DN 2 Oct 12, 2025 DN 2 Delson Armstrong Sunday Sutta Series

all right uh let me open this up so i'm going to be reading from um what's known as digginikaya number two the summon of halasuta which is the fruits of the life of a shramana or a samana And that's basically a wonder. But in this context, we're talking about the fruits of the holy life, the life underneath one who practices the Buddha Dharma.

And I'm not going to be reading the whole Sutta, because this is Digha Nikaya, and Digha Nikaya is basically the long discourses, and they can be very long. I once made the mistake of thinking that I could finish Digha Nikaya number 33 a few years ago. And it took me about two and a half to three hours to get through all of it. And I just, you know, at the middle of it, I asked everyone, is everyone still ready to go, keep going, or do you want to take a break? And they were like, we've gotten here so far, so let's finish it. So that's not what I'm going to be doing here today, obviously.

But the Samannaphala Sutta is a very good sutta because it gives you the entire path that the Buddha lays out in a very systematic way. It goes all the way from morality to meditation, to the jhanas, to the fruits of the jhanas, or let's say fruits of meditation, in terms of what we are achieving here with regards to the practice, the levels of awakening, and so on and so forth.

So let me give you some context in terms of what we're doing here, why we're starting from here, and what has led up to this point in the Sutta. I'm going to be reading from section 42. So let me set the story for you. Basically, there is a king named King Ajatashattu, who was the son of King Bimbisara.

And as the story goes, Bimbisara was a very devoted king to the Buddha and his cause. He had donated much to the Buddha in terms of land and providing offerings, providing food and lunches and so on for the Buddha and his Sangha. And if you go to India, there are still parts of India where you can see, for example, the mango grove that he had created, the bamboo grove, which is very beautiful, now become a very beautiful park that's around a large lake. And you can also see, this is what I'm getting to, the jail cell, or the place from where Bimbisara was imprisoned.

Now, why was he imprisoned? So the view from the jail cell, by the way, is the Vulture's Peak, because that's where many times the Buddha would be, so it had direct access to be able to at least see that area, which is known for many different Paccekabuddhas and so on. So why was Bimbisara imprisoned? Because his son, who took over the throne, didn't like the Buddha, and didn't like what was going on with regards to what his father was doing.

So King Ajatashattu imprisoned Bimbisara, and there are variations of the story, but as the story goes, at one point he either himself killed Bimbisara, killed his own father, or ordered the death of his father. This is a very big no-no in terms of kamma, the kind that is immediately effective: killing one's mother, killing one's father, killing an arahant, trying to draw the blood of a Buddha with the intention to harm, creating a rift or a schism in the Sangha. These are some of the big karmic effects that can take place because of these actions, and if you do any of these

uh you will not experience stream entry in that same life you'd have to go to a lower realm a hell realm experience the karma of that and then you have another opportunity in another human life so ajat shatu unfortunately did this and was not didn't have access to stream entry because of it but in any case in this sutra he goes to his ministers and his advisors and he asks him what are the different philosophies of this world that we're in and they talk about these other six teachers and these are the other teachers during the time of the buddha who had their own teachings

which are in some sense opposed to the teachings of the buddha because they are not they're not fully there in terms of the understanding of karma or they're very materialistic or they're very nihilistic or they're related to very strong extreme forms of asceticism and so on and so finally the minister advises him and says there is Gautama there is the um wonderer Gautama who has his own teaching and so Ajat Shattu does ask him what is that teaching and so he says why don't we go to the Buddha and he can tell you himself and so this is setting the stage so he goes to the Buddha and he says what are the fruits of your practice what is the fruits of your teaching what can i learn and what can i benefit if i would practice and so the buddha talks about different kinds of fruits he gives an example of you know him being an ascetic ascetic in the sense of a wanderer not an ascetic in terms of doing very harsh practices

The king has come to see him, and that is a benefit he has in terms of the so-called hierarchy. He's more respected than the king. And there are other things like that, very sort of mundane examples. But now the Buddha sets the stage for something else, which is important and vital for the practice and relevant for those who are in the Dhamma hall who have been doing this small retreat. So I'm going to start, and I'm going to explain what it is. So he says, 'and having gone forth...'

He dwells restrained by the restraint of the rules, persisting in right behavior, seeing danger in the slightest faults, observing the commitments he has taken on regarding body, deed, and word, devoted to the skilled and purified life, perfected in morality, with the sense doors guarded, skilled in mindful awareness and content. This is literally a summary of the entire sort of practice that you do on retreat. When he says 'having gone forth,' that means somebody who has decided to become a monk, become a monastic. But in the larger context, it's somebody who's gone on retreat, because you practice not just the five precepts. You may practice the eight precepts, and some even practice the ten precepts.

So let's go into what this is all about. Abandoning the taking of what is not given. Abandoning unchastity, or sensual and sexual misconduct. Abandoning lies and speaking falsehoods, speaking in a harsh way, speaking in a way that hurts other individuals. These are all ways in which one becomes perfected in morality. And as you can see, it says here, 'and so on through three sections of morality,' as in Sutta I. That's a big section that has to do specifically with the monastics. Like, they can't be doctors. They can't practice palmistry. They can't practice astrology.

