DO Series - Jati -the link of Birth -Realms of existence

All right, John, do you want to go ahead and do your thing? Okay, will do. Hi. So today, as you might recall, in each of these talks at the beginning, I'm just going to introduce different aspects of the online presence of Delson, because these are Delson's talks. Departure from that, because the Freedom of Mind website, which we've been eagerly awaiting, has launched. And I just want to let everyone see what that is. And before I do that, I just wanted to quickly give you a sense of what's going on, because I think people are saying, okay, we've got Dhammasuka, we've got Freedom of Mind, we've got DelsonArmstrong.com,

what's going on, and so I just wanted to give you a quick view of that. So we're seeing these not as the three pillars of TWIM but just as three pillars of TWIM. And so you've got Dhammasuka, the mothership of TWIM, founded by Bhante Vimalaramsi, the origin of the TWIM tradition, the core and home of the TWIM community, the physical retreat center, at the heart. It preserves and promotes TWIM teachings, central to TWIM and its global branches, core to TWIM's identity, and continuous uphold and spread TWIM. So these are just my thoughts, just a quick overview. And if I'm incorrect in any way, that's on me, not on these respective entities.

Then Freedom of Mind is a foundation started last year, started by TWIMers, people who experienced the benefits of TWIM and wanted to bring the benefits to a broader audience of people who might perhaps not be reached by the language of TWIM or whatever, just a younger audience perhaps. Founded to alleviate mental suffering through meditation and supportive practices, a nexus between different supportive processes inspired by TWIM teachings, it supports TWIM while broadening scope and hopefully reaching new audiences, and focuses on broader methods, and basically to serve as a platform for different teachings and groups with an eye on future generations. Then DelsonArmstrong.com is to serve Delson himself. He's an independent teacher with roots in TWIM, expanding the scope of practice to connect with others, authorized to teach TWIM by Bhante, of course, supports TWIM and Freedom of Mind and is supported by them, not exclusively a TWIM teacher, although TWIM is at the core, and incorporating various methods for alleviating mental suffering and expanding the scope again.

So this is just a quick overview, my personal take on what's going on, to help hopefully clarify and not further obscure what we are doing. The website is now ready to go. And so we started out with freedomofmind.foundation. And that now points to a new web address, which is freedomofmind.org, with hyphens. And so this is the landing page of the new website, with a quote from one of Delson's teachers, Srinivas. And this is an image that I took in Nagano, Japan, last November. We came out, broke the silence, and then this dragon cloud appeared. I'll just reload so that you can see it for a sec. It seems like, and it's a dragon year in the Chinese horoscope, so that seemed to be a wonderful, auspicious image for us.

And so we built this website to have a very simple and straightforward design. It's designed by the same person, Christopher McMahon, who designed Delson's website. And if you go here, you can see some of our friends who are the founders, Callan, of course, and his dad, Andrew, David. And this is the board, by the way. David's on the board. Delson is a founding teacher, a director on the board, and then we'll beckonanda as a director, and myself as advisor. Quickly, so this is just a basic site. We're building it out as we go, and you'll see the retreats are being promoted here. That's a beautiful picture of a temple in Hawaii, and then we're building our organization.

So if you go to Freedom of Mind, you're going to see what's there. And that's it for me for now. So over to David and Delson. Thank you. All right, John. That does clear things up. That's impressive. I like how you stack that on top of each other so we could kind of see the differences between these organizations, but the bottom line is, hey, we're all doing TWIM, we're all trying to find the end of suffering. So with that, let me find the master of the end of suffering himself, Mr Delson Armstrong. There he is. Yeah, we like to have fun and we like to laugh a lot in Bhante's tradition. All right.

Yeah, the voice is okay? Sound is okay, David? Very good, very good. Today we're going to be talking about jati, which is usually translated as birth or rebirth. But I want to give further context to what jati actually means in Pali. Jati is actually a classification. It literally means classification of one sense, the order of beings, and in another sense, classification in terms of how you are classified by your actions. There is a sutta in the Digha Nikaya called the Agganna Sutta. It's a very, very interesting sutta. In that sutta, the Buddha talks about the classifications that were there at the time, which are the four, what you would call the four castes.

