The Foundations of Mindfulness

MN 10 Satipatthana Sutta Part 2

15-Jul-03

Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi

Key	Meaning
BV:	B. V. speaking,
MN:	B. V. reading the sutta
{ }	section of sutta omitted by B. V.
S:	student speaking
~	speaking not clearly heard
TT:	Tape Time

TT: 0:0

BV: This is a continuation of the sutta I did last night, The Satipathana Sutta, Part Two. Sounds like one of those movies. Instead of Terminator Two now this is Satipathana Two.

Ok.

MN: (CONTEMPLATION OF MIND)

34. “And how, monks, does a monk abide contemplating mind as mind? Here a monk understands mind affected by lust as mind affected by lust, and mind unaffected by lust as mind unaffected by lust. He understands mind affected by hate as mind affected by hate, and mind unaffected by hate as mind unaffected by hate. He understands mind affected by delusion as mind affected by delusion, and mind unaffected by delusion as mind unaffected by delusion. He understands contracted mind as contracted mind, and distracted mind as distracted mind. He understands exalted mind as exalted mind, and unexalted mind as unexalted mind. He understands surpassed mind as surpassed mind, and unsurpassed mind as unsurpassed mind. He understands collected mind as collected mind, and uncollected mind as uncollected mind. He understands liberated mind as liberated mind, and unliberated mind as unliberated mind.

BV: Ok, Now what does all of that mean? The meditator understands when there’s lust in his mind and when there is not. He understands when there’s hatred in his mind and when it’s not there. Now the next one is delusion. What is a deluded mind? It’s a mind that’s caught up in concepts and fairy tales, caught up in believing that those thoughts and feelings are actually his, that it’s a personal process, and an undeluded mind is one that sees the process as process. Now in the morning we read some of the Dhammapada verses, and one of the verses says that if you see something that’s unessential as being essential, that you’re never going to have a liberated mind, you’re never going to have a free mind. Every time you see thoughts and feelings arise and take them personally as yours, you’re seeing with a deluded mind, you’re seeing something that’s essential, seeing clearly how this process works, as unessential, because your mind grabs onto it and you don’t even know that you’re being taken away. So a deluded mind is a mind that doesn’t see clearly, and takes things personally when they’re not personal at all. In other words, a deluded mind is a mind that thinks that there is a permanent self or soul. An undeluded mind is a person that sees that there is no self, there is no soul, there’s only rising and passing away of phenomena. Now right after that, it says:

MN: repeats .... ‘He understands contracted mind as contracted mind…’

BV: What is a contracted mind? I think by now all of you have experienced a contracted mind. It’s what we call “sloth and torpor”. Why is it contracted? Because that’s what happens to your mind. You mind folds in and starts to get into dreamy states, and just kind of ho hums along, and then the contraction becomes bigger. Now a lot of people have questioned me when I start talking about sloth and torpor: “Well, my mind is so lazy, why do I have to relax it?” You relax it because it’s contracted, it’s pulled in, and the only way to let go of that is by relaxing, and letting it be.

TT: 6:00

MN: repeats. . . (He understands a . . . distracted mind as distracted mind.)

BV: What is a distracted mind?

S: ~

BV: It’s distracted, it is, restlessness

S: ~

BV: So, a mind that’s restless is distracted. Now why are these two particular kind of hindrances noted so much? Because they stick around for a long time. As you go deeper in your meditation, you’ll get to a place where sleepiness is not the problem, but dullness is the problem. Dullness is torpor. And if you’re not putting the right amount of effort into watching, and your mindfulness slips, mind will start to dull out, if you’re putting too little effort in. And what happens if you put a little bit too much effort in? Restlessness arises.

Now in the first part of this, it talks about a mind notices a mind affected by lust. That’s a big word, “lust.” Let’s cut it down a little bit. “I like it. I want it to stay. That dull feeling, Ah, that’s wonderful stuff” Indulging. And a mind that has hatred. “Ah, I don’t like this feeling. I want it to stop. I want it to go away. I wish this restlessness would just leave me alone.”

