Day 8 2022 MN 77 37 Requisites -July Retreat - -with Delson Armstrong

There are four Noble Truths. Four Noble Truths of Suffering. So today we're going to explore the 37 requisites for enlightenment. So I'm going to be reading from Majjhima Nikaya 77, Maha Sakuludayi Sutta. Greater discourse to Sakuludayin. Thus have I heard, on one occasion, the Blessed One was living at Rajagaha in the bamboo grove, the squirrel's sanctuary. Now on that occasion, a number of well-known wanderers were staying at the peacock's sanctuary.

So you had the squirrel gang and you had the peacock gang. The wanderer's part. That is, Anabhara, Varadhara, and the wanderer Sakuludayin, and as well as other well-known wanderers. Then when it was morning, the Blessed One, dressed and taking his bowl and outer robe, went into Rajagaha for alms. Then he thought, it is still too early to wander for alms in Rajagaha. The Peacock Sanctuary, the Wanderer's Park.

Then the Blessed One went to the Peacock Sanctuary, the Wanderer's Park. Now on that occasion, the Wanderer Sakuludayin was seated with a large assembly of wanderers who were making an uproar, loudly and noisily talking many kinds of pointless talk, such as talk of kings, whether things are so or not so. Not the kind of thing you would hear at Dhamma sukha. Then the wanderer Sakuludayin saw the Blessed One coming in the distance. Seeing him, he quieted his own assembly thus. Sirs, be quiet. Sirs, make no noise. Here comes the recluse Gautama. This venerable one likes quiet and commends quiet. Perhaps if he finds our assembly a quiet one, he will think to join us. Then the wanderers became silent.

The Blessed One went to the wanderer Sakuludayin, who said to him, Let the Blessed One come, Venerable Sir. Welcome to the Blessed One. It is long since the Blessed One found an opportunity to come here. Let the Blessed One be seated. This seat is ready. The Blessed One sat down on the seat made ready, and the wanderer Sakuludayin took a low seat and sat down at one side.

When he had done so, the Blessed One asked him, For what discussion are you sitting together here now, Udayin? And what was your discussion that was interrupted? Are now sitting together here. The Blessed One can well hear about it later. In recent days, Venerable Sir, when recluses and Brahmins of various sects have been gathering together and sitting together in the debating hall, the topic has arisen.

It is a gain for the people of Anga and Magadha. It is a great gain for the people of Anga and Magadha that these recluses and Brahmins, heads of orders, heads of groups, teachers of groups, well-known and famous founders of sects, regarded by many as saints, have come to spend the rains at Rajagaha, the rains retreat. There is this Purana Kassapa, the head of an order, the head of a group, the teacher of a group, the well-known and famous founder of a sect regarded by many as a saint. He has come to spend the rains at Rajagaha. So these are the prominent teachers at the time of the Buddha. Purana Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala, Ajita Kesakambala, Pakudha Kaccayana, Sanjaya Belatthiputta, and Nigantha Nataputta.

So Purana Kassapa was this particular founder who had this idea that everything is eternal, that there is a self that is eternal. He had an idea that there is this soul that resides, and that anything that can be destroyed is not the soul, but there is a soul that resides, and that there were certain elements and certain things that caused the destruction of a certain thing. But the soul was not destroyed. It was eternalism. Purana Kassapa. And then Makkhali Gosala was somebody who said that there is no meaning in giving. There is no meaning in doing anything.

That this is a form of nihilism. That doesn't matter. Anything that you do has no significance. Ajita Kesakambala was, by the way, Kesakambala. Kesakambala means blanket of hair. He wore a blanket of hair around him. And his idea was, you know, there is only this idea of fatalism. Everything is predetermined. And he said that whatever you do has already been preordained. So there's no meaning in trying to make any kind of an effort. The analogy he used was it was like a ball of yarn.

And you unstring that ball of yarn and it rolls out the same way one's existence rolls out, fully unraveled, and that's the end. So there's no meaning in doing any kind of effort according to his view. Then you had Pakudha Kaccayana, and he was also similar to eternalism, and he talked about these certain kinds of births that you go through, these certain kinds of existences that you have to go through in order for you to experience the end of suffering.

But he also said that there were certain elements that were eternal as well, which were these seven different elements that included the four great elements, the soul, thought, perception, and so on, feeling. And then you had Sanjaya Belatthiputta, who was a skeptic. He was the eel wriggler. Didn't conclude on one side or the other. He sat on the fence. So there could be a Tathagata. There could not be a Tathagata. There could be Nibbana. Nibbana, who knows? I don't know, but who knows? So that kind of attitude was the attitude of the skeptics at that time. They were called eel wrigglers because they wriggled out of every argument by saying, oh, I don't know, who knows?

And the reason is because they were afraid to make a conclusion and be criticized for that conclusion. And then you had Nigantha Nataputta, and this was the name given to Nigantha Nataputta. Some people believe that was Mahavir, who was a contemporary of the Buddha, or living around the same time as the Buddha, and he was the founder of Jainism. And the idea of Jainism is that there is a soul that continues on and collects karmic particles. And for you to purify your karma, you have to do certain ascetic practices.

