Questions people ask

Agency is twofold: we are not in control of every experience, yet a choice is present in each moment, and without that the view would be fatalism. Intention is conditioned by past choices, but one can choose not to act unwholesomely, and the path recondition the mind from wrong view towards right view.

Awareness is present with every experience and attention directs it, and it is perceived through mindfulness of what is arising and passing away. The easiest way to investigate is through vedana, and mano is the faculty of mind while citta is a mindset formed from patterns of thought and emotion.

Delson sees the Abhidhamma as a collection of theses by arahants and says he is more interested in the experiential seeing of these things than in theoretical study. He says the level of seeing described is the awareness of an arahant.

Delson does not recall saying this and asks for the reference. He states that the Buddha was an arahat with no more rebirth, and that the idea of an arahat becoming a Buddha is a Mahayana idea.

Anatta means no permanent, inherent essence, in contrast to the atman of Indic philosophy. Everything experienced is conditioned, impermanent and therefore unsatisfactory, so it cannot be a self; he points to the five aggregates meditation and to reflecting on the six sets of six as ways to practise.

Delson describes the underlying tendencies as an undercurrent beneath the surface of the river of dependent origination, and says the first sign is the tension of wanting to hold on or push away, which arises when one takes an experience personally. Discerning that tension early through mindfulness is the earliest point. In a follow-up, he says that if tension dissolves and one finds relief, that is enough, and one should remain in the relief.

Delson identifies this with the signless or animitta release, where awareness continues without landing on any object after some collectedness, and the quiet mind, drops away. He calls the signless, undirected and emptiness experiences three gates to the same thing, which open depending on how one understands impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and non-self.

A wholesome state is beneficial for oneself and others, and an unwholesome state is unbeneficial for both. In practice, tense and constricted states of mind are unwholesome, while relaxed and expansive states are wholesome.

Delson calls it the non-reflective consciousness, anidassana vinnana, from the Kevaddha Sutta, which arises from contact with the nibbana element much as a spark arises from twigs in a fire. It is seen reflectively in retrospect, and conditions then arise from which the mind starts to attach.

Feeling and perception are interwoven, with perception qualifying what the experience is. Views arise from conceit and the underlying tendency towards views, and he links the idea of an experiencer behind the experience to the Bahiya Sutta. The answer is to rest in the experience without adding the sense of I, not to short-circuit perception.

Delson says consciousness depends on contact and is interdependent with mind and body, and that an eternal consciousness and an interdependence view are both views that do not lead to the goal. He says a person in cessation does not respond to being shaken or pinched, and that the luminous nature of mind is obscured by adventitious defilements and is not a self.

Mind is the forerunner of all states, and the five physical sense bases are experienced at the level of mind, facilitated through mental formations. He says it is really mind that feels and perceives through the five senses.

Delson says it is possible, depending on how attitude is defined.

Both dependent origination and neuroscience are models for how the mind works, and they may differ in language but are similar in purpose. He advises simplifying, and says genetic material is part of mentality-materiality. He recommends Robert Sapolsky's book Behave as describing dependent origination in a different and very dry way.

Piti is an excited joy like fireworks, sukha is the bodily comfort of being in a state of relaxation, and mudita is empathetic or appreciative joy for others. These experiences are subjective, and Delson says it is fine not to know the labels.

Delson says it is fine. There is an intention to let go and a perception that sees the letting go, and both stem from mentality.

Sakkaya ditthi goes away at stream entry, when one experiences nibbana or a great release and the mind understands there is no permanent personal self, while conceit remains. Nibbana is not pure awareness; it is twofold, supermundane outside the field of experience and mundane, the cessation of a particular defilement in a moment.

Yes. In the moment after you relax, the mind experiences nibbana.

Delson explains that yoga in Patanjali means separating purusha from identification with prakriti to reach kaivalya, while the Buddhist approach is letting go of identification so the mind touches nibbana. He notes overlaps such as the kleshas and nirodha, and leaves the judgment to the questioner.

Delson says the Yoga Sutra's terms overlap with the hindrances and with cessation, but it is hard to say whether they point to the same ground reality. He notes that cessation is understood differently across traditions, and that realizations are shaped by culture and by the individual.

Delson answers in jest that one has to tune into a level of consciousness to discover it, and that you can only know it by eating it, a catch-22.

Delson says psychedelics are a gateway for some people into practice, and that some have had life-changing insights. He says the insights are often not sustainable or easy to integrate into everyday life, so the Dhamma helps with integrating and sustaining them, and he is not saying everyone should use them.

Yes, the suttas describe people attaining without knowing it. Delson suggests not focusing on the levels, but noticing how much more open, forgiving, loving, patient and humorous one has become, and not trying to act out an image of an arahat.

Delson says some listeners drop the self-view while hearing the Dhamma because their mind is very collected and right, and in his personal assumption this requires a great degree of perfection of the paramis.

Yes. A stream-enterer can still be angry or break minor precepts, but sees it and recovers quickly rather than holding the anger for a long time.

Delson says models such as the aggregates, six sense bases, dependent origination and six sets of six are useful for letting go of taking things personally, and they need not be studied academically. Seeing the essence, that everything is interdependent, is enough to drop notions of self and permanence.

Perception is recognition based on memory of what was learned about an experience, and it is interwoven with feeling rather than following it in sequence. The aggregates, like the four foundations of mindfulness, move from more solid to subtler levels.

Delson says people will always have opinions, but they cannot stop us from thinking compassionate thoughts, and compassion grows as it is developed internally. He cites Sariputta staying silent when his mother berated him, and says others may change over time while we can only keep developing ourselves.

Wanting something is not itself craving; having a goal is fine. Craving is when the mind becomes obsessed with the outcome, and it shows as resistance when what is wanted is taken away.

After experiencing Nibbana, if there is clinging or identification, some work remains; if there is no identification at all, nothing more needs to be done.

Merit is one interpretation, but the more likely issue is clinging to the Dhamma after Nibbana, since the mind wants to hold onto the good feeling. Overcoming this takes much practice outside formal sitting, recognizing conceit in every moment.

The transcript does not record a clear answer to this; Delson moves on to explain parinibbana as the final Nibbana of an arahant or Buddha, after which the five aggregates cease.

Signless contact means no object is taken; empty contact means no self is taken personally; undirected contact means no intention is present, and only the arising of the Nibbana element remains.

Thinking and examining involve intention, because you bring up an object, so they are verbal formations. Feeling and perception are mental formations: feeling is passive, and perception goes along with it without intention.

It is a state where the mind is suppressed into unconsciousness, arising from suppression of the hindrances and mental faculties, unlike cessation which arises from letting go. Beings who die in it are reborn in the realm of unconscious beings, and they have a physicality related to the fourth Brahmaloka, so they are not ghosts.

Cessation is a complete blank in which one does not know one was there. Nibbana is touched as the mind comes out of cessation, so the mind is involved in the experience of Nibbana, though not in cessation itself.

People in comas are not necessarily unconscious. Certain conditions can lead to unconsciousness, and dying in that state can lead there too.

No, not every cessation touches it. Nirodha has several meanings depending on usage, such as dukkha nirodha, bhava nirodha and tanha nirodha, but generally it refers to the cessation of perception, feeling and consciousness (sanna-vedayita-nirodha).

We always influence our formations, even while awake, because our intentions shape the arising of the next formations. In cessation, the intention is set and then let go, and the vital formations (ayu-sankharas) that keep things going are where the intention to come out operates.

Yes, that analogy can work. The ultimate realization is that nothing is personal. The mind tends to make meaning out of others' actions, and that comes from conceit, which causes suffering.

Attention is embedded in contact, because consciousness flows where attention goes. Contact gives rise to feeling, perception and intention, and intention is related to karma, as described in AN 6.63.

You set the intention before sitting, then let it go so the mind is not obsessed by it. During the sit you relax, let go and keep your attention on nothing in particular, until you reach the signless state and the mind sinks into cessation. Wanting is fine as long as it is not craving.

An anagami is more likely to enter cessation because fewer hindrances remain. Good mental malleability is needed, which the determinations develop. Cessation can be followed by Nibbana, but only if discernment is deep enough; otherwise the cessation occurs without touching the Nibbana element.

No perception is present in cessation; awareness is zero. One would not know one was in it until coming out, though some people notice themselves sinking in and resist it.

It depends on insight and discernment, which come from consistent use of the six R's in daily life to let go of fetters, roots and hindrances. This creates a cumulative momentum, so it is a matter of walking the path over and over.

The instructions are on the Dhamma Sukha website, under the determinations section of the menu.

The main benefit is great relief, since all connections with the external and internal world are cut off. If an anagami can continue practicing cessation, it makes it easier to notice the shift when Nibbana is attained.

Kondanna attained stream entry on hearing the first sermon, and arahatship later, after the Anattalakkhana Sutta.

You can attain cessation from the first jhana onward. Some people blank out while walking and then experience euphoria, which can happen unexpectedly, even while driving.

People go through a cessation on the way to Nibbana, whether through a formal practice or hearing the Dhamma. Not all cessations are the same, though; yoga practices can enter a cessation but do not lead to Nibbana. What is necessary is right view.

Let go of intention rooted in craving and conceit, not all intention.

A micro cessation is when the mind winks out. It is different from sloth and torpor and happens especially in neither-perception-nor-non-perception, with little perception and no fuel for the mind. When the mind returns it is luminous, but it is not a full-blown cessation; it is tiptoeing toward the edge.

Yes, Nibbana is always preceded by cessation, though not every short cessation leads to path and fruit. It is not a must that short cessations result in popping, but it can happen.

After Nibbana. Unconditioned contact with Nibbana conditions a feeling, and seeing the arising of that feeling is seeing the first link. The joy and relief that follow are conditioned feelings, not Nibbana itself, so they should not be equated with it.

Faith at the start means having an open and willing mind to try the practice and see for yourself. After walking the path, experiential confidence, or conviction in the Buddha Dhamma, is established.

Yes, one way of looking at it. It means adhering to the path without trying to change it or bargain with it.

It can be that the mind becomes very absorbed and then winks out. In micro-cessations where people come back with relief and luminosity, it is the result of letting go. The term was used by Delson in Buddha's Maps for a range of such experiences, and he got it from Monroe Institute workshops.

Yes, after seeing the links, there is a pleasant feeling of understanding, followed by seeing the second cycle. Time does not apply in the same way. Relief can come later, sometimes hours after the cessation, as people have sometimes found in interviews.

Yes, touching the Nibbana element leads to seeing the links, though some people do not see them because their discernment is less sharp. They still feel great relief, meaning they have encountered at least the feeling link.

After contact you see the links, then you go around the circle to feeling. If craving does not arise, there is equanimity rather than joy and relief. That would mean anagami, and if there is no identification, the work is done.

Yes, it is developed through daily practice. The moment is critical, but it is automatic, because it depends on all the preparation that has led to it, much like the moment of death.

Each step transcends the previous one. Even at the start, one has transcended suffering to some degree, which is why stream entry feels so good. The path is an evolution of personality, and each step is a bigger 'wow' without backsliding.

The first time it is intense because it is unlike anything experienced before, and the relief is pervasive, but it tapers off after a few days. This joy is not piti, sukha, pamoja or mudita; it is a transcendent joy.

Yes, some teachers need psychic faculties to recognize this, and some students have been stream-enterers before coming to the path. Their joy may be less intense, and at anagami the experience is equanimity.

Absolutely. Please let go of trying to figure it out.

Intuition arises when the mind is quiet and cannot be born from analysis, reflection or contemplation. It is not a psychic faculty; you only develop the ability to be present and hear it. It cannot be forced, and it can appear as an aha moment.

No guarantees, but the clarity will get clearer and deeper if you let the mind rest in it, and when things come up you can let them soften and return to rest.

Yes, it is an advanced practice, which is why it is called the Conceit Destroyer. The name was given by Venerable Metananda, formerly Liam McClintock.

Delson says the taints come just before dependent origination starts, the roots lie in the formations (fettered formations, abhisankhara), and the defilements (upakilesas) are in consciousness. He compares the links to a river with rapids and whirlpools, with roots and defilements as the undercurrents.

Take a claim such as 'you don't need jhana practice to experience nibbana.' The eighth factor of the Eightfold Path, right concentration, is described by the Buddha as the four jhanas, so one asks whether the claim makes sense in that light.

Mundane right view includes understanding action and consequence, that there are other worlds, that there is meaning in mother and father and gratitude to parents, and that there are teachers who have understood the Dhamma. Delson cites MN 117 for right view as straight and inclined toward nibbana.

Delson says there is no formula. Jealousy involves insecurity and competitiveness, and its antidote is muditā, rejoicing in the other's success. One contemplates the connections and uses intuition, and the antidote is often the exact opposite of the defilement, such as love and kindness for ill will.

Super mundane right view is the perfected understanding of the Four Noble Truths. One fully understands dukkha, lets go of ignorance, craving and conceit, realizes nibbana and nirodha, and cultivates the path until it becomes automatic.

Yes, in the super mundane view no view is ultimately correct, and any view one clings to points to an attachment. Mundane right view is used like a raft, and once you are not attached to it, it informs you without becoming something to hold.

Citta is the mindset, a collection of similar thoughts like a mood. Mano is the mentality, the mind itself, made of contact, feeling, perception, intention and attention. Vinnana is bare cognition, the sense-based consciousness that arises at contact.

Conceit is present only if you are attached to the action or to it being accepted as the only correct way. You let causes and conditions come up, put your suggestion forward, and are not responsible for whether it is carried out.

Delson says the detail is a large expansion and a month could be spent on each link, but one need not memorize it. The essential point is 'when this arises, that arises; when this ceases, that ceases,' and understanding will come gradually.

Delson refers to MN 64, where the Buddha says an infant carries underlying tendencies that may come from previous causes. Whether they come from this life or an earlier one matters less than what you do with them.

Samudaya means the origin or arising, and it is the origin of suffering. In practice you recognize dukkha and then let go of its cause.

Sankharas are potentials, and craving, clinging and becoming are their manifestations. Sankharas feed back into new formations rooted in greed, hatred or delusion, or in their opposites once those roots are removed.

Delson suggests asking why the couple came together and what core values brought them together, and whether those values are changing. Speak in a loving and kind way and ask whether the relationship brings more peace, not who is right. He tells a story of a woman whose husband would not speak to her; radiating loving kindness changed the situation.

Boredom is rooted in delusion and lack of energy and interest. It can give rise to conceit and then restlessness, or to sloth and torpor. If it leads to restlessness, bring tranquility; if to sloth and torpor, bring joy and energy.

Delson says non-duality varies by tradition: some describe a first cause such as Brahman, others relax into awareness and let things self-liberate. The practice here uses insight, letting go of tightness and tension until the signless state.

A constructed jhana brings up factors such as joy and contentment as objects and sustains them. In deconstructed jhana the factors arise as tension is released. Constructed jhana can be more addictive, and without vipassana it cannot lead to nirodha, since samatha and vipassana must come together.

Delson uses a hard drive analogy: some data is corrupted and no longer active, while intense karma may be carried forward as a karmic thread. Causes and conditions must still be present for that karma to ripen.

They appear random but are not. It is a matching of the karmic stream with the best available genetic material for its manifestation, a kind of sorting process.

Corrupt files means deactivated karma, which is no longer active and will not be transferred.

Delson refers to atabhava pratilabha, the movement of different intentions coming together to form a project. If the project fails, some people give up, while others carry the same formations into a different person to continue the project.

Delson says to gauge by the formations present. Verbal formations cease at the second jhana and bodily formations at the fourth; if only mental formations remain, you are fairly deep. Arupa depth can be judged by the background, such as infinite space, flickering consciousness or nothingness.

Yes. If the mind keeps letting go and sees the emptiness of self, it can become signless even while seeing and hearing, with no projection about how to act.

Voidness can mean emptiness, including the realization of the emptiness of self, while signless means no object is worth holding on to. They point to the same place from different angles.

Delson says he will address this in two days. He describes the arahat's mind as signless, empty and undirected, and the six sense bases function only as much as needed to maintain life, connected with the life faculty.

Delson says it is a matter of refining intention and allowing it to happen, like muscle memory, which he calls jhana memory. Trying too hard by bringing up the factors is not the approach.

Delson says these are magic tricks that anyone can do without attainment. An arahat is one whose three taints are destroyed. An arahat's mind works by intuition, which develops when the mind is quiet: one asks a question, lets it go, and the answer arises.

Delson says arahats do have feelings, but positive ones such as loving kindness, joy, clarity, enthusiasm and the ability to have fun. Anger and resentment have been uprooted.

