Day 3 May Retreat SN 46.54.4 "Accompanied by Lovingkindness" with Delson Armstrong

Then those bhikkhus neither delighted nor rejected the statement of those wanderers. Without delighting in it, without rejecting it, they rose from their seats and left, thinking, we shall learn the meaning of this statement in the presence of the Blessed One. After their meal, they approached the Blessed One. Having paid homage to Him, they sat down to one side and reported to Him the entire discussion between those wanderers and themselves. The Blessed One said, destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal. How is the liberation of the mind by compassion developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal? How is the liberation of the mind by altruistic joy developed?

Based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release. So let's unpack that. So the enlightenment factors, you were introduced to those a couple of days ago and a little bit yesterday probably when you were talking about balancing the mind when you're in quiet mind with the enlightenment factors. So there are these seven enlightenment factors. There's mindfulness, there's investigation of states. There's energy, there's joy, there's tranquility, there's collectedness, and there's equanimity.

Now, mindfulness is key for any of the enlightenment factors to arise. When you are in quiet mind, there comes a point where the mind might incline towards more activity, towards more restlessness. So what do you do? You use the enlightenment factors that tranquilize the mind, that relax the mind. So you use tranquility, you use collectedness, you use equanimity.

What happens if the mind inclines towards sloth and torpor and there's tiredness and dullness in the mind? Then you use the energizing enlightenment factors. You use investigation of states, which is basically taking more interest in your object. You use energy, which is having more effort. And you use what's known as joy, bringing in a little bit more of that joy.

But here the Buddha is talking about the enlightenment factors in a different context. Why? Because he's talking about using the enlightenment factors not with a process of balancing the mind, but rather that these enlightenment factors arise naturally as you get into a collected state of mind. If you recall what I said a couple of days ago, I said that one of the things or two of the things you can know about jhana or the components of jhana is that there is the absence of the five hindrances, the absence of those things that distract the mind, that is ill will, sensual craving, restlessness, sloth and torpor, and doubt.

And it's also the presence of the enlightenment factors, and how are the enlightenment factors activated? We talked about this from the perspective of right effort. When you use the 6R's, you're activating the enlightenment factors. When you recognize that you were distracted, you are now mindful. You are aware, you're paying attention, you're observing how mind's attention moved from one object to the other. It was on loving-kindness, or it was on one of the brahmaviharas, and now it's somewhere else. It's distracted. So this is mindfulness.

What is the investigation of states enlightenment factor? A lot of times people see this as the enlightenment factor where one has to analyze and reflect, investigate, and discern. But the best way to understand is that the investigation of states enlightenment factor is just knowing what state the mind is in. So when you see that you are distracted, when you recognize that you are distracted, you're doing two things. The mind has moved and you are aware, or you perceive, that the mind is distracted. It has gone from an undistracted state to a distracted state of mind. When you recognize, you do these two things.

Then when you release, that is to say, you let your attention go from that distraction and back to the present moment, back to the mind, back to the body, you're using energy. You're cultivating right effort by letting go, abandoning that hindrance, abandoning that particular distraction. And then when you relax the mind and the body, you relax the tightness and tension, you relax the craving, you have the tranquility factor that arises.

When you come back to the smile, you activate the joy factor. And when you come back to your object of meditation, you activate the collectedness factor. Now notice that here you activated the tranquility and then the joy. But in the usual way of seeing the enlightenment factors, what happens? There is the mindfulness, which leads to investigation of states, which leads to energy, which leads to joy, which leads to tranquility.

But that's okay. Joy and tranquility can be interchangeable. That is to say, when there is tranquility, joy arises. When there is joy, the mind becomes tranquil in either case. So here you're just tranquilizing the mind, the mental formations that are rooted in craving, the bodily formations that are rooted in craving, the tightness and tension that is the manifestation of craving. And you come back to the smile that uplifts the mind, keeps the mind light, keeps the mind joyful.

