Deerpark Retreat Day 2 MN 107 Hindrances -2nd day blues w/Delson Armstrong

Today is what Bhante Vimalaramsi would call the second day blues. You are now getting in touch with the hindrances, most probably sloth and torpor, doubt, restlessness, maybe some craving, maybe some aversion. So today we're going to be discussing how you deal with these teachers, with these friends of ours. I'm going to be reading from a sutta that is from the Majjhima Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya 107. It's called Ganaka Moggallana Sutta, the Sutta to Ganaka Moggallana. And this sutta actually is a summary of the entire path from beginning to end.

It will give you a good idea of what it is you're going to be doing for these days in the retreat. Ganaka Moggallana is different from Maha Moggallana that we know of, who is one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, the other being Sariputta. Ganaka Moggallana means Moggallana the accountant, Ganaka, to count. I will begin. Blessed, I heard on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Sabati in the eastern park in the palace of Nagara's mother.

Then the Brahmin, Ganaka Moggallana, went to the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him. When this courteous and amiable talk was finished, he sat down at one side and said to the Blessed One, Master Gautama, in this palace of Migara's mother, there can be seen gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress, that is, down to the last step of the staircase.

Among these Brahmins too, there can be seen gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress, that is in study. Among archers too, there can be seen gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress, that is in archery. And also among accountants like us, who earn our living by accountancy, there can be seen gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress. That is a computation.

For when we get an apprentice, first we make him count 1-1, 2-2s, 3-3s, 4-4s, 5-5s, 6-6s, 7-7s, 8-8s, nine nines, ten tens, and we make him count at a hundred, too. Now, is it also possible, Master Bhagavan, to describe gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress in this Dhamma and discipline? It is possible, Bhagavan, to describe gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress in this Dhamma and discipline.

Just as, when a clever horse trainer obtains a fine thoroughbred, he first makes him get used to wearing the bit, and afterwards trains him further, so when the Tathagata obtains a person to be tamed, he first disciplines him thus. So here the Buddha is describing what he would do first if somebody were to be introduced to the Dhamma and were to then take high ordination as a bhikkhu or a bhikkhuni. And so there he would tell them to follow the Patimokkha. In the case of bhikkhus, they have 227 precepts.

In the case of bhikkhunis, they have 311 precepts. Here you guys are following five or eight precepts. Pretty simple. Pretty easy to follow for 10 days. So, the three steps: Sila. That's the foundation of the practice. Get your conduct in order and everything else will fall into place. Dependent upon sila, you have a mind that is right for samadhi. And then dependent upon that, your mind can experience panna. That is to say, when you have right conduct, when you follow the precepts, your mind becomes calm and collected naturally.

And because your mind becomes calm and collected naturally, it then experiences insights into the nature of reality, into the nature of existence, into the nature of what is self and what is not self, and so on and so forth. So let's say we talk about the five basic precepts. There is another reason why we should follow the precepts, and that is to understand how to deal with hindrances.

Later on in this talk I will explain the interconnection between keeping the precepts and the five hindrances that you will deal with and that you have been dealing with in your meditation. Just to review, what are the five precepts? The first precept is to abstain from killing and harming living beings. The second precept is to abstain from taking what is not given. The third precept is to abstain from sexual and sensual misconduct. The fourth precept is to abstain from false speech, gossip, slander, and so on. And the fifth precept is to abstain from indulging in intoxicants that dull the mind.

And so he says: When, Brahmin, the bhikkhu is virtuous and sees fear in the slightest fault, and trains by undertaking the training precepts, then the Bhagava disciplines him further: Come, bhikkhu, guard the doors of your sense faculties. On seeing a form with the eye, do not grasp at its signs and features, since if you were to leave the eye faculty unguarded, evil unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might invade you. Practice the way of its restraint, guard the eye faculty, undertake the restraint of the eye faculty. On hearing a sound with the ear, on smelling an odor with the nose, on tasting a flavor with the tongue, on touching a tangible with the body, on cognizing a mind object with the mind.

Do not grasp at their signs and features, since if you were to leave these sense faculties unguarded, evil, unwholesome states might invade you. Practice the way of their restraint. Guard the sense faculties. Undertake the restraint of the sense faculties. When we talk about restraint, that comes from the word samvara. Now, restraint here sometimes can give the connotation that we need to control our senses.

But there is no controller here. You cannot control what it is that you see, what it is that you hear in that moment. But what you can deal with are your reactions to what it is that you're experiencing. As we'll get deeper into this, you'll realize that you can't actually 6R a vedana. You cannot 6R a feeling away.

But in relation to that feeling, what is that reaction that you have? Is it rooted in covetousness and grief, in evil unwholesome states, in other words the five hindrances: greed, hatred, delusion, craving, aversion, doubt, restlessness, sloth and torpor? So how do you deal with the sense faculties? How do you restrain them? Not in terms of controlling. We'll deal with them in understanding how they arise and how they pass away, and that is dependent upon clarity of mind. When you gain that clarity of mind, every time you use the 6R's, right now, you hear the dog's barking. Where is your attention? Is it on the dog's barking? Are you thinking about that, or are you listening to this talk? Pay attention to where your mind goes in relation to the sense faculties and in relation to the mind itself, because the mind has a tendency to get carried away with itself through its many thoughts. So the way to restrain them is through right effort.

And that right effort is made up of the fourfold right efforts that we talked about yesterday. Preventing unrisen, unwholesome states from arising, then abandoning the arisen, unrisen states, generating wholesome states in the right, and maintaining those wholesome mistakes in mind. Every time you use the 6Rs, you are fulfilling these right efforts. When you recognize that there is a distraction, when you recognize your reaction in relation to that distraction, now this is what's key to understand.

You're not 6R-ing the hindrance away, you're 6R-ing your reaction to the hindrance. The hindrance that arises, whether that's craving, whether that's aversion, whether that's doubt, whether that's sloth and torpor, whether that's restlessness, you can't control whether that comes or not. It arises because of certain causes and conditions, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But when they arise, you can't push them away. You can try your best to push them away and you suppress them. Maybe you're successful for some time. But just like when you would take a beach ball and submerge it underwater and let go of it, it bounces right back up. The same way, when you suppress the hindrances, they will arise in full footing.

So when you recognize that you are distracted, you immediately prevent any unarisen unwholesome states from further arising, because it's your lack of attention that is fueling the arising of these unwholesome states. And as soon as you recognize it, that whole momentum that was going to arise stops right there. When you release your attention from that distraction, bringing it back to the mind and body, you are abandoning the already arisen unwholesome state of mind, because now you have seen it, and you have let go of it, and you're here now in the present moment, anchored by your mind and body. When you relax, you also further let go of any of that tightness and tension associated with the craving, associated with the identification with that eucalyptus.

When you come back to your smile, you generate a wholesome state of mind. And then when you return back to your object of meditation, you keep that wholesome state of mind going. And in this way, you fulfill the four right efforts. So when you want to restrain the sense faculties, it's not about controlling them. Sure, you can close your eyes and stop the field of vision.

Sure, you can put your fingers in your ears and prevent most of the sound from coming in. Sure, you can close your nostrils and prevent any kind of smells from coming in. But I don't think that's what the Buddha talked about when he said controlling sense faculties. It is your mind and how you respond in relation to their experiences.

So if you see that your mind is getting carried away by them, then what do you do? You say, sorry. You recognize the distraction, release the attention from that distraction, relax the tightness and tension, come back to the smile, be aware if you're smiling or not, if you're smiling, good, if you're not, bring back the smile, come back to your object of meditation, and continue, and repeat whenever you get distracted again.

When, Brahmin, the bhikkhu guards the doors of his senses or sense faculties, then the Tathagata disciplines him further. Come, bhikkhu, be moderate in eating. Reflecting wisely, you should take food neither for amusement, nor for intoxication, nor for the sake of physical beauty and attractiveness, but for the endurance and continuance of this body, for ending discomfort, and for assisting the holy life, considering, thus I shall terminate old feelings without arousing new feelings, and I shall be healthy and blameless, and shall live in comfort.

Moderation in eating. Some of you are taking five precepts, some of you are taking the eight precepts. That's up to you, whatever it is that you're doing in terms of your food. The whole point about moderation in eating is understanding where your mind is in relation to that food. When you stand in line to get your food, where is your mind?

