Day 3: Awakening Factors

So today we'll talk about the seven factors of awakening. Yesterday we spoke about the five hindrances. These are the challenges you will meet up with in your meditation. Now I will talk about... So, the five hindrances are the distractions that you will have to deal with in your practice. But the enlightenment factors, the seven enlightenment factors, can be seen as antidotes in some ways to the five hindrances. But more importantly, the way to look at how one experiences jhanas as you start to progress on this path is that it is the eradication or the temporary stilling, at least, of the five hindrances. Non-presence or the absence of hindrances, but also the presence and activation and maintenance of wholesome states of mind, which include these seven enlightenment factors. So what are the seven enlightenment factors? Mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, joy,

Tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity. So when we look at these enlightenment factors, there's a reason why they're called enlightenment factors. You require them in your meditation, you require them in your daily practice for the purposes of awakening, for the purposes of letting go and experiencing deeper states that allow you to have wisdom and insight that naturally arise. So let's talk first and foremost about mindfulness. Mindfulness comes from the word sati, S-A-T-I, the Pali word sati, which comes from the Sanskrit word smriti. Smriti means to remember. It is the process of memory itself.

In the suttas, actually, you will see that in some suttas it talks about how mindfulness is the ability to remember things very clearly. That's one aspect. But it's also the application of right effort. And the first part of that is applying the ability to see and know where your mind's attention is in every moment. So in Majjhima Nikaya 10 we have the Satipatthana Sutta. In the Digha Nikaya, we have the Maha Satipatthana Sutta. The difference between the two is that in the Satipatthana Sutta, it talks about the mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feeling, mindfulness of consciousness, or mind, and mindfulness of phenomena. It does the same thing in the Digha Nikaya version, but the difference is that there is a deeper elaboration and explanation of the Noble Truths as part of the phenomena that happens in everyday life.

We talked about mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feeling, mindfulness of mind or chitta, and mindfulness of phenomena. Coming back to this understanding, if you use this understanding that mindfulness is the ability to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other, then you can apply it for any of these different foundations of mindfulness, the Satipatthana. Linked to mindfulness is something known as Sampajanya in Pali. Sampajanya usually is seen as the ability to see and recognize things as they arise and pass away. There are deeper layers to Sampajanya. It also can mean seeing the links of dependent origination at one level. At least this is what the commentaries might say. But for practical understanding, Sampajanya is just aware of things as they are.

In other words, if you're walking, you know you're walking. If you're thinking, you know you're thinking. For those of you who have done other kinds of practices, particularly the noting practice, this is part of it. Sampajanya, they come together. Sati is seeing where your mind's awareness is or your attention is and knowing what's going on in every moment. Thinking, thinking, speaking, speaking, hearing, hearing, walking, walking, and so on and so forth. This is part of the Sampajanya. This practical application of Sampajanya and Sati is essentially meta-awareness or metacognition. This is very important to understand for the meditation. Oftentimes when you're meditating, what happens is the mind says that I am meditating.

I am the meditator. I am experiencing the meditation. I am feeling the loving kindness. I am generating the loving kindness and so on and so forth. What is the common denominator here? The I. The sense of me, mine, myself. But as soon as you create a space, where it's like you are a scientist observing things. You're just observing what's going on. You're more aware of: mind is experiencing loving kindness. Mind is experiencing this hindrance. Mind is experiencing expansion and so on. You take the I out of the equation. You take the sense of self out of the equation. In the practice, then, you don't become so attached to the outcome of the practice. Then what it is is just a process. There is a sutta or a series of suttas in which Ananda, the Buddha's attendant, chief attendant, sees Sariputta, one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, from afar, and he says he sees Sariputta. And he says, your faculties are glowing.

Your face is shining. What are you doing? And he said, today I have been in the first jhana. I've been spending the last day, the whole day, let's say eight hours, in the first jhana. He does the same thing for the second jhana and the third jhana and the fourth, all the way up to cessation. And then he also tells Ananda that it did not occur to me that I am entering the first jhana. Nor that I am in the first jhana. Nor that I am coming out of the first jhana. But just aware that the first jhana is present. Ananda says that is wonderful. That is because you have no more conceit in your mind.

You're not applying the meditation as something that I have to do. That I have to achieve. You're just sitting back and relaxing and watching the show. That's the attitude to have. This is the mindfulness that we're talking about, the metacognition. Just being aware of how mind is meditating. If you're doing the forgiveness practice, being aware that there is forgiveness happening. Yes, it can be a very cathartic process and it's a process of a lot of emotions and everything else. But at the end of the day, you realize that too, is just a process coming from letting go. So these four foundations of mindfulness, it seems like when you read the sutta, that they happen one after the other because they seem to follow one after the other.

You have mindfulness of body, then that's followed by mindfulness of feeling, then that's followed by mindfulness of mind or mental states. And that's followed by mindfulness of phenomena. So it feels as if you have to see these things in a certain order. Or it seems like you have to see them at a subtler and subtler level. Not necessarily. When you're doing the meditation, when you're doing this practice, you're actually integrating all the foundations of mindfulness together. How do you feel it? It is an experience. It is a feeling. It's a pleasant feeling. You feel a warm sensation in the body. You feel some heat in the body. You feel joy in the body. What is that?