When you do this, the mind is ripe for jhana. So loving-kindness is one thing and the experience of jhana is another. So what the Buddha is talking about is, yes, in other traditions, in other dhammas, they talk about pervading all directions with loving-kindness. But they do it in such a way that it doesn't bring serenity and insight. It doesn't bring clarity. It doesn't bring the jhanic factors. But when you activate the enlightenment factors, and coming back to your object and staying there, not becoming one-pointed, just observing, letting the mind observe the feeling and feel the feeling.

Then everything comes into balance. Everything calibrates into balance. And now you are in jhana. Now the jhana arises, that is to say the first jhana arises because you are secluded from the hindrances, which are the hindrances, and now because of that the joy of the jhana factor, that is to say the piti, arises. You feel comfortable in your body, and that's the sukha. So then that changes into further joy born of collectedness. Now you have more collectedness in the second jhana, and now there's joy born from that. There's further deepening of relaxing relaxation in the body. Then that joy ceases, and there is now the sukha, the tranquility in the body. There is equanimity.

When that ceases, there is just equanimity. There is mindfulness due to equanimity, the purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. Remember the other day I also said that the enlightenment factors are linear, right? One leads to the other, but they're also cyclical. Then the equanimity informs the next arising of mindfulness, and so on and so forth. So when this is there, along with love and kindness, then this is how it matures in release.

This is what the Buddha is talking about. He says that it is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release. Based on seclusion, that is a mind secluded from unwholesome states, that is a mind ripe for jhana. Dispassion and cessation. So somewhere between that, that is to say seclusion and dispassion, there is also equanimity, there is disenchantment, and then there is dispassion, and then there is cessation.

One leads to the other. When you have equanimity, that is to say seeing things as they actually are. This in Pali is also known as yathabhuta, the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are. So seeing things without letting the mind become affected one way or the other. There's no push or pull. The mind is just seeing things. From there, there comes what's known as disenchantment.

So another way of understanding disenchantment is sometimes it's translated as revulsion or disgust. Imagine you eat your favorite flavor of ice cream, right? Somebody gives you your favorite flavor of ice cream and you really enjoy that. You have one bowl of ice cream and you really enjoy it. And then your friend says, here, here's another bowl of ice cream. All right, I'll take it. I'm okay with that. I have some craving for ice cream, so I'll have another bowl.

And then your friend says, here's a third bowl of ice cream. And now you're kind of thinking about it. Should I have it or not? And he says, wait, I got more. Here's a fourth bowl of ice cream. Now you're like, no, I've had enough. I'm done. The same thing happens in your meditation. The things come up, right? Formations come up. Distractions come up. Whatever comes up, comes up. But eventually the mind just gets tired of it. It says, I've seen it before, not interested in it. It's not aversion. It's just knowing that been there, done that. Seen it before. So the mind becomes disenchanted with that. Disinterested in those formations, in those distractions.

Then it gives rise to dispassion. Dispassion comes from the word viraga or vairagya in Sanskrit. And that means detachment. So now the mind is like Teflon. It's like a non-stick pan. Nothing sticks on it. Whatever comes up just glides through. Doesn't even in your attention. You see through it and you have no interest in it. You just are not attached to it. So this detachment, this passion naturally keeps everything in balance. There's perfect equanimity.

There's perfect collectedness. There's perfect tranquility. All dependent upon the arising of joy previously, the arising of the right effort previously, the arising of the investigation of states previously, the arising of mindfulness previously. All of this comes together and then there's cessation. The cessation of what? The cessation of suffering. The cessation of all conditioned experience. The cessation specifically of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

And then maturing in release. So what does that mean? Maturing in release. So what is release here? That is the experience of having let go of suffering. Whenever you six are, when you relax the craving in the mind and body, whenever you relax the tightness and tension in mind and body, you experience Nibbana. You experience release. You experience a mundane form of Nibbana where if you notice when the mind relaxes, it opens up. It's spacious.

