Feb 21 2021 - MN19 - Two Types of Thought - Right Intention, Awakening Factors & Threefold Knowledge

Thank you, Kun. Good morning, good afternoon. All right, let me start. Yes, this is Majjhima Nikaya number 19, and I'm using Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation here. It is the Dvedhavitakka Sutta, Two Kinds of Thought. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There he addressed the bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus." "Venerable sir," they replied. The Blessed One said this: "Bhikkhus, before my enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened bodhisatta, it occurred to me, suppose that I divide my thoughts into two classes. Then I set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill will, and thoughts of cruelty."

So these thoughts are related to wrong intention. And then he says, and I set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non-ill will and thoughts of non-cruelty. And in this case, the thoughts of renunciation, of non-ill will or loving kindness, and non-cruelty or non-violence or compassion, correspond to right intention. I abided thus, meaning he meditated thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute.

So as I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute. Diligent, ardent, and resolute, which means he was maintaining his mindfulness. He was watching with attention. A thought of sensual desire arose in me. I understood thus, arisen, so he understood thus: he is using the enlightenment factor of investigation here, being able to perceive that his mind at that point is filled with sensual desire. And he says this leads to my own affliction, to others' affliction, and to the affliction of both. It obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana. When I considered this leads to my own affliction, it subsided in me.

When I considered this leads to others' affliction, it subsided in me. When I considered this leads to the affliction of both, it subsided in me. When I considered this obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, leads away from Nibbana, it subsided in me. In this case you can understand it to be using mindfulness through the process of right effort. So first he was maintaining his mindfulness, watching his mind, and then understanding through investigation that there is this particular kind of thought, this unwholesome thought of sensual desire, a thought of being distracted, of cravings. And so as soon as he recognized it, meaning he immediately saw that there is present this thought of craving, this hindrance of craving, it subsided.

Meaning when you recognize a hindrance in your meditation and that the mind has swayed from its object, you immediately stop the flow of further thoughts. It subsides. And so whenever a thought of sensual desire arose in me, I abandoned it, removed it, did away with it. I abandoned it, removed it, did away with it. This means that he was able to recognize, release his attention away or his awareness away from that craving, come back to his mindfulness, let go of that craving, thus abandoning it and removing it and doing away with it. And he continues with the rest: as I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of ill will arose in me, and he continues, a thought of cruelty arose in me. I understood thus: this thought of cruelty or ill will has arisen in me, affliction to others, affliction to oneself, and to the affliction of both. It obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana. When I considered thus, it subsided in me. So when he considered all these different aspects of how thoughts of ill will and thoughts of cruelty

obstructs wisdom. It creates affliction in oneself and affliction for others, as well as for both. In recognizing that this is a painful thought, this is a thought of craving or of ill will and cruelty, he recognized it, stopped its flow, released it, let go of it, relaxed, and came back to his object. Bhikkhus, whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, the inclination of his mind. Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, this is relating to reflection, which can lead to mental proliferation. As we discussed before, mental proliferation includes craving and clinging and being. It can create the circumstances for craving to, and so it then creates the circumstances for clinging to arise.

And that creates in one the habitual patterns of thought. And those habitual patterns of thought are the inclination of one's mind, the being, the underlying tendencies which have been accumulated and from which one acts. Thought of renunciation to cultivate thought of sensual desire. And then his mind inclines to thoughts of sensual desire. So the more you think about how something is present that you don't like, by feeding it attention, it will only continue to grow.

And as it continues to grow, it will cause craving. The mindset of aversion, more specifically. And this creates clinging to views, clinging to the sensory experience, clinging to that I don't want this process, which then creates the underlying tendency for resistance and the other underlying tendencies towards views and so on. And so that becomes a part of this built-up identity that becomes bhava. Has the same kind of stimulus, their reaction to that stimulus will be similar to how they reacted before.

