Oct 2, 2021 - Theragāthā Book of twenties, Chapter 1 – 16.3. Telakāni​

Yes. Let me open up the link. I hope everyone is doing well, keeping well. So I'm going to be reading from the Theragatha, which, as Syl had explained, is from the Khuddaka Nikaya. At the moment, we don't have a translation, I believe, from Bhikkhu Bodhi, so for the Theragatha we're going to be using one by Bhikkhu Sujato, and I'm reading from the SuttaCentral website where you can find it. It's in the Book of the Twenties, and this is 16.3, Telakani. And so, as Syl had mentioned, Telakani was a brahmin, and he was on the lookout for understanding how to deal with his different hindrances and different defilements, as we'll see when he lists them.

So I'll start now. For a long time, sadly, though I keenly contemplated the teaching, I gained no peace of mind. So he says here, I keenly contemplated the teaching, Dhamma. But what we have to understand is Dhamma has different meanings depending upon the context, and here the Dhamma is really the teaching that he was learning in terms of being a brahmin. So it's quite possible that he was learning from the Upanishads, or he was learning from some kind of Vedic teaching that had to do with the understanding of, you know, the self or the soul and Brahma or the substratum of the creation. But according to him, he gave no peace of mind from that, and he says, so I asked this of ascetics and brahmins who has crossed over the world, whose attainment culminates in the deathless, whose teaching do I accept to understand the highest goal. So it's interesting he talks about the deathless, he talks about the highest goal, and one of the questions that always comes up is how do these people know that there is a highest goal. And really it's looking at the understanding that if

if a method or if a teaching or a discourse or anything that you're reading or practicing still keeps you in the conditioned realm then it is not said to be the highest it is not the way leading to the deathless in other words for example the buddha himself when he was the bodhisatta went to two teachers he went to a teacher who taught him nothingness and another teacher who showed him how to get into neither perception and non-perception and both teachers were under the impression that what they had attained was the highest but uh it wasn't it was uh it was just still within the conditioned reality whether it's janas or the arupa janas they are still conditioned they still have and conditions that create the factors and the experiences within those jhanas.

It's only after having let go of one's attachment to them, after having let go of one's identification with them, after having let go of wanting to push for a further experience, and rather just observing in that present moment what is arising, and if there are hindrances arising, to let them go using the 6R process, and by doing so, what happens is that the mind calms down further and deeper and deeper, until you let go of all formations. You let go of the most subtle formation, which is that formation of conceit, the formation of I am, that leads to suffering. Cessation of perception and feeling happens, and because you have let go using right effort, because you have let go using the Eightfold Path, that is to say, you have utilized the 6R's, your mindfulness is sharp enough and deep enough and clear enough that when the mind comes back online, it's able to start to see the links of dependent origination. And having seen that, and having seen the impersonal nature of this whole process

the mind experiences contact with the nirvana element, experiences tremendous relief, and experiences joy, and that is the highest, that is the ultimate bliss of nirvana. And so rightly so, this person Telakani is saying that he hasn't gotten there yet, because he understands that there is still this experience of conditioned reality. He understands that there is still more work to be done, and there is an attainment that can culminate in the deathless, and that there is a higher goal than whatever he's been experiencing before.

He continues on to say, I was hooked inside like a fish gulping bait, bound like the demon, the Pachiti, in Mahinda's trap. So it says demon here, but Vipachiti was actually, well, he is actually an asura. Vipachiti isn't a person; it's a designation of the leaders of the asuras, who are the rivals of the Tavatimsa devas. And Mahinda is another name for Indra, who is known as Saka as well in the sutta. So he has the name Indra or Inda, and Mahinda, and Saka as well. While he is, so to speak, a person, or they are a person within the realm of the Tavatimsa heavens, it's still a designation.

So in other words, once this Saka experiences final attainment, well, he'll experience the anagami state and then arahant state, he will dissolve from that realm, and there will be another being that will take that designation as Saka. Likewise, the same with Vipachiti. And the thing about Vipachiti and Saka is that both of them are rivals of, or leaders of rival factions, if you will. The asuras are always trying to get the upper hand. The asuras are trying to regain their position back in Tavatimsa, but Saka and his forces are always at battle, and they get very close, and then they stop. That when there is more unwholesomeness within the realms, especially within the earth realm and so on, within this human realm and so on, the asuras have an upper hand.

