Ajahn Khemasiri - QUI SUIS-JE

The speaker welcomes the audience and discusses the theme of the talk, which is "Who am I?". They explain that this question has been explored in many cultures throughout history. The speaker offers a Buddhist perspective on this question, emphasizing the importance of self-inquiry and meditation. They discuss the need to go beyond our conditioned identities and access a deeper dimension of being. The speaker describes the experience of stillness and silence in meditation and how it can provide a sense of liberation. However, they also emphasize that these states are impermanent and not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is awakening or enlightenment, which is embedded in our human potential. The speaker encourages the audience to recognize the preciousness of their human birth and not just focus on material wealth. Good afternoon. I'd like to first of all welcome you all here in this for me very familiar environment. And if you might not know that I have been giving meditation retreats in this place a few times, and so sitting here feels very familiar. So it's nice to see you all and your interest in the theme which was suggested to me. It's not the theme which I chose, actually. I didn't chose it. Is that right? Bonjour et bienvenue à tout le monde. Je suis très heureux d'être là dans ce cadre qui en fait m'est très familier parce que j'ai eu la chance de venir très souvent faire des retraites de méditation ici. Donc c'est avec beaucoup d'émotion que je me retrouve aujourd'hui dans cette chaise. Le thème d'aujourd'hui, c'est vraiment le thème que j'ai choisi. Voilà, c'est le thème qui m'a laissé celui-là. And I don't really know if I have been asked if I wanted to make a contribution, if I had chosen that topic. I might have chosen something completely different. Because admittedly the subject, the topic of today is not an easy one. Yes, all you have to do is really ask yourself these questions. These questions are key subjects. And anybody who has many dimensions, people who have asked themselves these questions sincerely, deeply, not just philosophically, not just trying to answer this from the head, they will find quickly that they are bound up against something. And this theme, this topic of who am I, has actually been explored in many cultures. It's not just an Eastern thing, you know, at the Buddha's time for example, but also we've had it now philosophically, traditions. Actually, I remember even almost around the same time when the Buddha lived, there was this inscription at the Oracle of Delphi in Greece. You might have heard this. It said, Know thyself, but know yourself. It was etched in stone when he built it. It's a question that belongs to all times. It's a question that men have always asked themselves. And in all cultures, not just in the Roman culture, also closer to us, in the Greek culture, our ancestors, with this inscription on the base of the temple of Delphi, which you might know, which says, know thyself. You must ask yourself this question, who am I, really? Apparently, it's clear that I've heard that the first Delphi temple, even many years before, there was already this inscription, but it fell down, it was destroyed. We have the same inscription already, although the archaeological stalk improved, it's a little more released, so we just take it on trust. But it just wants to show that this question has been around for many, many years, for decades, for centuries. People in Greece have tried to answer this very relevant question. But as you kind of mentioned, I want to give a little philosophical discourse here. In fact, I'd like to invite you all, as you're here now, today, to maybe, as you're listening to me, and something resonates with you, to bring this directly inward, and ask me a relevant question yourself, as we're sitting here. Rather than trying to figure things out, or find nice schemes, or merely rational explanations. We can go right into it, as we are here now. We don't have to wait for the right occasion. We don't have to collect any information from India, maybe apply it on another day, or another life. We can do it now, here, today. Because we're not going to find the answer to what I'm going to tell you, we're not going to find the answer to another day, we're not going to come here to go inside the explanation, here, as we are now. And as you can imagine, I will offer to you a Buddhist, if one could call it a Buddhist perspective. This is my main perspective, because I've lived according to Buddhist principles for many years, and I've contemplated, reflected, investigated life, this life, but not only this life. It doesn't sound too good, does it? It sounds like a... What is it? Ego trip? So, the perspective that I'm going to offer to you is a Buddhist perspective. I've spent a large part of my life studying these principles, and that's what I'm going to be able to share with you. I'm going to share with you what I've understood about this life, so that you don't forget about this life. And at the same time, I'd like to do for you what could be called a Buddhist ego trip. And of