Feb 28 2021 - MN 23 - The Anthill - Right Effort Leads to the Mind of the Arahant

Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, everybody. I'm going to be reading from Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Majjhima Nikaya number 23, Vammika Sutta. And this is also known as Good evening, everybody. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. Now on that occasion the Venerable Kumara Kassapa was living in the Blind Men's Grove.

Then when the night was well advanced, a certain deity of beautiful appearance, who illuminated the whole of the Blind Men's Grove, approached the Venerable Kumara Kassapa and stood at one side. So standing, the deity said to him: So before I continue with what the deity says, the Kumara Kassapa, just a little background on this based on the commentaries and the notes.

So Kumara Kassapa was one of the five monks under the previous Buddha, from the previous Buddha, and this particular deity according to the commentaries is an Anagami deity, so he's coming from the Pure Abodes, and he was a fellow monk of Kumara Kassapa in that previous life under the Kassapa Buddha. Another figure along with them was Bahiya, and two others. "Bhikkhu, Bhikkhu, this anthill fumes by night and flames by day.

Thus spoke the Brahmin: Leave the Naga serpent. Do not harm the Naga serpent. Honor the Naga serpent. Bhikkhu, the deity says to Kumara, you should go to the Blessed One and ask him about this riddle. As the Blessed One tells you, so should you remember it. Bhikkhu, other than the Tathagata, or a disciple of the Tathagata, this is what was said by the deity, who thereupon vanished at once. Venerable Kumara Kassapa went to the Blessed One. After paying homage to him, he sat down at one side and told the Blessed One what had occurred. Then he asked: Venerable Sir, what is the anthill? What is the fuming by night? What is the flaming by day? Who is the Brahmin?

Who is the wise one? What is the knife? What is the delving? What is the bar? What is the toad? What is the fork? What is the sieve? What is the tortoise? What is the butcher's knife and block? What is the piece of meat? What is the Naga serpent? Bhikkhu, the anthill is a symbol for this body made of material form, consisting of the four great elements, procreated by a mother and father, built up out of boiled rice and porridge, and subject to impermanence, to being worn and rubbed away, to dissolution and disintegration. So now the Buddha is going to propound on and expound on this particular vedalla. And as we continue with this explanation, we will see how the Buddha goes deeper and into much subtler levels of experience and perception.

So it starts with the body. The anthill is a symbol for this body, he says, made of material form, consisting of the four great elements. And so this body needs to be known and understood as being impersonal, as being made up of material form. That is to say, in modern understanding, along with the ancient Indian understanding, material form here refers to the earth element and the other three great elements, being water, fire and air. Likewise, when we understand it from the modern understanding, we see that this body that we have in this present life is made up of different states of matter. It's made up of different cells, molecules and atoms, plasma and blood, electricity, nerves, nerve endings, and all sorts of things.

But in all of that, it's just impersonal cells, impersonal atoms, reacting and responding to one another and working in unison and in tandem to achieve whatever is to be achieved within the body, to create homeostasis. Likewise, this is how it is in an antelope. Procreated by a mother and father, in this case one who is in a physical form, experiences birth through procreation, after procreation by two individuals, a mother and a father, built up out of boiled rice and porridge. So this body requires sustenance. It requires nourishment in order for it to survive. It requires food and water. So that food and water then gets converted into different parts of the body, into proteins and fats and different cells and tissues and so on and so forth.

And subject to impermanence, we understand this when we see for ourselves how we've changed in the last year, in the last two years, five years, 10 years, since we were children. We change in every moment, but this ability to see its impermanence is most perceptible when you're able to see it in a lifespan, and how an infant grows into a toddler, and that body then grows into adolescence, and then that adolescent grows into adulthood, and eventually that adult

experiences old age, and the body continues to decay and deteriorate. And so it is subject to impermanence, to being worn and rubbed away, to dissolution and disintegration. This body that we currently have in this life is going to experience dissolution. System and everything related to that will all deteriorate and decay, and ultimately it will just be a skeleton, a collection of bones, and even that too eventually will just dissipate into dust. Then he continues: what one thinks and ponders by night, based upon one's actions during the day, is the fuming by night. The action one undertakes during the day by body, speech and mind, after thinking and pondering by night, is the flaming by day. So the fuming by night is referred to as the thinking and pondering during the nighttime, and it's what determines, or is even based upon, previous actions, so it can determine future actions.