And then when there's more wholesomeness, the Tavatimsa devas have the upper hand, and so on. But there's always this clash between them. And a little interesting side note is Saka, he actually fell in love with Vipachiti's daughter, and so he is married to her. And so Vipachiti is actually his father-in-law, so to speak. So it says here, I was hooked inside like a fish gulping bait. And when I read this, I recall something that I had written to another meditator.

And it was just this insight or just this idea, this metaphor that arose. And this was the message that I wrote to them about it. I said, karma as a fish or look at karma as a fish and the sixth sense bases as hooks look at the formations as bait and contact the link of contact as getting the hint of the bait and feeling as smelling or sensing the bait craving the link of craving is getting hooked to the bait and so a liberated fish sees the bait but knows it to be worth getting hooked to it swims away without suffering staying in the ocean of the unconditioned so to break that down when we say karma as a fish really this sense of being it's nothing more than karma the sense of eye that you have the sense of conceit that you have that's all a um a an effect of karma because you continue to identify with situations or people in general continue to identify with situations, there is still new karma being produced because of that.

And so the fish here, being the being that is clinging to or identifying with the six sense bases and identifying with the five aggregates, is also karmic in nature. And as I said, the six sense bases themselves are hooks. As soon as you identify with the six sense bases, there are these formations that are the bait. Formations, when they are rooted and fettered by ignorance, fettered by craving, fettered by conceit, then they become big. They are impure formations that are essentially influenced and conditioned by ignorance, and that ignorance is the ignorance of the four noble truths. There is the intellectual ignorance of not knowing about the four noble truths because you haven't been introduced to them, but there is then that ignorance which arises every time you have lack of mindfulness, every time you forget to 6R and take the feeling or the experience as being personal, as being permanent, and therefore worth holding onto.

And every time you do that, that causes further craving. And that craving is getting hooked to the bait. And so then that bait continues on in the form of the formations, so specifically the mental formations, which give rise to the experience of feeling and perception. Formations, when they are pure, will still give rise to feeling and perception. But because they are no longer fettered by craving and hindered by ignorance, or fettered by conceit either, those formations will just give rise to a pure consciousness, a pure awareness of what's going on without identifying with the experience.

And because the mind has become liberated and automatically able to discern and see for itself that it is impermanent, and therefore not worth holding on to, and therefore impersonal. And when that happens, there is no new karma. There is no new being. There is no new renewal of being. So the whole point here is to identify any time, or recognize any time, that the mind starts to look at something as permanent and starts to grasp it as me, mine, or myself.

if you can notice that and recognize it in six art in that moment then you are free of craving the mind is free of craving in that moment the mind is experiencing a mundane nirvana in that moment and therefore then that fish is no longer hooked to the sixth sense bases and looking at the sixth sense bases as being anything more than just a set of impersonal impermanent for that experience to arise. So the contact that arises also can be fettered by craving. That contact can be fettered by ignorance and by conceit.

Because when the formations are fettered, they will give rise to a specific kind of consciousness and awareness. This consciousness is not some kind of ethereal consciousness, but we're talking essentially about cognition, that is able to become aware of something, aware of an experience, aware of the six sense bases, and aware of the feeling and perception. But if the formations are rooted in identification, if the formations are rooted in the unwholesome, in the akusala, then they will activate defiled consciousness. And what that means is there are up to 16 different kinds of defilements which can affect the way you perceive reality.

based on your previous set of choices. For example, if you were jealous before and you acted from that jealousy and your intention was rooted in that jealousy in the next moment, the consciousness that can arise can be tainted or tinted by that defilement of jealousy, stained by that defilement of jealousy. Likewise with the other 16 different defilements. enters the contact that arises. And so the contact, as we understand it, is, for example, the contact between the eye and the form. And the meaning of the two gives rise to the arising of eye consciousness.

So that consciousness that was activated by formations is the same consciousness that arises as a consequence of contact. But as we said, because that consciousness or that cognition has been tainted or tinted by that defilement and even the contact that arises and the experience and the feeling is subject to being perceived in that way, so if you have loving kindness, if you have compassion, if you have joy, if you have equanimity, then any contact that arises is infused with that loving kindness or with that compassion or with that joy or with that equanimity, and so the experience, the feeling and the perception is infused with one or more of those from the brahmaviharas.

And because of that, you are not having any ill will in that moment. You're not having any cruelty in that moment. You're not having any jealousy in that moment. You're not having any agitation and restlessness in that moment. And so the mind is not prone towards craving. And because there is that joy, which brings about collectedness, which brings about that strong mindfulness, the mind is able to see that feeling and that experience as being impersonal and not taking it personal, and therefore not even having to let go of it because it's not holding on to anything. And since it's not holding on to anything, and because they don't have to let go of anything, there won't be any arising of any underlying tendency towards craving or aversion or whatever it might be, which then bridges the gap between feeling and craving.

