Delson Armstrong MN 109 Full Moon Night -Vesak Talk

So today, as I understand it, there was, or there is, or there is going to be a lunar eclipse, and it's a full moon night. And not only a full moon night, it is Vesak in India, which is called Mahapunnamasutta, the greater discourse on the full moon night. This is Majjhima Nikaya 109. Thus have I heard: on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in the eastern park, in the palace of Migara's mother.

On the full moon night, the Blessed One was seated in the open, surrounded by the Sangha of bhikkhus. Then a certain bhikkhu rose from his seat, arranged his upper robe on one shoulder, and, extending his hands in reverential salutation towards the Blessed One, said to him: "Grant me an answer to my question." "Sit on your own seat, bhikkhu, and ask what you like." So the bhikkhu sat on his own seat and said to the Blessed One: "Are these not, Venerable Sir, the five aggregates affected by clinging?"

"That is, the material form aggregate affected by clinging, the feeling aggregate affected by clinging, the perception aggregate affected by clinging, the formations aggregate affected by clinging, and the consciousness aggregate affected by clinging. These bhikkhus are the five aggregates affected by clinging." That is the material form affected by clinging, the feeling aggregate affected by clinging, affected by clinging.

Saying, "Good, Venerable Sir," the bhikkhu delighted and rejoiced in the Blessed One's words. Then he asked him a further question: "But, Venerable Sir, in what are these five aggregates affected by clinging rooted?" It's an interesting question. In what are these five aggregates affected by clinging rooted? "These five aggregates affected by clinging are rooted in desire, bhikkhu." And here's a very interesting question.

"Venerable Sir, is that clinging the same as these five aggregates affected by clinging? Or is the clinging something apart from the five aggregates affected by clinging?" And as usual, the Buddha gives a Buddha-like answer. He says, "Bhikkhu, that clinging is neither the same as these five aggregates affected by clinging, nor is the clinging something apart from the five aggregates affected by clinging."

Why does he say that? Because if the clinging was the same as the five aggregates, aggregates. But if they are different from the five aggregates, that is to say, the clinging is separate from the five aggregates, then why let go of clinging at all? So here the Buddha says, it is the desire and lust in regard to the five aggregates affected by clinging, that is the clinging there.

It is the desire and lust in regard to the five aggregates affected by clinging that is the clinging there. So look at the statement: when we talk about the five aggregates, it's always mentioned in the suttas as the five aggregates affected by clinging. Really it's the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging. It's known as the Pancupadanakkhandha.

The five aggregates affected by clinging. But the five aggregates are just that, the five aggregates. The reason why they are affected by clinging is because they can become objects of desire and lust. So what is that desire and lust in regards to the five aggregates? Identifying with any one or more of the five aggregates. This body that you seemingly possess, it is made up of, as we've talked about before, the four great elements: the earth element, the water element, the fire element and the air element. But then the question: if this material body, this material form, is made up of the four great elements, and this table is made up of the four great elements, what is the difference between the two?

There is no difference. The internal earth element and the external earth element, these two are just earth elements. This is what it says in Majjhima Nikaya 28, where Sariputta is talking about the different elements in relation to the material form aggregate. In other words, when you take this body, this material form, as me, mine or myself, you're taking all of the components, any or all of the components, as me. You take the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, or even the mind, as mine, as me, mine, and myself.

Then why don't you take the table as part of me, mine, or myself? Many people do that, right? This is my table. Nobody else sits here at my table, right? Reading this copy of the Majjhima Nikaya. Right? You start taking that which is basically impersonal as me, mine, or myself. That is the lust and desire in regards to the form aggregate.

What about the feeling aggregate? The feeling aggregate is all experience, internal, external, any experience that you're having internally, whether it's a stomachache, whether it's a bodily pain, whether it's a bodily pleasure, right, whether it's an experience that's happening through any of the five sense bases: eating your favourite meal, or listening to your favourite piece of music, watching your favourite television show.

Whatever it is, these are all experiences. Right now, what you are experiencing is the sound of my voice. And you are seeing me as I am speaking. But that experience is arising due to past causes and conditions. That is to say, when I speak, the sound of my voice are the sound waves. That is the external sense base, the sound.

