Day 4:Transcendental Dependent Origination -The Path to Nibbana

Today, we're going to discuss what is generally from the Upanisa Sutta, that's Samyutta Nikaya 12.23. And also you'll find different variations of it in the Anguttara Nikaya, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, and I think 10.5. And what this is showing is the natural progression of the path. The way in which the mind is able to experience these, let's say, super mundane states or states that allow the mind to experience greater degrees of freedom at every moment.

And so, commonly, they're known as the transcendental links of dependent origination, or another way of looking at it is dependent liberation, because it's showing you the third noble truth of the cessation of suffering, the dukkha-nirodha. And it's also interweaving the path. It's interweaving the enlightenment factors in such a way that it's all seamless. So actually, it starts off with suffering, right? Because for anyone to get onto this path, there has to be some kind of suffering. Otherwise, why would you seek a way out?

And so the Buddha has talked about, we'll discuss more about the details of suffering when we talk about dependent origination. But the Buddha has said that suffering leads in two directions. One is further confusion. That is, through suffering, somebody tries to get out of that suffering by further indulging in sensual pleasures, by numbing the so-called pain and suffering with different kinds of methods that only lead to further suffering and hence further confusion.

The second outcome or direction that a person can take is asking, is there actually a way out of this suffering? There must be a way. There must be someone who knows a word or two, as the sutta says, about the way out of suffering. This can happen probably for the majority of you who might have actually literally searched on YouTube or Google, is there a way out of suffering, or you might have found out about Bhante Vimalaramsi or you might have found out about myself and searched and seen, okay, hey, there's a retreat going on, and hence here you are. And that leads to the next step, which is really the first step in this transcendental links of the penetration. It's called faith, or saddha in Pali. Out of faith you come here to learn about the meditation. Out of faith you come here to learn about the Dhamma and clarify your own understanding of the Dhamma. So there are different levels of faith. If you think about it, the first level of faith has to do with

I come here with an open mind to see for myself how this process works, and I'm going to listen to the teacher's instructions and try to apply them and see if they work. I come here every morning to take refuge and to take the precepts and so on and so forth. You do this every day because you have some level of faith, some level of it's not blind faith, it's not blind belief. It's more of, hey, I'm open to see what this is all about.

So part of this is also the understanding of effort. You are making the right effort to do these things. Every time you take the precepts, every time you take refuge, you are building up what is known as sila. In Pali, sila actually means the bedrock, the foundation for you to have a good practice, for you to have a good mental space. Let's say to go deeper into the practice, you need sila, virtue. And so generally, outside of the retreat, you would take five basic precepts.

Refraining from harming and killing living beings. Refraining from taking what is not given. Refraining from sexual or sensual misconduct. Refraining from using false speech. And refraining from indulging in any kind of intoxicants. So, this process of taking the precepts is a big commitment, actually. And it's universal to any and all traditions, for the most part, because everybody understands the importance of keeping these precepts from a practical standpoint. Why do we keep these precepts? Is it because there is some moral judge out there who will at the end of our lives say, hey, this is what you did and this is what you didn't do?

Or is it more practical, where we say that we know what it feels like when somebody tries to harm us. We know what it feels like when somebody tries to steal and cheat from us. We know what it's like when somebody cheats on us, is unfaithful in a relationship. We know what it feels like when somebody is acting belligerent and boisterous because they're a little too drunk. We know how all of this feels. And therefore we know that if we keep the precepts, we won't behave in that way.

So we do unto others how we would want them to do unto us, the golden rule essentially. But the practical benefit of this, the power of keeping these precepts, is that it starts to purify the mind. It starts to purify your intentions. And so that's why, when you look at Anguttara Nikaya 10.1 to 10.5, the first step is not necessarily faith, but it is called virtue, sila.

And as a result of that sila, as a result of that virtue, it leads to what's known as non-regret. The mind is not filled with remorse. The mind is not filled with any kind of regret. In fact, it takes refuge in its own capacities to be able to be ethical, to be able to be filled with this sila, with this morality.

Not that it's proud of it, but it's confident in it. And so that's another level of faith. I am confident and secure in my own mind because I have no regrets. And of course, a third level of this faith is known as experiential confidence, which only arises when you see for yourself walking through this path what it takes you to. It takes you to the ultimate happiness, to freedom, to nibbana, the other shore. Having walked that path and seen for yourself this experience, now there is confidence in the path, there's confidence in the Buddha, there's confidence in the Sangha. It's experiential confidence, conviction.

And therefore right view has been established automatically. Now you see for yourself what is right view and wrong view, what is beneficial and unbeneficial, what is wholesome and unwholesome, and you're able to start to walk towards the path of the wholesome almost all the time, and eventually all the time. So then this faith leads to what's known as pamojja. Pamojja is that sense of relief from being free of any kind of hindrance.

This is what you will experience in the first jhana, the sense of having let go of the hindrances. In letting go of the hindrances, your mind experiences a level of relief. This relief gives rise to what is here translated as gladness, a mind that is naturally uplifted, a mind that says, oh, I'm happy here, I'm secure in this, I'm confident in this. And so this gladness that we talk about manifests as deeper levels of joy, at some point especially in the first and second jhana, and as an enlightenment factor of piti, which you experience mostly in the first and second jhana.

This gladness, as I said, leads to this joy, and then this joy, or rapture as it's sometimes known, leads to tranquility. So the joy, when we talk about joy, that's also the enlightenment factor of joy. So now let's start to weave in and understand how the enlightenment factors and the eightfold path are coming together. When you start with faith, you have the mindfulness, you're observing in your mind, taking the precepts. There is great power in doing that every morning, and that's why I've also talked about that before. Every sit, before you sit down for practice, when you sit down, take the refuges and take the precepts. It just clarifies the mind that much more.

It tills the soil for you to be able to do the practice at a deeper level. So when you're doing this, you have mindfulness, and as you have mindfulness, you're aware of what is present and what is not present. So now you have investigation of states, and you also have right view and right intention of letting go, and therefore you are starting to apply right effort that is informed by that right view, that is informed by that right intention. And therefore, when you take the precepts, you're naturally in that moment applying right speech, right action and right livelihood. You're making the determination that you will not use any kind of false speech, you won't hurt people with your words, that you will follow the other precepts, which is part of right action, that you won't deal in things in situations

that cause harm to yourself and cause harm to others. So now you have mindfulness and you have investigation of states, you have the right effort, which is the energy, which leads to the gladness. You have right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, and now the mind goes towards gladness and rapture or joy, and now the mind is ready for meditation. Using right effort, that mindfulness becomes sharper, and then the awareness or the attention becomes more collected, and now you're ready to get into samadhi. So this is why we talk about sila, samadhi, panna. Or another one is dana, bhavana and panna. That's another way of looking at it. But generally in the suttas, if you see Majjhima Nikaya 44, there, one individual asks the other nun, who is an arahant, what are the three aggregates? Here he's not asking about the five aggregates in terms of form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness. He's saying, what are the three aggregates that lead to awakening? And she answers, it is sila, samadhi and panna.

