Action and Result, Living in the Present

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First of all, thank you very much for allowing us to have the talk here. I feel this is a very nice space. Thank you very much. Maybe it's the shape, I don't know, but it's a very nice feeling.

Robert: It's very interesting to be surrounded by books, and I think especially by the old books, because the old books have some...

Mike: Old books. The smell. Anyway, it's good to be surrounded by books, especially as what I want to talk about is that the world we live in is not inside books. I think the title of my talk today is about the present. Buddhism is a very ancient teaching, as many of you know, and it has many ancient traditions and rituals. If you visit Buddhist groups in different parts of the world, you can see many different rituals, many different types of clothing. Robes, and incense, and bells. And of course all these rituals do have value. But I've always been interested in what the Buddhist teaching is really about, so that's what I want to talk about. The strange thing is, when many human beings live together, they create a group which we call society. And society creates its own structure, so many different societies have many different structures. We tend to believe in this structure.

We believe in those structures, and we think that the structure we live in has some truth. But if we meet another society with another structure, sometimes we find that the truths which we believed are different in another society, another structure. And often this leads to arguments, disagreements, misunderstandings. So who is right? Which society's truths are right? Are the truths of a Christian society right? Are the truths of an Islamic society right? Are the truths of a Buddhist society right? Are the truths of a materialistic society right? These are the kinds of questions that we have to find answers to in the modern world. We are finding answers by living, but it's a huge trial-and-error process. If we look at history, we can see the huge mistakes and the huge changes as many societies become integrated. I've been watching a television series about the First World War, which was explaining the situation with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the other great powers in the world, and how the different empires had to integrate in Europe, with all the difficulties and problems. But strangely, things are moving slowly towards some kind of integration. I didn't come here to talk about history, but Banská Štiavnica was a very historical place. So when I come here, I always remember that Europe was many separate little places, with separate societies, separate structures, separate rules. But now I can come from England and it's not so different. Things are the same, more or less.

So what can Buddhism offer this modern world? It seems to be based on science: materialistic concepts and science, and money, an economy. And yet Buddhism is a very ancient teaching. Of course, it can offer a kind of group. We can join a group and feel a member of a group. And we can learn how to dress up as a Buddhist, or even pretend to be a Japanese Zen Buddhist or a Tibetan Buddhist, or a Sri Lankan Buddhist. But Buddhism has two very essential things which can contribute to the modern world. Welcome. Come in, sit anywhere. The first is something that we already know about. It's a principle in life: cause and effect. Cause and effect is the basis of science. Whatever we do, there is some result. And this is the basis of scientific investigation: constantly finding out, when we do something, what the result is. What is the mechanism? In ancient times, maybe people believed that if we drank hot water on a hot day, it would make us ill, or if we drank some special potion when we were ill, it would make us well. And some of these beliefs are true. But there were also many beliefs which were believed at the time, but later we found them not to be true. One belief which is very strong in Christian Europe is that if you sin, you will go to hell. And many people in the modern world have found that's not true. I don't know whether it's true, but it doesn't seem to be, in the sense that I've committed many sins, but I can't believe I'm going to go to hell. So science is gradually changing our beliefs, to explain, when we do something, what the result is. If we drink too much alcohol, we will get a bad liver. Now, Buddhism also, since ancient times, without realising the findings of science, stated that whatever we do, there is a result, without exception. We can never escape the result of our action. But even in the modern world, where we know cause and effect very clearly, people sometimes like to forget that what they do has a result. Without exception.

But Buddhism, the Buddhist teachings, state very clearly that there is always a result of our actions. We can never escape the... That's the first principle, which is not so unusual. But the second principle is very difficult for us to realize. The Buddhist teachings say that life, reality, is just now, at this moment. The past is gone. We can never go back to the past; it's absolutely impossible. The future is not here yet. We can imagine the future in our heads, but we can never go into the future. Sounds simple.

Of course, people say... But in fact, we live a lot of our lives in our heads: either in the past, thinking or feeling about what happened to us or what happened to other people, or thinking or feeling in our heads about the future, anticipating the future or worrying about the future. And almost all of us live like this. We live in a world where the past, the future and the present exist as a kind of process line inside our mind. So we believe it absolutely and completely. Tomorrow so-and-so is happening, I have to go to so-and-so. Yesterday I was in Bratislava. The day before yesterday I was in England. Ah, I forgot to do so-and-so in England. Oh, so I have to do it when I get back. So it's impossible to live in any different way, because our modern society, our civilization, created this shared belief. So we believe it. In our mind, in our consciousness, we believe in past, present and future, and we are travelling through them. And we need to, in order to exist in society. So we can call it the shared belief, and we believe it's true. Buddhism says that actually it's a belief, and the truth is, we're only here.

