Day 1 Adv Retreat AN 3.32 To Ananda -The Mind Stilled

We have a good six or seven days to make the most out of our practice, and I figured, why not go for the big fruit, Nibbana? And the theme of this retreat will be about Nibbana and about the states of mind, practices, insight, and understanding that will allow us to destroy two things, ignorance and conceit.

Craving and all the other underlying tendencies are interwoven with ignorance and with conceit. Ignorance is, in practical terms, the lack of mindfulness of the Four Noble Truths in every moment. The inability to recognize when there is suffering, and how to let go of that suffering. That is to say, utilizing the Eightfold Path, abbreviated in the Six R's. How to let go of craving, utilizing that, and thereby experiencing nirodha, experiencing the end of that suffering, the cessation of that suffering.

The Sutta I want to read today is from the Anguttara Nikaya, the Book of Threes. It's Anguttara Nikaya 3.32, the Ananda Sutta. It's a short one, so we'll go through it and figure out what is being said here. Then the Venerable Ananda approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, sat down to one side and said to him, "Bhante, could a bhikkhu obtain such a state of mind or meditation that he would have no eye-making, mind-making, and underlying tendency to conceit in regard to this conscious body? He would have no eye-making, mind-making, and underlying tendency to conceit in regard to all external objects.

There's another sutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, 10.5, I think 10.6 and 10.7, where he asked the Buddha, and later he asked Sariputta the same thing, which is, is there a state of meditation, state of collectedness, that is beyond this world and the other world, that is beyond the four jhanas, beyond the four arupa jhanas, and one can be percipient of that? And the Buddha and Sariputta talk about Bhavanirodha as Nibbana. In this case, Ananda is asking very specifically about Nibbana. He's saying, could a person obtain such a state of meditation

that they would have no eye-making? This word comes from ahamkara. Ahamkara in Sanskrit and Pali actually literally means the ego. It's the sense of self that creates a network of sankharas and traits that we consider to be our personality, that we consider to be our self, so to speak. Mind-making, that's mamakara, meaning that which belongs to me. I look at myself as ahamkara, that is the ego, and I look at objects, or I reify them. I objectify them as something separate that I want to obtain and possess.

An underlying tendency to conceit in regard to this conscious body and regard to all external objects. The conscious body here is this body, the mind and body, the mentality, materiality. And external objects are the color and form, the sounds, the flavors, the odors, the tangibles and thoughts or mind objects. So what do we mean by underlying tendency to conceit?

Conceit is essentially the comparing mind. It means to measure. So when we talk about conceit, it comes from the word mana, which means to measure up, and we have a comparison between this and that, between me and the rest of the world. And that comparison creates a separation that leads to conflict, that leads to craving, that leads to aversion, that leads to restlessness, that leads to all kinds of afflictive states of mind that can lead to the desire to own something, the desire to push away something, the desire to make it mine, the desire to identify with it, and so on.

And so conceit arises because the mind is seeking stability in an otherwise unstable world. Because as long as I have some kind of security and stability, I will be okay. And so this is closely related with ignorance, the misperception of that which is impermanent as permanent, the misperception of that which is suffering as happiness, the misperception of that which is not self as self.

And the reason that happens is because of that desire for stability and security. So the question there is, is there a state of mind, is there a state of meditation where none of these will be there, that one can transcend this? And the Buddha says he could, Ananda. But how, Bhante, could he obtain such a state of mind or collectedness or meditation?

Here, Ananda, one thinks thus. This is very interesting. This is something that you will find in the book Nibbana, the Mind Stilled, a series of lectures by Bhikkhu Jnanananda. Here, one thinks thus, this is peaceful, this is sublime, this is peaceful, this is tranquilizing, this is sublime, this is, the original word in Pali is panitam, it's exalted, it's supramundane. And that is the stilling of all formations, the tranquilizing of all formations, the relaxing of the bodily formation, the verbal formations, and the mental formations, where no more conceptual proliferation arises.

So what the Buddha is giving is a series of states that lead to Nibbana, and in some sense, instructions of how to get there, the roadmap, very, very abbreviated. The relinquishing of all acquisitions, which means what? The letting go of all karmic attachments. So when we talk about Nibbana, it is also the cessation of karma. Karma is divided into karma and vipaka. Karma is the actions that we take through certain intentions, or very simply put, karma is intention.

And vipaka is the result of those choices. And so we let go of both the action as the one who is doing the action. We let go of the sense of self in relation to the action, and we let go of any ownership, that is to say, any identification with the effects of the choices that have already been made.