Now when hindrances arise, they don’t come just one at a time. Actually they do, but they kind of gang up on you and speak to you at different times and it seems like it’s a really big time hassle. When your mind has restlessness and it’s the feeling, the cause of restlessness most often is an unpleasant feeling, and then all of the thoughts about why that feeling is there and why you don’t like it. So you have the restlessness, but you also have dislike. Or, on the other hand, you get into your planning mind. “Ah, that’s fun stuff, isn’t it?” Think about this and how it’s going to be, and exactly what you can say to somebody else, and how they’re going to respond, and all of the neat things that are going to happen because of that - that’s restlessness with the “I like mind.”

So, with any hindrance that arises, there’s either a “like” or “don’t like” attached with it. And the same with the sloth and torpor. You get into your sloth and torpor: “Ah, I just feel so lazy, I’m just going to go to sleep. Doesn’t that feel good?” Or, “I don’t like it, I don’t like this dullness, I want it to stop, I want it to go away.”

Now, every time a hindrance arises, it arises in the same way, according to, Dependent Origination. You start to get an idea of how truly important this is, being able to recognize Dependent Origination. This is the discovery that the Buddha made on the night of his enlightenment – how Dependent Origination works. Now, do you have to know all of these links of Dependent Origination in order to realize it? No, you don’t have to know anything about it, on a conscious level. I mean just because I tell you that this is the way it works, you have a mind and body, there’s six sense doors, there’s contact, there’s that consciousness arising, there’s feeling, there’s craving, there’s clinging, there’s becoming – you don’t have to know that. All you have to do is see it. You see a feeling when it starts to arise. As you become quieter in your meditation, you start to catch the distraction a little bit more quickly and a little bit more easily, until finally there’s just a little tiny vibration of mind. And when mind starts to wobble a little bit, to that bigger grosser movement, you can see that and let it be and relax and come back to your object of meditation. And what have you done at that time? You’ve seen the feeling, and you let it go right then, and then there’s no craving. And because there’s no craving, there’s no clinging. Because there’s no clinging, there’s no becoming. But you don’t have to know that. I mean this is part of the intellectual exercise. You don’t have to know it but you have to be able to see when a feeling arises, what you do with that and let it go. Come back to your object of meditation.

So, that’s what the Buddha did on his night of enlightenment. He saw very directly how mind[’s attention] moves. And then there was the cessation of the perception and feeling, which is something that always happens before Nibbana arises. Sometimes it’s very quick. Sometimes it lasts for a longer period of time, depends on the individual and what they are up to at the time. A lot of people became enlightened by just listening to the Buddha. Listening to the Dhamma talks. And they had a very brief moment of that cessation of perception and feeling, it was very quick, and the next moment they saw all of these factors of the Dependent Origination arising and passing away. And they saw how the cause and effect relationship worked. “This arose and when that arose, that arose, this arose. And when this arose, that arose.” And they went all the way through it. And then when they saw: “Well if this doesn’t arise, then that won’t arise. If that won’t arise, this won’t arise.” And then when they got to the final letting go and realizing that there is no more ignorance, an experience happens. It’s called Nibbana.

I’ve been asked a lot of times to describe Nibbana and I can’t. Why? Because it’s an unconditioned state and the only things we know how to talk about are conditioned. How do you talk about something that’s unconditioned? Every word that we have is conditioned. But, we’ll say that the Buddha described this as a very pleasurable experience. And because he had that experience, there was a definite change in the way he saw the world. And he saw that everything is part of Dependent Origination. Every time a hindrance arises, and you see it and you let it go and you relax and you come back to your object of meditation, you’re getting little tiny insights into the way mind works. And these insights become bigger and more clear as you go deeper in meditation. Our hindrances – “Oh, gee, do we have to go through this one again?” Are they necessary? Absolutely. You can’t see the way attachment works unless you have hindrances arise and see how attached you really are. Make sense? Ah that’s because all you guys are spoiled, you’ve been listening to me long enough. (Laughs) Ok, when were talking about:

MN: Repeats . . . (He understands an exalted mind as exalted mind, and unexalted mind as unexalted mind.)

