From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=09o3wxG8-b4

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

this is a rather interesting discourse

because there's an awful lot of people

that have different ideas about what

voidness is and what it isn't so I

thought it would be a good idea to go to

the soup deaths and see what the Buddha

said about voidness okay this is I heard

I'm on occasion the blessed one was

living in Swati in the Eastern Park in

the palace of maderas mother when it was

evening the venerable Ananda rose from

meditation went to the Blessed One after

paying homage to him sat down at one

side and said to the Blessed One

venerable sir on one occasion the

blessed one was living in the sake and

country where there was a town of the

sake ins called Naga raka raka their

venerable sir I heard and then learned

this from the Blessed ones on the lip

now and I often abide in voidness did I

hear that correctly venerable sir did I

learn that correctly attend to that

correctly remember that correctly

certainly Ananda you heard them

correctly

learned that correctly attended to that

correctly remembered it correctly as

formerly now I often abide in voidness

Ananda just as this palace of madara's

mother is void of elephants cattle

horses and mares void of gold and silver

void of the Assembly of

than women and there is present only

this non voidness namely the singleness

dependent on the Sangha of monks

let me explain about Megara smothers

palace the Buddha's chief female

supporter was named the Sokka she was a

from a super wealthy family and when she

got married she married into my gaara's

family Megara was actually her

father-in-law but he didn't really like

her very much and he started to look for

things that would cause her

embarrassment and maybe he could get rid

of her so she'd be sent back to the

other family she had a favorite horse

and this horse was giving birth to

uphold so she stayed up all night with

the horse making sure that everything

went well with it and that sort of thing

so she wasn't in the house in the

morning when the father-in-law got up

now one of the things of the tradition

in India is that the son and his wife

always paid homage to the the parents

right after they got up she wasn't there

to do that so he started criticizing her

for that another time

Megara was eating food and a monk came

to the door and was on alms round and

Megara ignored him

so this akka said that please mom go

somewhere else

Megara is eating stale fare still is

like stale food and that really got him

upset so he wanted to cast her out of

the house but she had eight very wise

people that day it was like a court that

any any grievance they had to judge

whether it was for real or not so they

went and then they convened this court

and Megara got up and he said she wasn't

there to pay homage one morning and

that's the duty of the his

daughter-in-law to do that every morning

why wasn't she there

he was fooling around in the stables and

she got up and said well actually my

favorite horse was giving birth so I was

helping with that process and I stayed

up all night so that I could help and

everything turned out just great so he

begrudgingly said oh well that's okay

but then there was the time I was eating

and my assistant my daughter-in-law said

that I'm eating stale food and she said

no I didn't say you were eating stale

food I said we were eating stale fare

which means that your wealth right now

has come to you because of your past

of generosity but you're just living on

that action you're not creating new

actions of generosity so it's eating the

stale karma and not creating new karma

and that's why I said that he became so

impressed with her that he said from now

on I'm going to consider consider you my

mother so that's how makaras mother got

to be in the suit that's it's actually

be Sokka what is her name and it's kind

of an insight monk joke to call it the

palace of Megara mother when she got

married she was quite an exceptional

person she was very strong in her body

and a very beautiful came from a super

super rich family and the gown that she

got married in it was made out of gold

and many many gems diamonds and rubies

and sapphires and all of those kinds of

things and because she had such

exceptional physical strength she could

wear this without any problem

one day she and one of her attendants

went to the listen to the Buddha gave a

talk after she was wearing this robe and

she said I can't wear this in front of

the Buddha it's not right so she gave it

to her attendant after folding it up

very nicely and her attendants set it

down and then they went to listen to the

Dhamma talk and they were so inspired by

the talk that they left and forgot the

rope so the Sokka

instead of becoming angry with the

attendant she was very happy that this

happened and she said I want you to go

back to the monastery to pick up this

robe and bring it back

but if venerable ananda has touched the

robot you have to leave it there

venerable amount of his habit was always

going around cleaning things up so of

course he got the robe and he put it in

a place that was safe and she found out

that venerable ananda had touched the

rope so she went back and be Sokka said

you've given me an opportunity to make

more merit and she said what I'm gonna

do is I'm going to sell this this robe

and then with the money I get for this

robe

I'm going to build a monastery for them

for all of the months that nobody could

afford it so she bought it back herself

and then she used that money for it was

such a spectacular place that they

called it a palace had many many rooms

as many stories very nicely done

very well done so this gives you an idea

of some of the inside jokes that we have

about this of the monks and when it says

that there was no cattle there was

no horses there was no elephants of

course not it was a monastery they

didn't allow those kind of things in the

monastery they had to be they were

installed outside ok Anandi just as this

palace of Majora's Mother is void of

elephants cattle horses and mares void

of gold and silver white of the Assembly

of men and women there is present only

this non whiteness namely the singleness

dependent on the Sangha of monks so to a

monk not attending to the perception of

village not attending to perception of

people attends to the singleness

dependent on the perception of forest

his mind enters into that perception of

forest and acquires confidence

steadiness and resolution he understands

thus whatever disturbances there might

be dependent on the perception of

village those are not present here

whatever disturbance there might be

dependent on the perception of people

those are not present here there is

present only this amount of disturbance

namely the singleness dependent on the

perception of forest this field of

perception

is void of the perception of a village

this field of perception is void of the

perception of people there is only

present this non voidness namely the

singleness dependent on the perception

of the forest

thus he regards it as void of what is

not there but as to what remains there

he understands that which is present

thus this is present thus Ananda this is

his genuine undisturbed distorted pure

descent into voidness now did you

understand that if you go into the

forest from a village where there's a

lot of people you leave the village and

you leave all of those people alone and

your only perception now is in the

forest so your void of the village and

your void of the people now your only

perception is in the in the forest and

that's the way the buddha was talking

about voidness he is saying there's

these things are void but there is the

perception of something else that's

there it's not that everything is

waiting there's still the perception of

the forest and we go on then we go

deeper and deeper into this but this

gives you more of the idea of what the

Buddha was talking about when I was

talking when he was talking about

voidness or emptiness so the the your

perception of the village and your

perception of people is empty in your

bin your perception is not there anymore

there's only this perception forest

so this statement

thus he regards it as void of what is

not there but as to what remains there

he understands that which is present

thus this is present

