From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=262tLS6LZVk

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

[Music]

so

[Music]

okay so today

i thought we'd go and explore a little

bit more

about the four noble truths

and uh

this is from actually nikaya

and there's a section in here which is

section five on the four noble truths

and it's

one of the best better elaborations on

each of the four noble truths

again monks among abides contemplating

mind objects as mind objects

in respect of the four noble truths

how does he do so

here a monk knows as it really is

this is suffering

he knows as it really is this is the

origin of suffering

he knows as it really is this is the

cessation of suffering

he knows as it really is

this is the way of practice

leading to the cessation of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of

suffering

birth is suffering aging is suffering

death is suffering

sorrow lamentation pain sadness and

distress

are suffering

being attached to the unloved is

suffering

being separated from the loved is

suffering

not getting what one wants is suffering

in short

the five aggregates affected by craving

and clinging are suffering

and what monks is birth

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is birth

coming to be

coming forth

the appearance of the aggregates

the acquisition of the sense bases

that monks is called birth

so we talked about birth here from the

macro level the birth of

the acquisition of the aggregates what

happens when a being is born

in a physical realm

but there's also as we talked about the

birth of action

the birth of action is affected by

habitual tendencies affected or

conditioned by let's say

conditioned by the habitual tendencies

that

incline the mind towards a specific kind

of action

and that action is liable to cause

suffering because

that action is rooted in craving is

rooted in

holding onto things and is rooted in

this is my way or not you know it has to

be my way or it cannot be

so this

sense of i am the sense of this is me

this is mine this is myself

leads towards a birth of action birth of

personalized action which leads to

suffering

and then we talk about the acquisition

of the aggregates we also talked about

the acquisition of the sense bases

there's birth death birth death birth

death

in every moment

the arising and passing away of eye

consciousness your consciousness nose

consciousness tongue consciousness body

consciousness

and mind consciousness

what that means is your

physical sense bases

are changing in every moment as well

it's not just the experiences it's not

just consciousness dependent upon the

eye

and the other sense bases

it's not just feeling dependent upon the

other sense bases

your sense bases themselves are changing

in every moment

that means your entire nama rupa your

mentality materiality is changing in

every moment that is the process of

aging which we'll look at but that means

that there is a birth

a renewal of being for each of the sense

bases

in every moment

so how could you say this is my eye

which eye are you talking about is it

the eye right now or the eye that was

there just a split second ago or the eye

that's going to come to be a split

second now

same with any of the sixth sense bases

if those are seen as being conditioned

and those are seen as being impermanent

in every moment

why would anyone take them

as personal why would anyone take them

as

me mine or myself

if you truly see this if you truly

experience this

then nothing is worth holding on to

nothing is worth clinging to

it's all just

creating suffering by holding on to it

but if you see things as it really is as

they really are

then there's no grasping then there's no

clinging

and hence no suffering

this insight cannot happen through just

reflection this insight has to arise

from true knowledge and vision

from true experience of seeing the

impermanence

of all conditioned things namely the

sixth sense spaces

and the five aggregates

and what is aging

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is aging

decreptitude decrepitude

broken teeth

gray hair

wrinkle skin shrinking with age

decay of the sense faculties

that monks is called aging

we're all aging

it's inevitable

some are aging one way and some are

aging another way some are experiencing

uh you know

baldness some are experiencing wrinkled

skin some are experiencing

uh you know the brokenness of teeth some

have to go to the dentist some have to

go to this doctor some have to go to

that specialist

this all results because of the decline

of

the faculties

some people experience the decline of

mental faculties

that happens as a result of aging

as of and that aging can be sped up or

it can slow down but it will always

be there

you can't prevent aging you can slow

aging if you wanted to

with the right diet and so on and so

forth but that doesn't stop it

so aging is a fact of life as much as

birth is a fact of life and as much as

death is a fact of life now even if

somewhere off into the future we were

able to understand

how to

uh lengthen our telomeres

which

enable us to age depending upon the

length of the telomeres even if we were

able to do that

it would still be aging

in the form of mind

in the form of the decline of faculties

how one perceives things

there is still that aging in the mind

aging is

not only

physical or mental but you see aging in

the form of

decline

in the world

this world will one day

no longer exist

in the grand scheme of existence in the

grand scheme of the universe

one day the sun

will become larger and larger and larger

and consume this earth

eventually that sun

that used to give us that gives us life

now

will actually give this planet death

and then that sun will turn into a black

hole

galaxies will age they will decline

nothing in this universe

is permanent everything is in a state of

flux towards decline

even if scientists say well

there's the proton you know there's

something called proton decay it might

happen over

quintillions of years

right but it's still decaying

so decaying decline aging this is just

the nature of existence

now you can read all about it you can

listen to dhamma talks about it

you can

contemplate it and all of these things

but unless you see it as it actually is

through your own experience

we really get deep down into

understanding that everything that

arises passes away and that process of

passing away

from birth to death is aging is decline

and you totally understand it and accept

it

then you'll you will be at peace

because you won't hold on to anything

you won't cling to anything you won't

grasp at anything

and because of that you don't

personalize anything you don't see

anything as me mine or myself

and so you won't crave for anything

you won't cling to anything you won't

become anything

and therefore you won't experience

further suffering

and what is death

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is a passing away

a removal a cutting off

a disappearance a death a dying an

ending a cutting off of the aggregates

a discarding of the body

that monks is called death

death is the end of one life there's

always

the birth and death that we experience

in one life

so on the macro level death is the end

of one continuous seemingly continuous

life

but on the micro level on the

moment-to-moment level we see this we

understand this when we see infinite

consciousness

contact arises passes away consciousness

arises passes away feeling arises passes

away perception arises passes away

body arises passes away in every moment

so

when we talk about death at the macro

level what we're talking about is the

ending of that life

now within the experience

of that life

and what we see as the legal or medical

definition of death we see it as

the

stopping of the heart stopping of the

respiration and

the the ending of brain activity

but there's a process of unfurling

unfolding after that happens

and what that means is

within the context of one death to the

next birth on a macro level

there's a process of decline of the

sense basis

so when the body is seemingly dead

certain elements diminish

first

the air element diminishes

then the fire element diminishes

then the water element diminishes and

then finally the earth element

diminishes

in terms of the sixth sense spaces

the first sense to go away is the sense

of smell

then the sense of taste

then the sense of sight then the sense

of touch

and then finally the sense of hearing

and then beyond that the sense of the

mind

so the

mental experiences are still going on

because there's still mental

consciousness going on

and whatever is arising in the form of

mental images

if that is clung to

that will activate through the feel of

craving a new formation that then gives

rise to a new consciousness that results

in a new namarupa in a new mentality

materiality that then descends into that

new mentality materiality

so this process of death

it can be either when life is cut off on

in the medical definition or if you go

beyond that and the decline of the

elements and the diminishing of the

elements

and the cutting off of the sense basis

in either case that's it that's the end

and when that's the end

it doesn't mean it's the end because

when there's craving there it can give

rise

to further birth it can give rise to

renewal of being

and hence

that death is just if

there's craving in there that that just

leads on to more suffering

because now you come back into this

realm or you come back into another

realm and you experience the same things

you experience again

the pain and the pleasure depending upon

where you are in which realm and so on

and you

and you experience the impermanence

the impermanence of the nature of

samsara

and so samsara itself is inherently

impermanent and therefore inherently

dukkha and therefore inherently

impersonal

now a person who sees this a worldling

who sees this

will be quite intimidated by it because

they say well if everything is

impermanent and if everything is dukkka

and if everything is there for not

myself then what's the point of living

this happened in some cases where the

buddha was talking about impermanence

talking about the impersonal nature of

things and that led to some people

misinterpreting that and then killing

themselves because they thought that

meant

annihilationism but that's not what

we're talking about here what we're

saying is

there is suffering in existence

but

there is also a way out of that

suffering in existence

there is pleasant feeling and yes that

pleasant feeling is inherently suffering

because it's impermanent

but there's categories of pleasant

feeling

there's the base pleasant feeling of the

sense basis

of the

sensual experiences

but then beyond that there is the mental

pleasure born from seclusion

or seclusion from the unwholesome states

and seclusion from the sense experiences

and that mental pleasure is jhana

and beyond that there is the cessation

of perception feeling and consciousness

and beyond that there is nibana

it's the bliss of no feeling

and so that experience allows you to see

everything as impermanent but this time

you don't see it from a sense of self

now you realize everything is impersonal

now you realize oh it is impermanent and

there is nothing worth holding on to

because if i do hold on to something if

the mind grasps at something it's going

to cause renewal of being and that

renewal of being can come in the form of

feeling the same emotions experiencing

the same kinds of

situations with people

having interactions with the same kind

of people attracting the same kind of

relationships and so on that might be

detrimental or that might be okay but

eventually will end

and the fact that they end

is also suffering

so

once you see the impermanent nature from

that angle from that perspective

rooted in wisdom rooted in the wisdom of

the impersonal nature of all things

then you don't take it so seriously you

don't go towards annihilationism

you don't go towards eternalism

there is the middle road the middle path

which is the understanding of how

self the sense of self arises through

the process of dependent origination and

how suffering

ceases

through the cessation of the links of

dependent origination

using the eightfold path using the tools

that the buddha has given us

and we'll see that soon

and what is sorrow

whenever by any kind of misfortune

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

sorrow morning

this morning distress inward grief

inward woe that monks is called sorrow

so sorrow is whenever you are met with

some kind of unpleasant feeling there's

that tinge of

sadness the tinge of sorrow the tinge of

i don't like this

that little tinge of oh i missed my

flight

you know that tinge of

oh

i didn't get that last piece of cake

that was there

you know

or even greater sorrow oh

this person died

i couldn't say

what i wanted to say to them

or a painful feeling arises

you know a wasp stings you and you feel

that and that's sorrowful it's like

oh that slight

tinge

that you feel internally that sorrow

and what is lamentation

whenever by any kind of misfortune or

unpleasant feeling

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

and there is crying out

lamenting making much noise for grief

making great lamentation

that monks is called lamentation

so sorrow and lamentation and the rest

that follow it are that second dart

the first start is the pain that you

experience

the physical pain

and then the crying out

with the sense of this has affected me

that's the lamentation the crying out

ouch that hurts

right but it's it's not just the words

it's the

it's the tinge of feeling the tinge of

experience behind those words

because even a person without the second

dart might say ouch

but then they don't

see that as this is my pain they just

know oh

there was an unpleasant feeling there

there was a painful feeling there

and that's it

and what is pain

whatever bodily painful feeling bodily

unpleasant feeling

painful or unpleasant feeling results

from bodily contact

that monks is called pain

and so that pain can also come in the

form of disease

in the form of sickness in the form of

illness

in the form of pain you stub your toe

that's pain

you get up in the morning and you

stretch and then you pull a muscle

that's pain

you

go out somewhere and you catch a cold

and you come back and you experience

cold and fever

that's bodily pain

now those are all impersonal causes and

conditions yeah you stubbed your toe but

you didn't cause you didn't mean to stub

your toe it just happened

and it was because your toe made contact

with the rock or made contact with the

corner of the bed

and so that was painful

you went out and you caught a cold well

you were in an area where there was some

uh you know

rhinovirus going around and you caught

it

and so now that's the cold that's the

bodily pain

how do you deal with it do you say oh

woe is me

you know and i hate this this sucks

right do you say that or do you say

okay here is the cold

here is the illness now how do i deal

with it

you have to see that dealing with it is

dependent upon whether you see it as

myself

or me or mine or you see it as

here's a painful feeling

how do i let go of this painful feeling

first and foremost how do i let go of

the craving or aversion towards that

painful feeling and then is there a way

to fix this painful feeling

if i break my toe i can go to the doctor

and get it fixed if i catch a cold

i can take some rest

get some extra sleep get some extra

vitamins

and allow the body to do its processes

and whatever it might be

or i can

you know

moan about it and groan about it and

feel all this sorrow and lamentation

about it but what's that going to do

this is going to cause me more suffering

it's just going to cause me

to go in this cycle of continual

suffering

but if you stop that cycle and see it as

okay this is a problem to be solved

in a rational manner in an impersonal

manner

then

the mind goes from all of this

sense of habitual tendencies of

you know blaming that painful feeling or

blaming oneself for that painful feeling

to then wisdom and compassion and saying

how do i let go of this painful feeling

and how do i alleviate this painful

feeling

and so you're more oriented towards

solving the problem

rather than adding to the problem with

your

making it personal or taking it personal

and what is sadness whatever mental

painful feeling mental unpleasant

feeling painful or unpleasant sensations

result from mental contact that monks is

called sadness so when he talks about

pain he's talking about physical pain

bodily pain

pain through the five chords of

stimulation

the eye the ear the nose the tongue

and the body but when he talks about

sadness he's talking about mental pain

through the mind

when you have an experience where you're

thinking back about something the

memory of a loved one who's gone

right there's sadness there

when you think about the good days the

good old days that have gone by there's

nostalgia there but it's tinged with

sadness and bitter sweetness

so or when you think about something

that you didn't get

and so you're thinking about that and

now that causes you pain

mental pain

that's sadness

and what is distress

whenever by any kind of misfortune

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

distress

great distress affliction with distress

with great distress that monks

is called distress

so sometimes this could also be

understood as

anxiety right something happens

that you don't want

something happens that was unexpected

and you can deal with it through sadness

by beating yourself up

or you can deal with it by having

anxiety like what do we do now you know

that distress that restlessness that

restlessness that arises how do we how

do we deal with the situation what can

we do that feeling of

helplessness

because you see this as something that's

me mine or myself

as soon as you take away that thorn of

personalizing things

you create a distance a space

between

the mind

and the problem

and now that problem is no longer my

problem my problem is

it's just a problem to be solved

it's a situation to be solved it's not

my situation

it's just

here it is how do we deal with it

and what monks is being attached to the

unloved

here whoever has unwanted

disliked unpleasant sight objects

smells

tastes

tangibles or mind objects or whoever

encounters ill-wishers wishers of harm

of discomfort of insecurity with whom

they have concourse intercourse

connection

union that monks is called being

attached to the unloved so being

attached to the unloved which basically

means

having aversion

towards a painful experience through the

sixth sense basis

dealing with criticism

dealing with people saying no to you

dealing with what you perceive as people

being angry at you what you perceive as

people being

intentionally harmful to you

maybe they are actually being harmful to

you or

is it that your mind is projecting onto

these situations and people a certain

idea of what they are

or what they're doing

and so you have to look at that are you

making the situation

are you taking the situation personally

and whatever arises that is unpleasant

in the way of the sixth sense spaces

do you see that as something affecting a

sense of you or do you see it as just

impersonal vibrations and molecules

there's you know

uh the pleasant unpleasant sound

of the lawnmower

right it hasn't been there for the last

two days

but

let's say there's the

the unpleasant sound of the lawnmower do

you take that as oh

don't they know i'm meditating why are

you doing this right now or do you see

it as just vibrations in the air

what's the difference between that and

the vibrations of the air coming from

the song of birds

or from some beautiful music

just different vibrations different

sound waves

or when you smell something sweet

what's the difference between that and

something that you smell that's garbage

just different odor molecules

when you taste something that's bitter

and you taste something that's sweet

what's the difference just different

molecules

these are all just impersonal

data packets that arise

and your sense bases are

receivers

that just receive this information and

it's just impersonal sensory data and if

you take it personally

then you're going to cause yourself

suffering

and what is being separated from the

loved here whoever has what is wanted

liked pleasant sight objects sounds

smells tastes tangibles or mind objects

or whoever whoever

encounters well-wishers wishers of good

of comfort of security mother or father

or brother or sister or younger kinsmen

or friends or colleagues or blood

relations and when and then is deprived

of such concourse intercourse connection

or union that monks is called being

separated from the loved

so it's a really cold day outside and

you go back you know you go to the

shower and it's really nice and warm you

take a nice

long hot shower

and then suddenly the hot water goes

away and now suddenly there's just ice

cold water coming on to you

that is the

separation from the loved right

[Laughter]

