From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EMbMHtDDw9o

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

well hello everybody

hope you're doing well this evening

how was your first day

yeah

you know perhaps you've got through the

most difficult part of the retreat now

sometimes the first day is the hardest

day

it's uh and if you had a wonderful day

don't let me tell you otherwise I I like

retreat I've done a lot of retreat it's

a lot of fun but sometimes the first day

is a transition from our busy lives

and getting in the groove of things can

take a second

so if you notice it was a tough day well

it could be

um and it will be better

people have done Retreat before you a

lot of people have done retreat

and it's maybe helpful to know there is

a pattern to it

um

you know day one can be a particular way

day four can be a particular way day

three and so on

and so you're doing what has been done

before

and that same idea I think is really I

find comforting when I think about the

meditation training as well

what we are learning and talking about

has been done before

thousands of years yeah

we read from the sutos we practice

meditation that has been practiced by

people who devote their entire life to

it

and so we are not Reinventing something

ourselves

we are simply uh discovering how it

works for us

in the morning we took refuge in the

triple gem in the Buddha the dhamma and

the Sangha

so this is another Comfort another

refuge in what we're doing

so when we take refuge in that uh

I think it's helpful to really pay

attention to your mind when you do that

it's kind of like when you relax how

does your mind go when you're taking

refuge in these

um

when we take refuge in the Buddha it

means we're remembering and remembering

our confidence in the teachings of the

historical Buddha

the recluse scotoma

so he was a human who

became became awakened

and he was able to teach that to other

people so we can learn about it as well

the dhamma when we take a reference in

the dhamma is the teachings of the

Buddha

well the dhamma can mean the teachings

and dhamma also means truth

so

the dhamma should be very true

very obvious

so obvious of course it's that way when

you understand what the dhamma is

and hopefully it can be presented that

way sometimes

and then there is the song Home

Sangha is the community of monks

and nuns the monastics who have helped

transmit this information over thousands

of years to us

and maintain the tradition and rituals

and processes of it

and the community of practitioners as

well

uh we as lay people are very important

uh members of the song hop we help

support the monastic community and we

practice

and um

how we practice our conditions are a

little different than monastic

conditions but

we can practice uh

with the same teachings

so yeah remembering the Buddha the

dhamma and the Sangha

can be a comfort in bringing confidence

remember those who have done this before

us

and what they've done is train their

mind

we are learning to train our mind

a trained mind is about the most

wonderful thing

we can imagine and we can't really

imagine how wonderful it is actually

the human mind can has amazing

capacities for memorization

for cognition for perception that we as

modern people really don't understand

what we do understand well is the

untrained find

the untrained mind

as wonderful as the train mind is the

untrained mind is quite the same in how

difficult it can be

the entry mind brings us suffering

or can bring a suffering

you know

brings us anxiety brings us thoughts

that don't make sense that are not

important

and we spend a lot of our time thinking

about things that are not even true

worrying about things that could never

happen

and yep I think we're all familiar with

that

so Retreat is a wonderful time to

actually work on training our mind

so with the trained mind

we can bring joy to ourselves to our

community and those around us like that

so training the mind

we use meditation for that that's what

we're up to here but to be successful in

your practice we need a foundation

so meditation is one part of the

practice we can name three parts Maybe

Selah

Donna

and abavana

these translate as morality

generosity

and meditation

so in English

morality is maybe not a pleasant word it

brings up

ideas of right and wrong being bad

being a good person or a bad person like

that

and we don't mean it that way in this

training

this is a very pragmatic approach to how

we train our mind

we think of it in terms of positive and

negative outcomes

or wholesome and unwholesome outcomes of

our mind

one of the trainings in Morality and

Sila are the precepts we take in the

morning

uh we decide not to harm beings on

purpose

to not take what's not given to avoid

sexual activity

to avoid heart speech telling lies

slander's speech and gossip and so on

alcohol and drugs

these are training rules

we bring them out into the world of

course it is never a good idea to harm

another being and so on

but we use them here to learn what our

mind will do before it we do something

when we keep the precepts

we know what we're going to do before we

do it

when we keep the precepts we allow our

mind a chance to be calm

and conversely breaking precepts will

lead to mind that is less calm and happy

it will help us generate hindrances

so as I said this morning if you find

yourself accidentally breaking a precept

that happens and take the precepts again

immediately

when you break a precept

um

the procedure is pretty simple you

notice we break the precept

uh maybe you feel a little remorse about

it or concerned I don't mean you beat

yourself up but you're like oh no I did

not mean to do that

then you forgive yourself

forgive yourself for breaking it because

you're human you know

you probably didn't mean to

you make the determination to not break

the precept again in the future

and then you take the precepts

that simple

you can do that as many times as you

need to

but hopefully not many

when we break precepts

um

not accidentally necessarily but in some

degree

we do that because we take things

personally

when we think about the precepts these

are pretty obvious things we don't want

done to us right we don't want to be

harmed or killed we don't want our

things taken we don't want to be lied to

or have our speech right

and so we know

that we that other people do not want

that to happen

when we choose to do that

we are putting our interests our needs

our personal

personal needs are above the other

persons

and it is leading to disharmony

but we're choosing to do that because

we're taking our feelings

our needs

our feelings driving our Behavior

personally

and letting them control what we do

when we allow ourselves to have our

feelings control our Behavior even when

it leads to negative outcomes

we reinforce negative patterns of

thought

deed speech and thought

of course this leads to conflict

internally

whether or not we know it

and of course this conflict will come up

when we sit

and we have a chance to be calm

so we say not in conflict with the world

not in conflict with ourselves not in

conflict with our community

by keeping the precepts

and when we do that we gain the ability

to know what we'll do and a mind that is

prepared

to observe what is happening

and that's why we do it

it's not about being a good person or

something bad happening because you do

something it is about well it is about

that isn't it it's about

your mind uh becoming unwholesome

so wholesome and unwholesome

these are other words that can be

triggering

um

for some people oh and I've taught these

words before I've been told that they

don't like wholesome or unwholesome I

what unwholesome and wholesome means is

um

leading to positive outcome is wholesome

unwholesome is leading to negative

outcome

taking things personally

simply like that

unwholesome actions

are basically breaking precepts

in the sutos you'll find the list for

the 10 unwholesome courses of action and

they're breaking precepts causing harm

lying stealing like that

wholesome leads to our good our benefit

our Clarity of mind and so on

so I've been talking about taking things

personally a lot

and meditation is we're observing how

mind works and what happens

so we can observe what happens in our

body and mind it's part of an impersonal

process

so that deserves some unpacking

when something happens

when perhaps we have sight

when a form when light makes meets a

working eye

and Consciousness is present

the meeting of these three we call

contact

this is the beginning of sensory

perception

based on contact

eye contact eye feeling arises we have a

feeling that comes up

feeling in and of itself is Pleasant

unpleasant or neutral

based on eye feeling eye craving arises

craving

is a contraction

it's attention and tightness

it is a pulling away it is the beginning

of taking things personally

it is the beginning of

the feeling

being just Pleasant or unpleasant

being my feeling

my nose itches

first there's a niche

and maybe it's unpleasant then my nose

itches and becomes an emergency because

my nose is hitching

after craving comes clinging and this is

the beginning of thinking about it and

reflecting on it

when we start taking things personally

we start being affected by craving

we start being pulled into

trying to control

thinking about

being involved in

mine

when we take things impersonally we can

see this as a process

and the difference is quite a bit

the difference between a painful feeling

and suffering

is I

when you Bonk your finger

painful feeling arises

when your finger is hurt

now you have to do something about it

right now

I don't like it with my fingers hurt is

it broken what am I going to do

and before long you have an emotional

reaction you have a

set of actions that you may do and you

do something about it yeah

what I'm talking about we call dependent

origination

this is the core of the Buddhist texts

and the Buddhist practice

seeing our experience through an

impersonal lens

when we can see it through an impersonal

lens

we can take it we have a the choice

to take it personally or impersonally

when we take it impersonally

we can let go of suffering

like that

so

what affects us so it is difficult to

take it in personally

um

well first this is very fast

when a feeling arises craving happens

very quickly the tension happens very

quickly

feeling tension thought before you know

it you're lost

it takes a calm mind and a collected

mind to begin to observe this

and our hindrances uh

they start interfering as well

when we sit down uh