that's Ananda this is his genuine and

the story of pure descent into whiteness

again and on the a monk not attending to

the perception of people not attending

to the perception of forest attendant

attends to the singleness dependent on

the perception of Earth he's using earth

as his meditation which is a very

specialized kind of meditation but we

can change that just to say that we

could see instead of perception of earth

we could say perception of

loving-kindness it's basically the same

thing any of the objects of meditation

and the Buddha taught can be added in

there his mind enters of enters into

that perception of earth and acquires

confident steadiness and resolution just

as a bull's-hide becomes free from folds

when fully stretched with a hundred pegs

so to a month not attending to any of

the ridges and hollows of this earth to

the rivers and ravines and the tracks of

stumps and thorns the mountains and

uneven places attends to the singleness

dependent on the perception of Earth his

mind enters into that perception of

Earth and acquires confidence steadiness

and resolution he understands thus

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the perception of people

those are not present here whatever

disturbances

might be dependent on the perception of

forest those are not present here there

is present only this amount of

disturbance namely the singleness

dependent on the perception of earth he

understands this field of perception is

void of the perception of people this

field of perception is void of the

perception of forest there is present

only this non voidness namely the

singleness dependent on the perception

of earth thus he regards it as void of

what is not there but as to what remains

there he understands that which is

present thus this is present thus Ananda

this too is his genuine undistorted pure

descent into voidness again Ananda a

monk not attending to the perception of

forest not attending to the perception

of Earth

attends to the singleness dependent on

the perception of the base of infinite

space now before we get too far gone in

this what we're really talking about

here is that he was talking about with

the earth or with lovingkindness or

whatever kind of meditation you're doing

getting to the fourth jhana and these

are called the material jhanas these are

levels of understanding where there are

certain things that happen as you get

from the first round of the second jhana

the third gem of the fourth jhana on

your level of equanimity balance of mind

it gets stronger and stronger stronger

and then you get into what the Buddha

called the aruba jhanas the immaterial

realms and that is infinite space

infinite consciousness nothingness

neither perception nor non-perception

this is where you you don't have any

feeling in your body unless there is

contact if I come and I touch you you

will know that happens sound you will be

able to hear but if your equanimity is

so strong that it doesn't make your mind

shake you hear the sound it just goes

through this is different than the

descriptions of a lot of the other

one-pointed kinds of concentration where

they say you don't have any feeling in

your body at all no matter what happens

I can come and I can move your hand you

wouldn't know that your hand was moved

I could make loud sounds right beside

you're here you wouldn't hear that at

all you wouldn't know that it happened

and that is a way that they test to see

whether someone is in deep concentration

or not by touching them and making

sounds and seeing that there's any kind

of reaction but that is when you don't

add that extra step of relaxing your

mind will become very deeply focused

just on one thing you become very very

tranquil and very very peaceful that

your

just stays on one thing only when you're

practicing the way that the Buddha was

talking about you're still able to see

things and hear things and when I say

see things you're able to recognize with

your mind these things when they come up

so you're still learning how this

process of the dependent origination

arises so yours you're able to see that

there's contact and then there's feeling

and then there's craving and then

there's clinging and then your habitual

tendency you'll be able to see these

things and as soon as you start

recognizing when mine starts to get

tight you start relaxing right then you

go deeper into your meditation now that

one of the advantages of doing this

meditation is when your mind when your

mindfulness slips when your mindfulness

is not always as sharp as it could be

what happens is one of the hindrances

can arise and this is a good thing the

hindrances I like it might I don't like

it might as Brede mind

hatred mind dullness you don't have

sleepiness at this level restlessness

you can still have some doubts

really very think by this time when

these hindrances arise they will take

you away from the meditation but should

recognize that and let it be you relax

and you come back now you start to see

how your mind's attention moves away

from being with your object of

meditation to being on the hindrance see

that's always the test and you get to

see at deeper and deeper levels how this

process works you start catching it a

lot more quickly you start relaxing into

it much more easily and you're starting

to see that all of these things is part

of an impersonal process it's part of

because this arose and that feeling

arose because that feeling arose the

craving is there let go the craving your

mind is brilliant and clear and bright

as you let go of the hindrance then you

go deeper into your meditation so you

need the hindrances when you practice

one pointed concentration which is

mostly being taught in the world today

that doesn't have that extra step of

relaxing and that extra step is very

very important for the Buddha's teaching

when you don't add that one extra step

your mind becomes very very concentrated

but

the force of the concentration stops the

hindrances from coming up so you don't

really have that process of learning how

all of these things arise and how how to

let go of them and you're not learning

very much your mind becomes just stuck

on one thing even though it's peaceful

and calm being stuck on one thing means

that you don't gain more knowledge and

vision you don't gain more understanding

of how the process works and the whole

thing from from the very first day that

you start meditating until you're done

until you attain nirvana the whole of

the process is learning how to see mimes

attention how it moves from one thing to

another you're training yourself to see

it more and more easily more and more

quickly more and more clearly and as you

do that it's so much easier to recognize

and not get caught personally with

thoughts and feelings that arise now

this is a process that you see very very

closely when you're sitting in

meditation but as you're able to

recognize that when you're doing your

quiet meditation then your daily

meditation you're able to see the

hindrances when they come up more

quickly and more easily so you start

letting go over those so you start

gaining balance all of the time in your

daily life your your

your children or your husband or your

wife will start to notice that you don't

get angry like you used to that you take

care of things without having the

emotional ups and downs now now you

still have the problems but they're not

such big problems to you and that's the

way one of the ways that you tell that

you're progressing in your practice is

that the things that used to get you mad

they don't get German so much anymore

and your sense of humor starts to

improve you start laughing with things

and you'll you'll you'll start noticing

somebody can come up and tell you a joke

and it puts down one ethnic group or

another whatever and it's not funny to

you but they come up and they tell you

something that their child did that was

just great and you find yourself smiling

and laughing because of that because

that was a happy moment so your sense of

humor starts to change as you go deeper

in your meditation

okay so we were at the base of infinite

space his mind enters into that

perception of the base of infinite space

and acquires confidence steadiness and

resolution he understands thus whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the perception of forest those are not