That's mindfulness of the body and feeling. You notice that your mind is in an uplifted state. You notice your mind is in an elevated state. You notice your mind is in a state of relief. What is that? That's mindfulness of mind. You notice when a hindrance arises. You notice that the mind is now distracted and going to the hindrance. You let go of that. You generate a wholesome state of mind. What is that? That's mindfulness of phenomena. So it is all part of an integrated practice. This is the beauty of the practice. Elements of the 37 factors or requisites for enlightenment that the Buddha has listed out.

Very briefly, just for the purposes of understanding and knowing, I'll tell you the highlights of each of these levels, let's say, or foundations of mindfulness. When we talk about mindfulness of body, we talk about a few things. He talks about mindfulness of breathing, anapanasati. Anapana means apana prana. That is in breathing, out breathing. Or actually apana is out breathing, prana is in breathing. So it's the awareness. It's remembering to observe mind's attention in relation to using the breath as an object. And the way it's described is you breathe in knowing you breathe in. When you breathe out, you know you breathe out. And you tranquilize bodily formations.

Throughout that process you don't have to do this. I'm just giving you some clarity on these different layers. Then there's contemplation of the body as the four elements, seeing the different components of the body as different elements. We have four great elements: we have earth, we have water, we have air, and we have fire. These are in essence, you could say, the states of matter. We talk about the earth element, whether it's internal or external, it is the net sense of solidity. So your bones are solid, right? Your body is solid. You look at the different elements of solidity in the body. You talk about the water element, that is the liquid state of matter. You notice what layers of liquid matter there are in the body: the blood, the pus, mucus, this and that, and whatever else it might be. The gaseous states, that's the air element. Looking at the different circulation of air throughout the body. And finally fire, which is heat and temperature in the body. You're noticing the different temperatures in the body.

So seeing the body in this way, you start to disidentify. You start to let go of identifying with the body as mine, as me, mine, or myself. Another kind of contemplation is the contemplation of the different bodily organs, the different parts of the body. This was a practice that was prescribed by the Buddha to his son, Rahula. There's a sutta in which Rahula goes to Sariputta and he says, what should be my object of meditation? And Sariputta says, do the mindfulness of breathing, Rahula. Do the mindfulness of breathing. And then Rahula goes to his father, the Buddha, and he says, what should I be doing? And the Buddha says, do the contemplation of the body.

Look at the different parts of the body. Why? Because at that time, Rahula was probably about—he was a teenager, maybe about 19. And when you're a teenager, what happens? You have a lot of hormones. You have a lot of lust. A lot of identification with the body. And he was said to be one of the more handsome men at that time. So he had pride about that. So the Buddha said, contemplate the body. Look at the different organs of the body. Turn the body inside out. So take away the skin. What do you have? You have muscle. You have the skeleton. You have the mesentery. You have the digestive system. You have feces.

You have urine. You have all of these really disgusting elements of the body. And so you start to let go of identifying with that, taking the body as something that's beautiful. Then another kind of contemplation in mindfulness of body is contemplation of the body as a corpse in various stages of decay. Now, generally, this is a practice that is quite intense. You would go to the charnel ground and you would look at the different kinds of corpses. I've done this. I've gone to Varanasi. There are actually two places in Varanasi. When you go by the river, you go on the river cruise on the Ganges, you'll see these chimneys, and they are burning the bodies at the ghats, as they call them, at the riverbed, or at the side of the river.

And so you'll see all these different bodies there in different stages of decay. You'll see skeletons, you'll see skulls, you'll see bloated bodies, you know, fresh corpses, and so on. And so the idea is you go here and you look at the body and you see them in different stages of decay, and finally you realize, so too is this body, the nature of this body, it too will one day be the same. It's quite intense. It can be quite scary for some people, so it's generally recommended for people who are more ascetic, you know, who are inclined to do those kinds of practices. Not necessarily recommended for everybody. And so one of the things that you see in the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha says, is that he becomes mindful and aware in relation to the body as body.

Or he sees the arising and then the passing away, or the arising and passing away in relation to the body. And he says this like a refrain. He says this for the body, for the feeling, for mind and for mind objects or phenomena. And so what is he talking about? He's seeing the impermanent nature of the body. He's seeing the arising and passing away of breathing. Arising and passing away of elements of the body. Arising and passing away of the different parts of the body. Arising and passing away of the body itself. Get deeper into wisdom, contemplating and seeing, this indeed is not me, not mine, not myself. Then when we talk about the mindfulness of feeling, he talks about different kinds of feeling. What is feeling? Generally feeling is seen as threefold: that is pleasant, unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant. But these are qualities of feeling. Feeling in itself doesn't have any kind of quality.

It is the perception aspect of the mind that projects a quality to the feeling: that this is pleasing to me, that this is unpleasing or unpleasant, or that this is neutral. But he talks about feeling in terms of worldly feeling and otherworldly feeling. In other words, mundane feeling tied to the physical sense basis, and super mundane, tied to the states of mind or at the level of mind. So feeling, or vedana, when we talk about the word vedana, which is where the word feeling comes from, it is basically just an experience. Feeling is seeing. Feeling is hearing. Feeling is smelling. Feeling is tasting. Feeling is touching. Feeling is thinking. But we don't control that.