So now, once you have the sila, you have the mindfulness, you have investigation of states, you have the energy, now you start to bring up the piti naturally. And this is the beautiful thing about this process. It's a natural process. It's a process which you don't have to bring too much force into. In fact, when you read the other versions of this in the Anguttara Nikaya 10.1 to 10.5, it says that it is as if you don't have to think about it. It's a natural outcome.

That virtue naturally leads to non-regret, and this non-regret naturally leads to gladness and joy. So you don't have to intentionalize it. You start off with that and it's like a domino effect. It just happens on its own. You just have to be present for it. Anytime you try to push, anytime you try to grasp, anytime you try to control, there is craving in that mind, there's craving in that intention. The initial intention of just letting go sets the ball rolling. Everything else will take care of itself. You just have to be present and aware and observe and use effort whenever required to keep things balanced. So now this joy naturally leads to tranquility. So what is that tranquility, plus the relaxation? This is the enlightenment factor of tranquility.

Now when we're talking about tranquility, the mind is completely relaxed. The mind is completely serene. The mind and the body feel free of any kind of pain, free of any kind of tightness and tension. So, as I've said before, if you feel any kind of pain in the body, especially after sitting for quite a long time, the best thing to do is to notice what your mind is doing in response or in reaction to that pain. In other words, observe if any aversion is there. Observe if there's any resistance there to the pain, and let that go, and soften that, and then come back to your object.

Because if you try to get up from that pain, if you try to get up when there's a disturbance, if you try to get up because the mind says it wants to get up from its sitting, guess what you're doing? You are reinforcing the mind. You are reconditioning the mind to think that every time something is unpleasant, I have to walk away from it. I have to do something to come out of it.

Not a good way to end the sit. Better to do is see that there is resistance, see that there's aversion, and tranquilize it, relax it, let it go. And then come back to the object. Notice the quality of mind that's there then. Perhaps at that point, the mind feels like, you know what, I can sit for a little longer. I don't need to get up right now. I can just sit here.

So the question is, when is the right time to actually get up? You can get up when it feels like the meditation has lost steam. That feels like any more effort and it just feels like it's fatigued. I can't go any further. Not because you're irritated by something, not because somebody's coughing, not because somebody's opening the door, not because the bell is ringing, not because something is disturbing you externally. Not because you're feeling agitation in the mind. None of that. It's just like there is a lack of any further energy. And it doesn't feel like the energy can go forward.

That's okay. Just come out from that sitting. So now this tranquility leads to something known as sukha. Sukha essentially is related to comfort. It's translated as happiness, it's translated as being uplifted and so on. But it's also a factor of the first, second and third jhana. In the first jhana there is sukha, which is ease in the body.

There's a certain level of balance, there's a certain level of stability in the body. It's comfort. So piti is joy, and sukha is comfort, comfort and joy. That's what it is. And stability. And so when the mind is happy, when the mind is collected, the body is relaxed, the body is tranquil, the body is comfortable, and vice versa.

So there is an interrelationship between how the mind is and how the body is. If the body is tense, if the body has pain, the mind feels agitated. The mind feels suffering. If the body is relaxed, if the body is comfortable, the mind feels naturally relaxed. The mind feels uplifted. So do one thing or the other. Relax the tightness and tension and notice the relief that's felt in the mind, or bring up tranquility, bring up joy, and notice how the pain in the body, the tightness in the body, starts to melt away. And then finally, from this sukha, we have what's known as samadhi, collectedness.

So now we have the enlightenment factor of collectedness. So if you've gone through mindfulness in the beginning, through faith, we've gone through effort or investigation of states, to know what is wholesome and unwholesome, by taking the precepts. We know that we have the right effort by letting go, and therefore then we have an experience of gladness and joy, and through that glad and joyful mind we have comfort and tranquility, and now the mind's attention is collected.

There's a deep level of composure in the mind. And here, the mind is ripe to experience deeper levels of jhana. So by the time you get to the fourth jhana, what happens is that the mind becomes utterly pure. The signature of that jhana is known as purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. Why is it saying that? Purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.

Think about it. So mindfulness leads to the understanding of states, or investigation of states. This leads to the energy. This leads to joy. This joy leads to tranquility. Tranquility leads to collectedness. Collectedness leads to equanimity. And so it's cyclical. That equanimity then sharpens the next arising of mindfulness. In any of that process, are you doing anything? Are you controlling anything?

No. You're just observing. You're just allowing things to happen. You're just aware, you're present, that's it. And then the mindfulness, mindfulness sharpens and sharpens and sharpens, due to further and deeper levels of equanimity, in terms of the enlightenment factor of equanimity. And that's why at that point the mind feels so balanced. It might feel flat. It might feel like nothing's going on there, but the mind's attention is unwavering. It remains wherever it is. Complete mental steadiness. So now, when you have this collectedness, that leads to deeper equanimity, and this is known as the knowledge and vision of things as they are, seeing things as they actually are. So this is just another way of saying equanimity. Now, this equanimity is usually experienced in the fourth jhana, but then it's also experienced as you get deeper into the seventh jhana. So when we discuss jhanas, what I'll tell you is, and I'm telling you now, is that really there's only the four jhanas.

In terms of conversation we say there are the eight jhanas, and even in the suttas it says there are the eight jhanas. But actually there are the four rupa jhanas, the form states, and there are the four formless jhanas, the arupa jhanas, which happen at the level of mind. And this is really known as ayatana. Ayatana means the space or the dimension of experience. That's why we have the salayatana. Salayatana: sala means six, six sense bases. Salayatana. Here these four ayatanas are the base of infinite space, the base of infinite consciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of neither perception nor non-perception, and they're all happening here with the fourth jhana as the base. So the equanimity that's present starts to deepen at the base of nothingness. And what's going on there is another sutta, that's known as the Metta Sahagata Sutta. And in the Metta Sahagata Sutta, the Buddha talks about

how the limits of loving kindness is the fourth jhana, the limits of compassion is infinite space, the limit of joy or empathetic joy is infinite consciousness, and the limit of equanimity as a brahmavihara is nothingness. What does this mean? It means that loving kindness can be experienced in the first four jhanas, and from there compassion can be experienced from the first jhana all the way up to infinite space. Empathetic joy can be experienced from the first jhana all the way up to infinite consciousness, and equanimity can be experienced from the first jhana all the way up to nothingness.