BV: What are we talking about here? What is an exalted mind? An exalted mind is a mind that has experienced jhana, any of the first four jhanas. You understand when that jhana is there and you understand when it’s not. That’s pretty easy. Now, isn’t this amazing? That right here in the Satipathana Sutta, the sutta that is proclaimed to be the only way, and it’s proclaimed to be the only way you can have insight, that it’s talking about jhana. I find that amazing. Why? Because I studied for twenty years and never heard this. I was taught by people that didn’t understand this, or didn’t want to recognize this.

Yes?

S: How do you know what exalted mind is?

BV: I looked in the footnotes. That’s how I understood that exalted mind is exalted mind.

S: Does KK read the footnotes?

BV: Yes she has footnotes, she never uses them though. <smile>

S: What number is the footnote here?

BV: One fifty four , one fifty five , one of the two. Anyway, he goes on to say:

MN: Repeats . . . (He understands surpassed mind as surpassed mind, and unsurpassed mind as unsurpassed mind.)

BV: What are we talking about here? What is a surpassed mind? You’ve heard me give this talk before. A surpassed mind is a mind that experiences the arupa jhanas, the immaterial realms, i.e. Infinite Space, Infinite Consciousness, Nothingness, Neither Perception nor Non-Perception, that is a surpassed mind.

Ok?

TT: 20:00

MN: Repeats . . . (He understands collected mind as collected mind, and uncollected mind as uncollected mind.)

BV: What are we talking about here? Collected mind is a mind that’s calm and tranquil and very alert. An uncollected mind is just the opposite.

MN: Repeats . . . (He understands liberated mind as liberated mind, and unliberated mind as unliberated mind.)

BV: What’s a liberated mind? Come on, I’m asking questions, I expect an answer.

S: ~

BV: An unliberated mind is a mind that does not see things the way they truly are. A liberated mind is a mind that is completely awake. This is what you’re learning on this retreat, how to have a liberated mind. Every time you let go of an attachment and relax and come back to your object of meditation, that can be called one of two things. One, it can be called the cessation of suffering. It also is a mind that is liberated. Because you’ve liberated it for a short period of time, and seen the process as part of the process. Easy stuff to understand, isn’t it?

MN:

(INSIGHT)

35. { “In this way he abides contemplating the mind as a mind internally, or he abides contemplating the mind as a mind externally, or he abides contemplating the mind as a mind both internally and externally. Or else he abides contemplating in the mind its nature of arising, or he abides contemplating in the mind its nature of vanishing, or he abides contemplating in the mind its nature of both arising and vanishing. Or else he abides contemplating in the mind its nature of arising, or he abides contemplating in the mind its nature of vanishing, or he abides contemplating in the mind its nature of both arising and vanishing. Or else mindfulness that ‘there is a mind’ is simply established in him to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world.}

That is how a monk abides contemplating the mind as a mind.

BV: Now, we get into real interesting section, something that I’m sure you might have heard before:

MN: (CONTEMPLATION OF MIND-OBJECTS)

(1. The Five Hindrances)

36. “And how, monks, does a monk abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects? Here a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five hindrances.

BV: Have you heard that one before?

MN: And how does a monk abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five hindrances? Here there being sensual desire in him, a monk understands ‘There is sensual desire in me’; or, there being no sensual desire in him, he understands ‘There is no sensual desire in me’;

BV: Again, we get to that key word, understand. It doesn’t mean that you have to think about it. You know when there’s lust in your mind and when there isn’t. That doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that sort of thing out. You know when there’s tightness because of lust, or greed, or “I want.”

MN: and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of unarisen sensual desire,

BV: How did it come to be? How did your mind[’s attention] move from being on your object of meditation all the way over to having a sensual desire? Let me read this part again: “how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen sensual desire.” This is a sentence that is kind of just read over very quickly because it’s not understood very much. If you take the hindrances as your personal enemy and you fight it and you try to force it to go away and you try to ignore it and do all of these other things. But, you see how important the hindrances are because it’s mentioned in the sutta; it says that this is the only way folks!