It arises due to causes and conditions, namely contact. We'll explore this further when we talk about dependent origination. But what we're seeing is we're just aware of what feeling is present, what experience is present. So instead of calling it feeling, perhaps we can call it experience. It can be a pleasant experience, it can be an unpleasant experience, or it could be a neutral experience. So what is an example of something that is a worldly or mundane pleasant experience? Good food, whatever it is. That's all related to the world, related to the five physical sense spaces. We talk about a worldly unpleasant feeling: anything that is displeasing to the five physical sense spaces. We talk about a neutral worldly feeling.

Actually, this is related to ignorance. Mindfulness. That is to say, we are not aware of what is going on in the present moment. It's a lack of mindfulness. When we talk about a pleasant otherworldly feeling, what could that be? Loving kindness. Compassion. Tranquility. Jhana. Piti. Sukha, having comfort. These are all super mundane. These are transcendental. These are in the mind, experienced by the mind, outside of the five physical sense spaces, through the mind, with the mind, from the mind. So what would be an unpleasant super mundane feeling? A hindrance. A distraction. Something that takes you away from your object of meditation. Being uncollected, being distracted, having sensual craving, aversion, ill will, restlessness, sloth and torpor, doubt.

goes into also mental phenomena because the five hindrances are part of it, but they're experienced nonetheless as an experience, as a feeling in the mind. What about a neutral super mundane feeling? This would be equanimity, a mind that is able to see things as they are without getting affected one way or the other. Complete balance of mind. So this is already happening. When you have mindfulness and you're observing the meditation in this way, you're aware of what's happening in the body. There's tightness in the body. There's tension in the body. There's pain in the body. There's a hindrance in the mind, or there's loving kindness present. This is the way to do it. Metacognition. You are just sitting back and observing the mind moving.

You're observing it closely, but you're not getting caught up in it. You're not allowing yourself to identify with it, so to speak. You're not saying, I am experiencing loving kindness. There is loving kindness present. I am not experiencing the equanimity. Equanimity is present. The mind is radiating equanimity. And so you're just watching the mind radiate instead of you being the one who's radiating.

So when we talk about mindfulness of mind, mindfulness of chitta, these are mental states. These are different kinds of states of mind. So there can be a mind that is collected, a mind that is not collected, a mind that is contracted, a mind that is expanded, a mind that is distracted, a mind that is expanded or spacious, a mind that is liberated or not, a mind that is experiencing what we would call a surpassed mind or an unsurpassed mind. So all of these are basically just tuning into what is the quality of mind in this present moment. Is my mind collected? Is my mind aware of loving kindness? Or is my mind distracted? Is my mind thinking about this or that?

Or is my mind in a jhanic state? Is my mind experiencing a state of elevation? Is my mind experiencing a state of spaciousness? Is my mind liberated from the hindrances? Have I experienced any stages of liberation? That's all you're doing. So by putting the space between the self, the sense of the observer, and just observing what's going on, you're just being impersonal through that whole process. Because in reality, that process is fully impersonal. Then when we talk about the mindfulness of phenomena, mindfulness of dhamma, so different phenomena that happen in the mind, different kinds of mind objects. So being aware there is a hindrance present. It's just here. There is a hindrance present. It's not my hindrance.

I didn't bring up the hindrance. It just arose due to causes and conditions. It's there. I have recognized it. First level of mindfulness. I'm choosing to let it go. Instead of fighting with it, instead of pushing it away, instead of grasping at it, instead of suppressing it and pushing it down and all of that. I'm just aware it's here. And then I choose to let it go, relax. I bring up a wholesome state through the smile and come back to my object of meditation. That should take you no more than four to five seconds, that whole process. As soon as you notice hindrance is present, you let go, relax, smile, come back.

And the beautiful thing is it's not just a meditation. So, the five hindrances are part of this mental phenomena. The seven enlightenment factors, or the awakening factors that we are now discussing, are part of that. What is present in my mind? Do I have mindfulness? Do I have investigation? Do I have energy? Is there more energy or less energy? Is there more joy or less joy? Tranquility or less tranquility? Do I have more collectedness or not enough collectedness? Then there's also the understanding of the four noble truths. This happens at a very deep level, where you're noticing: here is present suffering. The mind is suffering in some way. Maybe it has some kind of anxiety, maybe it's sad about something, maybe it's in grief, maybe it has a painful feeling. It's noticing this, letting go of that, understanding that the undue attention to it and taking it personally is the cause of it, the second noble truth.

Letting that go and experiencing the cessation of that. That's the third noble truth. Every time I do this, I'm cultivating the fourth noble truth using right effort. So seeing these different kinds of qualities of the mind, or factors of the mind, is part of mindfulness of phenomena or mindfulness of mind objects. So that's just a brief overview of the foundations of mindfulness. The gist of that is a couple of things: having the awareness of the present moment, and keeping space, a distance, between the sense of that which is watching and whatever is going on in the mind, so that it's not happening to me. It's just a process that's happening. You're like an impersonal observer.