Is it with this object of meditation? Is it with loving kindness? Is it with compassion? Is it radiating? What is it doing when you take the food into your plate? Where is your mind when you walk back to the dining table? Where is your mind when you take that first morsel? Where is your mind? By accepting everything with loving kindness, it becomes that much more enjoyable, and so naturally you will be moderate in your consumption of food. Moderation in eating can also be understood as moderation of general consumption.

Now, obviously, in the retreat setting, you're not really bombarded with any kind of social media. Unless you're hiding a second phone somewhere. Hopefully you're not doing that. But you're not being bombarded with social media and all of these streaming things like Netflix and Hotstar and Amazon Prime, all of these things. That kind of consumption is also important, right? There is food for the body. There is food for the eyes and the ears and the nose and the mind.

So pay attention to what it is that you're consuming. What is the quality of food, not just for the body, but for the mind and the other sense spaces? What is the quality of food that you are consuming? And how much are you consuming? Some people spend their whole day watching Netflix, binging on the latest season of whatever new show is there. If you've done it, you'll see how you feel, right? Maybe you catch the latest thriller novel and you decide to read it in one sitting, or you watch the latest whatever it is on TV, right, and you watch it all in one sitting. How does your mind feel after doing that? Pretty dull, tired. Sometimes you could either feel irritation: I just wasted all my time doing this, like I've done something better.

So moderation in general consumption, this is also something to be mindful of. When a bhikkhu is moderate in eating, then the Tathagata disciplines him further. Come, bhikkhu, be devoted to wakefulness during the day while walking back and forth and sitting. Purify your mind of obstructive states in the first watch of the night while walking back and forth and sitting. Purify your mind of obstructive states in the middle watch of the night. You should lie down on the right side in the lion's pose, with one foot overlapping the other, mindful and fully aware, after noting in your mind the time for rising.

After rising in the third watch of the night, while walking back and forth and sitting, purify your mind of obstructive states. So the general instruction here is about wakefulness. Obviously everybody has their own sleep pattern and their own sleep schedule. You have to see what works for you. Some people have night shifts, some people have morning shifts, some people have evening shifts, whatever it might be. Adapt accordingly. Make sure you have enough sleep. I encourage naps on this retreat, so if you feel tired and you're not able to deal with the sloth and torpor, take a 15-minute nap. Not more than 20 minutes.

If you take more than 20 minutes, then your mind starts to get into other cycles of sleep, and you will feel grumpy after that. So 15 to 20 minutes at most. So notice what the Buddha says here. He says, walking back and forth and sitting, he purifies his mind of obstructive states. Purifies the mind of obstructive states. What are obstructive states? Hindrances. How do you purify your mind of obstructive states?

The six R's. So, while walking back and forth, where is your mind? What are you doing with your mind? Are you staying with the feeling of loving kindness? Are you staying with your spiritual friend? If you're radiating, are you staying with radiating whatever brahmavihara it might be? When you're sitting, where is your mind? This is true wakefulness, to be able to recognize where your mind is. This is that metacognition that I mentioned yesterday.

And it also says, before he sleeps, he notes the time for rising. This is also something I instructed yesterday, suggested that you do. And you can find out for yourself how successful you were. Eventually you will be able to meet every time you determine that I will wake up at this particular time. You'll do it.

You'll eventually say, I'll sleep for 15 minutes. I'll take a nap for 15 minutes or 20 minutes. And right at the 15 or 20 minute mark, your eyes open up. That's because your mind becomes more and more purified. Your intentions become more and more purified and are more effective in their realization. So the wakefulness here is to be aware of where your mind is at all times.

Eventually, at some point, it will be so wakeful that you will be able to understand where your mind is, even in the stages of sleep. But that is dependent upon consistent and constant practice. When a bhikkhu is devoted to wakefulness, then the Tathagata disciplines him further. Come, bhikkhu, be possessed of mindfulness and full awareness. Act in full awareness when going forward and returning. Act in full awareness when looking ahead and looking away. Act in full awareness when flexing and extending your limbs. Act in full awareness when wearing your robes and carrying your outer robe and bowl. Act in full awareness when eating, drinking, consuming food, and tasting. Act in full awareness when defecating and urinating.

Act in full awareness when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent. Act in full awareness. This word or this phrase, full awareness, comes from the word sampajanya. That means clear comprehension. Now there are levels to this clear comprehension. In the suttas, the Buddha talks about clear comprehension as being aware of the three characteristics of existence.

That does not mean that you have to continue to say in your mind, this is impermanent, this is suffering, this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. No, that's not what you do. You teach yourself by meditating. Now, that full awareness has different levels. At the very basic level, that full awareness is a full awareness of your object of meditation, which then leads to the full awareness of the insights of the three characteristics.

Of seeing anicca, or impermanence. Of seeing dukkha, or suffering. Of seeing anatta, or what is not self. And then that leads to the ultimate insight of understanding dependent origination. So it starts with the full awareness of your object of meditation. Whether that's metta, to yourself or to your friend, or whether that's the brahmaviharas that you're radiating, wherever you are in your progress and practice.

The reason why that leads to the understanding of the three characteristics and then the understanding of dependent origination is because every time you recognize that you are no longer on your object of meditation, you realize the impermanence of that object. You realize that there is suffering in not being with that object. You realize that you have no control over that, and therefore you understand the not-self nature. And later, bit by bit, you understand that everything has a cause and condition, and everything that is conditioned, conditionally arisen, dependently arisen, is impermanent and therefore liable to cause suffering, and therefore not to be seen as me, mine, or myself.

This will happen as you progress in your practice. But it's not through a process of analysis and reflection. It is a process through direct knowledge and experience for oneself. So, I'm emphasizing again, that starts with the full awareness of your object of meditation. And that is dependent upon how well tuned your attention is, whether you have yoniso manasikara or you have ayoniso manasikara, proper attention or improper attention. We're using the language of that book, Mind Without Craving: attention rooted in reality.

Meaning aware of what is present right now. And that is dependent upon you being able to use the six R's whenever you recognize that you are distracted. And that is also dependent upon you making sure that you do not become attached to your object of meditation. Full awareness, full awareness. Not just the awareness of the object in meditation, but having that orbital awareness.

Right? What did you call that? Flexible? Flexible attention. Flexible attention. You want to just elaborate on what that is? Yes, there's kind of a spectrum. There's kind of a spectrum of attention. So you can think about, at the most focused end, we'll start here, and then it moves towards the most open kind of attention or awareness. So at the most focused end, you're basically single-pointed on one thing, like the point at the tip of the finger that we talked about yesterday.

And in that mode of attention, you're completely absorbed in that object, right? You're blocking everything out, and the scientific term is you're up-weighting those prediction errors. So you're basically blocking everything else out, and you're saying, I only want that sensory data from whatever it is, a visual object, or it could be a mantra, or it could be the breath, depending on what the object of meditation is. And then the next step of awareness is flexible awareness, where you're noticing. So your attention is moving to whatever is capturing it, but it's open to do that. In other words, imagine you're looking at the window. In the first example you were just staring at a sign on the street, whereas now you're allowing your attention to move. So if there's a car going along the road, your attention will move to that, and another car moves in another direction, your attention moves to that, and you're just letting it go where it naturally moves on its own.

Now moving further along the spectrum, there is open awareness, where you're taking in the entire scene out the window at once. So you're looking out the window and you see all the cars moving, you see all the signs, you see all the buildings, and that's open awareness. And then at the furthest end of the spectrum is awareness of awareness. So now you're basically aware that you're looking out the window, and you're aware of your own consciousness. So you'll notice that there are these different modes of paying attention, and the value in having a flexible attention is that you're allowing the process of dependent origination to unfold on its own. In the most focused type of attention, you're controlling your mind, you're trying to block everything out, and that prevents you from seeing things as they happen on their own. It's preventing you from seeing how the mind works on its own without interference.

and so when you allow yourself to have a flexible attention and you're just aware of how mind's attention is moving which is the definition of mindfulness then you're gaining insight into how into why certain things capture your attention or rather how that process unfolds and that is the process of dependent origination that we'll go into more as the as the retreat unfolds but you're just allowing yourself to see for yourself all right my mind is here you know with the food in my mouth but now in the next moment it's shifting to listening to the sound of the birds and you're just watching how that happens and there's no there's nobody in control of it it's just happening on its own yeah so as you exercise your ability to pay attention you'll start to be able to have this full awareness to be able to have a more open awareness

so you'll be able to actually listen to what i'm saying and even be able to pay attention what's going on with the dogs barking but you won't be able you won't be distracted in other words when you are meditating there is a tendency in the beginning for people to try very hard and push and become super focused on their object of medication to the point that when the pin drops they get distracted and they get ousted from that medication they get shaken from it and so that means that you're becoming super concentrated but if you have that metacognition where you just observe how mind is meditating, observe the mind meditating, then whatever happens just passes right through you.