How did the unarisen sensual desire arise? Well, the first time it happens, you’re not going to recognize that, but you can see that the sensual desire is there, and you’re caught thinking about it, and liking it, and daydreaming about it, and whatever, but as soon as you see that your mind is caught by that you let it be and relax. You let the thought about the sensual desire go. Now, what do you see? “Oh, there’s this tight mental fist around the feeling. I like this feeling; I want it to stay around!” Let go of that tight mental fist, let the feeling float around and do whatever it’s going to do by itself. Relax, let go of all of that tension and tightness caused by that tight mental fist. Now gently come back to your object of meditation. You can bet that that sensual desire is still there and your mind[’s attention] is going to move towards it. How does it do that? You’re on your object of meditation; does this sound familiar? And, there’s a definite lack of mindfulness and observation of your object of meditation, and your mind[’s attention] starts moving, and starts wobbling, and starts having thoughts arise, and then the feeling gets a little bit bigger and the thoughts get a little bit bigger and whatever else happens you’re able to notice how the process works. Now this is exactly what this sutta’s talking about.

MN: repeats (. . how there comes to be the arising of an unarisen sensual desire,) and how there comes to be the abandoning of arisen sensual desire,

BV: How do you abandon it? By letting it go, by letting go of the feeling, relaxing, coming back to your object of meditation.

MN: and how there comes to be the future non-arising of abandoned sensual desire.’

BV: How do you not have sensual desire arise again? By having your sharp mindfulness and staying on your object of meditation, and seeing your mind[,s attention] when it first starts to move a little bit and letting it go and relaxing.

S: ~

BV: It’s explaining the whole process right there. It’s right there and it’s shined on and run over so quickly that nobody ever sees it.

Yes?

S: But my mind keeps going back to it. It’s just a bunch of nonsense.

TT: 29:30

BV: Oh, good, welcome to the human race. “Nonsense running through the mind.” Oh, gee, that’s original (Laughs.) It doesn’t matter. The reason that the nonsense runs through your mind is because your mindfulness got weak for whatever reason; your interest wasn’t strong enough, your energy wasn’t balanced enough, and [mind’s attention] started to move, there was a feeling, it’s starting to move, it’s starting to go away, there’s things that happen before that I don’t tell you about, you have to tell me about it. But that’s how all thoughts arise. Doesn’t matter whether it’s sensual desire, doesn’t matter whether it’s hatred, doesn’t matter whether it’s sloth and torpor, doesn’t matter whether it’s restlessness, and that’s what nonsense thoughts are, is restlessness, or doubt.

It doesn’t matter which one of the five hindrances arise, you treat them all in the same way, by observing how the process works, and seeing the process as an impersonal process, and letting it go, letting it be. You’re going to do this, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times. It doesn’t matter how many times you do it. Eventually your mind starts to go “Oh, we got to look a little bit more closely and see how this process really works.” And as you look more closely, you start seeing more and more little tiny subtle things that you hadn’t seen before. And that leads to the non-arising of hindrances. That leads to . . What was that word just a little while ago? Oh! <smile> A liberated mind. That’s how it works.

S: That’s all there is?

BV: That’s it. How about that! Do you mean the cessation of suffering is real? It’s not just a concept. It’s not a philosophy. My!

S: Is there Joy involved in this?

BV: There is, as long as there are a few factors. One, you have to be curious enough to look at how the process works, and recognize it, and then you have to have enough energy to be able to let it be and let it go without indulging in it, and what happens when you do that, you have joy arise. And what happens after the joy? There’s tranquility. And what happens after tranquility? There’s collectedness and calmness of mind. And what happens after that? Complete balance of mind. What did I just tell you? There are in fact these seven factors of enlightenment and they’re real too. Isn’t that something?

S: Cool!

TT: 33:50

BV: It goes against a lot of teachings actually. But then again, that’s the way it works. And even during the time of the Buddha, you know, right before he became enlightened, he was getting ready to sit under his tree, and work for his enlightenment, and this lady came and thought that he was a tree god.

S: A what?

BV: A tree god. And she made a promise to the tree god of that particular tree that if she got pregnant and had a baby that she would come and feed it fabulous food. So, that happened for her. So on the night of the enlightenment, the Buddha got this gold bowl with this milk rice that was of the highest kind of ghee, which is the highest kind of butter and all of the things and curry that go along with it. So he had this great meal. Now he’s sitting right beside a river. And he takes the gold bowl, and he washes it out, and then he throws it in the river, and he watches this gold bowl go upstream, against the tide. And he thought: “Tonight is the night of my enlightenment, and that is going to be happening to me. I’m going to be going against the tide.”