Usually that's what it's known as here in modern English, but they're called Varnas in Sanskrit. And they were the four classes, which were the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and the Shudras. So the Brahmins were the teachers, the scholars, the priests. The Kshatriyas were the royals, the noblemen, the aristocrats, and, of course, the soldiers, part of the army, military, and so on. The Vaishyas were the business people, the merchants, the tradesmen, craftsmen, and so on. And the Shudras were the people who did the custodial work of cleaning, maintaining temples, maintaining buildings, workers, laborers, and so on. And so what happened during the time of the Buddha, and it has happened more often since then, is that the people classified in these four categories are seen as these particular categories by birth, meaning if you're born in a Brahmin family, you're classified as Brahmin, regardless of what you want to do.

Likewise, with the other three castes. And the Buddha came along and he said that we are actually identified, so to speak, by our actions, by our deeds. We are known by the quality of our deeds. Beings, as it were, and how these castes or these classifications came about. Abhassara beings are basically the second Brahma Loka, and they're beings made out of light. They're very, very bright, and they have their own sort of sheen, sort of like the color of gold or red gold, like that.

And some of these beings drifted down to this particular plane of existence, in what would be known as Manuska Loka, that is the realm of humans or humanoids. And they came down and they were bright and shiny and illuminated the entire planet and so on. And as they came down, they saw this substance which they started to actually consume. It was sort of like this nectarine, gold, sort of very, very tasty dish, let's say, or something that they consumed and became in some sense addicted to.

And by doing that, according to the Buddha, they became more dense. They started to become less and less bright, and they started to become more like us, like humans. And so eventually they started to create division, and they started to create the first civilizations. So the people who were naturally able to lead, naturally able to administrate, it was just in their inborn talent to do that, were known as kings or noble people, and so on. The people who could help protect resources and so on were the Kshatriyas. The people who could teach and disseminate knowledge and wisdom were part of the Brahmins. And the people who managed and supported those people, and the running of society, as it were, were the Shudras.

And so the Buddha said it was not in accordance to, you know, some kind of God-given sort of division or plan of division. It just happened naturally as a result of the talents or the skills that these different beings or people exhibited. And so over the course of time, that became the fundamental building blocks of every society, every civilization. You'll see that even in Western civilization. You can see those same parameters being applied, not exactly in the same way as we see in the suttas or ancient Indian understanding. So the Buddha did this because he wanted to eliminate the idea that people were limited by the notion that whatever so-called caste you were born in is what you are, and that was an advantage to some people and a disadvantage to actually many people. So you wanted to address this and eliminate that idea. So jati also means classification in a broader context, which is to say the context of different kinds of beings in the order of beings.

So I talked about Manussa Loka. Manussa means human. Manushya, that's in Sanskrit. We have what are known as Tiracchana Yoni, which means horizontal walking, because you see that with the majority of animals. That includes birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects, and so on. We have then below that the hungry ghosts. So a hungry ghost is a being that in the human life had an experience of a lot of jealousy and greed, and wanted to store up for oneself, and was in essence very selfish. And so the idea is that because of that consciousness being built up in that way, in the next life they became hungry ghosts. And then below that, you have what are known as the hell beings.

So in the hell beings, the hell realms, there are different kinds of hell realms. There are variations of hell realms. There are divisions of hell realms. I'm not an expert in hell realms. The person to go to if you want to know about hell is our very own David Johnson. And so the hell realms, it's according to your karma, according to the deeds that you committed in the human realm. One of the beings in the so-called hell realms is a guy named Yama, and he's usually seen in Hindu mythology as a man who brings beings out from this life and into the next life. In some sense it's very similar to how we see in Buddhism, or maybe not even a judge, because he's not the one who meets out judgment.

Instead, he just says, these are the deeds that you committed. Were you not aware of the consequences of what you've committed that has led you into this particular realm? And there's a sutta, I don't remember the number, but it is the Devaduta Sutta, that is, the messengers of the divine, the messengers, that is to say the messages that you get in your human life. You see action and consequence immediately. You see that if you've committed a crime there's a punishment to that. If you're caught in this life there's a punishment to that; if not, then you'll experience it later. But the essence of it is

karma and you see old age, you see death, you see sickness, you see all these things as messengers, as messages that say, listen, this is impermanent. This whole process that you're experiencing is impermanent. Don't need to hold on to it and no need to identify with it, and understand the importance of maintaining wholesome states of mind, because those wholesome states of mind will take you to higher realms, so to speak. So above the human realm we have what are known as the six sensual heavens. I won't get into all of them, but basically they are these different realms. You have, for example, the Tavatimsa, which means the realm of the 33, is the 33 different gods that are led by Indra or Saka, as is known in Pali.

