"Refuge" How To Practice for Arahatship -Crossing of the Flood-Sunday with Delson Armstrong

Whatever bhikkhu or bhikkhuni, friends, has declared the attainment of arahatship in my presence, has done so by these four paths, or by a certain one among them. Pretty short, but there's some interesting stuff here. So he says the first way is the development of insight preceded by serenity. So here we're talking about samatha and vipassana. What is samatha? Samatha is the calmness of mind, the tranquility of mind, and this is done through a practice of being collected, tranquilizing bodily and mental formations. As the mind relaxes, it opens up for insight to develop. What do we mean by insight or vipassana? When we're saying insight, we're saying we're getting to understand how the mind works, because we're starting to apply the mindfulness and discernment that are required to see when certain formations arise.

In the second path, what we're talking about here is serenity preceded by insight. Now, in this case, what would be a good example of this? In my mind, we could say it's something like reading or listening to the Six Sets of Six. When people listen to the Six Sets of Six, it's just the reader reading the sutta, and there are wonderful, very powerful, potent insights in the Six Sets of Six, if your mind is developed enough, insofar as listening clearly to what is being said. As a result of it, your mind becomes calmer and calmer and calmer, and it's like the words are taking you towards that experience of serenity, towards tranquility, towards collectedness, towards disenchantment and passion, and before you know it, the mind ceases. That's such a powerful sutta. There are so many instances where, in my own experience of teaching and in others who have taught it, people have said they had a wonderful experience from it. Their mind just ceased, and they had a real great insight into the links of dependent origination, and so on.

And then the third is TWIM, Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation. And it comes from the understanding that we yoke these together. So the tranquility here is the development of serenity. And the wisdom insight arises in tandem to every time we relax and let go. So how is that done? That's done through the process of the six R's, through right effort.

So in this case, somebody sits down for meditation and cultivates a feeling of love and kindness. But as soon as they do that, they feel like their mind is bombarded by different kinds of hindrances. So as soon as they use the six R's, they see when I let go of my undue attention, which is the cause for this particular hindrance to arise, it ceases. And when I direct the mind towards a wholesome state like loving kindness, it grows, it develops. Attention to that, it will continue to grow. This is the understanding of becoming. This is the understanding of being. So as we get deeper into the practice, as we start to let go on deeper and deeper levels, we start to see what is the ultimate insight, which is the insight of causality and conditionality. That is the essence of the entire Buddha's teachings, of all of the Buddha's teachings. This is something that was asked by Moggallana, if I remember correctly, when he saw that monk and he said, what is it that your teacher teaches?

And he says, causality and conditionality. With the arising of this, there is the arising of that. With the passing away of this, there is the passing away of that. And we do this through the practice of yoking together serenity and insight, or samatha and vipassana. And then finally, there is what is known as being seized by restlessness about the Dhamma, and then one gets steady. Now, the word restlessness here makes it feel like we become very agitated about something. And that might be the case in some cases. But really, a good representation of this is Ananda himself.

As the story goes, as the event happened, according to Buddhist history: after the parinibbana of the Buddha, Kassapa was the one who said that we will have to organise all the words of the Buddha into something that is passable, that can be shared for future generations. And so their first council was going to be starting soon under the leadership of the arahants that were there. Wonderful memory has allowed you to know exactly what the Buddha said.

But you are not yet an arahant, and this is a council of arahants. So get to work. So Ananda was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out how do I get to arahatship? So this is what it is. It's the restlessness that the mind is seized by, due to the Dhamma, about the Dhamma, regarding the Dhamma. And when he relaxed and he just put his mind at ease and just went to sleep, before his head hit the pillow, it is said that he attained arahatship. So it's that spiritual urgency that we're talking about here. A mind can become so fixated on the liberation of itself

That, because of the power of that spiritual urgency, the mind is primed. It is basically ripened so that whatever is said in relation to the Dhamma, the mind understands it and drops. And experiences liberation. A good example of this is also the Bahiya Sutta, where Bahiya is under the impression that he is an arahant, but obviously he isn't. So he goes to the Buddha under the advisement of his long-past relative, who comes in the form of a deva, and he is seized by restlessness about the Dhamma. He goes to the Buddha, and what does he say? He says, teach me so that I may attain liberation, and please tell me now, lest I die, lest something happens to me. Buddha says, come back after lunch. So what does he do? He asks him three times, and finally the Buddha says, okay, this is the Dhamma in short: in the seeing there's only the seen, in the hearing there's only the heard, in the sensing there's only the sensed, in the cognizing there's only the cognized.

