Day 2 May Retreat MN 107 Ganaka Moggalana Sutta with Delson Armstrong -Distractions

Satsang with Mooji Nethi Piso Bhagawa Araha Sama Sambutoa Vijajarana Sampanno Sukatholo Kavidu Anu Tharo Purisadhamma Sarati Sathadeva. So, today we are going to talk about the path and hindrances on the path. So I'm going to be reading from Majjhima Nikaya 107. This is Ganaka Moggallana Sutta, to Ganaka Moggallana. Thus have I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in the eastern park in the palace of Migara'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: Ganaka Moggallana was an accountant. Ganaka means one who counts. So that's accountant. 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 this gradual training. Among also accountants like us who earn our living by accountancy there can be seen gradual training. For when we get an apprentice first, we make him count one-one, two-twos, three-threes, four-fours, five-fives, six-sixes, seven-sevens, eight-eights, nine-nines, ten-tens, and we make him count a hundred-two. Now, is it also possible, Master Gautama, to describe gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress in the Dhamma and discipline?

It is possible, Brahmin, to describe gradual training, gradual practice, and gradual progress in this Dhamma and discipline. Just as, Brahmin, when a clever horse trainer obtains a fine thoroughbred colt, 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: Come, Bhikkhu, be virtuous, restrained with the restraint of the Patimokkha. Be perfect in conduct and resort, and seeing fear in the slightest fault, train by undertaking the training precepts.

You guys have only eight precepts to take care of, right? So that's your training precepts. Those are your virtues that you have to take care of while you're on retreat. I believe the monastics, the Bhikkhus, have 227? 227. And the Bhikkhunis have 311. Be happy, you only have eight. When Brahmin, the Bhikkhu is virtuous and seeing fear in the slightest fault, trains by undertaking the training precepts, then the Tathagata disciplines him further.

So, seeing fear in the slightest fault, that's really about understanding the consequences of what happens when you break a precept. So they have two words in Pali, that's hiri and ottappa. Hiri has to do with your moral compass. Where are you directed towards in terms of your moral inclination? And ottappa is the effort you make based on and determined by the understanding that if you break a precept, there are consequences to it. And we'll get deeper into what those are.

Come, Bhikkhu, guard the doors of your sense faculties. On seeing a form with the eye, do not grasp at its signs and features. So, on seeing a form with the eye, do not grasp at its signs and features. When you're doing your walking meditation, are you guarding your sense doors? Or are you getting caught up in the sound of the birds? getting caught up by Rex or Duke around or by the goats down there? Or are you just walking with collectedness in mind, observing loving kindness and staying with your spiritual friend?

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 them unguarded, these faculties unguarded, evil unwholesome states might invade you. What are evil unwholesome states? They are the hindrances. Practice the way of its restraint. Guard these sense faculties. Undertake the restraint of these sense faculties. So, how do you restrain sense faculties? Restraint is an interesting word that they use. It comes from the word samvara.

And that somehow has the connotation that you have to control the senses. You have to restrain them. You have to restrict them. But how could you control your mind? How could you control what you're seeing? How can you control the colors of the leaves around you? How could you control the sounds that are coming into your ears? Or how can you control the smell that's arising? You can't control them. They are arising as they arise.

So you're not controlling anything here. You're not making an effort to control something. You're just observing how mind's attention gets distracted, if it gets distracted. So when you do this, your mindfulness is sharper, your mindfulness is clearer, so it's more attentive, which means that it's able to notice that there is craving for this particular sense experience. And how do you restrain that, or how do you bring it back to clarity, how do you bring it back to collectedness? The 6R's. So you notice you're getting distracted, you're no longer on the spiritual friend, you're no longer with loving-kindness, you're no longer with your object of meditation.

