April 2021 Online Retreat Q&A 3

Welcome everyone to the third and final Q&A of this retreat. So if anyone has questions, they can start. Hi Delson. First of all, thank you for this opportunity to ask questions, because the Buddha stated in the suttas that when we ask questions to a wise person, we get to be reborn as an intelligent person ourselves. So it's really good to ask questions. I would have a question about the precepts. I have been reciting the precepts, the five precepts, for many years and I know them by heart, but I noticed that in the video series of Insights of the Awakened Mind you make them much, much broader. It's really not something you can easily learn by heart.

I found it very interesting and it certainly makes sense, but I was hoping if you could maybe tell a bit about a shortcut, how we can more incorporate this into the usual reciting of the precepts. Yeah. So, in that particular series I talked about the precepts as not only understanding them from, let's say, a moral standpoint, but also as habits to be cultivated, and one of the foundations of that is actually also mindfulness. So when you do take the precepts, you do it with mindfulness and intention, do it with a certain

determination that you will follow the precepts accordingly. And the way I explain it is that they're really habits. You call them the habits of a, let's say, successful, quote-unquote successful, meditator, in the sense that when you follow these precepts, they build up into a mind that is naturally wholesome over time. And when you commit to following the precepts, and as we understand it, just so everybody knows, the precepts is basically following the Eightfold Path, the aspects of the Eightfold Path in relation to right intention, right speech, right action. And of course that includes not harming anyone intentionally, not harming any being intentionally. That includes not using false speech. That includes not taking what is not given. It includes

not committing any sexual misconduct, and finally, that is also part of mindfulness, is not to take intoxicants, and that includes alcohol and other intoxicants and drugs that can have an effect on the mind, and it can cause one to be heedless, and because of that heedlessness it makes one lose their mindfulness and the ability to act in a way that is in accordance with the Eightfold Path. So with this understanding that there is a benefit to, number one, reciting the precepts, because, or taking the precepts, because you renew every day that capacity and capability of following the Eightfold Path, it comes to the sila aspect, let's say, of the Eightfold Path. But along with that understanding is that it has that effect in your own meditation practice.

As you continue to take the precepts, and more importantly, as you continue to maintain them, you see them being beneficial to your meditation because less and less hindrances can arise. Meaning there might be hindrances that arise in the beginning of the practice, but one should see these hindrances as a result of doing something that was not following the precepts, doing something that was unwholesome, doing something that was counter intuitive and counter productive to the Eightfold Path. And so by seeing these as effects, you're seeing these as karmic effects of not following the precepts. And the only way to deal with them, whether it's in the meditation or in your own life, in your daily life, is to acknowledge them, recognize them, see them for what they are, but then release your attention away from them, rather than trying to fight with them, push them, pull them, and so on, and see them for what they are, as effects of things that you might have done in the past, and let them go by tranquilizing your mind and body, let go of the effects they have on the body, and then generating something wholesome.

This is also a practical application in your daily life. If for whatever reason you find yourself, or anyone finds themselves, breaking the precept because of heedlessness, because of not having mindfulness, they can use a 6R process to realize that they just did that, have the mindfulness to recognize, let go of the attachment to or the aversion of having broken that precept, and then commit by saying the precepts again that you're not going to break the precept again. So there's a practical application there with the 6R process as well.

But generally, one should follow these precepts for these couple of reasons. Number one, it first of all provides the dedication, provides the commitment towards the day that whatever happens, you will be mindful, you would have awareness of every situation, and commit to in your action, in your speech, and in your thought, to be filled with loving kindness and not to break a precept because of ill will or because of trying to be right instead of getting it right, and so on. And then the second part of that, to summarize, is that it has a spiraling, positively spiraling effect, a wholesome spiraling effect, where every time you do follow the precept it starts to dig away at the hindrances every time you face them, and cultivates a more wholesome mind, which is built with clarity, filled with loving kindness naturally. Which is why you can also notice, when you follow the precepts over time, if you just sit down for a few minutes and just relax, have a smile on your face,