And he has correlates to different kinds of gods in different mythologies. So there's a universal kind of idea of who this being is. The 33 gods, the gods of the different directions, there's the gods of the elements like fire, earth, water, air, and so on. Of course below that you have what are known as the realm of the four great kings, which is where in some sense all the mythological and legendary characters or beings are found, things like fairies and leprechauns and goblins and trolls and all of that stuff. So above that then

there is also Tusita, which is where the current bodhisattva is, that is to say the bodhisattva who is to be the Buddha after this dispensation is gone, and that Buddha-to-be is Metteyya. So the idea is that their last or second-to-last life as a bodhisatta is always found in the Tusita realm. And above that there are other realms. There's the gods who make their own stuff, there's the gods who make stuff for others, there's the gods who enjoy the stuff of others, and so on. So you have these hierarchies. These are the six sensual realms, the six sensual heavenly

realms, and then you have the four brahma lokas. The brahma lokas are essentially tied to the experience of jhanas. We have the first jhana, where you experience a lot of joy and peace and bliss and so on, but you also experience what's known as vitaka and vichara, that is, the thinking and examining thoughts. So here there's still some verbalizing going on. And so you have the Mahabrahma of the first brahma loka, who believes himself to be a creator, which is an interesting idea. I see some correlates to that in regards to especially the Judeo-Christian idea of God and the divine, because you have the six sensual heavens and then the seventh heaven, which is the first Brahmaloka, and that kind of matches what you see in the Judeo-Christian ideologies.

and above that are the beings that came down onto the earth, some of them, and it became what are basically the ancestors of humans. That's the idea. Now we can't say whether this is true or not, only because it's not provable necessarily. But with insight and understanding, there's the idea that the Buddha experienced seeing this and therefore brought on the story. But there's also the idea that he brought on the story because it allowed people to let go of outdated ideologies about varna or caste or classifications. So we have the four brahma lokas corresponding with the four jhanas. And then finally, above that, you have the four arupa lokas. And these are corresponding to the arupa states: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception.

So the different beings that we talk about also have different qualities of mind. They also have different nervous systems. They have different aggregates. They have different sense bases. So if you read the book on Jati in the Dependent Origination Series, you will see all of those, and then you'll see the aggregates that they possess, the extent spaces that they possess, or if they have. And so you are not going to find this in the suttas, and I doubt you're going to find it in the Vinaya or the commentaries or the Abhidhamma. This is my experience, this is my insight, this is my understanding, so take it with a grain of salt. But this is how I see it, and so I'm presenting it to you in this way: that the different beings possess different nervous systems. So for the hell beings, their nervous systems are primed to experience greater pain and suffering. For the higher beings, the higher realms, their nervous systems are equipped to experience greater and greater degrees of joy and contentment and satisfaction and so on. But it's only the human realm that things are in some sense karmically

productive. What does that mean? The other realms are, in essence, the fruits of our actions that we commit in the human condition. It is only here that we have any level of strong intention and choice. And so that leads me to the other sutta, which is the sutta on the rarity of a human birth, but that gave this analogy. He said, imagine you were in an ocean where it was just an ocean, there is no land anywhere, and there was this turtle that was floating in the outdoors in the ocean, and every 100 years that turtle extends out its neck, so its head comes out of its shell. So every hundred years that happens, and there is a person, let's say, who has a yoke who's trying to capture the neck of the turtle.

And so the rarity, or the chances of that happening, where that yoke comes around the turtle's neck, you can imagine what the chances of that are. And that is the chances of having a human birth. Recently, not so long ago, maybe a few weeks ago, I had shared with the group, which is the foundation group, that is David and John and so on, Kirsten and Andrew and Keller and Venerable Pecca, a video I had come across. It was, I think, from Big Think, talking about how the chances of that particular sperm coming into contact with that particular egg, and then that happening, it's like a lottery. It's like one in, I don't know, quadrillion or quintillion chances that you're born as a human. So please really take that into account and understand the value of your life here right now. This life is a wonderful opportunity to experience nirvana, the end of suffering.

suffering. So what is so great about the human birth in any case? What is so great about it, what's the big deal? You have so much joy that you're experiencing in the sensual heavens. You have amazing constant collectedness and joy and bliss and equanimity and all of these things that you experience in the brahma loka or the arupa loka. So why not be there, why come only to the human realm? What's the big deal about it? Well, as I was saying earlier, it's the only realm where things are, in some sense, the majority of the time, the super majority of the time, karmically productive. It's here that you have a balance of joy, good things, good experiences, as well as just enough suffering to bring some disenchantment and some vega.