When you, Bahiya, are not shaped by that, then you are not in that, right? You are not defined by that. And Bahiya understood. He took that, used that as a practice, and let go and abandoned all craving and suffering. So it's rare that this happens. And oftentimes it won't happen, because there have been situations where somebody has come up to someone like Bhante and said, just tell me now, what do I do? And maybe Bhante would have said, do this, and they do that, but they don't really follow instructions. And lo and behold, nothing happens to them. Being seized by restlessness, it's also about what it says. There comes an occasion when his mind becomes internally steady, composed, unified, and collected.

So the mind is primed because of that spiritual urgency to hear. But as soon as the Dhamma is being taught, it is collected. It is unified. It is composed. It is on the dot about what is being said, follows the instructions, and experiences what it needs to experience. So this is what, as Ananda says: whatever bhikkhu or bhikkhuni, friends, has declared the attainment of arahatship in my presence, has done so by these four paths or by a certain one among them.

So that was that sutta. And there's a short one here, which is in... Wait, this is the numerical, right? Samyutta. So this one is called, it's actually chapter 1.1. It's the very first sutta in Samyutta Nikaya. And it's called Crossing the Flood. It's very short. Illuminating the entire Jeta's Grove, approached the Blessed One. Having approached, he paid homage to the Blessed One, stood to one side, and said to him, How, dear sir, did you cross the flood?

By not halting, friend, and by not straining, I crossed the flood. But how is it, dear sir, that by not halting and by not straining, you crossed the flood? When I came to a standstill, friend, then I sank. Struggled, then I got swept away. It is in this way, friend, that by not halting and by not straining, I crossed the flood. And so the Devata says: after a long time, at last I see a Brahmin who is quenched, who by not halting, not straining, has crossed over attachment to the world. This is what that Devata said. The teacher approved. Then that Devata, thinking, The teacher has approved of me, paid homage to the Blessed One, and keeping him on the right, disappeared right there.

So what are we talking about here? First of all, what does he mean by the flood? What kind of flood are we talking about? We're talking about four kinds of flood. We're talking about the flood of sensual craving, the flood of craving for existence, the flood of views, and the flood of ignorance. How did he cross that flood? So what is that flood? When we say sensual craving, whenever something is pleasing to the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, the mind wants to own it. The mind wants to control it. The mind doesn't want to let it go, because if it lets it go and it goes away, it will experience suffering, because there's attachment to that.

There's identification to that. It is the craving for existence. In other words, the desire to control the outcome for some kind of experience or some kind of relationship or some kind of situation, whatever it might be. When we're sitting down for meditation, we are in the first jhana and the second jhana. But we want to go all the way to jhana 8. We want to go all the way to the silence.

Where nothing is given in the meditation, but we want to control the way things are. This is the craving for existence. Flood of views. There are 62 different types of views that are talked about in the Digha Nikaya number one, the Brahma Jala Sutta. But suffice it to say, these views are related to the world, related to the mind and the aggregates in relation to that world in many different ways.

And once you let go of those views, you come to a super mundane right view, which is ultimately the realization of action and consequence and the realization of the fact that it is possible to transcend that karma or that full chain of links that we call the hamster wheel of suffering, samsara, by letting go of all views, ultimately even attachment to right view, even identification with right view, and finally the flood of ignorance. What does it mean when we say ignorance?

Ignorance means not knowing the four noble truths. When do we not know the four noble truths? When we are not mindful of what is arising in every given moment. Because if we have mindfulness and discernment of what is arising in every given moment, we will not get caught up in it. Which means when we're not getting caught up in it, we're not suffering. The reason we get caught up in it is because there's identification with it.

