Day 5 Apr Retreat-Dn15 -Part 2 -Dependent Origination: Stations of Consciousness

Today we will finish what we started yesterday, which is Digha Nikaya 15, Maha Nidana Sutta, the great discourse on origination. Good, you guys are listening. That was a test, wasn't it? No. So before I continue, yesterday I was talking about feeling. And I asked, can you 6R feeling? You cannot 6R the experience that happens through the process of feeling.

But you can 6R the craving or the aversion to that experience. Just to clarify. Yes? Yeah. But you can 6R craving, you can 6R clinging. But you can't actually 6R an experience. Like, right now you're listening to me. You cannot 6R your way out of this Dhamma talk. Well, let's remember that 6R is not eliminating anything. It's R in simply recognizing that something is there.

and releasing your attention. Yeah. And you're relaxing the craving or resistance, if there is. Because at certain points, six are the feeling. The moment you feel, boom, you release. And of course you're releasing the craving that arose with it. But, you know, that feeling will disappear immediately. And then, gradually you get to where the contact just happens. And then you're in this subtle level now. And that's where you have that experience of in the scene, there is only the scene.

And so on. So, we're going to finish Digha Nikaya 15. Ananda. There are seven stations of consciousness and two realms. There are seven. There are beings different in body and different in perception, such as human beings, some devas, and some in states of woe. So this particular station of consciousness is the sensual realm. There are different beings, there are different perceptions.

For example, we can through our human eye see certain things and hear certain things. But Rex and Duke, I guess Rex maybe not so much, but they can hear things farther than we can. Or a bird, certain kinds of birds can see certain kinds of light and so on. So different in perception. Yesterday we brought up the idea of the hell realms. You can't experience pleasant feeling.

It's all unpleasant. It's all very terrible. So your nervous system, as it were, is geared to experience more pain than anything else. And then that changes as you go through the different realms within the sensual, what would you say, the sensual category of realms. There are beings different in body and alike in perception, such as the devas of Brahma's retinue, born there on account of having attained the first jhana.

So here it says, there are beings different in body and alike in perception. What is the perception? What is it that they experience and perceive in the first Brahmaloka? The first jhana. The factors of the first jhana. You have thinking and examining thought. You have joy coming up. You have sukha coming up. Not the cat. Sukha, the comfort. But they're different in body. Why is that?

Because in the first Brahma realm, we have the Brahma being, the Maha Brahma being within this retinue, and we have the purohitas and all the other different kinds of categories of Brahma beings within this first Brahma being. There are beings alike in body and different in perception, such as the Abhasara Devas. So here it says that there are beings alike in body but different in perception.

So the Abhasara beings are the second Brahmaloka. So what would they experience? Second jhana. But some beings experience it differently. There might be still some thinking going on, some process of verbalizing going on there. So there is a sutta in which Anuruddha is talking about these beings and he talks about the Abhasara beings, which are lower. There are three categories of beings who have the same kind of perception of the factors of the second jhana. But there is a fourth category which has slight verbalizations going on. And then they have the same body. That is to say, they have the same experience of the body. They have the same kind of body, the same type of body.

That is to say, the glowing and so on and so forth. They're made out of some form of light. So whatever I'm saying right now with regards to the seven stations of consciousness, it's interesting information. It's not like you really need to know this stuff. It's not going to be a test. But it's an interesting idea of understanding how it correlates to the jhanas and the experiences and psychology in each life, in one life.

That is the third station. There are beings alike in body and alike in perception, such as the Subhakina Devas. So Subhakina are one level higher than the Abhasara. So they experience the same factors of the third jhana, all of them. And they're also the same in terms of their body, same level of glow and so on and so forth. Same. And when you go to these realms, these beings are basically just blissed out, right? They're feeding on bliss, right? So you can't disturb them. They're just, you know, bliss addicts, you know? So they're just like feeding on it and that's their fuel. And once that is over, that karma is over, that's it.

That's the end of that life in that particular Brahma Loka. And whatever karma there will take them to their next life. That is the fourth station. There are beings who have completely transcended all perception of matter by vanishing of the perception of sense reactions and by non-attention to the perception of variety, thinking, 'Space is infinite.' They have attained to the sphere of infinite space.

