MN 10 Mindfulness Redefined-Satipatthana Sutta with Delson Armstrong-Very Good!

So today we're going to talk about mindfulness and I'm going to be reading from Majjhima Nikaya 10, Satipatthana Sutta, the foundations of mindfulness. Sati. Sati comes from the word smriti in Sanskrit, which means to remember or memory. And that's why we define mindfulness as a process of remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. Mindfulness is. It's essentially metacognition.

The awareness of how mind's attention is moving from one object to the other. So this is what you should be doing in your practice. Whether you are meditating on the cushion, whether you are doing the walking meditation, or eating, a shower, or whatever it is that you're doing, you have to be consistently and constantly mindful. So we'll go into detail of what that entails.

When we say the foundations of mindfulness, sati, patana, that's sati and then patana. Patana means foundation. Patana means the base. Means where it is established. So where is the mindfulness established in or established from? And there are four foundations of mindfulness. The body, feelings, mind, and phenomenon. And we're going to go into detail of what all that is.

Thus have I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was living in the Kuru country where there was a town of the Kurus named Kammasadamma. There he addressed the Bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus," "Venerable Sir," they replied. The Blessed One said this: "Bhikkhus, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, So when the Buddha says this is the direct path, he's saying this is really the path to be mindful. Mindfulness is the basis for everything else. Mindfulness and right effort, right effort and right mindfulness, are the six R's. Mindfulness is the ability to observe how your mind's attention moves from one object to the other. When you recognize that you are distracted, this is what you are doing.

As soon as you recognize that your mind is distracted, you have regained your mindfulness because now you realize that your attention went from your object of meditation towards a distraction. And when you do the rest of the steps, that is the releasing, relaxing, re-smiling, returning, you're still observing your mind's attention moving from the distraction back to its object of meditation.

So right effort, which are the six R's, and right mindfulness, these are interwoven, interconnected, interdependent. ready for jhana, experiencing right samadhi, right meditation, right collectedness, as a result of which the mind can then experience deeper and further insights and attain nibbana. What are the four? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness, and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feeling, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind as mind, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating. So body is body, feeling is feeling, mind is mind, and phenomena is phenomena, or mind objects is mind objects.

When he says that, all he's saying is you understand that there is an awareness of the body as body. That's it. You're not confusing body with feeling. Feeling is feeling, feeling as a mental state. Mental states as mental states. You're not confusing a mental state with something else. Mind as mind. You're not confusing mind as something else. Ardent. What does ardent mean? That means you are determined. You have a certain level of resolution in what it is that you're doing. A level of determination.

Fully aware. Fully aware means it comes from the word sampajanna, which means clear comprehension. Clear comprehension of what? Clear comprehension of what is happening in the present moment. Clear comprehension of your object of meditation. Clear comprehension of whether you are with your object of meditation or not. grief for the world. Letting go of hindrances. Letting go of any kind of craving, that is the covetousness. Letting go of any kind of grief, that is the restlessness and the doubt and the ill will and the sloth and torpor. So now we talk about contemplation of the body. The first component here is mindfulness of breathing. And how, bhikkhus, as a bhikkhu abides. What does that mean, mindfulness in front of him?

It doesn't mean you pay attention to what's in front of you. It doesn't mean you pay attention to the tip of your nose or anything like that. It just means you make a conscious effort to come back to the present moment and see what is going on. One of the quickest ways to do that is to do a body scan. When you sit down for your practice, before you start your practice, is there any tightness and tension anywhere in the body? And make a conscious effort to relax it.

The moment you do this, your mindfulness has been established. And then you start the practice. In this case, he says, breathe out long. Breathing in short, he understands, I breathe in short. Or breathing out short, he understands, I breathe out short. Is there anywhere there that it says he controls the breath? There's no process of breath control going on here. All that's going on there is you're aware the breath is long or you're aware the breath is short. He trains thus, I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body.

I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body. When he says the whole body, here he's talking about not just the body, the physicality, but the mind, what is happening in the mind. Because the word that this has been translated from is kaya. K-A-Y-A, kaya. Kaya can refer to the skin, to the body. But it can also refer to the mentality, the mental body.

And then he further says, he trains thus, I shall breathe in tranquilizing the bodily formation. He trains thus, I shall breathe out tranquilizing the bodily formation. What does that mean, tranquilizing? It means to relax. Breathing in, he relaxes. Breathing out, he relaxes. Now, this is not the practice that we're doing for this retreat. We're doing the brahmaviharas.

But this is allowing you to understand that the process of relaxing is already built in here, in whatever practice you are doing. Tranquilizing the bodily formations. Relaxing the body. When you relax the body, the mind becomes uplifted. The mind experiences joy. The mind experiences collectedness. From that collectedness, the mind remains ever equanimous and mindful. From that equanimity, the mind is able to experience dispassion, disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation.