So this is one understanding of seeing how the mind works when it comes to formation, intentions, intention, contact, feeling, perception, and how that can give rise to craving anytime there is an identification or taking personal the experience. And anytime there is an I don't like it or I like it mindset. He continues and he says, dragging it along, I am not free from grief and lamentation.

Obviously so, because if he has taken these things to be personally, has taken these things to be myself and then attaches craving to it or attaches aversion to it, then that will give rise to further clinging. And that clinging is the thinking about what's going on, the ideation process, that process that starts to create opinions and value judgments around what it is that is being experienced. So when one says this is mine and I like it, this becomes my favorite, and then this becomes part of the identity and the set of habitual tendencies within the link of bhava or being or existence, however you want to call it. And because that clinging then gives rise to bhava, that bhava can give rise to the birth of action. That birth of action, being rooted in the unwholesome or being rooted in craving, will ultimately give rise to suffering in the form of grief and lamentation, in the form of despair, in the form of anxiety and restlessness.

So he says, who will free me from bonds in the world so that I may know awakening? What ascetic or Brahmin points out what is frail, points out what is unessential, that is to say, what is not worth holding on to? Whose teaching do I accept to sweep away old age and death? So old age and death here, that is inevitable. Aging is inevitable, death is inevitable at some point or another, but what is preventable is the fear of old age, is the identification with the aging process, the fear of death, the identification with the five aggregates, namely form, because that's where one identifies and tries to prevent or suppress the aging process through all kinds of modern techniques like plastic surgery and

and all kinds of other things like that. And death, being identified with the body and seeing that there's a dissolution of the body, there is a fear of death. When you let go of identification completely with the five aggregates, when you let go of clinging completely of the five aggregates, then there is no longer any fear of old age and death. And you come to the deathless, which is Nibbana, which is another name for Nibbana, because Nibbana is unconditioned. Conditions, nirvana is that process from which you have, or that process which arises, let's say that experience which arises after having deconditioned the mind of all of these fetters of identification and conceit, of craving and aversion and ignorance and so on. So nirvana being deathless is because there is no more birth in that process of dependent origination. There is no more renewal of being, and therefore there is no more birth.

And if there is no more birth, there is no more death either. There is no more ending. And so that is the deathless. Tied up with uncertainty and doubt. Secured by the power of pride. Rigid as a mind beset by anger. The arrow of covetousness. So tied up with uncertainty and doubt: uncertainty of life. It's the doubt of what practice am I doing, is this leading me to Nibbana, is this leading the mind further away from attachments, bringing it away from attachments, or am I doing this correctly, am I on the right track, am I on the right path? All of these ideas and concepts stem from doubt. And if you can notice this doubt, and you can notice that when you use the 6R process you let go of it, then you're already on the right path.

Every time you use the 6R process, you are utilizing the eight-fold path. Every time you are using the 6R process, you are understanding suffering. You are abandoning the craving or the hindrance that leads to that suffering. And you are experiencing the cessation of suffering or the cessation of that hindrance. And because of the fact that you're using the 6R's or the eight-fold path, you're cultivating the fourth noble truth. Every time you use a 6R process, you are seeing in that moment the Four Noble Truths. And you're letting go and abandoning the craving, the conceit, the ignorance that leads you to suffering.

So if you have a doubt in your mind and you recognize it and let go in 6R, then you're weakening that hindrance of doubt. And every time you weaken that hindrance of doubt, when it comes back, it won't be as powerful. It won't be as impactful. And you keep 6R-ing until it completely fades away. Secured by the power of pride. This pride here is also known as atimana, or even mana, and mana meaning conceit. That conceit is the sense of, I am better than this person, I have the knowledge and vision of such and such, and therefore I am an advanced practitioner. Having the pride in that is different from celebrating that you have attained something.

You can absolutely appreciate and be grateful for the attainments that you have or the experiences you have. But every time you identify with those experiences, every time you identify with that and make it a big deal, as Bhante would say, then you are coming into the territory of conceit. And when you do that, you lose your mindfulness. And when you lose your mindfulness, you are no longer attentive to the present, and there is liable for that feeling to give rise to underlying tendencies, which can give rise to craving, clinging, and being rigid as a mind beset by anger. This rigidity, this is stubbornness: I know it all, I know exactly how to do this, and you don't, you can't tell me any better. This is the closed-mindedness of an individual who believes that they are on the right path but are not open enough to see that perhaps they're making mistakes.

