Day 8 MN 112 The Six Fold Purity -What is an Arahant -Delson Armstrong

So today I'm going to be reading from Majjhima Nikaya 112, the Chabbisodhana Sutta, the Six-Fold Purity. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jetavana, Anathapindika's Park. There he addressed the bhikkhus thus: Bhikkhus. Venerable Sir, they replied. The Blessed One said this: Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu makes a declaration of final knowledge thus: This is the statement that someone would make when they become an arahant. Not necessarily in those words, but usually it's said something similar to that. They might say, I have understood, I have seen for myself, I have experienced it, whatever it might be. When he says birth is destroyed, what is he talking about?

He's talking about two things. One is destroying physical rebirth, the potential for rebirth to occur again. There will not be any more births in the future. But secondly, no more birth of new action, no more birth of new karma. Now there is no more action being produced that can cause further suffering, that can cause the renewal of karma.

The holy life has been lived. What had to be done has been done. The holy life has been lived. One has cultivated the path, perfected the path, perfected the Eightfold Path. One has taken the precepts, committed to the precepts, kept the precepts, perfected samadhi, understood for themselves the wisdom through that experience, and let go of all of the fetters. What had to be done has been done. There is no more becoming.

No more habitual tendencies. For the arahant, they no longer act from craving. They no longer act from clinging. No longer act from becoming. There is no more ignorance. Ignorance is destroyed. If ignorance is destroyed, what is in its place? Wisdom. Right view, the super mundane right view, the knowledge and understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Understanding fully that there is suffering, there is an origin of suffering, so there is suffering, and the origin of suffering is the complete understanding of dependent origination.

Dependent origination is the elaboration of the first two Noble Truths. And then they have ceased all suffering, points of suffering, that is the craving, the ignorance, the conceit, the wrong views, and so on. And they have fully cultivated the Eightfold Path, and in that way, they have final knowledge. They have the understanding of the Four Noble Truths.

So because of that, there is no ignorance, and the formations that arise are said to be pure. They are no longer fettered by any of the fetters that we talk about. Fettered by doubt, fettered by wrong views, fettered by craving, fettered by conceit, fettered by ignorance, and so on. And because those formations are pure, all they do is carry forward the experience of old karma.

They facilitate that process. And so the consciousness that arises is said to be pure as well. The arahant cognizes everything just as it actually is. There are no what are known as upakilesas, corruptions of the mind. There are 16 defilements that are generally understood as corruptions of the mind. They have to do with the three roots of greed, hatred, and delusion.

So some of these could be things like having jealousy, stinginess, having some kind of presumption about things, all kinds of different defilements. So that mind is rid of all of these defilements. And so the nama-rupa just experiences what it is through the six sense bases when there is contact. Since there's no craving in the fetters, there's no craving in the formations, which are unfettered, and since there's no craving in the consciousness, because it's pure, it's not like a stained glass window which is colored by certain kinds of colorations of these defilements.

So whatever it experiences through nama-rupa and through the six sense bases, that contact that arises will not have craving in it. It won't be taken personally. And then the feeling that arises won't have any underlying tendencies. It's just seeing things as they are, experiencing everything fully without any kind of self-superimposed around that feeling. Because of that, there is no more craving, there is no more clinging, there is no more becoming, which means there is no renewal of being.

There are no habitual tendencies. And so there won't be any birth of action that can cause that whole mass of suffering. The other thing to understand is that since the arahant has let go of all of these different links, the only links that are functional in that mind are formations, consciousness, nama-rupa or mentality, materiality, six sense bases, contact and feeling.

Those are the only links that are functional. Everything else is eradicated. Arahants still produce action. They still speak, they still act, they do all these things, rooted in the Eightfold Path. In other words, when they speak, they use right speech. When they act, they use right action. And it's automatic. That is their default mode of functioning. Because of this, they don't produce new karma. The Buddha has explained in other suttas that the cessation of karma, the cessation of effects of karma, are through the Eightfold Path.

So the way leading to the cessation of karma is the Eightfold Path. Because it doesn't produce any new karma that the mind can stick to. So that's why the arahant's mind is said to be spontaneous. They will function in such a way that is in accordance with the situation. They will act in accordance with whatever the situation requires.