the loving kindness naturally arises in you. You don't need to necessarily generate, sort of like inviting it into your mental framework, and then working with it. Just by putting your attention on it, observing the 6Rs anytime distractions arise. Thank you. Looks like someone has a question. Somebody raised their hand. Oh yes, Delson, it's Pavel. Yes, yes. Thank you for meditation. My question is regarding the seventh jhana. I believe maybe eights. Sometimes it is something it is perceived as an eternal or the complete darkness, the nothingness, sometimes as a complete, like, infinite light. Or maybe I'm confusing the seventh jhana with some other jhana. But the question is, the first part, is it a seventh jhana or which jhana it is? And the second is, we always hear and listen in suttas that luminous, serene light, etc. So sometimes it feels like if you perceive darkness, it's as if it is worse than the light. So is there any difference, and can we do anything to perceive more light if it's needed, or if we don't need it?

Will it be okay to see the darkness, let's say? Yeah. So, number one, let's just go back to the concept of the light you're talking about, where you're saying that it could be perceived as, let's say, nothingness. The light that you're seeing, is it... can you describe what you're seeing? For example, it can be a complete white, maybe blue light, without anything, without any, I don't know, no perceptions, no other perceptions, nobody, no feeling anything. And same about darkness. Sometimes maybe something pops up in it, but it feels like a part of the... And prior to that happening, what was happening? Were you experiencing infinite consciousness in any way? About the light, it happened. It doesn't happen often. So sometimes it is as if the infinite consciousness jhana becomes this, like maybe it's the complete, what is it, when the mind is on itself, focuses on itself, maybe

it feels like, as if you're watching somewhere, and then you're walking, watching inside. And so sometimes it is, it happens with the light and sometimes without it. Yes. Okay. So, for some people it can arise that they see complete darkness and there's like nothing there but the darkness, or whatever it might be. So you brought up something very interesting, which is also a good way to understand how to get to the seventh jhana directly. One of the ways to get to the seventh jhana directly is where the mind turns inward on itself.

so the nothingness here that is being referred to is that the mind no longer is outwardly stimulated it's no longer concerned about the outside world so to speak it no longer is interested or attracted to any kind of sounds any kind of tastes or smells or anything like that as well as no longer having any thoughts or reflections about the outside world which means that it's not thinking about what you need to do after an hour or what's going on right now or any memories or anything like that it's it's a very interesting state where there is no thing no dash thing meaning there is nothing that the mind takes to be as interesting but itself meaning the mind starts to look at itself so when it does start to look at itself there might be certain things that come up in the way of formations very subtle things so whether you're seeing the darkness or whether you're seeing whiteness or blueness or whatever it might be i would say just let that go in terms of the

visual manifestation of what that might be, and pay more attention to how it feels within the mind itself. And what you'll notice, since you were talking about, a little bit touched upon, either perception or non-perception, a little bit, is as you're getting deeper into nothingness and as you start to continue to radiate. Now at this point it'll be equanimity. It stops radiating for a little bit. So in the radiating of the equanimity, this is another important point to consider. In the radiating of the equanimity you don't want to try to radiate the equanimity. In other words, you are just observing the mind radiating equanimity, and then at a certain point you're observing how the radiating stops.

And when the radiating stops, you see that there's nothing there. There's nothing that the mind is really looking at, and you just have another intention of slowly radiating again. At a certain point the mind will just completely stop, and it will feel like a slight, subtle tension to want to try to radiate again. At that point the mind has become so clarified that this is that radiant mind, that quiet mind, that's taken as an object in neither perception nor non-perception. And at that point then you'll have certain other manifestations or signatures of neither perception nor non-perception. Perception, for example, you might start to see that the mind becomes very lucid. There's no tiredness, or no sloth in the mind, but there are certain dreamy images that come up, or the mind feels like it is asleep but still lucid, still aware, and it's very quiet at this point in time. Thank you, Delson. I think I got the idea. So it's not, don't mean, don't need to bother about the light whether it's light or darkness. Just go on, see what's there.