So there is another sutta which goes in detail about the anapanasati, that is the mindfulness of breathing. And it talks about how by doing this, experiences joy. And then the person goes through each of the enlightenment factors, which we'll talk about later. And from there, the mind experiences liberation. So it's not just through the breathing that's going on. The breathing is just the starting point. From there, the mind has to develop mental qualities, which include the enlightenment factors. When making a long turn, he understands, I make a long turn. Or when making a short turn, he understands, I make a short turn. So too, breathing in long, a bhikkhu understands, I breathe in long, and so on.

He thus trains, I shall breathe in and out, tranquilizing the bodily formations. In this way, he abides contemplating the body as a body internally, or he abides contemplating the body as a body externally. Or he abides contemplating the body as a body both internally and externally. So what does he mean internally and externally? Internally, what is happening within the body? What are the experiences happening within the body? Externally, what is happening on the surface of the body? What is happening in relation to the five physical sense bases? The eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the body itself.

From that perception of not-self, anatta. Or else, mindfulness that there is a body is simply established in him to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness, what the body is doing right now. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how a bhikkhu abides, contemplating the body as a body. He abides independent, unaffected, just in complete balance, seeing things as they are, not projecting an opinion of what's going on, just perceiving things as they are, right? Not clinging to anything in the world. Not being affected by what's going on outside of the meditation.

There is this world, which is the body and the sixth sense bases, or the other five bases. And there is the other world, which is the experience of jhana, the experience of meditation, not clinging to this world, this world being that which is fathomed by the five physical senses, letting go of that. That is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.

Again, bhikkhus, when walking, a bhikkhu understands, I am walking. When standing, he understands, I am standing. When sitting, he understands, I am sitting. When lying down, he understands, I am lying down. Or he understands accordingly, however his body is disposed. When you're walking, are you aware of which foot enters the room? With which foot do you enter the room? Is it the left foot or the right foot?

When you open the door, which arm is opening the door? Is it the right arm or the left arm? When you sit down, where is your mind? When you stand up, where is your mind? When you're walking and then stop, where is your mind? When you start walking, where is your mind? When you lie down to take rest, where is your mind? Do you start sleeping on the right side of the bed or the left side? When you wake up, do you wake up on the right side or the left side? All of these different components, be aware of them. This is how you start to become mindful. This is how you start to become aware of where your mind is.

You are aware simply of one thing and one thing only. That is your object of meditation. In relation to whatever it is you're doing, sitting, walking, standing, lying down, where is your mind? Can you remain in loving kindness while walking? Can you remain in compassion while sitting? Can you remain in equanimity while lying down? Can you remain in joy when getting up? Can you be in quiet mind while driving a car? Can you retain the object or maintain the awareness of the object of meditation in everything that you're doing?

Look back in the last three days. How often were you able to stay with your loving kindness with every spoonful of food that you were eating? Where was your mind? Was it with loving kindness when you were washing the dishes? Was it with equanimity when you were filling your water bottle? Was it with joy when you were petting the cat or the dog?

What was going on? That's what's important here. In this way, he abides contemplating the body as a body, internally, externally, and both internally and externally. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a Bhikkhu abides, contemplating the body as a body. Again, Bhikkhu is one who acts in full awareness when going forward and returning. Again, the same thing. Going forward and returning, who acts in full awareness when looking ahead and looking away. In all of these activities, where is your mind? Is your mind going through certain things, certain thoughts? Is it present in whatever the activity is? And is it imbued with one of the brahmaviharas? Can you stay with loving kindness with whatever it is that you're doing?

Can you stay with quiet mind with whatever it is you're doing? Can you stay in equanimity with whatever it is you're doing? Can you radiate compassion while you're looking at the trees or listening to the birds? Can you be in loving kindness while you're talking? Yes, you can. Because regardless of whether you are paying attention or not, your mind is always ruminating.

When you're driving, you're always thinking about this or that, and you wonder, how did I get here? Right? Because you were so much on autopilot when you were driving your car that you didn't even pay attention to what you were doing exactly. Everything was on autopilot. You were more immersed in listening to your thoughts. So it's important not to go into a system of being habituated to everything. Treat every moment as being fresh, as if you are seeing it for the first time.

Treat every meditation as if it was your first sitting, with no expectations that it will be the same as it was before. Every meditation will be different, will be unique. So don't have expectations of how it should be based on prior experiences. Again, Bhikkhu reviews the same body up from the soles of the feet and down from the top of the hair, bounded by skin. Thus, in this body there are head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinew, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, contents of the stomach, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil of the joints, and urine. Just as though there were a bag with an opening at both ends, full of many sorts of grain.

