Delson Armstrong at Dsmc -Day 7- DN 14 Dependent Origination - Introduction

Today we are going to be talking about dependent origination. Paticca Samuppada. Dependent origination is the Dhamma. In Majjhima Nikaya 28, Sariputta talks about how the Buddha had said, one who knows the Dhamma sees dependent origination. One who sees dependent origination knows the Dhamma. This is the central core teaching of the Buddha. Listen carefully. Pay attention.

and reflect on what's being said. So what I'm reading from is Digha Nikaya number 14. This is called the Mahapadana Sutta. And Mahapadana means the great discourse on the lineage. I'm not going to read all of it because basically this sutta is the Buddha talking about past Buddhas of the different eons before him. So, Sikhi Buddha, Vipassi Buddha, and so on and so forth. But there is an interesting part here in the Sutta that talks about the Bodhisattva Vipassi, who has an experience of seeing suffering after having lived many, many, many years as a prince. And that's what makes him go out and seek a way out of suffering. So you might find this story familiar when I read it, but the core of this is Vipassi's insight into dependent origination.

So I'm starting from this sutta at 2.6. So line 2.6, this is on page 208 of the Digha Nikaya. And as he was being driven to the pleasure park, Prince Vipassi saw a sick man, suffering very ill, fallen in his own urine and excrement. And some people were picking him up and others putting him to bed. At the sight, he said to the charioteer, what is the matter with this man? His eyes are not like other men's. His head is not like other men's.

Prince, this is what is called a sick man. But why is he called a sick man? Prince, he is so called because he can hardly recover from his illness. But am I liable to become sick and not exempt from sickness? Both you and I, prince, are liable to become sick and not exempt from sickness. Well then, charioteer, return now to the palace. Arrived there, Prince Vipassi was overcome with grief and dejection, crying, Shame on this thing, birth, since he who is born must experience sickness. The father of Prince Vipassi sent for the charioteer, who told him what had happened. The king provided Prince Vipassi even more sense pleasures in order that he should rule the kingdom and not go forth from the household life into homelessness.

After many hundreds of thousands of years, so they had a very long lifespan, the pleasure park. And as he was being driven to the pleasure park, Prince Vipassi saw a large crowd collecting, clad in many colors and carrying a bier. At the sight, he said to the charioteer, why are those people doing that? Prince, that is what they call a dead man. And Prince, said the charioteer, and did so. And Prince Vipassi gazed at the corpse of the dead man. Then he said to the charioteer, why is he called a dead man?

Prince, he is called a dead man because now his parents and other elders will not see him again, nor he them. But am I subject to dying, not exempt from dying? Both you and I, Prince, are subject to dying, not exempt from dying. So these are the last two sites, or let's say two of the four sites. Prior to this, he saw an old person, and he was wondering, what is that? Who is that? explains to him that this is old age. And he asks the same similar question. Am I subject to old age? And the answer is all of us are subject to old age. So this is quite a shock for him.

It's very interesting because you see that the prince, he has been shut off from the real world in the palace. And so he is ignorant of old age. He's ignorant of sickness. He's ignorant of death. Imagine being so shut off from the real world that you become shocked at the things that we take for granted. We all accept that there is old age. We all accept that there is sickness. We've been sick many times. And we all accept that there is death. We have experienced death many, many, many, many times.

Some of us just don't know it yet. And we have experienced the death of our loved ones. We've experienced the death of our friends, our relatives, our close family members. So these components are part of suffering: old age, sickness and death. But there's another sight that the prince sees which is very interesting. The father sent for the charioteer, who told him what had happened. The king provided Prince Vipassi with even more sense pleasures. After many hundreds of thousands of years, Prince Vipassi ordered his charioteer to drive to the pleasure park. And as he was being driven to the pleasure park, Prince Vipassi saw a shaven-headed man, one who had gone forth wearing a yellow robe.

Now this is interesting. This isn't the... This isn't a bhikkhu of the Buddha's order. This is somebody who is wandering into the forest, wandering around from place to place, like a sadhu, like a sage who wanders for enlightenment or does ascetic practices. Why is he called one who has gone forth? Prince, by one who has gone forth, we mean one who truly follows Dhamma, who truly lives in serenity, does good actions, performs meritorious deeds, is harmless, and truly has compassion for living beings. truly follows dhamma obviously here the understanding of dhamma is in a different context because until he became the buddha there was no dhamma there was no buddha dhamma there was dhamma in terms of dharma as a practice for what was perceived as enlightenment not the buddha dharma so there were different different concepts of awakening, different concepts for enlightenment.

For example, you had at the time in ancient India, different schools of thought about what it meant to be liberated. So for example, the Vedantic school thought about liberation as liberation from the cycle of birth and death, very similar to how we see it. But the realization there is that there is an Atma, there is a soul that is permanent. Depending upon what flavor of Vedanta you subscribe to, that soul is either one and the same as the universal soul, or different from the universal soul, or has qualities of the universal soul, and so on. So that was one way of looking at it. Another school thought about it as letting go of all karma until you experience moksha, liberation, freedom.

And so that could be the Jain school, which talked about cleansing the mind and body and soul of all of its karma. And so on and so forth. So these were the different ideas that were being ruminated at the time. So the Dhamma as we know it was not yet discovered. where he is. Very good, prince, said the charioteer, and he did so. And Prince Vipassi questioned the man who had gone forth. Prince, as one who has gone forth, I truly follow Dhamma and have compassion for living beings. You are well called one who has gone forth. Then Prince Vipassi said to the charioteer, you take the carriage and drive back to the palace, but I shall stay here and shave off my hair and beard, on yellow robes and go forth from the household life into homelessness.

Very good, Prince, said the charioteer, and returned to the palace. And Prince Vipassi, shaving off his hair and beard and putting on yellow robes, went forth from the household life into homelessness. And a great crowd from the royal capital city, Bandhumati, 84,000 people, heard that Prince Vipassi had gone forth into homelessness. And they thought, this is certainly no common teaching and discipline, no common going forth, for which Prince Vipassi has shaved off hair and beard, donned yellow robes, and gone forth into homelessness.

If the prince has done so, why should not we? And so, a great crowd of 84,000, having shaved off their hair and beards, and donned yellow robes, followed the Bodhisattva Vipassi into homelessness. Imagine 84,000 people following you into the forest. It's a crowded forest. It's funny, right? Because we all talk about going forth and into the homeless life. And eventually what will happen is everybody goes forth and goes into the forest, and then those forests become societies. And the cities now become abandoned.

And they become the next forest. They become the concrete. And with this following, the Bodhisatta went on his rounds through villages, towns, and royal cities. Then the Bodhisatta Vipassi, having retired to a secluded spot, had this thought. It is not proper for me to live with a crowd like this. It's a lot of people. I must live alone, withdrawn from this crowd. And so, after a while, he left the crowd and dwelt alone. The 84,000 went one way, the Bodhisatta another.