See what's there in terms of the quality of the mind and the quality. Yes, yeah, great, thank you. It's very inspiring and calming. Thank you. Okay, you're welcome. Yes, the next person raised their hand. Go ahead, please. Hi Delson, I have a follow-up question on what Syl has raised about your very broad definition of the five precepts, and I happened to listen to one of your videos, I don't remember exactly which one, but you said something like, when it comes to the second precept of abstaining from taking what is not given,

you said that it's also that sometimes you take other people's time, but we don't know when it's not due. Can you actually elaborate on that? Yeah, yeah. You have to think about it in this way. Simplistically speaking, we think about things as possessions, and that can be food and resources and clothing and other things that one might take without asking for, without having been given, and so that is considered stealing essentially. In the same way, one has to be mindful of others' time, for example, since you brought up the example of time, which is to say that

when you know that there is a certain meeting going on, you're respectful of the other person's time, and you don't, let's say, not show up for it, or if you're not able to show up for it, you explain to that person beforehand that it's not possible. This is number one: being respectful of the other person's time. Secondly, not unnecessarily taking away their time where they could spend time doing something else that could be constructive for them. Another thing would be something like taking credit, where even if credit is due, you're looking for it. But it's more important to see that it's not just the possessions or the time or the credit that one's looking for, it's the mindset behind them. So the mindset behind that and the intention behind that is one of craving and one of restlessness, which causes that resistance. So if you see that the mind is inclining towards wanting this when it's not given, then the mind is not satisfied in that moment. Mind is not satisfied, and therefore becomes agitated.

And in that agitation there can be restlessness and craving, and then even ill will. So yeah, when it comes to the precepts, it is of course important to follow them in terms of how they're laid out in the suttas. But on a deeper exploration, to understand the mindset behind what happens when you don't follow, or what is the intention behind what happens when you don't follow, for example, we talk about ill will as the intention behind someone harming another being, and we talk about the hindrance of restlessness arising because of that.

Sloth and torpor is an effect of when you take intoxicants. So when we talk about the five hindrances, they're also in relation to not following the five precepts. Because the intention of ill will is already there behind, let's say, harming another individual, that will further strengthen that intention, further strengthen that hindrance. Likewise with restlessness, which is dependent upon that intention for seeking something, for craving something that is not there, and that creates agitation. I just have a quick follow-up on that question.

So technically speaking, it's not... can I understand it to be not breaking the precept, but you are actually meaning something much deeper? When you say if you take other people's time in the context of the second precept, you're meaning that there's a deeper aspect to that precept, which is a potential cause for agitation and hindrance arising in your mind. That's right. That's correct. That's right.

Thank you, Delson. I have more questions, but I'll ask after that. Yeah, sure. Go ahead, Cynthia. Hi, Delson. I didn't know hands raised, so I'm searching for hand raised. So, I want to know, like, why is dependent origination not being taught in other methods of practice, only in TWIM? I've seen that, and even Sister Came, I used to say, that it's usually not even taught to students, or only the monks would teach it for themselves. And also, I want to know, is it necessary for different practices to have dependent origination? And does the mind have the capacity to actually see the links without being taught, or without even knowing that dependent origination exists? Does the mind have that capacity?

Yeah, good questions. So, in terms of why other schools of thought might not teach dependent origination, I can't answer for that. You'd have to ask them in particular, and ask them, why aren't you teaching dependent origination? But more importantly, dependent origination, traditionally speaking, if you look at the suttas, they're the majority, I would say the majority of the suttas in which the Buddha or his senior disciples are teaching, they're specifically teaching to monks or to Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis. And so there's a lot more time spent in reflection. I mean, the whole life is dedicated to meditation and so on, so the mindset there is much deeper, and so one is able to really get deeper into the processes of cognition as the Buddha describes in relation to dependent origination, whereas generally in the lay life