Delson says constructed jhana can suppress tendencies but does not decondition them. Anger and jealousy need to be deconditioned through insight and the antidote.

Contact (phassa) is when light bounces off an object and hits the eye; feeling is the experience of seeing. A pleasant feeling with an underlying tendency leads the mind to hold on, and an unpleasant feeling leads to aversion. The six R's release the tightness and tension that are craving, clinging or becoming.

Delson agrees that conceit is present while one is not an arahat. The way to weaken it is to recognize conceit as an active process and let it go, cutting off the fuel so that later formations carry less conceit.

Delson says only to a certain extent, because without wisdom the root is not uprooted. Using right effort and the six R's uproots it, and relaxing the formations is essential.

Delson says attachment is the fear of losing a relationship. One can stay connected, enjoy and spend time with others without that fear. The antidote is the cultivated wisdom of impermanence, which brings equanimity and disenchantment.

Delson confirms the sequence: painful feeling, the justification of clinging, and conceit are present all the time. Bhava is the set of options available from past selections, and the aim is to let go and allow spontaneous action rooted in wisdom.

No. Delson says these are preferences, what the body is used to because of past conditions. Craving shows when the preferred thing is unavailable and one reacts strongly.

Delson says not necessarily. A child can be conditioned by how its parents behave, for example by lashing out.

Delson says they affect how the mind experiences and reacts to reality, and calls them infections of the mind. Hindrances and enlightenment factors are part of dhammanupassana.

Delson says they are defilements of the mind that are felt as painful feeling. The seeds of them arise in consciousness, so thoughts arrive already infected with anger.

No. The six sense bases are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Feeling is the function arising from seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking.

Delson says the main thing is to understand realms and defilements psychologically: notice what mind states are present and let them go. The whole teaching can be summed up as observe and let go, using the 6R's and relaxing tension.

No. It is a contemplation to be used as an aside. Let whatever arises come up, let go of form, feeling and so on as they appear, and let go of any subtle identification with them.

Delson suggests seeing how limited time with loved ones is, and choosing to spend it cultivating wholesome states rather than fighting. He notes that the Buddha gave instructions for lay life, such as in DN31 on managing money, duties and relationships, and that one should follow where the mind is inclined.

The signless state is a subtle awareness with no object, sometimes called anidassana vinnana, which can be reached through many frameworks. Keep everything relaxed and do nothing; any extra effort brings you out of it.

Space element is the experience of space, including infinite space or nothingness. Consciousness element is subtler, since the mind is made of contact, feeling, perception, intention and attention, and space can serve as a medium through which loving-kindness is transmitted.

It is always the right time, but the causes and conditions for understanding or for an event may not have been ripe. Time is subjective, so the right time is when causes and conditions are ready.

Concepts form through learning and consensus, such as agreeing on what white or a table is, though private experience may differ. All experience, including jhana and the Dhamma, is conceptual, so concepts are rafts to be let go once they have served their purpose.

The guided practice is meant to build collectedness and equanimity first, so the mind is not tight when contemplating form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness. Once equanimity deepens and disenchantment grows, the mind drops objects and rests in clarity, which is the end point of this practice just before cessation.

Yes. All of these practices engage the part of the mind that feels it must do something; once that part relaxes, do not add or take away anything. Delson then says people can move in and out of cessation without full nibbana, and that discernment of what happened just before and after is needed to verify the experience.

Yes, the contemplation is a shortcut, a fast track to nibbana. For a very new meditator, though, a solid jhana practice is still the recommended starting point, with the contemplation introduced when conditions are right.

Yes. Dispassion comes when all identification disappears, and some minds get there faster than others.

Rupa is form, and nama is the mentality through which contact, feeling, perception, intention and attention arise. Through feeling there is the feeling aggregate, through perception the perception aggregate, through rupa the form aggregate, through intention the formations aggregate, and through attention the consciousness aggregate.

Delson agrees that color and form should be added to the form aggregate, since form includes solidity, elements, color and shape.

A near-death experience is the mind going through the dying process without completing it. Seeing angels, devas, nothingness or a light all happens through mentality, and the mind may see its surroundings when something calls it back.

It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day, or even three days. In a sudden death the mind is jolted out of the experience, becomes confused, and clings to whatever it grasps, which Delson calls a bad death; he notes that the dying experience is basically the same as entering cessation.

Delson sees bardo states as happening within the dying process, as a life review or an encounter with beings, and not as a separate state. He says sharing merit can give a pleasant mental experience to beings in lower realms, which can allow formations that lift them upward; he notes this works primarily for hungry ghosts.

Yes, sending loving-kindness and sharing merit benefits them. It depends on causes and conditions: karma can be seen as a queue, and merit of sufficient intensity can skip the line and help a being go to a higher realm.

Delson says such beings can have only limited influence and cannot seriously harm a person in the human realm. He says loving-kindness and compassion act as a karmic protection, offering examples of travel incidents in India where he and others felt protected.

Delson says loving-kindness can have a deep or subtle effect on people around you, such as a cashier or a TSA officer changing mood after meeting someone sending it.

Delson says they do believe in something like karma, though they frame it in terms of a judge. He looks at what they describe as karma, since it concerns ethics and keeping precepts, but notes that the Buddhist view has no judge, as karma takes care of what needs to happen.

Definitely. Delson says once loving-kindness can flow in that way and reach all beings, it is a step-by-step process.

These are synchronicities, not coincidences: the mind can quicken causes and conditions through its intention. Wanting more is craving, however.

Yes. Delson says loving-kindness uplifts the mother's mind, which can affect which genes are active or dormant in the unborn child, and unwholesome thoughts can have a direct effect on the physiology of mother and child.

Karma is not predetermined. Intention is always present, and a loving and kind intention has an effect on outcomes.

No. Karma is like seeds that grow according to their nature, but only if causes and conditions such as water, nutrients and sun are present. Without them they grow slowly or not at all.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying life, art and nature, and the Buddha chose the forest for its beauty. Most suttas are aimed at monastics, who let go of attachment to beauty for a clarity not dependent on outside things. The mind wants more of what it enjoys or fears losing, and what is to be let go is that craving; wholesome craving, chanda, is a different matter.

Yes, one can enjoy it. But first one has to go through the training of seeing the hard parts of life and let go of craving, so that one can enjoy things without clinging, wanting them to last forever, or fearing loss.

Delson responds with the story of children building sandcastles on a beach who accept that the waves will take them, and says he plans to cover a text on it.

Dependent origination should be seen as interdependent, and the consciousness goes to a womb that suits its karma, but this is not predetermined since environmental factors and the parents' states keep changing. The more wholesome states the parents abide in, individually and together, the more they may attract and not attract.

Delson says metta is sent through the field of space and felt by beings who are receptive, and it can affect their formations (sankhara) and lift their state. He adds that the material view of consciousness has not been established.

Forgiveness is a shift in perspective that changes how dependent origination flows in the moment, both for the person forgiven and the one forgiving. Without clinging or identification, metta, compassion, joy, equanimity and forgiveness act as karmic deterrents that mitigate how karma is experienced.

Delson says the Buddha named the fetter of householdership (concern with bills, family and possessions) as the main obstacle, and this is not limited to people with families. He gives the examples of Bahiya and the acrobat Ugasena as lay arahats, and says the answer depends on how one defines lay.

Delson says studying Buddhism to deepen the Dhamma is acceptable, but for monks, studying unrelated subjects or earning money takes them away from their purpose of awakening, which is wrong livelihood. He notes that for farmers raising animals, the answer depends on whether the animals are destined for slaughter.

Delson says the Buddha learned the practice of nothingness, saw that it did not lead to the ultimate end of suffering, then tried austerities, found that was not the way either, and returned to practicing jhana from the first jhana onward. Whether the nothingness practice was one-pointed depends on which sutta one reads.

Delson says the three knowledges (past lives, the passing of beings according to their kamma, and the destruction of the asavas) are mentioned often, but the eight jhanas, the four jhanas, and wisdom with liberation are mentioned about as often.

Delson says you can try it. He compares it to therapies that revisit traumatic memories with a changed perspective, which can have value, but says that going through past lives on their own might not be very meaningful and is more of a fun exercise.

Delson says that some people go through past-life experiences and keep holding on to them, which causes craving or aversion and can show up as bodily pain. In such cases he has prescribed forgiveness practice to help them let go, because the mind can identify with that past experience.

Delson says it means letting go of everything taught in the retreat, not trying to study or systematize it, and treating every meditation as a fresh start with no baggage from past experiences, good or bad.

Delson says that if you are straining against a hindrance, your attention is on the hindrance, not on loving-kindness, and relaxing is still possible when you let go of craving. If you are using the 6R's like a stick against the hindrance, there is no real relaxation, so you should refine your 6R's so you are not averse to what is happening. The hindrance may remain, but the aversion and tightness toward it loosen.

Delson says exercise is definitely important for circulation, especially when sitting for long periods, and he suggests brisk walking to get a little breathless. Yoga, aerobics, weightlifting, qigong or other forms are fine as long as they do not cause harm to oneself or others.

Delson says walking can be enough, but any other form of exercise is also acceptable if it does not cause harm.

Delson says he did not say duty to parents, but gratitude towards parents, and that if we can help them be more moral and uplift their minds, that is good.

Delson says yes, it is possible.

Delson says he will not get into that. He says to do what works for you, since everyone has their own understanding of what that might be.

Delson says the posture does not matter, and the Buddha did not talk about postures, possibly because he did not think it was useful to discuss at that time. He says practices such as kriya come from later tantric ideas, and that as long as one keeps the precepts and the mind stays balanced without being absorbed to the point of being unable to handle hindrances, one may try other practices. If they start to get in the way of letting go of suffering, one should stop.

Delson says it depends on what refuge means, and that it is up to the person. He notes that some people find that taking refuge in the Dhamma helps them deal with their problems.

Disenchantment cannot be practised; it arises naturally as a result of letting go. Cessation can be experienced from the first jhana onward, but a jhana is needed first, and listening to a dhamma talk can also produce deep samadhi and cessation.

No. The breath can become so tranquil that it is almost imperceptible, and it may seem to stop for a time, because the mind is letting go of bodily formations. Verbal, bodily and mental formations cease in order, with the breath ending up very soft.

Delson says a heart stopping can happen as cessation or as a process of suspended animation, where bodily functions cease, and that the suttas say this can last up to seven days.

The stages laid out are all the things that can happen, not all the things that must happen. Skipping stages, such as going from infinite space straight to nothingness, is fine, and the terrain can be revisited later.

Delson does not think there was suppression. Suppression would show up as a mind that becomes brittle and hard, whereas a malleable mind means no suppression is going on.

Sloth and torpor has a heaviness and dullness, while after a micro-cessation the mind feels lighter and brighter. If a dullness follows, it is sloth and torpor, and if a lightness follows, you are on the right path. He adds that falling asleep follows the same principle, but in sleep the mind stays conscious and not in cessation.

The world is experienced through the five physical senses and the sixth sense base, so it still appears as before. An arahant is a kinasava, one who has destroyed the taints, and can still see the world as it is; psychic faculties could extend perception but are not what defines an arahant.

Poking around refers to an anagami who has become a non-returner before death and then goes to the next realm to become an arahant, and who can still travel around only if fuel remains. Once there is complete extinguishment, nothing remains for them to function with.

Karma is inescapable and is the universal law, affecting people whether they are awakened or not. Delson gives the example of Moggallana, who was beaten to death because a small fragment of karma from a past life still remained.

The beating happened because the causes and conditions for that karma were present, and the Buddha told Angulimala to take it. Delson says this does not necessarily mean bad karma, since an arahant still has a choice, and karma only ripens when the proper causes and conditions are present.

Yes, you need to know the content, but without being emotionally involved in it or reliving and judging it. You identify the fear or the feeling the person caused and hold it with equanimity while intending to let it go.

Yes, Delson says it is the same thing and encourages the questioner to go with the word that resonates with them.

Identifying with a thought means treating it as my thought or as a self, which causes tightness and suffering. Observing it means seeing it as arising from causes and conditions and letting it pass; if you get caught, you release it, relax, smile, and return to an object of meditation.

He says the suttas mention a few rare cases of people ending their lives when their work was done, but he would never advise anyone to take their own life. As long as the mind is intact and can cultivate loving kindness, equanimity and wisdom, the person can keep practicing, and the urge may come from aversion.

He says the consequences of karma cannot be prevented, but one can see old karma as an impersonal result and avoid creating new karma through craving, clinging and becoming; brahmaviharas change how the result is experienced. On procedures to save a mother's life, he says the doctor must decide based on their intention, since he is not a doctor.

He says you are responsible only for your own actions and choices, and how parents react is their karma. If the rituals cause inner dissonance, you can stop and tell them the truth, which gives more peace of mind even if they are upset.

He says their views are theirs, and acting wholesomely does not harm them. The best way to repay parents, whose gift of life the Buddha calls unpayable, is to be a good person, and you can talk about the Dhamma if they are open to it, as Sariputta did with his mother, but you need not force it.

In the base of nothingness, he says, you see the arising and passing of consciousness dependent on contact, but what matters most is seeing how attention moves between collected and distracted states and letting go of hindrances. You do not need to label the links; they become seen naturally as mindfulness becomes sharp.

He says faculties become powers as they develop, and they are cultivated continually until they become automatic; faith includes openness to the Dhamma and keeping the precepts, and wisdom arises from closely observing how attention moves. Citing MN 149, he says these factors develop together along the Eightfold Path, so there is nothing to balance by hand.

Wrong mindfulness is attending to what one is doing, such as mindful eating, walking, or counting steps, instead of observing how attention moves and whether craving is present. Right mindfulness depends on right effort, which leads to right collectedness.

He says it can, because an overactive or mindlessly talkative mind tires both mind and body. A collected and restful mind has less to process, so sleep can become shorter or deeper.

He refers to the Sivaka Sutta and says trying to find a karmic cause for a sickness is not useful. What helps is dealing with the sickness in the present, such as taking medication or seeing a doctor.

He says all experience of body and feeling is still within the realm of mind, so mindfulness of body means knowing the experience and checking for craving or aversion. Mindfulness of mind means noticing its states, such as whether it is collected, liberated or exalted, and there is no wisdom in the body itself.

He says samadhi means collectedness, that is whether the mind is collected or uncollected. In jhana, if a factor is out of step, such as restlessness or too much energy, you tranquilize it, and if the mind becomes too collected and suppressive, you back off, loosen the effort and keep openness.

He says one-pointed concentration suppresses hindrances and the opportunity for insight, so they return with the same or greater force after you come out. Collectedness orbits the object, keeping attention non-dispersed while remaining aware of what happens in the mind, and right effort, mindfulness and collectedness occur together.

He says to stay with the spiritual friend, since the visual image does not matter and what matters is awareness on loving kindness. It is not a sign of anything, so do not make it one.

He says TWIM is not sleep deprivation and he has never heard it described that way; he encourages naps on retreats. Sleep deprivation causes lack of mindfulness and sloth and torpor, so one should manage sleep to find what works.

He says you walk at a normal pace, watching where you are going for safety, while attending to the object, such as loving kindness or compassion. When distracted, you recognize it, release it, relax, smile and return to the object, using the 6R's; slow walking with attention to foot contact is not necessary.

He says a judgment is a mental action and an intention, and it feeds a clung-to view of the person. Recognize it, six-R the craving or aversion that arises from it, and replace it with something wholesome, such as mudita in place of jealousy.

He usually recommends waiting until further along, because less craving and aversion remain then, though he would not stop someone who is motivated. Determinations can become a distraction or an attachment, and they help jhana skill and time spent in cessation, but they belong at a later stage.

Past-lives recognition is very active and intense, so it is best done with the fourth jhana as a foundation, and only for understanding karma, rebirth and dependent origination. The path through the first to eighth jhanas is softer, since observation is the main activity, and the outcome is largely the same: a deep understanding of dependent origination.

The Buddha stopped Angulimala from killing his mother, an act that would have prevented stream entry, and he became a stream-enterer and then an arahant, though he still faced the results of his past kamma. Good kamma means cultivating wholesome intentions such as generosity, loving-kindness, equanimity and renunciation, which makes the mind better suited to meditation, though hindrances still have to be worked through. Ajatashattu, who killed his father, is given as an example of the same five acts blocking stream entry (DN2).

Identifying with an action makes it personal, and until someone is an arahant they are still a being in the sense of the Satta Sutta (SN22.53), which defines a being as one who clings to or identifies with the five aggregates as personal. Craving leads to clinging, then becoming, then rebirth and dukkha, and seeing an action as impersonal can stop the flow of its effects. The arahant's actions bear no fruit because they are impersonal processes.