present here

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the perception of earth

those are not present here there is only

present this amount of disturbance

namely the singleness dependent on the

perception of the base of infinite state

yeah

so you mentioned earlier earlier on that

the earth was the object of meditation

in this particular to go yes so that

means that if you would do like icy nuts

in this stage you would not be watching

that's what it just said

you see I've never run across a teacher

that has been able to teach me casinos

to my satisfaction and I've looked

believe me I've looked so I don't know

how quite to answer you because when you

do the way the Buddha teaches and add

that extra step cocina has always been a

one pointed kind of concentration and

with that you stay with they call it the

nimita it's a sign that comes up in your

mind

it's like a silver moon kind of shiny

the so you wouldn't stay with the earth

cocina anymore when you have that

awright but the thing is that arises

before you get into the jhana so you

wouldn't be with the earth Cosima even

while you were in the first jhana with

the perception of nimita that sign that

comes up in your mind and if you would

replace another so that's why I

suggested you could replace it with

loving-kindness and when you get to the

fourth John on the loving-kindness

changes or right after the fourth jhana

when you start to get into the other

pajamas it changes and that's why I like

that scent example better because I

understand it how does it work for you

you still have all of these things

arising but you're staying with the

breath and relaxing and then you notice

the expansion of infinite space and that

sort of thing it doesn't really change

the breath doesn't change at all it

stays the same and you relax in the same

way that you start observing other

things that are right

so it's kind of this suit is of is a

blessing in some ways and a curse in

another because it is talking about the

casinos and like I said I went I went

through Burma begging for somebody to

teach me casinos

everybody talks about well is there's

real advantage of doing this casino or

that casino that nobody told me how to

do it and I went through Thailand I went

through Sri Lanka looking couldn't find

anybody everybody talks about it but

nobody talks about how how to do it and

Fred and I have run across teachers that

teach the meditation very similar the

way that I teach and they can and they

can explain the Cocina meditation at all

they come up with some imaginary thing

but it doesn't have anything to do with

the actual practice when when I started

out doing so much meditation I wanted to

be a very well rounded meditator that

any kind of meditation that the Buddha

taught I wanted to be able to have the

experience of being able to do it and I

couldn't do it because there wasn't a

teacher of the Cocina and that's eight

meditations right there

well it's a one-pointed kind of

meditation that is being practiced right

now I don't know how the Buddha taught

it or if he actually taught it this see

the thing is about 250 years after the

Buddha died there were a lot of Hindus

and Brahmins that started wearing robes

but they were teaching their Hindu and

the Vedas and all of that sort of thing

and they were mixing a lot of the

meditation techniques that the Vedas say

and they were using Buddhist terminology

eventually they were expelled from they

couldn't wear those robes anymore they

were questioned on what the Buddha was

taught and they didn't know what the

Buddha taught so they they added this

robe they took on the robes because they

could get free food and that was very

appealing to them but a lot of their

ideas are still mixed up in the sutras

themselves and the one pointed

concentration got very very mixed up

with the Buddha's teaching and because

of that there's been major problems with

being able to attain

the way the buddha was talking about

because the one pointed concentration he

practiced that when he was a bodhisattva

and he said I've gone as far as I can go

with this this does not lead to Nevada I

quit I don't want to do that anymore it

doesn't work so that's why he went out

on his own and he found this one extra

step and the importance of adding that

into the meditation and how it changed

the entire meditation not just a little

bit but a lot so you can see the

individual pieces of how everything

works you can see that you can recognize

that you can let it go

and when you do that you let go of the

suffering it takes practice this is a

gradual teaching and a gradual learning

it happens a lot faster than it does

with other meditations I can guarantee

you that but it still it doesn't happen

right away so you have to have some

patience when you do your practice but

the the earth casino what it basically

is the way that it's described in

commentaries which I find suspect they

had they had a lot of Veda Vedic ideas

in there it is a disc that's about this

big and you take soil and and mud and

put on a piece of cloth over the disc

and let it dry and then you

hold it up or hang it up and you start

staring at it just saying earth earth

earth earth earth

now that's they do they do that with all

of the elements and with some of the

elements it's a hole that's cut out of a

piece of wood or something like that

where they would put in front of the

fire and you would look at the fire and

you say fire fire fire so there that's

how the cocina cocina basically means a

round disc now there can be a disc that

you stare at or it can be a disc that

you're looking through and there's

there's four colors of which there's a

lot of fighting about what those four

colors are some people say that Brown is

mixed in with it other people say

there's blue mixed in with it some

people say there's green there's all of

these different ideas of the colors that

leads me to think that that wasn't part

of the Buddha's teaching but the casinos

are mentioned a few times in the suta's

and it might be that was because of the

Brahman influence

I just don't know because I certainly

haven't run across anybody who can

understand it according to the way the

Buddha teaches it see that extra step of

relaxing is so incredibly important and

when it's not in that meditation then it

is suspect of being something other than

the Buddha's teaching and I haven't run

across anybody a piece is it with the

relaxing step in it I have considered

spending time doing a cocina with the

relaxing set to see what happened

maybe one of these days I don't

why don't you do it and then we'll come

back very important to me so when you

get to the realm of infinite space what

you feel is there's a feeling of

expansion that just keeps going out and

out and out and it goes in all the

directions at the same time but there's

no center point it's just a feeling of

the expansion so thus he regards it as

as void of what is not there but as to

what remains there he understands that

which is present this is present thus

Ananda this too is his genuine and

distorted here descent into whiteness

again and a monk not attending to the

perception of Earth not attending to the

perception of the base of infinite space

attends to the singleness event

dependent on the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness his mind

enters into that perception of the base

of infinite consciousness and acquires

confidence steadiness and resolution he

understands thus whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the

perception of Earth those are not

present here whatever disturbances there

might be dependent on the perception of

the base of infinite space those are not

present here there is present only this

amount of disturbance

the singleness depended on the

perception of the base of infinite

consciousness he understands this field

of perception is void of the perception

of Earth this field of perception is

void of the perception of infinite space

there is present only this non

gluttonous namely the singleness

dependent on the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness so what

happens when you get into infinite

consciousness as you start seeing

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away now that was a million

consciousness is arising and passing

away so we're talking about being able

to see this very very finely and you're

looking at something and you'll see it

will be like you're seeing something but

you're seeing it like it's a movie

that's going to slow and there's a

flicker in between each picture okay

that's what it's like but it's like that

with all of the sense doors with the air

with the tongue with the nose with the

body feeling and with with mine you see

mind arising and passing away very

quickly when you see this you are very

very convinced that everything is

impermanent nothing is it's like we

think it is we like to think that

everything is permanent we're always

looking for things that are permanent

but when you start seeing the individual

consciousnesses arrive and pass away

arise and pass a wedding you start

seeing the unsatisfactory nature of this

there's nothing less permanent because

of that

it's a form of suffering it's a form of

unsatisfactoriness because it's always

changing and you see that there is no

controller at all these things happen

because the conditions are right for you

to see so you see and you see it as

individual consciousnesses arising and

passing away but there's no self in that

there's no it's not personal at all this

is an impersonal process that is

happening because the eye hits color and

form that the meeting of the three is

eye consciousness with that's called

contact and then a feeling arises and

all of the rest of the dependent

origination so what you're learning how

to do when you get to that it'll see the

individual consciousnesses and relax

into that then you start looking more at

the space in between those

consciousnesses and it's that the the

blink in between there's a little bit

longer and a little bit longer as you

and you become more familiar with the

process okay

again and a month not attending to the

perception of our not attending to the

Crucified of just read back again and on

a month not attending to the perception

of the base of infinite space not

attending to the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness attends to the

singleness dependent on the perception

of the base of nothingness his mind

enters into that perception

the base of nothingness and acquires

confidence steadiness and resolution he

understands thus whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the

perception of the base of infinite space

those are not present here

whatever disturbances there might be

depending on the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness those are not

present here there is only this amount

of disturbance namely the singleness

dependent on the perception of the base

of nothingness he understands this field

of perception is void of the perception

of the base of infinite space this field

of perception is void of the perception

of the base of infinite consciousness

there is only present this non voidness

namely the single is dependent on the

perception of the base of nothingness

when you get into the base of

nothingness what happens is mind is not

looking outside of itself anymore there

are still things that are happening but

they're more like factors that arise

it's not so much seeing and thinking and

getting caught up in the six senses

anymore but you starting to see mind a

lot more clear way and what you're

starting to do is to recognize how to

keep that equanimity that balance of

mine going without getting caught up

with putting too much energy into

watching or not enough

energy so now you're starting to learn

how to fine-tune your meditation now

this I know an awful lot of monks that

are teaching meditation and they won't

even talk about these kind of things

because they say it takes you years and

years and years to get to this I'm here

to tell you that doesn't doesn't take

years and years when you're practicing

with that relaxing step it can it can

take up to a year for some people but it

depends on how much you do it how much

how much humidity how clear you are on

what you're seeing while you're doing

your meditation I have seen some people

that can do it in seven days when they

come into a retreat some people are slow

they take but this is a real real this

is probably the most interesting state

in the meditation at least it seems that

to me because it is such fine tuning

that you have to do if you're a little

bit too much energy and watching then

you might get some little respite and

you have to work with that and let it go

and then not quite enough your mind gets

a little dull and you have to work with

that so now you're getting to really see

what fine-tuning is all about because

it's just a little tiny bit

that you're working with and it's real

fun again a monk not attending to the

perception of the base of infinite

consciousness not attending to the

perception of the base of nothingness

attends to the single is dependent on

the perception of the base of neither

perception nor non-perception his mind

enters into that perception of the base

of neither perception nor non-perception

an acquired confidence steadiness and

resolution he understands thus whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the perception of the base of infinite

consciousness those are not present here

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the perception of the base

of nothingness those are not present

here there is only present this amount

of disturbance namely the same illness

dependent on the perception of the base

of neither perception nor non-perception

he understands this field of perception

is void of the perception of the base of

infinite consciousness this field of

perception is void of the perception of

the base of nothingness there is only

this non void Ness mainly the same bonus

dependent on the perception of the base

of neither perception nor non-perception

what happens get into sin neither

perception nor non-perception where

before you were feeling your mind

expands out now it starts to get very

very small and very very

and it gets to be hard to tell whether

it's really there or not and there still

is some things that are arising in this

state but you won't notice it until you

get out of that state and then you start

to reflect on what happened while you

were in that that meditation state by

now you've got the habit of relaxing

every time mind

wobbles a little tiny bit then there's

the relaxing and letting go of that see

the relaxing is the state that brings up

the cessation of the the cessation of

all kinds of movement and suffering that

happens in the mind so what you're doing

is you're practicing how to become more

and more calm and when you do that your

mind might be moving like this and as

you practice more and more it becomes

less and less and less and less until

finally it's hard to tell whether

there's any movement there or not there

is some but not much they're still

feeling there there's still kind of

there's still perception it's hard to

talk about because it's it's such a tiny

little bit but this is not any bonding

yet

thus he's regarded thus he regards it as

void of what is not there but as to what

remains there he understands that which

is present thus this is present thus

Ananda this too is his genuine and

distorted pure descent into voidness

again Ananda a monk not attending to the

perception of the base of nothingness

not attending to the perception of the

base of neither perception or not a non

perception attends to the singleness

dependent on the signless concentration

of mind he enters into that signless

concentration of mind and acquires

confidence steadiness and resolution he

understands thus whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the

perception of the base of nothingness

those are not present here whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the perception of the base of neither

