Scientist have proved that there is no single solid building block in the whole of the universe. Everything in existence is made up of energy particles which move so quickly – coming together and falling apart – that they create the illusion of solidity. The Buddha said the same tow and a half thousand years ago when he referred to such particles, but he didn’t need a laboratory to test and prove it. he experienced it himself. This resulted in his enlightenment. Our scientists know all about it but I dare say they haven’t become enlightened. What they must have missed is the personal experience.
 

That’s what can be done when we don’t believe what the mind says any longer, but just observe its thought processes. It’s the same with this air around us. We don’t grab hold of it and say it’s mine, and yet if it wasn’t there we couldn’t live. It’s just there. Thoughts are like that. The thinking process is natural to the mind and because we are alive the thinking process is natural to the mind and because we are alive the thinking process goes on and on, but it’s neither reliable nor believable. On the contrary, most of the thoughts it produces would be must better dropped.
 

Loving-kindness or love – whichever word has meaning for you – is not an emotion resulting from the presence of a lovable person, or because one is with one’s family or children, or because somebody is worthy of love. That utilitarian and instinctive reaction has nothing to do with this kind of love. Practically everybody can react in that way. It’s not very difficult to love one’s own children. Most people manage. It is also not terribly difficult to love one’s own parents. Some people can’t even do that, though most people manage. But that’s not the meaning of metta or loving-kindness. When the Buddha talks about loving-kindness he talks about a quality of the heart which makes no distinction between any living being. The highest aspiration mentioned in the loving-kindness discourse is that one should love all beings just as a mother loves her only child.

The more love we can extend, the more people we can include in it, and the more love we have. Whatever we can generate, that much we have within us. It is a very simple equation but few people see it hat way. Everybody is looking for more people to love them. It doesn’t work. It’s absurd, but we have so many absurdities in our lives.
 

Compassion is a feeling in the heart and does not need special reasons or special conditions. It can be totally unconditional. We don’t have to wait for special occasions to arise, namely that someone is beset by tragedy or their body gives them great pain. If we have to wait for those to arouse compassion in ourselves, it is going to be an on-and-off affair, probably more off than on. That’s not a compassionate heart.

A compassionate heart – just like a loving heart – feels compassion all the time because everybody has suffering. It’s embedded in the first Noble Truth of the Buddha’s teaching. There is nobody without it, because life – existence – is suffering. This doesn’t mean tragedy. It means that all that happens contains friction and irritation and a constant wish for more, or for remaining so, or for becoming different.
 

We have choices, but not unlimited ones. We all had the choice whether to come to this retreat or not. You made the good kamma of choosing to come. Once you’re here, you have constant choices. When hearing Dhamma, you can either be half awake and not get much of the meaning or you can be completely attentive. When listening totally, you again have choices. You can immediately forget it or you can try to remember it. Should you make the choice of trying to remember it, you then have the choice of actually trying to live by it or remembering it as something interesting. If you make the choice of living by it, you can choose to do so all the time or only on special occasions.
 

The choice is ours, constantly, every single moment. Every moment except when we are asleep is a kamma-making moment. That’s why it’s essential to perfect the skill of living in each moment. If we don’t watch each kamma-making moment, it’s not going to work out on the credit side. There are too many negative moments possible. Each mind moment has to be watched because they are choice moments and these choice moments make kamma. The more profitable and skilful choices we make, the more opportunities we have.

Actually there is no moment other than the present one. We cannot possibly relive yesterday or experience tomorrow now. There is only one thing we can do and that’s to be alive now. But one has to be totally awake and aware to accomplish that. Awake and aware to one’s intentions.

Giving needs to have the right motivation behind it. if one gives in order to get whatever one is after – merit, appreciation, gratitude – it doesn’t work. It’s a contradiction in terms. One doesn’t give in order to get. One gives in order to give. Only when ine investigates this and inquires into it, does one see that quite clearly. If one gives in order to give, one is certain to get, namely happiness, satisfaction, peace of mind, contentment.