That's it. That's what the mind is doing. It's just observing itself and seeing what is present and not present. Which now takes us to the next enlightenment factor, which is called dhamma vichaya, which usually is translated as investigation of states. But here, investigation can denote a mind that analyzes, a mind that pierces, a mind that looks through and reflects. But that's not necessary. When we talk about investigation of states, this factor is an antidote to the hindrance of doubt, in the sense that when we talk about doubt, we talk about doubt as a confused state. Confused about what states of mind are present. Is it wholesome or unwholesome? Where is the mind?

So first you need mindfulness to be able to recognize where the mind is. And then you're able to note: there is a hindrance present, or the mind is distracted, or the mind is coming back. To that extent, you are doing the investigation of states. When you do this, that naturally leads to Virya, a third enlightenment factor. Virya means effort or energy. So it doesn't mean you need to bring too much energy. It doesn't mean you need to bring too little energy. But every time you use right effort, you are bringing balanced energy, effort. And so when you start to get to deeper levels of mind where you're getting into what's known as just mind or quiet mind, at that point there will be things that are happening which are very much below the surface, at deeper and deeper layers.

And at that point you make tiny, incremental, microscopic adjustments. And these adjustments are basically like micro-dosing on these enlightenment factors. What that means is, if there's too much restlessness, too much activity in the mind, then you use the tranquilizing enlightenment factors. When there's too much sloth and torpor, when the mind starts to dull out, then you bring up the energizing enlightenment factors. So I'll explain that shortly, but let's go through this. Energy here, when we talk about energy, it means to make some level of effort. It might mean that you have to bring a little bit more focus. As soon as you're aware and investigating, or aware of what state is present, you make the effort to let go.

Or you make the effort to focus. This naturally leads to what's known as joy, piti, as an enlightenment factor. Joy here can manifest in different ways. As a factor of the first and second jhana, joy can be felt as heat in the body. It can be felt as warmth in the hands, as elation, emotional elation, and so on. But there is another understanding of joy, for practical purposes, that you can implement in your practice, which means what? This joy can mean interest. When you don't have enough interest in the object of meditation, then it starts to veer into sloth and torpor. Is going on in the mind to the extent that you're aware, you're present, and you're staying with the object of meditation, then you have balanced joy, balanced interest.

So this is an energizing factor. Energy, obviously, and joy are energizing factors. Investigation of states, being more attentive to what's going on. Passaddhi, which is tranquility, relaxation. And so now we get into tranquilizing enlightenment factors. So passaddhi, or relaxation, how do you do that? Sometimes people will ask, how do you relax? What does it mean to relax? Well, you know what it means when you clench your fist. It's tight. It's tense. And when you let go, what happens? You feel relaxation. You feel the tension going away. It's the same kind of quality in the mind where the mind feels too constricted, too contracted. And so you bring some space by just pulling back a little bit, relaxing and letting go.

And you notice an expansion in your mind. This was something that was told by Venerable Metananda. And he talked about doing this exercise and seeing for yourself. If you take your finger and you put it in front of you, you can all try it if you want. You take your finger and you put it in front of you, and you just look at your fingernail. What you're going to notice is there's a certain level of contraction of attention, just pointed towards the fingernail. But if I tell you to let go of that and observe what's going on all around, not the fingernail, but everything else, you'll notice a certain spaciousness in your attention, a certain kind of relaxing in your attention.

That's the quality of mind that you want to have. When you relax, it's ease, it's uplifted, it's relaxed, it's tranquil. This is the tranquility factor. So when you have too much restlessness, when there's a lot of things that are going on, what can you do? You can drop a little bit of relaxation, drop a little bit of tranquility, just let that go, take a step back, keep the mind's attention more expansive. This naturally leads to what's known as collectedness, samadhi. So what is samadhi? We hear it oftentimes in different traditions, but in the context of Buddhism, in the Dhamma, we have what is known as samadhi, concentration, or right meditation, however you want to put it. Samadhi. So, dhi here is a short form for buddhi, which means the intellect or the mind. Sama means the same, even-mindedness, being balanced. So another way of looking at it is that the mind is collected, the mind is composed. So part of this is ekagata.

Ekagata means a mind that is unified. The attention remains collected around its object. So this also goes back to keeping that spaciousness or that distance, where you're not looking at the object so up close and personal. You're just observing it from afar and just allowing your attention to revolve around it, to orbit it. So a mind's attention that is around its object of meditation is collected. When the mind's attention is dispersed and it goes from here to there, then it doesn't have samadhi. It is distracted. The attention is diffused. So one of the analogies that I use to understand this is, you imagine your mind's attention like a satellite orbiting a planet. So the planet is your object of meditation, whether that is feeling loving kindness, whether that is radiating loving kindness, or whether that is quiet mind, whatever it might be, radiating equanimity, whatever it might be.

And you notice how the attention orbits that experience of loving kindness or quiet mind or whatever the object is. Now, if the satellite is orbiting the planet, all well and good. If it gets too close to the planet, what happens? There's a tendency for it to get sucked in by the gravity and crash. But if it goes out of orbit, what happens? It starts to drift away. So what do you do? You need to send someone or something to bring it back into orbit. And what is that? Right effort. Right effort will balance your attention, to put your mind into right collectedness, using right mindfulness, observing what's going on in the mind. Am I too focused? Am I going too one-pointed towards my object?

