Final Day Q&A Day 3/3 Bandra, Mumbai Sept 2023 w/Delson Armstrong Sept 7-9, 2023

Today I'll talk about what to do off of retreat and that's essentially the lifelong practice that you continue to develop and cultivate. Because meditation is only one aspect of it. This process is talked about in different ways: sila, samadhi and panna. So you've been focusing on the samadhi aspect for the most part, which is the meditation aspect, the development of the mind through loving-kindness and the rest of the brahmaviharas. But in order for you to have samadhi you need to have sila, and that is essentially what it means. It's the bedrock of everything. It's the foundation of everything.

And when we talk about sila, we're talking about taking and keeping the precepts. So in the mornings, you take the... I don't know how many precepts you take. Eight precepts? Eight precepts. Now tomorrow, when you get off a retreat, you will only take the five precepts. And the five precepts are very easy to follow, to the human condition. It doesn't matter what tradition you follow. It's all universal to any tradition.

What are the five precepts? We'll go over that as we discuss what I want to talk about. And what I want to talk about today is the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is the fourth noble truth. There are the four noble truths: the truth of suffering, conditions for suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering. And the way leading to the cessation of suffering is known as the Eightfold Path, the Noble Eightfold Path.

What are the eight aspects or factors of the Eightfold Path? There is sammaditthi, which is right view; sammasankappa, which is right intention; sammavaca, which is right speech. There's sammakammanta, which is right action. Then there's sammaajiva, which means right lifestyle or right livelihood. There is sammavayama, which means right effort. There's sammasati, which means right mindfulness. And there's sammasamadhi, which means right meditation or right collectedness.

What is right view? Right view has two aspects, or two folds. There is the mundane version and the super mundane version. The mundane version of right view is something that everybody should cultivate for the benefit of their practice. Mundane right view basically is the understanding that there is meaning in giving and what is offered.

This is an emphasis on generosity. What does it mean to be generous? It means to give with an open mind and an open heart. And what do you give? You can give resources, you can give food, you can give clothing, you can give shelter, you can give the Dhamma, which is the ultimate kind of giving. You can share your smile with others. That's a very often overlooked aspect of giving. Being able to share your kindness and your happiness with others.

There is meaning in giving. There is meaning in what is offered and sacrificed. There is an understanding of karma. That is to say that there is action and consequence. The intentions that we have have some kind of direct consequence. Maybe not immediately, maybe not subsequent to that, but at some point there can be a consequence to the actions that we produce in the way of mental intentions, verbal speech, and physical actions that we commit with intention.

The action and consequence is a very important aspect. The next part is spontaneous rebirth. The idea that life exists from one life to the next, or there is existence from one life to the next immediately. But on a smaller scale, what we're saying is that the arising and passing away of consciousness, that our awareness arises in one moment, passes away, and a new one arises in the next moment. So it's spontaneous.

What seems to be one fluid stream of consciousness made up of compartments, iotas of the arising and passing away of individualized awareness or consciousnesses. Then there is the understanding that there is mother and father. This is a very important one. What that means is there is a gratitude and acceptance of one's parents however they've been. It doesn't condone their abusive nature, doesn't condone the things they might have done wrongly to us, but what it is saying is we are grateful for our parents to the extent that they were able to bring us into this existence for the potential to experience Nibbana, and so for that we are grateful. And the Buddha has said in different ways that there is no real way for us to repay our parents for bringing us into this existence.

Then another aspect of this mundane right view is that there are teachers and those who have walked the path who can show you that path. Traditionally it's known as there are those brahmins and ascetics. But essentially it's meaning there are those who have walked the path and can show you the way of walking that path. So why do we have this mundane right view? This is a right view that gives psychological well-being to you. It's a form of bringing some upliftment to the mind. It's a way of bringing some kind of very mundane relief to the mind, because if you don't have those kinds of aspects in mind then the mind has a general tendency to be restless. It's always me versus the world.

Or it's always, the world is unfair. You know, my parents did so and so. There is no meaning in doing things. The world is meaningless. If you start from that view, that's why it's called sammaditthi. Right? Meaning it's a perspective. It's a view that you take. And if you start with the perspective that's wrong, then how are you going to progress on the path?

Get your view straight first, is what the Buddha says. When you have the mundane right view, that will lead you into the next steps and ultimately take you to the super mundane right view, which is the full understanding of the Four Noble Truths. This right view takes you to sammasankappa, which is right intention. And right intention has three components to it: renunciation; the second is non-ill will; and the third is non-cruelty.