So that is why mindfulness and investigation help one to understand in that moment that if craving is arising, to let go of it through the 6R's, through the four right efforts, change the trajectory of choice by making a wholesome choice, weakening those inclinations and underlying tendencies and strengthening the wholesome states, strengthening the enlightenment factors, strengthening the brahmaviharas, and so on. If he frequently thinks and ponders upon thoughts of ill will or cruelty, he has abandoned the thought of non-ill will and non-cruelty to cultivate the thought of ill will and cruelty.

And his mind inclines to thoughts of ill will and cruelty. Just as in the last month of the rainy season, in the autumn, when the crops thickened, a cowherd would guard his cows by constantly tapping and poking them on this side and that with a stick, to check and curb them. Why is that? Because he sees that he could be flogged, fined, or blamed if he let them stray into the crops.

So too I saw in unwholesome states danger, degradation, and defilement, and in wholesome states the blessing of renunciation, the aspect of cleansing. So in wholesome states, by renouncing the unwholesome states and therefore weakening them, one cultivates the wholesome states. And then he continues: as I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of renunciation, a thought of letting go, of being in a state of not holding on to anything, not identifying with anything, arose in me. I understood thus: this thought of renunciation has arisen in me. This does not lead to my own affliction or to others' affliction or to the affliction of both. It aids wisdom, does not cause difficulties, and leads to Nibbana.

It will create more tiredness in the mind. So instead, one lets go of that and continues with the second jhana, with that noble silence. And so he says, so I studied my mind internally, quieted it, brought it to singleness and collected it. Why is that? So that my mind should not be strained. Another time that this can happen is especially when one starts out with radiating loving kindness in each direction, and then finally in all directions. Sometimes people will strain too much by trying to focus too much on the feeling, or in the direction the feeling is supposed to go in, or in the visualizing of that feeling.

Feeling being radiated out, but so long as you have the feeling of loving kindness or compassion or joy or equanimity, if you have the intention, and I use this metaphor of using the pebble as your intention, and just dropping it into the mind and letting it just be there and watching it and observing it, because the moment you put too much effort you're going to find that the mind is straining. That's going to cause tension, that's going to cause restlessness, and you will be continually distracted rather than have a mind that is collected. So as long as you are able to stay with that object just by being aware of it and letting the intention gently guide the radiating in that particular direction, that is enough.

Why is that? So that my mind should not be strained. Because whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of their mind. If they frequently think and ponder upon thoughts of renunciation, they have abandoned the thought of sensual desire to cultivate the thought of renunciation, then their mind inclines to thoughts of renunciation. If they frequently think and ponder upon thoughts of non-ill will or loving kindness, upon thoughts of non-cruelty or compassion, they have abandoned the thought of ill will and cruelty to cultivate the thought of non-ill will or loving kindness and non-cruelty or compassion, and so their mind inclines to thoughts of loving kindness and compassion. So in the same way, if one continues to develop this right thought, this right thought being the second factor of the eightfold path, they will incline towards it, because so long as the intention or the right thought is pervasive in the mind, it will generate right speech and right action, right livelihood, right effort, resulting in right mindfulness, right collectedness or samadhi, and finally right knowledge and freedom. So this right intention

Cultivating that is using the effort to be able to know, in every moment, with mindfulness, with awareness and attention, if there is craving or aversion present, if there are thoughts of ill will or cruelty present, if there are thoughts of sensual desire present. When you recognize it, you stop their flow. You release. Your awareness, using mindfulness, comes back to the awareness of the body and mind. Relax the mind and body, relax to create the tension caused by that hindrance, and let it go. And then cultivate the attitude of loving kindness. Cultivate the attitude of compassion. The more you do this, the more you have right intention, and because of that you are first and foremost letting go of wrong intention, but secondly

stopping in its tracks the links of craving, and then thereby stopping the link of clinging and being. The moment you cut off the link of craving, you stop the flow of kamma. You stop the flow of creating this sense of self. The moment you stop personalizing it, you stop the flow of dependent origination. And then he continues, just as in the last month of the hot season, when all the crops have been brought inside the villages, a cowherd would guard his cows while staying at the root of a tree or out in the open, since he needs only to be mindful that the cows are there. So too, there was need for me only to be mindful that those states were there.