it is difficult but not impossible to be able to see the links of dependent origination, because there's so much going on in the lay life. There are so many different things bombarding the senses and so on. But that's not to say that it's not possible. There have been beings, for example, Citta, who was an anagami, who was able to see certain things, and in fact he had a certain level of mastery over cessation of perception and feeling and so on, but he still lived the life, so to speak, of the householder. He was an anagami, so he had let go of craving completely. He had let go of ill will and aversion completely, and he had let go of the lower three fetters. But dependent origination is sort of a natural progression into the path from the pen. In other words, as you start to cultivate your precepts, as you start to cultivate the wholesome kind of intentions and mindset during your practice, that naturally folds into a deeper mindfulness and deeper ability to reflect, as well as, of course, deeper meditative

processes through correct jhana and so on. The mind starts to let go even deeper, and because of that it starts to get disenchanted with formation, starts to get disenchanted with the coarser formations of the mind in relation to paints and identification and so on. And at a certain point it becomes so deep that it can switch off, and then it's able to see these links in a certain way. But that's not to say you can't see the links of dependent origination while also meditating actively, as well as in daily life. It's just a matter of being taught this, let's say, on an intellectual level, and in reflecting on it, and then seeing for yourself how contact arises, for example, seeing for yourself how intention arises and drives forward, or a certain type of consciousness that, let's say,

paints your picture of reality and how you respond to that. That's why, when it comes to mindfulness practice, it's important to start to notice when sensations arise or mental experiences arise, how the mind responds to that. When you see how the mind responds to that, you're starting to see the experience of dependent origination in relation to contact, feeling and perception specifically. But when you get deeper into meditation itself, outside of daily living, you're able to then get even deeper and start to see the arising and passing away of consciousness. For example, then you're able to see how intention drives forward that consciousness. You're able to see how certain formations arise and pass away in the eighth jhana of neither perception or non-perception, and then ultimately

when it switches off, the mind is in cessation of perception and feeling. When the mind reboots, you're able to see this process without any paints being present at that time, without any fetters being present at that time. You're able to just see, without any personalising, how this whole process works. So it is fundamental that there is a deep meditation practice going on, and some kind of understanding on an intellectual level, whether that's through sutta reading or Dhamma talks and so on, so that this process is able to be seen. And more importantly, when they are seen in that process of mindfulness, also experienced as and when they arise, after cessation of perception and feeling. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that explanation.

I also want to ask about this. You must have heard of the flow state. So is it one-point concentration, or is it just being in the now, only in the now, and not one-pointed? Yeah, so you could still be in the now and still be one-pointed while you're in the now. But generally, flow is really that it is being one-pointed, because if you ever notice, if somebody is in a flow state, they kind of lose all track of time, and they lose track of what's happening around them. Whatever it is they're doing becomes the fundamental object of their attention, and the singular object of their attention, which means there's not really any open awareness.

Now, out of flow states, for creativity, a lot of interesting things have come about, and people have discovered some things when they have been in flow states and so on. But what you will notice is that after they come out of the flow state, maybe half an hour or an hour later, there might be a certain kind of energy that's there because of all of that focus of attention. But for the most part, after that first hour, for the rest of the day or whatever it might be,

there is a certain lack of energy, and someone might feel actually tired, because there's so much energy being driven forward through that process of focus, which then gives rise to that flow. I would say, instead of having that kind of flow, what would be educational for the mind, what would be intuitive for the mind, is to use the four foundations of mindfulness, so that when you're working, or whatever it is that you're doing, you have a certain open awareness. Because if you're in the flow state, you might not notice certain sounds, you might not notice certain kinds of sensations. And when you do notice them

What happens is the mind agitates away from it and then becomes startled, and then can lose all attention on what happened, and it can become frustrating. Whereas if you have a more open awareness, you can still be effective in whatever it is you're doing. And I would say probably more effective, because you're checking in, so to speak, with the mind to see if there's any tension arising. And that's the other part of the flow state. Because of that one point in this, because of trying to be so in the now or in those moments, the energy causes a lot of tension. There's a lot of tension that arises in the body and in the mind, so if you have the open awareness you can check in with yourself anytime while you're working. Is the mind starting to get tense? Is the body starting to tense up, and so on? And you can actually relax, and you actually find that there's greater energy throughout the day because of that practice, because of that process, and you're more effective with your work and tasks.