So now when you get to this nothingness, let's say the mind is in nothingness and there's deep equanimity. At that point I'll say, okay, that's great, looks like the feeling has changed. Now the question is, do you bring up loving kindness, or do you bring up compassion, or do you change the loving kindness to compassion, do you change the compassion to empathetic joy, do you change the joy to equanimity? No. Your job is to do only two things: observe and let go. That's it. If you treat this like a movie and just sit back, relax and enjoy the show, and anytime, anytime your attention swerves here or there, you just let go and come back. That's all you have to do. Then everything else will take care of itself. The loving kindness will change to compassion naturally. The compassion will change to empathetic joy naturally, and then the empathetic joy will change to equanimity naturally. So at that point you will be radiating the equanimity for a little while.

And as you're radiating the equanimity, eventually the mind feels like it doesn't want to do anything, and it gets into a point where it's just mind observing mind. And so now here you are in the knowledge and vision of things as they are, yathabhuta nanadassana. This arises when you stop identifying with the processes. This happens when you realize that the three characteristics are present. It's not something you have to keep saying, okay, this is impermanent, this is suffering, this is not me, not mine, not myself. It happens naturally when you see for yourself, hey, I'm not the one controlling this, I'm not in control. It's just happening due to a series of causes and conditions.

Therefore, the perception of this arising and passing away, impermanence, leads to the perception of dukkha, that there is a sense of tiresomeness in this. This then leads to the perception of anatta, that there is no controller here. It is arising due to a series of causes and conditions. So in other words, that which is dependently arisen due to causes and conditions is by nature impermanent, because you take away the causes and conditions, it will cease. That which is impermanent is liable to cause suffering, even if it's happiness, even if it's something that's uplifting.

If the causes and conditions for that leave, then the mind experiences suffering. Oh, that loving kindness went away. Oh, the compassion went away. And so what happens? I grasp onto it. I say, no, no, no, I want it to be here. I can't let that go. And then what happens? You cause yourself suffering through that craving. But if you let go and allow things to progress as they naturally would, then your mind is at ease, then your mind is experiencing yathabhuta nanadassana, seeing things as they actually are, and therefore developing a deep sense of equanimity.

This in turn leads to that mind just watching mind. At a certain point you get into neither perception or non-perception, and that's a whole other thing which we'll talk about later. But in this process, the mind eventually starts to become tired of continuously getting enchanted by different kinds of thoughts. So the problem isn't the thoughts themselves. The problem isn't the hindrance itself. The problem is that the mind keeps getting agitated by them. The mind keeps getting affected by them. The mind keeps getting enchanted by them. Hence, this equanimity leads to disenchantment. Nibbida. Nibbida. What does nibbida actually mean, this disenchantment? What does it actually feel like? Sometimes it's translated as revulsion.

But that connotes this idea of, oh, maybe it's aversive. There's a resistance there. A good way of explaining disenchantment would be, let's say somebody decides to make your favorite meal and they offer it to you with loving kindness and they say, hey, I made this especially for you, please enjoy it. And you are quite elated and delighted and you say, thank you very much. And you eat it and you relish every bite, you enjoy it. And you're like, wow, can I have some more?

And the person says, yes, there's a whole bunch of food left. Please have some more. So you eat that and you're like, oh, this is really great. I'm very, very, very happy right now. Maybe I'll have a little bit more. And there's another plate already ready for you. And you eat that plate. At that point, you're bursting at the seams. And you're like, I'm good now. I've had enough.

But the person says, no, no, please, have another bite, have another portion. And what do you say? No, I'm done. I'm sick right now. So what used to be a source of happiness, what used to be a source of elation, is now a source of pain. It's like, no, I can't have any more. In the same way, when your mind has had enough of keeping distracted by something, keeping getting attached or enchanted by something, every time your mind is like, oh, this is very interesting, let me look at that. And why does it do it? Because it gets bored.

There were two words, B words, that Bhante Vimalaramsi absolutely hated. The first word was but, B-U-T. Whenever somebody comes into an interview and he recommends something, and they say, yeah, that's all great, but, and then you should see him light up. And the other word is bored, I'm bored. Yeah, the mind feels like nothing's going on, now everything seems to be very quiet. Isn't that a great thing? Isn't that a good thing? Isn't that what you came to retreat for, to keep the mind relaxed and quiet and tranquil?

Or are you out here chasing experiences, right? That's the other nature of the mind. It wants to chase different kinds of experiences. I want to experience this jhana. I want to experience this joy. I want to experience this altered state. But to what extent? Even that becomes boring. Oh, this is a great altered state, but I want something even higher. I want something even better. So what is that? Craving.

Craving for existence. There's always something better that I might get. And if there isn't, I'm bored. So this boredom, why does it arise? It especially arises when you get to very deep levels of quiet in the mind. And the reason is because the mind is used to mental stimulation. It's used to all kinds of stimulation from here and there. And so when it's not getting it, what does it do? It does two things. It can either say, I'm checking out, and starts to get into sloth and torpor. It starts to dull out.

Or, to entertain itself, it goes into restlessness, and it throws all kinds of images and thoughts and ideas and concepts and saying, hey, this is a great idea for a book. I should write that down. Let me start exploring this. Let me think about this and that. What is it doing? It's tricking itself into thinking that it's meditating.

Oh, maybe I should explore this. This looks like a past life. Maybe I should go down this rabbit hole. Now what are you doing? Now you're daydreaming. So if you catch yourself, if you catch the mind doing this, just relax, come back. That's your home base, is this space of quietude, if you get there, or whatever the object is.

That's your anchor, so that you don't get lost. It keeps you here. But if you notice that the restlessness is too much, what do you do? Well, this is the beautiful thing about the links of dependent origination. Whatever arises, when this arises, that arises. When this ceases, that ceases. That's the gist of dependent origination. But the same with transcendental, because what we're seeing is the ingredients, the natural progressive steps that lead to freedom, to liberation of the mind. So there's not enough disenchantment. The mind is still trying to excite itself with different kinds of things, and tranquility doesn't seem to be working, relaxing doesn't seem to be working. In fact, it seems like the more you're doing it, the more the mind is feeling more restless. So what do you do? Take a step back and go literally one step before, use equanimity if you're at that level.