Now, looking at the simile of the cowherd, you can interpret it in this way. Before, the Buddha was talking about the simile of a cowherd in which he must poke and prod the cows so that they don't get out of line and then go towards the crops. You can see in this simile, you can interpret it in this way, that the attention strays into the crops, and those crops being the different hindrances: becoming distracted by sensual craving, becoming distracted by ill will, becoming distracted by restlessness, sloth and torpor, and doubt.

But then, once you let go of it and you've done away with the hindrances through the 6R process, and your mind and your attention are now staying unifying, collected around the object of meditation, you only need to be aware of it. You don't need to continually try to see if there is present any craving or aversion in that time. You only recognize it when it arises in the meditation.

In the same way, here are the crops having been let go of, the crops being the hindrances let go of, whole through having the awareness, maintaining that awareness, which is represented by the cows, just guarding that, to be aware that this is present, that this loving kindness or this compassion or this joy or this equanimity or this quiet mind, whatever it might be, is present. That's it.

And then he says, unremitting mindfulness was established, my body was tranquil, untroubled, my mind concentrated and unified. So in the beginning, the Buddha is looking at, or the Bodhisattva in this case, he's looking at the different states of mind. He's aware of them through mindfulness, recognizing what he's able to discern and distinguish between different states, wholesome and unwholesome. Likewise, in the meditation, you're able to discern if the mind has loving kindness or if there's ill will, if the mind is collected or if it is distracted by hindrances.

In the same way, you're using this principle of investigation of principles, the factor. The mind is understanding with awareness. You are using mindfulness, then understanding the states that the mind is in, going in and out of. You're using investigation. This leads to tireless energy that was aroused in him. That is the enthusiasm, the enlightened factor of enthusiasm or energy, and this can be understood through the context of the four right efforts or through the 6R process and unremitting mindfulness.

And thus the body was tranquil. He relaxed the body. It was untroubled. This led to a mind that is collected. When you relax and let go of the tension, you notice that the mind is naturally collected. It's naturally attentive. And so there is equanimity in the sense that the mind doesn't get swayed here or there. It's just remaining quite balanced.

Now he's going to get into the jhanas and the threefold knowledge. I'm going to read from a different sutta because the version I have doesn't have the entire complete recollection. So he says, in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. Notice we went through the seven enlightenment factors using mindfulness, investigation, energy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity.

And now when you have these factors present, these factors, ideally all of them, you get into jhana. So you have to build towards developing these factors as you continue to develop the meditation practice. In the beginning, it's not necessarily a conscious effort. In the beginning, all you're doing is having the mindfulness of where your mind is, investigating if there is craving present, letting go of any of the hindrances, having the enthusiasm, effort to let go, and then generating the loving kindness as your object, creating a collected mind quite naturally while you're collected. The equanimity, which is a mind that doesn't sway here or there, manifests. And then through the first jhana you experience the factor of piti, the factor of joy, and then this continues on through the second jhana. So in the first, you have the manifestation of verbalizing, but then you let go of that and experience noble silence and continue to just stay aware of the loving kindness.

And so with the stilling of applied and sustained thought, I entered upon and abided in the second jhana, which has self-confidence and singleness of mind. Here the mind is more collected, confident in the practice. It's more unified, singleness of mind. Without applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of collectedness. So in the first jhana, you were secluded from sensual activity.

You were secluded from the activity of your senses, and that joy that comes up by utilizing the seven factors, the other factors rather, by having the mindfulness, understanding, generating the loving kindness, and allowing the mind to naturally generate the joy through the first jhana, which is born of letting go of the sensory experiences. You then go into the second jhana, where there is the pleasure born of collectedness. Now the mind becomes more unified, becomes greater, and the happiness, or sukha, the comfort, the ease also becomes greater. Then in the third jhana, with the fading away as well of rapture, fading away of joy, I abided in equanimity and mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body. So he's still feeling the sukha, he still has the equanimity, he still has mindfulness.

