Day 4 May Retreat DN 14 Dependent Origination Pt. 1 with Delson Armstrong

So I'm going to read from a section, from this very long Sutta, which is called, it's Digha Nikaya 14, Mahapadana Sutta, the Great Discourse on the Lineage. And in it, the Buddha is talking about all of the different prior Buddhas, like the Vipassi Buddha, Sikhi Buddha, Vesabhu Buddha, Kaku Sunda, Kona Gamana, Kasapa, and so on.

And he talks about all of the different things that each of the Buddhas, before they become Buddhas, as Bodhisattvas go through, the different qualities that they have, the predictions that are made about them, either they will become a wheel-turning monarch, or they will become, what does it say? Or he will become an arahant, a fully enlightened Buddha, one who draws back the veil from the world.

So he goes through all of that, and then the Buddha talks about specifically Prince Vipassi, who becomes the Vipassi Buddha. And his father finds out that, if he's either going to become a wheel turning monarch or if he's going to turn into an arahant, an ascetic, and become an arahant, a fully enlightened Buddha, that he needs to prevent him from experiencing suffering. So he makes him go into the palace and gives him all of these sensual pleasures.

So with that background, we're going to start with section 2.1. This is page 207 of the Digha Nikaya. Then, monks, after many years, many hundreds and thousands of years had passed. Oh, by the way, during those times, they lived a long time, somewhere around 80, 90,000 years at a time. Prince Vipassi said to his charioteer, harness some fine carriages, charioteer. We will go to the pleasure park to inspect it. The charioteer did so, then reported to the prince, Your Royal Highness, the fine carriages are harnessed. It is time to do as you wish. And Prince Vipassi mounted a carriage and drove in procession to the pleasure park. And as he was being driven to the pleasure park, Prince Vipassi saw an aged man, bent like a roof beam, broken, leaning on a stick, tottering, sick, his youth all vanished.

At the sight he said to the charioteer, what is the matter with this man? His hair is not like other men's. His body is not like other men's. Prince, that is what is called an old man. But why is he called an old man? He is called old prince because he has not long to live. But am I liable to become old and not exempt from old age?

So you have to think about the context behind Prince Vipassi's life. Basically, they hid any kind of idea that old age existed, that sickness existed, that death existed. So he was under this impression that he's going to be forever young, forever 21. Right? He's going to be always healthy and he's never going to die. Can you imagine the kind of mindset that would have that you never have to do that? So that's quite the shock when he sees that somebody who is old, somebody who's aged, and what does he experience? It says here, Prince Vipassi was overcome with grief and dejection, crying, shame on this thing, birth, since to him who is born, old age must manifest itself.

This is known as samvega. Samvega is that despondency that someone experiences, the dismay that someone experiences at suffering. When there is suffering that arises, two things can happen. That person tries to find a way out of that suffering, or continues to be in confusion. To be in confusion means they will do other things to relieve that suffering temporarily, which is they'll seek out other sensual pleasures. They'll seek out drugs and alcohol. They'll seek out other ways to numb the pain of suffering. And that could be any kind of suffering. It could be the suffering of loss, the suffering of grief, the suffering of death, the suffering of losing a job, whatever it might be, or just unpleasant feelings, numbing all of that through different kinds of sensual pleasures.

This leads to further attachment to sensual pleasures, leads to further confusion. But there is a second way a person deals with it, which is: is there a way out of suffering? They feel dismayed, they feel dejected, they feel grief-stricken by the suffering, and they want a way out. This is the spiritual urgency, the samvega someone feels, that, oh, I could die at any point.

I could become sick at any point, very sick. I could grow old at any point. Let me meditate, lest I regret it. Let me find a way out of this suffering. Then King Bandhuma, that's Vipassi's father, sent for the charioteer and said, well, did not the prince enjoy himself at the pleasure park? Wasn't he happy there? Your majesty, the prince did not enjoy himself. He was not happy there. What did he see on the way there? So the charioteer told the king all that had happened. Then King Bandhuma thought, Prince Vipassi must not renounce the throne. He must not go forth from the household life into homelessness.