Then, when the Bodhisatta had entered his dwelling alone in a secluded spot, he thought, this world, alas, is in a sorry state. There is birth and decay. There is death and falling into other states and being reborn. And no one knows any way of escape from this suffering, this aging and death. When will deliverance be found from this suffering, this aging and death? And then the Bodhisattva thought, with what being present does aging and death occur? What conditions aging and death?

And then as a result of wisdom born of profound consideration. So what is this profound consideration? This is a translation of the word yoniso manisikara. Yoniso manisikara. So manas, which means mind or the heart. Sakara, which means to take to heart, to pay attention to, to be aware of. And yoniso. So the word yoni actually means womb.

It means the source, the origin. So what is he doing? He's using his intuition. to look back into how this process works. This is why I suggest to you in the interviews that when you're doing your meditation practice, before you come out of your practice, go back and reflect on what happened in that. Just for a few minutes, reflect back on what arose, what passed away, how did it arise, And what did you do to let go of it if it was a hindrance? What hindrances arose and how was it let go of? So this is utilizing Yoni Somanisikara. The ability to have attention rooted in reality. This is how I would translate Yoni Somanisikara.

That is proper attention. Attention rooted in reality. What is that reality? Cause and condition. causation and conditionality. This is how reality works. With the arising of this, there is the arising of that. With the cessation of this, there is a cessation of that. This is dependent origination in two lines. These are the two lines that awakened Sariputta and Moglana to stream entry. here what he's doing is he's using his intuition.

He has the many, many, many eons of merit and development of the paramis to be able to access a higher dimension of mind, that is the intuition, and then look back on how this whole process works. This is true insight practice, as it were. The process of investigating into how one thing arises and ceases, and what is its cause and condition.

So, using that intuition, he says, and then, as a result of wisdom born from profound consideration, the realization dawned on him: birth being present, aging and death occurs. Birth conditions aging and death. So aging and death, that is jara marana. Aging and death. We are all aging, whether we like it or not. And we are going to die, whether we like it or not. So come to terms with it. It is inescapable.

And what he's seeing is that aging and death are a normal part of existence, a natural part of existence. What does it mean to age? It means the decline of the faculties, right? The decline of heat in the body and vitality in the body. The decline of the ability to see clearly physically. Your visual acuity starts to become less and less sharp.

You might not hear as well. Your mind might become slower. You need more time to think about things. You may need more time to reflect on things. You might walk slowly. All of these things are part of aging. And if you come to terms with it, have any fear of it, and death coming back to the process of death, what is death? Death is the decline of the faculties to the point that they no longer function. There is absolutely no more heat, no more metabolism, no more vitality, no more movement in the nervous system. It is complete, but not the cessation that we talk about in terms of cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness. It's a cessation of all breathing and heart rate and brain movement.

And beyond that, it is the complete and total stopping of any kind of life in the body, any kind of vitality in the body, in which the dying process happens. And this is from my own experience, so take it with a grain of salt, but understand that this is how I see the dying process, having seen people die and having experienced it many times before. When you die, let's say in modern terms, the modern definition of death is the cessation of all respiration, the cessation of any kind of heart rate, and the cessation of any kind of brain activity. This is how the modern definition of death could be understood.

But beyond that, there is mind. So, when we talk about death as somebody who dies, what happens is the four great elements start to cease in a certain order. So the first element to go is the air element. The respiration stops. The next to go is the fire element. There is coldness in the corpse. The heat, the temperature of the body, starts to decrease.

The next to go is the water element. There the blood starts to stop flowing, and now it becomes stagnant. And finally, the earth element decays. But that happens over a course of time. Likewise, when we talk about the sixth sense bases, they also cease in a certain order. The first to go is the sense of smell. The second to go is the sense of taste. The third to go is the sense of sight.

The fourth to go is the sense of touch. The fifth to go is a sense of hearing, and finally mind ceases. This is why it is important that when a person dies, not to mourn for them, because they can still hear you. The hearing faculty still continues. And moreover, their mind faculty still continues. So it's important that while you are with that person who is dying, or is in the process of dying, that you speak good words.

Help them reflect on the good things that they've done in their life, some intentions they've had in their life. All of the wonderful experiences they've had in their life help to uplift their mind. And so finally, after the hearing is gone, the mind faculty goes away. And that mind faculty goes away when a certain formation arises, drives forward a new consciousness into a new rebirth, into a new mentality, materiality. We will talk about this a little later. dying process.

Not too bad. Very simple. Why do we complicate death? Because we have this idea that I will continue to live far beyond that. There is this idea that there is some kind of permanent self there, and so I do not want that to go away. There's an attachment to our family members, our relatives, to our partners, to our children, to our siblings, to our friends.

And we think that this will last forever. The majority of the time we think that this is going to last forever. And it comes as a shock to us later. Oh, there is such a thing as death. I will no longer be able to speak with this person. I will no longer be able to embrace them. I will no longer be able to laugh with them.

So death in itself is not painful. It's not the person who's dying who's having an issue. It's the people that are left behind. That's what grief is. Grief is not about the dying person. Grief is about me. longer be in my life. This person will no longer be able to share memories with me. That's where death is an issue.

And spoiler alert, but why are you meditating? What are you meditating for as a preparation for death? That's all it is. For, then you'll realize the importance of spending these last few days at this retreat and making the most out of it so that you have deeper experiences. And these will help you in your last dying moments.

I'm sure you will remember this moment now in your dying moments, that there was a person who said, I should meditate in preparation for my death. Because it's going to help you let go of the fear. It's going to help you remain uplifted. And whatever happens after that is whatever happens after that, because it all depends on where you are in your practice, where you are on the journey to enlightenment or awakening, and so on. The utmost importance of meditation. Ultimately, it is to prepare for the dying process.

And so he says that birth being present, aging and death occurs. Birth conditions aging and death. And when we talk about birth, there are a few ways of understanding it. First, we talk about birth as the accumulation of the sixth sense basis, the accumulation of the aggregates, the arising of the aggregates, right? So when we develop into this human body as an embryo in the womb and then as a fetus and so on, we are experiencing birth constantly.

It's not just the physical birth of coming into this world from the womb. The moment of conception starts the process of birth, right? In order for birth to arise, a new being to arise, you need the seed and the ovum and consciousness there. And then that gives rise to a new being. That is birth. And then as the fetus grows, it starts to accumulate six sense bases. It starts to accumulate the five aggregates.

This is one way of looking at birth. But for practical purposes, the way of looking at birth is also birth of action or birth of reaction. The birth of action means that you say something with intention. You act on something. It's a deed that you do. Or you think something, and that is an intended action, which means it's the birth of karma.

This is one way of looking at birth. Now, the birth of karma, you cannot recall your actions. Once you fire the arrow, once you let the arrow go, you cannot recall it back. This is why I say dependent origination is like a river. And at the bend of the river is becoming, which we'll talk about in a short while. But then once you fall down the waterfall, that is the birth. anything about it.