And it is being picked up by your ears. And then when the two join, the ear and the sound, there arises ear consciousness. And these three constitute ear contact. Dependent on that, you are able to listen to what I am saying. Likewise, when you are seeing me, reflecting on what is being said, the mind makes contact with the mind object, which is the thoughts and reflections that arise due to listening to what I'm saying.

And when these two are joined, there is mind consciousness. There is an awareness of this. And these three constitute mind contact, and therefore there is thinking and reflecting. When the mind takes any of this experience or these experiences as, I am the one who is experiencing them, there is a projection of me. There is a projection of this is mine.

There is a projection of this is myself. That is the lust and desire in regards to the feeling aggregate. What about the perception? Perception aggregate means what is perception? Sanna, perception. That is the ability to label what it is that you are experiencing. When you are seeing me speaking, you are recognizing that it is Delson speaking. When experiencing the sound of my voice, you are recognizing, you are perceiving, he is speaking about the Dhamma. He is reading from the suttas and he is speaking.

And you can recognize my voice because you've heard it before. That is perception. Perception is rooted in memory. A very rudimentary example of this is a wood fire, or a stove fire, or whatever, and you are a little kid who has not experienced fire before. You've seen it before, but you've not truly experienced it. And you decide you want to put your hand over the fire.

For a few moments, it feels warm. A few moments after that, it starts to feel hotter. A few moments after that, it's painful. And now you realize what fire is. Fire is warming. Fire is hot. Fire can be painful. Fire can burn. The next time you see fire, what happens? All of those perceptions arise: I'd better be careful with the fire. That's because of your memory of the experience of fire.

When you were in grade school, right? When you were in kindergarten or first grade or whenever that was, they taught you about colours. They taught you, this is red, this is blue, red and blue make purple, this is blue, this is yellow, blue and yellow make green, and so on and so forth, right? And so you experienced that you saw the colours, and then through your memory you understood: this is red, this is blue, this is yellow, this is green, this is white. Your mind already remembers, recognizes and perceives that that's red. Now, in that perception and in those memories that bring up that perception, where are you? Where is the sense of self?

It is all causes and conditions, dependent upon contact, dependent upon feeling, experience, and then there is the perception of that experience. The feeling and perception are conjoined. The lust and the desire in regards to that perception is saying, I am the one who is saying that this is the colour red. That colour is my favourite colour. You project a sense of self to that experience and to that perception.

What are we talking about? The formations aggregate. Firstly, there are three types of formations. There are the bodily formations, the mental formations, and the verbal formations. The bodily formations are related to the processes of the body. These can include breathing in and breathing out, inhalation and exhalation. There are also the kaya-sankharas that have to do with the aging process of the body. So sankhara, that's the word for formations.

The mental formations are these energies, in that sense, these components that cook up the experience of feeling something and perceiving something. Without mental formations, you cannot feel and perceive. Verbal formations allow the mind to experience thinking and reflection, and then the expression of what it is that you have experienced. That's why when you are in the first jhana, what happens is there are verbal formations present. When you get into the second jhana, verbal formations cease.

When you get to the fourth jhana, bodily formations cease, because now you are more in the mind and less contact with the body. And finally, when you have cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness, the mental formations cease altogether. So these formations allow the mind to experience the world one way or the other, through the process of feeling, perception, through the bodily processes, and through mental processes of thinking and reflecting.

But if you truly looked at this process, right, and you saw how it arose, you can see it arose due to contact. But you're not in control of that. The contact arises whenever it arises, dependent upon the six sense bases, right? When I snap my fingers, is there any way for you not to hear that? It's happening.

Because there is contact with the ears, and then that gives rise to mental formations that allow you to feel and perceive what it is, that snap of the fingers. And when you hear the snap of the fingers, you reflect on, oh, that is Delson snapping his fingers. Wherein is the sense of self there? It is all just impersonal processes that are happening.

But the lust and desire in relation to these formations is taking them personally. And then on a much deeper level, is taking your own choices and decisions and intentions personally as well. When that happens, you have regret for the choices you've made that led you into unwholesome states of mind. A good destination, a wholesome state of mind, you relish that.