So that's the only way to live out your karma, and then ultimately you become fully enlightened and then you join this circle of heaven which is filled with all of these enlightened beings. So again there was eternalism here, and this whole concept of a soul running from one life to the other, it's the same individual soul, rather than the arising and passing away of consciousness. About it in terms of how do you purify your karma, because according to the Jain philosophy you have to do certain kinds of practices, but the Buddha says the only way to deal with their karma is here in the present moment by experiencing it. The moment you start holding on to it, you're going to add more to that repository of karma. So in the context of dependent origination, when we look at karma, everything from ignorance to formations, to consciousness, to mentality, materiality, to the six sense spaces, to contact and feeling.

This is all old karma. Karma to be felt and experienced now, in the present moment. You can't do anything with it. You can't change the past. You can't do anything with the choices that you have made in the past. But they present themselves to you, in the present moment. Now you choose to do what you want. Either you can have craving, which leads to clinging, which leads to habitual tendencies, which leads to birth of reaction, and that causes the strengthening of that karma. It causes the mind to add to the repository of those choices, of that karma, to be experienced at a future period of time. Or you can understand what feeling is, what any experience in the present moment is, that it has dependently arisen.

It arose because of a series of causes and conditions. And if that's the case, it's impermanent. So why hold on to it? By holding on to it, you're going to cause pain and suffering for yourself. But if you let go of it and don't take it personally, then that karma dissipates bit by bit. Sure, it will come back again. But the next time it comes back, it will be weaker and weaker and weaker. That's the same way you deal with a hindrance. What is a hindrance? A hindrance is old karma. It is the effect of previous choices that you've made.

Now, do you choose to push against that hindrance or grab onto that hindrance? Or do you choose to use the 6R's and let go of the hindrance? So how do you deal with karma? The 6R's. Recognize in the present moment here is a pleasant feeling, painful feeling, neutral feeling. Whether it's in meditation or outside of your meditation. Let go of your attention to it. Release your attention from it.

Relax the tightness and tension. Let go of your reactivity to it. Come back to the smile. Bring up something wholesome. Return to something wholesome, and then respond when you have a mind that is relaxed. Using the 6R's in that moment, your mind is pure, your mind is free of any kind of hindrance, free of any kind of defilement, just for that split second. And because of that, you utilize the Eightfold Path, the fourth Noble Truth, which leads to the cessation of that karma, hence leading to the cessation of that hindrance.

Now that hindrance might come up again, but this time it won't be as strong as it was before. It will be weaker. And so what do you do there? Siksar again. Come back, and the hindrance might come again a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time, a tenth time. But each time it comes back, it is weaker and weaker and weaker. It fades away completely.

But if at any point you see that and take it personally and try to react to it, you're going to just add strength to it. So whether it's a hindrance, whether it's a pleasant feeling, an unpleasant feeling, whether it's somebody shouting at you, whether it's somebody criticizing you, whether it's somebody blaming you, whether it's somebody giving you praise, whether it's somebody offering you something, whatever it is, it's all just karma.

And it's impersonal. See it as being impersonal and have no inclination one way or the other. Allow the karma to unfold and you'll have peace of mind. Your mind will be free of any kind of suffering, because your mind will have total equanimity. Your mind will see things as they are. Disenchanted. Being disenchanted, your mind becomes dispassionate.

It happened that Purana Kassapa did not get his way, though he waved his arms and wailed, Be quiet, sirs. Make no noise, sirs. They are not asking you, sirs. They are asking us. We will answer them. Indeed, many of his disciples left him after refuting his doctrine thus, You do not understand this Dhamma and discipline. This is some harsh words.

One of them even committed suicide, himself in a river. The guy who wore the hair blanket, that was him. And the fatalists, they basically saw that there was no control and you couldn't do anything in any moment, so they went crazy and drowned himself in the river. And some said this, this recluse Gautama is the head of an order, the head of a group, the teacher of a group, the well-known and famous founder of a sect regarded by many as a saint. He is honored, respected, revered, and venerated by his disciples, and his disciples live in dependence on him, honoring and respecting him. Once the recluse was teaching his Dhamma to an assembly of several hundred followers, and there a certain disciple of his cleared his throat.

For then that large assembly is poised in expectancy. That is, here the Dhamma, the Blessed One, is about to teach. And even those disciples of his who will fall out with their companions in the holy life and abandon the training to return to the low life, that is the lay life. Even they praise the Master and the Dhamma and the Sangha. They blame themselves instead of others, saying, we were unlucky, we have little merit. For though we went forth into homelessness in such a well-proclaimed Dhamma, we were unable to live the perfect and pure holy life for the rest of our lives. Having become monastery attendants or lay followers, they undertake and observe the five precepts.

This I see as the third quality of the Blessed One. Again, Venerable Sir, the Blessed One is content with any kind of resting place and commends contentment with any kind of resting place. This I see as a fourth quality of the Blessed One. So this is what Udayin says, is the five qualities that the Buddha had or has, worthy of respect. He eats little and commends eating little.

He is content with any kind of robe and commends contentment with any kind of robe. He is content with any kind of alms food and commends contentment with any kind of alms food. He is content with any kind of resting place and commends contentment with any kind of resting place. This is a very general way of looking at why the Buddha should be respected, according to Udayin. Because remember, he is also an ascetic. He is a wanderer. He has seen in his own time how there are wanderers who are not content with what they are given.