Such as hill rice, red rice, beans, peas, millet, and white rice. And a man with good eyes were to open it and review it thus, this is hill rice, this is red rice, these are beans, these are peas, this is millet, this is white rice, so too a Bhikkhu reviews this same body, as full of many kinds of impurity thus.

That is what the Buddha prescribed to his son, his teenage son, Rahula. Rahula asked Sariputta, what should I be contemplating on? What should be my meditation object? And Sariputta said, why don't you do mindfulness of breathing? And he goes to the Buddha, Rahula, and the Buddha says, do the asubha practices. And the reason is because he understood that, for one, Rahula was a handsome guy, apparently, so he was very proud of his features, proud of his own body. And obviously, being a teenager, his hormones were in full gear. So, starting to let go of attachment to the body. This is how you do it. This is a contemplation exercise for that purpose.

Again, Bhikkhu reviews this same body, however it is placed, however disposed, by way of elements thus. So the practice of seeing the elements, seeing the different components of the body. What exercise is this for? This is for the process of seeing that everything in this body is made up of parts and parcels and that they are conditionally arisen. This is the beginning of seeing dependent origination. Understanding that this body being made up of composites of the water element, the fire element, the earth element, and the air element. So in modern terminology, we would say that this body is made up of certain kinds of molecules. The earth element is solid molecules.

The water element is water molecules. The air element is gaseous molecules. And the fire element is the heat in the body. So it's made up of all of these components, impermanent and impersonal. That's the insight that naturally arises from contemplating the body in this way. In this way, he abides contemplating the body as a body, internally, externally, and both internally and externally. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a Bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body. Contemplation is known as the nine charnel ground contemplations. This is given to somebody who has a fear of death. The fear of dying or the fear of the death of a loved one.

There's so much attachment to the body. There's so much attachment to the body as a sense of self that they're afraid of what will happen when they die. So it's a very interesting contemplation and something that should be carefully prescribed for people, because sometimes people can freak out. So you need a lot of equanimity before you try to do this kind of contemplation.

Again, Bhikkhus, as though he were to see a corpse thrown aside in a charnel ground. By the way, sometimes what they would do is they would actually go to a charnel ground. So when I was in Varanasi, I've been in Varanasi now two or three times. When you take a boat ride down the Ganges River, there are two places in Varanasi by the coast where you see these dead bodies that are burning all the time, and they're just there, and you can see the skeleton, you can see the charring flesh, you can see the bloated bodies, the livid bodies, and so on. So it was a practice for the practitioner to go to places like this and look at that and be okay with that and realize that that is the fate of this same body that I possess here.

The body, feeling, mind and mind objects are interwoven together, interlaced. So your mind becomes aware of what is going on. When you notice that there is pain in the body, there is contact happening in the body. So what are you aware of? You're aware of two things: pain in the body itself, as well as the feeling of pain, which we'll talk about now when we talk about the mindfulness of feelings. Now, this can also happen not only in the beginning of the meditation, but well on when you're about two or three hours into the meditation.

Sometimes what happens is there is a burning, searing pain in your chair. And that's because you're sitting for so long that you feel like you can't do anything else but just concentrate on that pain. How do you deal with that pain? Because there are two kinds of pain here. There is meditation pain and there is bodily pain. What is meditation pain? Meditation pain arises usually around the chest or in the shoulders or sometimes in the back, but usually it arises because the mind is trying too hard and pushing. Two things: there is tension and pain in the body, and there is too much mental activity going on in the mind. When you notice that, you have to recognize it and relax it. Use the six R's to relax and pull back your attention a little bit, defocus the mind a little bit, bring a little bit more spaciousness to the mind. Now, what about bodily pain? Bodily pain is the reality of the situation. You can't fight it.

There's nothing you can do about it except let go of your identification with it. Let go of your aversion to the pain. The moment you start to pay attention to the bodily pain, what happens? It becomes worse than it actually is. It feels worse than it actually is. So how do you deal with it? Notice how your mind is relating to the bodily pain.

And let go of the aversion to it. Once you start letting go of the aversion to it and coming back to quiet mind, the pain will still be there. But it will be okay, because your mind will have equanimity. What can happen is, as you keep doing that, new waves of equanimity arise. And as those new waves of equanimity arise, they're okay with everything that's going on. Remaining contemplative, remaining mindful, remaining meditative, instead of being distracted, instead of having its attention scattered, instead of trying to push the pain away, trying to do something with the pain.

