Day 4 Enlightenment Factors and 6Rs

Yesterday we spoke about the Eightfold Path, and we left it off at right mindfulness and right collectedness. So today I want to go a little bit more into right mindfulness and connect it with what we call the seven awakening factors. These factors are happening under the hood, right? They are running the engine of your mind as you're meditating.

So it's less about doing something and more about allowing them to process and being aware once they're processing. When you get to, let's say, more refined states of practice, sometimes you will utilize the differing factors to balance out the mind. So we'll talk about what that means. So what are these seven awakening factors? Mindfulness, discernment, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity.

These are the seven. So what is mindfulness? Yesterday I brought up the definition of mindfulness, which, remember, comes from the Pali Sati, which comes from the Smriti in Sanskrit, which is to recollect or memory. It is to remember to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. When you are sitting down for practice, what are you doing? You're staying with your object of meditation, which is loving kindness in this case, or the spiritual friend, or radiating in the Sixth Direction, whatever it might be. You are aware of what is going on. So in that sense, you have mindfulness of loving kindness, the spiritual friend, or mindfulness of the six directions, and so on and so forth.

But what the Buddha talks about, especially in the Sutta known as the Maha Satipatthana Sutta, he says that if one were to remain in this mindfulness for seven days, these are his words, for seven days, one would be fully awakened. But it's very difficult to be mindful for 24-7, right? Because the mind's capacity to be there at all times is limited by its own thinking process.

If we learned how to rest in the luminosity of mind and stay there without any befuddlement of the thinking process of what this is, what that is, and so on, and just rest in that, then you attain to that effortless meditation. Then you attain to that natural mindfulness. We will get there. We will all get there. And I will show you how to do that. But you need some level of collectedness that needs to be developed. So I'm waiting until we come together where we are all ready for that process to get to that space immediately.

But suffice it to say that when we talk about mindfulness in this regard, we're talking about specifically two things: Sati and Sampajanya. Sati, S-A-T-I, that is the mindfulness. Sampajanya, S-A-M-P-A-N... I lost my track. Sampajanya, whatever that is. Sampajanya. That means clear comprehension. So that means what am I discerning, what am I aware of in regards to what I'm paying attention to. So the movement of our awareness is done by what we pay attention to. Being able to see the mind has moved from its object. That's the recognized step. That's the noticing. That's the mindfulness.

So mindfulness is twofold. It's the present moment awareness and the clear comprehension of what's happening in the present moment. That's why the definition as given by Bhante Vimalaramsi is this. Remembering to observe. That's the sati. Remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. That's the sampajanya. So in this regard, what we're doing here is we are coming back to the present moment. We can use different kinds of anchors. The Maha Satipatthana Sutta talks about the Kaya Upasana, which is the mindfulness of the body. It talks about Vedana Upasana, which is mindfulness of feelings. Mindfulness of mental objects, and Dhamma Upasana, the mindfulness of phenomena in general.

So a lot of people who have read that sutta will ask, why does the Buddha list it in this way? Mindfulness of the body, then the feeling, then the mind, then phenomena. Well, it's going from gross to subtle, right? We can use our bodies as an anchor to come back to the present moment. We can look at our feelings, sensations in the body, mental sensations, emotional feelings as anchors to come back to the present. We can use mental states, which I'll get into a little bit more now. Mental states here are basically certain kinds of mental experiences where the mind is feeling constricted or more expansive. In jhana or out of jhana, the mind is experiencing equanimity or not, and so on, all of these things.

So that's the Chitta Upasana, mindfulness of mind. So we're utilizing mental factors as an anchor to come back to the present moment. Dhamma Upasana are things like making note of, or being aware of, or paying attention to when a hindrance arises, when an awakening factor arises, when the Four Noble Truths themselves become present. So these are phenomena that are happening in the mind at large, but also the Four Noble Truths is something that is happening all the time, and we perceive that. Come back. Don't look at it as just, I should say just, but don't look at it as some kind of a practice that you must master.

Some people will do that. For example, in the mindfulness of body, there is the mindfulness of the breath because it's tied to the body, anapanasati. There's mindfulness of the different components of the body, like the different parts of the body, the different organs of the body, of the elements, mindfulness of the decaying of a corpse of a body. All of these are different kammatthanas. Kammatthana means the object of work, the object of meditation.

In the case of mindfulness of feelings, noticing what kind of sensations come up, what kind of feeling comes up, what kind of mental experience comes up. So feeling or vedana is really experience. I like to call it experience. It's anything. Experience is the big umbrella for any kind of feeling. It can be a physical feeling that's happening through the senses. It could be a mental feeling that's happening through the mind. It could be a pleasant experience. It could be an unpleasant experience. It could be a neutral experience.

It could be an experience that's happening in the sensual world, or it could be an experience that's happening in meditation. So you just utilize your ability to 6R's to recognize what's going on, and now you're anchored back to the present. Chitta Upasana is I have loving kindness right now. I feel into the loving kindness. That's not just a mental experience.

