Most Replayed Moment: Buddhist Monk Reveals How To Break Free From Pain and Anger!

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
The thing I think about most, especially when I'm on the go, but also when I'm sat here in the Diary Of A CEO studio, is the WiFi and internet that we have to work with. In fact, anytime I'm filming away from the studio, one of the first things I do is when I arrive, I open up an app and do a speed test to see how strong the signal is. And the number of screenshots I've sent to my team about WiFi signals at different locations is actually pretty crazy. It matters that much to me because it's such a competitive advantage to have fast WiFi. Because on any given day, if I'm recording, let's say, hours and hours of footage with a podcast guest, I then often have to have my team send that across to our London team who then do the edit. So fast WiFi and internet is not nice to have. It is absolutely business mission critical. So when it came to finding the best provider who could supply internet and WiFi to our new LA studio, which I'm setting right now, we looked at every single option. And of all the providers, the one that came back with the steadiest connection, as well as being the cheapest, was today's sponsor, Spectrum Business. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected with fast, reliable internet, advanced WiFi, phone, TV and mobile services. Millions of business owners already rely on Spectrum to keep their operations connected. So if you want to join them, head to spectrum.com/business to learn more. That's spectrum.com/business. Restrictions apply, service not available in all areas. Earlier on, you said that in Buddhism, they talk about an emptiness, which is kind of this realizing that life isn't so solid and your identity is a mirage and all these kinds of things. It almost sounded like that's the opposite of like victimhood. Because when we think about victimhood, it is I create an identity for myself and then I create a story around that identity, which has suffered some kind of injustice and then I kind of live out that injustice. How does Buddhism think about victimhood and identity and trauma, I guess?

**Gelong Thubten** (1:52)
So, of course, we identify incredibly strongly with our past. And we in so many ways are prisoners of what has happened to us in our past. And it's totally understandable, of course. But Buddhism brings in a whole fresh perspective, which is that you are not your past. I mean, even on a physical level, every cell in your body has changed and your mind has changed. You are right now in the present. The past is an illusion, as is the future. And we spend so much time in the past and future or trying to manipulate the present. Whereas with meditation, you are learning to be in the now and not be... It doesn't mean you don't plan or don't remember, but you are learning to cling less to the past and future. And you are learning to cling less to or hold less to the idea that things are really as solid as you think they are. I mean, it's very scientific that there's a Buddhist meditation which literally is about a table, like, you know, here we are with this table. And they say, if you take apart this table, you'll find it doesn't exist. Because the table, as it seems right now, is a top with legs. You take the bits apart. And now where is your notion of table? You've got these bits of wood or metal or whatever it is. And you start kind of dissecting that further and further and further. This is where Buddhism and particle physics become, you know, talking a lot. There's a lot of conversation there. In that the smaller and smaller you go into these wood shavings and then particles, can you find the smallest part that makes up all of reality? And Buddhists would say no, because if it's a part, it has parts. There is no such thing as the partless particle.
Because if it's a particle, it can be further subdivided. So we can't find the smallest base that makes up all of matter. What we're experiencing is more like a dream or an illusion. And the reality we live in, of course, it feels very solid. You know, if I throw this cup at somebody, it's going to hit their head and hurt them. There's no point saying, well, it's all empty. Don't worry about it. But the idea behind this philosophy of understanding things is not to be as solid as they are, is that we can learn to suffer less. Because we spend so much of our energy constantly reacting to things as if they're really solid and really real and there's nothing that can be done about them, whether that be people or objects in the world around us or our mind itself. And if we can desolidify some of that, we could become more free.