The only thing you can do is see what arises in the next moment or subsequent moments as a result and consequence of those actions. And how you choose to deal with those consequences will determine whether those actions will be propagated, proliferated, and repeated, or whether that karma will be dissipated, never to arise again. This is the core understanding of dependent origination. This is the practical application of dependent origination. It's not just theory. There's no point in just memorizing all of the different links of dependent origination unless you actually live them. And you are living them, right? But out of ignorance, not everybody is aware of how dependent origination arises. them as you have your different experiences.

And bit by bit, you start to notice how your mind is able to see the point of feeling and contact, and feeling and craving, and clinging and becoming, and birth of action. And when you're able to do this, then you're able to dissipate the karma. And I will explain that when we discuss feeling and craving. But the birth of action is essentially when you commit the speech, when you say whatever it is with intention, when you do the actual action, you cannot recall it back.

If I punch you, I can't recall that punch back, right? You're going to feel that punch, and I'm probably going to feel the consequences of the punch when you punch me back. That is true. point. But, in other words, you cannot call it back. Once you say the word, good, bad, or indifferent, once you say the word, you cannot call it back. The person hears it, and they will react to it. So this is the birth of action.

Then he thought, what conditions birth? And the realization dawned on him: becoming conditions birth. So what is becoming? Becoming comes from the word bhava. So bhava can mean existence, it can mean being, it can mean becoming, and it can mean habitual tendencies. So what is becoming? The explanation of bhava is that there are three types of existence: there's the sense sphere existence, there is the rupa existence, and there is the arupa existence.

So the sense sphere existence has to do with everything from the hell realm all the way up to the sixth sensual heavens. The rupa has to do with the first four brahma lokas, corresponding to the jhanas. And in the arupa are the four ayatanas, corresponding to infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. So how do we understand this in a practical application?

If we understand rebirth, we say that becoming means that I have a certain habitual tendency that is aligned with a certain type of existence. If I am greedy and jealous and stingy, I have a mindset that is akin to a hungry ghost, never satisfied, unable to be satisfied. And so psychologically, my mindset is like a hungry ghost.

And I commit certain actions out of that particular mindset, eventually that will lead me into an existence of a hungry ghost. If I am somebody who is generous and compassionate and forgiving and always happy, tries to uplift others, I have a more deva mindset. So as I continue to do that, what happens? My mind starts to gravitate towards that and my habitual reactions, my habitual tendencies, a library of your habitual reactions to a situation.

Your mind will gravitate towards a certain choice almost automatically because of the continuous committing of that choice until it becomes the automated process. That is the habitual tendency. So if I have a deva-like mindset and deva-like actions and habitual tendencies rooted in deva-like mindsets, then my existence will become rooted in a deva existence. Likewise, if I continue to practice the first jhana continuously, or the second jhana continuously, or I become attached to any of these jhanas, then my existence can be in one of those brahma lokas corresponding to that particular jhana. Likewise with the arupa states.

There is another way of understanding bhava, habitual tendencies, and that is getting caught up in similar kinds of situations, getting caught up in similar kinds of relationships that you've had before. It seems like you always gravitate to the same kind of people in your life. It seems like you gravitate towards similar kinds of behavior patterns in your life. It seems like you gravitate towards the same kinds of situations. That person always somehow comes into debt. That person always somehow a certain kind of partner for a relationship, that person always seems to gravitate towards having a certain kind of existence. Because the mindset is rooted that way, and because of ignorance and the inability to let go and see things for what they actually are, the mind continues to bring up these kinds of experiences.

Of intention that is rooted in craving, in conceit and ignorance. And once you start to break that pattern and see everything for what it actually is, you stop identifying with those situations. You stop identifying with those people. You stop identifying with those behavior patterns. And that is how you break the cycle of becoming. And what is at the root of that? What have you been doing the last five days? 6R's. You cannot 6R the birth of action. You can't say something bad to someone and say, I 6R that.

Right? But you can start to notice the habit patterns that you have, the habitual tendencies that you have. The moment before you make the choice to follow a path of action, and you notice that this is leading you into an unwholesome existence, you can 6R that. You can recognize that choice is about to be made. You can take a pause, release, relax, uplift your mind. Now your mind is clear, and it's able to make a choice that's rooted in the wholesome, rooted in the Eightfold Path.

So then the question is what conditions becoming? Clinging conditions becoming. This is upadana. Clinging. Now there are four types of clinging that the Buddha has explained. There is sensual clinging. There is clinging to wrong views. There is clinging to rites and rituals. And there is clinging to self-views. The clinging, the sensory clinging that we talk about. First of all, what is the process of clinging? Another translation for upadana is to grasp, is to accumulate, is to hold on to.

What is it that you are holding on to? It is the idea of the sense of self that you are holding on to ultimately. From the me, mine, or myself, there arises this idea that this affects me, either in a good way, or a bad way, or indifferently. But if it's in a good way, I want more of it. I don't want it to stop.

If it's in a bad way, I push it away, and I don't want any more of it. And if it's indifferent, it's neutral, then I still identify with it. I still say that this is me, mine, or myself. That's the craving aspect. So whenever you say, I like it, and you want more of it, how do you know it's craving?

Let's say I give you your favorite piece of dessert. And you say, I really like that. And you look forward to it. And you think about all the ways that you're going to enjoy that piece of dessert. And then I take away that piece of dessert. How do you feel? Then there's craving present. There's a sense of attachment of self to that object.

So that mindset that says, I like it or I don't like it, is the craving. But that which says, because of so-and-so, is the clinging. So the clinging here is the rationale behind why it is that you crave something. The rationale behind why it is that you hate something. So sensory clinging. It is basically clinging to any kind of experience rooted in or through the five physical senses. The eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the body. my favorite. And it creates a sense of self that becomes solidified in becoming.

For example, when we talk about sensory clinging, you have a favorite show that you like to watch. You become hooked to that show. And if you miss that show, you get agitated by it. joy from childhood. Because your mother made it a certain way. And so you always enjoy that particular piece of food. That's your comfort food.

You have a favorite kind of fragrance that you like. Because you associate those kinds of experiences with something that happened. You have your favorite blanket. Your favorite place on the couch. You have your favorite, let's say, piece of music, or genre of music. And this is normal. Every generation experiences this. You say that my generation's music was the greatest.

Whatever the kids are listening to these days is garbage. Right? Totally. That's clinging. Having opinions about certain things and then holding on to those opinions related to sensory experiences. That's clinging. I often use this particular example because it's such a great example. I don't know how it is nowadays. I still haven't paid attention when we go to Walmart nowadays. And you look at the cereal section, the cereal aisle, all of the nice, colorful packaging is at a lower level. Why?

Because it's catering to kids. Kids see it and they want to grab it. I want that. When you look at certain kinds of advertising, it creates a certain image in your mind of, I have to be that person who wears that particular set of clothes or that particular fragrance. or drive that particular car. This kind of marketing, they are experts in creating clinging.