So very generally he is saying that the Buddha does the basics, the very basic foundation of being content with whatever he is given, being moderate in his consumption, he's given, robes he's given, and having seclusion and commending seclusion. That's the fifth. So in other words, you're saying, he's telling Udayin, you're telling me that I eat little and you commend me eating little. But sometimes my disciples will eat just a small cup full and I might have this big alms bowl out of which I eat little. eat and I completely clear it away. So that's no real reason to commend somebody just because they eat little.

And so if I were to do this, if my disciples honor me with the thought the recluse Gautama eats little and commends eating little, then those disciples of mine who live on a cup full of food or who live on half a cup full of food, should not honor, respect, revere, and venerate me for this quality, nor should they live in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me. So it has nothing to do with the quantity of food that you eat. Suppose Udayin, my disciples honored, respected, revered, and venerated me, and lived in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me with the thought, the recluse Gautama is content with any kind of robe, and commends contentment with any kind of robe.

Now there are disciples of mine who are refuse rag wearers, wearers of coarse robes. They collect rags from the charnel ground, rubbish heaps or shops, make them into patched robes and wear them. But sometimes I wear robes given by householders, robes so fine that pumpkin hair is coarse in comparison. So if my disciples honored me with the thought, So it's not about the clothes you wear either. Not about the robes you wear either. That doesn't matter. Now there are disciples of mine who are alms food eaters, who go on unbroken alms round from house to house, who delight in gathering their food. When they have entered among the houses, they will not consent even when invited to sit down.

These are monks or bhikkhus and bhikkhunis who will just go out from house to house and collect food in the bowl. So if somebody were to ask them to come home and have a meal that they've prepared for them, they won't do so. But sometimes I eat on invitation meals of choice rice and many sauces and curries. Suppose Udayin, my disciples honored me with the thought, the recluse Gautama is content with any kind of alms food and commends contentment with any kind of alms food, then those disciples of mine who are alms food eaters should not honor, respect, revere, and venerate me for this quality, nor should they live in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me.

I've seen some trees in the redwoods which are huge that you could actually live in. So there are people who could do that. And open air dwellers. The grass is their bed, the ceiling is their sky, you know, they live out in the open. Suppose Udayin, my disciples honored, respected, revered, and venerated me, and lived in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me with the thought, the recluse Gautama is secluded and commends seclusion.

Now, there are disciples of mine who are forest dwellers, dwellers in remote resting places, who live withdrawn in remote jungle thicket resting places, and return to the midst of the Sangha once each half-month for the recitation of the Patimokkha, and bhikkhunis, by men and women lay followers, by kings and king's ministers, by other sectarians and their disciples.

Here, Udayin, my disciples esteem me for the higher virtue thus. The recluse Gautama is virtuous. He possesses the supreme aggregate of virtue. This is the first quality because of which my disciples honor, respect, revere and venerate me and live in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me. The higher virtue. This is sila. Keeping the precepts. Keeping the patimokkha. Keeping the vinaya. Again, Udayin, my disciples esteem me for my excellent knowledge and vision thus.

When the recluse Gautama says, I know, he truly knows. When the recluse Gautama says, He truly sees. The recluse Gautama teaches the Dhamma through direct knowledge, not without direct knowledge. He teaches the Dhamma with a sound basis, not without a sound basis. He teaches the Dhamma in a convincing manner, not in an unconvincing manner. This is the second quality because of which my disciples honor me. So he has knowledge and vision. This process works, and he's able to explain it thoroughly.

He has fully understood the Four Noble Truths, fully understood dependent origination, fully understood each of the factors leading to enlightenment, and is able to answer them in every way possible, thoroughly, so that somebody can fully understand it. That's interesting. Or that he should not be able to confute with reasons the current doctrines of others. So in other words, he says it is impossible that he should not foresee the implications of an assertion.

He knows what you're going to ask before you even ask. Or he knows where a conversation is leading so that he can be able to prepare your mind for that insight. So he's able to foresee a person's inclinations, able to foresee the type of mind that they have, and then be able to explain in such a way that they understand it, using analogies, using similes, using different kinds of examples, and so on and so forth.

Or that he should not be able to confute with reasons the current doctrines of others. He's not afraid to deal with other doctrines when challenged. He's able to talk about his own understanding of the Dhamma and be able to talk with other sets, people from other different kinds of ideas and philosophies. What do you think, Udayin? Would my disciples, knowing and seeing, thus break in and interrupt me? No, Venerable Sir. I do not expect instruction from my disciples. Invariably, it is my disciples who expect instructions from me. This is the third quality because of which my disciples honor me.

So that's the third. Now the fourth. Again, Udayin, disciples have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, asked, I explain to them the noble truth of the origin of suffering, about the noble truth of the cessation of suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering. And I satisfy their minds with my explanation. So he has a thorough understanding because he has fully experienced the four noble truths.

So when anyone comes to him and asks him about the four noble truths, he is able to explain each of it. Is suffering? What is the origin of suffering? What is the cessation of suffering? What is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? This is the fourth quality because of which my disciples honor me. Now we're going to get into the fifth, which is the way to develop wholesome states of mind. And this is a big one. This is where we talk about the 37 requisites that we're going to go over and a few other things.