So this is the second sight that he saw, sickness. Just think about when you're sick, how awful it feels when you're not feeling well. Whether it's emotionally or physically or mentally, you're not feeling well. How does it feel? It feels really terrible. It's suffering. And so for Prince Vipassi, when he saw another person being sick, that was so foreign to him. He couldn't understand what that was. But seeing it was such a stark thing to see. Seeing somebody so sick that they can't even pick themselves up. People who have all kinds of diseases and illnesses, they suffer so much. People who are on their deathbed. People who are dying from cancer, dying from all kinds of sicknesses, they're suffering a lot. So Prince Vipassi, seeing that, seeing this kind of suffering, becomes dejected again. He'd start to develop more of that spiritual urgency, to see, is there a way out of this?

Drive me over to where the dead man is. Very good, Prince, said the charioteer, and did so. And Prince Vipassi gazed at the corpse of the dead man. Then he said to the charioteer, why is he called a dead man? Prince, he is called a dead man because now his parents and other relatives will not see him again, nor heed them. But am I subject to dying, not exempt from dying?

That stark reality of seeing that, that death is such that it ends all beings in that existence. That was such a shocking thing for him. Think about the first time you experienced death, the first time you experienced the death of a loved one, whatever age that was at. Maybe it might have been later in your life, because when you're much younger, death has a different way of being seen. You don't really fully comprehend what death is when you're about five or six years old. For example, when I was about five, when my grandmother passed away, I didn't really think much about it. To me, that was, okay, she's gone.

You can't see her again. But it's only a little later in your years, maybe in your teenage years, in your 20s, that you realize what death really means. Because then you start to have the attachments to sense pleasures. Then you start to have the attachment to this life, this attachment to this identity. And by doing so, when you see others dying, it reminds you that one day, I too will pass. And that becomes depressing. That can be anxiety-inducing as well for some people.

Prince, he is called one who has gone forth. Why is he called one who has gone forth? Prince, by one who has gone forth, we mean one who truly follows Dhamma, who truly lives in serenity, does good actions, performs meritorious deeds, is harmless and truly has compassion for living beings. That's very interesting that the charity here says, by one who has gone forth, we mean one who truly follows Dhamma. But as we understand, when you have a Bodhisattva, there's no Buddha, which means there's no Dhamma. So what is he referring to here? When he says, one who truly follows the true Dhamma, or who truly follows Dhamma.

The idea is that he follows what's known as a set of teachings. There is, in India, still now, from ancient India now, there is something known as Dharma. It's known as Sanatana Dharma, the eternal law. And this is from where all the Indic religions come from, or the ideas of Indic culture come from. That is to say, Sanatana Dharma is that which is always present. So from there stemmed the Vedic religion, from there stemmed the Hindu religion, from there stemmed the Jain religion, and so on and so forth. The Sanatana Dharma. But everyone had different ways of looking at what the Sanatana Dharma was. But there is one thing to understand. When we say Sanatana, that means eternal, and Dhamma means the phenomena or teachings or law.

Actually, there is something that is always present in this existence, always present. And it's something that we're going to look at in a few minutes, and that is dependent origination. Whether a Buddha is there or not, dependent origination will always continue. The difference is, a Buddha will know what dependent origination is, will discover what dependent origination is, will discover the true Dhamma, let's say, and then start to teach. "Charioteer, he is well called, he is well called, one who has gone forth. Drive the carriage over to where he is." "Very good, Prince," said the charioteer, and did so. And Prince Vipassi questioned the man who had gone forth. "Prince, as one who has gone forth, I truly follow Dhamma and have compassion for living beings."

"You are well called one who has gone forth. Now also remember what it says here. It says, truly lives in serenity, does good actions, performs meritorious deeds, is harmless, and truly has compassion for all beings. But that has nothing to do about dependent origination. That has nothing to do about seeing things as they actually are. So the basis for the Dhamma is meritorious actions, being harmless, being compassionate, doing good actions, being in serenity.

So having this is basically sila, keeping the five precepts. But there's nothing beyond that in terms of right samadhi, in terms of right collectedness, and beyond that in terms of insight or panya. "Then Prince Vipassi said to the charioteer, 'You take the carriage and drive back to the palace, but I shall stay here and shave off my hair and beard, put on yellow robes and go forth from the household life into homelessness.'