Whether it's the dogs barking, whether it's the birds chirping, whether it's somebody opening the door, whether it's somebody closing the door, whether it's somebody sneezing, coughing, somebody is yawning very loudly, whatever it is, it just passes through the mind. It's just taken in as being arising based on causes and conditions, but your mind remains aware, staying with the object, orbiting around the object of meditation, and everything else in between is also seen. But that's no big deal. That's why I said when you are meditating you will have background thoughts, right, thoughts in the background. That's okay as long as you're staying with your object of meditation, that's fine. They will disappear on their own because they have lack of fuel, and that fuel is your attention.

Your attention is key here. How do you pay attention? What do you pay attention to? And what is the degree of that attention? For an effective meditation your attention should be flexible. Your attention should be able to move from one thing to the other, very flexible, and that flexibility is exercised and stretched through the process of using right effort. Through the six hours when Brahmin the Bhikkhu possesses mindfulness and full awareness, then the Dhamma disciplines him further. Come, Bhikkhu, resort to a secluded resting place: the forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a ravine, a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a jungle thicket, an open space, a heap of straw, Deer Park Institute.

He resorts to a secluded resting place. On returning from his alms round, after his meal, he sits down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect, and establishing mindfulness before him. What does that mean, establishing mindfulness before him? Sometimes this has been interpreted as paying attention to what's in front of you. But really, it's just observing where your mind is in that moment, understanding what the quality of your mind is. Is the mind constricted and tight? Is the mind loose and open? Where is your attention in that moment? If your attention is constricted, relax your attention.

If your attention is too loose, start to bring a little bit more focus. And then pay attention to where your intentions reside. For the more advanced practitioners, I will say that you can just sit down and observe where the intention is. Does it want to radiate loving kindness? Does it want to radiate compassion? Does it want to radiate equanimity, or does it want to radiate joy?

Or does it just want to stay in quiet mind? Observe the intention, and allow the mind then to follow that intention, and just observe how the mind does it. So, establishing mindfulness before you. Just sit down and have that attitude, right, of let's see how this meditation goes. No expectations. Expectations are another word for craving. What are expectations, Susan? Expectations are do the under construction.

And expectations are not meant to be met. Every time you have an expectation, either it's better than you expected, or it's worse than you're expecting. It's rarely exactly what you expected. So let go of all expectations. Just be open, and let the mind just do its thing. Treat the meditation like going to a movie theater, looking forward to seeing the movie. Watch what happens. Everything is fresh. Everything is new.

Whatever arises, just observe it. Let it go if it distracts you, and stay with your object of meditation. Abandoning covetousness for the world, he abides with a mind free from covetousness. He purifies his mind from covetousness. Abandoning ill will and hatred, he abides with a mind free from ill will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. He purifies his mind from ill will and hatred. Abandoning sloth and torpor, he abides free from sloth and torpor. Percipient of light, mindful and fully aware, he purifies his mind from sloth and torpor. Abandoning restlessness and remorse, he abides unagitated, with the mind inwardly peaceful.

He purifies his mind from restlessness and remorse. Abandoning doubt, he abides having gone beyond doubt, unperplexed about wholesome states. He purifies his mind from doubt. He is talking about the five hindrances here. Now, we're going to go a little more into detail about these hindrances and some of the antidotes that you can use for the hindrances. First of all, let's understand some of the causes and conditions for these hindrances.

What I posit is that one of the things, or the way these hindrances arise, is because at some point you broke a precept. Now, that can't be all the time, and just because that has happened and a hindrance has arisen doesn't mean that you have to feel guilty that you broke a precept in the past. It's just being aware: that was your intention before, now you can purify your intention. So the way to understand it is, when you indulge in breaking the first precept of harming and killing living beings,

what kind of intention do you have there? There is an intention of ill will. There is an intention of aversion. And so, thereby, it strengthens the hindrance of ill will and aversion. When you break the precept of taking what is not given, now that doesn't just mean stealing possessions. The way I would explain taking what is not given is taking another person's time more than that they have allotted for you. Taking credit where credit is not due. Expecting credit where credit is not due. Taking attention away from someone when attention is due to them.

These are different ways of taking what is not given. And what kind of mind or mindset indulges in that? A mind that is restless. And so the more you indulge in that, the more you strengthen the hindrance of restlessness. Breaking the third precept of sexual or sensual misconduct. Now, sexual misconduct here for the lay community is different than from the monastics. Obviously, monastics are celibate in the Karabara tradition, and so on.

But for the lay community, it's about being respectful to your life partner or partners, whoever they might be, whatever kind of relationship you have, whether it's a couple or a throuple or whatever it might be, being committed to them and not cheating on them. That's the understanding of not breaking the precept of sexual misconduct. Sensual misconduct: becoming so enamored by sensual experience that it causes you to break other precepts in the pursuit of that sensual desire.

The intention behind that is sensual craving. So the more you indulge in that, the more you strengthen the hindrance of sensual craving. When you break the fourth precept of lying, gossiping, slandering, you cause doubt in yourself and in others. You think to yourself, if I can lie to others, others can lie to me, and you start doubting others.

You start doubting yourself, and that translates into you doubting the practice, doubting your capabilities and capacities for the practice. Am I doing this right? I don't know if I heard that correctly. Am I staying with my object of meditation? Where am I in my meditation? All of these things are manifestations of doubt. But here also, the hindrance of doubt in particular, there is the fetter of doubt, which is the doubt of, or doubt in, the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. But the fetter of doubt is being perplexed about what is wholesome and unwholesome.

So what is wholesome? And what is unwholesome? How do you recognize what is wholesome? And how do you recognize what is unwholesome? Anything that causes tightness and tension in the mind and body, and anything that causes you and another harm, is unwholesome. But anything that creates openness and spaciousness in the mind, and anything that is beneficial for you and for the other, that does not cause harm for you or for the other, that is wholesome.

So, when you keep lying, when you indulge in gossip, what is gossip? We talk about another person behind their back. How do you know if you're gossiping about another person? If what you are going to say about that person when they are not in the room, you can say that same thing about that person while they are in the room, then you're okay.

But if you know that what you're going to say will hurt that person if they weren't in the room, then you're indulging in gossip and slander. So the more you indulge in that, the more doubt arises. And finally, indulging in intoxicants that are in the mind, that leads to sloth and torpor. Indulgence or overindulgence in anything, going back to consumption of media, consumption of anything, overconsumption of that, overindulgence in that, causes a mind that's dull and tired.

The more you do that, the more sloth and torpor arises. And obviously, like I said, there are other causes and conditions. For example, if you have too much coffee in the morning, you'll feel anxious and you'll have restlessness. If you haven't had enough sleep, you'll have dullness of mind and you'll feel tired, and so on. But what I am saying here is that there is a karmic understanding behind why the hindrances arise, or how the hindrances arise. And they can be karmically understood as: at some point in your life, or in your past lives, you broke a precept.

Now, how do you deal with the hindrances? You deal with them using the 6R's, right? The 6R's. But the Buddha also talked about the seven enlightenment factors, seven awakening factors. These are mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity. These are the antidotes for the different hindrances. For example, when we talk about sensual craving, what could be an antidote for sensual craving?

The joy you feel mentally. Because the more you feel joyful, that's the whole thing about jhanas. That's the whole thing about super mundane states. You replace one type of joy for a higher kind of pleasure. So you replace sensual pleasure with mental pleasure, which is conceived through the practice of jhanas. So the joy that you feel, the piti, that is the factor of the first and second jhana, that can be utilized as an antidote for sensual craving. But also equanimity, because the mind can become agitated, for example. What about aversion? Loving kindness is the best antidote for aversion.