When we say renunciation, we're not saying that we leave this world and all become monastics. Not necessarily. You can still be in the lay life, but you can let go of what? Let go of your selfishness. Let go of your ego. Let go of taking things personally, of experiences as me, mine, or myself. This is the true meaning of renunciation.

And it can only happen through correct insight of seeing that all phenomena that we experience have the nature of arising and passing away. Which means that it is liable to at some point cause suffering. Which means it should not be taken as me, mine, or myself. The reason being is, when we talk about the Self, the Atman, the Atma, in ancient India, and even now, when we talk about the Atma, especially this understanding of the Atma has been very much fully developed in the Vedantic traditions, right? There is the idea that this Atma is Sat-Chit-Ananda.

It is existing, it is conscious, and it is full of bliss. In other words, this atman, this self, is all-pervading, it is unchanging, permanent, and the source of happiness. If we take that as a concept and we use that as a touchstone, that this is what the self is, and you take all of your experiences through the mental sense base, and you look at all phenomena, and you see that in essence it doesn't fit that understanding of self, because ultimately all conditioned phenomena, because they're conditioned by previous causes and conditions, have the nature of passing away. When those causes and conditions are gone, they are impermanent. If it's impermanent, then even if it is a happy experience, by nature of the fact that it is impermanent and liable to change, it is dukkha, and therefore it cannot be seen as me, mine, or myself. This is the way we understand and develop this renunciation. The second part is non-ill will. What does non-ill-will mean?

Not having hatred or aversion towards anything or anyone. And that is cultivated through the practice of loving-kindness. When you have perfected loving-kindness, not even an iota of frustration or irritation will arise in the mind. That is the perfection of loving-kindness. No impatience about anything. So this is non-ill will. Non-harming or non-cruelty. Not causing harm to oneself and not causing harm to another. This is developed through the cultivation of compassion.

Karuna. Because remember what compassion means. Compassion means the recognizing of another's suffering. And when you recognize another's suffering as your own, understanding this person is upset, the same way I would be upset. This person is sad, the same way I would be sad. For me, to add to their suffering is cruel. If somebody is upset with me, it's because of their own suffering. It's because of whatever is wrong in their own lives.

Why should I act in the same way and cause them suffering or further suffering? And not only that, but cause my self-suffering in doing that. The mind doesn't think that way. The mind wants to be right all the time. You know, in a debate, in an argument: I am right, they are wrong, I won't listen to reason, no matter what.

Why? Because it's holding dear this sense of self to ideas, to concepts, to identity, which is like sand castles in front of the seashore. As soon as the wave comes in, the sand castle goes away. That's what our identity is. It disintegrates all the time. What we take to be me: this is my body, this is my mind, these are my ideas, these are my relationships, these are my degrees, these are my qualifications, these are my years of experience, and all of that. All of that has arisen due to causes and conditions.

You might think that you were in control of those causes and conditions, but even that sense of control is conditioned by external causes and conditions. Personally, we start to defend those things. Somebody says something to us in an unwholesome way and we react in kind. It's because we have this little self in the mind that says, how could they say this to me?

If you start to see the self as just disintegrating all the time because it's dependent upon causes and conditions, then you stop taking things personally. When you stop taking things personally, then you have more compassion, because other people might not know better. And if they don't know any better, then how do you expect them to behave a certain way? Let go of any expectations, of any kind of standards.

If you are compassionate to yourself, forgiving to yourself, alright, I made a mistake, it's okay, I'll move on. If you treat other people the same way, then you won't be cruel to them. Somebody is shouting, abusing, using all kinds of derogatory terms against you. How does that have anything to do with you? It's just sound. Nothing to do with you.

Because you take it as this is me, you take it personally. But then if you switch it and say this is because of that person's suffering, then you become naturally compassionate. So the cultivation of compassion is perfected in having total destruction of any intention to harm, one way or the other. This is right intention. This right intention leads to right speech.

What is right speech? Right speech is understood to be the abstaining from, refraining from, not indulging in false speech, harsh speech, abusive speech, speech that divides, gossip, and unnecessary speech. So what is false speech? False speech is speech with the intention to deceive someone. You know it's not to be true and yet you say it. Harsh speech is using a certain kind of tone that can inflict pain in a person. Abusive speech is using certain kinds of words to demean a person. Divisive speech is saying one thing to one person, saying another thing to another person, and creating division amongst groups. And gossip? What is gossip? Talking about another person.