And rigidity also comes in the form of trying to compare one practice with another. It might seem like the person is open-minded, or has open-mindedness, because they're looking at different kinds of practices and things like that. But really, when a person generally does that, they have a certain kind of agenda, they have a certain kind of intention, and that is to compare and use what practice they have learned before and compare it with how this practice is, and then seeing if it's better or worse. And that comes from rigidity. That comes from attachment to what you already know.

When you do a retreat, when you come into the practice, when you sit down for meditation, whatever experiences you've had before, whatever attainments you've had before, don't let your mind become rigid. Don't let your mind become attached to those experiences, because then there is an expectation, there's an anticipation. And there's agitation, which leads to lack of mindfulness.

If you start off with that open-mindedness, which is to say, let's just see what happens, and I don't care what happens in the meditation, you will get farther and deeper in your practice than ever before with that sort of an attitude of open-mindedness. Anger, as we understand, arises from that sense of self, arises from taking something personal. The misperception of the idea of something not being fulfilled.

Somebody takes a pleasant feeling as personal, and eventually or abruptly, let's say, that feeling goes away or something disrupts that experience. There's a tendency then to have aversion to that, because now that pleasurable feeling has gone. And then some people beat themselves up for it or get angry at the cause of that disruption. And so that anger is arising because that pleasurable feeling has been disrupted, that contentment has gone away. When you recognize this and you 6R it and you forgive that anger, essentially, whether it's anger at somebody else, anger towards what's not working out, anger towards yourself or towards the mind, if you forgive it and you use the 6R's and you let it go, it will dissipate and you will regain your mindfulness, and you'll regain that clear, calm mind with which then you can continue with your jhana practice.

The arrow of covetousness propelled by the bow of craving is stuck in my twice-fifteen ribs. See how it stands in my breast, breaking my strong heart. The arrow of covetousness. Covetousness. That is another way of understanding wanting something or longing for something that you don't currently possess. Longing for something that you maybe had, but you no longer had. So this arises when in the practice you have a gigantic state, you have a wonderful experience, you come out of it, you go into your next sitting, and it's not there anymore. And now you're craving for it. Now you're longing for it. You're coveting it. And in doing so, you're getting further away from that experience. If you have the attitude that every meditation will be different, every meditation session will be different, and let's just see what happens, then you won't have this covetousness.

You won't have this expectation. You won't have any of this anticipation that agitates the mind. Propelled by the bow of craving. There you go, that craving that's there, the craving to be or the craving not to be. When you're meditating, you hear a sudden sound and then your mind goes towards it, and now your attention is scattered, and you identify with that sound as a cause for the disturbance. And then you have craving in the form of aversion towards it. Or somebody's baking cookies, and you smell the freshly baked cookies, and now you're thinking about that. Now you're thinking about when I'm gonna come out of the sit, and when am I gonna have that fresh piece of cookie, or whatever it might be.

That's also sensual craving, the craving to be or the craving not to be. This comes from bhavatanha and vibhavatanha. The craving to be in general is the sense of wanting to become, and this adds to the habitual tendencies in bhava. This adds to the cooking up of the identification process, which arises in that sense of self, which is basically fully formed, and then there is birth of action from there. This craving to be is: I want to be a millionaire. I want to own so-and-so. I want to be a master meditator. I want to know how to get into cessation.

There is a difference here. There is chanda, which is a wholesome intention, a wholesome cultivated intention to uplift the mind, that motivates the mind in the correct way. Collect cultivated intention after having had that chanda, if you identify with it and you say, I have to do this, I should do this, and then there is the stirring of craving around that, then that is where the craving to be happens. The craving not to be is when you become agitated because you are in a certain jhana and you don't want to be here and you want to go forward. That's also craving to be. You are wanting to move forward. Is the craving be, the craving not to be? As I said, it is when you are in a jhana and you don't want to be there, or there are a lot of hindrances and you're no longer in jhana, and you don't like being with doubt. You don't like being with the restlessness, causing further doubt, causing further restlessness.

This craving not to be will just give rise to further craving not to be if acted upon. And how is it acted upon? Whenever you struggle with the doubt, whenever you struggle with the restlessness, whenever you struggle with that hindrance, whatever it might be, and whenever you take it personal and don't want it in that moment, you have craving not to be. Every time you have craving not to be and you act on it, it will only cause further craving for not, some craving for not wanting something or craving for not being something. Able to just recognize with mindfulness that here is a hindrance, that's okay, so you're having some equanimity there, using the Recognize step, releasing your awareness from it, relaxing your mind and body because of the disturbance from that craving.