'Very good, Prince,' said the charioteer, and returned to the palace. And Prince Vipassi, shaving off his hair and beard and putting on yellow robes, went forth from the household life into homelessness. And a great crowd from the royal capital city, Bandhumati, 84,000 people heard that Prince Vipassi had gone forth into homelessness, and they thought, this is certainly no common teaching and discipline, no common going forth, for which Prince Vipassi has shaved off hair and beard, donned yellow robes, and gone forth into homelessness?

If the prince has done so, why should not we? And so, monks, a great crowd of 84,000, having shaved off their hair and beards and donned yellow robes, followed the Bodhisattva Vipassi into homelessness. And with this following, the Bodhisattva went on his rounds through villages, towns, and royal cities. Then the Bodhisattva Vipassi, having retired to a secluded spot, had this thought: it is not proper for me to live with a crowd like this, I must live alone, withdrawn from the crowd. So after a while he left the crowd and dwelt alone. The 84,000 went one way, the Bodhisattva another. Then when the Bodhisattva had entered his dwelling alone in a secluded spot, he thought, this world, alas, is in a sorry state.

There is birth and decay. There is death and falling into other states and being reborn. And no one knows any way of escape from this suffering, this aging and death. When will deliverance be found from this suffering, this aging and death? And then monks, the Bodhisattva thought, with what being present does aging and death occur? What conditions aging and death? So what's going on here? Now he's using his intuition.

He's asking this question and he's waiting for the answer. He's not reflecting, he's not analyzing, he's not doing anything. He's just waiting for the answer that arises from intuition. Now, you too can do this, right? When you have a problem in your meditation, when you have a problem in your own life, all you have to do is ask the mind the question, what is the cause of this? What is the reason for this?

And then just wait. Don't try to keep thinking about what is the solution for this? How do I solve this? How do I resolve this? Just ask the question and leave it aside and go on with your life. At some point, there will come an answer, like a eureka moment, an intuition that arises, an insight that arises, that this is the way, this is the solution, this is the cause, this is the situation.

That intuition will provide you with the right answer. It won't be the answer you might be looking for, but it will be the right answer. It will be the answer that will provide you with the correct solution, the effective solution. So he asks, what with what being present does aging and death occur, what conditions aging and death? And then monks, as a result of wisdom born of profound consideration, the realization dawned on him. Now that's an interesting statement, as a result of wisdom born of profound consideration.

Consideration would suggest that he was reflecting and analyzing. I think a better way of looking at it would be to say, as a result of wisdom born of profound, profound what? Samadhi. Born of profound collectedness. Just keeping the mind collected. Allowing it to come, the answer to come. The realization dawned on him: birth being present, aging and death occurs.

Birth conditions aging and death. Then he thought, what conditions birth? With that, the realization dawned on him, becoming conditions birth. What conditions becoming? Clinging conditions becoming. Craving conditions clinging. Feeling conditions craving, contact conditions feeling. The six sense bases condition contact. Mind and body, or mentality-materiality, conditions the six sense bases. Consciousness conditions mind and body. And then the Bodhisattva Vipassi thought, with what being present does consciousness occur?

What conditions consciousness? And then, as a result of wisdom born of profound collectedness, the realization dawned on him: mind and body conditions consciousness. Now, this is interesting. You would have thought he would have said formations. But here, Vipassi is seeing, and he's seeing that mind and body condition consciousness, and consciousness conditions mind and body. There is an interdependency between the two.

And there is something very subtle to be understood here, which is to say that when consciousness arises, it can only be experienced through the faculties of mind and body. So consciousness arises dependent upon the existence of mind and body. But mind and body cannot function without consciousness being present. So they are dependent upon each other. Now, there is also an understanding that formations give rise to consciousness.

So now what he's seeing is dependent origination. How does suffering come to be? He is seeing now that there is suffering. By having seen the old age, the sickness, the death, he sees that there is suffering. He sees the first noble truth. Now he's discovering for himself the second noble truth, how suffering arises. Very simply put, craving gives rise to suffering, but he's seeing the mechanics of craving through seeing the links of dependent origination, by understanding the links of dependent origination. So when he's seeing this, he's also seeing into how rebirth arises.