or you know

you may you made a friend after a long

time and you have some great time and

you know you have a great connection and

everything and they have to go there's

that slight tinge of sadness from

separating from them

or you go back to

your family for the holidays

maybe it might be unpleasant first

you know as you discuss with them

politics or this or that or whatever it

might be but there's a sense of

connection there there's a sense of this

is my relative this is my family member

and then

you make a connection and it's warm and

heartfelt

and then the holidays are over and then

you have to leave there's that slight

tinge of oh

i'm leaving home now

right the separation

from what is loved

and that's because you take all of that

personally

that hot water that comes in that's

affecting me it feels good to me

it goes away oh no it's gone

that friend that i met

they make me feel good i feel good being

with them they go away that slight tinge

of separation

it's because you take that personally

when you're separated from family

members when you're separated from you

have to go

back wherever you're going now that the

holidays are over that slight sense of

separation that tinge

that is dukkha

and what is not getting what one wants

in being subject to birth monks this was

this wish arises

oh that we were not subject to birth

that we might not come to birth

you've come to birth can you wish that

you were never born

you've already been born

but this cannot be gained by wishing

this is not getting what one wants in

subjects in being subject to aging to

disease to death

to sorrow lamentation pain sadness and

distress

this wish arises

oh that we were not subject to aging

to disease to death to sorrow

lamentation pain sadness and distress

that we might not come to these things

but this cannot be gained by wishing

this is not getting what one wants

having expectations of something and

then being met with the reality of the

situation

where you don't want that to happen

the moment you start fighting with the

present moment you cause yourself

suffering

that fighting with the present moment is

craving and aversion and identification

the moment that happens

there's this tinge of craving that

tightness and tension that arises

in mind and body

and then there's that wish i wish things

were different

i wish i never met that person before i

wish i hadn't said that

and so on and so forth all of these are

form of dukkah

and how monks in short

are the five aggregates affected by

craving and clinging suffering

they are as follows

the aggregate of form affected by

craving and clinging the aggregate of

feeling affected by craving and clinging

the aggregate of perception affected by

craving and clinging the aggregate of

mental formations affected by craving

and clinging

the aggregate of consciousness affected

by craving and clinging

these are in short the five aggregates

of grasping

are the five aggregates affected by

craving and clinging that are suffering

so

the five aggregates affected by craving

and clinging

the form the feeling the perception the

formations and the consciousness

the form affected by craving and

clinging is the form taken personally

this is my body this is my hand this is

my arm these are my legs

this is my face

these are my sixth sense bases

taking that personally and if anything

is affected in the sense that this does

not

feel good to the body this does not feel

pleasant to the body if there is craving

there there will be

suffering there will be dukkha

with feeling

you cannot change the feeling

feeling here is related to pleasant

feeling unpleasant feeling

neutral feeling when a pleasant feeling

goes away there is duka there because

it's gone it's changed

when an unpleasant feeling arises

there is duka there because it has

arisen

when a neutral feeling arises

because of ignorance one takes it

personally and grabs on to it holds on

to it but when it fades away

it's seen as dukkha

and so there can be ignorance there

there can be craving there there can be

attachment to views there

there can be clinging to being there and

so on from feeling

so whatever you're experiencing right

now is all feeling through the sixth

sense basis

but if there is craving there if there's

clinging there it's going to cause you

luka

perception

perception is rooted in memory

maybe you associate a certain kind of

smell

with grief

maybe you associate a certain kind of

taste with some kind of pleasure

and so the perception of what that taste

is can also bring up if that perception

is taken as me mine or myself

is can be can bring up this feeling of

grief this experience of grief this

experience of pleasure

so perception being rooted in memory it

arises and passes away

and if what is impermanent is held onto

is taken as self

that will cause you dukkha because when

it goes away if it's a pleasant

perception

now it's gone

if it's an unpleasant perception that

arose

you cling onto it you feel

pain because of that you feel grief

because of that you feel sorrow and

lamentation or experience sorrow and

lamentation because of it

so perceptions can change

right the perception of pain what was

painful once

can somehow be pleasurable the

perception of what was pleasurable once

can be painful depending upon clinging

and association

there was one individual who was

meditating and they had a

terrible bodily pain

they had to be on a shoulder sling and

all of that you know

and uh

when they experienced this pain it was

difficult for them to meditate

but as soon as they realized that it was

not the pain that was the problem it was

how they took the pain

how they personalized the perception of

the pain they six are that

they accepted that there was that pain

and then the funny thing about that is

when they had a cessation experience

the pain turned to pleasure

suddenly they said those waves of pain

turn to waves of joy they're

experiencing so perception is so fickle

it changes depending upon situations so

if you take that

as

me mine or myself you have clinging and

craving to it

it's going to let you down one way or

the other

and then formations we talk about mental

formations mental formations

give rise to feeling and perception

verbal formations give rise to speech

and bodily formations give rise to

bodily actions those formations continue

to change

and are influenced and conditioned by

previous choices you've made

so your intentions the chaitanya the

intention the inclination towards

something

can influence the next set of formations

that arise

and so your choices

are also fickle because they're

dependent upon the situation

contact gives rise

to formations contact gives rise to

intention contact gives rise to feeling

contact gives rise to perception contact

gives rise to intention

right it gives rise to karma

so whatever you see in

the way in the form of your sixth sense

basis or through your sixth sense basis

that can give rise to a particular kind

of intention that inclines in some way

and dependent upon that inclination

certain formations will arise

and so if those formations those choices

are taken as personal

then you might say i made this choice

i cling to this choice

and i can't let go of this choice

then later on that same choice

causes you harm

you have regret for that choice

you have aversion for that choice

but that choice was conditioned by

impersonal formations which were in turn

conditioned by previous choices

so they are always changing arising and

passing away and changing depending upon

the inclinations of the mind

so the moment you start taking that as

personal as me mine or myself

and then identify with those choices and

the effects of those choices that's

liable to cause dukkha

and finally consciousness affected by

craving and clinging we talked about the

arising of consciousness dependent upon

formations

when formations arise and if they are

rooted in craving

rooted in greed hatred or delusion

there's a certain kind of consciousness

that arises if you crave or cling to

that consciousness as me mine or myself

you're going to further create

more craving more clinging more becoming

more birth of reactions and therefore

more suffering but if you see this oh

here is a consciousness that arose that

makes the mind see

and perceive the world in a certain way

and if you have the mindfulness

and if you have the right attention to

see it as impersonal you can let go of

it before it it turns into craving

before it turns it into clinging and

becoming

and then you let go of suffering in that

way so the non-identification

with the five aggregates

leads to the cessation of suffering

the non-identification

is the cessation of the craving and

clinging and identifying

with the five aggregates

and that monks is called the noble truth

of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of the

origin of suffering

it is that craving which gives rise to

rebirth

bound up with pleasure and lust or

aversion

that is to say craving or aversion

finding fresh delight now

now here now there

that is to say

sensual craving

craving for existence and craving for

non-existence

so sensual craving that's the tightness

and tension that arises when you see

something that you like and say i want

that

that grasping onto it and saying i

really like that and i want that

can give rise to personalizing it making

it personal

can give rise to clinging and saying

this is me this is mine this is myself

and can give rise to a sense of self in

habitual tendencies

causing you to react in a way which says

i want more of that and in doing so

causing yourself suffering because what

if there is no more of that or what if

it ends that sensual experience and on

the flip side of that if that sensual

experience is unpleasant

and you see it as growing

and you identify with it and say i don't

want that and you resist to it and

there's that tight that tightness and

tension

because you're hearing that lawn mower

and you're saying i don't want this

sound to be there right now there's

nothing you can do about it

in that moment but what you can do

is recognize

that a version recognize that tightness

intention release your attention from it

relax it let it go and experience relief

in that moment

experience wisdom in seeing that your

mind was affected by craving and is now

no longer affected by craving because

you were applying

you know the six hours applying right

effort

so that's the sensual pleasures the

craving or aversion for sensual

pleasures what about the craving for

existence

there's the chanda which says i incline

my mind towards the wholesome and

therefore i observe and allow the mind

to go into jhana by having an object of

meditation

so there's a wholesome inclination to be

with the object of meditation

but once you're there now there's this

whole desire to stay there

and now it's like if i don't stay here

it's going to be a problem

that kind of craving for existence if

that craving is there that expectation

that my mind will stay there no matter

what arises and then the tension goes

away

the mind beats itself up for having

become non-attentive

and now you're dealing with that

hindrance by not allowing the hindrance

to be there but now you're fighting with

it

you're fighting with the present moment

again you use the six stars to recognize

that and let it go

and then come back to your object to

meditation but if you have this craving

to be with the object of meditation and

you

just

see the distraction push it away and

then come back to the loving kindness

come back to whatever it is that

hindrance is going to grow further and

further and further and it's going to

eat away at the object of meditation and

you're going to have lots of

restlessness

doubt or slot intorper or whatever it

might be

so

the craving for existence is this idea

that i will sit here

until i get nibana

there's craving in that

but if you just say all right let's just

see what happens

you're inclining the mind with wholesome

intention

inclining the mind with chanda towards

seeing what happens and relaxing and

just allowing the mind to be there now

the mind might want to get up right and

after three hours the mind says

all right that's enough of that it

starts to lose energy or it starts to

see like okay maybe i can do something

else why does it do that

because the mind is bored

mind is seeking

some kind of stimulation

and then what does what happens there

amara comes

and brings slot and torpor

omar comes and

attacks you with all of these different

restless thoughts

because the mind is trying to create for

itself some kind of activity that it can

just seek

and so that craving for existence

that i need something here so that i can

occupy my mind

if you

see it and recognize it and say i see

you tomorrow

and then release it and relax and come

back

just soften the mind

soften the restlessness soften

the need to do something

and just observe in six hour whenever

distractions arise

that is

right collectedness

so this desire for existence is craving

for existence comes from that the

craving that i have to become the best

meditator in this retreat

the craving for i have to get my

determinations right

i have to become a stream enter

you know i have to become an onigami all

of these kinds of ideas that's not going

to lead you anywhere but if you have the

wholesome inclination

that okay let's relax the mind

allow the mind to experience the

cessation of suffering

the cessation of craving and allow the

mind to observe how it works

then wisdom naturally arises

inside nature naturally arises and when

there is serenity and insight yoked

together

there is the cessation of perception

feeling and consciousness

so you cannot incline the mind towards

cessation

not in the beginning at least because

there's a lot of craving in that

inclination but you can incline the mind

towards

the

the intention

of letting go

and by letting go there is release

and that release is a cessation of

suffering

you can't just say let the suffering go

let the hindrances go

you have to allow the mind to see it

recognize it and let it go

the process of letting go is not about

pushing it away and ignoring it the

process of letting go is saying here it

is i'm holding it in the palm of my hand

and then i'll let it just go

then the craving for non-existence

right so the craving for non-existence

is

why am i stuck in this channel why can't

i go forward i don't want to be in this

genre right now

you know

i don't want to be here in this retreat

right now why why did i sign up for this

you know whatever it might be or i don't

want to be

uh living in this particular vicinity i

don't want to be here i don't want to be

whenever you have this kind of statement

or variation that i don't want to be

that's the craving for non-existence

and it can be so painful sometimes that

a person is so overwhelmed by their life

situations

that it can result in the ultimate

craving for non-existence which is the

craving to kill oneself

the craving for suicide

because they're so overwhelmed

with so many ideas of what things should

be and shouldn't be

and that the fact that their worldview

doesn't match the way they're feeling

they're so overwhelmed that they don't

want to be in that situation and the

only relief that they think they can

feel

is by ending this life

and that is the ultimate craving for

non-existence annihilationism

and where does this craving arise and

establish itself

wherever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable

there is craving there this craving

arises and establishes itself

all right we have to unpack this

let's just talk about craving but we can

also talk about aversion after that but

first when you talk about craving

sensory craving

it says here

wherever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable you see

something beautiful

and there is a tinge a pull towards that

mind or towards that object that pull is

the underlying tendency towards craving

then acting upon it and then thinking i

want that

is the full-blown tanha

the craving

the kamatana the sensual craving

or

you smell something really bad in the

air and you say oh that is really bad i

don't like that

that initial tinge of

and the underlying tendency that arises

from experiencing that unpleasant odor

that tendency towards aversion if you

act upon that and then

react mentally by saying i don't want

that that grasping

that tightening

is the aversion that arises

so

whatever arises can be just seen as an

unfolding of sensory data packets

this is not me this is not mine this is

not myself and therefore no craving or

aversion will arise

or it can be seen as something affecting

this sense of me

as soon as that happens there's

identification there as soon as that

identification is there there is further

craving and further clinging and further

becoming

if not recognized and let go of

so that that craving arises and

establishes itself so that craving

arises that underlying tendency towards

craving arises in the pleasant feeling

and it establishes itself with the

decision

the intention the inclination to say and

think

this is affecting me and therefore i

like it

that's how it gets established as soon

as you identify with it

and what is there in the world that is

agreeable and pleasurable

the i in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable the ear the nose the tongue

the body the mind in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable and there this

craving arises and establishes itself

so

the eyes themselves can be pleasant the

ears themselves can be pleasant they can

be conceit and i have the most beautiful

eyes in the world

i have the sharpest years in the world

i have the sharpest sense of smell you

know i have a great sense of taste

you know this

feeling of identifying with the sixth

sense basis

that can cause craving to rise and

establish itself in it

sights sounds smells tastes tangibles

mind objects in the world are agreeable

and pleasurable and there this craving

arises and establishes itself now we

already talked about it so the mind

makes contact with the form that is

beautiful i'm sorry the eyes

make contact with the form that is

beautiful the ear makes contact with the

beautiful symphony

the nose makes contact with a beautiful

fragrance

the the tongue makes contact with one of

a delicious piece of food

the body makes contact with the the

softest fabric fabric you've ever felt

the mind makes contact with a

pleasurable

memory

as soon as those experiences arise

and the mind says oh that's great i

really like it that inclination that

tendency towards craving and then

grabbing onto it and saying

that i

want this i don't want this to stop

i hope this continues

that is the craving

and if it does stop

how do you react

that hot shower that you're having

it suddenly stops how do you react

food that you're going for that last

piece of cake you're really looking

forward to that last piece of cake

you know and then suddenly somebody

clutches it and takes it away

how do you feel you recognize you have

to have the ability to

find out where did that thought arise

first

right did that thought how did the

thought arise

it arose because of some kind of contact

like maybe you know you smell something

in the air

and there's contact but that gives rise

to a memory

right but that memory you didn't cause

that memory to happen

it just arose because of a series of

contacts

with the sense spaces

or even if that was not the case and you

were sitting around and you were just

thinking about things

and as you were thinking about things

something arose

but did you cause yourself to think

about that

do you cause yourself to want to think

about painful memories

do you cause yourself to

want the disappearance of pleasant

memories

they go away when they go away they

arise when they arise because of causes

and conditions

the moment you start to see thoughts as

impersonal by seeing oh this thought

arose because of this contact i didn't

cause this thought to happen i didn't

cause the disappearance of this thought

to happen

then you start to disengage and then you

just see the thoughts as a flood of

stream or a stream

of passing by

you know like a river or you see them as

clouds in the sky and you disengage from

them

so you have to see that

but if you get caught up in the story of

that thought and that that getting

caught up in the story is already

clinging

first the thought arises

and then the thought makes contact with

the mind and then there is the feeling

of oh here is an unpleasant memory

do you catch the mind saying oh

he abused me and he attacked me or do

you say well

that was a memory that happened

but it's not happening right now

you cause yourself suffering when you

relive that same memory with that same

amount of

craving and that same amount of clinging

so it depends on how tired you are of

that

do you like indulging in negative

thoughts do you like being indulging in

unwholesome memories

or

is there something in the mind that says

it takes comfort

in indulging in that

and that is the process of

you know that sense of security and

comfort because no one can read your

mind

and say that oh i know exactly what

you're thinking

but you can be in your mind and make up

all of these stories and make up all of

these ideas or think back

and possibly even those memories might

not be the same way that you thought

about them

memories can be very fickle

the way you perceive memories can be

dependent upon your mood

the way you saw someone when you're

angry is one way and then when you have

loving kindness is another way when you

have compassion is another way he abused

me he said those things to me

and you say that in anger

but then when you have loving kindness

and you realize

that person was in pain

that's why they said it it had nothing

to do with me

it had to do with them and how they were

dealing with the problem in that moment

so when you see that then you realize

thoughts are also fickle thoughts are

just arising and passing away and you

create that space

and then

in the same way you see the strawberry

ice cream and realized oh that's just

strawberry ice cream and i created this

association of i want that strawberry

ice cream because of so and so

the same way you create associations

with memories because those are the only

things the mind can hold onto

for a sense of security and comfort but

if the mind experiences something that's

pleasurable

like jhana

then that

is more beneficial than indulging in the

thoughts that cause pain

and eventually because of

the imbuing of the mind with loving

kindness and compassion and forgiveness

those thoughts change the shade and

content of that thought changes or

rather the content might be the same but

the angle the perspective in which you

see that content changes

and it's more than that sense

eye consciousness

your consciousness

knows consciousness

tongue consciousness

body consciousness

mind consciousness in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there thus craving arises and

establishes itself

so eye consciousness your consciousness

knows consciousness tongue consciousness

body consciousness mind consciousness

that's the awareness that arises

dependent upon the eye meeting with form

the year meeting with sound and so on

and so forth that awareness of that if

that has craving in it

or if that has the sense of

identification in it

then that can give rise to identifying

with the feeling

and then being and taking that as

personal they can be craving for it more

and more or there can be aversion if

it's

not pleasurable if it's unpleasant

eye contact your contact nose contact

tongue contact body contact mind contact

in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable and there this craving

arises and establishes itself so even in

eye contact or ear contact or nose

contact or tongue contact or body

contact or mind contact there can be

craving

if that contact is immediately seen and

there's that tinge of this is affecting

a sense of me

and therefore i want it or i don't want

it there is where the craving

establishes itself and that's dependent

upon how the consciousness arose and

that consciousness consciousness is

dependent upon how the formations were

rooted

whether formation is rooted in craving

greed hatred delusion views

identification conceit

ignorance

and if they're war then what kind of

consciousness

arises which then influences the way the

contact is seen

because in that context itself there can

be a sense of i am i am experiencing

this color

really irritates my eyes

there's a contact you recognize that

contact and then there's this oh

i don't like that

you know or

that sound as soon as i hear it there's

like oh look at that that i mean listen

to that that beautiful sound right that

initial impingement of the sense sense

basis that contact if it's

clung to if it's identified with there

can be craving and so even in that

contact there can be tightness and

tension that arises

when you were meditating all wonderfully

and there was just complete quiet mind

complete silence

and then there's a lawnmower that arises

that contact oh my god what happened

you know that initial spark that

tightening in that there's the tension

there that craving there that aversion

there if you recognize that and you're

sick are it

and you let go of that

that sound of the lawnmower will still

be there

but now you'll be able to see it with

equanimity and understand that it is the

reality of that moment

but now your mind is

disenchanted with it dispassionate

towards it and comes back towards its

object

feeling born of eye contact ear contact

nose contact tongue contact

body contact mind contact in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so we talked about eye contact which is

the initial impingement of

the

the sights the sounds the smells and so

on on the sense bases

when it makes initial contact but then

here is an experience

now you're experiencing something and

it's pleasurable

if you allow the mind to say oh this

feels great that's fine but then you say

i hope this doesn't stop

that's where the craving arises

i'm really i'm really enjoying being in

this jhana i hope it doesn't stop

that's the craving

or

you're in a difficult situation

and you say oh this is very unpleasant

i wish it would stop

that's the craving that's the aversion

or i'm getting very distracted i wish

this distractions would stop

that's the aversion

rather than

oh here is a distraction it's quite

unpleasant

i'm going to let that go

and experience the relief from that

distraction

so if you're in an unpleasant situation

what can you do about it

you can't change it

in that moment

you can only secure your reaction to it

you can only say oh here i'm perceiving

it in this way but that's causing me

trouble that's causing me suffering

when i take this personally and i see

this and i'm having aversion to it

that's causing me suffering

and then you'll learn from it using the

six r's

seeing the suffering letting go of the

craving to that suffering experiencing

the relief from that suffering because

you use the right effort

then you're training yourself

you're teaching yourself

in that moment whenever you let go

the perception of sights of sounds of

smells

of tastes of tangibles

of mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so now the perception the perception is

the labeling of what that is this is

pleasant this is unpleasant

fine or you label this is the color of

red or this is the color blue but as

soon as you say oh

that's the color of red

and i hate red

because

of whatever reason that because it's

that clinging

or there's lights flickering somewhere

you know and it's irritating you there's

a perception that there's there's this

light

that's turning on and off on and off

as soon as you say oh that's really

annoying

and then you say i wish that would stop

there's the aversion there

or there's a perception of how beautiful

this flower is

right and you want to keep it for

yourself

and then you realize that the next day

it's gone

and you feel bad about it that's the

craving there

somebody says something really nice

about you

they praise you and it might be you know

worth praising you for whatever it is

that you did

and then you hold on to that oh yeah i

can't believe they said that that's

wonderful

you know you obsess over it

and then you think about it and then you

go back to that person what was it that

you said yesterday about me

it was somebody else

that's the craving

yeah because there's there's this sense

of like attachment to that idea but then

that idea was there in that moment

or that sense of praise was there in

that moment

and you're just trying to recreate that

same experience over and over but all

that's doing is just further identifying

with it

right and then that can create conceit

that can create all these other things

now there's nothing wrong with being

grateful for the things that people have

said you know you can keep all the

different cards of

all the wonderful things that people

have sent you all the wonderful letters

as a sign of gratitude as a sign of

appreciation that's fine

but if your identification is caught up

in that and something happens where

those cards are burned up

oh no

right

it's the getting caught up in that it's

the getting caught up because you value

that as a sense of self

i think it's

um

i think the verses says just like the

wind doesn't move the mountain the wise

person isn't moved by praise right just

as the wind doesn't move the dancing the

wise person isn't moved by criticism

and sometimes that same person who was

was

you know praising you on that day the

next day they say something

about you and you're like how could they

say that

right

and so if you get like you get moved by

that

then there's no

there's no wisdom there it's just

you know you're flying like the kite in

the wind swaying here and there

and that causes suffering

volition in

regard to sights sounds smells tastes

tangibles mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so

volition is the intention the

inclination towards something

if that is tinged by craving

that's dependent upon previous choices

to make choices to crave for that

if you don't recognize that and see that

oh there is an inclination from craving

to go towards that

because of previous choices then you're

not using mindfulness there's a lack of

mindfulness there there's lack of the

ability to remember how your mind's

attention moves from one thing to the

other

the inability to do that then creates

further craving

so now the craving arises and

establishes itself in that intention

further as soon as you make that choice

because once you make that choice or

further incline your compass towards

that choice then the next set of

intentions that arise are already tinged

by that craving already tinged and

influenced and conditioned by that

choice

but if you see oh here comes the craving

now i'm looking at this

you know i'm looking out for this person

to say something good about me because

yesterday they said something great

about me

right

and you let go of that

then there's no seeking out there's no

grasping there's no acquisition there's

just

equanimity

you know you don't get swayed by this or

that likewise with some memory that you

have of

a wonderful film or

you know you smell something beautiful

or something fragrant or you see

something beautiful or you hear

something beautiful

and the intention that arises is to

immediately look at that and

grab onto it

and hold on to it so that it doesn't

change

if you recognize that

and you let go of it and see it as me

not mine or not myself because you see

oh it arose because of a cause because

of a series of causes and conditions

here was this beautiful sight

the contact with it

gave rise to an intention to go and

grab onto it

if you recognize as an intention to grab

onto it then you'll also recognize that

there will be suffering in there because

that beautiful sight will one day fade

in one moment

here's an interesting statement

the craving for sights sounds smells

taste tangibles mind objects in the

world is agreeable and pleasurable and

there is there this craving arises and

it establishes itself

i'm going to read that again the craving

for sight sounds smells taste tangibles

mind objects in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable and there

this craving arises and establishes

itself

how does craving establish

engraving

right there's a there's a sense of like

i really want this and the mind is like

further

strengthening its wanting

right and then that turns into clinging

and that turns into becoming

so the craving for

[Music]

this

beautiful sight that you see

and if you recognize oh there is a

craving and you let it go that's fine

but then there's a tendency for the mind

there can be a tendency for the mind to

say this feels really good this craving

for it itself

like i in i

i like being in a craving mindset it

gets so used to being

in a craving or a verse of mindset

there's a comfort there

the same way people indulge in reliving

their wonderful memories and then

craving for them there's a sense of

comfort there

or the same way they somehow are

comfortable with

even though they don't like

those painful memories

it still arises and there's some sense

of like comfort there it's like some

sense of security there

shopping yeah

just yeah

i just got some money so now i need to

figure out what am i going to you know

buy with it

right

what am i going to want

i'm trying to seek the wanting like what

is it that i want i want more of what i

want you know

yeah i might find something i want yes

yeah

i might crave something you never know

i don't have any money so charge it

oh there you go i'll just take out a

loan for it

people pick up a menu and go

i don't know what i want

[Laughter]

yes

or you hear somebody else wanting that

so it's like oh you know what i changed

my i think i'm gonna have that instead

thinking of sights sounds smells tastes

tangibles mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable and there this

craving arises and establishes itself

pondering on sight sounds smells tastes

tangibles and mind objects in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable and there