So you recognize, oh, here I am getting distracted. You release your attention away from it, relax mind and body, come back to the re-smile, come back to your object. When Brahmin, the Bhikkhu guards the doors of his 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 only for the endurance and continuance of this body, for ending discomfort and for assisting the holy life. Considering thus, I shall terminate old feelings of hunger without arousing new feelings of hunger, and I shall be healthy and blameless and shall live in comfort.

So on the surface this is really talking about moderation in eating, right? So when you're on retreat, you're taking the precepts where you don't take any meal after the noonday meal. But there's another way to understand this as well when you come off of retreat. Yes, you be moderate with eating. You be more mindful of what's going on. Is there greed for that piece of chocolate cake? Is there craving for that particular strawberry or whatever it might be? You notice that and then you 6R and let go of that. But then moderation in consumption in general also is something else.

The quality of the things that you intake through your sense bases in terms of what is it that you consume. What kind of television shows do you watch? What kind of movies do you watch? What kind of music do you listen to? What kind of things do you read? Right? That has an effect on the mind. Whatever it is that you have in terms of the six sense-based experiences, that has a direct effect on the mind. So be more mindful of the things that you consume. Be more moderate in that.

Moderation is key here, which means whatever it is happening, whether it's pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, whatever the experience is, there's no reaction to it that causes further craving or aversion. It's more about being equanimous, seeing things as they really are. When Brahmin, the 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. Obstructive states are the hindrances. 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. I told you about this yesterday, after noting in your mind the time for rising.

Make a determination of what time you're going to wake up, and make a determination that when you wake up, you wake up with a smile on your face. After rising, in the third watch of the night, while walking back and forth and sitting, purify your mind of obstructive states. So wakefulness, that's what the Buddha is talking about, wakefulness.

Wakefulness means being clear with your attention, paying attention to everything that's going on. And you do that by observing. That's it. Mindfulness is observing how mind's attention moves. Remembering to observe how mind's attention moves. So if you're wakeful, then you're mindful, you're clear, you're attentive. When you're attentive, you're aware of the inherent characteristics of all conditioned things.

Everything that you're experiencing right now is conditioned. That which is conditioned is dependently arisen. That which is dependently arisen is bound to be impermanent. That which is impermanent is bound to cause suffering one way or the other. Even pleasant feelings, pleasant experiences are impermanent, and therefore they are liable to cause suffering. Therefore they are not worth holding on to, and therefore they shouldn't be considered as me, mine, or myself.

When you see this, your mind becomes equanimous. When you are equanimous, your mind has disenchantment. When you are disenchanted, your mind is dispassionate, and that leads to the cessation of suffering. So these are the steps that lead to that, and it all starts with paying attention. It all starts with right mindfulness, being attentive, being aware of what's happening in the mind in relation to all experiences. This is wakefulness.

When Brahmin, the 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.

This is an extension of that. We just talked about mindfulness. So, in the four foundations of mindfulness, the Buddha talks about how the mind is in full awareness in relation to all these things. In relation to moving, to walking, to sitting, to standing, to lying down, to resting, to eating, to taking a shower, whatever it might be. Stay in full awareness of what?

Stay in full awareness of your object of meditation. When you become collected around your object of meditation, then you are in full awareness, because when you're not with your object of meditation, your mind is able to recognize that it's not. And then it's able to use right effort, the rest of the 6R's, to come back to full awareness, come back to collectedness.

When, Brahmin, the Bhikkhu possesses mindfulness and full awareness, then the Tathagata 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. 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.

When you talk about establishing mindfulness before him, that's basically seeing, is there present any hindrance in the mind? When you sit down for meditation, when you establish mindfulness before you, that doesn't mean you're paying attention to your nose. It doesn't mean you're paying attention to what's in front of you. What it means is, what states are present in the mind? Now that you've closed your eyes, you're sitting motionless for meditation.

Are there any hindrances present? If there are no hindrances present, then you continue on with the meditation. You have the intention of loving-kindness. If there's a hindrance present, you six-hour come back to the awareness of loving-kindness. So it says, abandoning covetousness for the world, he abides with the mind free from covetousness. He purifies his mind from covetousness.