That is the fifth station. So in infinite space, there are Brahma beings. There are beings who are experiencing infinite space, but they don't have a form. They only have mentality there. They only have the contact, the feeling, the perception, intention and attention, and the experience of spaciousness, infinite space. So here what happens is there are beings who are again formless. There's no form. But what they experience is the arising and passing away of consciousness dependent upon contact. The five physical sense bases. There is only mind.

And so whatever they're experiencing is the arising and passing away of mental karma in the form of arising and passing away of mind consciousness or mental consciousness. And then when that fuel is spent, then whatever karma is there will take them to a different realm. no thing have attained to the sphere of no thingness. That is the seventh station of consciousness.

So here these beings have transcended infinite space and infinite consciousness and are perceiving nothing. There's a perception of nothing. There's contact with the idea and concept of nothing. There's feeling of nothing. There's perception of nothing. There's nothing going on. For many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many trillions and trillions and trillions of years. That's a long time.

And then, the two realms are the realm of unconscious beings and secondly, the realm of neither perception nor non-perception. The realm of unconscious beings is within the vicinity of the form realms, within the vicinity of the fourth form realm. So that means that they have a body, but they're unconscious. There's nothing going on in there. There's no perception, there's no feeling, there's no consciousness. It doesn't mean that they're experiencing cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness. animation.

And whatever karma arises, whatever thought arises at the end of that life will then determine their next life. So it's like somebody who has gone into suspended animation passes away and then appears in the realm of the unconscious beings. And neither perception nor non-perception. There are beings there in this realm who are not exactly experiencing perception nor non-perception, right? So they're experiencing what you would experience in neither perception nor non-perception.

But there's no way to understand what factors are available there or what factors are functioning exactly there. So the way to get to this state, obviously, is somebody who experiences neither perception nor non-perception. And there's no sense of intention. When a person, let's say, in this life passes on, goes on, but there's still some fuel for karma, there's still some clinging going on, and it will cling to this idea of neither perception nor non-perception, and then take them to the realm of neither perception nor non-perception.

Now, Ananda, as regards to this first station of consciousness, with difference of body and difference of perception, as in the case of human beings and so on, to understand it, its origin, its cessation, its attraction and its peril, and the deliverance from it, would it be fitting for him to take pleasure in it? So in other words, if you knew that this realm of human existence and the six sensual heavens and basically the entire Kamadatu, as it's called, Kamadatu is the category of sensual realms. If you understood that they arose because of causes and conditions, and because they are conditioned, they are also bound to cease, therefore they are impermanent. If you understood what is it that attracts beings to these realms, and what is the danger in that, and then you understood what is the deliverance from it, would a person, would it be fitting for them to take pleasure in that realm, knowing that pleasant feeling is impermanent in those realms.

Would it make sense? No. And so, as regards to the other stations and the two spheres likewise, would it make sense, even though those realms are many, many, many, many trillions of years of existence, they still have an end and they're still conditioned. Still karma arises from them. Would it be fitting to take pleasure in them? No.

Ananda, insofar as a monk, having known as they really are, these seven stations of consciousness and these two spheres, their origin and cessation, their attraction and peril, is freed without attachment. That monk, Ananda, is called one who is liberated by wisdom. So this might be an interesting time to talk about that. So we have 'liberated by wisdom' as one category.

There are these seven types of people. What seven? There is one who is the faith follower. There is one who is the Dhamma follower by faith, there's one who is attained to view, there is one who is liberated by wisdom, there's one who is the body witness, and there's one who is liberated both ways. So the faith follower, according to the suttas, the faith follower has, or the commentaries of that sutta actually, because it's never really described what these different types of people are. The commentaries, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, has his own ideas about it. But the idea is with a faith follower and the Dhamma follower, they become stream-enterers with the path. They haven't yet had the fruition.

And the way in which they are faith follower or Dhamma follower, the faith follower has the faith faculty, the faculty of faith strengthened in them. The Dhamma follower has the faculty of wisdom strengthened in them. So there's the five faculties. There's faith, there's energy, mindfulness, there's collectedness, and there's wisdom. So maybe another way to understand this, I'm putting it out here, and maybe if you want we can discuss it, is the idea that the faith follower is one upon hearing, not having gone through jhanas, one upon hearing the Dhamma experiences stream entry.

And then someone who goes through the path of the jhanas and then sees the arising and passing way of things and it's hard to, faith follower, he hears it and he attains it. That's got to be a lot of wisdom there. Yeah. However, on the other hand, the faith follower already has confidence, the mind is set toward that, and it's following precepts, and it's like ready. But the Dhamma follower, somebody says, well, I don't know how to do that. I'm going to have to practice this and check it out. And then they're going to be more kind of the skeptic and the intellectual feeling and the, well, maybe not like that, but...