Now we'll talk about contemplation of feeling, and how, bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu abide contemplating feelings as feelings? What is feeling? We're going to go into more detail tomorrow when we talk about dependent origination, but feeling is anything that you're experiencing mentally or physically. Feeling arises dependent upon contact with one or more of the six sense bases. When you are hearing my voice, you are listening. That is a feeling. That is an experience. When you are seeing me speak, you are experiencing seeing. That is a feeling. Now, feeling can have many different qualities to it. There are up to 108 different types of feeling that the Buddha has talked about in different suttas, but the three main ones are pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral.

So the quality of the feeling is pleasant, painful, or neutral. Pleasant feeling in terms of a mental pleasant feeling or a physical pleasant feeling. A mental painful feeling and a physical painful feeling. A mental neutral feeling and a physical neutral feeling. And how, bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu contemplate feelings as feelings? Here, when feeling a pleasant feeling, a bhikkhu understands, 'I feel a pleasant feeling.' So you're just aware, here is a pleasant feeling present.

You don't add anything to it. You just say, okay, this feels pleasant. This is a nice experience. When feeling a painful feeling, he understands, I feel a painful feeling. There's no retraction of the mind from it. It's just aware, here is a painful feeling. For example, when you're sitting for a long time and you have that bodily pain, what do you do? Here is a bodily painful feeling. You don't retract the mind from it. You don't try to push the feeling away. You're just there, present, knowing and understanding with full awareness. Here is a painful feeling. And that's the beginning of mindfulness, of letting it go, using the six R's.

When feeling a neither painful nor pleasant feeling, he understands, I feel a neither painful nor pleasant feeling. So that's not adding any kind of emotional quality to it. The feeling is just feeling. The breeze that's going on, that's just neutral. When you feel hot, that's uncomfortable, and then the breeze comes through, it feels pleasant. That's a pleasant feeling. But if the temperature is just fine, you're not really experiencing anything in the way of being pleasant or unpleasant. It's just neutral. It's okay. It's fine.

When feeling a worldly pleasant feeling, he understands, I feel a worldly pleasant feeling. What's a worldly pleasant feeling? When we talk about worldly, that means anything to do with the physicality of the five physical senses, including the body. So when you feel a bodily pain, or a bodily pleasure in this case, that's a worldly pleasant feeling. Your skin, that's a worldly pleasant feeling. When feeling an unworldly pleasant feeling, he understands, I feel an unworldly pleasant feeling. What's an unworldly pleasant feeling? That happens through jhana, when you experience the factors of jhana, when you experience joy, when you experience loving kindness, when you experience compassion. What are those experiences? There are others. They're unworldly, have nothing to do with the physicality.

It's all happening up here in the mind. That is an unworldly pleasant feeling. When feeling a worldly painful feeling, he understands, I feel a worldly painful feeling. When feeling an unworldly painful feeling, he understands, I feel an unworldly painful feeling. So when you feel a worldly painful feeling, that's bodily pain. When it's too hot and you feel exhausted, that's an unpleasant bodily feeling.

What about unworldly painful feeling? That's a distraction, a hindrance, agitation in the mind, boredom in the mind. Actually, boredom is something else. I'll explain that later. But mainly agitation, mainly any kind of hindrance that arises, distraction. That's an unworldly, unpleasant, or painful experience. When feeling a worldly, neither painful nor pleasant feeling, he understands I feel a neither painful nor pleasant feeling. A worldly, neither painful nor pleasant feeling. When feeling an unworldly, neither painful nor pleasant feeling, he understands I feel an unworldly, nor pleasant feeling. So what's a worldly, neither painful nor pleasant feeling?

This can be an experience of just being in tepid water, for example. Neither good nor bad, neither pleasant or unpleasant. Everything is just neutral. In the case of something that is unworldly, neither painful nor pleasant, that's equanimity. That can be equanimity. That can be indifference. That can be boredom, but primarily equanimity. Because with indifference, there's a difference between equanimity and indifference.

Equanimity is where the mind sees things as they are and remains completely unaffected. Indifference is there's actually a little quality of aversion to that indifference. It's like, I see you, I don't care. quality to it. And boredom. Boredom doesn't really have a kind of feeling or quality to it, except that it's rooted in craving. I need stimulation. Something has to happen. But I'm just really bored right now. This happens especially when you are in quiet mind and where nothing is going on for long periods of time. Maybe I should be doing something. Maybe I should make an adjustment. Maybe I should look at this. Maybe I should look at that. That's all stemming from boredom.

So how do you deal with that? You notice it, and you relax it, come back to quiet mind. Bring a little bit more energy, a little bit more joy in enjoying the quiet mind. In this way, he abides contemplating feelings as feelings internally, or he abides contemplating feelings as feelings externally, or he abides contemplating feelings as feelings both internally and externally.