Re-smiling to uplift the mind, and having an uplifted mind with that smiling, and then returning back to your object. You have regained your arisen, whether it's something that is wholesome or unwholesome, whether it's something that's good, bad or indifferent. This is the reality of the situation. This is part of that, is to say, seeing reality as it is without becoming affected by it, without identifying with it, without personalizing it, without having any sense of 'I don't like it' or 'I like it.' Just aware that it is there, and then hindrance or whatever it might be. Is stuck in my twice-fifteen ribs. I really don't know what this could mean, because as I understand it, technically, medically speaking, I just looked it up.

There's something like 24 ribs, but some people might have more. So maybe Telakani had 30 individual ribs, who knows. And see how it stands in my breast, breaking my strong heart. Not abandoned. They are sharpened by memories and intentions. And pierced by this, I tremble like a leaf blowing in the wind. Speculative views. What are those?

Speculative views are basically the six different kinds of views that I've talked about recently in the past. And those are different kinds of views that were present around the time of the Buddha, and briefly put there, basically views about eternalism, views about materialism, that there's only this body. And so one identifies with the body, or views of fatalism, that nothing that I do in every given moment has an effect. And therefore everything is predetermined, which is in violation of the Dhamma, because as we understand, intention is karma, and our intentions give rise to a consequence. Even if it has been conditioned by previous intentions. Then there is that sense of, well, let me go back.

So you have materialism, which is identifying with the body. You have predeterminism, which is saying that we don't have choice in any moment. You have eternalism, which says there is a soul or any of the five aggregates are somehow permanent. And so that is already understood to be misconceived and misguided, because we understand form to be impermanent. We understand feeling to be impermanent. We understand perception to be impermanent. We understand our intentions and consciousness to be impermanent.

Then there is the view of the Jains or the Negantas, who said that in order to purify karma, some kind of ascetic process, and that's how you let go of old karma, that's how you let go of unwholesome karma. And that more specifically, whether you intended something or not, that still is karma. And that's a wrong view, because that leads to identifying with the intentions and identifying with other consequences and identifying with all actions, intended or unintended, and that creates a lot of agitation in the mind.

And then finally, there is the skeptical view that I believe in the Buddha or I don't believe in the Buddha. I believe in the Dhamma or I don't believe in the Dhamma. I believe in right view or I don't believe in right view. And it's just basically, they call them eel wrigglers. So this kind of view holder has a lot of tension in the mind, because they aren't coming to any kind of conclusion.

within the process of understanding the Dhamma. They're just always skeptical, and that hinders them from attaining the path and understanding and finally experiencing Nibbana. I feel like I'm missing one. Let me just make sure I got it right. So we have, oh yes, amoralism. That's the one I forgot, amoralism. So amoralism basically says there is no ethics, there's no consequences, or immoral, it has no difference. But again, this is in violation of the understanding of the Dhamma, because we know that when you have unwholesome mindsets, you get unwholesome intentions. Those can give rise to unwholesome thoughts and unwholesome actions, verbally and physically as well. Likewise, if you have wholesome intentions, if you maintain the precepts, you immediately see a clearer mind.

You have a determination deeper in meditation. There have been examples of people who break precepts and then they're unable to meditate even 20 minutes or 30 minutes. As soon as they retake the precepts, as soon as they make the determination to be wholesome and moral and ethical, their mindset changes and shifts, and their mind becomes clearer, and they're able to again meditate for two, three, four hours.

So there is a direct understanding and experience of seeing that being moral has consequences and has uplifting and wholesome consequences. And so it says here, they are sharpened by memories and intentions. So just so you know, speculative views also have to do with is the universe permanent or impermanent? Where does the Buddha go after the dissolution of the five aggregates? Is there a self or isn't there a self? All things related to the imponderables, different types of views that can be seen in Digha Nikaya number one, the Brahmajala Sutta. And it says here, they're sharpened by memories and intentions.

How is that the case? It's because your memories, if you identify with those memories, you personalize or take personal those memories, then the concepts related and rooted in those memories will add to the views. was saying in terms of intentions and memories. If you continue to compare this practice with an old practice, or you continue to have that as a litmus test and then use that as a foundation for trying to figure out what this practice is, that is to say the twin practice, then you're only further speculating. Then you're further adding to the doubt. You're further adding to the agitation. And so these memories or these ideas, these concepts that you have, you have to let them go, have that open-mindedness, the beginner's mind, as they say. Everything that you're experiencing up until this point is a consequence of things you did mentally, verbally, physically in the past, and everything that's going to happen in the future is a result of what you are thinking, speaking and acting in the present moment. So your memories, in that sense, if you identify with mental processes.