Make a determination, for example that the mind will rest in compassion for the next 30 minutes or hour, and then watch compassion grow and radiate. The intention pins one brahmavihara down so you can stay with it, while ordinary meditation only observes one state transforming into another.

Delson recommends waiting until anagami, but anyone can try it after stream entry. It takes longer before anagami because craving and aversion are still present, while the anagami no longer craves the jhana, so they can stay in it longer; it is a matter of experimentation with intention and determination.

It depends on scheduling and how the body is feeling. Online retreats currently run about once a month, and they may continue after a break long enough for the body to recover from a residential retreat.

Practise loving-kindness towards yourself and others in those moments, which can help you engage and even enter a light jhana state. Boredom may show up as sloth and torpor or as restlessness, and you can notice which it is and play with the enlightenment factors, without going so deep that you miss the meeting.

Each stage is judged by the fetters and by how the mind responds in everyday life. The stream-enterer has let go of self-view, doubt and attachment to rites and rituals, and has confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha; the once-returner has less craving and aversion and recovers faster; the non-returner has no sensual craving or aversion but still has conceit and the higher fetters; the arahant has no conceit or ignorance and sees the four noble truths in every link of dependent origination.

It is not just a ritual, because setting the intention each morning that the mind will be rooted in the precepts and in sila reinforces the commitment to morality.

Once someone enters the stream it sticks, and there are three kinds of stream-enterer (seven-times returner, family-to-family, and one-seeded); a stream-enterer will not commit the five acts or follow another teacher. The story of a drunkard who died as a stream-enterer shows that after a lapse, remorse and retaking the precepts let the person keep the attainment.

In early 2020 Delson was in India on a self-retreat when the pandemic began. His parents live in Cambodia and asked him to stay with them until the situation was over, so he went there.

Identifying with a thought means treating it as yours or as yourself. Observing it means seeing it as arising from causes and conditions, separate from any self, so it passes by; if the mind gets caught, you let go, relax, smile and take up a meditation object.

Delson says he would never advise taking one's own life, because as long as the mind is intact one can still cultivate loving kindness, equanimity and wisdom. The wish to die may come from aversion, and an opportunity for insight may still come at the last moment.

Delson says past karma cannot be prevented or reduced, but new karma from craving, clinging and becoming can be understood and not fed, and loving kindness or equanimity changes how the karma is experienced. On saving a mother's life, he says the doctor must decide from their own intention, since he is not a doctor.

Delson says one is responsible only for one's own actions and choices, and how parents respond is their karma. If the rituals cause agitation, one can let them go and tell the parents the truth when the subject arises, and parents should be respected even when they are upset.

Delson says the parents' views are theirs and one need not take on their projections, and wholesome practice does not harm them. The main duty to parents is to be a good person who is happy, healthy and keeps the precepts, and one may talk about the Dhamma only if they are open to it.

Delson says in formless attainments one is not necessarily seeing links but seeing how consciousness arises and passes dependent on contact and how attention moves. Trying to identify the links is not the goal; the goal is to see how the mind moves from collected to distracted and back.

Delson says the faculties become powers as they develop, faith includes openness to the Dhamma and keeping the precepts, and wisdom arises from closely observing how the mind's attention moves. These develop organically when one follows the Eightfold Path, so there is nothing to balance deliberately.

Delson says wrong mindfulness is attending to the activity itself, such as mindful eating or walking, rather than to how the mind's attention moves in relation to it. Right effort leads to right mindfulness, which leads to right collectedness, and these happen together.

Delson says it can, because a busy, talkative mind causes tiredness, while a collected and mindful mind conserves energy. Sleep may become deeper or shorter, so a person may need less sleep.

Delson says tracing a specific sickness to karma is not useful. What matters is how to deal with the sickness in the present moment, such as seeking medication or a doctor, and seeing karma as arising from previous choices here and now.

Delson says mindfulness of body is still a mental experience, since the body is known through mind, and the Buddha's refrain asks whether covetousness or grief is present. Mindfulness of mind means noticing states such as collected or uncollected, liberated or unliberated, and whether the hindrances or enlightenment factors are present; it is always in relation to mind, not bodyfulness.

Delson says balancing samadhi means noticing whether the mind is collected or distracted, tranquillizing restlessness, and loosening the mind if it becomes too rigid. He distinguishes one-pointed concentration, which can suppress hindrances, from collectedness, where attention orbits its object like a satellite around a planet.

Delson says one stays with the loving kindness, since the visual image does not matter and it is not a sign of anything. One can even keep the friend in the heart and stay with the loving kindness.

Delson says he has never heard of TWIM involving sleep deprivation and that he encourages naps on his retreats. He says there is no benefit to sleep deprivation, and one should find a sleep pattern that works, neither too much nor too little.

Delson says in TWIM one walks at a normal pace while paying attention to where one is going, and when the mind wanders one uses the 6R's and returns to the object of meditation. Walking meditation is not about paying attention to the feet touching the ground.

Delson says it depends on context: a judgment is mental action, a form of birth, and it feeds clinging to a view about the person. One can recognize the judgment, 6R it, and replace it with a wholesome state, for example replacing jealousy with mudita.

Delson says his usual recommendation is to wait until further along, because less craving and aversion is involved then. He would not stop a motivated person but says the goal is to keep repeating the process until the mind is fully liberated, and determinations bring benefits such as mental dexterity and longer cessation at a later stage.

Yes, anxiety can be a form of restlessness, arising when the mind looks to the future or has aversion to the present moment. Recognize it, come back slowly and steadily to mindfulness, and relax into the moment rather than only observing the disturbance.

Better to do one or the other. If you feel drawn to forgiveness, go with forgiveness, which is powerful in itself. Forgiveness means forgiving your reactions to what happened, not condoning the other person's actions, and residual blockage in the heart is a sign that forgiveness practice is needed.

Delson says he is not a doctor and suggests seeing what works for the individual. If sitting is uncomfortable, walk, and alternate between sitting and walking.

Relax generally rather than relaxing particular points in the body, aiming for a generalized sense of relief, mind first and body second. Also, relax your reaction to a hindrance even while it is present, and treat the hindrance like a guest. Relaxing each point individually is overkill and carries some aversion.

Delson describes an exercise from Venerable Metananda: look at a finger with full focus, notice the tension, then let the attention expand to take in everything around it and notice the relief. Bringing in spacious awareness and softening the subtle tension of over-focusing is the way to relax the mind.

The formula is integrated into the practice in a way that is not immediately visible, and it becomes apparent in deeper layers of sankharas and craving as one notices identification with this or that. Relaxing identification with hindrances or the object is part of this, but a beginner should not be pushed into that reflection, since the Buddha often addressed advanced monks. Delson mentions the Upanisa Sutta, the flip side of dependent origination, to be covered later in a longer retreat.

Stop taking things so seriously, which is easier said than done at work where expectations must be met. Notice each time you take something seriously and bring in joy or at least equanimity, saying you will let it go. Then the I and me are less involved and you see the bigger picture more clearly.

Cessation has many contexts, and it is not necessarily required: the mind can suddenly understand after hearing a sutta, or a path or fruition can occur. A cessation followed by nothing else, just a feeling of interest, is not necessarily a path or fruition, while a relief accompanied by insight into the nature of reality is.

Yes, Delson has seen people who had many cessations, though not everyone who has them is an arahant, so it can happen.

The process is rinse and repeat, and one can add practices such as looking into the six sense spaces and five aggregates. To move from stream entry toward anagami, consistently notice when sensual craving or aversion arise and release and relax them, since the fetters may then drop when a cessation occurs. Daily practice and the quality of meditation are interdependent with mindfulness throughout the day.

No, no one sees all twelve links. Intellectually one understands them, but in direct experience one sees feeling arising in dependence on contact with nibbana, with the unconditioned contact conditioning joy and relief, and with the mind's representations of craving and other links.

Breathing is carried out through the nervous system and relates to vital formations, but intentional inhaling and exhaling can be seen as bodily formations. Vitakka and vicara are reflection: bringing up the object of meditation and reflecting on it, which leads to the intention to speak. Speech is a result of vitakka and vicara.

Jivitindriya is the life faculty and is the same as vitality. Ayu refers to longevity or life itself. Ayu-sankhara are the vital formations that stop when there is no more life energy, as at death, and continue in cessation.

Delson says it can be both in one way and one in another. He says the question has gone beyond this sutta and that he will return to it later.

Yes, that is a good way of putting it. There is no sensory input, but the road, meaning the faculties and their connection, remains. Sensation is not nothing; it is only that no conditions are present.

The connection with the mind is completely removed, though vitality and heat remain, so the faculties can still function or potentially function. The senses can still be felt in the body, but very diminished.

Yes. There is complete rest with no traffic, so when one comes out the faculties are exceptionally clear, with greens greener, blues bluer and sounds more potent.

Cessation can last from a few seconds up to a minute or two when entered by a practitioner who is not intentionally going into it. Sloth and torpor are dense and heavy, while cessation is radiant and bright. Nirodha-samapatti, which can be entered intentionally, can last up to seven days.

Bhava is the set of habitual tendencies that make up the sense of self, shaped by past choices in similar situations. It is the initial impulse just before you act, such as deciding to react angrily, and if you recognize it and let it go, no unwholesome verbal or physical action follows.

Gardening itself does not break the first precept. Breaking it requires a weapon, an intention to kill, an act of killing, and the being's death, so with no intention to kill there is nothing to feel guilty about.

Delson suggests first doing a TWIM retreat, since TWIM uses the brahmaviharas as object and is a feeling-based practice. Once the mind is collected, one can explore the jhanas by simply staying present and aware, and determinations should wait until one is an anagami or above.

It is an open awareness practice with one object: the mind stays centred on the object while ambient factors are noticed, and the jhana factors are in the background rather than the goal. When distracted, one uses the 6R's to return, and suppressing other states is avoided.

In this state perception gradually diminishes, the mind feels alert yet asleep, and eventually it rests clearly on itself until cessation. Restlessness or dullness can be adjusted with relaxation, equanimity, or a little energy and joy, and Delson says one should be glad that nothing seems to be going on, since many people want something to happen.

The signless state takes no object; the mind becomes pure awareness that is looking at nothing in particular, which he says is roughly like jhana 8.5. Feelings of disorientation or anxiety should be met by relaxing and softening, and the last thing to drop is the conceit of 'I am that pure awareness'.

Earlier practices showed him the conditioned limits of each state, and the ones that helped most kept the mind open, relaxed and attentive without constructing experience. TWIM is a deconstructive practice of relaxing and letting go, and his past experience also helps him guide students by recognising where they are.

Yes, more advanced practitioners can start from infinite space, infinite consciousness or nothingness after the fourth jhana, as described in MN 121. Technically the formless spheres are rooted in the fourth jhana and widen the experience through these perceptions.

Do not try to fix the thoughts with practices, because that adds energy and becomes a game of whack-a-mole. Step back, relax, notice the activity and use metacognition to observe the flow of thoughts without following them, and the mind will slow down, perhaps after an hour or two, with equanimity developing.

Craving shows when the mind is agitated because a desired object is absent; without craving it simply moves on. Acting toward a goal is not itself craving, since the Buddha located the issue in the intention to possess or avoid, and the mind without craving is one that realises it does not need security or something to land on, and is then liberated.

Begin with right intention: letting go of outcomes, loving kindness and non-cruelty. Before speaking, pause a few seconds, notice any craving or aversion, let go with the 6R's, and check the words against THINK (timely, honest, wholesome intention, necessary, kind).

It depends. Someone who attained a stage in a past life may not need to attain it again, and someone naturally inclined to the Dhamma may progress quickly. In today's world, attainment usually proceeds step by step from stream entry to once-returner to non-returner.

Path is the moment of breaking the first three fetters, such as at stream entry. Fruition is a similar experience that confirms and locks it in. Someone who has path but not yet fruition will experience fruition later in practice or at death.

From his own experience, he says it seems to be true: a mind inclined toward understanding the Dhamma tends to lead a person to a competent teacher. He notes that people today often find the practice through YouTube and Google.

He does not pre-select talks; each retreat's sutta is chosen after individual interviews. He says the Karaniya Metta Sutta already existed and the Buddha was using it, and he likes it because it covers the whole path from metta and sila to meditation and nibbana.

He has heard the story of monks frightened by ghosts in the forest and another of brahmins asking for a direct path to Brahma. He notes that in many suttas the Buddha includes the brahmaviharas among meditation objects and calls them immeasurable samadhi.

Metta itself does not directly lead to cessation. Deepening practice moves from metta to karuna, mudita and upekkha, then to a luminous mind, which is joined with insight; metta alone gives a pleasant abiding, and insight is needed for liberation.

It is pabhassara citta, meaning luminous mind, spelled p-a-b-h-a-s-s-a-r-a.

Yes. You do not need to create the intention; you watch the feeling change, becoming softer and turning into compassion, then joy, then equanimity.

No. Being in a jhana means the enlightenment factors, including mindfulness, are present to some degree. If mindfulness slips and the mind becomes inattentive, one is no longer in jhana.

The relevant jhana factors must be present, no hindrance is present, and the enlightenment factors are present to some degree. If collectedness becomes too strong, equanimity is lost. He refers to MN 111 (Anupada Sutta), noting that the factors change across the jhanas and some are present throughout.

He thinks it refers to the mental body (kaya) rather than the physical body (rupa), since the mind becomes collected and suffused with the quality being cultivated. Some people feel strong piti physically, but that is only one factor, not the object.

Other teachers suggest spending the first weeks deepening concentration with anapanasati or metta before entering jhana. He suggests experimenting with the factors, letting them co-arise with collectedness, and on a shorter retreat continuing to spend time in quiet mind.

It was recorded for a monastic and was not meant to be public. One listener went quickly to quiet mind. Its purpose is to see each of the five aggregates as impermanent and impersonal, so that one does not hold on to them.

No. The mind can attend to only one object at a time, so combining them creates back-and-forth movement at a subtle level. Stay with one object, and if the two seem to synchronise, separate them.

Energy can become unbalanced, leaving someone ungrounded. He suggests grounding activities such as walking barefoot, going for a walk, or touching earth, and says that when radiating, attention should stay on the feeling rather than pushing outward.

Guru simply means teacher, but the hierarchical, elevated notion of guru did not exist in the Buddhist community; the teachings themselves are the teacher. A spiritual friend is anyone who encourages and guides you on the path, without hooks such as bowing or lineage devotion.

Rest, take prescribed medication, and practise informally, radiating loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity even when lying down, and watching how the mind responds to the pain. He mentions Samyutta discourses on the enlightenment factors that the Buddha gave to unwell monks.

Observe what the mind is doing as you fall asleep, and aim to keep mindfulness into lighter and deeper sleep. Lucidity develops over time with practice, though not as controlled lucid dreaming; observing with mindfulness is the most useful practice to bring to sleep.

Sleeping upright comes from the dhutanga practices, which are for monastics and not recommended for lay people. He says he asked Bhante Vimalaramsi, who confirmed this.

It is pabhassara citta, luminous mind. It occurs primarily in neither-perception-nor-non-perception, but it can be brought into daily activities as mindfulness sharpens, with no thoughts or vibrations. Its feeling is pleasant only in the sense that it is free of dukkha.

He says he misspoke: anyone with path will have fruition, either later in meditation or at death. In the same life, someone with stream entry who has not yet had fruition will experience it before passing on.

From a neuroscientific view, piti and sukha may come with surges of serotonin and dopamine that produce warmth without a real temperature rise. Kundalini-like experiences depend on breathing and concentration techniques that stimulate the nervous system and can cause imbalance; strong one-pointed concentration can build up hindrances and lead to breakdown, so hindrances should be acknowledged and gently let go.

People who become super-concentrated may need a break and a gentler practice. For neurological or psychological disorders, therapy and medication should be followed, with meditation as a supporting tool rather than the only way out.

An ariya has a lessening of greed, hatred and delusion, though not complete eradication, which only comes at arahant. Empathy and compassion are developed on the path rather than excluded by it, and disorders become easier to manage. He notes that everyone short of arahant is mentally unwell to some degree, and that unwellness subsides with each attainment.

Practitioners' changed behaviour can inspire non-practitioners to ask what they are doing, which is an opportunity to share the practice without preaching. Developing wholesome qualities of mind benefits family, friends and co-workers.

Yes, if they maintain the precepts and are wholesome. The Buddha gave guidance on lay life, such as managing money. Livelihoods to avoid are those trading in alcohol, poisons, weapons, human trafficking or meat.

It is rooted in the experience of infinite space and in radiating compassion to all beings, which gives a sense of connection and unity, even with eyes open.