Thank you. Also, just don't want to take too much time. Just one more thing. It's a silly question. Why did the Buddha hesitate to ordain females, and why did you mention that it would have existed 500 years longer if women had not been ordained? That's a good question, and that's a question I can't answer, because only the Buddha would be able to know why he did that. But I would say that just based on what I know about this whole thing, historically speaking or traditionally speaking, is that Ananda was the one who requested through the Buddha that the women of Kapilavatthu, including the Buddha's stepmother and foster mother, be included in the Sangha. And I think according to the story he denied it three times, and Ananda was quite adamant.

And for whatever reason the Buddha said whatever he said in terms of the Sangha lasting for how many other years, but I can't really answer that. I wouldn't know why he said that. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Maybe I could add a little bit about that, because there are nine different versions of that story, and the story in the Majjhima Nikaya is the most hostile towards the bhikkhunis. And I think Bhikkhu Analayo has written beautifully about it, about nuns in the Order, about the different versions and things like that. And for me personally, whatever it says in the Majjhima Nikaya, I think has been tainted by certain monks that might not have had the best intentions towards putting the bhikkhunis in these sets of suttas. Yeah, I would tend to agree with that, because

as I have understood, and I've seen firsthand, historically speaking, there's always been this divide, or there's always been this intention to keep the male up and the female down, especially in Asian countries, including India and Southeast Asia. I can say from my own experience I have seen that, and I have been asked these kind of questions before in relation to why in some places the bhikkhunis aren't necessarily given the same teachings as the bhikkhus are, and so on and so forth. So I would tend to agree with that, that it's probably a cultural corruption of that, because if you were to think about it in the sense of having a mind that is completely liberated, where would there be a divide between male and female, and so on? So it is possible that it's a cultural corruption of that particular idea. Thank you.

So, when it comes to lay life, I've noticed with my mother and father and some other elders that they've had a very, very set schedule for the day, highly regimental. They wake up at this time, they do this, they read the newspaper, they drink coffee, they go to the office nine to five, and then they come back, they relax, they watch TV and they sleep, and this kind of routine is very, very set. Especially I've noticed they can't have a conversation. They just keep telling you, now it's time for me to do the next thing, now it's time for me to do the next thing.

So as a generation I've also noticed that the next generation and the one after that has moved away from that paradigm and has made a more haphazard way of living especially in modern times with digital things just sucking up your time and energy without you being aware of it so i'm in a quandary doesn't whether to have a set schedule or whether to just live the way that i'm living now you know okay i do have a time when i wake up i do set alarms but there isn't any particular schedule to the day and sometimes i feel discipline is helpful but i feel the older way of doing it so regimental that there is no room for any creativity or any anything beyond what they have already planned to do with their life

So is it also something beneficial to have a set schedule for the Dhamma? In retreat we have a set schedule, especially when in a physical retreat. Everybody has to be in that time, everybody has to come to the Dhamma hall and everything. So what is the role of scheduling? That is the question I have. Yeah, so keeping a schedule is actually very important, but what one has to see also is not having an attachment to that schedule. So you have to see that you want things to flow a certain way, and it works different for different people because of the different mindsets and inclinations someone might have.

But at the very least, if you have a schedule where you can maintain a practice, whether it's in the morning or in the evening or in the middle of the day, you have to see what works for you, so you can carve out whatever time you think is allotted or best for you based on your own lifestyle, and stick to that as best as you can. But at the same time, not to have an attachment to it, because if there's an attachment to it, what's going to happen is if it doesn't happen there can be irritation because of it, there can be craving because of it, there can be restlessness because of it. So just like developing habits, just like developing the precepts, developing certain kinds of wholesome habits and inclinations, it happens over time, and the guidelines of the schedule, the guidelines of the routine, are beneficial for them. They aid in that process.