I entered upon and abided in the third jhana, on account of which noble ones announce he has a pleasant abiding, who has equanimity and is mindful. With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, so now the mind becomes quite content with itself and starts to even let go of the happiness that is a risk, the sukha, the comfort of the body and the ease. Because at this point, the mind becomes more unified, more collected.

And the feeling of loving kindness feels like it has gone up into the head. And there is this deep equanimity that arises, and a very strong mindfulness that arises. And so he says, I entered upon and abided in the fourth jhana, which has neither pain nor pleasure, purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. Now he's going to talk about the threefold knowledge. So one uses the fourth jhana as the base from which one can exercise this ability to experience the threefold knowledge, and he explains this: when my collected mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished,

rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, meaning the mind has become soft, but it has also become quite strong and balanced. I directed it. He intentionalized it. He had the intention to recollect his past lives. So I directed it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives: that is, one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many eons of world contraction, many eons of world expansion,

many eons of world contraction and expansion. There I was, so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life term, and passing away from there I reappeared elsewhere. And there too I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life term, and passing away from there I reappeared here. Thus with their aspects in particulars I recollected my manifold past lives. This was the first true knowledge attained by me in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose. Darkness was banished, light arose, as happens in one who abides diligent, ardent, and resolute. So in the process of recollecting his past lives, the way one can do it is by looking at formations and seeing how those formations arose due to previous circumstances. It's like rewinding the different memories you've had, starting from this moment

to the last few minutes, to the last half hour, to the last hour, to the last few hours, all the way up until the last day, and so on and so forth. You go into each detail and you look at how the formations arose because of that. The formations, the sankharas, are the key to understanding rebirth, and you understand how rebirth is impersonal, so there's no soul or consciousness becoming reborn over and over. It's the formations that give rise to consciousness, that arises in the mentality or mentality-materiality, which then gives rise to that being, and then the birth of that being, and so on. So in that process, you go backwards, and what you're looking at is actually, through this process, the links of dependent origination that arise in the past lives.

of the pendrive's nation, which is why he says ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose. And then he says, when my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human vision.

I saw beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate. I understood how beings pass on according to their actions. Thus, these worthy beings who were ill conducted in body, speech and mind, revilers of the noble ones, wrong in their views, giving effect to wrong views in their actions, and on the dissolution of the body after death, have reappeared in a state of deprivation, in a bad destination, in perdition, even in hell.

The way kamma works is through dependent origination. So the Buddha or the Bodhisattva at this point is looking at how actions, whether in mind, body or speech, create reactions and create other circumstances, and it's through intention. Remember, kamma is intention, intention is kamma. He saw that arose, providing and conditioning the choices for beings to commit a certain type of action, word, or thought. And in doing so, they manifested for themselves the different kinds of existences through the continual choices that they made. So choice, action, rebirth, and kamma are all part of this link of the wheel of dependent origination.

Through the mechanics of dependent origination you're beginning to see how action arises. When you start to see that you can reflect, using this understanding, on how if you are wrong in your views, or giving effect to wrong view in your actions, which is to say you have wrong view present, you can let go of that and replace it with right view. And so, with that right view, you determine right intention of letting go, having compassion and loving kindness, and your actions, words and thoughts will also be in line with right view. This is manifesting in the ability to cultivate the eightfold path, which finally culminates in concentration or collectedness of mind, in samadhi, which then leads into freedom and knowledge. This was the second true knowledge obtained by me in the middle watch of the night. Again seeing the links of dependent origination and how they are the mechanics for karma and intention, he realized that ignorance has been banished and true knowledge arose, the true knowledge that is the wisdom of the links of dependent origination.