It is both physical and mental: rooted in the nervous system, linked to the fire element, and felt along the spine because of the nerves there.

Yes. As mindfulness sharpens, one notices more refined qualities and can pinpoint contact, piti, sukha and equanimity, so the experience deepens.

Yes. In Tibetan practices the changes depend on certain activities and can be reversed when the awareness is lost. On this path, once fetters are gone, the change is irreversible; Tibetan traditions do not have the same attainments, since they are rooted in the bodhisattva vow.

An arahant still feels pain and illness, but not fear, anger, sadness or grief. The path changes the mental suffering that accompanies painful feelings.

He says the vow to postpone one's own awakening until all beings are awakened does not make logical sense, since the Buddha awakened himself. Bodhisattvas cultivate the paramis over many lives and rediscover the path in their last life, becoming arahants.

No. Such an experience is still conditioned and does not change the person, because the path requires sila, samadhi and panna and an understanding of how the process works. Without that training, the same formations of greed, hatred and delusion return.

Intentionally cultivate loving kindness when kindness is needed, compassion when there is suffering, and mudita when envy arises or when someone succeeds. Equanimity should be the default, since it keeps the mind balanced and mindful.

Take this practice as far as experiencing cessation at least once, since that removes doubt about the eightfold path. Use reduction of suffering and greater freedom as the benchmark. He adds that eons of rebirth cannot be cashed in without a buddha and the teaching being available.

Delson says Sati held on to his view, so he did not attain stream entry and is liable to a hell realm. He presents this as the result of clinging to a self-view rooted in wrong view.

Self is understood as an atman, an unchanging, permanent and blissful soul. Body and mind processes are always arising and passing away and so liable to dukkha, so they cannot be considered self in the traditional sense and are impersonal.

Formations belong to a stream of choices and conditions and come in bundles, and craving gathers them into a single consciousness that links one birth to the next. Within one life consciousness arises one at a time, so the process is singular.

Yes, in the Buddhist context this is annihilationism. Such a person still has craving and identification, so their experience at death can still lead to a new rebirth, and one does not need to accept rebirth on trust because rebirth can be seen in each moment.

Buddhism does not describe an all-pervading consciousness and speaks only of suffering and its cessation. One can be mindful in waking, dream and deep sleep, but these are different consciousnesses tied to mind, and when the mind is taken away that consciousness is gone.

Delson says sharing merit is a form of loving kindness sent to beings. In the Peta Vatthu and Vimana Vatthu stories, beings are told to dedicate merit, such as giving requisites to a sangha member, and the recipient feels the merit as a pleasant experience that gives rise to wholesome formations, which can lead to a more wholesome next rebirth.

Delson says he recognises the Hindu and Brahmanical origin and that the practice departs from the essence of the path, which is freedom from suffering in this life, though the intention to offer loving kindness uplifts the person. Quoting AN 5.57, he says one cannot give one's kamma away, since each person is the owner and inheritor of their own kamma. He thinks one's example may influence others to create better kamma, and that sending loving kindness may have some effect, though this is not scientifically proven.

Delson describes an experiment at Dhamasuka in which one person sent loving kindness to another, who reported a wave of relaxation, and in another case the receiver could not send it back because it felt physically forceful. He says this could be a placebo or a subjective experience, and that a rigorous scientific test would be difficult to design.

Delson says that once one has good skill in the jhanas, one can pursue the powers if inclined. He lists telepathy, manipulating the four elements, the divine ear, the divine eye, knowledge of past lives and destruction of the asavas, and says a collected mind and the four bases of spiritual power are needed, with only the sixth tied to arahatship.

Delson says each attainment gives a clearer view of the Dhamma and the links of dependent origination, and arahatship gives the complete understanding, so there is no fuel left for the taints. Earlier attainments still carry some clinging to an 'I am' after cessation, while in arahatship the cessation and nibbana experience are seen as impersonal and not-self.

Delson says entering cessation is an attainment, while exiting is predetermined by intention for someone who has mastered the nirodha samapatti, which is entered for a set time. He says fear is common and is the mind's fear of stopping, so one should recognize it as a hindrance, release it, relax into it with the 6R's, and repeat, until seeing it as it is leads to equanimity, disenchantment and cessation. He refers to MN 43 and MN 44 for the similar passages.

Delson says the first cessation is usually brief, only a few moments or seconds, and that duration can be determined intentionally only once one develops that skill, up to seven days. He does not directly respond to the suggestion that the self manufactures the sense of approaching cessation.

Delson says yes, the relief is strongest the first time, and later attainments still bring relief but it is less potent.

Delson says the suttas describe eight types of individuals, each a path and its fruition, and he sees fruition as a confirmatory cessation experience that solidifies the understanding that the fetters are destroyed. As far as he knows, people do not skip fruition after a path experience.

Delson says that in neither-perception-nor-non-perception, the mind dips in and out of mini cessations as perception circuitry in the brain diminishes, which is not sloth and torpor. He says previews appear as glimmers or bursts of light that show craving and formations, and the links are seen fully only after complete cessation, when there is no grasping.

Delson says within neither-perception-nor-non-perception there are levels of quiet mind, a dream-like state of being awake and asleep, getting subtler until nothing is left. He suggests the replay may be the formations induced by the earlier jhanas arising again, and says that whatever formation arises, one simply lets it go.

Delson says the experience of neither-perception-nor-non-perception itself is quiet mind, which is the modern way of describing it.

Delson says the signless collectedness of mind (MN 121, where Maha Moggallana goes through the jhanas) is what happens when quiet mind becomes subtler, with no object at all. He sees it as a separate stage, like jhana 8.5, and says the signless, void and undirected collectednesses point to the same experience through insight into impermanence, dukkha and anatta.

Delson confirms that it is MN 121, the Shorter Discourse on Emptiness.

Some may have had a very clear mind that let them become sotapannas on hearing the Dhamma, without developing samadhi, so they did not advance. For others it is simply a matter of how quickly they let go and how clearly they see dependent origination and the impersonal nature of things.

Paramis are qualities of mind, such as patience, loving kindness, compassion, generosity and truthfulness, that must be developed and perfected, whether over many lifetimes as a bodhisatta or in one lifetime. They are needed to ripen the mind for attainment, and include sila, generosity and gratitude.

He agrees that a sotapanna has at most seven lifetimes before arahatship, with kolankola and ekabija stages, and that the difference from a sakadagami lies in how quickly craving and aversion are let go. Karma is old (the fruition of past choices) and new (what one does with feeling, such as taking it personally). Arising hindrances are old karma; reacting with craving or aversion creates new karma and strengthens them, while letting go weakens them.

Forgiveness releases emotional blocks that prevent the mind from sending out loving kindness, and it lets go of non-acceptance, a common obstacle for meditators who push too hard or do not accept themselves. Delson sees forgiveness as a secondary practice, prescribed for a few days and then returned from.

Identify trying too hard as unwholesome, because it brings restlessness, tension and tightness in the head, whereas wholesome intention leaves the mind open, spacious and joyful. See it as another distraction, let it go, pull back a little and continue.

Recognise the moment of expectation as a hindrance and a signpost, let it go and return to the practice. Cultivate a beginner's mind by sitting for the sake of sitting and looking at what is happening now, and use the moment of recognising expectation as a cue to let go.

Equanimity is a mind with no expectations that sees things as they really are without reacting. Patience is an antidote to expectation and anticipation; it is not waiting, since waiting for nibbana is itself a craving to become or possess something.

Delson is not sure of the Cariyapitaka and cannot comment on the Jataka tales. He sees the Jataka as stories that inspire by showing what a bodhisatta goes through to become a buddha. The Khuddaka Nikaya contains some gems, but not all of its texts are necessarily the Buddha's words.

Meditation should be the main practice and the one you look forward to; reading suttas should be supplementary. Reading helps clarify things and enjoying it shows that meditation is informing understanding. Walking meditation and sutta reading have their place, and the aim is to stay meditative in all activity.

No, an arahant does not have omniscience, but a mind free of barriers learns and absorbs information more easily. Arahants also use intuition, which gives clear insights into what is best for a situation without reasoning it out.

Memory is recognition, rooted in perception, which is intertwined with feeling. The liberated mind still remembers and makes new memories, but these are not grasped or taken as personal, so nothing sticks in the way of craving.

Delson says the present moment as conventionally understood is itself a conceptual, conditioned experience and not reality as it is. Staying in the present is useful as an anchor, but trying too hard to stay there becomes effort and projection, so the aim is to see things as they are, without concepts.

Delson advises not pushing the mind to ignore the pain, since that is aversion. If the pain fades when you move, it is meditation pain; relax the resistance, come back to the object, and it will fade. If physical pain persists after the sit, change the posture, such as using a chair or a cushion under the knee.

Delson says there is no magic required posture; it depends on how the mind responds and what is comfortable for the person. Lying down can lead to sloth and torpor, so it helps to put more attention on the object.

Meditation pain fades once you move and does not persist hours after the sit. Physical pain that remains after an hour or more is physical, and the posture should be changed. Movement should be limited to small, mindful adjustments such as lifting the head or swallowing; other adjustments feed aversion and can become an addiction.

Yes, as long as the medicine, such as aspirin, does not cause drowsiness, because the headache is actual physical pain.

Anticipation increases dopamine, which is craving, and disturbs the mind. Relax into the anticipation, see it as craving, and approach each sit with beginner's mind and no expectation, continuing right effort so that deeper stages can unfold.

Do not force the state. If the mind inclines to metta, let it go there for a while, then return gently to where it was, with a smooth transition.

Background thoughts that fade while you stay with the object are fine. Sounds, sights and other sense objects work the same way; if the mind goes to them and you lose the object, you use the six R's and return.

He names five main hindrances: sensual craving, aversion, restlessness, doubt, and sloth and torpor. He links each to broken precepts: harming with intention gives aversion, taking what is not given gives restlessness, sensual misconduct gives sensual craving, false speech gives doubt, and intoxicants (including excessive internet, news or games) give sloth and torpor.

Metta feels good and uplifting, like the warm, fuzzy feeling in the heart when you sincerely wish someone well. Centre the mind and rest awareness in that feeling.

Yes. It does not need to be strong or exhilarating or accompanied by joy. A balanced feeling of being happy for the other person and for yourself is enough.

Yes, relax and re-smile are especially unique to this method, and release is a transitional step toward relaxing. Meditators who return immediately after recognizing often skip the steps; the advice is to slow down and take a second or two on each step.

Do not stop to redo them. Continue meditating, and the next time you get distracted use the six R's, taking about a second or two for each step. Forgetting to relax or re-smile is fine; keep going.

Treat them as hindrances to be let go of. They are a physiological process, so do not make them a big deal; see them as they are and release them. If they keep appearing, discuss them in the interview.

Once the feeling is there, let go of the effort to maintain it and simply rest attention and awareness on the feeling. Trying to stay there causes the tension. It is not about how strong the feeling is; it can be gentle and subtle, and sincerely wishing well is enough.

Delson says nibbana is the unconditioned and non-reflective awareness outside conditioned consciousness, illustrated by a mirror that has no reflection. Universal consciousness as Brahman in the Upanishads does not fit the Buddha's teaching: MN 38 says consciousness depends on its fuel, and with no contact there is no consciousness, so there cannot be an eternal universal consciousness. Some Buddhist traditions speak of an empty, impersonal universal consciousness (buddha nature, dharmakaya, rigpa), but that still does not match dependent origination.

Delson explains that nutriment (ahara) means nourishment or fuel, and that contact feeds feeling, feeling feeds craving, craving feeds clinging, and so on. He agrees with Bhikkhu Bodhi's note: food nourishes the body, contact nourishes feeling, volition nourishes consciousness, and consciousness nourishes mentality-materiality, with craving underlying all of them. The four are one way of looking at it, because craving can be attributed to any link of dependent origination until it is completely eradicated.

Craving is present in the earlier links whenever there is identification, such as conceit or identifying with intention, contact, awareness, body or feeling. These underlying tendencies can give rise to craving, aversion, conceit, being, doubt, views and ignorance. Without mindfulness at the level of feeling, one does not see things as they are and craving arises; with mindfulness, one stops it at feeling. Delson states the equation as: mindfulness equals the gradual eradication of ignorance, and ignorance equals lack of mindfulness.

Delson says it is not just hormones but also neurotransmitters, synapses and neural pathways, which are released with each decision and give rise to craving, becoming or ignorance. Letting go reconditions these pathways and the release of hormones, so the link can be seen that way, but many other interdependent factors are involved too.

Pamada means heedlessness or lack of diligence, and apamada is the opposite: an effort to be diligent, attentive and aware, exercising attention rooted in reality. The Buddha's final words, that all sankharas are impermanent, strive with diligence, point to exercising mindfulness by observing how attention moves. Delson links this to right mindfulness, right effort, right collectedness, right view, right intention, and then right speech, right action and right livelihood, and says the whole teaching can be summed up in those last words.

The antidote is the perception of anatta, the impersonal nature of things, along with impermanence. When the mind equates an experience with I or mine, you let that identification go and replace it with seeing things as not me, not mine, not myself, and this gradually reconditions the mind so it has no attachment in the form of identification.

Delson suggests starting by allowing mindfulness to arise as observation without attaching to things or taking them as self, with no intention behind it. Then collect the mind around an object and see where it naturally inclines: it may move to loving-kindness, joy or equanimity, or drop into quiet mind. The starting point is simply mindfulness.

There is no need to get rid of the body or the sensations. You let go of identification with them, see them as what they are, return to just being, and each time you notice and let go you are practising right effort.

Delson says to check whether the mind is becoming too focused or too energetic around the object, because trying too hard can increase distractions. He says to let the mind rest in and relax into the metta feeling rather than contain it with concentration. He also says to have whatever energy you think you need, and that you can always bring a little more.

Delson explains that after the instructions for breaking down barriers, you radiate metta in six directions and then in all directions at once, like an expanding bubble. Attention should watch the quality and flow of the feeling rather than push it outward, like a pebble making ripples on a still lake.

Delson explains that vitakka and vicara are the initial application and sustained application of thought, which fade as the jhanas deepen and the flow becomes effortless. Thoughts can still be in the background, but they are usually image-like or proto-thoughts rather than full verbal ones, and attention should not follow them. If it does, return with the 6R's, quickly and gently.

Delson agrees that the mind is also a sense base, so mental contacts arise in the same way as contacts through the five senses and must be treated the same way. He adds that verbal thoughts involve more application of thought, while image-based thoughts are more common in the deeper jhanas.

Delson explains that the personality view is the conceptual belief in a self among the five aggregates, and that stream-enterers drop it intellectually. Conceit, the sense of 'this is me', remains until later, but recognition of pain and aversion is much quicker, so there is less mental proliferation. Once-returners recognize aversion even faster, and this is the six R's used as a quick way of noticing.

Delson says he would need to read the translation before commenting fully. He suggests stream entry can come from deep listening, and that the collected mind in that moment may be a kind of jhana, but he suggests that Mahanama may not be practising jhana enough, since jhana pleasure is super-mundane and reduces interest in sensual pleasure. He refers to MN 59, the Many Kinds of Feeling, where the Buddha describes the pleasure of jhana, the pleasure of nibbana, and how lower pleasures become less important.

Delson says that a non-returner lets go of clinging to the jhanas as well, because they are conditioned and impermanent. Then the jhanas become pleasant abidings rather than something to crave. He stresses that one should be in jhana as much as possible.

Delson recommends more walking practice for people whose minds are a bit restless or energetic, and suggests finding a posture that works, including lying down. He says that in the deep jhanas, such as the seventh, while walking you may feel only contact with the feet and the ground.

The questioner describes brief blank episodes with a sense of relief and energy but no insight into dependent origination. Delson explains that cessation can come from concentration that suppresses perception, and that it can happen during ordinary activity, not only sitting. He says that a cessation experienced as contact with nirodha still counts as contact with nibbana. He suggests discussing the details in the private interview.

For the time being in this retreat, Delson says to radiate whatever feeling comes up, such as metta or compassion.

Delson explains that joy can arise in the first or second jhana and fade by the fourth, and the mind may mistake this for losing the metta. Metta has a distinct, open, expansive quality, which can be warm in the chest. He advises letting the joy be there, returning to the quality of metta, and noticing the factors of jhana without taking them as the object. He says that they will not talk about levels in the early stages, and that progress will be discussed in the interviews.

Delson says this is the last meeting today. Individual interviews follow tomorrow, there is a Zoom meeting on Saturday, and a final one next Thursday.