But it will be done in such a way that it will always be right action. It will never break precepts. They will never tell a lie, so they will always have right speech and so on. So because of this, there is no more renewal of being. Because their mind is spontaneous, there is no more habitual tendency through which they act.

And so this is what the Buddha says: approved nor disapproved. This is good general advice. Whatever someone tells you should neither be approved nor disapproved. Just listen to what they're saying. Don't make any judgments about it one way or the other. Without approving or disapproving, a question should be put thus. Friend, there are four kinds of expression rightly. What four? One speaks of the seen as it was seen. One speaks of the heard as it was heard. One speaks of the sensed as it was sensed. One speaks of the cognized as it was cognized.

So in other words, whatever that mind experiences, or pushes it away. So that it is unattractive and unrepelled, disassociated, independent, a mind rid of barriers, doesn't identify with that experience, sees it as it actually is, doesn't have any craving in relation to it, doesn't have any of the underlying tendencies in relation to that experience, doesn't have any views about that experience one way or the other. That is to say, wrong views about it. Just sees things as they actually are.

Friend, there are these five aggregates affected by craving and clinging, rightly proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows and sees, accomplished and fully enlightened. What five? They are the material form aggregate affected by craving and clinging, the feeling aggregate affected by craving and clinging, the perception aggregate affected by craving and clinging, the formations aggregate affected by craving and clinging, and the consciousness aggregate affected by craving and clinging. These, friend, are the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging, rightly proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows and sees, accomplished and fully enlightened.

It is by knowing thus, seeing thus, regarding these five aggregates, that through not clinging, my mind is liberated from the taints. So the five aggregates, form, feeling, perception, formations, consciousness. Form is this body. Feeling is all experience through the six sense bases. Perception is that which recognizes an experience. Perception is that which knows that this is the color red, this is the color blue. That's a tree. That's this kind of tree. That knowledge, that memory, that happens as soon as you have that experience. And then formations are threefold. Bodily formations, verbal formations, mental formations. Formations arise dependent upon intention, through contact. And then consciousness, which is the awareness of an experience through the sixth sense base.

Here it says the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging. It's through the five aggregates that craving can arise. But the five aggregates in of themselves are not the craving and clinging. It is the craving and clinging which is one thing, and the five aggregates which is another. Now there is another sutta that talks about it. In a sense they are one and the same, but in another sense they are not. The reason being is because when there is craving, when there is clinging, it is because of identification with regards to each of these five aggregates, where the mind says that form is me, or form is in me, or I am in form, or form belongs to me.

These are the four main self-views. That is the craving and clinging in regards to the five aggregates, likewise with feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. And then he says that he understands each of these to be feeble, fading away. They're unstable. They're comfortless. Don't take any comfort in any form. Don't take comfort in any feeling. Don't take comfort in any perception. Don't take comfort in any intention or any consciousness. Understand that there is a pleasant feeling and it feels good. But the moment you take comfort in that, there is an identification going on there. And then from there, there's an attachment to that experience.

But all experience, all feeling and perception, good, bad or indifferent, wholesome, unwholesome or neutral, is liable to fade away. Everything that arises passes away and therefore should not be held onto. And so one has given up and relinquished any mental standpoints, adherences, mental standpoints and adherences, in relation to the five aggregates. Any kinds of ideas and concepts. Conceptualizing the self in relation to those five aggregates.

So there are six elements. Usually, in the suttas, we talk about four elements, right? There is the mahabhutas, the four mahabhutas. But here there is six. There's mention of six. What are these elements? So they're known as Mahabhutas, but they're also known as Dhatus. Dhatu means it can mean element, it can mean a property. So the earth element here is the solidity of the body, the solidity of things around us. So that can be in relation to solid matter.

The water element will be the liquidity of things. Some things are liquid, in a liquid state of matter. The air element is the gaseous state of matter, through the air and so on, the gases. And the fire element is heat and temperature. Of course, fire, the fire element itself is fire, the sunlight, the sun, the heat of the sun, the heat of the body and temperature and so on.