This is the hindrance of sensual craving. Abandoning ill will and hatred, he abides with the mind free from ill will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. This is the hindrance of ill will, of aversion. He purifies, 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.

When they talk about percipient of light, it means a couple of things. When we talk about sloth and torpor, that means there's dullness in the mind. There's less lack of attention in the mind. So when we talk about light, that is Obhasa. Not venerable Obhasa, but just Obhasa. And there are these four kinds of light. What are these four? The Buddha talks about these great lights. The first light is the light of fire.

The second light is the light of the moon. The third is the light of the sun. And the fourth is the light of wisdom. So when there is sloth and torpor, when there is dullness of mind, there is lack of attention, there is lack of wisdom, there is lack of energy. Now we'll talk about how to deal with these hindrances. Let's continue.

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 the wholesome states. He purifies his mind from doubt. So at some point you might have heard Bhante talk about the five hindrances and how they arise because at some point you have broken the precepts, whether it's in this life or in the previous life.

There is this connection between the five hindrances and the five basic precepts. What is the cause of sensual craving? Well, let's take the five precepts. Let's do it the other way around. What's the first precept? No killing with intention. No harming or killing with intention. But how do you kill with intention? You need to have ill will. You need to have aversion.

So anytime you purposely harm another being, whether it's mentally, verbally, or with bodily action, there is present in that mind ill will. So whenever you break this precept, it cultivates ill will in the mind. What's the second precept? Not taking what is not given. Abstaining from taking what is not given. So that means basically stealing. Now, when you do this, it just doesn't mean taking what is not given in the form of possessions, in the form of material things. But it also means taking away attention from someone else when it is not given.

Seeking out attention, seeking out credit, seeking out this or that. What kind of mind state is there present in such a mind? Restlessness. Restlessness arises because I need this, I need that, I need to take this. And so restlessness arises and remorse arises. Restlessness and anxiety. What's the third precept? No lying or harsh speech. Not dealing in lies, not dealing in harsh speech, not dealing in false speech, not dealing in slander and gossip.

So when you deal in false speech, when you deal in gossip, when you deal in slander, first of all, what is gossip? Gossip is when you talk about another person behind their back. So how do you know that you're doing gossip? If what you're going to say is something that you dare not say in front of the other person, if they're present, about them, then you are doing gossip. If you are going to talk about them, are you going to talk about them in a way to somebody else while they're present, when they're not present?

Right, so gossip and slander is talking about someone else behind their back, but you know that it is untrue. So gossip, slander, false speech, these create doubt in another person, this creates doubts in yourself. So there is that doubt of what is wholesome and unwholesome, the doubt in your own capacities and your own capabilities as a practitioner. When you lie, you deal in being untrustworthy, and you don't trust other people around you, and this creates doubt.

What's the fourth precept? Sexual misconduct. This also includes sensual misconduct. What is sensual misconduct? Doing something which causes you attachment to a sensual experience. And when there's attachment to that sensual experience, it causes you to break another precept. You really want that chocolate cake and you're willing to fight somebody for it. So when that happens, that gives rise to sensual craving, that is the hindrance of sensual craving. What is the fifth precept? Taking intoxicants that lead to heedlessness, so indulging in intoxicants that cause sloth and torpor, or it causes sloth and torpor, and indulging or overindulging in anything that includes watching too much TV, being on the internet for too long, browsing the internet for too long, reading for too long. Doing anything for too long can cause a dull mind.

If you've been watching TV all day long, what's the quality of your mind? It's very dull. It's got sloth and torpor in there. Whenever you deal with indulging in drugs and alcohol, anything that intoxicates, that ultimately dulls the mind. It causes tiredness in the mind. It causes inattention in the mind. So this is the connection between breaking a precept and the hindrances.