Sankhara refers to conditioned reality, which is dukkha because it is impermanent, and the old model that life is simply suffering does not fit experience. There is suffering in life, the first noble truth, and a way out of it, which is the cessation of craving; joy and happiness exist, and the dukkha comes from craving attached to them, such as wanting them to continue.

Delson says that the first day is often the hardest, and that over-trying may contribute. He suggests asking whether activities during the day are keeping the mind active, since everything done in the day affects the meditation, and that the online setting has more outside distractions than a physical retreat. He recommends allowing the mind to turn inward and relax, letting non-urgent tasks wait, and applying mindfulness and the six R's to restlessness outside the sits, since daily mindfulness and meditation support each other.

Delson says the meaning of sankhara depends on context: it can mean dependent-origination formations, the aggregate of formations, or intention (chetana). Sankharas are dukkha when the intention is rooted in conceit, craving, clinging, or ignorance. For an arahant the sankharas are purified of these, but pain and pleasure remain while there is a body and nervous system, so the arahant still experiences physical dukkha until final nibbana.

Delson says he does not think all paths lead to the same place. He has gone through yoga and Vedanta to their end, and these lead to experiences that are still conditioned, such as Brahman or infinite consciousness, which change and so cannot be self. Yoga's cessation is not followed by seeing the true self in the way the Dhamma describes, which includes seeing the impersonal nature of reality and the links of dependent origination and reaching nibbana. He respects his earlier traditions because they gave him the foundation, discipline, and openness to explore, and he is certain the noble eightfold path leads to the complete cessation of suffering.

Delson confirms that he means teaching only the Dhamma, specifically TWIM, and he does not intend to teach the other traditions he has practised.

Gandhabba is the term for the gandharvas of the heavens, and it is also the rebirth-linking (evolving) consciousness that carries the formations from one life to the next. In the second sense it is the very brief becoming between death and the first consciousness of the new being.

Delson says he does not recall this in the suttas, and that rebirth is spontaneous with no interval existence (antarabhava). The commentarial antarabhava refers to an anagami's attainment just before death, and bardo-like experiences happen within the mind just before the previous life ends.

These visions depend on the person's belief system and their formations, so people see angels, devas, animals or hungry ghosts according to what they were brought up to expect. If the mind is rooted in greed, hatred or delusion, fear can fuel craving and possibly rebirth in a lower realm, and Bhante Vimalaramsi helped dying people let go and take the precepts.

No: the metta instructions involve feeling a warm feeling in the chest, while anapanasati uses the breath as in the Anapanasati Sutta, so you do not focus on the chest feeling. You can use the six R's with any object of meditation, including anapanasati.

The five hindrances arise as the effect of precepts broken with intention, in this life or earlier ones, and each broken precept tends toward a particular hindrance (ill will, restlessness, sensual craving, doubt, sloth and torpor). The hindrances are old karma to be experienced, and treating them with the six R's weakens them, whereas reacting to them strengthens them.

Parinibbana is the ending of the five aggregates for an arahant, who is neither a being nor a non-being, because there was no self to begin with. It is the cessation of rebirth and therefore of suffering, with no more becoming, not an extinction of a self.

In TWIM, jhana includes awareness of contact with the body and senses, and a very deep jhana that suppresses the mind is not the aim. A light jhana, with a collected but open mind, lets hindrances be seen and dealt with by right effort while insight arises, balancing samatha and vipassana.

Noble (ariya) birth means he had entered the stream at least, so from then on he did not kill, and his statement was true. Stream entry cuts off rebirth in lower realms, but people still react to past actions, as Moggallana experienced the results of killing his parents after becoming an arahant.

Yes. The rudeness is the effect of one's own past action, so the practitioner should not take it personally, should notice the irritation, six-R it and replace it with loving kindness and compassion. How the other person reacts is their own responsibility.

Yes. Compassion means giving the suffering person space to be in their suffering without being a crutch or saviour, and joy means being glad for others' successes. Equanimity can anchor someone who is in pain, so that you can advise them in line with the Eightfold Path.

The third factor is the immediately effective karma of the action itself, such as killing a parent, an arahant, causing a schism or drawing a Buddha's blood, which brings immediate remorse and can lead to hell. Generosity to a noble one can uplift the mind at death and lead to a better rebirth, depending on the strength of the formations.

Yes. The recipient's pure mind purifies the gift, and the intention to give uplifts the mind regardless of whether you knew who they were.

Yes, because there was still an intention to kill, and karma is impersonal and non-judgemental. Remorse arises at death, and knowledge that it was one's parent may arise then.

Delson says he cannot decide for him, but suggests a temporary ordination to see how it works, or practising first and deciding later, then moving step by step from samanera to bhikkhu. He suggests clearing the mind and asking one's intuition, letting the answer arise like an insight.

The view that all paths lead to the same place is one view, since every practice starts from its own foundational view of reality. In Suttavada, right view has a mundane level (karma, dependent origination, rebirth) and a super-mundane level, the experience of the unconditioned nibbana, whereas other paths' experiences remain tied to their conditioned views.

Only the person can answer this by walking the path and seeing for themselves. Delson suspects that if they do, they will no longer be a hardcore atheist.

Delson says the Buddha was disillusioned with sensual pleasures and left to find the end of suffering with the intention of returning to teach, which he did, and he later had Rahula ordained. He notes that the Vinaya requires debts to be settled and parents' permission before ordaining. Another speaker adds that they have not found the sutta describing the Buddha leaving his wife and child, nor one calling Rahula his son.

An arahant produces no new karma but still experiences the effects of previous choices, including from past lives. Delson gives the example of the Buddha's back pain, which he links to being a wrestler in a previous life, a story he attributes to a commentary or Jataka tale.

Delson says compassion is a good wake-up practice that leaves the mind alert, and on a super-mundane level the Buddha may have used it with his mind's eye to see who was ready for the Dhamma. He describes a partner exercise in which one meditator sensed suffering in a family member, and notes that compassion is linked to the infinite space.

The main difference is the guide's help: interviews and group Q&As. The meditation itself should follow the same standards, with at least four hours a day and a build-up to three to four hours in one sitting. Delson does not describe any special preparation by the teacher to give merit, and says a guide can help someone who feels stuck by seeing what they cannot see themselves.

Piti is more energetic and vibratory, an excited joy, while sukha is a comfort in the body where it feels at ease. As the mind becomes tranquil, physical feeling can fade, and a sense of the body expanding can happen; such experiences are secondary, and what matters is how long you stay with the object and how you deal with distraction.

The retreatant replies that it is in the 20s Fahrenheit, so going out of the cabin to the bathroom takes three layers, a scarf, gloves and a cap.

The mind experiences only one thing at a time: the sensation of metta can remain while the mind drifts into thinking, such as about a spiritual friend. Soften and relax, and return to the feeling; thoughts in the background are fine, but once attention has left the object, recognize it and use the 6R's.

It takes as long as it takes, but each time you recognize the hindrance it becomes easier and quicker. The recommendation is to do the whole process of the 6R's, because stopping at recognizing and returning only suppresses the hindrance rather than dealing with it.

When Delson says let go he means the hindrance, not the metta; returning means coming back to the feeling. A phrase such as 'may you be happy' can be used once or for a while if it helps, but the feeling should be stayed with, and the smile anchors the mind to loving kindness.

In nothingness one radiates equanimity like a pebble making ripples on a lake, and when the intention to radiate meets slight tension, the mind is resting in itself: the quiet mind, mind watching mind. Tiny vibrations are let go, and as quiet deepens it can become objectless and approach the signless state; boredom and restlessness are balanced with the enlightenment factors, and in the end the quiet fades into cessation.

It depends on what works for you. Freshening up can help clear sloth and torpor left from sleep, and the Buddha washed and prepared before sitting, but Delson suggests experimenting to see whether sitting straight after waking or after freshening up works better for you.

Do not let the planning mind get in the way; observe how the mind responds to situations, and keep smiling, since each smile is a moment of mindfulness and collectedness. Use a weekend or day off for three to six hours of sitting to build momentum, and if possible sit an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

Memories of past lives are held in formations (sankharas), and they can be accessed by entering the fourth jhana and letting remembering run in reverse, which gives a deeper view of dependent origination and karma. Knowing other beings' past lives is a psychic faculty, seeing streams of karma and the choices that led to them.

At death the process is automatic, arising from causes and conditions, and grasping at what is seen can cause craving and further rebirth. Reviewing past lives as a meditation involves effort and intention: you go into the fourth jhana and make the intention to look.

It is an experience of anatta, seeing the impersonal nature of things, and a sign that mindfulness is sharpening. There is little benefit beyond that understanding; be cautious, since if the mind is not ready it can be jolted into depersonalization or derealization, so do not get attached or make it a big deal.

Depersonalization is watching things as if from a television, with a nervous sense of unreality, while the mind still holds to a self born of conceit, which can feed anxiety and restlessness. Derealization is seeing everything as unreal, including the body and food. Both can occur in meditation in a gentler form, but if the mind is jolted into them they cause anxiety and resistance.

It happens because the mind keeps letting go and reaches a deeper experience, an insight arising from causes and conditions that are right for it. If you keep letting go and observe the impersonal nature of things without taking them as self, it deepens, and you need not try to recreate it.

It does not matter much. Knowing can create conceit or pride, can create doubt if you are not sure, and jhanas can themselves be subtle sources of attachment. Until the teacher tells you based on your interview reports, it is enough to continue, and later you can work on determinations.

No: nibbana is not a realm, state, object or nothing, because calling it a realm makes it a conditioned experience. It is the unconditioned, which happens when everything is completely let go; the many descriptions in the suttas point to the experience after it. It is the quenching of the fires of greed, hatred and delusion, and coming out of the forest of samsara.

Delson says there are a couple of references where nibbana is described as a dimension beyond the four great elements and beyond contact and feeling, but he cannot recall the exact suttas off the top of his head. He will look and add the references to the description or comments when the video is published.

In the Theravada view, even searching infinite space you would not find another Buddha, because a Buddha's or arahant's mind cannot be discerned by gods or Mara. The point is the uniqueness and good fortune of having been born where a Buddha arose; the Mahayana story of a Moggallana from another galaxy is not part of the Theravada understanding.

The Buddha describes world systems (chakavala), each with hell, animal, hungry ghost, deva and brahma realms, and samsara spans all of them, even multiple world systems and multiverses. It is not limited to one world system.

Yes.

Samsara is conditioned and impermanent, though beginningless, and continues as long as beings take birth and karma and craving remain. Nibbana is outside samsara and is called permanent in the sense of unshakable deliverance, with no return to renewed being; it is not a permanent consciousness, and it is irreversible awakening.

Delson says the sutta lists increasingly noble motives for giving, with the highest being that giving adorns the mind. He links this to loving-kindness, to seeing impermanence, and to the minds of both giver and recipient, citing the Buddha's praise of the female lay follower Velukantaki's joy before, placidity during and elation after giving.

Mind is a concept that is best not thought of as an internal entity, and it is made up of the five nama factors of feeling, perception, intention, attention and contact. Delson says it is more than the brain, since there are higher realms with beings who have no body.

Delson says some retreatants find the mind stays observant in sleep, which is not necessarily bad, and that one should find a sleep schedule that works and avoid meditation close to bedtime if it leaves the mind wired. He advises seeing the alertness as a process, relaxing, and stopping counting sleep hours, since some people need less sleep than others.

Delson says contact is the meeting of sense and sense object, and sense consciousness arises right after it, which is the same consciousness as at the link of consciousness. When formations are rooted in the unwholesome, that consciousness is tinged by it and colours how contact and feeling are experienced.

Delson says it is better to see dependent origination as momentum and as feedback loops, not only as a line. Acting on craving feeds energy back into the formations, and a conscious choice toward the wholesome gradually reconditions them so that choices move toward the wholesome.

Delson says consciousness (vinnana, divided awareness) is cognition, not a soul or life energy, and it arises with every contact, feeling and perception. It arises and passes away millions of times a second, so it appears as one stream, much as a beam of light is made of many photons.

Delson says he has not come across a sotapanna trying to kill themselves, and that such a person would have very little reason to, though a sotapanna in great distress should seek help and support. He adds that death does not end conditioned existence, since any next life would still involve unpleasant feeling.

Delson says consciousness still arises for awakened beings until the five aggregates dissolve, but ignorance is dissolved bit by bit through mindfulness, so contact and feeling are not taken personally. Then no new karma is made, and old karma dissipates without adding to fetters.

Delson says people go forth for many reasons, and that the Vinaya has rules excluding those in debt, those without parental permission, those under age, and non-humans, because some tried to escape debt or pretend to be monastics. Syl adds that some joined to get free food and robes, which does not fit with karma.

Delson says nagas do not have the full range of faculties that humans have for experiencing loving-kindness and joy, and animals lack the metacognition that humans have to reflect and meditate.

Delson says emptiness has two main contexts: the emptiness of states that have passed, as in MN 121 where a meditation is empty of preceding perceptions, and the emptiness of self, seeing the five aggregates as not-self. He adds that the arahant's mind is empty of suffering, and points to MN 43 and SN 35.95 as suttas to read.

Delson points to MN 9, where Sariputta explains each link through the four noble truths: feeling is dukkha, contact is its origin, the cessation of contact is its cessation, and the eightfold path is the way. He says the six Rs encapsulate the eightfold path, with right effort at its heart.

The speakers say it is fine to radiate in all directions at once, and that doing one direction at a time can calm some people more easily. Delson says the Buddha's aim is the end of suffering and the eightfold path, and that either method leads to the same experience, so one should not get bogged down in technicalities.

Delson says it is not important to know where you are at the beginning, and that radiating in six directions is already considered advanced practice. You will know you have moved to another level when the quality of the feeling changes.

Delson says doubt in the suttas includes not knowing the difference between wholesome and unwholesome states, and doubt in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, including whether reality works as taught. He says it is removed by first-hand experience of the path, comparing this to visiting a country or tasting sugar, and that no blind faith is asked for.

Delson says no: the fetters are destroyed at entry into the path and locked in at fruition. Any remaining doubt would concern the practice rather than whether one is headed in the right direction.

Regarding form as self is annihilationism (nihilism), because the self ends with the form. The other views (self as having form, form in self, and so on) are eternalist because they posit a self that is permanent and contains or possesses form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness. Traditionally the first is called nihilist and the remaining four eternalist.

The object matters less than understanding the factors of the first jhana. When going back to the first jhana, the focus is on the factors such as joy, intention and happiness, and those factors become the object. Metta can be the object, but the jhana is the state or level of understanding, and the two are different things.

There was no specific object, only the radiation. Delson suggests the experience was probably piti as an enlightenment factor, but a jhana needs all the factors present, including collectedness around some kind of object.

It depends on the attainment, since Nibbana is one thing and the attainment of stream entry, once-returning, non-returning or arahantship is another. A stream-enterer and once-returner can keep their jobs, money and relationships; a non-returner can keep a household life; an arahant does not have the craving that motivates such activity, though relationships are not necessarily cut.

Stream-enterers and once-returners still have sexual relations. A non-returner, and certainly an arahant, has destroyed sensual craving and does not have the same outlook on sexuality, so it is not possible for them to maintain sexual relationships. This is worth considering for someone on the path who plans a family.

Seeing reality as it is means there is no projection or association onto reality, because the smoke screen of formations, concepts and proliferation has been cleared away. Nibbana is the quenching of greed, hatred and delusion and cannot be fully described in language, so the only way to understand it is to experience it.

The sense consciousnesses slow down, and gaps appear between arisings. In the perception of nothingness there is still awareness (vinnana) that knows. Moving toward neither-perception-nor-non-perception, feeling, perception and consciousness weaken together, like a dial lowering in volume, until with no input all three cease. The three are intertwined, so consciousness is present as long as there is some feeling and perception.

The Buddha goes through the jhanas, then turns to past lives, then to karma and rebirth of all beings, then to the four noble truths, which destroy the taints. The central core of all routes is a deep understanding of dependent origination, which leads to seeing the impermanent, suffering and not-self nature of the five aggregates. The suttas describe several routes to arahantship, including the seven types of persons in DN 33 and the example of Sariputta in MN 111.

Yes. Because attention is collected on something wholesome, such as the brahmaviharas, piti or sukha, it is not occupied with the five senses, which can tire the body and mind. A wholesome state naturally uplifts and energises, like the tired person who forgets their tiredness after an uplifting phone call from an old friend.

The brahmavihara is not naturally always present; it arises through causes and conditions beginning with attention. When attention inclines towards it through continuous practice, it keeps arising, and over time the mindset starts to incline towards wholesome states.

The effect afterward distinguishes them. After sleep the mind feels hazy, dense, foggy or tired, with slothfulness and torpor. After cessation the mind is bright, elated, clear and without resistance.

Generate the feeling, observe it, and then radiate it when it is ready, without pushing; the sustained feeling replaces formations rooted in ill will, craving and aversion with wholesome ones. Radiating keeps the mind expansive and collected so that hindrances can be noticed early, and too much emphasis on radiating leads to absorption, headaches and aches.

The only intention needed is a simple wish to bring up metta, and the mind can be invited into it, then simply observed once it arises. Pushing causes restlessness, pain and craving in mind and body, so one should wait for the feeling rather than force it.

Jhana is tranquil wisdom insight meditation, so as one moves through the jhanas one sees how the mind collects, how happiness fades and is not sustainable, and how impermanence, dukkha and anatta become clearer. Using the six R's to return to jhana when a hindrance arises is itself practice of the four noble truths.

The enlightenment factors are present in jhana to some degree, and in the higher jhanas only sloth and torpor and restlessness may remain. Investigation of states and joy address sloth and torpor, tranquility, collectedness and equanimity address restlessness, and they all spill into each other on the basis of mindfulness.

Treat the walking as part of one continuous meditation by staying in the jhana or keeping the intention of loving kindness while getting up, walking and sitting back down. The observation of the object is then not broken by the break.

Taking impermanent, not-self things as permanent and self is wrong thought, which leads to wrong intention, attachment to sensual pleasure and absence of loving kindness and compassion. Knowing the essential as essential means seeing that letting go is the path toward nibbana and understanding the three characteristics, which then supports right intention.

Delson does not know of any fixed schedule in the suttas or in his own experience; duration depends mainly on attention and intention, and a strong attention can prolong a jhana. Intense one-pointed concentration makes jhana factors burn out quickly, while an open, lighter concentration tends to prolong them, and he speculates that people often stay in the first and second jhanas for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Mastery of the jhanas trains the mind to enter cessation of perception and feeling for longer periods and at will, by moving through the jhanas and skipping between them. It also lets a practitioner enter a jhana in ordinary activities like commuting or washing dishes, keeping the mind relaxed, uplifted and more efficient.

Yes, the mind can enter cessation of perception and feeling from the first through the eighth jhana when it lets go of formations and attachment to the jhana, and cessation can be understood as a nirvanic experience. In the eighth jhana, with no formations to act on, the mind goes into cessation, and nibbana can be entered from any jhana when the mind inclines toward its peace.

Delson usually recommends waiting until one reaches anagami, the third path, when the mind is pure of lust, craving, aversion and ill will. Mastery can happen before that, but he recommends waiting.

No: samma sankappa is right intention or right thought, which is threefold (renunciation, non-ill will and non-cruelty), while yoniso manasikara is attention rooted in reality that gets to the root or source of things. The Buddha used yoniso manasikara when asking what causes a link of dependent origination, and insight arrives when the mind lets go of expectations.

Delson says the two are very similar. MN 106 describes ways into nothingness through equanimity, through seeing the emptiness of the five aggregates, and through turning the mind inward, and the voidness approach is another way of looking at the same experience.

Yes. Delson says there are at least three ways in MN 106, equanimity, emptiness of the five aggregates, and looking inward at the thought until it passes and the space between thoughts is seen.

Delson says the pleasure of the first jhana is born of seclusion from the five senses and is mental, though people often feel it physically as heat, warmth or energy. Physical sensations are manifestations of releasing tension and craving. In the arupa jhanas the pleasure is purely mental.

Delson says the signless state is a different, objectless meditation in which some cognition remains, while cessation of perception and feeling has no perception or feeling. He says the deathless is another word for nibbana, which has no birth and so no death.

No. That thought would be an object or a sign, and the signless state has none.

Delson says the fourth jhana is usually the base from which one develops the threefold knowledge. Beyond it, the formations are harder to see clearly, and the fourth jhana's solid equanimity makes it easier to turn the mind to past choices.

Delson says one could try, but it would not make sense, because at that point one is no longer in the eighth jhana, and the past-life formations there are like faint wisps that the mind cannot look at clearly.

Delson says all eight jhanas and the signless state are conditioned, so dukkha can be present if one takes them personally. Cessation of perception and feeling is a complete cessation of formations and is more refined than the signless state.

Delson says the signless state is bare, flowing awareness with no object, so it is much subtler and little perception occurs there. One knows one was in it only after coming out.

Delson says the faculties do not take refuge in the mind; the experience originates from the mind. The first moment is bare awareness and cognition of the feeling, and then perception applies a quality such as pleasant, painful or neutral.

Yes, Delson says, that is exactly it.

Yes. Delson says the brain is the central hub, with parts that handle sensory experience and the perception of it.

Delson says the initial intention to go into a jhana is all that is needed, whether it is a determination about duration or an intention to radiate. One then observes the factors as they arise without trying to control the process further.

Delson says yes, in the same way one sets an intention to radiate loving-kindness. The intention sets the meditation going, and then one observes how the factors arise and does not try to control them.

Delson says the brahmavihara practice naturally progresses into quiet mind, from which the mind can let go of the object to enter the signless state. One can also start with an intention to voidness by looking at the emptiness of the five aggregates, which some practitioners do after long practice, sometimes even while doing dishes or walking.

Delson explains that in neither-perception-nor-non-perception, quiet mind is the object. When a formation or distraction is perceived fully, one uses the six R's to return to quiet mind, and in the signless state one returns to bare awareness rather than to an object.

Delson says the word has two senses: the opposite (pleasant and painful feeling) and the succeeding step in a process (deliverance after true knowledge, nibbana after deliverance). The opposite reading does not work for every pair, such as vijja and avijja, so the context decides the meaning.

The contact with the nibbana element gives rise to the feeling of relief that follows cessation, while nibbana itself is the cessation of craving and suffering and is not equated with cessation of perception and feeling. Voidness is related to emptiness, which Delson explains as the emptiness of what is not present (the formless attainments) and the emptiness of self, which is the same as anatta.

Delson says this section closely parallels the conversation between the householder anagami Citta and the arahant Kamabhu, so it may be a deeper teaching for an anagami who wants to understand how formations cease. He adds that it could also be a literary feature of the compilers, and that an anagami still has further work to do.

Delson says an anagami can, but only after the ability has been developed by mastering the jhanas and moving in and out of them at will. Once the intention is developed, the anagami can enter and leave cessation at will, and an arahant has perfected this.

Delson says not necessarily. The practitioner may notice that the verbal and then the bodily formations have ceased, but the cessation of the mental formation is not known until emerging, when perception and feeling arise again.

Delson points to the Sariputta and Ananda teaching on the perception of the cessation of becoming, and to a passage in the Maha Parinibbana Sutta where the Buddha, walking, is unaware of a thunderstorm and accident, with the senses still active but no sense of self. He says the state can be done while walking, and that words can only point to it, like a finger pointing at the moon.

Delson says the passage is about escape from samsara, the cessation of birth, becoming and formations, which is nibbana. He says the idea of a nibbana realm is not found in the suttas; there is no realm of arahants, since any such realm would still be conditioned and part of samsara. The simplest way to understand nibbana is the cessation of craving and the fires of greed, hatred and delusion.

The precepts are habits of a successful meditator, taken with mindfulness and intention as part of right intention, speech and action. Taking and maintaining them renews the capacity to follow the eightfold path and, over time, reduces hindrances; a broken precept can be handled with the 6R's by recognizing it, releasing attachment or aversion, and recommitting.

Delson describes this as the mind turning inward on itself and no longer being stimulated by the outside world. Visual appearances of light or darkness should be let go, with attention placed on how the mind feels, and one observes the radiating of equanimity until the mind reaches neither perception nor non-perception; one need not bother whether it is light or darkness, just see what is there.

Respect others' time by showing up or explaining beforehand if you cannot, and by not taking up time they could use constructively; credit and possessions work the same way. The deeper point is the mindset: craving and restlessness leave the mind unsatisfied and agitated, which can lead to ill will, and this is why the hindrances are linked to the precepts.

Yes, that is right: it is a deeper aspect of the precept and a potential cause of agitation and hindrance arising in the mind.

Delson cannot speak for other schools. Traditionally, the suttas on dependent origination are mostly addressed to monks and nuns whose lives are devoted to meditation, while lay life makes it harder but not impossible to see the links, which arises naturally from cultivating precepts, wholesome intention and deeper meditation together with an intellectual understanding from suttas or talks.

You can be in the now and still be one-pointed, but flow is generally one-pointed, with open awareness lost and often tiredness afterwards. Delson suggests working with open awareness through the four foundations of mindfulness instead, which keeps one effective, lets one notice body and mind tension, and avoids the agitation and frustration that come from being startled.

Delson says he cannot know why the Buddha acted as he did or what he meant about the 500 years. Traditionally, Ananda asked that the women of Kapilavatthu, including the Buddha's stepmother, be admitted, and the Buddha refused three times; Delson agrees with a comment from another speaker that the male-favouring accounts probably reflect cultural bias.

Keeping a schedule is very important, but one should not be attached to it; find a time that works and keep to it as well as you can. Too much rigidity causes irritation when it is disrupted, and too much laxness means nothing gets done, so the middle way applies, and meditation can carry on beyond the formal sitting into the rest of the day.

Use the four foundations with the quiet mind as the base, continuing to watch arising and passing away within that quiet filter. Apply the 6R's when watching produces attachment, craving, tightness or any hindrance, and then return to the quiet mind and keep observing.

The common pitfall is trying too hard, which causes craving, tension and restlessness. Instead, sit back and relax, with only two tasks: observe, and apply the 6R's whenever tension, craving, aversion or a hindrance arises; for radiating, start a metre away from the body rather than from the head, so the feeling of loving kindness can arise.

Both: you observe, and if observing creates any hindrance, or you get carried away from the original object, you apply the 6R's. Even in the 6R's, avoid trying and treat it as an impersonal process.

Begin with at least half an hour and work up to an hour as a daily minimum, splitting it across the day if needed. Sitting longer helps, but not with the goal of sitting longer; if the mind keeps stopping early, ask it what is blocking it and let go of the attachment or fear it reveals.

Yes. Pain caused by trying too hard, such as in the chest, shoulders or head, should be met by pulling back the attention, defocusing like a camera lens, and relaxing; physical discomfort from posture should be addressed by coming out of meditation, finding a comfortable position, and keeping mindfulness through the change.

The questioner says progress is not smooth. Restlessness is the biggest hindrance, with occasional sloth and torpor, and some fear. Delson replies that determinations would be good once fear, anxiety, aversion and craving have been thoroughly dealt with. As a deeper understanding develops through the jhanas and the practice, and the hindrances such as aversion and ill will and craving stop arising, it becomes easier, and it is suggested that one can then start with the practice of determination.

Delson sees nothing wrong with educational content related to your profession or to knowledge you want to build, as long as you have no mental attachment to it. Entertainment means things that excite the senses and provide sensory pleasure, which leads the mind to crave and cling.

Find what works for your own mind and body. Improper eating is eating at a time that does not make sense, such as eating before bed, which can upset the balance of the mind and body. Keep meals in moderation and balanced, and generally avoid eating right before sleep, since schedules differ from person to person.

First, stop watching the news, and watch it only if needed to stay informed. Keep the precepts and live in line with the eightfold path, especially right speech, right action and right livelihood. Apply the four foundations of mindfulness as often as possible, let go of unwholesome states as they arise, and keep an attitude of loving-kindness toward everyone.

Let others initiate the topic by noticing how you act and speak. When they show interest, or when the conversation turns to spiritual practice, you can describe what you do. Otherwise, let your actions speak for themselves.

Delson says you can meditate while exercising, for example while cycling or at the gym, by maintaining mindfulness of mind and body and bringing in a brahmavihara such as loving-kindness. The walking meditation trains you to bring mindfulness into any activity, and exercise is good for maintaining the body.

The organiser replied that the questioner was one day early, since the count started at day zero, and that the questioner was already well versed in the practice and did not need an introduction. This answer came from the organiser, not from Delson.

Bhante Ananda explains that observance days were tied to the lunar calendar 2,600 years ago, and that today a person can take a full day for practice weekly, fortnightly, or on quarter and full moons, including the eight virtues. The most important thing is a day for listening to Dhamma and meditating, and this answer came from Bhante Ananda, not Delson.

Usually, after completing one retreat, wait for another retreat or so to give others the chance to join. For this retreat, Delson will write notes on each participant's experience and a short summary report with recommendations on how long to practise and which object to use, so that there is a pattern of practice off retreat.

Delson says this is correct: in Buddhism consciousness is not a permanent or eternal soul. Consciousness depends on experience, arises and passes away moment by moment, and rebirth occurs through formations driven by craving and intention, which in the case of an arahant no longer arise.

Consciousness begins at the fusion of sperm and egg, but it does not continue unchanged and dissipates as new consciousness arises. Formations carry karma that shapes the dispositions and parents a being is born to, and genes can be turned on or off by the choices the being makes, so genetics are not fully predetermined.

Delson says the waiting is a mental phenomenon in the mentality of the previous life, not a physical place, and it depends on the mental activity of that life.

Delson says intentionally ending a life is breaking the precept against killing, and the intention of taking that life is their kamma. That kamma will shape their next rebirths.

Delson says a wholesome intention does not make killing wholesome, and the act of killing remains unwholesome, so kamma will still play out. He says it is not for us to judge the individual's personal kamma, and what happens to the being is that person's account.

Delson says the brahmaviharas can be sent to animals, devas, nagas, human beings and beings in the hungry ghost or hell realms, as well as to all directions. Sending metta to them benefits both the sender and the receiver.

Delson says he does not know of such a case in the suttas, the Jataka tales or the commentaries, and that the reader should look for themselves. He suggests that an animal who hears a Dhamma talk may plant wholesome formations that could support better rebirths later, though animals cannot go forth as monks.

Delson explains that old kamma arises as formations through contact and feeling, and new kamma is made when one reacts with craving or clinging. Old kamma is worn away depending on its strength and on how one responds in the present, so it is not simply exhausted at once.

Delson says the five precepts are the non-negotiable minimum for oneself, and Theravada places no dietary restrictions such as vegetarianism on lay people, citing the Buddha's refusal of Devadatta's proposal. He adds that stealing includes taking credit that is not due, and that trust in the world's generosity means one need not steal out of need.

Delson says that as far as he knows the Buddhist context has no collective kamma, which he associates with Hindu philosophy. He says kamma is intricate, that one's past choices shape the circumstances one is born into, and that it can affect other people's kamma in an exchange of give and take.

Delson says sangha includes the monastics who have gone forth and also a community of like-minded lay people who practise and celebrate the Dhamma together. Bhante Ananda then adds that sangha means community, that the Buddha described four pillars, and that the noble sangha includes anyone who has reached any level of awakening, with the monastic rules supporting that path.

Delson says mixing methods can cause confusion, so one should check whether a practice is rooted in the suttas, the Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, letting go and the precepts. He notes that the Buddha prescribed different meditation objects, so no method is better in itself, and he suggests staying with one practice through to the end rather than multitasking.

Delson says that out of metta and concern one can offer friendly, wise advice, such as suggesting they try one practice, but the choice remains theirs and they should decide for themselves.

Delson says he thinks the passage is probably from the Dhammapada and refers to the mind's building ability that creates a projected reality. The destruction of that ability is the destruction of the defilements, of sensual craving, of being and of ignorance, which otherwise carry karma forward into rebirth.

Delson says a sotapanna is traditionally said to take up to seven more lifetimes, and that within one lifetime a person can move from sotapanna to sakadagami, anagami and arahant. If the body dissolves after stream entry, the process does not restart from the beginning, and whether someone has become a sakadagami depends on their own review of whether the fetters are still present.

Delson says it is quite possible.

Delson describes the micro level, where consciousness arises at each contact and is conditioned by formations, craving and clinging, which build a self that reacts and suffers. On the macro level, at death, the same process links consciousness to a new mentality-materiality at conception, and karma created by craving and a sense of self keeps the cycle going.

Delson calls this cultivated intention (chanda), an intention informed by right view that understands suffering and aims to end it. The craving and frustration attached to that intention should be let go of, and this letting go is done through the Eightfold Path.

Delson explains that as one sees the benefit of letting go, the mind inclines towards it and it becomes more automatic. Seeing the benefit of wholesome choices strengthens right intention, effort and mindfulness, and the formations behind unwholesome reactions weaken through non-use and fade.

Delson says there are benefits to both. Practising with others, all with a compassionate mind, deepens the practice through a growing field of metta, while seclusion lets you see how you yourself respond to metta. Mental seclusion, or noble silence, can also be present while still with other people.