course, it can easily happen if one isn't careful, that the maybe initially good intentions of embarking on this spiritual path will end up with just false feelings and emotions just circling around the sense of self, by ourselves. And people who do that too much, maybe speaking now about people who are spiritual, generally people who think too much about themselves, they're in danger to go a bit funny, they can even go crazy. So if you don't have a perspective on yourself, on the way you, each and every one of us, operate as a person, and we can look at it almost like from the outside, we can't do that, that is not really very efficacious for our lives. So in a way we're making ourselves the object of observation. We're looking at our mental states, emotional states, feeling states, and investigate how much of that, how much of this changing phenomenon, is who I am, who I really am. And so what is in question is not the sense of us being a person, personhood is not in question, but it's the sense of self, maybe I should even give it a capital letter, the identification with the inner processes, with our mental conditioning, emotional conditioning, social conditioning, in other words with all our conditioning process which really needs investigation. So if I would ask you now, please, one after the other, please tell me who you are, what would you say? What would be your answer? You probably wouldn't say just your name, unless this is appropriate. Maybe you would point to some kind of strong identification you have, with you being a man or a woman, with you being of a certain nationality, with you being of a certain religion and so forth, etc., etc., etc., and on and on it goes. So if I would ask you now, if I would tell you who you are, what would you say? You probably wouldn't say just your name, maybe you would point to some kind of strong identification you have, with you being a man or a woman, with you being of a certain nationality, etc., etc., and on and on it goes. Of course these labels we tend to give ourselves, don't have to be a problem. But they become a problem when we do something which we call, what is it, we cling, we grasp them. Well, isn't this a gesture? And the end result of that is that we believe that's all who we are. All these different conditioning aspects, that's who we are. So if we really want to find out who we are, we need to find another way, another access. And for that, in the Buddhist tradition, we're using contemplation, meditation, so that we can switch the level of our enquiry from upstairs to the other areas of our being. And in the Buddhist tradition, we're using contemplation, meditation, so that we can switch the level of our enquiry from upstairs to the other areas of our being. Buddhism is a very important prerequisite, so we can get out of our habitual thinking patterns, emotional patterns, reactive patterns we have, and access to a very different dimension. And of course becoming still, or being connected with stillness, we have a whole array of meditation techniques which can produce very profound experiences of mental calm, stillness, and really very deep so that all sense of external oppressions, of mental, emotional oppressions, everything disappears. Even the body disappears at one point. And as you can imagine, this feels really good. And as you can imagine, this feels really good. And we feel good because we don't think about ourselves anymore. We are finally free of the constant concern, of me, me, etc. And the story still holds some value for it, because it gives you a message. Even when all these things, these conditioned things disappear, I'm still here. I still exist. But I exist again in the background of stillness, of silence. And if that wasn't proven enough, what could they ask? Where am I? And it would be very tempting to say, yes, this is it. I've reached the final goal. I've reached the end of the tunnel. This must be the deepest realization that this is the way to the end. But the bad news is, these states are impermanent. They come and go, but they don't stay. We don't have control over them. We can manipulate them as we wish. So you become a knowledge of the value, this profound state you have to have. So you can see the process of inquiring goes right to the point, and there's really, barely, no questions left. Donc même si on peut reconnaître la valeur profonde de ces états-là, on est obligé aussi de les lâcher. So you can see the process of inquiring goes right to the point, and there's really, barely, no questions left. Donc ce processus de questionnement, finalement il va jusqu'à un point où il n'y a plus de questions. And in Buddhism we call this awakening, or you also probably know the word enlightenment, liberation, freedom of the heart. All these expressions are pointing to something which is in a way embedded in our human potential. Because having taken human birth, this is what we all bring with us. We all bring with us the potential to fully awaken. And in some traditions, like in the Tibetan tradition for example, they have a very beautiful expression, they call this the precious human birth. We