At some point or another, this had happened. Whether it was bodily, whether it was verbal, or whether it was mental, even if you had the intention, because that inclines your choices towards things. Now, there are some practical things that can cause the arising of hindrances too. For example, restlessness. You have too much caffeine, you're going to have a very restless and energetic mind. Don't have enough sleep, you're going to cause yourself a lot of tiredness and dullness in the mind. You're eyeing that chocolate cake and you really want it, but you don't get it. There's sensual craving over there. Somebody disturbs your meditation by mowing the lawn around you. You get angry at them in your mind.

That's going to cause aversion in the mind. So how do you deal with these hindrances? What are the antidotes to these hindrances? When you have ill will, when you have aversion, what's the antidote for that? Metta, loving kindness, compassion. When you have sensual craving, what is the antidote for that? Equanimity can be the case, but there's another one.

There is an enlightenment factor called joy that arises. That joy arises when you are in jhana. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And then when you have doubt, what is the antidote for doubt? No, knowing what is right and knowing what is wrong, knowing what is wholesome and what is unwholesome. In other words, doubt is about being perplexed about what is a precept and what is a hindrance, what is the meditation and so on.

So the investigation factor, that is the factor of investigation of states, knowing that you are in this state or in that state, the knowing of that, the perceiving of that, is the antidote to doubt. What about sloth and torpor? Energy. So the enlightenment factor of energy, of having right effort. Now, when you have sloth and torpor, it could be because you haven't had enough sleep. So make sure you have enough rest, make sure you have enough naps.

Right? I encourage naps on this retreat. So sometimes you need to sit out where there's sunlight, where there's a lot of light. This is also about percipient of light. There's the idea that you have to have light, be able to see light in your mind. But when that happens, the mind becomes too concentrated, and you don't want that, because that's going to suppress the hindrances, that's going to cause tightness and tension in the mind. So when you talk about sloth and torpor, we're talking about being more attentive. There's a lack of attention.

So to deal with sloth and torpor, what you have to do is you need more energy. You need more interest in your object of meditation. There's no real interest in what you're seeing and what you're observing. So the mind's attention is like a camera lens. How do you focus that lens, right? So do you have enough energy to be able to stay with the object, or do you have too much, which can cause restlessness? You need to be able to make that balance, be able to understand, and so you just make little tiny adjustments. You realize you have sloth and torpor.

So then you are now attentive, because what happens? You recognize that there is sloth and torpor. You release your attention away from it. You relax any craving or aversion towards it. You come back with a smile, with a wholesome mind, and now when you come back to your object, be a little bit more collected. Don't focus, don't concentrate, just bring a little more energy. And then with restlessness that arises because the mind is trying too hard, you know, when you're meditating you're frowning and you're trying too hard to be with your object of meditation. In fact, you're trying too hard to become your object of meditation, and that's not the key with meditation. Here the key is to understand that the object of meditation is like a planet and your attention is a satellite.

Orbiting that planet, it's around the object, it's collected around the object. It's not becoming that object, not becoming one-pointed. So when you have restlessness, what you require is more tranquility, more relaxation. Back off a little bit. Don't put up too much energy. Have more collectedness, have more equanimity. Was that all of them? Yeah. Having thus abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures. What does it mean when you say quite secluded from sensual pleasures? Now we're getting into actual meditation practice.

Now we're getting into samadhi, the cultivation of the mind, mental development, bhavana. So quite secluded from sensual pleasures means that when you sit down for meditation your eyes are closed. You're no longer receiving sensory data from the eyes, right, from around you. Yes, you might be hearing things, but now your mind is centered around an experience in the mind rather than being dispersed. Your attention is no longer dispersed in what's going on out there in the world. It's now becoming attentive to what's happening inside, that is to say, within the mind.

Secluded from unwholesome states. Secluded from unwholesome states means that the mind is rid of the five hindrances. There are no five hindrances present in the mind. He enters upon and abides in the first jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and examining thought. What is thinking and examining thought? You bring up the intention of loving kindness. You bring up a wholesome image, a wholesome memory. Or you verbalize, may I be happy, may I be free of suffering, may I have loving kindness.