S: When did this happen?

BV: At the end of six years.

Here’s an interesting side note. The Buddha was born on the full moon day in May; he was enlightened on the full moon day in May; he died on the full moon day in May, but it wasn’t necessarily the same date. ~~, I can tell. Because, the full moon day in May changes from year to year, right? So, it’s not necessarily on the same date.

S: So when do they celebrate his birthday?

BV: Always on the full moon day in May.

S: ~

BV: You would think so. Anyway, getting back to the sutta:

TT: 36:52

MN: “There being ill will in him . . . There being sloth and torpor in him . . . There being restlessness and remorse in him . . . There being doubt in him, a monk understands:

{‘There is doubt in me’; or there being no doubt in him, a monk understands: ‘There is no doubt in me’; and he understands how there comes to be the arising of unarisen doubt, and how there comes to be the abandoning of arisen doubt, and how there comes to be the future non-arising of abandoned doubt.}

BV: Paraphrases (that there’s one of these hindrances in me, or there being no hindrance in him he understands: ‘There’s no hindrance in me.’)

Do you have to think about it?

S: ~

BV: Yeah, that’s right.

A new definition for the word “contemplation”: silent observation. Ok? Because in this country the word “contemplation” means to think about. Yeah, the thinker.

Paraphrases (And he understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen hindrance.)

How did it come to be?

S: ~

BV: Slippage of mindfulness and then the process taking over. Of course everything’s part of the process.

Paraphrases (And how there comes to be the abandoning of the arisen hindrance. And how there comes to be the future non-arising of the abandoned hindrance.)

Interesting thought, isn’t it?

Now when I was practicing according to the Burmese method of insight practice, I was always told that you need to fight with the hindrance, overcome the hindrance, and once you get in to your access concentration, which is a stage right before jhana, then the hindrance is suppressed by the force of the concentration. “Now you don’t have to worry about the hindrance. Now your mind is pure.” But actually, when you lose that access concentration, guess who gets attacked big time?

S: ~

TT: 40:03

BV: You lose your concentration, the hindrances arise again. So, it’s not the abandoning of the hindrance, it’s the suppression of the hindrance that they’re talking about. And that’s what they consider in the Adhidhamma, in the Visuddhimagga, as having a pure mind.

S: ~

BV: They cannot carry it on outside of this access concentration.

S: ~

BV: Oh, it only took me twenty years to figure out how frustrating it was. Twenty years, think about that. It took me a long time to finally realize that: “Hey, this path don’t work!” When I started meditating, Buddhism was one of them weird religions, and I was just a dumb American, I didn’t know anything about Buddhism at all. I wanted to learn about meditation. They had the clearest, at that time, kind of meditation that I’d run across. I started practicing it. They told me things, I believed them, cold. Ok? “That’s what you say; this is what I have to do; that’s what I’m going to do, and I’m going to do it as hard as I can.” And after twenty years of that, it finally dawned on me: “Well, maybe this doesn’t work so good. Maybe there’s another way.”

S: ~

BV: Frustration. It didn’t have anything to do with courage; it had to do with frustration. And I was determined to experience what the Buddha was talking about.

S: ~

BV: I was in Asia at the time. What took courage, was after finding out that I had to throw away the Visuddhimagga completely, and go in the suttas and start trying to find out what the Buddha taught, what took the real courage, was telling everybody: “Wait a minute guys, I did this for a long time too, and this is not it. The Buddha said:” and then I would read the sutta. I was criticized heavily. And that’s the thing that’s taken the courage. But my confidence in the Buddha’s path is so complete; that I have no doubt that this is the right thing.

S: ~

BV: (Laughs)

Paraphrases)

And this is

MN:

{ (insight)

37. “In this way he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects internally, or he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects externally, or he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects both internally and externally. Or else he abides contemplating in mind-objects their nature of arising, or he abides contemplating in mind-objects their nature of vanishing, or he abides contemplating in mind-objects their nature of both arising and vanishing, and he abides independent, not cling to anything in the world. That is}

how a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five hindrances.