to observe the movements of Mind

attention meditate

well these days you sit down you bring

up the feeling of loving kindness

warm feeling in the chest you make a

wish for yourself

support your friend may I be happy and

you stay with that wish

and then something happens

maybe it's a memory or maybe it's a

thought

and when your mindfulness is sharp then

you notice that

and you can six hour relax and let it go

and come back

when you six are

letting go of craving

when we recognize that mind is

distracted

we redirect our attention

to relaxing the body and mind

when we relax the body and mind

there's an openness

this is the mind without craving

when we relax we let go of that tension

and tightness

in our mind in that moment is clear

without craving without suffering

and we bring that back

to our smile

and to our object of meditation

this process is called right effort

right effort is defined in the text as

letting go of an unwholesome state that

hasn't risen

and preventing aneurysm on wholesome

Saints from Horizon

to allow wholesome states to arise and

to allow wholesome states that have

Arisen to persist

just like that

so let go of the unwholesome

and bring up the wholesome

when we 6r that's exactly what we do

so you have to have an Arisen wholesome

State of Mind unwholesome State of Mind

if we're not mindful we may try to

control it try to push it away try to

change it

and our attachment

allows it to persist yeah

the attachment prevents it from arising

and going away

as the nature of all things is

to be able to come up and go away

anything that arises in nature of it is

to go away unless

we're involved unless we're taking it

personally unless there's attachment

there

when we recognize it's there when we

release and redirect our attention we

stop uh feeding it

we stopped giving it more nutrient more

attachment to keep it there and so

there's a chance now that it can go away

that it can that it can go away

we then redirect our attention

to relax in your mind and body

letting go of craving

and bringing up the wholesome with our

smile

and loving kindness

and we keep that going

that's right effort

foreign

the more we can do that with whatever

arises the more we can see our

experience as part of an impersonal

process

the more we can connect with our

experience and let it be there

as it is

this is training our mind

in a mind without craving there is no

suffering

when we think about what happens in our

mind and body

we can use a schema called the five

aggregates

five Aggregates are the five piles

these are five ways to classify

everything that happens in our body and

mind

they are form

feeling perception

dominance or thoughts and consciousness

so form

a form is the four elements

the four elements are what makes up our

perception of the world of solidity

the four elements are

solidness

cohesion

heat and vibration

any kind of tactile and spirit

experience you can think of in terms of

the four elements

feeling is feeling

sensation Pleasant

unpleasant neither Pleasant or

unpleasant neutral

there are other ways of defining feeling

maybe up to 108 different kinds of

feeling I don't think we have to do that

we can just say

that

perception is the part of the mind that

names things

that knows a chair is a chair a table is

a table and it has memory with it

like that

and Damas well Damas is everything else

almost we think of uh these are thoughts

these are ideas

uh Concepts about things

love and kindness is a Dharma

for example

and consciousness

Consciousness is what the capacity to

cognize the rest of the aggregates

to be aware of it

the

aggregates

when we can classify your experience in

different ways

we can understand how it is impersonal

when we can see how these things work we

can see that indeed they are happening

on their own

like that

and when we can do that we can we can

see them as impersonal

then we can let them go

and we have choice

and we can let go of suffering

there are several uh

several contemplations that are

particularly useful

and the five Aggregates is one of them

when we understand the Aggregates and

understand how all the Aggregates are

not solved

that sets us up for just fashion and for

uh Awakening

so tonight we're going to read asuta

uh this is suto 152

it is called the development of the

faculties

this is the last suta in the majima

Nakaya so we probably should start our

first dhama talk with it right

yeah

I I I like the suit a lot because it

talks about

how we think about our observation

and how we approach our meditation and

observation

now the faculties there are five

faculties

by the way this is a reason I was very

interested in taravada uh why I learned

about this when I was much younger

theravada offers or sutivada the suta's

early Buddhism

offers a very clear training system

there are classifications for everything

we do

there are lists of things there's

vocabulary words

it's an education that you can learn and

when you learn it you put it together

you understand the system

and not only that when you understand

the system you can gauge your progress

on the sutus and on the text

and so you know what might happen and

you can gauge that with what your

experience is

I think that's a a great thing about

this though

over the course of

time you'll be you'll encounter many

lists

and you may not remember them all and

that's okay like that's absolutely okay

eventually you may

so the five faculties

uh these are Faith or confidence

energy

mindfulness

collectiveness and wisdom

we talked a little bit about confidence

confidence is

confidence that the Buddha was awakened

and he taught something valuable

even for other confidence that he knew

exactly what he was talking about was

fully awakened perfectly awakened

confidence in the Dharma and confidence

in the teachings

the five faculties are qualities we

develop so we can progress along the

path

these were very praised as when when you

develop these these will take you closer

to Awakening

confidence takes us all the way through

and is our companion through

now

another wonderful thing about the sutas

is there's very little you have to take

on faith in the long term

there's very little that you

cannot verify yourself

the dhamma is meant to be verified

you're meant to hear about it and

explore it and see if it works the way

it's supposed to or how does it work

confidence is the motivation to keep

going

that there is something there

and there are some things that you'll

hear and you don't know exactly what

they mean and the confidence to keep

going to try to figure out what that's

exactly about

energy

is

persistence it is applied effort

it is putting the right amount of

attention and effort into what you do

it does take energy to sit in a chair

doesn't it

takes energy to keep it six hours and

bringing your mind back

and this is uh this is the faculty of

energy

to keep going

then there's the faculty of mindfulness

which we talked about

mindfulness is the ability

to observe the movements of Mind

attention as it moves from thing to

thing

mindfulness Powers our meditation

when we're mindful we can do the

practice when we lose our mindfulness

then we learn from our hindrances

and collectiveness

collecting this uh this refers to Jonna

to unification of mind

we

it is helpful to collect the mind

make it sharper bring up its capacities

when we collect the mind with Jonah

which we talked a little bit about last

night

it is able to see things more and more

clearly our level of understanding

increases

so we practice meditation allow mine to

collect

and this allows us our wisdom

to develop as well

wisdom

is observation

and when you see wisdom in the sutas it

means observing dependent origination

observing the impersonal process of

dependent origination

so when you read the sutas and you hear

about someone's wisdom or attending

wisely

they're talking about attending in such

a way that they can see how things work

we develop wisdom

as our mind becomes settled as our

mindfulness is developed as we apply our

energy

it has our confidence

allows us to move forward

so the development of the faculties

thus have I heard

on one occasion the blessed one was

living in kanjagala in a Grove of mukala

trees

then the brahmana student uttara a pupil

of the brahmana parasaria went to the

blessed one in exchanged greetings with

him

when this courteous and amiable talk was

finished he sat down on one side

the blessed one then asked him uttara

does the Brahman parasarya teach his

disciples the development of the

faculties

he does Master Gautama

but ataria how does he teach his

disciples the development of the

faculties

here Master Gautama one does not see

forms with the eye one does not hear

sounds with the ear

this is how the brahmana parasarya

teaches his disciples the development of

the faculties

if that is so uttara then a blind man

and a deaf man will have developed

faculties according to what the brahmana

of Paris Arya says for a blind man does

not see forms with the eye and a deaf

man does not hear sounds with the ear

I think that's pretty harsh criticism of

that way of cultivation

what they're talking about here is a way

of meditating that shuts down the

faculties and the sun stores uh early on

in the process

and so mind is internally only present

and the process of the sense stores

cannot be seen

the Buddha did not praise that because

it is very difficult to develop wisdom

or understanding of how your son's

faculties work when they're shut down

when they're not happening

to say the least

when this was said the brahmana student

Atara Paris arya's pupil sat silent

dismayed with shoulders drooping and

head down glum and without response

when we're practicing twim we practice

in such a way that our sun stores can

operate

and we have the possibility of

distraction

we don't praise distraction or want

distraction but we want to have the

ability to know how things work

we develop a particular kind of

collectiveness that is open

spacious and allows movement so we can

see things happen

finer and finer grain Focus

when we can see them happen uh

better and better we can 6r relax and

allow our mind to get more and more calm

we start out letting go of thoughts and

images and movies

we can let go of words then we can let

go of tension

and we can let go even more

has mind gets deeper and deeper

then knowing this

the blessed one addressed the venerable

Ananda

Ananda the Brahman parasarya teaches his

disciples development of the faculties

in one way but in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties is otherwise

