Nov 8 2020 - MN 138 - The Exposition of a Summary - Non-Grasping Consciousness Leads to Nibbana

Majjhima Nikaya 138. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Let me start reading. This is Majjhima Nikaya 138, and this is a translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus." "Venerable Sir," they replied. The Blessed One said this: "Bhikkhus, I shall teach you a summary and an exposition."

That is what the Blessed One said. Having said this, the Sublime One rose from his seat and went into his dwelling. Then, soon after the Blessed One had gone, the bhikkhus considered: "Now, friends, the Blessed One has risen from his seat and gone into his dwelling, after giving a summary in brief without expounding the detailed meaning. Now who will expound this in detail?"

Then they considered: "The Venerable Maha Kachana is praised by the teacher and esteemed by his wise companions in the holy life. He is capable of expounding the detailed meaning. Suppose we went to him and asked him the meaning of this." Then Mahakachana says: "Then listen, friends, and attend closely to what I shall say." "Yes, friend," the bhikkhus replied. The Venerable Mahakachana said this: "How, friends, is consciousness called distracted and scattered externally?"

If his consciousness follows after the signs, and is tied and shackled by gratification in the signs, and is fettered by the fetter of gratification in the sign, then his consciousness is called distracted and scattered externally. And how, friends, is consciousness called not distracted and scattered externally? Here, when a Bhikkhu has seen a form with the eye, if his consciousness does not follow after the sign of form, is not tied and shackled by gratification in the sign of form, is not fettered by the fetter of gratification in the sign of form, then his consciousness is called not distracted and scattered externally. When he has heard a sound with the ear, smelled an odor with the nose, tasted a flavor with the tongue, touched a tangible with the body, cognized a mind object with the mind.

If his consciousness does not, for example, follow after the sign of the mind object, is not tied and shackled by gratification in the sign of the mind object, is not fettered by the fetter of gratification in the sign of the mind object, then his consciousness is called not distracted and scattered externally. And how, friends, is the mind called stuck internally? Here, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion.

If his consciousness follows after the neither pain nor pleasure, is tied and shackled by gratification in neither pain nor pleasure, is fettered by the gratification in the neither pain nor pleasure, then his mind is called stuck internally. This is how the mind is called stuck internally. And how, friends, is the mind called not stuck internally? Here, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhana. If his consciousness does not follow after the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, is not tied and shackled by gratification in the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, is not fettered by the fetter of gratification in the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, then his mind is called not stuck internally.

Because his mind is obsessed, he is anxious, distressed, and concerned. And due to clinging, he becomes agitated. This is how there is agitation due to clinging. And how, friends, is there non-agitation due to non-clinging? Here a well-taught noble disciple, who has regard for noble ones and is skilled and disciplined in their dhamma, who has regard for true men and is skilled and disciplined in their dhamma, does not regard material form as self, or self as possessed of material form, or material form as in self, or self as material form. That material form of his changes and becomes otherwise. With the change and becoming otherwise of that material form, his consciousness is not preoccupied with the change of material form. Agitated mental states born of preoccupation with the change of material form do not arise together and remain obsessing his mind. Because his mind is not obsessed, he is not anxious, distressed, and concerned, and due to non-clinging he does not become agitated. He does not regard feeling as self. He does not regard perception as self. He does not regard formations as self. He does not regard consciousness as self, or self as possessed

As the Blessed One explains it to you, so you should remember it. Then the Bhikkhus, having delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Maha Kacchana's words, arose from their seats and went to the Blessed One. After paying homage to him, they sat down at one side and told the Blessed One all that had taken place after he had left. Adding, Then, Venerable Sir, we went to the Venerable Maha Kachana and asked him about the meaning. The Venerable Maha Kachana expounded the meaning to us with these terms, statements, and phrases. Maha Kachana is wise, bhikkhus. Maha Kachana has great wisdom. If you had asked me the meaning of this, I would have explained it to you in the same way that Maha Kachana has explained it.

