Interviews between Gabi, Alan and Nina, while traveling in Egypt together with Khun Sujin.

        Question:  Is Buddhism different from other religions or philosophies?  What is contained in the Buddhist teachings that you do not find anywhere else?

        Answer:  Through Buddhism we learn about realities which can be directly experienced.  Buddhism does not teach particular concepts we have to believe in, but it teaches that development of understanding of all realities within ourselves and around ourselves.  Thus we can verify the truth.  Buddhism teaches that real cause of all that happens in our life, such as gain and loss, praise and blame,  honour and dishonour, misery and well-being.  We learn that pleasant and unpleasant experiences through the senses are the results of kamma, good and bad deeds committed in the past.  Everything which happens in our life has conditions, through Buddhism we learn about cause and effect.  When we understand more about conditions we can face difficult situations in life and develop more wholesome states of mind.

        Q.:  Do we have to have faith in what the Buddha taught in order to be a good Buddhist?

        A.:  We don't have to follow the Buddha's teachings blindly.  We learn what he teaches, and then we have to verify it ourselves, we have to consider it carefully.  Through the practice we can prove that he taught the truth.

        Q.:  What are the benefits Buddhism could give me?

        A.:  When you know that truth of all realities of life there will be less sorrow for you.  When you know that the adversities of life are only conditioned realities you will be able to cope with your problems.

        Q.:  I am quite happy, I have very few problems in my life.  Many people can be happy without any religion.  Why do I need Buddhism in order to find happiness?

        A.:  I was not satisfied with the explanations about life which are given by science, biology or chemistry.  Through Buddhism I learn what life really is: one moment of experiencing an object.  There is a moment of seeing and then thinking about it.  There is a moment of hearing and then thinking about it.  It is the same with smelling, tasting, and touching, they are usually followed by many moment of thinking.  When one finds out more about the realities of one's life one realizes one's faults and vices.  On account of what we experience through the senses many defilements arise.

        Q.:  What do you mean by defilements?

        A.:  These are unwholesome states of mind which are not beneficial.  They cause harm to ourselves or to others, sooner or later.  Hated, for example, is an unskilled state of mind.  When hatred arises we harm ourselves and others.  At that moment there is no peace of mind, there is savagery.

        Q.:  How do you harm yourself through hatred?

        A.:  At that moment there is agitation and recklessness.  When people become angry they are inclined to do something they may regret later on.  In traffic jams people get out of their cars and start beating up other people.  They you can see that there is recklessness and no calm.

        Q.:  In history you can read that the king had rightful anger.  Is there a rightful anger?

        A.:  Anger is always unwholesome, no matter what the cause is.  It harms yourself and others.  This does not mean that you cannot be firm with others when it is necessary for people's benefit, but hatred and anger are always unwholesome.  At such a  moment you have no balance of mind, you are not sane.  YOu cannot judge whether your actions are good or bad because you are in a turmoil.  When you are angry you are irrational.

        Q.:  Are there other defilements besides anger?

        A.:  There are many kinds of defilements.  Three defilements are roots for unwholesome states of mind, namely: attachment, anger or aversion and ignorance.

        Q.:  What about love, is that unwholesome or wholesome?

        A.:  We have to consider carefully what reality is represented by that word.  Love can represent the reality which is kindness towards other people.  It arises when we consider their welfare.  However, love can also represent and wholesome reality.  when we are attached to a person we actually think of ourselves, and then there is an unwholesome reality.  When we have to be separated from that person the attachment conditions aversion and displeasure.  When there is unselfish loving kindness you don't think of your own pleasure.

        Q.:  Should there be no attachment between husband and wife, parents and children?  When I consider that many broken up families around me I am inclined to think of that attachment is good.  Whey do you think there should not be love?

        A.:  It is not a matter of should or should not.  You are as you are.  However, there can be a more precise understanding of what is unselfish love, true considerateness for others and what is attachment, selfish love.  We should understand the difference between unselfish love and selfish love.  Unselfish love has as characteristic considering the welfare of others.  Attachment to other people is for the sake of your own pleasant feeling.  When you like to be with dear people and you like a pleasant home there is attachment, you think of yourself.

        Q.:  I understand that attachment is not wholesome.  Does this mean that you have to forsake all the joys of life, such as listening to nice music, going to a disco, reading books, laughing with your friends or going shopping?  Do you have to give up all these attachments and all pleasant feelings?

        A.:  It is precisely our daily life which has to be understood.  We should live our daily life naturally, in order to understand our inclinations, our defilements.  We should understand our attachment and aversion as they naturally arise.  One can enjoy all the pleasant things but there can be more understanding of realities of one's life.  There can be more understanding of the true nature of attachment, aversion, kindness, pleasant feeling or unpleasant feeling.  The wise person can live with pleasure and with understanding.

        Q.:  We like pleasant objects and we dislike unpleasant objects, that is natural.  Like and dislike do not always lead to bad deeds.  Are they always unwholesome?

        A.:  There are many degrees of like and dislike.  They may be slight or they may be more intense so as to lead to unwholesome deeds.  One may like something to the degree that one wants to take it away and then it is obvious that there is unwholesomeness.  But also when like is of a lesser degree it is not beneficial, not wholesome.  After seeing, hearing and the other sense impression there is very often attachment which we may not notice at all.  We are attached to all the sense objects and thus attachment is bound to arise.  At such a moment there is selfishness, there is no generosity.  Since attachment arises time and again it is accumulated.  Also dislike can have many degrees.  It can lead to violence and then it is obvious that there is unwholesomeness.  When it is of a lesser degrees here is uneasiness or moodiness, you have no peace of mind.  Whenever there is unpleasant feeling there is the reality of aversion.  As I said, attachment, aversion and ignorance are the three unwholesome roots for the unwholesome moments of consciousness.