But you can also use equanimity again. What about sloth and torpor? Sloth and torpor is because your attention becomes too loose, it's not focused enough, because you don't have enough energy in the mind and mind. So you utilize the enlightenment factor of energy, and that is predicated upon using the 6R's, the right effort, which balances that energy.

And then we have restlessness. What about restlessness? Restlessness means that the mind is pushing too much. It means the mind is trying too hard. And you can see that when there's a certain kind of ring of tension around the head. And also, lots of thoughts. Lots of thoughts and lots of ideas manifesting in the mind. So the antidote for restlessness would be tranquility. Relax the mind. Pull your attention back a little bit. What about doubt?

How do you let go of doubt? It's known as investigation of states. The antidote for that is investigation of states. Dhamma vicaya. So dhamma vicaya doesn't mean that you need to intentionally analyze and reflect on what's going on. Insofar as understanding your mind is distracted and unwholesome is enough. And then bringing it back using the 6R's.

Is there any other hindrance to understand? I think I covered it all right now. Good. You could use these different kinds of enlightenment factors individually when certain kinds of hindrances arise. In the case of sloth and torpor, it says one becomes percipient of light. Percipient of light. Now, when the mind becomes too concentrated, there is a tendency for there to be light that arises in the mind. We don't necessarily want that. We don't want the mind to become too concentrated, because then it can go into the field of restlessness.

But here, the percipient of light can mean a couple of things. Number one, actual light, percipient of daylight, meditating in the daylight, meditating where there is a lot of light. It prevents your mind from starting to fall asleep. But number two, we have to think about what this word light means. It comes from the word obhasa, in the Pali. And the Buddha talked about four kinds of obhasas, four kinds of light.

There is the light of fire. Greater than that is the light of the moon. Greater than that is the light of the sun. And greater than that is the light of insight. So the light that we're talking about here is, you can use these different kinds of light, with light of insight which is dependent upon dhamma vicaya, investigating into what states are present and not present in the mind. But to simplify all of this and make it easy for you, I will say that the 6R's already balance and activate the enlightenment factors automatically.

How is that? When you recognize that you are distracted, what happens? You remember that you are now no longer on your object of meditation, which means you have sati. You have regained your mindfulness, your metacognition. Knowing that your mind is distracted means that you have investigation of states. In the same way that feeling and perception are intertwined, feeling, being, experience, perception, noting what that experience is, the mindfulness is knowing what is going on in the mind, and then the investigation of states is knowing the quality of that mind or mindset.

When you release the attention from that distraction, you are utilizing right effort, which means you have proper energy, the enlightenment factor of energy. When you relax the tightness and tension in the mind, you bring up the tranquility factor. When you come back to the re-smile, you bring up the joy factor. And then when you return back to your object of meditation, you bring up the collectedness factor.

And because you are 6R'ing and without becoming tense, without judging the hindrance, or judging your own mind for being hindered and distracted, you are exercising equanimity. Equanimity, upekkha, it is also understood as yathabhuta-nanadassana, which means the knowledge and vision of things as they really are. Seeing things as they really are, without getting affected one way or the other. Just seeing them plainly.

This is upekkha. This is equanimity. So when you do the 6R's in this way, you are already cultivating that equanimity. So how do you let go of the hindrances? Utility of, or the utilization of the enlightenment factors, but that can be simplified by just using right effort, using the 6R's in this way, and then coming back to your object of meditation.

So in the next passage, the Buddha talks about the jhanas, but I will skip that for now, because tomorrow we will go in-depth about the jhanas. So the Buddha says, This is my instruction, Brahmin, to those bhikkhus who are in the higher training, whose minds have not yet attained the goal, who abide aspiring to the supreme security from bondage.

But these things conduce both to a pleasant abiding here and now, and to mindfulness and full awareness for those bhikkhus who are arahants with taints destroyed, who have lived a holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached their own goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and are completely liberated through final knowledge. So in other words, you continue doing this until full awakening. And even after full awakening, you continue doing this because it's just pleasant. And that becomes the automated process of a fully awakened mind.

Then, having been advised and instructed by you, he would arrive safely in Rajagaha. Now, Brahmin, since Rajagaha exists, and the path leading to Rajagaha exists, and you are present as the guide, what is the cause and reason why, when those men have been instructed and advised by you, one man takes a wrong road and goes to the west? and one arrives safely in Rajagaha. What can I say about that, Master Gautama? I am one who shows the way.

So too, Brahmin, Nibbana exists, and the path leading to Nibbana exists. And I am present as the guide. Yet when my disciples have been thus advised and instructed by me, some of them attain Nibbana, the ultimate goal, and some do not attain it. What can I do about that, Brahmin? The Tathagata is one who shows the way. In other words, we can give you all the instructions. We can tell you this is the path. We can give you the ins and outs of the instruction.

But you have to walk the path. You have to apply the instructions and see for yourself. When this was said, the Brahmin Ganaka Moglana said to the Blessed One, There are persons who are faithless and have gone forth from the home life into homelessness, not out of faith, but seeking a livelihood, who are fraudulent, deceitful, treacherous, haughty, hollow, personally vain, rough-tongued, loose-spoken, unguarded in their sense faculties, immoderate in eating, undevoted to wakefulness, unconcerned with recklessness, not greatly respectful of training, luxurious, careless, leaders in backsliding, neglectful of seclusion, lazy, wanting in energy, unmindful, not fully aware, unconcentrated, with straying minds devoid of wisdom, drivelers. Master Gautama does not dwell together with these, but there are clansmen who have gone forth out of faith from the home life into homelessness, who are not fraudulent, deceitful, treacherous, haughty, hollow, personally vain, rough-tongued, and loose-spoken, who are guarded in their sense faculties, moderate in eating, devoted to wakefulness, concerned with seclusion, greatly respectful of training, not luxurious or careless.

Who are keen to avoid backsliding, leaders in seclusion, energetic, resolute, established in mindfulness, fully aware and concentrated, with unified minds possessing wisdom, not drivelers. Master Gautama dwells together with these. Just as black orris root is reckoned as the best of root perfumes, and red sandalwood is reckoned as the best of wood perfumes, and jasmine is reckoned as the best of flower perfumes, so too Master Gautama's advice is supreme among the teachings of today. Here he's talking about the six other contemporary teachings that were there around the time of the Buddha. We'll get into that later, but he's talking about how this is the best among those.

Magnificent Master Gautama. Magnificent Master Gautama. Master Gautama has made the Dhamma clear in many ways, as though he were turning upright what had been overturned, revealing what was hidden, showing the way to one who was lost, or holding up a lamp in the dark for those with eyesight to see forms. I go to Master Gautama for refuge, and to the Dhamma, and to the Sangha of bhikkhus. Let Master Gautama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to them for refuge for life.

Are there any questions? Do you want to use the mic, or? When the Buddha mentioned the light of the inside, does he mean an actual perceptible brilliance and visual feel? Not necessarily. It's more about the eureka moment, when the light bulb goes on. I just wanted more clarity on our object of meditation, metta. So you shared certain techniques by which we trigger a feeling tone of loving-kindness. And then, are we to more or less focus on the felt sense of it?

Is that clear? Yes. Okay. And the second question is more related to philosophy, and maybe it's a little bit of an uneducated question. I might not be saying things right. But I was just keen to understand that from the Pali canon, why is there such an emphasis on the jhanas? Because if I understand correctly, jhanas you gain super knowledge. I mean, you use the word super mundane, but I use the word super colleges, and for nirvana, even the first concentration of form is enough. So I just want to understand why in the Pali canon there is emphasis on the jhanas. Thank you. All right, so I'll answer your first question, which is the different ways that you can bring up the feeling of loving-kindness.

So the first is the phrasing. So you can use phrases like, May I be happy, may I be well, may I be filled with loving-kindness, may I be free of suffering. You can say that a few times in your mind. Don't make it like a mantra. Let it be like a kindling that brings up the fire of loving-kindness. And once the fire is ignited, then you let go of the phrasing. Another way you can do it is bringing some kind of wholesome memory in your past, or a wholesome image that makes you feel happy. And then also gratitude is another way. Listing out things in your mind that you're grateful for. Puts a smile on your face.

Brings up that warm feeling in your chest, in your heart area. And then once you get that feeling going, let go of the phrasing, let go of whatever it is that ignited it, and stay with that feeling. The analogy that's used here is, when you start the car, you key in, and then you key in the ignition, but you only do it one time, and the car starts. You don't have to keep doing that.