perception nor non-perception those are

not present here there is present only

this amount of disturbance namely that

connected with the six bases that are

dependent on this body and conditioned

by life so what happens is as you

continually go and you continually relax

more and more you will get to a stage

where there is no movement of mind body

is still here but you don't see it it's

just like somebody turning off the

lights there's you're not able to see

anything at all you'll be in that state

for a little while there's no move

millions of

at all absolutely not you come out of

that state and the first thing you see

is how Minds attention and how the

process of mine occurring happens and

you see ignorant and with ignorance as

condition you see mental formations with

mental formations as condition you see

consciousness with cos as condition you

see mentality materiality with mentality

materiality as condition you see the

sixth sense bases with the sixth sense

bases as condition you see contact with

contact as condition feeling arises with

feeling as condition craving arises with

craving as condition clinging clinging

as condition at virtual tendency arises

with habitual tendency as condition

birth arises with birth as condition old

age and death sorrow lamentation pain

and despair arrive this is this whole

mass of suffering this is how it works

and you see this

very fast and your attention is so

strong that you'll be able to recognize

all of these different states and then

it will occur to you to notice that when

ignorance does not arise then the the

mental formations don't arise if the

mental formations don't arise

consciousness wanna right if

consciousness doesn't arise mentality

materiality won't arise if mentality

materiality doesn't arise the sixth

sense bases don't arise if the sixth

sense bases don't arise contact won't

arrive if contact doesn't arise then

feeling won't arise arise crazy when

craving won't arise clinging water

anymore

arise your habitual tendency won't arise

when the habitual tendency doesn't arise

earth doesn't arise if Earth doesn't

arise old age and pain sorrow

lamentation they all will not arise this

is a cessation of this whole mass of

suffering and when you see that your

understanding is so brilliant at that

time that you experienced Navona

that's the way you get to understand how

the process works that's how you never

have any doubt again as to whether this

is real or not and you see that this is

all part of an inverse

process it carries on because of

conditions that's how it arises and

that's how it ceases so when you have

the experience of Nirvana it's not this

mystical mess magical flash what it is

is your deep understanding and seeing

very clearly how this process works so

that that's a little bit different than

a lot of people are teaching these days

well when you see the cessation the

complete and cessation that is nirvana

but it's not empty of there's not

nothing it is something but it's

difficult to talk about because it's an

unconditioned State everything we know

is conditioned so I get away from

talking about what Navona is because you

can't talk about it anyway of talking

about it is putting conditions on it and

it's unconditioned it's beyond that then

come back and tell me in state and the

thing is right after you have this

experience there is so much relief

you've been carrying about in this

burden about

is thinking that everything is personal

and seeing things in a very distant way

not seeing closely and now you

understand and you will be happy for a

few days like you've never been happy

before and even after that experience it

still has effects on the way you see the

world around you now what I just

described to you is called the path

knowledge that isn't the end of the road

just having the path knowledge there's

there is some personality trained but

not a lot you will have to have this

experience again that is the cessation

of perception and feeling and then when

you get out of that you will see

dependent origination arising and

passing it away that when that happens

that is what you call the fruition

knowledge and that's where the

personality development really takes

place if you're doing it through

meditation then that will happen in such

a way that lust and greed will never

enter your mind again less than hatred I

mean now think about that your mind will

never get angry again yeah that's it's

worth working for you never have any

doubt you see everything is part of an

impersonal process you never take things

anymore that means you have this

balanced mind that's balanced all the

time you'd never have any doubt whether

this is the right way to go or not you

know what's the right way to go because

of your deep experience so it's really

nice when you can get the fruition now

the fruition can happen at any time you

do your meditation and you get the path

knowledge and then you go home and you

start washing the dishes and you feel

your mind starting to go very deep or

you're cleaning that the house or you're

doing something and you say well let's

let that go and then you sit for a

little while and you watch your mind go

deep and experience that cessation of

perception and feeling and then you see

the dependent origination arising and

passing away and you might see it three

times or you might see it four times

depending on what your experience is and

after that you have it's completely

unshakable that you will never have

anger arise in your mind again you never

have lust greed for things

and so it's definitely worth working for

I think okay so he understands this feel

of perception is void of the perception

of the base of nothingness this field of

perception is void of the base of the

perception the perception of the base of

neither perception nor non-perception

there is only present this non voidness

namely that connected with the sixth

sense bases that are dependent on the

body and conditioned by life in other

words you can sit for a period of time

up to seven days and your body will stay

alive but there there's no disturbance

in your mind at all there is no

perception there is no feeling after for

seven days you can do this and I did

know one person that did that and I said

why and they said see I gave him a one

one word question they gave me a

one-word answer really think about that

you're not having any disturbance in

your mind at all for that period of time

there's so much relief that happens

because there is no movement and

and thoughts coming in and that sort of

unless I talk with the monks about that

I don't know I'd have to talk with the

individual month to see what was

happening there is states that you can

get into that the Davis the heavenly

beings will pour food into your pores so

you don't have to eat for long periods

of time or drink there are those states

and that might be what they're getting

into or maybe not I'd have to talk with

them individually to see so it's a

difficult question to give you a

definite answer

okay he understands this signless

concentration of mine is conditioned and

volitionally produced but whatever is

conditioned and volitionally produced is

impermanent and subject to cessation

when he notes and sees thus his mind is

liver liberated from the taint of

sensual desire from the taint of being

from the taint of ignorance when it is

liberated there comes the knowledge it

is liberated he understands birth is

destroyed the holy life has been lived

what had to be done has been done there

is no more coming to any state of being

he understands thus whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the taint of sensual desire those are

not present here whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the taint of