And it can be based on previous actions. So this pondering and thinking relates to mental proliferation. It relates to a mind in which formations are constantly being aroused, if you will. Formations are constantly being activated through contact, and so on. And during the nighttime, but this can apply at any point in the day or night, understood in the two types of thought in Majjhima Nikaya 19, that whatever one continues to think about, that becomes the mind's inclinations. And that leads to mental proliferation through craving, clinging, and being.

And so that builds up the underlying tendencies. So these underlying tendencies are dependent upon the clinging to different views, clinging to the self-views, clinging to rites and rituals, clinging to sensory experiences that are happening, which are all dependent upon the craving for those sensory experiences or mental experiences. And the formations that arise due to that contact, if they continue to be fettered by craving, if they continue to be chained by the asavas, the deepest scenes, for the response to sensory craving, or a response as sensory craving, the deepest seeds related to identifying with things and having this sense of being, and a deep sense of ignorance, which is the ignorance of the four noble truths and not understanding this path, and thereby not understanding this path, the formations continue to be hindered by that ignorance.

So those formations are a result of choices that one makes in previous moments and in previous times. And so these are the thinking and pondering through those formations that fume by night, so to speak. And then these formations give rise to the choices one will make in the future. And that is the actions one undertakes during the day, by body and by speech, and by mind. So the more you think and ponder of something, the more your choices are in alignment with a certain, let's say, unwholesome or wholesome state of mind, the choices will then become more automatic in the next set of choices. And so the actions and the expression that you will undertake will be dependent on those choices you made in the past.

So this is really talking about karma, and talking about choice within that flow of old kamma. And then those choices either determine your next set of kamma, if you make unwholesome choices or wholesome choices with attachment, with identification, or if you're following the path, a neutral sort of kamma, so to speak, in which it doesn't create any more kamma, and it just dissipates the effect of that old kamma there, and then through understanding, understanding, wisdom and insight.

And so the Buddha continues. The Brahmin is a symbol for the Tathagata, accomplished and fully enlightened. The wise one is a symbol for a bhikkhu in higher training. So the Brahmin in this case is the Tathagata, the Buddha, the one who is accomplished and fully enlightened, the one who rediscovers, so to speak, the four noble truths and the path towards Nibbana. The wise one is a symbol for a bhikkhu in higher training.

So a bhikkhu in higher training can be considered to be one who is a noble one, an ariya, somebody who has entered the path. So this can be considered to be somebody who is a sotapanna, somebody who is a stream enterer. The knife is a symbol for noble wisdom. So here the knife is really talking about insight, the clarity and understanding of what is arising.

Noble wisdom, so wisdom here refers to understanding things as they really are, and noble wisdom is related to understanding dependent origination, because once you understand dependent origination, then you understand how craving is dependent upon other choices, dependent upon other experiences through the senses, through the mental experiences, and those are dependent upon mentality and materiality, and so on and so forth. So this noble wisdom is the way of seeing through and understanding the true nature of reality as it unfolds, without adding onto it any kind of projection and associations. The delving, which is the digging up of the dirt, digging up of the anthill, the delving is a symbol for the arousing of energy. Here the arousing of energy refers to right effort. So energy here comes from viriya in Pali, and in Sanskrit has different connotations. It can mean just energy, it can mean strength, it can mean power, it can mean effort, it can mean enthusiasm, interest, and so on, but here it is in reference to all of those, in relation to right effort.

The way you start to get into understanding this process of dependent origination is by using right effort. You have to prevent any unwholesome states from arising, abandon any that have arisen, let go of them, and then bring up and generate the wholesome states of that. And in this case, it's about balancing, activating, and then balancing the factors of enlightenment.