They can't practice a whole host of things, because that's not what their practice is about as monastics. If somebody goes on to take on the life of a monastic, as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni, a monk or a nun, then their whole life is dedicated towards the path of awakening, towards awakening, and anything else, or anything to do outside of that, is a distraction. So the Buddha talks about it in terms of morality. When he says morality here, the translation is morality, but it is ethics, and the foundation of practice. This is what we call sila, or sheela in Sanskrit, and what sila is, is essentially the bedrock of the Dhamma, the bedrock of the practice. It is where one has to follow, not because there is some god out there who will judge you, not because it's going to get you to heaven or hell if you don't follow it, for example, when you go to hell and so on, not because of all of those things, but specifically

because they are beneficial for the practice of samadhi and for the attainment of panna. Sila here is ethics, samadhi here is meditation, and panna is wisdom. Now, if somebody wants, obviously, they can be a wonderful practitioner of meditative arts. They can do all kinds of things with their meditation. They can have all kinds of psychic faculties, all kinds of psychic powers. They can have a very deep intellectual understanding of the emptiness of things, of shunyata, of dependent origination, a scholarly understanding of it. But they won't be able to penetrate through it. And the reason I say this is that we have an example in the suttas of someone like this: somebody like Devadatta, who was the cousin of the Buddha.

Devadatta decided to create a schism. Now, that's a big no-no. And he tried to bring his own order within the Dhamma. And he impressed people like King Ajatashattu and other kings with his psychic faculties. Yet this is a person who had very little, if at all, morality. This is somebody who cheated others, somebody who spoke falsehoods, somebody who spoke against the Buddha, somebody who even tried to kill the Buddha. So that's another thing, trying to kill the Buddha. And so he was somebody that people were impressed with, somebody that people were attracted to.

But he had no sila. He had very little sila, very little morality. And for that reason, he was not able to penetrate through to real wisdom, the real practical realization, the sort of deep-in-your-bones understanding of dependent origination. Because you could memorize all of the links to dependent origination, you could read the books that are written on dependent origination and memorize each page, you could do all those things. But unless you truly see causality and conditionality, unless you truly understand the voidness or emptiness of self, unless you truly see for yourself the realization of Nibbana and experience the cessation of suffering, then it's all for nothing. It's all moot, because you don't have ethics.

But somebody who keeps the precepts in this way, their mind is unagitated. Their mind is filled with non-regret. And when your mind is filled with non-regret, then your mind is free to experience samadhi, natural samadhi. When we talk about samadhi, samadhi means even-mindedness. Sama means same-same. Sama, same. Dhi is short for buddhi, so even-mindedness. And by the way, this is not something you're going to see only in Buddhism, that ethics is the foundation. You go to yoga, for example. In yoga, you have something known as yamas and niyamas. Yamas and niyamas are the do's and don'ts, the so-called 10 commandments of what to do and what not to do. And they include things like the five precepts.

So this is universal. The five precepts you will find in every tradition, any tradition. And it is so essential to our practice. And once you understand this, and once you see the benefit of keeping the precepts in this way, once you see how it translates to a better meditation, then you will be committed to keeping the five precepts.

And so he says, a monk refrains from such base arts and wrong means of livelihood. So when he talks about wrong livelihood, he's again talking about the monks in terms of not doing things that distract them from the practice. In the case of us laypeople, it's not to engage in any kind of business activity, trade, career, or job that causes harm to oneself or harm to another.

So those are wrong means of livelihood. Engaging in things like human trafficking, engaging in slavery, engaging in prostitution, engaging in harming others through selling them poisons and alcohol, and killing, and so on and so forth. So once you start to see for yourself, where is the line for you? And the reason I say this is because samsara is complex. Samsara is complicated.

There are people who work for defense contractors, people who say they invest in certain companies that might not be doing the most wholesome things. So you have to decide for yourself. I'm not the person to tell you. You have to decide for yourself where you draw the line, what makes sense to you. And so this is why I say that's something that directly affects you and another person. Now, a lot of people talk about meat, and this is something I always get. Well, in that case, doesn't eating meat constitute the killing of other beings? You can see it that way, but as the Buddha has explained, especially for the monks, they can't pick and choose what they eat. And so the understanding there was that, going back to Devadatta, he said we should all be vegetarian, and the Buddha said no, because that would be unfair for the people who might just be offering meat, might be offering some kind of meat to the monks.

So you're not allowing them the potential to experience merit by offering to the monks and giving and serving the monks. So the Buddha said there are only a few cases in which you are not to take meat. And in those cases, one is: you have seen the animal or the slaughtering of the animal; you have heard the animal being slaughtered for you for the meat; you suspect that the animal was slaughtered for you specifically for the meat; or the person that's told you that this meat has been specifically slaughtered for your benefit. In these cases, one is not to take it. But this applies to monastics. As a lay person, you are free to do as you choose. Obviously, you don't want to go fishing and hunting for meat when you can just buy meat at the supermarket. And obviously, the people who are activists will say, well, you're contributing to the industry. Okay, well, we can all try stopping, but there will always be this industry. There will always be something like this. So again, like I say, you decide where the line is drawn for you personally. Let me continue.