This is sensory clinging. It's the rationale of why you like something. Clinging to wrong views or clinging to views in general. What that means is there is right view, which is the view of the Dhamma. And there are views that are opposed to it. The basic right view is the understanding that there is action and consequence. My actions have consequences. And so there is a rebirth happening in every moment. This is what you will experience in infinite consciousness. You will see for yourself birth, death, birth, death, birth, death. You'll see the arising and passing away of consciousness.

The other part of right view is world and the other world. Now sometimes that's interpreted as there is this world in terms of our human existence and there are other planes of existence. But there's another way of interpreting this. There is this world which are the five physical sense bases and there is the other world which is meditation, getting into jhana. It's a super normal state of mind.

It's a super mundane state of mind. So there is this world and the other world. There are those who have walked the path and know the way leading to Nibbana. So these are aspects of right view. There is mother and father. Very, very important. There is mother and father. That means that no matter what it is, just having that gratitude you came into this existence through your parents so that you have an opportunity to experience Nibbana. I'm not saying that that justifies any kind of negative things that parents have done to us. What I'm saying is just understanding there is that basic gratitude. And with that understanding, you can forgive your parents, you can let go of any attachments and aggravation due to anything that your parents might have said or done to you in your childhood or even now.

Just understanding that gives a lot of peace of mind. So having the basic right view. So that means also keeping the precepts. Very, very important. Keeping sila. It's not rites and rituals that you do when you come here in the morning and you take the precepts. It has immense power. Immense energy to purify the mind. When you take the precepts, understand that when you take the precepts, that is purifying your mind and your meditations will be deeper because of that.

So right view is actually important for the purpose of practice. Establishing this basic right view. And then the super mundane right view is the full understanding of the four noble truths. Understanding suffering, abandoning the cause of suffering, which is essentially abbreviated as craving, and then realizing for yourself nirodha, dukkha nirodha, the cessation of craving, Eightfold Path. So every time you do the 6R's, you are coming back into Right View. Every time you do the 6R's, you are cultivating the Eightfold Path.

Every time you recognize a hindrance is present, what is that hindrance? It is suffering. So what is dukkha? Dukkha is in this moment an unpleasant experience. That can be in the form of a hindrance, in the form of a When you release and relax, you are letting go of that hindrance and the cause of that hindrance, the condition for that hindrance, which is improper attention rooted in conceit, ignorance, and craving.

When you... Rooted in craving, conceit, and ignorance. When you abandon that, and you experience after relaxing that mundane form of nibbana, you are realizing for yourself in that moment the third noble truth of dukkha nirodha. And then when you return to your object, stay with the object, you're continuing to cultivate the path. And so that is the fourth noble truth. This is the super mundane right view. Now what about all of the wrong views?

There are different kinds of wrong views. At the time of the Buddha, there were different types of views that were opposed to this idea. For example, there was a view that said that there is no meaning in giving. There is no meaning in generosity. There is no meaning in following a doctrine of karma. There is the view that there is no other life than this. There is a view that there is a permanent soul, and so on and so forth. But as you start to dissect these different kinds of views, how opposed they are to the mundane right view, the basic right view. So clinging to any kinds of views like this is going to lead to becoming into an ignorant state of mind and lead to actions or birth of actions that are rooted in that ignorance.

But then ultimately, there is also another kind of attachment or clinging to view. And that is clinging to right view itself. Clinging to the Dhamma. That happens because you become attached and you become what's known as a Dhamma defender. Right? You've let go of all the wrong views and you've come to right view. But then there's still attachment to the right view.

So you have to let go of that as well. So this is clinging to wrong views or clinging to views in general. A practical example of this is to cling to opinions about the world, cling to opinions about society, cling to opinions about politics. Why get involved in all of that stuff? Clinging to ideas and ideologies. Lead to violence, ultimately can lead to the destruction of this world.

I'm right and they're wrong, right? So I stay tethered to my view and everybody else is wrong or that person is wrong and therefore I hate them. So again, the associating of and rationalizing of why you hate something is clinging. Accumulating all kinds of ideas. And that leads to a certain kind of existence and a birth of action that leads to further suffering.

Then there's clinging to rites and rituals. There's one understanding of clinging to rites and rituals with the idea that those rites and rituals will take you to Nibbana. That clinging goes away once you experience for yourself the path and the fruit of that path, which is Nibbana. You realize that the only way that takes you to awakening is by your own efforts.

Not through some ceremony of appeasing some god. Not through some way of conjuring up spirits and using lucky charms and things like that. All of that is not going to take you to nirvana. Another way of understanding clinging to rites and rituals is clinging to your routine. If something goes wrong in your routine, what happens to you?

You get upset. It has to be done this way or else. What's that going to do? It's going to cause you suffering. This notion that I have to do this, I must do it this way. I should do it this way. All of these, whenever you catch yourself doing this, it has to be a certain way. The world has to work a certain way according to how I see it. I have to behave a certain way. Don't do it because you have to. Do it because it leads you to greater peace. That should be the rationale.

Don't keep the precepts because you have to. They have a practical benefit and fruit. Understand that. You're not just blindly following rites and rituals. You're understanding what is the reason for why you're doing something. So clinging to rites and rituals can be that. Clinging to rites and rituals can be the idea that the world or I have to function a certain way. And when it doesn't happen, what happens? You get upset.

You get depressed, you get anxious, you get restless, and so on. And finally, there's clinging to self-view. When we talk about clinging to self-view, we're talking about clinging to 20 different kinds of self-view. And it's a very simple equation. You have the five aggregates, right? You have form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. And then you have the four views of that. Either I am the five aggregates, or I am in the five aggregates, or I am possessed of the five aggregates, or I am separate from the five aggregates.

So I am the five aggregates. I identify with this body. I identify with the experience that's going on. I identify with the choices that I've made. I identify with the awareness. Or the idea that I am a self or a soul that is within this body or within an experience or within a perception or choice or formations or awareness.

Or there is a me and these aggregates belong to me. The self is the possessor of feeling. Finally, that there is this self that is completely separate. In other words, it's almost like there's a sixth aggregate. All of these five aggregates, and then there is one who is separate from all of this, independent from all of this. All of these different self-views lead to suffering.

Because it starts to make the mind identify with the different processes that are going on. This identification process is conceit. At an intellectual level, that goes away when you become a stream-enter, because you see for yourself how this whole process is impersonal. But that is defined by experience. When you see for yourself that, oh, this is actually impersonal, this is actually arising due to causes and conditions, you let go of that sakkaya ditthi. That is the self-view.

The belief in a personal self. The conceit goes away later. That conceit is that intrinsic identification with any experience as me, mine, or myself. That conceit goes away much later. So, when we talk about these different types of clinging, how do they go away? When you become a Shri Mentor, when you become a sotapanna, the clinging to wrong view goes away. There might still be clinging to right view, but the clinging to wrong view goes away.