Such is its meaning, and so you should remember it. This is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. If there's one thing Maha Kachana always seems to talk about in the Majjhima Nikaya, it's consciousness and the nature of consciousness. If you go through any of the suttas in which he expounds on brief statements made by the Buddha, he always uses consciousness as the foundation for his explanation. So he talks about how consciousness is either stuck internally or scattered and distracted externally, or that through clinging there is the origination of

suffering. So how is consciousness scattered? It's always at the level of feeling, through the process of dependent origination, when certain formations activate a certain consciousness that is then experienced through the mentality-materiality, and gives rise to the sensory experiences. Through that consciousness one is aware of the experience of the sixth sense basis along with the sixth sense faculties. But at the level of feeling there is also perception of the experience, and tied with that is cognition, or what is consciousness. When this consciousness flows continuously, it flows all the way to the level of suffering, so long as one takes the feeling, sensory experience, to be personal, and considers what is impermanent to be permanent, and considers what is not worth holding on to to be worth holding on to.

So this gives rise to mental proliferation, which then gives rise to craving and clinging, and being and birth, and action and suffering, and so on, time and time again. The crux of the Buddha's dispensation is this. How do you take the sensory experiences? How do you take feeling? When a feeling arises, is your mindfulness there? Is your awareness there? Is your attention there?

If your attention is not scattered, if your mindfulness is strong and sharp, you will use wise attention or wise perception to see that whatever is arising through the process of sensory experiences is not to be considered or taken as self, not to be taken as personal. This continues to happen every time a choice is presented to you in any given moment in daily life, in your everyday activities, whether it's the people that you deal with, the words that they tell you, or the actions that they produce

or the thoughts that reflect on those situations, people, actions and words. All that is arising in the way of your sensory experiences is to be understood with right mindfulness. So right mindfulness, or effective observation, is observing where your thoughts are in the present situation. Are your thoughts collected and in the present, where the situation is arising, or are your thoughts scattered, thinking about something else? Therefore your mindfulness is not present, it's not there. But if your mindfulness is sharp and your thoughts are around what is being experienced, with wise perception, then you understand that whatever is arising is just arising due to a series of causes and conditions and various factors. So if you apply right mindfulness you will prevent craving from arising, because you will be having situational awareness. You will understand what is required

in the situation, depending upon what the mind is experiencing, depending upon how you perceive things, whether it's in alignment with the Noble Eightfold Path or not in alignment with the Noble Eightfold Path. It always starts with the mindfulness in every situation, and from there, if your mindfulness is rooted in right view, rooted in right intention, which means your mindfulness understands that every action has consequences, that is the foundation of right view in essence. And moreover, you understand through right intention that it is extremely important to cultivate wholesome states of mind and let go of unwholesome states of mind. So if you start to see that wholesome states of mind are present, you only need to be aware that they are present, with mindfulness.

And finally, you have the right intention, or effective choice, of letting go of renunciation, which means that if you find through your mindfulness that there is craving arising, that there is the taking of the experience as personal, and therefore from there there is craving arising, you then let go of it through the six R process. If you find in your mind, when you are in a difficult situation, that agitation arises, irritation arises, frustration, anger, sadness, grief arises in connection with that sensory experience, you use your mindfulness, you exercise your mindfulness in recognizing that these states have arisen, and then you let go of them, putting your attention back in mind and body

in the present moment, relaxing them and coming back to a wholesome state of mind. The more you do this, the more you are easily able to let go of craving, the more you are easily able to prevent the further links that lead to suffering from arising. In the meditation practice this will happen as well. There will be sounds that arise, there will be a fly or flies buzzing, or insects buzzing around you or landing on your skin, perhaps fragrances will arise, and you might experience wind, or whatever it might be, in the way of the five physical senses. And then of course there will be thoughts or mental objects arising. And when they arise, if you are applying mindfulness, which means your attention is unified around the object of meditation, whether it's one of the brahmaviharas, tranquility or quiet mind, or what have you, and while you are collected in this manner, you continue to go through each of the jhanas because your mind remains unagitated. But in that process, if hindrances arise in the way of thoughts that distract you or sensory experiences that distract you, if you are applying right mindfulness

you can see if that consciousness that arises through that sensory experience gives rise to craving, gives rise to the attitude of I want this or I don't want this, or I am identifying with this. And as soon as you recognize that, that recognize, that first step of the six R process, the recognize, is synonymous with mindfulness, which is translated from the word sati, which is the word that means memory or to recollect. So you remember that your attention is no longer unified around the object of meditation, because the mind has taken something personal and created suffering, created craving, through which there is suffering. So as soon as you recognize this, you let go of it.