this craving arises and establishes

itself thinking and pondering

this is actually vitika vichara

thinking and examining thought which

creates mental proliferation thinking

about it obsessing over it

right

the obsession of uh let's say

unrequited love right

it's like i have to think about my

my object of affection my object of

infatuation

you know and they're constantly

obsessing over that but there's a sense

of craving for it like even though it's

painful

i'm still thinking about it

right so this constant thinking about it

constant obsession over it

that causes tightness and tension in the

mind and body

and if you can stop that cycle of

suffering in there by just recognizing

it and it just stops it right there

right it just is like oh

you come out of that whole like cloud of

delusion

this obsessing over something

and then you

release your attention from it and you

relax it you feel like the clouds just

part

and there's this spaciousness in the

mind there's clarity in the mind it

might come up again because it's an

obsessiveness that arises but eventually

it starts to weaken and weaken and

weaken and you replace all of that

obsession

with wholesome attitudes

a wholesome way of looking at that and

letting go

craving for existence

so

i want to be the world's most powerful

president

i want to be

is a statement which says i want to be

that when you whenever you have that

statement i want to be

that stems from craving for existence i

don't want to be

that's craving for non-existence

i want things to be this way

but a corollary to that be like i want

things to be this way

also yeah

yeah

and that monks is called the noble truth

of the origin of suffering and what

monks

is the noble truth of the cessation of

suffering

it is the complete fading away

and extinction of the suffering

it's forsaking and abandonment

liberation from it detachment from it

the relief

the process of

relaxing

is

allowing the experience of cessation of

suffering to happen in that moment

and that's why you experience

for yourself these noble truths

in your meditation

here is a distraction that is the first

noble truth of suffering

you hold on to it you wish it would

change that's the craving and aversion

towards it that's the second noble truth

but if you use right effort

you use the six r's you're applying the

fourth noble truth

so that you can recognize

release your attention relax and in that

relax experience the third noble truth

of the cessation of suffering

the mundane nibana the mundane niroda

when you do that

then you're experiencing the third noble

truth

and how does this

craving come to be abandoned

how does its cessation come about

so it repeats the same thing over i'll

just go through it

whatever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable

there its cessation comes about and what

is there in the world that is agreeable

and pleasurable the eye the ear the nose

the tongue the body the mind

the eye consciousness the ear

consciousness the nose consciousness the

tongue consciousness the body

consciousness the mind consciousness

sign sites sounds

smells tastes tangibles mind objects

eye contact ear contact nose contact

tongue contact body contact mind contact

the perception of sights sounds smells

tastes

tangibles and mind objects

intention in relation

to sights sounds smells tastes tangibles

mind objects

craving for sights sounds smells

tastes tangibles mind objects

thinking and pondering of sights sounds

smells tastes tangibles and mind objects

in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable or disagreeable and

displeasurable

and there is craving or aversion that

comes to an end

and how does it come to an end

by recognizing it

and then releasing your attention from

it and then relaxing it

so the cessation of suffering is brought

up by the cessation of craving

and that happens we just saw that

happens when you

when you forsake it and abandon it when

you detach from it

you drop it like it's hot

right you

held on to it

and then you let go of it

that letting go of it is the softening

of the mind

is the relaxing of the mind relaxing of

the tightness and tension

in mind and

body therefore you experience the

cessation of suffering

but how does that happen

what do you do to do that

so

there the cessation comes about and that

monks is called the noble truth of the

cessation of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of the

way of practice leading to the cessation

of suffering

it is just this noble eightfold path

namely

right view

right intention

right speech

right action

right livelihood right effort

right mindfulness and right

collectedness

and what and what monks is right view

it is the knowledge of suffering the

knowledge of the origin of suffering the

knowledge of the cessation of suffering

and the knowledge of the way

of practice leading to the cessation of

suffering this is called right view

every time you get distracted it's an

opportunity for you to see right view

it's an opportunity for you to see here

is the hindrance in the form of

suffering

here's the craving that's holding on to

it

and here's a letting go of it by

applying the right effort

so whenever you use the practice that's

the practice

of establishing right view seeing the

four noble truths now there is the

mundane right view which is the

understanding that there is a cause and

consequence there is mother and father

there are teachers and so on and so

forth we've talked about that before but

basically it it boils down to

the

the openness to see that there is karma

that there is a process of rebirth that

there is

a cause and consequence

but this right view

you're seeing for yourself the four

noble truths every time you apply the

six r's every time you recognize that

there's a hindrance every time you

release your attention and relax

every time you re-smile and recollect or

return rather so when you recognize

you're recognizing the first noble truth

of the suffering in form of that

hindrance when you release your

attention and you relax you're

abandoning that tension and tightness by

relaxing

by first releasing your

your mind's attention from that and

bringing it back to relaxing the craving

relaxing the tightness and tension and

thus experiencing

the third noble truth and when you

re-smile you're bringing up and

cultivating joy

you're bringing up the feeling whatever

it might be and you return when you

return you're bringing up the feeling of

loving kindness

or you come back to the quiet mind or

whatever it might be whatever the object

is you're coming back to right

collectedness so when you use the six

r's

you are seeing

the four noble truths in that process so

you are establishing right view bit by

bit

and what is right intention

the intention of renunciation

of non-ill will

of harmlessness

this is called right intention

when we talk about renunciation we're

not talking about just physical

renunciation we're talking about

mental

saying that this is not me this is not

mine this is not myself it's the

intention to see every process

as being impersonal

you're

you're basically adding to your

experience that lens

of this is not me this is not mine this

is not myself it's not a practice of

of uh

saying it verbally it's a practice of

seeing in the moment as it arises that

this is an impersonal process

and that happens only through the

process and application of the six hours

continually doing that

you are

letting go of the unwholesome formations

that cause you to crave and identify and

you're replacing them with the wholesome

formations that allow you to see with

wisdom and compassion

non-ill will

how do you get to not know well that's

through loving-kindness

harmlessness or non-harmlessness

compassion

right when you see another person

suffering

you wish that they

no not suffer right that wish for not

having a person suffer because you know

what it feels like to suffer

you know what it feels like to be in

pain why would you wish upon someone

else

that pain

that's harmlessness

but the wishing that they were no longer

in pain that their pain ceased that

their suffering ceased

is the compassion is the

non-harmlessness

and what is right speech refraining from

lying refraining from slander refraining

from harsh speech refraining from

frivolous speech

this is called right speech

remember i was telling you about the

acronym and think t-h-i-n-k

is it the right time to say what you

want to say is it honest what is the

intention behind it is it necessary and

beneficial for that purpose and can you

say with kindness

frivolous speech means that it's

unnecessary speech

right to lie means that it's uh

it's uh

it's not truthful

abusive speech or harmful speech is

there's an intention to harm there

and it's not kind

right exactly frivolous speech is like

speaking for the sake of speaking it's

just like

i have nothing else to do so i'm just

going to talk

hopefully this dharma talk doesn't come

off as frivolous speech

but frivolous speech you know there's a

there's a pali word for it it's it's an

it's such an interesting word

it's i can't remember it but it's it's

an auto monopia you know it's like it

sounds like frivolous speech

it's like blah blah blah

[Laughter]

if you ignore them it would be weird

yeah exactly it's just small talk yeah

right but not just you just kind of get

yeah frivolous speech is like um

yeah i mean you know you talk about the

weather that's not frivolous speech it's

just like

trying to bond with somebody just trying

to get a sense of you know when you see

in the sutas a person comes to see the

buddha or some other monk and then

initially they talk about how are you

doing how is everything going everything

going good with your family

you know what's going on in the village

you know that kind of stuff and then all

right let's get back to what we're

talking about i mean this is just

this is just

being social

right

being kind and polite and talking about

this or that and then you get to the

main topic that's just the way

minds are structured socially

it's kind of getting a sense of are you

friendly or not you know

a frivolous speech is like talk of kings

and talk of this or talk of that like

did you hear about what happened in that

country that thing you know kardashian

would be privileged oh absolutely

you know i mean you see in the media

right all of that stuff like

talking about other people's lives

you know

and uh

slander and gossip the you know gossip

is basically

talking about a person

uh which either you know not to be true

or not to be accurate or talking about

them behind their backs so how do you

know if it's gossip this is what vante

would say how do you know if it's gossip

would you say the same thing about that

person if they were there right in front

of you

and what monks is right action

refraining from taking life refraining

from taking what is not given

refraining from sensual or sexual

misconduct

this is called right action so

not breaking the precepts

so the first precept

not harming or killing on purpose

second precept not taking what is not

given

the third precept

speech that happens with right speech

and then the fourth precept

refraining from sexual misconduct

well i mean in for the purpose of the

retreat all

sexual activity but when you get back

off retreat

sexual misconduct

so sexual misconduct is

um

you know cheating on someone or

infidelity and

you know if it causes them harm

or causes your self-harm

[Music]

being with someone who is under the

protection of their parents or who has

been throated and things like that

and then sensual misconduct is where

again you have that craving for

something and it causes you to break

other precepts

in the pursuit of that

sensual experience

now it doesn't say anything about

intoxicants

but the indulging in intoxicants will

lead you

or can lead you to break the other four

precepts so it's implicit

and what is

right livelihood

here

the noble disciple having given up wrong

livelihood

keeps himself by right livelihood

[Laughter]

well we talk about right livelihood in

the mundane example which is refraining

from those five things i

trade in human trafficking trade and

intoxicants trade in

poisons trade in weapons

and trade or butchering right

but

for the noble disciple that's the idea

that they don't deal with

palmistry and astrology and

reading the signs and

telling the future and

even medicine you know because they're

here for the purpose of liberation of

the mind they went forth in order to

liberate the mind

not for all of these other things

and what monks is right effort

here one rouses his will

stirs up energy

and exerts the mind

to prevent the arising of unarisen

evil unwholesome states

yeah this word prevent

we've gone back and forth about this but

basically

what it is is recognizing

that there is an unwholesome state there

as soon as you recognize that there's an

unwholesome state there

it no longer

grabs on to the mind because now you've

recognized it

he rouses his will

and strives to overcome evil unwholesome

mental states that have arisen

so

that's really weird language but

basically what that really is

is one makes the right effort

to abandon the unwholesome state

so that's the second right effort and

you abandon it by

releasing your attention to it

and relaxing the tightness and tension

the craving

around that unwholesome state

he makes an effort and exerts his mind

to main

to generate or produce

unarisen wholesome mental states

so when you smile you uplift the mind

when you smile

you bring up a wholesome state of mind

you bring up joy

so first when you relax you experience

clarity that's a wholesome state of mind

and then you bring up the smile to bring

up an uplifted mind that's a wholesome

state of mind you generate the wholesome

state of mind

and then he makes an effort

stirs up energy and exerts his mind to

maintain wholesome states of mind that

have arisen

not to let them fade away

to bring them to greater growth to the

full perfection of development so when

you return back to your object of

meditation

you're in a collected state of mind

that's a wholesome state of mind whether

it's loving kindness whether it's

equanimity whether it's quiet mind

whatever it is and it's not like you

have to push

in order to stay there

just observing and keeping your

attention

will

cause the object of meditation to

develop to grow

you don't have to change it you don't

have to do anything with it just your

mere observation

just your mere attention fuels

the arising of loving-kindness to go

into compassion the arising of

compassion to go into joy and then to

equanimity and then finally all of that

goes away and there's just a quiet mind

right there's no like okay now i'm going

to go from like loving kindness to

compassion

it's not like you're changing it it's

just

it's a natural

organic

progression

well what's happening is when you're

doing the six hours you're not only

developing the right effort but you're

also developing enlightenment factors

you're activating them to come into b

and just by doing that and then coming

back to collectiveness when you return

it continues developing that on its own

the moment you start to apply right

effort the moment you start to apply the

eightfold path

these other things come into development

automatically the enlightenment factors

and we might go through this at some

point

the five faculties the five powers the

four bases of psychic faculties

you know all of that

and so

the

the enlightenment factors are already

implied when you use this process of

right effort and then you come to

collectedness

and then there's no pushing or pulling

while you're in collect while you're

collected on your object of meditation

and because there's no pulling or

pushing that means there's equanimity

there equanimity naturally is developed

just by purely observing this process

begins with observing which is

mindfulness

and in the investigation of states which

discerns what it is that's being

observed and you rouse up the energy the

effort to continue observing that

doesn't mean you push just staying there

and then joy naturally arises because

mind is secluded

from unwholesome states secluded meaning

there is no hindrance present so mind

feels relief from that and there's joy

there

and then

from that joy there's tranquility

and then from that tranquility there's

collectedness and from that

collectiveness there's the equanimity so

it all

is interlocked interconnected when you

do this

but it's also linear and cyclical it's

linear and cyclical yes because that's

by the time you get to the fourth jana

you have the mindfulness the purity of

mindfulness

uh

conditioned by equanimity

and so this is called right effort

and what monks is right mindfulness

here amongst

a monk abides contemplating body as body

ardent clearly aware and mindful

having put aside hankering and fretting

for the world

he abides contemplating feelings as

feelings he abides contemplating mind as

mind here by its contemplating mind

objects as mind objects ardent clearly

aware and mindful having put aside

hankering and fretting for the world

in short remembering to observe how

mind's attention moves from one object

to the other

without craving for this or that without

resisting this or that just seeing

things as they really are the

observation of things as they are

right so

that allows you then to be collected

because then you can recognize is the

mind collected or not collected and you

bring it back to being collected

and what monks is right collectedness

here among detached from sense desires

detached from unwholesome mental states

enters and remains in the first

jhana which is with thinking and

pondering

born of seclusion

filled with delight and joy

and with the subsiding of thinking and

pondering by gaining inner tranquility

and oneness of mind

he enters and remains in the second

jhana which is without thinking and

pondering born of collectedness

filled with delight and joy

and with fate and with the fading away

of delight remaining

equanimous mindful and clearly aware

he experiences in himself

the joy of which the noble ones say

happy is he who dwells with equanimity

and mindfulness he enters the third

jhana

and having given up pleasure and pain

and with the right and with the

disappearance of former gladness and

sadness he enters and remains in the

fourth jhana which is beyond pleasure

and pain and purified by

and mindfulness a pure purity of

mindfulness

and equanimity this is called right

collectedness

so we're that's what you guys are

practicing right now right getting into

jhana that happens naturally the reason

is because you've been observing how

your mind's attention moves from one

place to another and using right effort

to come back to a collected mind and

you're able to recognize when hindrances

arise you're able to release them you're

able to relax the craving and therefore

you you are developing right view

and when you have the right intention to

let go of things and see them as they

are

which is impersonal

and then having cultivated loving

kindness cultivated compassion

you are cultivating right intention

and then when you see that there is a

need to say something that is

not truthful or harmful or whatever it

might be in the way of wrong speech

you're recognizing that and letting that

go and only speaking that which is right

speech and you're keeping the precepts

and therefore you are having right

action so the eightfold path

right right view right intention

right speech right action

right livelihood right effort

right mindfulness right collectedness

you're already doing all these things on

retreat

because you're using right effort the

ability to use right effort means

recognizing when there's wrong view and

coming back to right view

recognizing when there's wrong intention

and coming back to right intention

recognizing when there is right wrong

speech and coming back to right speech

recognizing when there's wrong action

and coming back to right action

recognizing when there is

wrong livelihood and coming back to

right by the way recognizing when

there's wrong mindfulness what is wrong

mindfulness

not being observant

not recognizing how a mind's attention

moves from one thing to the other

but you're coming back and you recognize

what is wrong collectedness

when you're pushing when you're trying

to hold on to the jhana instead of

observing what's happening through right

effort coming back to the jhana with

right effort so right effort the six r's

are the heart

of the eightfold path because it's only

through right effort that you go from

the wrong path to the right path and the

utilization of that

is

the

utilization of the fourth noble truth

to recognize suffering to let let that

go by letting go of the craving and thus

experiencing relief the third noble

truth and the more you do this

the more you see that and the more you

do that the more you

see

suffering the more you understand

suffering

the more you abandon craving the more

you experience relief

and finally the more you perfect

and cultivate

the eightfold path the entire practice

and so this

is the talk on

the four noble truths

it's section

15

that was one section

yeah

it's the i think it's the only suta

which has that much of an elaboration of

the four noble truths

of uh

right of the dependent origination and

right view yeah but this one is like

each of the four noble truths so

are you all satisfied and delighted

all right

let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

fear struck fearlessly

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 ourselves

[Music]

[Music]

so

[Music]

okay so today

i thought we'd go and explore a little

bit more

about the four noble truths

and uh

this is from actually nikaya

and there's a section in here which is

section five on the four noble truths

and it's

one of the best better elaborations on

each of the four noble truths

again monks among abides contemplating

mind objects as mind objects

in respect of the four noble truths

how does he do so

here a monk knows as it really is

this is suffering

he knows as it really is this is the

origin of suffering

he knows as it really is this is the

cessation of suffering

he knows as it really is

this is the way of practice

leading to the cessation of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of