Some vega means the spiritual urgency, the desire to find out a way out of the suffering. And of course, in the realms lower than the humans, there's no opportunity to do that. For hungry ghosts, for example, even though they have all the faculties and everything else, they're not able to make their own karma. And so there are different kinds of festivals in Asia and for these countries. In Cambodia, for example, there's Pchum Ben. And that is basically where you offer alms and the four requisites to the monastics, and you dedicate that merit to your ancestors, to anybody, any loved one who has passed on from this human birth. And because you dedicate that merit, if the chance is that they are in a hungry ghost realm, they will be liberated from that and then experience the next karmic output, the next karmic birth, based on whatever is there in the queue, so to speak.

So that is why the human birth is so, so valuable. You think about the number of sea animals, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects. Just insects alone, there are innumerable, and we're talking about trillions and quintillions of different kinds of, well, not species, but let's say insects in general, and there's only about 8 billion of us on this planet. People keep talking about population overgrowth and so on, but actually this planet that we have can bear much more than that. It's just that they're not able to fully address the concerns of how to manage this planet in terms of logistics, and being able to have health care for everyone and so on.

But in any case, this planet, of all of the different beings that are there, humans are probably one of the rarest. Yes, of course, you have animals who are now on endangered lists, like the rhino and the lions and so on. And of course, you have extinct animals. But my point here is that humans are pretty low on the scale when it comes to population compared to insects and other animals, and there are more beings in the other realms than there are here in the manussaloka, for example: the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, the hell realms and so on. So what do you do with this human birth? What are we doing with this human birth? What is the point of this human being? I propose the idea that we have come to this realm as humans.

We have experienced human birth for one purpose and one purpose alone, awakening. We have different kinds of karma to work out based on our previous actions in this life. Lives those as well, and so if you looked from that perspective at the experiences that you have and understand that the only way to mitigate, to let go, to alleviate that karma, especially if it's bad karma, so to speak, unwholesome karma, is to understand how to let go, how to engage or, in some sense, disengage with that karma. We talk about karma. Karma is right here, right now. Everything you're experiencing up until this point has been karma to some extent. There are other factors as well, like the climate, society, economics, and so on. But in terms of your experiences right now, whatever you're experiencing here, especially in your mind

or I could say here also the mind, because we talk about the mind. It's usually translated from citta, which is sometimes translated as heart-mind, right? And I like that translation, heart, because that's what it is. Your mind experiences emotions, experiences thoughts, it experiences ideologies, ideas, concepts, and so on. But in reality, the mind is not just in the brain, it's not just in the heart, but it's everywhere. Samsara, mind is samsara, samsara is mind. So the process of karma is also birth of action. That's at the very micro level. So far, we've been talking about the macro level. And in the macro level, there's also the understanding that when we come into this birth, when we come into this existence, there are different outcomes of how that life, or how you traverse through that life, and what is the outcome at the end of that life.

So there is the wholesome to the unwholesome, or the wholesome to the wholesome, wholesome to the unwholesome, unwholesome to the unwholesome, and unwholesome to the wholesome. What does that mean? Let's say in the wholesome to the wholesome, you are somebody who has been born into a family that is noble, that is well-recognized, their good deeds are very charitable, perhaps wealthy, perhaps recognized in society, and you can use that foundation to help others. And so you continue to be generous, you continue to be active volunteers for different events and things that help benefit people. As a result of which, you start to grow your own name in society, and therefore when your life ends, in that regard, you are recognized as someone who is wholesome.

And so the outcome is wholesome. The wholesome to the unwholesome would be somebody who, in the same way, has been born into a well-recognized family, maybe somebody who's wealthy and so on. But you squander that wealth. You take that and you start to be ungrateful. You start to be entitled. You start to decide to use

substances that are addictive. You get immersed in gambling and other things that just squander your wealth, and as a result of which, because of your actions, your intentions and so on, you end up in an unwholesome state of mind at the end of that life. The unwholesome to the unwholesome is similar in the outcomes, the unwholesome, but the input in coming into this life is where you're born in conditions that don't allow you to progress that much in life. Perhaps you're born in poverty, perhaps you're born in a place where there's a lot of crime, there's not a lot of precepts being taken, and so on. And so you don't know any better, and you only think that's the life that is, and your intentions continue to be that way, and it results in an unwholesome state of mind at the end of that life. The unwholesome to the wholesome are the kind of like the rags to riches story