And then the space element. The space element has nothing to do with space in terms of cosmic space. It is the space between matter. So that's the space in your nostrils, that's the space. The space in your ears, that's the space. So the space, that's the cavities, the crevices. This is the space element. Now what about the consciousness element, the consciousness dhatu?

There can be a tendency for some people to think that the consciousness element means an overarching consciousness, that it is some kind of substratum of existence, that that's what that consciousness element is. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint those people, but that is not what it's referring to. The consciousness element here is referring to mentality. You think about the five elements that are being talked about here. You're talking about form, in the form of the earth, the water, the air, the fire, and space. All of this makes up the body, the rupa, the skin, the bones, the organs, the sense bases. All of that is the rupa, the form. The consciousness element here, the consciousness dhatu, the consciousness property here, is related to the mentality factors of nama-rupa.

The first five have to do with materiality, and the sixth has to do with mentality, allowing you to experience contact, feeling, perception, intention, and attention. So he says, I have treated these elements as not-self. I have understood mind and body. I have understood mind and body to be not-self. And I have understood that there is no self that arises dependent upon mind and body, or the different qualities and elements of mind and body. These are all arising dependent upon previous causes and conditions. They are faculties through which processes can occur. The processes of contact can occur. The feeling of perception, intention, and attention can occur.

So he understands, one understands, that these elements are not self. And they are not to be identified with, to be taken personally. The unawakened mind has a tendency to look at the mind and say, this is my mind. Or when you are thinking something, the tendency is to say, I think in this way. Or these are my thoughts. Or these are my ideas. Or this is the idea that I had last night. Conventionally, an arahant can use the same kind of language. Is that the arahant knows it actually, that thought that occurred to the mind or that idea that was there is not theirs in particular. It's just an idea that arose through contact and a series of causes and conditions.

But there's a tendency in the unawakened mind to look at that and say, that is mine, this is me, this is mine, this is myself. There's a sense of ownership to the mind and the body, identity with the mind and body. The awakened mind has let go of that. The awakened mind has let go of any kind of idea of ownership completely.

The unawakened mind creates all of these ideas that I own this, this is mine, this is my bowl, this is my book, this is my table, or this is my house and all of these other things. But the awakened doesn't have any sense of ownership. It's not that they take what is not given, but they just don't see things in the form of this is mine.

And regarding the mind, mind objects, mind consciousness, and things cognizable by the mind through mind consciousness, I have understood that my mind is liberated. So he says, desire, lust, delight, craving, attraction, and clinging, and of mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies in regard to the sense base, that's the internal sense base, in regard to the forms or the external sense bases. You see, when we talk about the six sense bases, dependent origination, we're talking about the ayatanas, the internal sense bases. The ears, that's the nose, that's the tongue, the body and the mind. But their objects are the external sense bases. They are the form. They are the sound. They are the odors or fragrances.

They are the tangibles or... Let me go back. They are the form, the sounds, the odors, the tangibles, the tastes, and the thoughts, or any kind of mind object for that matter. So let's take it in the perspective of the meditation. Here you have your mind, which is known through its factors, contact, feeling, perception, intention, and attention. You use your mind to bring up the intention of feeling loving kindness, of radiating loving kindness. Now you have the intention, the mind makes contact with that feeling of loving kindness. So the loving kindness here is the mind object. There is contact between the two and there is a feeling of loving kindness.

Having had that feeling, there is the perception of that loving kindness. Now there is mind consciousness in relation to the loving kindness. And the thing cognizable by the mind, through the mind consciousness, is the loving kindness. says the eye, the forms, the eye consciousness. So the eye is this, the internal sense base. The form is the external, whatever one sees through the eyes. The eye consciousness is the awareness of the experience of eye, whatever the eye is experiencing.

And through the eye and the sense base of the eye, the eye consciousness and the form, there is the eye contact. And the things cognizable by mind through mind consciousness, the things cognizable by the mind, that is, in relation to the processes of mind. Because you see one thing, right? You have the form, and you're seeing the form. That is the feeling.

