Supreme Conduct

Then he says, the supreme conduct, I love this one, the supreme conduct is to be in this harmony with the world. So often people point out, I think there's a misprint here. They mean harmony, of course. No. Obviously to be in this harmony with the world does not mean you quarrel with all your neighbors, right? It doesn't mean that kind of disharmony. It means being in disharmony with the values of the world. The values of the world are all towards getting more and more and you know creating your own comfort zone and defending what you know your own boundaries and taking over other people's territory and promoting yourself and those that you have an interest in and either neglecting or being defensive towards those who are not your party. It's good to be in disharmony with those values. The Buddha said that anyone who is practicing dharma, meaning anybody who's interested in spiritual path, is like a fish swimming upstream when all the rest of the shoal of fish are swimming downstream. So first of all it's difficult because we're going against the current and often it is lonely because not everybody is swimming upstream, most people, even in dharma circles are swimming downstream. So therefore if we find ourselves in harmony with our society's values we are not on the right path I would say. It's very important to recognize that most of the the values which are promoted by our society are based on long livelihood and are based on the negative emotions such as greed, aggression, pride, jealousy and overwhelming ignorance. So we need to uphold genuine values in place of greed and acquisition, contentment, some letting go, little renunciation doesn't hurt. Appreciation for what we have, gratitude for what we have, generosity, sharing, all these qualities which are based on the appreciation that we already are so enriched compared and contentment. We have so much. Ladies how much more clothing do you need? Probably in your wardrobe you have more than enough clothes for one lifetime, maybe several lifetimes. I have been in houses here where they have two, I mean one person, two huge refrigerators plus big freezers. How, I mean they're waiting for a siege. How much can we eat? That's based on greed. So just that alone look at our greed level, you know, greed and needs. Yes we all need a certain amount to feel secure in this insecurity. We are never really secure but we like to think we can be. Yeah we need enough to eat, we need enough to wear, we need somewhere to live, we need enough income to sustain ourselves, to educate our children and so forth so forth. But beyond that what do we need? Truly each one we have to ask ourselves how much of all this do I need? How about giving away? And then you know just all this idea that we have to be on one side and that means we have to be opposed to the other side and just putting more and more aggression and anger and paranoia into the universe which doesn't need it. It's already got more than enough. This is what you're complaining about and yet we are promoting even more fear, anger, frustration. We don't need that. We need more compassion, more loving kindness, more genuine kindness in the world, kindness as one of the great qualities to give to this society. I have a mosquito that marks me. So to look at our society, you know one way you can do it is by watching a movie and identifying all the negative emotions in the hero as well as the all the greed, the lust, the jealousy, the aggression, all these negative emotions which are being presented very often as perfectly normal and okay. But they're not okay. They might be normal but they're not okay and yet these negative emotions are presented in our entertainment as being perfectly valid and yet it causes suffering. Of course in a movie if there's no suffering then what kind of movie is it? You have to suffer. But we should look at all our basic assumptions and our basic responses to what is happening, what happens to us personally, what we read or see presented to us and really evaluate is that based on positive emotions or negative emotions is what we are told in our media, valid or invalid. Will it lead to happiness or will it lead to more suffering? And in this way we have to be discriminating and if we have any insight at all we would see that our conduct is out of harmony with the world. We can be very friendly to everybody. It doesn't mean that we start arguing with everybody about their values compared to my superior values but it does mean that inwardly we are walking, treading a different path and this is why also the Buddha emphasized the importance of good companionship. Good companionship means finding friends who share our values. I mean they don't have to be Buddhist or even particularly spiritual but they have to be people who value kindness, compassion, generosity, simplicity and so forth because in this world which as I say that it's going downwards towards the you know towards the vast ocean of samsara, trying to swim upstream can be a very lonely and challenging journey so we need other fish that are going to swim along with us.