To think about the future, of course, is fine. But it's only thinking. We can think about wonderful things that we are going to do, or what we are going to become, or aims that we want to reach. But they're only activity inside our brain.

And the only thing that's real is what we are doing now. And of course there's the past: we worry about what we did, or we remember what we did. But what we did is gone, and we can never change it. So we can understand that explanation in our mind. Okay, I got it. The past is finished. The future hasn't come. We're just here. But to realize it, and to live like that. Very, very difficult. But if we can live in the present, it can help modern people very much. We can stop worrying about the future. We can stop regretting, or being trapped by our past. This is what Buddhism says. But of course, this doesn't belong to Buddhism. It doesn't belong to Buddhism.

Although it was taught by people, ancient people who said that they were Buddhists, we can find this teaching in many different areas. For instance, if you are an athlete training for some kind of event, it's very important to be in the present. I think it's important to forget the past, because you just did something, you just fell over, or you just didn't jump over the... Not to think about the future, but just to perform now. Sports people call it being in the zone. Zone. Does that make sense? Z-O-N-E.

Robert: Don't they say flow?

Mike: Okay, being in the flow. Yeah.

Robert: I thought flow. In the flow.

Mike: Yes. So sports psychologists and sports people are believing in Buddhism, in the sense that they are trying to concentrate on their own behaviour or performance now. And through their real experience, they know that this helps them a lot. And another example: we know that many experiences people had in the past affect their present life. And psychologists and psychotherapists try to help people look at their past and free themselves from it, to be free from the past and to be free from the future.

It's just the second principle of Buddhist teaching. So there are Buddhists everywhere. So actually, I don't like to use the word Buddhist. These two truths. The truth that our action always has a result. And the truth that we only live in the present don't belong to any religion. They belong to everybody. And different people sometimes realize these things through their own lives. So what's different about Buddhism? Well, to me, the difference is that people who called themselves Buddhists have taught these two truths for many years.

And now in the 21st century we find they're true. Science is showing us that the cause always has an effect, and more and more we can understand the results of our behaviour. The results of our diet, the results of our way of life, are becoming clearer and clearer. On the other hand, in modern life we can start to realize, through our own experience with sport, for instance, that to concentrate on the present is the most effective way to live.

So these two things have always been taught by Buddhism, but they don't belong to Buddhism. But there's one more thing. Since ancient times, Buddhists have had a very simple practice which people call meditation. In Japan they call it zazen. Zazen, which means sitting meditation. And it's an actual practice. It's not an intellectual study. It's a simple physical practice. And by meditating, or practicing zazen, for some time, regularly, we can notice that we just live now. We can realize that what Buddhism says is true.

And we can sit peacefully in the present. It's a very, very stupid activity, because it's not thinking. It's not doing some kind of special sport. It's just sitting. But by this very simple practice of sitting, after a few years, we can start to realize the truths of Buddhism. They're true of every human being.

Every human being is living now. If we live now, we don't need to worry about the future. We don't need to think about the past. And this attitude can make us happier in the present. However, what I've just told you is a kind of dream, because we can imagine being in the present and being very happy, not worrying about the future, being free from the past. But it's very, very difficult to do. But although it's very difficult to do, if we have some activity that makes us come into the present, for instance meditation, and not only meditation, sport, somehow we feel free.

If you have a busy day or a busy week at work and you go for a swim, afterwards you feel you don't have to walk in the woods. You get rid of your frustration. You let go of the past. So all these are the truths that Buddhism has been teaching, and that we are finding out in the modern world, which is great, because we need it. We are always in touch with somebody who is not here, thinking about tomorrow, thinking about the past.

So if we put our phone away and sit in meditation, or leave our phone at home and go to the sports club, we can be free. Don't take your phone. That's all I'd like to say. I'm happy to talk about any questions. And I would like to demonstrate the simple posture of meditation. So should we do that first? So Boris is going to sit, and then afterwards you can ask any questions or make any comments. It's not necessary to have a black cushion. You can have a red cushion. You can have a blanket, you can have a box. You need a place which is a little bit quiet, not too hot and not too cold. The traditional posture is crossing the legs. And some people are very flexible. They can cross, like, in the lotus posture, which is very nice and comfortable if you can do it. But we have to work with our own body. It's no good imagining that we can do something. So if you can't get your foot like Boris, you have to get it like this. Then we put our hands together with the thumbs touching, and rest our shoulders down, and rest our hands here. If you are touching your thumbs, you can notice when you are thinking a lot. If you are thinking about many things, you usually start going like this. Our spine should be naturally straight, and everybody's spine has a slightly different shape.