To the point that I'm suppressing everything else? Or am I not looking deep enough? Am I looking too far away? Here and there, my mind is scattered. In either case, what do you do? You use right effort to bring the mind back into balance, the attention back into balance, where the mind remains unified around its object. And the natural result of this is upekkha, equanimity. So mindfulness, which is the ability to observe how the mind's attention moves from one thing to the other, naturally leads to you understanding what states of mind are present and not present, which allow you to balance the energy if you need to, and therefore allows you to take more interest or bring a little less interest.

If it's too much focus, take it out a little bit. And which allows you to have more relaxation, more tranquility, as a result of which your mind remains more collected. So these are all integrated in the right effort that we do. Every time you recognize a hindrance is present, what are you doing? Now you have brought back your mindfulness. You have recognized that your mind went somewhere else. Your attention has moved. And you have investigation of states. You are aware that your mind's attention is on something else. You have an understanding of that. What happens now? You're balancing the energy, and you're tranquilizing, you're bringing in some tranquility. When you come back to your smile, what happens? You bring in a little bit of joy, a little bit more interest. You make the practice a little more enjoyable. And then when you come back to your object, what is that? Around the object.

And throughout that process, you have what is known as upekkha, equanimity. So long as you don't get disturbed by the hindrance, where you take it personally. And so long as you don't take the loving-kindness personally either, where you say, I need to have more of that. I need to focus more on that. I need to intensify it. Oh, this feels really good. Let me go much deeper. Why? It's there, right? Leave it alone.

So this balance of not getting disturbed if it's unpleasant, or trying to grasp at it if it's pleasant, is the equanimity. And equanimity really just feels like a mind that is very collected, balanced, serene, tranquil, very calm. It almost seems like it's very flat. Not much going on there. And that's okay, because the mind is super clear on what's going on. And the beautiful thing about these enlightenment factors is that not only are they a linear process, a linear process in which they lead into the next, but that is to say, now that you have equanimity, your mindfulness is rooted in that equanimity. And your mindfulness becomes much stronger. And therefore, your ability to recognize becomes faster, quicker.

Your energy becomes that much more balanced. Your joy is that much more pronounced. Your tranquility is that much deeper. Collectedness is that much more attentive, unified. So this is how you can use the enlightenment factors. In the case of mindfulness, you can never have too much mindfulness. But in the case of the other factors, you can have too much of it. So you need to be able to balance. Not like you have to look for what is present and what is not present. If you notice there's too much energy, if you notice that there's too much restlessness, okay, do a little bit of tranquility, a little bit more collectedness, a little bit more equanimity. If you notice there's sloth and torpor, okay, investigate, be more attentive of the states that are present, bring a little bit more joy, right, and balance the energy, bring a little bit more focus. So as I said, the enlightenment factors can be antidotes for the five hindrances.

In the case of mindfulness, it's the foundation for everything. You need mindfulness for the other things to come up, for the other factors to come up. So investigation of states, as I said, can be an antidote for that confusion about whether you are in a wholesome state or an unwholesome state, mind present right now. Energy, right effort, can be a great antidote towards sloth and torpor, bringing in more energy. Joy, right, this is the otherworldly kind of joy that remains in the mind. That's a great antidote for sensual craving, because you notice there is an otherworldly kind of joy that you don't have to always seek out sensual pleasures. Tranquility can be a good antidote for restlessness.

Collectedness can be a good antidote for restlessness, again. For even doubt, because doubt can also have a quality of restlessness to it. Now, joy can also be an antidote for ill will. If you're enjoying things, if you're happy in the meditation, what would you have any ill will towards? And then finally, equanimity. Equanimity is a great antidote towards doubt, because your mind remains balanced. It's a great antidote towards restlessness, because it's tranquilizing. And it's a great antidote towards sensual craving, because your mind is just observing. Okay, here's craving present. It doesn't get caught up in it. It doesn't grasp towards it. So this is another way to see enlightenment factors. They are great antidotes for any of these hindrances that might arise.

Now how do you utilize this in the practice? How do you bring them up in the practice? Well, it's simple. Just use right effort. That's it. Because as I said, these enlightenment factors are all integrated in right effort, in the process of applying right effort. Every time you do this, you are bringing into alignment the different awakening factors. There's nothing more you need to do. Maybe at later stages when you're much deeper, where there's other things going on in terms of an imbalance of energy and things like that, you can just slightly bring that up. You don't have to do anything, for the most part. So once you start to do this, what you will notice is that the mind starts to become further and further collected, further and further attentive, and experiences the jhanas.

We will explore the jhanas much later, but all you have to understand is, when we talk about jhanas, we're talking about a mind that is experiencing deep levels of understanding, deep levels of cessation also. Because it's ceasing the hindrances, it's ceasing other qualities of mind that are unwholesome. And it's bringing up and maintaining those wholesome qualities. to go into jhana to experience the jhana as we would experience the jhana through this practice, which is, let's say, relatively lighter than maybe other practices which go much deeper, and that's okay, but the whole purpose of jhana is to get to a level of understanding, insight, and ceasing unwholesome qualities of mind. So in order for the mind to get into that, you have to let go of hindrances and experience relief from hindrances and balance the enlightenment factors.