If not equanimity, use joy. If not joy, use compassion. If not compassion, radiate loving kindness. If you're unable to radiate loving kindness, send it to yourself. If you're unable to feel any kind of loving kindness for yourself, maybe you need forgiveness. If forgiveness is not working, go for a walk. So this process, this progressive process, is actually hinting to you the tools that you require to get to freedom, the steps that you require to get your freedom. So start to use your intuition that way. The application of this process is wisdom.

knowing what to use when to use right is depending on your or being dependent on your intuition notice okay what is blocking me here what's going on here ah there's not enough joy here okay let me radiate some joy oh there's too much restlessness i can't seem to deal with it let me take a step back and radiate equanimity oh there's too much sloth and torpor i'm not putting too much i'm not putting enough attention on the object so now this disenchantment leads to what's known as this passion the raga the lack of any kind of passion so what does this passion feel like what is it what is it experienced as at a certain point when you have this disenchantment it means that whatever seems to be attacking you in terms of the mind attacking itself with all kinds of thoughts and ideas and pictures and thought loops and formations and so on eventually your mind gets tired of it and says I'm going to just stay here.

My security, my refuge is in my own practice, is in my own object of meditation. I'm just going to stay here. I've had enough of that, enough. No matter what comes now, it will just keep coming and going, coming and going, and nothing is going to affect me. The dispassion is an extension of this disenchantment. This dispassion is like the mind is in a bubble, a protective bubble, and no matter what seems to come towards it, it's unable to penetrate that bubble. Everything starts to slide off. So a myriad of thoughts can come up, but they're like clouds in the sky that keep going, and you don't have to pay attention to them at all.

They just keep going. So at that point, the dispassion acts like a protection from getting distracted any further. The mind becomes like Teflon. Nothing sticks to it. Everything just slides right off. And then with this dispassion, your mind will remain stable, balanced, steady. A level of steadiness that you might have not experienced before. It's just there. It's deeply rooted.

Not one-pointed, just deeply rooted in being here, being with the object, quite naturally. Nothing can shake it. There's a wonderful movie called Little Buddha, which was made in the 90s, and there's a scene in that movie where the bodhisattva, before he turns into a Buddha, is sitting under the Bodhi tree, and there's this protective layer that's around him. Mara's armies come marching towards him and they launch a thousand arrows at him, but as the arrows penetrate through this protective layer, each arrow turns into a lotus flower.

This is the beauty of this passion. This is the beauty of using right effort. Every hindrance disappears and turns to relief, to relaxation, to the wholesome, towards further collectedness. Every hindrance that arises is an opportunity to further bring deeper collectedness. This is why there is that idea of making friends with the hindrances, right? In other words, not pushing them away. Invite them over for tea and say, okay, welcome, it's okay for you to be here now. It's time for you to go. I'm going to relax, let go, come back to my object. And so the more you do this, the deeper layers of these different links arise, until once this passion is there and deeply rooted in the mind, it then leads to what is known as vimutti, liberation.

So when we say vimutti, what do we mean by that? Vimutti. Now, there are different layers of vimutti. The most basic understanding of vimutti is freedom from the hindrances. We feel unburdened by our minds. We feel unburdened by the hindrance that arises. In another layer of this liberation is experiencing the temporary liberation of jhanas: this great relief, great bliss, great joy, great equanimity, and so on and so forth, in the jhanas themselves. Then there is liberation in terms of the mind being liberated from some of the fetters. It experiences stream entry. Wonderful security in having stream entry, because it says if you attain stream entry, you have up to seven lifetimes until you become fully awakened. So it's your one-way ticket to full awakening.

Never to return again. So that's another kind of liberation. And then finally, there's liberation from the bondage of rebirth in samsara itself, and that's full awakening, that's arahatship. But until you get there, the whole idea is to keep repeating this process. So keep using these tools whenever you need them. In fact, as you use one tool, it leads to the progressive stages of further steps towards that liberation, towards vimutti. And that's why the final stage is the knowledge of the destruction of the taints. There is the understanding. Mind says it understands it is liberated. What had to be done has been done.

There is no more birth. Birth is destroyed. There is no coming into any new being. And so, one of the greatest things, in fact, I would say, that the greatest service that you could have towards the world and existence is to become fully awakened. Right? Because when you become fully awakened, you become an example and you inspire others through your actions, through your speech, through your intentions.

You're fully in your intuition, which means you're able to act in accordance with whatever is required for the situation in alignment with the Eightfold Path. So speaking of the Eightfold Path, through this process, we have right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness that happens later on. But then once you have the disenchantment, dispassion, and liberation, there arises what's known as samma nana, or right knowledge.

What is that right knowledge? It's the knowledge that liberates: the complete practical understanding of dependent origination and the full establishing of right view, understanding completely what is suffering, abandoning fully what are the causes and conditions creating that suffering, permanently, and experiencing for yourself that relief that comes through the realization of nibbana, by having perfected the cultivation of the Eightfold Path. So this is what becomes fully established for that mind, as a result of which it experiences samma vimutti, right liberation, which means it has let go

of any bondages that lead to further rebirth in the cycles of samsara. But it all starts with sila. It all starts with keeping your precepts, taking your precepts, taking refuge, keeping your precepts, keeping the mind ripe for samadhi to arise. Once you take care of that, then when samadhi arises, your mind is sharpened enough to be able to experience the different kinds of insights through panna. And that panna, that insight, liberates you from any kind of ignorance. What is ignorance? Ignorance is a lack of mindfulness in the present moment.

It liberates you from any kind of conceit. What is conceit? Taking things personally and identifying with them. It liberates you from any kind of wrong view. What is wrong view? Any view that causes you to hold on to things, that causes you to amplify your suffering, that leads you towards the unwholesome. And it liberates you from all kinds of craving, not only craving in terms of sensual craving by taking it personally and saying I like it or I don't like it, but craving for existence, which means, oh, I want to experience this particular jhana

or I want to be able to experience this particular state, and of course craving for non-existence. It eradicates all of that, liberates you from that, and therefore liberates you from any more habituated tendencies that lead to further renewal of karma. So it liberates you even from the bondages of karma. You won't produce any new karma. Yes, you might still be beholden to certain effects of previous karma prior to full awakening.