suffering

birth is suffering aging is suffering

death is suffering

sorrow lamentation pain sadness and

distress

are suffering

being attached to the unloved is

suffering

being separated from the loved is

suffering

not getting what one wants is suffering

in short

the five aggregates affected by craving

and clinging are suffering

and what monks is birth

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is birth

coming to be

coming forth

the appearance of the aggregates

the acquisition of the sense bases

that monks is called birth

so we talked about birth here from the

macro level the birth of

the acquisition of the aggregates what

happens when a being is born

in a physical realm

but there's also as we talked about the

birth of action

the birth of action is affected by

habitual tendencies affected or

conditioned by let's say

conditioned by the habitual tendencies

that

incline the mind towards a specific kind

of action

and that action is liable to cause

suffering because

that action is rooted in craving is

rooted in

holding onto things and is rooted in

this is my way or not you know it has to

be my way or it cannot be

so this

sense of i am the sense of this is me

this is mine this is myself

leads towards a birth of action birth of

personalized action which leads to

suffering

and then we talk about the acquisition

of the aggregates we also talked about

the acquisition of the sense bases

there's birth death birth death birth

death

in every moment

the arising and passing away of eye

consciousness your consciousness nose

consciousness tongue consciousness body

consciousness

and mind consciousness

what that means is your

physical sense bases

are changing in every moment as well

it's not just the experiences it's not

just consciousness dependent upon the

eye

and the other sense bases

it's not just feeling dependent upon the

other sense bases

your sense bases themselves are changing

in every moment

that means your entire nama rupa your

mentality materiality is changing in

every moment that is the process of

aging which we'll look at but that means

that there is a birth

a renewal of being for each of the sense

bases

in every moment

so how could you say this is my eye

which eye are you talking about is it

the eye right now or the eye that was

there just a split second ago or the eye

that's going to come to be a split

second now

same with any of the sixth sense bases

if those are seen as being conditioned

and those are seen as being impermanent

in every moment

why would anyone take them

as personal why would anyone take them

as

me mine or myself

if you truly see this if you truly

experience this

then nothing is worth holding on to

nothing is worth clinging to

it's all just

creating suffering by holding on to it

but if you see things as it really is as

they really are

then there's no grasping then there's no

clinging

and hence no suffering

this insight cannot happen through just

reflection this insight has to arise

from true knowledge and vision

from true experience of seeing the

impermanence

of all conditioned things namely the

sixth sense spaces

and the five aggregates

and what is aging

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is aging

decreptitude decrepitude

broken teeth

gray hair

wrinkle skin shrinking with age

decay of the sense faculties

that monks is called aging

we're all aging

it's inevitable

some are aging one way and some are

aging another way some are experiencing

uh you know

baldness some are experiencing wrinkled

skin some are experiencing

uh you know the brokenness of teeth some

have to go to the dentist some have to

go to this doctor some have to go to

that specialist

this all results because of the decline

of

the faculties

some people experience the decline of

mental faculties

that happens as a result of aging

as of and that aging can be sped up or

it can slow down but it will always

be there

you can't prevent aging you can slow

aging if you wanted to

with the right diet and so on and so

forth but that doesn't stop it

so aging is a fact of life as much as

birth is a fact of life and as much as

death is a fact of life now even if

somewhere off into the future we were

able to understand

how to

uh lengthen our telomeres

which

enable us to age depending upon the

length of the telomeres even if we were

able to do that

it would still be aging

in the form of mind

in the form of the decline of faculties

how one perceives things

there is still that aging in the mind

aging is

not only

physical or mental but you see aging in

the form of

decline

in the world

this world will one day

no longer exist

in the grand scheme of existence in the

grand scheme of the universe

one day the sun

will become larger and larger and larger

and consume this earth

eventually that sun

that used to give us that gives us life

now

will actually give this planet death

and then that sun will turn into a black

hole

galaxies will age they will decline

nothing in this universe

is permanent everything is in a state of

flux towards decline

even if scientists say well

there's the proton you know there's

something called proton decay it might

happen over

quintillions of years

right but it's still decaying

so decaying decline aging this is just

the nature of existence

now you can read all about it you can

listen to dhamma talks about it

you can

contemplate it and all of these things

but unless you see it as it actually is

through your own experience

we really get deep down into

understanding that everything that

arises passes away and that process of

passing away

from birth to death is aging is decline

and you totally understand it and accept

it

then you'll you will be at peace

because you won't hold on to anything

you won't cling to anything you won't

grasp at anything

and because of that you don't

personalize anything you don't see

anything as me mine or myself

and so you won't crave for anything

you won't cling to anything you won't

become anything

and therefore you won't experience

further suffering

and what is death

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is a passing away

a removal a cutting off

a disappearance a death a dying an

ending a cutting off of the aggregates

a discarding of the body

that monks is called death

death is the end of one life there's

always

the birth and death that we experience

in one life

so on the macro level death is the end

of one continuous seemingly continuous

life

but on the micro level on the

moment-to-moment level we see this we

understand this when we see infinite

consciousness

contact arises passes away consciousness

arises passes away feeling arises passes

away perception arises passes away

body arises passes away in every moment

so

when we talk about death at the macro

level what we're talking about is the

ending of that life

now within the experience

of that life

and what we see as the legal or medical

definition of death we see it as

the

stopping of the heart stopping of the

respiration and

the the ending of brain activity

but there's a process of unfurling

unfolding after that happens

and what that means is

within the context of one death to the

next birth on a macro level

there's a process of decline of the

sense basis

so when the body is seemingly dead

certain elements diminish

first

the air element diminishes

then the fire element diminishes

then the water element diminishes and

then finally the earth element

diminishes

in terms of the sixth sense spaces

the first sense to go away is the sense

of smell

then the sense of taste

then the sense of sight then the sense

of touch

and then finally the sense of hearing

and then beyond that the sense of the

mind

so the

mental experiences are still going on

because there's still mental

consciousness going on

and whatever is arising in the form of

mental images

if that is clung to

that will activate through the feel of

craving a new formation that then gives

rise to a new consciousness that results

in a new namarupa in a new mentality

materiality that then descends into that

new mentality materiality

so this process of death

it can be either when life is cut off on

in the medical definition or if you go

beyond that and the decline of the

elements and the diminishing of the

elements

and the cutting off of the sense basis

in either case that's it that's the end

and when that's the end

it doesn't mean it's the end because

when there's craving there it can give

rise

to further birth it can give rise to

renewal of being

and hence

that death is just if

there's craving in there that that just

leads on to more suffering

because now you come back into this

realm or you come back into another

realm and you experience the same things

you experience again

the pain and the pleasure depending upon

where you are in which realm and so on

and you

and you experience the impermanence

the impermanence of the nature of

samsara

and so samsara itself is inherently

impermanent and therefore inherently

dukkha and therefore inherently

impersonal

now a person who sees this a worldling

who sees this

will be quite intimidated by it because

they say well if everything is

impermanent and if everything is dukkka

and if everything is there for not

myself then what's the point of living

this happened in some cases where the

buddha was talking about impermanence

talking about the impersonal nature of

things and that led to some people

misinterpreting that and then killing

themselves because they thought that

meant

annihilationism but that's not what

we're talking about here what we're

saying is

there is suffering in existence

but

there is also a way out of that

suffering in existence

there is pleasant feeling and yes that

pleasant feeling is inherently suffering

because it's impermanent

but there's categories of pleasant

feeling

there's the base pleasant feeling of the

sense basis

of the

sensual experiences

but then beyond that there is the mental

pleasure born from seclusion

or seclusion from the unwholesome states

and seclusion from the sense experiences

and that mental pleasure is jhana

and beyond that there is the cessation

of perception feeling and consciousness

and beyond that there is nibana

it's the bliss of no feeling

and so that experience allows you to see

everything as impermanent but this time

you don't see it from a sense of self

now you realize everything is impersonal

now you realize oh it is impermanent and

there is nothing worth holding on to

because if i do hold on to something if

the mind grasps at something it's going

to cause renewal of being and that

renewal of being can come in the form of

feeling the same emotions experiencing

the same kinds of

situations with people

having interactions with the same kind

of people attracting the same kind of

relationships and so on that might be

detrimental or that might be okay but

eventually will end

and the fact that they end

is also suffering

so

once you see the impermanent nature from

that angle from that perspective

rooted in wisdom rooted in the wisdom of

the impersonal nature of all things

then you don't take it so seriously you

don't go towards annihilationism

you don't go towards eternalism

there is the middle road the middle path

which is the understanding of how

self the sense of self arises through

the process of dependent origination and

how suffering

ceases

through the cessation of the links of

dependent origination

using the eightfold path using the tools

that the buddha has given us

and we'll see that soon

and what is sorrow

whenever by any kind of misfortune

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

sorrow morning

this morning distress inward grief

inward woe that monks is called sorrow

so sorrow is whenever you are met with

some kind of unpleasant feeling there's

that tinge of

sadness the tinge of sorrow the tinge of

i don't like this

that little tinge of oh i missed my

flight

you know that tinge of

oh

i didn't get that last piece of cake

that was there

you know

or even greater sorrow oh

this person died

i couldn't say

what i wanted to say to them

or a painful feeling arises

you know a wasp stings you and you feel

that and that's sorrowful it's like

oh that slight

tinge

that you feel internally that sorrow

and what is lamentation

whenever by any kind of misfortune or

unpleasant feeling

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

and there is crying out

lamenting making much noise for grief

making great lamentation

that monks is called lamentation

so sorrow and lamentation and the rest

that follow it are that second dart

the first start is the pain that you

experience

the physical pain

and then the crying out

with the sense of this has affected me

that's the lamentation the crying out

ouch that hurts

right but it's it's not just the words

it's the

it's the tinge of feeling the tinge of

experience behind those words

because even a person without the second

dart might say ouch

but then they don't

see that as this is my pain they just

know oh

there was an unpleasant feeling there

there was a painful feeling there

and that's it

and what is pain

whatever bodily painful feeling bodily

unpleasant feeling

painful or unpleasant feeling results

from bodily contact

that monks is called pain

and so that pain can also come in the

form of disease

in the form of sickness in the form of

illness

in the form of pain you stub your toe

that's pain

you get up in the morning and you

stretch and then you pull a muscle

that's pain

you

go out somewhere and you catch a cold

and you come back and you experience

cold and fever

that's bodily pain

now those are all impersonal causes and

conditions yeah you stubbed your toe but

you didn't cause you didn't mean to stub

your toe it just happened

and it was because your toe made contact

with the rock or made contact with the

corner of the bed

and so that was painful

you went out and you caught a cold well

you were in an area where there was some

uh you know

rhinovirus going around and you caught

it

and so now that's the cold that's the

bodily pain

how do you deal with it do you say oh

woe is me

you know and i hate this this sucks

right do you say that or do you say

okay here is the cold

here is the illness now how do i deal

with it

you have to see that dealing with it is

dependent upon whether you see it as

myself

or me or mine or you see it as

here's a painful feeling

how do i let go of this painful feeling

first and foremost how do i let go of

the craving or aversion towards that

painful feeling and then is there a way

to fix this painful feeling

if i break my toe i can go to the doctor

and get it fixed if i catch a cold

i can take some rest

get some extra sleep get some extra

vitamins

and allow the body to do its processes

and whatever it might be

or i can

you know

moan about it and groan about it and

feel all this sorrow and lamentation

about it but what's that going to do

this is going to cause me more suffering

it's just going to cause me

to go in this cycle of continual

suffering

but if you stop that cycle and see it as

okay this is a problem to be solved

in a rational manner in an impersonal

manner

then

the mind goes from all of this

sense of habitual tendencies of

you know blaming that painful feeling or

blaming oneself for that painful feeling

to then wisdom and compassion and saying

how do i let go of this painful feeling

and how do i alleviate this painful

feeling

and so you're more oriented towards

solving the problem

rather than adding to the problem with

your

making it personal or taking it personal

and what is sadness whatever mental

painful feeling mental unpleasant

feeling painful or unpleasant sensations

result from mental contact that monks is

called sadness so when he talks about

pain he's talking about physical pain

bodily pain

pain through the five chords of

stimulation

the eye the ear the nose the tongue

and the body but when he talks about

sadness he's talking about mental pain

through the mind

when you have an experience where you're

thinking back about something the

memory of a loved one who's gone

right there's sadness there

when you think about the good days the

good old days that have gone by there's

nostalgia there but it's tinged with

sadness and bitter sweetness

so or when you think about something

that you didn't get

and so you're thinking about that and

now that causes you pain

mental pain

that's sadness

and what is distress

whenever by any kind of misfortune

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

distress

great distress affliction with distress

with great distress that monks

is called distress

so sometimes this could also be

understood as

anxiety right something happens

that you don't want

something happens that was unexpected

and you can deal with it through sadness

by beating yourself up

or you can deal with it by having

anxiety like what do we do now you know

that distress that restlessness that

restlessness that arises how do we how

do we deal with the situation what can

we do that feeling of

helplessness

because you see this as something that's

me mine or myself

as soon as you take away that thorn of

personalizing things

you create a distance a space

between

the mind

and the problem

and now that problem is no longer my

problem my problem is

it's just a problem to be solved

it's a situation to be solved it's not

my situation

it's just

here it is how do we deal with it

and what monks is being attached to the

unloved

here whoever has unwanted

disliked unpleasant sight objects

smells

tastes

tangibles or mind objects or whoever

encounters ill-wishers wishers of harm

of discomfort of insecurity with whom

they have concourse intercourse

connection

union that monks is called being

attached to the unloved so being

attached to the unloved which basically

means

having aversion

towards a painful experience through the

sixth sense basis

dealing with criticism

dealing with people saying no to you

dealing with what you perceive as people

being angry at you what you perceive as

people being

intentionally harmful to you

maybe they are actually being harmful to

you or

is it that your mind is projecting onto

these situations and people a certain

idea of what they are

or what they're doing

and so you have to look at that are you

making the situation

are you taking the situation personally

and whatever arises that is unpleasant

in the way of the sixth sense spaces

do you see that as something affecting a

sense of you or do you see it as just

impersonal vibrations and molecules

there's you know

uh the pleasant unpleasant sound

of the lawnmower

right it hasn't been there for the last

two days

but

let's say there's the

the unpleasant sound of the lawnmower do

you take that as oh

don't they know i'm meditating why are

you doing this right now or do you see

it as just vibrations in the air

what's the difference between that and

the vibrations of the air coming from

the song of birds

or from some beautiful music

just different vibrations different

sound waves

or when you smell something sweet

what's the difference between that and

something that you smell that's garbage

just different odor molecules

when you taste something that's bitter

and you taste something that's sweet

what's the difference just different

molecules

these are all just impersonal

data packets that arise

and your sense bases are

receivers

that just receive this information and

it's just impersonal sensory data and if

you take it personally

then you're going to cause yourself

suffering

and what is being separated from the

loved here whoever has what is wanted

liked pleasant sight objects sounds

smells tastes tangibles or mind objects

or whoever whoever

encounters well-wishers wishers of good

of comfort of security mother or father

or brother or sister or younger kinsmen

or friends or colleagues or blood

relations and when and then is deprived

of such concourse intercourse connection

or union that monks is called being

separated from the loved

so it's a really cold day outside and

you go back you know you go to the

shower and it's really nice and warm you

take a nice

long hot shower

and then suddenly the hot water goes

away and now suddenly there's just ice

cold water coming on to you

that is the

separation from the loved right

[Laughter]

or you know

you may you made a friend after a long

time and you have some great time and

you know you have a great connection and

everything and they have to go there's

that slight tinge of sadness from

separating from them

or you go back to

your family for the holidays

maybe it might be unpleasant first

you know as you discuss with them

politics or this or that or whatever it

might be but there's a sense of

connection there there's a sense of this

is my relative this is my family member

and then

you make a connection and it's warm and

heartfelt

and then the holidays are over and then

you have to leave there's that slight

tinge of oh

i'm leaving home now

right the separation

from what is loved

and that's because you take all of that

personally

that hot water that comes in that's

affecting me it feels good to me

it goes away oh no it's gone

that friend that i met

they make me feel good i feel good being

with them they go away that slight tinge

of separation

it's because you take that personally

when you're separated from family

members when you're separated from you

have to go

back wherever you're going now that the

holidays are over that slight sense of

separation that tinge

that is dukkha

and what is not getting what one wants

in being subject to birth monks this was

this wish arises

oh that we were not subject to birth

that we might not come to birth

you've come to birth can you wish that

you were never born

you've already been born

but this cannot be gained by wishing

this is not getting what one wants in

subjects in being subject to aging to

disease to death

to sorrow lamentation pain sadness and

distress

this wish arises

oh that we were not subject to aging

to disease to death to sorrow

lamentation pain sadness and distress

that we might not come to these things

but this cannot be gained by wishing

this is not getting what one wants

having expectations of something and

then being met with the reality of the

situation

where you don't want that to happen

the moment you start fighting with the

present moment you cause yourself

suffering

that fighting with the present moment is

craving and aversion and identification

the moment that happens

there's this tinge of craving that

tightness and tension that arises

in mind and body

and then there's that wish i wish things

were different

i wish i never met that person before i

wish i hadn't said that

and so on and so forth all of these are

form of dukkah

and how monks in short

are the five aggregates affected by

craving and clinging suffering

they are as follows

the aggregate of form affected by

craving and clinging the aggregate of

feeling affected by craving and clinging

the aggregate of perception affected by

craving and clinging the aggregate of

mental formations affected by craving

and clinging

the aggregate of consciousness affected

by craving and clinging

these are in short the five aggregates

of grasping

are the five aggregates affected by

craving and clinging that are suffering

so

the five aggregates affected by craving

and clinging

the form the feeling the perception the

formations and the consciousness

the form affected by craving and

clinging is the form taken personally

this is my body this is my hand this is

my arm these are my legs

this is my face

these are my sixth sense bases

taking that personally and if anything

is affected in the sense that this does

not

feel good to the body this does not feel

pleasant to the body if there is craving

there there will be

suffering there will be dukkha

with feeling

you cannot change the feeling

feeling here is related to pleasant

feeling unpleasant feeling

neutral feeling when a pleasant feeling

goes away there is duka there because

it's gone it's changed

when an unpleasant feeling arises

there is duka there because it has

arisen

when a neutral feeling arises

because of ignorance one takes it

personally and grabs on to it holds on

to it but when it fades away

it's seen as dukkha

and so there can be ignorance there

there can be craving there there can be

attachment to views there

there can be clinging to being there and

so on from feeling

so whatever you're experiencing right

now is all feeling through the sixth

sense basis

but if there is craving there if there's

clinging there it's going to cause you

luka

perception

perception is rooted in memory

maybe you associate a certain kind of

smell

with grief

maybe you associate a certain kind of

taste with some kind of pleasure

and so the perception of what that taste

is can also bring up if that perception

is taken as me mine or myself

is can be can bring up this feeling of

grief this experience of grief this

experience of pleasure

so perception being rooted in memory it

arises and passes away

and if what is impermanent is held onto

is taken as self

that will cause you dukkha because when

it goes away if it's a pleasant

perception

now it's gone

if it's an unpleasant perception that

arose

you cling onto it you feel

pain because of that you feel grief

because of that you feel sorrow and

lamentation or experience sorrow and

lamentation because of it

so perceptions can change

right the perception of pain what was

painful once

can somehow be pleasurable the

perception of what was pleasurable once

can be painful depending upon clinging

and association

there was one individual who was

meditating and they had a

terrible bodily pain

they had to be on a shoulder sling and

all of that you know

and uh

when they experienced this pain it was

difficult for them to meditate

but as soon as they realized that it was

not the pain that was the problem it was

how they took the pain

how they personalized the perception of

the pain they six are that

they accepted that there was that pain

and then the funny thing about that is

when they had a cessation experience

the pain turned to pleasure

suddenly they said those waves of pain

turn to waves of joy they're

experiencing so perception is so fickle

it changes depending upon situations so

if you take that

as

me mine or myself you have clinging and

craving to it

it's going to let you down one way or

the other

and then formations we talk about mental

formations mental formations

give rise to feeling and perception

verbal formations give rise to speech

and bodily formations give rise to

bodily actions those formations continue

to change

and are influenced and conditioned by

previous choices you've made

so your intentions the chaitanya the

intention the inclination towards

something

can influence the next set of formations

that arise

and so your choices

are also fickle because they're

dependent upon the situation

contact gives rise

to formations contact gives rise to

intention contact gives rise to feeling

contact gives rise to perception contact

gives rise to intention

right it gives rise to karma

so whatever you see in

the way in the form of your sixth sense

basis or through your sixth sense basis

that can give rise to a particular kind

of intention that inclines in some way

and dependent upon that inclination

certain formations will arise

and so if those formations those choices

are taken as personal

then you might say i made this choice

i cling to this choice

and i can't let go of this choice

then later on that same choice

causes you harm

you have regret for that choice

you have aversion for that choice

but that choice was conditioned by

impersonal formations which were in turn

conditioned by previous choices

so they are always changing arising and

passing away and changing depending upon

the inclinations of the mind

so the moment you start taking that as

personal as me mine or myself

and then identify with those choices and

the effects of those choices that's

liable to cause dukkha

and finally consciousness affected by

craving and clinging we talked about the

arising of consciousness dependent upon

formations

when formations arise and if they are

rooted in craving

rooted in greed hatred or delusion

there's a certain kind of consciousness

that arises if you crave or cling to

that consciousness as me mine or myself

you're going to further create

more craving more clinging more becoming

more birth of reactions and therefore

more suffering but if you see this oh

here is a consciousness that arose that

makes the mind see

and perceive the world in a certain way

and if you have the mindfulness

and if you have the right attention to

see it as impersonal you can let go of

it before it it turns into craving

before it turns it into clinging and

becoming

and then you let go of suffering in that

way so the non-identification

with the five aggregates

leads to the cessation of suffering

the non-identification

is the cessation of the craving and

clinging and identifying

with the five aggregates

and that monks is called the noble truth

of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of the

origin of suffering

it is that craving which gives rise to

rebirth

bound up with pleasure and lust or

aversion

that is to say craving or aversion

finding fresh delight now

now here now there

that is to say

sensual craving

craving for existence and craving for

non-existence

so sensual craving that's the tightness

and tension that arises when you see

something that you like and say i want

that

that grasping onto it and saying i

really like that and i want that

can give rise to personalizing it making

it personal

can give rise to clinging and saying

this is me this is mine this is myself

and can give rise to a sense of self in

habitual tendencies

causing you to react in a way which says

i want more of that and in doing so

causing yourself suffering because what

if there is no more of that or what if

it ends that sensual experience and on

the flip side of that if that sensual

experience is unpleasant

and you see it as growing

and you identify with it and say i don't

want that and you resist to it and

there's that tight that tightness and

tension

because you're hearing that lawn mower

and you're saying i don't want this

sound to be there right now there's

nothing you can do about it

in that moment but what you can do

is recognize

that a version recognize that tightness

intention release your attention from it

relax it let it go and experience relief

in that moment

experience wisdom in seeing that your

mind was affected by craving and is now

no longer affected by craving because

you were applying

you know the six hours applying right

effort

so that's the sensual pleasures the

craving or aversion for sensual

pleasures what about the craving for

existence

there's the chanda which says i incline

my mind towards the wholesome and

therefore i observe and allow the mind

to go into jhana by having an object of

meditation

so there's a wholesome inclination to be

with the object of meditation

but once you're there now there's this

whole desire to stay there

and now it's like if i don't stay here

it's going to be a problem

that kind of craving for existence if

that craving is there that expectation

that my mind will stay there no matter

what arises and then the tension goes

away

the mind beats itself up for having

become non-attentive

and now you're dealing with that

hindrance by not allowing the hindrance

to be there but now you're fighting with

it

you're fighting with the present moment

again you use the six stars to recognize

that and let it go

and then come back to your object to

meditation but if you have this craving

to be with the object of meditation and

you

just

see the distraction push it away and

then come back to the loving kindness

come back to whatever it is that

hindrance is going to grow further and

further and further and it's going to

eat away at the object of meditation and

you're going to have lots of

restlessness

doubt or slot intorper or whatever it

might be

so

the craving for existence is this idea

that i will sit here

until i get nibana

there's craving in that

but if you just say all right let's just

see what happens

you're inclining the mind with wholesome

intention

inclining the mind with chanda towards

seeing what happens and relaxing and

just allowing the mind to be there now

the mind might want to get up right and

after three hours the mind says

all right that's enough of that it

starts to lose energy or it starts to

see like okay maybe i can do something

else why does it do that

because the mind is bored

mind is seeking

some kind of stimulation

and then what does what happens there

amara comes

and brings slot and torpor

omar comes and

attacks you with all of these different

restless thoughts

because the mind is trying to create for

itself some kind of activity that it can

just seek

and so that craving for existence

that i need something here so that i can

occupy my mind

if you

see it and recognize it and say i see

you tomorrow

and then release it and relax and come

back

just soften the mind

soften the restlessness soften

the need to do something

and just observe in six hour whenever

distractions arise

that is

right collectedness

so this desire for existence is craving

for existence comes from that the

craving that i have to become the best

meditator in this retreat

the craving for i have to get my

determinations right

i have to become a stream enter

you know i have to become an onigami all

of these kinds of ideas that's not going

to lead you anywhere but if you have the

wholesome inclination

that okay let's relax the mind

allow the mind to experience the

cessation of suffering

the cessation of craving and allow the

mind to observe how it works

then wisdom naturally arises

inside nature naturally arises and when

there is serenity and insight yoked

together

there is the cessation of perception

feeling and consciousness

so you cannot incline the mind towards

cessation

not in the beginning at least because

there's a lot of craving in that

inclination but you can incline the mind

towards

the

the intention

of letting go

and by letting go there is release

and that release is a cessation of

suffering

you can't just say let the suffering go

let the hindrances go

you have to allow the mind to see it

recognize it and let it go

the process of letting go is not about

pushing it away and ignoring it the

process of letting go is saying here it

is i'm holding it in the palm of my hand

and then i'll let it just go

then the craving for non-existence

right so the craving for non-existence

is

why am i stuck in this channel why can't

i go forward i don't want to be in this

genre right now

you know

i don't want to be here in this retreat

right now why why did i sign up for this

you know whatever it might be or i don't

want to be

uh living in this particular vicinity i

don't want to be here i don't want to be

whenever you have this kind of statement

or variation that i don't want to be

that's the craving for non-existence

and it can be so painful sometimes that

a person is so overwhelmed by their life

situations

that it can result in the ultimate

craving for non-existence which is the

craving to kill oneself

the craving for suicide

because they're so overwhelmed

with so many ideas of what things should

be and shouldn't be

and that the fact that their worldview

doesn't match the way they're feeling

they're so overwhelmed that they don't

want to be in that situation and the

only relief that they think they can

feel

is by ending this life

and that is the ultimate craving for

non-existence annihilationism

and where does this craving arise and

establish itself

wherever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable

there is craving there this craving

arises and establishes itself

all right we have to unpack this

let's just talk about craving but we can

also talk about aversion after that but

first when you talk about craving

sensory craving

it says here

wherever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable you see

something beautiful

and there is a tinge a pull towards that

mind or towards that object that pull is

the underlying tendency towards craving

then acting upon it and then thinking i

want that

is the full-blown tanha

the craving

the kamatana the sensual craving

or

you smell something really bad in the

air and you say oh that is really bad i

don't like that

that initial tinge of

and the underlying tendency that arises

from experiencing that unpleasant odor

that tendency towards aversion if you

act upon that and then

react mentally by saying i don't want

that that grasping

that tightening

is the aversion that arises

so

whatever arises can be just seen as an

unfolding of sensory data packets

this is not me this is not mine this is

not myself and therefore no craving or

aversion will arise

or it can be seen as something affecting

this sense of me

as soon as that happens there's

identification there as soon as that

identification is there there is further

craving and further clinging and further

becoming

if not recognized and let go of

so that that craving arises and

establishes itself so that craving

arises that underlying tendency towards

craving arises in the pleasant feeling

and it establishes itself with the

decision

the intention the inclination to say and

think

this is affecting me and therefore i

like it

that's how it gets established as soon

as you identify with it

and what is there in the world that is

agreeable and pleasurable

the i in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable the ear the nose the tongue

the body the mind in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable and there this