Whether you know it to be true or not. And how do you know something is gossip? If what you are saying about that person, you could say with that person being in the room, then that's not gossip. But if you have any discomfort in saying something about that person while they're in the room, as if they were in the room, then that is gossip. Talking about other people behind their backs.

And then unnecessary speech. Speech that comes out of restlessness. Being a talking head, basically. Just speech for the empty silences that you have. Being uncomfortable with those empty silences and trying to just say something. Talking about this, that, or the other. That's unnecessary speech. So a good way to understand how to have right speech is to think before you speak. The word think has an acronym for it. T-H-I-N-K. It's an acronym.

So T stands for timeliness. Is it the right time to say what it is that you want to say? H is for honesty. Do you know what you're going to say is truthful or not? I is for intention. What is your intention behind that? Is the intention to cause disruption or is the intention to create peace? Is it a wholesome intention or an unwholesome intention? N is for necessity. Is it necessary for you to say what you have to say because it's of benefit to another person? And K is, can you say it with kindness? Now, oftentimes when I say that, a lot of times people say, well, I am in the office and I have a position where I need to get results from my employees, or whatever it is, and sometimes I have to be stern with them. Well, can you be kindly stern? Can you be sternly kind? You can still have some level of kindness even if you have to reprimand someone. So think before you speak. That is the right speech.

Right action is abstaining from breaking any of the precepts. Already right speech is abstaining from breaking the precept of false speech. But here we're talking about abstaining from harming and killing living beings. Abstaining from that. Abstaining from stealing or taking what is not given. That's a very interesting way of putting it. It's not just stealing. taking what is not given in other words you're not just going to borrow something from someone and then put it back without them not knowing it or without them knowing it rather you're going to ask them for permission is it okay if I take this is it permitted for me to borrow this because that could lead to misunderstandings if you don't where did my stuff go what happened causes commotion so abstaining from taking what is not given this is very important to Abstaining from sexual misconduct or sensual misconduct.

What is sexual misconduct? It has nothing to do with judgments about somebody's sexuality. Doesn't matter. Whatever kind of sexuality you have, that doesn't matter. You could be in a polygamous, polyamorous situation. You could be in a throuple. But do not cheat on your partner or partners. That is sexual misconduct, causing yourself harm or another being harm. So that includes, obviously, rape and pedophilia and other things. All of that is part of sexual misconduct. Sensual misconduct is becoming so desirous of attaining something in the pursuit of sensual pleasure that you break the other precepts in order to achieve the sensual pleasure.

So that is abstaining from sexual or sensual misconduct. Now, it doesn't include, it's not necessarily, it's not traditionally included in right action, but abstaining from intoxicants is also important. What does that mean, abstaining from intoxicants? abstaining from alcohol, drugs, abstaining from even binge-watching on Netflix or whatever it is, because you're overindulging the senses, right? Overindulgence in anything causes what? Dullness in the mind.

When you become drunk or intoxicated, there's more of a liability for you to break the other precepts, because your judgment isn't there, your ability to discern what's going on isn't there, so you are more liable to break another precept. That's why the Buddha included this. Actually, the reason the Buddha included specifically not indulging in alcohol is because this is in the Vinaya. Before that, there was no such injunction against alcohol, but it was when an arahant drank a little too much and became drunk and started misrepresenting what was going on, by being a little tipsy and walking unmindfully and so on, that the Buddha said, okay, we need to have a rule about this.

So that's the fifth precept, abstaining from indulging in intoxicants. Then that leads to right livelihood. Right livelihood means not doing any kind of business or being employed in any trade that causes you harm or causes another being harm. So this is traditionally understood as not indulging in anything like dealing with weapons, dealing with poisons, dealing with alcohol or intoxicants, dealing with human trafficking, and dealing with the killing of other living beings.

If you abstain from this, then anything that you're doing is fine. So for the monastics, their understanding of right livelihood is abstaining from all kinds of livelihood that can take away from why they became monks in the first place, which is to attain Nibbana, to attain full awakening. Sometimes in the suttas it says wrong livelihood is also being a healer or a doctor.