So dependent origination can be understood on a few levels. One level is on the moment-to-moment level. So when we talk about birth on the moment-to-moment level, we're talking about the birth and death of consciousness, the arising and passing away of consciousnesses. And we can also look at it from the birth of action. What kind of action? Action rooted in ignorance, rooted in craving, rooted in conceit, that gives rise to further suffering, that gives rise to further karma.

Another way of looking at birth is the birth of a being in a next life, and that's dependent upon becoming. That becoming at that level is about giving rise to a new existence, but that's dependent upon habitual tendencies. That's also another way of looking at becoming. Habitual tendencies are those things, those qualities of mind that are habitually recollected, habitually accessed to give rise to some kind of action. In other words, when you see something, you always see it in a certain way, dependent upon your perceptions, dependent upon your experiences.

So these habitual tendencies are basically a repository of reactions that you go to automatically or almost automatically as a way of acting on something, mentally, verbally, or bodily. Dependent upon the habitual tendencies, then there is a birth of action. But what conditions the habitual tendencies? It's the clinging. The clinging is that mind that says, because, I like this because. It's the rationalization of why the mind has craving or why the mind has aversion towards something.

That is conditioned by craving. That craving is the mindset that says, I like this, I want this, it grasps for it, or I don't like this, I don't want this, and it pushes it away, or it says, I am this. This is me, this is mine, this is myself. That's also craving. So craving conditions clinging. Craving says, I see this, and I like it, therefore, or because, so and so. So when you see something that you like, and there's craving for it, there can arise clinging which says, I like it because, for whatever reason. And then from there, there is a habitual tendency, a habitual reaction, which then you go into the library of reactions, and then pull out something that is most appropriate in your mind that is rooted in that mind which is rooted in craving that then acts from there.

That then gives rise to further suffering. So then from that craving, that craving is arising whenever there is some kind of feeling. That feeling is the feeling through the eyes, an experience through seeing, through hearing, through tasting, through smelling, through touching, or through thinking. So basically, the six sense bases, the experience of the six sense bases, is the vedana, the feeling. Those are dependent upon contact.

Eye contact, ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, mind contact. So what is that contact? That contact is the joining of three things. The joining of two things, giving rise to a third, and these three constitute contact. And that is, for example, the eye meets with the form of a tree. So it meets with the rupa, the form, and the color. So the color and the form meet with the eye. So there is the eye and there is the form. The joining of these two, when that makes contact, that gives rise to eye consciousness.

The cognizing, the awareness, the bare knowing that this is present. These three constitute eye contact. Likewise for the other five sense bases, including the mind. So in the case of meditation, you have the mind and the mind object, which is loving kindness or compassion or equanimity or whatever it might be. And then there is an experience of loving kindness. There is an experience of compassion. There is an experience of joy. There is an experience of equanimity.

So what is contact dependent upon? It's dependent upon the sixth sense basis. So the sixth sense bases are basically this I, the year, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. The receptors, those things which receive the sensory signals, the sensory data, the raw sensory data, but these are dependent upon mentality, materiality. So what does that mean? What is mentality and what is materiality? Mind and body. The sixth sense bases are physical components that receive sensory information, right? But they are housed in this body, right? They're part of this body. They're made up of the elements, that is rupa, that is the materiality. So what are they made of? They're made up of earth, they're made up of water, they're made up of fire and air, or they're made up of the states of matter. So earth being the solid state,

water being the liquid state, air being the gaseous state, and fire being the plasma state. When I say plasma, I'm not talking about the blood plasma. I'm talking about electrical firing, plasma like heat and temperature and so on. So this makes up the body. What about mentality? Mentality or mind is made up of certain components which allow for the processes of contact to arise, for feeling to arise, for perception to arise, for intention to arise, and for attention to arise. So in other words, mentality and materiality is basically the five aggregates. You have form in the form of materiality, you have contact which gives rise to feeling and perception, and through intention formations arise, and through attention consciousness flows.