(2. The Five Aggregates)

38. “Again, monks, a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five aggregates affected by clinging.

BV: Every time I see this, it sounds like such a definite thing. Every aggregate is going to be affected by clinging. And it’s not true; it depends on your state of mindfulness. So I would like to change that: “in terms of five aggregates which may or may not be affected by clinging depending on your awareness at the time.”

S: ~

BV: It just says “five aggregates affected by clinging.”

MN: And how does a monk abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects

BV: That word “contemplating”, what did I tell you that the definition was? “Silent observation.” Don’t get caught by: “This is what we’re thinking about.”

TT: 45:12

MN: in terms of the five aggregates affected by clinging? Here a monk understands: ‘Such is material form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception, such its origin, such its disappearance;

{ such are the formations, such their origin, such their disappearance; such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.’

39. “In this way he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects internally, externally, and both internally and externally . . . And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five aggregates affected by clinging.}

BV: Then we get on to the six bases.

MN: (3. The Six Bases)

40. “Again, monks, a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the six internal and external bases.

BV: Why do you have to contemplate them internally and externally? Because that sense base will not arise if there’s no contact with an external source. Right? That’s right.

MN: And how does a monk abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the six internal and external bases? Here a monk understands the eye, he understands forms, and he understands the fetter

BV: craving

MN: that arises dependent on both; and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen fetter,

Repeats .(He understands the fetter that arises dependent on both; and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen fetter,)

and how there comes to be the abandoning of the arisen fetter, and how there comes to be the future non-arising of the abandoned fetter.

BV: “Fetter” is just another word for “craving”, basically. Each one of the sense doors, there’s six kinds of feeling. Right after the feeling: “I like it, I don’t like it.” How does that manifest? Tightness. What happens after that tightness arises? Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. And your habitual tendencies. So, when you see the unabandoned sense door, you see the feeling that arises, you let it be and you relax, and your mind is very clear and not taken away by a hindrance. All works in the same way.

MN: “He understands the ear, he understands sounds . . . He understands the nose, he understands odours . . . He understands the tongue, he understands flavours . . . He understands the body, he understands tangibles . . . He understands the mind, he understands mind-objects, and he understands the fetter that arises dependent on both;

BV: Again, I would have changed that it says: “that arises” -- “that may arise depending on the alertness of your mindfulness at that time.”

{ MN: and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen fetter, and how there comes to be the abandoning of the arisen fetter, and how there comes to be the future non-arising of the abandoned fetter.}

BV: Ok, next we have:

MN: (4. The Seven Enlightenment Factors)

42. “Again monks, a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the seven enlightenment factors. And how does a monk abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the seven enlightenment factors? Here there being the mindfulness enlightenment factor in him, a monk understands: ‘There is the mindfulness enlightenment factor in me’; or there being no mindfulness enlightenment factor in him, a monk understands: ‘There is no mindfulness enlightenment factor in me’; and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen mindfulness enlightenment factor,

TT: 50:35

BV: How does it arise, when it’s not there?

S: ~

BV: Paying attention, observing, what’s happening in the present moment. These aren’t trick questions, honest. (Laughs)

MN: and how the arisen mindfulness enlightenment factor comes to fulfilment by development.

S: ~

BV: No, not by clinging.

S: ~

BV: Well it’s by staying with your object of meditation and watching what’s happening and how mind[’s attention] moves until it doesn’t move anymore.

S: ~

BV: ~ staying with your object of meditation, that’s all. And your object of meditation will change over a period of time. Now, if you’re doing loving kindness right now, as you go deeper, you get through the fourth jhana, then your object of meditation changes from loving kindness to compassion. And it happens automatically, you don’t have to pull it off, you don’t have to make it come up. And after you go deeper, then the brahma vihara of joy arises, and that you get in to the realm of infinite consciousness. After you go deeper, you get in the realm of no-thingness, and that’s where the Brahma vihara equanimity is so strong. And you get a little deeper, and you get in to the realm of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, while you’re in that state, you’re not able to really recognize what’s happening very much, because it’s so subtle. When you come out, you start contemplating what happened while you were in that jhana. And there’s all kinds of different things that happen in there. But, it’s right on the edge, in between perception and non-perception. So, it’s so subtle, it’s hard to perceive, but feeling is still there.