The clinging to self-view goes away, and the clinging to rites and rituals goes away. And then when you become an Anagami, the clinging to sensual experiences goes away. lead to sensual clinging. And then becoming goes away completely when a person experiences full awakening, experiences arahatship. So can you 6R clinging? Yes, you can. I feel like Obama. Yes, we can. How do you 6R clinging?

You can recognize anytime the mind starts to gravitate towards a sensual experience and wants to hold on to it. You can recognize anytime the mind gravitates to a view of self. You can recognize anytime the mind starts to obsess over a certain kind of routine. Or obsess over a certain kind of rites and ritual. Or a certain kind of opinion. Every time you create a favorite and you try to defend that, you know, this sports team is the best. Everybody else sucks. When you start to think in that way, and you recognize that, and you release, relax, uplift the mind, come to a more harmonious, collected state of mind, you let go of the clinging, let go of habitual tendencies, which means you let go of any birth of action that is rooted in craving, conceit and ignorance, which leads to the further propagation of future rebirths.

So what conditions clinging? Craving conditions clinging. So craving, tanha. What does tanha mean? Tanha means thirst. It's to thirst for something. It's to want for something. But on the flip side of that is also aversion. And then there's also identification with the process. So when we talk about craving, there are different types of craving there as well. There is sensual craving, and there's craving for non-existence.

Sensual craving is pretty straightforward. Sensual craving means I see that piece of chocolate cake and I'm obsessing over that cake and I can't wait until lunchtime so I can eat that cake. I go into the kitchen and I see Roses bake that chocolate cake and when I go back to my cabin, I think about that chocolate cake. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to have that with a glass of, tall glass of milk, you know, cold milk. And then I go to the dining hall at lunchtime. And what happens? Everybody's eaten the chocolate cake.

There's not even a single piece of chocolate cake left. I mean, what is that? So what am I experiencing there? I'm craving for the chocolate cake. I'm obsessing over it. I'm clinging to the idea of the chocolate cake. I'm becoming, not the chocolate cake, the person who wants that chocolate cake, you know? I have to have that state of existence. So every time, so all the choices that I'm making are habituated towards how do I achieve that chocolate cake? The papancha, right? Mental proliferation. We'll get into that later. But basically, I saw the chocolate cake. I said, I'm going to have that for lunch, right? In my way, I'm driving up to the dining hall and somebody stops me and I'm trying to end that conversation as quick as I can so I can get to that chocolate cake.

It's only reasonable. And why am I doing that? Because I'm clinging to that chocolate cake. And so my birth of action, my words might be abrupt. Like, hey, that's cool. That's great. Let's talk about this later. I need to get going. And then I get to the dining hall and there's no chocolate cake. So what am I experiencing there? Dukkha. Suffering.

No chocolate cake. Well, I was ignorant. That was the ignorance. You see? I didn't know to the idea that I could leave it for later. You see? Yeah. So that clinging, that obsessing over it, the craving. So the craving is the first point where I say I want it. And I gravitate towards it. Likewise with aversion. When you're meditating and you're in a really good place in your meditation and everything is going really well, loving kindness or the compassion is flowing and there's no hindrances.

And then you hear something that annoys you. Right? Or, you know, somebody walks in and slams the door shut. It breaks you from the meditation. Or now your mind gravitates towards that. And you get upset by that. You get irritated by that. So what is that? That's the mindset that says, I don't like it. So that is aversion.

And then there is just plain and simple identification with the process. It might be a neutral experience. A neutral sensual experience. But you still identify with it. So that could say that this is me. This is mine. This is myself. And you say, no, this is my book. You know, if anyone gets a hold of this book, I will be upset by that.

So you start to create a sense of self around possessions, around people, around relationships, around who you think you are as a person, as a self. So that's the sensual craving. And that goes away when somebody becomes an anagami. Completely. No more to arise ever again. It weakens when one becomes a sakadagami. It becomes heavily attenuated so that the mind is able to recognize quickly when that craving arises. But in the case of an anagami, it never arises.

Then there's craving for existence and craving for non-existence. What is craving for existence? Craving for existence could mean, I want to be the best meditator of this retreat. I want Delson to say, that's a great job. You are the best meditator. You get a gold medal for this. Craving for existence is, I want to be a certain kind of person. I want to achieve certain kinds of things.

Or I want to get into the fourth jhana and have mastery over the fourth jhana. Now, here's a key difference. There is something known as chanda, which is a wholesome intention, a wholesome inclination. That is, you have an intention, which is you have a goal in mind, which is wholesome, like attaining nibbana, attaining freedom. Nothing wrong with that.

But if you start to obsess over each step, then you start to get into the territory of craving. But if you just follow each step and you don't get bogged down by "it has to be a certain way," why am I not experiencing quiet mind? Why am I not experiencing equanimity? Why am I not experiencing the fourth jhana? That means there's craving for existence.

Craving for non-existence means I don't want to be this anymore. So when you notice in your mind you say something like, I want to be, that is usually craving for existence. If it's motivated by that craving for existence, I don't want to be. I don't want to be so-and-so. The ultimate craving for non-existence is the craving to end this life.

Suicidal tendencies. Intentions to commit suicide, I should say. That is the ultimate craving for non-existence. So, if you notice this happening, you have to be able to recognize it, be able to let go of it, and you have to be able to replace it with more wholesome states of mind. When you recognize yourself saying I want to be so-and-so and there is this tightness and tension around it, recognize it, release it, relax, re-smile, come back to a more wholesome state of mind. Every time you say I don't want to be there, I don't want to do that, I don't want to be here.

Whatever that might mean. When you notice the tightness and tension around that, you can release, relax, re-smile, and return to a more wholesome state of mind. So when you become fully awakened, you let go of both of these, craving for existence and craving for non-existence. What conditions craving? Feeling conditions craving. How does feeling condition craving? That's always a question. How does the feeling become craving? How does Vedana become tanha?

There is a bridge between the two. And these are what are known as the underlying tendencies. Different from habitual tendencies. These are in Pali known as anusayas. And whatever experience that you're having, whatever feeling that you are experiencing, if you identify with that experience, if you identify with that feeling, there can arise certain tendencies. There is the underlying tendency towards craving for a pleasant feeling. There is the underlying tendency towards aversion against an unpleasant feeling, towards ignorance in the case of pleasant, unpleasant, or neither pleasant nor painful, neutral feeling.

There can be the underlying tendency towards doubt. I'm not sure what it is that I'm experiencing. And so I start identifying with that. There is the underlying tendency towards conceit. I identify with it strongly. This is me. This is mine. This is myself. There's the underlying tendency towards views. I have opinions about what I am experiencing. And therefore, I can crave for the experience more. I can have aversion towards that experience. Or I can further identify it, which leads me to further clinging, whatever that type of clinging is, which can lead me to a certain habitual tendency and a certain birth of action that leads to further suffering. So, whenever you recognize certain kinds of thoughts in your mind in relation to a feeling.