        Q.:  Why is ignorance unwholesome?

        A.:  Ignorance conditions all defilements, there is ignorance with each unwholesome moment of consciousness.  Because of ignorance we live in darkness, we do not know that is wholesome and beneficial and what is unwholesome.  Because of ignorance we don't know what is real and what is only imagination.  Ignorance conditions a distorted view of realities, wrong view.  When we believe that body and mind can stay, that they are permanent, there is wrong view.  What we call mind are in reality only fleeing moments of consciousness which cannot stay.  What we call body are ever-changing particle, elements, which cannot stay.  When we believe that mind and body are self or mine there is wrong view.  Wrong view conditions many other defilements.

        Q.:  How do you find happiness in Buddhism?

        A.:  Through knowing realities as they are.

        Q.:  Why does that bring happiness?

        A.:  Right understanding can eliminate ignorance and wrong view.  Through right understanding there will be less clinging, and that means more freedom.

        Q.:  There are different types of Buddhism such as Tibetan Buddhism or Zen.  I think that in Theravada Buddhism you find the teaching of the right Path.  Are the other types wrong?

        A.:  I would not say that they are right or wrong.  Any teaching which helps us to understand the reality of this moment is right.  So, we can find out ourselves which teaching is right and which is wrong.

        Q.:  If one is interested in Buddhism how should one begin to study it?

        A.:  One can read and consider what one reads and one should find the right person who can explain the teachings so that one can begin to develop right understanding of all the realities of one's life.

        Q.:  In Buddhism we learn about the true nature of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking, and also about visible object, sound and the other objects which are experienced through the five senses and through the mind-door.

        A.:  We use words and concepts in order to express what we mean.  We say for instance that Cairo is hot or that a fire i hot.  Heart itself is a reality which can be directly experienced through the bodysense without there being the need to name it.  Heat is a reality which is true for everybody, it is absolute truth.  When you think about Cairo or a fire you think long stories but there is no direct experience of a reality.

        The real purpose of Buddhism is not to intellectualize about the world and to form up stories about the world and about people.  The aim is to develop understanding of realities such as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching or thinking, and also of visible object, sound, odour, flavour, tangible object and objects which appear through mind-door.  There are realities which can be studied when they appear one at a time.

        Q.:  What is tangible object?

        A.:  The reality which can be directly experience through the bodysense.  The whole day we touch things which are hard.  We believe that we touch a cup, plate or chair which are hard.  In reality it is hardness which is experienced through the bodysense, not a cup, plate or chair.  When hardiness is experienced we know through memory that there is a cup, plate or chair, but these are not realities which can be directly experienced.  They are concepts or ideas we can think about.  Through bodysense can be experienced the realities of hardness, softness, heat, cold, motion or pressure.  These are true for everybody, no matter how we name them.  They are elements which arise because of their appropriate conditions and then fall away immediately.  They cannot stay on.

        Q.:  What is visible object, is it a car of T.V.?  It seems that I can see them.

        A.:  Visible object is that which seeing sees, it appears through eyesense.  When you perceive a car you think already of a concept, an idea.

        Realities are physical phenomena and mental phenomena.  Seeing is mental, it experiences something.  visible object, that which is visible, is physical, it does not know anything.  Hearing is mental, it experiences sound.  Sound is physical, it does not know anything.  The experience of tangible object is mental.  Tangible object is physical,  The mental phenomena and physical phenomena of our life arise and then fall away immediately, they are impermanent and they are not self.

        Q.:  I find it difficult ot understand that there is no self.  How can I lean to experience the truth?

        A.:  the truth of not self cannot be realized in the beginning.  We have accumulated so much ignorance and wrong view.  Through reading, considering and discussing there can gradually be more intellectual understanding of realities.  Thus conditions are being built up for direct awareness of realities and then understanding can grow.  It develops in stages very gradually and eventually realities can be seen as they are.

        Q.:  How can one be aware of realities?

        A.:  There is seeing now.  It can be realized that it is a reality which experiences visible object, just for a moment.  It is not self which sees, seeing sees.  You don't have to do anything special in order to see, when there are conditions for seeing you can't help seeing.  Is seeing permanent?  You cannot go on seeing.  When there is hearing there is another realities, there can't be seeing at the same time.  There can be the study of one reality at a time as it appears.  When there are the right conditions there can be direct understanding of a mental phenomenon as only a reality and of a physical phenomenon as only a reality.  These can be realized as different types of realities.  We should not wish for awareness, we should always remember that the goal is right understanding of realities.  Whenever there is awareness of one reality which appears there can be direct understanding of it and thus understanding can grow.

        Q.:  What do you mean by understanding seeing as only a reality?

        A.:  One begins to understand that there is not my seeing which can stay on and which is so important.  The idea of self cannot be eradicated immediately,  but one begins to see that there are realities appearing one at a time.  One begins to understand that seeing or visible object can only arise when there are conditions for their arising and that one cannot control them.  Realities a re beyond control, they cannot arise because of anyone's wish.  Also awareness and understanding are realities which can only arise when there are the right conditions, they are beyond control.  Beyond control is an other way of saying that there is "only a reality."  The realities of our life are momentary and insignificant.  They arise and then disappear forever.