You're perceiving what that form is. You're recognizing what that form is. That's the perception. There's contact there with relation to the meaning of the three: the eye, the form, and eye consciousness. Then there's the feeling, then there's the perception. You look at, let's say, an apple tree. And your mind says, oh, that's a nice apple tree. Let me go down there and take some shade. Now there's an intention there to walk towards that apple tree, to get some shade.

And then there's attention, which is the consciousness itself. You intend to pay attention to that apple tree. You're paying attention, your consciousness flows there. You are cognizing accordingly. So this is known as, in modern terminology, salience, right? You are salient of what is present. You put your, you intend to put your attention somewhere. And so you are aware of that.

Not aware of what you are not seeing, but aware of what you are seeing, or what you are hearing. You have an intention to put your attention on what you are hearing in particular. So there can be saliency in there as well. Musicians are perfect at this, right? Or can be perfect with this. They can actually listen to a complete symphony and they can pinpoint what are the different parts of that symphony. They can listen to the violins, or they can listen to just the piano, or they can listen to just the trumpet, or they can listen to just the cello, or whatever it might be.

So there's an ability there to be able to see something in particular or hear something in particular. That's the attention. That's the factor of attention. So in regards to the attention, you pay attention to something. Even in your meditation, you choose to pay attention to the loving kindness. When you're in quiet mind, you can choose to pay attention to the stream of thoughts.

Or you can choose to pay attention to the quiet mind. Now, if you are paying attention to the quiet mind and you are aware of the stream of thoughts, that's one thing. But because your consciousness is with the quiet mind, those stream of thoughts, because they don't have the fuel of your attention, will start to dissipate.

But because you get caught up, because you engage in those thoughts, now you are no longer paying attention to your quiet mind. You're no longer paying attention to the loving kindness. Now the saliency is towards the thoughts, the stream of thoughts, towards the distraction, rather than the actual object of meditation. So this is how attention works. It's whatever the spotlight is put on. And from there your consciousness flows towards that, or cognizable by the mind through eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness.

And so he says, in regards to all of these things, even if they are thoughts, a stream of thoughts, here the key is not to get caught up in it. Getting caught up in it means that you are attracted to it somehow. Either you have some kind of attachment to it, or some kind of aversion to it.

Let's get even more practical here. Let's talk about the pain that you experience, the mental pain, the meditation pain that you experience when you're sitting for a long time. That's just pain. That's just an experience. But there's all of these standpoints about that pain. This is my pain. I wish this pain would go away. Or I'm trying to 6R the pain. It's just seeing the way that you are not bothered by the thoughts, the stream of thoughts, because your mind is on the object. Here it's not about the pain, it's about your reaction to the pain. How are you with the pain? Are you using the six R's like a whack-a-mole? Okay, here's pain, I'm going to six R that away? Or are you going to actually see what's going on in the mind, which is, oh, I don't like this pain. Who doesn't like this pain? How is this reaction coming? Where is this reaction coming from?

You recognize it and you let it go. You relax. And then you come back to your object. The more you come back to the object, guess what? The pain will still be there. But your attention will no longer fuel that pain. It will no longer fuel your aversion to that pain. Instead, because your attention is on the object in meditation, even if there is pain, you won't notice it.

Because your attention is no longer there, you won't notice it. And you won't be bothered by it. So if there is even a slight aversion to the pain, then your attention is there. But if you notice the pain, your attention is there, and you recognize it, you let go, and bring back your attention to the object of meditation, to quiet mind, whatever it might be, then the pain subsides,

because it's no longer being attended to. Whatever you attend to, that's where your consciousness flows. That's where your awareness flows. And if you have aversion, if you have craving, if you have identification, if you're taking things personally, that means you're attending to those things. You're wrongly attending to those things. In other words, you're ineffectively attending to those things. By paying attention, attending to those things and understanding them as they actually are, by letting go of them, by using the six R's to understand that they are impersonal and letting go of them, then your attention no longer gets fueled by that aversion. Now your attention goes away from that and comes back to the object.