now the Supreme development of the

faculties is the complete development of

the faculties of one who is completely

awakened

we

we practice with faculties that are not

fully developed

but that's okay

this is how we approach them and this is

how they work

now is the time blessed one now is the

time Sublime one for the blessed one to

teach the development the Supreme

development of the faculties in the

Nobles ones discipline having heard it

from the blessed one the monks will

remember it

then listen Ananda and attend closely to

what I shall say

yes venerable sir he said

the blessed one said this

now Ananda how is there the Supreme

development of the faculties in the

noble ones discipline

here Ananda when a monk sees a form with

the eye there arises in him what is

agreeable there arises what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable

this is a pleasant State an unpleasant

State and a neutral state

in response to what was seen

he understands thus there has arisen in

me what is agreeable

there has arisen in me what is

disagreeable who has arisen in me what

was both agreeable and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen

this is peaceful this is Sublime that is

Equanimity is a way of observing what

happens without being involved

When You observe with equanimity

your mind is not repelled it's not

attracted it just happens

so you can observe things clearly

without getting involved

Equanimity does not mean indifference

and difference also is not

reacting to what's happening around

but indifference has delusion and

indifference has a closing down of

observation

Equanimity sees clearly

and when you view with that Equanimity

you see what happens

without being uh

pushed away or pulled

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and the disagreeable that

arose cease in him and Equanimity is

established

just as a man with good sight having

opened his eyes might shut them or

having shut his eyes might open them so

too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable

that arose and both the agreeable and

disagreeable that arose cease just as

quickly just as rapidly just as easily

in Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding forms cognizable

by the eye

so how do we practice this

well it's the six r's

when

a site arises

when a form cognizable by the eye leads

to a pleasant or unpleasant or neutral

feeling

and it pulls us in

we recognize that

we release that and let it be there as

it is with equanimity

we relax our head and body and smile

and we come back

to our object of meditation

that is how we develop the faculties

what is also interesting about this is

how quickly it happens

just as quickly as someone opening their

eyes this happens

this is important when we're working on

our meditation

when we're developing our insight and

how things work

we're not observing things and watching

them over and over for long periods of

time

we just see as they are

quickly

simply

what we see is what we see

we don't look deeper into it

and keep looking at it

then it becomes our object of meditation

when we do that when we look at it when

we take it as an object

a different progression of meditation

happens

again Ananda

when a monk hears a sound with the ear

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable that

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus there has arisen in

me what is agreeable their hair has

arisen in me what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen this is peaceful this

is Sublime that is equanimity

that is observation

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and the both

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him and Equanimity is

established

just as a strong man might easily snap

his fingers so too concerning anything

at all the agreeable that I Rose the

disagreeable that arose in both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease just as quickly just as rapidly

just as easily in Equanimity is

established

this is called the Noble in the noble

ones discipline the Supreme development

of the faculties regarding Sounds

cognizable by the ear

and you know to say it was written so

too concerning anything at all

this is anything that arises

when you're with your object of

meditation anything that is not your

object of meditation that pulls your

attention

You Can Let Go

some thoughts seem important

and some thoughts are

perhaps if the if we had a fire here

that would be an important thought that

you might break your meditation for

pretty much anything else

is not worth attending to

when you have a really important thought

um okay then make a mental note thank

you thought

I will please come up later see you

later

make a determination that that will

happen and then forget about it and then

move on

sometimes thoughts keep coming back and

coming back

now when a thought comes back and comes

back that is a sign there is attachment

in that thought

whatever it is

comes back and when you think about that

it's really not that efficient is it

that you would think the same thought

over and over again

that's not that useful you had the

thought you thought it through yeah and

now here it is again

that's even funny yeah

that's even funny

and that noticing it's funny noticing

it's silly

is very helpful for your practice

we have thoughts that seem so important

and so big

and so critical

and they come up again and again

proving that they're not that profound

actually at all

and when we can laugh at them when we

can laugh at ourselves for having them

these thoughts

can be seen for what they are

it's not the emergency they're

presenting themselves to be

when you can smile at yourself when you

can laugh with yourself

um

you can let go of almost anything

Letting Go doesn't mean you ignore it

yeah doesn't mean you pretend it's not

there

doesn't mean you don't act on it when

it's appropriate

but

it's a

doesn't have to be taken as the

emergency that it is particularly when

you're meditating yeah

yeah some thoughts come up and they have

insight and they have information

and it comes up once and it's like oh

that's how that works

that's okay that's gonna happen don't

don't six are those thoughts uh why

would you

those thoughts come up one time and go

away and you know what they say and

unless you start thinking about it

um

they will go away the Insight can be

like that

Insight is simple clear uh and

undeniable

When You observe what's happening it's

simple and clear and as it is

as simply as you see a chair before you

or whatever it is

so when you have insight into your

experience it's like that

looking deeper than that

well you start going into the realm of

Concepts sometimes

you start not seeing things is that they

are exactly

you start pulling away

from what is present as it is

again Ananda when a monk smells an order

with the nose there arises in him what

is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable he understands thus

there has a risen enemy what's agreeable

there has arisen what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is condition growth dependently

arisen

this is peaceful this is Sublime that is

equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him in Equanimity is

established

just as raindrops on a slightly sloping

Lotus Leaf roll off and do not remain

there

so too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable of

the Rose and both the agreeable and

disagreeable that arose cease just as

quickly

just as rapidly just as easily and the

Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones just to

put in the Supreme development of the

faculties regarding odors cognizable by

the nose

you may have noticed these paragraphs

are repeating

and there's different uh

there's different analogies but it's the

same words over and over

and this is on purpose

the sutas were an oral tradition for at

least three or four hundred years after

the Buddha's death they were not written

down

they were remembered by monks and

monasteries who would memorize them

the repetition

allows for memorization

and the repetition is also a training

tool

when you hear repetition I would

encourage you to listen to it as

carefully as you can as attentively as

you can

sometimes when you hear the same things

over and over again you hear something

new

it comes out in a new way

you can hear it in a different way when

you attend to it

and it's like that with this

there are some places in the in the text

where they take out the repetition

um and so when eventually you read the

sutas notice that I think it is valuable

when you read them to yourself when you

memorize them

if you memorize them by the way that is

a wonderful practice

eventually after Retreat picking a suta

and memorizing it

when you memorize the suta it never

leaves you

and you keep understanding it more and

more as it as it's as you think about it

whenever you want and it comes to you

there are several that are really useful

to memorize and if you want to talk

about that later let's do that

but with the repetition

um

it's it's a tool for training

as you heard over and over again you

will remember it better

and as you remember it better okay we'll

remember it in your practice better

and sometimes these things come to you

right when uh right when they're needed

again Ananda when a monk tastes a flavor

with the tongue there arises in him what

is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable

there arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus

there has arisen in me what is agreeable

there has a risen what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen

this is peaceful this is Sublime

that is equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him in Equanimity is

established

just as a strong man might easily spit

out about a ball of spittle collected on

the tip of his tongue so too concerning

anything at all the agreeable that arose

the disagreeable that arose in both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

ceased just as quickly just as rapidly

just as nobly and Equanimity is

established

this is called in the noble one's

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding flavors

cognizable by the Tongue

just as easily and just as effortlessly

this is an effortless process and

faculties that are well developed

6rs is an effortless process

basically

you recognize

you release

you relax

you smile you come back

there is no trying or pushing

you may adjust your interests you may

adjust your energy you may back off with

your observation

a little bit here and there

But ultimately things pass without

effort

they persist without effort they're

observed without effort

they just happen

again Ananda when among touches a

tangible with the body there arises in

him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus

there hasn't risen enemy what is

agreeable there's a risen what is

disagreeable

there has risen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen this is peaceful this

is Sublime that is equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him and Equanimity is

established

just as a strong man might extend his

flexed arm or Flex his ascendant arm so

too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable

that arose and both the agreeable and

disagreeable that our Rose cease just as

quickly just as rapidly just as easily

and Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding tangible's

cognizable by the body

again Ananda when a monk cognizes a mind

object with the mind there arises in him

what is agreeable

Theory arises what is disagreeable

there arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus

there has a risen in what is agreeable

there has arisen what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned growth