But because of the way you respond to the ripening of that karma, none of your responses will cause that karma to perpetuate it will cease right there and then and the way to do that is to use right effort every time you use right effort to let go you let go of the process of perpetuating that karma from arising again so when we talk about hindrances for example when a hindrance arises what is that actually the hindrance is karma in that moment right it's arising due to causes and conditions

due to some kind of cultivation of intentions in the past. And then when that hindrance arises, do you choose to crave it? Do you choose to push back against it? Do you choose to try to control it? Any kind of process of doing that will perpetuate that hindrance. But if you use right effort and you recognize it, you relax it, you let it go, and you replace it with something wholesome, then that hindrance will go away in that moment. But hey, that hindrance comes back the next moment.

But it's weaker, and you keep doing that until it becomes weaker and weaker and weaker, until it completely dissipates. So there's no process in which you need to think about how to do these things. If you do one thing, everything else in terms of the Dhamma will take care of itself. That's the beauty of these 37 requisites we talk about. That's the beauty of how this process works. If you continue to let go of the five hindrances, you continue to cultivate the seven enlightenment factors, naturally, you continue to do that, you are following the Eightfold Path naturally. You continue to do that, you experience for yourself jhanas

You continue to do that, you experience for yourself liberating insight. It's like this network of interdependencies, and so if you do one thing it leads to this, if you do this it leads to that. But ultimately all of that is targeted towards liberation of the mind. So ultimately you don't have to overthink it, and you don't have to overdo it either. Just observe and let go.

Any questions? Yeah. You mentioned where this was written. One second, he wants to, yeah. Thank you for your talk. You mentioned where this was written, and I just remember 10.1 till 10.4. But what was the book? Anguttara Nikaya. Thank you. Samyutta Nikaya 12.23 is what the Upanisa Sutta comes from, and this is where this chart is from. In fact, actually, it's good to read what that excerpt says here, because it allows you to understand the way in which this process flows.

I'll just read it so you understand it. But the first few things that he talks about are dependent origination, which we'll go into later. But just understand this. He says, Thus, monks, ignorance is the supporting condition for formations. Formations are the supporting condition for consciousness. Consciousness is the supporting condition for mentality, materiality. Mentality, materiality is a supporting condition for the sixfold sense space. The sixfold sense space is a supporting condition for contact.

Contact is a supporting condition for feeling. Feeling is a supporting condition for craving. Craving is a supporting condition for clinging. Clinging is a supporting condition for habitual tendencies. Habitual tendencies is a supporting condition for birth. Birth is a supporting condition for suffering. Suffering is a supporting condition for faith. Faith is a supporting condition for gladness. Gladness is a supporting condition for joy. Joy is a supporting condition for tranquility.

Tranquility is a supporting condition for happiness. Happiness is a supporting condition for collectedness. Collectedness is a supporting condition for the knowledge and vision of things as they really are. The knowledge and vision of things as they really are is the supporting condition for disenchantment. Disenchantment is a supporting condition for dispassion. Dispassion is a supporting condition for liberation.

Liberation is a supporting condition for the knowledge of the destruction of the taints, of the asavas. And here's the important thing. Just as, monks, when rain descends heavily upon some mountaintop, the water flows down along the slope and fills up the clefts, gullies, and creeks. These being filled up, fill up the pools. These being filled up, fill up the ponds. These being filled up, fill up the streams. These being filled up, fill up the rivers, and the rivers being filled up, fill up the great ocean. In the same way, let aside for now the first 12 links of dependent origination, but in the same way, the 11 links of transcendental dependent origination fill up the mind, the crevices of the mind, and it's naturally happening.

It's not like you have to think about it. If you do one thing, it naturally fills up. So there's nothing for you to do except have that first intention of letting go. Intention of keeping the precepts. Everything else will take care of itself. So this is from the Samyutta Nikaya. It's 12.23. It's called the Upanisa Sutta. 23.

thank you very much my question is about mindfulness and radiating so sometimes we radiate compassion loving kindness and sometimes we just are mindful that it's present can you talk a little bit more about that and what's the purpose of the radiating so the purpose of the radiating is essentially to balance the energy it's a process of creating balance in the mind now when we talk about mindfulness we're talking about mindfulness of what's happening in terms of our attention being given to radiating loving kindness and when it changes the attention drifts then we use right effort to bring it back that's the application of mindfulness so when we say mindfulness of loving kindness we're saying in everyday life whatever it is that we're doing we're infusing everything with loving kindness and so that's the application of mindfulness of loving kindness or mindfulness of compassion later on i'll talk about this but you can apply these in different situations.

Different situations might call for you to actually bring up loving kindness in your speech, or to send compassion to somebody, or to embody empathetic joy when somebody has some kind of success, or having equanimity when things are just becoming a little too busy or too active. So when we do radiating, all we're doing is essentially being aware of the feeling and allowing the feeling to expand.

And when we do this, we are bringing in the conditions for our mind to experience infinite space. And then once we set that ball rolling, it goes towards infinite consciousness. It goes towards nothingness. It goes towards neither perception or non-perception. and eventually everything quiets down and we are left with just the mind now the question could arise then why can't we just stay with the mind why do we need to do all of this stuff because that's the nature of the mind we are using all of this to basically keep the mind occupied

until it tires itself out and says okay i'm ready to just relax and rest and then it just rests in itself in some sense we are distracting the mind with the right kinds of distractions by saying hey here are some wholesome qualities and now once it starts to let go let go let go it starts to sink deeper into itself then at that point we don't have to do anything at all then we let the mind do what it's doing but the irony is as soon as we get to that stage then the mind says i do want to do something and then we get that boredom you give it one thing it's not satisfied with that you give it what it thinks it wants gets bored of that so that's why the observation the mindfulness of seeing what's going on keeps things in check keeps things in balance

and the radiating is part of the effort to keep the energy balanced otherwise if you try to just go into this sense of quiet mind it might drift right into sloth and torpor and before we know it we're no longer doing anything at all in terms of meditating or being aware or having that brightness and radiance I thought it was very interesting that you said that the Medha is limited to the fourth jhana and then compassion is much more. I always thought of compassion as just when Medha meets suffering.

That's how I saw compassion, when the energy or the radiation of metta, when it meets suffering, then it becomes compassion. But it seems like there's more to that if it goes more. Can you say a little bit more how you see this? Loving-kindness, we use the word loving-kindness, metta, it's a sense of being a friend to the world. We are genuinely wishing that all beings be happy. The wish that all beings be free of suffering is the compassion, so we're recognizing the suffering in others. So what you're saying is quite accurate, because when the metta makes contact with suffering, naturally it evokes compassion. But this compassion isn't something which looks down on the person suffering.