You relax the mind and body, the tension in it. You relax the craving that's in it. You uplift the mind with the smile and come back to your feeling, come back to your object of meditation. So every time you do the six R process, whether it's in daily life or in the meditation practice, whenever you notice that the consciousness goes beyond the process of feeling and perception and now clings and craves, and through that craving clings and then becomes, and so on and so forth, whenever you notice this and you use the six R process, you are not only applying right mindfulness both in daily living and in the meditation practice. But you are incorporating right intention, the intention of letting go, the intention of bringing up wholesome states of mind, and you are exercising right effort.

You are applying the four right efforts. You are preventing further hindrances from arising, further craving from arising. You are letting go of it by putting your attention back on mind and body and relaxing it, and therefore you are abandoning it, and then you bring up a wholesome quality of mind by bringing up your smile and then staying with the feeling, and then maintaining that, which is the forthright effort, whether it's in daily living or in the practice. This is how you prevent the mind from becoming scattered, from becoming diffused. This is how you prevent your consciousness from further evolving through the states and through the links of dependent origination beyond feeling. You prevent that from happening, and by doing so you prevent the origination of suffering, which is to say you prevent craving from arising, because you understand, if you have already taken something personal in that process, you recognize you have, and you let go of that. And by letting go of that you have now let go of the rest of the mechanics of the links of dependent origination that produce that suffering.

Now, Maha Kachana also talks about the consciousness becoming stuck internally, and this is done deeper in the process of the jhanas, when you have developed collectedness and you understand with mindfulness the different factors that are arising. First and foremost, in the case of the first and second jhanas, you see that rapture and that bliss, that joy and pleasure born of seclusion, and if you identify with that, that means your consciousness, your mind, is no longer with your object, and now it is attending towards the factors of the jhana.

That is wrong practice. You allow the feeling to evolve the way it will evolve, and you allow the factors of the jhanas to arise as they will arise by using mindfulness, only knowing that these states are present, but you don't identify with them, become distracted by them, and then no longer have your attention on your object so if you are able to do this the feeling will progress on into the third jhana and the fourth jhana and then the spheres of perception of infinite space infinite consciousness nothingness neither perception or non-perception

and finally cessation. But through that whole process, if you continue to identify and get distracted with any of the factors of the third and fourth jhana, or any of the factors of the spheres or the dimensions of perception, then your consciousness has become stuck internally, because what happens is, number one, your attention is no longer with your object. Number two, that means this gives rise to hindrances and other distractions.

And when that happens, you are no longer in the jhana. Whenever you are in jhana, it is because your attention is with the object of meditation. And when it is with the object of meditation, the seven factors of awakening continue to be present and prevent the arising of the five hindrances in the mind. But when you are no longer paying attention, none of that is present and only the five hindrances continue to distract the mind further.

As soon as you use the six R's process, what you are effectively doing is first and foremost, as I mentioned earlier, applying the Eightfold Path. You are applying right intention, you are applying right effort, you are applying right mindfulness, and you are applying all of that rooted in right view. But more than that, you are also activating the seven enlightenment factors every time you do the six R's process. Whenever you get distracted, which means whenever you're distracted, the seven enlightenment factors are no longer present, but

when they are present, that means you are in a jhana. The degree to which they are present is the degree to which you are in a jhana, or whatever jhana you might be in. But more specifically, what I am saying is every time you do the recognize step, every time you do the release step, every time you do the relax step, every time you do the re-smile step, and every time you do the return step, you are effectively activating the seven enlightenment factors. And as soon as you are not only applying mindfulness to come back to your object of meditation, thereby unifying the mind, unifying the attention, you are also having the enlightenment factors be present, which further prevents the hindrances from arising.

But in that whole process, once you are back in the jhanas, it's important not to identify with any of those factors. It's important to do this because, let's say, you are in the third jhana, and now after you come out of it and you go back to a different sitting, because of that experience, because your consciousness is tied and linked with that experience and craves for that experience, you expect that experience to be the same the next time you have a sitting practice.