craving arises and establishes itself

so

the eyes themselves can be pleasant the

ears themselves can be pleasant they can

be conceit and i have the most beautiful

eyes in the world

i have the sharpest years in the world

i have the sharpest sense of smell you

know i have a great sense of taste

you know this

feeling of identifying with the sixth

sense basis

that can cause craving to rise and

establish itself in it

sights sounds smells tastes tangibles

mind objects in the world are agreeable

and pleasurable and there this craving

arises and establishes itself now we

already talked about it so the mind

makes contact with the form that is

beautiful i'm sorry the eyes

make contact with the form that is

beautiful the ear makes contact with the

beautiful symphony

the nose makes contact with a beautiful

fragrance

the the tongue makes contact with one of

a delicious piece of food

the body makes contact with the the

softest fabric fabric you've ever felt

the mind makes contact with a

pleasurable

memory

as soon as those experiences arise

and the mind says oh that's great i

really like it that inclination that

tendency towards craving and then

grabbing onto it and saying

that i

want this i don't want this to stop

i hope this continues

that is the craving

and if it does stop

how do you react

that hot shower that you're having

it suddenly stops how do you react

food that you're going for that last

piece of cake you're really looking

forward to that last piece of cake

you know and then suddenly somebody

clutches it and takes it away

how do you feel you recognize you have

to have the ability to

find out where did that thought arise

first

right did that thought how did the

thought arise

it arose because of some kind of contact

like maybe you know you smell something

in the air

and there's contact but that gives rise

to a memory

right but that memory you didn't cause

that memory to happen

it just arose because of a series of

contacts

with the sense spaces

or even if that was not the case and you

were sitting around and you were just

thinking about things

and as you were thinking about things

something arose

but did you cause yourself to think

about that

do you cause yourself to want to think

about painful memories

do you cause yourself to

want the disappearance of pleasant

memories

they go away when they go away they

arise when they arise because of causes

and conditions

the moment you start to see thoughts as

impersonal by seeing oh this thought

arose because of this contact i didn't

cause this thought to happen i didn't

cause the disappearance of this thought

to happen

then you start to disengage and then you

just see the thoughts as a flood of

stream or a stream

of passing by

you know like a river or you see them as

clouds in the sky and you disengage from

them

so you have to see that

but if you get caught up in the story of

that thought and that that getting

caught up in the story is already

clinging

first the thought arises

and then the thought makes contact with

the mind and then there is the feeling

of oh here is an unpleasant memory

do you catch the mind saying oh

he abused me and he attacked me or do

you say well

that was a memory that happened

but it's not happening right now

you cause yourself suffering when you

relive that same memory with that same

amount of

craving and that same amount of clinging

so it depends on how tired you are of

that

do you like indulging in negative

thoughts do you like being indulging in

unwholesome memories

or

is there something in the mind that says

it takes comfort

in indulging in that

and that is the process of

you know that sense of security and

comfort because no one can read your

mind

and say that oh i know exactly what

you're thinking

but you can be in your mind and make up

all of these stories and make up all of

these ideas or think back

and possibly even those memories might

not be the same way that you thought

about them

memories can be very fickle

the way you perceive memories can be

dependent upon your mood

the way you saw someone when you're

angry is one way and then when you have

loving kindness is another way when you

have compassion is another way he abused

me he said those things to me

and you say that in anger

but then when you have loving kindness

and you realize

that person was in pain

that's why they said it it had nothing

to do with me

it had to do with them and how they were

dealing with the problem in that moment

so when you see that then you realize

thoughts are also fickle thoughts are

just arising and passing away and you

create that space

and then

in the same way you see the strawberry

ice cream and realized oh that's just

strawberry ice cream and i created this

association of i want that strawberry

ice cream because of so and so

the same way you create associations

with memories because those are the only

things the mind can hold onto

for a sense of security and comfort but

if the mind experiences something that's

pleasurable

like jhana

then that

is more beneficial than indulging in the

thoughts that cause pain

and eventually because of

the imbuing of the mind with loving

kindness and compassion and forgiveness

those thoughts change the shade and

content of that thought changes or

rather the content might be the same but

the angle the perspective in which you

see that content changes

and it's more than that sense

eye consciousness

your consciousness

knows consciousness

tongue consciousness

body consciousness

mind consciousness in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there thus craving arises and

establishes itself

so eye consciousness your consciousness

knows consciousness tongue consciousness

body consciousness mind consciousness

that's the awareness that arises

dependent upon the eye meeting with form

the year meeting with sound and so on

and so forth that awareness of that if

that has craving in it

or if that has the sense of

identification in it

then that can give rise to identifying

with the feeling

and then being and taking that as

personal they can be craving for it more

and more or there can be aversion if

it's

not pleasurable if it's unpleasant

eye contact your contact nose contact

tongue contact body contact mind contact

in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable and there this craving

arises and establishes itself so even in

eye contact or ear contact or nose

contact or tongue contact or body

contact or mind contact there can be

craving

if that contact is immediately seen and

there's that tinge of this is affecting

a sense of me

and therefore i want it or i don't want

it there is where the craving

establishes itself and that's dependent

upon how the consciousness arose and

that consciousness consciousness is

dependent upon how the formations were

rooted

whether formation is rooted in craving

greed hatred delusion views

identification conceit

ignorance

and if they're war then what kind of

consciousness

arises which then influences the way the

contact is seen

because in that context itself there can

be a sense of i am i am experiencing

this color

really irritates my eyes

there's a contact you recognize that

contact and then there's this oh

i don't like that

you know or

that sound as soon as i hear it there's

like oh look at that that i mean listen

to that that beautiful sound right that

initial impingement of the sense sense

basis that contact if it's

clung to if it's identified with there

can be craving and so even in that

contact there can be tightness and

tension that arises

when you were meditating all wonderfully

and there was just complete quiet mind

complete silence

and then there's a lawnmower that arises

that contact oh my god what happened

you know that initial spark that

tightening in that there's the tension

there that craving there that aversion

there if you recognize that and you're

sick are it

and you let go of that

that sound of the lawnmower will still

be there

but now you'll be able to see it with

equanimity and understand that it is the

reality of that moment

but now your mind is

disenchanted with it dispassionate

towards it and comes back towards its

object

feeling born of eye contact ear contact

nose contact tongue contact

body contact mind contact in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so we talked about eye contact which is

the initial impingement of

the

the sights the sounds the smells and so

on on the sense bases

when it makes initial contact but then

here is an experience

now you're experiencing something and

it's pleasurable

if you allow the mind to say oh this

feels great that's fine but then you say

i hope this doesn't stop

that's where the craving arises

i'm really i'm really enjoying being in

this jhana i hope it doesn't stop

that's the craving

or

you're in a difficult situation

and you say oh this is very unpleasant

i wish it would stop

that's the craving that's the aversion

or i'm getting very distracted i wish

this distractions would stop

that's the aversion

rather than

oh here is a distraction it's quite

unpleasant

i'm going to let that go

and experience the relief from that

distraction

so if you're in an unpleasant situation

what can you do about it

you can't change it

in that moment

you can only secure your reaction to it

you can only say oh here i'm perceiving

it in this way but that's causing me

trouble that's causing me suffering

when i take this personally and i see

this and i'm having aversion to it

that's causing me suffering

and then you'll learn from it using the

six r's

seeing the suffering letting go of the

craving to that suffering experiencing

the relief from that suffering because

you use the right effort

then you're training yourself

you're teaching yourself

in that moment whenever you let go

the perception of sights of sounds of

smells

of tastes of tangibles

of mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so now the perception the perception is

the labeling of what that is this is

pleasant this is unpleasant

fine or you label this is the color of

red or this is the color blue but as

soon as you say oh

that's the color of red

and i hate red

because

of whatever reason that because it's

that clinging

or there's lights flickering somewhere

you know and it's irritating you there's

a perception that there's there's this

light

that's turning on and off on and off

as soon as you say oh that's really

annoying

and then you say i wish that would stop

there's the aversion there

or there's a perception of how beautiful

this flower is

right and you want to keep it for

yourself

and then you realize that the next day

it's gone

and you feel bad about it that's the

craving there

somebody says something really nice

about you

they praise you and it might be you know

worth praising you for whatever it is

that you did

and then you hold on to that oh yeah i

can't believe they said that that's

wonderful

you know you obsess over it

and then you think about it and then you

go back to that person what was it that

you said yesterday about me

it was somebody else

that's the craving

yeah because there's there's this sense

of like attachment to that idea but then

that idea was there in that moment

or that sense of praise was there in

that moment

and you're just trying to recreate that

same experience over and over but all

that's doing is just further identifying

with it

right and then that can create conceit

that can create all these other things

now there's nothing wrong with being

grateful for the things that people have

said you know you can keep all the

different cards of

all the wonderful things that people

have sent you all the wonderful letters

as a sign of gratitude as a sign of

appreciation that's fine

but if your identification is caught up

in that and something happens where

those cards are burned up

oh no

right

it's the getting caught up in that it's

the getting caught up because you value

that as a sense of self

i think it's

um

i think the verses says just like the

wind doesn't move the mountain the wise

person isn't moved by praise right just

as the wind doesn't move the dancing the

wise person isn't moved by criticism

and sometimes that same person who was

was

you know praising you on that day the

next day they say something

about you and you're like how could they

say that

right

and so if you get like you get moved by

that

then there's no

there's no wisdom there it's just

you know you're flying like the kite in

the wind swaying here and there

and that causes suffering

volition in

regard to sights sounds smells tastes

tangibles mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so

volition is the intention the

inclination towards something

if that is tinged by craving

that's dependent upon previous choices

to make choices to crave for that

if you don't recognize that and see that

oh there is an inclination from craving

to go towards that

because of previous choices then you're

not using mindfulness there's a lack of

mindfulness there there's lack of the

ability to remember how your mind's

attention moves from one thing to the

other

the inability to do that then creates

further craving

so now the craving arises and

establishes itself in that intention

further as soon as you make that choice

because once you make that choice or

further incline your compass towards

that choice then the next set of

intentions that arise are already tinged

by that craving already tinged and

influenced and conditioned by that

choice

but if you see oh here comes the craving

now i'm looking at this

you know i'm looking out for this person

to say something good about me because

yesterday they said something great

about me

right

and you let go of that

then there's no seeking out there's no

grasping there's no acquisition there's

just

equanimity

you know you don't get swayed by this or

that likewise with some memory that you

have of

a wonderful film or

you know you smell something beautiful

or something fragrant or you see

something beautiful or you hear

something beautiful

and the intention that arises is to

immediately look at that and

grab onto it

and hold on to it so that it doesn't

change

if you recognize that

and you let go of it and see it as me

not mine or not myself because you see

oh it arose because of a cause because

of a series of causes and conditions

here was this beautiful sight

the contact with it

gave rise to an intention to go and

grab onto it

if you recognize as an intention to grab

onto it then you'll also recognize that

there will be suffering in there because

that beautiful sight will one day fade

in one moment

here's an interesting statement

the craving for sights sounds smells

taste tangibles mind objects in the

world is agreeable and pleasurable and

there is there this craving arises and

it establishes itself

i'm going to read that again the craving

for sight sounds smells taste tangibles

mind objects in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable and there

this craving arises and establishes

itself

how does craving establish

engraving

right there's a there's a sense of like

i really want this and the mind is like

further

strengthening its wanting

right and then that turns into clinging

and that turns into becoming

so the craving for

[Music]

this

beautiful sight that you see

and if you recognize oh there is a

craving and you let it go that's fine

but then there's a tendency for the mind

there can be a tendency for the mind to

say this feels really good this craving

for it itself

like i in i

i like being in a craving mindset it

gets so used to being

in a craving or a verse of mindset

there's a comfort there

the same way people indulge in reliving

their wonderful memories and then

craving for them there's a sense of

comfort there

or the same way they somehow are

comfortable with

even though they don't like

those painful memories

it still arises and there's some sense

of like comfort there it's like some

sense of security there

shopping yeah

just yeah

i just got some money so now i need to

figure out what am i going to you know

buy with it

right

what am i going to want

i'm trying to seek the wanting like what

is it that i want i want more of what i

want you know

yeah i might find something i want yes

yeah

i might crave something you never know

i don't have any money so charge it

oh there you go i'll just take out a

loan for it

people pick up a menu and go

i don't know what i want

[Laughter]

yes

or you hear somebody else wanting that

so it's like oh you know what i changed

my i think i'm gonna have that instead

thinking of sights sounds smells tastes

tangibles mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable and there this

craving arises and establishes itself

pondering on sight sounds smells tastes

tangibles and mind objects in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable and there

this craving arises and establishes

itself thinking and pondering

this is actually vitika vichara

thinking and examining thought which

creates mental proliferation thinking

about it obsessing over it

right

the obsession of uh let's say

unrequited love right

it's like i have to think about my

my object of affection my object of

infatuation

you know and they're constantly

obsessing over that but there's a sense

of craving for it like even though it's

painful

i'm still thinking about it

right so this constant thinking about it

constant obsession over it

that causes tightness and tension in the

mind and body

and if you can stop that cycle of

suffering in there by just recognizing

it and it just stops it right there

right it just is like oh

you come out of that whole like cloud of

delusion

this obsessing over something

and then you

release your attention from it and you

relax it you feel like the clouds just

part

and there's this spaciousness in the

mind there's clarity in the mind it

might come up again because it's an

obsessiveness that arises but eventually

it starts to weaken and weaken and

weaken and you replace all of that

obsession

with wholesome attitudes

a wholesome way of looking at that and

letting go

craving for existence

so

i want to be the world's most powerful

president

i want to be

is a statement which says i want to be

that when you whenever you have that

statement i want to be

that stems from craving for existence i

don't want to be

that's craving for non-existence

i want things to be this way

but a corollary to that be like i want

things to be this way

also yeah

yeah

and that monks is called the noble truth

of the origin of suffering and what

monks

is the noble truth of the cessation of

suffering

it is the complete fading away

and extinction of the suffering

it's forsaking and abandonment

liberation from it detachment from it

the relief

the process of

relaxing

is

allowing the experience of cessation of

suffering to happen in that moment

and that's why you experience

for yourself these noble truths

in your meditation

here is a distraction that is the first

noble truth of suffering

you hold on to it you wish it would

change that's the craving and aversion

towards it that's the second noble truth

but if you use right effort

you use the six r's you're applying the

fourth noble truth

so that you can recognize

release your attention relax and in that

relax experience the third noble truth

of the cessation of suffering

the mundane nibana the mundane niroda

when you do that

then you're experiencing the third noble

truth

and how does this

craving come to be abandoned

how does its cessation come about

so it repeats the same thing over i'll

just go through it

whatever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable

there its cessation comes about and what

is there in the world that is agreeable

and pleasurable the eye the ear the nose

the tongue the body the mind

the eye consciousness the ear

consciousness the nose consciousness the

tongue consciousness the body

consciousness the mind consciousness

sign sites sounds

smells tastes tangibles mind objects

eye contact ear contact nose contact

tongue contact body contact mind contact

the perception of sights sounds smells

tastes

tangibles and mind objects

intention in relation

to sights sounds smells tastes tangibles

mind objects

craving for sights sounds smells

tastes tangibles mind objects

thinking and pondering of sights sounds

smells tastes tangibles and mind objects

in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable or disagreeable and

displeasurable

and there is craving or aversion that

comes to an end

and how does it come to an end

by recognizing it

and then releasing your attention from

it and then relaxing it

so the cessation of suffering is brought

up by the cessation of craving

and that happens we just saw that

happens when you

when you forsake it and abandon it when

you detach from it

you drop it like it's hot

right you

held on to it

and then you let go of it

that letting go of it is the softening

of the mind

is the relaxing of the mind relaxing of

the tightness and tension

in mind and

body therefore you experience the

cessation of suffering

but how does that happen

what do you do to do that

so

there the cessation comes about and that

monks is called the noble truth of the

cessation of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of the

way of practice leading to the cessation

of suffering

it is just this noble eightfold path

namely

right view

right intention

right speech

right action

right livelihood right effort

right mindfulness and right

collectedness

and what and what monks is right view

it is the knowledge of suffering the

knowledge of the origin of suffering the

knowledge of the cessation of suffering

and the knowledge of the way

of practice leading to the cessation of

suffering this is called right view

every time you get distracted it's an

opportunity for you to see right view

it's an opportunity for you to see here

is the hindrance in the form of

suffering

here's the craving that's holding on to

it

and here's a letting go of it by

applying the right effort

so whenever you use the practice that's

the practice

of establishing right view seeing the

four noble truths now there is the

mundane right view which is the

understanding that there is a cause and

consequence there is mother and father

there are teachers and so on and so

forth we've talked about that before but

basically it it boils down to

the

the openness to see that there is karma

that there is a process of rebirth that

there is

a cause and consequence

but this right view

you're seeing for yourself the four

noble truths every time you apply the

six r's every time you recognize that

there's a hindrance every time you

release your attention and relax

every time you re-smile and recollect or

return rather so when you recognize

you're recognizing the first noble truth

of the suffering in form of that

hindrance when you release your

attention and you relax you're

abandoning that tension and tightness by

relaxing

by first releasing your

your mind's attention from that and

bringing it back to relaxing the craving

relaxing the tightness and tension and

thus experiencing

the third noble truth and when you

re-smile you're bringing up and

cultivating joy

you're bringing up the feeling whatever

it might be and you return when you

return you're bringing up the feeling of

loving kindness

or you come back to the quiet mind or

whatever it might be whatever the object

is you're coming back to right

collectedness so when you use the six

r's

you are seeing

the four noble truths in that process so

you are establishing right view bit by

bit

and what is right intention

the intention of renunciation

of non-ill will

of harmlessness

this is called right intention

when we talk about renunciation we're

not talking about just physical

renunciation we're talking about

mental

saying that this is not me this is not

mine this is not myself it's the

intention to see every process

as being impersonal

you're

you're basically adding to your

experience that lens

of this is not me this is not mine this

is not myself it's not a practice of

of uh

saying it verbally it's a practice of

seeing in the moment as it arises that

this is an impersonal process

and that happens only through the

process and application of the six hours

continually doing that

you are

letting go of the unwholesome formations

that cause you to crave and identify and

you're replacing them with the wholesome

formations that allow you to see with

wisdom and compassion

non-ill will

how do you get to not know well that's

through loving-kindness

harmlessness or non-harmlessness

compassion

right when you see another person

suffering

you wish that they

no not suffer right that wish for not

having a person suffer because you know

what it feels like to suffer

you know what it feels like to be in

pain why would you wish upon someone

else

that pain

that's harmlessness

but the wishing that they were no longer

in pain that their pain ceased that

their suffering ceased

is the compassion is the

non-harmlessness

and what is right speech refraining from

lying refraining from slander refraining

from harsh speech refraining from

frivolous speech

this is called right speech

remember i was telling you about the

acronym and think t-h-i-n-k

is it the right time to say what you

want to say is it honest what is the

intention behind it is it necessary and

beneficial for that purpose and can you

say with kindness

frivolous speech means that it's

unnecessary speech

right to lie means that it's uh

it's uh

it's not truthful

abusive speech or harmful speech is

there's an intention to harm there

and it's not kind

right exactly frivolous speech is like

speaking for the sake of speaking it's

just like

i have nothing else to do so i'm just

going to talk

hopefully this dharma talk doesn't come

off as frivolous speech

but frivolous speech you know there's a

there's a pali word for it it's it's an

it's such an interesting word

it's i can't remember it but it's it's

an auto monopia you know it's like it

sounds like frivolous speech

it's like blah blah blah

[Laughter]

if you ignore them it would be weird

yeah exactly it's just small talk yeah

right but not just you just kind of get

yeah frivolous speech is like um

yeah i mean you know you talk about the

weather that's not frivolous speech it's

just like

trying to bond with somebody just trying

to get a sense of you know when you see

in the sutas a person comes to see the

buddha or some other monk and then

initially they talk about how are you

doing how is everything going everything

going good with your family

you know what's going on in the village

you know that kind of stuff and then all

right let's get back to what we're

talking about i mean this is just

this is just

being social

right

being kind and polite and talking about

this or that and then you get to the

main topic that's just the way

minds are structured socially

it's kind of getting a sense of are you

friendly or not you know

a frivolous speech is like talk of kings

and talk of this or talk of that like

did you hear about what happened in that

country that thing you know kardashian

would be privileged oh absolutely

you know i mean you see in the media

right all of that stuff like

talking about other people's lives

you know

and uh

slander and gossip the you know gossip

is basically

talking about a person

uh which either you know not to be true

or not to be accurate or talking about

them behind their backs so how do you

know if it's gossip this is what vante

would say how do you know if it's gossip

would you say the same thing about that

person if they were there right in front

of you

and what monks is right action

refraining from taking life refraining

from taking what is not given

refraining from sensual or sexual

misconduct

this is called right action so

not breaking the precepts

so the first precept

not harming or killing on purpose

second precept not taking what is not

given

the third precept

speech that happens with right speech

and then the fourth precept

refraining from sexual misconduct

well i mean in for the purpose of the

retreat all

sexual activity but when you get back

off retreat

sexual misconduct

so sexual misconduct is

um

you know cheating on someone or

infidelity and

you know if it causes them harm

or causes your self-harm

[Music]

being with someone who is under the

protection of their parents or who has

been throated and things like that

and then sensual misconduct is where

again you have that craving for

something and it causes you to break

other precepts

in the pursuit of that

sensual experience

now it doesn't say anything about

intoxicants

but the indulging in intoxicants will

lead you

or can lead you to break the other four

precepts so it's implicit

and what is

right livelihood

here

the noble disciple having given up wrong

livelihood

keeps himself by right livelihood

[Laughter]