So these are the five aggregates. Now, dependent on what is the mentality materiality dependent upon? It's dependent upon awareness, dependent upon consciousness. You need consciousness in order to be aware of what the mentality materiality is experiencing through the sixth sense basis. So in this case, when we're talking about experiencing something, we're talking about feeling, perception, and consciousness. These three run around each other.

Where there is feeling, it is conjoined with perception. Where there's perception, there is a cognizing of that perception. Where there is cognizing, there is an experience of that cognizing. So what is feeling? Feeling is just a sensation, the experience that is felt, right? Seeing the greenness of the tree, seeing the tree itself, but knowing that that's a tree is perception. So seeing it is the feeling, knowing what it is, or calling it an oak tree, that is perception.

How does that happen? That is dependent upon awareness. When there's consciousness, that's only when you can have feeling and perception. But when there is feeling and perception, consciousness is there. So these three, like I said, run around each other. So consciousness allows the mechanics of mentality, materiality to arise, which gives rise to the experience of the sixth sense basis and contact and feeling and perception, and so on.

So there are the six sense consciousnesses in terms of the experience that we're having here, but there's another way of understanding consciousness, that is rebirth from one lifetime to the next. So that is the consciousness that arises from the death, so when the dying process happens. After death, the consciousness arises dependent upon formations, dependent upon sankharas. So what happens in the dying process? There is a life review, or there are images that arise, or something happens that the mind inclines towards, and then there is some remorse that arises, or there is some craving for that experience, something arises, and that gives rise to the formations, which fuel or provide the fuel for the arising of new consciousness to arise.

That consciousness then descends into a new mentality, materiality, in the new existence, in the new life. So this is rebirth at the macro level. We're talking about rebirth on the micro level and then rebirth on the macro level. Formations also are understood on the micro level as that which provide bodily experience, mental experience, and verbal experience. There is verbal formations, mental formations, and bodily formations.

Bodily formations allow one to move, allow one to breathe, make contact with the body. Verbal formations allow one to reflect and think when one listens to something and then to communicate what one is perceiving. The expression of something is dependent upon the arising of verbal formations. The way that you can feel and perceive experiences, that is dependent upon mental formations.

So these formations give rise to a certain kind of consciousness, a certain kind of cognizing through which the nama-rupa is experienced, through which mentality and materiality is experienced, and experiences the sixth sense bases which make contact with the outside world, so to speak, and then that gives rise to your experience. That is the feeling and the perception.

So contact is the key here. Contact gives rise to a lot of different things. It gives rise to feeling, it gives rise to perceptions, it gives rise to karma, it gives rise to intention, it gives rise to formations. So when we talk about dependent origination, there is a linear pattern, there is a cyclical pattern, and there is an interdependent pattern where there are feedback loops happening all the time. We'll explore that more tomorrow, because there's a lot to talk about there. But I just want to give you a good introduction into what dependent origination is about. Dependent origination, as we understand it, is about the second noble truth. How craving arises which gives rise to suffering.

Then monks, the bodhisattva Vipassi thought, this consciousness turns back at mind and body. It does not go any further. The reason why he's saying this is because he's looking at just one life. The way to access previous lives is through formations. So if you want to incline your mind to previous lifetimes, to past lives, you access the formations that arise. That's why when you're in the eighth jhana, when you are in need of perception, non-perception, you see certain things and you think, is this a memory or did this actually happen or what's going on here? Because you're starting to access the formations or seeing the formations that can give some clarity into a previous life, into a past life, into a past existence.

So here, right now, all he's doing is looking at the present existence, how that arises. To this extent there is birth and decay, there is death and falling into other states and being reborn. So when we talk about being reborn, we're talking about birth of action and birth of reaction. But rebirth also can be defined with the same definition of insanity, that is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. So sometimes in your life you will come across similar kinds of people, similar kinds of situations,

similar kinds of experiences in different times of your life. And this is the rebirth of those situations, the rebirth of those experiences, because you've still held on to something. You're still identifying with that process. So whenever there is craving, whenever there's clinging to that experience, whenever there is becoming, accessing habitual tendencies, and whenever there's a birth of reaction, it will continue to further proliferate those same experiences until you learn to let go of them.