But it will not always be the same. No two meditation sessions are always the same. They may be similar, but they're not exactly the same. So it's important not to identify with them, not to crave for them, and thereby not expect the same thing to occur. You always want to come at the meditation process with the mindset that says, let's see what happens today. Let's see what mind comes up with today.

And then go into the meditation, continue to be with your object, continue to be attentive, continue to apply the six R's process whenever necessary, and continue to evolve through the jhanas. So this is how the mind and the consciousness remains unstuck internally. You allow things to flow as they arise. Anytime you stop that, you are taking it personal, you are considering these factors of jhana and the jhana states themselves to be permanent, when in fact they are impermanent.

The jhanas are like the Dhamma raft. They take you to the goal, and once you are at the goal, you let go of the attachment to the jhanas. You let go of your identification and craving for the jhanas and the factors of the jhanas. Then Maha Kaccana talks about the five aggregates, and he talks about a person who is not introduced to the Dhamma, or who doesn't necessarily practice the Dhamma, and how they consider form, feeling, perception, formations, or consciousness as self, or self arising from these five aggregates, or self tied with these five aggregates, and so on and so forth.

Somehow such a being will consider taking these as self, and therefore creates suffering for them, and that's because they take it personal and create craving from taking that personal. But as soon as you see that all of this, through the process of dependent origination, arises through a series of causes and conditions, and that each of the five aggregates continues to change in every microsecond.

The form continues to change, as we are well aware of the way our bodies continue to change, as we are well aware of how materials in the universe continue to degrade, decay and change, as we are aware that the sensory experiences arise and pass away. We are aware that the perceptions that are tied to those sensory experiences, because they are dependent upon experience to provide the ability to recognize what that experience is, and because it is dependent upon it, and because feeling is temporary and impermanent, so are the perceptions that are tied to it, and then the formations which give rise to the consciousness, which is activated through that process and then is experienced through the sensory experiences.

Those formations arise fairly quickly, extremely quickly. They arise dependent upon various causes and conditions, namely contact, feeling and perception. Every time you have contact, the senses have contact with the outside world, it activates a series of formations which then give rise to the consciousness, and so on and so forth through the series of dependent origination. But formations in of themselves are impermanent because they are dependent upon contact, which is also impermanent.

Moreover, formations can be changed. They are prone to change depending upon choices we make in every given moment. Every time we attend towards one particular choice, that strengthens particular formations and weakens the others through non-use, and they fade away. So the fettered formations that are there, which is the craving that is rooted in the formations through the projection of craving, the conceit that is rooted in the formations through the projection of being, and the ignorance that is rooted in formations which are conditioned by ignorance and coming from the projection of ignorance of the four noble truths, continue to create a consciousness which takes something personal, which identifies with it, creates craving, creates conceit, and continues to strengthen those fetters.

So we have to be able to see in every present moment how the mind reacts or responds. If it continues to react in a way that keeps taking things personal and identifies with them, and therefore craves for them or averts from them, then it will continue to have the fetters dig deeper into those formations. But the more we start to make choices that are rooted in right view, which means that come from mindfulness that is rooted in right intention and right view, and start to let go of the idea that the experiences that we are having through the five aggregates are impersonal, and let go of the idea that they are personal,

we start to weaken the fetter of conceit. And because of that, we don't crave anymore. And because we don't crave anymore, we start to weaken the fetter of craving. As soon as we continue to do this, as soon as we continue to apply mindfulness in this way, as soon as we continue to apply this intention, the right intention in this way, and the more we do it, the further we weaken and degrade and decay those fetters, and the more we do that, the more we are establishing right view. Right view bit by bit replaces ignorance. It erodes away at the projections of craving, of being, and of ignorance.

And from then on, when you have destroyed all the fetters, because of the choices that are rooted in right view that are in alignment with the precepts and are in alignment with the Eightfold Path, the formations that will continue to arise are rooted in wisdom, because they are rooted in wisdom, with the understanding of the Four Noble Truths, of the three characteristics of reality, and of the links of dependent origination and how they create perception.