S: ~

BV: Well, we’ll see when you get it again whether it was that same experience or not. You like that confidence? (Laughs)

Ahaa,

MN: “There being the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor in him . . .

BV: I don’t like that definition. I like “investigation-of-experience.” They’re both right, but when you talk about investigating how things work and such, you’re looking at the experience in a more impersonal way, than if you look at them as these states. Then you take those states to be yours personally. It’s a subtle little difference and it’s just a personal preference in words on my part.

Ok.

TT: 55:35

MN: There being the energy enlightenment factor in him . . . There being the joy enlightenment factor in him . . . There being the tranquilltity enlightenment factor in him . . . There being the collectedness enlightenment factor in him . . .There being the equanimity enlightenment factor in him . . . a monk understands

Paraphrases (that these seven enlightenment factors in him. He understands when there’s no enlightenment factor in him,)

{ ‘There is the equanimity enlightenment factor in me’; or there being no equanimity enlightenment factor in him, he understands: ‘There is no equanimity enlightenment factor in me’; }

and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen equanimity enlightenment factor (in him), {and how the arisen equanimity enlightenment factor comes to fulfilment by development.}

BV: Now, when you have sloth and torpor, that means that your enlightenment factor of energy is low. So you investigate. Take more interest. You have to use your mindfulness; you have to use your investigation; you have to use your energy. The more interest you take in how the process works, the more energy it takes. And when you start picking up your energy, the sloth and torpor goes, what happens? Joy. What happens after that? Tranquility. Mind is very composed and collected, and there’s equanimity in it. So you can use some of these enlightenment factors to balance what’s happening in your practice.

Now, if you have restlessness arise, you feel like jumping out of your skin, you feel like moving around, you don’t want to do this anymore. You have to start working with the enlightenment factor of tranquility, really peaceful and calm, and collectedness of mind. Staying with your object of meditation and watching it move. After you do that for a period of time, your mind will begin to stay on your object of meditation, and what happens then? Joy arises. After the joy, the tranquility is there for real. After that there’s collectedness of mind, after that there is equanimity. So you can use these different factors in different ways, you can pull them up by making the determination: “When there’s restlessness, I’m going to allow that feeling to be there. It’s uncomfortable, I feel like jumping out of my skin, but don’t move.”

Yes?

S: ~

BV: Well, the two biggies are sloth and torpor, and restlessness.

S: ~

BV: Take more interest in your object of meditation, more interest in how your mind’[s attention] moves, and what’s happening in your body.

S: ~

BV: You don’t move. You tranquilize your body. You say: “I don’t care how bad it hurts, how unpleasant it is, I’m not going to move a muscle.” Relax. Ok?

TT: 1:00:10

S: ~

BV: Collectedness is staying on your object of meditation with a composed mind, not an agitated mind. A calm mind. That’s why I like the word “collectedness” because it has a lot of different kind of meanings, and one of them is “calmness”, one of them is “composed”, so we’re saying collected the whole time, but these different words help to bring it to you a little bit easier.

S: ~

BV: Same thing. Different words, same thing. Ok?

S: ~

BV: And another question.

S: ~

BV: Every time you experience joy,

S: ~

BV: That’s right. Collectedness, equanimity.

S: And these are all parts of jhana ~

BV: Definitely. And when all of these factors of enlightenment are in perfect balance, there is the cessation of perception and feeling. When the perception and feeling arise again, you see Dependent Origination. Why is it so important that you have the cessation of perception and feeling? Because that is the turning off of this process. And your mindfulness is sharp enough to be able to see when the process starts again and how it starts again. “Ahaaa”

S: ~

“

BV: It’s pretty true. And you can use them as tools.

S: ~

BV: Until it happens naturally. This is a natural process.

S: ~

BV: So you see how this all meshes together. It’s like all kinds of different ways of saying the same thing, and it’s incredibly consistent.

S: ~

BV: And his mind was so clear. He didn’t have any ignorance at all, any more. It didn’t arise. There was no confusion in the Buddha’s mind ever, after he became an . . . Hunh?

