Dependent Origination MN38 at Dhamma Sukha with Delson Armstrong MN 38

So now we're going to get into some of the deep stuff. Dependent origination. I'm going to be reading from Majjhima Nikaya 38, Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta. The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving. Thus have I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's park. Now on that occasion, a pernicious view had arisen in a bhikkhu named Sati, son of a fisherman.

Not Sati, Sati. It's different from mindfulness. And the view was, as I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, it is this same consciousness that runs and wanders through the round of rebirths, not another. Doctrine of reincarnation, as opposed to what is the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth. As we get deeper into dependent origination, I will clarify what that means. But reincarnation means that it is the same consciousness or the same soul or the same spirit that incarnates from one life to the next. It's the same being.

Rebirth is different. Rebirth means there is an arising and passing away of new being in every moment, but also from lifetime to lifetime. And that there is no soul, there is no same consciousness that transmigrates from one life to the next, and conditions brought about through certain kinds of craving, ignorance, and identification. And I will go deeper into what that means. But essentially, Sati here has this view, which is not kosher in the Dhamma, that it is consciousness, the same consciousness that goes from one lifetime to the next.

Since without a condition, there is no origination of consciousness. There is a concept within other traditions, let's say, within other ideologies, that there is a supreme consciousness, a supreme awareness that is all-pervading and that is the origin of life in some traditions. That it is the Brahman and that the individual consciousness is the Atman. In certain schools of thought the idea is that the Atman is identical to the Brahman, or that the Atman merges with the Brahman. The individual consciousness is identical to the super universal consciousness, or that the individual consciousness merges with that supreme universal consciousness. The Buddha says there's really no way to experience that ontologically.

It's another viewpoint. It's another worldview, a view of existence. What the Buddha is talking about is awarenesses that are experienced dependent upon sense-based contact. In other words, for you to experience consciousness, you become aware of some kind of an experience, whether it's through the eyes, the nose, the tongue, the body, or the mind. But as soon as the conditioning for that consciousness goes away, so too does that corresponding consciousness.

This is why in infinite consciousness you see the arising and passing away of individual consciousnesses. What you are seeing is rebirth. The arising and passing away of contact over and over and over again. So what you are experiencing right now, whether you know it or not, is rebirth in every moment. That is why when you look back into your life, you don't have the same views, you don't have the same ideas, you don't have the same kinds of perceptions as you might have had a year ago, or five years ago, or 10 years ago, or 15 years ago. You had what you had 15 years ago because those ideas arose dependent upon causes and conditions in that time, and the awareness, the cognition, the consciousness that arose was in tandem to that and dependent upon that. Now that consciousness has departed, and the fact that consciousness changes shows us that consciousness is not permanent, and therefore it cannot be considered as a self, as something that arises independent of causes and conditions.

Because in ancient India, the idea was that there is a self, and that this self is a source of happiness. Sat-chit-ananda. It is ever-existing, it is consciousness, and it is blissful. It is a source of joy and happiness. Let's take that self, that concept of self, as a touchstone. And let's look at all of the different ways in which we experience reality, including the body, feeling, perception, intention, and awareness.

And look at whether each of these are permanent or impermanent. And when you see that they are all dependently arisen, through the process of causes and conditions coming together, you see that form indeed changes all the time, that our feeling changes all the time, that our perceptions of the world change all the time, that our intentions change all the time, and that our awareness always changes. Seeing this, we cannot say that it is something worth holding onto, and that it is not a self. We can't say that it is a self.

So the idea of a self is something that the mind holds onto in order for the need for something to be permanent. But when you dissect and analyze and reflect and investigate on all of the modes of experience in how you experience reality, you realize that all of them cannot be considered to be self. Seeing this you let go, and as you let go, craving is also let go, because craving arises any time you identify with something. You say that this body is me, and so somebody punches you, you feel hurt. But then if somebody breaks their arm, they say my arm is broken, they don't say I am broken. So where is the connection there?

Right? When you're having an experience, you're not saying that this experience is me. You're saying, I am experiencing it. I am seeing it. But even that, when you look at that, you realize that when you see something like that, it's just denoting a sense of self to the experience. There's only the experience going on. There's only a process of seeing going on. Only a process of hearing going on. That sense of self that's in the mind is taking it all in and looking at it from that sense of this is me, this is mine, this is myself.

Any kind of perceptions you have, if you look at it closely, you will see that all perceptions arise due to viewpoints of the world. How you have been taught what it is and what it is not. When you are in school, for example, in kindergarten, you learn about the color red. You learn about the color blue. You learn about shapes. You learn about patterns.

You say this is red and this is blue. The next time you see the color red, you know it's the color red. And that's your perception because that's how you've been taught. But how do you know that I experience the same red that you experience? How do you know other people experience the same red that you experience?

There's only a consensus that we say this is red, but your experience of red might be different than what I experience as red. Then more than that, when you experience any kind of viewpoint that's not your view, that's a view you've inherited either through your parents or through your friends or through society, that has nothing to do with you, but what happens is the mind takes those views and says this is me, this is mine, this is myself, and we hold on to those views to the point that we fight for them, and wars are created because of that. When we take a look at our decisions, we think these are our decisions, these are my decisions, but those are decisions dependent upon the situations that you are in and limited by the choices that were presented to you. And so there's an idea that you took that choice, and there's the idea that that choice is me, mine, and myself.

Likewise with awareness. There's an idea that this awareness is me. I am aware. So is the awareness you, or are you being aware? You see the language of it? All of these ideas of me, mine, or myself in relation to these modes of experiences is what is causing suffering. As soon as we see this and let go of identifying with these different modes of experiences, which are impermanent, then we drop suffering altogether.

So having this view that it is consciousness that goes from one life to the next, and it is the same consciousness that experiences life and goes from one life to the next life, is just a view. And so here the Buddha is going to explain how that view is a misrepresentation of the Dhamma. Yet, although pressed and questioned and cross-questioned by those bhikkhus in this way, the bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, still obstinately adhered to that pernicious view and continued to insist upon it.

Since the bhikkhus were unable to detach him from that pernicious view, they went to the Blessed One, and after paying homage to him, they sat down at one side and told him all that had occurred, adding, Then the Blessed One addressed a certain Bhikkhu thus: "Come, Bhikkhu, tell the Bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, in my name, that the teacher calls him." "Yes, Venerable Sir," he replied, and he went to the Bhikkhu Sati and told him, "The teacher calls you, friend Sati."

That's the view. That this consciousness is that which is feeling. This consciousness is that which is the seer, the hearer, the one who is cognizant. In Vedanta, in the Upanishads, the idea was that the soul is the seer behind the seeing. It is the one that is the true experiencer behind all experiences. That's what the idea is of the Atman. And this is the view that Sati has. That it is this same consciousness that thinks and feels and experiences and is the one that is experiencing the result of good and bad actions.

This is a view that is very subtle to take apart. Now, in very brief, when the Buddha understood that another person had this view, who was Bhaya in the Bhaya Sutta, he only told Bhaya a few things. He said that in the seeing, there is only the seen. In the hearing, there is only the heard. In the sensing, there is only the sensed. In the cognizing, there is only the cognized.

When, Bhaya, there is no you in that, there will be no you by that. And when there is no you by that, there will be no you in between the two. Just that is the cessation of suffering. Just that is the end of suffering, and allowing experience to flow. That's it. You just have to get out of the way.

Venerable Sir, he says, it is that which speaks and feels and experiences here and there the result of good and bad actions. And now the Buddha says something that you never want to hear from him. Misguided man, that comes from the word Moghapurisa, which means stupid idiot. This is a more polite translation. To whom have you ever known me to teach the Dhamma in this way?

Misguided man, have I not stated in many ways consciousness to be dependently arisen? Since without a condition there is no origin. Then the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus, what do you think? What do you think? Has this bhikkhu, son of a fisherman, kindled even a spark of wisdom in this Dhamma and discipline?" How could he, Venerable Sir? No, Venerable Sir.

When this was said, the Bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, sat silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping, and head down, glum and without response. Then knowing this, the Blessed One told him, Misguided man, you will be recognized by your own pernicious view. I shall question the Bhikkhus on this matter. Then the Blessed One addressed the Bhikkhus thus: you better say no. No, Venerable Sir, for in many discourses the Blessed One has stated consciousness to be dependently arisen, since without a condition there is no origination of consciousness.