dependently Arisen this is peaceful

this is Sublime that is equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose in both the

agreeable and disagreeable that are rose

and both that arose ceasing him and the

Equanimity is established

just as a man were to let two or three

drops of water fall into an iron plate

heated for a whole day

the falling of the drops might be slow

but they would quickly vaporize and

vanish

so too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable

that arose and both the agreeable and

the disagreeable that arose cease just

as quickly just as rapidly just as

easily in Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding ideas cognizable

by the mind

this is how there is the Supreme

development of the faculties in the

noble ones discipline

foreign

onda is one a disciple in higher

training who has entered upon the way

a disciple in higher training is a

person who has entered one of the stages

of Awakening

when they have entered one of the stages

of Awakening they have experienced

nabana

at least to some degree

when the nabana is the unconditioned

not a conditioned experience

this context of having that reference

point of the unconditioned

changes one's relation to the faculties

and to what arises

and here

uh the Buddha is talking about how the

faculties can be developed in this way

when a monk sees a form with the eye

there arrives there arises in him what

is agreeable there arises what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable

he is repelled humiliated and disgusted

by the agreeable that arose

by the disagreeable that arose and by

both by the both agreeable and

disagreeable that arose

that is strong language

it can seem aversive

that um

that we are supposed to be disgusted by

our experience

and this is not what it is saying

this is talking about the process of

developing disenchantment

with the sense faculties

the process of disenchantment

is when something arises and pulls your

attention

100 times a thousand times many many

times and you let go over and over again

eventually

your mind gets tired of it

it gets tired of it on a deep and

profound level

you cannot

consciously induce disenchantment it

happens on a deep level when

disenchantment happens

you start seeing that there's nothing to

be clung to in whatever arises

with just disenchantment dispassion

arises

and you truly uh become detached

someone who has understood this process

when they are training their faculties

and something arises

using words like humiliated and repelled

and so on are more appropriate

until until that is your experience and

you understand the context of that

it's not important to decide your

experience is humiliating or disgusting

and in fact I do not suggest you do that

at all and that's not what we're talking

about here we're talking about how to

train the mind

so it automatically automatically

applies 6rs and automatically responds

to distraction in the way we're talking

about here

so that's how to understand that

the eye itself is not humiliating

when among here's a sound with the ear

there arises in him what is what is

agreeable there arises what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable he is

repelled humiliated and disgusted by the

agreeable that arose by the disagreeable

that arose and by both the agreeable and

disagreeable that arose

when a monk

spells an odor with the nose

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable he has repelled humiliated

and disgusted by the agreeable that

arose by the disagreeable that arose and

by the both agreeable and disagreeable

that arose

when a monk tastes the flavor with the

tongue

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable he is repelled humiliated

and disgusted

by the agreeable that it arose by the

disagreeable that arose and by both

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

when a monk

touches a tangible with the body there

arises in him what is agreeable there

arises what is disagreeable there arises

what is both agreeable and disagreeable

his repelled humiliated and disgusted by

the agreeable that arose by the

disagreeable that arose and by both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

when a monk cognizes a mind object with

the mind there arises in him what is

agreeable the rise is what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable

he has repelled humiliated and disgusted

by the agreeable that arose by the

disagreeable that arose and by both

agree and by the both agreeable and

disagreeable that arose

this is how one is a disciple in higher

training

one who has entered upon the way

and how Ananda is one a normal one with

developed faculties

here when a monk sees a form with the

eyes

their arises was a disagreeable there

arises what is agreeable there arises

what is disagreeable

if he should wish may I abide perceiving

the unrepulsive and the irrepulsive he

abides perceiving the unrepulsive and

the repulsive

if he should wish may abide receiving

the repulsive and the unrepulsive he

abides perceiving the repulsive in the

unrepulsive

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the unrepulsive in the repulsive and the

repulsive he abides perceiving the

unrepulsive in that

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the repulsive and new and repulsive

he abides perceiving the repulsive in

that

if he should wish

may I

avoiding both the repulsive and the

repulsive abide in Equanimity mindfully

and fully aware he abides in acronymity

towards that mindfully fully aware

this is how this is how one is a noble

one with developed faculties

what this is talking about here is

different modes of perception of what

arises

when one has fully developed faculties

one can perceive

uh agreeable as uh agreeable in the

unagreeable

that is one can pervade that with

loving-kindness

or One automatically can see that as its

component parts

and when that happens the unagreeable is

is agreeable

we can do that

pervading uh

with loving kindness

the training we really do here with the

six hours is the last one

may I avoiding both repulsive and the

real and repulsive abide in Equanimity

Mindful and fully aware

when we do the six hours we abide

mindful fully aware

and we avoid getting engaged with the

agreeable or the disagreeable

like that

so this paragraph is describing the

faculties of an arahat one has fully

developed what they can do effortlessly

and is also describing uh courses of

training

the people in training engage in

pervading loving kindness

uh

practicing the 6rs

there's a couple of other practices here

that are implied

like observing impermanence

or working with repulsiveness of the

body these are other practices that we

may talk about later

these are full development of these

practices that can be automatically done

when mind is fully developed

for our purposes we're talking about

abiding with Equanimity mindfully and

fully aware

and we're not projecting

uh

uh Pleasant things on unpleasant things

or deciding unpleasant things are

Pleasant

it's a slightly different different

thing

when a monk sees a form uh sees a sound

with an ear

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arise is what is disagreeable

there arise is what is both agreeable

and disagreeable if he should wish may

abide perceiving the unrepulsive and the

repulsive by abide with love and

kindness he abides perceiving the

unrepulsive in the in the repulsive

if he should wish may abide preceding

the repulsive and the unrepulsive he

abides perceiving the repulsive and

unrepulsive

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the unrepulsive and the repulsive and

the unrepulsive

he abides perceiving the unrepulsive in

that

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the repulsive in the unrepulsive and the

repulsive he abides perceiving the

repulsive in that

if he should wish

may I avoiding both the repulsive and

the unrepulsive abiding Equanimity

Mindful and fully aware he abides an

Equanimity towards that Mindful and

fully aware

that is how one is a noble one with

developed faculties

here inanda when among sees

taste the flavor with the tongue

touches the tangible with the body or

cognizes a mind object with the mind

I skipped over a few there

arises in him what is agreeable there

arises what is disagreeable there arises

what is both agreeable and disagreeable

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the unrepulsive in the repulsive he

abides perceiving the unrepulsive and

the repulsive

if he should wish mayor by preceding the

repulsive and the unrepulsive he abides

perceiving the repulsive and

non-repulsive

if he should wish by perceiving the

unrepulsive and the repulsive and the

unrepulsive he abides for perceiving and

repulsive than that

if he should wish mayor by perceiving

the repulsive and the unrepulsive and

the repulsive hubby is preceding the

repulsive in that

if he should wish may I avoiding both

the repulsive and the unrepulsive abide

and Equanimity mindfully and fully aware

he buys an Equanimity towards that

Mindful and fully aware

that is how a one is a noble one with

developed faculties

so Ananda the Supreme development of the

faculties and the noble ones discipline

has been taught by me

the disciple in higher training who has

entered upon the way has been taught by

me and the noble one with developed

faculties has been taught by me

what should be done for his disciples

out of compassion by a teacher who seeks

their welfare and has compassion for

them that I have done for you Ananda

there are these roots of trees these

empties Huts meditate Ananda do not

delay or else you will regret it later

this is our instruction to you

that is what the blessed one said the

mineral Apple Ananda was satisfied and

delighted and the Blessed one's words

okay let's share some Aaron

Faith suffering ones be suffering free

and the fear struck Fearless being May

The Grieving shed all grief and male

beings find relief

male being share this Merit that we have

thus acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

May beings inhabiting space and Earth

Davis and nagas and mighty power shared

this Merit of ours

may they long protect the Buddha's

dispensation

[Music]