But just like the Dhamma itself, and just like the Eightfold Path itself, it's important not to get attached and then personalize and identify with it. So you need to find what works for you and flow with it within the bounds of that schedule. So don't be so regimented that it causes irritation if it doesn't happen, but at the same time don't be so lax that you're not able to get anything done. Thank you, Delson. So it seems like the Middle Way is again the ruler? That's right.

And I'll add one more thing to that, which is there is definitely a formal sitting practice that one does, or formal walking meditation that one does, and so on, but where is the delineation really between the meditation happening and then coming out of the meditation? Does that mean the meditation stops after you open your eyes and then you continue on with your day, or can you carry forward the meditation throughout your routine? That's the other aspect of it. So you come to a certain point where the meditation flows into the rest of your day, and you continue to be mindful, continue to develop the brahmaviharas, or you continue to be able to see how the links arise and pass away, and so on and so forth.

I have one more question, if I may. I was wondering, when we listen to Bhante Vimalaramsi, he will say that you basically rest in the quiet mind, and 6R's when the distraction pops up, but in the four foundations of mindfulness, in my understanding, it will say to watch the arising and passing away. So lately I was a bit unsure of what the best action here is: just to rest in the mind, and whenever something pops up, do the 6R's, or actively see how a certain mind state comes up and passes away? Again, yeah, so the way I would see it or look at it is using the four foundations of mindfulness, with the quiet mind being the foundation there, being the object of one's attention.

You continue to watch things. And the wonderful thing about the quiet mind is it's so fluid, actually. It's not really so constrained in terms of loving kindness or compassion or anything else. So it's very flexible in terms of what is happening there. But I would say in terms of the 6R process, you would apply the 6R's in terms of that second part of that. So you could still watch the arising and passing away of things within the filter, so to speak, of the quiet mind, of whatever is happening. So maybe your attention goes to how you move, or your attention goes to the phenomena around you, or your attention goes to the mental experience that might be arising and passing away in those moments. But the second part of that is where I would apply the 6R process, which is if there is an attachment

that arises out of watching that, if there is a craving, a tightness, attention that you can notice based on what you're observing, even if it is through the quiet mind or anything else, and if you notice there's any kind of hindrance in the way of aversion or craving arising, then at that point I would say is when you can apply the 6R's. Come back to the crank woman, come back to the quiet mind, keep observing the arising and passing. Very helpful, thank you Delson. In your experience as a teacher and also as a meditator

Can you share with us what is one common pitfall that most meditators fall into, and what is the solution to that? Yeah, trying too hard. It's a wonderful thing to see people very dedicated to the practice and wanting to do something, but in the process of trying they cause themselves a lot of headache, literally, because it causes one to have craving and tension and restlessness and so on. So instead of trying too hard, my suggestion there would always be to just sit back and relax. There's nothing you need to do here except for two things.

observe when the loving kindness arises or whatever brahmavihara or quiet mind arises, and 6R whenever you see tension arising, whenever you see craving or aversion, or whenever you see any hindrance arise. So that's definitely a common theme that I've seen: people's intention is to try to progress, and so on and so forth. That's definitely very important in terms of one's intention and determination, and chanda, cultivated intention. But the less effort you make in the beginning, the easier it is for you to just relax into the meditation, rather than trying to do it, in which case what happens is this.

When you try too hard, and when you try to do something, it's causing you to identify with that process, including the 6R process. So that creates doubt in people, like: am I doing the 6R correctly? Am I relaxing enough? I don't feel like I'm doing anything here. Or, am I feeling the loving kindness? All kinds of questions arise in terms of doubt. That's because the person is looking for certain things because of what they have heard, seen or read. But my suggestion is: allow it to be invited into the mind in terms of loving kindness. So it can start with you having an image, or verbalizing, or gratitude, or recollection of the three jewels, or whatever it might be that makes you happy, and that can be a starting point as a way of inviting the loving kindness. And then feel that, and start to let the mind relax into it, for the first 10 minutes if you're a beginner, or even for the first 10 minutes if you're an advanced practitioner. Let the mind really feel that.