Darkness was banished and light arose, as happens in one who abides diligent, ardent, and resolute. When my collected mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it. I had the intention to direct it to the knowledge of the destruction of the asavas. I directly knew as it actually is: this is suffering. I directly knew as it actually is: this is the origin of suffering. I directly knew as it actually is: this is the cessation of suffering. I directly knew as it actually is: this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering. So he's talking about seeing the four truths through the lens of dependent origination, whether it's in the meditation practice or even understanding it through the process of being mindful of your intentions, being mindful of how formations are influencing intention, how that intention, rooted in mentality-materiality, drives forth your consciousness to become dependent upon the sensory experiences or mental experiences you're having, and you see how this can give rise to craving.

You are effectively seeing that if suffering has arisen, it is because of that craving. You let go of it, utilizing the 6R's process, having cultivated the Eightfold Path. So you are essentially using the Four Noble Truths as a way of letting go of craving. The Four Noble Truths are practical in that sense, by recognizing craving, letting go of the cause of suffering, which is craving, and in experiencing that relief. Experiencing that is mundane. Having understood that, you use the 6R's process; having understood that, you cultivated the Eightfold Path, starting with right view and culminating in mindfulness and collectedness, ultimately leading to the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. This is a mundane sense of that, but when it becomes very deep, when you understand it for yourself here and now on a very deep level, then you have right knowledge. Which is to say you understand that there is a destruction of the taints, and that leads to freedom of the mind, that leads to liberation of the mind, that leads to nibbana. And so he says:

I directly knew as it actually is: these are the taints, these are the asavas. The taint of the potential projection through which sensual craving can arise, where the mind can identify with the senses and the experiences and therefore personalize it, and then have craving arising because of it. Or the taint of existence, bhava, identifying with the sense of self through the five aggregates, identifying with the underlying tendencies. Therefore, identifying with bhava, having the sense of a new existence.

You let go of the projections, you let go of the potentials for that to arise. You understand ignorance, which is the ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, not understanding the five aggregates as they are, which are impermanent, not worth holding on to because they cause suffering through wrong view, and are ultimately impersonal. Not understanding the three characteristics in that way, and finally not understanding the links of dependent origination and how they influence behaviour, choices, action, kamma and rebirth. And so he's saying: I directly knew as it actually is, these are those taints. I directly knew as it actually is, this is the origin of the taints. The origin of the taints is the ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, not being able to apply the Four Noble Truths by using the four right efforts, by using mindfulness, by using collectedness.

When I knew and saw thus, my mind was liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, of bhava, and from the taint of ignorance. When it was liberated, there came the knowledge: it is liberated. I directly knew birth is destroyed. There is no more rebirth after this, because now that you understand that all of this is impersonal, you're not going to take anything personal. You're not going to crave anymore. You're not going to cling anymore. You're not going to have being anymore, sense of being. So because of that, there will be no more birth of new kamma. There will be no more birth of a new sense of self. The holy life has been lived.

Been done, one has cultivated the eightfold path, walked the eightfold path, developed it and experienced it. They have utilized the factors of the eightfold path, and so there is no more coming to any state of being. This was the third true knowledge I attained by me in the last watch of the night, and thus ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose. Darkness was banished, and light arose, as happens in one who abides diligent, ardent, and resolute.

So he continues. Suppose, bhikkhus, that in a wooded range there was a great low-lying marsh near which a large herd of deer lived. Then a man appeared desiring their ruin, harm, and bondage. And he closed off the safe and good path to be traveled joyfully, and he opened up a false path. He put out a decoy and set up a dummy, so that the large herd of deer might later come upon calamity, disaster, and loss.

But another man came desiring their good, welfare, and protection. And he reopened the safe and good path that led to their happiness. And he closed off the false path. And he removed the decoy and destroyed the dummy, so that the large herd of deer might later come to growth, increase, and fulfillment. Because I have given this simile in order to convey a meaning.

This is the meaning. Term for sensual pleasures: the large herd of deer is a term for beings. The man desiring their ruin, harm, and bondage is a term for Mara, the evil one. The false path is a term for the wrong path, that is wrong view, wrong intention, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness and wrong collectedness. The decoy is a term for delight and lust. The dummy is a term for ignorance.