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

well hello everybody

hope you're doing well this evening

how was your first day

yeah

you know perhaps you've got through the

most difficult part of the retreat now

sometimes the first day is the hardest

day

it's uh and if you had a wonderful day

don't let me tell you otherwise I I like

retreat I've done a lot of retreat it's

a lot of fun but sometimes the first day

is a transition from our busy lives

and getting in the groove of things can

take a second

so if you notice it was a tough day well

it could be

um and it will be better

people have done Retreat before you a

lot of people have done retreat

and it's maybe helpful to know there is

a pattern to it

um

you know day one can be a particular way

day four can be a particular way day

three and so on

and so you're doing what has been done

before

and that same idea I think is really I

find comforting when I think about the

meditation training as well

what we are learning and talking about

has been done before

thousands of years yeah

we read from the sutos we practice

meditation that has been practiced by

people who devote their entire life to

it

and so we are not Reinventing something

ourselves

we are simply uh discovering how it

works for us

in the morning we took refuge in the

triple gem in the Buddha the dhamma and

the Sangha

so this is another Comfort another

refuge in what we're doing

so when we take refuge in that uh

I think it's helpful to really pay

attention to your mind when you do that

it's kind of like when you relax how

does your mind go when you're taking

refuge in these

um

when we take refuge in the Buddha it

means we're remembering and remembering

our confidence in the teachings of the

historical Buddha

the recluse scotoma

so he was a human who

became became awakened

and he was able to teach that to other

people so we can learn about it as well

the dhamma when we take a reference in

the dhamma is the teachings of the

Buddha

well the dhamma can mean the teachings

and dhamma also means truth

so

the dhamma should be very true

very obvious

so obvious of course it's that way when

you understand what the dhamma is

and hopefully it can be presented that

way sometimes

and then there is the song Home

Sangha is the community of monks

and nuns the monastics who have helped

transmit this information over thousands

of years to us

and maintain the tradition and rituals

and processes of it

and the community of practitioners as

well

uh we as lay people are very important

uh members of the song hop we help

support the monastic community and we

practice

and um

how we practice our conditions are a

little different than monastic

conditions but

we can practice uh

with the same teachings

so yeah remembering the Buddha the

dhamma and the Sangha

can be a comfort in bringing confidence

remember those who have done this before

us

and what they've done is train their

mind

we are learning to train our mind

a trained mind is about the most

wonderful thing

we can imagine and we can't really

imagine how wonderful it is actually

the human mind can has amazing

capacities for memorization

for cognition for perception that we as

modern people really don't understand

what we do understand well is the

untrained find

the untrained mind

as wonderful as the train mind is the

untrained mind is quite the same in how

difficult it can be

the entry mind brings us suffering

or can bring a suffering

you know

brings us anxiety brings us thoughts

that don't make sense that are not

important

and we spend a lot of our time thinking

about things that are not even true

worrying about things that could never

happen

and yep I think we're all familiar with

that

so Retreat is a wonderful time to

actually work on training our mind

so with the trained mind

we can bring joy to ourselves to our

community and those around us like that

so training the mind

we use meditation for that that's what

we're up to here but to be successful in

your practice we need a foundation

so meditation is one part of the

practice we can name three parts Maybe

Selah

Donna

and abavana

these translate as morality

generosity

and meditation

so in English

morality is maybe not a pleasant word it

brings up

ideas of right and wrong being bad

being a good person or a bad person like

that

and we don't mean it that way in this

training

this is a very pragmatic approach to how

we train our mind

we think of it in terms of positive and

negative outcomes

or wholesome and unwholesome outcomes of

our mind

one of the trainings in Morality and

Sila are the precepts we take in the

morning

uh we decide not to harm beings on

purpose

to not take what's not given to avoid

sexual activity

to avoid heart speech telling lies

slander's speech and gossip and so on

alcohol and drugs

these are training rules

we bring them out into the world of

course it is never a good idea to harm

another being and so on

but we use them here to learn what our

mind will do before it we do something

when we keep the precepts

we know what we're going to do before we

do it

when we keep the precepts we allow our

mind a chance to be calm

and conversely breaking precepts will

lead to mind that is less calm and happy

it will help us generate hindrances

so as I said this morning if you find

yourself accidentally breaking a precept

that happens and take the precepts again

immediately

when you break a precept

um

the procedure is pretty simple you

notice we break the precept

uh maybe you feel a little remorse about

it or concerned I don't mean you beat

yourself up but you're like oh no I did

not mean to do that

then you forgive yourself

forgive yourself for breaking it because

you're human you know

you probably didn't mean to

you make the determination to not break

the precept again in the future

and then you take the precepts

that simple

you can do that as many times as you

need to

but hopefully not many

when we break precepts

um

not accidentally necessarily but in some

degree

we do that because we take things

personally

when we think about the precepts these

are pretty obvious things we don't want

done to us right we don't want to be

harmed or killed we don't want our

things taken we don't want to be lied to

or have our speech right

and so we know

that we that other people do not want

that to happen

when we choose to do that

we are putting our interests our needs

our personal

personal needs are above the other

persons

and it is leading to disharmony

but we're choosing to do that because

we're taking our feelings

our needs

our feelings driving our Behavior

personally

and letting them control what we do

when we allow ourselves to have our

feelings control our Behavior even when

it leads to negative outcomes

we reinforce negative patterns of

thought

deed speech and thought

of course this leads to conflict

internally

whether or not we know it

and of course this conflict will come up

when we sit

and we have a chance to be calm

so we say not in conflict with the world

not in conflict with ourselves not in

conflict with our community

by keeping the precepts

and when we do that we gain the ability

to know what we'll do and a mind that is

prepared

to observe what is happening

and that's why we do it

it's not about being a good person or

something bad happening because you do

something it is about well it is about

that isn't it it's about

your mind uh becoming unwholesome

so wholesome and unwholesome

these are other words that can be

triggering

um

for some people oh and I've taught these

words before I've been told that they

don't like wholesome or unwholesome I

what unwholesome and wholesome means is

um

leading to positive outcome is wholesome

unwholesome is leading to negative

outcome

taking things personally

simply like that

unwholesome actions

are basically breaking precepts

in the sutos you'll find the list for

the 10 unwholesome courses of action and

they're breaking precepts causing harm

lying stealing like that

wholesome leads to our good our benefit

our Clarity of mind and so on

so I've been talking about taking things

personally a lot

and meditation is we're observing how

mind works and what happens

so we can observe what happens in our

body and mind it's part of an impersonal

process

so that deserves some unpacking

when something happens

when perhaps we have sight

when a form when light makes meets a

working eye

and Consciousness is present

the meeting of these three we call

contact

this is the beginning of sensory

perception

based on contact

eye contact eye feeling arises we have a

feeling that comes up

feeling in and of itself is Pleasant

unpleasant or neutral

based on eye feeling eye craving arises

craving

is a contraction

it's attention and tightness

it is a pulling away it is the beginning

of taking things personally

it is the beginning of

the feeling

being just Pleasant or unpleasant

being my feeling

my nose itches

first there's a niche

and maybe it's unpleasant then my nose

itches and becomes an emergency because

my nose is hitching

after craving comes clinging and this is

the beginning of thinking about it and

reflecting on it

when we start taking things personally

we start being affected by craving

we start being pulled into

trying to control

thinking about

being involved in

mine

when we take things impersonally we can

see this as a process

and the difference is quite a bit

the difference between a painful feeling

and suffering

is I

when you Bonk your finger

painful feeling arises

when your finger is hurt

now you have to do something about it

right now

I don't like it with my fingers hurt is

it broken what am I going to do

and before long you have an emotional

reaction you have a

set of actions that you may do and you

do something about it yeah

what I'm talking about we call dependent

origination

this is the core of the Buddhist texts

and the Buddhist practice

seeing our experience through an

impersonal lens

when we can see it through an impersonal

lens

we can take it we have a the choice

to take it personally or impersonally

when we take it impersonally

we can let go of suffering

like that

so

what affects us so it is difficult to

take it in personally

um

well first this is very fast

when a feeling arises craving happens

very quickly the tension happens very

quickly

feeling tension thought before you know

it you're lost

it takes a calm mind and a collected

mind to begin to observe this

and our hindrances uh

they start interfering as well

when we sit down uh

to observe the movements of Mind