well we talk about right livelihood in

the mundane example which is refraining

from those five things i

trade in human trafficking trade and

intoxicants trade in

poisons trade in weapons

and trade or butchering right

but

for the noble disciple that's the idea

that they don't deal with

palmistry and astrology and

reading the signs and

telling the future and

even medicine you know because they're

here for the purpose of liberation of

the mind they went forth in order to

liberate the mind

not for all of these other things

and what monks is right effort

here one rouses his will

stirs up energy

and exerts the mind

to prevent the arising of unarisen

evil unwholesome states

yeah this word prevent

we've gone back and forth about this but

basically

what it is is recognizing

that there is an unwholesome state there

as soon as you recognize that there's an

unwholesome state there

it no longer

grabs on to the mind because now you've

recognized it

he rouses his will

and strives to overcome evil unwholesome

mental states that have arisen

so

that's really weird language but

basically what that really is

is one makes the right effort

to abandon the unwholesome state

so that's the second right effort and

you abandon it by

releasing your attention to it

and relaxing the tightness and tension

the craving

around that unwholesome state

he makes an effort and exerts his mind

to main

to generate or produce

unarisen wholesome mental states

so when you smile you uplift the mind

when you smile

you bring up a wholesome state of mind

you bring up joy

so first when you relax you experience

clarity that's a wholesome state of mind

and then you bring up the smile to bring

up an uplifted mind that's a wholesome

state of mind you generate the wholesome

state of mind

and then he makes an effort

stirs up energy and exerts his mind to

maintain wholesome states of mind that

have arisen

not to let them fade away

to bring them to greater growth to the

full perfection of development so when

you return back to your object of

meditation

you're in a collected state of mind

that's a wholesome state of mind whether

it's loving kindness whether it's

equanimity whether it's quiet mind

whatever it is and it's not like you

have to push

in order to stay there

just observing and keeping your

attention

will

cause the object of meditation to

develop to grow

you don't have to change it you don't

have to do anything with it just your

mere observation

just your mere attention fuels

the arising of loving-kindness to go

into compassion the arising of

compassion to go into joy and then to

equanimity and then finally all of that

goes away and there's just a quiet mind

right there's no like okay now i'm going

to go from like loving kindness to

compassion

it's not like you're changing it it's

just

it's a natural

organic

progression

well what's happening is when you're

doing the six hours you're not only

developing the right effort but you're

also developing enlightenment factors

you're activating them to come into b

and just by doing that and then coming

back to collectiveness when you return

it continues developing that on its own

the moment you start to apply right

effort the moment you start to apply the

eightfold path

these other things come into development

automatically the enlightenment factors

and we might go through this at some

point

the five faculties the five powers the

four bases of psychic faculties

you know all of that

and so

the

the enlightenment factors are already

implied when you use this process of

right effort and then you come to

collectedness

and then there's no pushing or pulling

while you're in collect while you're

collected on your object of meditation

and because there's no pulling or

pushing that means there's equanimity

there equanimity naturally is developed

just by purely observing this process

begins with observing which is

mindfulness

and in the investigation of states which

discerns what it is that's being

observed and you rouse up the energy the

effort to continue observing that

doesn't mean you push just staying there

and then joy naturally arises because

mind is secluded

from unwholesome states secluded meaning

there is no hindrance present so mind

feels relief from that and there's joy

there

and then

from that joy there's tranquility

and then from that tranquility there's

collectedness and from that

collectiveness there's the equanimity so

it all

is interlocked interconnected when you

do this

but it's also linear and cyclical it's

linear and cyclical yes because that's

by the time you get to the fourth jana

you have the mindfulness the purity of

mindfulness

uh

conditioned by equanimity

and so this is called right effort

and what monks is right mindfulness

here amongst

a monk abides contemplating body as body

ardent clearly aware and mindful

having put aside hankering and fretting

for the world

he abides contemplating feelings as

feelings he abides contemplating mind as

mind here by its contemplating mind

objects as mind objects ardent clearly

aware and mindful having put aside

hankering and fretting for the world

in short remembering to observe how

mind's attention moves from one object

to the other

without craving for this or that without

resisting this or that just seeing

things as they really are the

observation of things as they are

right so

that allows you then to be collected

because then you can recognize is the

mind collected or not collected and you

bring it back to being collected

and what monks is right collectedness

here among detached from sense desires

detached from unwholesome mental states

enters and remains in the first

jhana which is with thinking and

pondering

born of seclusion

filled with delight and joy

and with the subsiding of thinking and

pondering by gaining inner tranquility

and oneness of mind

he enters and remains in the second

jhana which is without thinking and

pondering born of collectedness

filled with delight and joy

and with fate and with the fading away

of delight remaining

equanimous mindful and clearly aware

he experiences in himself

the joy of which the noble ones say

happy is he who dwells with equanimity

and mindfulness he enters the third

jhana

and having given up pleasure and pain

and with the right and with the

disappearance of former gladness and

sadness he enters and remains in the

fourth jhana which is beyond pleasure

and pain and purified by

and mindfulness a pure purity of

mindfulness

and equanimity this is called right

collectedness

so we're that's what you guys are

practicing right now right getting into

jhana that happens naturally the reason

is because you've been observing how

your mind's attention moves from one

place to another and using right effort

to come back to a collected mind and

you're able to recognize when hindrances

arise you're able to release them you're

able to relax the craving and therefore

you you are developing right view

and when you have the right intention to

let go of things and see them as they

are

which is impersonal

and then having cultivated loving

kindness cultivated compassion

you are cultivating right intention

and then when you see that there is a

need to say something that is

not truthful or harmful or whatever it

might be in the way of wrong speech

you're recognizing that and letting that

go and only speaking that which is right

speech and you're keeping the precepts

and therefore you are having right

action so the eightfold path

right right view right intention

right speech right action

right livelihood right effort

right mindfulness right collectedness

you're already doing all these things on

retreat

because you're using right effort the

ability to use right effort means

recognizing when there's wrong view and

coming back to right view

recognizing when there's wrong intention

and coming back to right intention

recognizing when there is right wrong

speech and coming back to right speech

recognizing when there's wrong action

and coming back to right action

recognizing when there is

wrong livelihood and coming back to

right by the way recognizing when

there's wrong mindfulness what is wrong

mindfulness

not being observant

not recognizing how a mind's attention

moves from one thing to the other

but you're coming back and you recognize

what is wrong collectedness

when you're pushing when you're trying

to hold on to the jhana instead of

observing what's happening through right

effort coming back to the jhana with

right effort so right effort the six r's

are the heart

of the eightfold path because it's only

through right effort that you go from

the wrong path to the right path and the

utilization of that

is

the

utilization of the fourth noble truth

to recognize suffering to let let that

go by letting go of the craving and thus

experiencing relief the third noble

truth and the more you do this

the more you see that and the more you

do that the more you

see

suffering the more you understand

suffering

the more you abandon craving the more

you experience relief

and finally the more you perfect

and cultivate

the eightfold path the entire practice

and so this

is the talk on

the four noble truths

it's section

15

that was one section

yeah

it's the i think it's the only suta

which has that much of an elaboration of

the four noble truths

of uh

right of the dependent origination and

right view yeah but this one is like

each of the four noble truths so

are you all satisfied and delighted

all right

let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

fear struck fearlessly

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 ourselves

so

[Music]

okay so today

i thought we'd go and explore a little

bit more

about the four noble truths

and uh

this is from actually nikaya

and there's a section in here which is

section five on the four noble truths

and it's

one of the best better elaborations on

each of the four noble truths

again monks among abides contemplating

mind objects as mind objects

in respect of the four noble truths

how does he do so

here a monk knows as it really is

this is suffering

he knows as it really is this is the

origin of suffering

he knows as it really is this is the

cessation of suffering

he knows as it really is

this is the way of practice

leading to the cessation of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of

suffering

birth is suffering aging is suffering

death is suffering

sorrow lamentation pain sadness and

distress

are suffering

being attached to the unloved is

suffering

being separated from the loved is

suffering

not getting what one wants is suffering

in short

the five aggregates affected by craving

and clinging are suffering

and what monks is birth

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is birth

coming to be

coming forth

the appearance of the aggregates

the acquisition of the sense bases

that monks is called birth

so we talked about birth here from the

macro level the birth of

the acquisition of the aggregates what

happens when a being is born

in a physical realm

but there's also as we talked about the

birth of action

the birth of action is affected by

habitual tendencies affected or

conditioned by let's say

conditioned by the habitual tendencies

that

incline the mind towards a specific kind

of action

and that action is liable to cause

suffering because

that action is rooted in craving is

rooted in

holding onto things and is rooted in

this is my way or not you know it has to

be my way or it cannot be

so this

sense of i am the sense of this is me

this is mine this is myself

leads towards a birth of action birth of

personalized action which leads to

suffering

and then we talk about the acquisition

of the aggregates we also talked about

the acquisition of the sense bases

there's birth death birth death birth

death

in every moment

the arising and passing away of eye

consciousness your consciousness nose

consciousness tongue consciousness body

consciousness

and mind consciousness

what that means is your

physical sense bases

are changing in every moment as well

it's not just the experiences it's not

just consciousness dependent upon the

eye

and the other sense bases

it's not just feeling dependent upon the

other sense bases

your sense bases themselves are changing

in every moment

that means your entire nama rupa your

mentality materiality is changing in

every moment that is the process of

aging which we'll look at but that means

that there is a birth

a renewal of being for each of the sense

bases

in every moment

so how could you say this is my eye

which eye are you talking about is it

the eye right now or the eye that was

there just a split second ago or the eye

that's going to come to be a split

second now

same with any of the sixth sense bases

if those are seen as being conditioned

and those are seen as being impermanent

in every moment

why would anyone take them

as personal why would anyone take them

as

me mine or myself

if you truly see this if you truly

experience this

then nothing is worth holding on to

nothing is worth clinging to

it's all just

creating suffering by holding on to it

but if you see things as it really is as

they really are

then there's no grasping then there's no

clinging

and hence no suffering

this insight cannot happen through just

reflection this insight has to arise

from true knowledge and vision

from true experience of seeing the

impermanence

of all conditioned things namely the

sixth sense spaces

and the five aggregates

and what is aging

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is aging

decreptitude decrepitude

broken teeth

gray hair

wrinkle skin shrinking with age

decay of the sense faculties

that monks is called aging

we're all aging

it's inevitable

some are aging one way and some are

aging another way some are experiencing

uh you know

baldness some are experiencing wrinkled

skin some are experiencing

uh you know the brokenness of teeth some

have to go to the dentist some have to

go to this doctor some have to go to

that specialist

this all results because of the decline

of

the faculties

some people experience the decline of

mental faculties

that happens as a result of aging

as of and that aging can be sped up or

it can slow down but it will always

be there

you can't prevent aging you can slow

aging if you wanted to

with the right diet and so on and so

forth but that doesn't stop it

so aging is a fact of life as much as

birth is a fact of life and as much as

death is a fact of life now even if

somewhere off into the future we were

able to understand

how to

uh lengthen our telomeres

which

enable us to age depending upon the

length of the telomeres even if we were

able to do that

it would still be aging

in the form of mind

in the form of the decline of faculties

how one perceives things

there is still that aging in the mind

aging is

not only

physical or mental but you see aging in

the form of

decline

in the world

this world will one day

no longer exist

in the grand scheme of existence in the

grand scheme of the universe

one day the sun

will become larger and larger and larger

and consume this earth

eventually that sun

that used to give us that gives us life

now

will actually give this planet death

and then that sun will turn into a black

hole

galaxies will age they will decline

nothing in this universe

is permanent everything is in a state of

flux towards decline

even if scientists say well

there's the proton you know there's

something called proton decay it might

happen over

quintillions of years

right but it's still decaying

so decaying decline aging this is just

the nature of existence

now you can read all about it you can

listen to dhamma talks about it

you can

contemplate it and all of these things

but unless you see it as it actually is

through your own experience

we really get deep down into

understanding that everything that

arises passes away and that process of

passing away

from birth to death is aging is decline

and you totally understand it and accept

it

then you'll you will be at peace

because you won't hold on to anything

you won't cling to anything you won't

grasp at anything

and because of that you don't

personalize anything you don't see

anything as me mine or myself

and so you won't crave for anything

you won't cling to anything you won't

become anything

and therefore you won't experience

further suffering

and what is death

in whatever beings of whatever group of

beings there is a passing away

a removal a cutting off

a disappearance a death a dying an

ending a cutting off of the aggregates

a discarding of the body

that monks is called death

death is the end of one life there's

always

the birth and death that we experience

in one life

so on the macro level death is the end

of one continuous seemingly continuous

life

but on the micro level on the

moment-to-moment level we see this we

understand this when we see infinite

consciousness

contact arises passes away consciousness

arises passes away feeling arises passes

away perception arises passes away

body arises passes away in every moment

so

when we talk about death at the macro

level what we're talking about is the

ending of that life

now within the experience

of that life

and what we see as the legal or medical

definition of death we see it as

the

stopping of the heart stopping of the

respiration and

the the ending of brain activity

but there's a process of unfurling

unfolding after that happens

and what that means is

within the context of one death to the

next birth on a macro level

there's a process of decline of the

sense basis

so when the body is seemingly dead

certain elements diminish

first

the air element diminishes

then the fire element diminishes

then the water element diminishes and

then finally the earth element

diminishes

in terms of the sixth sense spaces

the first sense to go away is the sense

of smell

then the sense of taste

then the sense of sight then the sense

of touch

and then finally the sense of hearing

and then beyond that the sense of the

mind

so the

mental experiences are still going on

because there's still mental

consciousness going on

and whatever is arising in the form of

mental images

if that is clung to

that will activate through the feel of

craving a new formation that then gives

rise to a new consciousness that results

in a new namarupa in a new mentality

materiality that then descends into that

new mentality materiality

so this process of death

it can be either when life is cut off on

in the medical definition or if you go

beyond that and the decline of the

elements and the diminishing of the

elements

and the cutting off of the sense basis

in either case that's it that's the end

and when that's the end

it doesn't mean it's the end because

when there's craving there it can give

rise

to further birth it can give rise to

renewal of being

and hence

that death is just if

there's craving in there that that just

leads on to more suffering

because now you come back into this

realm or you come back into another

realm and you experience the same things

you experience again

the pain and the pleasure depending upon

where you are in which realm and so on

and you

and you experience the impermanence

the impermanence of the nature of

samsara

and so samsara itself is inherently

impermanent and therefore inherently

dukkha and therefore inherently

impersonal

now a person who sees this a worldling

who sees this

will be quite intimidated by it because

they say well if everything is

impermanent and if everything is dukkka

and if everything is there for not

myself then what's the point of living

this happened in some cases where the

buddha was talking about impermanence

talking about the impersonal nature of

things and that led to some people

misinterpreting that and then killing

themselves because they thought that

meant

annihilationism but that's not what

we're talking about here what we're

saying is

there is suffering in existence

but

there is also a way out of that

suffering in existence

there is pleasant feeling and yes that

pleasant feeling is inherently suffering

because it's impermanent

but there's categories of pleasant

feeling

there's the base pleasant feeling of the

sense basis

of the

sensual experiences

but then beyond that there is the mental

pleasure born from seclusion

or seclusion from the unwholesome states

and seclusion from the sense experiences

and that mental pleasure is jhana

and beyond that there is the cessation

of perception feeling and consciousness

and beyond that there is nibana

it's the bliss of no feeling

and so that experience allows you to see

everything as impermanent but this time

you don't see it from a sense of self

now you realize everything is impersonal

now you realize oh it is impermanent and

there is nothing worth holding on to

because if i do hold on to something if

the mind grasps at something it's going

to cause renewal of being and that

renewal of being can come in the form of

feeling the same emotions experiencing

the same kinds of

situations with people

having interactions with the same kind

of people attracting the same kind of

relationships and so on that might be

detrimental or that might be okay but

eventually will end

and the fact that they end

is also suffering

so

once you see the impermanent nature from

that angle from that perspective

rooted in wisdom rooted in the wisdom of

the impersonal nature of all things

then you don't take it so seriously you

don't go towards annihilationism

you don't go towards eternalism

there is the middle road the middle path

which is the understanding of how

self the sense of self arises through

the process of dependent origination and

how suffering

ceases

through the cessation of the links of

dependent origination

using the eightfold path using the tools

that the buddha has given us

and we'll see that soon

and what is sorrow

whenever by any kind of misfortune

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

sorrow morning

this morning distress inward grief

inward woe that monks is called sorrow

so sorrow is whenever you are met with

some kind of unpleasant feeling there's

that tinge of

sadness the tinge of sorrow the tinge of

i don't like this

that little tinge of oh i missed my

flight

you know that tinge of

oh

i didn't get that last piece of cake

that was there

you know

or even greater sorrow oh

this person died

i couldn't say

what i wanted to say to them

or a painful feeling arises

you know a wasp stings you and you feel

that and that's sorrowful it's like

oh that slight

tinge

that you feel internally that sorrow

and what is lamentation

whenever by any kind of misfortune or

unpleasant feeling

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

and there is crying out

lamenting making much noise for grief

making great lamentation

that monks is called lamentation

so sorrow and lamentation and the rest

that follow it are that second dart

the first start is the pain that you

experience

the physical pain

and then the crying out

with the sense of this has affected me

that's the lamentation the crying out

ouch that hurts

right but it's it's not just the words

it's the

it's the tinge of feeling the tinge of

experience behind those words

because even a person without the second

dart might say ouch

but then they don't

see that as this is my pain they just

know oh

there was an unpleasant feeling there

there was a painful feeling there

and that's it

and what is pain

whatever bodily painful feeling bodily

unpleasant feeling

painful or unpleasant feeling results

from bodily contact

that monks is called pain

and so that pain can also come in the

form of disease

in the form of sickness in the form of

illness

in the form of pain you stub your toe

that's pain

you get up in the morning and you

stretch and then you pull a muscle

that's pain

you

go out somewhere and you catch a cold

and you come back and you experience

cold and fever

that's bodily pain

now those are all impersonal causes and

conditions yeah you stubbed your toe but

you didn't cause you didn't mean to stub

your toe it just happened

and it was because your toe made contact

with the rock or made contact with the

corner of the bed

and so that was painful

you went out and you caught a cold well

you were in an area where there was some

uh you know

rhinovirus going around and you caught

it

and so now that's the cold that's the

bodily pain

how do you deal with it do you say oh

woe is me

you know and i hate this this sucks

right do you say that or do you say

okay here is the cold

here is the illness now how do i deal

with it

you have to see that dealing with it is

dependent upon whether you see it as

myself

or me or mine or you see it as

here's a painful feeling

how do i let go of this painful feeling

first and foremost how do i let go of

the craving or aversion towards that

painful feeling and then is there a way

to fix this painful feeling

if i break my toe i can go to the doctor

and get it fixed if i catch a cold

i can take some rest

get some extra sleep get some extra

vitamins

and allow the body to do its processes

and whatever it might be

or i can

you know

moan about it and groan about it and

feel all this sorrow and lamentation

about it but what's that going to do

this is going to cause me more suffering

it's just going to cause me

to go in this cycle of continual

suffering

but if you stop that cycle and see it as

okay this is a problem to be solved

in a rational manner in an impersonal

manner

then

the mind goes from all of this

sense of habitual tendencies of

you know blaming that painful feeling or

blaming oneself for that painful feeling

to then wisdom and compassion and saying

how do i let go of this painful feeling

and how do i alleviate this painful

feeling

and so you're more oriented towards

solving the problem

rather than adding to the problem with

your

making it personal or taking it personal

and what is sadness whatever mental

painful feeling mental unpleasant

feeling painful or unpleasant sensations

result from mental contact that monks is

called sadness so when he talks about

pain he's talking about physical pain

bodily pain

pain through the five chords of

stimulation

the eye the ear the nose the tongue

and the body but when he talks about

sadness he's talking about mental pain

through the mind

when you have an experience where you're

thinking back about something the

memory of a loved one who's gone

right there's sadness there

when you think about the good days the

good old days that have gone by there's

nostalgia there but it's tinged with

sadness and bitter sweetness

so or when you think about something

that you didn't get

and so you're thinking about that and

now that causes you pain

mental pain

that's sadness

and what is distress

whenever by any kind of misfortune

anyone is affected by something of a

painful nature

distress

great distress affliction with distress

with great distress that monks

is called distress

so sometimes this could also be

understood as

anxiety right something happens

that you don't want

something happens that was unexpected

and you can deal with it through sadness

by beating yourself up

or you can deal with it by having

anxiety like what do we do now you know

that distress that restlessness that

restlessness that arises how do we how

do we deal with the situation what can

we do that feeling of

helplessness

because you see this as something that's

me mine or myself

as soon as you take away that thorn of

personalizing things

you create a distance a space

between

the mind

and the problem

and now that problem is no longer my

problem my problem is

it's just a problem to be solved

it's a situation to be solved it's not

my situation

it's just

here it is how do we deal with it

and what monks is being attached to the

unloved

here whoever has unwanted

disliked unpleasant sight objects

smells

tastes

tangibles or mind objects or whoever

encounters ill-wishers wishers of harm

of discomfort of insecurity with whom

they have concourse intercourse

connection

union that monks is called being

attached to the unloved so being

attached to the unloved which basically

means

having aversion

towards a painful experience through the

sixth sense basis

dealing with criticism

dealing with people saying no to you

dealing with what you perceive as people

being angry at you what you perceive as

people being

intentionally harmful to you

maybe they are actually being harmful to

you or

is it that your mind is projecting onto

these situations and people a certain

idea of what they are

or what they're doing

and so you have to look at that are you

making the situation

are you taking the situation personally

and whatever arises that is unpleasant

in the way of the sixth sense spaces

do you see that as something affecting a

sense of you or do you see it as just

impersonal vibrations and molecules

there's you know

uh the pleasant unpleasant sound

of the lawnmower

right it hasn't been there for the last

two days

but

let's say there's the

the unpleasant sound of the lawnmower do

you take that as oh

don't they know i'm meditating why are

you doing this right now or do you see

it as just vibrations in the air

what's the difference between that and

the vibrations of the air coming from

the song of birds

or from some beautiful music

just different vibrations different

sound waves

or when you smell something sweet

what's the difference between that and

something that you smell that's garbage

just different odor molecules

when you taste something that's bitter

and you taste something that's sweet

what's the difference just different

molecules

these are all just impersonal

data packets that arise

and your sense bases are

receivers

that just receive this information and

it's just impersonal sensory data and if

you take it personally

then you're going to cause yourself

suffering

and what is being separated from the

loved here whoever has what is wanted

liked pleasant sight objects sounds

smells tastes tangibles or mind objects

or whoever whoever

encounters well-wishers wishers of good

of comfort of security mother or father

or brother or sister or younger kinsmen

or friends or colleagues or blood

relations and when and then is deprived

of such concourse intercourse connection

or union that monks is called being

separated from the loved

so it's a really cold day outside and

you go back you know you go to the

shower and it's really nice and warm you

take a nice

long hot shower

and then suddenly the hot water goes

away and now suddenly there's just ice

cold water coming on to you

that is the

separation from the loved right

[Laughter]