So what is internal feelings? Feelings that are happening to you in terms of the six sense spaces. Externally, that is the experiences that are happening outside. So there is the sense-based experiences and the sense-based objects, seeing that. And also the experiences of other beings around you. That's external as well. And feelings, their nature of arising, or their nature of vanishing, or the nature of both arising and vanishing.

We can see how the feeling of loving kindness changes, right? You notice the feeling of loving kindness change into compassion. You notice the feeling of compassion change into empathetic joy. You notice the feeling of empathetic joy change into equanimity. You notice where the mind doesn't want to radiate equanimity anymore. This is how you notice it. You realize that all of these mental objects in the form of feeling are impermanent. They arise and they pass away. They will change. They are subject to change.

Or else, mindfulness that there is feeling is simply established in him to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and mindfulness. So knowing, okay, now the mind is experiencing love and kindness. Now the mind is experiencing some kind of joy. Now the mind is experiencing some kind of equanimity. Now the mind is experiencing less contact with the body. Now the mind is experiencing the expansion of mind. Now the mind is experiencing infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness. So pay more attention to what's going on without getting distracted.

That's the balance therein. And how do you do that? Just remember to keep your mind's attention on your object of meditation. And let that object of meditation be an anchor to your mind. And whatever is coming up, you notice, okay, this is something new. Something new is happening here. You make a mental note of it, come back to your object, remain there. That's all you have to do. Don't get caught up in what's going on. Just notice, oh, this is what's happening. Come back. That's it.

And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. This is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating feeling as feeling. Now we will talk about contemplation of mind, chitta. So contemplation of mind can also mean contemplation of consciousness, or chitta, or awareness, or mentality, or mindset, different ways of looking at it. And how, bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu abide contemplating mind as mind?

Here, a bhikkhu understands mind affected by lust as mind affected by lust. So you notice, oh, there's craving present. What do you do with that? The noticing of that. The recognizing of that is the mindfulness of mind having craving in it. And then the right effort of letting go, using the six R's, the rest of the six R's. And mind unaffected by lust as mind unaffected by lust.

Noticing the release from that lust. So when you relax the tightness and tension, really taking a bit of time, just a moment. And then come back to the re-smile and then the object of meditation. Noticing aversion. Delusion. Delusion gives rise to sloth and torpor. Gives rise to restlessness. Gives rise to doubt. Noticing when the mind has that. Letting it go using the six R's. Noticing the mind being free of any of those hindrances.

He understands contracted mind as contracted mind, and distracted mind as distracted mind. That's the same thing. He understands the mind being contracted, contracted by sloth and torpor, distracted, distracted by any of the other hindrances. He understands exalted mind as exalted mind and unexalted mind as unexalted mind. What does exalted mind mean? He understands the mind is in jhana. He understands the mind is experiencing this particular jhana, factor of the jhana, or that there is no longer present this experience of this particular jhana. He understands surpassed mind as surpassed mind, and unsurpassed mind as unsurpassed mind. What does that mean, surpassed mind? Any of the arupa states. He understands the mind has surpassed the base of infinite space, surpassed the base of infinite consciousness, the base of nothingness, perception nor non-perception, or that the mind is not in that, it is unsurpassed.

He understands concentrated mind as concentrated mind, and unconcentrated mind as unconcentrated mind. He understands if the mind is free of any restlessness and agitation, or if there is restlessness or agitation. He understands liberated mind as liberated mind, and as un-liberated mind. Liberation here can mean jhana as well, because jhanas are temporary liberations of the mind, being liberated from the hindrances.

But you can also understand what fetters are still present in the mind. If you have experienced cessation and you talk about it in the interview, notice what is going on in the mind. What fetters have dropped? Have you let go of doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha? Of clinging to rites and rituals? Have you let go of a belief in a personal self? What is present and what is not present? What is the mind liberated from and what work is yet to be done? This is what it means when he understands liberated mind as liberated mind and unliberated mind as unliberated mind.

In this way, he abides contemplating mind as mind internally, or he abides contemplating mind as mind externally. He abides contemplating mind as mind both internally and externally. Internally, what's happening in your mind? Externally, if you have the psychic faculties, what's happening in another person's mind? Internally or externally. Or else he abides contemplating in mind its nature of arising. Or he abides contemplating in mind its nature of vanishing. And vanishing.

Or else mindfulness that there is mind is simply established in him to the extent necessary for the bare knowledge and mindfulness. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind as mind. So how do you contemplate mind vanishing and arising? Or arising and passing away? That's just the nature of seeing what's happening. What jhana is present? What factors of the jhanas are present? What factors of the jhanas have gone away, have vanished? What has been replaced by that? That's one level of seeing it. Then when you go into infinite consciousness, seeing the gaps in the thoughts, that's another level of seeing the arising and passing away of mind.