So let's understand what the word consciousness here is referring to, or where it's coming from. In the Pali, it is vinnana. V-I-N-N-A-N-A or V-I-J-N-A-N-A. So the J is silent. So V means to divide up. Jnana means knowledge or the cognition of something. And so why is it called vinnana? Because it's the cognition that is divided by the sixth sense basis. That's why there is the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, the nose consciousness, the tongue consciousness, the body consciousness, and the mind consciousness.

This is all you can be aware of. This Bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, misrepresents us by this wrong grasp and injures himself and stores up much demerit, for this would lead to the harm and suffering of this misguided man for a long time. Bhikkhu's consciousness is reckoned by the particular condition dependent upon which it arises. Eye consciousness.

And that fuel is contact between a sense base and a sense base object. So when there is the contact between the eye and form, so the light hits the eye, that is the contact. Dependent upon the two, there arises eye consciousness. Likewise with the ears and so on. And so that's why the Buddha says, so too, consciousness is reckoned by the particular condition dependent on which it arises. When consciousness arises dependent on the eye and forms, it is reckoned as eye consciousness. When consciousness arises dependent on the ear and sounds, it is reckoned as ear consciousness. When consciousness arises dependent on the nose and odors, it is reckoned as nose consciousness. When consciousness arises dependent on the tongue and flavors, it is reckoned as tongue consciousness.

You can take the Four Noble Truths and you can use them in a way that allows you to understand the origin of something, the arising of something, and the cessation of something, and the way leading to the cessation of something. What has come to be? Consciousness. And what is the nutriment or the origination of that consciousness? That's what we will get into.

And what is the cessation of that nutriment that leads to the cessation of that consciousness? We will get into that as well. Bhikkhus, does doubt arise when one is uncertain thus? Has this come to be? Yes, Venerable Sir. Bhikkhus, does doubt arise when one is uncertain thus? Does its origination occur with that as nutriment? Yes, Venerable Sir. Bhikkhus, does doubt arise when one is uncertain thus? With the cessation of that nutriment is what has come to be subject to cessation? Yes, Venerable Sir. So he's basically asking, if somebody has ignorance, if somebody has doubt as to how this arises,

can there be uncertainty about this? And there can be. However, then he asks, because is doubt abandoned in one who sees as it actually is with proper wisdom thus? This has come to be. Yes, Venerable Sir. Because is doubt abandoned in one who sees as it actually is with proper wisdom thus? Yes, Venerable Sir. In other words, once you see how this process works for yourself, and there are many ways of doing that, you have to start to become aware of how the process arises.

Start to locate and identify how does contact arise? How does feeling arise? Where is craving present? Where is clinging present? Where is being present? And so on and so forth. And being able to identify that and let it go. When you do that, as you do more and more of that, when you go into meditation and you experience of perception, feeling, and consciousness, when you come out of that, you will experience the links of dependent origination.

When you experience the links of dependent origination, no more doubt will arise about how this process works. You will see how the ones and zeros of this matrix arises. And when you see that, you no longer start to identify with the matrix, but you are no longer enamored by the matrix. You become the one. Of course. That's right. That's right. Because, are you thus free from doubt here? This has come to be. Yes, Venerable Sir. Bhikkhus, are you thus free from doubt here? Its origination occurs with that as nutriment. Yes, Venerable Sir. Bhikkhus, are you thus free from doubt here? With the cessation of that nutriment, what has come to be is subject to cessation.

Yes, Venerable Sir. Bhikkhus, purified and bright as this view is. Very important to understand this. Listen to this carefully. Purified and bright as this view is. What is that view? That is the view of the Dhamma. Understanding the Dhamma as it is. Seeing for yourself the links of dependent origination and realizing that there is no permanent personal self that you can identify with. Experiencing that, if you adhere to it, cherish it, treasure it, and treat it as a possession, would you then understand that the Dhamma has been taught as similar to a raft, being for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of grasping? No, Venerable Sir. In other words, even if you have seen the links of dependent origination, even if you have understood the Dhamma, if you identify with that itself, you haven't fully let go.

That is what is meant by one who is a non-returner. There is still some clinging left, and that is clinging to the Dhamma, adhering to that view. So the simile of the raft is mentioned in the simile of the snake. I think that's Majjhima Nikaya 22. And there the Buddha says that the Dhamma, the understanding and the experience of the Dhamma, is like a raft to go from this shore to the other shore, the far shore, which is an imagery or metaphor for nibbana, for the experience of letting go of all suffering.

Now the simile is that if you have gone to the other shore, it makes sense for you to carry that raft on your shoulders while you're climbing up to the other shore? Just walking by it doesn't make any sense. You let go and keep the raft where it is. So you understand the Dhamma, but you don't make it something that you identify with. You understand the Dhamma as a foundation for you to experience wisdom and see reality as it actually is, but the moment you start to cling to the view itself, then you have lost sight of the Dhamma in that sense.

There is another sutta called Majjhima Nikaya 74. It's called the Dighanakha Sutta. Dighanakha means one with long nails. He was said to be either Sariputta's cousin or Sariputta's nephew. In any case, he was from the same sect of followers that Sariputta and Moggallana used to follow, this philosophical skepticism. And he goes to the Buddha and he proudly says, I hold no views. I am unattached to all views.

So the Buddha says, but are you attached to the view that you hold no views? And then he's stumped. So the Buddha gives him a discourse on feeling and letting go of all feeling. And Sariputta is fanning the Buddha. And while he's fanning the Buddha, he realizes that the Buddha doesn't even have any attachment to his own doctrine. He doesn't have even an iota of attachment to anything that he's saying, to any of the Dhamma that he's professing.

He's using it as a tool, as a mechanism for understanding. In that moment, as he's fanning him, Sariputta realizes and experiences full awakening. He drops all of the tints there. So even if you have experienced this for yourself, there is still more work to be done because there is still clinging. And you have to let go of that. Yes, Venerable Sir. Maintenance of beings that already have come to be and for the support of those about to come to be. What for?

They are physical food as nutriment. Physical food is necessary for the nourishment of the body and the maintenance of the body. Gross or subtle. So when we talk about physical food, gross or subtle, that can mean food like the food that we eat here on this earth plane. Or subtle, which is foods eaten by the devas. These are different kinds of food, subtle food, never-ending food that arises.

It can also mean the food that we experience in the form of the other sense basis that is subtle. Your experiences: what is it that you watch on Netflix? What kind of music do you hear? What kind of smells do you smell? What kind of taste do you have? What kind of feelings in terms of the body do you have? These are also aharas. The word ahara, usually it means food, but it's really the source of something, the source of energy. So everything that you're experiencing through the sixth sense basis is also considered as food, but that is subtle food, aside from the physical food that you eat.

Contact as the second. So what is contact? Contact comes from the word phassa in Pali, which is coming from the word sparsha in Sanskrit. And sparsha means to touch. And so the touch, what is the touching? The contact, the point of impact, the point of impression where the light hits the retina, where the sound wave hits the eardrum, where the odor molecule hits the olfactory bulb, where the taste molecule hits the taste buds, where temperature and heat and pressure makes contact with the body or internally.

Or when a thought or mind object makes contact with the mind. That is contact, as the second nutriment. Because it is through contact you experience three things. Through contact you experience feeling, which is any kind of experience that you're having. That is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. And perception, knowing the contents of what it is that you're experiencing: seeing the color red, hearing Beethoven's Fifth, smelling a certain kind of fragrance, tasting chocolate cake. Sorry, I had to bring up chocolate cake at some point. Feeling the breeze, or thinking about this or that.

Mental volition as the third. I talked about intention as something that arises dependent upon contact. Why is that? Because when you see something, for example, there can arise the intention to either possess it or to go to it or to think about it. That is intention. It's through mental volition that consciousness arises. And we'll get deeper into what that means.

And consciousness as the fourth. So the fourth nutriment, the fourth origination. It's through consciousness you have mentality, materiality. That is the mind and the body. These four kinds of nutriments have what as their source? What as their origin? From what are they produced, born and produced? These four kinds of nutriments have craving as their source, craving as their origin. They are born and produced from craving. And this craving has what as its source? Now he gets into dependent origination.