Because of all of this, the formations that arise will give rise to a pure consciousness. And when I say pure, it means it's a consciousness that is unfettered, unhindered, unshackled, unbound, and unconditioned. It is such a consciousness that is no longer conditioned by ignorance, conceit or craving, and such a consciousness will not hold on to, will not cling on to, will not grasp onto any of the sensory experiences that arise, and because of that, craving is fully destroyed, and none of the links thereafter will ever arise again. And so when this is done, anything that does arise arises in the way of kamma, in the effects of old kamma, which give rise through formations which activate the consciousness, which is pure, which is unshackled, and which then takes the feeling that is there as impersonal, impermanent, and not worth holding on to, and therefore, through not grasping, is not able to allow, or does not allow rather, the suffering to arise from that kamma. It is terminated and nullified at the level of contact, feeling and perception. So this is how the process of understanding how to keep one's consciousness

untied, unestablished, unshackled to the sensory experiences in everyday life and to the factors of the jhana. And this is how it allows one to continually establish right view and to progress through the jhanas in a way that provides wisdom, in a way that provides the Nibbana experience. Thank you. - Let's open up for questions. - Good afternoon, Delson. I have one question. You mentioned that contact, feeling and perceptions, you know, arising, is it always in that order? Can you, I don't know, I'm imagining or not? Like, I can see that they are coming up, and

you know, becoming one of the, like, let's say, contact coming up, and it become a cause for a feelings to arise, and then they disappear, and then perceptions. At one of my sittings, very clearly, I wasn't so sure that my imagination is what I mean. Is that always in that order? - Yeah, it is always. Yeah, go ahead. - Yeah, Delson, to add to what she has asked: if we get to know so many things about what will happen during meditation, there's a danger of expecting all those things and not focusing on

letting go, saturation and all these things you talk about, because you're looking for those things that you're talking about, like insects and smells and light and all kinds of things, which you're mentioning. It's good not to know these things. Okay, so I don't know, I made me wrong, so let me address the question that Ken asked first. Yeah, in you were saying Kenny, I think you didn't finish your question, or did you? Yeah, kind of, so if it is, they are all arising, one, so sure. I don't know, you froze a little bit, so I don't know, you hear my question? Yeah, about five, five, ten seconds, please, please repeat what you said. Okay, okay, no. What I see is, like for example, contact comes up, that will become a cause for the feeling to arises, and then like they disappear pretty quickly, but I was, I did probably a pretty

focus or collective mindset. That I can see. But when I come out of it, I was thinking, is that my imaginations, or do I see what I see? Yeah. So you were able to see the link of contact, feeling, perception while you were in the collected mind? You said yeah. Yeah, yes. Okay. And you saw it in that order? Yes. Yeah, yes. So you're on the right track then, because that is the way it will always arise when you have contact. So contact is when, for example, the visual form makes contact with the eye. So the photons make contact with the photoreceptor. So that is contact. That is the stimulation, if you will, of the eyes or the ears or the rest of the senses.

When that happens, the sensation arises, which is the feeling, or the sensory experience. Sensory experience cannot arise without consciousness to be there for you to be aware of it, and it cannot arise without the sixth sense basis, because they are dependent upon the sixth sense basis and the sensory consciousness for them to be experienced. So they will arise in the mind through the process of inputting, through the process of the sensory inputting, and then going into the mind and being experienced.

Now, as soon as the sensory experience arises, you recognize, based on what you have learned previously through experience, through what you have learned, let's say, in school and so on and so forth. So when you recognize, you are perceiving. That is the process of perception. So you cannot perceive something that you do not first experience. You cannot have perception of a feeling that you don't have. You need to first have the bare sensation, the bare feeling, and then upon that, you see, when they say, in the way I understand it, when they say pleasant feeling, unpleasant feeling, or neutral feeling, neither painful nor pleasurable feeling, the naming of that feeling as being pleasant or unpleasant or neutral is the recognition aspect of the mind, which is the perception.

So at the level of feeling, there is just a bare sensory experience, which is always dependent upon contact, which is always dependent upon consciousness, contact, and the experience of that contact. So when you have that experience, it's just pure sensation. As soon as you know that it is pleasant, or as soon as you recognize that it's pleasant, that is the perception aspect of it. Yeah, thank you. Yes. By the doctrines, you know, we learn that. Because I always struggle with what I know. I always challenge myself, right? What I know, is it... I want it to come from the inside, not just a learning, audios or videos or whatever, right? It's like by reading it. So that's why when I see these things, you know, I wanted to make sure this is what is supposed to be seeing.