You celebrate that. You're happy about that. You take responsibility for it. But those choices that came about, they arose due to causes and conditions external to the mind and body. And then there was contact and feeling and perception. And then there was a choice that was made, an intention that was made, that was dependent upon mentality, materiality, the Sixth Sense basis, and contact.

This one is much deeper, because we take responsibility for our choices. That is to say, the choices were made, and we become inheritors of our karma. That is one of the reflections that you have been doing. I am subject to karma. Karma is mine. I am the inheritor of that karma. That is to take responsibility for the actions, but then adding a sense of self there and saying that I am that. That is to say that you start to identify with that rather than seeing it for what it was or what it is. That they arose due to past causes and conditions.

So the projection of self, the projection of this is me, this is mine, myself in relation to those choices is the lust and regard in relation to the formations. And we have the consciousness aggregate. What is the consciousness aggregate? So we've talked about this briefly, about the arising and passing away of consciousnesses in every moment. There is the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, the nose consciousness, the tongue consciousness, the body consciousness, and mind consciousness.

These consciousnesses arise and pass away dependent upon the experience that's happening. Consciousness is not independent. It is dependent, and your awareness of the experiences that you're having. When you're having an experience of meditation, when you are having an experience of observation, when you are having an experience of just watching and cognizing and being aware, there can be the projection of self to that awareness.

Indeed, a lot of different traditions, or I should say some traditions, see that consciousness is the self. The awareness is the self, who am the witness to all that is being experienced. And this base, fundamental, foundational consciousness, this substratum of existence is seen as the self. But if that's the case, if you take your attention away from that, how do you know that that is still present? Your awareness to it, your attention to it. So all awareness that arises is dependent upon some kind of fuel that is the experience of one or more of the Sixth Sense bases. So when we talk about in the Bahiya Sutta, for example, we say, in the seeing there is only the seen, in the hearing there is only the heard. What is he talking about there?

In the seeing, there is only a process of seeing going on dependent upon contact. In the hearing, there is only the hearing going on dependent upon the process of contact. In all of the sense bases. And then the mind that cognizes what is going on is dependent upon those experiences. And so there is only cognition going on, aggregate, but that cognition is happening as a result of different processes that are happening in the mind, nothing to do with you. Sure, you might think that you have choice to attend to one thing or the other. I'll grant you that, but remember those choices are also dependent upon past causes and conditions. So the cognition itself is also... But the mind takes itself or takes that cognition process as me, mine, or myself.

That is the lust and desire in relation to the consciousness aggregate. But, Venerable Sir, can there be diversity in the desire and lust regarding these five aggregates affected by clinging? There can be, Bhikkhu, the Blessed One said. Here, Bhikkhu, someone thinks thus, may my material form be thus in the future. May my feeling be thus in the future. May my perception be thus in the future. May my formations be thus in the future. May my consciousness be thus in the future.

Thus, there is diversity in the desire and lust regarding these five aggregates affected by clinging. So in other words, taking the form as self, or taking form as mine, you say, may my body be more beautiful in the future. May my body be so and so in the future. Or the experience that you're having right now might not be pleasant, and you say, may my experience be more pleasant.

Or if it is pleasant, may my experience not stop. Let it continue. Likewise with the perceptions. You perceive something and you hold on to it. But you will see in your own life, when we talk about perceptions, we also talk about perceptions as concepts and ideas and ideologies. And that when you are younger, you have a certain set of ideas about the world.

And you believe that you will have these certain sets of ideas forever. And so you say, may I continue to feel this way and perceive in this way. As you grow older, what happens? The world seems to change because your perceptions change. Your ideologies change. Your concepts about the world change. Only natural that it happens. Same with formations. The formations change dependent upon experiences, dependent upon our choices.