So it is through craving that you have this body. It's through craving that consciousness arises. It's through craving intention gives rise to consciousness. It's through craving that the contact gives rise to feeling, perception, and intention. Because in each of the links of dependent origination, there is a little bit of craving. And I'll explain how that is when we get into the prior potential links.

So this craving has what as its source? Craving has feeling as its source. This feeling has what as its source? Feeling has contact as its source. And this contact has what as its source? Contact has the six-fold base as its source. And this six-fold base has what as its source? The six-fold base has mentality materiality as its source.

And this mentality materiality has what as its source? Mentality materiality has consciousness as its source. And this consciousness has what as its source? Consciousness has formations as its source. And these formations have what as their source, what as their origin, from what are they born and produced? Formations have ignorance as their source, ignorance as their origin. They are born and produced from ignorance. Now you will use the sheets that have been given to you. So, bhikkhus, with ignorance as condition, with formations as condition, with consciousness as condition, with mentality materiality as condition, with the six-fold base as condition, with contact as condition, with feeling as condition, with craving as condition, with clinging as condition, with habitual tendencies as condition, with birth as condition, pain, grief, and despair come to be.

Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. So let's go deeper into what each of these links are. So we will go in reverse order because the Buddha is talking about with birth as condition, aging and death come to be. Aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair come to be. So it was said. Now, bhikkhus, do aging and death have birth as condition or not? Or how do you take it in this case? So it was said, now, bhikkhus, does birth have habitual tendencies as condition or not?

Or how do you take it in this case? Habitual tendencies have clinging as condition. Clinging comes to be. So it was said. Now, monks, does clinging have craving as condition or not? Or how do you take it in this case? With feeling as condition, craving comes to be. So it was said. Now, monks, does craving have feeling as condition or not? Or how do you take it in this case? With contact as condition, feeling comes to be, so it was said. Now, monks, does feeling have contact as condition or not, or how do you take it in this case?

With the sixfold base as condition, contact comes to be. So it was said. Now monks, does contact have the sixfold base as condition or not? Or how do you take it in this case? With mentality, materiality as condition, the sixfold base comes to be. So it was said. Now monks, does the sixfold base have mentality, materiality as condition or not? Or how do you take it in this case? With consciousness as condition, mentality, materiality comes to be. Now, monks, does mentality materiality have consciousness as condition or not, or how do you take it in this case? With formations as condition, consciousness comes to be, so it was said. as condition or not, or how do you take it in this case?

With ignorance as condition, formations come to be. So it was said. Now monks, do formations have ignorance as condition or not, or how do you take it in this case? Good monks, so you say thus, and I also say thus. When this exists, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises. That is, with ignorance as condition, with formation as condition, with consciousness as condition, with mentality, materiality, as condition, with a six-fold base as condition, with contact as condition, with feeling as condition, with craving as condition, with clinging as condition, with habitual tendencies as condition.

With birth as condition, such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. So, before we get into the cessation of that, let me give you some clarity on all of these links. What are each of these links when we talk about the links of dependent origination? When we talk about dependent origination, it can be on a macro level and it can be on a micro level. The macro level can explain how rebirth occurs from lifetime to lifetime. We will touch upon that a little bit later.

The micro level allows us to understand how this process of craving comes to be so that we can recognize it, release it, relax it, re-smile and return to a more wholesome state of mind, a mind without craving. So, when we talk about dependent origination, it is actually the elaboration of the first and second noble truths. The first noble truth is that there is dukkha, there is suffering. And the second noble truth is craving is the origin of suffering. But craving here is an encapsulation of other components, including ignorance, wrong views, conceit, and clinging and becoming.

So, in one moment, there are hundreds of millions of iterations of the links of dependent origination. When we talked about snapping the finger, you hear the arising and passing away of numerous air consciousnesses arising and passing away. That's just one link, dependent origination. So what is going on here? What's going on in terms of our personal experiences?

When we talk about ignorance, there are levels of ignorance. The word avidya, the lack of knowledge, the lack of knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. So, in other words, there are, if you've heard of the Four Competencies, unconsciously incompetent, consciously incompetent, consciously competent, and unconsciously competent. falls in the first two categories. First, you don't know that you don't know. You were never told about the Four Noble Truths. You were never introduced to the Four Noble Truths.

But then you are introduced to the Dhamma. Somebody tells you about the Four Noble Truths and you have some understanding. And now you know that you don't really know. But now, even though you know from an intellectual standpoint what the Four Noble Truths are, you're unable to constantly, consistently recognize the Four Noble Truths of each moment. You're unable to recognize when suffering arises or how the origination of suffering arises. You're unable to recognize it and let it go and be able to experience the cessation of suffering, utilizing the path. But guess what? Every time you 6R, you're doing just that.

Every time you recognize some craving coming up, in whatever case or situation it may be, you are practicing seeing the Four Noble Truths every time you recognize, release, relax, re-smile, and return. So the application of the path is the application of the 6R's. Drill away at ignorance. Another way of looking at ignorance is that it is a lack of mindfulness, improper attention.

Mindfulness is the gatekeeper to keep out craving. If mindfulness is muddled, if mindfulness is not present, then craving can enter the gates and birth. So ignorance is lack of mindfulness. Because you were not aware in a previous moment, that gives rise to formations that are rooted in that ignorance. What are formations? There are three types of, or categories of, formations.

There are mental formations, verbal formations, and physical formations. These come from the word sankhara, like vasanas. So, sankhara. Sankhara means to cook up something, to make up something. It also means impressions. What you've done previously in your life leaves a mental impression. There are like synapses in the brain, which you can continue to prune as you continue to tend towards the wholesome.

The more unwholesome you have been, the more the formations will be rooted in the unwholesome. And so the next arising of the formations will be rooted in that unwholesome. But the more wholesome you have been, the more you incline your minds towards the wholesome, then the next arising will be less rooted in the unwholesome. Eventually, there will be the remainderless fading away of all unwholesome tendencies that those formations are rooted in. Formations are like the synapses that allow you to feel and perceive the world around you.

Verbal formations are those that allow you to think and reflect on what it is that is being experienced and then express through speech something. And physical formations have to do with the bodily processes, including inhalation and exhalation, and so on. When these synapses are pruned with the unwholesome links, the unwholesome roots, then they become stronger every time you exercise them.

But if you have the choice, in every given moment you have a choice. There was a question about free will a couple of days ago. Is everything determined? No. If everything was determined, then what are you doing here? Why are you meditating? You might as well wait until you become enlightened because that too is determined. But it is because of your intentions, the choices that you make and that are presented to you in every given moment.

You have the choice to favor a certain intention that is rooted in craving of it and divert the mind, incline the mind towards the wholesome. That is what you're doing with the 6R's in every given moment. But that is only facilitated through the process of mindfulness and proper attention. So if your mind starts to incline in that way, then the synapses that are being unused will be redirected towards the wholesome. The synapses that are rooted in the unwholesome will be redirected towards the wholesome.

Now, from these formations, consciousness arises. Because it is only through the mechanisms of these different formations that some kind of cognition of what is arising can happen. So here, when we talk about consciousness, we're talking about the bare awareness of something, recognition of something, the knowing of something as it actually is. And also consciousness in terms of that which provides life.

We're going to get a little bit more into that later. But the consciousness then conditions mentality-materiality. What is mentality-materiality? Mentality is basically your mind and it is made up of five components. The faculty that allows you to experience contact. The faculty that allows you to experience feeling. The mental faculty that allows you to experience perception.

The faculty that allows you to intend. And the faculty that allows you to experience or pay attention. Now, when you pay attention to something, that is where consciousness goes. Wherever you move your attention to something, that is where consciousness will flow. So these five components are essentially the five aggregates along with materiality, because materiality is rupa, the body, made up of the earth element, the water element, the fire element, and the air element. That is the solid molecules, the liquid molecules, the gaseous molecules, and heat and temperature.

When you have this, you can experience mentality in terms of contact and feeling and perception, intention and attention. So the materiality is basically the form aggregate. The faculty of feeling is the feeling aggregate. The faculty of perception is a perception aggregate. The faculty of intention is through which formations arise, the formation aggregate. That's why these are interrelated, interconnected.