The man desiring their good, welfare and protection is a term for the Tathagata, accomplished and fully enlightened. The safe and good path to be traveled joyfully is a term for the Noble Eightfold Path. That is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness. So, bhikkhus, the safe and good path to be traveled joyfully has been reopened by me. The wrong path has been closed off, the decoy removed, the dummy destroyed.

What should be done for his disciples out of compassion by a teacher who seeks their welfare and has compassion for them, that I have done for you, bhikkhus. These are the roots of truth. These empty huts. Meditate, bhikkhus. Do not delay, or else you will regret it later. This is our instruction to you. That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words.

Questions. Hi Delson, can I just ask about observation thoughts and where they fit into the... I've been discussing thoughts in the karmic process and origination today. I'm just wondering how they fit into that narrative you're referring to. Observation thoughts, or observation of thoughts that occur during the meditation, those kind of background thoughts, as opposed to... can sometimes become distracting, but not necessarily perhaps hindrance as such. Yeah, so it's really perception. You have perceiving what is happening in the way of what is arising in meditation, and that's actually using the factor of investigation, which is discerning what is happening in the meditation. So if it becomes too much, or you give too much attention to it, it can cause restlessness.

So that's why I always caution people to utilize investigation, but don't go out looking for discerning these states. When they arise, as they arise, the mind with its mindfulness will understand them, detect them. And then along with that, you realize whether you need to let go of it, if it's craving or causing restlessness, or just to let it be and continue with your - If I may, I have a question about something that always puzzled me about the description of the fourth jhana.

It says: "With the abandoning of pleasure and pain and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, so I can understand that equanimity is really strong in the fourth jhana and the joy, the piti and the sukha, will fade away, but I don't quite understand the pain and grief, because you can still have hindrances appear also in the fourth jhanas and the arupa jhanas. So which pain and grief is Buddha talking about? So I would see this as conceptual painting, meaning from the concepts of dualities of positive and negative, from wholesome and unwholesome, they will still arise. And when the hindrances still do arise, then you know you're actually not enjoying. So while the hindrances are there, then you know, the mind is no longer in jhana. You use the effort to let go of it and then come back to your object, thus creating the circumstances for samadhi, the collectedness by then coming back, thank you knowledge, and using the equanimity, then one intends to see that threefold knowledge. So is this something that you kind of, with the intention, one can practice that kind of knowledge, or

Is this something that just arises as one reaches the equanimity? I just wanted to understand the route that you take to understand the threefold knowledge of it. It's a conscious effort, so that means that there is the intention of you practicing, the right practicing, the threefold knowledge. So you have the intention of seeing how formations have arisen based on past circumstances. So you start, as I said, like you start to rewind your mind, so to speak, from this moment all the way to however many lifetimes you want to go. But the threefold knowledge really is not something that arises on its own. You have to direct the mind. You have to be able to have the intention and then make the effort to be able to see what arises.

So the distinction is you're not making the memories to arise. You're just having the intention for those memories to arise. And the memories will arise on their own by looking at the formations. So it's because of those formations which are the key to understanding rebirth. It's the formations that are the key to understanding past circumstances, past actions, and past, let's say, existences within one lifetime, but then also within multiple lifetimes as well.

Thank you. What are the causes to be more mindful? Yeah. It's a matter of effort. It's a matter of constant, consistent practice. So this question can be answered in understanding that mindfulness arises at any moment with intention. So if you recognize that you're not mindful, you're actually mindful, because you have now placed your mind on the awareness that, oh, the mind is not here. But as soon as you apply it, you take a pause, reflect on it, and continue staying in that mindfulness.

So it's a matter of having the intention in whatever you're doing, just even outside of the meditation. If you're walking, if you're eating your food, whatever it might be, before that action, to be mindful. The more you do that, what you're doing is effectively reconditioning the mind to be more mindful. You're letting go of the formations that cause wrong mindfulness or cause wrong attention.