As we start to become less and less unwholesome and more and more wholesome, formations rooted in the unwholesome are let go of, and the formations rooted in the wholesome become strengthened. Likewise, with our awareness, we cognize the world a certain way, and we cognize our experiences a certain way. But as they change, the cognition also changes. You can see this in your own mental reality. A person, and you are in a certain mindset, you are in a certain mood, you will think of that person a certain way. But when your mood changes, your perception of that person also changes, meaning your cognition changes dependent upon that mood, of that person or of that memory. Like for example, you have a loved one who passed away and you think about them or you're talking about them to your friends and your family, and you think about them and you're sad.

And when you're sad, you think of them a certain way, and you have a certain memory of them when you're sad. But the very next moment, after you stop the crying and the grief, you think about that same moment, and it becomes sweet. It goes from bitter to sweet, but it's the same memory. What changed? You're cognizing of that memory.

But, Venerable Sir, in what way does the term aggregates apply to the aggregates? This is the feeling aggregate. This is the perception aggregate. Any kind of formations whatever, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, this is the formations aggregate. Any kind of consciousness whatever, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, this is the consciousness aggregate. It is in this way that the term aggregate applies to the aggregates.

So here we call them the aggregates, but they come from the word khanda. Okay, Siri. So the aggregate here, when we talk about aggregate, that comes from... The Siri aggregate is present. That's enough of you. So here they are called khandhas in Pali or skandhas in Sanskrit. And skandhas basically mean heaps, piles. That's all they are. Your body, the feeling, the perception, the formations, the consciousness. They're all just individual heaps.

But they can apply to now. The body as it is now, the experience as it is now, the perception as it is now, the formations as they are now, the consciousness as they are now, or in the past as they were, or as they will be in the future. Then he says about these aggregates in relation to internal or external.

Internal, meaning here, right? The body internal, the different intestines and the heart and the organs, and all of that. Or the feeling that you're having internally, or the perception you're having internally, or the awareness of what is happening internally and the formations rooted therein. The experience of whatever it is you're experiencing outside. This is the form aggregate, but this is also the form aggregate. The table is a form aggregate. The book is a form aggregate.

These are all aggregates. These are all form aggregates. Feeling, there is the external feeling of seeing what is happening outside, hearing what is happening outside, you know, and then so on and so forth. Likewise with the perceptions, you have perceptions of the internal and of the external. You have formations and consciousness that arise dependent upon the internal and the external, gross or subtle. This is a very interesting one. Gross, we're talking about the five physical sense bases.

When we talk about the subtle, we're talking about the mind. So the aggregates in relation to what's happening through the world that we experience through the five sense bases, and the world internally through what? Meditation. Through jhana. Then we talk about inferior or superior. Inferior in relation to what? An experience that is happening here or an experience that's happening in a higher realm, inferior or superior, far or near.

This aggregate can be here in the form of this body, the form aggregate can be here in this form of the book, I should say. But this same book can be miles away. Indeed, I have a copy of the Majjhima Nikaya at my mother's place in India. It's the same form aggregate, far or near. Any feeling, any perception, any intention, any formation, any consciousness, whether it's far or near, they are still just aggregates. What is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the feeling aggregate, the perception aggregate, the formations aggregate, and the consciousness aggregate? So what are the causes and conditions for the arising or manifestation of these five aggregates?

The four great elements, Bhikkhu, are the cause and condition for the manifestation of the material form aggregate. We talked about this right there. There are different states of matter, the different molecules and atoms that make up the material form aggregates. This cup here, this is a material form aggregate, right? But so is the water inside that too, is a material form aggregate. It just has a different kind of quality to it. This is solidity, so there's more earth element here. The water is liquid, so there is more water element in there, naturally.

Likewise with fire, likewise with air, everything that we see in our material world and we don't even see, like the different gases. All of that is the material form aggregate because they are made up of different states of matter, different molecular structures. Contact is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the feeling aggregate. Contact is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the perception aggregate. The formations aggregate. Interesting.

Contact here. So what is contact? Contact is one of the links of dependent origination. Contact is when a sense object or a sense base meets with a sense object and dependent upon them there arises a sense-based consciousness and they constitute the contact. Naturally that gives rise to an experience of feeling, vedana. So that makes sense. Contact gives rise or manifestation to the feeling aggregate. But conjoined with that feeling is perception. So naturally, contact also gives rise to perception.