When you have an intention to do something, the formations come together for the arising of that intention. And likewise, when certain formations are already rooted in a certain way of behaving, those intentions or those choices will almost automatically incline towards a specific kind of choice. So they condition one another. They are interrelated, interconnected. Attention allows consciousness to flow in a certain direction.

So the directionality of the spotlight is the attention. The spotlight itself is consciousness. And awareness is seeing what is there in the spotlight. This is how you're able to see and discern between the three. Now, consciousness itself is also interdependent with mentality-materiality. Consciousness allows the experience of mentality-materiality to happen. But in order for consciousness to arise, you need mentality-materiality.

In order for you to know something, you need the components of mentality. And so when that happens, there is the six-fold base: the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. Guess what? They are not separate to mentality-materiality, materiality either. Essentially, they are part of materiality, right? The eyes, the physical eyes, the physical ears, the physical nose, the physical tongue, the physical body, they're all part of materiality. And the mind itself is rooted in mentality.

That is how mentality-materiality gives rise to the sixth sense basis. If the sixth sense basis were not active, contact cannot arise. In other words, the eye is present. But if there is somebody who is blind, fully blind, even though the light hits their retina, there does not arise any eye consciousness. And so there is no possible ability to see.

So you need the eye consciousness. If a person is deaf, even though the vibrations hit the eardrum, they cannot hear because there is no ear consciousness. Likewise with the smell, likewise with the taste, likewise with the touch, and so on. So contact is that initial spark, initial touch between the sense base and the sense base object, I should say. So the sense bases between the ears, the eyes, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind. The sense-base objects being the sight or the color and form, being the sounds, being the odors, being the flavors, being the tangibles and being the thoughts or mind objects.

When these two come together, there arises the corresponding sense-based consciousness. Is because contact is dependent upon what you pay attention to. In other words, let's say you're watching a movie on the big screen. Your eyes are seeing it and you're enjoying whatever is going on, and suddenly a scene takes you to a memory of something in your life.

Even though your eyes are seeing that particular thing, now your attention is somewhere else. So you're not actually seeing. The light is hitting the eyes, but there is no corresponding attention being given. Therefore, there's no corresponding consciousness that is arising. And so if the attention is now in the mind, that's where it is. And so for a couple of seconds, you go back and you say, how did he get there? What happened there?

Because your attention wasn't there. So right now you're looking at me, but if you divert your attention to these flowers, you're no longer looking at me because the attention goes here. The consciousness that was dependent upon the eyes and seeing me, that has vanished. And now there's a consciousness that arises dependent upon the eyes and seeing the flower.

So that is dependent upon where you put your attention to. Arises the experience of vedana, or feeling: seeing through the eyes, hearing through the ears, smelling through the nose, tasting through the tongue, touching through the body, and thinking through the mind. The quality of these experiences can be pleasant, painful, or neutral. Now, within this experience of feeling, within feeling, there can be what are known as underlying tendencies.

There can be the underlying tendency towards craving, or the underlying tendency towards aversion, the underlying tendency towards ignorance, towards doubt, views, conceit, and becoming. I won't get into all of that, but just understand that this is the bridge between feeling and craving. And anytime there is a lack of mindfulness and proper attention at the level of whatever it is you're experiencing, craving can come to be.

In other words, if you forget to see the feeling as it actually is, that this feeling is not me, not mine, not myself. If you identify with the feeling, if you take that feeling personally, then there's liability for craving to arise. But the moment you see experience as just an experience, whether it's painful, whether it's pleasant, or whether it's neutral, but it is just an experience and nothing more, then you won't hold on to it. When you don't hold on to it, no craving can arise. No aversion can arise. Take it personally, that link of craving arises.

Now, what is that link of craving? What is craving? There is craving for sights, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tangibles, and craving for mind objects. These are called sensual craving. I want this. Or the flip side of that: I don't want it. It is that push and pull experience that you have.

That fight or flight you have. I want this or I don't want this. Or I am this. That's the neutrality aspect of it. Identifying with it and saying, no, I am this. This is mine. This is me. This is mine. This is myself. And it manifests as tightness and tension in the body. That's why you do the relax step. When you recognize that you are disturbed or distracted, you recognize that, you take your attention away from that. You see? Now there is no more contact with that hindrance. When you take your attention away from that, the consciousness that flowed to that hindrance dissipates. And now your attention is back here in the present moment.

And a new consciousness arises dependent upon being aware of the present moment. And then relaxing the tightness and tension, letting go of any craving. And in that moment experiencing Nibbana, a mundane form of Nibbana. There are two other types of craving. There is the craving for existence and there is the craving for non-existence. The craving for existence means I want to be something. I want to be a millionaire. I want to be the best meditator that I can be. I want to be... Every time you hear in your mind, I want to be this, I want to do that, and there is an obsession, a tightness, an intention around that. That is craving for existence. Craving for non-existence means I don't want to be. I don't want to be here. I don't, I don't want to meditate.

I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to. Craving for non-existence. The ultimate craving for non-existence is the desire to end your existence. Right? Because there's still a sense of self there. A sense of, if I destroy this existence, then I will no longer exist. And there will be peace over there. That's a very, very terrible way of thinking. And unfortunately, there are people who require compassion to be able to have them see that and let that go. So there's suicidal ideation, for example. Sometimes it's not their fault. It's just because of medication that they're taking or whatever it might be.

But the pain of existence that arises, basically an experience, it's a feeling, and based on that there is the craving for not existing anymore. And so you have to see that, guide the person through that, and start to help them let go of that. Right? So that's the craving for non-existence. From this craving there arises what's known as clinging. So craving, first of all, comes from the word tanha. Tanha means to thirst, to become upset. Clinging comes from the word upadana, which means to grasp, the fuel for attachment.

And there are four types of clinging that can arise. There's sensory clinging, that is clinging in terms of grasping at sensual experiences, again, through any of the five physical sense bases. There's clinging to views, clinging to ideas, clinging to opinions. Absolutely right. You know, I adhere to this particular view and all other views are wrong. Right? Clinging to opinions. This is clinging to views. Clinging to wrong views.

Clinging to the Dhamma itself. Clinging to self-view. Clinging to self-view is anytime you have a belief in a personal self and you identify with one or more of the five aggregates, thinking them as they are me, they are mine, or they are myself, or I possess them. And this is an intellectual view. This is some kind of psychological view that arises.

But when you enter the stream, you let go of clinging to any wrong view, and you let go of clinging to any kind of self-view, and rituals. So, clinging to rites and rituals. Actually, this reminds me of that joke from, what was his name? Bhante Sujato. So, the word, right, clinging to rites and rituals, it comes from the words sila, pabbata, upadana, right? So, upadana means to cling. Sila and pabbata.

So, sila can also mean the foundation of something. The rock of something. And pabbata means to roll forward, to move. So what you are letting go is the clinging to any rock and roll. So let go of all rock and roll music. So, what are rites and rituals here? When we talk about clinging to rites and rituals, we're talking about clinging to rites and rituals that take you to Nibbana. If I light this candle, it will help me go to Nibbana. If I chant this mantra, it's going to take me to Nibbana. If I do this, if I do that. It's also the belief in luck. The idea that if I just carry this particular talisman, or if I wear a certain kind of ring, or if I wear a certain kind of amulet, or whatever it is, then everything will be great.

Understanding of karma. Because you are subject to, you are an inheritor of whatever karmic actions were produced in the past. So in order for you to have good consequences, you need to have good actions. You can't just bypass it with lucky talismans and lucky charms and things like that. Clinging to rites and rituals is also clinging to routines. If I don't get my coffee exactly at 6.30 in the morning, I'm going to become like the devil. Or if I don't have my food at this particular time, if this doesn't happen exactly at this time, this is the idea of I have to do it this way. It should be done that way. It must be done that way.

These ideas of I have to, I should do, these create a sense of conflict in the mind. It's me versus the world. Stories and ideas you have about what it is that you either crave for or have aversion towards or identify with. It's the rationales. It's I like this because of so-and-so. I like chocolate cake because my mother made chocolate cake for me on my sixth birthday and it was amazing and all of these things, right?

