Dec 13 2020 – MN 152 - The Development of the Faculties – Awakening Beyond the Senses

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. So I'm going to be reading Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of Majjhima Nikaya 152. It's called the Indriya Bhavana Sutta, the development of the faculties. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Kajangala in a grove of Mukhelu trees. Then the Brahmin student Uttara, a pupil of the Brahmin Parasaraya, went to the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him.

When this courteous and amiable talk was finished, he sat down at one side. The Blessed One then asked him, But, Uttara, how does he teach his disciples the development of the faculties? Here, Master Gautama, one does not see forms with the eye, one does not hear sounds with the ear. That is how the Brahmin Parasaraya teaches his disciples the development of the faculties.

If that is so, Uttara, then a blind man and a deaf man will have developed faculties according to what the Brahmin Parasaraya says. For a blind man does not see forms with the eye, and a deaf man does not hear sounds with the ear. When this was said, the Brahmin student Uttara, Parasaraya's pupil, sat silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping and head down, glum and without response.

Then knowing this, the Blessed One addressed the Venerable Ananda. Ananda, the Brahmin Parasaraya teaches his disciples the development of the faculties in one way. But in the Noble One's discipline, the supreme development of the faculties is otherwise. I Am One, for the Blessed One to teach the supreme development of the faculties in the Noble One's discipline. Having heard it from the Blessed One, the Bhikkhus will remember it.

Then listen, Ananda, and attend closely to what I shall say. Yes, Venerable Sir, he replied. The Blessed One said this: In the Noble One's discipline. Here, Ananda, when a bhikkhu sees a form with the eye, there arises in him what is agreeable, there arises what is disagreeable, there arises what is both agreeable and disagreeable. He understands thus: there has arisen in me what is agreeable, there has arisen what is disagreeable, there has arisen what is both agreeable and disagreeable.

If he should wish, may I abide perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive? He abides perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive. If he should wish, may I abide perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive? Perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive. If he should wish, may I abide perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive and the unrepulsive? He abides perceiving the unrepulsive in that. If he should wish, may I abide perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive and the repulsive? He abides perceiving the repulsive in that. If he should wish, may I, avoiding both the repulsive and unrepulsive, abide in equanimity, mindful and fully aware? He abides in equanimity towards that, mindful and fully aware.

That is how one is a noble one with developed faculties. So, Ananda, the supreme development of the faculties in the noble one's discipline has been taught by me. The disciple in higher training who has entered upon the way has been taught by me. And the noble one with developed faculties has been taught by me. What should be done for his disciples out of compassion by a teacher who seeks their welfare and has compassion for them? That I have done for you, Ananda.

There are these roots of trees, these empty huts. Ananda, do not delay or else you will regret it later. This is our instruction to you. That is what the Blessed One said. The Venerable Ananda was satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. It's obviously the kind of sutta that is last but not least. It is very essential to understand what the Buddha is saying here.

He's talking about the sixth sense spaces, the internal sixth sense spaces and the external sixth sense spaces, which is to say the internal, which are the physical eye, the physical ear, the physical nose, the tongue, the body and the mind, as well as the external, which are the sights, the sounds, the odors, the tastes, and the touch, or the tangibles, and the mind objects that are the thoughts and other mental objects.

And he goes through each one of them, and it's quite amusing when somebody comes up to him and tells him that this is the way that they learn how to develop their sense faculties. And he says, in that case, a blind man or a deaf man would have developed their faculties in that way by basically suppressing the sense faculties, suppressing the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and so on. the way that one controls the senses.

It's not a matter of controlling the senses. It's a matter of understanding what the senses are and what the external sensory experiences are in the context of what is permanent or impermanent, what provides happiness or suffering, and what provides a sense of self or not a sense of self. And in the case of the sixth sense basis and the contact that is dependent upon the sixth sense basis and the feeling that arises dependent upon that contact, because all of these are dependent, they cannot be considered to be independent of any kind of causes and conditions. They arise because of certain causes and conditions.