But how does contact give rise to formations? There is a feedback loop system going on when it comes to dependent origination. You need formations. So when the contact happens, so when I snap my fingers, what happens? The sound made contact with your ears and so then there was the percolation of mental formations which allowed the faculty of feeling and perception in mentality, materiality to give rise dependent upon the contact and come towards the experience of the link of feeling and conjoined to that perception.

So contact can give rise to feeling, perception and formations. And, I don't know if it says it in the Sutta, but it does say it in a different Sutta. That is, Anguttara Nikaya 6.63. That is a penetrative discourse. It says, for karma. The arising of karma. Why? Because karma is everything that you experience here and now. Everything that you feel and perceive here and now. And in order for you to intend, make an intention to do something, there needs to be contact.

Because even the intention that happens at the level of mind, at the level of mentality. There needs to be some kind of cause and condition for that intention to arise. And that cause and condition is that the mind makes contact with the mind object. You think about something and then you intend to do something. It's a hot and sunny day and you see a great big tree.

In the seeing of that tree, you make the intention to walk under that tree so that you can sit under the shade. The body is feeling hungry. You make contact with some food. It sees it and you make an intention to go and get yourself some food. So that is the karma in both cases, dependent upon previous causes and conditions, of new karma, which is the action that you produce based on intention.

Both of these are dependent upon contact. And contact itself is also karma. It is old karma. So when we talk about the manifestation of the formations aggregate, mentality, materiality is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the consciousness aggregate. Consciousness cannot arise independently. It arises dependent upon mentality, materiality. Dependent upon nama-rupa, consciousness can only be known by its fuel, which is mentality, materiality. So when we talk about the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness and so on and so forth, they arise because there is first mentality, materiality, and then the sixth sense basis, and then contact, from which there is the sense-based consciousnesses. So you need mentality, materiality, for the manifestation of consciousness.

Now when we talk about where mental immateriality is dependent upon consciousness, there we're talking about consciousness as the life continuum. The life that is the vitality, the energy of life that is known as consciousness as well, arises dependent upon past formations that activate it and go into the nama-rupa, descends into the nama-rupa, and gives life to that mentality, materiality. But once it does that, it is also impermanent, because it is dependent upon vitality. It is dependent upon the vitality of the body for it to continue. Once that goes away, so too does that consciousness go away.

That is the five aggregates multiplied by these four views. You take the body or an experience or perception of an experience or a choice or awareness as self, as this is me. Or you take any of these five aggregates as belonging to a me. Or that I am in one of these five aggregates or I am separate from these five aggregates and they are in me. So in any of these cases, there is this sense of self. So what is that sense of self? When we talk about self, that is the word atta. Atta in Pali or Atman in Sanskrit. In ancient India, Atman or atta meant that it was a soul or a self that is permanent, that is the source of happiness, that is undying, and that is me.

And it pervades all. In some traditions, this is how it's understood. Using that as the touchstone, using that as your measurement of what is self and what is not self. When you look at any of these five aggregates, you realize they don't fit the criteria of what should be called self, because they are all arising and passing away. They are all dependent upon causes and conditions. Self ought to be according to that criteria. So when the mind starts to see or take any of these five aggregates as me, mine, or myself, rather than seeing them as causes and conditions that give rise to them, that is the identity view. That is the belief in a personal self.

But, Venerable Sir, how does identity view not come to be? Here, Bhikkhu, a well-taught, noble disciple who has regard for noble ones. This is a key thing. Well-taught, noble disciple. Whenever he uses the word noble, that means one who has entered the stream, at least, who has regard for noble ones and is skilled and disciplined in their dhamma, who has regard for true men and is skilled and disciplined in their dhamma, does not regard material form as self, or self as possessed of material form, or material form as in self, or self as in material form. He does not regard as in consciousness. That is how identity view does not come to be. In other words, that's how you let go of Sakkaya ditthi.

By seeing that there are impersonal causes and conditions that bring up these five aggregates, and so they have nothing to do with the self. By seeing the impermanent nature of each of these five aggregates. First and foremost, the perception of seeing them as dependently arisen allows you to see the impermanent nature of these five aggregates. The realization that they are impermanent makes you realize that they are in essence dukkha, because they will ultimately be gone.