S: ~

BV: Well, he was developing seeing in the right way and perfecting himself so he would be able to do that.

Ok, let’s get back to the sutta here.

Next, and this is the exciting one, the four noble truths!

{MN: 43. “In this way he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects internally, externally, and both internally and externally . . . And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five aggregates affected by clinging.}

(5. The Four Noble Truths)

44. “Again, monks, a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the Four Noble Truths. And how does a monk abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the Four Noble Truths? Here a monk understands as it actually is: ‘This is suffering’; he understands as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of suffering’; he understands as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of suffering’; he understands as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’

BV: Namely, letting go of all distraction, relax, letting go of feeling, relax, redirect your mind’[s attention] back to your object of meditation; that is the eightfold path in a nutshell.

S: ~

BV: That’s what being a teacher is, is repeating it over and over again, until you finally get it.

{MN: INSIGHT

45. “In this way he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects internally, or he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects externally, or he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects both internally and externally. Or else he abides contemplating in mind-objects their nature of arising, or he abides contemplating in mind-objects their nature of vanishing, or he abides contemplating in mind-objects their nature of both arising and vanishing. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how a monk abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the Four Noble Truths.}

MN: (CONCLUSION)

46. “Monks, if anyone should develop these four foundations of mindfulness in such a way for seven years, one of two fruits could be expected for him:

BV: Now this is seven years, this is twenty, or thirteen years longer than . . . I did it for thirteen years longer, and I didn’t get one of these two fruits. Ok?

MN: either final knowledge here and now,

BV: . . becoming an Arahat . .

MN: or if there is a trace of clinging left, non-return.

BV: In other words, they become an anagami; they’re not reborn in the human realm ever again. An anagami is someone that has given up, it will not arise in their mind for any reason lust, or hatred, or doubt, or belief that rites and rituals will lead to Nibbana, or that anything that arises is personal. It won’t arise in their mind.

S: ~

BV: There’s a realm of five heavenly abodes, they’re called Brahma lokas where they’re just special to the anagamis. What will happen there is they will be reborn there, the life is very long, they will practice and become an Arahat, die out of that realm, and there is no more becoming.

S: Well, I’ve only just begun!

BV: That’s a nice start.

TT: 1:09:45

MN: “Let alone seven years, monks. If anyone should develop these four foundations of mindfulness in such a way for six years . . . for five years . . . for four years . . . for three years . . . for two years . . . for one year, one of two fruits could be expected for him: either final knowledge here and now, or if there is a trace of clinging left, non-return.

“Let alone one year, monks. If anyone should develop these four foundations of mindfulness in such a way for seven months . . . for six months . . . for five months . . . for four months . . . for three months . . . for two months . . . for one month . . . for half a month, one of two fruits could be expected for him: either final knowledge here and now, or if there is a trace of clinging left, non-return.

“Let alone half a month, monks. If anyone should develop these four foundations of mindfulness in such a way for seven days, one of two fruits could be expected for him: either final knowledge here and now, or if there is a trace of clinging left, non-return.

47. “So it was with reference to this that it was said: “Monks, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of Nibbana – namely, the four foundations of mindfulness.’”

That is what the Blessed One said. The monks were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One’s words.

BV: And there you go. I’ve just told you that you have . . . how long have you been here now? Three days? You’ve got four more days. Ok, three more days. I expect everybody to be an Arahat.

S: ~

BV: It is possible. It happened with venerable Moggallana. Of course venerable Moggallana had exceptional energy and he never slept, for seven days he didn’t sleep.

Tape ends.

May suffering ones, be suffering free

And the fear struck, fearless be

May the grieving shed all grief

And may all beings find relief.

May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired

For the acquisition of all kinds of happiness.

May beings inhabiting space and earth

Devas and nagas of mighty power

Share this merit of ours.

May they long protect the Lord Buddha's dispensation.

Sadhu . . . Sadhu . . . Sadhu . . .

Sutta translation (C) Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, 2001. Reprinted from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144 U.S.A, www.wisdompubs.org

May you reach Nibbana Quickly and easily in this very lifetime!

Metta2U all.

Bhante Vimalaramsi.

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