Boris has a very nice shape in his back. My back is more stiff down here, so it's not such a nice curve. Then relax your weight down onto your cushion, as if your spine bones are a pile of stones, and you're balancing. So people say that meditation is a position of balance. To balance the body is to balance the mind. So not stiff. Backwards and forwards, find the position of balance. And the same with the head on top of the shoulders. Not stiff. Not like this, but nicely loose, in balance. In this posture, we have many deep tensions in our body which we are not conscious of. If we sit in this posture for some time, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or for somebody who's experienced maybe 45 minutes, slowly these tensions will drop away, in the shoulders, in the arms, and so on. The mouth is closed naturally. If we close our eyes, sometimes we go to sleep, so we keep the eyes open, naturally. And if we notice that we're thinking something, then we can adjust our posture, which stops our train of thought. And then maybe a few minutes later we're thinking something again, so we straighten our posture again. And then slowly, if we sit for maybe 30 minutes, we stop having this train of thought. Of course, we can't stop all things coming into our head, because our brain is working. But we're not thinking a train of thought or a story. To sit like this is the whole of zazen. Very simple, but not so easy to do. We look at Boris, he's been sitting for twenty years.

And we think, ah yes, I'm going to do it when I get home. After ten minutes, twenty minutes... So it's not so easy to do. But it's no different from learning a sport. If you want to start running, you can get very excited and buy some new running shoes, and running trousers, and a colourful top. You go running, and it's hell. But if we continue, day after day, just a little, we learn how to run. It's the same. Many people come to Buddhist meetings and they get very excited. Yes, I will. This is for me. I read many books. Yes. And then they try to sit. Oh no, no, I need something easier. There is nothing easier in life. Life is not easy. So that's what I have to say. Thank you, guys.

Participant: Nice to sit.

Mike: Nice to sit. But we have to train ourselves to do anything.

Participant: I was the lucky man here.

Mike: Yeah, yeah. If we want to play tennis, we have to train ourselves. In our heads we become very excited, and our body is not so quick to learn. So if anybody has any comments or questions, please. In Czech or in Slovak. English? Or German. Okay.

Participant: I have something. I think maybe the action and reaction thing, you know, some people believe it's something like justice, and I think there's a big difference, because your reaction, what you get, isn't like justice. It doesn't work like this, you know what I mean?

Mike: Yes, we think there's justice in the world.

Participant: Yeah, but it's not true. It's not true. You know, if you just grab a stone, it falls to the ground. But there's no justice in that, you know, nothing moral or anything. So I think it has nothing to do with morals.

Mike: Yes, of course. We can say there are right things to do and wrong things to do, but... We don't understand how the person who lives in the next street is becoming very rich because he doesn't pay any taxes. And what is the dynamic? He seems to have a very happy life. And the person who lives in our street is rather poor and miserable, but never does anything wrong. Life doesn't seem fair. So, unfortunately, life is not fair. But we can make society fair.

Robert: And Mike didn't explain to us why tomorrow will never come, because tomorrow we have sesshin.

Mike: Okay. Robert said we should put up a notice. No, you said that in a pub there is a notice.

Robert: I just translated.

Mike: Yeah, yeah. And the notice says, free drinks tomorrow. So you can put the notice here: free beers tomorrow. And leave it there every day. So tomorrow... This sounds a very strange thing to say. Tomorrow is an idea which we cannot live without. There is only now, but without ideas, human society can't live. But if we look at animals, dogs or cats, of course we cannot guess what their life is really like, but it would seem that dogs and cats are not worrying about tomorrow. They seem to live in the present. They don't seem to worry. But we can't live as dogs or cats. But we can remember that actually, we don't need to worry. Yesterday I was in Bratislava with my English friend Rory and his car, looking for somewhere to park. And I'm sure everybody knows that if you're looking for somewhere to park, you get some kind of tension. So Rory said, Don't worry, the parking god will look after us. And so we were just driving around. Of course, it's kind of a joke. But there's a difference between, you know, can I get... and just relaxing about it.

Question: We recognize that in the biggest religions in the world there is some progress. Where is Buddhism in this progress? Do big religions change themselves, and how? Is Buddhism changing at the present time, and how does it change?

Mike: Yes, very interesting question. Buddhism is new to the West. And the Buddhism which is imported into the West comes from, for instance, Tibet, or Japan, or India, and so on. And it comes in with many traditions from those societies. So you can see people in Buddhist groups dressed in strange clothes. So slowly, Buddhism is changing, when people realise that dressing as a Buddhist is not what it's about. I lived in Japan for 25 years, studying Buddhism, and I don't like to wear Japanese clothes.