So the first part, the four foundations of mindfulness. Again, Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the four foundations of mindfulness. Here a Bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feelings. He abides contemplating mind as mind. So now the four foundations of mindfulness. We went through this.

And as we understand, mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. When we recognize, when we use the 6R's, when we use the first step of recognizing, we have brought back our mindfulness. When you're meditating, your mind is on its object. When you're no longer meditating, your mind is here and there, scattered. The attention is dispersed in all different directions, no longer collected. Covetousness or grief, having craving or aversion or any of the hindrances, you're starting to see how your mind's attention moves. It was on its object, no longer on its object. Now you recognize it.

Then you release your attention from it. You relax the tightness and tension. You re-smile and you return. And you repeat whenever you get distracted. Foundations of mindfulness. It's not like you have to first notice, it's not that you have to first notice the body, and then you have to notice feelings, and then you have to notice mind, and then you have to notice mental phenomena.

They will arise as they arise. Contact arises when it arises. Feeling arises dependent upon that. Perception arises dependent upon contact as well. You see when the intention arises. You see how your attention flows from one thing to the other. All of this is about mindfulness. You are just getting from the coarse levels, the coarser levels, to the subtler levels of understanding your experiences and categories of experiences. Body, feeling, mind or consciousness, and phenomena or dhammas. So the key here is to recognize.

When you recognize, you are again establishing or reestablishing mindfulness. So by using the 6R's, you bring up mindfulness. Now whether you are aware that your mind is now thinking about contact with the body, or looking at what is happening in terms of feeling, there is a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling, a neutral feeling, or thinking about the mind is distracted or undistracted, collected or uncollected, liberated or contracted or distracted, meaning you're recognizing, oh, there is present sensual craving, and you let go of that. You don't need to note for yourself that it's sensual craving, but by just recognizing your mind went from being undistracted and collected to becoming distracted and uncollected.

Recognizing your mind went from being in jhana, exalted, to being out of jhana and being distracted and unexalted. From being in a formless state or being surpassed to being unsurpassed and no longer in that formless state. This is how you develop mindfulness. Recognizing there is present these five hindrances, mental phenomena. Recognizing that there are present these enlightenment factors. When you're in the quiet mind, you recognize you need more of this enlightenment factor or that enlightenment factor. This is how you utilize the four foundations of mindfulness. And the equipment for that is the 6R's.

Recognize, release, relax, re-smile, return, and then repeat whenever necessary. So that's the four foundations of mindfulness. Now we talk about the four right efforts. Again, Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the four kinds of right effort: enthusiasm for the non-arising of unarisen, evil, unwholesome states. And he makes effort, arouses energy, exerts his mind, and strives. This is very tricky language because it's going to make you think that you've got to push. I have to do this.

But it's not the case. The enthusiasm for recognizing. In other words, you have the mindfulness to recognize your mind now has an unwholesome state arising. He awakens zeal or enthusiasm for the abandoning of arisen evil unwholesome states. So how does that happen? By releasing and relaxing. When you recognize first, now you have recognized the arisen unwholesome states.

When you release and relax, you abandon the unwholesome states. He awakens zeal for the arising of unarisen wholesome states. When you re-smile, come back to the smile, have an intention to uplift the mind, you are generating a wholesome state of mind. He awakens zeal for the continuance, non-disappearance, strengthening, increase and fulfillment by development of wholesome states. And so that is through returning back to your object of meditation.

And then repeating whenever you get distracted again. So when you do the 6R's, you are actually fulfilling the right effort, which means you are fulfilling the four right efforts. Recognizing, that's the first one. So you recognize that there is an unarisen, unwholesome state. Releasing and relaxing, which is abandoning the tightness, abandoning the intention, abandoning the craving, abandoning the attention to the aversion, abandoning the attention to any of the hindrances, letting go, abandoning the unwholesome states. Re-smiling, uplifting the mind again, coming back to a wholesome state of mind, and returning back to your object, keeping the mind collected, maintaining that wholesome state of mind. Again, Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the four bases for spiritual power.

This is very interesting. Investigation. These are the four bases for psychic faculties, but you also need them for awakening. So when we talk about psychic faculties, when we talk about spiritual powers, there are different kinds of higher powers, right? There are different kinds of ways of developing psychic faculties that include reading people's minds, having manipulation of matter, telekinesis, telepathy, all of these different things.

These are all psychic faculties. But there is one psychic faculty that you should always look for, always aim for, and that is the destruction of the taints. So these four bases for spiritual power can allow you to develop psychic faculties, but more importantly, or most importantly, enable you to destroy the taints. And how is that the case? Collectedness due to enthusiasm. What is enthusiasm?

The desire for Nibbana. The inclination for Nibbana. Wholesome inclination. This is chanda, a wholesome desire. But once you set the intention, you incline the mind in that way, let the mind incline in that way. In other words, don't get obsessed by the intention. Don't get obsessed by I have to reach Nibbana. Tomorrow is the end of the retreat. I have to achieve Nibbana. Don't get obsessed by that. There used to be this... Well, when I was very young, I remember watching these as-seen-on-TV things. And there was this guy who used to sell these rotisseries on TV. What do you call this? Yeah, kind of like George Foreman. Kind of like that, but it was like this oven.