have a precious human birth. Par exemple, en tibétain, on parle de la naissance humaine précieuse. And what do we do with this precious human birth? Are we just here to consume, to maximize profits, to amass material wealth and so forth? Et qu'est-ce que nous en faisons, en fait, avec cette naissance humaine précieuse? Est-ce qu'on est juste là pour le consommer? Is that really precious? I don't think so. And so, the preciousness of course lies, as I said, in the potential to not only bring the seed of awakening into this world, but also to write at the other end, the flowering of blossoming, what that means again, that we call awakening, full awakening. And of course, I would say in this context, also coming back to the theme of the talk, someone who is fully awakened truly and genuinely knows him or herself. And what do they know? They know that they are not the conditioned reality of their experience, because these are the conditioned phenomena of our personal experience. They are very impermanent, and when we cling to them, we blaspheme them, or we resist them, and we suffer. And there is no autonomous, independent entity which can claim ownership. Neither with it, nor without it. They have understood that they are not the resultant of this reality, that they are created, they have understood that they exist. Beyond that, they have understood that they cannot cling to this very conditioning. So if that question comes up again and again, what is that self we talk about all the time? Let's go a little bit into detail. Rather than jumping to the ultimate, to the end of the ultimate start, square one, where we are. And the square one is what the Buddha called the meat-making and the mind-making process. And the Buddha had special words, because I don't want to bore you with foreign words, but it's a very important way of expression of time. So the Buddha had a special way of saying that, so I'm not going to give you too many complicated terms, but it's an important expression. Because what we want to be ourselves, in our consciousness, it's an ongoing process based on what we call based on the three toxins, greed, hatred and delusion. Greed, hatred and delusion are the three toxins. Greed, hatred and delusion. And so these, of course, they can break up into derivatives. There are many forms of delusion, many forms of greed and more forms of hatred that can manifest as well. So there are three toxins that can break up into several forms of greed, several forms of hatred and several forms of delusion. And in an ignorant or unconscious mind, it tends to manifest over and over again and repeatedly. Only circles around that central self, it's only involved in that deep and mind-making process. It's kind of a circular closed loop. And you only get out of that loop, because the loop means is that our independent, autonomous entity, we call self. But to get out of the loop, if you, with more precision and insight, what we call insight, very important in Buddhism. With insight we see the process, we witness it, we feel it also. It's not just a cognitive exercise. As I've said, we bring you into this service, we bring you into the meditation. And then we can see that you can also feel through the tendency to hold on to this phenomenon. And for most of us, for most practitioners, monastics and non-monastics, that is of course an ongoing task. For most of us, maybe, I don't want to sound too pessimistic, maybe a task for life. But we're learning something, we're developing, we're realizing something along the way. Even if we don't reach the full awakening or if we don't fully know what we really are. And I can testify, it feels very good in a different way than compared to this state, when you realize you're not any longer victims to your bad habits. You know, my bad habits 30 years ago, a lot of them are not there anymore. 20 years ago, also not there anymore. Still some bad habits there. A lot of them have been seen through, or have been maybe turned into more mild expressions of those toxins. There's always a little story which I'd like to share, this context surrounding this theme, which is a meeting between the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and an ascetic wanderer of his time, which is actually written down in the Buddhist scriptures. And this man was seemingly a little bothered by the concept of non-self, because there's an outlet that was put in the scriptural language, non-self, famous Buddhist word, manantha, self, manantha. And he thought, this sounds crazy. So this man went to the Buddha, and he was quite respectful, he was not disrespectful, quite a great achievement, and he said, I'm really puzzled by this non-self business. So are you really teaching that there is non-self? And the Buddha, for a moment in time, didn't say anything. Well, then he thought, OK, I'm putting questions all the way around. Well, then I'm not teaching that there is a self, am I teaching? And then Buddha again remained silent, didn't say anything. So this man got up, shook his head, and said, well, this man doesn't know anything. He didn't answer my questions, so I might as