It can be tied to a bodily experience too, when you feel glowing in the heart. It can be tied to a mental object. My mind is full of loving kindness or my heart is full of loving kindness. And then in that sense, I notice when the mind drifts away and there's a distraction. Now I'm mindful of that. I'm mindful of the hindrance.

One of the five hindrances. When I recognize that and I let that go and I come back, I'm mindful of that experience as well, of the Four Noble Truths. Here is a hindrance in the form of the First Noble Truth as suffering. My undue attention to that hindrance is the reason for its continuation. That is the Second Noble Truth.

When I release it, I'm utilizing the Eightfold Path, which is abbreviated in the 6R's, and I experience release from that. That's the Third and Fourth Noble Truths. So what you will find is the 6R's are in that sense multidimensional. They help to incorporate so many aspects of the Dhamma. You will see now how the 6R's also help you to incorporate the enlightenment factors themselves, the awakening factors themselves.

So to summarize, mindfulness is bringing up, or really it is the process of the mind attuning back to the present moment using an anchor, along with the clear comprehension of what is arising in that moment. So from that mindfulness arises what is known as discernment. Discernment is very close to sampajanya or clear comprehension. So discernment here is translated from dhamma vichaya. So discernment is noticing or knowing what is arising in the mind.

When I have doubts about what is arising in the mind, that is the vicikiccha, that's the doubt. That's the moment in which I can't tell whether this is a wholesome object or this is an unwholesome object. allows me to see and perceive and recognize this is wholesome and this is unwholesome. Now the question may arise, how do I know what is wholesome and what is unwholesome?

How do I know that which is skillful and unskillful? A wholesome experience is something that is expansive in nature. Something that brings relief in the mind, spaciousness in the mind, something that brings quietude and tranquility in the mind. Unwholesome and unskillful, something that brings tension and constrictedness to the mind, something that brings agitation to the mind, something that brings discomfort in the mind. We're able to gauge our energy, which is translated from virya. Virya, the root word, interestingly enough, of virya is vir. Vir is a warrior.

Vira. So here, when we say warrior, we're talking about strength, energy. To what level of effort are we putting in the mind, the practice? Too much effort, and you're going to constrict the mind. You're going to suppress the mind. You're going to cause agitation to the mind. Too little of effort, and what's going to happen is the mind will experience sloth and torpor.

It will go in different directions. It won't have a collected mind. It won't have the orbit, the gravitational field in which it can stay with its object. machine. Knowing how much is too much and making proper adjustments. Is there too much joy? Too much joy can create agitation in the mind. Is there little joy? I need to bring up my smile. I need to bring up a little bit more joy.

Is there too much tranquility? Too much tranquility can bring a mind that is complacent. Is there very little tranquility? There's too much up my tranquility. Is there too much equanimity or investigation? If I'm trying to figure out all the time what's going on in my mind, I'm no longer meditating, am I? I'm just thinking at that point in time.

All I have to do is, if you've flown a plane. So when you fly a plane, especially when you're doing visual flying, you're out looking outside the window, and you're always gauging a little bit, what's my altitude, what's my airspeed, and so on. But I'm not constantly, because there's something else called instrument flying. We don't want to do that. We want to do visual flying. Instrument flying is where I'm always looking at my instruments.

But in visual flying, I'm looking just for a moment, how are things going? How's the airspeed? I'm going too fast. I need to ascend. How's the altitude? Okay. I make small adjustments. But I don't need to do it all the time. I can tell you from experience that that doesn't work. When I've flown and I've looked at my instruments, instead of looking out, I would get scolded by my instructor. Like, are you noticing how wobbly the plane is?

Because you're not paying attention to what's going on outside of the plane. You're trying to make adjustments all the time, micro adjustments, because you keep looking at your altitude and you keep looking at your airspeed. But if you just fly visually, you'll be able to fly straight. So in the same way, Dhamma vichaya, too much investigation, too much discernment. How much do I need here? How much do I need there? You're no longer flying. You're no longer meditating. So you only need to see, okay, everything is fine. Everything is good. I can keep going.

Oh, there's sloth and torpor here? Let me bring a little bit of interest. Let me bring a little bit of joy. Oh, there's agitation? Oh, okay. I'll bring some tranquility. Oh, things are going good? Okay. I can sit back and relax. This is how you make those adjustments in energy. Now, when you have a balance of that, there tends to come joy.

And generally, because of the way our minds are, where it's mostly running all the time, the feeling that we get when we relax, when we let go, is a sense of relief. And from that relief, a natural joy arises. This is known as piti. That's the joy that we're talking about. That's the joy that we're trying to cultivate by having a light mind and a light heart.

That's the joy we're talking about when we laugh and have a sense of humor and share a joke. When we smile. When we pet the cat. When we're looking at the dogs. When we're just out in nature. That feeling of joy. So that is what we bring back into the meditation. The relief from letting go. And then there's joy when we smile.

Now, from that joy arises what's known as passaddhi, tranquility. This is something that is underratedly profound. The tranquilizing step. In the Anapanasati Sutta, a lot of people are just focusing. And first of all, nobody does the Anapanasati Sutta correctly, by the way. Nobody. Everybody focuses on this point here. Everybody focuses on the arising and whatever it is, the movement of the belly, right? Coming up and down. I would challenge those people who are teaching this way. Please show me in the Sutta where it says you must focus on the tip below your nose. Please show me in the Sutta where it says that I have to focus on the movement of the belly.