All of these experiences. On the flip side of that, there can be a tendency in the beginning for a mind to mistake the loving kindness for joy. And then they pay attention to the joy factor of the first jhana and the second jhana. And then they say, oh, the metta disappeared. The feeling of loving kindness disappeared. No.

The factor of joy disappeared. You mistook that and your attention went on the joy. So that too can be a distraction. You have to understand that the jhanic factors are just signposts to allow you to know where your mind is. What has been let go of? You know, in the first jhana, what do you let go of?

What do you let go of in the first jhana? You let go of hindrances. And thereby you experience the first jhana. You let go of attention to sensual experiences, and therefore your mind gravitates towards getting into the first jhana: the cessation of hindrances, the cessation of attending to sense bases or sense experiences. And then, because of that, there is this feeling of relief that arises.

That relief gives rise to the joy, the piti, and then the sukha, the tranquility, the comfort, the ease in the body. And then the mind becomes collected. And there's a Kagata. And of course, it starts off with the intention, which is the vitaka and the vichara, the intention, the thinking and examining thought. And then in the second jhana, what ceases?

The vitaka and vichara cease. Now you let go of the wholesome imaging. You let go of any kind of verbalizing to bring up loving kindness. Now the loving kindness flows. And there's greater joy, born of collectedness. In the first case, it was joy born of seclusion, the relief you felt from having no hindrance in the mind. In the second jhana, there's further collectedness, and so now there's further joy, further ease, comfort.

And then in the third jhana, the joy ceases. The fourth jhana, the sukha ceases. The fifth jhana, or infinite space, the contact with the body starts to cease. In the sixth, there's the cessation of the perception of infinite space. In nothingness, there's a cessation of the perception of infinite consciousness. In either perception or non-perception, there is a cessation of nothingness.

And then in cessation of perception, feeling and consciousness, there's just total cessation. So this process that you're doing with the meditation is not about bringing up an experience. It's not about trying to construct an experience. It's about letting go and allowing things to happen with the right causes and conditions being present. Don't try to control the situation. Don't try to control how things ought to be.

Just let them be. So there's no delighting even in the jhana. There's no craving for the jhana or in relation to the jhana. Okay, your mind got distracted. Don't beat yourself up. It got distracted. So what? You just bring it back. You come back. All right, your mind is looking at the stream of thoughts and now starting to get engaged with that. Personalizing it. Identifying with it. You recognize that. You let that go. You come back to quiet mind. Come back to the object. And as your attention stays there, that stream of thoughts will start to dissipate.

So once you do this, you start to relinquish the craving, you relinquish the identification, you relinquish the attraction, the clinging to it, you relinquish the mental standpoints, the adherences to it. Mental standpoints and adherences, it has to be done this way. It needs to be done this way to get to this place. All of these words in your mind that say I have to, it should be, it must be, let go of that. Those kinds of words come from expectation. Expectation is another word for craving. Anticipation is another word for craving. It's like you feel like you're in a waiting room when you're hours and hours and hours in quiet mind and you're waiting for something to happen. You're waiting for Nibbana.

Waiting is another word for craving. Think about how you feel when you're in the waiting room at the doctor's office. You try to distract yourself with all the magazines that are there. You're waiting and waiting and waiting. And there's this tension in the mind. And then there's finally relief when you come out of the waiting room and go to the doctor's office.

So waiting in line. Tension there too. Waiting in line. Waiting in a queue. Any kind of waiting. Why? Because there's an expectation that something's going to happen. There's an anticipation that something's going to happen. And that leads to anxiety. That leads to craving. That leads to suffering. So let go of waiting. Let go of anticipating. Let go of expecting.

So this is very important. He said, the question is, how does one see so that in regard to this body with its consciousness and all external signs? So in relation to the body, in relation to the mind, in relation to the external, the forms cognizable, the sounds and so on and so forth. All of these, has the eye-making, mind-making and the underlying tendency to conceit been eradicated? When they say eye-making, mind-making, in Sanskrit there's a word called ahamkara. Aham means I or I am. Kara means to do, to make. Eye-making. So that's translated roughly as the ego. But really what it is, is a process of identification. Has that process gone? How does that process go?