well go somewhere else and ask somebody else. But fortunately for us, there was an attendant, he had a very loyal attendant monk, who was probably waiting in some refreshment, you know, the Indian climate, as you know, is not really having a good life around here. And he overheard this conversation. And he said to the Buddha, what do I understand? He said to the person, is there a self? He didn't say anything. And then he said to the other person, the other way around, the other person, so there's no self, he didn't say anything either. How should we understand this? So fortunately then the Buddha spoke. He said, well, if I had to actually confirm what Chakravarti was saying, that there is a self, I would have support of all these teachers and ascetics and prophets and so forth, who are teaching a kind of eternalism, of the eternal soul, and the eternally migrating entity, from life to life to life to life. So if I had answered, there is a self, I would have been supporting all these schools of thought, who say that there is a soul that is being killed in an eternal way. But if I had to confirm that there isn't a self, I would have sided with all these philosophers and teachers, who are kind of nihilists, you know, materialists, they were just believing. You just have this body, it's just made up of four elements. After death, it goes back to the elements. And our mental faculties also disappear and just evaporate into thin air. And then further, if I had to confirm what Chakravarti, then he had no self, he would have caught me completely confused. He came to me in the conviction that he had a self, asked me these questions, and I told him, he has none. He would have been completely perplexed and confused. Et d'autant plus, donc, que les personnes qui se présentent devant moi en m'étant persuadées qu'il a un self, si je lui dis qu'il n'en a pas, il va repartir encore plus perturbé. Donc c'était une histoire qui montre un petit peu la didactique du Bouddha lorsqu'il enseignait. Il y a beaucoup de fois où les personnes épaisées, éclairées, en fait, ne parlent pas. When they do speak, maybe the Buddha had an intention that this man wasn't really ready to receive the message. It could well be. We don't know, of course. But we know from this little dialogue he had with his attendant that to take extreme positions, either the firming of a self or the negation of a self, it doesn't lead us anywhere. Ce qu'on peut retenir de ces échanges entre le Bouddha et son serviteur, c'est que ces positions quelque part extrêmes, soit d'être dans l'affirmation du soi ou d'être dans la négation du soi, ça ne nous mène nulle part. Donc je dis ici que du Bouddha n'agit pas avec une foi. Ils intègrent les choses dans l'essoufflée de confiance. Mais on les encourage du coup à se questionner, à investiguer et à regarder par l'âme. Et donc ce travail-là, c'est facile d'un seul qui peut effectuer ce travail-là pour soi-même en fait. On ne peut pas le prendre à l'extrême. Donc même lorsqu'on rencontre des maîtres spirituels, même tel que le Dalai Lama, on peut être inspiré d'espace de quelques minutes et puis ça, ça part aussi. Alors si je vous dis ça, c'est que mon intention en fait, c'est de vous encourager à avoir le courage de faire ce qu'il se demande de vous-même au cours de votre vie. Et mon grand conseil, c'est d'essayer de diminuer ce niveau en fait d'obsession avec le fait de penser à soi-même. Vous pouvez même le faire lorsque vous vous interagissez avec d'autres personnes. Vous pouvez essayer d'observer combien de fois vous utilisez « je », « moi » ou « me ». Il y a même une étude, je ne pourrais pas vous dire qui c'est qui l'a fait, mais donc il y a une étude qui démontre que la corrélation entre les maladies cardiaques et la tendance à beaucoup penser et à parler de soi-même, est du coup en relation. Et la tension est élevée et le cholestérol aussi. Donc si ça ne vous convient pas... Alors, le concernement obsessif sur ce qui n'est pas le cholestérol, si vous le croyez ou non, je suis un peu sceptique quand je l'ai vu parce qu'il n'y avait pas un footnote sur qui a fait l'étude, je ne pourrais pas le croire. Mais, apparemment, pourquoi devraient les gens se moquer de cette étude et de ce qu'elle a fait ? Je ne sais pas qui a fait cette étude. Si vous continuez, du coup, si vous continuez dans cette pratique d'être très observé par soi-même dans ses pensées, c'est même statistiquement plus dangereux qu'être un professeur. Et donc, je suis aussi en train de vous dire que si vous êtes un bon réveilleur, vous pouvez vous dire que si vous vous détachiez un petit peu du jeu, ou un peu, vous pouvez fumer quelques cigarettes de plus. Mais c'est intéressant aussi de pouvoir se dire qu'on peut utiliser notre attitude spirituelle aussi pour vivre plus longtemps, pour être en meilleure santé. Nous avons tous eu envie d'utiliser le temps que nous avons, c'est-à-dire que nous avons au mieux de nous capaciter. Est-ce que j'ai dit tout ce que j'avais à vous dire ? Est-ce que j'ai donné un peu de temps à certains d'entre vous pour vous échanger ? Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un d'autre ? Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un d'autre ? J'ai l'impression que vous avez beaucoup de temps à vous échanger. Je ne sais pas si j'ai dit tout ce que j'avais à vous dire. Je ne sais pas si j'ai dit tout ce que j'avais à vous dire. Est-ce que j'ai dit tout ce que j'avais à vous dire ? Peut-être que j'ai l'impression que je ne suis pas très heureux de m'engager avec vous, pour que je puisse entendre ce qui se passe avec vous, ce qui se passe dans votre tête. Est-ce qu'il y a quelque chose qui vous a un peu perturbé ou surpris ? Est-ce qu'il y a quelque chose qui vous a un peu perturbé ou surpris ? C'est intéressant parce qu'on est venu en Chine, en Allemagne, et on sait que c'est pas la bonne question de se poser. Si on voulait vivre plus longtemps. Pardon ? Si on voulait vivre plus longtemps. C'est peut-être notre principal objectif, n'est-ce pas ? C'est notre objectif. Vivre plus longtemps, etc. Mais non, Kévin, je ne veux pas vous prendre cette question, ce n'est pas mon objectif. C'est peut-être un peu différemment phrasé. En fait, de la manière dont ça a du sens pour nous. Si la question « qui suis-je ? » était difficile pour moi de vraiment avoir un accès général, je continue à aller vers ma tête, en essayant de trouver, alors peut-être que je peux trouver une autre façon de mettre la question dans le système, d'une certaine manière. C'est pourquoi je suggère que la méditation, en traversant l'avenir de la tranquillité et de la stillness du temps, soit une bonne façon de le faire. Je ne veux pas être certaine que pour moi, « qui suis-je ? » est vraiment une question réelle. Je suis. Oui, exactement. Je suis qui je suis. Oui. Mais vous, peut-être, « qu'est-ce que je fais ? » ou « qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » ou « qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » Oui. Au lieu de « qui suis-je ? » Oui. « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » « Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ? » Vous avez encore besoin d'une traduction ? Est-ce qu'il y a des personnes qui en ont besoin ou est-ce que vous êtes prêts pour continuer la traduction ? Il y avait une question du coup, peut-être que ce n'est pas la question, la question n'est peut-être pas qui suis-je, mais peut-être la question c'est plutôt pourquoi je suis là, qu'est-ce que je fais, c'est quoi mon dessin de vie ? Et ce que disait Adjad, c'est que oui, mais quand on se met dans ces questions-là, c'est plus que sur soi, ça implique ce rapport qu'on a aux autres, ce rapport qu'on a en nous, donc on change en fait de sphère de question. Il s'agit d'un des sages indiens du dernier siècle, son nom est Ramana Maharshi, et bien sûr il a été acknowledgé comme un indien réaliste, et il a dit à propos de son réalisation, « Quand je regarde avec eux, je réalise ou je reconnais que je ne suis rien. Quand je regarde sans, je reconnais ou je réalise que je suis tout, je suis tout. Et entre ces deux poles, ma vie tourne. » Donc, si je peux traduire ça, si je regarde à l'intérieur et que je vois ce sens de moi-même, c'est un chimère, ce n'est pas réel, c'est quelque chose qui est créé, c'est-à-dire qu'il n'y a pas de moi-même, alors on pourrait dire que je n'ai rien, mais quand je suis vide de ce sens de moi-même, je vois moi-même et tout le monde d'autre. Parce qu'à ce niveau, on parle d'un haut niveau, on est tous les mêmes, on est tous les mêmes. Donc, il y a un grand sage ancien du siècle dernier qui a été reconnu comme étant arrivé à l'état d'éveil, du coup, ultime. Et quand on lui demandait sur ce rapport qu'il avait entre soi et le monde, il disait franchement, moi, à mon intériorité, je suis rien, mais c'est quand je regarde vers l'extérieur, quand je regarde le monde et quand je me vois dans une autre personne, c'est là où je vois le tout. Et moi et ma vie, on existe dans la relation qu'il y a entre cet intérieur et cet extérieur, c'est là que se situe en fait ma vie. Donc, oui, merci d'avoir mentionné ça, parce que c'est très important en fait, sinon, on pourrait se retrouver avec une self-introspection égocentrique, tu sais, et on n'a pas d'avenir. Mais si nous réalisons, ou si, disons-le doucement, si nous diminuons le sens de la self-concernation, the more we are available for others. People are completely obsessed with the fact that they have no space for others, they're just, you know, within their own little world all the time. But people who have lost that sense of hovering around their own little self, which really actually doesn't exist, they aren't completely available. Donc, je te releverai sans la question, parce qu'effectivement, si on reste sur cette notion de qui suis-je, ben du coup, avec les autres, on ne fait pas de place, finalement, pour les autres, on est très centré sur soi-même. So, anything else on the horizon? Please. So, yeah, thank you for sharing. Yeah, I really feel like the depth of this inquiry of who I am can really help us to touch, like really intervene, feeling, and come back to something really universal. And I feel that myself, also, I'm really curious of my identity, of like the potential of the, kind