If you identify with the perception and feeling in the present moment, then that identification process is liable to bring up all of these preconceived notions. And that gives rise to speculative views, that gives rise to clinging, that gives rise to conceptual or mental proliferation, that papancha, proliferation. And this proliferation arises because you have a reaction to something based on your judgment from the past, or your judgment or ideas and conceptualizations that are rooted in ideas of the past. As soon as you let go of that identification process, as soon as you let go of all of those things, then you are seeing reality as it is.

There is no longer this, that person as always being this person, seeing this event as always being this event. In other words, there's a tendency for people who are untrained to generally see their father a certain way, generally see their mother a certain way, generally see their sibling a certain way, generally see a friend a certain way, and because of that, or their spouse a certain way, and because of that they act in a way based on that pre-judgment. But letting go of memories of that and seeing reality as it is, and becoming aware and attentive to that moment, in that experience of whatever the person or people are saying to you and acting, and responding from wisdom, that is to say, a mind void of proliferation, a mind without that filtration process of judging, then you act in a way so as not to cause further karma, because then you are rooted in right view, right intention, right speech, right action.

And because of that, anytime your actions are rooted in the Eightfold Path, they will not cause new karma. In fact, they will cease the old karma, as it is understood. Having arisen within, what belongs to me burns quickly in that place where the body always heads with its sixth sense, of contact. Having arisen with me, what belongs to me burns quickly. So that sense of self, that idea that this belongs to me, this body belongs to me, these feelings are mine, these perceptions are mine, that person is mine, this house is mine. All of these ideas are quickly generating underlying tendencies towards conceit, underlying tendencies towards being an identity, underlying tendencies towards craving and aversion, underlying tendencies towards views and doubt, and underlying tendency toward ignorance.

When that happens, the mind lacks the mindfulness when there is contact with the sixth sense basis. When there is a lack of mindfulness, a lack of wise attention, yoniso manasikara, which is to see things as they are, not to get caught up on them, not to take them personally, not to see them as me, mine, or myself, and rather seeing them as an impersonal process, then you are letting go of the underlying tendencies by your non-reactivity to that situation.

But if you do, then what burns quickly is that karma, or the craving that gives rise to that karma and new karma, that craving, clinging, and being that gives rise to the new karma. And that is what burns. Nibbana is the quenching of the fire and quenching of the thirst. It is the no fire, that is to say, the fires of hatred, delusion, or greed, hatred, and delusion. And then he says, 'I don't see a healer who can pull out my dart of doubt without a lance or some other blade.' In other words, this doubt is something that can only be removed when one hears the voice of another, the voice of a Buddha or the voice of the suttas, and is able to then apply the practice and let go of that doubt after having seen for themselves how effective this process is. It's only then that you have the actual, let's say, faith or conviction in the Buddha, in the Dhamma, and in the Sangha.

without knife or wound who will pull out this dart that's stuck inside me without harming any part of my body, he really would be the lord. Fraud, jealousy, and pride. These have to do with the defilements, as I was talking about, the 16 defilements. When you talk about fraud, what that means is really hypocrisy. It's thinking that you know what is right and doing it, or thinking or knowing what you know is right and not doing it. So it's also, in a sense, fooling other people, deceiving other people, and obviously being false in your speech, false in your actions, false in your behavior. This only gives rise to further doubt in your mind. Anytime you tell a lie, it strengthens the hindrance of doubt, and so fraud can give rise to hypocritical teachers. It can give rise to people who speak something and do something else, and if they continue down that path it will lead to a lower realm. Jealousy. This jealousy is the jealousy of another person's success, is another of another person's

attainment, or another person's being uplifted and attaining some jhana or something else that arises from comparison. And that is mana, that is pride, or atimana, but that is also the conceit that compares with this sense of self and the idea that there is another sense of self, and so myself is better or myself is lower. The idea that myself is lower is that insecurity, which gives rise to jealousy. And so that conceit, when you hear of other people's attainments, will give rise to the idea, well, I'm only here and that person is there, what can I do? And you become jealous of the other person, and that can give rise to anger, that can give rise to resentment, or that can give rise to further self-hatred. In either case, both are the wrong ways of dealing with it. Instead, the best antidote for jealousy is the feeling of mudita.