And so people take that and say, does that mean that me going to medical school and becoming a doctor has caused me to have wrong livelihood? No, not at all. What the Buddha is saying is that for monks, if they want to be doctors, then they should stop being monks and be doctors.

Monks become monks, or monastics become monastics, for one purpose, and that is the purpose of full awakening. Anything that takes you away from that, in that case, is considered wrong livelihood. So, right livelihood is abstaining from any trade or practice that causes you harm or causes another being harm. Then that takes you into right effort. Right speech, right action, and right livelihood. These three constitute sila.

Now we're going to get into samadhi. And what constitutes a samadhi? That is right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness. So, right effort. Remember I told you on the first day, right effort is made up of four components. The preventing of the arising of unarisen unwholesome states: you do that when you recognize. The second right effort is to abandon already arisen unwholesome states in mind. That you do when you relax.

The third is to generate a wholesome state of mind. That you do when you re-smile. The fourth is to maintain a wholesome state that has arisen. That you do when you continue staying with your object of meditation. So that's part of right effort. Every time you use the six R's, or any time you use the four R's, you are practicing right effort. And the way it's been described is that right effort is really the heart of the Eightfold Path.

It's the core. It's through right effort that you go from wrong view to right view, wrong intention to right intention, wrong speech to right speech, wrong action to right action, wrong livelihood to right livelihood, wrong mindfulness to right mindfulness, wrong concentration to right concentration. So once you have right effort, it takes you immediately into right mindfulness. What is right mindfulness?

Right mindfulness means being able to observe and remember how the mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. It can be broken down into the four foundations of mindfulness, but that's a whole other discussion. What we're saying is you're looking at how your mind is responding and reacting to different situations. So there are two components to that: that's sati, that's mindfulness, and sampajanna, which means clear comprehension. In other words, when you're walking, you know you are walking.

When you are standing, you know you're standing. When you're sitting down, you know you're sitting down. When you're lying down, you know you're lying down. When you're putting on your clothes, you know you're putting on your clothes. When you're eating, you know you're eating. And in other words, being in the present moment. Having the presence of awareness to know what it is that you're doing. And along with that, the sati of knowing where your mind is in relation to that. Is it taking it personally? Is there a craving in there? Is there identification in there? Or is the mind free of that? This is what is constituted as right mindfulness.

And finally, that takes you into right collectedness. So right collectedness means having the right unification of mind. Not becoming one-pointed or absorbed in the object of meditation. But rather, having the unification of mind and having an open awareness that allows you to see what's going on with the mind as long as the object is in sight. It's like you being a parent and you go to the playground and you let your children play.

And while they're playing, you're talking to somebody else. You're talking to a friend. But your attention is always there on your child. What are they doing? What's going on? Some fraction of attention is still there. Sometimes you'll see on YouTube these videos of these dads. They're just lying down on the sofa, and their baby is toddling on the sofa, and then they fall. But dad is so alert and attentive, he's able to catch the baby.

That level of attention. Not being so fully absorbed in what's going on. Just enough attention to know that your object of meditation is there. In that way, you can notice if a hindrance arises. And you can release it. You can relax it. You can let it go and come back to your object of meditation. So the more you do this, this is the path to follow when you get off of retreat: keep your sila.

Just because you're on retreat, a lot of people do that, a 10-day retreat. 'So I'll keep the precepts while I'm on retreat. Once I get off retreat, I'll go back to partying and smoking and drinking and all of the other good stuff, right?' No, this is a lifelong practice. These five basic precepts are to be kept all the time. If you do that and you commit to keeping these five basic precepts, you are already fulfilling sila. You're already fulfilling right speech, right action, right livelihood. And then samadhi happens on its own.

When the mind has sila, the mind becomes non-agitated. It lets go of any disturbances, any kind of crude disturbances. And it is ripe naturally for samadhi. When you notice that you keep precepts and you sit for meditation, you will notice for yourself that your mind has less distractions to deal with, less hindrances to deal with. And in fact, hindrances do arise because at some point the mind did break a precept. And as a result, you experience any of these five hindrances.

So then samadhi is the equipment of utilizing right effort to bring back your mindfulness, which is to observe how your attention is moving, and let your attention remain on one object as best as it can. So that jhanas can arise naturally, because the four jhanas are constituted or make up right samadhi, or right collectedness. As you keep doing this more and more and more, then you will have wisdom. That's the third aspect, which is panya. And that happens as the ripening of a fruit, right? You don't need to pluck the fruit. When the fruit is ripe, it will fall off the tree.