So you're saying with the faith follower, they take everything just as is, and so they have wisdom there. Yeah, they're not skeptical. They're like, oh no, that can't be that. They're actually going, okay, that's what it is. And with the Dhamma follower, they have to see for themselves. They have to actually go through the process. Yeah, because in some sutras it talks about the Dhamma follower as one who sees the impermanence of states. And so seeing, so they then attain stream entry. Yeah.

There are, Ananda, these eight liberations. What are they? is talking about liberations not in the sense of liberation of the mind in a permanent sense, like you would have with attainments, but liberation of the mind in terms of jhanas. Because when you're in jhana, you're temporarily liberated from the hindrances, from unwholesome states of mind. Possessing form, one sees form.

That is the first liberation. Not perceiving material forms in oneself, one sees them outside. That is the second liberation. So it says, possessing form, one sees forms. Does that sound like the first jhana to you guys? That's what I'm asking you guys. What do you think? One sees forms. So one interpretation about this is what they're talking about is the Asubha practices or the practice of seeing the different parts of the body.

So, possessing form, possessing the body, one sees the forms within the body. And so, this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself, and so on. That's one way of looking at it. And then, in the second case, it says, not perceiving material forms in oneself, one sees them outside. Can you take out your heart and see it from the outside?

No, it would not. Are you visualizing your body parts outside? This is talking about, generally, the commentaries talk about it as kasina. Kasina. K-A-S-I-N-A. So what is the line that pertains to kasinas? self, one sees forms outside." Meaning one uses... What are you going to say? That happens where you are seeing the different elements as they are, and then you conceive of yourself as them. Or you conceive yourself in them, or you conceive yourself apart from them, or you conceive yourself possessed of them.

But here we're saying, not perceiving material forms in oneself, one sees them outside. So there's nothing about the self-conception going on here. It could be like a charnel ground meditation. It could be. What exactly is a kasina? Yellow? No. One of them. You take some color, you take some form, and then it's like you create an image, a circle, a disc. And then you focus on that disc. And that's your gateway into getting into jhana.

Or a flame, or water, or whatever it might be. So, the idea is that this kasina allows you to become super concentrated and allows you to be very one-pointed. But if you look at the word kasina, that's the Pali word, it comes from the Sanskrit word kritsna. K-R-I-T-S-N-A. And kritsna means to be whole. W-H-O-L-E. To be expansive.

So actually you're taking that and you're expanding it to experience infinite space. And so when you go back to Majjhima Nikaya 1:2:1, the Buddha talks about the earth and so on and so forth, and he expands it and experiences infinite space. So actually, kasina is not about concentrating, it's about having an expansive awareness. And then, that's the second liberation.

Thinking it is beautiful, one becomes intent on it. That is the third. What could that be? Yeah, they call the fourth jhana as the beautiful, and it's intended upon. But there's another way of looking at it is beautiful. It's the liberation of mind through the brahmaviharas. Because they are the beautiful. Loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

So that's the third, thinking it is beautiful, one becomes intent on it. By completely transcending all perceptions of matter, by the vanishing of the perception of sense reactions, and by non-attention to the perception of variety, that's the perception of diversity that we're talking about, thinking space is infinite, one enters and abides in the sphere of infinite space, that is the fourth liberation. sphere of infinite space, thinking consciousness is infinite, one enters and abides in the sphere of infinite consciousness. That is the fifth liberation.

By transcending the sphere of infinite consciousness, thinking there is no thing, one enters and abides in the sphere of no-thingness. That is the sixth liberation. By transcending the sphere of no-thingness, one reaches and abides in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. That is the seventh liberation. By transcending the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, one enters and abides in the cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

That is the eighth liberation. Ananda. When once a monk attains these eight and has gained by their own super knowledge here and now the destruction of the corruptions and the uncorrupted liberation of heart and the liberation by wisdom, that monk is called liberated both ways. And Ananda, there is no world's other way of both ways liberated that is more excellent or perfect than this.

Thus the Lord spoke and the Venerable Ananda rejoiced and was delighted at his words. Any last questions? Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free. May the grieving shed all grief. May all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu. Namvatasabhuvatu warahato sama sambhutindasa.