Right. So somebody who's born into an impoverished family or society but does something about it, makes an effort, understands the precepts, takes the precepts, perhaps gets inspired by the Dhamma, and then from there has a wholesome state of mind at the end of that life. Then there's the fifth outcome, where from any of these particular states, to Nibbana. So you introduce the Dhamma, you start practicing the Dhamma, you start to become more generous, you follow the precepts, you read the suttas, you use your own experience to understand how your mind works, which is to say you are utilizing mindfulness, and so on. And then eventually you experience Nibbana, and so you enter the stream, and therefore what closes off for you are the classifications under the human realm. You will no longer go down into any of the lower realms, and so that allows you to experience Nibbana over and over until you become fully awakened, whether in this life or in subsequent lives, up to seven times if

you're sure. So that is the other understanding of birth. Finally, I want to address the understanding of birth of action, because that is really the crux of what happens next. It's from birth of action that things can turn pretty bad, lead to suffering, lead to pain, lead to unpleasant experiences, lead to death, and so on. So what is birth of action? Birth of action is the birth of any action that is rooted in intention. The Buddha says intention is karma. Karma here is twofold: there is the karma in terms of the intended action, the intentional action, and there's the fruit of that karma that you experience, which is what you're experiencing right now. Coming here together, listening to me talk, is part of your karma. Let's say being introduced to twin, being introduced to the Dhamma, being introduced to the suttas, and so on, as part of your karma. And now you have to choose what to do with it, and whatever you choose to do is your active karma that continues on. And so in this framework of dependent origination, you can think of the asavas. The asavas are

the glacier from where the river of dependent origination flows. From there you have ignorance, which is, practically speaking, lack of mindfulness. Then you have what's known as formations. Those are sort of the building blocks of the mind, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and so on. From there you have consciousness, which brings up a certain kind of awareness to an experience. Then from there you have nama-rupa, name and form, mentality and materiality. Mentality is the faculty that allows you to experience contact, feeling, perception, intention, and action. Materiality are the four elements, the four states of matter that make up this body. Then from that, you have the sixth sense basis.

From the sixth sense basis, you have contact, which is the initial trigger point. From where the light hits your eyes, you see color and form. The auditory waves hit your eardrums, and then you perceive sound. The taste molecules hit your taste buds in the tongue, and you experience taste. The odor molecules hit your olfactory bulb in the nose, and you experience some kind of smell, odor, or fragrance. And then your body experiences different pressure, air pressure and so on, internally and externally, which allows you to experience something that is contacting body. And then the mind objects, ideas, thoughts, concepts, feelings, and so on, emotions, make contact with the mind heart, which then from there you experience some kind of a thought, some kind of a mental experience.

And so that leads to vedana, which is the feeling. From that feeling, tied with the perception, there can arise craving. That craving says, I like this feeling because it's pleasant. I don't like this feeling because it's unpleasant, or I identify with and grasp at this feeling because I feel like I'm the owner of that experience. This feeling is me, mine, myself. From that, there is the clinging, which is the association of what that experience is, and rationalizing, justifying why it is that you like something, why you don't like something, or why you identify with it.

From there is becoming, and becoming is the habitual tendencies from where a concretized sense of self is formed. From that sense of self, there arises the birth of intentional action rooted in the personal self, rooted in the idea of a personal self. Every time you take those intentions, every time you take that action personally, that results in the furtherance of karma.

So we'll delve deeper into the preceding links, but that just gives you an idea. Now, why did I mention all of this? Because what we're seeing is, I started off with the asavas, which are the glacier, the spouting-off point of the river of dependent origination. And becoming is the bend of the waterfall. If you go past becoming and you produce an action rooted in self, there's no going back. You can't go back up the waterfall. Now you just have to traverse down. So this is being said for you to understand how mindful you are of the craving if it arises, how mindful you are of the taking things personally aspect of the mind, so that you can recognize it, release your attention from it, relax the tightness and tension associated with it.

