..续本文上一页coffee table this was realization from deep experience of the nature of mind. You too can have that same experience.

　　All religions in the world except Buddhism maintain the existence of a soul. They affirm a real ”self”, an ”essence of all being”, a ”person”, a ”me”. Buddhism says there is no self! Who is right

　　 What is this ”ghost in the machine”

　　 Is it a soul, is it a being, or is it a process

　　 What is it

　　 When the Buddha said that there is no one in here, he never meant that to be just believed, he meant that to be experienced. The Buddha said, as a scientific fact, that there is no ”self”. But like any scientific fact, it has to be experienced each one for themselves, paccattam veditabbo viññūhi. Many of you chant those Pali words every day. It is basic scientific Buddhism. You have to keep an open mind. You don”t believe there is ”no self”, you don”t believe there is a ”self” both beliefs are dogmatism. Keep an open mind until you complete the experiment. The experiment is the practice of sila, samadhi and pañña, (virtue, meditation and insight). The experiment is Buddhist practice. Do the same experimental procedures that the Buddha did under the Bodhi tree. Repeat it and see if you get the same results. The result is called Enlightenment.

　　Men and women have repeated that experiment many times over the centuries. It is in the laboratory of Buddhist practice that the Enlightened Ones, the Arahants, arise. The Arahants are the ones who have done the experiment and found the result. That”s why Buddhism always has been the scientific way. It is the way of finding out for your self the truth of Enlightenment.

　　Buddhism is also the scientific way of discovering the truth about happiness, what most people are interested in. What is happiness

　　 Some students from our local Islamic school came to visit our monastery a short while ago. I performed a little party trick for them, which was also an illuminating way to demonstrate the existence of the mind. I was trying to explain Buddhism, so I asked them:

　　"Are you happy

　　 Put your hands up if you are happy now".

　　At first there was no response. Then one person responded and raised their hand.

　　"Oh! You”re all miserable

　　" I said "Only one person, come on! Are you happy or not

　　"

　　More students put there hands up.

　　"Okay, all those people who put their hands up saying they are happy, with your index finger can you now point to that happiness

　　 Can you give it coordinates in space

　　" They couldn”t locate that happiness.

　　It”s hard to locate happiness, isn”t it

　　 Have you ever been depressed

　　 Next time you are depressed, try to point to that feeling with your index finger! You will find that you cannot locate depression, or happiness, in space. You cannot give it coordinates, because these things reside in the mind, not in the body, not in space. The mind is not located in space. That”s why after a person dies, if they become a ghost they can appear all over the world immediately. People sometimes ask me, "How can that happen

　　" How can a person who dies, say in New York, appear immediately in Perth

　　 It is because the mind is not located in space, that”s why. This is why you cannot point to happiness, you cannot point to depression, but they are real. Are you imagining the happiness

　　 Do you imagine the depression

　　 It”s real. You all know that. But you cannot locate it in three dimensional space. Happiness, depression, and many other real things, all live in mind-space.

　　The mind is not in the brain, it”s not in the heart. We have seen that you could have no brain but still have a mind. You could take out your heart, and have a bionic heart, or a heart transplant, and you would still be you. This understanding of the mind is why Buddhists have no objection at all to…

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