Khun Sujin explained about Buddhism in Turkey to our guide, Mrs. Tuna, while we were having a tour on the Bosporus.

    Khun Sujin: We would like to have pleasant feeling all the time but this is not possible.  If we can understand the causes of our different feelings it will help us to have less unpleasant feeling.  Life is so uncontrollable because each moment is conditioned.  There are many kinds of conditions for our different experience.  In reality there are conditions for each moment of our lives.  We should learn to understand our life, ourselves.

    We should learn to understand this moment.  People have different thoughts, different feelings because of different conditions.  We think that there is a self, that there is "I," but what we consider as "I" must be this moment of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or thinking.  Seeing sees a pleasant object or an unpleasant object, but such experiences occur at different moments.  Different experiences cannot occur all at the same time.

    In order to understand our life from moment to moment we do not have to think in terms of a particular religion.  Realities such as seeing, hearing or feeling are true for everybody, no matter which language we use in order to name them.  Don't we all have pleasant and unpleasant feelings?  Can you control your feelings?

    Mrs. Tuna: Well, I try to control my feelings.  I am a Moslem, I believe in God.  When I am in a very bad mood I pray to Him and then I feel better.

    Kh. S.:  But you have not seen God.

    T.:  I feel His presence.  We believe that Mohammad is His prophet.

    Kh. S.:  You have not seen Mohammed, but you know him by his teachings, don't you?

    T.:  I pray to God.  I read the texts of the Koran.  When I want something very much and I pray, my wishes come true.

    Kh. S.:  You don't have to do anything at all?

    T.:  All of a sudden my wishes are fulfilled.

    Kh. S.:  When people pray do their wishes always come true?

    T.:  Some people work hard but they cannot become rich, whereas others who do not work so hard have everything.  This depends on what we call in Arabic "kismet" or destiny.

    Kh. S.:  This is difficult to understand.  The poor would like ot have many things but they cannot, even though they pray.

    T.:  It is their kismet.

    Kh. S.:  Should one believe in a God, no matter one is poor or rich, happy or unhappy?

    T.:  According to an old learned life is a kind of examination.  This life is a voyage or passage to another life.

    Kh. S.:  Can the poor be happy and the rich be unhappy?  What is the cause of being rich or poor?

    T.:  There are very rich people who are not happy and there are poor people who are very happy, they are rich in heart.  They do not attach importance to material things.

    Kh. S.:  Is happiness caused by God or by yourself?  Do you have the ability to condition your own feeling?

    T.:  Yes, I can.

    Kh. S.:  Since everyone is free as to the feeling he has, feeling is not conditioned by God.  The poor can be happy if they know how to be happy.  What about those who do not believe in God, can they have happy feeling?

    T.:  I am sure that it is terrible not to believe in God.  I met many tourists who do not believe in God.  I do not understand how that can happen.

    Kh. S.:  Do they still have happy feeling and unhappy feeling?  People who do not believe in God like everyone.  Everyone is born and dies, no matter he believes in God or not.

    T.:  Where will he be buried if he does not believe in God?

    Kh. S.:  It does not matter, he will not notice anything after death.  His body can be buried or cremated, it is all right.

    T.:  What about his soul, the soul never dies.

    Kh. S.:  Can you explain more about the soul at this moment, when death has not come yet?

    T.:  We think that the soul is in the body. When one dies the soul goes away.

    Kh. S.: When one is sleeping where is the soul?

    T.:  I don't know.

    Kh. S.  Is the soul there even when one is asleep?  One is not dead yet.

    T.:  I think it must be there.

    Kh. S.:  At this moment there is seeing.  Is it the soul which sees?  Is there a soul in everybody?

    T.: Sure.

    Kh. S.:  When one is asleep the soul does not go away, because one is not dead yet.  When we wake up in the morning there is seeing.  Is it the soul which sees?

    T.:  I think so.

    Kh. S.:  At the moment of hearing, it is the soul which hears?

    T.:  Sure.

    Kh. S.:  So, the soul has many functions in a day.  Seeing is one function, hearing is another function.  Besides these there are the functions of smelling, tasting, touching and thinking.  I believe that the soul sleeps too.

    T.:  What about dreaming?  Do you believe in dreams?

    Kh. S.:  Everyone dreams.  So, the soul is dreaming.  The body cannot dream.

    T.:  I believe in dreams.  I saw in my dreams events which took place later on.

    Kh. S.: What you consider as "I" or "self" which knows is the soul which knows.  There are body and mind, or, one could also say, body and soul.  The soul dreams, the soul sleeps, the soul likes, dislikes, feels pleasant or unpleasant.  So, I understand what you mean by soul.  It is different from the body.  The body cannot see, but the soul is seeing.  The body cannot think, but the soul is thinking.  How many soul do you have?

    T.:  Only one, of course.

    Kh. S.:  I think that seeing is different from hearing.  Seeing and hearing occur at different moments and experience different objects.

    T.:  All are deep in meaning, difficult to understand.  It is beyond my thinking.

    Kh. S.:  It is beneficial to talk about what we can experience right now because we can understand that.  When we talk about what we cannot experience directly we are in darkness.  When we understand the characteristics and functions of the realities which can be directly experienced there is light.  I would like to understand more and more the realities of my life.
 