Delson defers to Bhante Ananda, who says refuge is not a rite when properly understood. Refuge is taken in the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha rather than in the Buddha himself, and it should be recommended only to those drawn to it. Taking refuge in the Dhamma also means recollecting what one has learned, and refuge becomes blind ritual only where the practice has been left unexplained.

Delson says he cannot comment on The Mind Illuminated. He says that any method rooted in the Eightfold Path and aimed at letting go of craving can be the right way, and that stream entry can arise through listening and reflection as well as through practice.

Delson clarifies that the cessation of perception and feeling is a conditioned state and is not nibbana, which is the total cessation of craving and is experienced through insight or jhana. Nibbana is not to be equated with serenity, and a person checks their progress by reviewing whether the fetters are being destroyed and how the mind responds to situations.

The answer given is yes: images and iconography can help understanding, and taking refuge in the Dhamma is also a way of reviewing what one has learned of the Dhamma. The speaker sees nothing wrong with it.

Delson says the way is not to analyse the aggregates intellectually but to apply mindfulness in the moment, seeing how each arises and passes away without personal involvement. This is also experienced through the factors of the jhanas, where one has contact with the aggregates.

Yes. Delson gives examples of contemplating the parts of the body as impersonal and subject to change, and contemplating corpses decaying in charnel grounds. The four foundations of mindfulness then help one see how sensory experiences arise and pass away.

Sense objects are impersonal and have nothing inherently good or bad about them; what matters is how they are taken. When one sees the arising as an impersonal process and does not crave or cling, one simply lets it be.

Always apply the four foundations of mindfulness, noticing whether the mind is at peace, constricted, agitated or happy. If it feels conducive, one can cultivate loving-kindness or another brahmavihara, but without letting the mind become absorbed in it.

Delson would not recommend that much coffee, though a cup in the morning is fine. He finds radiating compassion in the morning more energizing and clarifying, and says food is not a problem in itself if one does not crave or relish it, so one should use mindfulness to find one's own moderation.

Forgiveness practice is powerful and based on experience it cleanses the heart. It regulates emotion and helps one let go of deep-rooted emotional tendencies that cause suffering, and Delson says everything starts with mind.

Within the Dharma conduct comes first, so one must keep the precepts and cultivate the Eightfold Path factors of right intention, speech, action and livelihood. Deep absorption without keeping the precepts does not change the mind or uproot hindrances, so the way to nibbana always starts with virtue.

Devas are in their position because of wholesome actions in past lives, and purity of mind comes from first understanding and keeping the precepts. Listening with a deeply reflective mind can remove doubt, attachment to rites and rituals, and belief in a permanent self in a split moment, whether one is human or deva.

Yes, it is part of that. In meditation, investigation of dhamma means understanding where the mind is and what is needed to bring it back into balance, and more generally seeing phenomena arise and pass away without attaching to or removing anything.

Mental contact still arises, and in endless consciousness the six sense bases stay active without registering external reality. Flickering experiences are primarily mental phenomena, and they arise from formations rooted in one of the sense bases.

Delson says that flickering depends on dependent origination: strong formations rooted in one sense base, such as a visual person or a musician, activate consciousness there. Feeling still occurs within mentality through the faculty of feeling, so the contact in endless consciousness is internal to the sixth sense base, not external.

Delson suggests that the mind is creating a balancing act. One should set the intention to generate loving-kindness, verbally or in imagination, and keep it as the centre of collected awareness, allowing joy and bliss to be there without following them so they do not become distracting.

A mantra or the breath produces absorption, where the mind is identified with its object. In this practice, with right mindfulness and effort, one aims for a collected state in which awareness surrounds the object openly, so hindrances can be noticed and let go.

Physical pain is still felt outside meditation, such as chronic back or neck pain. Meditation pain comes from the mind becoming too focused and one-pointed, so the awareness is too tight around the feeling, and it is a sign to relax.

Recognize the pain, intentionally relax and let it go, and use the 6R's to pull the awareness back and open it up. This may need to be repeated several times before the pain fades.

Every present moment is conditioned, as a process of dependent origination. Choices condition the next formations, but after feeling and perception the response is a free choice, and choices made from a sense of self still strengthen conceit and identification. Seeing everything as impersonal so that nothing matters is nihilism; the right view sees that causes change and makes wholesome action important.

If a responsibility needs to be done and it helps you continue the practice, do it from a wholesome state of mind. Trying to force the thought away can distract the mind more.

A parallel in the Chinese Agamas has a single monk, who is an arahant, asking the same questions. Such questions are asked out of compassion for others and for future generations, so the sutta could be that short.

Some understanding may arise without the Dhamma, but it reaches only so far. The complete understanding comes from a self-enlightened Buddha who discovers, develops and teaches the path, while solitary Buddhas have the insight but do not teach.

Joy comes from release and letting go. In the first jhana it arises as the mind withdraws from the five senses, and empathetic joy develops naturally through loving-kindness and compassion. As the mind inclines away from suffering and towards nibbana, joy arises naturally.

What is sent is loving-kindness, generated by a happy memory, image or gratitude. Once mind and body are suffused with it, they naturally incline to share it, and joy arises as craving and hindrances are abandoned, progressing to sukha and the first and second jhanas.

Yes. Bring up a wholesome uplifting image, gratitude or happy memory, stay with the feeling rather than the memory, and once the mind is suffused it naturally wants to share it. Visualising a friend is fine if it helps but not required; any wholesome object works while open awareness sees hindrances and returns to the object, in line with the broad awareness of present reality in the suttas.

Vitakka and vicara are the intention and examining thought that generate the loving-kindness. Once it is generated, let go of the intention and rest awareness on it, so it is sustained without pushing, and the practice naturally progresses into the factors of the subsequent jhanas.

Other practices produce the same jhana experiences, such as joy, bliss and equanimity, but they are one-pointed and so suppress the hindrances rather than letting them arise and be seen. The hindrances return later in greater number and strength. The difference is right effort, which enables right mindfulness and right collectedness, and this was one of the Buddha's key insights.

Common objects include a mantra or syllables, which focus the mind and suppress surrounding thoughts, and breath control, which calms body and mind but does not give a permanent shift. Mantra practice can lead to losing body sensation and into the arupa states, where one may experience a sense of oneness with atma or brahman or infinite space. These experiences depend on the mind, so insight does not arise and nothing lasting or transformative follows.

Yes. The six R's come from the four right efforts and recondition the mind, which shows up in daily choices. Mindfulness lets you see unwholesome states as they arise, apply right effort to let them go, and return to a more wholesome state. This is ongoing beyond sitting and walking, and the two feed each other.

Relaxing the mind and body gives general well-being and tends to support good health. If you become sick, it is advised to rest first to recover, and then return to practice. The suttas describe a sick monk who recovered by applying the seven enlightenment factors, and the Buddha himself recovered from sickness in a similar way.

It is quite possible, but Delson has not heard firsthand from anyone healing physically through jhana practice, so he cannot speak from direct experience.

It is possible to reach the first through fourth paths without cessation. The suttas give examples: Bahiya became an arahant on hearing the Buddha, and the first five disciples attained the paths and became arahants while reflecting on the first sermon and the Anattalakkhana Sutta. Reflecting on whether one has entered a path is less useful than checking whether the mind has really changed, by seeing whether fetters are still present and whether one's reactions differ over time.

It is generally good to relax whatever you are doing, since a relaxed mind is more effective and efficient. When you feel tired or overworked, take a couple of minutes to release tension and craving. A smile generally helps.

Delson suggests a simple test: look in a mirror, make an angry face, then smile and notice how silly the angry face is. A smile is a byproduct of joy and vice versa, and there is a neurological link between smiling and an uplifted mind. The Buddha discussed joy in the seven enlightenment factors, which arise naturally in the first and second jhanas. In jhana the seven factors are present and balanced, ending in equanimity, which leads to nibbana.

Karma is always in motion, even for an arahant, but during jhana one is not producing or experiencing karma in the active sense. Experienced thoughts, when attended to, are the effects of past karma, and working with them through the four right efforts or six R's lets that karma wear away. Each daily choice produces wholesome or unwholesome karma, and using mindfulness and right effort lets one respond in line with the Eightfold Path without creating new karma.

You never want to suppress emotions or hindrances. Notice them, let them be there, stop them from flowing out further, and release your attention from them by coming back to mind and body, relaxing, and returning to a wholesome object such as the smile or loving-kindness. In difficult situations, pause and see where the mind is before reacting.

Contact is the stimulation of a sense base, such as light hitting the eye; feeling is the immediate sensory experience, such as seeing; and perception is recognizing what is seen, which is rooted in memory and learning, as with recognizing a color as blue. These happen in very quick succession, so the practice is to notice that the mind is not identifying with or proliferating on the sensory experience and to let it go with mindfulness.

Craving or aversion produces a subtle tensing of the body, a fight-or-flight response, so relaxing tranquilizes these bodily formations and releases the craving. Relaxing also retrains the mind toward tranquility and non-reactivity, which exercises the awakening factor of tranquility. Body and mind are closely connected: too much energy can cause restlessness, and sluggishness in one can affect the other.

The Dhamma is interconnected and interdependent. When tension or agitation in body or mind is relaxed and tranquility arises, a natural joy emerges as a wholesome response to that tranquility.

Take a break from reading and spend more time having the experiences within the practice, so that you can return to the book and the suttas later and recognize things you could not see before. If reflection leads to mental proliferation, pause from the book and return to your practice.

Delson says external can mean external phenomena outside the body, or the input of the five physical senses and the sensory experiences arising from it. Internal refers more to the mind and mental contents, and also to bodily feelings such as the heartbeat, blood flow and digestion.

Delson says the four foundations each develop mindfulness of arising and passing away, and that mindfulness is observation: you stay with the object while noticing thoughts or other phenomena arising in the background. Bare awareness means noticing what comes into the field of knowledge without looking for it or trying to find it, so long as awareness stays open.

Delson says that effort applied too strongly brings in too much energy, especially when balancing factors in the eighth jhana. He suggests a medicine dropper approach: add one small drop of the needed factor (such as tranquility for restlessness or joy for sloth and torpor), see what happens, and add more only if needed, pulling back gradually.

Delson says that keeping the precepts makes you more mindful of whether you are following them. When a particular hindrance arises in meditation, you can go back and ask whether a precept was kept or broken, which brings a degree of mindfulness to it.

Delson says sexual misconduct involves identifying so strongly with sensory pleasure that the mind begins to cling to other sensory experiences. This causes heedlessness and a lack of judgment, which leads to further misconduct and breaking other precepts, not in line with the Noble Eightfold Path.

Delson says that at that stage practice is mostly mental, and there is little contact with the physical. When joy needs to be brought in to balance the factors, the physical smile can still serve as an anchor or carrier for that joy, to a limited extent.

Delson says mindfulness must come first, turned inward to see whether your action is causing restlessness. If it is, pause for a few seconds, bring in tranquility and equanimity, and then act from that. The energy needed for the situation is then infused with tranquility, so it is calmer and more stable.

Delson says the concern is intentional movement out of restlessness or when movement is not necessary. Eyes can open reflexively, for example in infinite consciousness or with much joy, and that is not intentional. Moving the lips to smile is acceptable if the joy needs it, but beyond that you should not move intentionally.

Delson says it is fine if joy is absent or only present for a few moments. What matters is that you are radiating something, such as metta, compassion or equanimity. Empathetic joy can be cultivated in daily life by returning others' smiles and celebrating their successes, but it need not be connected to the sixth jhana.

Delson says the movie-like thoughts are the entry point to neither perception nor non-perception and fade gradually as the mind lets go of formations. Letting attention rest on the quiet mind and losing interest in the subtle formations is a step toward dispassion and disenchantment. Intentionally forcing them down or suppressing them is the wrong way and takes you out of the jhana.

Delson says it is fine to choose one document or the piece of information that resonates and stay with it. The material came from a focus group for a planned retreat in Europe, and it is meant to be decompressed slowly. You do not need to follow along, and you should go at your own pace.

Delson explains that the projections are interdependent: craving for sensory experience and identifying with it builds up accumulated tendencies, which solidify a sense of self, and ignorance of the Four Noble Truths conditions all of this. As one progresses, wisdom gradually weakens the fetters, with ignorance fully destroyed only at arahatship.

Delson says the formula applies to all aspects of dependent origination and that right view has levels, mundane and supramundane. He describes how cultivating wholesome choices in daily life with right view develops the Eightfold Path, leading to right concentration, jhanas and nibbana, and that the fetters may be dropped in stages.

Self-identity view is the belief in a permanent self that takes rebirth, and it is removed at sotapanna. Conceit is the remaining habit of identifying with an impermanent sense of self in action, thought, speech and jhana, and it is removed only at arahatship, when the I, me and mine are used only conventionally.

Delson says mindfulness is always present, in sitting and daily life through the four foundations, and each use of it activates the mindfulness factor. The other factors are present in jhana, with the balance depending on the jhana level, and when hindrances are present the enlightenment factors are not, so using the 6R's brings them back.

Delson says one-pointed focus suppresses the hindrances and the mind's ability to see them, so they return with force after the session, and the joy it produces is ineffective. Open awareness, as in TWIM, lets one see hindrances as they arise, 6R them, and recognize insights into the three characteristics and the Four Noble Truths.

The six R's are the modern version of the four right efforts and are intertwined with them. Recognize prevents further distraction, release and relax abandon the arisen unwholesome state, and return and re-smile bring up and maintain the wholesome state.

Sometimes you only need five R's, since repeat is needed only when attention leaves the object. Background thoughts that arise while awareness stays on the object can be left alone, and the steps are one flow that takes a few seconds.

There will be no group guided meditation from Delson. The suttas and videos help participants understand the Eightfold Path, and the retreat is self-directed practice in one's own time.

The four foundations are integrated in one observation: body, feeling, mindset, and dhamma as phenomena including hindrances. Jhana is recognized by a collected mind, a hindrance means one is out of jhana, and the seven factors of awakening become more prominent at higher levels and beyond the fourth jhana. Pushing is to be avoided because it becomes too much effort and focus, which suppresses hindrances rather than revealing them.

For this retreat, stay with the brahmaviharas, or with the tranquil mind if you are at that point. For sleep, use only the relaxed step and nothing more, which will help you fall asleep.

Sit as long as you can, and set intentions to extend time gradually, such as an hour and then an hour and ten minutes. Sitting longer is encouraged, but it is better to cajole the body or mind with 'five more minutes' than to push it.

Bring loving-kindness into chores, eating, speech and interactions with family and friends, and set an intention at the start of the day to be loving or compassionate. The more this is practiced in daily activity, the easier it becomes to generate the feeling at the start of sitting.

Slow down and bring attention to body, mind and senses during work. Notice the reaction, and if there is aversion, use the six R's and replace it with compassion, loving-kindness or forgiveness. This is responding rather than reacting, and it is the practice of mindfulness in every moment.

Always start from where you last left off, whether that is metta, compassion, joy or equanimity, or quiet mind. If the mind wants to begin somewhere else, let that happen and let it gradually move toward quiet mind or equanimity, without expectation.

As much as possible. If videos or reading get in the way of sitting or walking practice, give more attention to the practice, since learning from your own experience comes first. The videos and written material are a foundation and offer deeper understanding and theory.

Restlessness is normal at first, so when thoughts arise, do not control, suppress or push them away; watch them like traffic or clouds. Recognize them to stop them proliferating, release attention from them, relax the mind and body, re-smile to bring up a wholesome quality such as a brahmavihara, then return and repeat. This corresponds to the four right efforts of the Eightfold Path, and over time the distractions weaken.

It is the concept of the Sangha, not a particular community, meaning the entire Sangha at large: everyone who has taken refuge in the Buddha.

Yes, refraining from unnecessary speech is advised whether or not you are on retreat, as it saves a lot of grief. Those keeping the five or eight precepts may still keep some silence, which leads to the noble silence of the mind, where verbal formations are let go more easily.

It is also in the mind, because abusive speech creates restlessness and ill will in the mind. It all starts in the process of thought, so it is best to refrain from abusive speech within the mind as well.

It depends on the person, and each person can take it at their own pace. If today feels like day one, it can be day one, and the evening material for day one can be reviewed before moving on to day two.

It establishes the four foundations of mindfulness, so you know where your body and mind are, what sensations arise, and what mental contents are present. Knowing this lets you adjust: relax if the mind is restless, bring in energy if it is sluggish, and rest first if the body is tired. A body scan to ground yourself is fine if it helps you stay present.

Terms like 'vehicle of meditation' or 'awareness of the experience' may help, and simply 'return to your meditation' works. The term 'object of meditation' may suggest one-point focus to some, so the text may be revised. Use whatever wording helps you.

