2022 Aug Retreat Sn 12.23 Upanisa 8-12-22

Today I'm going to be reading from what's known as the Upanisa Sutta. And this is Samyutta Nikaya 12. A lot of things that I'll be discussing in this sutta, there'll be a lot of information, and don't worry if it doesn't fully register. Just listen and just understand where this whole process is leading. So this is giving you a preview of what's going on through the process of this retreat.

The English title for this is called Proximate Cause at Savatthi. Because I say that the destruction of the taints is for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and does not see. For one who knows what? For one who sees what? Does the destruction of the taints come about? Such is form, such its origin, such its passing away.

Such is feeling, such is perception, such are volitional formations, such is consciousness, such their origin, and such their passing away. It is for one who knows thus, for one who sees thus, that the destruction of the taints comes about. This is the ultimate goal in this practice, is the destruction of the taints. That is basically arahatship. We have these three taints that the mind has. And these three taints are the taint of sensual desire, the taint of craving for existence, and the taint of ignorance. The taint of sensual desire is basically the mind that latches on to some kind of a sensorial experience, sensory experience.

When you are in your meditation, you might hear birds chirping in the air, or you might hear the lawnmower going out and going outside. You might hear somebody clearing their throat. You might feel a fly land on your skin. You might hear the fly buzzing around you. All of these are sensory experiences. Now, how do you deal with those sensory experiences? Does the mind get caught up by them? Does the mind get irritated when it hears the lawnmower?

Does it attach itself to the buzzing of the fly or when the fly lands on your skin or when somebody clears their throat or opens and closes the door? When you hear the birds chirping, fly through them? And does your mind now think about those birds? What kind of birds are they? Or does it go into some kind of memory? All of these are distractions.

The beginning of distractions are actually the taints, the asavas. So the taints are described as affluence or influxes or outflows or inflows because they're the beginning of a stream. Think about it from the analogy of a river. It starts off with this very basic stream that comes out. And as the vortex increases, other things happen. So the taint of sensual desire is really that almost unconscious way of dealing with situations where the mind always tends towards a certain way of dealing with the sensory experience when it comes to the taint of sensual desire. How do you let go of that kind of attachment to sensory experience or an aversion to sensory experience?

You use the six Rs. You recognize that the mind is distracted because it's taking personally this sensory experience, whether it's hearing something, feeling something on the body, tasting something, whether it's smelling something, whatever it might be. The mind is no longer on its object of meditation. Once you recognize that, you release your attention from that attachment. You release your attention from grasping onto or having resistance towards some kind of sensory experience. You let go of all of that. You accept it and let go.

Once you release, you relax. And you are relaxing the tightness and tension in your mind and in your body. Remember yesterday I said that craving manifests as tightness and tension in the mind and body. The reason is because when you crave for something, there's this immediate reactivity in the mind that wants to hold on to that if it's a pleasant experience, or wants to push it away if it's an unpleasant experience, neutral experience, saying that this is me, this is mine, this is myself. So when you relax, what you're doing is you're letting go of that craving.

You're dealing with that taint of sensual desire at the very, very basic level. You're letting that go. When you relax, your mind feels spacious. Your mind feels expansive. This is mundane Nibbana. And then once you have that experience of relaxing, you come back to the smile. Notice if you're still smiling. If you're not smiling, bring up the smile.

And then come back to your object of meditation. Whether that is staying with the loving kindness, the loving kindness of your spiritual friend, or radiating the brahmaviharas in each direction, in all directions. Whatever the object of meditation is. mind too. So the taint of sensual desire arises or the taint of sensual desire is strengthened every time you take personally a sensory experience, every time you grasp onto some kind of sensory experience, every time you have aversion towards a sensory experience, every time you identify with a sensory experience.

So just notice in your mind how it's reacting or how it's responding. Reacting means it's taking it personally, wanting more of it, pushing it away, or identifying with it. Responding is recognizing the mind has craving. The mind is holding on to it. The mind is distracted. So responding really is to use the six R's, to come back to your object of meditation.

The second taint is a taint for craving for existence. This is called bhavatanha, or vibhavatanha, which is the craving for non-existence. Two sides of the same coin. The craving for existence is the mind, or it manifests in the mind as, I want to be something. Or the vibhavatanha, which is, I don't want to be something. So it has a level of craving associated with, I want to be really good at meditation.

I want something out of this retreat. I want to get to the fourth jhana, or I want to get to stream entry, or whatever it is. Now, don't get me wrong. Having this inclination in the mind is called chanda, which is a wholesome desire. It inclines the mind towards release. It inclines the mind towards nibbana. But when you get obsessed by it, and you get upset that you're not there, you get obsessed by, why am I not being undistracted?

Why am I still holding on to this? Why am I not yet in the first jhana or the second jhana? Why am I not feeling the feeling of loving kindness? All of this is the craving for existence. So every time your mind has those kinds of thoughts, you have to recognize them. Just recognize them. Don't do anything else. Just recognize them and then release your attention from them. Bring your attention back to the present. Use your mind and body as the anchor to the present moment. Bring it back to the present.

And then relax. Let go of any attachments. Let go of the tightening in the mind and body. Come back to the smile. Return back to your object of meditation. What about the taint of ignorance? The taint of ignorance, it's basically to ignore the Four Noble Truths. And a lack of mindfulness equals ignorance. Because remember, mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other.

Every time you have lack of mindfulness, you allow your mind to slip and get distracted. And now that adds to that taint, that asava of ignorance until they become an arahat, because they're not aware of the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths are very simple. There is suffering, and that suffering can be manifested as bodily pain, mental pain, emotional pain, grief, despair, depression, anxiety, whatever it might be.

And there is a source of this suffering. That source of the suffering we'll explore a little bit, but the short form of that is craving. The desire to possess something, the desire to have something, the desire to be something, or the desire not to be something, the desire to push it away, or the desire to identify with whatever it is.

That's the second Noble Truth. Craving is the source of suffering. The third Noble Truth is called Nirodha of suffering. And the fourth Noble Truth is the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is what you guys are all going to be exercising during this retreat. That's right view. Being aware of the Four Noble Truths. Being aware that there is cause and consequence.

Right intention. That right intention is letting go of the need to control things. Letting go of the need for things to be a certain way. Cultivating loving kindness. Cultivating compassion. Right speech. Right speech is basically, you'll see in the dining hall it says there, think before you speak. Obviously, all of you are not going to be speaking for the most part, because this is a silent retreat. But if you have to speak, think before you speak. So the T there is timeliness.

Is it the right time to say what you want to say? for honesty. Is what you're going to say, do you know it to be true? I is for intention. What's your intention behind what you want to say? Is it wholesome or unwholesome? N is for necessity. Is it beneficial to the parties that are going to hear what you have to say? Is it beneficial for you?

And K, can you say it with kindness? So this is think before you speak. That's part of right speech. Right action is basically keeping your precepts, right? So in the morning you take your precepts and you commit to keeping those precepts. That's refraining from harming living beings, from killing living beings, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from sexual misconduct or sensual misconduct, refraining from telling lies, gossiping, slander, and so on, and refraining from intoxicants. And then that leads to right livelihood. Now right here, you have taken a break from your livelihood. But right livelihood basically means having a lifestyle, having a career that does not cause harm to yourself or to others, is not afflictive to you or afflictive to other beings.

And then right effort. This is the crux of the whole practice. Right Effort allows you to go from the wrong path or the wrong factors of the path to the right factors. Right Effort allows you to go from wrong view to right view, wrong intention to right intention, wrong speech to right speech, wrong action to right action, wrong livelihood to right livelihood, wrong mindfulness to right mindfulness, wrong collectedness to right collectedness. So what is that Right Effort? Effort is fourfold.

Knowing when you are distracted, abandoning that distraction, unwholesome states of mind, generating a wholesome state of mind, and maintaining that wholesome state of mind. When you do the six R's, this is what you are doing. You are doing right effort. Because when you recognize that you were distracted, you know that you were distracted. When you release your attention from that distraction, and you relax, you abandon that unwholesome state of mind. When you come back to the smile, you generate a wholesome state of mind.

And then when you stay with your object of meditation, you maintain that wholesome state of mind. So this is all you have to do for the rest of the retreat, is to stay with your object of meditation, whatever that is, and use the six R's when you get distracted. Whether you're sitting, whether you're walking, whether you're eating, whether you're taking a shower, whatever it is you're doing, stay with your object. Six R's when you get distracted.

So every time you use the six R's, you become aware of the Four Noble Truths, which means you become mindful. There is no more lack of mindfulness, which means you let go bit by bit of ignorance. So using the six R's, you are actually cultivating the Four Noble Truths. Because you understand there is suffering in the form of a hindrance that arises.

You let go of the source of that suffering, which is the undue attention to that hindrance. And then you experience the cessation of that suffering when you relax, experience that spacious mind, and then come back to the smile and stay with the object. Doing this, you are cultivating the fourth Noble Truth. So this is a lot of information, but let it seep in. Over the next few days, it will make sense.

But what we are doing here in this practice is letting go of these three taints, these unconscious drivers towards craving, towards identifying, towards ignorance. Once you let go of that, then you understand for yourself the impermanent nature of the five aggregates. This is what the Buddha is talking about. Form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, consciousness. You understand that whatever arises and passes away is liable to cause suffering and therefore you don't take it personally.

This is the goal of the practice. To let go of taking things personally. So, liberation here is the mind that gets liberated from the hindrances. The mind that gets liberated from the fetters, facilitated through the experience of cessation. Cessation is a very interesting place to be in, so to speak. You'll get to know more about it tomorrow. But basically, this liberation of mind is the cessation of all suffering.

And that means it's the cessation of all perception, feeling, and consciousness. You don't know you were in that state until you come out of it. And when you come out of it, there is a very interesting experience that happens. But I'm not going to tell you. You have to tell me. I say, bhikkhus, that liberation too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for liberation?

It should be said, dispassion. Dispassion basically is a mind that is detached. This dispassion is a mind that is basically in a bubble, in a very wholesome state of mind, letting go of any kind of expectations of how things should be. This dispassion says, I don't care what's going on. It's not indifference. It's just saying, I've seen this enough. I've seen these hindrances enough, and I'm tired of them, and I'm letting go of them. So when you see the background thoughts, right, but your mind is staying with the object of meditation, it's actually developing some level of dispassion.

Because you are aware that there's thoughts in the background, but your mind doesn't get pulled in that direction. So it's detached from those thoughts in the background. Being detached, that is what dispassion is. Too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is a proximate cause for dispassion? It should be said disenchantment.

So what is disenchantment? So disenchantment is the mind that says I'm aware of these background thoughts or I'm aware of these distractions or I'm aware of whatever is happening but I'm not getting up in them. I'm no longer letting my mind get interested in them. You don't do this by force. The disenchantment and the dispassion, they arise naturally as a result of the practice.

They arise as a result of you developing the practice, cultivating the practice. Your goal here is to understand how your mind works. It's not to try to push anything down. It's not to suppress the hindrances. It's not to try to control the hindrances. Your goal is to understand how these hindrances arose and let go of them. And that's facilitated by using the six R's. Every time you recognize that there's a distraction, every time you release your attention from that, you relax the mind and body, the tension in the mind and body. You come back to the smile, and then you come back to your object of meditation, you are seeing how your mind works, and you are cultivating and developing wisdom.

So every time you do this, you are further cultivating equanimity, which we'll get to. You are further cultivating disenchantment, further cultivating disenchantment. And as a natural result, that will lead to cessation of suffering, perception, feeling, and consciousness. I say, because that disenchantment too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for dispassion or disenchantment?

It should be said the knowledge and vision of things as they really are. That's just another way of saying equanimity. So the way you develop equanimity, now equanimity is present in all of the states that you're going to experience throughout this retreat. And it gets stronger, and it gets deeper, and it gets more clear as you deepen your practice, as you sit for longer periods of time. Equanimity is basically that attitude where the mind sees things as they are, good, bad, or indifferent, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, and doesn't get caught up in any of that. It doesn't get pulled in one direction or the other.

So if it's a pleasant feeling, your mind is aware, okay, here's a pleasant experience. If it's an unpleasant feeling, your mind is aware, okay, here is an unpleasant experience. If it's a neutral experience, your mind is aware, here is a neutral experience. But it doesn't go beyond that, where it says, oh, I don't like this unpleasant state, or I really like this pleasant state. Whatever you're experiencing in the meditation, the joy, the equanimity, the bliss, whatever you're experiencing, these are all just factors of the practice.

Don't let your mind get caught up in them. If you're experiencing hindrances, those are unpleasant states. Don't let your mind get caught up in them. If your mind does get caught up in them, what do you do? You use the six R's. Recognize there's a hindrance. Let go of your attention from that. Release. Relax the tension in the mind and body. Come back to the smile.

And return back to your object of meditation. Right? It's really that simple. You just have to use the six R's every time you get distracted. And let your mind stay with that feeling. Whatever that feeling is. Whatever that object of meditation is. So equanimity is developed every time you use the six R's. Equanimity becomes stronger in the mind every time you use the six R's. Equanimity is one of the enlightenment factors as well.

So, equanimity actually allows your mind to be more mindful, allows your mind to experience greater joy, allows your mind to experience greater energy, or balances that energy, allows your mind to experience more tranquility, allows your mind to experience more collectedness, and so on. I say, bhikkhus, that the knowledge and vision of things as they really are, too, has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause.

And what is the proximate cause for the knowledge and vision of things as they really are? It should be said, collectedness. How do you get to a collected mind? What is the definition of a collected mind? Sometimes it is translated as concentration. But concentration gives other kinds of connotations. Because that means that your mind becomes very one-pointed towards the object.

Your mind becomes the object of meditation. Here the goal is not that. Because when your mind becomes super concentrated, becomes one-pointed, it suppresses everything else. It suppresses the hindrances. And when it suppresses it, what happens? It's the analogy of having a beach ball. You put it under water, and you suppress that ball under the water, and then you let go, what happens? The ball comes right back up with full force.

When you suppress the hindrances, your mind may feel happy. Your mind may feel joyful. Your mind may feel equanimous. Not a whole lot will happen in the mind. But then what happens when you come out of the meditation? Maybe for an hour or so you feel really good. But then you're met with something that causes a hindrance to arise. How do you deal with it? You have sensual craving that arises.

You have aversion that arises. You have restlessness that arises. You have a sleepy and dull mind, sloth and torpor, that arises. You have doubt that arises. And it comes with full force. And you have no idea how to deal with it. So the practice here is not about trying to become super concentrated. The practice is basically, this is what it is, Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation.

Your mind is tranquil, your mind is collected. Your mind has ekagata. Ekagata is usually translated as one-pointedness, but it's unification of the mind. The analogy to use here is that this is your object of meditation, this is your mind. Your mind orbits around the object of meditation. So your mind has this flexible awareness, this flexible attention, which means that it's able to see what's going on, whether it's a hindrance, whether it's some kind of background thought, whether it's an insight, whatever it might be, but its attention is revolving, orbiting around the object of meditation, the loving kindness, the compassion, the quiet mind, whatever it might be.

What happens when you get distracted? Your mind's attention comes out of orbit and goes somewhere else. It strays away. You get distracted by that. So how do you bring it back into orbit? You use the six R's. You recognize your mind is no longer in orbit. You release your attention from that. You relax the tightness and tension. Come back to the smile and gently bring it back to the object of meditation and keep it going. Continue to revolve around the object.

So this is a very soft and gentle practice. You don't need to push so hard. You don't need to strive. You don't need to suppress anything. Allow things to be as they are. I say bhikkhus that collectedness too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for collectedness? It should be said happiness.

So this happiness is sukkha, not the cat. I don't know if you guys have been acquainted with Sukkah the cat yet. But he gives a lot of sukkha to everybody. Sukkha is this sense of comfort and ease in the mind and body. So this sukkha arises when your mind feels loving kindness. When your mind stays with the loving-kindness, it feels joyful.

It feels relaxed. It feels happy. It feels uplifted. It's very free-flowing. It's not trying so hard. It's allowing things to just flow. So this is the comfort and ease that you experience in mind and body. And it will happen naturally as a result of to stay with your object, and continuing to 6R whenever you get distracted. I say, bhikkhus, that happiness, too, has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for happiness?

It should be said, tranquility. Tranquility. This is relaxation. Being relaxed in everything that you do. So this tranquility also arises naturally as a result of keeping your mind attentive towards your object. Staying here, being undistracted, your mind rid of any kind of hindrances, it experiences a level of relief from those hindrances. This is the tranquility that you experience, which deepens at a certain level of meditation, which we'll talk about tomorrow.

But just understand that these are the factors that you want to be aware of. Not that you have to look out for them, but just know that they are present, and when they are present, you're aware and you know that you are on the right track. the wrong path. But if you're experiencing a mind that is uplifted, a mind that is tranquil, a mind that is collected, a mind that is happy, at ease, then you're going in the right direction. That's all you need to know.

I say because that tranquility too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for tranquility? It should be said rapture. Rapture comes from the Pali word piti. Piti means joy or bliss. This is one of the factors of the levels of meditation, the first two levels of meditation that you will see tomorrow.

And that too arises naturally. Remember, these are all passive states that arise and pass away. You don't need to hold on to them. You don't need to try to construct a state of joy. You don't need to try to bring up joy. It will arise naturally as a result of your mind being more and more collected. Don't look for these states to happen. Just be aware that they are present when they happen.

So your mind becomes very relaxed. Your mind becomes collected, and as a result, it feels happy and it feels that joy. So if you're experiencing that, know that you're on the right track. But here's a key point. Don't hold on to the joy. If the joy goes away, that's fine. Don't try to keep it. Don't try to retain it. Allow it to be there when it is there and allow it to go when it goes. Because that joy, as your mind becomes more collected, will get to the next level. It will experience that tranquility. It will experience that sukkha, that happiness. It will experience more collectedness. It will experience more equanimity, and so on and so forth.

So don't worry if anything goes away. If you notice that it goes away and your mind is distracted, whether it is by the joy or by something else, use the 6R's to bring your mind back into orbit, to stay with its object of meditation. I say, bhikkhus, that rapture too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for rapture? It should be said, gladness.

Gladness comes from the word pamoja. That is the happiness of the Dhamma. And this gladness can also be equated to what's known as non-regret. How does agitation arise? How does restlessness and remorse arise? They arise every time your mind has an intention of breaking a precept. Most of the time. Sometimes restlessness will arise because you've had too much caffeine. Or you're anxious about something. Whatever it might be. But generally speaking, this is where you should understand that there is a connection, an interrelation between keeping the precepts and the hindrances that arise.

There are these five hindrances: sensual craving, aversion, restlessness, sloth and torpor, and doubt. Sensual craving is the mind that becomes obsessed with some kind of a sensory experience. It's a pleasant feeling. And the mind says, I want more of that. Aversion says, I don't want any more of that. Aversion pushes away, has resistance towards something that is unpleasant in the mind or to the body.

Restlessness is a mind that is agitated. That's because you're trying too hard. When you try too hard, the restlessness that arises causes tightness and tension in the mind and body. And then what happens? You have a flurry of thoughts that come and go. Sloth and torpor is when you have a lack of energy. There's not enough interest in your object of meditation.

Sometimes what can happen is that your mind hasn't had enough sleep. Now this can be experienced by some of you in the first couple of days. You might be meditating, or you think you might be meditating, your mind drifts off somewhere, and then you have that bubble head that goes on. So when you notice that, just bring a little bit more attention to your object. Bring a little bit more interest in your object. This is because there's a lack of energy.

Sometimes you need to take a nap, so you go and take a nap. Meditate in the light, in the natural sunlight, or walk backwards, like I said yesterday. Doubt. So doubt is basically the mind that says, I don't know if I'm doing this meditation correctly. Did I hear him correctly when he said this? I don't know if I'm feeling the feeling of loving kindness. Am I six R-ing correctly? Wait, did I miss the relaxed step? Did I miss recognizing? You know, all of these different kinds of thoughts arise.

So these hindrances, generally speaking, can arise because at some point a precept was broken. arises, there's no need for you to feel guilty that it arose because you broke a precept. If that's happening, then you have other issues to deal with, which we'll talk about personally in our interviews. But just know that if a hindrance has arisen, you don't need to get so flustered by it. Just recognize there's a hindrance. Let your attention go from that. Release your attention, relax, re-smile, return, and repeat whenever you get distracted.

So keeping the precepts is a wonderful protectant against the hindrances. Because the more you develop keeping the precepts, the more you commit to keeping the precepts, the less agitated your mind becomes generally. Why? Because when there is an intention to break the first precept, to harm or kill a living being, what happens? There is ill will that arises. There is aversion that arises. And this can give rise to the hindrance of aversion at some point in time.

When you break the precept of taking what is not given, that can give rise to restlessness and remorse. That's the hindrance of restlessness and remorse. When you have sensual misconduct or sexual misconduct, obsessed by some kind of sensory experience and you want more of that. And in that process, you have misconduct. You break a precept in that obsession of grasping onto that sensory experience.

That's sensual misconduct. And that cultivates the hindrance of sensual craving. When you tell a lie, when you gossip, when you slander, when you break that precept of refraining from lying, you create doubt in yourself. You create doubt about others. Because if you can lie to others, who's to say others aren't lying to you? That's the mindset that you cultivate when you do that.

And so that gives rise to the hindrance of doubt. And then indulging in intoxicants. Any intoxicant that causes dullness of mind will invariably lead to sloth and torpor. Broadly speaking, that can also be where the mind becomes obsessed in overindulging in something. That could be going on a Netflix binge and watching six seasons of a show over a weekend. How does your mind feel when it does that at the end of it?

Just blank. And it's not a good kind of blank. It's just very dull. So know the moderation in consumption, whether it's food, it's reading, whatever it might be. So this gladness that we're talking about, it arises as a result of knowing that you have kept your precepts. So tune into that. In the morning, when you take your precepts, allow that natural gladness to be cultivated in your mind.

And allow that to inform your meditation. Bring up that feeling of loving kindness. And stay with that, and stay with that until you get distracted, 6R, and then come back. I say, bhikkhus, that gladness too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for gladness? It should be said, faith.

This word faith comes from the Pali word saddha. So this faith is really twofold. You guys all came here to do the retreat because you're willing to understand what this retreat is all about. You're willing to listen to what the instructions are, and you're willing to see and try for yourself how this practice works. That's a type of faith.

As a result of that, your mind makes it a point to stay with the object of meditation. But before that, it makes it a point of cultivating and keeping the precepts, as a result of which the gladness arises, and as a result of which the piti arises, the joy arises, as a result of which there is happiness and comfort and ease, as a result of which there is tranquility, there is equanimity, as a result of which there is disenchantment, as a result of which there is dispassion, and then finally liberation of the mind.

So this is what you will experience if you do three things. Keep your precepts, follow the guidelines, right? Keep observing your object of meditation, staying with the object of meditation, and use the 6R's when you get distracted. That's all you have to do. Notice what kind of thoughts arise in your mind. Are they aversive thoughts? Are they craving-based thoughts? Are they restless thoughts? Are they thoughts rooted in doubt? Whatever it might be. Recognize it. Let them go.

Relax your mind and body. Re-smile and come back to the loving-kindness. Come back to the compassion. Come back to the joy or the equanimity or quiet mind, or whatever it might be. So this willingness to see how this practice works is a type of faith. And as a result of which, when you go through this process, you experience what's known as conviction.

Conviction in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha because you have seen for yourself that this path actually works. So that's the two-fold understanding of faith. Now we're going to get into something that is basically an elaboration of the second noble truth. So far what you've been looking at is the cultivation of the third and fourth noble truth, the 6R's, and then experiencing, as a result, these different states, allowing you to experience nirodha, the cessation of suffering.

Now what we're going to get into is the first and second noble truth, the noble truth of suffering and how suffering arises. And I'll go through it very briefly, because for the majority of the retreat, we will be exploring in detail these different factors, known as the links of dependent origination. Up until now, what we have been discussing is what is known as transcendental dependent origination.

Now we're going to be talking about dependent origination of suffering. I say bhikkhus that faith, too, has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for faith? It should be said, suffering. Why did you guys come here on retreat? You were experiencing some kind of suffering. I know through coming to this retreat, you experienced some kind of suffering.

Right? Some kind of suffering, whether it's the suffering of change, or the suffering of stress, or the suffering of whatever it might be. Lack of control over your life. Whatever it might be. And then that led you to say, hey, let me sign up for this retreat, see what it's all about. So that's that kind of faith, the willingness to try something.

Now, suffering in itself, you have to understand, a lot of times there's a misunderstanding that life is suffering. And everything is dukkha. Everything is suffering. But with that kind of attitude, where are you going to go? Where is that going to take you? It's definitely not going to take you to feeling joyful. going to take you to feeling relaxed.

In fact, you will only add more to your suffering if you think that all life is suffering. So what you have to understand is that there is something known as suffering in life. But there is also something known as joy in life. There is also something known as freedom of mind in life. So we will explore all of these links in greater detail. Different links and they end in suffering, the whole mass of suffering.

I say bhikkhus that suffering too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for suffering? It should be said birth. Now birth here has a lot of connotations. Birth can mean the birth into existence or the birth of action, or a certain kind of classification, because the word birth comes from the Pali jati, and jati means classification of beings.

What kind of being have you become? And we'll explore this more. But for the purpose of understanding dependent origination from a micro level, that is to say from a moment-to-moment level, we are talking about the birth of action, the birth of karmic action, action that produces results rooted in some kind of suffering. Don't worry if this is getting too complicated, but we will discuss this in greater detail. Just for now, understand what's going on here in terms of causation, cause and effect, conditionality.

With the arising of this, there is the arising of that. With the passing of this, there is the passing of that. So the birth that we're talking about here can mean different things. It can mean the birth of being, the birth of inter-existence, the birth of action, or a classification that results in some kind of suffering. So the identification with something that results in suffering.

I say bhikkhus that birth too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for birth? It should be said existence. So here existence. It comes from the word bhava, and bhava can mean being or to become something, to incline towards something. It can mean habitual tendencies, certain kinds of reactions, a library of reactions in your mind based on what is met in every situation.

And from these reactions, from these habitual tendencies, the mind acts and causes itself suffering. From that habitual tendency, there is a certain birth of action that can lead to some kind of suffering. I say bhikkhus that existence or habitual tendencies, too, has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for habitual tendencies?

It should be said, clinging. Clinging basically is the mind that kind of rationalizes why it says what it likes. Right? The mind says, I like this and I want this. That's the craving. And then the mind says, I want this because of so and so. That's the clinging, the association with that particular kind of craving, whether it's craving or aversion or identification. That's the process of clinging.

It's the mind that tries to justify, in that sense, why it says that this pursuit of craving, or this resistance from aversion, or this standpoint of identifying with whatever process is going on as me, mine, or myself, that rationalizing, that is the clinging. So this is the crux. Craving here is threefold. There is the craving for sense experiences, there is the craving for existence, and there is the craving for non-existence. Sensory experiences, attaching a sense of self, taking personally whatever is happening through your five physical senses.

Craving for existence is I want to be in this particular state of mind. I want to be adept at this particular meditation. I want to get to this particular Brahma Vihara and becoming obsessed by that. Making the chanda, the wholesome inclination of inclining your mind towards release. That's the type of craving. The craving for existence. The craving for non-existence.

I don't want to be radiating this particular Brahma Vihara. Or I don't want to be in this jhana. That's the flip side of that. Or the very extreme form of craving for non-existence can be suicide. The mind becomes so encumbered by all kinds of experiences that it's unable to contain all of that. It's unable to deal with that in the present.

And it feels overpowered. And as a result, it feels like the relief that will arise will be by ending all of it. And that is the craving for non-existence. At the most extreme form. That's suicide. I say bhikkhus that craving too has a proximate cause. It does not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for craving?

It should be said feeling. So what is feeling? Feeling comes from the word Vedana. And Vedana, the root word of Vedana is Veda. To know. To understand. To experience. So Vedana is any kind of experience that is to be felt. That can be any experience that happens through the five sense bases, that is to say through the eyes, through the ears, through the nose, through the tongue, through the body, or through the mind. That's just an experience.

And that experience can be categorized or felt or cognized as being pleasant, something that feels good, unpleasant, something that feels bad, or neither pleasant nor painful. Something that is neutral. So, these are the three classifications of an experience that you're having. Right now, you are having an experience. Hopefully, that experience is pleasant. Right? So, whatever it is you're experiencing through the sixth sense base, that is feeling.

That is Vedana. For feeling, it should be said that the proximate cause is contact. So contact is the initial spark that propagates that experience. In other words, the light, the photons bounce off of an object and hit the eye. That process is contact. The vibrations in the atmosphere touch the ear and that creates the sound. That is the contact with the ear. The molecules connect with the olfactory bulbs. That is the smelling that happens. That's the fragrance or the odor that you experience. That initial spark when those molecules hit your nose, that is the contact.

When you taste a piece of food, that initial experience, that initial spark, that's contact. When the wind blows and you're meditating outside, that initial experience of the wind bristling around your skin, across your skin. That initial experience is the contact, which then gives rise to the experience of wind being present, or warmth, or cold, or whatever it might be.

And the initial time when your mind makes contact with loving-kindness, or with a hindrance, that is contact. For contact, it should be said the sixth sense bases. The sixth sense bases are basically the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. That's all it is. So it's the physical organs that receive sensory information.

These are the sixth sense bases. For the sixth sense base is name and form, mentality, materiality. This is a very, very interesting particular link because there's a lot to be talked about here. There's a lot to explore here. But just understand that the name and form basically means mind and body that have faculties for you to be able to experience contact, feeling, for you to be able to perceive what it is that you're feeling. Perceiving, perception, means to be able to recognize, to know what it is that you're experiencing. In other words, if you've seen the color black before, you know that this is the color black, because you've learned it before. That perception is rooted in a memory of an experience.

And that allows the faculties of intention to incline the mind towards one way or the other. And attention, to pay attention to something. And then the form itself, which is the body. For name and form, it should be said consciousness. So consciousness here, it basically means the six sense-based consciousnesses. Awareness of something. Consciousness comes from the word vinnana. Nana means knowledge, to know something.

And vi means to divide that knowledge up. So you're becoming aware of an experience, whether it's the awareness of your eyes, the experience that your eyes are having, the awareness of your ears, and the experience that your ears are having, the awareness of the nose, the tongue, the body, or the mind, and the experiences that they're having. It's to cognize. To understand what is present.

Consciousness here is not about some kind of all-pervading consciousness that is providing life to this body. And that is a permanent kind of consciousness. We will explore this more because it's a very subtle understanding of what consciousness is. And there's an interdependency between consciousness, and mentality, materiality. Without mentality, materiality, you can't experience consciousness. Without consciousness, you can't be aware of mentality, materiality. So we'll explore that also in the coming days. But just understand, on a very simple level, consciousness is to be aware of something, to cognize something. Consciousness, the proximate cause, are volitional formations.

This comes from the word sankhara. Sankhara basically means to cook up something, to prepare something, to form something. So that is to form a certain kind of experience for your intention, for your attention. There are three formations, three types of formations. Bodily formations, verbal formations, mental formations. Bodily formations allow you to engage with the physical world through breathing and walking and so on. Verbal formations allow you to express in speech and talk. So you have thinking and examining thought, which means you think about something, you examine it, and then you have something that you want to say. This is facilitated by verbal formations in general.

So they can be understood as synapses that allow the mind to then experience something. So they allow you to feel and perceive. I say bhikkhus that volitional formations too have a proximate cause. They do not lack a proximate cause. And what is the proximate cause for volitional formations? It should be said ignorance. The reason why it's understood in this way is because ignorance, remember, is the lack of understanding the Four Noble Truths, the lack of mindfulness of what's going on, which means you're taking things personally. When that happens, that actually activates formations or impressions in the mind or synapses that have been strengthened by taking things personally. And they color the rest of the links that arise in this series of experiences.

So ignorance is really the beginning of this. But that ignorance also has a foundation, which we'll explore later, which are the taints. So it comes full circle. How do you let go of these processes that cause craving? You use the 6R's. Every time you use the 6R's, you're recognizing, which means you become mindful. You have mindfulness.

When you become mindful, you're aware of what's happening, which means that the ignorance starts to subside. When you let go of the craving, whether it's craving for existence or sensual craving, you're letting go bit by bit of that taint of sensual desire and that taint of craving for existence. Thus, bhikkhus, with ignorance as proximate cause, volitional formations come to be. Proximate cause, consciousness comes to be. With consciousness as proximate cause, mentality materiality comes to be. With mentality materiality as proximate cause, the sixth sense basis comes to be. With the sixth sense basis as proximate cause, contact comes to be. With contact as proximate cause, feeling comes to be. With feeling as proximate cause, craving comes to be.

The understanding of this gives you the perception of suffering because you realize that you become bored by it. It becomes too much for you to keep seeing the arising and passing away of things. And then you realize that there is no controller here. That this is all an impersonal process. And that gives rise to equanimity, which gives rise to cessation. So anicca, or the understanding of anicca, on an experiential level, happens as you become more collected.

You don't need to look for these things. You don't need to analyze. You don't need to reflect. You don't need to contemplate. You don't need to try to look for them. They will arise on their own. These experiences, they happen naturally. As you become more collected, as you experience the different levels of meditation, you see for yourself the impermanent nature of things. You see for yourself the suffering aspect, and then you see for yourself the impersonal nature. Once that happens, you drop everything and you experience this deep sense of equanimity, which is the knowledge and vision of things as they are. When you deepen that, then you have the disenchantment, then you have the dispassion, then you have the cessation that happens.

So you don't have to say in your mind, oh, this is impermanent, or hold on to the idea that this is impermanent. Your mind, by going through the different progressive steps of meditation, which we'll talk about tomorrow, at a certain level will see for itself that anicca, will see for itself the dukkha, and will see for itself the anatta. It's a very clear experience that happens.

No, no, it is found in the suttas. Actually, yeah, because what it says is that the perception of anicca leads to the perception of dukkha, which leads to the perception of anatta. That perception of anatta leads to the perception of equanimity, which leads to the perception of disenchantment, which leads to the perception of dispassion, which leads to cessation. Actually, there is a Sutta in Digha Nikaya number 33, the Sangiti Sutta, where Sariputta is going through all of the different categories of experiences in the Dhamma. And he talks about these six or seven levels of perception that first begin with the perception of anicca. But that is facilitated by right effort and by right collectedness.

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