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lifetime, we can go up and up and up? That’s the point.
    If we see things in this way, then the adverse situations which we encounter in our life are really not problems—they are the way we learn. Of course we say this again and again, but it is so true that a nice comfortable life is very pleasant, and is obviously the result of having planted good seeds in the past. If we plant a parsnip, we get a parsnip, and if we plant a rose, we get a rose. If we plant poison ivy, we get poison ivy.
    And when we reach a stretch in which everything is going very nicely—we’re born in fine circumstances, things go very well for us, most of our friends are really good, we don’t have too many horrible sicknesses, our families are well—that’s wonderful, and very nice. But if we just stay at that level of complacency, what have we learned? How will we cope if someone close and whom we love suddenly dies, or if we contract some terrible disease? It’s not that we have to go out looking for pain and problems—we’re not masochists. But when problems and difficulties arise, when adverse circumstances arise, we do not try to avoid them. We take them as the path. We use them, and we realize that this is how we learn. These are the weights with which we develop our spiritual muscles.
    Some people have lots and lots to learn in this lifetime. Other people seem to glide right through it. But sometimes, the people who have all the difficulties are the ones in the end who really surmount—they’re the real conquerors.
    It’s not a matter of always trying to avoid difficulties to live in this world comfortably and nicely—that is not the objective. Animals want to be comfortable. Animals want to have food and shelter and a nice soft place to stay. Animals think mostly about food, warmth, and sex. If that’s usually all that we think of, too, then we are no better than animals and that’s the kind of birth we might encounter next time.
    We humans share features with the animal kingdom, such as our physical body and a large part of our brain structure. But we have other qualities that animals lack. If we just let those qualities atrophy, if we let them lie in abeyance, then we’re no different from animals, and this human life is wasted. We have intelligence, we have self-awareness, we have the ability to look within, we have the ability to develop genuine compassion and empathy for others. These qualities, as we develop them and as they become of paramount importance in our lives, sow so many seeds and result in so much good karma. With that, we will continue to make contact with the spiritual path and meet with spiritual masters in future lifetimes.
    There are billions of people in this world. How many of them are genuinely interested in any kind of spiritual path at this point? So few. Many of them are born in countries where they are not allowed to be interested in spiritual paths. Many of them are born in countries where there are very few spiritual paths left anymore. And some of them are born in countries where there are spiritual paths and encouragement, but they have no interest.
    So you are all very fortunate to be here. You are completely free, and you can believe what you like. If you want to come to a Dharma talk, you come to a Dharma talk; if you don’t want to come to a Dharma talk, you don’t have to come. It’s up to you—it’s your choice. In the West we are very lucky because although there is enormous indoctrination from the media, we don’t have to buy into it.
    Recently, I started to read a particular book. It concerned two visions of the future: one was the Orwellian vision, in which the whole world becomes a totalitarian state and people are subdued into conformity through fear and intimidation. The other paradigm was that of Aldous Huxley, who saw that we could be seduced by pleasure and the comfort of having everything that we want. However, when we have everything that we want and when the pleasure