With the emphasis on jhanas, yes, you're right about that. From the first jhana onwards, you can experience nibbana, but there has to be the cultivation of both samatha and vipassana. So tomorrow we'll discuss a little bit more about that, but basically the understanding is that you need a mind that is collected enough to be able to get the right insights. So when we talk about the path leading to nibbana, it is the Eightfold Path, which means that the eighth aspect of that is Samma Samadhi, which is right meditation, right collectedness, or right concentration, however we want to put it. And encompassing that are the jhanas, the four jhanas. Now within that, there's the first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, fourth jhana.

And then you have formless realms: the formless realms, that is infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, near perception, non-perception, are actually part of the fourth jhana. So in reality there's only the four jhanas. Now, the Buddha has talked about how you can attain nibbana from the first jhana onwards. It's not like you need to go and traverse through each of the jhanas, but most probably you will as you progress through your practice. The idea is that in tandem with the samadhi there is a vipassana, the insight into the nature of the jhanas themselves, understanding that they themselves have the three characteristics,

and therefore you see them being dependently arisen. You let go of any identification with that, and then you experience nibbana, or your mind contains nibbana. So that's really the understanding from the Pali canon. This is taking the question further, what she has mentioned regarding the object of the observation. Now, if I say, may I be happy, that's more than a concept. To me, it's an aspiration. Right. The accompanying feeling doesn't come.

So similarly, if I recall some event, the prophecy, then the situation of that image comes. So to get to that feeling, I really found it very difficult. Okay. Because how to feel that feeling of the loving kindness when I say that I am, may I have happiness? Sure. You could also, like I said, you could think back to a time where you felt happy, reliving that happiness or the memory that made you happy, and then just letting the mind hone in on the quality of that happiness. That you could also use as a kindling for the loving-kindness. Have you tried that? Yeah, I think let me try it, but to me, to feel the feeling of loving-kindness, yeah, when I say that, may I be happy, or to get some memory to pass, the situation may come, but accompanying feeling to allow you to come, yeah, and be in the state in the mind, and then sharing others, I think still a question mark. Yeah, yeah.

Can I just add a little to that same question? So like you said, imagine a scenario in the past, but the feeling is very back on the scenario. The moment you drop that scenario, the feeling also passes away. How do you tackle that? That's in terms of your attention. So your attention can be on the memory itself, or your attention can be on the feeling. In other words, you have to divorce the feeling from the memory. So you have the memory that's there that makes you feel happy, that makes you feel uplifted, but now you hone in your attention on the quality of that happiness, on the quality of that upliftedness.

And then just stay with that, and as a result of your attention being there, that memory just drifts away, and now you're just staying with that feeling. Let me go there again. Yeah, all the way in the back. I just wanted to add something to that, but you know, baby Johnson at DSMC sometimes recommends that if they don't have a present memory or there's too much going on, you can imagine a baby looking at a baby or a puppy, right? That can bring up more. Yeah, so yeah, go ahead. So again, you can answer that, and I have another question. Yeah, go ahead.

So the second question I have, especially in the context of this retreat happening in India: whenever I say that I'm going to a Buddhist retreat, the moment I tell them, oh, does that mean you worship the Buddha? So even at the end of the sutta he says, I take refuge in the Buddha. So can you explain to a mostly audience who are not immersed in Buddhism, as you teach, what does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha? Yeah. But remember, it's taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. And this is my understanding and my interpretation, so take it for what it's worth. The way I understand taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha is that when you think about the Buddha as an individual, somebody who discovered or rediscovered the path to awakening.

It is quite remarkable. It's a phenomenal thing, because of the capacity of such a mindset to be able to say, here is suffering, and there must be a way out of this suffering. And then for him to be able to actually, on the night of his awakening, go through that process of meditation, and then looking into his past lives, looking into the arising and passing away of beings, understanding how karma arises, how rebirth happens, and then looking into dependent origination.

Think about it for yourselves. Unless you have been introduced to dependent origination, you may actually for yourself discover, okay, here is contact, here is feeling, maybe here is perception. But for you to be able to say, here are sankharas, here is how consciousness arises, being able to understand the full spectrum of dependent origination, and therefore being able to understand the four noble truths, that is something quite remarkable. So when we take refuge in the Buddha, we are actually grateful for the Buddha to be able to actually rediscover the path. We are actually in awe of that experience, and in realizing, wow, okay, somebody like the Buddha actually discovered this.

So, taking refuge in the Dhamma. When you talk about taking refuge in the Dhamma, we talk about it in terms of the Dhamma and the discipline. That is to say, actually doing the practice. So, that is to say, following the precepts, meditating, observing your own mind, observing how dependent origination arises in the mind as you gain more and more clarity. This is how you take refuge in the Dhamma. And then refuge in the Sangha. There is a great appreciation for the Sangha, that it has continued down throughout the ages and has been able to keep what little we know from the Buddha, in the process of the information we have, through the process of them actually passing down through oration first and then writing it down, and so on.

That appreciation. And, of course, the appreciation and gratitude for the Sangha to be able to do what they're doing, to actually go from the home life to the homeless life. It is not easy. Just ask them. There's a great appreciation for that. So this is how I understand taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. Now, I ask you, Yakama. Go ahead. Very small addition to this question. Why three times, Rashi? That is a good question. Three times, any particular reason as why? Because I think three is a magic number. Is it so? Have you heard of that song? Three is a magic number. No, but it is a magic number. The other thing I'd say is that you might notice three types of doubt that come up in your mind.

That is self-doubt, doubt in yourself, doubt in the teacher, and doubt in the teaching. When we take refuge in the Buddha, it's like saying that someone actually did this, and that might help dispel your doubt in the teacher. When we take refuge in the Dhamma, that's like saying, I'm going to try this out, I'm going to try this teaching out. That's helping dispel your doubt in the teaching. And when you take refuge in the Sangha, you're thinking about this community of practitioners that are there to support you, so that might help dispel your self-doubt. That's kind of a pragmatic purpose, to do this every morning, to really feel like you're setting strong intention and pointing your mind and getting your mindset in place for the day.

And to add to that, actually, I would also say, when you think about it in terms of the sankharas as well, you have three types of sankharas. You have mental, verbal, and physical sankharas. So it's quite possible when you do it three times, you're basically saying that in your mind, body, and speech, all together, you're taking refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. Yeah. I have a different question.

We say rebirth is a continuation of your consciousness on one hand, and when it comes to the life of God, Buddha, he talks of his earlier lives, wherein he says I was a king, I was a family, so how do you differentiate between rebirth and reincarnation? First of all, just to understand, rebirth is not a continuation of the same consciousness.

Consciousness arises and passes away. If you read Majjhima Nikaya 38, there the Buddha says that consciousness is dependent upon its fuel. Just as a fire is dependent upon its fuel, consciousness is dependent upon causes and conditions. So anyone who has discovered their past lives might say from that sense that I was this or I was that. But they're not saying that I was that in terms of that was the same me. Look at your own life when you say, when I was in the fifth grade, I was so-and-so. But you understand you're not that person anymore. It's a matter of using speech that you say in that way.

So when the Buddha talks about it, he's talking about previous lives, but not the fact that he's saying that, you know, it was the same me that was in those past lives. The same thing is applied to even bodhisattvas. Yeah, we say that so and so is a bodhisattva, which means so. So how do we understand it? Again, it's not like they have a continuation of consciousness. There can be, but again I say this with caution, there can be a continuation of certain formations which are developed through the practice and cultivation of the paramis, the perfections. And so formations will then be transferred from one life to the next life. But formations in of themselves are also impermanent.

So whether it's a Buddha or a bodhisattva or any individual, when they see their past lives and when they have these different lives, it's not the same consciousness. It's a transferring of the paramis, it's a transferring of karma from one life to the next life, but not the same consciousness. I think I got some of my answers, but I still think I'd like to ask that. I seem to not be able to get past the stage of giving myself loving kindness. I tried doing what you suggested yesterday and, you know, I am able to bring out the past memory and I am able to feel that bond. But then beyond that, as soon as I start giving myself loving kindness, I just go all over the place.