So a jhana can be defined first and foremost by the absence of the hindrances and the presence and alignment of the enlightenment factors. So the more you're able to apply this right effort in daily life, the easier it becomes for you in the meditation and the deeper you will go. All dependent upon having a mind, again, as I repeat, and I will continue to repeat, a mind that is light, a mind that is spontaneously joyful, a mind that finds joy in everything, a mind that is childlike, a mind that is smiling. We made some improvement today, I saw in the dining hall. Let's see how it goes tomorrow. mind that is light and always just seeing everything in a very light-hearted way is able to let go and not identify with things not take things so personally and in doing so the mind is able to let go if it does much quicker and then experience deeper insights and wisdom any questions?

Yeah, so here I'm using the word super mundane to denote any kind of experience that is outside of the purview of physical sense-based experiences. Mundane, we're saying, surpassing or outside of the experience of seeing something with the eyes, hearing something with the ears, smelling something with the nose, tasting something with the tongue. It's more mental. Yes, there can be mundane mental experiences, for example we talked about feeling a certain way, but that can also be super mundane in the sense it's outside of the purview of the physical sense bases. Like some hindrances, like aversion or restlessness or doubt, are more related to the mind more than anything else. So here it is outside of the world.

It's not this world, it's the other world. But more strictly speaking, when we talk about super mundane, that can be reserved, as you said, it can be reserved for certain states like Nibbana. Nibbana is the ultimate super mundane state. in the form of the factors of each of the Eightfold Path. There is a mundane Eightfold Path and there's a super mundane Eightfold Path. The mundane has to do with those who are in training, and there are the factors of the super mundane path that have to do with those who have completed the training or are on the verge of completing the training. So the word mundane and super mundane can be used in different kinds of contexts.

Yeah. Can you speak a little more on hindrances that might come up from the physical body, pain in the body? Yeah. So pain in the body, this is a big one. Bhante Vimalaramsi would say that pain is usually the last hindrance to go. And it's not the pain that's the problem. It's the aversion around the pain that we have to deal with. Because a painful feeling is a painful feeling, whether it's physical or mental. And so what we have to deal with is how do we identify with the pain?

Are we holding on to the pain by identifying and saying, away which is aversion or are we saying okay there is simply just pain here so when we talk about using right effort whether it's you call it the six hours the four hours you can't just if you could it would be great but you can't you can't just six are or four are the pain away that's not how it works but what you do is you recognize any kind of tightness or tension in your mind in relation to the pain where there's resistance, where there's aversion, where there is pushing away, trying to avoid it. And you let go of that and you create spaciousness in the mind.

And you come back to your object and the pain will still be there. But it might not be as excruciating as it was before. cycles of that before you finally are just in your meditation object with your meditation object. The other thing is, sometimes people will experience pain, and the way I've described it before to people in individual interviews is that pain can also arise due to some kind of unresolved emotion, which means that we might hold on to different kinds of resentment, we might hold on to different kinds of guilt and shame, and that manifests or starts to turn into a knot in the body. So for that, I would recommend forgiveness practice, which means you use and apply the forgiveness practice to actually look at the pain and say, I forgive you for being here, and then notice what comes up, any kind of unresolved emotional state that comes up, and then you apply forgiveness towards that as well.

What I have seen when people do that is when they go back to sit, even if it's for longer periods of time, there is no more pain there or very little pain. So it could be that there's certain things that they've had to resolve in their mind. And finally, what I will say about it is that if you just apply more equanimity towards the pain, or in your mind itself, you will have more disenchantment and dispassion towards the pain. So we'll be exploring this later when we talk about what's known as the Upanisa Sutta, which talks about 11 more links in dependent origination that are understood to be transcendental. And the few last links that are there are disenchantment and dispassion, which then leads to freedom.

of mind. But prior to that disenchantment, there is what's known as yatha bhuta nana dassana, which means the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are. And essentially, that's just a long way of saying equanimity. So, understanding things as they are without getting caught up by them. And so, if there isn't enough disenchantment, then the mind starts to get aversive towards the pain, or it starts to get caught up in different kinds of things that are going on. If that's happening, and this is for somebody who's an advanced practitioner going through the process of radiating, if that happens, all you do is you take one step back and you start to radiate equanimity, and that starts to balance the mind, so that there's enough equanimity, and that's a good foundation and support for disenchantment to naturally arise.

And finally, the last thing I'll say about that is there is the analogy of the two arrows or the two darts. So what that means is there is the first dart, which is always unavoidable for the most part, which is a painful experience. It could be bodily pain or whatever it is. And then there's the second dart, mental pain related to it. And that happens because we identify with it. So we have to understand that the pain may be unavoidable. But if there's the second dart, that can be removed using right effort and letting go. You mentioned at some point you said the observer and the observer. And sometimes I still confuse that, because it's the observer.