Having thus gone forth and possessing the bhikkhu's training and way of life, abandoning wrong livelihood. So there's a whole, let's see here. Let's see. So they already know this one. Yeah, it goes to, it's 51 and it goes to 34, 35 looks like. Let's see. It might be a different one. Okay, so it says here, so it's in the third person, but I'll read it. Anyway, he becomes content with robes to protect the body and with alms food to maintain the stomach. And wherever he goes, he sets out taking only these with him. Just as a bird, wherever it goes, flies with its wings as its only burden, so too the bhikkhu becomes content with robes to protect the body and with alms food to maintain the stomach, and wherever he goes he sets out taking only these with him.

Possessing this noble virtue, he experiences within himself a bliss that is blameless. On seeing a form with the eye, he does not grasp at its signs and features, since if he left the eye faculty unguarded, evil, unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might invade him. He practices the way of its restraint. He guards the eye faculty. He undertakes the restraint of the eye faculty. On hearing a sound with the ear, on smelling an odor with the nose, on tasting a flavor with the tongue, on touching a tangible with the body, on cognizing a mind object with the mind, he does not grasp at its signs and features. Since if he left these faculties unguarded, covetousness and grief might invade him.

He practices the way of its restraint. He guards these faculties and undertakes the restraint of these faculties. Possessing this noble restraint of the faculties, he experiences within himself a bliss that is unsullied. So I'll just explain this part here. So first and foremost, he has contentment. He's content with whatever is given to him. It says here, he guards the eye faculty. He restrains them.

Here the restraint, you know, that gives a connotation that you have to control. The word that it comes from is samvara. Really, it's not about controlling. It's not about restraining in that regard. It's by understanding what is happening. Having full awareness, having mindfulness of what is happening. Being aware of the experience of the eye, the ears, the nose, and so on and so forth.

And so, not grasping at its signs and features, not clinging to them, not having craving for them, he becomes one who acts in full awareness when going forward and returning, acts in full awareness when looking ahead and looking away, acts in full awareness when flexing and extending his limbs, acts in full awareness when wearing his robes and carrying his outer robe and bowl, acts in full awareness when eating, drinking, consuming food, and tasting, acts in full awareness when defecating and urinating, acts in full awareness when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent.

And so this is all about the mindfulness, full awareness, staying with the smile, staying with your object of meditation, whatever it is that you're doing. So in other words, what he's talking about here, you guys have hopefully been doing throughout the retreat so far. Granted, you haven't shaved your hair and beard and all these other things, but for the purposes of understanding and practicality, you are basically living the holy life. You're taking the precepts, keeping the precepts, doing the work of meditation and gaining insight.

So, possessing this aggregate of noble virtue and this noble restraint of the faculties, possessing this noble mindfulness and full awareness, he resorts to a secluded resting place: the forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a ravine, a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a jungle thicket, an open space, a heap of straw, Dhammasukha. On returning from his alms round, after his meal, he sits down, folding his legs crosswise or sitting in a chair, setting his body erect and establishing mindfulness before him, abandoning covetousness for the world. Abandoning sloth and torpor, he abides free from sloth and torpor, percipient of light, mindful and fully aware. In other words, he seeks out a quiet place. He lets go of the hindrances, secluded from sensual pleasures, right?

Your eyes are closed. You're not looking at anything. You start paying attention to the mind, secluded from sensual pleasures. Now you're in the mental realm, mind. Secluded from unwholesome states, having let go of the hindrances. I entered upon and abided in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought. You intentionalize the experience of loving kindness through a wholesome image.

or through verbalizing, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. So think about it this way, right? So first you keep the precepts. You come to the retreat. The first morning you take the precepts. When you take the precepts, the mind becomes pure. Next time you take the precepts in the morning, is, you'll realize that there's a sense of relief there.

There's a sense of release over there. There's a sense of happiness over there. You can take this happiness and stay with that and let that turn into the object of meditation. Let that then become an anchor for you to experience loving kindness towards yourself or whatever it might be. That relief that you experience, that release you experience, is the joy of the Dhamma. When you listen to a Dhamma talk, when you take the precepts, whatever it might be, there's this joy that arises. There's this happiness that arises.