And it's just, essentially, hindrance after hindrance, and I am not able to get to that point where I can give anyone else loving kindness. Do you feel any kind of uplifted mind when you have that feeling come up, or you're not able to even bring up that feeling? I think I felt better as I went through a career. I seem to have a few moments of feeling like that, and being able to at least give myself a little bit of that loving kindness. But that's where it was. But yeah, I think I did feel slightly affected. One of the questions I tend to ask about this is, for a person to ask for themselves, do they feel like they deserve to be happy?

Actually, that's a very interesting question. I actually felt the opposite. So you need to talk to me. Whoever feels like that, you need to talk to me at a private interview, and I'm going to give you some remedial practices. I've really been appreciating having my current understanding of the hindrances and looking at them both and practice in life.

In the book, and also today, when you spoke of restlessness from the sutras, it mentions restlessness and remorse. I would have thought, previously, as I would have put remorse more into aversion. Can you share what's going on with that? Restlessness and anxiety. It can have some kind of an aversive quality in reaction to something. But anxiety also can be just general in terms of over-excitement. It can manifest in different physical components like fast heart rate, faster breathing, higher blood pressure, things like that. So general anxiety doesn't necessarily have to come from an aversive quality towards something. It can just happen because of too much excitement in the body, too much energy in the mind and body. The word in the book that you just read earlier was remorse, right? But that remorse, actually, it's anxiety, that's what it is. It can also be regret, looking back into the past and having regret. There can be a universal quality there as well, but not always. Two maybe quick questions.

The first one is, how do you calm down when things start happening and you don't mess up your focus? What's the second question? The second question is, is there any utility in trying to remember past lives, or is that just kind of like a novelty or a distraction from the past? The first aspect of that, there's a tendency for when there's a lot of stuff going on in the mind to add more stuff to it through exercising some kind of energy.

But when there's a lot of activity going on, the easiest thing you can do is just pause. Don't do anything. And as your mind starts to become clearer, because now when you take that pause, you think about it in practical terms. Especially when you have things like, in the more extreme version of that, you know, crimes of passion. When something happens there, the person doesn't think, they immediately just snap and then they act. There's no pause given. But here what we're doing is we're adding a little bit of a pause. Even if it's just mental activity, just pause in your mind. Don't react to anything. Just pause. That allows the mind to kind of take in what's going on.

And then use the six R's. So just do it. Okay, I see that there's restlessness. Let me pull my attention back. And let me relax. So that pause factor, right? That is the difference between reacting in that really quick manner and responding with compassion and with wisdom. So the responding happens because you take that pause, because you allow things to slow down.

And that also is predicated upon not judging what's going on. Just be like, okay, it's here. Let me just slow down. Let me just calm down. Let me just pause. Our second question about past lives: it's not a novelty unless you're interested in just looking at what happened in your past lives. Actually, looking into past lives allows you to understand certain things in relation to karma. Understanding this choice led to this experience, and when there was a reaction in this way, it led to that experience. So what you're actually seeing is the underlying mechanics of karma, which is dependent origination.

So whether you see it, the threefold knowledge, whether you see past lives or whether you see the rising and passing away of beings, what you are seeing is karma and how karma arises dependent upon causes and conditions. So in that sense, it gives you wisdom. But if you're doing it out of curiosity, then you can do that, but there's no value in that. About expectations, do come reconstruction, right? Abandoning expectations and all that is like a negative side of it. But also, expectations could be nibbana reconstruction, as well. Because I expect a TWIM method to lead to nibbana, that's why I'm here. They have the same word in Chimini, so you need one word.

You want to take this? So there's a wholesome intention, which is chanda, and that's needed. Otherwise, you might just sit on your bed all day and do nothing. You have to have some idea there's a path, and I'm going to take action, and this leads to that. Expectation is more of being uncomfortable with the present moment, like wanting things to be different than they are in this moment. There's a cognitive psychologist who actually invented CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, named Dr Albert Ellis, and he said stop shoulding on yourself. So you might notice, I should be doing this, I should be in this genre, I should be better at this practice, or these hindrances shouldn't be coming up.

All that shoulding is expecting things to be different than they are. And it's the same thing in any kind of micro-expectation. Maybe you're waiting in line for food, and you're just kind of expecting the good taste from the food. Reach your mouth, you're waiting, you're expecting to get to the food, and it's like you can't be happy until you get your meal in your mouth. And that's when you would use the six R's, because that's the form of craving. And one thing you might notice throughout the day, this becomes very apparent in the retreat context, is that we spend most of our days waiting for something. Maybe we spend 95% of the time in samsara just waiting.

We're waiting on the phone, waiting for the app to download, waiting for the wi-fi to get fixed, waiting in the car to go to work, and even waiting for the fork to reach our mouth, waiting for our turn to talk when we're talking to someone, whatever it is, most of the time it's waiting, and that's a form of expectation and a form of craving. So we're becoming professional waiters, that's what we're doing here. I'll just add to that with regards to chanda, that holds some intention. You think about it in terms of setting the coordinates initially and then letting it go on autopilot. So in other words, the chanda plus the effort, but the chanda and becoming obsessed by the chanda, like rechecking the coordinates, rechecking if everything is okay, that obsession around that is where the trouble is. But having an expectation in terms of an intention inclining the mind towards nibbana is definitely recommended, but once you set your mind towards that, then just do the actual practice, and that's it.

All the way back. No, no, over here. I have a question related to restlessness, which has always been there for a long time. What I noticed is that if I have a tranquility along with my object of meditation, it's going well. But if I do the 6Rs, that is bringing up more analysis, and that is increasing responses to me. Yeah.

Because you're using the 6Rs like a stick, it's a whack-a-mole. I'm trying to figure out, what do I whack next? When you use the 6Rs, it's a very fluid thing. It's just... another alternative for the 6Rs, because the 6Rs came about much later in terms of a mnemonic device. Before that, Bhante used another kind of acronym, and it was called DROPSS. D-R-O-P-S-S. Don't resist or push, soften and smile. You could try that, that works, but my main point here is don't use the DROPSS either like a stick. The idea is people, premature, yeah. Can you please repeat that? DROPSS. D-R-O-P-S-S. Don't resist or push.

Soften and smile. So when I say using that as a stick, what I'm saying is that people have a tendency to overuse the 6Rs as a preventive measure. And you don't want to use it as a preventive measure. That actually brings up more restlessness, as your experience shows. Use it as a remedial measure, when it arises. So I'm using the 6Rs like a medicine, rather than something to prevent.

Because otherwise there's an inverse of quality in the mind in relation to that hindrance. So first you've got to back off a little bit and say, okay, I recognize, here it is, let me relax. In the recognizing of that and then relaxing, you're already doing the releasing. The reason being is, there's a distraction, let me relax. You've taken your attention away from that distraction, already brought it back to mind and body with the attention to relax. So in that sense, you're just recognizing, relaxing, coming back to the smile, coming back to the object. I have another question. Today I noticed that even being in quiet mind, there are some changes happening when there is some change going on.

And I am also on quiet mind, that should be fine, right? Can you elaborate what's going on? I am on quiet mind, but I can also see a lot of changes happening, a lot of changes going on in mind-sets. That's like, like I said, quiet mind initially might not be altogether quiet, just mind. That's fine. But here what's happening is your mind becomes like the eye of a hurricane, right? So all of that other activity that you're seeing, the arising and passing away of, what you're seeing is sankhara. You're seeing the arising and passing away of sankhara before they turn into fully formed thoughts. So if your mind doesn't get distracted by them and they just pass on through, then let them be.

That's fine. As long as you're in the eye of the storm, which is that quiet mind, you'll be fine. Your lack of attention to those things will actually dissipate them, make them slow and eventually go completely. Is there another question you had? This is going back in relation to when we were speaking about, you know, we're using some concepts to generate the feeling of, and then we let go of whatever we used as a trigger, and we just stay with the felt sense, whether physical sensations of that or the feeling tone of that. So I just want some more experiential.

If you have any suggestions or tips, or from your experience, how does one stay in it longer and longer apart from developing one-pointedness or shamatha? The one thing that I understood is that this feeling of love that arises is a quality of my mind, almost like an innate quality of Buddha nature. But apart from that, just experientially, how do you stay in that? Even if it's very vividly brought up at some point, it begins to taper off. Thank you. But that's the thing about it, right? Just like any other feeling, it has a nature of passing away. So what you're teaching yourself is metta bhavana.