It's more of, hey, I recognize the same suffering that's in you is also in me. Therefore, I don't want to add to your suffering by behaving in a way that causes you further suffering. So a practical approach for this is, if somebody is upset at you and they get angry and they shout at you, the natural inclination for the mind is to become defensive and shout back at them or try to say, hey, you're wrong and this and that. But there's no recognition of suffering there. But if there's compassion and there's understanding, then the mind understands and says, oh, this person is doing it not because of me. They're doing it because of their own suffering. There's something in their mind that is causing them to do this.

With that understanding, we choose not to add to their suffering by shouting at them and then just creating this cycle of further and further suffering. The compassion in action is to say, hey, I want to alleviate the suffering in you. Therefore, I'm going to de-escalate the situation, find a solution, and see how best to keep you relaxed and out of suffering.

But it never looks down on the person. It's just a recognition. So in the meditation, this compassion, qualitatively speaking, feels like a softer version of metta. So as you're expanding the metta, it starts to become more diffused. And that starts to change into compassion. And for some people, now, they might experience tears. And they're like, oh, I see the suffering of beings everywhere.

And I have compassion for them. I genuinely wish that they were free from suffering. But that compassion can be felt from the first jhana onwards too. It's not like it happens only when the metta changes or only when the metta makes contact with suffering. You can actually, once you've made contact and understand what it feels like to be compassionate in the meditation, evoke that at any point in time doing the meditation, from the first jhana till this, till infinite space, or even in everyday life.

You can evoke or invoke compassion in a process that allows you to de-escalate situations, that allows you to find solutions, that allows you to try to make peace between people or individuals. But it seems like you're trying to, I feel that you're trying to say something that I'm not getting. Is it like it's even more than metta, right? The fact that it's getting because, and it's interesting that, that sympathetic joy is more than compassion. Can you comment on that? Why is it more than, it looks like we're jumping the gun here because I want to talk about this later, but I'll bring it up now. It's fine. So metta as a quality is basically a feeling of friendliness towards the world. Compassion is a quality of wanting the ending of suffering for all beings. Empathetic joy or sympathetic joy is the relishing or rejoicing in the happiness of beings who are free from suffering, and equanimity is being at peace with everything. Those different states,

Does it come to a point of the practice where they are clearly defined in the different jhanas, for example, or is the experience so far, of course, initial experience is that there are some points, like some traits of each one of those, but they're not clearly distinguished? Yeah, initially when you're starting out with this practice they feel like they're kind of blurring together, or the edges are blurring together, but as you start to get more and more experience with them, then the states are clearly defined and delineated. But that happens with continuous experience and practice of these states.

Yeah. Thank you. This is a question based on the fact that so many of us, I am a householder, and I assume other people on the street are householders. Is there a point on this path where the ability to maintain the life of a householder, as in relationships and maybe even children, becomes untenable because of the insights that we've received?

So the traditional understanding is that you can continue to maintain the household life all the way up to becoming an anagami. But once you destroy the five higher fetters, the inclination to continue the household life or maintain a household life becomes impossible, because that mind is such that it doesn't have any inclinations anymore. So there's no more attachments to the possessions and relationships and all of the different trappings, let's say, of the household life.

And therefore, that mind seeks seclusion for the most part. And it just goes into joining the Sangha or becoming sort of like a nomad or wanderer or whatever. But that's up until Anagami that you can still maintain some kind of a householder life. And in one of the Suttas, the Buddha talks about it. He says it's a fetter that keeps the mind away from arahatship, is maintaining a household life.

So I would say also that despite that, it is good to understand that whatever you learn on this retreat, and whatever you learn through the Dhamma in general, can still be integrated and can still be applied in the household life. That's the beauty of it. It's only, as you said, when you get a certain level of wisdom, the inclinations naturally drop away and the mind just tends towards seclusion. So it doesn't mean that there's no utility value in the household life. It's just that at a certain point it just doesn't become any more manageable. Basically, you become, as I would say, the ultimate slacker.

Slacker is somebody who just doesn't want to do anything anymore. So this brings me to ask you, because I really feel that I'm in a place in the path where I have doubt coming up related to how much the path is helpful to reduce suffering in the world, not only myself, my own, and as you know, I come from Israel right now, and I think all the four noble truths are now in Israel, like full blown. You just need to be there to feel and to see this. For me, I feel that suddenly it's a first. So I came here to find refuge in the Buddha and the Dhamma and the Sangha, but I see that I have these moments of doubt asking, will this make me more beneficial or less beneficial? Because it's like I start to realize things that I'm not sure will be helpful to reduce the suffering. It will help to reduce suffering in a very bigger picture of many lifetimes of the world, but not in our society.

And I feel that it's like shaking me up a little bit. Can you say a few things about that? Yeah. So one of the things I'll say about that is when it comes to the Dhamma, there comes a point where, the lay life and the monastic life, these are two very separate things. And if you, for reference, if you read Digha Nikaya 31, the Sigalavada Sutta, there, the Buddha gives instructions of how to lead a lay life that is beneficial.

And part of that includes everything from being a good parent to being a good child to being a good employer to knowing how to save money and all of these other things. But it also talks about knowing the ins and outs of who is a good person to have a friend and who is not a good person and who to stay away from. To that extent it talks about that. But the alleviation of suffering is always a personal responsibility. In this particular understanding of the Dhamma.

So that doesn't mean that you're selfish. What it means is once I'm able to actually let go of my suffering, then I can be open to help others come out of their suffering. Otherwise, if I'm still in suffering and I try to bring you out of suffering, we might just suffer a little bit more. So the analogy here is like, you go on an airplane and they talk about the oxygen mask, right? Put your own mask on before you help others. It's the same thing. So the application of this process of the eightfold path, first and foremost, is about alleviating our own personal suffering.

Then there can be a pathway towards where we can actually help others come out of that suffering, and that could just be, in essence, sharing the same Dhamma that we've learned, one person at a time, and influencing and inspiring other people, one person at a time, to be able to do the same thing. But outside of that, it does talk about generosity, which can also be a process of alleviation, alleviation of suffering in the sense of charity and things like that. But, and this might not sound great to everybody's ears, but samsara being complicated, the Dhamma is not about trying to fix samsara.