or you know

you may you made a friend after a long

time and you have some great time and

you know you have a great connection and

everything and they have to go there's

that slight tinge of sadness from

separating from them

or you go back to

your family for the holidays

maybe it might be unpleasant first

you know as you discuss with them

politics or this or that or whatever it

might be but there's a sense of

connection there there's a sense of this

is my relative this is my family member

and then

you make a connection and it's warm and

heartfelt

and then the holidays are over and then

you have to leave there's that slight

tinge of oh

i'm leaving home now

right the separation

from what is loved

and that's because you take all of that

personally

that hot water that comes in that's

affecting me it feels good to me

it goes away oh no it's gone

that friend that i met

they make me feel good i feel good being

with them they go away that slight tinge

of separation

it's because you take that personally

when you're separated from family

members when you're separated from you

have to go

back wherever you're going now that the

holidays are over that slight sense of

separation that tinge

that is dukkha

and what is not getting what one wants

in being subject to birth monks this was

this wish arises

oh that we were not subject to birth

that we might not come to birth

you've come to birth can you wish that

you were never born

you've already been born

but this cannot be gained by wishing

this is not getting what one wants in

subjects in being subject to aging to

disease to death

to sorrow lamentation pain sadness and

distress

this wish arises

oh that we were not subject to aging

to disease to death to sorrow

lamentation pain sadness and distress

that we might not come to these things

but this cannot be gained by wishing

this is not getting what one wants

having expectations of something and

then being met with the reality of the

situation

where you don't want that to happen

the moment you start fighting with the

present moment you cause yourself

suffering

that fighting with the present moment is

craving and aversion and identification

the moment that happens

there's this tinge of craving that

tightness and tension that arises

in mind and body

and then there's that wish i wish things

were different

i wish i never met that person before i

wish i hadn't said that

and so on and so forth all of these are

form of dukkah

and how monks in short

are the five aggregates affected by

craving and clinging suffering

they are as follows

the aggregate of form affected by

craving and clinging the aggregate of

feeling affected by craving and clinging

the aggregate of perception affected by

craving and clinging the aggregate of

mental formations affected by craving

and clinging

the aggregate of consciousness affected

by craving and clinging

these are in short the five aggregates

of grasping

are the five aggregates affected by

craving and clinging that are suffering

so

the five aggregates affected by craving

and clinging

the form the feeling the perception the

formations and the consciousness

the form affected by craving and

clinging is the form taken personally

this is my body this is my hand this is

my arm these are my legs

this is my face

these are my sixth sense bases

taking that personally and if anything

is affected in the sense that this does

not

feel good to the body this does not feel

pleasant to the body if there is craving

there there will be

suffering there will be dukkha

with feeling

you cannot change the feeling

feeling here is related to pleasant

feeling unpleasant feeling

neutral feeling when a pleasant feeling

goes away there is duka there because

it's gone it's changed

when an unpleasant feeling arises

there is duka there because it has

arisen

when a neutral feeling arises

because of ignorance one takes it

personally and grabs on to it holds on

to it but when it fades away

it's seen as dukkha

and so there can be ignorance there

there can be craving there there can be

attachment to views there

there can be clinging to being there and

so on from feeling

so whatever you're experiencing right

now is all feeling through the sixth

sense basis

but if there is craving there if there's

clinging there it's going to cause you

luka

perception

perception is rooted in memory

maybe you associate a certain kind of

smell

with grief

maybe you associate a certain kind of

taste with some kind of pleasure

and so the perception of what that taste

is can also bring up if that perception

is taken as me mine or myself

is can be can bring up this feeling of

grief this experience of grief this

experience of pleasure

so perception being rooted in memory it

arises and passes away

and if what is impermanent is held onto

is taken as self

that will cause you dukkha because when

it goes away if it's a pleasant

perception

now it's gone

if it's an unpleasant perception that

arose

you cling onto it you feel

pain because of that you feel grief

because of that you feel sorrow and

lamentation or experience sorrow and

lamentation because of it

so perceptions can change

right the perception of pain what was

painful once

can somehow be pleasurable the

perception of what was pleasurable once

can be painful depending upon clinging

and association

there was one individual who was

meditating and they had a

terrible bodily pain

they had to be on a shoulder sling and

all of that you know

and uh

when they experienced this pain it was

difficult for them to meditate

but as soon as they realized that it was

not the pain that was the problem it was

how they took the pain

how they personalized the perception of

the pain they six are that

they accepted that there was that pain

and then the funny thing about that is

when they had a cessation experience

the pain turned to pleasure

suddenly they said those waves of pain

turn to waves of joy they're

experiencing so perception is so fickle

it changes depending upon situations so

if you take that

as

me mine or myself you have clinging and

craving to it

it's going to let you down one way or

the other

and then formations we talk about mental

formations mental formations

give rise to feeling and perception

verbal formations give rise to speech

and bodily formations give rise to

bodily actions those formations continue

to change

and are influenced and conditioned by

previous choices you've made

so your intentions the chaitanya the

intention the inclination towards

something

can influence the next set of formations

that arise

and so your choices

are also fickle because they're

dependent upon the situation

contact gives rise

to formations contact gives rise to

intention contact gives rise to feeling

contact gives rise to perception contact

gives rise to intention

right it gives rise to karma

so whatever you see in

the way in the form of your sixth sense

basis or through your sixth sense basis

that can give rise to a particular kind

of intention that inclines in some way

and dependent upon that inclination

certain formations will arise

and so if those formations those choices

are taken as personal

then you might say i made this choice

i cling to this choice

and i can't let go of this choice

then later on that same choice

causes you harm

you have regret for that choice

you have aversion for that choice

but that choice was conditioned by

impersonal formations which were in turn

conditioned by previous choices

so they are always changing arising and

passing away and changing depending upon

the inclinations of the mind

so the moment you start taking that as

personal as me mine or myself

and then identify with those choices and

the effects of those choices that's

liable to cause dukkha

and finally consciousness affected by

craving and clinging we talked about the

arising of consciousness dependent upon

formations

when formations arise and if they are

rooted in craving

rooted in greed hatred or delusion

there's a certain kind of consciousness

that arises if you crave or cling to

that consciousness as me mine or myself

you're going to further create

more craving more clinging more becoming

more birth of reactions and therefore

more suffering but if you see this oh

here is a consciousness that arose that

makes the mind see

and perceive the world in a certain way

and if you have the mindfulness

and if you have the right attention to

see it as impersonal you can let go of

it before it it turns into craving

before it turns it into clinging and

becoming

and then you let go of suffering in that

way so the non-identification

with the five aggregates

leads to the cessation of suffering

the non-identification

is the cessation of the craving and

clinging and identifying

with the five aggregates

and that monks is called the noble truth

of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of the

origin of suffering

it is that craving which gives rise to

rebirth

bound up with pleasure and lust or

aversion

that is to say craving or aversion

finding fresh delight now

now here now there

that is to say

sensual craving

craving for existence and craving for

non-existence

so sensual craving that's the tightness

and tension that arises when you see

something that you like and say i want

that

that grasping onto it and saying i

really like that and i want that

can give rise to personalizing it making

it personal

can give rise to clinging and saying

this is me this is mine this is myself

and can give rise to a sense of self in

habitual tendencies

causing you to react in a way which says

i want more of that and in doing so

causing yourself suffering because what

if there is no more of that or what if

it ends that sensual experience and on

the flip side of that if that sensual

experience is unpleasant

and you see it as growing

and you identify with it and say i don't

want that and you resist to it and

there's that tight that tightness and

tension

because you're hearing that lawn mower

and you're saying i don't want this

sound to be there right now there's

nothing you can do about it

in that moment but what you can do

is recognize

that a version recognize that tightness

intention release your attention from it

relax it let it go and experience relief

in that moment

experience wisdom in seeing that your

mind was affected by craving and is now

no longer affected by craving because

you were applying

you know the six hours applying right

effort

so that's the sensual pleasures the

craving or aversion for sensual

pleasures what about the craving for

existence

there's the chanda which says i incline

my mind towards the wholesome and

therefore i observe and allow the mind

to go into jhana by having an object of

meditation

so there's a wholesome inclination to be

with the object of meditation

but once you're there now there's this

whole desire to stay there

and now it's like if i don't stay here

it's going to be a problem

that kind of craving for existence if

that craving is there that expectation

that my mind will stay there no matter

what arises and then the tension goes

away

the mind beats itself up for having

become non-attentive

and now you're dealing with that

hindrance by not allowing the hindrance

to be there but now you're fighting with

it

you're fighting with the present moment

again you use the six stars to recognize

that and let it go

and then come back to your object to

meditation but if you have this craving

to be with the object of meditation and

you

just

see the distraction push it away and

then come back to the loving kindness

come back to whatever it is that

hindrance is going to grow further and

further and further and it's going to

eat away at the object of meditation and

you're going to have lots of

restlessness

doubt or slot intorper or whatever it

might be

so

the craving for existence is this idea

that i will sit here

until i get nibana

there's craving in that

but if you just say all right let's just

see what happens

you're inclining the mind with wholesome

intention

inclining the mind with chanda towards

seeing what happens and relaxing and

just allowing the mind to be there now

the mind might want to get up right and

after three hours the mind says

all right that's enough of that it

starts to lose energy or it starts to

see like okay maybe i can do something

else why does it do that

because the mind is bored

mind is seeking

some kind of stimulation

and then what does what happens there

amara comes

and brings slot and torpor

omar comes and

attacks you with all of these different

restless thoughts

because the mind is trying to create for

itself some kind of activity that it can

just seek

and so that craving for existence

that i need something here so that i can

occupy my mind

if you

see it and recognize it and say i see

you tomorrow

and then release it and relax and come

back

just soften the mind

soften the restlessness soften

the need to do something

and just observe in six hour whenever

distractions arise

that is

right collectedness

so this desire for existence is craving

for existence comes from that the

craving that i have to become the best

meditator in this retreat

the craving for i have to get my

determinations right

i have to become a stream enter

you know i have to become an onigami all

of these kinds of ideas that's not going

to lead you anywhere but if you have the

wholesome inclination

that okay let's relax the mind

allow the mind to experience the

cessation of suffering

the cessation of craving and allow the

mind to observe how it works

then wisdom naturally arises

inside nature naturally arises and when

there is serenity and insight yoked

together

there is the cessation of perception

feeling and consciousness

so you cannot incline the mind towards

cessation

not in the beginning at least because

there's a lot of craving in that

inclination but you can incline the mind

towards

the

the intention

of letting go

and by letting go there is release

and that release is a cessation of

suffering

you can't just say let the suffering go

let the hindrances go

you have to allow the mind to see it

recognize it and let it go

the process of letting go is not about

pushing it away and ignoring it the

process of letting go is saying here it

is i'm holding it in the palm of my hand

and then i'll let it just go

then the craving for non-existence

right so the craving for non-existence

is

why am i stuck in this channel why can't

i go forward i don't want to be in this

genre right now

you know

i don't want to be here in this retreat

right now why why did i sign up for this

you know whatever it might be or i don't

want to be

uh living in this particular vicinity i

don't want to be here i don't want to be

whenever you have this kind of statement

or variation that i don't want to be

that's the craving for non-existence

and it can be so painful sometimes that

a person is so overwhelmed by their life

situations

that it can result in the ultimate

craving for non-existence which is the

craving to kill oneself

the craving for suicide

because they're so overwhelmed

with so many ideas of what things should

be and shouldn't be

and that the fact that their worldview

doesn't match the way they're feeling

they're so overwhelmed that they don't

want to be in that situation and the

only relief that they think they can

feel

is by ending this life

and that is the ultimate craving for

non-existence annihilationism

and where does this craving arise and

establish itself

wherever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable

there is craving there this craving

arises and establishes itself

all right we have to unpack this

let's just talk about craving but we can

also talk about aversion after that but

first when you talk about craving

sensory craving

it says here

wherever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable you see

something beautiful

and there is a tinge a pull towards that

mind or towards that object that pull is

the underlying tendency towards craving

then acting upon it and then thinking i

want that

is the full-blown tanha

the craving

the kamatana the sensual craving

or

you smell something really bad in the

air and you say oh that is really bad i

don't like that

that initial tinge of

and the underlying tendency that arises

from experiencing that unpleasant odor

that tendency towards aversion if you

act upon that and then

react mentally by saying i don't want

that that grasping

that tightening

is the aversion that arises

so

whatever arises can be just seen as an

unfolding of sensory data packets

this is not me this is not mine this is

not myself and therefore no craving or

aversion will arise

or it can be seen as something affecting

this sense of me

as soon as that happens there's

identification there as soon as that

identification is there there is further

craving and further clinging and further

becoming

if not recognized and let go of

so that that craving arises and

establishes itself so that craving

arises that underlying tendency towards

craving arises in the pleasant feeling

and it establishes itself with the

decision

the intention the inclination to say and

think

this is affecting me and therefore i

like it

that's how it gets established as soon

as you identify with it

and what is there in the world that is

agreeable and pleasurable

the i in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable the ear the nose the tongue

the body the mind in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable and there this

craving arises and establishes itself

so

the eyes themselves can be pleasant the

ears themselves can be pleasant they can

be conceit and i have the most beautiful

eyes in the world

i have the sharpest years in the world

i have the sharpest sense of smell you

know i have a great sense of taste

you know this

feeling of identifying with the sixth

sense basis

that can cause craving to rise and

establish itself in it

sights sounds smells tastes tangibles

mind objects in the world are agreeable

and pleasurable and there this craving

arises and establishes itself now we

already talked about it so the mind

makes contact with the form that is

beautiful i'm sorry the eyes

make contact with the form that is

beautiful the ear makes contact with the

beautiful symphony

the nose makes contact with a beautiful

fragrance

the the tongue makes contact with one of

a delicious piece of food

the body makes contact with the the

softest fabric fabric you've ever felt

the mind makes contact with a

pleasurable

memory

as soon as those experiences arise

and the mind says oh that's great i

really like it that inclination that

tendency towards craving and then

grabbing onto it and saying

that i

want this i don't want this to stop

i hope this continues

that is the craving

and if it does stop

how do you react

that hot shower that you're having

it suddenly stops how do you react

food that you're going for that last

piece of cake you're really looking

forward to that last piece of cake

you know and then suddenly somebody

clutches it and takes it away

how do you feel you recognize you have

to have the ability to

find out where did that thought arise

first

right did that thought how did the

thought arise

it arose because of some kind of contact

like maybe you know you smell something

in the air

and there's contact but that gives rise

to a memory

right but that memory you didn't cause

that memory to happen

it just arose because of a series of

contacts

with the sense spaces

or even if that was not the case and you

were sitting around and you were just

thinking about things

and as you were thinking about things

something arose

but did you cause yourself to think

about that

do you cause yourself to want to think

about painful memories

do you cause yourself to

want the disappearance of pleasant

memories

they go away when they go away they

arise when they arise because of causes

and conditions

the moment you start to see thoughts as

impersonal by seeing oh this thought

arose because of this contact i didn't

cause this thought to happen i didn't

cause the disappearance of this thought

to happen

then you start to disengage and then you

just see the thoughts as a flood of

stream or a stream

of passing by

you know like a river or you see them as

clouds in the sky and you disengage from

them

so you have to see that

but if you get caught up in the story of

that thought and that that getting

caught up in the story is already

clinging

first the thought arises

and then the thought makes contact with

the mind and then there is the feeling

of oh here is an unpleasant memory

do you catch the mind saying oh

he abused me and he attacked me or do

you say well

that was a memory that happened

but it's not happening right now

you cause yourself suffering when you

relive that same memory with that same

amount of

craving and that same amount of clinging

so it depends on how tired you are of

that

do you like indulging in negative

thoughts do you like being indulging in

unwholesome memories

or

is there something in the mind that says

it takes comfort

in indulging in that

and that is the process of

you know that sense of security and

comfort because no one can read your

mind

and say that oh i know exactly what

you're thinking

but you can be in your mind and make up

all of these stories and make up all of

these ideas or think back

and possibly even those memories might

not be the same way that you thought

about them

memories can be very fickle

the way you perceive memories can be

dependent upon your mood

the way you saw someone when you're

angry is one way and then when you have

loving kindness is another way when you

have compassion is another way he abused

me he said those things to me

and you say that in anger

but then when you have loving kindness

and you realize

that person was in pain

that's why they said it it had nothing

to do with me

it had to do with them and how they were

dealing with the problem in that moment

so when you see that then you realize

thoughts are also fickle thoughts are

just arising and passing away and you

create that space

and then

in the same way you see the strawberry

ice cream and realized oh that's just

strawberry ice cream and i created this

association of i want that strawberry

ice cream because of so and so

the same way you create associations

with memories because those are the only

things the mind can hold onto

for a sense of security and comfort but

if the mind experiences something that's

pleasurable

like jhana

then that

is more beneficial than indulging in the

thoughts that cause pain

and eventually because of

the imbuing of the mind with loving

kindness and compassion and forgiveness

those thoughts change the shade and

content of that thought changes or

rather the content might be the same but

the angle the perspective in which you

see that content changes

and it's more than that sense

eye consciousness

your consciousness

knows consciousness

tongue consciousness

body consciousness

mind consciousness in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there thus craving arises and

establishes itself

so eye consciousness your consciousness

knows consciousness tongue consciousness

body consciousness mind consciousness

that's the awareness that arises

dependent upon the eye meeting with form

the year meeting with sound and so on

and so forth that awareness of that if

that has craving in it

or if that has the sense of

identification in it

then that can give rise to identifying

with the feeling

and then being and taking that as

personal they can be craving for it more

and more or there can be aversion if

it's

not pleasurable if it's unpleasant

eye contact your contact nose contact

tongue contact body contact mind contact

in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable and there this craving

arises and establishes itself so even in

eye contact or ear contact or nose

contact or tongue contact or body

contact or mind contact there can be

craving

if that contact is immediately seen and

there's that tinge of this is affecting

a sense of me

and therefore i want it or i don't want

it there is where the craving

establishes itself and that's dependent

upon how the consciousness arose and

that consciousness consciousness is

dependent upon how the formations were

rooted

whether formation is rooted in craving

greed hatred delusion views

identification conceit

ignorance

and if they're war then what kind of

consciousness

arises which then influences the way the

contact is seen

because in that context itself there can

be a sense of i am i am experiencing

this color

really irritates my eyes

there's a contact you recognize that

contact and then there's this oh

i don't like that

you know or

that sound as soon as i hear it there's

like oh look at that that i mean listen

to that that beautiful sound right that

initial impingement of the sense sense

basis that contact if it's

clung to if it's identified with there

can be craving and so even in that

contact there can be tightness and

tension that arises

when you were meditating all wonderfully

and there was just complete quiet mind

complete silence

and then there's a lawnmower that arises

that contact oh my god what happened

you know that initial spark that

tightening in that there's the tension

there that craving there that aversion

there if you recognize that and you're

sick are it

and you let go of that

that sound of the lawnmower will still

be there

but now you'll be able to see it with

equanimity and understand that it is the

reality of that moment

but now your mind is

disenchanted with it dispassionate

towards it and comes back towards its

object

feeling born of eye contact ear contact

nose contact tongue contact

body contact mind contact in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so we talked about eye contact which is

the initial impingement of

the

the sights the sounds the smells and so

on on the sense bases

when it makes initial contact but then

here is an experience

now you're experiencing something and

it's pleasurable

if you allow the mind to say oh this

feels great that's fine but then you say

i hope this doesn't stop

that's where the craving arises

i'm really i'm really enjoying being in

this jhana i hope it doesn't stop

that's the craving

or

you're in a difficult situation

and you say oh this is very unpleasant

i wish it would stop

that's the craving that's the aversion

or i'm getting very distracted i wish

this distractions would stop

that's the aversion

rather than

oh here is a distraction it's quite

unpleasant

i'm going to let that go

and experience the relief from that

distraction

so if you're in an unpleasant situation

what can you do about it

you can't change it

in that moment

you can only secure your reaction to it

you can only say oh here i'm perceiving

it in this way but that's causing me

trouble that's causing me suffering

when i take this personally and i see

this and i'm having aversion to it

that's causing me suffering

and then you'll learn from it using the

six r's

seeing the suffering letting go of the

craving to that suffering experiencing

the relief from that suffering because

you use the right effort

then you're training yourself

you're teaching yourself

in that moment whenever you let go

the perception of sights of sounds of

smells

of tastes of tangibles

of mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so now the perception the perception is