What is examining thought? The sustained application of that thought. That is to say, when loving kindness arises, you now stay with that feeling of loving kindness. You place the mind on that feeling of loving kindness. With rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, when your mind is secluded from these unwholesome states, there is a relief there. From that relief, there is a joy that arises, the piti that arises, the comfort in the body arises.

With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, with the stilling of thinking and examining thought, he enters upon and abides in the second jhana. So now you've let go of the wholesome image. You've let go of the wholesome memory, or you've let go of the verbalizing. And now you're just staying with the object of meditation. You're staying with the loving kindness.

He enters upon and abides in the second jhana, which has self-confidence and singleness of mind without applied and sustained thought. So, self-confidence. Now the meditation is flowing. Now you've got this. Now you're like, okay, I understand what's going on here. There's no doubt anymore of what's going on. You know that you are with your object of meditation. Singleness of mind, that is to say, the mind is now becoming more collected. Now it knows that the object of meditation is the objective. The objective here is just to observe, and 6R whenever the mind becomes distracted.

With rapture or joy and pleasure born of collectedness, now the mind becomes even more collected, and there's this joy that arises. There's this feeling of energetic, vibratory joy that arises. There's a feeling of great tranquility in the body, great comfort and ease within the body. With the fading away as well of rapture, he abides in equanimity, mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body. He enters upon and abides in the third jhana, on account of which noble ones announce he has a pleasant abiding, who has equanimity and is mindful, with the abandoning...

Before we go with that. So in the third jhana, what happens? The joy fades away. This is why, if you experience joy and it fades away, don't become disheartened. Don't equate the joy with loving kindness. Don't make the feeling of joy the object of meditation. See it as just something that's happening in the background of your mind. The feeling is the loving kindness, not the joy. When the joy goes away, that's fine. What remains there is still sukha, still not the cat sukkah in terms of the body comfort, right? The bodily comfort that's there, the happiness that's there, the ease of mind and body that's there, the tranquility that's there. The mind is a little more expansive.

The body might feel lighter, or it might feel more rooted. It might feel more heavy, because it feels like it's more grounded. In either case, this is a sign that you're getting into the third jhana, or one of the signs, let's say. And you have equanimity. There's equanimity present, as you'll see tomorrow, in each of the jhanas. But the equanimity becomes more apparent as you get into the third and fourth jhana.

With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, he enters upon and abides in the fourth jhana, which has neither pain nor pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. This is really important to understand: purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. Now there is complete balance in the mind. The mind is utterly peaceful, utterly calm. And what happens is, as you're getting through each of these jhanas, it's happening as a natural process. You are coming into balance with the enlightenment factors, the seven enlightenment factors, the seven factors of awakening.

Mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity. These lead to each other. That is to say, when you have mindfulness, that leads to investigation of states. When you have investigation of states, that leads to energy. That energy leads to joy, that joy leads to tranquility, that tranquility leads to collectedness, and that collectedness leads to equanimity.

But it's also cyclical. That is to say, as you're going through these jhanas, you're cycling through the enlightenment factors, and so they keep strengthening each other. And by the time you get to the fourth jhana, you have mindfulness, purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, mindfulness informed by the factor of equanimity. Now, how do you awaken these enlightenment factors? They happen quite naturally, like I said. But they're also, in a sense, if you look at it, the antidotes for each of the hindrances.

The way to awaken the enlightenment factors is by using right effort. That is to say, the six R's. Mindfulness, as we said, is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. When you recognize that you are distracted, you recognize that your mind has moved from its object. You're seeing that the attention has moved. What is the investigation of states factor? That is to be aware what state is present in the mind.