Now, mudita is really the quality of joy, as we understand. It's a contented joy. On the external plane, that is to say, when you're dealing with people, the joy that you experience when you celebrate their success, their wholesome success, their success in the Dhamma, that's empathetic joy. That is the mudita. But the quality of it when you experience it in the meditation is just this experience of joy. And that's a wonderful antidote to deal with this insecurity. And of course, if you need, you can forgive the judgments that are coming towards yourself or towards others.

Dullness and drowsiness. This is sloth and torpor. Sloth and torpor come when there is a lack of mindfulness. Suddenly, first the mind is on its object of meditation, and then suddenly it starts to veer off and becomes disinterested with its object of meditation. Notice when you are in sloth and torpor, all of these background thoughts are there, you're not really sure what those thoughts are. It's very hazy, it's very unclear, and sometimes it might lead to sleepiness, where the mind becomes sleepy, or it might lead to dullness, where the mind just doesn't have enough interest. There's a level of boredom, or there's just a level of apathy, the mind is just not clear and bright. And the way to deal with that is to use the enlightenment factors of collectedness.

Collect the mind by using some kind of interest, some kind of enthusiasm, using some kind of effort to bring up that enthusiasm. So put a little bit more attention on your object of meditation and let that mindfulness then rest on the object and collect itself around it. This is the way to deal with dullness and drowsiness. Like a thundercloud of restlessness, like a rain cloud of fetters, lustful thoughts are winds that sweep off a person with bad views. A thundercloud of restlessness. This is another hindrance. Restlessness comes in the form of anxiety, agitation, remorse, regret, all kinds of things like that. And this arises because at some point you broke a precept and you have remorse for it.

Or at some point you're thinking about something and you're identifying with the situation. If it's particularly unwholesome or particularly painful, and you start to build around it, and that causes anxiety, that causes agitation. Every time there is an identification process, there is restlessness. That's why one says that when the fetter of conceit is destroyed, along with it is the destruction of the craving for form realms, or the craving to be in form realms, and the craving to be in formless realms, and the fetter of restlessness. Because these three rest on or depend upon the fetter of conceit, because there is in that conceit that sense of self, that sense of 'I am,' that sense of identifying and taking things personally.

But as soon as you see things as being impersonal, who then is there to take it as my anxiety? Who is there to take it as my agitation? Now you just see that as a painful feeling, painful mental feeling. You use the 6R's process to let it go, and you relax into it, and then you start to see that dissipate, you start to see that fade away, and all there is now is a clear mind void of any kind of restlessness. When you start off with your practice there will be some form of restlessness in the form of movement in the mind. And so this is another kind of restlessness that arises because of the effect of not maintaining precepts, the effect of breaking precepts, and it's bound to happen until you destroy the fetter of restlessness completely. At that point, then there is complete stillness in the mind. It's a mind that is completely empty and cavernous. Lustful thoughts are winds. Lustful thoughts, whether they're thoughts of craving, thoughts

thoughts of aversion, or thoughts of identification, they sway the mind. They sway the mindfulness away from the object of meditation, and they sweep off a person with bad views. So these bad views can be views about oneself, oh, I'm a terrible meditator, or views like, how come I wasn't able to do this, or other views that lead to the speculative views as we were talking about earlier. But as soon as you identify and start to judge yourself, judge the mind, then you're leading towards those bad views. If you recognize in that moment and then you use the 6R's process and let it go, relax into it, and come back to a peaceful mind, then you let go of the craving, you let go of the aversion, you let go of those bad views.

The streams flow everywhere. A weed springs up and remains. Who will block the streams? Who will cut the weed? So here, as I understand, he's talking about the streams that are to do with the asavas. The weed that springs up are the asavas. Those are the three taints. Who will block the streams? Who will cut the weed? That is to say, who will let go and completely destroy the taints.

The taints here being the taint for sensual desire, the taint for desire of being, and the taint of ignorance. Every time you take something personal and you crave for something in the way of your sixth sense basis, you are feeding into the taint of sensual desire. Desire to be, and you beat yourself up for not having been there, for example, wanting to be an ajana and not being an ajana, or every time you have a desire to be something, even if it's wholesome or not wholesome, well, specifically even if it's wholesome, then you identify with that process, and that can create craving, all kinds of mental proliferation around that. The energy of that feeds back to the taint of the desire for being.

And every time you forget to 6R, every time you have lack of mindfulness, every time in that experience of feeling and perception, you hold on to it, take it personal, and you identify with it and have that craving mind, you are essentially not aware of the Four Noble Truths in that moment. You are ignoring the Four Noble Truths in that moment. Every time that happens, you are feeding back energy to the taint of ignorance.

