Here we are in the Deer Park.
We just recited the Dhammachakra Sutta and the Anathalakka Sutta.
Most of us had a much louder speaker than us,
So we had to stop and practice patience,
Kanti-Bharami,
Kanti-Upa-Bharami.
Actually it's appropriate because Savakasanga,
Another meaning for Savakasanga is those who listen.
So we had to listen first.
And we listened attentively as Anya Kondanya did.
He became enlightened,
Didn't he?
When you're listening to Lord Buddha teaching this sermon,
The Four Noble Truths,
The Eightfold Path,
At the end of the teaching he had realized Sri Benj.
So since it's the last talk actually,
Just review a little bit where we are,
Where we've been.
Last night on the Burning Ghat in Varanasi reminded me of Lord Buddha as the Prince,
As the Bodhisatta,
Just as he was leaving the palace.
He was looking for a deathless,
Aware that we were subject to death having been born.
So looking at his wife and his child and aware of his,
We're all in the same situation that having been born,
We have to age and then we have to die.
We have to be separated from the loved.
And if we live to be old then we have to deal with old age and sickness as well.
So it was very powerful last night,
Wasn't it,
To stand on the banks of the Ganges.
I think there were very close to 20 corpses being burnt as we stood there.
And the average of 200 a day being burnt on those guts.
It's been like that for at least 4,
000 years.
So it's very amazing,
It's powerful to be able to stand on earth which actually has a large percentage of ash,
A large percentage of the ash of the previously burnt bodies.
And as you walk around the different funeral pyres you're actually walking on the ashes of this morning's corpses,
Yesterday's corpses,
The day before's corpses.
And so for me,
And I'm sure for many of you,
A sense of sadness about samsara.
Lord Buddha sometimes calls the realm of death.
So when we're born we walk with death.
That's characteristic of conditions as Anya Kondanya realized while Lord Buddha was teaching.
That which has the nature to arise has the nature to cease.
So when you're born your death is inevitable,
It comes together.
That's the nature of the characteristic.
So we also saw the Brahmin priests doing their quite beautiful puja from the boat,
Looking at what's called aarti.
They were doing their prayers to the goddess of the Ganges River.
So they do that prayer every morning,
Every afternoon.
In the morning they're praying,
They're asking the goddess of the river,
Please give us good luck,
Please give us good fortune,
Please give us good harvest,
Good health,
Etc.
And then in the afternoon again,
Please give us good fortune,
Good health,
Save us from disaster.
So this is very common spiritual practice for human beings.
It's to pray and to make offerings and to look heavenward.
And as we can see even if God bless you to some degree or devas hear your prayers,
Standing on that very same bank just 300 meters down the river,
Nobody can avoid death.
And so Lord Buddha would have been very familiar with the rituals of the Brahmin priests coming from a high caste and a wealthy family.