Or just being aware of mind itself. Being aware of where mind is. That is the bare knowledge of the mind. That's it. That is also mindfulness. Ultimately, whether it's body, feeling, mind or mind objects, all you are noticing is how the attention moves and bringing it back to your intended object of meditation. Now we'll talk about contemplation of phenomena or mind objects. Dhamma. The word Dhamma is very interesting.

Dhamma can mean a bunch of things. It means Dhamma in terms of the Buddha Dharma, that is the teachings of the Buddha. Dhamma, which means the different kinds of teachings of other sects. Like during the time of the Buddha, there were other teachings that were going on. So that was their dhamma. Or dhamma in the form of phenomena that's happening internally or externally.

In other words, noticing when sensual craving arises, that is seeing the arising of sensual craving. Now that's happening in the mind. So what's going on here? You're not only contemplating mind objects, you're also contemplating mind itself. There is present in mind an experience of sensual craving. Now I just use the word experience. What does that mean? That it is a feeling of sensual craving.

You're not only contemplating or being aware of mind object in the form of sensual craving, but you're also being aware of the feeling of the experience of the hindrance. And you're being aware that it's happening in mind. It's all interwoven. It's not like you have to dissect each one. The Buddha has given this in this format because he's going from the densest level that is happening at the body to the subtlest level which is happening in mind in the form of mental phenomena. That's it. It's not like you have to see these in some certain order. Interlaced. The moment you see one thing, you notice the other components that are interwoven with it.

So when you recognize that there is present sensual desire, sensual craving, and you let go of it, what have you done? You have noticed the passing away of that sensual desire. And then more importantly, you're noticing that there is no sensual desire present, the future non-arising of that sensual desire. The future non-arising of that sensual desire means you have returned back to your object of meditation.

Likewise, there being ill will in him, there being sloth and torpor in him, there being restlessness in him, there being doubt in him, a bhikkhu understands there is present this hindrance in me. Or there being no longer this hindrance in him, he understands there is no longer this hindrance in me. And he understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen hindrance. Noticing when the hindrance comes up.

And how there comes to be the abandoning of the arisen hindrance. Noticing how you let go of it. And how there comes to be the future non-arising of that hindrance. Noticing how the mind is free of that hindrance and now back on its object of meditation. So when you're doing this practice, you are already utilizing mindfulness.

You're just not aware of it. But now you're being made aware of it. So don't think like you have to do a separate practice of mindfulness. It's all interwoven. That is the beauty of the Dhamma. The way the Buddha has expounded the Dhamma from just the Four Noble Truths. And before that, just understanding there is suffering, and the cessation of suffering.

And then from that, going into the Four Noble Truths. And then from that, going into the Eightfold Path. And then from that, going into understanding the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. And then from there, understanding the Seven Enlightenment Factors. And from there, understanding the Eight Jhanas. And then from there, understanding the Three Characteristics. And then from there, understanding the cessation of all suffering. He has interwoven this path in such a beautiful way: one thing, you're doing the rest of it all.

You don't have to worry about whether I'm doing this or not. You do one part of the path and everything else comes into play, whether you realize it or not. Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu contemplates mind objects as mind objects in terms of the five aggregates affected by clinging. And how does a bhikkhu abide contemplating mind objects as mind objects in terms of the five aggregates affected by clinging?

Here, a bhikkhu understands such is material form, such its origin, such its disappearance. Such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance. Such is perception, such its origin, such its disappearance. Such are formations, such their origin, such their disappearance. Such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance. The five aggregates. These are the instruments through which everyone experiences something. The five aggregates, the material form, that's the body. Feeling, that is how you experience the world. Perception, how you recognize what it is that you're experiencing.

So when you see the color green, there is the seeing of green, and then recognizing this as the color green. The formations, these are intentions, and these are formations that create the experience of feeling and perception. We'll go in depth when we talk about dependent origination. Consciousness, the cognition and bare awareness of something, dependent upon a sense-based experience.

So you see this whenever you are mindful of whatever it is you're mindful of. Have to dissect each one of them. There is a meditation that can arise from this contemplation. This is a meditation that I introduced at the Dependent Origination Symposium, where you were looking at each of the five aggregates. After you had developed a strong level of equanimity, you were looking at each of the five aggregates and understanding their impermanence. Understanding their impermanence, you then see that they are not worth holding on to, and that they are not self. As a result of that, the mind experiences a deeper level of equanimity, disenchantment, meaning it understands that this is not worth holding on to.

It's just no longer interested in taking anything as a source of identification and dispassion where the mind is in a bubble where nothing can penetrate through that bubble. At dispassion, the mind experiences cessation. So this is a more advanced practice that happens later on. But this is also part of the process of contemplating or having mindfulness of mental objects. How does the mind relate to the form aggregate? How does the mind relate to the feeling aggregate? How does the mind relate to the perception aggregate, to intentions, to consciousness?