I adhere to this view because this is the view that I grew up with and it's the only view I know to be right and everybody else is wrong. I identify with this particular aggregate in this particular way because you're rationalizing, you're creating associations with it. This is how we can let go of trauma as well, because trauma is essentially reliving that same thing over and over again because you made certain associations with it.

Something happened in your life that was very, very, very horrible, right? But along with it, there were certain things that happened. The memory of that, the sensory memory of that, the rationalizing behind that and associating with it. Every time you hear a certain type of music, it might be associated with that particular trauma, that was associated with that trauma, whatever it might be. And so being able to decouple that, being able to recognize it and let it go, and reconditioning is the usage of the Dhamma, of letting go of that clinging.

From this clinging comes habitual tendencies. This comes from the word bhava. Not bhava. Bhava here means emotion or intent. Bhava means existence. Bhava means to become something. Bhava means to be something. And so when we say habitual tendencies, what we're saying is all of these things come together in a sense of self that is fully cooked at bhava.

And there is a type of existence that we come into. These existences are sense-based existences, form-based existences, and formless-based existences. And what that means is, if your mind has been habituated to behaving a certain way, you will take rebirth in that corresponding existence or realm of existence. For example, within the sense-based spheres, up to the highest sixth heaven, and in the middle of that is the human realm. So what does that mean on the micro level? That means that there can be psychological states that are attuned to those kinds of existences. You can see this in people. When a person is violent, when a person is hateful, when a person is angry,

What happens? In their mind, they are psychologically attuned to a hellish kind of being. They create suffering for themselves. When a person is greedy, when they are jealous, when they're grasping at things, they are psychologically attuned to being like a hungry ghost, never being satisfied with what is happening. Just having sex, drugs, and rock and roll. There goes rock and roll again. They become more animalistic.

They're like animals in their behavior, in their mentality. When a person is generous, when they are giving, when they are kind, when they are loving, when they are compassionate, when they are forgiving, they're more like the devas. When they start to help people, they start projects for people. They're like the higher devas, and so on and so forth. So this human state of existence that we have here, here we can experience all of these realms.

It's just dependent upon our psychological states, and this is habitual tendencies. Now, if a person is prone to being in the first jhana all the time, then they're habituated to existing in the first jhana loka. Or the arupa states: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, neither perception nor non-perception. And so bhava is also a series of choices that are presented to you and a library of reaction to those experiences.

In other words, when you meet similar kinds of situations, your mind is inclined towards acting a certain way. Those situations, those are your habitual tendencies. That is the library of habitual tendencies that you will pick out from, because you've done that in the past, and that is the pattern of thought you continue to do unless you are able to recognize and let go, and then allow wisdom to guide you forward. And then if that's not the case, and you choose from a habitual tendency, that gives rise to birth, and here we're talking about birth of action.

Birth of mental action, verbal action, and physical action. Mental action is essentially the thought that arises, the thinking about something. You can't recall these things. The moment you release the arrow, you cannot recall it back. But you can 6R craving. You can recognize the tightness and tension. You can 6R clinging. Recognize when the mind starts to rationalize and associate.

You can recognize and 6R becoming or habitual tendencies. You can notice when the mind wants to go towards or is inclined towards a certain kind of choice. You can let go in that moment. And when you have that, you have total clarity. When you have clarity, then there arises spontaneous action, spontaneous intention, spontaneous speech, because it is not rooted in any karmic action, any karmically productive action.

It is rooted in the Eightfold Path. Your intentions will be rooted in right intention. Your speech will be rooted in right speech. Your actions, your physical actions, will be rooted in right action or right behavior. And it will not be karmically productive, which means there won't be any birth of new action, of karma, which is the birth link, and because of that there won't be any kind of suffering. Now, you can't 6R aging and death. I'm sure you all wish you could, but it's not possible because it is already happening. You can't 6R the birth of action, because as soon as you take the action you can't do anything about it. Now you can think about doing something, but you can stop yourself from speaking, lest you regret it, or acting, lest you regret it.

And that regret in itself is the suffering, is the grief, sorrow, lamentation, and despair. You can prevent that from happening by not taking an action that is rooted in something that is karmically productive. So dependent origination is the ability to be able to see how karma works. It is the mechanics of karma. There is old karma and there is new karma. Old karma is all of the effects of previous intentions that you've made in the past. There's nothing you can do about it. You have to experience it. And so old karma is everything from formations all the way down to feeling something.

Old karma is to be felt and experienced. You are the inheritor of that karma. What you choose to do with that is new karma. You can choose to get angry. You can choose to get aggravated. You can choose to crave. You can choose to be aversive. You can choose to cling and become. Those three are the ingredients for the arising of birth, of new karma, which is then experienced as old karma in the next moment or a subsequent moment after that. This is how you destroy habitual tendencies. This is how you let go of relationships that seem to be similar all the way around. Wherever you go, I mean, that is what the definition of birth is.

It's the same as insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, right? Finding yourself in the same kinds of behavioral patterns. Finding yourself in the same kinds of situations. You move to a different country, you find yourself in the same kind of situation, right? And you go and have a relationship with somebody else, they seem to have the same kind of personality. It's not healthy for you, maybe.

How do you break that pattern? By letting go of your identification with that. By letting go of the fuel of craving with your reactions. The more you are reactive to a situation, the more that situation arises. But when your reactions turn into responses that are rooted in wisdom and compassion, then you know for those patterns. And the only way you turn a reaction to a response is using the six R's in that moment. That is the choice that is given to you in every single moment.

The six R's are the alleviation of karma, are the tool set for the alleviation of old karma and the dissipation of any new karma from arising. Or I should say, the prevention of any new karma from arising. This is how to understand dependent origination for yourselves in everyday living. Okay, come back to your sheets. But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes the cessation of...

Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering. And so, with the cessation of birth comes the cessation of aging and death. So it was said. Now, monks, does aging and death cease with the cessation of birth or not? Or how do you take it in this case? With the cessation of habitual tendencies comes the cessation of birth, so it was said. Now, monks, does birth cease with the cessation of habitual tendencies or not? Or how do you take it in this case? With the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging, so it was said. With the cessation of craving comes the cessation of craving, so it was said. Now, monks, does craving cease with the cessation of feeling or not?

Or how do you take it in this case? With the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feelings. So it was said. Now monks, does feeling cease with the cessation of contact or not? Or how do you take it in this case? Contact ceases with the cessation of the six-fold base, Venerable Sir. Thus, we take it in this case. With the cessation of mentality, materiality, comes the cessation of the six-fold base. So it was said. Now monks, does the six-fold base cease with the cessation of mentality-materiality or not? Or how do you take it in this case? Now, monks, does mentality-materiality cease with the cessation of consciousness or not, or how do you take it in this case?

Were we in the past? Were we not in the past? What were we in the past? How were we in the past? Having been what? What did we become in the past? And the answer to that would be, no, Venerable Sir. Why? Because you understand this whole process to be a series of causes and conditions, of I that goes from one moment to the next. If you truly see this, you realize you don't identify with what was going on in the past. That was the past. Whatever happened there, what arose due to causes and conditions. You are not the same person that you are now.

Knowing and seeing in this way, would you run forward to the future thus? Shall we be in the future? Shall we not be in the future? What shall we be in the future? How shall we be in the future? Having been what, what shall we become in the future? And the answer is no as well, no Venerable Sir, because again whatever is happening is an unfolding of causes and conditions. You have no control over that except what's going on here in the present moment. Don't become attached to the outcome of what will happen.

Just be here right now without being attached to a sense of self. Knowing and seeing in this way, would you now be inwardly perplexed about the present thus? Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where will it go? No, Venerable Sir. Because you see in this moment, all that you are experiencing is a result of dependent origination, the mechanics of karma.

So you don't identify with that process, you just see it as continually unfolding. Whatever choice you have in the moment is basically the choice whether or not to follow the Eightfold Path. That's it. You can choose to be wholesome or you can choose to be unwholesome. You could choose to identify with it, which can cause you suffering, or you can choose to see it for what it actually is.

Now, this will happen gradually. There's no need to continue to try to exercise that. You can start to let go every time you take things personally and notice the relief from that. The more you do this, the more the mind will be habituated to just seeing things as they actually are. And then when you have that experience, post-cessation of seeing the links of dependent origination, the wisdom becomes further embedded. And that becomes your right view.