We let go of the I in every experience. We have total mindfulness of every experience that arises, but without attaching any sense of I, me, or myself to it. The destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbana. So the destruction of craving, which means what? The mind has let go of any desire to control a certain feeling or experience, to obtain a certain feeling or experience, or to obtain or control a certain outcome of any feeling or experience.

We let go of all expectations. That's what it means. These are all pointers for you guys when you're meditating. First and foremost, the stilling of all mental activities. Letting go. And how do you do that? Using the six R's. The core of the six R's is to relax and re-smile. When you relax any kind of tightness or tension in the mind or body, you are letting go of craving, and you are transmuting that into the experience of mundane Nibbana. Your mind is like the cloudless sky, free of any attachments in that moment, and this is where we want to be.

We want to imbibe, we want to soak up every moment with that experience. That doesn't mean we need to keep 6R and keep 6Ring, because we're not using the 6Rs like a whack-a-mole. Very important to understand. What we are doing is recognizing any time the thought of this is me, this is mine, this is myself comes up.

And just gently relax it. Allow the experience to be as it is, but take no ownership of it. So this process, all of these things, the stilling of activities, the stilling of formations, the relinquishing of karma, the destruction of craving, all of these are a result of letting go. And to let go is to 6R, as a result of which you experience what's known as dispassion.

You have equanimity, which comes from the word upekkha, which is opposite of the word apeksha. Apeksha means expectation. So to have true equanimity means that we have no expectations of what arises. We allow the mind to do what it's doing. It doesn't matter what quality of thoughts are arising in that moment. Those thoughts are old karma as a result of choices we've made in the past. There are two types of thoughts.

There is the thought that you cannot control. It is like the green of the grass during summertime. You can't change it. It's like the blue of the sky. You can't change it. It is what it is. It will come and go. The only thing you can sort of control, if we were to even use that word, is to let go of our attachment, the desire to control that thought, the desire to suppress that thought.

And then the second type of thought is an intentionalizing. This is what happens when you go into meditation. When you bring up an object, that is vitakka and vichara, that is the thinking and examining thought, you are intentionalizing an object. So you're consciously thinking about something, consciously reflecting on something, consciously contemplating something. This is different from passive thoughts that come and go.

Those are out of your control. The disenchantment and dispassion that arises is essentially having that Teflon mind. Whatever is arising is arising. It's okay. Your mind, when it gets caught up in that, you recognize it, see it for what it is. There is sadness, there is anger, there is grief, there is whatever it is that's there.

And you choose to release your attention from it and then relax back into this moment, free of all craving, free of all identification. You generate the wholesome experience through the smile, and then come back to your object. This is the process. This is the key, as a result of which you experience cessation and Nibbana. And when we talk about cessation, we talk about nirodha. It has different contexts. Here we're talking about the cessation of all dukkha. It doesn't say here cessation of perception and feeling.

Cessation can be a short form for cessation of perception and feeling, but not all the time. In this context we're saying dukkha nirodha, the cessation of all dukkha, of all suffering. In that moment no suffering arises, and our mind inclines towards Nibbana. Don't worry about cessation of perception and feeling. Forget about it, pretend like it doesn't exist, right? It's just: I'm choosing to let go, and I keep letting go wherever my mind starts to create attachments. I just relax back into that peaceful experience of letting go. I relax back into my object, whatever the object is, and I continue without expectation, with dispassion. This is how you ought to practice. In this way, Ananda, a bhikkhu could obtain such a state of mind or meditation that he would have no eye-making, mind-making and underlying tendency to conceit in regard to this conscious body.

So this is a verse found in one of the suttas in the Sutta Nipata. And it's in the section called the Parayana. Parayana means the vehicle that is beyond. Para means beyond. And yana means vehicle. And so he says, Having comprehended the highs and lows in the world, having understood the arising and passing away of this and that, the good and the bad, the so-called wholesome and unwholesome, he is not perturbed by anything in the world. He has no expectations.

He has total disenchantment and dispassion. Peaceful, fumeless, untroubled, wishless. He has no desires, no intentionality towards this or that. His mind is totally at peace, signless, undirected, and empty. We will explore these three in more detail as the retreat progresses. He has, I say, crossed over birth and old age. He has crossed over dependent origination. He has crossed over craving, clinging, becoming, birth of new action, and suffering, which includes old age and death and birth.

So this is what I wanted to talk to you guys about, which is let's go for the big stuff. You have six days. Let's share some merit then. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.