being those are not present here

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the taint of ignorance

those are not present here there is

present only this amount of disturbance

namely that connected with the six bases

that are dependent on this body and

conditioned by life he understands this

field of perception is void of the taint

of sensual desire this field of

perception is void void of the taint of

being this feel the perception is void

of the taint of ignorance there is

present only this non voidness namely

that connected with the six bases that

are defend

on this body and conditioned by life

thus he regards it as void of what is

not there but as to what remains he

understands that which is present thus

this is present thus Ananda this is his

genuine undistorted pure descent into

voidness supreme in unsurpassed Ananda

whatever recluses and brahmins in the

past entered upon and abided in pure

supreme unsurpassed whiteness all

entered upon and abided in this same

pure supreme unsurpassed whiteness

whatever recluses and brahmins in the

future will enter upon in abide in pure

supreme unsurpassed voidness all will

enter upon and abide in this same pure

supreme unsurpassed whiteness whatever

recluses and brahmins in the present

enter upon and abide in pure supreme

unsurpassed whiteness all enter upon in

abide in this same pure supreme

unsurpassed whiteness therefore Ananda

you should trained thus we will enter

upon and abide in pure supreme

unsurpassed voidness that is what the

Buddha said the venerable Ananda was

satisfied and delighted in the Blessed

ones so that gives you an idea of what

to look forward to

as you get more settled in your

meditation

it will start to make more and more

sense I promise I know that it was an

advanced teaching today but it's it's

real good to become familiar with it

even if you don't don't quite understand

what I was saying as you hear it over

and over again then it becomes more

clear as you go deeper in

the furniture going to be different yet

to digest and practice that's the one so

she's gonna have a meditation class

better than everybody else okay then

good we'll do Tuesday what they will do

is you're gonna play some of the Botox

but also talking about your own practice

that you have any questions

okay let's hear some merit then they

suffering ones be suffering free and the

fear struck fear was being made the

breathing [ __ ] all grief and anxiety all

being shared as merit that we have

deaths acquired for the acquisition of

all kinds of happiness may beings

inhabiting Space Center the nagas of

mighty power share his merit of ours may

Allah protect the goodness dispensation

you

you

this is a rather interesting discourse

because there's an awful lot of people

that have different ideas about what

voidness is and what it isn't so I

thought it would be a good idea to go to

the soup deaths and see what the Buddha

said about voidness okay this is I heard

I'm on occasion the blessed one was

living in Swati in the Eastern Park in

the palace of maderas mother when it was

evening the venerable Ananda rose from

meditation went to the Blessed One after

paying homage to him sat down at one

side and said to the Blessed One

venerable sir on one occasion the

blessed one was living in the sake and

country where there was a town of the

sake ins called Naga raka raka their

venerable sir I heard and then learned

this from the Blessed ones on the lip

now and I often abide in voidness did I

hear that correctly venerable sir did I

learn that correctly attend to that

correctly remember that correctly

certainly Ananda you heard them

correctly

learned that correctly attended to that

correctly remembered it correctly as

formerly now I often abide in voidness

Ananda just as this palace of madara's

mother is void of elephants cattle

horses and mares void of gold and silver

void of the Assembly of

than women and there is present only

this non voidness namely the singleness

dependent on the Sangha of monks

let me explain about Megara smothers

palace the Buddha's chief female

supporter was named the Sokka she was a

from a super wealthy family and when she

got married she married into my gaara's

family Megara was actually her

father-in-law but he didn't really like

her very much and he started to look for

things that would cause her

embarrassment and maybe he could get rid

of her so she'd be sent back to the

other family she had a favorite horse

and this horse was giving birth to

uphold so she stayed up all night with

the horse making sure that everything

went well with it and that sort of thing

so she wasn't in the house in the

morning when the father-in-law got up

now one of the things of the tradition

in India is that the son and his wife

always paid homage to the the parents

right after they got up she wasn't there

to do that so he started criticizing her

for that another time

Megara was eating food and a monk came

to the door and was on alms round and

Megara ignored him

so this akka said that please mom go

somewhere else

Megara is eating stale fare still is

like stale food and that really got him

upset so he wanted to cast her out of

the house but she had eight very wise

people that day it was like a court that

any any grievance they had to judge

whether it was for real or not so they

went and then they convened this court

and Megara got up and he said she wasn't

there to pay homage one morning and

that's the duty of the his

daughter-in-law to do that every morning

why wasn't she there

he was fooling around in the stables and

she got up and said well actually my

favorite horse was giving birth so I was

helping with that process and I stayed

up all night so that I could help and

everything turned out just great so he

begrudgingly said oh well that's okay

but then there was the time I was eating

and my assistant my daughter-in-law said

that I'm eating stale food and she said

no I didn't say you were eating stale

food I said we were eating stale fare

which means that your wealth right now

has come to you because of your past

of generosity but you're just living on

that action you're not creating new

actions of generosity so it's eating the

stale karma and not creating new karma

and that's why I said that he became so

impressed with her that he said from now

on I'm going to consider consider you my

mother so that's how makaras mother got

to be in the suit that's it's actually

be Sokka what is her name and it's kind

of an insight monk joke to call it the

palace of Megara mother when she got

married she was quite an exceptional

person she was very strong in her body

and a very beautiful came from a super

super rich family and the gown that she

got married in it was made out of gold

and many many gems diamonds and rubies

and sapphires and all of those kinds of

things and because she had such

exceptional physical strength she could

wear this without any problem

one day she and one of her attendants

went to the listen to the Buddha gave a

talk after she was wearing this robe and

she said I can't wear this in front of

the Buddha it's not right so she gave it

to her attendant after folding it up

very nicely and her attendants set it

down and then they went to listen to the

Dhamma talk and they were so inspired by

the talk that they left and forgot the

rope so the Sokka

instead of becoming angry with the

attendant she was very happy that this

happened and she said I want you to go

back to the monastery to pick up this

robe and bring it back

but if venerable ananda has touched the

robot you have to leave it there

venerable amount of his habit was always

going around cleaning things up so of

course he got the robe and he put it in

a place that was safe and she found out

that venerable ananda had touched the

rope so she went back and be Sokka said

you've given me an opportunity to make

more merit and she said what I'm gonna

do is I'm going to sell this this robe

and then with the money I get for this

robe

I'm going to build a monastery for them

for all of the months that nobody could

afford it so she bought it back herself

and then she used that money for it was

such a spectacular place that they

called it a palace had many many rooms

as many stories very nicely done

very well done so this gives you an idea

of some of the inside jokes that we have

about this of the monks and when it says

that there was no cattle there was

no horses there was no elephants of

course not it was a monastery they

didn't allow those kind of things in the

monastery they had to be they were

installed outside ok Anandi just as this

palace of Majora's Mother is void of

elephants cattle horses and mares void

of gold and silver white of the Assembly

of men and women there is present only

this non whiteness namely the singleness

dependent on the Sangha of monks so to a

monk not attending to the perception of

village not attending to perception of

people attends to the singleness

dependent on the perception of forest

his mind enters into that perception of

forest and acquires confidence

steadiness and resolution he understands

thus whatever disturbances there might

be dependent on the perception of

village those are not present here

whatever disturbance there might be

dependent on the perception of people

those are not present here there is

present only this amount of disturbance

namely the singleness dependent on the

perception of forest this field of

perception

is void of the perception of a village

this field of perception is void of the

perception of people there is only

present this non voidness namely the

singleness dependent on the perception

of the forest