People who didn't go to Japan like to dress up as Japanese monks. I think it's very amusing. So I like to say that the teachings of Buddhism are the same, but all the extra things are slowly disappearing. But it's quite a new situation in Europe, so many people still want to study Buddhism as a kind of special religion, with many special ceremonies and so on. But it has to integrate with Western society in a different way. We can see that in Christianity there were many very special rituals, in the old times or even fairly recent times. But now there are more modern forms of Christianity, where they realise that understanding the teaching and living the teaching... Yeah, it's fine. It doesn't matter what you wear. If you want to be a Buddhist, it doesn't matter what you wear. It doesn't matter if you sit on a round black cushion or a red blanket. That's not the point. Is that an answer?

Question: … it was about sport and how sport corresponds with Buddhism. I spent decades in karate and met important Japanese masters. Their philosophy and their conduct were in line with Buddhism, but they never spoke about Buddhism, and I never heard anything like this from them. The question is: why?

Mike: They were teaching karate. They weren't teaching Buddhism. But it's also interesting that in Japan there have been many deep Buddhist customs for hundreds of years, but people don't notice. So if you say something to a Japanese person about sitting in zazen, they think, Oh no, I don't like that, painful. But actually, their behaviour is something based on Buddhism. But if you say that their behaviour is based on Buddhist teaching, they say, oh, really? It's just what I learned. So I agree with what you said, yes. The ability to focus on action without explanation, just do it: it's some custom from Buddhism.

Question: One last question. There is a Slovak author, Jozef Banáš, who is similar to Dan Brown, the very popular author who writes in English, and he writes similar books. In one of his books he says that peace and peacefulness in the world is in some way the result of the merging of all the major religions into one. Do you think there is a chance that this merging of the major religions will happen, and that Buddhism will be part of it?

Mike: Yes, yes, I agree with him. Two partners are arguing, fighting. But if they continue, they can integrate and merge and have peaceful situations. No: when they realize that to stop arguing is to be peaceful. If one country stops fighting, it might help. I think Buddhism has a teaching of balance between opposites. This person thinks they are right. This person thinks they are right. This country thinks they're right. This country thinks they're right. Buddhism says they're both wrong, so they should find a middle way. But we believe very clearly that there is right and wrong, so we fight for our belief. Buddhism says, don't fight for your belief. So Buddhism believes not in fighting for your belief, but in compromise. But we hate to compromise. We hate it. We feel that if we compromise, we lose our self. So we continue arguing. But I think the world will slowly realize. And one factor is that it's more difficult for soldiers to fight. Now there are television cameras watching the soldiers fighting, and many people sitting in their armchairs making some kind of judgment: Oh, I shouldn't do that, and so on. So that sounds a very strange thing, but slowly it has an effect on society, so it becomes more difficult to engage in fighting. But I think it takes a long time. For instance, the Islamic world and the humanistic world, or the Christian world. But to find a common ground... I hope they find it. I think they will find it. So Islamic people, for instance, who've come to live in Western society interpret Islam in a more humanistic way. That is a more helpful way of resolving the differences between the religions.

Participant: Yeah, Mike, but there's one thing I cannot agree with you on. I was there last week and there is no parking in Bratislava. Yeah, I really was there last week and...

Robert: So the parking god was not with you.

Mike: Yeah, of course, it's only a story. My friend says it to make himself feel relaxed. Don't worry. Okay.

Participant: Can I ask you something?

Mike: Yes.

Participant: So what's the point of this Buddhism? You told me to stay balanced, or sit in balance, but what's the point of meditation? Some other feeling, or what? Because I don't know. I really try to be in balance, but it's not so easy. So could you tell me some trick to do it better...

Mike: Yes. Continue.

Participant: Thanks a lot.

Mike: It's not easy. But living is not easy. And the point of zazen is just sitting in the present. But to keep ourselves in the present, to keep our mind in the present, is very difficult.

Question: Yeah, I know, because what's the present? One second is past, one second is future, so what's the present? This second? It's the continuity, it's the flow of time. We can handle it. How can we handle it with this meditation? What's the effect of this meditation? Because everything is in flow, it's continuing. So where is the present?

Mike: Now. Here and now. So not to be trapped by our thinking. A simple state where we are here. That's all. But this simple state is very, very difficult for us. Our mind is jumping, jumping to different places all the time.

Participant: Yeah, that's my problem.

Mike: So the answer is... We'll continue.

Participant: Okay, thank you very much. And may I ask another question? What's the reward of this meditation? What kind of feeling?

Mike: The result?

Participant: Yes.

Mike: You can be here, not trapped by the thinking.

Participant: No.

Mike: Sorry. Here. So that's the result. To be here, that's the result, because here is the only place to be. But human beings like to be somewhere else while they are here with their body. They love it. We can invent wonderful places to live.

Question: Is it not astral travelling?

Mike: We can stop astral travelling, if we want to be here.

Participant: Yeah. Okay, thanks a lot.

Mike: It's very, very simple. That's why we find it so difficult.

Participant: Okay, thank you.

Mike: Right, thank you very much.