And then maintaining that on your way to the bottom. So this is a graduated process, a gradual process. And you see how one starts with the body, understands the body, and consciousness that is tied to the body, the mentality and materiality, and then, related to that, the intention and formation related to feeling, by night, and the choices and actions one takes based on those. During this, you are able to understand whenever craving arises or aversion arises, or you're identifying, the mind is identifying with the experience. Then you're using the mindfulness to recognize it, then let go of it by coming back to mind and body, relaxing the tension. So you're letting go of the craving and the effect of that craving, coming to the re-smile, generating a wholesome state of mind through joy, and then ultimately activating the enlightenment factors whenever you go into jhana, when your mind becomes collected around its object of meditation.

And you continue doing this so that you get deeper and deeper into much more subtle levels of craving and identity and conceit and ignorance. And so he says the bar is a symbol for ignorance. Throw out the bar. Abandon ignorance. Delve with the knife, thou wise one. This is the meaning. So the bar in this case is referring to like a doorbell, like when you have a gate or a door and you have a latch that locks the door. And so when one starts out on the path, one starts out with some form of ignorance. One doesn't really have a sense of understanding of what this path is all about?

I practise what are the Four Noble Truths, how does one relate the Four Noble Truths to one's own life? And so that ignorance is a deterrent to one entering into the path and following it. But once one has some form of, first of all, let's say, knowledge or intellectual understanding, that is sort of a mundane version of ignorance that one is dealing with. When you have some sort of understanding through reading the suttas, listening to a Dhamma talk, and having the path laid out for you in description and detail, it allows you to clarify your doubts. It allows you to clarify your understanding on an intellectual level, so that when you delve deeper using the process of right effort and go into meditation, you start to see how these things work for yourself. And you start to apply them in relation to the Eightfold Path, start to see how the Four Noble Truths are in effect in one's own life and in the world at large. Then you're starting to dig deeper into the subtler levels of ignorance.

So once you have intellectual understanding through talks and by listening and by reading, you are essentially opening the gate, opening the door towards going out and entering the path. And then as you get deeper, you start to let go, throw away the bar, let go of complete ignorance towards our hardship. The toad is a symbol for anger and irritation. Throw out the toad, abandon anger and irritation. Delve with the knife, thou wise one. This is the meaning. Now, the translation here is toad. In other translations they say frog or bullfrog, and there is an Indian bullfrog

which is essentially, if you look at a photo of it, it will sort of swell up, and that swelling up is a symbol for that anger and irritation. Because when there is anger present, when there is ill will present, when there is frustration present, and when there is hatred present, everything is blown out of proportion. And you have an inflated sense of ego: that I am correct, I am right, and I'm holding on to this, and everybody else is wrong. It blinds the mind from seeing reality as it is, and it creates deeper levels of attachment. So here one has to look at, in one's own life, the responses one has, if they are rooted in right intention, which means if they are rooted in letting go of attaching any sense of self to sensory experience and true mental experiences, letting go and understanding that ill will is wrong and violence is wrong.

It only breeds more ill will. It only breeds more violence. And so the way to replace that is with non-ill will, or in other words, loving kindness and non-violence, or non-cruelty, or compassion. So once you start to see the effects of that loving kindness, first and foremost on yourself, and then how it manifests through your actions, words and thoughts, and how it changes the people around you and the environment around you, you start to let go of ill will and realise there's nothing worth holding on to based on something that needs to be proven to be correct or right. Just let go of that and continue to have loving kindness in your actions and in your speech. When they come from loving kindness, they will always diffuse a negative situation and will always try to make the peace amongst yourself and amongst others. The fork is a symbol for doubt. Throw out the fork, abandon doubt. Delve with the knife, thou wise one. This is the meaning. So the fork here could mean either like tongs or it could mean a fork in the road.

Either way, it essentially says that you have two choices and make one choice. You don't have to just sit in the middle and have real indecision. And that doubt leads to indecision. Am I doing this correctly? Or how should I be doing it? And am I really on the right path? Or I don't know if this is correct. I don't know if what I'm doing is correct. In that case, you have to let go of that and come back to the sutta that is referred to. Whenever you have any kind of doubts, see whether you can find the answer that you're looking for through your meditation practice as well. So when you have doubts about the meditation practice, in relation to, am I really experiencing jhana right now, or am I really getting deeper and deeper, let go of all of those things, because those are hindrances that are not going to let you continue. And of course, there is doubt about the practice and doubt about the path itself, which is let go of when you experience the entry into the stream, and that is destroyed.