the labeling of what that is this is

pleasant this is unpleasant

fine or you label this is the color of

red or this is the color blue but as

soon as you say oh

that's the color of red

and i hate red

because

of whatever reason that because it's

that clinging

or there's lights flickering somewhere

you know and it's irritating you there's

a perception that there's there's this

light

that's turning on and off on and off

as soon as you say oh that's really

annoying

and then you say i wish that would stop

there's the aversion there

or there's a perception of how beautiful

this flower is

right and you want to keep it for

yourself

and then you realize that the next day

it's gone

and you feel bad about it that's the

craving there

somebody says something really nice

about you

they praise you and it might be you know

worth praising you for whatever it is

that you did

and then you hold on to that oh yeah i

can't believe they said that that's

wonderful

you know you obsess over it

and then you think about it and then you

go back to that person what was it that

you said yesterday about me

it was somebody else

that's the craving

yeah because there's there's this sense

of like attachment to that idea but then

that idea was there in that moment

or that sense of praise was there in

that moment

and you're just trying to recreate that

same experience over and over but all

that's doing is just further identifying

with it

right and then that can create conceit

that can create all these other things

now there's nothing wrong with being

grateful for the things that people have

said you know you can keep all the

different cards of

all the wonderful things that people

have sent you all the wonderful letters

as a sign of gratitude as a sign of

appreciation that's fine

but if your identification is caught up

in that and something happens where

those cards are burned up

oh no

right

it's the getting caught up in that it's

the getting caught up because you value

that as a sense of self

i think it's

um

i think the verses says just like the

wind doesn't move the mountain the wise

person isn't moved by praise right just

as the wind doesn't move the dancing the

wise person isn't moved by criticism

and sometimes that same person who was

was

you know praising you on that day the

next day they say something

about you and you're like how could they

say that

right

and so if you get like you get moved by

that

then there's no

there's no wisdom there it's just

you know you're flying like the kite in

the wind swaying here and there

and that causes suffering

volition in

regard to sights sounds smells tastes

tangibles mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable

and there this craving arises and

establishes itself

so

volition is the intention the

inclination towards something

if that is tinged by craving

that's dependent upon previous choices

to make choices to crave for that

if you don't recognize that and see that

oh there is an inclination from craving

to go towards that

because of previous choices then you're

not using mindfulness there's a lack of

mindfulness there there's lack of the

ability to remember how your mind's

attention moves from one thing to the

other

the inability to do that then creates

further craving

so now the craving arises and

establishes itself in that intention

further as soon as you make that choice

because once you make that choice or

further incline your compass towards

that choice then the next set of

intentions that arise are already tinged

by that craving already tinged and

influenced and conditioned by that

choice

but if you see oh here comes the craving

now i'm looking at this

you know i'm looking out for this person

to say something good about me because

yesterday they said something great

about me

right

and you let go of that

then there's no seeking out there's no

grasping there's no acquisition there's

just

equanimity

you know you don't get swayed by this or

that likewise with some memory that you

have of

a wonderful film or

you know you smell something beautiful

or something fragrant or you see

something beautiful or you hear

something beautiful

and the intention that arises is to

immediately look at that and

grab onto it

and hold on to it so that it doesn't

change

if you recognize that

and you let go of it and see it as me

not mine or not myself because you see

oh it arose because of a cause because

of a series of causes and conditions

here was this beautiful sight

the contact with it

gave rise to an intention to go and

grab onto it

if you recognize as an intention to grab

onto it then you'll also recognize that

there will be suffering in there because

that beautiful sight will one day fade

in one moment

here's an interesting statement

the craving for sights sounds smells

taste tangibles mind objects in the

world is agreeable and pleasurable and

there is there this craving arises and

it establishes itself

i'm going to read that again the craving

for sight sounds smells taste tangibles

mind objects in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable and there

this craving arises and establishes

itself

how does craving establish

engraving

right there's a there's a sense of like

i really want this and the mind is like

further

strengthening its wanting

right and then that turns into clinging

and that turns into becoming

so the craving for

[Music]

this

beautiful sight that you see

and if you recognize oh there is a

craving and you let it go that's fine

but then there's a tendency for the mind

there can be a tendency for the mind to

say this feels really good this craving

for it itself

like i in i

i like being in a craving mindset it

gets so used to being

in a craving or a verse of mindset

there's a comfort there

the same way people indulge in reliving

their wonderful memories and then

craving for them there's a sense of

comfort there

or the same way they somehow are

comfortable with

even though they don't like

those painful memories

it still arises and there's some sense

of like comfort there it's like some

sense of security there

shopping yeah

just yeah

i just got some money so now i need to

figure out what am i going to you know

buy with it

right

what am i going to want

i'm trying to seek the wanting like what

is it that i want i want more of what i

want you know

yeah i might find something i want yes

yeah

i might crave something you never know

i don't have any money so charge it

oh there you go i'll just take out a

loan for it

people pick up a menu and go

i don't know what i want

[Laughter]

yes

or you hear somebody else wanting that

so it's like oh you know what i changed

my i think i'm gonna have that instead

thinking of sights sounds smells tastes

tangibles mind objects in the world is

agreeable and pleasurable and there this

craving arises and establishes itself

pondering on sight sounds smells tastes

tangibles and mind objects in the world

is agreeable and pleasurable and there

this craving arises and establishes

itself thinking and pondering

this is actually vitika vichara

thinking and examining thought which

creates mental proliferation thinking

about it obsessing over it

right

the obsession of uh let's say

unrequited love right

it's like i have to think about my

my object of affection my object of

infatuation

you know and they're constantly

obsessing over that but there's a sense

of craving for it like even though it's

painful

i'm still thinking about it

right so this constant thinking about it

constant obsession over it

that causes tightness and tension in the

mind and body

and if you can stop that cycle of

suffering in there by just recognizing

it and it just stops it right there

right it just is like oh

you come out of that whole like cloud of

delusion

this obsessing over something

and then you

release your attention from it and you

relax it you feel like the clouds just

part

and there's this spaciousness in the

mind there's clarity in the mind it

might come up again because it's an

obsessiveness that arises but eventually

it starts to weaken and weaken and

weaken and you replace all of that

obsession

with wholesome attitudes

a wholesome way of looking at that and

letting go

craving for existence

so

i want to be the world's most powerful

president

i want to be

is a statement which says i want to be

that when you whenever you have that

statement i want to be

that stems from craving for existence i

don't want to be

that's craving for non-existence

i want things to be this way

but a corollary to that be like i want

things to be this way

also yeah

yeah

and that monks is called the noble truth

of the origin of suffering and what

monks

is the noble truth of the cessation of

suffering

it is the complete fading away

and extinction of the suffering

it's forsaking and abandonment

liberation from it detachment from it

the relief

the process of

relaxing

is

allowing the experience of cessation of

suffering to happen in that moment

and that's why you experience

for yourself these noble truths

in your meditation

here is a distraction that is the first

noble truth of suffering

you hold on to it you wish it would

change that's the craving and aversion

towards it that's the second noble truth

but if you use right effort

you use the six r's you're applying the

fourth noble truth

so that you can recognize

release your attention relax and in that

relax experience the third noble truth

of the cessation of suffering

the mundane nibana the mundane niroda

when you do that

then you're experiencing the third noble

truth

and how does this

craving come to be abandoned

how does its cessation come about

so it repeats the same thing over i'll

just go through it

whatever in the world there is anything

agreeable and pleasurable

there its cessation comes about and what

is there in the world that is agreeable

and pleasurable the eye the ear the nose

the tongue the body the mind

the eye consciousness the ear

consciousness the nose consciousness the

tongue consciousness the body

consciousness the mind consciousness

sign sites sounds

smells tastes tangibles mind objects

eye contact ear contact nose contact

tongue contact body contact mind contact

the perception of sights sounds smells

tastes

tangibles and mind objects

intention in relation

to sights sounds smells tastes tangibles

mind objects

craving for sights sounds smells

tastes tangibles mind objects

thinking and pondering of sights sounds

smells tastes tangibles and mind objects

in the world is agreeable and

pleasurable or disagreeable and

displeasurable

and there is craving or aversion that

comes to an end

and how does it come to an end

by recognizing it

and then releasing your attention from

it and then relaxing it

so the cessation of suffering is brought

up by the cessation of craving

and that happens we just saw that

happens when you

when you forsake it and abandon it when

you detach from it

you drop it like it's hot

right you

held on to it

and then you let go of it

that letting go of it is the softening

of the mind

is the relaxing of the mind relaxing of

the tightness and tension

in mind and

body therefore you experience the

cessation of suffering

but how does that happen

what do you do to do that

so

there the cessation comes about and that

monks is called the noble truth of the

cessation of suffering

and what monks is the noble truth of the

way of practice leading to the cessation

of suffering

it is just this noble eightfold path

namely

right view

right intention

right speech

right action

right livelihood right effort

right mindfulness and right

collectedness

and what and what monks is right view

it is the knowledge of suffering the

knowledge of the origin of suffering the

knowledge of the cessation of suffering

and the knowledge of the way

of practice leading to the cessation of

suffering this is called right view

every time you get distracted it's an

opportunity for you to see right view

it's an opportunity for you to see here

is the hindrance in the form of

suffering

here's the craving that's holding on to

it

and here's a letting go of it by

applying the right effort

so whenever you use the practice that's

the practice

of establishing right view seeing the

four noble truths now there is the

mundane right view which is the

understanding that there is a cause and

consequence there is mother and father

there are teachers and so on and so

forth we've talked about that before but

basically it it boils down to

the

the openness to see that there is karma

that there is a process of rebirth that

there is

a cause and consequence

but this right view

you're seeing for yourself the four

noble truths every time you apply the

six r's every time you recognize that

there's a hindrance every time you

release your attention and relax

every time you re-smile and recollect or

return rather so when you recognize

you're recognizing the first noble truth

of the suffering in form of that

hindrance when you release your

attention and you relax you're

abandoning that tension and tightness by

relaxing

by first releasing your

your mind's attention from that and

bringing it back to relaxing the craving

relaxing the tightness and tension and

thus experiencing

the third noble truth and when you

re-smile you're bringing up and

cultivating joy

you're bringing up the feeling whatever

it might be and you return when you

return you're bringing up the feeling of

loving kindness

or you come back to the quiet mind or

whatever it might be whatever the object

is you're coming back to right

collectedness so when you use the six

r's

you are seeing

the four noble truths in that process so

you are establishing right view bit by

bit

and what is right intention

the intention of renunciation

of non-ill will

of harmlessness

this is called right intention

when we talk about renunciation we're

not talking about just physical

renunciation we're talking about

mental

saying that this is not me this is not

mine this is not myself it's the

intention to see every process

as being impersonal

you're

you're basically adding to your

experience that lens

of this is not me this is not mine this

is not myself it's not a practice of

of uh

saying it verbally it's a practice of

seeing in the moment as it arises that

this is an impersonal process

and that happens only through the

process and application of the six hours

continually doing that

you are

letting go of the unwholesome formations

that cause you to crave and identify and

you're replacing them with the wholesome

formations that allow you to see with

wisdom and compassion

non-ill will

how do you get to not know well that's

through loving-kindness

harmlessness or non-harmlessness

compassion

right when you see another person

suffering

you wish that they

no not suffer right that wish for not

having a person suffer because you know

what it feels like to suffer

you know what it feels like to be in

pain why would you wish upon someone

else

that pain

that's harmlessness

but the wishing that they were no longer

in pain that their pain ceased that

their suffering ceased

is the compassion is the

non-harmlessness

and what is right speech refraining from

lying refraining from slander refraining

from harsh speech refraining from

frivolous speech

this is called right speech

remember i was telling you about the

acronym and think t-h-i-n-k

is it the right time to say what you

want to say is it honest what is the

intention behind it is it necessary and

beneficial for that purpose and can you

say with kindness

frivolous speech means that it's

unnecessary speech

right to lie means that it's uh

it's uh

it's not truthful

abusive speech or harmful speech is

there's an intention to harm there

and it's not kind

right exactly frivolous speech is like

speaking for the sake of speaking it's

just like

i have nothing else to do so i'm just

going to talk

hopefully this dharma talk doesn't come

off as frivolous speech

but frivolous speech you know there's a

there's a pali word for it it's it's an

it's such an interesting word

it's i can't remember it but it's it's

an auto monopia you know it's like it

sounds like frivolous speech

it's like blah blah blah

[Laughter]

if you ignore them it would be weird

yeah exactly it's just small talk yeah

right but not just you just kind of get

yeah frivolous speech is like um

yeah i mean you know you talk about the

weather that's not frivolous speech it's

just like

trying to bond with somebody just trying

to get a sense of you know when you see

in the sutas a person comes to see the

buddha or some other monk and then

initially they talk about how are you

doing how is everything going everything

going good with your family

you know what's going on in the village

you know that kind of stuff and then all

right let's get back to what we're

talking about i mean this is just

this is just

being social

right

being kind and polite and talking about

this or that and then you get to the

main topic that's just the way

minds are structured socially

it's kind of getting a sense of are you

friendly or not you know

a frivolous speech is like talk of kings

and talk of this or talk of that like

did you hear about what happened in that

country that thing you know kardashian

would be privileged oh absolutely

you know i mean you see in the media

right all of that stuff like

talking about other people's lives

you know

and uh

slander and gossip the you know gossip

is basically

talking about a person

uh which either you know not to be true

or not to be accurate or talking about

them behind their backs so how do you

know if it's gossip this is what vante

would say how do you know if it's gossip

would you say the same thing about that

person if they were there right in front

of you

and what monks is right action

refraining from taking life refraining

from taking what is not given

refraining from sensual or sexual

misconduct

this is called right action so

not breaking the precepts

so the first precept

not harming or killing on purpose

second precept not taking what is not

given

the third precept

speech that happens with right speech

and then the fourth precept

refraining from sexual misconduct

well i mean in for the purpose of the

retreat all

sexual activity but when you get back

off retreat

sexual misconduct

so sexual misconduct is

um

you know cheating on someone or

infidelity and

you know if it causes them harm

or causes your self-harm

[Music]

being with someone who is under the

protection of their parents or who has

been throated and things like that

and then sensual misconduct is where

again you have that craving for

something and it causes you to break

other precepts

in the pursuit of that

sensual experience

now it doesn't say anything about

intoxicants

but the indulging in intoxicants will

lead you

or can lead you to break the other four

precepts so it's implicit

and what is

right livelihood

here

the noble disciple having given up wrong

livelihood

keeps himself by right livelihood

[Laughter]

well we talk about right livelihood in

the mundane example which is refraining

from those five things i

trade in human trafficking trade and

intoxicants trade in

poisons trade in weapons

and trade or butchering right

but

for the noble disciple that's the idea

that they don't deal with

palmistry and astrology and

reading the signs and

telling the future and

even medicine you know because they're

here for the purpose of liberation of

the mind they went forth in order to

liberate the mind

not for all of these other things

and what monks is right effort

here one rouses his will

stirs up energy

and exerts the mind

to prevent the arising of unarisen

evil unwholesome states

yeah this word prevent

we've gone back and forth about this but

basically

what it is is recognizing

that there is an unwholesome state there

as soon as you recognize that there's an

unwholesome state there

it no longer

grabs on to the mind because now you've

recognized it

he rouses his will

and strives to overcome evil unwholesome

mental states that have arisen

so

that's really weird language but

basically what that really is

is one makes the right effort

to abandon the unwholesome state

so that's the second right effort and

you abandon it by

releasing your attention to it

and relaxing the tightness and tension

the craving

around that unwholesome state

he makes an effort and exerts his mind

to main

to generate or produce

unarisen wholesome mental states

so when you smile you uplift the mind

when you smile

you bring up a wholesome state of mind

you bring up joy

so first when you relax you experience

clarity that's a wholesome state of mind

and then you bring up the smile to bring

up an uplifted mind that's a wholesome

state of mind you generate the wholesome

state of mind

and then he makes an effort

stirs up energy and exerts his mind to

maintain wholesome states of mind that

have arisen

not to let them fade away

to bring them to greater growth to the

full perfection of development so when

you return back to your object of

meditation

you're in a collected state of mind

that's a wholesome state of mind whether

it's loving kindness whether it's

equanimity whether it's quiet mind

whatever it is and it's not like you

have to push

in order to stay there

just observing and keeping your

attention

will

cause the object of meditation to

develop to grow

you don't have to change it you don't

have to do anything with it just your

mere observation

just your mere attention fuels

the arising of loving-kindness to go

into compassion the arising of

compassion to go into joy and then to

equanimity and then finally all of that

goes away and there's just a quiet mind

right there's no like okay now i'm going

to go from like loving kindness to

compassion

it's not like you're changing it it's

just

it's a natural

organic

progression

well what's happening is when you're

doing the six hours you're not only

developing the right effort but you're

also developing enlightenment factors

you're activating them to come into b

and just by doing that and then coming

back to collectiveness when you return

it continues developing that on its own

the moment you start to apply right

effort the moment you start to apply the

eightfold path

these other things come into development

automatically the enlightenment factors

and we might go through this at some

point

the five faculties the five powers the

four bases of psychic faculties

you know all of that

and so

the

the enlightenment factors are already

implied when you use this process of

right effort and then you come to

collectedness

and then there's no pushing or pulling

while you're in collect while you're

collected on your object of meditation

and because there's no pulling or

pushing that means there's equanimity

there equanimity naturally is developed

just by purely observing this process

begins with observing which is

mindfulness

and in the investigation of states which

discerns what it is that's being

observed and you rouse up the energy the

effort to continue observing that

doesn't mean you push just staying there

and then joy naturally arises because

mind is secluded

from unwholesome states secluded meaning

there is no hindrance present so mind

feels relief from that and there's joy

there

and then

from that joy there's tranquility

and then from that tranquility there's

collectedness and from that

collectiveness there's the equanimity so

it all

is interlocked interconnected when you

do this

but it's also linear and cyclical it's

linear and cyclical yes because that's

by the time you get to the fourth jana

you have the mindfulness the purity of

mindfulness

uh

conditioned by equanimity

and so this is called right effort

and what monks is right mindfulness

here amongst

a monk abides contemplating body as body

ardent clearly aware and mindful

having put aside hankering and fretting

for the world

he abides contemplating feelings as

feelings he abides contemplating mind as

mind here by its contemplating mind

objects as mind objects ardent clearly

aware and mindful having put aside

hankering and fretting for the world

in short remembering to observe how

mind's attention moves from one object

to the other

without craving for this or that without

resisting this or that just seeing

things as they really are the

observation of things as they are

right so

that allows you then to be collected

because then you can recognize is the

mind collected or not collected and you

bring it back to being collected

and what monks is right collectedness

here among detached from sense desires

detached from unwholesome mental states

enters and remains in the first

jhana which is with thinking and

pondering

born of seclusion

filled with delight and joy

and with the subsiding of thinking and

pondering by gaining inner tranquility

and oneness of mind

he enters and remains in the second

jhana which is without thinking and

pondering born of collectedness

filled with delight and joy

and with fate and with the fading away

of delight remaining

equanimous mindful and clearly aware

he experiences in himself

the joy of which the noble ones say

happy is he who dwells with equanimity

and mindfulness he enters the third

jhana

and having given up pleasure and pain

and with the right and with the

disappearance of former gladness and

sadness he enters and remains in the

fourth jhana which is beyond pleasure

and pain and purified by

and mindfulness a pure purity of

mindfulness

and equanimity this is called right

collectedness

so we're that's what you guys are

practicing right now right getting into

jhana that happens naturally the reason

is because you've been observing how

your mind's attention moves from one

place to another and using right effort

to come back to a collected mind and

you're able to recognize when hindrances

arise you're able to release them you're

able to relax the craving and therefore

you you are developing right view

and when you have the right intention to

let go of things and see them as they

are

which is impersonal

and then having cultivated loving

kindness cultivated compassion

you are cultivating right intention

and then when you see that there is a

need to say something that is

not truthful or harmful or whatever it

might be in the way of wrong speech

you're recognizing that and letting that

go and only speaking that which is right

speech and you're keeping the precepts

and therefore you are having right

action so the eightfold path

right right view right intention

right speech right action

right livelihood right effort

right mindfulness right collectedness

you're already doing all these things on

retreat

because you're using right effort the

ability to use right effort means

recognizing when there's wrong view and

coming back to right view

recognizing when there's wrong intention

and coming back to right intention

recognizing when there is right wrong

speech and coming back to right speech

recognizing when there's wrong action

and coming back to right action

recognizing when there is

wrong livelihood and coming back to

right by the way recognizing when

there's wrong mindfulness what is wrong

mindfulness

not being observant

not recognizing how a mind's attention

moves from one thing to the other

but you're coming back and you recognize

what is wrong collectedness

when you're pushing when you're trying

to hold on to the jhana instead of

observing what's happening through right

effort coming back to the jhana with

right effort so right effort the six r's

are the heart

of the eightfold path because it's only

through right effort that you go from

the wrong path to the right path and the

utilization of that

is

the

utilization of the fourth noble truth

to recognize suffering to let let that

go by letting go of the craving and thus

experiencing relief the third noble

truth and the more you do this

the more you see that and the more you

do that the more you

see

suffering the more you understand

suffering

the more you abandon craving the more

you experience relief

and finally the more you perfect

and cultivate

the eightfold path the entire practice

and so this

is the talk on

the four noble truths

it's section

15

that was one section

yeah

it's the i think it's the only suta

which has that much of an elaboration of

the four noble truths

of uh

right of the dependent origination and

right view yeah but this one is like

each of the four noble truths so

are you all satisfied and delighted

all right

let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

fear struck fearlessly

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 ourselves

[Music]