Come back to your smile, a wholesome state of mind. Return to your object, or return to a more collected state of mind. Return to a more present, aware state of mind. And repeat whenever necessary. That's the 6R's. That's right effort. So that you can prevent the further arising of karma, the new karma, which is starting from craving, continuing on to clinging, becoming, and then actuated at the birth of action. Now, when one becomes fully awakened, their actions are not rooted in self. They have let go of ignorance. They have let go of craving. They have let go of clinging and becoming. So what do they have left? They have the formations that are rooted in past karma, because even a fully awakened being is beholden to their past karma.

For example, you have someone like the Buddha himself, who experienced a lot of back pain. And that was because of his previous karma in a previous life. Or Moggallana, who was an arahant and was murdered by a rival faction of a different ideology. So fully awakened beings are still beholden to past karma, but they don't produce any new karma. There are no ingredients for the arising and furtherance of new karma, that is to say the craving, the clinging, and the becoming. So what is the birth of action for such a being? That action is rooted in the Eightfold Path. So what replaces those links of craving, clinging and becoming are essentially right view, right intention, right speech, right action. Anytime you follow the Eightfold Path without taking it personally, mind you, then there is no perpetuation of new karma.

So to simplify all of that, all you have to recognize is that every time you want, there is a propulsion to act in a certain way because you like something or you don't like something or it's something you identify with. Every time you recognize it and you're able to let it go, you stop the furtherance of that karma towards a new karma. So you're just experiencing the dissipation, the dissolution of old karma. This happens in the meditation, right? When you experience a hindrance, what is that hindrance? A hindrance is old karma. It is the result of us not following precepts at some point. And so because of that, we experience the hindrances. And if we do anything with that, if we pray for that hindrance, if we push away that hindrance, if we become identified with that hindrance, then that causes the mind to further perpetuate that hindrance.

So that's karma. But if you're able to see it for what it is, that it's an impersonal process and be able to 6R it, then we are able to let go of it. Weakens, which means even in the broader sense, when the karma arises it might arise again, but it becomes weaker and its hold on the mind becomes weaker and weaker until there is the complete remainderless fading away of that karma, never to return again. And so for the arahant, or the fully awakened being, they're experiencing that in all moments, and so they're not reacting to what is happening. They are responding. They are responding with mindfulness, they're responding with the Eightfold Path, they're responding with wisdom that is rooted in the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. How does that happen, practically speaking? They respond in a way that is beneficial for all concerned, and so they're using their intuitive all of the junk in the heart mind. They've cleared up all of the fetters, the different things that cause one to take something personally, and they're able to see as clearly as possible what is

happening, and so they don't react from that sense of self. They react from a broader understanding. Happening is a series of impersonal processes. So for such a being, they are able to just understand through their intuition what is required in order for the process of this karma to unwind itself, right? So instead of reacting in a way that causes the furtherance or perpetuation of that karma, they realize, okay, in order for us to experience the cessation of this karma we just have to see and respond in accordance. So that could mean to de-escalate a situation that is tense and ridden with conflict, or to bring more loving kindness into the atmosphere, or to just stay silent and not say anything. So intuition is the fruit of following the Eightfold Path and having let go of any of that junk that's there in the mind that causes this sort of filter that the mind is seeing through. And so that's why the Buddha says, luminous is the mind, monks, luminous is the mind. That's the pabhassaram cittam, but due to adventitious defilements

the mind is steeped is unclear, right, is darkened by them. What does it mean, adventitious defilement? It means not of its own nature. It is the mind. The nature of the mind is to see, is to understand clearly. The nature of the mind is to experience reality as it actually is. But due to adventitious defilements, one is unable to truly see things as they actually are. So that's the mind that is rooted in Nibbana. That is the mind that is experiencing Nibbana in all forms. In other words, in every moment that mundane Nibbana is experienced. So in summary, all I want to say is that when we talk about birth, there's really two things to understand.

One is how do you engage with every moment so that you do not renew further birth of action? The way to do that is to respond with wisdom, with clarity, with compassion, with equanimity, with whatever tools you have, which are rooted in the Four Noble Truths, specifically the Eightfold Path. And secondly, the purpose of our birth here. What is it that we all come to do? There are certain things that we have to do in our lives in order to fulfill certain things with regards to people, with regards to relationships, with regards to how we contribute to this world. That's very important as well. How do we contribute to this world? In what way do we make our difference in the world, whatever amount of difference that is? And so we're living, in a sense, our highest purpose. That is what we came to do: to fulfill our karmic obligations and ultimately the true purpose. You see, this world tries to keep that understanding of Nibbana as the rudder. Right? So is this taking me closer to the experience of Nibbana, or is this taking me further away?