And then, sire, that monk who is perfected in morality sees no danger from any side owing to his being restrained by morality. So in other words, because I keep the precepts, I don't feel guilt, I don't feel shame, I don't feel any kind of agitation in my mind due to any kind of regret. Over a period of time, just as a duly anointed kshatriya king, kshatriya being the warrior class, having conquered his enemies, by that very fact sees no danger from any side, so the monk on account of his morality sees no danger anywhere. He experiences in himself the blameless bliss that comes from maintaining this Aryan morality.

Now, this word Aryan, this is a word that is originally from the Sanskrit and the Pali. That idiot Hitler, he co-opted the word Aryan, and he co-opted what is known as the swastika. The swastika used to represent swast. Swast means health and good fortune. And obviously, thanks to him, now it's very difficult to use the swastika outside of India. In India, everybody uses it. So somebody who's very new comes to India and sees it, they might be a little disconcerted about that and wondering what's going on here.

But the word Aryan has nothing to do with race, has nothing to do with some kind of racial supremacy. The word Aryan actually means proper. One who is dignified. One who is civilized. One who is noble. So when you say Aryan, it means noble morality. And why is it noble? Because one doesn't cause harm to oneself, nor does one cause harm to another on account of anything.

In this way, sire, he is perfected in morality. Now we get into something else. He says, and how, sire, is he a guardian of the sense doors? What does it mean to be a guardian of the sense doors? This comes from the word samvega or samvara, I should say. Samvega actually means the spiritual urgency to practice because you realize the impermanence of the world and how messed up the world is and your own life is, and you want to get out of that suffering.

Samvara is usually translated as restraining. But the word restraint gives a connotation of suppressing or doing something that is kind of, you know, with force. But that's not what we're talking about. We're actually talking about protecting. Here he says, the guardian, protecting the sense doors, keeping them clear and purified. So, preventing your mind and the sense doors from things that can cause them to become engulfed, enamored, and agitated.

So here, on seeing a visible object with the eye, one does not grasp at its major signs or secondary characteristics, because greed and sorrow, evil unskilled states, would overwhelm him if he dwelt leaving this eye faculty unguarded. So he practices guarding it. He protects the eye faculty, develops restraint of the eye faculty. On hearing a sound, on smelling an odor with the nose, on tasting a flavor with the tongue, on feeling an object with the body, on thinking a thought with the mind, he does not grasp at its major signs or secondary characteristics.

He develops restraint of these faculties. He experiences within himself the blameless bliss that comes from maintaining this Aryan or noble guarding of the faculties. In this way, sire, a monk is a guardian of the sense doors. How do you guard the sense doors? Well, for example, if you know that this agitates you, then don't do it. One of the very mundane and important examples is, people will always tell me, you know, when I see the news I get agitated and I get upset and I want to do something about things. And what is my answer to them? If you know me well, you know that I always say, then don't watch the news. Simple as that. I say simple as that. I know, but because there are people who feel like, no, they need to be informed of what's going on in the world, why? For what?

Your world is troubled enough in terms of your relationships with your family, relationships with your spouse or partner, relationship with your friends, co-workers, your little samsara, your little world that you've put together here, right? That's enough for your mind to deal with. That's enough suffering to deal with. Why do you want to add to your suffering by looking at what's going on halfway around the world? What is that going to do for you? It's only going to make you feel helpless.

Granted, I say that the news is helpful only so far as you practice your equanimity, helping you practice your equanimity and helping you practice your compassion. But there's no need for it. There's no use for it. Unless you have good equanimity, unless you have good ability to see things without getting agitated by them, don't do it.

It's the same with anything else with your sense doors. When you know that when you walk down the street and you see this particular person, they piss you off, then don't go down that street and see that person. Find a different route. Use Google Maps or maps and find a different alternative route, right? So the idea is being sensible, having common sense, which is not altogether too common nowadays, to realize, okay, this is the stuff that pisses me off. Can I prevent it from happening again? Yes, I can. Well, then I will leave that aside. This is the stuff that makes me lustful, that makes me horny, and causes me to have all kinds of sexual misconduct, right?

So let me prevent myself from that, especially if I'm having a self-retreat or a retreat. So do things that are sensible. Don't go after things, or don't do things mindlessly where you know it's going to disturb your mind. This is what the Buddha is talking about when he talks about sense restraint, or protecting or guarding the sense faculties. And how, sire, is a monk accomplished in mindfulness and clear awareness? Here, a monk acts with clear awareness in going forth and back, in looking ahead or behind him, in bending and stretching, in wearing his outer and inner robe and carrying his bowl, in eating, drinking, chewing, and swallowing, in evacuating and urinating, in walking, standing, sitting, lying down, in waking, in speaking, and in keeping silent, he acts with clear awareness.

