for this wonderful talk! 🌸

Thank you for this wise and delightful talk. I am smiling as I relax with the reality of uncertainty 🙏🏽

So insightful & joyful. Ajahn Brahm always makes me realise that none of it has to be difficult.

Thank you for a precious gift! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

This is being bookmarked. Awesome for folks going thru illness

I certainly will take your words and learn to live an uncertain life. Thank you for this talk. 🧘☀️

Very wonderful thank you for a delightful talk

I enjoyed it so much !!!🙏☮️