Again, a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects in terms of the six internal and external bases. So what is the internal base and what is the external base? The internal base is the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. And form for the eyes, sound for the ears, odors for the nose, flavors for the tongue, temperature and pressure for the body, and thoughts for the mind.

Just being aware of what's going on in relation to any of the experience of the five physical sense bases and the mind and mind objects. Here, Bhikkhu understands the eye, he understands forms, and he understands the fetter that arises dependent on both. What is the fetter that arises dependent upon both? There's two ways of understanding this. Understanding when contact arises, there arises feeling. Contact here is when the light hits the eye, or the sound hits the ear, or the odor molecules hit the nose, the olfactory bulbs, or the flavor molecules hit the taste buds. Or when wind or pressure and temperature hits the body. Or when there is an initial application of thought.

Noticing that, you realize that there arises, dependent upon it, a feeling. That's it. But the other fetter, there is: how does the mind take that experience? Does it identify that experience as me, mine, and myself? That this is just an experience that's going on. I have no control over it. If the fetter is present, then there is a wanting to control, a wanting to own that experience.

But if you let go of the need to own that experience and just having that experience as an experience, then there won't be any craving that arises. And now we're getting a little bit into dependent origination. There won't be any clinging that arises, of rationalizing why you like this, why you don't like that. And more importantly, why you think that you should have this or why you should push it away. And so on and so forth.

He understands the fetter that arises dependent on both. He also understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen fetter. So you understand craving has arisen dependent upon seeing something, upon the contact. Or you understand there comes to be the abandoning of the arisen fetter. Letting go of the craving to that. Letting go of the identification to that experience.

And how there comes to be the future non-arising of the abandoned fetter. How after having let go of the craving, let go of the identification, let go of the ignorance, there is just present a mind without craving. A mind that is free of any kind of craving. In this way, he does the same thing for ear and sounds, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind, and their objects. In this way, he abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects, internally and externally, and both internally and externally. And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. Is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects in terms of the six internal and external bases.

Now we're going to come to the enlightenment factors. This is going to be very important because what you're doing, whether you know it or not, every time you do the six R's, is you are bringing up the enlightenment factors. And I'll explain how. Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu abides contemplating as mind objects in terms of the seven enlightenment factors. And how does a bhikkhu abide contemplating mind objects as mind objects in terms of the seven enlightenment factors? Here, there being the mindfulness enlightenment factor in him, a bhikkhu understands there is the mindfulness enlightenment factor in me, or there being no mindfulness. He understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen mindfulness enlightenment factor and how the arisen mindfulness enlightenment factor comes to fulfillment by development.

There being the investigation of states, there being the energy, there being the rapture, the tranquility, the collectedness, and the equanimity enlightenment factor, are not present. He understands how there comes to be the arising of the unarisen factor and how the arisen factor comes to fulfillment by development. So all you need to know is how it is that you're bringing up the enlightenment factors when you do the six R's.

The moment you recognize that the mind is distracted, what happens? You have brought into mind mindfulness. You have understood that your mind's attention has moved from its object to a distraction. Therefore, there is the mindfulness factor. When we say investigation of states, that comes from the word dhamma vichaya, this essentially means discernment or comprehension of what's going on. In other words, you know that the mind is distracted when you recognize. So when you recognize, you're doing two things. You have brought up mindfulness and you have brought up the process of investigation, the discernment factor.

When you let go of the object, or I should say the distraction, when you let go by releasing, you have made an effort to abandon. And so you have balanced the energy enlightenment factor. When you relax the tightness and tension, you have brought up the tranquility factor. When you re-smile, you have brought up the joy factor. When you come back to your object of meditation, you have brought up the concentration factor, the collectedness factor. And by doing that whole process without being affected by it, you have present there in equanimity.

So it's not like you have to consciously bring up mindfulness. You have to consciously bring up joy. Although these things can happen when you go into quiet mind, where you might need to bring a little bit of joy because the mind is experiencing boredom or sloth and torpor. Or you need to bring up a little bit more tranquility because the mind is experiencing restlessness. But that happens at a very elevated state of quiet mind.

But whenever you do the six R's, you are invariably bringing up the enlightenment factors. When the enlightenment factors are present, so through the presence of the enlightenment factors and the non-presence of the hindrances, the mind is ready and ripe for jhana. So the six Rs are doing two things, letting go of the hindrances and bringing up the enlightenment factors, making the mind primed for jhana, for contemplation.