And what he'd say is, you set it and you forget it. So you set your direction, you set your intention and you forget about it. Let everything flow. Collectedness due to energy. What is the energy here we're talking about? This is in reference to the effort that you put in. But that effort is not trying hard. It's not pushing yourself. That energy is balanced energy. That is the right effort.

So when you 6R, you are balancing the energy. Especially when you're in quiet mind. When you start to see there's restlessness, you bring up the enlightenment factors that help you calm the mind down. Collectedness, equanimity, tranquility. When you see sloth and torpor coming up, you generate the interest. The enthusiasm. You generate the joy. You bring up the investigation of states. Be more attentive to what's going on.

This is how you balance it. But in order for you to be able to balance it, first you have to recognize what's going on. So for you to do that, you need to 6R. Recognize that the mind is in this kind of a state. Release your attention from it. Relax. Re-smile. Come back and balance. Do what you have to do there. So that's the right kind of effort that you need. Collectedness due to purity of mind.

This is basically a mind rid of any kind of hindrances. A mind rid of any kind of craving. Rid of any kind of aversion. Rid of any kind of restlessness, sloth and torpor or doubt. A mind that is ripe for being in jhana states. This is the purity of mind. How do you get to that purity of mind?

6R's. And then, collectedness due to investigation. This comes from the word Vimamsa. Vimamsa means to investigate. But here it doesn't mean to analyze or to reflect or to contemplate. It doesn't mean you have to go over and think about this or that, doesn't mean you have to think about, okay, how do I do this? How do I do that? It's just knowing what state is present and what state is not present. Investigation of states.

Understanding what is present and not present. How does that happen? When you recognize that here is this state present, your mind is uncollected, your mind is distracted, release your attention from that. Relax. Re-smile. Return back, collect the mind again. And now you have this kind of collectedness. From this collectedness, you then have the destruction of the taints. So a lot of times, a lot of people will ask off a retreat, whenever I'm traveling, somebody might ask something like, well, sometimes I've heard that only insight practice will lead you to arahatship. Only this practice, that is pure vipassana, will lead you to the liberation of the mind. But what did the Buddha say?

He didn't say that it was a noble sevenfold path. It was a noble eightfold path. In other words, you need samadhi. You need collectedness. So it is through collectedness, you have all of the different path factors. The right view, the right intention, the right speech, the right action, keeping your precepts, right livelihood, using the 6R's, right effort, having correct mindfulness, being aware of how your attention moves from one thing to the other, and then coming into jhana. When your mind is purified by jhana, by having that collectedness, it allows the mind to let go completely. Remember, jhanas are levels of cessation, levels of understanding, levels of cessation, through practice of meditation.

And that is Samatha and Vipassana yoked together. In other words, tranquil wisdom, insight, meditation. TWIM. So the Samatha aspect is the tranquility part of it. The Vipassana is the wisdom and insight. They are yoked together. You are collected, and you are seeing what is happening. You are not absorbed. You're not concentrated. You're not one-pointed, which means that you become the object of meditation and thereby suppressing everything else.

You are having an open awareness. The awareness is orbiting around the object and allowing the hindrances to arise if they arise and being able to understand how your mind works, and then letting go of that, letting go of the hindrances. So you're teaching yourself through meditation how your mind works. This is how the insight is developed. That's why when you heard about Majjhima Nikaya 111, it shows that Sariputta went through these jhanas, but he was aware of the different aspects of these jhanas. So he had collectedness, he had samatha, and he was able to recognize the different states. Vipassana, they were yoked together. Serenity and insight, that's another way of putting it.

So these four bases for spiritual power, they arise whenever you make the mind collected by having the right amount of energy, balancing the right energy into the right energy using the 6R's. Having collectedness due to enthusiasm, the mind. You see the mind has an unwholesome inclination. So you recognize that and you 6R it. You use the 6R's to bring back your compass towards a wholesome inclination of mind. Having the chanda towards Nibbana. You set it and you forget it.

These five faculties, and then five powers, which we'll talk about as well. Faith, energy, mindfulness, collectedness, and wisdom. These are interwoven when you develop the Eightfold Path. How do you develop the Eightfold Path? 6R's. Why? Because you use right effort. You use the 6R's to go from wrong view to right view. You understand what is wrong view and right view. And thereby now you have faith. When they talk about faith here, they're not talking about like having some kind of a spiritual faith. Although that can be part of it. It's about knowing what is wholesome and unwholesome. The opposite of faith is doubt.

So that is having a mind without any kind of perplexity about what is the path and what is not the path. About what is right view and what is wrong view. About what is wholesome and unwholesome. So when you develop right view using the 6R's, you naturally gain faith. But that faith is not based on some kind of blind faith. It's an experiential confidence. The process actually works.

If I keep my precepts, my mind becomes pure. My mind becomes more collected. If I break a precept, if I become upset, my mind becomes agitated. You're teaching yourself. You're seeing for yourself how this process works. And thereby, you experience or you have the experiential confidence. This is the first part, the faith. So you're developing what? The faculty of faith. Faculties and there's powers. What are faculties?