    Most people take seeing for "my seeing," they take it for self.  Or they take hearing for self, they take the body for "my body."  All realities fall away very rapidly, they cannot stay.  Each particle of the body falls away immediately, otherwise one could not notice any change in the body.

    T.:  In order to be happy in one's life I find it essential to be a good Moslem.  One should say one's prayers, read the Koran and observe the Ramadan, the fasting.  The rich should give money to the poor every year.

    Kh. S.:  So long as there is ignorance about one's life one cannot be completely happy.  Ignorance is the opposite of wisdom or understanding.  Wisdom is to be considered better than any kind of property, it is the most beneficial in life.  I think that wisdom can develop.

    T.:  I agree with you.

    Kh. S.:  Wisdom can have a deep understanding of this very moment.  It can understand how phenomena are conditioned, it can understand whether phenomena are permanent or impermanent, whether they belong to a self or not.  Each reality which occurs goes away very quickly, it cannot come back anymore.  There is just a moment of hearing and then it is completely gone, you cannot find the hearing anywhere after it is gone.  Each reality, such as seeing, feeling or touching, is only very momentary.  If we cling to any moment there is ignorance, one does not know the impermanence of realities which have arisen and fallen away already.  During the time we are talking many different realities have arisen and fallen away already.  Each reality arises because of its appropriate conditions, nobody can make any reality arise at will.  Eyesense is a condition for seeing, without eyesense there cannot be seeing.  Earsense is condition for hearing, without earsense there cannot be hearing.  When we understand that the realities of our life are conditioned we can cope with our problems wisely.

    When there are the right conditions a particular reality will arise.  For example, when you like heat and you experience it there are conditions for pleasant feeling.  If you cannot have the heat you like or the flavor you like there are no conditions for pleasant feeling.  One is attached to all objects one can experience through the senses, one keeps on thinking of them.  One is attached to seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.  I think that there are many different kinds of consciousness.  We can use the word consciousness instead of soul.  The word soul can give rise to misunderstandings, it is not precise enough.  If we use the word soul it implies something permanent.  Consciousness experiences one object at a time and it is not permanent, it changes all the time.

    Seeing is a type of consciousness, it is a reality which has its own characteristic.  It is not the body, it is not tangible object, it is not materiality.  It is an element which experiences visible object.  Seeing is seeing for everyone, it does not belong to any race or nationality.  Also animals see.  Seeing is the same, no matter how you call it.  Thus it is absolute truth for everyone, it is an absolute reality.  We do not have to use any names for realities, they have their own function, their own characteristic which can be directly experienced.  Seeing sees visible object, no matter it is your seeing or my seeing.  Seeing cannot touch visible object, it can only see it.  Can you touch visible object?  Do you see me?  You can only see visible object.  After seeing there is thinking of different shapes and forms and there is memory of different things and people.  A person cannot be seen, there can only be thinking about a person.  Thinking is another type of reality, arising at another moment.  We can gradually develop more understanding of realities and thus there will be more light in our life.

    T.:  There are different types of people in the world.  Some are of a good nature, such as my mother.  She is an excellent woman who has loving care for everybody and tries to do the best for all people she meets.  Whereas some people do not want to help anybody, they always think of themselves.  It seems that different people have different characters from birth.  How do you explain that?

    Kh. S.:  People are different, they do not have wholesome moments all the time.  There are wholesome realities and unwholesome realities.  Kindness and compassion are wholesome, cruelty, hatred and jealousy are unwholesome.  There are fore everybody conditions for wholesome moments as well as for unwholesome moments.  The arising of wholesomeness or unwholesomeness depends on what has been accumulated.  Some people have accumulated a great deal of wholesomeness.  For them the environment or situation can condition more wholesomeness than for others who have not accumulated so much wholesomeness.  People who are in the same situation react differently, they have different thoughts.  In order to be a good person you have to develop wholesomeness, you have to train yourself.  Just as when you like to be skillful in cooking you have to train yourself, so that one day you will be a good cook.

    T.:  Sometimes one meets people who do not want to be good, they don't care about this.

    Kh. S.:  You could help them to understand the benefit of being wholesome, sot hat they will be nice to others.  Then they will also have more happy moments instead of unhappy moments.  I think that people like pleasant results but that they do not know the right causes which lead to such results.  If you tell them that good and bad results come from the appropriate causes they will have more understanding.  This understanding will be a condition for them to accumulate wholesomeness which is the for pleasant results.  If you are friendly to others they will be friendly to you.  If you do not like other people they will not like you.

    Religion is only a term which stands for what one believe in.  But if we don't label anything we can understand realities as they are.  We can understand realities which are true for everybody, no matter what religion he professes, no matter what nationality he is.  Seeing is true for everybody, it is just a moment of experiencing visible object.  When there is hearing there is no seeing anymore.  Hearing is just a moment of experiencing sound, it does not know anything about visible object.  When there are conditions for hearing we cannot help hearing.  Seeing, hearing and the other realities are beyond control, they arise because of conditions and then they fall away, they are completely done.  Nobody can make them arise and nobody can make them stay on after they have arisen.  Thus life goes on from moment to moment, until death.  Life is only one moment of experiencing an object and then it is gone, forever.