That's how you relieve doubt. That is how you let go of doubt. Because doubt is about the doubt of whether I am practicing correctly, or the doubt of whether I'm in a wholesome state or an unwholesome state, in a distracted state or an undistracted state. So when you recognize, you have the investigation of states there as well, because you recognize, oh, here is a distracted mind.

When you release, you're making the effort to let go of that particular distraction. That's the energy that's required, that's the effort that's required, that's the third enlightenment factor of energy. Now the next one is joy, and the next one is tranquility. But here, when you relax the mind and body, relax the tightness and tension, you're bringing up the enlightenment factor of tranquility.

And then when you re-smile, you're bringing up joy. So these two are interchangeable, joy and tranquility. When you are in a tranquil state of mind, you can be naturally joyful. And when you are in a joyous state of mind, you're naturally relaxed and tranquil. Finally, when you return back to your object of meditation, your mind becomes collected. So now you have collectedness.

And when you do this process, you are seeing things as they are, which is equanimity: not being attached one way or the other, not being pushed or pulled by the object, or not being pushed or pulled by a hindrance or distraction. So when you use the six R's, you're naturally giving rise to the enlightenment factors, and you're letting go of the hindrance. And so for the mind to be in jhana, it requires the non-presence or absence of the hindrances, and the presence or activation of the enlightenment factors. So every time you 6R, you're cultivating your mind to head towards a jhanic state. And when it comes to the jhanas, it's important to understand that the factors of the jhanas are one thing, and the object of meditation is one thing.

Like I said, don't mistake the joy or the comfort in the body or the equanimity for the object of meditation. That is to say, the metta, right? The loving kindness. The way to see jhanas, or the factors of jhana, is that they are basically the background setting of your mind. Think about it this way. Imagine you're having a conversation with a friend at a restaurant or at your home, and there's some ambient music playing, and there's some little chitter chatter going on. That's the background setting for your conversation.

Now, if there's too much ambient music, if there's too much conversation going on, are you able to listen to your friend, or respond to your friend, or are they able to listen to you? In the same way, when you're talking about jhanas, the ambient music is the joy factor, the sukha factor, all of these different factors. But the conversation is between you, your mind, and the object of meditation. If the jhana factors are too much, you're not going to be able to pay attention to your object in meditation.

So if you start to get inclined towards the joy, start to get inclined towards the sukha, towards the equanimity, then you're not paying attention. You're still distracted. Even though you're being distracted by something good, you're still distracted. So when you notice that, just 6R that and come back to the loving kindness, whatever the object is. 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 the 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, in arahant, just because they let go and have destroyed the fetters and destroyed the taints, doesn't mean that they stop practicing. They continue practicing because that's their default way of function. So what you're training yourself to do, when you have these things, when you 6R, when you come to the meditation practice, when you have restraint, correct understanding of the restraint of the senses, you're training yourself to become an arahant. You're training yourself to become a mind rid of barriers, a mind that is completely liberated.

When this was said, the Brahmin Ganaka Moggalana asked the Blessed One, when Master Gautama's disciples are thus advised and instructed by him, do they all attain Nibbana, the ultimate goal, or do some not attain it? When, Brahmin, they are thus advised and instructed by me, some of my disciples attain Nibbana, the ultimate goal, and some do not attain it. Master Gautama, since Nibbana exists and the path leading to Nibbana exists, and Master Gautama is present as the guide, what is the cause and reason why, when Master Gautama's disciples are thus advised, instructed by him, some of them attain Nibbana, the ultimate goal, and some do not attain it?

Then, having been thus 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 thus advised and instructed by you, one takes a wrong road and goes to the west and one arrives safely in Rajagaha? What can I do about that, Master Gautama? I am the one who shows the way.

In other words, you can lead the horse to the water, but you can't make it drink. Right, we can show you the path, but you have to follow the path. You have to take the right path to Nibbana, the path to Nibbana. That sounds familiar, yeah. I think you should. When this was said, the Brahmin Ganaka Moggalana said to the Blessed One: There are persons who are faithless and, having gone forth from the home life into homelessness, do not go 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 recluseship, 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 recluseship, greatly respectful of training, not luxurious or careless, who are keen to avoid backsliding, leaders in seclusion, energetic, resolute, established in mindfulness, fully aware, collected 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. 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 him for refuge for life.