That becomes your GPS of how to traverse through this world. How to traverse through this existence. Because when you have right view, you will not hold on to this or that or anything. You will just see things as an impersonal process more and more and more, until you let go continuously of all of the craving, all of the different layers and types and categories of craving, all of the different types, layers and categories of habitual tendencies and clinging, until you let go of ignorance completely and experience full awakening. Then you're always mindful of what is present, and what is present are namely these links, which are formations, consciousness, mentality, materiality, sixth sense basis, contact and feeling.

These six will be present, but there will be no ignorance. There will be no craving. There will be no clinging. There will be no habitual tendencies. There will be no birth and renewal of new karma. And there will be no suffering. In essence, all there will exist are these five aggregates, no longer identified with, no longer seen as me, mine, or myself.

And there is absolute freedom in that. Because everything that is done is done from that mode of freedom. The action will always be right for every situation, right for that particular person in that particular situation. Everything you do will be as if you are not holding any impression anywhere. You don't create any kinds of waves anywhere. You are like birds in the sky, not creating anything anywhere, just flowing.

No more craving. No more conceit, no more ignorance. Knowing and seeing in this way, would you speak thus? This is going to be an interesting question. The teacher is respected by us. We speak as we do out of respect for the teacher. No, Venerable Sir. Why? Because you don't even identify with the Tathagata, with the Buddha himself. The Buddha is just a series of processes.

Even though we allocate the title of Buddha to a person named Siddhartha Gautama 2,600 years ago, we don't respect the person, right? What is going on in terms of the wisdom, the efforts that were made. So you don't create a sense of personality or project a sense of personality to a fully awakened being, because all personality has been let go.

That's why there have been questions like, does the Tathagata exist? Does the Tathagata not exist? Does the Tathagata both exist and not exist? And does the Tathagata neither exist nor not exist? And the Buddha says, none of these apply. But what does apply is dependent origination. With the arising of this, there comes the arising of that. With the cessation of this, there comes the cessation of that.

Knowing and seeing in this way, would you speak thus? The recluse says this, and we speak thus at the bidding of the recluse. The recluse here referring to the Buddha. No, Venerable Sir, because you're seeing it from your own experience. Now experience is your teacher, is your guide. In this retreat, your teacher is your own mind. You are teaching yourself how this process works.

We can only show you the way, but you have to walk it. We can tell you, don't take a left there, take a right and see what happens. But you have to do it. And you have to teach yourself how this process works. Knowing and seeing in this way, would you acknowledge another teacher? No, Venerable Sir. Yeah, because you realize that this is the path.

Knowing and seeing in this way, would you return to the observances, tumultuous debates, and auspicious signs of ordinary recluses and Brahmins, taking them as the core of the holy life? In other words, understanding dependent origination, would you go back to thinking the way you used to? No. There is a shift in your consciousness. There is a shift in your personality. There is a shift in your perspective. You can no longer go back to the original way, the old model of thinking.

Do you speak only of what you have known, seen, and understood for yourselves? Yes, Venerable Sir, absolutely. You only speak from what you do know and what you do see, not because somebody has told you, but because you have experienced it for yourselves. Good, Bhikkhus. So you have been guided by me with this Dhamma, which is visible here and now, inviting inspection.

Onward leading, to be experienced by the wise for themselves. Nobody's asking you to believe in this. Nobody's asking you to take the Buddha as your savior. All there is is an invitation to look and see for yourselves. And with an experimental attitude, try it out and see if it works for you. That's it. Inviting inspection. For it was with reference to this that it has been said, because this Dhamma is visible here and now, immediately effective.

Immediately effective. The moment you let go of craving, it's immediately effective. You find relief right there and then. Now we're going to talk about the macro level. About how consciousness arises. It leaves in one life and goes into the next life. The descent of the embryo takes place through the union of three things. You need three things in order for conception to happen.

Here there is the union of the mother and father, but the mother is not in season. And the Gandhabba, the Gandhabba here means the evolving consciousness or the rebirth-linking consciousness. I'll get into that in a little bit. Is not present. In this case, no descent of an embryo takes place. Here there is the union of the mother and father, and the mother is in season, but the Gandhabba is not present.

In this case too, no descent of the embryo takes place. But when there is the union of the mother and father, and the mother is in season, and the Gandhabba is present, through the union of these three things the descent of the embryo takes place. So let's simplify what this is saying. In one life, when somebody dies, there are some things that happen. When we say death, we understand death medically speaking to be the cardiac arrest, no more respiration, and no more brain activity. That's basically the medical definition of death. Even though that seems to be happening on the surface, there are things going on, and you can see this from reports of near-death experiences. Just recently I read a report about how when the dying brain is going through the process of death, it experiences high gamma brain waves, even though it's been dead, because it's experiencing something. And what it is experiencing is a life review process. This is why every tradition, not just the Dhamma, every tradition has an emphasis on doing good works, on being wholesome, because all of the choices that you do in and this life

will come back to you in those few moments, that moment of death. So if you've chosen to be unwholesome, what will happen? Your memories of your life will be unwholesome. What will happen? There will be regret. There will be remorse. There will be confusion. But if you have been wholesome throughout your life, what happens? There will be peace. Acceptance. There will be, okay, I have lived a life well lived.

I don't want to freak you guys out, but this is what you're doing for meditation. You're preparing for your death. Not now, but whenever that's going to happen. So whenever you're doing the 6R's, this is what you're doing. Remember this in the moment of your death. Letting go of the unwholesome. Letting go of identifying with the wholesome. Because when those memories come, what happens? The mind clings to them. The mind looks at that, craves for it, or has aversion towards it, identifies with it.

Or what can happen is there is a sign of the future destination, the next life. That's why some people see the light at the end of the tunnel, and in there they see heavenly beings. Or they see demons, or whatever it is, based on whatever their life has been like. And there is either craving or aversion for that. And from there, the formations that arise give rise to a new consciousness.

This is known as the Gandhabba. That consciousness carries forward with it all of the karmic potentials that can be experienced in the next life. And so the nama-rupa, the mentality-materiality that we are talking about here, is the seed that is the sperm and the ovum for a human life. The union of the two gives rise to genetic material, which is going to allow for the evolution of the nama-rupa.

And that particular rebirth-linking consciousness is an exact karmic match for whatever genetic material is available for the expression of that karma in the next life. So the descent of the embryo happens only if there are these three things: the sperm, the ovum, and the underlying consciousness, the Gandhabba. When that happens, then there is conception. Then there is birth. Then there is the arising of a being in the womb.

But then you'll ask me, what about IVF in that case? The same thing can happen. That's why in IVF also it can be either successful or unsuccessful. If there is a match for a rebirth-linking consciousness to come into in that moment of IVF, where the genetic material is produced for it to come into being, it will be there. If it's not, it won't be. That's it.

And this is happening in every moment. Life, death, life, death, birth, death, birth, death, birth, death, arising and passing away, arising and passing away. As soon as that consciousness descends into the womb or into that genetic material, then there is the renewal of new consciousnesses arising and passing away all the time in the womb. Which is why the development of the fetus happens in such a way that it takes in whatever the mother is feeling.

It takes in whatever the mother is eating and consuming. It takes in whatever vibrations are happening outside. And so the formations are being pruned. The synapses are being already pruned in the embryo, in the fetus. However, it's going to interact with the world. It's already starting to create ideas of what it likes and what it doesn't like, even though it hasn't yet been born, so to speak.

The mother then carries the embryo in her womb for nine or ten months with much anxiety as a heavy burden. Then at the end of nine or ten months, the mother gives birth with much anxiety as a heavy burden. Then when the child is born, she nourishes it with her own blood, for the mother's breast milk is called blood in the noble one's discipline. When the child grows up and his faculties mature, the child plays at such games as toy plows, tip cats, somersaults, toy windmills, toy measures, toy cars, and a toy bow and arrow. So now he's talking about how clinging arises.