Desire to control it, there's a desire to hold on to it, there's a desire to push it away, and all of these are different aspects of craving, the second noble truth. But as soon as we let go, when we see this, using the eightfold path, which is abbreviated through right effort, which is done through the process of the 6R's, then in that moment we experience nirodha in the form of dukkha nirodha, the cessation of suffering. So that's how we get back to understanding, knowledge and wisdom. That's how we get back to understanding, careful attention. That's how we let go of ignorance. But how, right? That's the question here, the main question. He says, by not halting and by not straining, standstill, I sank.

Which means what? I didn't make the right amount of effort. If I didn't try to let go, I got swept up by that particular craving. I got swept up by that particular view. I got swept up by that desire to control how the situation should be. And when I tried too hard, when I struggled, then also I got swept away.

Which means what? When you try too hard, when you push, oh, I see in this moment there's craving. I will do everything to suppress it, to push it away, to let it go. Then your mind gets even more aggravated. It gets even more restless. And it gets swept up in the identification with the desire to change what is arising rather than allowing whatever is arising to be there, acknowledging it, understanding it's there, and letting it go. In the right manner, with the right effort, and that means to see it for what it is. Don't get swept up in it. Don't get caught up in it. Don't try to push it away. Just see it and redirect your attention to that which is more wholesome, that which I would say, and I would call, skillfully liberating. That is what kusala means, to be skillful, that which is skillfully liberating. When I do that, attention is no longer on that particular hindrance or that particular cause of the flood.

It withers away eventually. And what strengthens is that which I give attention to. In this case, that particular skillfully liberating thought or habit or whatever it is. So the whole basis of right effort means that. It's a balanced effort. You need to do something to let go of that particular suffering. But you cannot push by identifying with it. Every time you try too hard, it's because there's still an innate desire to control how things should be.

Once you let go of that and treat it like a game, really treat it like a game, treat it like fun. I was telling that to everybody who was on retreat this last nine days. Treat it like a game. You're on vacation here, so take it easy. And that's what we need in the Western world. We try way too hard in the Western world. It's like, I gotta do this and I gotta do that. It's so interesting. I was just thinking about how inundated I am with that myself, because people have been asking me about the Austria retreat and the Germany retreat and all of these other things going on. And I sent a message today thinking that, oh well, we're finished with New Year's and everything, and I said, hey, people are asking about this.

Can we find out about when we can have a website? And I just got a response because the person is in Europe. I'm on holiday right now. I'll get back to you in a couple of days, right? But my mind being inundated by the Western idea is like, no, we got to do things now. We got to get things done right now. And we have to struggle and we have to work hard.

I'm reminded by Doug Craft's experience in Thailand, where, you go to Asia, anywhere in Asia. I've been in Cambodia, I've been in India, I've been in Thailand, been in other places in Asia. And they're so laid back. They're so relaxed. So Doug went there and he was there under the training of a specific teacher there. And the teacher said, yeah, you need to make an effort. You need to push. You need to do this. And Doug, coming from the Western mindset, who did all he could to push and found himself suffering for it. And so the teacher there realized that he has a different mental makeup.

He has to tell the people in the local language and culture, you need to make an effort, because people there, for all intents and purposes, are lazy. That's what it is. From the Western perspective, it looks like they're lazy. You try getting something done in India. It is aggravating to, the mental capacities of the Western mind. Try getting anything done in India.

If you want to learn patience, go to India, right? That's the idea. So there needs to be balance. We need to be able to incorporate both. When we see that the mind is getting too caught up in, I'll do it later. I'll get it done later. That's when you say, oh, wait, why can't I just get it done now? What's preventing me from getting it done now? There is a certain level of rigidity that it has to be this way.

Can I find myself becoming more flexible? Can I find myself becoming more creative in the way that I do it so that I can be more effective and more efficient? That's what the Western mind wants, but not always by brute force of it's got to be done now, but by relaxing and by letting go. May suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck fearlessly. 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 progress of dispensation. Thank you, everyone. I'll see you around. Thank you.