Dhamma Talk with Luang Por at the Peace Revolution Conference : หน้า 75/164

Meeting #13 04 March 2010 – International Buddhist Association Building Luang Por has agreed to meet with the members of the Peace Revolution Conference for a Dhamma talk and a question/answer session. We are, therefore, seated in a conference room in seminar-style, meaning all the chairs are facing forward toward the table and chair where Luang Por will sit. There are about 50 people in the room, although not all of them are members of the Peace Revolution – simply people who have heard that Luang Por will be speaking and have come to listen. About 30 are from the Peace Revolution. The meeting is interesting because I like to observe the behavior of people when they meet Luang Por. Because the people here are not Thai, there is some confusion as he enters the room with his English-speaking assistant. The people who do know the protocol will bow in respect. Those who do not know, simply sit there, talking with one another. Luang Por starts with a question: “How is your meditation experience?” The crowd, perhaps because a super-mediator is asking them about their own meditation experience, gives no response. “Regardless of whether you are a male or a female, you are made of two parts, body and mind. Your brain is part of your body but you need to pay attention to both parts. You usually don’t see your mind but that doesn’t mean you will never see it. When the mind becomes bright, you can see it. But in this instance, you need to prove it yourself by meditating! If you don’t try to prove it yourself, you are simply a stubborn person.” He smiles. “In reality, people are made up of body, mind, and Dhamma. This seems to be Buddhism by definition, but Dhamma is ‘pure nature’. It is the purest part of our human nature. When we meditate, we see the sphere of Dhamma. It will become visible with further training, but don’t believe me, prove it for yourself! “What I would like to talk about today is what we meet in everyday life, and today I would like to look at it closely. First, the body. Why do we eat? Why do we breathe? If we say ‘…because we don’t want to die too quickly’… that answer is too simple: it is not a wise answer. When I was in school about fifty years ago, the teacher told me