The sieve is a symbol for the five hindrances, namely the hindrance of sensual desire, the hindrance of ill will, the hindrance of sloth and torpor, the hindrance of restlessness and remorse, and the hindrance of doubt. Throw out the sieve. Abandon the five hindrances. Delve with the knife, that always comes. This is the meaning. I have seen in other translations, for whatever reason, the sieve is translated as a box, but the sieve here makes more sense as a translation. Because the five hindrances, whether you experience them during meditation or you experience them during your daily life, are like filtration systems. You start to see reality, but you're not actually seeing reality as it is. Because there's ill will, everybody around you, you have ill will towards, or there's suspicion about everybody.

Because there's sloth and torpor, you don't really have the energy to deal with any situation, whether it's meditation or in daily life. When you have restlessness and remorse, there's always this jumble of thoughts that continue to proliferate in your mind, and you're unable to really pay attention to what's going on, and so you're just floating by without really paying attention to what people are saying or how you might be responding, and so on. And of course, doubt again coming in here. So these are like five different filters through which one sees reality, but it's not actually reality as it is. When you let go of them using the right method, using the knife, you scrape away all of these different hindrances. You throw out that filter, that sieve that you see through, and you actually see reality as it is.

So it's getting deeper towards having a mind without conditions. It's getting deeper into having a mind that is closer and closer to the experience of nibbana. The tortoise is a symbol for the five aggregates affected by clinging: finally, the material form aggregate affected by clinging, the feeling aggregate affected by clinging, the perception aggregate affected by clinging, the formations aggregate affected by clinging, and the consciousness aggregate affected by clinging.

Throw out the tortoise, abandon the five aggregates affected by clinging. Delve with the knife, thou wise one. This is the meaning. It can also be understood not only in terms of its limbs and its head representing each of the five aggregates, but also the five physical senses. But this is discussed in the next analogy. So here it's really pertaining to the five aggregates affected by clinging.

And what one needs to see in relation to the five aggregates is how craving arises or is experienced through these five aggregates, one or more of these five aggregates. And it is the clinging related to them, in relation to having those different sets of self-view, and in relation to the five aggregates together, seeing the five aggregates as self and so on and so forth. So this is done, this is eradicated, by understanding the aggregates as impermanent, as suffering, as dukkha, as impersonal, or as anatta. And so there's always this emphasis whenever the Buddha discusses the five aggregates, to see them as being impermanent, as being not worth moving on to, and as being impersonal. So it's not about just reflecting on them or just contemplating the five aggregates, but seeing them in your ability to have mindfulness.

So using the four foundations of mindfulness to really watch how the five aggregates arise and pass away. And in all of that, they just arise and pass away. They are impermanent. You have attention towards form. You have attention towards feeling, towards perception, towards consciousness and formations. And you notice how your intention arises, for example, in relation to formations. You pay attention to how your attention arises in relation to consciousness. Likewise, for feeling and perception. And when you notice the arising and passing away, you immediately understand, eventually understand, depending on how deeply you're seeing them arising and passing away, the impermanence of their arising and passing away. So in every moment, it's not just the same form.

In every moment, this form is changing. And it's not just this form, but it's form all around you. So it's not just body, but it could be this computer that I'm looking at, this webcam that I'm looking at, this keyboard I'm looking at. All of that is impermanent. Eventually, it will deteriorate. Eventually they will just disappear and dissolve. So there's impermanence to all kinds of form. There's an impermanence to all kinds of feeling and perception related to the present, the past, the future, near objects, far objects, and so on. So internally, within one's own body and consciousness, and externally, when in relation to what one is experiencing outside.

Likewise, with consciousness and attention, there's attention to the body itself. There's attention to something when you're thinking about something in the past or thinking about something in relation to the future. Those thoughts continue to change. Your intentions are always being dependent upon and based and conditioned by the contact that arises. So that intention drives forward the formations through the speech, or through action, or through thinking, or through feeling and perception. So all of these should be seen as impermanent, always arising and passing away. But it's not just intellectually understanding it, but actually seeing it in every moment, how this arises. And you actually see this when you are in practice of meditation and using mindfulness, satipatthana.