It's like the empty blue sky. No conditions there for that particular microsecond. So when you have cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness, what happens? You have ceased all conditions. There are no conditions present. When mind comes back online, then the experience is released. Because previously it had been developed in such a way that it continued to let go of all formations rooted in craving. In such a way of letting go of all disturbances, all distractions, all hindrances. So whatever comes back online is a mind that is void of conditions, a mind that is unconditioned or has been deconditioned.

Because of that, there arises release. There is Nibbana. There is the experience of having experienced that release of letting go of all conditioned states. And from there, there comes the joy and the relief and everything else that you experience. So the way to experience loving kindness, it matures in release. It culminates, it develops, it inclines towards release. He wishes, may I dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive and the repulsive.

He dwells perceiving the repulsive therein. There's four statements here. It says, So that's a lot there. So let's unpack that as well. I'm going to use a different sutta. So this is the Book of Fives in the Anguttara Nikaya. And this is Sutta No. 144, the fourth section, which is called: On one occasion, the Blessed One was dwelling at Saketa in the Tikhandaki grove. There, the Blessed One addressed the Bhikkhus. Bhikkhus, Venerable Sir, the Bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this: Bhikkhus, it is good for a Bhikkhu from time to time to dwell perceiving the repulsive in the repulsive. It is good for a Bhikkhu from time to time to dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive.

And for the sake of what benefit should a bhikkhu dwell perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive? And here is why. Let no lust or craving arise in me towards things provocative of lust or craving. So he is seeing the repulsive in the unrepulsive. So the unrepulsive, that which doesn't repulse you, that which is attractive, that which is beautiful to the sense-based experiences. So that could be a lovely piece of painting, a lovely piece of music, nice food, or whatever it might be. That is the unrepulsive.

And there can arise from there the perception that this is good to me. And because it's good to me, or it feels good to me, I like it. Liking it is craving. So how do you let go of that? See the repulsive in the unrepulsive. How do you see the repulsive in the unrepulsive? You understand its impermanence.

You understand that whatever is arising, whatever pleasant experience is arising, is actually dependently arisen. It arises because you saw it. or you felt it, right? So if you see something that's beautiful, your eyes make contact with that beautiful sight. And now there's an experience of seeing something beautiful. Now, if you take that personal, when it should be seen as what it actually is, which is dependently arisen, right? Which then means that if it's dependently arisen, it's impermanent.

And if it's impermanent, when the pleasant feeling goes away, it can cause suffering. Therefore, it should be seen as not me, not mine, not myself. These are not things to reflect upon. These are things to see as they actually are. You will experience this as you continue with the meditation. You'll see it when you get better clarity on dependent origination, which we'll explore in the next couple of days.

So, seeing this as what it actually is, that is dependently arisen, impermanent, therefore liable to cause suffering, therefore not to be considered me, mine, or myself, then you're not going to cling to that pleasant feeling. That is how you see the repulsive in the unrepulsive, and therefore no craving will arise. And for the sake of what benefit should a bhikkhu dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive?

Let no hatred arise in me towards things provocative. So here the repulsive is that which is irritating, that which causes anger, that which causes frustration. You're meditating, you're experiencing a wonderful meditation. You have wonderful collectedness, you have loving kindness, everything is perfect. And then somebody decides to turn on the chainsaw to start to chop the wood outside. And now that grinding sound, which is unpleasant to the ears, that is seen as, oh, that took me away from that meditation. And what happens? You get frustrated. You get upset. You get angry at the person who started the chainsaw.

So that is the repulsive. That sound is repulsive. What arises? Aversion, hatred, irritation, frustration, grief, anger, despair. All of these things arise. So that is the repulsive. What is the unrepulsive? How do you let go of that? You six are, right? You relax the aversion, you six are, and you come back to loving kindness. What is the opposite of aversion? What is the opposite of hatred? Kindness.

So seeing the unrepulsive in the repulsive is to let go of your attachment of the repulsive. That is to say, when that chainsaw was turned on, there was that grinding sound. It made contact with your ear. The vibrations hit the ear and it created this experience of this unpleasant sound. Now this experience was dependently arisen, right? So it was dependently arisen, which means that it is impermanent.