That wisdom will naturally arise. You cannot cause it to happen. You can't force it to happen. It will happen as a consequence, as a fruition of the efforts in sila and samadhi. And so in that way, the right view, that is the super mundane right view, comes to place in panya, in wisdom. And the right intention automatically becomes part of that mind that has that fully established wisdom.

And that's why I talked about the tenfold path for somebody who's fully awakened. Eventually, when you do happen to become an arahat, then you have right knowledge or samanyana and right What is right knowledge? Right knowledge is the full insight into dependent origination. The Buddha has said, and this was quoted by Sariputta in Majjhima Nikaya 28, where he says, have that, then you have full knowledge and liberation.

That is Samanyan, that is right knowledge. From there you have right liberation. What is that right liberation? Letting go of all ten fetters and now having vimutti, which means having gotten off of the wheel of samsara, whenever they want. That will happen in due course of time. Just focus on these three first. Sila, first and foremost. Then samadhi, and wisdom will naturally arise.

Now, another way of understanding why to keep the precepts is that there is a lot of power in keeping the precepts. Bhante Vimalaramsi has always said, when you take care of the Dhamma, the Dhamma takes care of you. Keep the precepts. There is an understanding that in keeping the precepts, certain faculties also arise. Certain things happen in your life that seem almost magical.

Your intuition grows. Your ability to discern what seems to be the right decision and wrong decision starts to become cultivated and perfected. So keeping the precepts keeps a very balanced mind. And a balanced mind, a quiet mind, is the birthplace of intuition. And intuition will never be wrong. It might not be the answer you're looking for, but it will always be the right answer.

So this is the way to lead your life off of retreat. Follow the Eightfold Path. Everything else will take care of itself. Any questions? Yeah, go ahead. No questions? Yeah. I don't know if it's the same one or if it's a different one because it depends on how much was cut out. But if there is, then you'll have to look for it online on YouTube.

Just look on the Dhammasukha YouTube or the Suttavada YouTube. One of those two. And look for the five [unclear]. Yeah, because the reason I brought that up is because we do have some doctors here, right? And some of them might have read that in the suttas and be a little concerned about that. In different suttas it talks about right livelihood in different ways, because it depends on who the Buddha was talking to. If he was talking to lay people, then he was talking about abstaining from these five different kinds of trades, killing and so on and so forth. But if he's talking to monastics, what he's saying is he's not only talking about doctors, he's talking about not being a doctor, not being a healer, not being a promise, not being an astrologer, not reading the signs, not reading He said, "The Buddha, the Buddha, we should differentiate what we represent from what everyone else is representing."

sometimes dealing in occult practices, dealing in reading signs, dealing in astrology and other things like that. But he also mentioned doctors because that was also some kind of practice that was going on, like healing practices, essentially. And so what he said is for monks, their main thing that they have to do is go for alms, get your food, and then go for the days abiding. Your work is essentially to meditate.

So your eight hours in a day is to meditate. That's it, as monastics. And to keep the Vinaya. Keep the tradition alive by reciting the sutras. That happened later after the Buddha, establishing the three baskets, that is the sutras, the Vinaya, and the Abhidhamma. So that's why we're talking about wrong livelihood for monastics. Anything else is really wrong livelihood. I will even go as far as to say, you have monastics with PhDs and do these kinds of things and go and study further and all of that. To an extent I can grant them that, in the sense that, okay, maybe they're doing it to elevate their knowledge, to have a deeper understanding of the Abhidhamma or other aspects of this practice. But some monastics might do it because they just want that PhD degree. So the intention also is there, and that would be wrong. That would be considered wrong livelihood.

In the suttas, the Buddha generally, there's not so many lay arahants, right? Usually when a lay person becomes an arahant, he's about to ordain or he just ordained or dies. Did the times change? Is it possible for us, the lay people, to attain arahatship? What is preventing? The Buddha has talked about this in the Tevijja Sutta in Majjhima Nikaya. He talked about it and he said that the main thing that's preventing the complete going into arahatship is the fetter of householdership.

Which means being concerned about paying bills, taking care of family, getting that new house, possessions, things like that. So the fetter of householdership can be essentially for anyone. They don't necessarily have to be in a family life. Even somebody who is single might still be concerned about paying bills, might still be concerned about making an income and feeding themselves and so on and so forth.