In this way, a monk is accomplished in mindfulness and clear awareness. What is mindfulness and clear awareness? Mindfulness, I don't like to use the word mindfulness, but here we go. We have to use it because this has become part of our normal everyday language. Mindfulness has been commodified into this app and that app. Do this particular app and you will experience mindfulness for 10 minutes, mindfulness for 5 minutes, mindfulness of eating.

Mindfulness of sleeping. Mindfulness of this and that and the other, right? You do all these different kinds of programs within the app. That's not what mindfulness is. Mindfulness comes from the word sati. And sati, which is a Pali word, comes from the word smriti. And smriti means to remember. What are we remembering? We're remembering to stay present.

And clear comprehension or clear awareness comes from the word sampanjanya, sampajanya. Sampajanya is the understanding of what is present in mind in relation to what one is doing or not doing, in relation to what one is thinking or not thinking, in relation to what one is saying and not saying, in relation to what one is meditating and not meditating.

It is basically that definition that we always talk about in TWIM, which is mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. That is staying present as much as you can in every moment and understanding where your mind is in relation to the present. Having presence of mind. Here he gives you examples. He says when you're walking, when you're sitting down, when you're standing up, when you're entering a room, when you're leaving a room, when you're urinating, when you're taking a shower, when you're sitting down, when you're lying down, when you are speaking, when you're keeping silent. In all of these ways it's not like when I'm walking I'm only thinking about walking. When I'm sitting I'm only thinking about sitting. When I'm eating, I'm only thinking about eating.

What we're talking about here is where is my mind in relation to these things? These things are anchor points, just as we talk about the four foundations of mindfulness, the satipatthana. Patthana really means pillar or foundation, as we say. But it's really an anchor. An anchor to what? An anchor to the moment, an anchor to coming back with presence of mind. So when you talk about mindfulness of the body, we're using parts of the body to come back into a collected state. When you talk about mindfulness of feeling, we're looking at the different kinds of feeling, comprehending what kind of feeling is arising, and coming back. Mindfulness of mental states, looking at where we are.

Are we in jhana or not in jhana? Do we have hindrances or don't we have hindrances? That is mindfulness of mental states and mindfulness of phenomena. The understanding of the enlightenment factors, the four noble truths, the five hindrances, the aspects of the Eightfold Path, and so on and so forth. So these are all anchor points to come back to the present.

So what are we doing when we're in the present? We're not thinking about the past, where we can be ruminating about regrets or nostalgia. We're not thinking about the future, where we can be anxious or anticipating something in the future. And when we are present, we have actually collectedness. And as we get deeper into that collectedness, we start to see with wisdom, with panya, how the mind starts to construct its own world, what is known as the process of conceptual proliferation.

And this conceptual proliferation, once it's seen through, the mind goes beyond the present moment, because there, when there's a present moment, there is somebody who is in the present moment. And one starts to disengage from the identity of one who is in the present moment. And then there is just a process. And this is something that can't happen intellectually. It happens through the process of observation, vis-a-vis mindfulness and clear awareness, which then leads you to collectedness, which then leads you to insight. This is what is TWIM, Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation. Tranquil is the samatha. Wisdom Insight, rather, is the vipassana, is the realization of how the mind creates its own world, how it proliferates its own craving, clinging, becoming, birth of new action, and therefore suffering.

So when you utilize mindfulness, it is for the purpose of bringing the mind back to the present and staying with the object. For example, when you do walking meditation, that is mindfulness of walking insofar as what you're doing is anchoring the mind to loving kindness, or anchoring the mind to awareness of compassion, or anchoring the mind to quiet mind.

When you do this, you are reconditioning the way that the mind processes reality. Because in any case, the mind is always helter-skelter, thinking about this, that, or the other when it's walking, when it's typing, when it's watching a movie, when it's not doing anything, idly just sitting. There's a default mode network. So to say that it's difficult to be in mindfulness of loving kindness while walking, that's BS.

That's nonsense. You're doing it anyway. You're allowing your mind to go in so many different directions. What you're doing, which seems more difficult initially, is practicing mindfulness of loving kindness. You're engaging with an object of meditation, allowing the mind to collect itself so that it doesn't go in different directions, and you have mindfulness of walking. When we talk about that in relation to where the mind is when the body is walking.

Where is it? Generally, it should be with loving kindness or whatever the object of meditation is. And when you get distracted, what do you do? You use the 6R's, you use right effort to come back. He says, and how is a monk contented? This is so important to understand contentment. Here, one is satisfied with a robe to protect the body, with alms to satisfy the stomach, and having accepted sufficient, he goes on his way. Just as a bird with wings flies hither and thither, burdened by nothing but its wings, so he is satisfied. In this way, sire, a monk is contented.

Contentment. This is coming from the word nekkhamma, which generally means renunciation. But when you hear the word renunciation, it doesn't mean that you have to go forth and become a monk. I know a bunch of different monks who are monks in name only, and they are seldom contented with things. So the inner renunciation is letting go of things having to be a certain way. For those who are on retreat, your food is taken care of, your accommodation is taken care of. You have a bell that lets you know to get up, you have your alarm that lets you know to get up at this time. You have a guided practice. You have people there helping you with your practice. You have interviews and so on and so forth. All of that is there, built, designed, formulated in such a way so that you don't have to think about these things, and you become naturally contented with whatever you have, giving you more mental capacity, mental space, and mental energy that you're equipped with to use it and direct it towards progress in your practice.