Venerable sir, build a dam to block the streams. Don't let your mind-made streams cut you down suddenly like a tree. Build a dam. What is that dam? That is the dam of mindfulness. Every time you have wise attention, every time you see things as they really are with equanimity, without becoming agitated, understanding: here is an unwholesome experience. Here is a painful experience. Here is a pleasant experience. Here is a neutral experience. Here there is a lot of disturbance. Here there is no disturbance. It doesn't matter whatever it might be, the mind is just seeing it and saying, here it is. If you have that kind of attitude, you have equanimity, and if you have that equanimity, the mind won't react and strengthen the underlying tendency that arises in reaction

to that particular experience or that quality of the experience. And therefore, there won't be craving, clinging, and being, and then further birth of action and suffering. So if you have non-reaction to it, or if you notice that there is a reaction to it rooted in craving, rooted in ignorance, rooted in identification, but you use the six Rs to regain your mindfulness and cut off the streams of the taints, cut off the streams of the asavas of wise attention by building that dam of mindfulness, then that stream won't further create the underlying tendencies, won't further give rise to craving or clinging or being, and so on. This is how the teacher whose weapon is wisdom... What is wisdom? Wisdom is the understanding of dependent origination, the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. That weapon of wisdom, surrounded by the sangha of hermits, was my shelter when I was full of fear, seeking the far shore from the near.

What is that fear? That fear arises specifically, for example, in the seventh or eighth jhana. It arises in the ayatana of nothingness or neither perception or non-perception. Just as you're letting go of conceit, letting go of the formations that are identifying with the experience, the quiet mind, a sudden fear arises. What if I die? And that thought of what if I die is arising because of a sense of self, a misperceived, misguided sense of self. The mind has become so used to having conceit in identifying with everything that it's afraid to let that go and thinks that it will die. But so what? It actually will die. The mind is dying in every moment anyway.

It arises and passes away. Your sixth sense basis arises and passes away. Consciousness arises and passes away. There's birth, death, birth, death, birth, death. So all that's happening there is just this death of feeling and perception, there's the cessation of perception and feeling and consciousness, and letting go of that fear, you come to the far shore. You come to nibbana when you see the links of the dependent origination and experience nibbana. He gave me a strong, simple ladder, that is the Eightfold Path, made of the heartwood of Dhamma, and he said to me, do not fear. I climbed the tower of mindfulness meditation, the satipatthanas in this case, but essentially observing how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. That helps you clarify the mind. That helps you to see if there is craving in the mind. That helps you to see if there's aversion in the mind. That helps you to see if there's identification in the mind, and you let that go with the six R's process and check back down. Worldlings, or people who are untrained,

delighting in an identity, people taking things personal, people relishing in this or that because that is mine, me, or myself, as I had once obsessed over in the past when I saw the path as I was embarking on the ship without fixating. When I saw the path, meaning now he was seeing how this was leading towards cessation, as I was embarking on that ship towards nibbana, to the other shore, without fixating on the self, without identifying with any of the factors of the jhanas or the ayatanas, without identifying with the experience of quiet mind or the signless state or any other state that's arising.

You don't fixate a sense of self there, and you just see things as they really are, without a concern with deep disenchantment. You're no longer concerned. You're no longer interested in anything that's arising, because you've seen that, you've done that, you've been there before, and it no longer excites the mind. Then that gives rise to deep dispassion, and then there is the final letting go, and there is the experience of cessation, and then the supreme. In other words, the dart that arises in oneself, that is the craving that stems from attachment to rebirth, that stems from the attachment to the I, the sense of this is me, this is mine, this is myself, that has been cancelled because of the Eightfold Path, because of doing the practice, because of doing the six Rs. Every time you do the six Rs, you are little by little letting go of the attachment to rebirth, letting go of the identification process, letting go of taking things as personal.

And therefore, that dart that arises in the mind, which is the dart of craving, dissipates and goes away and weakens and weakens until there is the remainderless fading away of that. For a long time, it had lain within me. It was fixed in me. The Buddha cast off the knot, curing the damage of poison. You. Any questions? So I take it everybody understood the sutta or the poem. And now I'd like every one of you to recite it back to me with everything I've said.

Or any comments, any remarks. Good. I guess this is one of those rare times when everybody seems to have understood it, or just reflecting on it. We'll leave it at that. Share Samarit, acquired by 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. Thank you very much, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you very much, Delson. It's wonderful. I have to re-listen to a couple of time to sync, Dan. That's why I don't have any questions.