You guys have all discovered interesting things about the Dhamma. You're meditators! All of you have been meditators for some years, you've done many retreats.
And the rest of the world doesn't understand you, right?
Yeah, what are you going to do in your life with all of these insights into the Dhamma? Often you don't know! Dhamma insights, normally you can't communicate them to your friends and family, they're not interested.
You wander around sometimes wondering, is it valid? Is what you're learning here actually valid, does it fit?
You know it does, but sometimes there may be the pressure of society and others, someone saying "Have a beer!", blah blah. Let's go do this, let's go do that. Sometimes it's the pressure of the supermarket, in America the magazines stare at you when you check out. The TV, the movies.
So what are you doing with all these insights into the Dhamma? What we want to do with our insights into the Dhamma is change ourselves inside.
If we're still going to have to walk into the supermarket, can we change the way that we react to all those magazines? When we're confronted with people who just want to complain about the price of this, the price of that, or how much taxes there are, or the politics or whatever, can we try to look at it in a different way and not get just sucked into straight away complaining with everybody else? These are things that we want to do with our insights. We want to change our past unbeneficial internal conditioning and views with the insights so that we have into the Dhamma, more beneficial condition and right views that will give us the strength to live a life that is compassionate to ourselves and brings good results.
The biggest truth or right view that hopefully all of you have is the Four Noble Truths. Now sometimes people forget the simplicity of the Four Noble Truths. They forget where Dukkha comes from. Dukkha doesn't come from John Howard, Dukkha doesn't come from Woolworth's, Dukkha doesn't come from the neighbor having a BMW. Where does Dukkha come from? It comes from our own thoughts, reactions, unwise cravings and desires. That insight itself is fine, but we need a little bit more than that. It's just acknowledging where Dukkha comes from, fine, we sit down and we're in a Dukkha story, and then we're just sad about the whole mess.
So remember the insight into how to get out of Dukkha, the 3rd and the 4th Noble Truths. We've got to hold onto that insight, we've got to hold onto the fact that there is a way out of our mental pain. There is a way with all these different techniques to let go of our aversion, to let go of our fear, to let go of our worry. It's harder when the people around you have lots of worry, fear and everything else.
And that's why we've always advised having good kind wise friends. If you're always isolated, all year long, year after year, well, "if you live with crows and then you become one" is the old saying. But if you've got good wise friends, Kalyanamittas, then while it may not be every day that you see them, communicate with them regularly. They can help you remember the 4th Noble Truth. It's what we're all trying to work with. That insight of the 4th Noble Truth is what's going to help you throughout your life, especially when you're confronted with people who don't know about it.