So contentment is about being okay with what you have. Now, as lay people, we can celebrate. We have money, we have times to go on vacation, we can go out for dinner, and so on and so forth, and that's fine. Here we're talking about as a monastic, or we're talking about as somebody on retreat. But even in the lay life, contentment is so important.

The wealthiest individual in life is the one who has contentment and is practicing contentment. Because they are not looking after something that they think that they need, which they don't need, in order to impress people who don't even care about them. And if you're talking about something like hyper-capitalism, like we see in the West, the U.S. and Europe, especially in the U.S., we like to go into debt so that we can get that fancy car, so that we can get that fancy house, so that we can get those fancy clothes and watches, so that we can impress people who wouldn't care, who wouldn't even look at you twice.

For what? For validation. For the idea that this identity is being validated and being approved of, to keep up with the Joneses. But if you have contentment, if you have true contentment and live below your means, then you are truly wealthy. That is the secret of being wealthy. Forget about trying to be on the Forbes list. There's only a bunch of hungry ghosts up on the Forbes list. Always trying to get to number one. Never content. Never satisfied.

Then he, equipped with his noble or Aryan morality, with his noble restraint of the senses, with his noble contentment, finds a solitary lodging, like Dhamvasukha, at the root of a forest tree, in a mountain cave or a gorge, a charnel ground, a jungle thicket, or in the open air on a heap of straw. Then, having eaten after his return from the alms round, he sits down cross-legged or in a chair, holding his body erect, and focuses or collects his mind on keeping mindfulness established before him.

What does this mean, mindfulness established before him? Does it mean I have to be aware of the tip of my nose that's before me, and be aware of that, and keep my mindfulness established there? Because there are practices like that. Does it mean I have to keep aware of this part of, above the lip? Or what does it mean? It just means you sit down and you relax and you see where your mind is in this particular moment.

For the more advanced individuals, you can literally ask, what do you need right now? And wait for an answer. Mine will say it feels like loving kindness today or in this session. It feels like just awareness of the present moment, where you get into quiet mind in this session. Or it feels like the radiating of compassion in this moment. Or it feels like just smiling and staying with that in this particular session. So be aware of what your mind is looking towards. Abandoning worldly desires, he dwells with a mind freed from worldly desires, and his mind is purified of them. So, being content, abandoning ill will and hatred, and by compassionate love for the welfare of all living beings, his mind is purified of ill will and hatred. So here we're not talking about the hindrances.

So in terms of abandoning, we have contentment, content, contentment being present with what one has. And the quickest way to be content is to have gratitude. I'm not talking about just okay, listing out all the things that you're grateful for. No, true, real appreciation. If you're breathing, if you're walking, if you're moving, you can be content, you can be grateful for that. If you're able to talk, if you're able to use your sense bases, you can be grateful for that. If you have the ability to think and contemplate and analyze and reflect, you can be grateful for that. If you have the capacity to have empathy and emotionalize, you can be grateful for that.

So there are many things you can be grateful for, and that leads to contentment, free from worldly desires. How does one abandon ill will and hatred? Having loving kindness, having compassion for the welfare of all living beings. When you have this, where is there room for ill will and hatred? If there is ill will and hatred, and when we mean ill will and hatred we mean the mind that resents and desires the harm of another being, when you have loving kindness that is not present. When you have compassion that's not present. In fact, compassion is the recognition and realization of the suffering of another being.

Try this. Say that you've been in an argument, you've been in a fight with your best friend, a fight with your spouse or partner, and you know you need to cool off, you need to take a break. In your next meditation session, whenever you have time, sit and relax and send compassion to that person. As you start to do that, you start to see the event or the argument or the debate or the conflict from their perspective. You start to walk in their shoes. You start to recognize the suffering, the pain, the trauma that they're acting out of.

And you start to become more forgiving and more accepting of their behavior or their action in that moment. And you may come back later and you might see that it's easier for you to resolve the situation with them. And if it's not, that's fine. That's also the truth. That's the Dhamma of the moment. But abandoning ill will and hatred is done through the process of loving kindness and compassion. Abandoning sloth and torpor, perceiving light, mindful and clearly aware, his mind is purified of sloth and torpor. Here when we say perceiving light, a lot of people will say perceiving an inner light. And this can happen sometimes when the mind becomes more collected and there is good energy that is flowing.

Sometimes there's a brightness that's there that one can see behind the eyes, as it were. And this is suggesting that the mind is free of sloth and torpor, but it doesn't have to be that way always. Sometimes when we talk about perceiving light, or many times when we talk about perceiving light, it means meditate where there is light.

Now, I've meditated in complete darkness. I've meditated in caves, and I've done that for different reasons, for other practices. And if you are a beginner and you do that, you're going to find yourself in sloth and torpor. Or you're going to find yourself in hallucinating. If you're doing something like a dark retreat, which I've done for many days, you start to hallucinate. You start to see different things in the thick darkness of the air.