That's all I have to say now. Give me one second. I'm going to close the curtain because there's light shining, and then we'll take some questions. David. Hi, Delson. I'm wondering how would I know that I'm taking things personally? Now, I know when I have hurt feelings, that's pretty much taking things personally. Other than that, how do I know that I'm taking things personally? How do you know you're taking things personally? Well, first and foremost, yes, it's okay to feel hurt. Actually, everybody feels hurt. Everybody feels unpleasant experiences. Everybody feels pleasure. But the taking of things personally is essentially a part of the craving. That is to say, I don't want this feeling to stop because it's unpleasant. And so the response rooted in wisdom is: where is this feeling coming from? Why or how am I feeling hurt? How am I feeling it, and how do I allow myself to experience it in a way that it dissipates rather than trying to push it down and have aversion towards it? Okay, it's basically letting go, right? I see it. Okay. Yeah. Yes.

Okay. And can you, one more quick question, can you, in the higher arupa jhanas, I'm confused as to whether you can continue to make decisions or intentions to achieve Nibbana in any of those higher dimensions? Not possible. Not possible. Especially in the arupa and the arupa locus. Like I said, 90% of the time our intentions are really ruined in the human condition. But there are stories of devas having Nibbana. So those are the lower kind of central heavens. But when you're experiencing, especially the brahma lokas, which are tied to the four jhanas and the four rupas, you're just beholden to the karma that's there and you can't do much there. So it's only you have to achieve Nibbana in the physical field.

form, in the human form, or at least, or at the most, in one of the deva forms. Yeah, in the central realms. So it's possible in the deva realms to continue progressing to Nibbana. So for example, in the sutras it talks about Indra experiencing stream entry, and then, you know, when he will experience realm and go into, let's say, the pure boats that's in the fourth jhana realms. So it is possible to experience that, but since you are already humans here, we might as well take advantage of it and experience Nibbana here. I'm not trying to find a way out. I'm just okay. Thanks. You're welcome. Okay. Okay, Virgil. Hi, Delson. Hello. So I have a question regarding the number of rebirths of a sotapanna.

So most people say, most people in Theravada Buddhism say, that that's no more than seven. And I think there is a sotapanna where the Buddha specifically said that having an eighth rebirth is impossible. That's a sotapanna. However, I did find some other school of Buddhism, of Theravada, that have a different interpretation of that. The Buddha actually referred to seven bhavas rather than seven rebirths. And they said that each bhava can last multiple thousands of years, and therefore you can have multiple rebirths as a human being in that. So I wonder what's your take on that. It's a bad interpretation or there could be some... And they said that between those lives you kind of live in this mental body kind of thing.

I subscribe to the idea that it's just seven lifetimes. So again, with the sotapanna, it depends on what kind of sotapanna you are. You could be just a simple standard sotapanna and experience up to seven lifetimes, where you then fully awaken. You could be a mid-range sotapanna, which is up to three lifetimes, or you could be a super sotapanna, which is up to one lifetime in the human existence. Called truth follower and dhamma follower, can that also be, because in the sutras they refer to him as the lesser, so that can also be referred to as well. So yeah, they are extreme mentors. So dhamma follower and faith follower, they are essentially sort of with path, and so if they don't experience fruition at the end of their life, they will experience fruition and then they'll continue on to the next life. That's the idea. Okay, that's all for me.

Thank you. Okay, Lahiru. Hi, Delson. Thank you. And I think most of us are inspired to take most of our human life from this inspiring talk today. And my question is, just to understand the birth of action. We can also look at it in terms of every moment, right, micro level. So in this situation the question is every action we are taking. Let's say we are going down the river, we are taking all these actions, so all this action worth of action. Can we classify all this action into each realm of existence? Like sometimes maybe a human, if that human is not an and act like an animal or a hungry ghost, or if we are radiating loving kindness and also maybe in the first jhana, then that birth of action, is that maybe that person is already being in that realm? Something like that.

Lahiru, you're going way ahead, man, because we're going to be talking about that in bhava, but what you're talking about is absolutely correct. Because we talk about bhava, which we'll talk about in the next talk. It's basically every action you take can also be rooted in a certain kind of bhava. So you could be jealous, right? And your action is rooted in the intentions of jealousy. And that makes you more of a hungry ghost. You become more identified with the sense basis. And that makes you more animalistic. You're identified with more generosity and compassion, and so on.