When you start to see this, you realize that if all of this is impermanent and it continues to arise and pass away without any control, then where is the self in that? And is it really worth holding on to, because it will cause suffering in the end? It doesn't have any everlasting permanent happiness to it. Then he says, the butcher's knife and block is a symbol for the five cords of sensual pleasure.

Forms cognizable by the eye that are wished for, desired, agreeable, and likable, connected with sensual desire, and provocative of lust. Likewise for sounds cognizable by the ear, odors cognizable by the nose, flavors cognizable by the tongue, tangibles cognizable by the body that are wished for, desired, agreeable, and likable, connected with sensual desire and provocative of lust. Throw out the butcher's knife and block. Abandon the five cords of sensual pleasure. Delve with the knife, thou wise one. This is the meaning. He's talking about the butcher's knife and block. In this case, the knife and the cutting board, let's say. And so your experience of reality is fragmented. Any experience that we have in terms of the all and this reality that we're experiencing right now is always conditioned by the sixth sense basis and the experience, the objects of those six senses.

But in this case, he's talking about sensual pleasure in relation to the five physical senses, because the mind continues to think about them. So that's separate. That's the mental desire, the desire that arises based on the physical experiences that we have through the five senses: through the ears, through the eyes, through the nose, through the tongue, and through the body. So all that you experience right now, when you're listening to my voice, you're experiencing the sound cognizable by the ear. And every sound that you're hearing coming from my voice is actually fragmented. There are sound consciousnesses that are arising and passing away. There is, when you see this video and you're watching me speak, you are seeing light in the form of this image that arises in the mind. And so your reality is not only fragmented by, or cut up, let's say, by the experience of the five physical senses, when you see and you hear and when you smell and when you feel the wind and so on. All of these are fragmented aspects of reality. But even more fragmented than that is the consciousnesses

that are arising and passing away dependent upon those physical sensory experiences. And so, though the Buddha talks about sensual desire and lust and what is agreeable and likable, this can also be attributed to what is not agreeable and what is not likable. So in that case it could be relating to aversion as well. So it could be craving, aversion, or identifying with these biophysical senses.

And then he says, the piece of meat is a symbol for delight and lust. Throw out the piece of meat. Abandon delight and lust. Delve with the knife, thou wise one. This is the meaning. So this piece of meat analogy actually harkens back to another sutta in which the Buddha talks about a dog gnawing on a clean-cut bone smeared with blood, and the dog is never satisfied by that bone. In the same way, this piece of meat being delight and lust: even though you have delight for something, even if it's delight for jhana, even if it's delight for the experience of relief out of cessation, that is still delight and craving that arises in some ways. So that delight can also include identifying with what is arising in the way of jhanas, what is arising in the way of a post-cessation experience.

And that can actually continue to fetter the formations with that craving, or fetter the formations with that conceit and identification, and also, obviously, ignorance. So once you let go of this at the stage of an anagami, let go of that, you come to the naga. Serpent is a symbol for a bhikkhu who has destroyed the taints.

Leave the naga serpent. Do not harm the naga serpent. Honor the naga serpent. This is the meaning. So it's referring to an arahant, one who has destroyed the asavas, who has destroyed the defilements of sensual craving, of being, and of ignorance, altogether, completely. And the naga is a symbol, because it can also mean a form of entity that is known as snake-like reptilian beings, and they're known to be very logical and methodical in their approach to how they do things. But nagas also refers to elephants in some cases, so the elephant being strong, and unshakable, and basically unable to be taken off of the path. The nagas also relate to a word or a phrase, which is na agun karoti, which means na, meaning no, agun meaning evil, or that's not good. So it's a double negative, so one who cannot commit evil is a naga, in this case referring to an arahat. An arahat is unable to commit evil with mind, body, or speech.