If you take away the factors, if you switch off the chainsaw, then that stops. That sound is impermanent. Because it's impermanent, it won't cause you suffering because it's unpleasant. However, it's already causing you suffering because it's irritating to the mind. And because it's that, because it's dependently arisen, because it's impermanent, the other, and therefore not to be taken as me, mine, or myself, as you see it, then you are actually seeing things as they are. Now you're seeing the repulsive as what it actually is. Not to be clung to, not to be having aversion towards, but to let go of the aversion towards that. It's just a sound. It's not your sound. It's not a sound affecting you.

It just arose. And now you took that experience as mine, that experience as mine, you clung to it and caused suffering in the mind. But if you let go of it and then develop loving kindness, then you are seeing the unrepulsive in the repulsive. And for the sake of what benefit should a bhikkhu dwell perceiving the repulsive in both the unrepulsive and the repulsive?

And so it says, let no lust arise in me towards things provocative of lust and no hatred towards things provocative of hatred. So in other words, what are you seeing? You're seeing both the unrepulsive and the repulsive. The unrepulsive is that which is pleasant. The repulsive is that which is unpleasant. Seeing that which is repulsive in both that which is pleasant and unpleasant, for the same reason as we just mentioned before. The pleasant experience is dependently arisen, it's impermanent, therefore liable to cause suffering, therefore should not be seen as taken personal.

Same with that which is unrepulsive. So you're seeing the repulsive, which is that it's inherent suffering, arisen and impermanent. Likewise, and for the sake of what benefit should a bhikkhu dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in both the repulsive and the unrepulsive? Let no hatred arise in me towards things provocative of hatred and no lust towards things provocative of lust. For the sake of this benefit, while perceiving the unrepulsive in both the repulsive and the unrepulsive. So in the same case, again, when something is repulsive, something is unpleasant, what do you develop? You develop loving kindness towards it. You don't develop aversion towards it. And when something is unrepulsive, you're seeing it as it actually is, which is it is pleasant.

It is unrepulsive. But at the same time, it's impermanent be clung to, because clinging to it will cause you suffering. And for the sake of what benefit should a bhikkhu dwell equanimous, mindful and clearly comprehending, having turned away from both the repulsive and the unrepulsive? Let no lust at all arise in me, anywhere, in any way, regarding things provocative of lust.

Let no hatred at all arise. What they're talking about here is the liberated mind. The mind that has no hatred at all. The mind that has no greed at all. The mind that has no delusion at all. So you're training your mind to be equanimous in all circumstances. Having developed that factor of equanimity, that enlightenment factor of equanimity, that gives rise to disenchantment, that gives rise to the Teflon mind where nothing sticks, that then gives rise to the cessation of suffering.

That then leads to the destruction of the taints, the destruction of greed, hatred, and delusion. Equanimity is key here. Equanimity doesn't mean just having the balanced mind. Of course, that's a big factor. But it's just not being unaffected by that which is pleasant, unpleasant, or neither pleasant nor unpleasant. So let's continue. Or else he enters and dwells in the deliverance of the beautiful.

So what does that mean? When you have loving kindness, it goes all the way up to the beautiful, which is said to be the fourth jhana. So the limits of loving kindness are all the way up to the fourth jhana. In other words, a wise bhikkhu, that's a very important keyword here. A wise bhikkhu, wise meaning he has wisdom. What is the wisdom? The wisdom of the dhamma, the wisdom of dependent origination. One who understands and sees things as they are. And one who is wise in that way, who has not penetrated to superior liberation. When we talk about liberations in this context, we're not talking about it from the context of attainments.

What is loving kindness? Metta. Loving kindness is that feeling of being a friend. Metta comes from the word friend, to be friendly. How do you treat a friend, somebody who's a good friend of yours? You treat them with kindness. You treat them with respect. You wish well for them. You want the best for them. This is the feeling of loving kindness, to be experienced.