thus he regards it as void of what is

not there but as to what remains there

he understands that which is present

thus this is present thus Ananda this is

his genuine undisturbed distorted pure

descent into voidness now did you

understand that if you go into the

forest from a village where there's a

lot of people you leave the village and

you leave all of those people alone and

your only perception now is in the

forest so your void of the village and

your void of the people now your only

perception is in the in the forest and

that's the way the buddha was talking

about voidness he is saying there's

these things are void but there is the

perception of something else that's

there it's not that everything is

waiting there's still the perception of

the forest and we go on then we go

deeper and deeper into this but this

gives you more of the idea of what the

Buddha was talking about when I was

talking when he was talking about

voidness or emptiness so the the your

perception of the village and your

perception of people is empty in your

bin your perception is not there anymore

there's only this perception forest

so this statement

thus he regards it as void of what is

not there but as to what remains there

he understands that which is present

thus this is present

that's Ananda this is his genuine and

the story of pure descent into whiteness

again and on the a monk not attending to

the perception of people not attending

to the perception of forest attendant

attends to the singleness dependent on

the perception of Earth he's using earth

as his meditation which is a very

specialized kind of meditation but we

can change that just to say that we

could see instead of perception of earth

we could say perception of

loving-kindness it's basically the same

thing any of the objects of meditation

and the Buddha taught can be added in

there his mind enters of enters into

that perception of earth and acquires

confident steadiness and resolution just

as a bull's-hide becomes free from folds

when fully stretched with a hundred pegs

so to a month not attending to any of

the ridges and hollows of this earth to

the rivers and ravines and the tracks of

stumps and thorns the mountains and

uneven places attends to the singleness

dependent on the perception of Earth his

mind enters into that perception of

Earth and acquires confidence steadiness

and resolution he understands thus

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the perception of people

those are not present here whatever

disturbances

might be dependent on the perception of

forest those are not present here there

is present only this amount of

disturbance namely the singleness

dependent on the perception of earth he

understands this field of perception is

void of the perception of people this

field of perception is void of the

perception of forest there is present

only this non voidness namely the

singleness dependent on the perception

of earth thus he regards it as void of

what is not there but as to what remains

there he understands that which is

present thus this is present thus Ananda

this too is his genuine undistorted pure

descent into voidness again Ananda a

monk not attending to the perception of

forest not attending to the perception

of Earth

attends to the singleness dependent on

the perception of the base of infinite

space now before we get too far gone in

this what we're really talking about

here is that he was talking about with

the earth or with lovingkindness or

whatever kind of meditation you're doing

getting to the fourth jhana and these

are called the material jhanas these are

levels of understanding where there are

certain things that happen as you get

from the first round of the second jhana

the third gem of the fourth jhana on

your level of equanimity balance of mind

it gets stronger and stronger stronger

and then you get into what the Buddha

called the aruba jhanas the immaterial

realms and that is infinite space

infinite consciousness nothingness

neither perception nor non-perception

this is where you you don't have any

feeling in your body unless there is

contact if I come and I touch you you

will know that happens sound you will be

able to hear but if your equanimity is

so strong that it doesn't make your mind

shake you hear the sound it just goes

through this is different than the

descriptions of a lot of the other

one-pointed kinds of concentration where

they say you don't have any feeling in

your body at all no matter what happens

I can come and I can move your hand you

wouldn't know that your hand was moved

I could make loud sounds right beside

you're here you wouldn't hear that at

all you wouldn't know that it happened

and that is a way that they test to see

whether someone is in deep concentration

or not by touching them and making

sounds and seeing that there's any kind

of reaction but that is when you don't

add that extra step of relaxing your

mind will become very deeply focused

just on one thing you become very very

tranquil and very very peaceful that

your

just stays on one thing only when you're

practicing the way that the Buddha was

talking about you're still able to see

things and hear things and when I say

see things you're able to recognize with

your mind these things when they come up

so you're still learning how this

process of the dependent origination

arises so yours you're able to see that

there's contact and then there's feeling

and then there's craving and then

there's clinging and then your habitual

tendency you'll be able to see these

things and as soon as you start

recognizing when mine starts to get

tight you start relaxing right then you

go deeper into your meditation now that

one of the advantages of doing this

meditation is when your mind when your

mindfulness slips when your mindfulness

is not always as sharp as it could be

what happens is one of the hindrances

can arise and this is a good thing the

hindrances I like it might I don't like

it might as Brede mind

hatred mind dullness you don't have

sleepiness at this level restlessness

you can still have some doubts

really very think by this time when

these hindrances arise they will take

you away from the meditation but should

recognize that and let it be you relax

and you come back now you start to see

how your mind's attention moves away

from being with your object of

meditation to being on the hindrance see

that's always the test and you get to

see at deeper and deeper levels how this

process works you start catching it a

lot more quickly you start relaxing into

it much more easily and you're starting

to see that all of these things is part

of an impersonal process it's part of

because this arose and that feeling

arose because that feeling arose the

craving is there let go the craving your

mind is brilliant and clear and bright

as you let go of the hindrance then you

go deeper into your meditation so you

need the hindrances when you practice

one pointed concentration which is

mostly being taught in the world today

that doesn't have that extra step of

relaxing and that extra step is very

very important for the Buddha's teaching

when you don't add that one extra step

your mind becomes very very concentrated

but

the force of the concentration stops the

hindrances from coming up so you don't

really have that process of learning how

all of these things arise and how how to

let go of them and you're not learning

very much your mind becomes just stuck

on one thing even though it's peaceful

and calm being stuck on one thing means

that you don't gain more knowledge and

vision you don't gain more understanding

of how the process works and the whole

thing from from the very first day that

you start meditating until you're done

until you attain nirvana the whole of

the process is learning how to see mimes

attention how it moves from one thing to

another you're training yourself to see

it more and more easily more and more

quickly more and more clearly and as you

do that it's so much easier to recognize

and not get caught personally with

thoughts and feelings that arise now

this is a process that you see very very

closely when you're sitting in

meditation but as you're able to

recognize that when you're doing your

quiet meditation then your daily

meditation you're able to see the

hindrances when they come up more

quickly and more easily so you start

letting go over those so you start

gaining balance all of the time in your

daily life your your

your children or your husband or your

wife will start to notice that you don't

get angry like you used to that you take

care of things without having the

emotional ups and downs now now you

still have the problems but they're not

such big problems to you and that's the

way one of the ways that you tell that

you're progressing in your practice is

that the things that used to get you mad

they don't get German so much anymore

and your sense of humor starts to

improve you start laughing with things

and you'll you'll you'll start noticing

somebody can come up and tell you a joke

and it puts down one ethnic group or

another whatever and it's not funny to

you but they come up and they tell you

something that their child did that was

just great and you find yourself smiling

and laughing because of that because

that was a happy moment so your sense of

humor starts to change as you go deeper

in your meditation

okay so we were at the base of infinite

space his mind enters into that

perception of the base of infinite space

and acquires confidence steadiness and

resolution he understands thus whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the perception of forest those are not