The fact that they are dukkha should be seen, that they are not me, not myself. Not me, not mine, not myself. And therefore that leads to the perception of equanimity. You see things as they are. That further leads to disenchantment and dispassion and finally cessation. This is exactly how it happens at infinite consciousness and nothingness. In infinite consciousness, you start to see the arising and passing away of consciousnesses. You start to see, oh, they arise dependent upon causes and conditions. They are impermanent. You get bored of them and tired of them, so you experience the dukkha of them. You realize there is no controller here. So this is not me, not mine, not myself. You experience equanimity at the level of nothingness, and then that equanimity changes into disenchantment, dispassion, and finally you have cessation.

What, venerable sir, is the gratification? What is the danger, and what is the escape in the case of material form? What is the gratification? What is the danger? And what is the escape in the case of feeling? What is the danger? What is the gratification? What is the danger? What is the escape in relation to, in the case of perceptions, formations, and consciousness?

The pleasure and joy, Bhikkhu, that arise in dependence on the five aggregates, in the case of these five aggregates. So the gratification is the joy that you experience, the pleasant feelings that you experience, the pleasure that you experience. My body feels good. I have a pleasant experience. I perceive it as being pleasant. Therefore, I experience joy. The formations allow me to experience that joy. I am aware of that joy in these five aggregates.

These five aggregates are impermanent, suffering and subject to change. That is the danger in these five aggregates. So you gratify, or you are gratified by them, because of joy and pleasure. But the truth of the matter is, the reality of the situation is, these aggregates are impermanent. So that is the danger in them. They are liable to cause dukkha. That is the danger in them. So therefore they are not me, mine or myself. That is the danger in them.

The removal of desire and lust, the abandonment of desire and lust for these five aggregates. This is the escape from these five aggregates. The desire and lust is the identification with one or more of these five aggregates. The removal of that is the escape from them. The aggregates remain just as is. But once you remove the desire and lust, once you remove the identification, then there can be no more clinging dependent upon these five aggregates.

There can be no more wrong view dependent upon these five aggregates. There can be no more suffering dependent upon these five aggregates. Venerable Sir, how does one know? How does one see? So that in regard to this body with its consciousness and all external signs, there is no eye-making, mind-making, an underlying tendency to conceit. So the question is, how do you destroy mana?

How do you destroy conceit? What is conceit? The eye-making. The mind-making. So the eye-making, the mind-making, is ahamkara. That is another word for ego. The sense of self. How do you let go of that? This is how to do it. Bhikkhu, any kind of material form, whatever, whether past, present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, one sees all form as it actually is, with proper wisdom, thus. This is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself.

Any kind of feeling, perception, formations, consciousness, whatever, whether past or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near, one sees all of them as they actually are with proper wisdom thus. This is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself. How do you do that? It's not a mantra. You don't keep saying, this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself, this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. It might help to a certain extent, but you need the proper wisdom. That's the essential key here. Proper wisdom.

What is that proper wisdom? The understanding of dependent origination. The seeing and realization and experience of dependent origination. And how does that arise? Through attention, proper attention. What is the equipment of proper attention? Mindfulness. When you are in the present moment of whatever is happening and you see it as arising, dependent upon causes and conditions, you automatically say, oh, this isn't me, this is not mine, this is not myself.

You automatically realize, I am not in control here. It is arising because of causes and conditions. You look at other beings, you look at the world around you, you look at your own experiences, you look at your own memories, you look at your awareness, your choices, and you realize, through the process of dependent origination, how they arose, dependently arisen.

Once you understand this, once you see this at a deep level, and you're able to catch, oh, here's the contact, here's the feeling, here's the perception tied to it. Where in is that the self? Where in am I there? There is just the experience going on. There's just a perception going on. There's just consciousness going on. When you see it that way, you automatically realize this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself.