while you're watching how the mind responds, and so on. And then if you're an advanced practitioner, you start radiating. And even in that radiating, I notice that people try it very hard, and they have a lot of pain when it comes to trying to radiate. So I give a couple of solutions for that. One would be, some people feel like if they just try to radiate from their head, they can feel a tension in the forehead, or like a rubber band around their head as they're doing it. You can just let go of that notion and just radiate however you feel in terms of the entire body. And instead of trying to radiate from, let's say, the borders of your body, or the border of your head, like this part, think about it like a meter away from your head is where you start radiating. And at that point you stop feeling the head itself, and you're more in line with the actual feeling or the emotion of loving kindness or compassion, or whatever it might be.

And it's much easier to be able to feel the spaciousness. That's an amazing answer, Delson. And when you said observe and 6R being the two most important things, can I understand it to be the same thing that you have just answered, still here? Because she was saying, in the quiet mind, should I see the arising and passing away, or 6R? So meaning I'm just rephrasing: should I observe, or should I 6R? The answer to that is both, right? You observe, and if it's creating any hindrance of sort, you 6R. That's right, that's basically it. Those are the two things you have to do in this meditation: just keep observing.

So even in, for example, the radiating, the radiating of loving kindness or the radiating of compassion, if you try to radiate, you're going to identify with that process of radiation of the loving kindness. But if you observe the radiating happening in this way, then there won't be any tension rising, because it's just observing. It's like watching a movie, and you're just allowing that process to happen, and you're just watching it. And you 6R any time you get distracted, if you get carried away, for example, with the arising and passing away, and that causes craving and aversion or whatever it might be, and you're no longer with your original object in the meditation, then you 6R. That's the only time you need to 6R. Now, even in the process of the 6R, a lot of people spend time with trying to 6R, rather than actually observing how the 6R are happening. So treat that also as an impersonal process, through the intention.

Right, so the trying is where you need to let go of, and invite the process, to invite the situations to happen, instead of going out looking for them. There's somebody who put up a question in the chat, just one more question: how long should one meditate, and why are some unable to sit for longer? And is it important to sit longer to progress, in your view? So how long should one meditate? In the beginning it's always suggested that one practice for a minimum of half an hour. But as you start to enjoy this process, what you'll see is half an hour goes by like a flash, if you're really enjoying the practice, like if you're really relaxed

and feeling the loving kindness and just observing and 6R, then it doesn't feel like it's a long time. Then you can start to meditate for 45 minutes, or meditate for an hour. And when you're able to sit comfortably for an hour, that should be then your minimum for your day. It could be in the evening or the morning or whatever works for you. And for whatever reason, if your schedule is such that you're not able to spend a full hour, then at the very least spend those 30 minutes whenever it is, and then spend another 30 minutes at another point in time. Now, is it important to sit longer to progress? Yes, it would be beneficial

to be able to sit longer. But now here's the other part of the question: why some are unable to sit longer? Because they're trying to sit longer. Again, they aren't enjoying the process, and their mind is now focused on how long can I sit, instead of focused on, or let's say inclined towards, really just enjoying and understanding the process. If you, let's say, in the process of radiating loving kindness, find yourself waking up, so to speak, or opening your eyes after an hour or an hour and a half, and your intention was to sit for two hours, it could just be something that is blocking the mind from doing that. So a couple of solutions to that would be to use your intuition

and ask the mind what is it that's blocking this process of being able to sit for longer. Just ask the mind that question, and let it go. And maybe after a few hours, maybe a day or two, you'll get the response and say, this is the reason. It could be of certain attachments, it could be a certain fears, something that you're holding on to. And if you 6R in that process and let go of it, and you go back to sitting down, you'll find that you're able to actually sit for longer after that. So there are certain blockages, for whatever reason. It's because they're craving for sitting longer, which prevents them from sitting longer, or they have a fear that something is going to happen if they sit for a longer period of time. So going back to that last question, about is it important to sit longer during retreat times: try to take as much time as you can to sit for longer periods, because it helps you to really not only progress deeper, but gives you a