present here

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the perception of earth

those are not present here there is only

present this amount of disturbance

namely the singleness dependent on the

perception of the base of infinite state

yeah

so you mentioned earlier earlier on that

the earth was the object of meditation

in this particular to go yes so that

means that if you would do like icy nuts

in this stage you would not be watching

that's what it just said

you see I've never run across a teacher

that has been able to teach me casinos

to my satisfaction and I've looked

believe me I've looked so I don't know

how quite to answer you because when you

do the way the Buddha teaches and add

that extra step cocina has always been a

one pointed kind of concentration and

with that you stay with they call it the

nimita it's a sign that comes up in your

mind

it's like a silver moon kind of shiny

the so you wouldn't stay with the earth

cocina anymore when you have that

awright but the thing is that arises

before you get into the jhana so you

wouldn't be with the earth Cosima even

while you were in the first jhana with

the perception of nimita that sign that

comes up in your mind and if you would

replace another so that's why I

suggested you could replace it with

loving-kindness and when you get to the

fourth John on the loving-kindness

changes or right after the fourth jhana

when you start to get into the other

pajamas it changes and that's why I like

that scent example better because I

understand it how does it work for you

you still have all of these things

arising but you're staying with the

breath and relaxing and then you notice

the expansion of infinite space and that

sort of thing it doesn't really change

the breath doesn't change at all it

stays the same and you relax in the same

way that you start observing other

things that are right

so it's kind of this suit is of is a

blessing in some ways and a curse in

another because it is talking about the

casinos and like I said I went I went

through Burma begging for somebody to

teach me casinos

everybody talks about well is there's

real advantage of doing this casino or

that casino that nobody told me how to

do it and I went through Thailand I went

through Sri Lanka looking couldn't find

anybody everybody talks about it but

nobody talks about how how to do it and

Fred and I have run across teachers that

teach the meditation very similar the

way that I teach and they can and they

can explain the Cocina meditation at all

they come up with some imaginary thing

but it doesn't have anything to do with

the actual practice when when I started

out doing so much meditation I wanted to

be a very well rounded meditator that

any kind of meditation that the Buddha

taught I wanted to be able to have the

experience of being able to do it and I

couldn't do it because there wasn't a

teacher of the Cocina and that's eight

meditations right there

well it's a one-pointed kind of

meditation that is being practiced right

now I don't know how the Buddha taught

it or if he actually taught it this see

the thing is about 250 years after the

Buddha died there were a lot of Hindus

and Brahmins that started wearing robes

but they were teaching their Hindu and

the Vedas and all of that sort of thing

and they were mixing a lot of the

meditation techniques that the Vedas say

and they were using Buddhist terminology

eventually they were expelled from they

couldn't wear those robes anymore they

were questioned on what the Buddha was

taught and they didn't know what the

Buddha taught so they they added this

robe they took on the robes because they

could get free food and that was very

appealing to them but a lot of their

ideas are still mixed up in the sutras

themselves and the one pointed

concentration got very very mixed up

with the Buddha's teaching and because

of that there's been major problems with

being able to attain

the way the buddha was talking about

because the one pointed concentration he

practiced that when he was a bodhisattva

and he said I've gone as far as I can go

with this this does not lead to Nevada I

quit I don't want to do that anymore it

doesn't work so that's why he went out

on his own and he found this one extra

step and the importance of adding that

into the meditation and how it changed

the entire meditation not just a little

bit but a lot so you can see the

individual pieces of how everything

works you can see that you can recognize

that you can let it go

and when you do that you let go of the

suffering it takes practice this is a

gradual teaching and a gradual learning

it happens a lot faster than it does

with other meditations I can guarantee

you that but it still it doesn't happen

right away so you have to have some

patience when you do your practice but

the the earth casino what it basically

is the way that it's described in

commentaries which I find suspect they

had they had a lot of Veda Vedic ideas

in there it is a disc that's about this

big and you take soil and and mud and

put on a piece of cloth over the disc

and let it dry and then you

hold it up or hang it up and you start

staring at it just saying earth earth

earth earth earth

now that's they do they do that with all

of the elements and with some of the

elements it's a hole that's cut out of a

piece of wood or something like that

where they would put in front of the

fire and you would look at the fire and

you say fire fire fire so there that's

how the cocina cocina basically means a

round disc now there can be a disc that

you stare at or it can be a disc that

you're looking through and there's

there's four colors of which there's a

lot of fighting about what those four

colors are some people say that Brown is

mixed in with it other people say

there's blue mixed in with it some

people say there's green there's all of

these different ideas of the colors that

leads me to think that that wasn't part

of the Buddha's teaching but the casinos

are mentioned a few times in the suta's

and it might be that was because of the

Brahman influence

I just don't know because I certainly

haven't run across anybody who can

understand it according to the way the

Buddha teaches it see that extra step of

relaxing is so incredibly important and

when it's not in that meditation then it

is suspect of being something other than

the Buddha's teaching and I haven't run

across anybody a piece is it with the

relaxing step in it I have considered

spending time doing a cocina with the

relaxing set to see what happened

maybe one of these days I don't

why don't you do it and then we'll come

back very important to me so when you

get to the realm of infinite space what

you feel is there's a feeling of

expansion that just keeps going out and

out and out and it goes in all the

directions at the same time but there's

no center point it's just a feeling of

the expansion so thus he regards it as

as void of what is not there but as to

what remains there he understands that

which is present this is present thus

Ananda this too is his genuine and

distorted here descent into whiteness

again and a monk not attending to the

perception of Earth not attending to the

perception of the base of infinite space

attends to the singleness event

dependent on the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness his mind

enters into that perception of the base

of infinite consciousness and acquires

confidence steadiness and resolution he

understands thus whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the

perception of Earth those are not

present here whatever disturbances there

might be dependent on the perception of

the base of infinite space those are not

present here there is present only this

amount of disturbance

the singleness depended on the

perception of the base of infinite

consciousness he understands this field

of perception is void of the perception

of Earth this field of perception is

void of the perception of infinite space

there is present only this non

gluttonous namely the singleness

dependent on the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness so what

happens when you get into infinite

consciousness as you start seeing

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away now that was a million

consciousness is arising and passing

away so we're talking about being able

to see this very very finely and you're

looking at something and you'll see it

will be like you're seeing something but

you're seeing it like it's a movie

that's going to slow and there's a

flicker in between each picture okay

that's what it's like but it's like that

with all of the sense doors with the air

with the tongue with the nose with the

body feeling and with with mine you see

mind arising and passing away very

quickly when you see this you are very

very convinced that everything is

impermanent nothing is it's like we

think it is we like to think that

everything is permanent we're always

looking for things that are permanent

but when you start seeing the individual

consciousnesses arrive and pass away

arise and pass a wedding you start

seeing the unsatisfactory nature of this

there's nothing less permanent because

of that

it's a form of suffering it's a form of

unsatisfactoriness because it's always

changing and you see that there is no

controller at all these things happen

because the conditions are right for you

to see so you see and you see it as

individual consciousnesses arising and

passing away but there's no self in that

there's no it's not personal at all this

is an impersonal process that is

happening because the eye hits color and

form that the meeting of the three is

eye consciousness with that's called

contact and then a feeling arises and

all of the rest of the dependent

origination so what you're learning how

to do when you get to that it'll see the

individual consciousnesses and relax

into that then you start looking more at

the space in between those

consciousnesses and it's that the the

blink in between there's a little bit

longer and a little bit longer as you

and you become more familiar with the

process okay

again and a month not attending to the

perception of our not attending to the

Crucified of just read back again and on

a month not attending to the perception

of the base of infinite space not

attending to the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness attends to the

singleness dependent on the perception

of the base of nothingness his mind

enters into that perception

the base of nothingness and acquires

confidence steadiness and resolution he

understands thus whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the

perception of the base of infinite space

those are not present here

whatever disturbances there might be

depending on the perception of the base

of infinite consciousness those are not

present here there is only this amount

of disturbance namely the singleness

dependent on the perception of the base

of nothingness he understands this field

of perception is void of the perception

of the base of infinite space this field

of perception is void of the perception

of the base of infinite consciousness

there is only present this non voidness

namely the single is dependent on the

perception of the base of nothingness

when you get into the base of

nothingness what happens is mind is not

looking outside of itself anymore there

are still things that are happening but

they're more like factors that arise

it's not so much seeing and thinking and

getting caught up in the six senses

anymore but you starting to see mind a

lot more clear way and what you're

starting to do is to recognize how to

keep that equanimity that balance of

mine going without getting caught up

with putting too much energy into

watching or not enough

energy so now you're starting to learn

how to fine-tune your meditation now

this I know an awful lot of monks that

are teaching meditation and they won't

even talk about these kind of things

because they say it takes you years and

years and years to get to this I'm here

to tell you that doesn't doesn't take

years and years when you're practicing

with that relaxing step it can it can

take up to a year for some people but it

depends on how much you do it how much

how much humidity how clear you are on

what you're seeing while you're doing

your meditation I have seen some people

that can do it in seven days when they

come into a retreat some people are slow

they take but this is a real real this

is probably the most interesting state

in the meditation at least it seems that

to me because it is such fine tuning

that you have to do if you're a little

bit too much energy and watching then

you might get some little respite and

you have to work with that and let it go

and then not quite enough your mind gets

a little dull and you have to work with

that so now you're getting to really see

what fine-tuning is all about because

it's just a little tiny bit

that you're working with and it's real

fun again a monk not attending to the

perception of the base of infinite

consciousness not attending to the

perception of the base of nothingness

attends to the single is dependent on

the perception of the base of neither

perception nor non-perception his mind

enters into that perception of the base

of neither perception nor non-perception

an acquired confidence steadiness and

resolution he understands thus whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the perception of the base of infinite

consciousness those are not present here

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the perception of the base

of nothingness those are not present

here there is only present this amount

of disturbance namely the same illness

dependent on the perception of the base

of neither perception nor non-perception

he understands this field of perception

is void of the perception of the base of

infinite consciousness this field of

perception is void of the perception of

the base of nothingness there is only

this non void Ness mainly the same bonus

dependent on the perception of the base

of neither perception nor non-perception

what happens get into sin neither

perception nor non-perception where

before you were feeling your mind

expands out now it starts to get very

very small and very very

and it gets to be hard to tell whether

it's really there or not and there still

is some things that are arising in this

state but you won't notice it until you

get out of that state and then you start

to reflect on what happened while you

were in that that meditation state by

now you've got the habit of relaxing

every time mind

wobbles a little tiny bit then there's

the relaxing and letting go of that see

the relaxing is the state that brings up

the cessation of the the cessation of

all kinds of movement and suffering that

happens in the mind so what you're doing

is you're practicing how to become more

and more calm and when you do that your

mind might be moving like this and as

you practice more and more it becomes

less and less and less and less until

finally it's hard to tell whether

there's any movement there or not there

is some but not much they're still

feeling there there's still kind of

there's still perception it's hard to

talk about because it's it's such a tiny

little bit but this is not any bonding

yet

thus he's regarded thus he regards it as

void of what is not there but as to what

remains there he understands that which

is present thus this is present thus

Ananda this too is his genuine and

distorted pure descent into voidness

again Ananda a monk not attending to the

perception of the base of nothingness

not attending to the perception of the

base of neither perception or not a non

perception attends to the singleness

dependent on the signless concentration

of mind he enters into that signless

concentration of mind and acquires

confidence steadiness and resolution he

understands thus whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the

perception of the base of nothingness

those are not present here whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the perception of the base of neither