Until you have wisdom and you eradicate ignorance, become mindful of that experience and see it for what it actually is, which is that it is dependently arisen, therefore it is impermanent, therefore it is liable to cause suffering, and therefore it is not me, mine, or myself. Once you see it in that way, or once you understand in that way, very simply put, not taking the experience personally, then you won't have craving for it. You won't have aversion for it. Then you're not going to add to the karma of that. Instead, the karma dissipates and you don't add to the repository to be experienced at a future time as old karma in that time.

So dependent origination is also the mechanics of karma. There is old karma and there is new karma. Old karma is all of that which you experience from formations all the way to feeling. That is to say, formations, consciousness, mentality, materiality, sixth sense basis, contact, and feeling. This is all old karma. This is all the stuff that you've inherited from previous choices that you've made in the past. The way you are in terms of the body is because of certain choices you've made. The way you see things, the way you perceive things is dependent on previous choices that you've made.

But then, that gives rise to an experience that is felt. That is the manifestation of that karma. How do you take that karma? How do you take that experience? Do you say, I like this and I want more of it, which then gives rise to further clinging and further becoming, further birth of reactions and further renewal of karma, so that it continues? Or on the other flip side of that, if you see it as being unpleasant, do you push it away? Do you have resistance against it? Do you have aversion?

And if you have aversion, that gives rise to further clinging, which then gives further renewal of being through becoming, and further birth of karma. So you're adding to that repository of that experience. So how do you contextualize this in the meditation? When you meditate, you come across hindrances. What are hindrances? Hindrances are feeling, right? Mental feeling. That means that they are old karma. Hindrances arise because of certain changes made in the past. And now they've snowballed into a hindrance.

So how do you deal with that hindrance? Do you push against that hindrance? Do you have resistance against it? Do you want more of it? Do you ignore it? Which is another form of aversion. Or do you acknowledge that here is a hindrance and you let it go with the right intention? Right intention is threefold. Nekama, loving kindness and compassion. Nekama means renunciation.

Seeing this is not me, not mine, not myself. This hindrance arose because of choices you made in the past, but it's not yours, it's not me, it's not mine, it's just a hindrance. So how do you deal with that hindrance? Do you push against it? Do you crave for it? Or do you use right effort rooted in right view and right intention? And what is right effort? The six Rs. So doing the six Rs and letting go of that hindrance is the way to deal with it. Now it'll come up again. Sure, it'll come up again. Any other karma will come up again, but it will be less effective. It will be less intense.

Eventually it might come up again a couple more times, maybe four or five times. But every time it comes up, dependent upon you letting it go, using the six R's, every time it comes up, it becomes weaker and weaker and weaker until it fades away. See for yourself. You will see that that's the case. So, mind and body conditions consciousness and consciousness conditions mind and body. Mind and body conditions the six sense basis, the sixth sense basis conditions contact, contact conditions feeling, feeling conditions craving, craving conditions clinging, clinging conditions becoming, becoming conditions birth, birth conditions aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair, and thus this whole mass of suffering takes its origin. And at the thought origin, origin, there arose in the Bodhisattva Vipassi the insight into things never realized before, knowledge, wisdom, awareness and light.

He understood the origin of suffering. He knew there was suffering. Now he understood and realized for himself how the suffering originates. Seeing this, wisdom arose. Then he thought, what now being absent does aging and death not occur? With the cessation of what comes the cessation of aging and death? Then, as a result of the wisdom born, a profound collectedness. The realization dawned on him. Birth being absent, aging and death does not occur. With the cessation of birth comes the cessation of aging and death. With the cessation of what comes the cessation of birth? With the cessation of becoming, habitual tendencies,

comes the cessation of birth. With the cessation of clinging, comes the cessation of habitual tendencies. With the cessation of craving, comes the cessation of clinging. With the cessation of feeling, comes the cessation of craving. With the cessation of contact, comes the cessation of feeling. With the cessation of six-sense basis, comes the cessation of contact. With the cessation of mind and body comes the cessation of the six-sense spaces. With the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of mind and body.

With the cessation of mind and body comes the cessation of consciousness. So when he says this, with the cessation of mind and body comes the cessation of consciousness, he's talking about this one lifetime. When this body is gone, that consciousness will no longer exist because it's dependent upon the heat and vitality of this particular body, this mind and body. But consciousness is also dependent upon formations.

So when formations cease, a certain kind of consciousness also ceases. So formations that are rooted in craving, rooted in conceit, rooted in ignorance, give rise to consciousnesses that are rooted in craving, rooted in conceit, rooted in ignorance. But if you see those formations, then so do those kinds of consciousnesses. That is to say, you no longer perceive or cognize through a consciousness that sees through the lens of craving, through the lens of conceit, through the lens of ignorance.

So what are those formations dependent upon? If that consciousness is dependent upon those formations, what are those formations dependent upon? Ignorance. And what is ignorance? Not knowing the Four Noble Truths. So not perceiving that here is suffering, not able to perceive that here is the cause of this suffering, not able to perceive that here is the cessation of the suffering, and here is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

Not being able to do that, there gives rise to certain kinds of formations rooted in craving, clinging, conceit, views, and ignorance. That gives rise to a consciousness that completely taints the way that you see the reality of this world. It shows everything from a craving mindset, from a clinging mindset, from a conceited mindset, from an ignorant mindset. So how come ignorance arises? Why does ignorance arise?

It arises because you have lack of mindfulness. You have lack of attention rooted in reality. Lack of being able to be attentive to see what exactly this is. That is to say, it is dependently arisen, therefore it's impermanent, therefore liable to cause suffering, and therefore not to be considered me, mine, or myself. Every time you don't see that, you add to the repository of ignorance. That means you don't see the Four Noble Truths in every moment.

And how do you see the Four Noble Truths in every moment? Through mindfulness, through understanding, through attention. How do you apply the Four Noble Truths? Right effort. Six R's. How is that the case? Here you see suffering, or you see craving, or you see clinging, or you see becoming. Right, any of these things. Say you see craving. So that's the first noble truth: there is craving present. You see that you took this personal. That's the second noble truth. You saw the cause of that, then you ceased it

you ceased the taking of it personal, and therefore you cease the craving by applying the Eightfold Path. Now, when you recognize that there is craving, you are seeing the first noble truth. When you release your attention from it, then you are experiencing the release from the second noble truth, right? You're letting go of that personalizing. And then when you relax, you experience Nirodha, the third noble truth.

You experience the cessation of craving, and you are applying right effort in order to do that, which means you're applying the Eightfold Path. Because the heart of the Eightfold Path is right effort. It's only 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 collectedness to right collectedness.

So that's how you see the Four Noble Truths. So every time you apply the Six R's, you're taking a look for yourself at the Four Noble Truths. You are understanding the First Noble Truth. You're letting go of the Second Noble Truth. You're experiencing the reality of the Third Noble Truth. And you're cultivating and developing the Fourth Noble Truth. Every time you apply the Six R's. And when you do that, you're whittling away at ignorance. When you whittle away at ignorance, you whittle away at the formations that are rooted in craving, ignorance, views, conceit, and clinging. When you let go of that, no new consciousness will arise that is rooted in that craving, conceit, clinging, views, and ignorance.

And therefore, whatever arises will not give rise to further craving when you see an experience, when you have an experience. And it won't give rise to further clinging, further becoming, further birth and further reaction, or further suffering. Then the Bodhisattva Vipassi thought, I have found the insight to enlightenment, namely, by the cessation of mind and body, consciousness ceases. By the cessation of consciousness, mind and body ceases. By the cessation of mind and body, sixth sense basis cease. By the cessation of the sixth sense basis, contact ceases. By the cessation of contact, feeling ceases. By the cessation of feeling, craving ceases. By the cessation of craving, clinging ceases. By the cessation of clinging, habitual tendencies.