Samsara will be the same way as it always is. The goal of the path is to let go of any of our own suffering and ultimately transcend it, rather than trying to fix it, because yes, temporarily we can fix it, temporarily we can make peace, temporarily we can bring some kind of order, and that temporarily could mean for thousands of years also. But at some point or another, as long as there are beings with craving, as long as there are beings with aversion, something is bound to break.

But does that mean we're bypassing everything? No, not necessarily. All we're saying is, hey, we can do our best whenever we can, but ultimately, it's not our role to try to bring permanent peace or permanent solutions, because the nature of samsara itself, the nature of conditioned reality, is impermanent, so long as there is dependently arisen causes and conditions. So transcending that, letting go of that, helps us to maybe make the world a better place in a different approach, maybe not the same vision as others might have, but it does alleviate internal suffering for other beings.

If there are no more questions, yeah. Thank you for a very clear exposition of the Dhamma today. I was wondering, you mentioned that when you go through vimutti the first time, you become stream enter, and then the next phase is destruction of the taints, which only happens at full awakening. Is it a cycle, that the previous phase is a cycle? That's right, that's right. So it's a process of rinse and repeat, so once you have this particular level of liberation, you just do the same thing again, but this time the faith, as I said, becomes experientially arisen. In other words, there's a confidence due to having seen for yourself that this path actually works. And so then it's just repeating the same steps until you get to the next stage, until you get to the next stage, and so on.

So, what else is there to work on after stream entry? Can you elaborate on that? Yeah. So, within the context of the suttas, it talks about ten fetters. In stream entry, the first three fetters are gone. The first three fetters are belief in a personal self, clinging to rites and rituals, and doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, or doubt in the path.

When you let go of these three fetters, you have stream entry, which means you've let go of the intellectual belief in a personal self. You've seen that, oh, in fact, everything is impersonal. You might still identify with things, and that goes away completely later, but you see for yourself in your mind, through logic and understanding, that there can't actually be an independent, permanent self here. The second thing is you let go of clinging to rites and rituals, with the idea that they will take you to nibbana, because you have walked the path yourself. You say, these are rites and rituals. Sure, they uplift the mind. It's okay to light that candle, it's okay to chant, it's fine. But there's no real attachment to them

There's no attachment to them at all, I should say. And then finally, the doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha goes away completely, because you're like, oh, the Buddha was right, this is actually a process that works, and the Dhamma actually works, and there is faith in that, there is confidence in that. There's confidence in the Sangha of lay and monastics who continue to practice, who continue to uphold the principles of the Dhamma. Later on, there's something known as a once-returner, that is a sakadagami. There, you can sit down, it's fine. There is an attenuation of craving and an attenuation of aversion, which means sensual craving is held to a minimum. So there might be the seeds of that, but because the mindfulness is so sharp, it's able to recognize that before it turns into full-blown sensual craving or aversion.

However, sometimes there can be slip-ups in the mindfulness. But as soon as that craving arises, or as soon as it acts from that craving, the mind recovers and then lets go of it. So there's maybe 5, 10, 15% of craving and aversion still left. Then the path of anagami, or non-returner, is where all sensual craving and all aversion goes away. Not even a seedling of that is present in the mind. So up until this point, a person can continue to maintain some kind of semblance of a household or life.

When the first five fetters are gone, that is now you're in anagami. However, there are five more fetters left. And those five fetters are the five higher fetters. That is conceit, restlessness, craving for existence, craving for existence in a formless state, and ignorance.

So, conceit. Conceit is the basis for the other three. Because when there's identification with anything, any of the five aggregates, then there can be restlessness that arises, agitation about this or that. There can be craving for jhana, form states, or craving for arupa jhanas, formless states. When the conceit goes away, that goes away too. And the ignorance, which is a lack of mindfulness of the four noble truths in every given moment, when that goes away, then that mind is fully awakened.

So step by step, bit by bit, the mind keeps letting go of these fetters. And the way to do that is to keep using the right effort anytime something arises that's unwholesome, and letting go. Same cycle, same cycle, and that's why then the meditation becomes deeper, and it's able to then drop these fetters at some point when the conditions are right. Is this something you teach also? Is it because, I mean, I imagine that there is a different, that there's a different skill set involved in teaching the higher path.

It's actually the same thing, really. The only difference is, if you want, you can have fun with it and enter into states, like the jhanas, whenever you want, for however long you want, up to seven days. So I could teach you that, but it's only for fun, not really anything else. Plus it gives you a lot of bragging rights. But aside from that, the path is always the same. And a segue to the question of the stream enter: is that something that the practitioner knows or understands, or is it something the teacher confirms? Can you elaborate on that? Yeah, so actually, there's a sutta called Digha Nikaya. Well, I think everyone's probably familiar with it. It's the Maha Parinibbana Sutta, and it's the longest sutta in the collection, because it's talking about the last days of the Buddha before he attains final nibbana, before he attains parinibbana. It talks about the months, the weeks, the days leading towards that. And at one point there's a conversation between Ananda and the Buddha, and Ananda asked the Buddha

When you're gone, how will we know if somebody is a stream enter? How will we know if somebody has attained the path? And the Buddha says, Ananda, there is what is known as the mirror of the Dhamma. The mirror of the Dhamma is essentially, if there is experiential confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, that in itself denotes stream entry, which means that somebody has actually walked the path and seen for themselves, and now they're like, this is it for me. And only that mind will know for itself.

So, to continue, what would be no doubt in the Sangha? Well, it depends on what kind of doubt we're talking about. Or confidence. What would be confidence in the Sangha? Oh, confidence in the Sangha. Okay. One of the ways I look at this, when we talk about confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, is that we are saying, or we understand, oh wow, there was a Buddha who actually opened up this path to understanding and wisdom. And so there's confidence in that. And then the Dhamma is, wow, I have actually walked the path and applied the principles of the Dhamma and seen for myself that yes, you can experience nibbana. Confidence in the Sangha

is essentially the understanding that the Sangha of noble ones, those who have attained stream entry, but also the Sangha of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, or the monastics, are upholding the tradition. The fact is that they are the ones who have continued the tradition, because of the oral tradition of bringing the suttas, and now continuing to have copies of the suttas, and continuing to teach as well. So confidence is not confidence in individual members of the Sangha necessarily, but confidence in the concept of a Sangha that is the continuation of the lineage of the Buddha. This may be an intellectual question, but I'm curious. You mentioned anagami is a non-returner. I remember reading somewhere about the Buddha saying that being in a human form is required to attain liberation. Is that correct, or did I misunderstand it?