attention meditate

well these days you sit down you bring

up the feeling of loving kindness

warm feeling in the chest you make a

wish for yourself

support your friend may I be happy and

you stay with that wish

and then something happens

maybe it's a memory or maybe it's a

thought

and when your mindfulness is sharp then

you notice that

and you can six hour relax and let it go

and come back

when you six are

letting go of craving

when we recognize that mind is

distracted

we redirect our attention

to relaxing the body and mind

when we relax the body and mind

there's an openness

this is the mind without craving

when we relax we let go of that tension

and tightness

in our mind in that moment is clear

without craving without suffering

and we bring that back

to our smile

and to our object of meditation

this process is called right effort

right effort is defined in the text as

letting go of an unwholesome state that

hasn't risen

and preventing aneurysm on wholesome

Saints from Horizon

to allow wholesome states to arise and

to allow wholesome states that have

Arisen to persist

just like that

so let go of the unwholesome

and bring up the wholesome

when we 6r that's exactly what we do

so you have to have an Arisen wholesome

State of Mind unwholesome State of Mind

if we're not mindful we may try to

control it try to push it away try to

change it

and our attachment

allows it to persist yeah

the attachment prevents it from arising

and going away

as the nature of all things is

to be able to come up and go away

anything that arises in nature of it is

to go away unless

we're involved unless we're taking it

personally unless there's attachment

there

when we recognize it's there when we

release and redirect our attention we

stop uh feeding it

we stopped giving it more nutrient more

attachment to keep it there and so

there's a chance now that it can go away

that it can that it can go away

we then redirect our attention

to relax in your mind and body

letting go of craving

and bringing up the wholesome with our

smile

and loving kindness

and we keep that going

that's right effort

foreign

the more we can do that with whatever

arises the more we can see our

experience as part of an impersonal

process

the more we can connect with our

experience and let it be there

as it is

this is training our mind

in a mind without craving there is no

suffering

when we think about what happens in our

mind and body

we can use a schema called the five

aggregates

five Aggregates are the five piles

these are five ways to classify

everything that happens in our body and

mind

they are form

feeling perception

dominance or thoughts and consciousness

so form

a form is the four elements

the four elements are what makes up our

perception of the world of solidity

the four elements are

solidness

cohesion

heat and vibration

any kind of tactile and spirit

experience you can think of in terms of

the four elements

feeling is feeling

sensation Pleasant

unpleasant neither Pleasant or

unpleasant neutral

there are other ways of defining feeling

maybe up to 108 different kinds of

feeling I don't think we have to do that

we can just say

that

perception is the part of the mind that

names things

that knows a chair is a chair a table is

a table and it has memory with it

like that

and Damas well Damas is everything else

almost we think of uh these are thoughts

these are ideas

uh Concepts about things

love and kindness is a Dharma

for example

and consciousness

Consciousness is what the capacity to

cognize the rest of the aggregates

to be aware of it

the

aggregates

when we can classify your experience in

different ways

we can understand how it is impersonal

when we can see how these things work we

can see that indeed they are happening

on their own

like that

and when we can do that we can we can

see them as impersonal

then we can let them go

and we have choice

and we can let go of suffering

there are several uh

several contemplations that are

particularly useful

and the five Aggregates is one of them

when we understand the Aggregates and

understand how all the Aggregates are

not solved

that sets us up for just fashion and for

uh Awakening

so tonight we're going to read asuta

uh this is suto 152

it is called the development of the

faculties

this is the last suta in the majima

Nakaya so we probably should start our

first dhama talk with it right

yeah

I I I like the suit a lot because it

talks about

how we think about our observation

and how we approach our meditation and

observation

now the faculties there are five

faculties

by the way this is a reason I was very

interested in taravada uh why I learned

about this when I was much younger

theravada offers or sutivada the suta's

early Buddhism

offers a very clear training system

there are classifications for everything

we do

there are lists of things there's

vocabulary words

it's an education that you can learn and

when you learn it you put it together

you understand the system

and not only that when you understand

the system you can gauge your progress

on the sutus and on the text

and so you know what might happen and

you can gauge that with what your

experience is

I think that's a a great thing about

this though

over the course of

time you'll be you'll encounter many

lists

and you may not remember them all and

that's okay like that's absolutely okay

eventually you may

so the five faculties

uh these are Faith or confidence

energy

mindfulness

collectiveness and wisdom

we talked a little bit about confidence

confidence is

confidence that the Buddha was awakened

and he taught something valuable

even for other confidence that he knew

exactly what he was talking about was

fully awakened perfectly awakened

confidence in the Dharma and confidence

in the teachings

the five faculties are qualities we

develop so we can progress along the

path

these were very praised as when when you

develop these these will take you closer

to Awakening

confidence takes us all the way through

and is our companion through

now

another wonderful thing about the sutas

is there's very little you have to take

on faith in the long term

there's very little that you

cannot verify yourself

the dhamma is meant to be verified

you're meant to hear about it and

explore it and see if it works the way

it's supposed to or how does it work

confidence is the motivation to keep

going

that there is something there

and there are some things that you'll

hear and you don't know exactly what

they mean and the confidence to keep

going to try to figure out what that's

exactly about

energy

is

persistence it is applied effort

it is putting the right amount of

attention and effort into what you do

it does take energy to sit in a chair

doesn't it

takes energy to keep it six hours and

bringing your mind back

and this is uh this is the faculty of

energy

to keep going

then there's the faculty of mindfulness

which we talked about

mindfulness is the ability

to observe the movements of Mind

attention as it moves from thing to

thing

mindfulness Powers our meditation

when we're mindful we can do the

practice when we lose our mindfulness

then we learn from our hindrances

and collectiveness

collecting this uh this refers to Jonna

to unification of mind

we

it is helpful to collect the mind

make it sharper bring up its capacities

when we collect the mind with Jonah

which we talked a little bit about last

night

it is able to see things more and more

clearly our level of understanding

increases

so we practice meditation allow mine to

collect

and this allows us our wisdom

to develop as well

wisdom

is observation

and when you see wisdom in the sutas it

means observing dependent origination

observing the impersonal process of

dependent origination

so when you read the sutas and you hear

about someone's wisdom or attending

wisely

they're talking about attending in such

a way that they can see how things work

we develop wisdom

as our mind becomes settled as our

mindfulness is developed as we apply our

energy

it has our confidence

allows us to move forward

so the development of the faculties

thus have I heard

on one occasion the blessed one was

living in kanjagala in a Grove of mukala

trees

then the brahmana student uttara a pupil

of the brahmana parasaria went to the

blessed one in exchanged greetings with

him

when this courteous and amiable talk was

finished he sat down on one side

the blessed one then asked him uttara

does the Brahman parasarya teach his

disciples the development of the

faculties

he does Master Gautama

but ataria how does he teach his

disciples the development of the

faculties

here Master Gautama one does not see

forms with the eye one does not hear

sounds with the ear

this is how the brahmana parasarya

teaches his disciples the development of

the faculties

if that is so uttara then a blind man

and a deaf man will have developed

faculties according to what the brahmana

of Paris Arya says for a blind man does

not see forms with the eye and a deaf

man does not hear sounds with the ear

I think that's pretty harsh criticism of

that way of cultivation

what they're talking about here is a way

of meditating that shuts down the

faculties and the sun stores uh early on

in the process

and so mind is internally only present

and the process of the sense stores

cannot be seen

the Buddha did not praise that because

it is very difficult to develop wisdom

or understanding of how your son's

faculties work when they're shut down

when they're not happening

to say the least

when this was said the brahmana student

Atara Paris arya's pupil sat silent

dismayed with shoulders drooping and

head down glum and without response

when we're practicing twim we practice

in such a way that our sun stores can

operate

and we have the possibility of

distraction

we don't praise distraction or want

distraction but we want to have the

ability to know how things work

we develop a particular kind of

collectiveness that is open

spacious and allows movement so we can

see things happen

finer and finer grain Focus

when we can see them happen uh

better and better we can 6r relax and

allow our mind to get more and more calm

we start out letting go of thoughts and

images and movies

we can let go of words then we can let

go of tension

and we can let go even more

has mind gets deeper and deeper

then knowing this

the blessed one addressed the venerable

Ananda

Ananda the Brahman parasarya teaches his

disciples development of the faculties

in one way but in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties is otherwise