In practical terms, when you have loving kindness in your day-to-day life, no ill will at all. You would never have hatred for your best friend. You would never have anger towards your best friend. You would never have any kind of ill will towards them. You'll always want the best for them or the best for your parents or your loved ones, right? Wanting the best for people, wanting good wishes for them, having good wishes for them, this is loving kindness. And that feeling that is experienced in the meditation in the chest. That feeling of, oh, this feels good. I really like this. That's loving kindness.

What about compassion? There's a downshift from loving kindness to compassion. Compassion happens at infinite space. We'll talk about that in a minute. But compassion has less vibration to it. Loving kindness is more vibratory. Whereas compassion is softer. It's stretched out a little bit. There's compassion. What does compassion mean? A lot of times people will mistake compassion for that which is pity or sympathy. What is sympathy?

Here I am and here's another person and I'm looking down at them and I say, Oh, I feel so sorry for you. I feel so bad for you. I wish that didn't happen to you. That comes from a standpoint of, oh, I am higher. I'm comparing myself here and here is this person. Feeling sorry for another person is sympathy, is pity. But compassion is something else.

Compassion is the mind that wants that being's suffering to be gone, right? A crutch for a person. You allow the person in their space to develop, to cultivate, to evolve out of their suffering. You are there as a support with your words, with your wisdom, with some of your actions and your thoughts of compassion, your radiating of compassion. If they require help, you help them, but you don't become a crutch to them. To evolve out of their suffering.

Think about it in this way. If you were suffering or you had a problem and somebody just took away that problem from you, you'd be very happy about it, sure. But would you learn anything from how to solve that problem? Would you learn how to come out of that problem? That person who takes the problem away from you has also taken away the possibility for you to be able to learn how to deal with that problem.

Compassion here is giving them the guidance, giving them the support, giving them all that they require, but not taking on their suffering, not taking on their problem, showing them the way out of that problem, but then having them walk the path to solve that problem. This is true compassion. And so with compassion, if he wishes, all of the different things that we talked about, or he dwells, or with complete transcending of perceptions of forms, with the passing away of perceptions of sensory impingement, with non-attention to perceptions of diversity, aware that space is infinite, he enters and dwells in the base of the infinity of space.

So it says the complete transcendence of the perceptions of form. When you're in infinite space, when you are radiating loving kindness, when you're radiating compassion, when you're radiating joy or equanimity, you're not radiating it from the body. It doesn't matter where it's coming from, whether it's coming from the heart, from the mind, from the head, wherever it's coming from. Don't pay attention to that. Just have the intention and experience the feeling of loving kindness of compassion of joy of equanimity and allow it to just spread out, allow it to radiate however it might be, but you are no longer in contact with the body as such. Now you are in the ayatanas, you are in the formless attainments, that is to say, without contact with the body. Now you are in the mind. So that means the transcending of the perception of forms, passing away of perceptions of sensory impingement, that is sensory contact.

If a fly lands on your hand, you might feel it, but it's not going to bother you. You're not going to care about it one way or the other. With the non-attention to the perceptions of diversity, perceptions of diversity mean the perceptions of the diversity of the five physical senses. Not paying attention to what's happening with the eyes, not paying attention to what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're smelling, what you're tasting, what you're touching, just paying attention to the mind and radiating loving kindness or compassion or joy or equanimity. Bhikkhus, the liberation of mind by compassion, has the base of infinite space as its culmination, I say. For a wise bhikkhu here who has not penetrated to a superior liberation, meaning who has not gone beyond the infinity of space.

Based on seclusion, on jhana, on equanimity, on disenchantment, on dispassion and cessation, maturing in release or nibbana. What is altruistic joy? Sometimes it's known as empathetic joy, or sometimes even sympathetic joy. But altruistic joy in the meditation is experienced just as joy. It's just a feeling of being happy. It's a feeling of joy. It's not as energetic as piti. It's not energetic or vibrant as that experience of piti that you will experience in the first, or second jhana. It's more pervasive. It's softer. You downshift from loving kindness to compassion, and you downshift from compassion to joy. It's a very soft kind of joy that you experience. How does that translate into your daily living, in your daily life?