And that is piti. That's the joy of the Dhamma, the bliss that arises. So when you do that, your mind becomes pure. And your mind becomes more collected. And so now it is ripe for experiencing jhana practice. And so in the first jhana, as he said, which is accompanied by all of these things, and then with the stilling of applied and sustained thought, you let go of the intentionalizing.

He entered upon and abided in the second jhana, with the fading away as well of rapture. So in the second jhana, you let go of the applied and sustained thought. And then in the third jhana, with the fading away as well of rapture, you let go of the joy. He entered upon and abided in the third jhana. Here it's not a process of actually seeing, oh, here is joy, I'm going to let go of it. It's a process of experiencing the different factors, or being aware of the different factors while you are with your object of meditation. This is why you're not one-pointed.

And then naturally the joy arises, and then naturally the joy fades away. Then, with the fading away as well of rapture, he entered upon and abided in the third jhana. With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, he entered upon and abided in the fourth jhana, which has neither pain nor pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. So in the fourth jhana, you let go of even the sukha, let go of the comfort. You're just in complete equanimity. The purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. Mindfulness due to equanimity.

Why does he say that? What's going on here? In order for you to experience jhana, you have to let go of the hindrances. But that's just one part of it. You also have to have enlightenment factors present. When the mind becomes more collected, that means you have mindfulness, which leads to discernment, which I'm using for investigation of states, discernment of what is present in the mind, which leads to energy, having the right effort, using the 6R's when you need to, which then leads to joy, the piti, which leads to tranquility, a relaxed mind and body, which leads to collectedness, which leads to equanimity. Collectedness here is the mind that remains with its object in meditation.

The attention is not dispersed, but it remains collected. And that collectedness leads to equanimity. Equanimity is being able to see things as they actually are without being affected one way or the other. Seeing things as they actually are. Jhanas. What's happening is the enlightenment factors are being cycled through. So the mindfulness leads to discernment. Discernment leads to energy. Energy leads to joy. Joy leads to tranquility. Tranquility leads to collectedness. Collectedness leads to equanimity. Equanimity, again, further strengthens mindfulness, which leads to that whole cycle again. So you're cycling through it, and then by the time you're in the fourth jhana, you have pure mindfulness born of that strong equanimity.

And remember, every time you use the six R's, you're not only letting go of the hindrances, but you're bringing up the enlightenment factors, facilitating for you to go back into a jhanic state. So when you recognize, for example, you recognize, you bring up the mindfulness, you bring up the investigation of states. Naturally, when you recognize, you let go, which means you have the right effort, the correct amount of energy.

When you relax, you have tranquility. When you re-smile, you have joy. When you return, you have collectedness. And that brings about equanimity through that whole process. So the six R's are doing a lot of things here. They're bringing up the enlightenment factors, they're letting go of the hindrances and other things that are going on in relation to the 37 requisites for enlightenment.

And now he says, when my collected mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfections, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. Say that five times. So imperturbability means it's a mind that is basically stable. A mind that is unaffected by anything. Completely rock solid. Not that it's hard. Not that it's very constricted. But it's just stable.

Fixed. With that kind of mind, which is both malleable and stable, I directed it to the knowledge of the destruction of the taints. That's the third part of the threefold knowledge. So in other words, with that mind, which goes through the jhanas, the mind directs itself to the destruction of the taints, and understands. I directly knew as it actually is: this is suffering.

This is the origin of suffering. This is the cessation of suffering. This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering. I directly knew as it actually is. These are the taints. This is the origin of the taints. This is the cessation of the taints. This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints. So one understands fully the four noble truths.

Because what happens there at arahatship is you realize that the four noble truths are already calibrated within the twelve links of dependent origination. The suffering that we talk about is the general suffering. But each of the links can have suffering in them. Each of the links can have craving in them. You become aware: here is present this link.

The origin of this link is that preceding link. Ceasing this link, you let go of that link. So there is present clinging. The origin of clinging is craving. Letting go of that craving, there is the cessation of that clinging. How do you let go of it? The fourth noble truth, using the Eightfold Path. How do you use the Eightfold Path? Using right effort, the six R's. So right effort, as I said before, is the heart, the core of the Eightfold Path.