Again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects in terms of the four noble truths. And how does a bhikkhu abide contemplating mind objects as mind objects? Here, Bhikkhu understands as it actually is, this is suffering. He understands as it actually is, this is the origin of suffering. He understands as it actually is, this is the cessation of suffering. He understands as it actually is, this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

Guess what? When you do the six Rs, you're doing that as well, in that present moment. Because when you recognize a hindrance is present, that is suffering in the mind. When you let go of that hindrance by letting go of the attention, the attention is causing that hindrance to become further solidified. But as soon as you let go or release your attention from that, you have abandoned the second noble truth, the origin of that hindrance. When you relax, you experience the cessation of any kind of craving and thus the cessation of suffering.

And when you come back to your object, you're utilizing the rest of the path. The six R's are the encapsulation of the Eightfold Path. It's through the six R's you go from wrong view to right view, from wrong intention to right intention, wrong speech to right speech, wrong action to right action. And from wrong mindfulness to right mindfulness.

From wrong collectedness to right collectedness. So every time you use the six R's, you're invariably letting go of the hindrances, bringing up the seven enlightenment factors, and understanding the four noble truths in that moment. It's all automatic. It's all interwoven. When you do one thing, everything else takes care of itself. In this way, he abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects internally, or he abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects externally, or he abides contemplating mind objects as mind objects both internally and externally, or else he abides contemplating in mind objects their nature of arising, or he abides contemplating in mind objects their nature of vanishing, in mind objects the nature of both arising and vanishing.

Namely, the four foundations of mindfulness. This is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Any questions? Yeah. So when you recognize that you were distracted, you have regained your mind, mindfulness and your investigation of states enlightenment factor. When you release your attention from that distraction, you have brought up the right effort. That is the effort or energy enlightenment factor. When you relax, you bring up the tranquility enlightenment factor. When you re-smile, you bring up the joy enlightenment factor. When you return to your object of meditation, you bring up the collectedness factor. And by doing that whole process from one hour to the next without remaining affected by what's going on, you have in there equanimity.

Yeah. So equanimity is also seeing things as they actually are. After a certain point in time, you become tired of what it is that you're seeing. So you remain unaffected by that. This enchantment here means that the mind has seen enough of it. It's tired of all of the hindrances. It's tired of all the formations that are coming up in a quiet mind. We'll talk a little bit about formations tomorrow. in which the mind no longer is interested in any kind of sensual pleasure, interested in any kind of distractions. Because the only reason the mind is distracted is because it feels like it wants to be distracted.

That's it. That's all it is. But at a certain point, the mind becomes free of that because it becomes tired of it. That dispassion comes from the word viraga, which means the lack of any passion, the lack of any color. The mind remains unaffected completely. It is in a bubble where anything that comes up, the mind becomes like Teflon. Nothing sticks to the mind. And after some point, being in that dispassion, that is cessation. Because there's no attention being given to anything at all. Not even mind at that point. And the mind just drops into cessation. A lot of the time I find myself trying to try less hard. It often feels as if I don't have a gradient there.

I'm either trying way too hard or have no attention on the object whatsoever? What do you do? What do I do? Whatever effort you think you need to do, do that by half, and readjust accordingly. That's it. There is a tendency in people who start out the practice, any practice really, is that they're, through no fault of their own, very overzealous, or they could just feel like they have to push on, and so they try too hard. That's the number one problem. The other problem is that there's no sense of acceptance of oneself or the reality of the situation.

So it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to try too hard. That's okay. Pull back. It's okay not to try too hard either, right? So you have to be okay with whatever is happening and just make adjustments accordingly. To be okay with whatever is going on is equanimity, and then to be able to just pinpoint right there, that's right effort. And the way to know if you're trying too hard, you know you're trying too hard, is because the mind becomes or feels constricted, or there's too many thoughts going on, there's restlessness going on. If that's happening, you know that you have to pull back a little bit. And if you know you've pulled back too much, that's when the mind goes into sloth and torpor.

There's a lack of attention going on there. When the mind remains with its object, don't do anything after that. Don't try to intensify, you know, bringing up the object, don't try to pull back or anything. Just rest in it. When you feel no tension, when you feel like there is a certain level of the mind being locked into something, it clicks into something, then you know you're okay. That's the way to know it. Equanimity is being able to experience whatever it is, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, without identifying with it or being affected by it one way or the other.

In other words, if it's a pleasant feeling, the mind is aware that it's pleasant, but there is no craving or wanting to own that pleasant feeling. If it's a painful feeling, the mind is aware that it hurts, but there's no mental pushing away towards that feeling. The mind understands, okay, it's neutral, but there's no process of wanting to own or identify with that feeling. It just experiences everything without adding any sense of I to it. All right. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck fearless. 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.