What we're talking about is actually being in physical light. Go out and meditate, if the weather warrants it, out in the fresh air under the sunlight, and meditate, and this starts to let go of the sloth and torpor. Another option is to go out and walk, but when you walk, walk backwards, because when you walk backwards you become more aware, more attentive, more mindful.

And as you do this, your mind, being more attentive, can go back and meditate. Or sometimes you take a nap. And when I say a nap, I mean a 15 to 20 minute power nap, not a three hour siesta. When you do something like that, which is known as non-deep sleep rest, your mind becomes elevated. In some cases, you could even have a small cup of espresso and go for a nap, because the caffeine kicks in later, and you have a lot of it. But you have to experiment and see for yourself. And if all else fails, the Buddha talks about splashing cold water on your face. If all else fails, then you go to sleep. Or if all else fails, you just go through the sloth and torpor, just as you would be driving carefully through a thick fog, but you will see a way out at some point, when the fog clears or you come out of it. That can happen with the meditation as well. Abandoning worry and flurry, that is restlessness.

With an inwardly calm mind, his heart is purified of worry and flurry. What do we mean by this, abandoning restlessness? You need equanimity for this. You need tranquility for this. Restlessness is essentially two things: regret about the past or worry about the future. Do you think about when you're standing in line at the cashier, at the checkout, or you're standing in line to check into a hotel or at the airport?

Or in the case of India, you're standing in line just because you're standing in line for whatever it is, how your mind is. Because it's anticipating: when will I get to my destination? When will I get to the check-in counter? When will I get to the cashier and do my business? So the anticipation creates restlessness in the mind. This can happen when we have craving for a certain outcome in our meditation.

So again, you need contentment, you need tranquility, you need equanimity. When you notice the mind becoming agitated that way, because it's anticipating, come back to your object, relax, bring in more tranquility, bring in more observation, bring in more equanimity. This happens especially for those who are more advanced, where you notice the mind just gets very agitated. Well, go back and radiate equanimity, and the mind starts to paper off into more tranquility. And it's as simple as having the intention of relaxing.

It's as simple as having the intention of tranquilizing the mental formations. Because that intention in itself brings you back to present moment awareness, mindfulness of the present. Which means now you're not going into that space of anticipating or going to that space of nostalgia and regret. You're being here. And you're going one octave less in terms of energy. And when you do that, your mind becomes balanced.

Abandoning doubt, he dwells with doubt left behind, without uncertainty as to what things are wholesome. His mind is purified of doubt. This is very important to understand. What do we mean by doubt? Here the word doubt comes from the Pali vicikiccha, and what that really means is lack of discernment. Am I in a jhana or am I not in a jhana? Am I meditating correctly or am I not? I'm meditating correctly. What did he say about that in the Dhamma talk? Should I be doing this way or should I be doing that way? So the Buddha would define this as the inability to recognize if one is in a wholesome state or an unwholesome state. And the cure for this, the antidote for this, is what's known as dhamma vicaya, which is usually translated as investigation, but I don't like that translation, because it means that it's something that I have to do consciously, in a way that is active, which then creates more restlessness.

Rather, it's discernment, and that discernment is dependent on mindfulness, and that mindfulness is dependent upon right effort, and that right effort is the utilization of the 6R's. When I 6R and come back, my mind is present. I have mindfulness. I'm aware of where my mind is. And by the sheer natural ability of having the awareness of where my mind is in this given moment, I have discernment. And I know if my mind is wholesome or unwholesome. And this is how one lets go of that doubt.

I like these following similes because they talk about what it means once you're free of the hindrances. Just as one who had a loan, who had taken a loan to develop his business, and his business has prospered, might pay off his old debts, and with what was left over could support, in this case, a wife or whatever it is, might think, before this I developed my business by borrowing, but now it has prospered, and he would rejoice and be glad about that. Just as a man who was ill, suffering terribly, sick, with no appetite and weakened body, might after time recover and regain his appetite and bodily strength, and he might think, before this I was ill, and he would rejoice and be glad about that. Just as one might be bound in prison, after time he might be freed from his bonds without any loss, with no deduction from his possessions, he might think, before this I was in prison, and he would rejoice and be glad about that. Just as a man might be a slave, not his own master, dependent on another

and after some time he might be freed from slavery, able to go where he liked, might think, before this I was a slave, and he would rejoice and be glad about his freedom. Just as one laden with goods and wealth might go on a long journey through the desert, where food was scarce and danger abounded, and after a time he would get through the desert and arrive safe and sound at the edge of a village, might think, before this I was in danger, now I am safe at the edge of a village, and he would rejoice and be glad about that.