Using the six R's, you're fulfilling the right effort, you're fulfilling letting go of the hindrances, you're fulfilling the arising of the enlightenment factors and other things that allow you to experience the cessation of suffering through each of the links of dependent origination, and seeing for yourself the arising of this, there is the arising of that. The cessation of this, there is the cessation of that. Using the four noble truths.

So for the arahat, then, they ultimately realise these are the taints present. And these taints are destroyed when ignorance is destroyed. In the case of the anagami, sensual desire is already gone, because the taint of sensual desire means there's a potential for there to be sensual lust. But that's gone. For the arahat, then, the taint of the craving for existence and the taint of ignorance is destroyed. But how? Because they are dependent upon ignorance itself, dependent upon not understanding the Four Noble Truths fully. Once that is done, once one understands the origin of suffering itself, once one understands cessation and the way leading to the cessation of that suffering, then they completely destroy ignorance.

Having destroyed ignorance, the taints are destroyed. So how do you understand the Four Noble Truths? How is it that you're able to see it? Again, using the six R's. Every time you use the six R's, you are understanding the Four Noble Truths. In the case of your meditation practice, when there is a hindrance present, that is dukkha. That hindrance that's there is dukkha. It's suffering.

Now you realize the origin of that suffering, the origin of that hindrance, is your undue attention to that, by clinging to it, by grasping towards it. So you let go of that using the six R's. So you recognize the hindrance. You release and relax. You let go, which is the re-smile and return, which is the rest of the Eightfold Path, and experience the cessation of that hindrance, the cessation of that suffering.

So, how do you know ignorance is completely destroyed? How do you know that there is no longer any avija? When you fully understand what suffering is, when you fully abandon the origin of suffering, fully abandon the conceit, fully abandon the wrong views, fully abandon the ignorance. When you experience for yourself, fully realize and experience for yourself, Nirodha, the cessation of that suffering, and perfect the cultivation of the Eightfold Path, then you will know for yourself what fetters are present, if there are any fetters present. What taints are present? If there are any taints present. And your mind itself will declare final knowledge.

There won't be any great devas coming in and saying, Oh, wonderful, you have attained arahatship. You will see for yourself. So, this process that you've been doing for the last few days on retreat, and you'll continue to do. This is what happens lifelong for the perfection of the path. It's not like, now you can choose to do that, but it's not like you get off retreat and now you're off retreat. That's just a mental state.

Being on retreat and off retreat. You can still continue to keep the precepts. Take the precepts every morning. You can still continue to develop the mind, bhavana. Continue to meditate. Continue to use right effort, not only on the cushion, but off the cushion. Not only just meditating, but also recognizing when craving arises. The more you do this, the more your mind becomes purified, and the more mind goes towards arahatship. So this process that you're doing, you start to see where your sources of identifying are, your source of craving is, your source of aversion is, catchments, you know, where are your frustrations, all of these things, and you start letting go of them using the six R's.

And bit by bit, you start to, you know, cut away at the different fetters. And bit by bit, they fall away. Eventually, until you finally realize arahatship for yourself. Thus, my mind was liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, and from the taint of ignorance. When it was liberated, there came the knowledge, it is liberated. In other words, your mind will know for itself, it is liberated.

Your mind will not lie to you, but you can lie to your mind. Your mind will know for itself. And you can choose to accept or deny that. And of course, there's a whole process of self-testing, right? It's not just, oh, there is final knowledge. Now there's the idea that I'm an Arahant, or I've attained this, or whatever it might be. And then you go about the world and think you are, and then you see how you react to the world, what your responses are.

For anyone who thinks that they're an Arahant, I would say wait three years and then declare final knowledge. See how your mind responds to every kind of situation. Is there craving? Is there attachment? Is there comparing? Is there aversion? Is there identification? All of these different things. I directly knew, birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.

That is what the Blessed One said. The Bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. May suffering ones be suffering free, may the star 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. the Buddha's dispensation. Sahadev, Sahadev, Sahadev.