Any questions? I'll ask the first question. All right. So, since you've got quite a bit of meditation experience, you've heard a lot of techniques. Many meditation instructors say, well, you can keep your eyes open while you meditate, you can keep them half closed, or you should close them. What do you make of all these instructions? What's the best? I would say when you're starting out, you want to be able to keep your eyes closed. Eventually there comes a point where sometimes, especially as we'll talk about tomorrow in infinite consciousness, sometimes the eyes open up on their own and there's just this experience that goes on. That's okay, but the whole point. Yes, I did mention your eyes are closed when you're meditating, for the most part, when you're sitting down. So when you keep your eyes closed, you're secluded from sensory input coming in from your eyes, but that's not mandatory.

So you can keep your eyes open, you can keep your eyes half closed, you can keep your eyes closed, but it's best to keep your eyes closed when you're starting out because it's going to be difficult otherwise for you to be able to be collected. Eventually you'll be able to just be meditative even with your eyes open, it doesn't really matter, but when you start out I would recommend you keep. So, that seems really low.

You mentioned briefly earlier about a mind that has a lot of light, and I think you talked about it in a negative way. It's not ideal. Are you talking about nimitta today? Right, yeah. Can you expand on that a bit? Yeah, I like your shirt, Dharma Brigade. Yeah. So, yeah, we talk about, you know, what happens is there's this understanding within some schools that you have to make your mind so concentrated that you're able to see light inside, like behind the eyes or in your eyelids. There's this whiteness that arises, this brightness that arises

because of a super concentrated mind. But like I said, when you become super concentrated, when you become one-pointed, you're suppressing the mind. So when you suppress the mind, you're unable to experience the hindrances, and you're unable to experience the insight that arises. So the analogy that I always use is the analogy of the beach ball. When you suppress, when you push down the beach ball under the water and you let go, what happens? It comes back with full force.

Same way when you become very concentrated. You're suppressing the hindrances. And when you come out, you might feel good for a little bit, maybe even for a couple of days. But you haven't actually dealt with the hindrances. So what happens? They come back with full force and you're unable to tame them. You're unable to control them, you're unable to see them even when they happen.

But when your mind is collected, what's happening is you're able to recognize and acknowledge that here is a hindrance. Like I said yesterday, hindrances are your teachers. See them as shedding light on where your aversion and your attachments lie. So as for the nimitta that we're talking about, what does nimitta mean? Nimitta is sometimes seen as a light that comes up, a blue light or a white light or a red light or whatever it might be. And then the idea is then to take that and let the mind become concentrated on that.

But this is a form of meditation that actually causes more tightness because you're constructing the experience. You're not deconstructing an experience. Remember I talked about how the first jhana is seclusion from the hindrances, and the joy that arises is because of relief from that. You're not constructing the jhanic factors. You're not constructing the joy that's arising. You are deconstructing the mind of unwholesome states, and as a result, because of the conditions that are right, joy arises.

So this whole process is not about constructing states of mind. It's about deconstructing, deconditioning, so that you get to the unconditioned. Now, nimitta, just as it's known, is really what it means, or rather, nimitta is object. So nimitta just means sign or object. So that's all it really is. So in that sense, the loving kindness or the equanimity or any of the brahmaviharas are nimittas because they're objects of meditation, but the idea is not to become the object; the idea is to let your mind be unified

collected, orbiting the object of meditation. So, um, Delson, you said yesterday that each of us gets three questions. Yeah, and I think I'll hopefully ask all three today. All right, good. So I remember both Bhante Vimalaramsi and Bhante Punaji saying that you have no sense of self and no craving in a jhana. So how do you measure no sense of self? And how do you measure whether you have no craving at a given moment? Do you try to distract yourself with some kind of object of craving? And then if you cannot do it, then does that mean-- how do you measure these things? Like with sloth and torpor, for example, what is the absence of sloth and torpor?

