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So as I was walking over here this morning I heard the hum of machines. And I thought,
"I never would've ever thought that I would have loved to hear the hum of machines!"
And, you know, it's because they're building our new monastic residence. But it made me
think how, at some times in your life, there are certain things that you look at and it's
like, "Oh, how disgusting!" You know, like the sound of machinery. And other times
the same exact thing you look at it and you say, "How nice! I'm so glad to hear that,"
you know. And this could happen for something that we've seen, something that we eat,
you know, something that we think about, any of our sense objects. You know, one time in
our life [inaudible], and another time [inaudible] you know? And it made me think, I mean this
is just going to show how things are empty of true existence, you know. And that happiness
and suffering, good and bad, desirable, undesirable, they don't exist inherently in the object,
you know. But the desirability of something exists as a dependent arising depending on
the entire circumstance. Because, if we weren't building a monastic residence, and it was
in the middle of retreat time, and I heard the sound of machinery here, I would not go,
"Oh, thank goodness," you know. I would have a totally different response.
So, you know, the pleasantness or unpleasantness, good or bad, you know, desirability, undesirability,
happiness, suffering, completely dependent on the situation, isn't it? You know, it
doesn't exist inherently in that object. And so this is something quite powerful to
really think about again and again and again in our lives. Because, especially when we
get attached to something it seems like that thing is desirable from its own side, you
know. But to remember that it's not because all you do is tweak the situation a little
bit and the thing is not desirable at all. And similarly, you know, a certain person,
a certain hearing of certain words and whatever might be undesirable and, at another time,
you change the situation and it becomes desirable, yes.
I saw that a lot when I was living in India, because, you know, there might be certain
people that you don't get along with very well but when you're traveling together
you get along very well with them. Because you really need each other, you know. You
need each other to watch the luggage and to do all sorts of things. And so the whole relationship
completely changes from what it was before. That's the thing. Things are like that,
you know, they aren't concrete and solid. They exist embedded within a whole environment
and then they appear desirable or undesirable in dependence upon that whole dependent arising,
not just from that object. And, of course, how we view the whole dependent
arising is so dependent on our mind, yes? Because I could've easily heard the sound
of the machinery and if I were in a bad mood say, "Oh god, why do these machines have
to make so much noise? Can't they build the monastic residence in silence?" You
know? So even that depends, you know, whether I like the sound or not depends on my mood,
doesn't it? Yes. So, nothing is there from its own side.