Faculties are which allow the powers, the energy to flow. In other words, you are exercising the muscle of faith. Then with energy, what is energy? Again, having the balanced energy, using right effort. That right effort happens through the 6R's. If the mind is out of balance in terms of its energy, you let go of your attention to it and use the rest of the 6R's and rebalance the energy.

So it is interwoven in this path. So with regards to faith or experiential confidence, it's developed when you have this mundane right view, the ability to see what is wholesome and unwholesome. Then when you have the right effort, you are developing the energy. Of course, this is propagated by right intention. And then mindfulness, the faculty of mindfulness. Now you are exercising the muscle of mindfulness.

So we talked about mindfulness as being able to recognize how your mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. When you 6R, you are developing your clarity. You are developing your mindfulness. When you go through the deeper levels of the different jhanas, you're then able to even pinpoint the different kind of formations that arise.

So you're exercising your mindfulness to that point. And this is dependent upon using right effort, using the 6R's. And so mindfulness is interwoven through the Eightfold Path by developing right mindfulness. Collectedness. The faculty of collectedness. The muscle of collectedness. In the beginning when you're doing this practice, you're all over the place. Your mind is all over the place. There's sloth and torpor. There's restlessness. There's this. There's that. But as you use the 6R's, what happens? Your mind becomes clear.

Your mind becomes rid of those disturbances. Your mind becomes more collected. Right collectedness. Your mind becomes ripe for getting into jhana and it becomes even more attentive, even more collected, having even further unification of mind. So now you are exercising the muscle of your collectedness. And then there's the faculty of wisdom. So when you have wisdom, how do you develop wisdom?

Through attention. How do you develop attention? How do you strengthen your attention? 6R's. When you're able to 6R, your mind becomes even more clarified and your attention becomes even more refined and you're able to see how your mind works. You don't have to do anything. Your mind just has the ability to see it because it becomes so clarified, so purified, so collected.

And so now it's developing wisdom naturally through infinite space, through infinite consciousness, and so on and so forth. And then it develops wisdom. If I just make this kind of adjustment, this is what happens. If I make this kind of adjustment, this is what happens. This is how you teach yourself. This is how you develop and exercise the muscle of wisdom.

And eventually, you develop the ultimate wisdom, which is the understanding of dependent origination. You see this whole process as being impersonal, because it's dependently arisen, and therefore impermanent, and therefore not worth holding on to. It's a complete flow of the arising and passing away of the links of dependent origination. Thereby then you attain, or you start to establish, right view.

So you go back from the mundane right view all the way back to the super mundane right view. The understanding of the Four Noble Truths to some extent. Until you destroy all the fetters and taints, now you have the full complete perfected super mundane right view which leads to peace, leads to awakening. So now you are exercising the muscle. Now once you exercise the muscle, what do you have?

The energy, the powers, the strength. In Pali, this is known as bala. That's the strength. When you exercise a muscle, your muscles become strong, right? So when you exercise the faculty of faith, of energy, of mindfulness, of collectedness, of wisdom, now you're able to exercise or you're able to bring that up at will. The more you're able to exercise, lift a five-pound dumbbell. And as you start to exercise it, now you can lift a 10-pound dumbbell or a 20-pound dumbbell. First, you couldn't develop the faith. You didn't know what was right or wrong. You didn't know what was wholesome and unwholesome. Now your mind immediately recognizes, oh, wait, that is going to break a precept.

I better not do that. That's the power. That's the strength. That's the energy. First, you weren't able to develop the correct form of energy. Now you're able to recognize, oh, my energy is out of balance. I have sloth and torpor. I have restlessness. And you're able to 6R and use that. So it becomes to such a point, now you're able to automatically 6R. And you see this for yourself when you get into the deeper levels of quiet mind. Mind automatically relaxes.

Mindfulness. First, you had to make an effort to recognize, oh, my mind is no longer collected. But now you're able to recognize immediately, oh wait, my mind is no longer collected, and you bring it back. That's the strength, the power, the energy. The collectedness. Before, you couldn't even stay one moment being collected. You were all over the place. But as you started exercising the collectedness, now you can walk in quiet mind. Now you can walk in equanimity. Jhana. You can walk in any jhana. And as you continue to develop that, your collectedness becomes even more clear, more balanced.

Wisdom. First, you had to make the effort. You had to develop the faculty to be able to understand how this process works. And then eventually you see everything as being dependently arisen. You don't have to make the effort. Your strength is there. Your wisdom strength is there. You see, oh, this has dependently arisen, so why am I holding on to it? So when you attain stream-enterer, you're able to recognize those things. When you attain sakadagami, you're easily able to recognize the seeds of craving and aversion, and able to recover from that quicker. And when you become an anagami, no more craving, no more aversion, and so on and so forth.

And thereby, many disciples of mine abide having reached the consummation and perfection of direct knowledge. Again, Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the seven enlightenment factors. Here, a bhikkhu develops the mindfulness enlightenment factor, which is supported by seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, and results in relinquishment. He develops the investigation of states enlightenment factor, the energy enlightenment factor, the rapture enlightenment factor, the tranquility enlightenment factor, the collectedness enlightenment factor, the equanimity enlightenment factor, which is supported by seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, and results in relinquishment, and thereby many disciples of mine abide having reached the consummation and perfection of direct knowledge.