So what is feeling? When we talk about feeling, there are the six types of feeling, of tongue contact, feeling born of body contact, and feeling born of mind contact. But aside from that, there are categories of feeling. Pleasant feeling, painful feeling, neutral feeling. There's feeling from the past, feeling in the present, feeling in the future. There is a mundane kind of feeling, and there is a super mundane kind of feeling. When you look at all of the different permutations of it can number to up to 108 different types of categories of feeling.

But simply put, everything that you are experiencing right now is feeling. Listening to my words is the experience. Seeing me speak is the experience. Your mind reflecting on what you are listening to is the experience. That's why I use the word experience for Vedana, because it is everything that you're experiencing right now. But the problem arises when you have judgments and thoughts and ideas about what it is that you're experiencing from a sense of permanent personal self, which means you identify with the experience.

And that comes from conceit. Essentially, it comes from conceit, which is that I-making, as they call it, that my-making, that this is me, mine, and myself. There is this part of the mind that is always in self-referential mode. How does this experience relate to me? Benefit from this experience? How can I prevent this experience from happening ever again? How do I repeat this experience? Because it feels good to me.

That's why, going to the Bahiya Sutta, it is so simple, so effective. There is only the heard. In the sensing, there is only the sensed. In the cognizing, there is only the cognized. When, Bahiya, there is no you in that, no you before that, no you after that. Just that is the end of suffering. What is that you that the Buddha is referring to? All of your projections of what the experience is, all of your concepts, and mental proliferation about what the experience is.

But if you see things as they actually are, what happens? It leads to disenchantment, dispassion, and cessation. Can you 6R me away? Can you 6R any kind of experience away? When you're meditating, for example, and you're meditating for a long period of time, and you experience pain, can you 6R the pain away? The pain is the feeling. The pain is the experience that you're having in the meditation.

What you are 6R-ing is your identification with that pain. This is my pain. This is paining me. Why am I feeling the pain? And then what does that create? Aversion towards the pain. So what does that create? Further mental proliferation. And now you're experiencing suffering. But if you recognize the aversion to the pain, and you release that, and you let go, and you come back to your object of meditation, the pain will still be there.

But now there won't be any mental discomfort in relation to the pain. And actually, eventually, that pain will subside. Because your attention is no longer on the pain. And I'll talk about that when we talk about contact. So you're 6R-ing your identification with an experience. You're letting go of taking an experience as me, mine, or myself. What conditions feeling?

Contact conditions feeling. What is contact? Contact comes from the word phassa or sparsha. It's the initial touch. It's the initial spark. When you are seeing me, that's the feeling. But that's conditioned by the fact that your eyes make contact with the rupa, with the form. So the light bounces off and hits your retina: a seeing that's going on. But in order for that seeing to actually happen, you need a third component, which is awareness, which is consciousness.

So, there is the eye, there is the form, and there is eye-consciousness. These three constitute eye-contact. There is the sound of my voice, there is the ear, and there is your consciousness. These three constitute ear-contact. Likewise for the other sense bases. So here when we talk about the sense base, the sensory, so there's the internal sense base, which are the six sense bases, the external sense base, which is the sight, the sound, the smell, the taste, the tactile, and the mental.

And then there is the consciousness that arises dependent upon the joining of these two. And these three components constitute the contact. And how does contact arise? Whenever these three are present, which means if you do not have eye-consciousness, if you do not have ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness, there won't be any contact, won't be any feeling, there won't be any of that experience. So how does that consciousness arise? That consciousness arises based on where you pay your attention to. So in other words, I'm seeing the person in front of me because my eyes make contact with the form of that person and there is an awareness because I'm paying attention to that person. But as soon as I turn around, my attention is somewhere else. Now there is no contact with that person. The eyes and the form do not make contact and there's no awareness of that. Instead, now I'm looking at Bhante and there is the eye and the form of Bhante and the attention to Bhante, which is the eye-consciousness.

So when you sit down for your meditation, what is going on there? Your attention goes to the hindrance, which means there's no longer contact with your object of meditation. Now there's contact with the hindrance. How do you let go of the hindrance? 6R. You take your attention away. By recognizing your attention is there, you release, you relax. You smile, you come back.

So wherever your attention goes, there the awareness flows. The meaning behind this is that contact is dependent upon the intention to pay attention to something. That's why I'm saying that when you have pain while you're meditating, and you start paying more attention to your object of meditation, the pain subsides or seems to subside because there's no more attention being given to the pain. There's no more contact with the pain.

And what conditions contact? The six sense bases condition contact. So the six sense bases, that is basically the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. Those are the six sense bases. But these six sense bases, when there is a certain kind of conditioning, can experience the world a certain way. Consciousness, as a link, I'll explain what that means. But just understand that the way the six sense bases condition contact is dependent upon how consciousness is conditioned. Because it conditions the way mind and body is conditioned, and therefore conditions the way the six sense bases interact, let's say, with the world.

But when the Buddha talks about that, right, the world is this fathom-long body. It is this body, this mind, and the other sense bases. This is how you're able to make the world around you. The world that you experience, the reality that you experience, is conditioned by the six sense bases. You only see a certain spectrum of light that only allows you to see certain colors.

What about the other animals? They have different sense bases. Some can see in infrared, some can see in ultraviolet. Some are able to hear other decibels that you can't. Some are able to smell smells that you can't. Have you ever noticed this, that with regards to a dog, and a mouse, for example, they have that long kind of snout, right? They have a nose because their world is fathomed by their sense of smell.

When Duke walks around, he's experiencing the world primarily through his sense of smell. So beings experience the world dependent upon which sense bases are present. So is there an objective world, objective reality outside of us? We'll never know because we're always conditioned by whatever we experience through these six sense bases. We only have the subjective reality.

And we have consensus reality. But that consensus reality is based on all of our different six sense bases. We all agree that this is the color red. But how do I know that you're seeing the same red that I'm seeing? So again, the six sense bases are still part of conditioned reality. Imagine the world of bats. Right, exactly.

It's all vibration. It's all just different sonic vibrations for them. What conditions the six sense bases? Mind and body condition the six sense bases. So this is nama-rupa, mind and body. Also translated as name and form, or mentality, materiality. So what is the nama aspect? All right, let's actually simplify it. What is the rupa aspect? That's actually simpler to understand, because the rupa aspect is basically this form, which is made up of the four great elements.

What are those four great elements? Earth, water, fire, and air. The modern principle and the modern interpretation of this is solid matter, liquid matter, gaseous matter, and heat. Up of all form is made up, one way or the other, of different states of matter, different molecules. This is made up of solid molecules, right? We can't see the air, but the air is made up of gaseous molecules. When I'm drinking this water, it's made up of liquid molecules. So that is the rupa aspect. The six sense bases that we have, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and even in terms of the brain, that's made up of matter.

That's materiality. Mentality is the mind aspect of it. And there are five components to that. There's feeling, perception, intention, contact, and attention. Now the question is, what is the difference between the feeling in mentality and the feeling as a link? What is the difference between contact in mentality and contact as a link? Mind is understood through its experiences. You cannot understand mind alone. Mind is known by its faculties, by its processes.