of, the singularity. So, I'm kind of wondering, the question is like, how do you combine your path, the universal path that we can touch in this mission, and also like the beauty that I feel in human beings, to develop this kind of unique potential with the unique inspiration that life makes for us. Alors, moi, je me suis posé la question de comment on fait cette relation, en fait, entre ce qu'on peut aller creuser au niveau de tout ce qui est universel, dans ce context aux autres. Donc, ça c'est quelque chose qu'on peut rencontrer, justement, en méditation. Et comment est-ce que je fixe ça, en fait, à la quête aussi, qui est aussi infinie, la quête de tout ce qu'il y a aussi à l'intérieur de moi, et comment je fais ça, la relation entre les deux? Yes, I think I understand your question. I think the teaching on non-self, or non-self, is not a put-down of the person. Nobody, well, nobody with his or her friends would say that he or she is not a person. We are all persons, on a kind of conventional level. And we go through developmental stages in our life, psychologically, creatively, physically, of course, and so forth, intellectually. And there's absolutely nothing against doing that. You see, but when it comes to the process of self-concern, that's all I can see. And it can go in a direction which is, in the end, not really very beneficial. You might have highly developed minds. We have a Buddhism, we have Buddhist philosophers that have read all the books, and, you know, they've had their noses stuck in the books all along, but they haven't practiced, you know, they haven't put themselves into the quarter and cooked themselves, so to speak. So, that is something that really, really has a say. Also, we don't mix things up. Personal does not mean personal. But the self, this creative thing, especially as an autonomous thing, is totally personal. Because if you look closer, I assure you, you won't find it. But you have to find it. Don't believe me. Don't believe my words. It's just a kind of way of encouraging you to look. You know, look, OK, this is my life, and I do these things, I have an education, I have a professional career, maybe, and these things can go on. Parallel, simultaneously, the inner inquiry can go on. This is just that they don't exclude each other. And when maybe one becomes, maybe the inner inquiry becomes more predominant, that is different for every individual. It's not the same for everyone. I'm sorry. But if I put it into practice, there is no balance, which is very necessary. They also say that it's up to everyone to find it. So, it's not because we're on a journey within ourselves that it prevents us from having this dimension. It's also the quest that goes to others. You have to find the right balance between the two. And then, once again, it's not up to him to tell you how to do it. It's up to you to find how to find your own voice, your own balance on the subject. Maybe I should also, what I haven't mentioned, actually, I mentioned these meditation techniques, which develop very deep state of calm or stillness. But there's another, I would even say more important one, which maybe many of you have heard, it's called vipassana. Vipassana meditation. This is where also the whole plainness, the mindfulness comes into it. Actually, vipassana means to see, to look. And vipassana means precisely look. In vipassana meditation, you look precisely at your own inner experience. And over time, the term vipassana has now taken on the meaning of insight. Insight is when you have either a glimpse, a sudden glimpse of understanding. That's called insight. Or a deeper one, a lasting one, we understand. This trap, mental, emotional trap, I've really understood, and we're not going there any longer. It's finished. It's gone. And so vipassana means to see through. So with the term vipassana, it means to see through. It's a bit like a little eye that could open to something else. But since it's only that, it can also become a trap. So it has to be part of everything. Are you human? Anything else? I had a question. You said earlier that life, the goal is to live a long life. To live a long life, I know, to live a long life, to be happy, to be healthy. And my question is about the current trend in society to take on positions that are not at all attractive, not even sufficiently attractive, especially for men. Yes. Do you understand? I don't understand what you're saying. Because I don't understand. Ok, so I'm asking you a question. Is this position of attractiveness an effect? Or is it a manifestation? So there's a lot of attractiveness. Is this a suicide? Would you say that that is a failure? Or is it an accomplishment? If the objective is prolonging life and living a long life. Well, if the objective is prolonging life at all costs, well, I think you bring up a difficult topic, admittedly, because people not only want to end life prematurely nowadays, but they actually have a very good friend, who used to be a monk, who died in January, who did exactly that. He was eaten in the country he was from, I won't even say which country it is. It's not quite Indian, but he