perception nor non-perception those are

not present here there is present only

this amount of disturbance namely that

connected with the six bases that are

dependent on this body and conditioned

by life so what happens is as you

continually go and you continually relax

more and more you will get to a stage

where there is no movement of mind body

is still here but you don't see it it's

just like somebody turning off the

lights there's you're not able to see

anything at all you'll be in that state

for a little while there's no move

millions of

at all absolutely not you come out of

that state and the first thing you see

is how Minds attention and how the

process of mine occurring happens and

you see ignorant and with ignorance as

condition you see mental formations with

mental formations as condition you see

consciousness with cos as condition you

see mentality materiality with mentality

materiality as condition you see the

sixth sense bases with the sixth sense

bases as condition you see contact with

contact as condition feeling arises with

feeling as condition craving arises with

craving as condition clinging clinging

as condition at virtual tendency arises

with habitual tendency as condition

birth arises with birth as condition old

age and death sorrow lamentation pain

and despair arrive this is this whole

mass of suffering this is how it works

and you see this

very fast and your attention is so

strong that you'll be able to recognize

all of these different states and then

it will occur to you to notice that when

ignorance does not arise then the the

mental formations don't arise if the

mental formations don't arise

consciousness wanna right if

consciousness doesn't arise mentality

materiality won't arise if mentality

materiality doesn't arise the sixth

sense bases don't arise if the sixth

sense bases don't arise contact won't

arrive if contact doesn't arise then

feeling won't arise arise crazy when

craving won't arise clinging water

anymore

arise your habitual tendency won't arise

when the habitual tendency doesn't arise

earth doesn't arise if Earth doesn't

arise old age and pain sorrow

lamentation they all will not arise this

is a cessation of this whole mass of

suffering and when you see that your

understanding is so brilliant at that

time that you experienced Navona

that's the way you get to understand how

the process works that's how you never

have any doubt again as to whether this

is real or not and you see that this is

all part of an inverse

process it carries on because of

conditions that's how it arises and

that's how it ceases so when you have

the experience of Nirvana it's not this

mystical mess magical flash what it is

is your deep understanding and seeing

very clearly how this process works so

that that's a little bit different than

a lot of people are teaching these days

well when you see the cessation the

complete and cessation that is nirvana

but it's not empty of there's not

nothing it is something but it's

difficult to talk about because it's an

unconditioned State everything we know

is conditioned so I get away from

talking about what Navona is because you

can't talk about it anyway of talking

about it is putting conditions on it and

it's unconditioned it's beyond that then

come back and tell me in state and the

thing is right after you have this

experience there is so much relief

you've been carrying about in this

burden about

is thinking that everything is personal

and seeing things in a very distant way

not seeing closely and now you

understand and you will be happy for a

few days like you've never been happy

before and even after that experience it

still has effects on the way you see the

world around you now what I just

described to you is called the path

knowledge that isn't the end of the road

just having the path knowledge there's

there is some personality trained but

not a lot you will have to have this

experience again that is the cessation

of perception and feeling and then when

you get out of that you will see

dependent origination arising and

passing it away that when that happens

that is what you call the fruition

knowledge and that's where the

personality development really takes

place if you're doing it through

meditation then that will happen in such

a way that lust and greed will never

enter your mind again less than hatred I

mean now think about that your mind will

never get angry again yeah that's it's

worth working for you never have any

doubt you see everything is part of an

impersonal process you never take things

anymore that means you have this

balanced mind that's balanced all the

time you'd never have any doubt whether

this is the right way to go or not you

know what's the right way to go because

of your deep experience so it's really

nice when you can get the fruition now

the fruition can happen at any time you

do your meditation and you get the path

knowledge and then you go home and you

start washing the dishes and you feel

your mind starting to go very deep or

you're cleaning that the house or you're

doing something and you say well let's

let that go and then you sit for a

little while and you watch your mind go

deep and experience that cessation of

perception and feeling and then you see

the dependent origination arising and

passing away and you might see it three

times or you might see it four times

depending on what your experience is and

after that you have it's completely

unshakable that you will never have

anger arise in your mind again you never

have lust greed for things

and so it's definitely worth working for

I think okay so he understands this feel

of perception is void of the perception

of the base of nothingness this field of

perception is void of the base of the

perception the perception of the base of

neither perception nor non-perception

there is only present this non voidness

namely that connected with the sixth

sense bases that are dependent on the

body and conditioned by life in other

words you can sit for a period of time

up to seven days and your body will stay

alive but there there's no disturbance

in your mind at all there is no

perception there is no feeling after for

seven days you can do this and I did

know one person that did that and I said

why and they said see I gave him a one

one word question they gave me a

one-word answer really think about that

you're not having any disturbance in

your mind at all for that period of time

there's so much relief that happens

because there is no movement and

and thoughts coming in and that sort of

unless I talk with the monks about that

I don't know I'd have to talk with the

individual month to see what was

happening there is states that you can

get into that the Davis the heavenly

beings will pour food into your pores so

you don't have to eat for long periods

of time or drink there are those states

and that might be what they're getting

into or maybe not I'd have to talk with

them individually to see so it's a

difficult question to give you a

definite answer

okay he understands this signless

concentration of mine is conditioned and

volitionally produced but whatever is

conditioned and volitionally produced is

impermanent and subject to cessation

when he notes and sees thus his mind is

liver liberated from the taint of

sensual desire from the taint of being

from the taint of ignorance when it is

liberated there comes the knowledge it

is liberated he understands birth is

destroyed the holy life has been lived

what had to be done has been done there

is no more coming to any state of being

he understands thus whatever

disturbances there might be dependent on

the taint of sensual desire those are

not present here whatever disturbances

there might be dependent on the taint of

being those are not present here

whatever disturbances there might be

dependent on the taint of ignorance

those are not present here there is

present only this amount of disturbance

namely that connected with the six bases

that are dependent on this body and

conditioned by life he understands this

field of perception is void of the taint

of sensual desire this field of

perception is void void of the taint of

being this feel the perception is void

of the taint of ignorance there is

present only this non voidness namely

that connected with the six bases that

are defend

on this body and conditioned by life

thus he regards it as void of what is

not there but as to what remains he

understands that which is present thus

this is present thus Ananda this is his

genuine undistorted pure descent into

voidness supreme in unsurpassed Ananda

whatever recluses and brahmins in the

past entered upon and abided in pure

supreme unsurpassed whiteness all

entered upon and abided in this same

pure supreme unsurpassed whiteness

whatever recluses and brahmins in the

future will enter upon in abide in pure

supreme unsurpassed voidness all will

enter upon and abide in this same pure

supreme unsurpassed whiteness whatever

recluses and brahmins in the present

enter upon and abide in pure supreme

unsurpassed whiteness all enter upon in

abide in this same pure supreme

unsurpassed whiteness therefore Ananda

you should trained thus we will enter

upon and abide in pure supreme

unsurpassed voidness that is what the

Buddha said the venerable Ananda was

satisfied and delighted in the Blessed

ones so that gives you an idea of what

to look forward to

as you get more settled in your

meditation

it will start to make more and more

sense I promise I know that it was an

advanced teaching today but it's it's

real good to become familiar with it

even if you don't don't quite understand

what I was saying as you hear it over

and over again then it becomes more

clear as you go deeper in

the furniture going to be different yet

to digest and practice that's the one so

she's gonna have a meditation class

better than everybody else okay then

good we'll do Tuesday what they will do

is you're gonna play some of the Botox

but also talking about your own practice

that you have any questions

okay let's hear some merit then they

suffering ones be suffering free and the

fear struck fear was being made the

breathing [ __ ] all grief and anxiety all

being shared as merit that we have

deaths acquired for the acquisition of

all kinds of happiness may beings

inhabiting Space Center the nagas of

mighty power share his merit of ours may

Allah protect the goodness dispensation