I mean, if you take an energy drink, then you're more active than otherwise. So is that the absence? I mean, how is that quantified? So how do you know you're not in sloth and torpor? There's balanced energy in the mind. How do you know when there's no restlessness? Again, there's balanced energy in mind. So sloth and torpor and restlessness are two sides of a coin, right? And the idea is, if you have too much energy then it causes restlessness. If you have too little energy, which is too little attention, then you have sloth and torpor. How do you know we're rid of sensual craving, because you're not thinking about it? How do you know you don't have any doubts, because your mind is collected in an object or around an object?

How do you know if there is no aversion? Because loving-kindness is present in the mind. So that's how you know it. You know it through the absence of these states by the presence of their antidotes, let's say. So you can't quantify while you're in jhana whether you are having craving or not craving. Just because you are in jhana means that you have no craving at all there. So if you're experiencing a collected mind, then you don't have craving.

If you're experiencing a mind that is balanced in energy, then you don't have restlessness and sloth and torpor. That's how you understand it. As for the sense of self, there is a declining sense of a personal self in jhana. But the jhana itself can be taken as, oh, this is me, mine or myself. So the idea is the sense of self that we talk about is the taking of something personal.

So saying that this is mine, this is me, this is myself, with relation to feeling in the mind, with relation to bodily feeling, with relation to form or the body itself, with relation to perception, with relation to your intention or formations, and with relation to your awareness. If there's a sense of self there, then there is something, there's bound to be something taken personal.

So when you're with an experience of loving-kindness, that loving-kindness is not you. That loving-kindness is not yours, even though it feels like it is. But the conditions, the causes and conditions, are right for the loving-kindness to arise. Namely, the intention, the wholesome image, or the wholesome verbalizations, or whatever it might be, that start to bring up the loving-kindness. And then you let go of that and you stay with the loving-kindness. That's why I'm saying you don't become the loving-kindness. You're just observing the loving-kindness as it is. How many questions do I have left? Two, okay, good. So the translations of piti and sukha, do you translate them as rapture and pleasure, or do you translate them as joy and comfort? I try joy and comfort. I translate them as joy and comfort. Joy is really energetic and vibratory. It's got this really vibrant sense of joy. And sukha is this comfort in the body. It's just like everything is very relaxed, tranquil, everything is fine. The body just feels very comfortable. There's a sense of ease in there.

Explosions of this kind of what you call joy, which I always translated as piti, is that a sign of, is that a defining characteristic? Or it can be. So joy can arise in different ways. It can arise as this vibration. It can arise as feeling excited, that sense of when you go up a roller coaster, up, up, up, up, and there's this exhilaration that happens. That can also be a kind of joy. There's a sense of joy where it comes up and just goes away immediately. It's just explosions of joy, as you say. They're not really, really completely there.

It just happens, and then it goes away, or whatever it might be. And then some people feel heat. They feel heat in the palm of their hands. They feel heat throughout the body, whatever it might be. These are signs of joy in one way or the other. That was your third question. Yeah, one final question. I actually don't quite know whether to ask this or not, but I'll ask it anyway.

You mentioned that in killing beings, there is ill will involved. Now, I'm going to briefly raise a debate, which I think you know what I'm referring to here. If you purchase something from someone who had ill will, are you completely released from any kind of involvement with that ill will, given that you were, in a sense, endorsing the action that was taken because you're purchasing the result of that ill will? The way I would explain this is you are responsible for your own actions, no one else's actions.

You are responsible for your karma and nobody else's karma. You are responsible for only your intentions and nobody else's intentions. Thanks very much. Let's share some merit and then we'll go into meditation. May suffering ones be suffering free. May the fear-struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu.