Day 8: Noble Eightfold Path Netherlands

So when you get off of retreat, what are you supposed to do? In reality, there is no such thing as on retreat versus off retreat. You just do the same thing you were doing while on retreat, but life gets in the way. That's the only difference. But there are a few things that you have to understand to keep applying no matter what. And that is primarily cultivating the eightfold path, cultivating right effort, cultivating mindfulness, cultivating right view. Now, when you get off a retreat, life will throw all kinds of circumstances at you, all kinds of situations, all kinds of difficulties and challenges, and so on. Deal with them one by one as they come in the moment.

And that's the key. To have this ability to have presence of mind in the moment as and when it arrives. Not allowing the mind to get entangled with whatever is occurring. Not letting the mind get entangled by the thoughts about the situation, the perceptions and so on. So today I want to talk about the Eightfold Path because that is what you have been doing throughout this retreat. That is what you have been cultivating one way or the other. And that is what you will continue to cultivate along with meditating and so on. Because the meditation, the formal sitting meditation, is just one part of it.

Everything else around it is also equally important because it is essentially the factors that lead to the meditation. So first we'll take up what is right view. This is sammaditthi, right view. Ditthi or drishti is seeing something. It is the right perspective. It is the right understanding. And so when we say right view, we're talking about two things. One is understanding what is wholesome and what is unwholesome. So what is wholesome? How do you recognize what is wholesome? How do you recognize what is unwholesome? That which creates tension, that which creates constriction in the mind, that which creates a lack of concentration in the mind. That is unwholesome. States like anger, greed, hatred, delusion, stinginess, jealousy, envy, all kinds of states like this.

They contract the mind. They restrict the mind's attention. What is the wholesome? The wholesome is that which creates space in the mind, that which calms the mind down, that which tranquilizes, that which allows the mind to maintain a continuous stream of attention and awareness on an object of meditation. So what are wholesome states? Love and kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. Letting go, and feeling that relief of letting go, is also a wholesome state of mind. So understanding the difference between the wholesome and the unwholesome, this is the basic form of right view. So there is meaning in what is given, meaning in what is sacrificed, meaning in what is let go. There is mother and father, that essentially means that we have gratitude for one's parents because they brought us into this world to be able to experience the potential of Nibbana.

And that there is spontaneous rebirth, spontaneous generation. What that means is that when we talk about rebirth from one life to the next, it happens like that. But also that there is the arising and passing away of individual consciousnesses, and that there is no one underlying consciousness that's present, due to a series of causes and conditions. And then that there are teachers who understand this path, who have walked this path, who have continued this path, developed this path, and that they can show how to walk this path. So all of these different basic facets of this mundane right view is actually creating a harmonious state of mind. It's creating a certain uplifted state of mind that allows us to continue to develop the rest of the series in the Eightfold Path.

And in the super mundane right view is the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. So that means that when right view is fully established, one has totally understood what suffering is, that there is the abandoning of suffering. And one has abandoned that suffering in terms of the craving and other causes and conditions. Craving, wrong view, taking things personally like conceit, doubts, and so on and so forth. All of that is gone. And as a result, one realizes for themselves dukkha nirodha, the cessation of all suffering.

By cultivating this path, by perfecting the cultivation of this path, then we come to right intention. Right intention is threefold. There is nekkhamma, which is essentially renunciation. There is non-ill will, and there is non-cruelty or non-harmlessness. Or harmlessness, rather. So when we talk about renunciation, what does that actually mean? At one level, it means to let go of our attachments to possessions. It can mean to take on the robes. It can mean to take on the robes and the bowl and live a very ascetic or wandering lifestyle. That's one level. But another level is to let go of your identity towards anything, your process of identification. To stop taking things personally. To see things as they actually are.

So right intention includes the ability to take refuge in the moment. If there's one thing to understand with this process, it is to have a level of awareness that takes out the I from the moment, to whatever is being experienced. Such an awareness isn't judgmental. Such an awareness doesn't have opinions about the experience. Such an awareness, or such a mind that is aware of this process, doesn't make any kinds of decisions based on it. It just allows things to be. It allows things to flow and to unfold. So renouncing what? Renouncing that part of the mind that takes things personally. Non-ill-will means having no aversion towards anything. Not having any kind of ill-will towards any being.

And this is cultivated through the practice of loving-kindness, and when you perfect loving-kindness, then you eliminate all ill will. And then when we talk about non-cruelty, what is cruelty? Cruelty is adding to another being's suffering when you know that they are suffering. So anytime you find yourself in an argument, anytime you find yourself in some kind of state of conflict, if you don't recognize your own suffering or recognize the other's suffering, and in doing so add to their suffering, you are being cruel. But in recognizing your own suffering and recognizing the suffering of others, you realize that if I behave or act in a way that causes them harm, then I am only creating more suffering for that being.

And so you let go of that. Of compassion. Compassion. What is compassion? When we talk about compassion, it doesn't mean that we have to become a crutch for someone else. We are available to be there to help that person come out of their suffering. We recognize their suffering and we wish them free of that suffering. Compassion in action, one of the most basic ways of being compassionate is just being available and to listen. People just want to be heard sometimes, and you can listen without having to respond. You can just listen and be there, and that might just be enough. So compassion means being available to the person, but not at your own. In other words, you don't sacrifice your own happiness for another's happiness.

Then you're getting into sabotaging your own state of mind, sabotaging your own peace of mind. You have to understand what seems most appropriate for the situation involved. But at the very core of this, what it means is we do not add suffering to beings. We try to alleviate their suffering, as much as we can. This then takes us into Right Speech and Right Action and Right Lifestyle or Right Livelihood. What is Right Speech? Right Speech is abstaining from false speech, abstaining from harsh speech, abstaining from abusive, unnecessary speech. So what would be a good way of understanding this? There is the acronym called THINK. We should all think before we speak. So what does this mean? THINK. T-H-I-N-K.

Well, the T stands for timeliness. Is it the right time to say what it is that I want to say? Or can it wait? H is for honesty. Do I know what I am saying to be true or untrue? If I have heard it from another, I can say this is what I've been told or this is how I've understood it. But if you know it to be untrue, better not to say it at all. I is for intention. What is the intention behind what it is that you want to say? Is it a wholesome intention or is it an unwholesome intention? N is for necessity. Is it necessary for you to say it for the benefit of yourself and or the other person?

Or is it unnecessary speech? What is unnecessary speech? Well, unnecessary speech is just trying to fill in the silence, being uncomfortable with the silence. Sometimes you don't need to do that. Unnecessary speech, especially, is gossip. There's no need for gossip for anyone. How do you know if you're gossiping about someone? If you're talking about that person, and whatever it is that you're saying about that person, see if you would say the same thing if they were in the room.

If they were in the room and you would feel uncomfortable, obviously that's gossip. It's not something you want to indulge in. And then we have K, kindness. Can you say it with kindness? Now the question often arises, well, what if I have to scold my children, to try to be a little stern with my employees or my colleagues or whatever it is? Well, you can still do it with the intention of loving kindness. That speech might be stern, but it doesn't have to be abusive. It doesn't have to be harsh or harmful. So think before you speak. And then we have right action. What is right action? Right action is abstaining from killing or harming living beings, abstaining from taking what is not given, and abstaining from sensual or sexual misconduct.

So in essence, right speech and right action are about keeping the precepts. And then this leads to right livelihood. Right livelihood means joining or taking up a career or trade that does not deal in the harm of yourself or in others. That is right livelihood. In the case of monastics, right livelihood is basically any livelihood that takes them away from the pursuit of why they joined the monastic order. So in that case, what it means is that any kind of trade that doesn't cause any kind of harm to yourself or to others, this is right livelihood. And for the monastics, it essentially means that they pursue what they are pursuing, which is Nibbana, for the purposes of Nibbana.

This is why they went into the holy life. So right speech, right action, and right livelihood. These all constitute sila. These are all part of sila, the bedrock of maintaining your precepts, keeping your precepts. When you get off of retreat, it doesn't mean that you stop keeping precepts. You keep the five basic precepts, right? So if you still want to continue with this practice, if you still want to have some benefit of samadhi, you still need to maintain those precepts. Now, these three: right speech, right action, and right intention. The right intention is to let go of the sense of me, mine, or myself in relation to an experience, and to cultivate loving kindness, and to cultivate compassion.

Once you have all of this, then you have what's known as right effort. There are four components to right effort. The first part is preventing the arising of unarisen, unwholesome states of mind. Every time you recognize that there is a hindrance, you stop the flow of further hindrances. The second is to abandon already arisen, unwholesome states of mind. In other words, when you let go and relax, you are doing just that. The third is to generate a wholesome state of mind. When you come back to your object, when you smile and come back to your object, that is the third right effort. And then the fourth is to maintain that wholesome state of mind. And when you keep your mind on your object, that is maintaining that wholesome state of mind.

But what the Buddha has said is that each of these components of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood is dependent upon, or is revolving around, these three things: right view, that is to say, what is understanding; what is wrong view or wrong intention; wrong speech, right speech, wrong action, and what is right action; right view, right intention, right speech, right action, and so on. Right effort is letting go of that which is the wrong factors and bringing up that which are the right factors. And then that leads you to right mindfulness. Right mindfulness is observing and recognizing when an unwholesome state is there and letting it go using right effort. So if you were to think about mindfulness, mindfulness is remembering to observe how the mind's attention moves from one object to the other.

That's it. We don't think about it. We don't try to analyze it. We don't try to judge it. We don't make opinions about it. We're just observing. Observing without judging. That's it. It's just pure observation, without letting the mind get entangled into what it is that it is observing. When this happens, the mind's attention starts to get collected, and it starts to experience what is known as ekaggata, unification of mind. When we talk about unification of mind, that is when the mind's attention remains composed or collected around the object of meditation, and as a result you experience the jhanas. The first jhana is when you let go of unwholesome states of mind, your mind is secluded from sensual pleasures, which means your mind is grounded in, rooted in a wholesome state of mind, and it remains there, as a result of which you first have joy and then happiness, piti and sukha, born of that seclusion, born from letting go and experiencing relief.

And that mind then intentionalizes on an object of meditation and then remains on it. This is the vitakka and vicara in the first jhana. Then in the second jhana, what goes away is the intentionalizing, and the mind continues to remain on the object. There's a level of self-confidence. There is piti and sukha that's born of further collectedness, where the mind's attention remains or becomes even more collected, and at this point verbal formations cease. That means the process of thinking about things and trying to bring up things in the mind starts to cease. Then the third jhana is where the piti disappears, and there is more sukha, more tranquility, more comfort in the body. And the body may feel lighter or heavier, or it might feel more grounded.

And then there's the fourth jhana, where you have purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, where the collectiveness is unwavering and the mindfulness is absolutely clear and sharp because of equanimity. Get into the base of infinite space, where when you are radiating metta in all directions, you start to experience some spaciousness. And then from that, you experience infinite consciousness, where you start to experience the arising and passing away of individual consciousnesses. And the insights into anicca, dukkha, and anatta arise. Because then you see that the arising and passing away of these consciousnesses are impermanent, and it becomes tiresome, which is dukkha, and you realize that there is no controller here, and so you see anatta. As a result of this, and in this understanding, it means that the perception of impermanence leads to the perception of suffering.

The perception of suffering leads to the perception of not-self nature of things. This perception then leads to the perception of equanimity, which is a stronger hallmark of nothingness, the base of nothingness. At this point, the mind is experiencing absolutely nothing, but it's aware that it's experiencing nothing. And there is very strong and deep equanimity. After a while, that mind sinks deeper and deeper and deeper, and it sinks to what's known as neither perception nor non-perception. When we say neither perception nor non-perception, what do we mean? What is perception? Perception is recognizing an experience. In other words, understanding, knowing, and labeling an experience rooted in memory of that experience. But in neither perception or non-perception, or neither recognition or non-recognition, forms of different kinds of images, patterns, shapes, ideas, disconnected thoughts.

But the mind isn't able to fully comprehend what exactly is going on. And then from here, it sinks even deeper into what's known colloquially as the quiet mind. Really what this is, is the luminous mind, the radiant mind. The mind that is known as the pabhassara citta. From here, then, it goes into a stiller mind, a deeper mind where absolutely no vibrations are present. And then it goes even deeper into what's known as animitta samadhi, the signless collectedness of mind, where the mind doesn't take anything as an object. A flashlight that you shine up into the sky. And imagine that light keeps beaming up into the sky, out into space. And for the purposes of this analogy, imagine that nothing gets in its way.

It is a continuous ray of light that doesn't land on any kind of planetary object or meteorite or anything. It just keeps going. Mind, there is just awareness, but it doesn't land on anything. Therefore, it is known as signless. It takes up no sign. It is objectless. It doesn't land on any kind of object. Such an awareness is said to be empty. Empty of any kind of self.

Undirected, because it has no craving in it. And such a mind or awareness is said to be signless. And as the mind continues to be here, because there are no formations coming in, and because no attention is being fueled by these formations or vice versa, eventually in that flashlight, the batteries run out. The fuel runs out. And what happens? The light stops. Just for a moment, the light stops. That is the cessation experience that happens. When the mind goes into cessation, as a result from it, it touches the Nibbana element. That contact from the Nibbana element then gives rise to an experience of relief and joy and energy and so on and so forth. And so this is the end of the Eightfold Path, but it is not the end of the entire path, because that might just be the first level of awakening, and you continue to cultivate this path.

You continue to keep right view, establish right intention, follow right speech, right action, right livelihood, apply right effort, right mindfulness, and get into right collectedness. And then you repeat, rinse and repeat. That's all you have to do: rinse and repeat until you let go of all fetters and attain arahatship, and you unlock two bonus paths or part of the Eightfold Path. Two bonus folds. And that is samma-nana and samma-vimutti. Right insight or right knowledge and right liberation. And these are available to the arahant. What does that mean? That means that the arahant has perfect knowledge of what?

Perfect knowledge of the Dhamma, which is dependent origination: the ability to understand and see dependent origination whenever the mind inclines towards it. And as a result, it has right liberation. In other words, it has transcended the cycle, the bondage of birth and death, entered into the deathless, and is now able to get into nibbana whenever it wants, takes nibbana as an object of meditation whenever it wants. So these two are available for the mind that is fully awakened. Pretty good stuff. So this is what you've been doing: walking the path, keeping the precepts, meditating, letting go, experiencing these different deeper states of mind. Now, when you get back into the world, it will be a little bit more challenging.

But if you continue to keep the precepts, if you continue to have a consistent practice, which means you practice every single day, and maybe once or twice a month you go into a self retreat for two or three days, keeping that momentum going, you will have more and more development of this path by doing that. Aside from that, it's important to be able to cultivate these states of mind outside of the meditation. Being able to use the four R's or right effort whenever you notice an unwholesome state of mind in some kind of an interaction, or just noticing your mind drifting here and there in an unwholesome state, and then letting that go and coming back to a wholesome state of mind.

And then being able to cultivate and use the brahmaviharas in situations, right? Being able to radiate loving kindness wherever you're going. You notice people are fighting, people are arguing, people are having some kind of a conflict. You can radiate loving kindness to them and start to see the change that occurs. You notice that somebody is suffering, cultivate compassion, see if there's something you can do to help them. This is how you bring Dhamma into the world, is by being an example and using the brahmaviharas in action. When you notice that somebody is happy, when you notice that somebody is experiencing something wholesome, what do you do? You have empathetic joy for them. Celebrate in their success.

Be happy for them. When you notice that you're getting irritated by a situation, that there's too much going on. You may be overstimulated by whatever is going on. What do you do? Bring in equanimity. Cultivate further equanimity. So now you have the tool sets. If you notice there's pain in the body, if you notice there's tightness and tension that is unable to be resolved, if you notice there's a pain in your heart, if you notice that there are unresolved emotions, forgiveness. So now you have all of the different tools in your toolbox. Wisdom is knowing how to apply them and when to apply them. So understand this and realize that what you have now is invaluable in terms of the knowledge of the Dhamma, in terms of applying the knowledge of the Dhamma, in terms of cultivating wisdom every moment of the day, using the Dhamma, using the Eightfold Path.

Every time you do this, you get closer and closer to understanding and establishing right view, the noble truths in the mind. And ultimately, your mind is your teacher. No teacher but the Dhamma. So see this for yourself and let your intuition guide you. How do you bring up intuition? There are different ways, but the womb of intuition, the birthplace of intuition, is the quiet mind. When the mind is very silent, from there intuition arises, and a spontaneous understanding of what is required for the situation arises. Trust your intuition, follow your intuition, and it will guide you closer and closer to the time. Every single time. It might not be something that you want, but it will be proper.

It will be in alignment with the Eightfold Path. So Bhante Vimalaramsi would always say this, he would say, when you take care of the Dhamma, the Dhamma takes care of you. And what does it mean to take care of the Dhamma? It means to practice it. The more you do it, you see that the Dhamma has a protective effect on your mind, and indeed in your life, because it starts to guide you in decisions that cause you to be filled with joy, with happiness. The whole process of the Dhamma is to come to that ultimate happiness, is to come into that joy that you can share with others. That's why we started with this practice by saying that we want to smile, we want to keep our minds light, we want to be lighthearted. And as we continue to do this, we inspire others.

And others want to know about it, or might want to know about it. And they become inspired to follow the Dhamma themselves. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But our job is not to spread the Dhamma. Our job is to just continue to cultivate the Dhamma. And the rest will take care of itself. Things will unfold on their own. And eventually you become the Dhamma. The Dhamma flows through you in your very actions, in your very thoughts, in your very speech. And this is the ultimate fruit of that statement. When you take care of the Dhamma, the Dhamma takes care of you. Are there any questions?

Questions? Some days ago you mentioned viruses and I forgot to note to write down in which sutta they were described, or are they your own experience? When I talked about the viruses, they were just a translation of the word asavas. So, asavas you can find, the mention of asavas actually found in a few suttas. In fact, if you read Majjhima Nikaya 2, which is the sutta called Asavasutta, you find all of the asavas. If you read Majjhima Nikaya 9, it talks about how the asavas are the cause and condition for ignorance, starting basically one round of the arising of the links of dependent origination. In terms of the asavas we talk about, they are essentially kama asava, so the sensual craving,

the bhava asava, the craving for or desire for existence, and the avijja asava, which means the ignorance itself, the lack of mindfulness. I've never studied the Abhidhamma, so I can't really tell you where to find the asavas there. Thank you very much. Yeah. False and harsh speech, you said you need to think. I didn't get the T. Timeliness. Timeliness. Is it the right time to say what you want to say? Sometimes it's not. Thank you. Yes, you're welcome. The best speech is noble silence, which you guys have been hopefully practicing the last few days.

Yes. Question. First, I thought today that when there's an insight, some insights are transformative, and then they're not impermanent in that sense. So I was thinking to myself that maybe, would you say that deep insight, the transformative ones, are part of this, like the nibbana, which is that... do you understand what I'm trying to say? - Yeah. - Can you say it with a more intelligent question? - Some insights arise because of a deep experience that is transformative for the mind. It is permanent in the way that it is irreversible. Like once you know it and it becomes part of your experience, there's no way you can fall from it.

And so in that sense, it's transformative. And so the most fundamentally important insight is the insight into dependent origination. Now, initially when you have a deep experience, it might not altogether make that much sense. But as you reintegrate into the world, not necessarily outside of retreat, but reintegrate into your state of normal day-to-day life, then you start to see for yourself, oh, the causes and conditions for different experiences. So it's like it adds the right view as a lens that's able to see things, as a series of causes and conditions in an impersonal process. That being the case, it is actually irreversible. There's no way you cannot see that. That's the thing that is permanent.

Yeah. That is not permanent, but this is the part of permanent. That's the part of the nibbana. That's right. And also, it becomes deeper with each stage, with each path of the stage and fruition of the stage. So there are ways to go until it becomes completely established. - Thank you. And I also had a question about mindfulness versus mindfulness and collectedness. When you mean mindfulness, so noticing what's happening from moment to moment, but where does the metta come? Do we do it while we're also doing metta, or is this a different practice, or different state? - This mindfulness is applied-- - In daily life? - Yeah. I asked you in the interview, and I asked you how to put in progress, and you said, look at every moment from moment to moment.

And then I thought to myself, do you mean do it through the, through the, for our process with the metta, or it's... It's both. In other words, in the meditation, the mindfulness remains there all the time. In an ideal meditation, the mindfulness doesn't slip; it remains independent, disassociated from whatever is going on, good, bad, or indifferent. But it remains on one object by staying around that object as best as possible. And that is the method of the meditation, whether it's metta or whatever it is.

But outside of that, in daily life, it's really about coming back to the presence of mind, here and now, in this moment. And there are different ways that you can do that. Coming back to what's going on in the body, coming back to what's going on in the mind, coming back to realizing that there's a distraction. In fact, when you realize that there's a distraction, you are mindful. And now you've come back to that mindfulness. In fact, that means that the hindrance, being your friend, is allowing you to come back to mindfulness.

And then you just let it go with the right effort, but then you continue to keep the awareness of every given moment, of every present moment. So that is mindfulness in daily living: just allowing whatever is happening to happen without engaging with a sense of self in relation to it. So that means whatever thoughts are coming, they're coming, but you don't need to do anything about them. Only if your attention starts to go into the traffic of thoughts, then you use right effort and you come back and you remain present. Really, now you see for yourself after doing this practice that the tools that you've gotten, primarily the right effort, the four R's, and observing things, observing your attention go from one object to the other.

That means you can apply this to any object in meditation. Need to be just the brahmaviharas. It can be using the breath. It can be contemplating the elements. It could be seeing the arising and passing away of phenomena. It could be literally any object. It could even be a mantra. You keep your object on a mantra. You keep your attention on a sensation, but keep it there. And then when you notice it drifting away, use the four R's and come back.

Yeah. I have a question. Maybe it's already answered, to elaborate on Nama's question, that I wrote it down. What is the process of insight in relation to the other means of progress to nibbana? Yeah. So what is insight in your mind? What does insight mean? Let's figure that out first. Yeah. A door opens and you see a glimpse, and then it closes. And then you go back to daily life and it's a memory.

There, in that moment, you see, you experience, oh, this is... But then it just goes on. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a good way of putting it. Insight is like a glimpse into whatever is going on. But the insight being a memory, as you said, can become reinforced by applying the practice in daily life. So in these 11 links of transcendental dependent origination, which we look at, the insight already starts to grow as we get into collectedness. Because we're starting to see for ourselves. The ability to observe, that is the mindfulness that happens first, gives rise to pamojja, that's the gladness, gives rise to joy, gives rise to tranquility, gives rise to sukha, and then collectedness.

From there, insight is developed further through just the process of going through the jhanas. Now, does it mean that we have to observe the factors of the jhanas? What we are observing in itself is how our mind moves away and comes back, moves away and comes back. And then the insight grows into deeper levels of seeing, for example, sankharas, which happen at yathabhuta nanadassana, the equanimity. And then that insight further deepens when you realize this is not me, not mine, not myself, and there's disenchantment and dispassion that arises. And finally, everything ceases and the mind is temporarily liberated when it touches nibbana, coming out of which it experiences a first-hand glimpse into how dependent origination actually works.

And that is, let's say, the ultimate insight. Sorry, I'm kidding. Heaven is the moment that it arises, like you just explained, collectedness, but... So can it arise in different... Does it arise from collectedness? Yes. But knowing that you're having joy, knowing that you're having sukha, knowing that you're having tranquility, are also insights. They might be not as profound, but you're still aware of them. But the deeper insights happen from collectedness onwards. Okay, got it. Thank you. Yes? I go to this question. So from deeper insights from collectedness, means from the later jhanas? It came in from the first jhana onwards. - So collectedness is from the first jhana onwards? - Yes.

- And another question, somewhat related to this, because you are the only person I know who has... I know you practiced Kriya as well. - Yeah. - And several years ago I studied the Yoga Sutras. - Yeah. - And there was a whole set of sutras on what comes after Samadhi, up to Nirvikalpa Samadhi. And I know there's some similarities. I haven't practiced it up to that point, but I know you have. I listened to the talk of yours. So I'm just curious if there are some similarities, or if by practicing that Kriya Yoga to the point of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Samadhi, if there are similarities to the Dhamma in a way, in terms of the insights and to the depth that it takes to the practitioner.

Yeah. There is some overlap between the Samadhi states that I mentioned in the Yoga Sutra. So what are the different Samadhi states? There's nirvikalpa, which is the highest, and there's savikalpa, there's nirvichara. So there's different kinds of samadhi, let's say. There's ananda samadhi, which means there's joy there. So that overlaps with the first and second jhana, and so on. But what really matters, actually, is also the view that is in there before the mind goes into these states. That's why right view comes first.

So the view in Yoga Sutra, or Kriya Yoga, is a different kind of understanding, maybe a theoretical framework, that differs from the practice of the Dhamma here. Like, for example, the goal of yoga. What is the goal of yoga? What does yoga mean? It means to yoke. It means to join. And so a lot of people interpret that as saying we need to unite with the cosmic consciousness. But there's another way of understanding what yoga actually means. It means that the purusha, which is their understanding of the self, has become enmeshed with all of the other stuff, which is known as prakriti, which is the ever-changing aspects of this reality. And so their philosophy says it's actually unyoking purusha from prakriti, so that it is understood for what it actually is.

So that's the goal, is to come to this selfhood, this understanding of the great self, you know, whatever we call that, atman and brahman, and so on and so forth. Whereas the right view for this practice is about letting go of suffering. We don't care about self or no self. All we care about is reducing and ultimately eliminating suffering, and the insights that come up later then grind away at deep layers of suffering for us. That's really the key differences, let's say. And the overlaps are just the states, like the piti and the sukha that's present in certain kinds of samadhi. It means that there's still some thought and process going on, or there is an object.

In nirvikalpa samadhi it means it's objectless, so it's very similar to, like, the signless state and so on. And then they have a state which is similar to the cessation of all mental activity. So you might say there are different lanes, and that there are different exits. Is it better to do two or three days once a month, or to try to do like four or five days every two or three months?

That's my question. Is it better to do two or three days once a month, or four or five days every two or three months? Is there an answer to that? Yeah. - Second question. - The second question is about dependent origination. If you could maybe explain a little bit more about the seeds of the body, is it body, speech, and mind? 'Cause I don't understand the mentality, materiality, so it's to get a little bit of understanding, if you've got time. - Yeah, we have nothing but time. We don't have to go. I would say whatever seems most consistent: three times, two or three days in a month, or maybe even two or three days every two weeks.

It just depends on your lifestyle, depends on the time that you have available, but then keeping it routine, keeping that routine up, that frequency consistent. That's really what matters. So if it makes sense to do five days every two months, go for it. Do that. Keep doing that. So you're talking about the mentality, materiality, and what happens before. And what happens before, like consciousness and formations. So you have ignorance, formations, consciousness, nama rupa, or mentality, materiality, the sixth sense basis, consciousness. Right, consciousness. So in everyday living, when we're talking about this process, we're talking about. In every moment, there's a contact that happens, right? As you're listening to my voice, there's contact between the sound of my voice and your ears, and then there is a process of listening.

This is facilitated through the process of mental formations that allow the mind to actually feel and perceive. In other words, hear my voice and recognize it as my voice, and the words that you're listening to. That's the mental formations, and what is felt and experienced is cognition, which is the consciousness. So that is the practical understanding of it. So the seeds allow the process of us to move around, inhale, exhale, which is bodily, allow us to think about, reflect, and then break out into speech, which is verbal, and allows us to feel and perceive, which is essentially mental formations. When that happens, there's a cognition or a bare awareness of what is being felt or experienced, or what is being thought about or reflected on.

Or when you're walking, you know you're walking, and so on. So this process is all dependent upon contact. Contact is the key here. Dependent origination: contact feeds back into formations in order for feeling to arise, in order for awareness of what is happening to arise. So actually there's a lot of feedback loops in each of the links. Now, these formations by themselves are impersonal.

However, we take things personally, and as a result the next arising of formations can be fettered by, chained by, some kind of craving. So it's like a backdrop of craving that then stains our awareness with that craving. When we feel and perceive, the mind almost inclines automatically towards that craving. Unless in that moment we have mindfulness and we let go. And as we continue to let go and we start to develop wisdom, start to develop attention, then the craving in the next arising of formations, in every moment, starts to be reduced in those formations. And as a result, any kind of craving that is staining the way we see things through our cognition or consciousness also gets reduced.

And so it becomes easier and easier in every moment for us to recognize and let go. And we do that with mindfulness, is the gatekeeper all the time. Yeah? To overlay this question, can you consider that the consciousness and mind are two things? And what is the consciousness constituted by? Yeah. So there's three things. There is mano, vinnana, and citta. Mano is mind. Mano is, you can say, the brain, let's say. Mano is also mentality, which is made up of feeling, perception, intention, contact, and attention. These are the different facets or faculties of the mind, or the brain, to use that analogy. Awareness of something. And what constitutes that is essentially contact. In other words, it is facilitated by contact between the sense base and the sense object.

And that consciousness, you could say, to use the analogy of the brain and the nervous system, is the electrical activity that signals the awareness of something. That is to say, if the eyes make contact with the color and form, and there is a seeing happening, before that seeing happens, there is an ignition of signal, right? An ignition of some kind of electrical impulse. That in itself can be seen as consciousness, shedding the light of awareness on something. And then we have citta, which is the mindset. That is to say, the quality of the mind. Is it an uplifted mind? Is it a happy mind? Is it a mind immersed in meditation? Or is it an unwholesome state of mind, where it's a depressed mind, it's an unwholesome mind, and so on and so forth.

And is all the time going on? Yes. Every moment. How is it going? How is it? How is it happening? How can it happen? It's impermanent, it's stopping, and every time the seeing is going on, there is this base here from the eye, the object, you, and here we are, one fluid experience. It all seems like, okay, when I move my hand, it's all one fluid experience. But as you're aware, as your mindfulness becomes deeper, you start to see that that fluidity actually is fragmented. So in other words, it's like you're seeing the individual frames. Like, previously, when you used to watch a movie, it was on film reels.

And as you slow down the film reels, you start to see the individual frames. And these individual frames are the vinnana, arising, passing away, arising, passing away. And so when we start to understand this, then we realize actually there is no fluidity in our experience. It is creating the illusion of a fluidity when there's a certain rate, a framework of our experience of consciousness. And this process is also going on over this. Yes, and it continues on beyond just one lifetime. It keeps going lifetime to lifetime to lifetime, moment to moment to moment. So this consciousness is going on. But the idea is that when that consciousness departs from this life into the next life, then that consciousness is like a linking this life to the next, and it disappears.

So what we're saying is arising and passing away, arising and passing away. Each frame is one arising and one passing away of one fragment of consciousness, which gives the illusion of one continuous consciousness, but it's made up of individual consciousnesses, multiple. Right, if there's some kind of fuel for that consciousness to arise, then it will then arise and then go to the next life. That's why there's a famous sutta, the Vakkali Sutta, where when Vakkali dies, actually he takes his own life. But before he takes his own life, he attains, just as he does, arahatship. And the Buddha points at Vulture's Peak, and he says, you see that black smoke that's there? And he says, that is Mara looking for the consciousness, but unable to find it.

And the reason is because there's no more fuel there. And what is the fuel for the further arising of consciousness? The conceit, the mana, the craving or tanha, or any kind of views about what is arising. So for the arahant, because there's none of that, when the last moment happens, that mind just inclines into nibbana, and that's it. There's total cessation. But before that happens for other people, for other beings, let's say, the consciousness arises because they see something in their last moments, of that life, or experience something in their mind, and then the mind grabs onto it, or has some kind of reaction to it. And having that reaction gives rise to other sankharas, which then activate that rebirth-linking consciousness, which then takes all of that into the next life.

Which is why awareness and mindfulness of the present moment is so important, so that in those last moments, you become aware and you're able to let go. And just knowing what is going on. Yes. Without getting affected. That's right. Yeah. So why is the rebirth-linking consciousness not happening all the time? Because the same thing that you described that's happening in the last moment is happening every moment in our life. Yes. We are. That's what's happening in every moment. Because it's still here. It still has something to land into, which is the same nama-rupa, mentality, materiality, which keeps changing anyway until there's no more fuel left in the nama-rupa for to maintain anything.

That's why it goes into the next one. - My last question? - Yeah. - Our moment of death is incredibly important and a massive opportunity. - Yeah. - And so we're practicing now to be getting ready for that, but is there a way of practicing more for that moment of death, not just with our mindfulness now? Is there something else that we can do? Accept it. Accept it. This is what the whole practice of the Dhamma actually is, is to prepare for your own death and make it a good one. And hopefully the final one. And really it is that, just mindfulness, right effort, letting go. The more you do this, the more ingrained it becomes in your conditioning.

That in that moment, you know exactly what to do. That's why it says in the suttas that one who goes into a lower realm or has a, let's say, unwholesome state of mind or a state of existence is because they die in confusion. They have no idea what's going on. There's a lack of mindfulness there. But if there is just pure presence in the ability to let go and not attach to anything, then no new consciousness can arise. Because one of my concerns has always been about medication at the time of death, so suffering and being put on drugs. But to what point is there a balance to find if one can't bear the pain which will lead to craving and aversion and not having one's mind completely gone with Yeah.

I think it's completely invalid to have morphine to reduce the pain or to come into a state that's pain-free. Because that might have some level of effect on the mano, that is the physical component of the mind. But here when we're talking about the last moments of death, they are happening purely at mind, at the level of mind. bearing on the body and what's going on there. Unless, obviously, it's attaching to it. But in those last moments, it is completely just mental. Absolutely mental. And I would say at that level, there's not a lot of effect going on from what's going on in the physical. Although, what I would say is for when you're dealing with somebody who is passing on, it's best not to mourn their death or not to mourn for them in those final moments, or even in the moments when they're medically dead.

Because the consciousness and the mind is still present in the form of mentality, separate from the body. So you let them go? You let them go. For how long is the mind present still? It just depends. It depends on the few. with this story, but since you mentioned about this point, so what is the best attitude to have in those moments?

Acceptance. Okay, this is it. Let's see what happens. And just remain independent, unaffected, equanimous. So even the excitement about the possibility is to be avoided. Exactly. There can be no anticipation there. If somebody is to pass away, what is the best thing you can do for that person? one is called the Sixth Sense of Six, which is Majjhima Nikaya 148. And this one is an even deeper sutta, which goes into each of the six-sense spaces and allows the mind to let go. Six-sense spaces, the consciousness dependent upon the six-sense spaces, and so on, until there's nothing left.

So we'll stop it there. I want to thank each and every one of you for attending. I'm very happy to have met every one of you. And I want to give my thanks to Venor Obasa for assisting me and for Kuhn for assisting and setting all of this up. So thank you very much. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free and the fears struck fearlessly. 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. Amen.