Joshua Tree 3 MN 111 'One by One as they occurred' Bhante Vimalaramsi-B5--c66mBxc.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=B5--c66mBxc

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

tonight i'm gonna give

my favorite discourse

the suta is by far and above

the

suta that i like best because there is

so much

pertinent information that you

need about the practice

i've been talking a lot about the

practice

this particular suit that shows where

the practice goes

and it shows it in a very precise way

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living at sawatee and

jetta's grove

annath and bendica's park there he

addressed the monks thus

monk's venerable survey replied the

blessed one said this

monks sorry putta is wise

sorry puta has great wisdom

sorry putta has wide wisdom

sorry putta has joyous wisdom

sorry puta has quick wisdom sorry putta

has

keen wisdom sorry putta has

penetrative wisdom

all of these different qualities that

he's talking about for sorry putta who

was his first chief disciple

he was second to the buddha in wisdom

if you'll remember last night i said

anytime you

hear about wisdom in the suttas is

talking about

seeing knowing and understanding

dependent origination

and you will be able to see that at the

end of the suta

also

the during half a month monks sorry puta

gained

insight into states one by one

as they occurred now sariputta's

insight into states one by one

as they occurred was this

so just so some of you that are staying

here for the whole retreat

you you get to know that you have a

chance

you did it in two weeks you can do it

too

okay i'm not kidding

now the insights

states one by one as they occurred is

very

interesting state because an awful lot

of people

have the idea that when

jhana arises for them that all of these

things happen at the same time

and they don't they happen one thing at

a time

and you'll get to see that more clearly

in just a moment

hair monks quite secluded from sensual

pleasures

what does being secluded from sensual

pleasures mean

in a roundabout way

close their eyes yeah that's it

when you're sitting in meditation you

close your eyes

the sensual pleasure of seeing does not

arise

you're secluded from that

if you hear a sound

you six are the sound

and you come back to your object of

meditation you're being secluded

from the sensual pleasure of

hearing

it's the same with smell

and taste and physical

touch

and thinking

being secluded from sensual pleasures

means let going

letting go of thinking why

thinking is part of the restless mind

you can't get into these states if you

have

a hindrance the hindrance blocks you

from getting into these states

secluded from unwholesome states

how are you secluded from unwholesome

states

you don't have any hindrances arising

that's how you're secluded from

unwholesome states

sorry puta entered upon and abided in

the first jhana

which is accompanied by thinking

and examining thought with joy

and happiness born of seclusion

and the states in the first genre

now jhana if you'll remember

means a stage of

understanding

as you go deeper into your

meditation your understanding changes in

how the process of dependent origination

works

you'll start seeing it more and more

clearly as you go deeper

generally speaking the first three

genres you don't really

you're not able to recognize

in any kind of

precise way how the dependent

origination works

once you get into the fourth genre and

above

then it starts becoming much more clear

much more

alert to how these different things

arise

you hear me talk a lot about dependent

origination

because this is the key to the

meditation

just like letting go of craving is the

key to the meditation

the way you become awakened

and the only way you can become awakened

is by understanding how

dependent origination works

it's that understanding

that leads to the awakening mind that

leads to nibana

nibana has always been presented as some

kind of

mystical magical state that everybody

wants to try to get

and yeah it's a real good one

now what is the definition of nibana

knee is a negative just like

do and do cup is a negative

bana fire

so nibbana means no more

fire now what does that mean

craving is the source

of the fire so when you

have no more fire that means you have no

more craving arising in your mind

when you don't have any craving in your

mind that's the third noble truth

that's the cessation of suffering

that's the cessation of craving

so you see how it's all kind of

intermixed

and the only way you can get to that

attainment

is through your understanding

it becomes very very clear after a

period of time

and you'll find out more in a little bit

and the states in the first genre

thinking and examining thought the joy

the happiness the unification of mind

now these are the beginning stages

this is what happens when you get into

when you finally let go of a hindrance

you feel a strong relief

right after the relief you feel joy

arrives

the joy is going to be there for a

period of time

it will fade away then you'll feel very

strong

tranquility and you will feel very much

ease in your body and in your mind

and your mind is very unified your mind

just

stays on your object of meditation very

easily

now the thinking and examining thought

these can be some slight distractions

your mindfulness

isn't as good as it will be later

so you can have a distraction you can

have a thought

but you'll catch it very quickly you're

not going to get caught for this

in this thought for five or ten minutes

it's going to be just one thought

and then you'll see it you let it go you

relax and you come back to your object

to meditation

so this is what the experience of

being in the first stage of

understanding is like

every time you let go of a hindrance

every time you see

little things arise

because that hindrance pulls you away

when you see these

little things you are teaching yourself

more and more about dependent

origination

you might not recognize it at first but

you'll start hearing me

talk about it more and more on the

retreat

and you'll start to understand it a

little bit

okay now the other things that happen

in the first jhana are the contact

feeling perception volition and mind

now this is the five aggregates

contact with body

feeling pleasant feeling unpleasant

feeling

neither pleasant nor painful feeling

perception part of the mind that puts

names on things

you look at this you say this is a book

the part of your mind that said book

is the perception mind

and this has memory in it also

now the volition

quite often in the lower jaws i change

the word volition to thoughts

because that's most relevant at that

time

and the consciousness or mind

these five aggregates

and the four foundations of mindfulness

are one in the same thing

okay okay

and we have a little chart that she's

going to get right now that'll show this

so basically what we're saying right

here

right now is that while you are

in the jhana you are experiencing

all of the foundations of mindfulness

okay then we go on the enthusiasm

decision

energy mindfulness equanimity and

attention

these states were defined by him one by

one

as they occurred they didn't all

happen at the same time they happened

separately

known to him those states arose known

they were present

known they disappeared he understood

thus

so indeed these states not having been

come into being having been they vanish

now what are we talking about right here

we're talking about

impermanence we're talking about how

all of these things will arise for a

period of time and then they vanish

and you get to see this while you are

in the genre now what makes this

really unique

is that when you start practicing

one pointed concentration

you get a sign where you get a counter

sign and then you get the sign i don't

remember which way it goes first anymore

and the sign is like

a shiny disk that comes up in your mind

and you start paying attention to that

when you're paying attention to that how

can you pay attention to these other

things when they arise

now this the enthusiasm the decision the

energy the mindfulness equanimity and

attention

plus the four foundations of mindfulness

or the five aggregates plus all of the

genre factors these are happening one

thing

at a time as they occur when you

have a sign arise in your mind you're

not paying attention to these things

you're just keeping your mind on this

sign

one pointed concentration

when you get to a certain place and

that's

called in pali they call it upachara

samadhi

it's called in english

neighborhood or access concentration

it's the stage right before

the one-pointed absorption genre occurs

when you experience this

with one pointed concentration this

access concentration

it suppresses the hindrances

it stops the hindrances from arising

it's not that you consciously suppress

them

it's the force of the concentration

itself

that suppresses them

a lot of people that are practicing

different kinds of meditation

they seem to think that this is really

good

because you have a very pure mind at

that time

you have a pure mind at that time that's

true but when your concentration

wavers your mindfulness wavers a little

bit

guess what comes to visit the hindrances

come

and they come big time and then

the teacher will tell you well you have

this big hindrance and you can't let it

so you push your tongue against the roof

of your mouth and grip your teeth and

crush mine with mine

well actually

that does not lead to peace calm and

harmony

what we have to understand and this is a

major point

is that there are two different

kinds of jhana and they

lead to different

end results

what i'm teaching you right now is the

samata vipassana

jhana

it's not absorption jhana

this is an aware genre

you have to be aware to be able to see

all of these different things when they

arise

right you can't have your mind so

focused just on one thing

that you don't see anything else if you

do that then you're not following

what this says

okay regarding those states he abided

unattracted he didn't try to hold on to

them

unrepelled he didn't try to push

anything away

independent detached free

dissociated this is all

talking about how you see these things

as an impersonal process

you're not taking anything personally

it's not me it's not my

it's not i it's just this that's

happening right now and that's okay

and you lovingly accept what is

happening in the present moment

even when there is

uh a very strong

liking of the joy and the happiness and

all of those kind of things

if you try to hold on to them and you

start identifying with i like this this

is great i want more of it

fastest way to make it disappear you're

experiencing it

okay now these these charts that are

being passed out

right now

i think the top one is the five

aggregates

and the next one down is the four

foundations

of mindfulness now you see when you get

to perception

how the the arrow

goes to consciousness

so you have the consciousness or mind

going to

the four foundations of mindfulness

consciousness our mind

the volition or thoughts

are the dominance and you'll get to

experience that when i give the

satipatthana suta

now every time

your mindfulness weakens

guess who comes to dinner

the hindrances that's why i put the

hindrances down at the bottom

so every time

you have a hindrance of rise

don't treat the hindrance like it's an

enemy to fight with

the hindrance is there to help you to

let go

of an attachment and

as you let go of an attachment that's

how you

go from one jhana to a deeper stage

that that letting go of the hindrance

when it comes up

the hindrances will keep coming up

in between each of the journals

and they're helping you to get deeper

and they're helping your

understanding to become more clear

so this shows you how the five

aggregates and the four

foundations of mindfulness are actually

one and the same thing and that's

important to realize

in this particular suta

did you get

okay uh regarding those states he abided

unattracted and repelled independent

detached free dissociated

with a mind rid of barriers

what is a barrier a hindrance

he understood there's an escape beyond

this

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there

is so he got into the first genre and he

says

okay this is all good and well but there

is still more to do

and again monks with the stilling of

thinking and examining thought

sorry putin entered and abided in

the second drama which has

self-confidence

now the self-confidence comes when

you start you

you start really having the feeling that

you're on the right path

it just feels right and you start to

gain confidence

that you know how to handle the

hindrances when they arise

you know what to do with these kind of

distractions

if you don't get started for such a long

period of time

and you start to get more confident now

the confidence

not only happens while you're sitting in

meditation

but you start to have more and more

self-confidence

in your daily life you start recognizing

more clearly

the hindrances when they come up

and that's when you have a good chuckle

and let it go

the stillness of mind without the

thinking

and examining thought with joy

and happiness born of collectedness

now what happens in the second jhana

is that you

are going along and everything is going

very well

and you verbalize the wish

and all of a sudden you start feeling

tension and tightness in your head

and you think i'm something's not right

here i don't know what

so you try to verbalize a wish and then

you start to get tension and tightness

in your head

the second jhana is

where noble silence actually begins

you're always told that noble silence

means don't talk during the retreat

but everybody is talking

right they're talking in their mind

now is the time to start letting go of

that

now you just feel the wish

and bring that feeling into your heart

and surround your friend with that

feeling

and radiate that feeling to them

so this is where

you start gaining more and more

confidence that

ah this is what the buddha is talking

about

this really happens this way

and it starts to get to be real fun

and the states in the second genre the

self-confidence

the joy the happiness the unification of

mind

ah the joy you

experience in the second genre is

stronger than the joy you experienced in

the first

genre

you start feeling well

let's go back and start at the start

there's five different kinds of joy

three kinds of joy can be experienced by

anyone at any time when the conditions

are right

two kinds of joy are only experienced

through mental development

the first kind of joy is like goosebumps

and it's there for just a moment and

then it passes away

you can get goosebumps when somebody

says something you really like you can

get

goosebumps from seeing a beautiful

sunset

whatever the next kind of joy

is like a flash of lightning it's

there it's real intense

and then it fades away fairly quickly

now one of the advantages of having

joy arise is always

after the joy you feel a sense of

tranquility

you feel very peaceful and calm

and you will feel this with

with this kind of joy sometimes you can

get this flash of lightning joy

when you make up your mind about

something and you know it's right

and you feel real happy about it and

it's real intense and then you feel real

calm

okay

excuse me the next kind of joy is like

standing in the ocean and you feel this

wave of joy come over you and ah that's

great stuff

and then another wave of joy comes over

you

when that joy fades away you feel

very tranquil for a period of time 15

20 minutes

it's real nice now the next two kinds of

joy only happen through meditation

the next kind of joy is called uplifting

joy

and this is where you feel very

light in your mind and very light

in your body it's a real happy feeling

and there's excitement in it ah this is

great stuff

this is what i came meditation for i

like this this is good

when that joy fades away you feel very

peaceful and

calm

and right after that you feel

very much at ease in your mind

and in your body

now the feeling at ease is what the

buddha called happiness he called it

sukkah

the difference between joy and sukkah

is the joy is

it has more excitement in it

now in one of the commentaries it says

imagine yourself

walking in the desert and you haven't

had any water for a long time

and you see an oasis

just seeing that oasis your mind starts

to get real

joyful and happy and the closer you get

the happier you get

and then you get to this pool of water

and you jump in the water and the water

exactly the right temperature

and your mind goes ah

and your body goes ah

that's happiness

so the the joy has excitement in it

the happiness is more balanced

more uh

more at ease it doesn't have the jumpy

ecstatic high that the joy has

the last kind of jaw a joy is called

all-pervading joy that's when the joy

kind of bubbles out of

everywhere your toes your fingers

your knee your back your head

everywhere now this is not

what doesn't have quite the

strong excitement in it this

is the enlightenment factor of joy

now when you see the buddha images and

you see

with their half closed eyes there's a

lot of stories about why the buddha has

have closed eyes

but that is the artist trying to tell

you

that the buddha was experiencing this

all-pervading joy

at that time it's weird when it happens

you're sitting and you have this joy and

it's it's kind of a peaceful

nice happy feeling and all of a sudden

your eyes open

up and you go why did that happen

so you close your eyes and then your

eyes open

up wow

why'd that happen you close your eyes

they open up again and say huh

if you want to be open stay open i don't

care

i'm not going to fight with it

that is because of this kind of joy

it happens that way generally speaking

i don't recommend for people to sit with

their eyes

open because if there's any movement

that happens

your eye goes to it and where your eye

goes there goes your mind and all of a

sudden you're flying off a thousand

miles away

and when this kind of joy happens

you have enough balance in your mind

that it doesn't really

affect you too much if there is movement

okay now you your mind

stays on your object to meditation for a

longer period of time

and there it's no effort

at all for your mind to stay on your

objective meditation it's just

it just wants to be there it wants to be

still and at ease and

radiating the loving kindness when you

get into

the second genre you start to get into a

flow

you start feeling the flow more and more

easily

sometimes it flows to you sometimes it

flows away

most of the time it flows out

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind

now again we have the five aggregates

which is the four foundations of

mindfulness

in the genre while you're experiencing

the job

the enthusiasm decision energy

mindfulness equanimity and attention

these states were defined by him one by

one as they

occurred known to him those states arose

known they were present known they

disappeared

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there still

is more to do

again monks with the fading away

as well of joy sariputa

abided in equanimity mindful

and fully aware still feeling pleasure

our happiness with the body he

entered upon and abided into the third

jhana on account of which

the noble ones announced he has a

pleasant

feeling he he has a pleasant abiding

who has equanimity and

is mindful now what happens

in the third jhana

is the joy doesn't arise anymore

but you feel really comfortable you feel

it ease

and you feel this balance of mind

and this is always kind of a comical

thing because

a lot of students when they

first start experiencing getting into

the genres that come and they

say well how's your meditation doing you

say ah it's doing good

you still experiencing joy no i don't

have any joy

i say okay do you feel balance in your

mind

yeah but i don't have any joys

do you feel very clear and alert

yeah but i don't have any joy

do you feel really comfortable yeah

okay continue everything's going fine

as you get into the third drama and as

you

begin to relax

more you start losing tensions in your

mind

as you lose tension in your mind you

lose tension

in your body and you stop being able to

feel your body

very much

you'd be sitting and all of a sudden you

notice

i don't have any legs

my arms disappeared

and one student she was great she came

to me complaining about it she said

you know it feels like my head is not on

my body anymore it's just sitting on the

floor

and i said great

now then this is gets to be real

interesting

and the states in the third genre the

equanimity the happiness the mindfulness

the full awareness the unification of

mind

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind

contact is still there body is still

there

but when i if i walk up and i would

to touch you you would feel it

but your mind doesn't shake so much

your mind has equanimity in it

now

when people experience

the third genre

with absorption concentration

they don't have a body they don't feel

anything and it's so radical that i can

come up with a stick and hit you really

hard on top of the head

and you wouldn't even know that that

happened

i could come up to you and i could take

a gun right by your ear

and it wouldn't you wouldn't hear it you

don't

know that these things are happening

where is the full awareness when you're

absorption concentration

i can take your limbs i can say take

your arms and put them over your head

and they'll stay there for a little

while and then they'll just kind of fade

down

by themselves until they touch something

and then they'll just stay there

now that's what happens when you're in

absorption concentration

but when you're in the

samantha vipassana jhana

you have full awareness you know when

somebody touches you

if i walk up to you and i say something

you would hear it and then you can

choose whether to react or not

so this is another major difference

between the

absorption concentration and the summit

of the apost

i won't call it concentration

because the word concentration is so

misunderstood

i call it collectedness

or i call it jonathan

but i won't call it concentration

concentration is a four-letter word

well we gotta add a few letters i guess

but you get the idea of what i'm saying

the enthusiasm decision energy

mindfulness equinimity and attention

these states were defined by him one by

one

as they occurred known to him those

states arose

known they were present known they

disappeared

and with the development of that

cultivation he understood

that there is still more to do

and with the beginning of the third

genre he confirmed that there is still

you know when you're in the third genre

you know that there's still more going

on there's still more that you have to

again monks with the abandoning of

pleasure and paint

with the previous disappearance of joy

and grief

sariputa entered upon and abided in the

fourth jhana

which has neither pain nor pleasure

and purity of mindfulness due to

equanimity

when you get to the fourth jhana the

feeling of loving-kindness

disappears at your heart

you will start radiating loving-kindness

from your head

when you get to the fourth journal

is when i will start giving you

different meditation now

all this time you stayed with the same

spiritual friend

when you get to the fourth jhana then

i'll say

okay now i want you to change

to another spiritual friend

when you see that spiritual friend

smiling and happy

then change to another spiritual friend

after you see them smiling and happy

then i want you to choose a family

member

or a real close friend

and pick three or four of these people

and when you see them smiling and happy

go to the next

after you do all of the family members

then we go to the neutral persons

and a neutral person is

it's a clerk at a store that you go to

you know them you might say a few words

to them

but you don't know them very well

say you ride the same bus to work every

day you see the same people on the bus

that they would be considered neutral

persons

so you pick three or four neutral

persons

when you see them smiling and happy

then you go to the next and the next and

then

after you go to the neutral persons then

we go to the tough stuff

the enemies the people that you don't

the people that have caused you problems

in the past

and you start sending kindness to them

and before long you're thinking about

all the things they did that you don't

and how you really wish them not

happiness

so you go to the neutral person

and you see them smiling and happy you

get the loving kindness really going

strong again

then you go back to the enemy and you

keep bouncing back and forth

until you see that enemy smiling and

happy

and you don't have any more animosity

towards them

and you do this with as many enemies as

you have

this is as high as loving kindness will

take you it will take you to the fourth

jhana

now i'm kind of a

crafty monk

and i don't generally tell people when

they're practicing loving-kindness

meditation

that what i'm actually teaching is not

just loving-kindness meditation i'm

teaching you the brahma-viharas

okay now we get we go to more

about the uh fourth genre and the states

in the fourth genre the equanimity the

neither painful

or pleasant feeling the neither painful

or pleasant feeling doesn't mean you

won't have painful feeling arise it

means that it won't make your mind

shake

you just have this balance this balance

of mind

when when it gets strong and you have

this balance of mind all of the time the

first few times that it happens you walk

around going

oh what relief there's just so much

relief

in having this balanced mind

you don't have emotional upsets

you don't have some of your old habitual

tendencies of

doing things now you have this

equanimity and it's

just nice

the mental unconcern due to tranquility

you have very strong tranquility at this

point

and it's nice now one thing that i

haven't told you

is that

you can be in any one of these genres

while you're walking while you're

taking a shower while you're

sitting while you're eating

doing your daily activities you can be

any one of these jobs but it takes

strong mindfulness

it takes practice to be able to do that

when you get to the fourth jhana because

you have lost

pretty much all of the feeling in your

body unless there is contact

you get up and you start doing your

walking meditation it's a little bit

strange at first

because you feel the bottom of your feet

touching the ground

and you feel your head but you don't

feel anything in between

it's kind of weird unless

a breeze comes up and it blows your

clothes a little bit you would feel the

contact of that

unless there's contact you won't have

any feeling arise in your body

and you can take this meditation with

you all of the time

one of the reasons that we have the work

period is so

that you can keep your meditation going

and that can help you when you get back

into your daily life so that you have

more balance in your life

all the time

the purity of mindfulness and the

unification of mind

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind

now there's an awful lot of talk

with people that are doing mindfulness

of breathing

that when you get to the fourth jhana

you don't

feel your breath anymore

and that's not true when you're doing

this kind of meditation

when you're doing absorption

concentration

the breath doesn't go through your

nostrils and through your lungs anymore

it goes through your ears

so you don't feel that so much

but there's

i've been wrestling and talking and

fighting

with an awful lot of people that tell me

that the fourth jhana you

you just completely lose your body and

that way you don't feel anything

that happens in your body from there on

out

does that agree with what i just got

through reading

you have contact feeling volition

perception volition and mind

that means you have a body

and when there is contact there is

feeling

and when there's feeling there is

perception

when people are teaching absorption

concentration what they're actually

teaching is what the buddha

practiced when he first speak when he

was first

left the home life and he started

practicing

meditation with meditation teachers

he was practicing absorption

concentration because

that's the only kind of concentration

that was our

practice meditation practice that was

being done

so when he came up with the revelation

of relaxing

that changed the end result of the

meditation

your understanding your concentration

didn't go

so deep you didn't get absorbed in

anything

you started developing this aware genre

where you can see the four foundations

of mindfulness when they arise

when you can see the the

enthusiasm and energy and uh

mindfulness and equanimity and your

attention

you can see all of these things when

they arise

when you have absorption concentration

you do not

it's just that simple because your mind

is glued to one thing

and one thing only

now

i don't have anything against absorption

concentration

people that practice absorption

concentration can

gain great benefit from their practice

it's just that there is a difference

between the

end results of the practice

and one leads to one thing and one leads

to another

and i'm what you might call a very

super ordea or a super

something i remember um from the books

i'm a super orthodox debunk

because i'm going by what it says here

i'm not adding anything i'm not

subtracting anything

and almost all of the other monks that

are teaching meditation

are going by what it says in

commentaries

and commentaries i write commentary i'm

giving you commentary right now

and it's what my opinion is of what i

think the buddha was talking about

but i'm reading to you what the buddha

was talking about and then giving you

the commentary

most monks don't do that

they won't give you the suta and then

tell you of the commentary of what it

means

because it won't agree

with what they're teaching so they just

give the commentary

without giving the suta first

that makes me an outlaw monk

because i am so orthodox

these states were defined by him one by

one as they have heard

known to him those states arose known

they were present known

and disappeared he understood there is

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there is

now this particular

part of the suttas as something that i

had

a fairly long and

engrossing conversation with the

translator of this book

because the way that it's worded right

now

is very very misleading and i'll read it

to you now and so you get an idea

again monks with the complete

surmounting

of perceptions of form now that's saying

right there

that now you don't have any perception

of form at all

with the disappearance of perceptions of

sensory impact it's saying that there is

no sensory

impact but when you get down here

and starts talking about what you

experience

in this state it says that there's

contact feeling perception volition in

mind

now how do we justify that

in a sub commentary

it says and the the sub commentary

quite often goes back to the original

teaching of the buddha

it doesn't necessarily agree with the

commentary

it says with the complete surmounting

of perceptions of

gross form

which means that you still have form

you don't feel it unless there's contact

and the the disappearance

of gross perceptions of sensory impact

somebody can come along and they can

slap you

but you and you would feel it but you

won't react to it because of the

equanimity and and

the depth of your practice but you know

it happened

somebody come back right by with a

motorcycle that doesn't have a

muffler on it you would hear that

but it won't make your mind react

because the equanimity is so strong

so when i talked to him about that he

kept on quoting to me in nepali and

saying

this is what the pali says and i kept on

saying

i don't care what the pali says this is

misleading

because that goes back to

the fourth genre when people are talking

about

there is no more

breath at the fourth jhana

see with the contact that proves that

there still

is there still is contact with the

breath coming through the nose

there's still contact of the the abdomen

going up and down there's still contact

of the lungs still working

you know that you're breathing

so what we came up with was he was going

to leave it like this

but i told him he really needed to make

a very

strong footnote

saying that this does not mean the

obliteration

of all perceptions of form or sensory

impact

it means the letting go of the gross

perceptions of form and sensory impact

aware that space is infinite

sorry putta entered upon and abide in

the base of infinite space

now what happens after you get to the

fourth jhana

is you keep going along and your

mindfulness slips for some reason

and then you have a hindrance arise but

it doesn't it's not

earth shattering anymore

it's just another thing to watch and let

go of and relax

and then

there is

a deepening of the practice when you let

go of that hindrance

and you start experiencing

an expansion in all directions

at the same time it's just feeling of

getting more and more spacious and it

just keeps moving out and out

but there's no center point

and the feeling of the loving-kindness

changes you have to tell me how it

changes i'm not going to tell you

but it's different

now this is where the buddha he

practiced

every morning getting into

what a lot of the mahayana buddhists say

was infinite compassion he practiced

infinite compassion every morning

actually what he was practicing was

infinite

space and compassion

so the the feeling changes

and there is a that expansion feeling

all over

and it's really quite nice now you have

gone from

what is called the rupa or material

jhanas

and you are starting to experience what

is called

the arupa janus the immaterial dramas

yes

does this happen as well if you practice

mindfulness of reading is that like the

same experience

as the experience is a little bit

different

but

you see the the mindfulness of breathing

if you're doing that the experience

of uh

infinite space

doesn't have that feeling of compassion

with

it so it's a little bit different that

way

but you still experience an expansion

and you'll you'll experience all of the

dramas

the way the way that it says here but

it won't have the brahma viharas in it

which means it's going to be a little

bit different

and it doesn't have that feeling in it

as much

okay

and this and the states in the base of

infinite space

the perception of the base of infinite

space and unification of mind

the contact feeling perception volition

in mind the

enthusiasm decision energy mindfulness

equanimity and attention these states

were defined by him

one by one as they occurred known to

have him those states arose

known they were present known they

disappeared

and he understood

with the cultivation of that attainment

there's still more to go so even though

you're getting into these

very high and subtle states

you still understand there's

more there's more to do you know that

now what happens is you're going to be

in that drama for a period of time and

it's very nice and it's very

pleasant and then for whatever reason

one reason or another your mindfulness

slips

and guess who comes to dinner

the hindrance comes again so you get to

work with that

now the hindrances when they start

coming when you're in the

arupa genres they're not near as big and

gross and hard to work with

because your understanding of how this

process works more and more

you start seeing that there's a feeling

that arises

and right after the feeling there's this

tension and tightness

and right after that there's some

thoughts about and

right after that your habitual tendency

and you start seeing this you start

seeing

this as a process this is

dependent origination

okay so you're starting to grasp

more clearly when you get into these

states

again monks by completely surmounting

the base of infinite space

aware that consciousness is infinite

sorry puta entered upon

and abided in the base of infinite

consciousness

infinite consciousness is a real

interesting state

now when you get in the arupa jhanas you

start seeing

impermanence suffering and the

impersonal nature of things

very clearly

they are not the end result of the

practice but you will

see these characteristics very clearly

when you get to the space i get to the

state of infinite consciousness

what happens is you're going to

at all of the scent stores you're going

to see

individual consciousnesses arise

and pass away

that was a million arising and passing

away of consciousness

your mind gets so sharp you're going to

see individual consciousnesses

and it's it's a little bit strange

because

as you go deeper into the into your

meditation

it's like watching a movie

that the film is going too slow and you

see

individual pictures but there's a

black spot in between a blank spot

and you see that and it happens

with contact it happens with

hearing it happens with sight it happens

with smells it happens with taste

and it starts to get tiresome

you see there's this constant change

happening all the time

and there's nothing you can do about it

there's nobody home

you didn't ask this to happen it just

happened all by itself

you're seeing the impersonal nature of

this very very clearly

real interesting real fun

and like i said after a while it gets

tiresome seeing that so what you do

is you start looking

at the blank spots in between the

consciousnesses

and as you focus on that then

other things start happening

and the states in the base of infinite

consciousness the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness and

unification of mind

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind you still have

these things even

in this subtle state

you still have the five aggregates

the enthusiasm decision energy

mindfulness equanimity and attention

these states were defined by him one by

one as they occurred what a brilliant

mind sorry buddha had to see this

known to him those states arose known

they were present and only disappeared

he understood there was more to do and

with the cultivation of that attainment

he confirmed that there is so he still

knew that there's still more but

now it's starting to get fairly subtle

again by completely surmounting the base

of infinite consciousness

aware that there is nothing

sorry puta entered and abided in the

base of

nothingness what happens is

you still lose your mindfulness after a

period of time you get the hindrance you

start using the

you letting go of the hindrance when you

let it go

you get into a space where mind is not

looking outside of itself

anymore

and you say well i feel kind of dumb and

come

talk to me about you know there's

nothing to watch

there's nothing well there's actually a

lot to watch

anymore after you've let go

of seeing all of those consciousnesses

arise and pass away now we're going to

the subtler state

now in the state of infinite

consciousness

the feeling of compassion

changes to a feeling of joy

it's a real happy feeling without the

excitement in it

this is the enlightenment factor of joy

again

the all-pervading joy

as you start looking at those spots in

between the consciousnesses

and you experience the realm of

nothingness the feeling of

joy fades away and you feel real

real strong equanimity

and it gets so strong that people come

and i say well how's your meditation

going

everything's fine

how's your mind balanced

everything is fine

no excitement at all the mind is so

balanced

ah did you know that you have a snake

biting you

on your leg and say oh no i didn't know

that's fine everything is good

it's not quite like that it gives you

the idea

now this particular state of of the

meditation

is really really fun and

interesting because

even though there's nothing there you

still have the five aggregates that can

arise you still have some other things

you still have the enlightenment factors

that you can work with

and you're

learning how to balance your

attention

so that you can see very

easily and clearly how things arise and

pass away

the aggregates arise and pass away you

still will hear

sounds you still can have feeling

contact

and it you you start learning

the more subtleties of

learning how to tweak the

energy that you need to put into

watching

and it really gets to be kind of a fun

experiment

and if you put too much in you start to

get restless and if you don't put enough

you start to get dull you won't get

sleepy now

but you'll get dull

when you get to this state like i said

before

your mind starts to wobble you'll see

that very very clearly and you'll start

to notice

things that happen before your mind

starts wobbling

and when you're able to see those things

then you're starting to progress very

nicely

so even in the realm of nothingness you

have

contact feeling perception relation in

mind

you have the five aggregates

now this is as far as

the can take you

because when you start getting into the

stage of the meditation it gets

difficult to tell whether there's

anything there or not

you won't have the five five aggregates

arise

and and be able to recognize

and i'll show you in just a moment

again by completely surmounting the base

of nothingness sorry puta entered upon

and abided in the base of neither

perception

nor non-perception

and he emerged mindful from that

attainment

having done so he contemplated the

states that had passed

ceased and changed

so what we're talking about here is

before there was an expansion feeling of

mind

now it gets so small

and so subtle that you can't really tell

whether it's there or not

and this is a state that

sometimes people will come and tell me

that

you know it felt like i was asleep

but i wasn't sleeping

and what i generally tell people to do

is after

you come out of that state because

you're only going to be in it for a

period of time

especially at first

to reflect on what happened while you

were

in that state you can still see changes

that happened in that state

sometimes you'll see flashes of light

sometimes you'll see other things

it's really kind of fun

but you're talking about super subtle

states of mind

now this is this is a way that it's

described in one of the commentaries

suppose there's two monks walking down a

path

in the forest and

the the senior monk is walking in front

that's the way monks do it

and he stepped over this little tiny

trickle of water coming down

and the junior monk

asked the senior monk to stop and wait

for a moment he wanted to get

some water to drink

and the senior monk said ah there's

water then please go get my towel

i want to take a bath but the junior

monk said

there's water but there's not enough for

that

and that's what it is with mine it's

there

it's real hard to see

sometimes you perceive it sometimes you

don't

there's still some fine things that are

happening

now when when you're doing your

meditation

at first your mind is flip-flopping like

this

and as you start going deeper and deeper

into your

into your meditation and you get to the

fourth jhana your mind isn't moving so

much as it starts vibrating

and as you go from one state to the next

and you keep

relaxing the vibration becomes

less and less and less

until you can't really tell whether it's

vibrating or not

and then the exciting starts

again monks by completely surmounting

the base

of neither perception or non-perception

sorry puta

entered upon and abided in the cessation

of perception

and feeling and his

taints were destroyed by his seeing with

wisdom

so what happens now is

your six r's are very much automatic

even while you're in the state of

neighbor perception or non-perception

your mind goes to something there's the

six

r's right there and there's more and

more relaxing until

finally there is no more vibration

there is no more movement of mind at all

it's just like turning the lights out

there's nothing

you can't see anything you can't feel

anything there is no

perception there is no feeling that

arises in that state

you'll be in that state for a short

period of time

when you come out of that state is when

you will see

dependent original dependent origination

arising and then you will see dependent

origination

ceasing and when you get to the final

letting go of the ignorance

nibana occurs

now that's what this basically says

and his taints were destroyed by his

seeing with wisdom

his taints

all of the distractions of mind

were destroyed by his seeing with wisdom

seeing with wisdom always means seeing

dependent origination

now he experienced nibana

what is nibana i don't know

i gave you a definition a little while

ago so he had some kind of an idea

but it's an unconditioned state how can

you talk about an unconditioned state

with condition concepts and ideas and

words

it doesn't work apples and oranges very

much

so the more relaxing you do

the more you're leading to

the cessation of perception and feeling

now there are sutas in in the middle

link sayings that will tell you

that you can experience the first drama

and then the cessation of perception and

feeling and then

experience nibona and you can

it depends on you you see my job is to

get you to point

in the right direction and

anybody that experiences drama

they have the potential in this lifetime

to experience nibana it just depends on

on you and your understanding and your

willingness to work

can it happen soon yes

for some people it can happen very

quickly for other people it seems like

it takes forever

but it depends a lot on the amount

practice you do with your daily

activities

not only with your

uh with when you're doing the meditation

when you're in a retreat but when you're

home

seeing the tightnesses that arise from

mind's attention moving from one thing

to another

seeing the

the old habitual tendencies arise

when somebody says something or does

something and every time they do it's

like pushing a button on you

and you just react in the same way

you've always acted

now with this practice

you can start changing those old

habitual tendencies

and as you start developing the new

habitual tendency

of being aware of what's happening

in the present moment and radiating

loving kindness

and compassion or whatever

and smiling and laughing

and having fun

as you do that and practice that more

and more

you are leading to

the cessation of perception and feeling

why because you're letting go of your

attachment

to the craving every time you relax into

whatever you're doing you're getting one

step closer

might be a teeny tiny step

but it all leads to the same

end result if you're doing it this way

then it says sorry putty emerged mindful

from that attainment

having done so he recalled the states

that had passed ceased and changed thus

so indeed these states not having been

come into being having been they vanish

even nirvana was just there for a little

while and changed

and disappeared but it's such a strong

experience

of your deep understanding

of the process of dependent origination

that understanding gets so deep

that's what the realization is all about

that's what completely

and thoroughly understanding the four

noble truths

and how they work with dependent

origination

it's completely understanding

and realizing that everything

is part of impermanent suffering and

non-self

or the impersonal nature

not having been coming okay uh regarding

those states he abided

unattracted unrepelled independent

detached free dissociated

with a mine rid of barriers he

understood there is no escape beyond

this one

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there is

not

he knew that what happened that's the

end end result

he knew that he had become

completely enlightened although i hate

the word enlightened

because i can tell you something and i

can enlighten you to the definition of

something

but the buddha became

awake and he taught other people

how to be completely awake

because most of us are walking around in

the dream world

of our own concepts and opinions

and all of the stories and all of that

kind of thing

monks rightly speaking word to be said

of anyone he has mastery

and perf he has attained

mastery and perfection and noble virtue

attain mastery and perfection and noble

collectiveness

attain mastery and perfection in noble

wisdom

attain mastery and perfection in noble

deliverance

it is of sorry putta indeed that rightly

speaking

this should be said monks

rightly speaking word to be said of

anyone he is a son of the blessed one

born of his breast born of his mouth

born of the dhamma created by the dharma

error in the dhamma not in air in

material things

it is of sariputta indeed that rightly

speaking

this should be said amongst the

matchless wheel of dhamma is set

rolling by the tatagata and

it's kept rolling rightly by sariputta

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

that gives you a very strong idea of

what you're doing with the meditation

and why

it also gives you a good strong

indication

of the differences between the

jhanas of absorption concentration

and the drama of

the samantha vipassana

so does anybody have any questions

yeah yes so is it so that

in every job there's still some duca yes

of course

so that is why you want to realize that

you want to go further

yes so once you get to the final one you

re there's no duka in that so you

realizing

that well

that's a tricky question because

if you have a body there is duca

you have to wash it you have to feed it

you have to take care of it when it's

sick

so there is is some dissatisfaction in

having a body

even the buddha experienced dukkha

after he became fully away

there's in the sutras it says that there

were times that he had

real strong pain in his back

and he had to tell other monks you carry

on with the

uh with the dhamma talk i'm going to lay

down and rest my back

he had dukkha but it didn't make his

mind

shake he didn't have any aversion to it

you don't completely let go of dukkha

until you

let go of the body too

and then there is no more becoming

and that's what the final nibana

the the para nibana that the buddha

experienced

that's what he's talking about

okay

anybody else with a question

can you will to become again no

in a word

no it's not a choice

when you have this realization this is

what will happen

and i know that there's an awful lot of

tibetans that talk about uh

we have the reincarnation of anandai

here

to do this or that

but that's just some wrong understanding

that's happening about

what a bodhisattva vow is and what it

does

it kind of made up their own definitions

that don't necessarily agree with the

original texts

the word bodhisattva

means

literally it means the future buddha

and there's an awful lot of people that

take a bodhisattva

i want to become a future buddha i think

this would be great to be a

future buddha well

to take that vow without a buddha

around to confirm that you in fact are

going to become

a future buddha

makes life a little bit difficult

for you because if you've read any of

the jaundica tales he was continually

running across problems that

there's a lot of stories about the

bodhisattva

one time he was born as a snake

and some village kids came along started

poking sticks through him

and he was a big stink

and he had to bear that without even

one thought moment of dissatisfaction or

dislike

there's another there's another jaundica

tale

about he was

reborn as a young prince he was about a

year and a half

old and the queen his mother

loved him very dearly and he

she was playing with him and the king

walked in the room

and said something to the queen and she

didn't hear it

and she's he started getting jealous

because he started thinking

she loves that prince too much and

when he gets old enough they're going to

come and they're going to

take the throne away from me and they're

going to cause me all kinds of pain and

probably kill me so i don't want that to

happen so he called for his

executioner

and the executioner came

and the

king took the bodhisattva and held his

hands out

and he said i want you to cut off his

hands

and the bodhisattva thought ah

here is a real opportunity for me to

practice

my equanimity and my loving kindness

now there's four different kinds of

beings here

there's me there's my mother i love her

very dearly

there's the executioner i'm kind of

neutral to him

there's the enemy my father

i get a chance to practice

loving-kindness to all these four

different kinds of beings

and the executioner cut off his hands

and he didn't cry

and his mind was very balanced

and the king started to get real upset

by this

and he said oh this is disgusting cut

off his feet

now the the queen took the hands and

they were putting she was crying and

all of these kind of things so the

executioner

cut off his feet and he just looked at

that as more of an opportunity just

to keep practicing his equanimity and

his loving kindness

and practice not holding even one

thought of dissatisfaction while

this major dissatisfaction was happening

so they cut off his feet gave them to

them

to the queen she's holding them crying

all really heartbroken

the bodhisattva didn't cry

and the king came became real disgusted

by that and he said i'm going to throw

this baby up in the up in the

in the air and i just want you to stab

him and kill him

so he did now the bodhisattva didn't

hold

one thought he didn't entertain

any thought of dislike

dissatisfaction

or wishing that things were different

than they were

and he was immediately reborn in a in a

deva loca

his mother died of a broken heart

and it says in the in the uh

in the jataka tale that the father died

of a heart attack

right there

now are you ready to take a bodhisattva

and put up with not just one or two

lifetimes of these kind of challenges

but many maybe thousands

being a bodhisattva is not a piece of

cake

it's really hard

and

there's called the

they're called sankhyas they're

long periods of time where

the universe expands

for one us one

it stops for one house and kaya

it contracts for one ah saying kaya

and it stops for one ah sankaya that's

called a maha kappa

those four things in the commentaries

they put numbers to how many years it

takes for

one asankaya to occur

and that is 10

with 160 zeros behind it

that's how many years the

universe expands

and one mahakapa

is four of those so you multiply

the 160 by four

and you get five hundred and forty zeros

behind

a one

that's how many years a maha kappa lapse

there are actually three kinds of buddha

there's called the energetic buddha

which was gotama now

excuse me there is the intelligent

buddha

which was gotuma the energetic buddha

and the moral buddha to become

an intelligent buddha

takes four maha kappas and a hundred

thousand lifetimes

to become an energetic buddha

takes eight maha kappas and a hundred

thousand lifetimes

to become a moral buddha take 16

maha kappas and a hundred thousand

lifetimes

now we're talking of millions and

millions and millions of lifetimes

that you have to

go through and there are major

challenges

in those lifetimes

many people that take the bodhisattva

vow right now

they don't have the determination

to carry on for the next

four eight or sixteen maha kappas

and because of that after 5 000

10 000 20 000 lifetimes they started

going

whoa this is really hard i don't want to

do this

and then they renounce the bodhisattva

vow

but what's the problem with that

right now they're in a buddha era

right now you can still experience

nibana

20 000 lifetimes is that gonna happen

for you or not

it's a crapshoot who knows

you might have to go for a huge long

period of time

before you're born in a in a buddha era

again it depends on your karma

so the encouragement of a lot of

mahayana

and zen and tibetan

monks for taking the bodhisatt to vow

to me i don't want to do that

they say well if you take the

bodhisattva vow

then you're going to help all beings

become enlightened

but the buddha couldn't enlighten all

beings

if he could we wouldn't be here

right

and if he can't do it who am i to think

i can do it

but that's what they tell people and

they they kind of look

down on terra bottom saying well

they only want to get enlightened in

this lifetime like that's something bad

but we're better because we're going to

bodhisattvas and we're going to help

beings all the time

everywhere we are when you start

developing this practice you

naturally start to help people

you start to do things for other people

and it gets to be real fun

as you go more and more into your

practice

your generosity starts to get bigger in

a lot of different ways

and you act like a bodhisattva whether

you really are or not doesn't matter

but if you take a bodhisattva to vow

that vow is so strong

that it will stop you from attaining

mibana

mean like let's say in the zeal of a new

experience someone takes that vow

and couldn't they perhaps in the course

of some

some nice deep con you know meditation

become more lucid and see the error of

that

they can see the error of it they can

renounce it

and what would that be awful no that's a

question no bad consequences for it

uh caiman did a zen retreat

where they were giving her something to

recite

in korean

and i recognized some of the things that

they were saying in that

and i realized that that was they were

telling people to take they were giving

people the bodhisattva vow

without telling them what it was or

anything about it and as soon as she got

done with the retreat i told her did you

realize that you

you became a bodhisattva on this retreat

oh no what do i have to do well it's

fairly easy

to renounce a bodhisattva valve

and that is sit in front of the

the buddha and with a very sincere mind

three times you say i now renounce

being a bodhisattva

and then it's done but she's zealous so

she did it six times

taking a vow is not a

a light thing it's a real serious thing

and it's not treated that way

but how can you think about in the

language you don't understand

exactly you're still taking the vowel

because those are the words that you're

using

that's not in your heart it's not in

your heart but you're

you're taking the vow and the vow is

very powerful unless you renounce it

okay yeah

um i'm always wondering about

you know idol idols

you know

in the christian religion

they have all of these

idols and images

and they try to say that anybody else

that has

an image then they're they're uh

that's an idol and you're an idol

worshiper

but how many i mean i just was in

germany and i went to two churches and i

saw

jesus on the cross

suffering like anything else

now isn't that an idol

isn't there attachment to that

you see what i'm saying there doesn't

have to be attachment to it

there can certainly be appreciation for

the person that did that

but that's not an attachment

isn't it a matter of being clear about

what you're doing when you prostrate to

a buddha

and the misunderstanding that people

have about that

you know well it's the same we're taking

the

the refuges

some people take refuges haven't got a

clue what it means

no but i mean you bump into an

evangelist and he'll say you're an idol

worshiper because when you prostrate to

the buddha you're worshiping the statue

and you want something from it but

that's not at all what it's about

and you have to be very precise in

understanding what you're doing when you

prostrate to the buddha

you know when you open your hands you

open your mind and you're you're

it's a it's a it's a bowing of respect

the man that um succeeded in this

practice

and that's all it is but there are

people who go in the other traditions

of buddhism you know there are people

who go to church

who put more into it than that who grew

up with religions before the buddha

buddhism was put into it with deities

and all kinds of things

and it becomes like a deity it's true

but the actual meaning of it in buddhism

is a homage of respect to the person the

human being that succeeded

he didn't want any images left he said

if i'm not around use the bodhi tree

as something to pay respect to

because that gave him shelter when he

became

the buddha and it's just a reminder of

respect

one of the reasons we have the

the logo that we have

which is a bodhi leaf

with a full path wheeled in

it's because that is

what the buddha wanted us to use

as a show of respect it's neutral to all

of the traditions it doesn't

affect anybody to use that symbol

that's why we chose it as well as the

stupa

because the stupa is the bold upside

down

and that's

that's even turned into some strange

rates and rituals

to be quite honest okay let's share some

miracles

right

have best acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

many beings inhabiting space and earth

through davis and another's mighty power

may they

and

you

tonight i'm gonna give

my favorite discourse

the suta is by far and above

the

suta that i like best because there is

so much

pertinent information that you

need about the practice

i've been talking a lot about the

practice

this particular suit that shows where

the practice goes

and it shows it in a very precise way

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living at sawatee and

jetta's grove

annath and bendica's park there he

addressed the monks thus

monk's venerable survey replied the

blessed one said this

monks sorry putta is wise

sorry puta has great wisdom

sorry putta has wide wisdom

sorry putta has joyous wisdom

sorry puta has quick wisdom sorry putta

has

keen wisdom sorry putta has

penetrative wisdom

all of these different qualities that

he's talking about for sorry putta who

was his first chief disciple

he was second to the buddha in wisdom

if you'll remember last night i said

anytime you

hear about wisdom in the suttas is

talking about

seeing knowing and understanding

dependent origination

and you will be able to see that at the

end of the suta

also

the during half a month monks sorry puta

gained

insight into states one by one

as they occurred now sariputta's

insight into states one by one

as they occurred was this

so just so some of you that are staying

here for the whole retreat

you you get to know that you have a

chance

you did it in two weeks you can do it

too

okay i'm not kidding

now the insights

states one by one as they occurred is

very

interesting state because an awful lot

of people

have the idea that when

jhana arises for them that all of these

things happen at the same time

and they don't they happen one thing at

a time

and you'll get to see that more clearly

in just a moment

hair monks quite secluded from sensual

pleasures

what does being secluded from sensual

pleasures mean

in a roundabout way

close their eyes yeah that's it

when you're sitting in meditation you

close your eyes

the sensual pleasure of seeing does not

arise

you're secluded from that

if you hear a sound

you six are the sound

and you come back to your object of

meditation you're being secluded

from the sensual pleasure of

hearing

it's the same with smell

and taste and physical

touch

and thinking

being secluded from sensual pleasures

means let going

letting go of thinking why

thinking is part of the restless mind

you can't get into these states if you

have

a hindrance the hindrance blocks you

from getting into these states

secluded from unwholesome states

how are you secluded from unwholesome

states

you don't have any hindrances arising

that's how you're secluded from

unwholesome states

sorry puta entered upon and abided in

the first jhana

which is accompanied by thinking

and examining thought with joy

and happiness born of seclusion

and the states in the first genre

now jhana if you'll remember

means a stage of

understanding

as you go deeper into your

meditation your understanding changes in

how the process of dependent origination

works

you'll start seeing it more and more

clearly as you go deeper

generally speaking the first three

genres you don't really

you're not able to recognize

in any kind of

precise way how the dependent

origination works

once you get into the fourth genre and

above

then it starts becoming much more clear

much more

alert to how these different things

arise

you hear me talk a lot about dependent

origination

because this is the key to the

meditation

just like letting go of craving is the

key to the meditation

the way you become awakened

and the only way you can become awakened

is by understanding how

dependent origination works

it's that understanding

that leads to the awakening mind that

leads to nibana

nibana has always been presented as some

kind of

mystical magical state that everybody

wants to try to get

and yeah it's a real good one

now what is the definition of nibana

knee is a negative just like

do and do cup is a negative

bana fire

so nibbana means no more

fire now what does that mean

craving is the source

of the fire so when you

have no more fire that means you have no

more craving arising in your mind

when you don't have any craving in your

mind that's the third noble truth

that's the cessation of suffering

that's the cessation of craving

so you see how it's all kind of

intermixed

and the only way you can get to that

attainment

is through your understanding

it becomes very very clear after a

period of time

and you'll find out more in a little bit

and the states in the first genre

thinking and examining thought the joy

the happiness the unification of mind

now these are the beginning stages

this is what happens when you get into

when you finally let go of a hindrance

you feel a strong relief

right after the relief you feel joy

arrives

the joy is going to be there for a

period of time

it will fade away then you'll feel very

strong

tranquility and you will feel very much

ease in your body and in your mind

and your mind is very unified your mind

just

stays on your object of meditation very

easily

now the thinking and examining thought

these can be some slight distractions

your mindfulness

isn't as good as it will be later

so you can have a distraction you can

have a thought

but you'll catch it very quickly you're

not going to get caught for this

in this thought for five or ten minutes

it's going to be just one thought

and then you'll see it you let it go you

relax and you come back to your object

to meditation

so this is what the experience of

being in the first stage of

understanding is like

every time you let go of a hindrance

every time you see

little things arise

because that hindrance pulls you away

when you see these

little things you are teaching yourself

more and more about dependent

origination

you might not recognize it at first but

you'll start hearing me

talk about it more and more on the

retreat

and you'll start to understand it a

little bit

okay now the other things that happen

in the first jhana are the contact

feeling perception volition and mind

now this is the five aggregates

contact with body

feeling pleasant feeling unpleasant

feeling

neither pleasant nor painful feeling

perception part of the mind that puts

names on things

you look at this you say this is a book

the part of your mind that said book

is the perception mind

and this has memory in it also

now the volition

quite often in the lower jaws i change

the word volition to thoughts

because that's most relevant at that

time

and the consciousness or mind

these five aggregates

and the four foundations of mindfulness

are one in the same thing

okay okay

and we have a little chart that she's

going to get right now that'll show this

so basically what we're saying right

here

right now is that while you are

in the jhana you are experiencing

all of the foundations of mindfulness

okay then we go on the enthusiasm

decision

energy mindfulness equanimity and

attention

these states were defined by him one by

one

as they occurred they didn't all

happen at the same time they happened

separately

known to him those states arose known

they were present

known they disappeared he understood

thus

so indeed these states not having been

come into being having been they vanish

now what are we talking about right here

we're talking about

impermanence we're talking about how

all of these things will arise for a

period of time and then they vanish

and you get to see this while you are

in the genre now what makes this

really unique

is that when you start practicing

one pointed concentration

you get a sign where you get a counter

sign and then you get the sign i don't

remember which way it goes first anymore

and the sign is like

a shiny disk that comes up in your mind

and you start paying attention to that

when you're paying attention to that how

can you pay attention to these other

things when they arise

now this the enthusiasm the decision the

energy the mindfulness equanimity and

attention

plus the four foundations of mindfulness

or the five aggregates plus all of the

genre factors these are happening one

thing

at a time as they occur when you

have a sign arise in your mind you're

not paying attention to these things

you're just keeping your mind on this

sign

one pointed concentration

when you get to a certain place and

that's

called in pali they call it upachara

samadhi

it's called in english

neighborhood or access concentration

it's the stage right before

the one-pointed absorption genre occurs

when you experience this

with one pointed concentration this

access concentration

it suppresses the hindrances

it stops the hindrances from arising

it's not that you consciously suppress

them

it's the force of the concentration

itself

that suppresses them

a lot of people that are practicing

different kinds of meditation

they seem to think that this is really

good

because you have a very pure mind at

that time

you have a pure mind at that time that's

true but when your concentration

wavers your mindfulness wavers a little

bit

guess what comes to visit the hindrances

come

and they come big time and then

the teacher will tell you well you have

this big hindrance and you can't let it

so you push your tongue against the roof

of your mouth and grip your teeth and

crush mine with mine

well actually

that does not lead to peace calm and

harmony

what we have to understand and this is a

major point

is that there are two different

kinds of jhana and they

lead to different

end results

what i'm teaching you right now is the

samata vipassana

jhana

it's not absorption jhana

this is an aware genre

you have to be aware to be able to see

all of these different things when they

arise

right you can't have your mind so

focused just on one thing

that you don't see anything else if you

do that then you're not following

what this says

okay regarding those states he abided

unattracted he didn't try to hold on to

them

unrepelled he didn't try to push

anything away

independent detached free

dissociated this is all

talking about how you see these things

as an impersonal process

you're not taking anything personally

it's not me it's not my

it's not i it's just this that's

happening right now and that's okay

and you lovingly accept what is

happening in the present moment

even when there is

uh a very strong

liking of the joy and the happiness and

all of those kind of things

if you try to hold on to them and you

start identifying with i like this this

is great i want more of it

fastest way to make it disappear you're

experiencing it

okay now these these charts that are

being passed out

right now

i think the top one is the five

aggregates

and the next one down is the four

foundations

of mindfulness now you see when you get

to perception

how the the arrow

goes to consciousness

so you have the consciousness or mind

going to

the four foundations of mindfulness

consciousness our mind

the volition or thoughts

are the dominance and you'll get to

experience that when i give the

satipatthana suta

now every time

your mindfulness weakens

guess who comes to dinner

the hindrances that's why i put the

hindrances down at the bottom

so every time

you have a hindrance of rise

don't treat the hindrance like it's an

enemy to fight with

the hindrance is there to help you to

let go

of an attachment and

as you let go of an attachment that's

how you

go from one jhana to a deeper stage

that that letting go of the hindrance

when it comes up

the hindrances will keep coming up

in between each of the journals

and they're helping you to get deeper

and they're helping your

understanding to become more clear

so this shows you how the five

aggregates and the four

foundations of mindfulness are actually

one and the same thing and that's

important to realize

in this particular suta

did you get

okay uh regarding those states he abided

unattracted and repelled independent

detached free dissociated

with a mind rid of barriers

what is a barrier a hindrance

he understood there's an escape beyond

this

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there

is so he got into the first genre and he

says

okay this is all good and well but there

is still more to do

and again monks with the stilling of

thinking and examining thought

sorry putin entered and abided in

the second drama which has

self-confidence

now the self-confidence comes when

you start you

you start really having the feeling that

you're on the right path

it just feels right and you start to

gain confidence

that you know how to handle the

hindrances when they arise

you know what to do with these kind of

distractions

if you don't get started for such a long

period of time

and you start to get more confident now

the confidence

not only happens while you're sitting in

meditation

but you start to have more and more

self-confidence

in your daily life you start recognizing

more clearly

the hindrances when they come up

and that's when you have a good chuckle

and let it go

the stillness of mind without the

thinking

and examining thought with joy

and happiness born of collectedness

now what happens in the second jhana

is that you

are going along and everything is going

very well

and you verbalize the wish

and all of a sudden you start feeling

tension and tightness in your head

and you think i'm something's not right

here i don't know what

so you try to verbalize a wish and then

you start to get tension and tightness

in your head

the second jhana is

where noble silence actually begins

you're always told that noble silence

means don't talk during the retreat

but everybody is talking

right they're talking in their mind

now is the time to start letting go of

that

now you just feel the wish

and bring that feeling into your heart

and surround your friend with that

feeling

and radiate that feeling to them

so this is where

you start gaining more and more

confidence that

ah this is what the buddha is talking

about

this really happens this way

and it starts to get to be real fun

and the states in the second genre the

self-confidence

the joy the happiness the unification of

mind

ah the joy you

experience in the second genre is

stronger than the joy you experienced in

the first

genre

you start feeling well

let's go back and start at the start

there's five different kinds of joy

three kinds of joy can be experienced by

anyone at any time when the conditions

are right

two kinds of joy are only experienced

through mental development

the first kind of joy is like goosebumps

and it's there for just a moment and

then it passes away

you can get goosebumps when somebody

says something you really like you can

get

goosebumps from seeing a beautiful

sunset

whatever the next kind of joy

is like a flash of lightning it's

there it's real intense

and then it fades away fairly quickly

now one of the advantages of having

joy arise is always

after the joy you feel a sense of

tranquility

you feel very peaceful and calm

and you will feel this with

with this kind of joy sometimes you can

get this flash of lightning joy

when you make up your mind about

something and you know it's right

and you feel real happy about it and

it's real intense and then you feel real

calm

okay

excuse me the next kind of joy is like

standing in the ocean and you feel this

wave of joy come over you and ah that's

great stuff

and then another wave of joy comes over

you

when that joy fades away you feel

very tranquil for a period of time 15

20 minutes

it's real nice now the next two kinds of

joy only happen through meditation

the next kind of joy is called uplifting

joy

and this is where you feel very

light in your mind and very light

in your body it's a real happy feeling

and there's excitement in it ah this is

great stuff

this is what i came meditation for i

like this this is good

when that joy fades away you feel very

peaceful and

calm

and right after that you feel

very much at ease in your mind

and in your body

now the feeling at ease is what the

buddha called happiness he called it

sukkah

the difference between joy and sukkah

is the joy is

it has more excitement in it

now in one of the commentaries it says

imagine yourself

walking in the desert and you haven't

had any water for a long time

and you see an oasis

just seeing that oasis your mind starts

to get real

joyful and happy and the closer you get

the happier you get

and then you get to this pool of water

and you jump in the water and the water

exactly the right temperature

and your mind goes ah

and your body goes ah

that's happiness

so the the joy has excitement in it

the happiness is more balanced

more uh

more at ease it doesn't have the jumpy

ecstatic high that the joy has

the last kind of jaw a joy is called

all-pervading joy that's when the joy

kind of bubbles out of

everywhere your toes your fingers

your knee your back your head

everywhere now this is not

what doesn't have quite the

strong excitement in it this

is the enlightenment factor of joy

now when you see the buddha images and

you see

with their half closed eyes there's a

lot of stories about why the buddha has

have closed eyes

but that is the artist trying to tell

you

that the buddha was experiencing this

all-pervading joy

at that time it's weird when it happens

you're sitting and you have this joy and

it's it's kind of a peaceful

nice happy feeling and all of a sudden

your eyes open

up and you go why did that happen

so you close your eyes and then your

eyes open

up wow

why'd that happen you close your eyes

they open up again and say huh

if you want to be open stay open i don't

care

i'm not going to fight with it

that is because of this kind of joy

it happens that way generally speaking

i don't recommend for people to sit with

their eyes

open because if there's any movement

that happens

your eye goes to it and where your eye

goes there goes your mind and all of a

sudden you're flying off a thousand

miles away

and when this kind of joy happens

you have enough balance in your mind

that it doesn't really

affect you too much if there is movement

okay now you your mind

stays on your object to meditation for a

longer period of time

and there it's no effort

at all for your mind to stay on your

objective meditation it's just

it just wants to be there it wants to be

still and at ease and

radiating the loving kindness when you

get into

the second genre you start to get into a

flow

you start feeling the flow more and more

easily

sometimes it flows to you sometimes it

flows away

most of the time it flows out

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind

now again we have the five aggregates

which is the four foundations of

mindfulness

in the genre while you're experiencing

the job

the enthusiasm decision energy

mindfulness equanimity and attention

these states were defined by him one by

one as they

occurred known to him those states arose

known they were present known they

disappeared

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there still

is more to do

again monks with the fading away

as well of joy sariputa

abided in equanimity mindful

and fully aware still feeling pleasure

our happiness with the body he

entered upon and abided into the third

jhana on account of which

the noble ones announced he has a

pleasant

feeling he he has a pleasant abiding

who has equanimity and

is mindful now what happens

in the third jhana

is the joy doesn't arise anymore

but you feel really comfortable you feel

it ease

and you feel this balance of mind

and this is always kind of a comical

thing because

a lot of students when they

first start experiencing getting into

the genres that come and they

say well how's your meditation doing you

say ah it's doing good

you still experiencing joy no i don't

have any joy

i say okay do you feel balance in your

mind

yeah but i don't have any joys

do you feel very clear and alert

yeah but i don't have any joy

do you feel really comfortable yeah

okay continue everything's going fine

as you get into the third drama and as

you

begin to relax

more you start losing tensions in your

mind

as you lose tension in your mind you

lose tension

in your body and you stop being able to

feel your body

very much

you'd be sitting and all of a sudden you

notice

i don't have any legs

my arms disappeared

and one student she was great she came

to me complaining about it she said

you know it feels like my head is not on

my body anymore it's just sitting on the

floor

and i said great

now then this is gets to be real

interesting

and the states in the third genre the

equanimity the happiness the mindfulness

the full awareness the unification of

mind

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind

contact is still there body is still

there

but when i if i walk up and i would

to touch you you would feel it

but your mind doesn't shake so much

your mind has equanimity in it

now

when people experience

the third genre

with absorption concentration

they don't have a body they don't feel

anything and it's so radical that i can

come up with a stick and hit you really

hard on top of the head

and you wouldn't even know that that

happened

i could come up to you and i could take

a gun right by your ear

and it wouldn't you wouldn't hear it you

don't

know that these things are happening

where is the full awareness when you're

absorption concentration

i can take your limbs i can say take

your arms and put them over your head

and they'll stay there for a little

while and then they'll just kind of fade

down

by themselves until they touch something

and then they'll just stay there

now that's what happens when you're in

absorption concentration

but when you're in the

samantha vipassana jhana

you have full awareness you know when

somebody touches you

if i walk up to you and i say something

you would hear it and then you can

choose whether to react or not

so this is another major difference

between the

absorption concentration and the summit

of the apost

i won't call it concentration

because the word concentration is so

misunderstood

i call it collectedness

or i call it jonathan

but i won't call it concentration

concentration is a four-letter word

well we gotta add a few letters i guess

but you get the idea of what i'm saying

the enthusiasm decision energy

mindfulness equinimity and attention

these states were defined by him one by

one

as they occurred known to him those

states arose

known they were present known they

disappeared

and with the development of that

cultivation he understood

that there is still more to do

and with the beginning of the third

genre he confirmed that there is still

you know when you're in the third genre

you know that there's still more going

on there's still more that you have to

again monks with the abandoning of

pleasure and paint

with the previous disappearance of joy

and grief

sariputa entered upon and abided in the

fourth jhana

which has neither pain nor pleasure

and purity of mindfulness due to

equanimity

when you get to the fourth jhana the

feeling of loving-kindness

disappears at your heart

you will start radiating loving-kindness

from your head

when you get to the fourth journal

is when i will start giving you

different meditation now

all this time you stayed with the same

spiritual friend

when you get to the fourth jhana then

i'll say

okay now i want you to change

to another spiritual friend

when you see that spiritual friend

smiling and happy

then change to another spiritual friend

after you see them smiling and happy

then i want you to choose a family

member

or a real close friend

and pick three or four of these people

and when you see them smiling and happy

go to the next

after you do all of the family members

then we go to the neutral persons

and a neutral person is

it's a clerk at a store that you go to

you know them you might say a few words

to them

but you don't know them very well

say you ride the same bus to work every

day you see the same people on the bus

that they would be considered neutral

persons

so you pick three or four neutral

persons

when you see them smiling and happy

then you go to the next and the next and

then

after you go to the neutral persons then

we go to the tough stuff

the enemies the people that you don't

the people that have caused you problems

in the past

and you start sending kindness to them

and before long you're thinking about

all the things they did that you don't

and how you really wish them not

happiness

so you go to the neutral person

and you see them smiling and happy you

get the loving kindness really going

strong again

then you go back to the enemy and you

keep bouncing back and forth

until you see that enemy smiling and

happy

and you don't have any more animosity

towards them

and you do this with as many enemies as

you have

this is as high as loving kindness will

take you it will take you to the fourth

jhana

now i'm kind of a

crafty monk

and i don't generally tell people when

they're practicing loving-kindness

meditation

that what i'm actually teaching is not

just loving-kindness meditation i'm

teaching you the brahma-viharas

okay now we get we go to more

about the uh fourth genre and the states

in the fourth genre the equanimity the

neither painful

or pleasant feeling the neither painful

or pleasant feeling doesn't mean you

won't have painful feeling arise it

means that it won't make your mind

shake

you just have this balance this balance

of mind

when when it gets strong and you have

this balance of mind all of the time the

first few times that it happens you walk

around going

oh what relief there's just so much

relief

in having this balanced mind

you don't have emotional upsets

you don't have some of your old habitual

tendencies of

doing things now you have this

equanimity and it's

just nice

the mental unconcern due to tranquility

you have very strong tranquility at this

point

and it's nice now one thing that i

haven't told you

is that

you can be in any one of these genres

while you're walking while you're

taking a shower while you're

sitting while you're eating

doing your daily activities you can be

any one of these jobs but it takes

strong mindfulness

it takes practice to be able to do that

when you get to the fourth jhana because

you have lost

pretty much all of the feeling in your

body unless there is contact

you get up and you start doing your

walking meditation it's a little bit

strange at first

because you feel the bottom of your feet

touching the ground

and you feel your head but you don't

feel anything in between

it's kind of weird unless

a breeze comes up and it blows your

clothes a little bit you would feel the

contact of that

unless there's contact you won't have

any feeling arise in your body

and you can take this meditation with

you all of the time

one of the reasons that we have the work

period is so

that you can keep your meditation going

and that can help you when you get back

into your daily life so that you have

more balance in your life

all the time

the purity of mindfulness and the

unification of mind

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind

now there's an awful lot of talk

with people that are doing mindfulness

of breathing

that when you get to the fourth jhana

you don't

feel your breath anymore

and that's not true when you're doing

this kind of meditation

when you're doing absorption

concentration

the breath doesn't go through your

nostrils and through your lungs anymore

it goes through your ears

so you don't feel that so much

but there's

i've been wrestling and talking and

fighting

with an awful lot of people that tell me

that the fourth jhana you

you just completely lose your body and

that way you don't feel anything

that happens in your body from there on

out

does that agree with what i just got

through reading

you have contact feeling volition

perception volition and mind

that means you have a body

and when there is contact there is

feeling

and when there's feeling there is

perception

when people are teaching absorption

concentration what they're actually

teaching is what the buddha

practiced when he first speak when he

was first

left the home life and he started

practicing

meditation with meditation teachers

he was practicing absorption

concentration because

that's the only kind of concentration

that was our

practice meditation practice that was

being done

so when he came up with the revelation

of relaxing

that changed the end result of the

meditation

your understanding your concentration

didn't go

so deep you didn't get absorbed in

anything

you started developing this aware genre

where you can see the four foundations

of mindfulness when they arise

when you can see the the

enthusiasm and energy and uh

mindfulness and equanimity and your

attention

you can see all of these things when

they arise

when you have absorption concentration

you do not

it's just that simple because your mind

is glued to one thing

and one thing only

now

i don't have anything against absorption

concentration

people that practice absorption

concentration can

gain great benefit from their practice

it's just that there is a difference

between the

end results of the practice

and one leads to one thing and one leads

to another

and i'm what you might call a very

super ordea or a super

something i remember um from the books

i'm a super orthodox debunk

because i'm going by what it says here

i'm not adding anything i'm not

subtracting anything

and almost all of the other monks that

are teaching meditation

are going by what it says in

commentaries

and commentaries i write commentary i'm

giving you commentary right now

and it's what my opinion is of what i

think the buddha was talking about

but i'm reading to you what the buddha

was talking about and then giving you

the commentary

most monks don't do that

they won't give you the suta and then

tell you of the commentary of what it

means

because it won't agree

with what they're teaching so they just

give the commentary

without giving the suta first

that makes me an outlaw monk

because i am so orthodox

these states were defined by him one by

one as they have heard

known to him those states arose known

they were present known

and disappeared he understood there is

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there is

now this particular

part of the suttas as something that i

had

a fairly long and

engrossing conversation with the

translator of this book

because the way that it's worded right

now

is very very misleading and i'll read it

to you now and so you get an idea

again monks with the complete

surmounting

of perceptions of form now that's saying

right there

that now you don't have any perception

of form at all

with the disappearance of perceptions of

sensory impact it's saying that there is

no sensory

impact but when you get down here

and starts talking about what you

experience

in this state it says that there's

contact feeling perception volition in

mind

now how do we justify that

in a sub commentary

it says and the the sub commentary

quite often goes back to the original

teaching of the buddha

it doesn't necessarily agree with the

commentary

it says with the complete surmounting

of perceptions of

gross form

which means that you still have form

you don't feel it unless there's contact

and the the disappearance

of gross perceptions of sensory impact

somebody can come along and they can

slap you

but you and you would feel it but you

won't react to it because of the

equanimity and and

the depth of your practice but you know

it happened

somebody come back right by with a

motorcycle that doesn't have a

muffler on it you would hear that

but it won't make your mind react

because the equanimity is so strong

so when i talked to him about that he

kept on quoting to me in nepali and

saying

this is what the pali says and i kept on

saying

i don't care what the pali says this is

misleading

because that goes back to

the fourth genre when people are talking

about

there is no more

breath at the fourth jhana

see with the contact that proves that

there still

is there still is contact with the

breath coming through the nose

there's still contact of the the abdomen

going up and down there's still contact

of the lungs still working

you know that you're breathing

so what we came up with was he was going

to leave it like this

but i told him he really needed to make

a very

strong footnote

saying that this does not mean the

obliteration

of all perceptions of form or sensory

impact

it means the letting go of the gross

perceptions of form and sensory impact

aware that space is infinite

sorry putta entered upon and abide in

the base of infinite space

now what happens after you get to the

fourth jhana

is you keep going along and your

mindfulness slips for some reason

and then you have a hindrance arise but

it doesn't it's not

earth shattering anymore

it's just another thing to watch and let

go of and relax

and then

there is

a deepening of the practice when you let

go of that hindrance

and you start experiencing

an expansion in all directions

at the same time it's just feeling of

getting more and more spacious and it

just keeps moving out and out

but there's no center point

and the feeling of the loving-kindness

changes you have to tell me how it

changes i'm not going to tell you

but it's different

now this is where the buddha he

practiced

every morning getting into

what a lot of the mahayana buddhists say

was infinite compassion he practiced

infinite compassion every morning

actually what he was practicing was

infinite

space and compassion

so the the feeling changes

and there is a that expansion feeling

all over

and it's really quite nice now you have

gone from

what is called the rupa or material

jhanas

and you are starting to experience what

is called

the arupa janus the immaterial dramas

yes

does this happen as well if you practice

mindfulness of reading is that like the

same experience

as the experience is a little bit

different

but

you see the the mindfulness of breathing

if you're doing that the experience

of uh

infinite space

doesn't have that feeling of compassion

with

it so it's a little bit different that

way

but you still experience an expansion

and you'll you'll experience all of the

dramas

the way the way that it says here but

it won't have the brahma viharas in it

which means it's going to be a little

bit different

and it doesn't have that feeling in it

as much

okay

and this and the states in the base of

infinite space

the perception of the base of infinite

space and unification of mind

the contact feeling perception volition

in mind the

enthusiasm decision energy mindfulness

equanimity and attention these states

were defined by him

one by one as they occurred known to

have him those states arose

known they were present known they

disappeared

and he understood

with the cultivation of that attainment

there's still more to go so even though

you're getting into these

very high and subtle states

you still understand there's

more there's more to do you know that

now what happens is you're going to be

in that drama for a period of time and

it's very nice and it's very

pleasant and then for whatever reason

one reason or another your mindfulness

slips

and guess who comes to dinner

the hindrance comes again so you get to

work with that

now the hindrances when they start

coming when you're in the

arupa genres they're not near as big and

gross and hard to work with

because your understanding of how this

process works more and more

you start seeing that there's a feeling

that arises

and right after the feeling there's this

tension and tightness

and right after that there's some

thoughts about and

right after that your habitual tendency

and you start seeing this you start

seeing

this as a process this is

dependent origination

okay so you're starting to grasp

more clearly when you get into these

states

again monks by completely surmounting

the base of infinite space

aware that consciousness is infinite

sorry puta entered upon

and abided in the base of infinite

consciousness

infinite consciousness is a real

interesting state

now when you get in the arupa jhanas you

start seeing

impermanence suffering and the

impersonal nature of things

very clearly

they are not the end result of the

practice but you will

see these characteristics very clearly

when you get to the space i get to the

state of infinite consciousness

what happens is you're going to

at all of the scent stores you're going

to see

individual consciousnesses arise

and pass away

that was a million arising and passing

away of consciousness

your mind gets so sharp you're going to

see individual consciousnesses

and it's it's a little bit strange

because

as you go deeper into the into your

meditation

it's like watching a movie

that the film is going too slow and you

see

individual pictures but there's a

black spot in between a blank spot

and you see that and it happens

with contact it happens with

hearing it happens with sight it happens

with smells it happens with taste

and it starts to get tiresome

you see there's this constant change

happening all the time

and there's nothing you can do about it

there's nobody home

you didn't ask this to happen it just

happened all by itself

you're seeing the impersonal nature of

this very very clearly

real interesting real fun

and like i said after a while it gets

tiresome seeing that so what you do

is you start looking

at the blank spots in between the

consciousnesses

and as you focus on that then

other things start happening

and the states in the base of infinite

consciousness the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness and

unification of mind

the contact feeling perception volition

and mind you still have

these things even

in this subtle state

you still have the five aggregates

the enthusiasm decision energy

mindfulness equanimity and attention

these states were defined by him one by

one as they occurred what a brilliant

mind sorry buddha had to see this

known to him those states arose known

they were present and only disappeared

he understood there was more to do and

with the cultivation of that attainment

he confirmed that there is so he still

knew that there's still more but

now it's starting to get fairly subtle

again by completely surmounting the base

of infinite consciousness

aware that there is nothing

sorry puta entered and abided in the

base of

nothingness what happens is

you still lose your mindfulness after a

period of time you get the hindrance you

start using the

you letting go of the hindrance when you

let it go

you get into a space where mind is not

looking outside of itself

anymore

and you say well i feel kind of dumb and

come

talk to me about you know there's

nothing to watch

there's nothing well there's actually a

lot to watch

anymore after you've let go

of seeing all of those consciousnesses

arise and pass away now we're going to

the subtler state

now in the state of infinite

consciousness

the feeling of compassion

changes to a feeling of joy

it's a real happy feeling without the

excitement in it

this is the enlightenment factor of joy

again

the all-pervading joy

as you start looking at those spots in

between the consciousnesses

and you experience the realm of

nothingness the feeling of

joy fades away and you feel real

real strong equanimity

and it gets so strong that people come

and i say well how's your meditation

going

everything's fine

how's your mind balanced

everything is fine

no excitement at all the mind is so

balanced

ah did you know that you have a snake

biting you

on your leg and say oh no i didn't know

that's fine everything is good

it's not quite like that it gives you

the idea

now this particular state of of the

meditation

is really really fun and

interesting because

even though there's nothing there you

still have the five aggregates that can

arise you still have some other things

you still have the enlightenment factors

that you can work with

and you're

learning how to balance your

attention

so that you can see very

easily and clearly how things arise and

pass away

the aggregates arise and pass away you

still will hear

sounds you still can have feeling

contact

and it you you start learning

the more subtleties of

learning how to tweak the

energy that you need to put into

watching

and it really gets to be kind of a fun

experiment

and if you put too much in you start to

get restless and if you don't put enough

you start to get dull you won't get

sleepy now

but you'll get dull

when you get to this state like i said

before

your mind starts to wobble you'll see

that very very clearly and you'll start

to notice

things that happen before your mind

starts wobbling

and when you're able to see those things

then you're starting to progress very

nicely

so even in the realm of nothingness you

have

contact feeling perception relation in

mind

you have the five aggregates

now this is as far as

the can take you

because when you start getting into the

stage of the meditation it gets

difficult to tell whether there's

anything there or not

you won't have the five five aggregates

arise

and and be able to recognize

and i'll show you in just a moment

again by completely surmounting the base

of nothingness sorry puta entered upon

and abided in the base of neither

perception

nor non-perception

and he emerged mindful from that

attainment

having done so he contemplated the

states that had passed

ceased and changed

so what we're talking about here is

before there was an expansion feeling of

mind

now it gets so small

and so subtle that you can't really tell

whether it's there or not

and this is a state that

sometimes people will come and tell me

that

you know it felt like i was asleep

but i wasn't sleeping

and what i generally tell people to do

is after

you come out of that state because

you're only going to be in it for a

period of time

especially at first

to reflect on what happened while you

were

in that state you can still see changes

that happened in that state

sometimes you'll see flashes of light

sometimes you'll see other things

it's really kind of fun

but you're talking about super subtle

states of mind

now this is this is a way that it's

described in one of the commentaries

suppose there's two monks walking down a

path

in the forest and

the the senior monk is walking in front

that's the way monks do it

and he stepped over this little tiny

trickle of water coming down

and the junior monk

asked the senior monk to stop and wait

for a moment he wanted to get

some water to drink

and the senior monk said ah there's

water then please go get my towel

i want to take a bath but the junior

monk said

there's water but there's not enough for

that

and that's what it is with mine it's

there

it's real hard to see

sometimes you perceive it sometimes you

don't

there's still some fine things that are

happening

now when when you're doing your

meditation

at first your mind is flip-flopping like

this

and as you start going deeper and deeper

into your

into your meditation and you get to the

fourth jhana your mind isn't moving so

much as it starts vibrating

and as you go from one state to the next

and you keep

relaxing the vibration becomes

less and less and less

until you can't really tell whether it's

vibrating or not

and then the exciting starts

again monks by completely surmounting

the base

of neither perception or non-perception

sorry puta

entered upon and abided in the cessation

of perception

and feeling and his

taints were destroyed by his seeing with

wisdom

so what happens now is

your six r's are very much automatic

even while you're in the state of

neighbor perception or non-perception

your mind goes to something there's the

six

r's right there and there's more and

more relaxing until

finally there is no more vibration

there is no more movement of mind at all

it's just like turning the lights out

there's nothing

you can't see anything you can't feel

anything there is no

perception there is no feeling that

arises in that state

you'll be in that state for a short

period of time

when you come out of that state is when

you will see

dependent original dependent origination

arising and then you will see dependent

origination

ceasing and when you get to the final

letting go of the ignorance

nibana occurs

now that's what this basically says

and his taints were destroyed by his

seeing with wisdom

his taints

all of the distractions of mind

were destroyed by his seeing with wisdom

seeing with wisdom always means seeing

dependent origination

now he experienced nibana

what is nibana i don't know

i gave you a definition a little while

ago so he had some kind of an idea

but it's an unconditioned state how can

you talk about an unconditioned state

with condition concepts and ideas and

words

it doesn't work apples and oranges very

much

so the more relaxing you do

the more you're leading to

the cessation of perception and feeling

now there are sutas in in the middle

link sayings that will tell you

that you can experience the first drama

and then the cessation of perception and

feeling and then

experience nibona and you can

it depends on you you see my job is to

get you to point

in the right direction and

anybody that experiences drama

they have the potential in this lifetime

to experience nibana it just depends on

on you and your understanding and your

willingness to work

can it happen soon yes

for some people it can happen very

quickly for other people it seems like

it takes forever

but it depends a lot on the amount

practice you do with your daily

activities

not only with your

uh with when you're doing the meditation

when you're in a retreat but when you're

home

seeing the tightnesses that arise from

mind's attention moving from one thing

to another

seeing the

the old habitual tendencies arise

when somebody says something or does

something and every time they do it's

like pushing a button on you

and you just react in the same way

you've always acted

now with this practice

you can start changing those old

habitual tendencies

and as you start developing the new

habitual tendency

of being aware of what's happening

in the present moment and radiating

loving kindness

and compassion or whatever

and smiling and laughing

and having fun

as you do that and practice that more

and more

you are leading to

the cessation of perception and feeling

why because you're letting go of your

attachment

to the craving every time you relax into

whatever you're doing you're getting one

step closer

might be a teeny tiny step

but it all leads to the same

end result if you're doing it this way

then it says sorry putty emerged mindful

from that attainment

having done so he recalled the states

that had passed ceased and changed thus

so indeed these states not having been

come into being having been they vanish

even nirvana was just there for a little

while and changed

and disappeared but it's such a strong

experience

of your deep understanding

of the process of dependent origination

that understanding gets so deep

that's what the realization is all about

that's what completely

and thoroughly understanding the four

noble truths

and how they work with dependent

origination

it's completely understanding

and realizing that everything

is part of impermanent suffering and

non-self

or the impersonal nature

not having been coming okay uh regarding

those states he abided

unattracted unrepelled independent

detached free dissociated

with a mine rid of barriers he

understood there is no escape beyond

this one

and with the cultivation of that

attainment he confirmed that there is

not

he knew that what happened that's the

end end result

he knew that he had become

completely enlightened although i hate

the word enlightened

because i can tell you something and i

can enlighten you to the definition of

something

but the buddha became

awake and he taught other people

how to be completely awake

because most of us are walking around in

the dream world

of our own concepts and opinions

and all of the stories and all of that

kind of thing

monks rightly speaking word to be said

of anyone he has mastery

and perf he has attained

mastery and perfection and noble virtue

attain mastery and perfection and noble

collectiveness

attain mastery and perfection in noble

wisdom

attain mastery and perfection in noble

deliverance

it is of sorry putta indeed that rightly

speaking

this should be said monks

rightly speaking word to be said of

anyone he is a son of the blessed one

born of his breast born of his mouth

born of the dhamma created by the dharma

error in the dhamma not in air in

material things

it is of sariputta indeed that rightly

speaking

this should be said amongst the

matchless wheel of dhamma is set

rolling by the tatagata and

it's kept rolling rightly by sariputta

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

that gives you a very strong idea of

what you're doing with the meditation

and why

it also gives you a good strong

indication

of the differences between the

jhanas of absorption concentration

and the drama of

the samantha vipassana

so does anybody have any questions

yeah yes so is it so that

in every job there's still some duca yes

of course

so that is why you want to realize that

you want to go further

yes so once you get to the final one you

re there's no duka in that so you

realizing

that well

that's a tricky question because

if you have a body there is duca

you have to wash it you have to feed it

you have to take care of it when it's

sick

so there is is some dissatisfaction in

having a body

even the buddha experienced dukkha

after he became fully away

there's in the sutras it says that there

were times that he had

real strong pain in his back

and he had to tell other monks you carry

on with the

uh with the dhamma talk i'm going to lay

down and rest my back

he had dukkha but it didn't make his

mind

shake he didn't have any aversion to it

you don't completely let go of dukkha

until you

let go of the body too

and then there is no more becoming

and that's what the final nibana

the the para nibana that the buddha

experienced

that's what he's talking about

okay

anybody else with a question

can you will to become again no

in a word

no it's not a choice

when you have this realization this is

what will happen

and i know that there's an awful lot of

tibetans that talk about uh

we have the reincarnation of anandai

here

to do this or that

but that's just some wrong understanding

that's happening about

what a bodhisattva vow is and what it

does

it kind of made up their own definitions

that don't necessarily agree with the

original texts

the word bodhisattva

means

literally it means the future buddha

and there's an awful lot of people that

take a bodhisattva

i want to become a future buddha i think

this would be great to be a

future buddha well

to take that vow without a buddha

around to confirm that you in fact are

going to become

a future buddha

makes life a little bit difficult

for you because if you've read any of

the jaundica tales he was continually

running across problems that

there's a lot of stories about the

bodhisattva

one time he was born as a snake

and some village kids came along started

poking sticks through him

and he was a big stink

and he had to bear that without even

one thought moment of dissatisfaction or

dislike

there's another there's another jaundica

tale

about he was

reborn as a young prince he was about a

year and a half

old and the queen his mother

loved him very dearly and he

she was playing with him and the king

walked in the room

and said something to the queen and she

didn't hear it

and she's he started getting jealous

because he started thinking

she loves that prince too much and

when he gets old enough they're going to

come and they're going to

take the throne away from me and they're

going to cause me all kinds of pain and

probably kill me so i don't want that to

happen so he called for his

executioner

and the executioner came

and the

king took the bodhisattva and held his

hands out

and he said i want you to cut off his

hands

and the bodhisattva thought ah

here is a real opportunity for me to

practice

my equanimity and my loving kindness

now there's four different kinds of

beings here

there's me there's my mother i love her

very dearly

there's the executioner i'm kind of

neutral to him

there's the enemy my father

i get a chance to practice

loving-kindness to all these four

different kinds of beings

and the executioner cut off his hands

and he didn't cry

and his mind was very balanced

and the king started to get real upset

by this

and he said oh this is disgusting cut

off his feet

now the the queen took the hands and

they were putting she was crying and

all of these kind of things so the

executioner

cut off his feet and he just looked at

that as more of an opportunity just

to keep practicing his equanimity and

his loving kindness

and practice not holding even one

thought of dissatisfaction while

this major dissatisfaction was happening

so they cut off his feet gave them to

them

to the queen she's holding them crying

all really heartbroken

the bodhisattva didn't cry

and the king came became real disgusted

by that and he said i'm going to throw

this baby up in the up in the

in the air and i just want you to stab

him and kill him

so he did now the bodhisattva didn't

hold

one thought he didn't entertain

any thought of dislike

dissatisfaction

or wishing that things were different

than they were

and he was immediately reborn in a in a

deva loca

his mother died of a broken heart

and it says in the in the uh

in the jataka tale that the father died

of a heart attack

right there

now are you ready to take a bodhisattva

and put up with not just one or two

lifetimes of these kind of challenges

but many maybe thousands

being a bodhisattva is not a piece of

cake

it's really hard

and

there's called the

they're called sankhyas they're

long periods of time where

the universe expands

for one us one

it stops for one house and kaya

it contracts for one ah saying kaya

and it stops for one ah sankaya that's

called a maha kappa

those four things in the commentaries

they put numbers to how many years it

takes for

one asankaya to occur

and that is 10

with 160 zeros behind it

that's how many years the

universe expands

and one mahakapa

is four of those so you multiply

the 160 by four

and you get five hundred and forty zeros

behind

a one

that's how many years a maha kappa lapse

there are actually three kinds of buddha

there's called the energetic buddha

which was gotama now

excuse me there is the intelligent

buddha

which was gotuma the energetic buddha

and the moral buddha to become

an intelligent buddha

takes four maha kappas and a hundred

thousand lifetimes

to become an energetic buddha

takes eight maha kappas and a hundred

thousand lifetimes

to become a moral buddha take 16

maha kappas and a hundred thousand

lifetimes

now we're talking of millions and

millions and millions of lifetimes

that you have to

go through and there are major

challenges

in those lifetimes

many people that take the bodhisattva

vow right now

they don't have the determination

to carry on for the next

four eight or sixteen maha kappas

and because of that after 5 000

10 000 20 000 lifetimes they started

going

whoa this is really hard i don't want to

do this

and then they renounce the bodhisattva

vow

but what's the problem with that

right now they're in a buddha era

right now you can still experience

nibana

20 000 lifetimes is that gonna happen

for you or not

it's a crapshoot who knows

you might have to go for a huge long

period of time

before you're born in a in a buddha era

again it depends on your karma

so the encouragement of a lot of

mahayana

and zen and tibetan

monks for taking the bodhisatt to vow

to me i don't want to do that

they say well if you take the

bodhisattva vow

then you're going to help all beings

become enlightened

but the buddha couldn't enlighten all

beings

if he could we wouldn't be here

right

and if he can't do it who am i to think

i can do it

but that's what they tell people and

they they kind of look

down on terra bottom saying well

they only want to get enlightened in

this lifetime like that's something bad

but we're better because we're going to

bodhisattvas and we're going to help

beings all the time

everywhere we are when you start

developing this practice you

naturally start to help people

you start to do things for other people

and it gets to be real fun

as you go more and more into your

practice

your generosity starts to get bigger in

a lot of different ways

and you act like a bodhisattva whether

you really are or not doesn't matter

but if you take a bodhisattva to vow

that vow is so strong

that it will stop you from attaining

mibana

mean like let's say in the zeal of a new

experience someone takes that vow

and couldn't they perhaps in the course

of some

some nice deep con you know meditation

become more lucid and see the error of

that

they can see the error of it they can

renounce it

and what would that be awful no that's a

question no bad consequences for it

uh caiman did a zen retreat

where they were giving her something to

recite

in korean

and i recognized some of the things that

they were saying in that

and i realized that that was they were

telling people to take they were giving

people the bodhisattva vow

without telling them what it was or

anything about it and as soon as she got

done with the retreat i told her did you

realize that you

you became a bodhisattva on this retreat

oh no what do i have to do well it's

fairly easy

to renounce a bodhisattva valve

and that is sit in front of the

the buddha and with a very sincere mind

three times you say i now renounce

being a bodhisattva

and then it's done but she's zealous so

she did it six times

taking a vow is not a

a light thing it's a real serious thing

and it's not treated that way

but how can you think about in the

language you don't understand

exactly you're still taking the vowel

because those are the words that you're

using

that's not in your heart it's not in

your heart but you're

you're taking the vow and the vow is

very powerful unless you renounce it

okay yeah

um i'm always wondering about

you know idol idols

you know

in the christian religion

they have all of these

idols and images

and they try to say that anybody else

that has

an image then they're they're uh

that's an idol and you're an idol

worshiper

but how many i mean i just was in

germany and i went to two churches and i

saw

jesus on the cross

suffering like anything else

now isn't that an idol

isn't there attachment to that

you see what i'm saying there doesn't

have to be attachment to it

there can certainly be appreciation for

the person that did that

but that's not an attachment

isn't it a matter of being clear about

what you're doing when you prostrate to

a buddha

and the misunderstanding that people

have about that

you know well it's the same we're taking

the

the refuges

some people take refuges haven't got a

clue what it means

no but i mean you bump into an

evangelist and he'll say you're an idol

worshiper because when you prostrate to

the buddha you're worshiping the statue

and you want something from it but

that's not at all what it's about

and you have to be very precise in

understanding what you're doing when you

prostrate to the buddha

you know when you open your hands you

open your mind and you're you're

it's a it's a it's a bowing of respect

the man that um succeeded in this

practice

and that's all it is but there are

people who go in the other traditions

of buddhism you know there are people

who go to church

who put more into it than that who grew

up with religions before the buddha

buddhism was put into it with deities

and all kinds of things

and it becomes like a deity it's true

but the actual meaning of it in buddhism

is a homage of respect to the person the

human being that succeeded

he didn't want any images left he said

if i'm not around use the bodhi tree

as something to pay respect to

because that gave him shelter when he

became

the buddha and it's just a reminder of

respect

one of the reasons we have the

the logo that we have

which is a bodhi leaf

with a full path wheeled in

it's because that is

what the buddha wanted us to use

as a show of respect it's neutral to all

of the traditions it doesn't

affect anybody to use that symbol

that's why we chose it as well as the

stupa

because the stupa is the bold upside

down

and that's

that's even turned into some strange

rates and rituals

to be quite honest okay let's share some

miracles

right

have best acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

many beings inhabiting space and earth

through davis and another's mighty power

may they

and

you