Think about it this way. In the same way, we have different components in the brain, right? We have the prefrontal cortex. We have the parietal lobe. We have the cerebellum. We have different components of the brain that have certain functions that allow us to experience this world. We simplify that and understand that the mind is made up of the ability to experience contact, the ability to experience feeling, the ability to experience perception, the ability to have intention and attention.

So we know what feeling is, right? It's the experience that we're having. What is perception? Perception is that quality of the mind that can label and qualify what it is that is being experienced. Like I said, that this is the color red. Me seeing that is the feeling. Me saying that this is the red, this is the color red, is the perception of it. Going out and seeing a tree. That's the feeling. That's the vedana.

Saying that it's an oak tree or a pine tree or a bodhi tree. That is the perception. And perception is rooted in memory. It is whatever you've learned conceptually that allows you to perceive reality. So feeling, perception, intention. What is intention? That comes from the word chetana. So there is intention, there is inclination, and there is volition.

Intention is the intended path that you want to follow, or the goal of the path that you want to follow, for example. What is the intention here? The intention is to let go of suffering and experience nibbana, the cessation of suffering. What is the inclination? Bringing your mind towards wholesome states of mind, wholesome actions, wholesome speech. How do you do that? Through volition.

Taking in every moment, or making in every moment, those choices is volition. So the baby steps that lead to that is volition. Intention. So the action of inclining the mind towards something is volition. Right? And inclining the minds towards something is the intention. That goal, or whatever it is that the mind is inclining towards, is the intention.

So I intend to do something. I make a choice to do something. So in some ways these words can be used interchangeably, but also there is a way of understanding them as building up one after the other. And then we have attention. Attention is translated from manasikara. I talked about yoniso manasikara, right? That is proper attention, attention rooted in reality. What is attention?

Attention is the spotlight. You make an intention to pay attention to something. So the directing of where that spotlight goes is your intention. And what is flowing through that spotlight? What is the light that is shining? That is consciousness. That is awareness. This is why I'm saying that whatever you pay attention to, that is the content. away from whatever it is you're seeing and seeing something else, there is new contact going on.

And there is also salience, right? So you're able to pay attention to certain aspects of a song, for example. You listen to a symphony, you decide you want to pay attention to only the strings, and you pay more attention to the strings. The rest of the symphony is playing, but you're paying attention to the strings. Or then you decide you want to pay attention to the horns. So you start paying attention to that.

So these are the components that make up mind. That is mentality. And in order for the six sense bases to function as they are, they require both mentality and materiality. Because the six sense bases are made up of materiality, but in order for them to function, you need the faculties and processes of mentality. And what conditions mentality-materiality? Consciousness conditions mentality-materiality.

So before I go into this, let's just see what he says. He says, with what being present does consciousness occur? What conditions consciousness? Then, as a result of the wisdom born of profound consideration, the realization dawned on him, mentality, materiality conditions consciousness. Wait a minute. We just said that consciousness conditions mentality, materiality. And now he's saying mentality, materiality conditions consciousness.

How is that the case? How does that happen? So, there's two understandings of consciousness here. We talk about consciousness from one life to the next, which conditions the nama-rupa that comes into existence, that gives life, that gives vitality to a nama-rupa. If there is no consciousness, that mentality, materiality ceases to function. But in order for the six sense base consciousnesses, that is to say, the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, consciousness and the mind consciousness, for them to function, it needs a conduit.

What is that conduit? Mind and body. In other words, consciousness is not independent. Consciousness is dependent upon mind and body for it to function. Now, another way of looking at consciousness is, first of all, the word consciousness comes from the word vinnana. Jnana means knowledge, to know, to be aware of something. And vi means to divide. So you're dividing up the consciousnesses based on the six sense base. That's why you have the I consciousness, your consciousness, and so on. This is what is meant by vinnana. The synonyms for vinnana are also mano and chitta. Buddha has talked about this, where mano and chitta and vinnana can mean different things depending upon the context, but they can also mean one and the same thing.

In this case, consciousness. And that consciousness can be conditioned. It doesn't talk about here, because he only talks about this particular life. But he goes into formations, which we'll talk about a little later, can condition the mind and body, and then that mind and body conditions the six sense bases. If you recall earlier, I said the six sense bases can experience the world a certain way based on the consciousness, because in order for you to have contact, you need to have consciousness.

But if that consciousness is stained by certain kilesas, upakilesas. There are 16 upakilesas, and in Majjhima Nikaya 7, those 16 are listed out. Some of them include stinginess, jealousy, anger, conceit, pride, different qualities of the mind, so to speak. And every time you act from there, it feeds back into the formations, which then condition the consciousness.

And so then the consciousness will see reality a certain way. So dependent origination, you have to understand, is not only just linear, but there are all kinds of feedback loop systems going on. So the bhava conditions the consciousness. The way you take something personally conditions the formations. So when we talk about formations, those are called sankharas. Sankhara means to build up something. Sankhara: to cook up something, to prepare something, for it to percolate.

And there are three types of sankharas. There's bodily sankharas, verbal sankharas, and mental sankharas. Bodily sankharas have to do with processes of the body, namely inhalation and exhalation. Verbal sankharas have to do with thinking and examining thought, that allows you to think and reflect about something. Mental sankharas have to do with feeling and perception. Without mental sankharas, you can't feel and perceive.

Without mental formations, you would not be able to feel and perceive. So they allow you to be able to experience reality a certain way. But if those formations are rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion, what happens? That stains the consciousness, and that affects the mind and body, that affects the six sense base, contact is already impure, and then when there is the feeling, there is a gravitation towards a certain underlying tendency, which can go into full-blown craving, clinging, and becoming, and so on.

And what conditions the formations? Ignorance. What is ignorance? Not knowing and understanding the Four Noble Truths. You don't know what they are. You don't even know what Buddhism is. You have never been taught or told about the Four Noble Truths. That's a certain kind of ignorance. But then there is other ignorance, which is ignoring the Four Noble Truths when you've been told about them. Do you know about the Four Competencies? Unconsciously Incompetent?

Consciously Incompetent? Consciously Competent and Unconsciously Competent. So there is where you don't know that you don't know. That's unconscious incompetence. That's like full-blown ignorance. Then there's conscious incompetence. You know that you don't know. So you are aware that there is ignorance in the mind. Then there's conscious competence. Follow the Eightfold Path, and you start to let go of ignorance bit by bit. And then there's unconscious competence, which means you are following the path automatically. You don't even have to think about it. It's second nature.

So ignorance is not knowing the Four Noble Truths, not understanding that there's suffering present, not abandoning craving, not realizing the Third Noble Truth, and not cultivating the fourth, which is the Eightfold Path. And how is that practically understood? Whenever there is a lack of mindfulness, there is ignorance. Whenever you are unable to pay attention to what's going on in this moment, there is the ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, because there is a potential for you to identify with that situation or experience, and that will lead you to craving, clinging, and becoming.