So let me test you guys, because I've talked about this a couple of times, of how the six R's activate the seven enlightenment factors. How do you develop and activate the enlightenment factor of mindfulness? Recognize. What about the investigation of states? Also recognize. Why? Because when you recognize, you become mindful, was in this state, and then you investigate, meaning you become aware. Just as there is feeling in terms of having an experience, and tied to it is a perception, the labeling and recognition of that experience, there is mindfulness and tied to that investigation of states. In other words, knowing your mind is no longer collected.

Your mind is no longer in a jhana. That's it. So you have no doubt about what is wholesome and unwholesome. You recognize your mind is no longer wholesome. Your mind is in an unwholesome state. How do you develop the energy factor? Release. You make the effort to release your attention. Bring your attention away from that. Take your attention away from that hindrance. What about the joy factor? Re-smile. What about tranquility?

Relax. And collectedness? Return. What about equanimity? Repeat the whole thing. But here, notice, the joy comes and then the tranquility. But here we relax and then we re-smile. difference which way you go. Because when your mind is uplifted, when your mind is joyful, you are naturally relaxed. But when you are relaxed, your mind is ripe for joy. So in either way, joy will lead to tranquility or tranquility will lead to joy. So just to summarize, when you recognize, you activate mindfulness and investigation of states. When you release, you have the right amount of When you relax, you have the tranquility factor. When you re-smile, you have the joy factor. When you return, you have the collectedness factor.

And when you repeat that whole process, you have equanimity. Why? Because you are not reacting to that hindrance by pushing or pulling it. You're seeing it as it actually is, and thereby just utilizing right effort to let go of it and come back to a more harmonious state of mind. Again, Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the Noble Eightfold Path. Here, a bhikkhu develops right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness. And thereby, many disciples of mine abide having reached the consummation and perfection of direct knowledge.

So when we talk about the Eightfold Path, we understand that it is the fourth noble truth. Right? But we also understand the fourth noble truth to be the six R's, or the entire understanding of the four noble truths is dependent upon utilizing six R's, which is right effort. So, in order for you to go from the wrong view to the right view, or to go from the wrong intention to the right intention, in other words, you recognize your wrong intention. You recognize your mind is holding on to this. You recognize your mind is having ill will. You recognize your mind is having an intention to harm and you let go of it using the six R's and now you come to the right intention, letting go, having loving kindness, having compassion.

You recognize the mind wants to have wrong speech. You recognize the mind wants to indulge in gossip, wants to indulge in slander, wants to indulge in false speech, wants to indulge in harsh speech, wants to indulge in abusive speech. You recognize that intention. You let it go. You 6R. And now you utilize right speech. You recognize the mind wants to deal in all kinds of babbling speech, unnecessary speech. You let go of that need using the 6Rs. You recognize that the mind wants to break a precept, has an intention to harm that living being, or take what is not given, has an intention to take credit when credit is not due, or seek attention, and you let go of that.

You 6R that. Or you recognize that the mind has this desire for sensual misconduct. You 6R that. Let go of that. And now you have right action. You let go of that. You go from wrong livelihood to right livelihood. You recognize your mind is not actually seeing what is going on. It's just paying attention, absorbed in what is known as mindfully walking or mindfully eating. But it's not really paying attention to the covetousness and grief that's arising. So when you 6R, when you recognize that, you immediately utilize that. Right mindfulness, and you let go. And now you're utilizing right effort. You don't make a strain, you don't make a push to let go of that hindrance.

You gently recognize, release, relax, re-smile, return. So you go from wrong effort to right effort, wrong mindfulness to right mindfulness, wrong collectedness. Your mind is super absorbed. Your mind becomes collected or super absorbed because it's listening to music and it becomes enamored by that and then it becomes very absorbed by that. Or it's enjoying that piece of chocolate cake to such a point that it's not even hearing anything what's going on. Your mind is super absorbed in that. Or your mind is super absorbed in thoughts.

You might be appearing to hear what's going on, but your mind is absorbed in its own thoughts. This is wrong collectedness. But then you recognize, oh wait, my mind is not really paying attention. And you 6R. And now you come back to right collectedness. Your mind becomes free of the hindrances, activates the enlightenment factors, and thereby activates the other factors of the jhanas. And now you get into a more jhanic state of mind.

So there's some other stuff here that we can go through, which doesn't have anything to do with the 37 requisites, but it talks about things like the eight different kinds of liberations, the eight basis for transcendence, the kasinas, the jhanas, the psychic powers, insight knowledges, recollecting past lives. Are you guys interested in any of this stuff? Sure, or I'll just go through the more relevant part, which is just the destruction of the taints.