As long as one does not perceive the disappearance of the five hindrances in his mind, he feels as if in death, in sickness, in bonds, in slavery, on a desert, on a desert journey. But when he perceives the disappearance of the five hindrances, it is as if he were freed from death, from sickness, from bonds, from slavery, from the perils of the desert. And when he knows that these five hindrances have left him, gladness arises in him. From gladness comes delight. From the delight in his mind his body is tranquilized. With a tranquil body he feels joy, and with joy his mind is collected. This is the beginning of jhana. And this particular journey is so important. When he says, when he knows that his five hindrances have left him, gladness arises in him, this gladness comes from the word pamojja, and that word pamojja is basically having no regrets. This is what we're talking about. When you keep the precepts, your mind being unagitated is naturally inclined

to be free of the hindrances for the most part, and therefore there is a natural gladness about it. And from that gladness there is delight, and that delight in the mind, that relief in the mind, causes relief in the body. And when the body is feeling relief and the mind is feeling relief, it's easy for one to experience piti, for one to experience joy. And where there is joy, the mind is naturally in samadhi, naturally collected. So that's where I will stop. Any questions?

Yes, David. Not so much a question, or maybe just a reflection. First, that was a beautiful talk, my friend. I wish we could just sit under a tree all day and do this. One beautiful distinction that I found powerful was your definition of satipatthana. I've never heard anyone explain that in terms of satipatthana that way, and understanding it really helped click for me. The four of them and how they're an anchor, and really it's just an anchor to help bring you back to the moment. I think of Ram Dass and his book Be Here Now, and really that's the whole path right there. That's what the Buddha is talking about in the satipatthana: just how to always be here now and never get caught up by the hindrances that pollute our minds. That's it. So yes, I wanted to thank you. Thank you so much for that distinction.

That was beautiful. Thank you. Patty? Oh, you're on mute. Of course. Where is this in the Digha Nikaya? This is Digha Nikaya 2. Hold on. Let's see. I think I started in section 42 or something like that. Page 91. Okay, page 91. There you go. Yeah. Well, depends on what you've got, right? But Digha section 42. Okay. Yeah. And thank you, especially for doubt. Because I get all tangled up in all the specifics, you know, and you're wholesome, unwholesome just allays all of it, so it clarifies and really gets me out of the weeds. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. Anyone else? Nobody in the Dharma hall has a question.

it's funny we've been drilling on all these ideas that you've been talking about for the last you know five days and it's all like very familiar so yeah uh it's just and and it it's so helpful to just keep at it and just you know go through the practice and this is how it works and these are precepts and this is this is getting rid of the hindrances and etc uh i i might add a little bit of color to the king ajasatsu story um king bimisara was jailed king bimisara was a sodapana uh and uh boy

But yeah, the king, the king had, actually, Devadatta is his teacher, yeah, and he was impressed by Devadatta's psychic powers, and that's all really that Devadatta had. Everybody loved, you know, everybody loves psychic powers. They figure you're enlightened, and Devadatta kept saying, no no no, don't listen to the Buddha. And the king was, oh, very sincere and paying attention to Devadatta. So what happened was, the king Bimbisara was in prison, and people were, and he said don't feed him anything, don't give him water, don't give him food. So people would visit the king and they would bring food in their pockets

water in. Finally the king found out about this, and he says, guards, you know, check the pockets, and all of this. This happened a few times, and finally one person went in and they had, like, nutritious soup on their arms, and the king would lick it off to stay healthy. They finally found that out, and the king says, okay, that's it, just execute him, right? And then, yeah, afterward he realised that he'd done something very, very wrong. So yeah. And if I'm not mistaken, at the end of the sutta, I think there's a mention about how King Ajatasattu leaves, and the Buddha says it's unfortunate for him. And they say, why, what is it? He says, because, having listened to such a discourse, he had the potential of becoming, as well, because of that action. That's right. He's not able to. Yeah, he had all the qualities

to become an enlightened being, and because of that action that cuts everything off. Yeah, yeah. Dude, you mentioned the default mode network, and I'll kind of diverge here. This is maybe more a chat you'd have with Ruben and his crew. I think of it in terms of people always being on their phones and being occupied, and I'll hear people in the neuro world talk about the need to disengage from that, such that the default network can be active. But my understanding of that default mode network, period, when you're not doing something, is that it allows for thoughts to just come up. That's what they say, the free association and that kind of stuff, and that's almost against what we're trying to do in terms of being present in the moment, not just letting the mind go wherever. I'm just curious, your thoughts on that?

let the mind wonder as it were and then come up with a solution so by no means am i let's say downplaying that or or um vilifying the default mode network but at the same time i think we could look at it in in terms of we have good ability to discern where the mind is so it's not necessarily stopping the default mode network it's just maybe re shuffling it a little bit so that actually that imagination that we talk of the problem solving that we talk of is in some sense categorized as intuition so in some sense it helps us to uh heighten or sharpen that intuition in fact i i i would say that even the development of the enlightenment factors which starts with mindfulness allows us to activate intuition which may and this is maybe something as you say a discussion for with ruben may stem from some parts of the default mode network