A child starts to choose what are its favorite games. A child starts to choose what are its favorite colors. Starts to interact with the world. Starts to experience contact, feeling, perception. The moment the child is born, craving already begins. Because the moment the child is born, what does it experience? It cries, right? It needs the oxygen, and it cries, and it feels cold. But the moment it touches the mother, it feels warmth and comfort. That's the first feeling that it experiences, through which it has craving.

The smell of the mother. When it's away from the mother, what does the child do? It cries. And so then it only prefers to have certain kinds of foods as it grows up. What's happening there? Creating associations. You're clinging to certain kinds of food. I will only eat these types of food. I don't like that. I like this brand of applesauce and not that brand of applesauce. The green foods cannot touch the orange foods on my plate. Those kinds of ideas you have in the mind as a child.

And you're always looking at the world in such a way that you're starting to create ideas and perceptions of things. Around the age of four or five, you become, this sounds strange to say, but you become fully conscious in the sense of you start to realize there's some kind of separate identity here. And around the age of eight or nine, you have the idea that, oh, I'm going to die at some point.

There is a concept of death. There's a concept of ending. When he grows up and his faculties mature still further, the youth enjoys himself, provided and endowed with the five cords of sensual pleasure. Like I said, with forms cognizable by the eye, sounds cognizable by the ear, odors cognizable by the nose, flavors cognizable by the tongue, tangibles cognizable by the body that are wished for, desired, agreeable, and likable, connected with sensual desire and provocative of lust.

When you go into your teens, when you become a teenager, you grow up with certain kinds of music. And when you hear that music, that is music. Everything else everybody hears is trash. What are kids listening to these days? You have clung to a certain type of music. And when you are that age, when you're around that time, you have more brain activity going on. So you're picking up a lot more. And because of the emotions, the heightened emotions because of hormones, you start creating memories associated with that, right?

Your first kiss, your prom, all of these things are still ingrained, rooted in the memories. And they're strong, as if they just happened yesterday. Of all of that clinging that happens, all of that identification process that happens. On seeing a form with the eye, he lusts after it if it is pleasing. He dislikes it if it is unpleasing. He abides with mindfulness of the body unestablished, with a limited mind, and he does not understand as it actually is with the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom, wherein those evil, unwholesome states cease without remainder.

In other words, yes, you might be aware of what's going on, but if you're still identifying with it, there can still be unwholesome states arising. How do you let go of that? With proper, established mindfulness. How is it established? Through right effort. What is right effort? The six R's. And opposing whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful, he delights in that feeling, welcomes it, and remains holding to it. As he does so, delight arises in him. Now, delight in feelings is clinging.

With his clinging as condition, habitual tendencies come to be. With habitual tendencies as condition, birth of new action comes to be. Birth of new action as condition, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. Likewise, on hearing a sound with the ear, on smelling an odor with the nose, on tasting a flavor with the tongue, on touching intangible with the body, on cognizing a mind object with the mind.

Then it talks about, where is it? Sutra 27. I won't go into much detail, but to summarize, it says here, Bhikkhus, a Tathagata appears in the world accomplished and fully enlightened. Or you might have an introduction to the Dhamma in some way or the other. Having seen the Dhamma or having been introduced to the Dhamma, now you say there must be a way out of suffering. Because suffering can result in two things.

In further confusion, where a person uses sensual pleasures as a way of letting go of that suffering, but all they're doing is numbing that pain and suppressing it. Using drugs, sex and alcohol, using food, using television as a means of suppressing the suffering. Or it results in the search of a way out of suffering, like you two, right? Looking for, how do I get out of suffering?

And lo and behold, you see TWIM, right? And you check it out, and you see it for yourself, or whatever it might be, however you've done that search. And you come and you look for, how do I let go of suffering? ways and mechanics of the Dhamma. And so he purifies his mind from the five hindrances. That's what you've been doing. Having thus abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters upon and abides in the first jhana. That's what you've been doing. With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, he enters upon and abides in the second jhana. That's what you've been doing.

With the fading away as well of rapture, he enters upon and abides in the third jhana. That's what you've been doing. With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, he enters upon and abides in the fourth jhana, which has neither pain nor pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. That's what you've been doing. On seeing a form with the eye, important to note: are you doing this or not? On seeing a form with the eye, he does not lust after it if it is pleasing. He does not dislike it if it is unpleasing. He abides with mindfulness established, meaning using the six R's, with an immeasurable mind, and he understands as it actually is, the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom, wherein those unwholesome states cease without remainder.

Every time you do the six R's, that's what you're doing. Having thus abandoned favoring and opposing whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful or neither painful nor pleasant, he does not delight in that feeling. So you let go of identifying with that feeling. Now, delight, with the cessation of this delight comes the cessation of clinging. So the moment you let go of any craving, stop that entire momentum of clinging and becoming.

The moment you do that, there is no more renewal of further karma. So with the cessation of clinging, there is a cessation of habitual tendencies. With the cessation of habitual tendencies, there is a cessation of birth, of action. With the cessation of birth, of action, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair cease. Such is a cessation of this whole mass of suffering. Likewise, when you hear a sound, you smell an odor, taste a flavor, touch something with the body or cognize, you're doing the same thing. You do the 6R's anytime you identify, anytime you crave, and you let go of that whole mass of suffering in that moment. You feel relief. That relief arises due to making contact with Nibbana in that moment. Remember this discourse of mind briefly as deliverance in the destruction of craving. But remember Bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, as caught up in a vast net of craving, in the trammel of craving. That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words.

Relief. Any questions? Buddha says that the structure of our reality is discrete. We experience it as continuous. Also, for each of these discrete experiences of consciousness, right, that agency is also made up of causes and conditions, namely the intention to recognize and let go. But in that moment, that agent, as we would call it, also disappears with that. It is that which experiences and feels the relief, but that is actually just a process of feeling.

The projection of there being an agent on it is the conceit that is deeply embedded in the mind. Just causes and conditions happening. The reflection of seeing that relief is happening at the level of consciousness, but that is dependent upon experiencing the relief. So there is no agent there, there is no agency. To think about it in that way, yeah, there isn't free will, but there isn't also predeterminism.

There is a conditioned intention, conditioned by hearing the Dhamma, and that choice being conditioned by following the Dhamma. No, no. It's only whatever you pay attention to that you have to deal with. That's all. Yeah. You can only see the consequences of it. You can only know the quality of your formations. So you can't actually see sankhara? Of feeling.

You can have a reflective perspective on what that is when you go at a deep level and experience seeing the links of dependent origination. Formations are likened to synapses, like I said, in the brain. But they're also epigenetics in that sense. Some formations will arise based on the environment, based on contact with the environment. Some formations will arise based on behavioral choices.

So formations are understood by the effect that they have, namely the choices and the resultant of those choices. Formations are carriers of karma. They allow karma to be experienced. Karma is like vibrations in the universe. Each intention that you have creates a certain kind of vibration. And some vibrations are stronger, and some vibrations are weaker. Some vibrations are far away, and some vibrations are near.

And when those vibrations intersect, samsara arises. And in a post-cessational event, can you see these vibrations? Yeah, you can start to see the beginning of them. Perception, all of these, like trippy kind of psychedelic kind of things, those are called proto-thoughts. I call them proto-thoughts, which are the beginnings of thoughts. It's like bubbling up, and the bubbling up are the release of formations coming to be. Is something like intention, for instance. Where does intention come from? Has changed, like this question. Is any of that, like we said, we could think karma, but then still within the karma that then came to get brought up, is any of that? This view seems to just be a random possibility, because it is possible to happen, therefore it does at some point.

It might seem that way. And that's why the Buddha also took into account unintended experiences. In other words, karma is one thing, but even disease of the body is another. Like, you didn't cause that disease to happen. It arose due to causes and conditions. Or getting into an accident. You didn't cause yourself to get into that accident. Or somebody coming to hit you out of the blue. There is some room here for other factors to come into play which are beyond your quote-unquote control, beyond your intention. That's why the Buddha was talking about it, and the reason he brought this up was because he also wanted to make sure that beings don't look at it like it's all just karma, as well, because at that point you're blaming everything on karma and not really taking responsibility for what's going on. Number one, number two. What he's saying is: in order for you to recognize the karmic structure of one thing, it will literally blow your mind.