But then I'll also add to that: in the level of perception, how you perceive is also going to determine whether craving arises or not. So it's always at the level of perception, meaning wise perception or unwise perception. Meaning the wise perception that is rooted in the right view and wisdom, which takes what is arising and perceiving as impersonal, impermanent, and not worth holding on to. Or, in the case of someone who takes it personally, it will create mental proliferation from that perception. So it is from perception onwards that mental proliferation will arise, which then gives rise to craving, clinging, and so on.

Thank you. The second question was regarding discussing all of these things, all of these different factors and elements of the jhanas and what to expect and what not to expect. These are all described in a way to understand how to apply mindfulness. So these are examples of what might happen, but it won't always or necessarily happen. It's important, as I mentioned in the talk a little bit earlier before questions arose, that when you have an experience in one of the jhanas, it's important not to expect that same experience to arise again.

So if you are applying right mindfulness, right intention, and understanding through right view that nothing is permanent, even the jhanas and the experiences within the jhanas are not permanent, you won't expect those things to arise. So you're using the tools of mindfulness, and this is just an exposition on how to use the tools of mindfulness and of right intention and of right effort, to be able to know when these things might arise, how to let them go, and how to deal with them. So, going back again, don't get attached to any of the experiences that eyes, and always start your practice with that sense of a beginner's mind, which is to say you just go into it without any expectations, without any ideations or concepts.

But once you know, you'll actively look for those experiences of sounds and smells and all the various examples that you're giving. So that itself will cause a hindrance, right? No. What I'm saying is that these things may arise, which means that you're not expecting, for example, an insect to land on your skin, or you're not expecting these sounds to arise.

But when you're in the meditation and they do arise, you will know what to do with them by letting them go, by using the 6R's process. So it's not expecting any of these things to arise. It's more of a way of example. If I were not to give an example of what might arise and how to deal with it, how then is one to meditate without understanding how to apply the tools of meditation? Anybody else? A last question before we share merit? Hi, Delson. Hi. May I take this opportunity? Yeah, go ahead. To have this last question? Go ahead. Okay. So this is, obviously, I take it as the samma samadhi that Maha Kaccana is saying. It has got two sides: the internal side, which is all belonging to the mind, mind or mental objects, and whatever is on the other side is what we call sensory objects, the outside world.

And do not let your attention go in on either side, on any sensory aspect, and your awareness, I would probably call this an awareness that is making you all close to ready to the nibbana experience, because you are not letting your mind go into the outside or even dwelling to the inside. Yes. And that's how you kind of make your mind undirected towards either end and making it independent. Is that how this is to be understood? Yes. So it's important, first and foremost, to have that caveat, that remember, when you say that the awareness or consciousness is unestablished or unlinked, it remains to be a temporary consciousness insofar as whenever you are in nibbana, but by not clinging to the states internally or externally,

and by not grasping onto them, you are getting inching closer towards nibbana, because no concepts are arising from what is being attached to internally or externally, and you're not having expectations based on those concepts. So because of that non-conceptuality, that non-proliferation, that non-mental and conceptual proliferation, you then are able, conventionally speaking, to enter nibbana. And this is the experience that some of the suttas call another dimension. It opens up another dimension which doesn't belong to any of these concepts or ideas. Yeah. And you know what is ironic about that is even the dimension of no concepts becomes the concept in the mind. So it's important to use that as one of the similes. Of course, there is the raft, but the other simile is using another thorn to take out the thorn in the other shoe in the foot. So you let go of that thorn, and the thorn that you used to let go of it, so you use the concept of non-conceptuality to let go of all concepts.

And then you finally let go of that concept too. Yeah, yeah. Because this... you have to use a means to reach the unconditioned. You are entering from the conditioned world. Yeah. And these are the tools, somehow, you have to use. There is no... Yeah, the unconditioned, yeah, the unconditioned is really... it's a process. It's an active process. So, you know, you can say it's the unconditioned, but it's more of a verb, meaning it's the unconditioning of mind and its involvement with any of these states, its involvement with any of the experiences, and its involvement with any of the links of dependent origination as well.

Yep. Great. All right, let's hear from Merit. May the suffering wants 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.