By the cessation of habitual tendencies, birth ceases. By the cessation of birth, the whole mass of suffering, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair, cease. And thus this whole mass of suffering ceases. And at the thought of cessation, cessation, there arose in the Bodhisattva Vipassi, insight into things never realized before, knowledge, vision, awareness and light. In other words, he saw the third noble truth. He experienced cessation. He experienced the third noble truth. The origin, when he saw, when he heard origin, he understood this is the origin of suffering, that is the second noble truth. When he saw dependent origination, the cessation of dependent origination, when he experienced that, then he had the insight into the third noble truth, the cessation of suffering.

And how did he do this? He applied the Noble Eightfold Path. He applied the way leading to the cessation of suffering. So he applied right view. He applied right intention. He applied right speech, right action, or that's implied, right livelihood, using right effort. He had right mindfulness. And dependent upon that, he had right collectedness to be able to see as and when it arose the arising of suffering, the dependent origination cycle, and the cessation of that suffering, the cessation of that dependent origination cycle.

Then monks, at another time, the Bodhisattva Vipassi saw the arising and passing away of the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging. When you talk about saw, it doesn't mean that he reflected on their arising and passing. He actually saw for himself how this form arises and passes away, how feeling arises and passes away, how perception arises and passes away, how formations arise and pass away, and how consciousness arises and passes away. You see the rising of consciousness, the rising and passing away of consciousness in meditation.

You see that when you notice that through the process of feeling and perception as well. So he's not contemplating these things, he's not reflecting on these things. He's seeing them as they actually are, how they arise and pass away. Meaning, he's understanding the impermanent nature of these things, the impermanent nature of the five aggregates. And therefore, their inherent dukkha, if they were taken to be personal.

And therefore, he understands that they are impersonal. So it says, such is the body, such it's arising, such it's passing away. Such is feeling, such is it's arising, such is it's passing away. Such is perception, such it's arising, such it's passing away. Such are the formations, such are their arising, such are their passing away. Such is consciousness, such is it's arising, such is it's passing away.

Perceiving this, you go through that process in meditation. The perception of seeing this all dependently arisen gives rise to the perception that this is impermanent. Seeing that this is impermanent, like consciousness, you see that it is tiresome, that it is liable to cause dukkha, liable to cause suffering. Seeing this, you see that it's all impersonal, that there's no controller here, that it's not you who caused it. It was dependent upon a series of causes and conditions.

So you don't see this as me, mine, or myself. Another way to understand it is the Indic context. The ancient Indian context was that they presupposed a certain kind of school, presupposed that there was a self. But that idea of a self, that there is a self, they presupposed that. And their idea of that self was a self that is permanent, a self that is all-pervading, a self that is cause for joy, a self that is always there in existence. So this self is the self of what we would call Brahman in the Hindu religion. This is Brahmanism.

So this idea of a self is what is known as Sat-Chit-Ananda. Sat means that it is there always. Chit means that it is self, and Ananda means that it is happy. It is blissful. So with this kind of idea, with this kind of touchstone of the idea that this is a self, the Buddha then walks you through what is not self. He says, everything that is dependently arisen means that it's not independent.

Their idea of a self is that which is independent of all causes and conditions. But everything that we experience is conditioned. This body is conditioned, feeling is conditioned, perception is conditioned, formations are conditioned, consciousness is conditioned, which means it's impermanent. And if it's impermanent, it's liable to go away, whether it's pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Therefore, it can cause suffering, one way or the other. And if it causes suffering, how could you take these to be self? How could you say that this is me, this is mine, this is myself?

So the Buddha is actually giving a direct answer to those who would say that there is a self, and then equating the self with form, or feeling, or perception, or formations, or consciousness. And he walks them through it and says, if these are all arising and passing away, then they're impermanent. From right there, you see that this cannot be considered to be mine, or me, or myself.

And as he remained aware of the arising and passing away of the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging, before long his mind was freed from the corruptions without remainder. The reason why is because the perception of seeing this all dependently arisen, giving rise to the perception of impermanence, gives rise to the perception of dukkha, which gives rise to the perception of anatta, which gives rise to the perception or experience of equanimity, which gives rise to disenchantment, which gives rise to dispassion, which gives rise to cessation,

the cessation of all conditioned experience, which gives rise, after you come out, to the destruction of the taints, and the knowledge of the destruction of those taints. Here endeth the lesson. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, may the fear-struck fearless being. 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.