Yeah. Yeah. So there's always an intention with anything. Even when there's meditation, there's an intention to meditate. But if the intention is taken personally, then that's where the problem arises. But if you think about it like, maybe you might appreciate this, maybe you might not, we'll see. But you're a mad scientist, yeah? In your chemistry lab, and you add a little bit of this, and you just pull back and watch what happens. In the same way, when we're talking about this process of micro-dosing on these different enlightenment factors, it's like you just have an intention to bring that up, and then you pull back and observe how that happens. So it's just for a moment you're just dropping something in, then you pull back and you're just, okay, just waiting, see how things manifest when you do it that way. Then there's still some kind of gap, there's still some kind of distance. You're not getting caught up in trying to bring something up. It's just like, okay, there's a little intention there, and now wait and watch. It's just a mental process, yes.

When we get into dependent origination, we'll talk more about that too, which is mentality and materiality. So mind and body. Mind and body. So mind is made up of different factors, which also includes intention. Just to make sure if I understand correctly: when I have a craving, and then the next step is when the relationship to it occurs, I like it or I don't like it, that's the mind identification, right? So if I notice the craving and relax, by that I break. That's right. The phrases that we use, like 'may I be happy', would that be an example of intention? Yes, that would be an example of intention. You bring up the feeling of loving kindness.

That's another kind of intention. You have the intention of radiating. That's another kind of intention. Now when you use phrases like 'may I be happy' and so on, that's related to verbal formation. So that means verbal intentions go away after the second jhana. But intention can still arise as a mental experience of bringing up some kind of phenomena, like an enlightenment factor, or of letting go. That's also an intention of relaxing and letting go and coming back to the smile. So intention is always there, part of the process, all the way until the end when you get to cessation. You said something about Sati. It can, but not necessarily. So what that means is sati, in the strictest definition of the word, is essentially memory, to recall something, to remember something, or the process of remembering something.

But here when we talk about sati, we're also saying in conjunction with sampajanya, which is observing what's going on, is remembering to observe, remembering to be attentive, remembering to come back here to the present moment. Can you explain the definition of equanimity again? Able to see things as they are without getting caught up one way or the other. In other words, if it's a pleasant experience, you're aware that the experience is pleasant, but you don't get caught up in grasping at the experience. If it's an unpleasant experience, you're aware that it is an unpleasant experience, but you don't get caught up in trying to push away that experience. If it's a neutral experience, you're just mindful that it's a neutral experience and you don't get caught up in saying this experience is mine or identifying with that experience.

But when we say that there is no self, what is it that knows that there is no self? The reason I'm asking that question is because, just understand, we're not talking about that there is no self. When the Buddha was asked this question of whether there is a self or there is no self, he didn't respond one way or the other. He didn't say that there is a self, but he also didn't say that there is no self. When he talks about anatta, what he's referring to is what is not self, to let go of that. Which means the process of identifying with things and taking them personally is what the mind lets go of.

But the mind is there, present. In fact, when we see in the sutras where it talks about somebody who has attained full awakening, it says, and he knows the mind is liberated. Or there is the knowledge that mind is liberated. Liberated from what? Liberated from any kind of conceit that can take things personally anymore. So equanimity here is a mental factor, is an enlightenment factor, is a quality of the mind, is a Brahmavihara that you can use as a process of radiating that. So wishing all beings to be tranquil and serene and so on.

So the ability to see things as they are without getting caught up one way or the other, yes, it requires the mind to be able to notice that it's an impersonal process, not me, not mine, not myself, and therefore the equanimity arises. No detachment. Something else, detachment is dispassion, let's say, which comes much later, but you need equanimity first. You need the ability to see that this is an impersonal process and just allow things to be as they are. So the process of allowing them to be as they are is equanimity, and then the ripening of that is disenchantment and dispassion, which I'll go into much deeper at a different talk. But just for you, for your clarification, the disenchantment there is where the mind has had enough of becoming enchanted by distractions, and the dispassion, or the viraga, is essentially where the mind remains completely. Does it come with practice or is it something that it just has to go on naturally?

Both. Because you need to first practice the different stages, like equanimity for example, and then it ripens naturally into disenchantment and dispassion, upon you cultivating these states from which, as a result, disenchantment and dispassion can arise. That's right. Because there you're putting the space and not identifying with the process. And then the metacognition becomes much deeper when it is informed by an experiential wisdom. That, oh, this isn't mine, this isn't me, this isn't myself. And then the metacognition becomes quite natural. It just is, there's a process going on here. There's a process of meditating going on here. There's a process of whatever is happening in the mind. But I remain completely unaffected by it.

I'm just observing. There might be a sense of doership. Like, I'm doing it. And there is also a trap, right? Because it's like, you know, like there is someone doing that definition. Maybe I'm not doing that right? You're just, you're, okay. This is a good question. Because it's okay if that's there. It's okay that's there. But you're not identifying with any process. See, it's not about trying to kill the self. It's not that. It's about letting go of the process of taking anything personally. So you're just adding the right ingredients of, okay, there is this intention to bring up loving kindness, or there's an intention to radiate, and now the mind is observing what is going on in terms of the radiating, what is going on in terms of, you know, what elements are present, what elements are not present.

That's it. So when we talk about conceit, when we talk about self-view, because that's one of the fetters that's eliminated at stream entry, self-view, or the belief in a personal self, that is essentially letting go the intellectual idea of an independent, permanent self. And that happens through experiential wisdom where the mind sees for itself that actually that sense of self is arising dependent on many causes and conditions. So this is dependent origination or interdependency that's going on. You can't have one without the other. And so the notion of a separate self dissolves. Conceit is much deeper than that. Conceit is the habituated pattern of continuing to still identify. Even though the mind has this experiential understanding that indeed there's no independent permanent self, there's still that grasping of mind.

And that is something that's so deeply rooted that it takes time to keep letting that go until it's no longer there. And at that point, then there's just a process of mind observing mind. There's just a process of mind observing everything as it is and not getting caught up in anything. So a mind that is free and is not already driven by craving and clinging. So what would be the motivations to be in the world? Or like, okay, so if fear does not necessarily put me into automatic response or some unpleasant experience, then what would make me do something in the world, okay? I answer to myself that it's values, that it's not pleasant, unpleasant, it's sila.

- Exactly. - But I would like you to tell me how you experience it. Of all craving, would experience the world would be that I see it as being motivated, to use that word, by two things, wisdom and compassion. That's it. So it's navigating this world through the wisdom that it has accrued through practice and experience of the Dhamma. And it's motivated by compassion to help, if it's required, in whatever way it is required. Otherwise, that mind isn't motivated by anything else. It just stays dormant. It stays in a state where it just remains in this cessation. It doesn't need to do anything.

But the process of karma still continues for that mind. Any kind of karma further. It's just seeing the different karmic streams that are coming in, because there's still the momentum of previous choices and previous intentions that were produced prior to having fully let go, prior to fully awakening. That's why any intention of somebody who's fully awakened is never personally motivated. of karma here and then responding to that karma. Usually it's a process of just, okay, allowing things to unfold as they would.

Secondly, when we talk about a mind that is free of any kind of craving, a mind that is fully awakened, it is acting in that sense spontaneously. So it's always intuitive. It's using intuition all the time. Which means that it has applied the practice, or you could say it's conditioned by the Eightfold Path, primarily right view. So ignorance is replaced by wisdom or right view. Which means any kind of formations that condition that intention are purified of any kind of ignorance, craving, conceit, and so on. But any kind of speech that is used, any kind of action that is produced, any kind of intention that arises is always rooted in the Eightfold Path, including right intention, right speech, right action.

And so it won't be motivated by what can this do for me. It's always using intuition to see what is appropriate for the situation, for everyone involved. And sometimes it might seem selfish and sometimes it might seem harsh and sometimes it might seem unpleasant to others because it's like, okay, harsh not in the sense that it's abusive but harsh in the sense that it might seem cold. Like, oh, they didn't really look into why this person was crying and they didn't do anything about it or whatever it might be. Mundane example. But going back to the intentions and motivations, it's always conditioned by having perfected the cultivation of the Eightfold Path. And so in that sense, it always is seemingly spontaneous.

Because it doesn't act out of like, you know, an eye for an eye. It doesn't act out of like, this is unpleasant, so I'm avoiding it. Or this is pleasant, and so I'm grasping at it. So yes, you're right about that. Ethics or morality. Sila is the bedrock for that mind. And everything else related to it is the Eightfold Path. So how does it navigate through this world? What does it do to navigate through this world? Well, it still needs to survive. It still needs to eat. Biologically, the body still requires food and things like that. It needs the four requisites. It needs food, shelter, clothing, and medicines, and so it can seek some kind of a Sangha, for example, or it can seek some kind of place that it can get that just for the benefit of keeping the body alive, but outside of that it's not motivated by anything else. - Yeah, that's a very good question.

I'm still thinking about it. I actually had a question that maybe brings more to her question. With this metaphor of orbiting the planet, can you also kind of visualize yourself? So like expanding or like the mind watching the mind as if you're outside of your body? If it helps, yeah, definitely. Why not? Wow, that's very loud. Okay. So yeah, if that helps, just for the purposes of keeping things non-identified, then please use that. That's completely fine. And your answer, is there a situation where this mind, in a complex situation, would also apply like violence, or not violence, but apply, like to stop something, or, I mean, is this something that's within this mind's ability to, in looking at the bigger picture, to save more people from a compassionate stand, to also be violent?

Not violent, but, I don't know how to say it. I'll illustrate this with an example of Moglana. This is somewhere in the Suttas or the Vinaya, it's somewhere, but anyway. It's at a time when the Buddha and all of the Sangha were coming together for the chanting of the Patimokha, for reciting of the rules and so on. And the Buddha was sitting there and he says, I'm not going to chant. I'm not going to start this because there is someone among you who is not actually wholesome. And now the interpretation is maybe he's not a monastic, he's acting like a monastic, he's coming in and all that.

Moglana, having surveyed the minds of everyone, finds out who that actually is. Now this is how the story goes. He goes to that person and he says, please leave, otherwise the Buddha will not be able to continue with the recitation of the Patimokha, and we can't continue with our ceremony. So this person says no, and he stays there, and Moglana again tries to tell him to leave. Finally, he manhandles the person and pushes him out of the door or whatever it is. So this is a very small illustration. But I would say that that mind would never kill intentionally: precept of harming with the intention of harming, killing with the intention of killing.

If there are no more questions, we can share some of it. Shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.