But every time you have mindfulness, every time you pay proper attention, every time you have attention rooted in reality, seeing everything as being causally and conditionally arisen, and letting go any time there is any kind of surfacing of identification, then the ignorance is not present there. What happens is there's another feedback loop system. At the level of feeling, every time you remain mindful and alert and aware and attentive, the ignorance becomes weaker. And when the ignorance becomes weaker, the formations rooted in greed, hatred and delusion start to wither away. And the consciousnesses that are stained, it becomes automatic.

And that happens when you're fully awakened. Now there is no more ignorance. There is full mindfulness, which means anything that you're experiencing is just seen for what it actually is. Not me, not mine, not myself. Therefore, there won't be any craving, there won't be any clinging, there won't be any becoming, and there won't be further renewal of karma through birth of reaction.

So again, this is not just theory. This is an application for you to do away with karma. To let go of suffering. Dependent origination is the elaboration of the first and second noble truth. Understanding suffering and how suffering arises. This is going to show you how that happens. But does that mean formations don't arise? No. Formations will still arise, but those formations will become carriers of past karma. Even a fully awakened being, so to speak, will still have to experience the repercussions and consequences of previous intentions and actions. in greed, hatred, or delusion. And the consciousness is pure in the sense that it is no longer stained by any of the upakilesas. And therefore, that mind of one who is fully awakened will experience pure contact through the mind and body, or mentality, materiality, and the sixth sense basis, and experience feeling and perception just as they are.

There won't be any fuel of craving, conceit and ignorance to further propagate actions that lead to renewal of existence. This is why when one becomes fully awakened, they say birth has ceased. There is no more renewal of being because they have let go of birth of new karma. They have let go of renewal of any further existence. Now any karma that arises is just arisen as a result of past causes and conditions prior to full awakening, and it is automatically let go of, automatically it dissipates, because there's no identification with that karma.

So there's old karma and there's new karma. That is karma and vipaka. Karma, which is, or I should say vipaka, which is the old karma, the fruit of the actions that you've done before. And there is the activity or actions that you commit as new karma, rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion. Rooted in craving, conceit, and ignorance. Everything from formations all the way down to feeling, all of that is a result of previous actions. That is the fruit. That is your old karma.

The moment you choose to identify with that, craving, clinging and becoming, and that is the new karma, which is the birth of action. Once you understand this, then you make it a point to understand all experience as not me, not mine, not myself. You let go of any identification with it, and bit by bit the karma dissipates, and there is no further propagation, proliferation of further existences.

How does this translate in the meditation? The hindrance is what you are experiencing in that meditation. That is the vipaka, that is the fruit of previous intentions and previous actions. Because at some point you did something wrong, there is restlessness, agitation, craving, sensual craving, aversion, doubt, sloth and torpor. That is the old karma. That is what you're experiencing now as old karma, in the form of what? Feeling and perception.

If you continue to pay attention to it, if you continue to fight it, if you continue to do something with it, by identifying with it, what's going to happen? It's going to become stronger. If you try to suppress it, what's going to happen? It's going to bounce back with full force. So what leads to the cessation of karma? The Eightfold Path. What is the heart of the Eightfold Path? Right effort. What is right effort?

Six R's. So when you Six R the hindrance, what happens? The hindrance becomes weaker. It might arise again, sure. It dissipates and arises again, but this time it gets weaker and weaker and weaker every time you Six R, until there is the remainderless fading away of that hindrance. This is the practical application of dependent origination. That's what I'm saying. It's not just theory.

You will see for yourself every time you utilize this practice that you will be able to see dependent origination more clearly and be able to apply the principles of the Eightfold Path to further karma that is run through by the mechanics and wheels and gears of dependent origination. Then the Bodhisattva Vipassi thought, this consciousness turns back at mentality, materiality. It does not go any further. The reason why he's saying this is because he's only looking at this life.

Formations are basically arising due to previous actions and previous life actions. Formations are the key to understanding past lives. So how do you know the quality of your formations? Pay attention to the quality of your intentions in the moment, in the present moment. If it starts to incline towards the wholesome, then your formations have been wholesome. If it inclines towards the unwholesome, then you 6R create a new groove, a new pathway in your mind that automates towards the wholesome.

To this extent, there is birth and decay. There is death and falling into other states and being reborn. Namely, mind and body conditions consciousness, and consciousness conditions mind and body. Mind and body conditions the sixth sense basis. The sixth sense basis conditions contact. And thus, this whole mass of suffering takes its origin. And at the thought, origin, origin, there arose in the Bodhisattva Vipassi, with insight into things never realized before, knowledge, wisdom, awareness, and light.

Then he thought, what now being absent, does aging and death not occur? With the cessation of what comes the cessation of aging and death? And then, as a result of the wisdom born of profound consideration, the realization dawned on him. Birth being absent, aging and death does not occur. With the cessation of what comes the cessation of birth? With the cessation of becoming, comes the cessation of birth. With the cessation of clinging, comes the cessation of becoming. With the cessation of craving, comes the cessation of clinging. With the cessation of feeling, comes the cessation of craving. With the cessation of contact, comes the cessation of feeling. With the cessation Then the Bodhisattva Vipassi thought, He has understood for himself by truly seeing how the links arise and pass away.

By the cessation of craving, clinging ceases. By the cessation of clinging, becoming ceases. By the cessation of becoming, birth ceases. By the cessation of birth, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair cease. And thus this whole mass of suffering ceases. And at the thought, cessation, cessation, there arose in the Bodhisattva Vipassi, with insight into things never realized before, knowledge, vision, awareness, and light.

Then monks, so now he's understood this. He's understood the arising of the links of dependent origination and then the cessation of the links of dependent origination. He has seen for himself how this process works. He has fully penetrated into the nature of reality, which is causation and conditionality. Whether there is a Buddha present or not, dependent origination will always be there.

But it requires a Buddha to be able to penetrate into the nature of reality, which is dependent origination, for him to rediscover, as it were, the Dhamma for this particular eon and generation. So now, having understood that, this is what he says: contemplating the rise and fall of the five aggregates of clinging. So once he's understood dependent origination, he's let go of ignorance, he's let go of craving, clinging, becoming, birth of action, and suffering. What remains?

Formations, consciousness, mind and body, sixth sense basis, contact and feeling. In other words, the processes through which the five aggregates arise and through which they pass away. So when we talk about the five aggregates as form, through form there is contact, then there is feeling, then there is perception. There are formations that allow you to feel and perceive, and there is the consciousness that is dependent upon those formations. And he understands what? That these two are dependently arisen.

Being dependently arisen, they are subject to change and impermanent. Therefore, they should not be seen as something worth holding on to, as me, mine, or myself. By doing so, by seeing this, he lets go of conceit, the rest of the fetters fall away, and he experiences the freedom of mind without any corruptions. That is to say, the destruction of the taints. Arahatsha. 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. 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.