..續本文上一頁 to find your refuge. That means to find your real heart. This heart is very important. People don”t usually look at important things, they spend most of their time looking at unimportant things. For example, when they do the house cleaning they may be bent on cleaning up the house, washing the dishes and so on, but they fail to notice their own hearts. Their heart may be rotten, they may be feeling angry, washing the dishes with a sour expression on their face. That their own hearts are not very clean they fail to see. This is what I call "taking a temporary shelter for a refuge." They beautify house and home but they don”t think of beautifying their own hearts. They don”t examine suffering. The heart is the important thing. The Buddha taught to find a refuge within your own heart: Attahi attano natho -- "Make yourself a refuge unto yourself." Who else can be your refuge

　　 The true refuge is the heart, nothing else. You may try to depend on other things but they aren”t a sure thing. You can only really depend on other things if you already have a refuge within yourself. You must have your own refuge first before you can depend on anything else, be it a teacher, family, friends or relatives.

　　So all of you, both laypeople and homeless ones who have come to visit today, please consider this teaching. Ask yourselves, "Who am I

　　 Why am I here

　　" Ask yourselves, "Why was I born

　　" Some people don”t know. They want to be happy but the suffering never stops. Rich or poor, young or old, they suffer just the same. It”s all suffering. And why

　　 Because they have no wisdom. The poor are unhappy because they don”t have enough, and the rich are unhappy because they have too much to look after.

　　In the past, as a young novice, I gave a Dhamma discourse. I talked about the happiness of wealth and possessions, having servants and so on... A hundred male servants, a hundred female servants, a hundred elephants, a hundred cows, a hundred buffaloes...a hundred of everything! The laypeople really lapped it up. But can you imagine looking after a hundred buffaloes

　　 Or a hundred cows, a hundred male and female servants...can you imagine having to look after all of that

　　 Would that be fun

　　 People don”t consider this side of things. They have the desire to possess...to have the cows, the buffaloes, the servants... hundreds of them. But I say fifty buffaloes would be too much. Just twining the rope for all those brutes would be too much already! But people don”t consider this, they only think of the pleasure of acquiring. They don”t consider the trouble involved.

　　If we don”t have wisdom everything round us will be a source of suffering. If we are wise these things will lead us out of suffering. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind...Eyes aren”t necessarily good things, you know. If you are in a bad mood just seeing other people can make you angry and make you lose sleep. Or you can fall in love with others. Love is suffering, too, if you don”t get what you want. Love and hate are both suffering, because of desire. Wanting is suffering, wanting not to have is suffering. Wanting to acquire things... even if you get them it”s still suffering because you”re afraid you”ll lose them. There”s only suffering. How are you going to live with that

　　 You may have a large, luxurious house, but if your heart isn”t good it never really works out as you expected.

　　Therefore, you should all take a look at yourselves. Why were we born

　　 Do we ever really attain anything in this life

　　 In the countryside here people start planting rice right from childhood. When they reach seventeen or eighteen they rush off and get married, afraid they won”t have enough time to make their fortunes. They start working from an early age thinking they”ll get rich that way. They plant rice u…

《Why Are We Here

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