better clarity into the mechanics of the practice. You see, for this retreat, this is what I would suggest to people for the retreats that they do with me specifically: don't try to have a goal in terms of trying to get attainment or whatever it might be. If you just allow your mind to develop the insight of the certain factors of the jhanas, be like an engineer, reverse-engineering the process, really trying to figure out how does it feel if I do it this way, how does the mind react if it happens this way? So if you spend time just understanding that, even taking time to be like, this is how

the recognized process happens. This is how the release process feels like. This is how it feels when it tranquilized the mind and body. This is how it feels when the re-smile arises. This is how it feels when you return to your object, and so on. So taking time in that way really is a beneficial step towards deepening your practice. After you do that, then you can figure out what does it feel like sending out the loving kindness to oneself, or sending it out to another person? What does it feel like when you radiate the compassion? Where does the progression change? If you start to look at these things deeper, just by the sheer fact of really going deeper because of that, you might get an attainment.

I can't make any promises about that, but I'm just saying that you would be able to get a lot more insight into your own mind that can deepen your practice outside of you. So yes, sit for longer periods of time, but not with the goal in mind, but just for the sake of sitting and understanding your mind, understanding how hindrances arise, understanding how the different enlightenment factors affect the mind, especially in the higher jhanas and so on.

So we have time for a couple more questions. So if anybody... - Cynthia asked me accidentally a question. She asks, can physical discomfort prohibits to sit longer? - It can, yeah, it can. So I would say that, if sometimes you're not sitting in a correct posture, which would be whatever works for you, it can cause pain in the meditation. And there is a difference between meditation pain and the physical discomfort.

The meditation pain can happen sometimes, around your chest area or around your shoulders. Sometimes when you get headaches, it could be because you're trying too hard. Or even if there's a certain tension in the body, it's because you're trying too hard. So you have to just take a pause and see what's happening. Come back to the awareness of the body and see: is it because the mind is trying too hard that it's causing a headache? Or am I sitting in a different posture that is causing physical discomfort?

So at that point, you need to make the decision. If it's something that's meditation pain because it's just your mind is trying too hard, then you pull back your attention. Tranquilize, use equanimity, use collectedness. And like a camera lens, start to defocus your attention to the point that it doesn't become so unpointed. That's really the main reason why you would get meditation pain or headaches, because the mind becomes too focused, so you need to de-focus a little bit and be able to relax into the meditation process. Now, when it comes to physical discomfort, that can be a physical pain that, instead of sitting through it and trying to fix it, I would say rather come out of the meditation.

Find a better position to sit, make sure it is comfortable, and then continue your sitting process. In that, you would want to try to maintain the same kind of awareness, in terms of having mindfulness, to see what happens when you make a shift in your posture, and then return back to your process of meditation. Any last questions?

Wait for a few more seconds. I have a small suggestion. If possible, we can give timestamps to the YouTube video, because when someone is watching, say for example, this is one hour long and they are interested in seeing one particular question, so we can just say at 001 at this time this question was asked in the YouTube description. So it's a rather simple thing that we can do to improve. I think, yes, thank you for that. Yes, that's a good suggestion. Actually, we've been starting to head in that direction with the Dhamma talks, where we start with, this is where the talk begins, and then this is where the Q&A begins, so you can start doing it for the Q&A. And talk with the suitable team, see how we can do that. That's a good suggestion. I will start doing it right now.

We can share some merit now. Oh, before we do, what we do, I almost forgot. I definitely want to give my gratitude to Sil for being able to facilitate, being the person on point for sending out emails and responding to emails and so on, and of course in partnership with her, Koon has also been instrumental in making this possible. So thank you very much to you both. Let's share some. Sorry, I was muted. Okay. May suffering once be suffering free, and 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. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much, Delson. Thank you. It's been an amazing experience with you. Yes. Thank you. Take care everyone. May you all be well. Thank you.