They won't have an answer. If you actually go back in the Anapanasati Sutta, what it says is: In long, he knows he's breathing in long. Breathing out long, he knows he's breathing out long. Breathing in short, he knows he's breathing in short. Breathing out short, he knows he's breathing out short. Breathing in tranquilizing formations, breathing out tranquilizing formations.

Tranquilizing formations, bodily formations and mental formations. The word is, that is the key to relax formations. When you do the relaxed step, this is what you're doing. You are uprooting bit by bit the craving from those formations, both in the body and in the mind. Pasambhaya. Passaddhi or tranquility. Now, once your mind is tranquil, it feels comfort and ease. This is known as sukha. It's not there in the Enlightenment factors, but it's implicit when we talk about another part. I will bring that up another day. But generally what we see is there's comfort and ease in the body.

So when there is pain in your meditation, you need to make proper adjustments. Physical pain, find the proper seating adjustment, find the proper cushion, and so on. There is something known as meditation pain, and that is sometimes felt over here, or over here, or in the back, or whatever it is. And that's because the mind is overly focused.

It's trying too hard. As soon as you gently ease off, you're going to see that that meditation starts to subside. So this tranquility leads to comfort and ease in the body. And when the body is at ease, the mind is naturally collected. This is where we get into samadhi. Samadhi, what does that mean? Sama is same-same. It is even. It is balanced.

Dhi is the short form for buddhi, which is the mind. So it is a mind that is balanced, an even-mindedness that we get to. This is what the practice of meditation fulfills, right? It's not about constructing experiences. That is samadhi. And incorporated into samadhi are the four jhanas. So we'll get into the four jhanas a little bit later. But samadhi is an essential part of this practice. to be very moralistic and ethical and follow the precepts and so on and so forth.

But in accordance with what the Buddha has said, that will only take you so far. It will give you a good life. It will give you a good rebirth. It will bring you to a better destination in your next life. But the Buddha said that that's still part of samsara. That's still part of the matrix. You can go to all these wonderful heavenly existences, but they are not eternal. They are also impermanent.

So the Buddha said, practice for samadhi, practice for meditation. That samadhi gets you into the jhanas, which are in alignment with what are known as the brahma lokas, beyond the heavenly realms. And then beyond that, the formless realms. But he didn't stop there either. He said, once you have developed samadhi, you must develop wisdom. Because wisdom is that liberating insight that frees you from the matrix of samsara.

So that you don't have to take rebirth at all. So that you're free from all identification, from all ego structures. And you move in this world in accordance with whatever is required. So that's the fulfillment of samadhi, is panna, or wisdom. Now, this samadhi leads to what's known as upekkha, which is translated usually as equanimity. So this equanimity we experience in the meditation.

After a while, the mind gets very collected, and then the mind becomes very soft and gentle and tranquil. And it's like it becomes so even-minded, it becomes so balanced that it's not really interested in pleasure or pain or what's going on. Everything is just fine. There's a beautiful peace in there. There's a beautiful tranquility in there. And now this equanimity is translated from upekkha, which is related through the word apekkha, which is expectations. Upekkha is free of those expectations.

So some of you, when you're meditating, you are in the waiting room of Nibbana. You're waiting. Word for craving. Because there's an expectation, something is going to happen. Something is going to happen. And so that's why I say, when you get to that space, don't do anything. Just rest in it. If this is the space that's going to be there for me, then I will accept it. That's the contentment, the renunciation, the nekkhamma. Let me be content with this.

I've always said you experience Nibbana when you least expect it, which means zero expectations. So when you let go of all expectations, your mind is naturally equanimous. And another form of this equanimity is known as yatha bhuta nana dassanam, which means the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are, as it actually is. You penetrate through the dreamscape into what reality actually is.

You let go of the filters of the ego structure. You let go of identification. So these awakening factors are implicit in the practice of meditation insofar as when you are practicing in accordance with the Eightfold Path and utilizing right effort, the Six R's. And within the Six R's are the balancing and activation of these awakening factors. The recognized step itself has mindfulness and discernment. Energy. Your mind was too much here, and now you relax. You release, and then you relax.

So the release is the balance of energy. The relax is the tranquility. The re-smile is the joy. The return is the samadhi, is the collectedness, coming back to the practice of meditation. And when you do this whole process, you are doing it with equanimity, with no expectations. Now you might notice in there, right, in the list of the Enlightenment factors, there's joy and then there's tranquility.

And in the Six R's, there's first the relax and then the re-smile. This is because they are interchangeable. When the mind feels joyful, it is also relaxed. When the mind is relaxed, joy can come up naturally. So understand that when you are utilizing this practice, it is fulfilling so many aspects of the Dhamma. Now when you have these enlightenment factors or these awakening factors, you attain to jhana. Because within the jhanas are these different ratios of the awakening factors. And we'll start to see that when we talk about it tomorrow.