Just as if there were a lake in a mountain recess, clear, limpid, and undisturbed, so that a man with good sight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, pebbles and also shoals of fish swimming about and resting, he might think there is this lake, clear, limpid and undisturbed, and there are these shells, gravel and pebbles and also these shoals of fish swimming about and resting, so too, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way whereby, by realizing for themselves with direct knowledge, they here and now

That mind, there's nothing going on in there. There's no greed going on in there. There's no hatred going on in there. There's no delusion going on in there. It just rests within itself. It's a mind without craving. It is completely free. So just as you can see clearly, whatever it is that you're seeing, you can see clearly for yourself that the mind is rid of these fetters, that the mind is rid of these taints. So when you have an experience, whatever experience that might be, when you have it, see for yourself how the mind responds.

I wouldn't say to see for the next one week or the next one month, or the next three months, or the next six months. Check it out for the next three years how your mind is, and then for sure you'll know that you are where you are at. This Udayin is the fifth quality because of which my disciples honor, respect, revere, and venerate me, and live in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me. Udayin are the five qualities because of which my disciples honor, respect, revere, and venerate me, and live in dependence on me, honoring and respecting me. This is what the Blessed One said. The Wanderer Udayin was satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words.

Can you go over the levels of enlightenment? Yeah. So you have sotapanna, which is a stream enterer. And with the stream enterer, what is let go of are the first three fetters. That is letting go of self-view, letting go of any doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and letting go of any kind of clinging to rites and rituals nibbana. The second is a sakadagami, that is a once-returner. They call them a once-returner because they will return one more time in the sensual planes of existence, that is, the earth or any of the devalokas, the six sensual heavens.

Once-returner. And for a once-returner, their sensual craving and their aversion has attenuated. It's decreased. So they're able to recognize the craving, recognize the aversion quicker than a sotapanna would. Then you have what's known as an anagami. Anagami means somebody who is a non-returner. They will no longer come back to the sensual existence. Because they have let go of any kind of sensual craving and aversion altogether.

And then there is the arahant, who has let go of the five higher fetters, which is restlessness, conceit, craving for form existences, craving for formless existences, and ignorance. Now within that is different kinds of sotapannas, different kinds of anagamis, and different kinds of arahants as well. One before stream enter? Who is that? Stream enter with path, stream enter with fruition. Yeah. If it doesn't become a stream entry, then it doesn't do anything wrong. He's already entered the stream.

So stream enter with path, stream enter with fruition. One has a fruit and one doesn't. What does it say in the Chinese? Well, there's a stream enter and a stream winner. That's another way of looking at it. I have won the stream. So, I think in David's collection of different suttas, there's one which talks about the stream entry being one who starts on the path, one who actually decides to take the Eightfold Path. So within that, there's the Dhamma follower and the Faith follower. Those are stream enterers with path.

And then there's one attained to view, the view attainer, and one liberated by faith. Those are the stream enterers with fruition, and then so on and so forth. through the door, but you're still shaky, and that fruition, it probably burns the feathers right there. And then you're done. And each stage is path and a fruition, path and a fruition. So there's eight types, or there's four types, depending on how you break it up. And just for the purpose of trivia, maybe you guys might be interested in the three different types of sotapannas. Of course, of course. People love this kind of stuff.

There are these three types of sotapannas. What are those three? There is the stream enterer who has up to seven lifetimes before they become fully awakened. There is what's known as a Kulankula stream enterer, which is they go from one family to the other and they can have up to three lifetimes. before they become fully awakened. And then there is what is known as an Eka Bija stream enterer, a one-seeded stream enterer. This is a super sotapanna, somebody who comes back only one more lifetime, and they'll come back into a human lifetime and attain full awakening from there. So then the question is, what is the difference between a one-seeded sotapanna and a sakadagami?

they always come back to a human existence. But a sakadagami can come back to a human existence or any of the sensual heavenly existences. And a sakadagami has clearer mindfulness. So they're actually able to recognize they have less of the craving, sensual craving, and less of the aversion. And then we have five types of anagamis. There are these five types of anagamis. There is one who is an anagami before they die, and then they attain full awakening right before they die. There is an anagami who becomes an anagami, and then in the process of entering into the pure abodes, they attain arahatship, and then as soon as they land into the pure abodes, they're extinguished.

There's a third type which goes into the pure abodes and then they are an anagami for some time and then they become an arahant after a short period of time because the fuel of existence dissipates, the fuel of identity dissipates and then they become an arahant. Then there is the anagami who goes into the pure abodes and has to stay there for a little longer because the fuel is still there for a little longer. And then finally, they go through the five pure abodes, and then finally they attain arahatship. So while they're in the pure abodes, they have to go through the five, the Suddhavasa, as Bhante Satchidananda was talking about.

And then there are six types of arahants. There are those arahants, and there's so many variations of that, because there's arahants who have the six higher powers and the four analytical knowledges. They're the arahants who have the analytical knowledges and the threefold knowledges. They're the arahants who have the analytical knowledges and don't have the threefold knowledge. There are those who have the threefold knowledge but don't have the analytical knowledges. There are those who have only the analytical knowledges, and then there are those who have nothing.

Just the destruction of the taints. And there was a variation of all of those. Right, exactly. Yeah. There's a sutta where they ask, can you walk through walls? Can you walk on water? Can you dig through the earth like water? Can you touch the sun and the moon? Can you do this? Can you read people's minds? Can you see into past lives? Can you see into the arising and passing away of beings? He says, no, I can't do any of that.

But I have the destruction of the taints. That's more than enough. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free. May the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.