What does it mean, altruistic joy or empathetic joy? It's the joy you feel when somebody experiences some kind of wholesome success. Birthday, you feel happy for them. Somebody celebrating their anniversary, you feel happy for them. Somebody experienced Nibbana, you feel happy for them. That is why this altruistic joy is an antidote for envy, for jealousy. Because jealousy is harboring ill will, harboring jealousy for that person who has success. Whereas if you celebrate in that person's success, then you're full-on joy. Because then that joy is not dependent upon having success or not having success. It's just joy that's there in the mind.

Loving kindness, right, is an antidote for ill will. Compassion is an antidote for cruelty. Cruelty here is the intention to cause someone else suffering. Going out of your own way to cause somebody suffering. When you develop that, it goes away. When you develop altruistic joy, envy and jealousy fade. In daily living, this is experienced whenever you feel happy for another person. Notice in your mind, when you see somebody becoming successful, when you see somebody being lauded for their efforts, when you see somebody celebrating something, does the mind harbor jealousy? Does the mind harbor bickering kind of thoughts? Or does the mind naturally say, oh, I'm so happy for that person, right? And if you notice that there's jealousy, if you notice there's envy, what do you do?

You do the 6R's. You'll let that go and you replace it with altruistic joy. You replace it with the effort of celebrating in that person's happiness, celebrating in their success. If he wishes, or else, by transcending the base of infinite space, aware that consciousness is infinite, he enters and dwells in the base of infinite consciousness. Bhikkhus, the liberation of mind by altruistic joy, has the base of infinite consciousness as its culmination.

So altruistic joy is conjoined with infinite consciousness. Now, of course, yesterday you were listening to Bhante talk about infinite consciousness. As a reminder, infinite consciousness is not this idea of all-pervading consciousness, and you are one with it. That's not what it is. What it is, is being able to see the arising and passing away of infinite consciousnesses.

So just as this light is having this ray of light shining down, it seems like one fluid light, one fluid ray of light. But actually, it's made up of quintillions and quintillions of photons. In the same way, just as you have one experience of sensory consciousness, it's actually made up of individual arising and passing away, or arising and cessation, of consciousnesses.

And in seeing that in infinite consciousness, you see the impermanence of that. You understand how tiresome it is. You see the actual inherent dukkha, the suffering in there. Seeing that, you see that there's no controller here. You don't take it personally. You see that it arose because of causes and conditions. One contact led to another consciousness, which led to another consciousness, and so on.

So, this isn't caused by you. There's no you here. There's no self here. And therefore, it's seen as anatta. It's seen as impersonal, as not me, not mine, not myself. That then gives rise to the experience of nothingness. Because in the arising and passing away of infinite consciousness, it starts to slow down and you see the gaps, and the gaps widen and become wider and wider and wider. And then there's nothingness there.

And accompanied by nothingness, there is, as we'll see, equanimity. And this is actually very important to understand. And I'll explain as we continue. There are perceptions leading to the next levels of perceptions. That is to say, seeing that which is dependently arisen gives rise to the perception of impermanence. You don't have to reflect on it. You perceive it as it actually is, that this is impermanent.

Seeing it as impermanent gives rise to the perception of dukkha. You realize how tiresome this whole process is. See the inherent suffering there. You understand, oh, this is all impersonal. Therefore, you have equanimity. Now you're no longer bothered by it, because this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. Whatever it might be, good, bad, or indifferent, and unpleasant, pleasant, or neutral, this is not mine, this is not me, this is not myself. So you have total equanimity, seeing things as they actually are. Then the perception of this gives rise to the perception of disenchantment.