Alike, so that's what I'm talking about in terms of different kinds of psychologies, which are rooted in or related to the actual realms of existence. So we'll talk about that in bhava, but yes, that's one way of looking at it. And so remember, it's not all action, but it's intentional action, right? I mean, if you're walking in the grass and you accidentally step on a bug, yes, it's terrible, but you didn't intend to do it. So it's always rooted in the intention. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Quilly, hello, Delson. So, very practically, of course I want to meet when I'm taking birth in that moment. I want to see myself identify, but more often what I see is, oh darn, I've already done it, and so I am seeing it. But if there's some confusion as to what do I do now, like I'm already caught up in some greed, and I'm like, oh, no, I see that.

Is that clear enough? Yes. And that's enough to be able to see that. And that allows you not to further engage in it. And so the energy of acting from that greed, or wanting to act from that greed, or seeing that greed, the energy of that dissipates so that you don't act in greed in that moment. Yeah. And so what you're talking about there is the recognition of it, which is the mindfulness of it, which prevents you from further craving and clinging and so on. And so one of the most practical, easiest steps to do is to just come back in the presence of mind to what's happening right here, right now, and how your mind is responding to or reacting to different situations or even your internal situation.

least eight hours of mindfulness throughout, or 16 hours of mindfulness throughout the day, as best as you can. Yeah, there will be slip-ups here and there, but then when you see it, you're able to see it and then let it go, so that it becomes weaker and eventually doesn't arise. Okay. Thank you. All right. Oh yeah, John M, hello, good morning. Thank you for the talk today. My question is really about, can you hear me okay? Yes, go ahead. It's good. Okay. My question is really about the challenge I've always had with the phrase birth of action, because there are so many actions that I take that are essentially transactional. Like I need to go to the grocery store, and I'm going to take the action of getting in the car.

There's nothing about that really that involves clinging or craving. Or I want to send an email to David to ask him a question. Is that, am I taking something personally there? And so I can tell when I'm taking things personally, right? getting more clear, but I've always struggled with sort of the language around that, to go, well, what, I mean, in the larger sense, I've heard the act of giving birth, right, of being coming into existence as being, that's an example of birth, right? But that seems, I mean, that's a result of things that happen. So I guess I've always struggled with, well, what's the, where's the line between simply moving through the world in a neutral way, or even in a, you know, positive way.

And I mean, I can tell I'm taking it personally, but the other times just seem to be just moving through the world. So I've always sort of struggled with that. So maybe what you can call it is birth of reaction rather than birth of action. In other words, what you're saying, transactional stuff, going to the grocery store, picking up your mail, checking your emails, going to your workplace, typing an email, whatever it is. It's not personal. It's just stuff that you're doing, which is fine, which is great. But then there are reactions, which can lead to further suffering. So birth of action that results from a reaction is what we're talking about in this case.

You could call it birth of reaction, a reactivity. When I say birth of action, it's birth of karmic action that causes further replication of that karma. Okay. So, like, I read something on social media, I get mad about, and I take an action. That's kind of a birth of reaction. Yeah. That's an example. Okay. Okay. All right. It's very, very helpful. Thank you. You're welcome. So we have a question from the chat. Um, how does one understand if he is experiencing aware jhana or concentration jhana? Is it the concentration jhanas that stand in the way of nibbana, or which jhana? Aware jhana versus concentration jhana, the epic battle. So, there is where your mind becomes so concentrated that you suppress everything, including the unwholesome states of mind.

And when you suppress the unwholesome states of mind, yes, you might be experiencing great degrees of bliss and happiness and joy and all of that good stuff. But you're not actually applying right effort to be able to recognize when something arises and then you're able to let it go. Aware jhanas are where there's still some level of mindfulness and yoniso manasikara, that is attention rooted in reality or proper attention, that allows you to see when there is an unwholesome state coming up and you're able to let it go and experience the dissipation of that unwholesome state, bringing you back into jhana and therefore helping your mind actually apply right effort. That's really the main difference. And so the jhanas there have two aspects to it, that is to say samatha and vipassana. So samatha is the calm, collected mind, and vipassana is the insight into how mind works. So that's the mindfulness, the ability to recognize how mind's attention moves from one process to the other. So you could say that is the essential difference. Thank you, Delson. I think we can probably share some merit. I guess I'll just share this guy here and then I'll share the merit. There we go. Everybody see that? Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you, everybody.