And you're strengthening with the intention. It's the intentions rooted in the formations that are brought forth by your active choice to be mindful just before you do something that starts to strengthen. So that's why it's a matter of consistent practice and effort, because the more you do it, the more you're strengthening the formations related to mindfulness and you're weakening those that are related to not being mindful. Thank you. Hi Delson. I'm not sure if I hear it correctly, but you mentioned that if we're able to see the cause of our craving, or I think it's attachment, it starts to let it go. Does it mean that when we're able to recognize it, we're able to 6R it?

- Yes, yes. - Oh, okay. - Basically, when you see the craving arising, to say, wait, the mind is personalizing this, or the mind is having attachment towards this, or the mind is resisting from this, having discontentment of what is arising in the past moment. You have the recognition of that, then continue to use the rest of the 6R process to let go and come back to a more balanced state of mind. Is that a lot of people, sometimes they're able to see their attachment, but they wouldn't be able to know how to let it go? So I guess that's how the 6R process works. - Yeah, that's right. - Thank you. Of liberation, liberation by mind, according to the sutta, is the brahmaviharas, then the two ways liberated, then the liberation by wisdom. I think from another sutta it says that that person does not have direct meditation experience of the formations. So can I then conclude, actually, that the way that is liberated through studying, going from the fourth jhana to the past life and through understanding the rebirth condition, is actually liberation by wisdom?

I kind of concluded that seems to be it. Well, so liberation by mind, that's cetovimutti, is liberation through the practice of jhanas. So even when you've gone through threefold knowledge, you need the base of the fourth jhana. So you need to be able to go through the first four jhanas, using the four jhana as a base, then go through the process of the threefold knowledge, and you are liberated by both the mind, or through jhana practice, and wisdom.

Liberation by wisdom is really reflection and analysis, seeing in the moment as it arises how the five aggregates, when they arise and pass away, are not self, are impermanent. So it still requires a deep mind or a quiet mind to be able to reflect in this way. You're not actively analyzing, but you're watching in every moment how the aggregates are rising. Passively, you're watching how intention is arising and causing the choices that you're making. So using the four foundations of mindfulness, in that sense pathway, to be liberated by wisdom, because you're looking at things as they arise in the moment, and you're being liberated by the wisdom of what is arising, by the wisdom of seeing what has arisen. The liberation of the mind is where you cultivate the mind in right collectedness, cultivate the mind through jhana practice, and you're able to then understand the links of dependent origination, whether it's after cessation

or at another point in time in any of the jhanas, seeing deeply the links of dependent origination, you are actually then thereby liberated by both. You're liberated by the mind and you're liberated by wisdom. Because it's the seeing of the links of dependent origination that is wisdom. So when you see the arising and passing away of five aggregates, you're seeing how the links of dependent origination are flowing through the five aggregates. That is liberation by wisdom. The liberation by mind is cultivating the jhanas and experiencing nirvana. And the liberation of both is when you see the links of dependent origination after having come out of cessation. - I thought liberation by wisdom must have the first, second, third, and the fourth jhana as well. The first, second, third, fourth jhana forms part of the seven enlightenment factors.

You can still have the enlightenment factors, but you're not actively in jhana. You're just developing the enlightenment factors. For example, you have mindfulness when you're having the four foundations of mindfulness. You're investigating into the states as and when they arise through the five aggregates. You have the effort of watching this quite actively. The joy naturally arises. You have mind that is relaxed, you have body that is relaxed, that creates a collected mind which is able to unify around what is arising and seeing in the moment as it arises and passes away. When you have that you have equanimity, which means you're not swayed away by when you see the arising of, let's say, the form aggregate. You're not swayed by when you see the arising of feeling or perception. You don't identify it.

You're just watching it quite detached and just observing like a scientist. So the seven enlightenment factors are required when you have jhana practice, but they are also possible when you have the four foundations of mindfulness. It's always the mindfulness that begins the whole process anyway. So whether it's through jhanas or through the four foundations of mindfulness, you'll still be utilizing seven factors of awakening. Thank you. I thought that if the seven factors of awakening are present, it means that you are in some form of jhana, but not necessarily when you do the four foundations.