So the human realm is where you can essentially have more wholesome or unwholesome karma. In other words, it's like a game. The human level is where you make a lot of choices which either lead you to lower realms. And at that point there's no way of making new karma. You're only beholden to the karma that you produced in the human realm, let's say, and then you have to just burn that out. When you get to the higher stages, you're burning out, you're living off the interest of your good merit. But it's in the human realm where you can make merit.

That's the importance of that. But there are sutta references where devas in higher realms have attained to stream entry, but as soon as they attain anagami, they disappear from that realm and enter into a higher realm, which is the form states, the brahmalokas, or the pure abodes. To further complicate the situation, I'm going to talk about something known as the jhanagam. What this means is that there is the understanding that if somebody attains a specific kind of jhana, they could be born in that brahmaloka that is tied to that jhana. For example, the first jhana is the first brahmaloka, the second, the second, third and so on. Infinite space is the formless realm of infinite space, infinite consciousness and so on.

But after that individual experiences that, after living off the interest of that merit of experiencing it, they come back down. They might come back to the human realm, or they might even go all the way down to an animal realm or a hell realm, just depending upon the ripening of certain kinds of karma. However, there are a couple of references in the suttas which talk about one who is an ariya savaka, which means a noble disciple of the Buddha, which means they have attained stream entry, at least. If they go and practice continuously a specific kind of jhana, then their mind gravitates, at the dissolution of the body, to that particular jhana, and so they're reborn in that particular brahmaloka. But from there they will no longer come back to the human realm or any lower realm. From there they will have the opportunity to attain full awakening

and get off of the wheel of samsara. So if you get to stream entry and you continue practicing sila, samadhi and panna, there is a high likelihood that you will become an anagami at the end, anyway, whether you're a sotapanna or a sakadagami. So that's the understanding. Anagami itself doesn't just mean that you have one more life left until full awakening. What it means is non-return to the sense sphere. You're no longer coming back here or to any of the higher sensual realms. You're going to stay anywhere in the vicinity of the form realms or the formless realms, usually in what's known as the pure abodes, where all of the other anagamis are frolicking.

Wow, this has opened up an interesting discussion now. Thank you for that. You mentioned janagami, I understood correctly. Does that mean that one could attain jhanas without having attained stream entry? That's right. That's right. Sorry. What do you mean with attain a jhana? Because you go in and out, right? Yeah. So attain a jhana means you've actually touched it. You've actually experienced that jhana. But that means you have to continuously cultivate being able to be in that jhana whenever you want.

So you go into it, you are able to go into it whenever you want. Whenever you want, yeah. So back to socially active Buddhism. Can you explain how you see the term bodhisattva? I mean, I know it's a different tradition. But would it be what you said, a person that after attaining liberation can help individuals, or is it something else in your view? No, the understanding with the bodhisattva, traditionally speaking, is that it's somebody who makes the determination that in a future time period they will become a Buddha.

So they will come to full awakening through Buddhahood and thereby reopen the path to the Dhamma. That's the very traditionalist understanding. So for one to become a bodhisattva, generally they have to take the bodhisattva vow, and the Buddha has to approve of that. And then from there they go through maha kappas, which are many, many, many eons, of perfecting the different paramis, like forgiveness and patience, love and kindness, compassion, honesty, and so on, until they then get to their final life at a point when the Dhamma is not available to any being.

And then they become a Buddha to be able to reopen the path to attaining full awakening. But the line is long. So that's the only difference. Now, speaking about these matters, what does the tradition say about, let's say, a stream winner who passes away, and then in the next life, does he, or she, still have to do the work to become a stream winner, or is she born as a patriarchy stream winner, born as a stream winner in that life without that? That's right. Yeah. And that's why we actually have, again, to further complicate the situation.

We have three kinds of stream enters, three categories of stream enters. We have the one who is a stream enter for seven lifetimes, or it takes seven lifetimes to attain full awakening. We have what's known as a kolankola stream enter, which is from family to family. Such a stream enter would be reborn in a family that practices the Dhamma. So it's very easy for them to continue the path, and so maybe up to three lifetimes. And there's one who's known as an ekabija stream enter, and this is somebody who has one more lifetime left, and what that means is they're born in a human realm and from there they attain full awakening, so you don't have to

you can start the game wherever you left off you don't have to do all the levels again And you know what to do. You know what to do, yeah, exactly. My question is between number 18 and 19. You talk about eight attainments, and the whole process is very clear that it is a natural developing process, but my question is, the eight attainments on number 18 determines whether number 18 determines the level of penetration into the Yatha-Buddha-Nyana does not, which is 19. oh you're talking about the links in terms of the links so the question is is the number 18

question is whether number 18 determines the level of penetration or realization into the 19. Yeah. So, being a natural process, there needs to be some level of samadhi. There needs to be some level of collectedness. It's not like as soon as the mind is collected it's able to then penetrate. It will require some time of being in that samadhi. So that's why, in the process of samadhi, you're going through the first four jhanas, and then the mind that is able to, through experiential insight, see for itself the arising and passing away of different phenomena in the mind, and therefore get the insight, the experiential insight, into impermanence, seeing dukkha and therefore seeing and experiencing dukkha, and then understanding anatta, that this is an impersonal process. Then you have yathabhuta nana dassana. So it's through samadhi that those insights arise, and then through those insights that you're able to actually see things clearly and have that perception of equanimity, all the way up to

it's a must to be able to see the insights. Yeah, it's a must. Yes, it's not necessary that you have to get to the base of nothingness, but you have to be able to experience some kind of jhana that allows your mind to be collected, because in some sutra references it does talk about how nibbana can arise from the first jhana onwards. Also, yeah. It's rare, but it can happen. This is the last question. The difference between tranquility and quiet mind, how would that be described?

So here, tranquility is a quality of quiet mind, right? It's serene and it's tranquil. But also tranquility as an enlightenment factor, which is the conscious relaxation and letting go of any kind of tightness and tension, is also tranquility. And quiet mind? Quiet mind is when the mind lets go of any kind of experience in terms of a Brahma Vihara. And it happens naturally.

And then mind just rests in itself and it doesn't want to do anything. At that point, it's just mind. And then the mind sinks deeper into a certain level of collectedness that's neither perception or non-perception. And then from there, it goes even deeper into quietness where there's very little activity, if at all. And this is really a radiant mind. This is called the luminous mind.

Thank you. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.