And the other reference one can understand from this is: after having dealt with the physical, understanding the physical as the physical in reference to impermanence, dukkha or suffering, and impersonality or anatta, and delving deeper and deeper and deeper, dealing with lust and delight, dealing with doubt and hindrances, dealing with the fetters, what one comes to is that mind of an arahant, which is unconditioned, which is a mind without craving, a mind completely empty of any of the fetters, of any of the taints, or underlying tendencies.

So every time you use right effort, every time you use a six-hour process, you are seeing how mind works, letting go of the hindrances, of the underlying tendency, because you make a different choice that is rooted in wisdom. You're making a choice that is rooted in the eightfold path. Every time you continue to do this with understanding, you get closer to that unconditioned mind. And so beyond that there is nothing. It's just a complete empty mind of an arahant. So you do nothing with it in relation to harming it, you do nothing in relation to poking at it or whatever. It's just there. It's that unconditioned mind.

And so that is what the Blessed One said. The Venerable Kumara Kassapa was satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Questions? Comments? What is the difference between Brahmin and Naga? Naga, at one time you explained as Arahant. How come again, Brahmin means again, is he also in this? It symbolizes... I'm sorry, you completely cut off for me. I had kept my computer on mute in case there was any sound. I have to explain again. Shall I? Yes, go ahead. What is the difference between Brahmin and the Naga? There are two, both of them are same, as you explained. Yeah. So in this case, the naga is referring to one who has dealt with all of the hindrances, and so one becomes an arahant, so to speak. The Brahmin here is in reference to the Buddha, who was the first arahant. So he was self-enlightened. He discovered this path, and so he laid out the path for others to become noble ones.

Thank you. So Delson, at the beginning of the Sutta, there is the reference to fuming by night, which is explained as a proliferation of mind in terms of day's activities. And it's often thought about that contemplating about your day's activities may be a good exercise in terms of answering the question, did I do the right thing today? And is there anything in addition I potentially should be doing tomorrow or the day after in terms of wholesome activities, which may be either correct, what I may have done slightly in a wholesome way today, or which may strengthen the wholesome behavior.

Is it then the situation that this is to let go of to the extent if one is taking this person, this contemplation. - So you can understand that way, but here the thinking and pondering is this proliferation where one doesn't really have any intention behind it. So the intention contemplating what one has done, reviewing what was happening throughout the day, that's one thing, because you're doing it in a way that is intentionally wholesome. You want to know what went right, what went wrong, what could be changed so that the next day you can be a better way of dealing with this situation. But here, proliferation is referring to, yes, you contemplate that, but you continue to think about it without any control over it.

And so instead of just contemplating, letting it go, and then having a mind to be quiet, the mind continues to obsess over it. It's really obsessing over either automatically in relation happening throughout the day, or just after having contemplated, then continues to go back to it and continue to go with other ideas around it. So it's a matter of setting, let's say, a limit to how much you contemplate. Hi Delson, I have one question. It's, the way I understand the aggregate, five aggregates, it's not all five aggregates are clinging five aggregates.

Am I right? I don't know, you can hear me well. Yeah. Yeah. There's an interchangeable, it's, I think I read too much in Burmese texts, and they have the distinction between the five aggregates versus clinging five aggregates. Yeah. Can you explain and enlighten a little bit for me? So you have the five aggregates that are void of any clinging, which means that, for example, in the case of one who is fully enlightened, one who has released their mind of all of this, one still functions with the aggregates. So one still functions with the body, one still functions with even a perception, one still functions with consciousness, and one still functions with intention or formations.

But in this case there is no clinging there to it, so that those aggregates that are being experienced are understood as impermanent, and understood that they're not worth holding on to. So here, if you look at the statement, it's really the aggregates affected by clinging, so there is a potential for clinging and craving to arise through having attached and identified with the five aggregates, or having any sort of self-view related to that. Once that is let go of, and once one knows that that clinging has been destroyed and that craving has been destroyed, one still has the aggregates to function in this world. One still has form and the other four aggregates. The difference being here, for example, there is the nibbana with remainder and nibbana without remainder, so nibbana with remainder, without remainder, with the dissolution of the five aggregates.