That disenchantment is, I've seen this before, I remain unaffected. Then the Teflon state of mind, which is the dispassion. Nothing sticks in the mind. It all just glides through. And finally, the perception of cessation. That is to say, the mind lets go completely of all formations, and there is the cessation of suffering. The cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

Or else, by completely transcending the base of infinite consciousness, aware that there is nothing, he dwells and dwells in the base of nothingness. So nothingness means no-thingness. The mind is now remaining unaffected by anything. There is just, sometimes it's experienced as blank space, just darkness, just blackness all around. Nothing. No thing there. Fully equanimous mind, unaffected by any formations that have arisen, or any formations that do arise. Equanimity towards experiences from the six sense bases. Just nothing. No thing. No sense-based experience. That there is nothing, that perception of nothing, that is the ayatana of nothingness, the base of nothingness. And tied to that is equanimity. So it says, bhikkhus, the liberation of mind by equanimity has the base of nothingness as its culmination, I say.

For a wise bhikkhu here who has not penetrated to a superior liberation. What is a superior liberation? Neither perception nor non-perception. So in neither perception nor non-perception, it's a very interesting state, because there the mind is neither perceiving nor not perceiving. What does that mean? What does perception mean? Perception is that quality of mind that recognizes what it is experiencing. There is feeling and there is perception. Feeling is the experience that is felt, the feeling. Listening to my voice is the feeling. Knowing that this is my voice, or this voice belongs to me, this is the quality of voice, that is the perceiving. So knowing that this is the color red, or this is the color blue, or this is the color orange, or this is the color purple, knowing what color it is, is the perception.

Knowing that there is an oak tree outside, that that's the kind of tree it is, that is perception. Feeling is the actual experience of the sixth sense base. Perception is labeling what it is. So when you have quiet mind in neither perception or non-perception, that mind is not labeling anything that it's seen. Formations are arising, but there are disconnected thoughts. Sometimes it's a little hazy. Sometimes it's a little fuzzy. Sometimes it's just very luminous and radiant and clear, but there's nothing being labeled. Things are just arising. Formations are coming up. The proto-thoughts, the percolations of thoughts arise. But the mind doesn't recognize it as this is what it is. It just lets go of it.

It just relaxes it. Releases it and relaxes it. And then finally, when everything is calibrated, where all the enlightenment factors come into balance, there the conditions are right for the mind to completely cease. Feeling ceases. That is to say, all mental experience ceases. All physical and mental and verbal experience ceases. And perception ceases. The labeling aspect of the mind ceases. And consciousness, the bare cognition of an experience, ceases. Nothing there, just a blank. Nothing at all going on. So it's the cessation of all conditions to come to a point where there are no conditions present. And this is the unconditioned. This is the experience of Nibbana. And therein ends the lesson.

Yes? It happens naturally. So when you get to nothingness, what is your object there? It's radiating equanimity. And at a certain point, the radiating stops. And the mind becomes quite collected. And then you try radiating again. And at a certain point, it just feels kind of tense. The mind doesn't want to do anything. So it just rests in itself. That's the object there. That's the collected nature of mind. That is the quiet mind that we talked about. The prabhassara citta. That which is luminous, radiant, bright.

And the radiant mind, the luminous mind, so there's stuff going on around it, but the mind is collected, so it doesn't really perceive what's going on outside of itself. Only when something comes up does the mind automatically release and relax, and that happens because of continual progressive practice of using right effort, of using the 6R's. So the mind perceives, oh, it perceives it, lets it go, relaxes, comes back. So it happens quite naturally and automatically.

But you get to that point where the mind is so relaxed that there's no vibrations going on, so that when it does notice a vibration, as soon as it notices it, it lets it go. So there's just this intention of letting go and then coming back. Nibbana, and you have no perception of it. Do you even know it's happening then? Which is empty or void. It's empty of any personalizing, empty of any self. It's where there's no conditions present at all. So it is the unconditioned.

Now, this is a discussion, a little discussion that came about, which is people sometimes say Nibbana is a state, but you can't call it a state. As soon as you call it a state, it's conditioned. Because a state arises dependent upon something. So Nibbana is the cessation of all dependencies. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free. May the fear-struck be fearless. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired, 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.