So the key to this whole thing is the true realization of dependent origination, understanding it at a very fundamental level. It is when one knows and sees thus that in regard to this body with its consciousness and all external signs, there is no I-making, mine-making, or underlying tendency to conceit. Here's something interesting that happens. Then in the mind of a certain bhikkhu, this thought arose: self. Consciousness is not self.

What self then will actions done by the not-self affect? Let me say that again so you guys understand what he just said. He says, what self then will actions done by the not-self affect? So he's asking about karma. What self is it that is experiencing the fruits of the karma or doing the karma? So he's still assuming that there's a self that is separate from the not-self. It's quite bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Misguided comes from the word moghapurisa, which basically means that guy is an idiot. That's basically what it means.

That's right. And there are a few more like him. He doesn't know how to be. done by the not-self effect. Now, bhikkhus, you have been trained by me through interrogation on various occasions in regard to various things. Right? So he's actually pinpointing back to Majjhima Nikaya 38. I have talked to you about this. Right? Seeing dependent origination. Will you have the idea, what was I? Was I? Or what am I? Am I? What will I be in the future, you know, will I be, and all of these kinds of ideas will not be present in the mind once you understand dependent origination.

So, in other words, the question that bhikkhu had was, I'll go back to it, he says, what self then will actions done by the not-self affect? What he's not realizing is that the actions themselves are also impersonal. The aggregates themselves are karma. The material form is karma. But at the same time, that which you inherit as karma is the material form. This is my karma. This is the inheritance of my karma. As the body is right now. Whatever you are experiencing right now is karma as a result of your previous actions. Done by the five aggregates. Whatever perception you are experiencing is a result of previous choices and intentions. Likewise, whatever formations and whatever awareness or cognition that is occurring is a result of previous karma.

So in the absolute sense, all of this is karma. In the relative sense, you are the inheritor of that karma because so far as the five aggregates are present experiencing this reality, they are subject to karma in terms of their intentions and the actions produced by those intentions. But there is no self in any of them because they continue to change. They are subject to destruction. They are subject to or liable to cause dukkha. A well-taught noble disciple becomes disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with formations, disenchanted with consciousness. See, the problem is there's not enough disenchantment with the aggregates. We're still taking things personally. We're still identifying with the aggregates.

So in your meditation, you don't have enough disenchantment. How does that disenchantment arise? Based on equanimity. How does that equanimity arise? Based on collectedness. How does that collectedness arise? Based on tranquility. How does that tranquility arise? Based on happiness, sukha. Not the cat. It's the comfort in the body. How does that arise? That's based on joy, piti. How does that joy arise? A balance in energy. How does that balance in energy arise? Through mindfulness and investigation of states. How does that arise? Through faith in the Dhamma. So if you don't have enough equanimity, what do you do? Bring in more collectedness. As your equanimity deepens, as you're able to see things as they actually are, without grasping onto them, whatever formations are coming up in the form of whatever they are coming up as, different kinds of disconnected thoughts, stop grasping onto them.

Let them be. Let your mind be like a sieve, pass through. You don't have to engage with them. So the fruit of equanimity is non-engagement with all experience. Seeing things as they are, experiencing them fully, but not engaging in them. This happens at quiet mind when things are arising and passing away. Formations come up and the mind wants to gravitate and see what those things are.

Or the mind gets affected by them and saying, why don't they stop? Right? But if you just remain equanimous, don't do anything. Let them go. If your mind starts to deviate and starts to explore them, starts to get agitated by them, what do you do there? You six are. You let go. Come back to the pace of quiet mind.

Once that equanimity deepens, then you get tired. You're like, okay, I've seen these formations a hundred times, a hundred thousand times, a hundred million times. I've had enough. That's it. I don't care anymore. Right? Your mind just looks away. You know, talk to the hand. Right? So once you have that disenchantment, what happens? Being disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate.

He remains unaffected, totally collected, non-dispersed, in a bubble of pure collectedness, unaffected by any formations. Through dispassion, his mind is liberated. It is liberated, there comes the knowledge, it is liberated. He understands birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being. That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Now while this discourse was being spoken, through not clinging, the minds of 60 bhikkhus were liberated from the taints. How many here? That's right. I remember watching my mother pass away and she was dying from smoking related