It itself is not permanent. It will come and go, and it is dependent upon your intention, or rather your attention. So in other words, if you continue to just allow the mind to rest in the awareness of the metta bhavana, then it will continue. But anytime there is a gap in that awareness, which is the distraction, then you bring it back. And that shortens the gap in awareness. And why lose the awareness of the method? I think one of the things that you said is that the hindrances which arise are our best teachers, and it's basically from that that we learn that our mind is going. I had a question about how we deal with the hindrances themselves.

Like, should we be analyzing them, like what exactly was the cause of that tendency, or is it something, or should we just react with the 6Rs? The way I would look at it, and I might be jumping the gun here, because what I'm going to be talking about is the understanding of karma, and how to deal with karma in the present moment. In the suttas, the Buddha talks about old karma and new karma.

Karma can be understood in two ways. Karma in terms of action, activity that you do now in the present moment. And karma in terms of that which you inherit as the fruit of your previous actions. So the way to understand the hindrances is that they are old karma. They are karma that you have inherited. The hindrance arose because of causes and conditions, possibly because of some intention that you had previously, or whatever it might be.

Now, in the dealing of that karma in the present moment, it would not make sense to try to analyze how this karma arose, but rather, how do I let go of this karma so that it doesn't arise again? So that kind of understanding, the way you're dealing with the hindrance is through right effort, the 6Rs. Which is why I say that the 6Rs can be utilized in life, in any circumstance. Because everything that you're experiencing right now is all old karma.

In the context of dependent origination, again, like I said, I'm jumping the gun here, but just for clarity's sake. In the context of dependent origination, everything from ignorance all the way down to feeling, vedana, all of that is old karma. Now, what continues to remanufacture that old karma, or adds to that repository of old karma, is the processing of new karma, which happens through craving, clinging, and becoming, and then the birth.

That midpoint between feeling and craving is where you install, let's say, the 6Rs, install right effort. The reason why is because there's no reactivity to that hindrance. If you try to analyze how this hindrance arose, if you try to push that hindrance away, do anything but just watch that hindrance, you are adding more to it. You're adding fuel to the fire, thereby having craving, clinging, and becoming.

But if you see what the 6Rs are, the 6Rs are, as I said, right effort. Right effort is the heart of the Eightfold Path. It's the core of the Eightfold Path. Because it's from right effort that you go, or it's through right effort that you 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 concentration to right concentration. It's predicated upon utilizing right effort.

The Buddha has also said that there is karma, and this is the cause of karma, and there is a cessation of karma, and the way leading to the cessation of karma is this Eightfold Path. The 6Rs are not only the heart of the path, but they are also the application of the path through that process of right effort. By utilizing right effort in that way, you are utilizing the Eightfold Path, which ceases the ability of that karma to further continue. Bringing that back to your question, what that means is that hindrance is just a feeling. It's just an experience that you're having in your mind in that moment.

Therefore, it's full of karma. How do you deal with it? You observe that it's there, you acknowledge that it's there, and you let go of it. In the letting go of it, you don't add to the further craving for it or the aversion against it. Instead, you are learning from it, and so actually cultivating wisdom. That's the way to deal with it.

Yeah, question over there. I think a lot has been discussed, but I would like to add my own experience of today. First of all, I've been meditating regularly, so some of the difficulties I have not encountered. But let's say I was not coming into the rhythm of this template. And one thing that I practiced in the afternoon, after the importance of smile was highlighted in the afternoon session, and then I went back and while walking I started practicing as if I am doing smiling meditation.

My face is smiling, my mind is smiling, my heart is smiling, my body is smiling, and soon this practice becomes, the smile becomes full of joy, and then it's very difficult, very, very easy to start sharing it with your spiritual partner, with your family members, and humanity at large. So if it works, this is what worked for me. Yeah, I'm very glad that you brought that up, because that is another way that you can do it, where if you have difficulty with just bringing up the feeling of loving kindness, then you can just use a smile and let the smile go all day long. So when you 6R, instead of returning back to an object, use a smile as your object in meditation, and then that will start to bring up that feeling.

I do want to say, though, I know you said that the feeling wanted to go to your spiritual friend and other people and so on. I'm not sure where you are in your practice, but for those who are just with a spiritual friend for now, please just stay with a spiritual friend. Later on you will deal with family members and humanity at large and so on. But thank you for that, that's very important. You can also use the smile, just the smile, as an object of meditation and see if that brings up that feeling.

Any other questions? Okay. Oh, okay. One more. Now we do the 6R's, now we do this. It keeps on talking to itself, as the recording is playing on that. Yeah. Do you find that distracting? After the feeling, since the feeling is there and sometimes it helps. Sometimes it's like, "Why are you bothering me?" Yeah. But you're seeing that that's what the mind is doing. You're not doing it. The mind keeps on telling you, do this, do this. Follow it. But once you get to the object, then let it go. Okay. Okay. So is it okay to, my current focus is equanimity or quiet mind, but throughout the day, right now, it feels more natural to focus on meditating on metta.

Is it okay to be switching? Oh yeah, yeah. Once you start to develop the Brahmaviharas, later on as you advance, you can use them like a toolkit for different situations. Maybe sometimes you feel like you need compassion, so you bring up compassion. And so what you're teaching yourself is being able to apply these Brahmaviharas for the situation that required that particular Brahmavihara. It's a little bit similar to the question about the order, the person that gives the order. In my case, it's more like a sports commentator. The football, is it the same? Just follow? Just let it be, just let, whatever it's commentating, let it commentate, it's fine. Just don't become the commentator.

Right? You're just saying, "Okay, this is what's going on. Now I'm disturbing Bihar, or now I'm with my spiritual friend, or whatever it is, that's fine. But you're there, right? You are with the spiritual friend when that's happening. It's basically a process of perception. The mind is recognizing this is what's going on, and it's just saying to itself, it's reassuring itself that this is what it is, that's it. Yeah, it's all good.

Could you give the background of this Brahmavihara, where did Buddha teach, and what was the context, because all his teaching is based on certain context, so I think maybe that would give us more conviction, surely. So if you go into the suttas, a lot of times the Buddha will talk about, you know, the jhanas and the practice and so on. And he will also talk about, he says, the language that's used is, he pervades one direction and, you know, in front of him, behind him, around him, and as to himself, as to all, he pervades all quarters with loving-kindness. And then he pervades all quarters with compassion, and then he pervades all quarters with empathetic joy, and then all quarters with equanimity.

There is a sutta called the Mettasahagata Sutta which talks about this as well, and the Buddha says that how he teaches is that by bringing up these different Brahmaviharas he's also cultivating the enlightened factors. And so as you're doing this, he also talks about the limits of each of the Brahmaviharas. In other words, the limit of loving-kindness is actually the fourth jhana. The limit of compassion is infinite space. The limit of mudita, or empathetic joy, is infinite consciousness. And the limit of equanimity is nothingness.

And then he also talks about the Brahmaviharas as antidotes for afflictive states of mind. So, for example, when you have an aversive mind, when you have a mind that has ill will. You know, just going back to the Eightfold Path, when we talk about right intention, there's three components to right intention. There's nekkhamma, which is renunciation, letting go of the need to control things and how you think they should be. There is non-ill will and there's non-cruelty.

So non-ill will arises or happens because you cultivate loving-kindness. Non-cruelty or harmlessness is predicated upon the cultivation of compassion. Because when you talk about cruelty, if you think about cruelty, we see it as: we recognize that we are suffering, and then we recognize that others are also suffering. So for us to be cruel would be to actually act in such a way that adds to that person's suffering. So giving anger for anger, giving grief for grief, giving irritation for irritation.

But understanding that that person, whatever they're doing out of anger or irritation or whatever it might be, is because they are suffering. So to be cruel would be to add to their suffering. But to be non-cruel would be to be compassionate, recognizing that they are suffering. So this compassion is an antidote for cruelty. And it's a way of recognizing all beings are suffering.

And by doing so, compassion doesn't mean, I want to emphasize here, compassion doesn't mean sympathy. It does not mean pity. It doesn't mean to look down on a person and say, oh, too bad for them. It has a quality of empathy, because there's a recognition of suffering that you have, that they have. And it also doesn't mean that you become a crutch to take them out of that suffering, but you become somebody who supports them on their journey to take themselves out of suffering.