So if you would take that context, then you could see that really if there was somebody who was a lay person, so to speak, within the monastic community, but followed a lifestyle that was not dependent upon earning an income, and was not concerned about feeding a family, not concerned about paying bills and so on, then that person would be considered somebody who is like an ascetic in that sense, somebody who is a wanderer.

A good example of this is somebody like as an ascetic, not in the tradition of the Buddha, not in the Sangha. But when he went to the Buddha, he spoke with the Buddha and he said, give me some instruction that I might then attain arahatship. And what did the Buddha say? I'm going for lunch, ask me after lunch.

And so he asked him a second time, I might die in this next moment, so if you just give me some instruction. I'm on my lunch break. Come back after lunch. And a third time, Bahiya asked him the same question. And finally, it's like every time you ask about that three times something, he has to grant it to you. So he says, okay, listen carefully. And he gives them these instructions. He says, in the seen, there's only the seen. In the heard, there's only the heard. In the sensed, there's only the sensed. In the cognized, there's only the cognized.

When, Bahiya, there is no you in that, then there is no you by that. When there is no you by that, there is no you in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering. And the reason he gave that instruction to Bahiya was because Bahiya was under the belief that there was a self who was the seer behind the seen, who was the hearer behind the heard, who was the sensor behind the sensed, who was cognizing behind the cognition.

Once Bahiya understood this, he let go of all self-concept and attained arahatship. He attained arahatship, was walking the street, crossing the street, boom, gets killed by a bull. Then the Buddha says to the monks, go monks and give the proper rites as you would to a member of the Sangha, even though he was not traditionally accepted as a Sangha member. There is also a mention of an arahant who was a lay arahant, who was an acrobat, acrobatic.

He was somebody who was like doing all kinds of acrobatics and the Buddha gave him, do you know the name? Yes, Uggasena. And the instruction that was given to him, he immediately got it and attained arahatship. So he was considered a lay arahant. But of course, later on it was understood that he then went into the monastic lifestyle.

So I think it just depends on how people want to look at it. But could there be lay arahants? Depends on what your definition of lay means. Any other questions? Yeah. There are a lot of monastics who now are found on the campus in certain courses. Now, so long as they do, as you said, the course in Buddhist culture, literature, or even Buddhism for that matter, or you are learning for that matter. Yeah. You say that can be because they are trying to write on their understanding of the Dhamma. Yeah. But when they do their MA or masters in geography or political science and sociology, when they have ordained themselves to open the pot with Dhamma and achieve the path.

The other subjects could be more related to them, and that could be their Ajitka, this is number one. Yeah. Some monks are also working. Okay, in the university as teachers or professors. So long as they can teach Buddhism and all that, maybe as you said, I don't know. This is one concern. Second concern is, there are certain people who are rearing goats and, you know, there are goat farms and there are pig farms. Yeah. They don't directly harm them, but they rather. As to monks who are studying geography or history or anything like that, that's wrong livelihood.

As to monks who are earning money, that's wrong livelihood. As to farmers who are rearing different kinds of livestock, it depends on what that is for. If they are doing it because eventually those animals will head towards becoming slaughtered, then there's a very gray area there. Seminaries. Anagarikas. They take ten precepts? Well, they're seminaries. Now, it is said that the Buddha said that the Kuli Sangha will be there only for five years. Now, the practice will continue in certain countries, whereas in certain Buddhist countries, they don't allow that. So, what is the right you want? I think that's just blatant sexism. Thank you. You have to really take into account what is actually the Buddha's words and what is maybe not the Buddha's words, because in my mind I think somebody who is fully awakened, not that they have to be woke necessarily in the sense that they have to be politically correct all the time, but in the sense that there are certain things that just why would they talk about that?

Cultural rather than something related to ethics or meditation or wisdom. He realizes that this is not working. And then he realized that when he sat down at the age of five, he meditated. So, what did he practice? The eight jhanas were one-pointedness or what did he practice? I'm confused about that. What he practiced was basically nothingness, right? One was the seventh jhana of nothingness, which was learned from. As to what he practiced there, what he saw was this is not the ultimate. It's not leading to the ultimate, which is complete cessation of suffering. As to whether that was one-pointed or not, it depends on which sutta you read, but it does say that it was leading to the ultimate.