now the Supreme development of the

faculties is the complete development of

the faculties of one who is completely

awakened

we

we practice with faculties that are not

fully developed

but that's okay

this is how we approach them and this is

how they work

now is the time blessed one now is the

time Sublime one for the blessed one to

teach the development the Supreme

development of the faculties in the

Nobles ones discipline having heard it

from the blessed one the monks will

remember it

then listen Ananda and attend closely to

what I shall say

yes venerable sir he said

the blessed one said this

now Ananda how is there the Supreme

development of the faculties in the

noble ones discipline

here Ananda when a monk sees a form with

the eye there arises in him what is

agreeable there arises what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable

this is a pleasant State an unpleasant

State and a neutral state

in response to what was seen

he understands thus there has arisen in

me what is agreeable

there has arisen in me what is

disagreeable who has arisen in me what

was both agreeable and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen

this is peaceful this is Sublime that is

Equanimity is a way of observing what

happens without being involved

When You observe with equanimity

your mind is not repelled it's not

attracted it just happens

so you can observe things clearly

without getting involved

Equanimity does not mean indifference

and difference also is not

reacting to what's happening around

but indifference has delusion and

indifference has a closing down of

observation

Equanimity sees clearly

and when you view with that Equanimity

you see what happens

without being uh

pushed away or pulled

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and the disagreeable that

arose cease in him and Equanimity is

established

just as a man with good sight having

opened his eyes might shut them or

having shut his eyes might open them so

too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable

that arose and both the agreeable and

disagreeable that arose cease just as

quickly just as rapidly just as easily

in Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding forms cognizable

by the eye

so how do we practice this

well it's the six r's

when

a site arises

when a form cognizable by the eye leads

to a pleasant or unpleasant or neutral

feeling

and it pulls us in

we recognize that

we release that and let it be there as

it is with equanimity

we relax our head and body and smile

and we come back

to our object of meditation

that is how we develop the faculties

what is also interesting about this is

how quickly it happens

just as quickly as someone opening their

eyes this happens

this is important when we're working on

our meditation

when we're developing our insight and

how things work

we're not observing things and watching

them over and over for long periods of

time

we just see as they are

quickly

simply

what we see is what we see

we don't look deeper into it

and keep looking at it

then it becomes our object of meditation

when we do that when we look at it when

we take it as an object

a different progression of meditation

happens

again Ananda

when a monk hears a sound with the ear

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable that

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus there has arisen in

me what is agreeable their hair has

arisen in me what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen this is peaceful this

is Sublime that is equanimity

that is observation

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and the both

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him and Equanimity is

established

just as a strong man might easily snap

his fingers so too concerning anything

at all the agreeable that I Rose the

disagreeable that arose in both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease just as quickly just as rapidly

just as easily in Equanimity is

established

this is called the Noble in the noble

ones discipline the Supreme development

of the faculties regarding Sounds

cognizable by the ear

and you know to say it was written so

too concerning anything at all

this is anything that arises

when you're with your object of

meditation anything that is not your

object of meditation that pulls your

attention

You Can Let Go

some thoughts seem important

and some thoughts are

perhaps if the if we had a fire here

that would be an important thought that

you might break your meditation for

pretty much anything else

is not worth attending to

when you have a really important thought

um okay then make a mental note thank

you thought

I will please come up later see you

later

make a determination that that will

happen and then forget about it and then

move on

sometimes thoughts keep coming back and

coming back

now when a thought comes back and comes

back that is a sign there is attachment

in that thought

whatever it is

comes back and when you think about that

it's really not that efficient is it

that you would think the same thought

over and over again

that's not that useful you had the

thought you thought it through yeah and

now here it is again

that's even funny yeah

that's even funny

and that noticing it's funny noticing

it's silly

is very helpful for your practice

we have thoughts that seem so important

and so big

and so critical

and they come up again and again

proving that they're not that profound

actually at all

and when we can laugh at them when we

can laugh at ourselves for having them

these thoughts

can be seen for what they are

it's not the emergency they're

presenting themselves to be

when you can smile at yourself when you

can laugh with yourself

um

you can let go of almost anything

Letting Go doesn't mean you ignore it

yeah doesn't mean you pretend it's not

there

doesn't mean you don't act on it when

it's appropriate

but

it's a

doesn't have to be taken as the

emergency that it is particularly when

you're meditating yeah

yeah some thoughts come up and they have

insight and they have information

and it comes up once and it's like oh

that's how that works

that's okay that's gonna happen don't

don't six are those thoughts uh why

would you

those thoughts come up one time and go

away and you know what they say and

unless you start thinking about it

um

they will go away the Insight can be

like that

Insight is simple clear uh and

undeniable

When You observe what's happening it's

simple and clear and as it is

as simply as you see a chair before you

or whatever it is

so when you have insight into your

experience it's like that

looking deeper than that

well you start going into the realm of

Concepts sometimes

you start not seeing things is that they

are exactly

you start pulling away

from what is present as it is

again Ananda when a monk smells an order

with the nose there arises in him what

is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable he understands thus

there has a risen enemy what's agreeable

there has arisen what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is condition growth dependently

arisen

this is peaceful this is Sublime that is

equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him in Equanimity is

established

just as raindrops on a slightly sloping

Lotus Leaf roll off and do not remain

there

so too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable of

the Rose and both the agreeable and

disagreeable that arose cease just as

quickly

just as rapidly just as easily and the

Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones just to

put in the Supreme development of the

faculties regarding odors cognizable by

the nose

you may have noticed these paragraphs

are repeating

and there's different uh

there's different analogies but it's the

same words over and over

and this is on purpose

the sutas were an oral tradition for at

least three or four hundred years after

the Buddha's death they were not written

down

they were remembered by monks and

monasteries who would memorize them

the repetition

allows for memorization

and the repetition is also a training

tool

when you hear repetition I would

encourage you to listen to it as

carefully as you can as attentively as

you can

sometimes when you hear the same things

over and over again you hear something

new

it comes out in a new way

you can hear it in a different way when

you attend to it

and it's like that with this

there are some places in the in the text

where they take out the repetition

um and so when eventually you read the

sutas notice that I think it is valuable

when you read them to yourself when you

memorize them

if you memorize them by the way that is

a wonderful practice

eventually after Retreat picking a suta

and memorizing it

when you memorize the suta it never

leaves you

and you keep understanding it more and

more as it as it's as you think about it

whenever you want and it comes to you

there are several that are really useful

to memorize and if you want to talk

about that later let's do that

but with the repetition

um

it's it's a tool for training

as you heard over and over again you

will remember it better

and as you remember it better okay we'll

remember it in your practice better

and sometimes these things come to you

right when uh right when they're needed

again Ananda when a monk tastes a flavor

with the tongue there arises in him what

is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable

there arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus

there has arisen in me what is agreeable

there has a risen what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen

this is peaceful this is Sublime

that is equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him in Equanimity is

established

just as a strong man might easily spit

out about a ball of spittle collected on

the tip of his tongue so too concerning

anything at all the agreeable that arose

the disagreeable that arose in both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

ceased just as quickly just as rapidly

just as nobly and Equanimity is

established

this is called in the noble one's

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding flavors

cognizable by the Tongue

just as easily and just as effortlessly

this is an effortless process and

faculties that are well developed

6rs is an effortless process

basically

you recognize

you release

you relax

you smile you come back

there is no trying or pushing

you may adjust your interests you may

adjust your energy you may back off with

your observation

a little bit here and there

But ultimately things pass without

effort

they persist without effort they're

observed without effort

they just happen

again Ananda when among touches a

tangible with the body there arises in

him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus

there hasn't risen enemy what is

agreeable there's a risen what is

disagreeable

there has risen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned gross

dependently arisen this is peaceful this

is Sublime that is equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose and both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