That's one way of understanding it, so Parinibbana being the nibbana without remainder. But another way of understanding it is that the arahant, for example, when they experience nibbana, the arahant's mind is free from the fires of greed, free from the fires of delusion and hatred. And that is really blowing out the fire. So there is that nibbana that the arahant continues to experience, and that is still having the experience through the five aggregates.

But there is also an experience that the arahant can have, where the arahant lets go of any connection to the five aggregates, so to speak, meaning seeing through the five aggregates and experiencing this super mundane sort of nibbana, this conscious cessation, the cessation of suffering that is not related to the five aggregates. The mind of that arahant then switches into that mode, which is known as samapatti in other ways, but Sariputta refers to it as this perception of seeing the cessation of experience, the cessation of being, bhava nirodha. He says so. It's a special state that the arahant goes into. So nibbana without remainder in that case is where the mind experiences nibbana without the aggregates there, or without having the experience of aggregates there.

Thank you. Hi Delson. I have a question, and in terms of the hindrances, is there certain tendencies which causes ones to have either sloth or torpor or restlessness kind of occurring, almost like a dominant hindrance, if I could call that? Is there something that's either in one's kammic formations or some sort of a tendency that's causing ones to, that's sort of a dominant hindrance in one's practice?

And if so, what's the best way of dealing with it? I'm thinking maybe specifically around using intuition, et cetera, to understand why there is a recurrence of a particular hindrance. - Yeah. There is, when you talk about karma, you're talking about, in this case, old karma and the choice that you make in the present. When you have the meditation practice, the mind comes face to face with hindrances.

So these hindrances are the common result of choices made in the past. So if somebody has been prone to be angry all the time, somebody who is prone to have hatred in their heart all the time, the thoughts of ill will will be more dominant or it will be easy to arise in their mind. If somebody has been always worried about things and having remorse, or always has some kind of thinking going on all the time, there's a tendency for restlessness to arise, and so on. And remember, these hindrances arise dependent upon following or not following the precepts as well. So the effects of not following the precepts will have these hindrances arise. So if somebody has continuously, let's say, harmed other people or has just notioned ill will towards other beings, they will have ill will.

And we've discussed before how the hindrances are conversely related to the precepts. So that's one way in which they arise in the meditation practice or in daily living. To deal with that, one has to basically see it, acknowledge them using right effort, using the 6R's, letting go of them, and generating, for example, the brahmaviharas, or even generating the experience of the seven enlightenment factors, because the enlightenment factors are dealing with those hindrances in that moment. For example, when you have ill will, you bring up the brahmaviharas. You bring up mindfulness and investigation. You bring up joy to encounter that ill will. When you have restlessness, you bring up collectedness and tranquility and relaxation to negate that, to let go and replace that restlessness with a collected mind, a mind filled with equanimity.

When you have doubt, for example, as well, which can cause indecision, again, you have collectedness, a mind that is filled with mindfulness. When you have sloth and torpor, then you bring up mindfulness and investigation and the joy and effort, the enthusiasm towards your object in meditation. So there is something to be said about dealing with these hindrances in every moment by understanding where your mind is at. And yes, in short, there is a kammic influence to what sort of hindrances one will experience based on previous choices made. - Thank you. - I have a doubt. Now you have answered all these, and these are all required for filtering all the hindrances. Other things, what is the necessity of real equanimity, because we have to coexist with the unpleasant also?

Equanimity can be understood as seeing reality as it is. So that means seeing the pleasant as pleasant, seeing the unpleasant as unpleasant, and seeing the neutral without adding onto it any sort of craving towards it or any aversion towards it. So whenever you have a mind that is constantly balanced, continually balanced, you're experiencing that equanimity. Equanimity in that case is different from, say, indifference, where one ignores the unpleasant, where one ignores the aversion or things that can create aversion in the mind. Instead, the mind just watches with mindfulness as it is, without having any kind of a reaction.

And so the response to that pleasant or unpleasant feeling will be rooted in right intention, where one understands this as being impermanent and so on. Thank you. Perry Kivolowitz: Any last questions? We'll give it a few seconds. Okay. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed our grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisitions 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. Thank you so much, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you so much, Delson. Thank you.