Yes, it can be done walking, standing, sitting or lying down. When lying down, bring more attention to the awareness of the feeling, because the mind tends to become sluggish and drift into sleep.

Experiment to see what is most beneficial. If the body and mind can keep awareness, practice later in the day is fine, and mid-morning or morning may also suit some people better.

Do the relaxed process of the 6R's, continually relaxing, so the energy of the thought process weakens and dissipates. Some people meditate just before bed, but generally it is more about bringing in the factor of tranquility from the seven enlightenment factors, letting the mind rest in the relaxed step.

Yes, one can influence it to the extent of continuing to let go and not grasp, since the mind naturally inclines toward nibbana after cessation. Usually, up to anagami, contact with the nibbana element happens automatically, and grasping at the cessation experience is what prevents it.

Sariputta describes the relation as interdependent: ignorance is conditioned by the asavas, and the asavas are conditioned by ignorance. The ignorance of the asavas and the ignorance that conditions formations are essentially one and the same, and the three asavas are sensual craving, craving for being, and ignorance.

Habits and inclinations built up through lifetimes, culture and upbringing remain even in an arahant, but they are neutral and not taken as personal or as a self. Arahants differ in temperament, such as stern, gentle or teaching-oriented, and these inclinations can be useful in serving the Dhamma.

Delson does not see this as in line with the Dhamma. One can be aware of another's lust only by reading their mind, and that awareness does not ignite lust in oneself.

Thoughts are part of the mind, which is the sixth sense base, so they arise through dependent origination after contact. Whether about the past, present or future, thoughts are produced through formations conditioned by contact.

Yes, sounds or other sensory input can set off a chain of thoughts. Whether this continues depends on one's awareness, and when one recognizes mental proliferation starting, one can let it go.

There are fiery and icy hell realms with different levels of heat, cold and torture, depending on one's actions, intentions, thoughts and speech. Hell is temporary: beings expend their negative karma there and then return according to their good deeds, most likely as animals or humans; Devadatta is given as an example.

The deva realms include the higher sensual realms, the brahma realms, and realms linked to the jhanas and the formless attainments. Like hell, heaven is temporary and depends on the karma one produces, and deeper jhana practice can lead to these higher realms.

Yes, each realm has a different perception of time, similar to how a human lifespan seems long to a fly.

Yes, past-life information is accessed through formations, which carry karmic impulses. One can use the fourth jhana, with its strong equanimity, as a base to recall this life backward and then past lives, and this leads to the threefold knowledge. Delson refers to the Vipassi Buddha in DN14, the Maha Padana Sutta.

It is a flow, and the flow is quite fast: from contact through feeling it happens in microseconds, with several consciousnesses arising together. Old kamma continues along this flow, and new kamma is created at the level of feeling, depending on whether one takes the experience as personal.

Bring in a little more attention to the object, which brings more energy and interest naturally. Also bring in a little joy and enjoyment so that interest is maintained.

He would not recommend replacing sleep with meditation at the start, but as one progresses, one needs less sleep because the sleep is deeper and less troubled. Early attachment to meditation is wholesome because it generates interest and enjoyment, but later one sees that jhana states are formed and not the unconditioned or nibbana, and interest in them is let go.

Healing on the mental level comes through understanding and letting go, including forgiveness, but physical conditions often must be worked through. Relaxing the body and mind reduces stress and stress hormones such as cortisol, but he has not heard of meditation reconstructing back injuries, and the Buddha used jhana to find relief from back pain alongside conventional medicine.

Relationships reveal attachments through the reactions family members' actions bring up in one's own mind, such as irritation or frustration, and these unwholesome qualities are what to look at.

Based on past experiences, we build an image of a person and a sense of self around them, which filters how we see them now. The aim is to see them clearly and attentively without projecting judgments built from those concepts.

Seeing past lives is used to understand how formations arose through karmic connections in dependent origination, and what formations still need to be let go of in this life. Reading another's mind is like deep empathy, used to ease their mind or clarify their doubts, not for fun.

Delson says it is possible if the mind is serene, collected and mindful enough to listen and apply the teaching as it is given, pointing to the Bahiya case and Sariputta's account of seeing through wisdom. It requires very good collectedness and very sharp mindfulness, which can come from deep listening with the hindrances absent or from jhana practice.

Delson says recollecting past lives or past situations is a secondary practice, done from the fourth jhana by rewinding memory. The simpler approach is to see that the arising came from a choice, not take it as personal, permanent or worth holding, and let it go, so it no longer produces new reactions and gradually weakens.

Delson says there is definitely something to meditating in numbers, including in an online group where people's shared meditation had an effect. Meditating together strengthens qualities such as metta and the other brahmaviharas.

Feeling depends on contact between a sense base and its object, and it is the bare sensory experience that then gets labelled pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Perception is the naming and recognition that follows, based on memory and learned concepts, and it can lead to proliferation and craving if taken personally. He also explains mentality and materiality and the five factors of mentality: feeling, perception, intention, contact and attention.

Delson says birth can be the birth of action, where a sense of self is doing something, and this happens continuously. Bhava is the accumulated bundle of tendencies that makes up a sense of self, and at the macro level rebirth is craving at death carrying consciousness to conception.

Delson says consciousness carried forward by craving at death descends and takes root at conception, and then that consciousness dissipates and new consciousness arises based on the developing being. Within the womb consciousness keeps arising and passing away, so it is not the same consciousness continuing.

Delson says attention rooted in reality is present-moment awareness that can develop into attention informed by the Four Noble Truths and right view, where an arahant sees impermanence and not-self automatically. Mindfulness is the application of attention to the object, and when that attention keeps flowing it becomes collectedness, or samadhi.

Yes. At the start of meditation mindfulness is the intention to pay attention to the object, and as attention sways, mindfulness is what brings it back.

Delson agrees that this is a very good point.

No. The terms come from different philosophies and so have different applications, even when the words look similar. Vinnana is the divided cognition that depends on the sense bases, while yogic chitta is an overarching consciousness; in the Buddhist context chitta is closer to a mindset or thought.

Yes. Volition is chetana, which is one of the five factors of mentality, while sankhara are the formations that consciousness carries forward. Attention lets one see whether these factors are to be taken as permanent or impermanent, personal or impersonal.

Sensations arising from contact with the body can also be included in the five aggregates. In either case, sensory experiences are still part of the mental faculties, because all experience is ultimately processed through the mind.

Feeling is followed immediately by perception and cognition. Bare feeling becomes perception when it is named as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, and that perception can lead to craving if taken personally or to wise attention that sees impermanence and not-self, so perception is inherent within feeling.

Yes. The practice is twofold: sitting and walking meditation, and the six Rs in daily living, which form a feedback loop. Mindfulness of where the mind is leaning lets you use the six Rs to swerve it toward right intention and right mindfulness, and keeping the precepts reduces the hindrances.

Observation is another word for mindfulness: noticing that attention has swerved and bringing it back. Investigation, which he also calls understanding, follows from observation by working out what is needed, such as bringing up joy or more effort, to balance the mind.

Consciousness is known through the six sense bases, each with a triad of sense consciousness, object consciousness and the consciousness of the experience. At the macro level consciousness links with mentality-materiality at conception, and at the micro level formations activate consciousness at contact, so the two are interdependent, like circles within circles.

Formations are carriers of karma, and what is experienced up to contact and feeling is old kamma, the effect of past choices. Formations are conditioned by past choices rather than deterministic, so present choices can strengthen or weaken them, and how feeling is taken determines the next formations and whether new kamma is created.

The three are categories of different experiences and are not necessarily interwoven. The physical formation of moving a limb comes first, and the thoughts that follow come from the contact and are mental formations; they arise so quickly that they seem interwoven.

It is extremely important. Stilling the body tranquilizes bodily formations and works on the lower jhanas, and any movement makes contact with the body and creates further formations. Walking is for cultivating loving kindness, but sitting still is essential for progressing through the jhanas, where verbal formations drop away in the second jhana and bodily formations are stilled by the fourth.

It should be uploaded in the next couple of days, and he will talk to Koon about making it available.

The six Rs are identical to the four right efforts: preventing, abandoning (release and relax), bringing up (re-smile and return), and maintaining (repeat). They are one practice understood in two different ways.

No, they cannot. Stream entry destroys the fetters of doubt, identity view and attachment to rites, and fruition, which occurs at death if not reached earlier, solidifies it so the lower realms are closed. He adds that the suttas do not always define path and fruition clearly.

Yes, that is right.

No. Each experience of nibbana unlocks the next attainment, and at arahatship one can keep attaining nibbana as an object of meditation until full fruition.

No, they are not the same. Nibbana is contacted in the process after emerging from cessation and brings relief, which an anagami does not crave but still identifies with, leaving conceit. Arahatship comes when the relief is not held onto and ignorance is destroyed through full understanding of the four noble truths.

Yes. One can let go without grasping in jhana and attain nibbana from there, and some beings in the suttas attain arahatship just by listening and reflecting deeply on the Dhamma.

Right, exactly. Beings like Baya attained arahatship by listening to the Buddha's discourse on not-self, so cessation is not a requirement and the path can be reached in different ways.

It is primarily felt as a cooling relief in the mind. Some discourses speak of the body contacting the nibbana element, so it can feel physical, like shoulders relaxing when a burden is set down, but it happens mainly on the mental level.

At death, formations produce images and experiences, and if craving, clinging or identification attach to them, intention drives a new consciousness that links with new mentality-materiality at conception, carrying those formations forward. Old kamma still ripens regardless, so keeping a dying person comfortable is still helpful.

The interval happens within the same being's mentality-materiality and is extremely quick. Formations, not consciousness, are the carriers of kamma, and consciousness hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving takes the images it sees to be self.

Intention continues but without identification with it. Ignorance is replaced by right view, old kamma is experienced as impersonal process, and even conventional phrases like 'it occurred to me' are understood as impersonal, so intention creates no craving.

Diagrams and mind maps are planned for later modules. For now, formations are activated mainly through contact, and each link cycles back, with non-identification strengthening right view and weakening the fetters, until the fetters can drop away in stages or all at once.

Yes. Feeling and formations are experienced as old kamma, but from craving onward, once things are perceived as personal, craving builds into clinging, the sense of being strengthens conceit and the projection of being, and sensory identification strengthens sensual craving. This loop weakens understanding of the four noble truths.

Let go. Paying attention to formations creates craving and proliferation and takes you out of jhana, so allow them to be there, understand that they are there, and return to the object.

Delson says the suttas describe lay people with final knowledge who either passed away right away or joined the monastic order. He reads the fetter of householdership as attachment to lay life's conditions, so an arahant has no interest in that life and can live as a wanderer or solitary forest dweller while depending on others' generosity, though joining the Sangha remains possible if inclined.

Delson says he does not know and can only guess. He suggests the Sangha continues to teach the Dhamma after the Buddha's passing and is more widely spread out, so giving to the Sangha helps it grow and spread the Dhamma.

Delson says it all starts with intention. Giving with both hands is a sign of devotion, veneration and genuine intention to be generous to that person, so intention comes first.

Delson explains that deep absorption contains very subtle formations that are not fully perceived inside it, so one reviews them on emerging from neither-perception-nor-non-perception. Craving arises only when attention is put on those formations, through attraction or aversion. If hindrances arise but attention stays on the object without involvement, they fade on their own without craving.

Delson says it is not bad. The review is partly practice for the mind's natural ability to look deeper into formations after cessation, and forgetting it will not hold you back; it is a matter of building that muscle.

Delson says that without projections in the conventional sense, such as judging a person as good or bad, one can see the person or situation more clearly. Projections filter the mind through the six sense bases and distort perception of reality. Mindfulness of the three characteristics helps one stop taking things personally, and as formations are reconditioned and defilements destroyed, perception becomes undistorted and rooted in right view.

Delson had not considered it, but says that if people are interested they can let Suttavada know and an arrangement can be considered.

A participant gives the traditional story of the Buddha recalling how easy his mind was while sitting under a rose apple tree as a boy, and using that ease to enter jhana. Delson then explains that development by application uses an uplifting object when distraction arises (AN 8.63), and that later the jhana factors themselves can serve as the object.

According to the traditional story, the Buddha recalled sitting at the foot of a rose apple tree and how easy his mind had been in meditation. He then used that same process to enter the jhana before his enlightenment.

It works like the recognition step of the 6R's: the mind understands without words, as when one sees the colour blue without naming it. This depends on an open, unified awareness that can also notice hindrances, and it becomes more precise with practice.

Manasikara means taking to heart, and yoniso relates to source or origin, so the term is rendered as attention rooted in reality. It means seeing how things arise and adjusting practice, while unwise attention leads to hindrances. The Buddha also uses the term to trace causes, as in dependent origination.

Yes. With loving-kindness and compassion, past memories and difficult people are seen with more understanding, and this happens on its own with practice. Deliberately exercising perception can make the mind malleable toward equanimity, and in pleasant states craving can be seen and let go through equanimity, impermanence and not-self.

No. The bright mind is a well-collected, unified and constantly attentive mind, as opposed to a dull one. Light objects, signs or images that arise are subtle formations and are not part of the bright mind.

Jumping from one and a half hours to two is too large a step for the mind. It is better to lengthen the sitting in increments of five or ten minutes, such as one hour 35 minutes, then one hour 40 minutes.

It is attachment or passion for the Dhamma, which persists up to the anagami stage. The Dhamma is a raft to be used to cross to the other shore and not carried afterward. Some who were freed from the taints still relished the Dhamma and became anagamis, so this attachment is what to work on.

Wholesome is anything in line with the mundane eightfold path, such as right intention, speech and action, especially developing the brahmaviharas. Unwholesome is what is to be uprooted and replaced: ill will with loving-kindness, cruelty with compassion, jealousy with empathetic joy, and indifference, greed and resentment with equanimity. Beyond that, an arahant's wholesome actions are not based on a sense of self and produce no new kamma.

The answer names the Metta Sagata Sutta, SN 46.54, which links the brahmaviharas to the jhanas and is in the retreat curriculum. It also cites MN 135, the Culakammavibhanga Sutta, for the point that questioners are reborn as intelligent persons.

Equanimity goes as far as perception. Beyond that, at neither-perception-nor-non-perception, things get subtler, and the focus becomes the still, luminous awareness of the mind itself rather than tranquility as an object. Each level of awakening brings a finer quality of quiet mind.

Delson says Nibbana can be attained in every jhana and in every brahmavihara. Nibbana is unconditioned and comes from non-grasping, not from reaching a particular state, so one can attain it from the first jhana onward by not grasping at all.

Delson says the teaching is mainly about the path to be lived, with Nibbana as the goal where defilements are gone. Nibbana is beyond concepts, so the descriptions are only pointers. Training means cultivating the Eightfold Path, which applies all four noble truths each time one does the 6R's, and an arahant's conduct is the Eightfold Path on autopilot.

Exactly. The more closely one follows the path, the more quickly one reaches Nibbana and can then tell others about it.

Yes, it is connected: taking what is not given includes stealing money, attention, or other people's time and opportunities. Delson says you must also fulfil your part of the work, and compares this to the meditation practice of noticing physical tension and effort in the head.

Heaviness or tension in the head and too many thoughts signal trying too hard, so let go and relax. Torpor is a dull sensation that signals slackness; recognizing it lets you generate energy and joy, and then balance the mind.

Let the radiation flow out without pushing. Pushing creates tension and restless thoughts, so keep it a subtle intention and observe it.

Watch a comedy show or spend a few minutes listing things you are grateful for, then stay with the feeling that arises and see if you can sustain it.

Keep the practices separate. During metta let the breath be natural, and treat focusing on the breath while bringing up metta as a distraction to recognize and return from. If memories are not wholesome, use an image such as a puppy or a baby, or an enjoyable wholesome activity.

Remember that others are responsible for their behaviour, and that what people think of you is not your business. Pause for four to ten seconds before reacting, so you can respond from loving-kindness or compassion. Carrying meditation into daily life lets you act more wholesomely and understand what a situation requires.

You are responsible for your own reactions, not theirs. If your response is wholesome and can calm the situation, do it. If you must do something unwholesome, find a more wholesome way, and let people calm themselves through your actions.

Delson gives the examples of Sariputta, who attained arahatship while listening to a discourse on the impersonal nature of feeling in dependent origination; Bahiya, who attained it from a very short teaching on not-self; and Ananda, who attained it after reflection and meditation as he lay down. He says one can enter a path through different circumstances, and that after a deep experience such as cessation one notices changes in perception. Only a Buddha could confirm an attainment, so one must judge for oneself by watching over weeks or months whether reactions to situations show a fetter destroyed, weakened or still present.