cease in him and Equanimity is

established

just as a strong man might extend his

flexed arm or Flex his ascendant arm so

too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable

that arose and both the agreeable and

disagreeable that our Rose cease just as

quickly just as rapidly just as easily

and Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding tangible's

cognizable by the body

again Ananda when a monk cognizes a mind

object with the mind there arises in him

what is agreeable

Theory arises what is disagreeable

there arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

he understands thus

there has a risen in what is agreeable

there has arisen what is disagreeable

there has arisen what is both agreeable

and disagreeable

but that is conditioned growth

dependently Arisen this is peaceful

this is Sublime that is equanimity

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose in both the

agreeable and disagreeable that are rose

and both that arose ceasing him and the

Equanimity is established

just as a man were to let two or three

drops of water fall into an iron plate

heated for a whole day

the falling of the drops might be slow

but they would quickly vaporize and

vanish

so too concerning anything at all the

agreeable that arose the disagreeable

that arose and both the agreeable and

the disagreeable that arose cease just

as quickly just as rapidly just as

easily in Equanimity is established

this is called in the noble ones

discipline the Supreme development of

the faculties regarding ideas cognizable

by the mind

this is how there is the Supreme

development of the faculties in the

noble ones discipline

foreign

onda is one a disciple in higher

training who has entered upon the way

a disciple in higher training is a

person who has entered one of the stages

of Awakening

when they have entered one of the stages

of Awakening they have experienced

nabana

at least to some degree

when the nabana is the unconditioned

not a conditioned experience

this context of having that reference

point of the unconditioned

changes one's relation to the faculties

and to what arises

and here

uh the Buddha is talking about how the

faculties can be developed in this way

when a monk sees a form with the eye

there arrives there arises in him what

is agreeable there arises what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable

he is repelled humiliated and disgusted

by the agreeable that arose

by the disagreeable that arose and by

both by the both agreeable and

disagreeable that arose

that is strong language

it can seem aversive

that um

that we are supposed to be disgusted by

our experience

and this is not what it is saying

this is talking about the process of

developing disenchantment

with the sense faculties

the process of disenchantment

is when something arises and pulls your

attention

100 times a thousand times many many

times and you let go over and over again

eventually

your mind gets tired of it

it gets tired of it on a deep and

profound level

you cannot

consciously induce disenchantment it

happens on a deep level when

disenchantment happens

you start seeing that there's nothing to

be clung to in whatever arises

with just disenchantment dispassion

arises

and you truly uh become detached

someone who has understood this process

when they are training their faculties

and something arises

using words like humiliated and repelled

and so on are more appropriate

until until that is your experience and

you understand the context of that

it's not important to decide your

experience is humiliating or disgusting

and in fact I do not suggest you do that

at all and that's not what we're talking

about here we're talking about how to

train the mind

so it automatically automatically

applies 6rs and automatically responds

to distraction in the way we're talking

about here

so that's how to understand that

the eye itself is not humiliating

when among here's a sound with the ear

there arises in him what is what is

agreeable there arises what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable he is

repelled humiliated and disgusted by the

agreeable that arose by the disagreeable

that arose and by both the agreeable and

disagreeable that arose

when a monk

spells an odor with the nose

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable he has repelled humiliated

and disgusted by the agreeable that

arose by the disagreeable that arose and

by the both agreeable and disagreeable

that arose

when a monk tastes the flavor with the

tongue

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable there

arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable he is repelled humiliated

and disgusted

by the agreeable that it arose by the

disagreeable that arose and by both

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

when a monk

touches a tangible with the body there

arises in him what is agreeable there

arises what is disagreeable there arises

what is both agreeable and disagreeable

his repelled humiliated and disgusted by

the agreeable that arose by the

disagreeable that arose and by both the

agreeable and disagreeable that arose

when a monk cognizes a mind object with

the mind there arises in him what is

agreeable the rise is what is

disagreeable there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable

he has repelled humiliated and disgusted

by the agreeable that arose by the

disagreeable that arose and by both

agree and by the both agreeable and

disagreeable that arose

this is how one is a disciple in higher

training

one who has entered upon the way

and how Ananda is one a normal one with

developed faculties

here when a monk sees a form with the

eyes

their arises was a disagreeable there

arises what is agreeable there arises

what is disagreeable

if he should wish may I abide perceiving

the unrepulsive and the irrepulsive he

abides perceiving the unrepulsive and

the repulsive

if he should wish may abide receiving

the repulsive and the unrepulsive he

abides perceiving the repulsive in the

unrepulsive

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the unrepulsive in the repulsive and the

repulsive he abides perceiving the

unrepulsive in that

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the repulsive and new and repulsive

he abides perceiving the repulsive in

that

if he should wish

may I

avoiding both the repulsive and the

repulsive abide in Equanimity mindfully

and fully aware he abides in acronymity

towards that mindfully fully aware

this is how this is how one is a noble

one with developed faculties

what this is talking about here is

different modes of perception of what

arises

when one has fully developed faculties

one can perceive

uh agreeable as uh agreeable in the

unagreeable

that is one can pervade that with

loving-kindness

or One automatically can see that as its

component parts

and when that happens the unagreeable is

is agreeable

we can do that

pervading uh

with loving kindness

the training we really do here with the

six hours is the last one

may I avoiding both repulsive and the

real and repulsive abide in Equanimity

Mindful and fully aware

when we do the six hours we abide

mindful fully aware

and we avoid getting engaged with the

agreeable or the disagreeable

like that

so this paragraph is describing the

faculties of an arahat one has fully

developed what they can do effortlessly

and is also describing uh courses of

training

the people in training engage in

pervading loving kindness

uh

practicing the 6rs

there's a couple of other practices here

that are implied

like observing impermanence

or working with repulsiveness of the

body these are other practices that we

may talk about later

these are full development of these

practices that can be automatically done

when mind is fully developed

for our purposes we're talking about

abiding with Equanimity mindfully and

fully aware

and we're not projecting

uh

uh Pleasant things on unpleasant things

or deciding unpleasant things are

Pleasant

it's a slightly different different

thing

when a monk sees a form uh sees a sound

with an ear

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arise is what is disagreeable

there arise is what is both agreeable

and disagreeable if he should wish may

abide perceiving the unrepulsive and the

repulsive by abide with love and

kindness he abides perceiving the

unrepulsive in the in the repulsive

if he should wish may abide preceding

the repulsive and the unrepulsive he

abides perceiving the repulsive and

unrepulsive

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the unrepulsive and the repulsive and

the unrepulsive

he abides perceiving the unrepulsive in

that

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the repulsive in the unrepulsive and the

repulsive he abides perceiving the

repulsive in that

if he should wish

may I avoiding both the repulsive and

the unrepulsive abiding Equanimity

Mindful and fully aware he abides an

Equanimity towards that Mindful and

fully aware

that is how one is a noble one with

developed faculties

here inanda when among sees

taste the flavor with the tongue

touches the tangible with the body or

cognizes a mind object with the mind

I skipped over a few there

arises in him what is agreeable there

arises what is disagreeable there arises

what is both agreeable and disagreeable

if he should wish may abide perceiving

the unrepulsive in the repulsive he

abides perceiving the unrepulsive and

the repulsive

if he should wish mayor by preceding the

repulsive and the unrepulsive he abides

perceiving the repulsive and

non-repulsive

if he should wish by perceiving the

unrepulsive and the repulsive and the

unrepulsive he abides for perceiving and

repulsive than that

if he should wish mayor by perceiving

the repulsive and the unrepulsive and

the repulsive hubby is preceding the

repulsive in that

if he should wish may I avoiding both

the repulsive and the unrepulsive abide

and Equanimity mindfully and fully aware

he buys an Equanimity towards that

Mindful and fully aware

that is how a one is a noble one with

developed faculties

so Ananda the Supreme development of the

faculties and the noble ones discipline

has been taught by me

the disciple in higher training who has

entered upon the way has been taught by

me and the noble one with developed

faculties has been taught by me

what should be done for his disciples

out of compassion by a teacher who seeks

their welfare and has compassion for

them that I have done for you Ananda

there are these roots of trees these

empties Huts meditate Ananda do not

delay or else you will regret it later

this is our instruction to you

that is what the blessed one said the

mineral Apple Ananda was satisfied and

delighted and the Blessed one's words

okay let's share some Aaron

Faith suffering ones be suffering free

and the fear struck Fearless being May

The Grieving shed all grief and male

beings find relief

male being share this Merit that we have

thus acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

May beings inhabiting space and Earth

Davis and nagas and mighty power shared

this Merit of ours

may they long protect the Buddha's

dispensation

[Music]