found a doctor who would assist him. He had ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is a terrible, vanishing of the... this goes from paralysis to neurodisease, the muscles stop functioning, it becomes skin and bones, and eventually even your breathing muscles shrink, and you suffocate. And he didn't want to do that, so he asked people, could you help me, at what point, to consciously and still fully devote to end life? So that's just an example, to make this a little bit more tacit. And the other thing is that nowadays, people don't let people die at peace. At all costs, they try to prolong their lives in hospitals, performing operations, complicated operations, on people in their late 80s or 90s. And this is rather strange. So this is a question that is extremely relevant. I even have the experience of a friend, a scientist, who did this experiment, of a subject to assist. It's someone who had a degenerative disease, and who wanted to die, precisely, in full consciousness, and to be able to do it in these conditions. And then there is another aspect of this question, it is, on the contrary, the fact that in our society today, life is at all costs. So with people who are 80, 90 years old, who are in hospitals, who are operated, and we can actually ask ourselves the question, what is the point of this? For a person to decide to end his or her life, but if we are actually in touch with a person, if we are close to the person, if we are relative or friend or marriage partner, we will know, we will intuitively know, well, actually, as I'm saying that, I've known, as I'm saying that, I was just going to say, we will intuitively know when it's time for granny to go, but there are people who hang on to their relatives, not just to their husband and wives, but also to granny, and don't want to let her go, even if it's time to go. So, for us, of course, as monks, we are not firm. We have certain rules which are absolutely non-negotiable. Everyone is to, well, not kill anybody, but also not to encourage someone else to kill anybody. It's not mentioned in fine print what kind of state a person has to be so that this rule applies. So, I'm always very careful when people, because I've met people asking me, you know, what they should do for, or even people being in despair, asking me, you know, tearful or despair, I just can't bear this pain anymore. There was a man I knew in Zurich, he was a journalist, controlled by a prestigious newspaper. He was retired and he got cancer, very painful cancer, and I visited him regularly, and he told me that his doctors had said to him, you know, Richard, Richard was his name, you don't have to have any pain, we look after that. Until you die, no pain. And he said, well, but that would be my spiritual death, you know. I would just be blocked towards the end of my life. And he didn't want that, he wanted to stay conscious, awake, alert. He still had, actually, he still wanted to, he was still embarking on the awakening process, even at that stage. But sometimes, I feel so desperate, you know, I can use this expression, I want to take to the knife, which is a very old, scriptural term. But sometimes, I feel so desperate, you know, I can use this expression, I want to take to the knife, which is a very old, scriptural term. But sometimes, I feel so desperate, you know, I can use this expression, I want to take to the knife, which is a very old, scriptural term. And he wanted to see how I would react. And I just didn't say anything, I just took it in, you know. It was quite powerful. And he was standing up. And he was standing up. And then he was saying to me, Well, thank you that you didn't stand up and didn't cry. So he had a good sense of humor at that stage. And so he was standing up in front of me, and I simply chose not to answer, not to react. So I thanked him for not making him cry, because he still had a sense of humor. But I didn't give him an injunction to the police by telling him not to do it. But I encouraged him, you know, to just go slowly. And he did, and he died not long later, at home, in the eyes of his wife, in the arms of his wife, in the arms of his wife, in the arms of his wife, and she wrote me the most beautiful letter afterwards, how this process happened, how the consciousness stayed in the room, and she moved on. One of the most beautiful letters that I had. So there is no pretty answer to this. It's a difficult terrain. You can say, thou shalt not. I don't believe in that. But also, I don't believe in, you know, the too aggressive encouragement to get done with it, to finish it, you know, that's very often too quick, and also not acknowledging the full spectrum of possibilities. I don't think we should do this, we shouldn't do that. But at the same time, I don't encourage decisions that could be a little too abrupt, a little too quick. I think we should try to stay in this sphere, in fact, globally. And this man, this friend, he proved it to me, he gave a little more time. That's what he chose. He could have done it in different ways, but that's what he chose. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...