To being absorbed, or another sutta will say it just doesn't lead to, you know, the nibbana, doesn't lead to cessation of suffering. And so he let go of that practice, and then on his way was inspired, probably seeing other ascetics doing austerity, thinking maybe this is that way, and he tried that, and he realized that's not the way either. But then he went full circle by coming back to practicing jhana again, from the first jhana onwards. The first story in the Sutta is in Majjhima Nikaya 19. It talks about that the Buddha, actually when he was a bodhisattva, he actually went through his past lives.

So that was the first knowledge. Then he went through seeing the arising and passing away of beings according to their karma. That was the second knowledge. And then finally he saw the destruction of the asavas, the taints. That's the third knowledge. That was his entry into arahatship, into Buddhahood. But he did that when he got into the fourth jhana.

So he went through the first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, and in the fourth jhana. And then from the fourth jhana, he inclined his mind towards these threefold knowledges. That's the way he attained enlightenment. It is mentioned a lot in the scriptures, those three things from the same genre. But then only some of the Paramahans had this side humility. Why is there so many mentions of that, those three things? Yeah. Well, it seems like there's a lot of mention of that, but I think equally, or almost equally, there's also mention of the eight genres. Almost equally, there's also mention of just the four genres, experiencing panna vimutti, letting go and experiencing cessation.

So does that mean, are we talking here in a sense that fourth jhana, from, without all the... Without the infinite space, infinite consciousness, and so on? But infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothing, neither perception, are all encompassed in the fourth jhana anyway. That's why I was saying yesterday, there's only four jhanas. And so these places, like exploring past lives, can happen from the fourth jhana. Is that a worthwhile thing to practice? You can try it. I can show you.

Yeah, right. I guess it just depends on the type of therapy that's used, but yeah, I couldn't really comment on it unless knowing the real details of it. Maybe it does have some utility, because I know for example there are other kinds of therapy like MDMA therapy, where people with PTSD relive the same traumatic events but under the influence of this medication or drug that creates a different kind of perspective on that same memory, and it apparently has some utility and some value in it. So if they're doing something like that, not necessarily with drugs but with the reframing of your perspective on those same memories, maybe there is some utility to it, but just going through past lives themselves might not be that meaningful. It's just a fun thing to do, let's say.

And for no reason they are suffering. They don't even know that. It has no connection with current life. But they still have this problem. So by revisiting that, so this is clear. Just by revisiting it? Yes. Interesting. We have seen a person say, suppose having some arrow wounds or some bullet wounds in past life, he's having some unexpected burning sensations. or vicarious pains or things like that. So, they are just gone through this and that's all. After that, no burning transitions of pains. Interesting. Okay, that's interesting. You are referring to that many lives, many more stars. Yeah, but then there are many people now offering this and it's working therapy. Okay. It has nothing to do with that.

I'm just wondering whether you feel maybe forgiveness might be perhaps, could it be said maybe that is the fastest way? Because I remember in one of Manate's videos, I think he mentioned something about someone who was a soldier in a past life, something like that, and had a particular pain. Absolutely, because I can tell you from another person's experience where they did go into past lives, and that's very interesting because you brought up the idea of reliving those and then the pain goes away. But in some instances, there are people who go through those past lives and then they keep holding on to that.

And so for that, you will need forgiveness practice. So they keep reliving that, but it only causes them more craving or aversion to that particular experience. And that manifests in some kind of knot in the body, kind of pain in the body, something that just seems to not go away. And so for that reason, when you do forgiveness, like there was a prescription for them to do forgiveness after they went through this past life, and it actually did help them by letting go. Because what's going on there is the mind could identify and take that personally, that experience of that past life, and that could cause more damage to them, because now you have another point of identification that the mind is doing. So to let go of that, then the forgiveness would be prescribed. I mean, that could happen, who knows. But what do you mean by beginner's mindset? Everything I've told you guys in these last three days, just throw it in the dustbin.

That's beginner's mindset. Just not trying to figure out everything that's being said, not trying to study it, not trying to make it into a subject. Just letting go of everything. And every meditation that you do is a fresh meditation. It's just the start. There's no baggage of past experiences, good, bad or indifferent. Every meditation that you do is a new meditation. That's the beginner's mindset. Yeah. The object of meditation, presence, then you don't relax. Or you don't relax with this. You don't six hours. You just stay with. So even an iota.

