Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

These things are not freedoms, they actually imprison you. For instance, consider thefreedom to express yourself. Do you actually feel free when you’ve got so muchchoice? When you go into the supermarket or into the shops, there is so much choice.When there is so much choice it can make life so difficult. Wasn’t it lovely whenthere was only one brand of muesli? It was good enough, you quite enjoyed it; butnow you’ve got a choice between so many different brands. That’s the problem withfreedom. It’s just so complicated, so troublesome for the mind. Sometimes freedomjust gives you a headache. What brand should I take? I’m challenging you here. Thewhole idea of these talks is to make you look at things in different ways. Buddhismgives you a different perspective on things. That’s half the job of mindfulness, toopen up different ways of looking, different ways of seeing, and different ways ofpractising.So, instead of actually looking at freedom as the freedom to indulge desire, maybe weshould aim for and aspire towards freedom from desire. A Buddhist declaration ofhuman rights would be very different from the human rights that people celebrate inthe world. They call it the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but I don’t thinkthat they consulted Buddhists or anybody else for that matter. They just call ituniversal because it sounds universal to them. It’s completely dogmatic andinsensitive at times. Obviously with human rights there are some things that allpeople would want to recognise as worth protecting. The aim of human rights is toprotect. All people want freedom from oppression and freedom from being treatedunfairly.We do need regulations and laws to protect the weak from the strong. I think one ofthe goals of a declaration of human rights is to protect the so called ‘level playingfields’. This is not only to protect freedom of expression, of speech, but to protectreligious expression as well. I was quiet surprised in Singapore and Malaysia to findthat Buddhists were afraid to express their religion openly. I expected it in Malaysia,because it’s a Muslim country. Buddhists there are very afraid to express theirreligion, especially when it comes to the point of building temples. They are afraid tosay exactly what they are doing because they would never be given building permits118