There is still some collectedness, but you're not experiencing jhanas, meaning you're not experiencing different factors of the jhanas. You're more primarily experiencing whatever you're experiencing in the way of the mind, body, mental conditions, feelings, phenomena, aggregates, and so on. So if you look at Majjhima Nikaya 111, this is actually a fusion of both. Whereas is looking at the factors of the jhanas, so he's utilizing mindfulness while being in the jhanas and also seeing the seven enlightenment factors present, or at least six of the seven factors, depending on which jhana he's in, present in each jhanic state.

So you can still have the cultivation of the enlightenment factors, but how you proceed in terms of your intention of going deeper and experiencing then the factors of the jhanas, experiencing, for example, in the first jhana, you have the pleasure and the happiness, the comfort of the body, the sukha and the piti. In the second jhana, this continues on. In the third jhana, you experience just the comfort of the body. And then finally, the mindfulness, a very strong, balanced mind. As you continue using that, you then experience the factors of the fifth, sixth, and seventh jhanas. Thank you.

Thing is, is it possible to attach to any of these awakening factors once you know you are in the practice? Attachment, getting attached to them? Yeah, being attached to them. Can you be too mindful? Can you ever be too mindful? Not to be the mindfulness part of it, but I'm always mindful about this. Like in my practice lately, it's always tranquil and I couldn't really move from it, and I don't know, should I be letting go of this, or... yeah. The reason I asked the question, can you be too mindful, is because mindfulness is always the base for any of, for the entire flow of the seven enlightenment factors.

When they come out of balance is where you start to experience. For example, when you have the investigation of principles, if you do it too much, or if you're looking out for what is arising, that's going to cause you restlessness, that's going to cause tension in the mind. If you have too much joy, that can distract the mind, or that can actually create a mind where there's too much energy. If you have too much right effort, meaning, rather, you have too much enthusiasm, where you are trying too hard, and you make the mind too focused, you're going to have tension, you're going to have restlessness. That's why, when we talk about the eighth john specifically, that's where we're starting to very minutely balance the seven factors, because mindfulness, you can't ever be too mindful, but you can have too much of investigation, you could have too much of joy, which can cause mind to sway, or you could have too much of tranquility, which can make the mind sluggish.

It can make the mind lethargic and complacent. And so when you see that, then you need to balance it out with the active factors, let's say. These are like the passive factors and the active factors. You can kind of imagine them in that way. But of course, with collectedness, there is something about too much collectedness, meaning your mind becomes so collected, because it becomes focused on an object, to the point that you suppress the mind. So even the collectedness needs to be balanced. It doesn't need to be collected. It needs to be open enough for you to see how things are arising and passing away, and letting go of any craving or aversion that you might see that might arise.

Equanimity also, you don't necessarily have too much equanimity or too little equanimity. You might have imbalance in the way you're compassionate to other things. You might have imbalance in the way of experiencing joy for other things. So there has to be a balance of everything. If you don't have too much equanimity and you have too little equanimity, you can become too distracted quite easily. So all of these have to be balanced, but mindfulness, you can have loads and loads and loads of mindfulness and you won't have a problem.

Thank you. I'm having trouble with the balancing, because I've always started out with a very restless and very energetic, too much piti going on. So trying to bring a tranquility, and then it's out of balance. So it's itself an art. When you see that you have too much joy, you have too much energy.

You just basically stop everything. Just let go of that joy. Let go of that energy, relax, keep relaxing until you see that the mind becomes collected. Once you see that the mind has become collected and no restlessness is arising, that's when you know that the mind is balanced in terms of the rest of the factors. - All right, thank you so much. - Thank you. Okay, then we can share some merit. May the suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck the less be. May the grieving shed our grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisitions of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of almighty power, share this merit of ours. Thank you so much, Delson. Thank you very much.