I used to think that, if sufficient attention has moved off, then one should relax and come back. So that's not correct then. So even if hindrances are very strong and it almost feels like you're straining against hindrances, but in another part of the mind, there is an awareness of the loving kindness, or just the feeling of loving kindness, or even the intention for loving kindness.

Then you're saying, just stay with it. That sounds to me like you're not on loving kindness. Because if you're straining against the hindrance, then that means your full attention is being given to the hindrance. So when you relax, what you're also experiencing is a mundane form of Nibbana. Why? Because when you relax, you're letting go of all craving. And in that moment, your mind is free of any kind of conditioned experience or conditions for suffering to arise. What if that is not available to you even when you relax? What if that clear mind, like a blue sky, is not available to you even if you relax? But what is available in its place? Or what is available in its place?

A more agitated mind which is dealing with illnesses. So in which case then one should forgive? In which case then there is no relaxing going on. There is a, Bhante would call using the six Rs like a stick, preemptively using the six Rs, or 6R-ing, because you have aversion to the hindrance, then there's no relaxation there.

So then perhaps that is a time to practice and maybe forgiveness or something else. Possibly. Or refine or retune your 6R's in such a way that you're not having aversion to whatever is going on. And you're not trying so hard to relax. You're not trying to relax. You're just letting go, which means the hindrance will be there.

But your aversion and tightness in relation to that hindrance is loosened in the relaxed state. Thank you. Yeah? What do you think about the body? Do we need to exercise the body or do yoga, keep on some of those practices? Definitely. Definitely. So you need good circulation in the body for you to be able to sit for longer periods of time. That's why Bhante would suggest that when you are sitting for 2, 3, 4 hours at a time, you need to walk at a brisk pace to the point that you're getting a little breathless so that you have some good circulation going on, some good cardio.

So exercise is absolutely important. So just walking is enough? It can be, but if you want to do yoga, you can do yoga. You could do that. If you want to do aerobics, you could do that. If you want to do weightlifting, you could do that. If you want to do qigong, you could do that. Whatever you want to do, you can do, as long as you're not causing yourself harm or another person harm. You could box if you want. I know, I just said as long as not causing another person harm, but there's no intention to harm. It's a sport for fitness. Don't knock them out.

Or don't have anger behind your punches. No. Don't bite anyone's ear off either. Anyone else? Yeah. I didn't say duty to one's parents. I say gratitude towards parents. Yeah. If we can help them be more moral, if we can uplift their mind. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. But just do forgiveness, don't do anything else. You're asking the wrong person. I have no representations of anyone. I'm an independent freelancer. We will see. It will happen. Samadhi is possible even while working. And in fact, it is only in service of God that is possible and one may not apparently know while in Samadhi.

Yeah. And he wanted to know if there is anyone who can tell that he had this experience for some months together when he was doing this Padayat and reaching out to people, and taking donations from people and then giving it back to people. While all this is happening, he was absolutely not aware of that. He was in complete communion with God. So is it possible? Does that happen? Yeah, it's possible.

Is that the only way, the Buddha's way, to attain Nibbana? I'm not going to get into that. If one works, then why do you do the other one? Do what works for you. That's what I'll say. Do what works for you. Everybody has their own understanding of what that might be, and just do what works for you. How did Buddha attain Parinibbana? It doesn't matter what the posture is. The Buddha never mentioned them, not because they didn't exist, but he maybe didn't think that it was beneficial for the time to talk about it. Because when you read about Kriya, and all of these are very tantric principles, tantric ideas, which are formed much later, after the Buddha.

Do it. No need to try to justify or verify or confirm. Do what works for you, that's it. As long as you are keeping your precepts and your mind remains balanced in meditation, doesn't become fully absorbed to the point that you can't deal with hindrances, in other words you have the balanced effort and you're letting go, you can do all kinds of that you want. Like I said, qigong, you want to do tai chi or yoga, kundalini, whatever it is, go ahead, do it. But see if it works for you. If it's starting to get in the way of you actually letting go of suffering, and it's causing you suffering, then probably not do that, because remember, the Buddha always said he only teaches two things:

What is suffering and the end of suffering. Is refuge in the Dhamma. So is it possible that one can also take refuge? Maybe some people have certain problems, and to deal with those problems they need to take refuge in some other deity, or they want some knowledge, they do certain practices that for which they have to take refuge in a particular deity or do certain practices.

May suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck fearless. 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.