Then when we talk about mudita, empathetic joy, this is an antidote for envy and jealousy. There's a tendency for people to, when somebody is having a good time, they get jealous of that. When somebody has experienced some kind of success, a wholesome success, they get jealous of that. But if you cultivate empathetic joy, you can actually celebrate in their joy. This is empathetic joy. You celebrate in their success. You are happy for them. There is somebody in the community that I know personally. I met them while I was in San Francisco. He was hosting me while I was doing a retreat, before we were doing a retreat there. And he says, we were at the gas station in San Francisco and there was a really nice looking car going by.

And he said, you know, every time I see somebody who's like, has a, driving a really nice car or, you know, has a really nice house or can afford really nice things, my immediate reaction to that is, I'm so happy for them. Good for them. You know, that ability not to be jealous of what other people possess or have. Or the cultivation of being happy for other people's happiness. Being happy for their own success. So this is an antidote for jealousy.

Equanimity is an antidote for restlessness and agitation of the mind. Remember what I talked about before. Equanimity is yathabhuta nana dassana. Seeing things as they actually are. The knowledge and vision of things as they actually are. Without being affected by them one way or the other. So if it's a pleasant feeling, that brings up some kind of pleasant experience. If it's an unpleasant feeling, that brings up some kind of unpleasant experience. Or if it's neutral, you see everything completely the same. You don't react in a way that causes craving. You don't react in a way that causes aversion. You don't react in a way that causes you to have ignorance or indifference or identification with that which is neutral.

So when we're doing this process of the Brahmaviharas, right now, the people who are in the beginning stages, they're first cultivating loving-kindness for themselves. Certain parameters in the private interviews, when you tell me how your experiences are going, will allow me to know, or allow Venerable Netananda to know when you interview with him, where you are in terms of your cultivation of loving-kindness. And then we'll give you more instructions where then that loving-kindness becomes more open and more inclusive of other beings and so on. And then, eventually, that loving-kindness naturally progresses. There's no process of you jumping from loving-kindness to compassion. It naturally evolves into compassion. And then that compassion naturally evolves into empathetic joy.

And then that empathetic joy naturally evolves into equanimity. And then finally, all of that is let go of, and then all you have left with is the pabhassara citta, the luminous one. So the Brahmaviharas are used in this way, and in this context. Thank you. So we have a few more minutes to ask a few questions. I have two questions. One was on a practical level. How could we be equanimous towards sleep? You know, especially at this hour, when it just overtakes you, you know, like how do? Because yesterday you said, like, use the distraction or use the pain, right? I'll be more like, bring the sleep in as a practice. No, so I didn't say use the pain.

I said, notice your reaction to the pain. So let go of your reaction if it's aversive to the pain. And if you feel sleepy, go to sleep. It's as simple as that, really. There's no need to fight any of the hindrances. Right now, this is a good time to go to sleep and wake up early and meditate. That's fine, too. And by the way, sometimes you'll find that you wake up suddenly at 2 or 3 in the morning and your mind is kind of fresh at that hour and you feel like meditating. That's completely fine. As the days progress, you might find that you want to meditate more in the night and not show up for the morning precepts.

If that happens, you let me know in the private interviews and we will handle that. But when it comes to sleep, in terms of actual sleep, you don't want to fight that sleep. Just let it be. You have to go to sleep, go to sleep. The dullness of mind, the thina and middha, is another thing, which is like, your mind becomes, it has lack of attention, it's inattentive, and then it starts to fall towards dullness of mind, which can result in you dozing off, let's say, in the meditation. That can happen because there's not enough focus.

There's not enough energy. Maybe there's not enough physical energy in the body to be able to maintain that attention. In which case, then you do need that sleep. You do need more rest. Other times, it could just be because there's an underutilization of effort going on, which means there's not enough focus. Or, you know, when you use your mind's attention, like the camera lens, and focus a little bit more, and that's just, you know, micro doses of effort, micro doses of intention of saying, okay, let me put a little bit more energy, let me focus a little bit more and see what happens. That's interesting. I just, I have one more question, actually. So, like, today I woke up really early, and I was then fighting to, like, put myself into sleep mode, you know, which wasn't happening.

So you're saying that, you're suggesting that if I wake up early, then just meditate, yeah? Just meditate. Use that as an opportunity to meditate. - Sure, thanks. If I had moments, my last question was like, the afternoon practice, the 1:30 a.m. practice, I could see both of you smiling and radiating. But it doesn't seem like every two minutes or three minutes the bell would go on, but you seem to get this on demand. Is this just practice or just practice? No, we're just special, that's right. What's the mechanics like? Well, what's your secret, man?

We're generating that. Yeah, on demand. It is practice, isn't it? It's just practice. Because then we give you these tools in the beginning to bring up a memory or use the smile or gratitude, but it's really just the intention. So then once your mind remembers what that feels like, you can just go to the intention. I think a lot of you will experience that in this retreat. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly, in terms of, then you don't need to use a tool like a wholesome image, it just becomes innate. So like what you were saying earlier about put that nature, if you want to talk about those terms, maybe it is easy for you to just kind of go inside yourself, so deep in your own heart, and cultivate that.

If that works for you, then by all means, please do that. But initially you might have to use those tools. But you can just, through constant practice and consistent effort and practice, you'll be able to go into different jhanas at will as well. And you'll be able to skip from one jhana to another. You'll go from one jhana to the fourth jhana, jhana to the infinite consciousness or something. But that is because of consistent effort and practice. That's really all it is. Firstly, I want to say that you are able to get metta on demand. That is kind of inspiration to me as well. I was just looking and saying, yeah, I also need to continue this kind of thing. And the next question is related to determination and waking up in the morning.

In my case, if I determine that I want to wake up at five o'clock, mostly I will wake up one hour, one and a half hours before that. Maybe you're living in another time zone. Like, in that case, do I just need to continue to sleep and wait? Well, it depends, right? When you wake up at that time, if your mind is feeling like it's right for meditation, then do meditation.

Yeah, I don't want to say anything more, because we can talk about it in the private interview, but I think your mind is, like, over-eager about things, always. So just take it easy, even with the determinations. Thank you. Anything else? Quick question. How much do you guys sleep? I don't know about that. Yeah. What are lemons? It depends on the day. It depends on what we're doing. I can speak for myself. Sometimes I go to sleep at 2 and wake up at 6. Sometimes I'll go to sleep at 6 and wake up at 11. Sometimes I don't have a consistent sleeping pattern.

Something's up here. I don't know what's going on. But generally, what are you trying to get, at least six to seven hours of sleep? Yeah, I mean, it's often, some teachers will say that meditation can somehow replace sleep. And you might find that you need less sleep on retreat because there's less, you're releasing a lot of tension in your mind. I think a lot of what makes us tired is this constant push and pull of experience throughout the day.

Yeah, see for yourself what the effect of the retreat. Please get enough sleep. Please get enough sleep, yeah. Nobody here is ever going to tell you, you need to sleep only three hours or two hours or whatever it is. Vandhi Ramam, she did all of that. I mean, you know the story about that, right? Yeah. Where his teacher told him, he said, I'm sleeping four hours a day. And I said, that's a lot. Sleep three hours. And then he slept three hours, and he said, now sleep two hours, and he slept two hours, and he just didn't meditate. So don't deprive yourself of sleep. In the same way you don't deprive yourself of air or water or food, sleep is a requirement for your body to function properly, so please get enough sleep.

Eventually you'll find for yourself naturally that you don't need more sleep, and the meditation, as you said, kind of replaces the sleep. Or your sleep becomes deeper, which means you don't need as much sleep, because your sleep pattern is such that you have more fulfilling sleep, or you have deeper stages of sleep. And then of course there comes a point where you actually become conscious during even deep sleep, but that's completely different. But this happens in stages. A lot of Buddha's lectures were in Ardha-Magadhi language.

Which language is that? Ardha-Magadhi. Ardha-Magadhi. Okay. I couldn't tell you. I wouldn't know. But it would have been one of the languages they were using in Magadha, so if that was what it was, then that would have probably been the case. Pali is sort of like a... it's a later composite, right, of different... Magadhi was the actual spoken language, and then Prakrit, I think, was the written form.

Okay, going once, going twice, three times, sold. All right, let's share some of it. May suffering ones be suffering through me, and fear struck fearlessly. May the beings share all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share the spirit that I have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings encompassed in space and the earth, devas may not disappoint my power, share thy spirit of the house. May they all protect the protest of dispensation.