So it's better to deal with what's going on here in this moment. How do you deal with the karmic implications of what's going on in this moment? Because that's the only thing that you really have any kind of say in. So that's why he took into account that there can be other quote-unquote random aspects, but how you deal with them is really your karma. Is the structure of samsara. But it's in a different way. Looked at it in a different way. Causality and conditionality. That's basically what we're talking about. And so there is this sort of interdependency that's going on. And at the forefront of it, it all looks very random. But then you start to see the patterns.

And that structure, or those patterns of structure, is what makes up samsara or existence. I had a question in the back. I have two questions for you. On the karma, you're saying it's like a vibration that goes through, it's like a bigger thing versus I do some things that are bad and then it affects my habitual tendencies and then as well. Does it stay within you or is it like... Yeah.

So the way to look at it is, yes, good actions have good consequences, and bad actions have bad consequences. That's a very simplified understanding. But then how do you take into account lifetime to lifetime karma? Let's say we take that into account. So the idea there is, like I said, some karma is immediately effective. That is to say, immediately sprouts. So it's like the analogy of seeds. Certain seeds will grow faster than other seeds, like a watermelon seed, a mango seed, and an apple seed. And if there's certain nutriment given to each of these seeds, in other words, the proper causes and conditions are there for the growth of that seed, enough water, proper soil, enough sunlight, that seed will germinate and grow into a fruit.

But if the proper conditions were not present, then that seed will not grow. The same with karma. Someone who has performed bad actions, it's not necessary that those actions be immediately ripening into some kind of fruition. It can take time based on certain causes and conditions, and those causes and conditions being in a certain place and a certain time, but those are also determined or conditioned by intentions that you make in those moments. After you experience Nibbana, you see close at hand, in a magnified scale, how dependent origination works.

You see the arising of these different lengths in some format, and all of this becomes much sharper. And it takes time, because you could enter the stream and have a certain level of understanding that is becoming a stream enter, the first level. At the second level, it becomes even more pronounced. At the third level, even more pronounced. And at full awakening, you see dependent origination in all ways. In other words, you see it in the past, you see it in the present, you see it in the future, you see it in this dimension, you see it outside of space and time. It's all different ways that you're starting to understand how this process works. And that only happens through gradual training and progressive experiences in this process.

Yes. Four nutrients are physical food, contact, mental volition, and consciousness. Yeah? Yeah. So you have to think about it this way. As you get deeper into the practice, deeper and deeper levels of craving, which are not immediately shown, because they're basically just movements at that point in time. They're mental movements. And what you're doing with this process is coming to a point where the mind becomes completely still.

So at the very deepest level, movement is also craving. Mental movement is also associated with some level of craving or ignorance or conceit. Things become even more quiet, things become even more still, and eventually some more stuff comes up, smaller vibrations, and those vibrations are also formations that are coming up. Maybe they're not necessarily rooted in craving, but they can give rise to further links of dependent origination if paid attention to. But if you relax it, then there's no further projection of... Eventually, after a long period of time, when there is no vibration at all, then everything ceases completely. And that's the cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

Yeah. I have a question from the audience. Where do you find the six R's? So the six R's are basically a modern way of talking about right effort. The six R's are basically a mnemonic device for us to be able to understand how to recognize and let go. In essence, there are four right efforts. And these right efforts you will find in the suttas that talk about the Noble Eightfold Path, it refers to right effort. So there's right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood. Interestingly, the sixth is right effort. So in right effort, what is happening?

Four things are happening. First, there is the seeing of unarisen, unwholesome states. There is then an effort of letting go of already arisen unwholesome states. The third right effort is to generate wholesome states. And the fourth right effort is to maintain those wholesome states. When you do the six R's, you're doing exactly that. When you recognize, you're recognizing the unarisen unwholesome states.

When you're releasing and relaxing, you are abandoning the already arisen unwholesome states. When you smile, you generate a wholesome state. And when you return to your object, you maintain that wholesome state of mind. This is where you find the six R's. Any other secret questions from the audience? Yeah. Well, I just explained what that is. You're saying that the original right effort has four steps and the six R's has six steps. Right. Yeah, they have the Enlightenment factors also. That's what I was saying yesterday. The six R's have the four right efforts, the Enlightenment factors, the Eightfold Path, everything. It has everything in it. The whole path is in the utilization of the six R's.

Now, the six R's was also known as DROPS. D-R-O-P-S. Don't resist or push. Soften and smile. It's the same thing. So, when we're talking again, I'll reiterate that just so, because you're talking about the four steps and the six steps. The first step is to understand the arising of unarisen, unwholesome states. You recognize that. The second step is to abandon already arisen, unwholesome states. You do that by releasing and relaxing. The third step is to generate a wholesome state of mind. You do that by re-smiling. And the fourth step is to maintain that wholesome state of mind. You do that when you return back to your object of meditation. This is how it's done.

And then repeat. Repeat is given. Whenever you get distracted, you repeat again. That's all. Second step. Yeah. That's right. Right. Yeah. Yes, you. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Because the words, the noting, the naming, the language, the format, all of those are, as you just said, concepts and tools for people to be able to. And the other side is that you can never lose it. That's right.

So one more question here from Voyager. Yeah. About the first question he responded, he said intention is what drives this. So what prompts the intention? Is it karmic? Contact drives intention. When there's contact with an experience, then there's an intention to do something. If there is no contact, there won't be a choice to do anything. You want to wait until Voyager gets back to us? It's in mentality.

It's not mentioned there but in mentality, materiality. Mentality has five components. Contact, feeling, perception, intention and attention. gotten into, lest your minds blow up, is that there is a lot of interconnections here. There are feedback loops upon feedback loops. It's not just a linear process. Contact gives rise again to consciousness, gives rise to feeling, gives rise to perception, gives rise to intention, gives rise here, there, everywhere.

So this is just helping you. It's a very linear process to kind of help you. Voyager says, "My question is, why are we doing this meditation if there is no meditator? Where does the effort or intention come?" Why are we doing the meditation if there is no meditator? Well, the meditation itself is conditioned by prior knowledge.

In other words, the only reason why you're doing the meditation is because you're suffering. Suffering is what conditions you to meditate. And so the suffering, contact with suffering, gives an intention. How do I get out of this suffering? I'm sure the next question you'll ask is, who is it that seeks the way out of suffering? That's right.

May suffering ones be suffering free. That's what we say. That's right. No, but seriously, when we talk about meditation, what that means is the meditation is another tool. It's another concept. It's another process that's going on. That is dependent upon intention to bring up an object. The only reason we are doing that is because there were prior experiences where there was suffering. And so from that suffering, another intention arose. How do I get out of this suffering? Meditation is one of them, that is a big one, because that looking at that, it sounds like it's lucky, but it's again because of prior causes and conditions, and if you start to look at the causes and conditions out way out there: the fact that we live in a time when the Buddha existed, the fact that we live in a time when the Dhamma is available, and the fact that you are living in a human realm, which is where karma is experienced and produced.

In other words, karma is produced only at the human realm, in that sense. Mostly in the human realm, I should say. Otherwise, in other realms, you're just experiencing, for the most part, fruits of your karma that you did in the human realm. This is how it is in the perspective of the Buddha Dhamma. And so there is a sutta called the turtle. What is that one? Anyway, it's like every hundred years, this turtle is out there in the sea. Imagine the entire world was just an ocean, and there was this one fisherman there on a boat, and he had a fishing pole, and it had a loop around, right, at the end of it.

From the east and the west and the south and the north, and so the fishing line just keeps swinging, and every hundred years this turtle pokes its head out. What are the chances that its head is going through that loop every hundred years? That is the preciousness of human rebirth according to the Dhamma. The fact that you're here in this human birth is a huge... Not to be squandered.

Not to be wasted. Yeah, you had a question? Yeah, go ahead. By listening to the Dhamma. There are beings who, upon listening to the Dhamma, experience Nibbana. Oh, they do. They do. They do. Yeah, I'll get to you. No, the ability to produce karma for the most part is in the human realm. They don't produce karma. They are more prone to experiencing the fruits of previous karma. Right. And that's what happens when you get to the first level of awakening. When you become a stream-enter, you have a one-way ticket to full awakening. happen up to seven lifetimes, for example. So in that sense, it's determined that at some point, you will get off of--