And I, because I think of, you know, famous moments for scientists where they're out for a stroll in the forest and they're just walking, and that's where they have their big breakthrough. Yeah, but maybe the distinction, and for our context, is being aware that a thought is arising, being aware of that, and not just identified with it, right, or getting caught up in such a way that you don't remember, wait, what did I just think about? Yeah, no, excellent. And you're bang on with the nappuccino, so that is a thing, because caffeine takes about 20 minutes to kick in, and you don't want to go past that point for naps, such that you get into deep sleep. So to literally have a shot of espresso, lay down, have your little 20 minutes, and then come back. It's a perfect recipe. And, um, in the course of this talk

you were mentioning, you know, the hindrances, and one of them, sloth and torpor, is an example. But I was thinking about the advantages of the long sits. I think a lot of people think it's sort of a macho thing, but I don't think so, because you can go through a lot of things. Sloth and torpor will happen, yeah, then you'll pop out of it, and you get to see that your mind popped out of it without you doing that. You know, it's like flight hours, and you go through, you just keep going through things, and it helps you see that you go through things. So I just wanted to put in a plug for the long sits, because of what this sutta is saying.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I mean, just to add to what you're saying, just because it feels like it's not a good sit doesn't mean you despair and stop sitting. Maybe you just relax and sit for a little while longer, and as you say, you might just go past all of that, and you might have a really good sit at the end of it. Yeah. David, even another thing you mentioned, which was interesting, was the walking backwards. So many years ago I spent a week just walking the beaches of Karnataka in southern India, because they just go forever and ever. After a day I decided there was nothing there, and so I'm like, I'm just going to walk backwards

just to build up this capacity for trust and to let go. I think that's actually a great practice for people to do, if they can find a safe place where you're not going to bump into things, because inherently you're going to watch your mind cling and get afraid, and to be able to know that, hey, I am safe, and to be able to just. It's a great practice for learning to let go, relax, yeah, be present. So oddly enough, I don't know that the would ever recommended walking backwards as a practice, but it's a really, really powerful one. Yeah, and it's really about, you know, it's like you're paying more attention to something, and when you do that you kind of shuffle off the cobwebs in the mind, you know, and using other wires, so that you're more attentive. That's just it. It brings you so into the moment that it's even to me more powerful than just regular walking, because you can just wander off in that one. Yeah, yeah, Mark.

Yeah, I was going to say, along with Ann's observation of the long sitting, there is a wonderful process with restlessness, which is to see the nature of our individual restlessness and all the different ways that that manifests. There's almost like a restlessness that starts from the mind and moves the body, and or from the body that starts to move the mind, and yet there are all these different subtle kinds of restlessness that take place. When we get into these really still places, the restlessness changes, and it's something else entirely. So it's almost a way or a manner of exploring again with the consciousness and remembering to observe what is taking place. And it's such a rich place of exploration and understanding in our practice that we become more attentive to when that is happening.

And then we can let go and 6R it and do whatever is appropriate. But to recognize that there's all different kinds of it. And then we can have, let's say, a little bit more understanding, a little bit more control and a little bit more contentment when it is no longer present. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. Yes, David.

The restlessness. This is, I find, in my experience, the most pernicious of the fetters. The one that is subtlest. And to me, it's almost what keeps the universe going in terms of beings being born. And it's one of the last to fall off. Yeah, what is your experience or advice in dealing with really that subtle movement of the mind of always wanting some form of agitation? Right, just some vibration. The beauty of the Dhamma is that it's all about dependencies and interdependencies. Like that is the practice, that is the understanding. But the arising of this, there's the arising of that. With the passing away of this, there's the passing away of that.

So it's the same with restlessness. What is restlessness contingent upon? What is restlessness dependent upon? And I venture to say that restlessness is actually dependent upon conceit. Restlessness is dependent upon, and what do we mean by conceit? Again, here's another word, like what does conceit mean actually? It comes from the Pali mana, which means to measure up, to measure.

And so the restlessness arises whenever there is some kind of identity to defend, some kind of identity to protect, or some kind of identity to be a part of, to compare with, and so on. The reason is because this desire to have identity, it comes from a desire for stability. And restlessness is a symptom in that sense of conceit. It's a symptom of the comparing mind that says, I'm not good enough, I need to do better. Or I'm good where I am.

And so I have this sort of pride or arrogance about it, which will ultimately lead to some kind of restlessness. Even in that arrogance, you're not going to find any kind of contentment because it's like maybe there's something more. Now I have to protect my stature. Now I have to protect whatever is going on. So when we look at the last fetters, the last five fetters, the restlessness, the desire for form existence and formless existence, which means essentially if you put them together, the desire for a certain state, which is, again, a desire for a certain outcome.

These are dependent upon conceit because there's still an I that I'm protecting or wanting to improve to get somewhere. Now, I'm not deflating the idea that we should always improve ourselves. What I'm saying is look at it from the perspective of when there's restlessness, what is it in relation to when it comes to the I? What is it in relation to that comes to a sense of ownership or defending or protecting?

When you say that, what it makes me think is the thoughts that go through my head are it's based upon the wrong view of the sense of I, right? Because that I creates other and from that, like you said, there's that defensiveness, and so again, I kind of go into the idea of non-duality, where you're dissolving that wall between self and other and there just is, right, from that acceptance and that piece of just being there in that moment, then there's not that restlessness to do or create or. Yeah, yeah. Okay, excellent. Thank you.

Anyone else? We can share some merit then. All righty. May suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Salam, salam, salam. Okay, thank you everyone. See you next week.