So once you understand this part, that these sixth sense bases will arise due to certain causes and conditions, then that is how the cessation of feeling arises or can happen. The cessation of contact can happen, and the cessation of the sixth sense bases. But when you say the cessation of the sixth sense bases, that does not mean to impair or to destroy the sixth sense bases.

It's a matter of understanding how the sense bases arise through those causes and conditions and moving one's attention away from the experience of the sixth sense bases and coming to Nibbana, to the unconditioned. So Nibbana is introduced as Nirodha of the sixth sense bases, Nirodha of contact, of feeling, obviously of craving and of being. And the way it's done is to understand the cause of it and let go of the cause. So how do you let go of the cause of the feeling?

It's not by destroying or impairing the Sixth Sense Bases upon which there is contact, and upon which there is feeling. Rather, one understands in reflecting through meditation practice how certain sounds arise or how certain tangibles arise. For example, while one is meditating, there may be the sound of the birds in the air. There may be the sound of an airplane in the air, arises, or you might feel the wind on your skin.

But it's important to see that all of these things that are arising are not you. They're not self. They're not caused by you. They are caused by certain causes and conditions that have nothing to do with the sense of self. Instead, you take your attention away from them by using the 6R's, by using the four right efforts. The experience of the sixth sense basis cause mental proliferation, which is to say that you attach to what is agreeable, or you detach from what is disagreeable, or you have attachment or identification or aversion towards what is both agreeable and disagreeable.

At that point, there is this sense of identification with what is arising, present, and that creates the clinging, that creates the mental proliferation, and so on and so forth. So it's important to recognize when that happens. When you see that the mind becomes distracted by these sensory experiences, the moment you recognize it, you stop the mental proliferation right there and then. Having stopped the mental proliferation, you then come back to the awareness of the mind and the body, the foundations of mindfulness, to the extent that you know now that there are no more hindrances arising, there are no more distractions arising.

And whatever has arisen in terms of that energy, of that hindrance, you let go and you relax the tension in the mind and the body. Having relaxed the tension in the mind and body, you have let go of the craving. And then you bring up or generate a wholesome state of mind in conjunction with the brahmaviharas or the enlightenment factors, and that happens through the anchor of the smile.

Once you do that, you then come back to your object of meditation and stay with it, and you continue to be in jhana. So it's important also to see that the Buddha is not saying, or rather he does say in other suttas, where it is not the sense object that is the problem, is it the sensory experience nor is it the sixth sense basis that is the problem it is the perception of what is arising that is what needs to be rooted out because it's the identification with that attaching to it a sense of self craving for it being discontented by it having aversion towards it with a sense of self that needs to be penetrated and that needs to be let go of.

So he talks about the agreeable and the disagreeable. Excuse me. He talks about what is the agreeable and what is the disagreeable. And he talks about seeing the repulsive, the unrepulsive, and the unrepulsive in the repulsive, and so on. So it's a mind that is completely malleable through having used the 6R's, through having used the four right efforts to understand that what is arising in the way of the repulsive, that is to say any kind of repulsive or disagreeable sensory experience, and that can arise from contact with another being who is being detrimental to your peace of mind, somebody who is in conflict with you, somebody who is trying to frustrate you or irritate you.

But in seeing the unrepulsive in that repulsiveness, which is to say letting go of it and understanding that whatever is arising is impermanent and not self-caused, it should be let go of that frustration, dealing with that conflict with loving-kindness, with compassion and with equanimity. That is how one sees the unrepulsive in the repulsive. In the case of what is repulsive and one sees the repulsive in the unrepulsive, in that case one is understanding that there is something that is being craved for.

So if there is a sensory experience that is arising and that is creating mental proliferation, if there is a sight that one is seeing and that creates this sense of greed, this sense of wanting more of it, or whatever in the way of the other five senses, that is the unrepulsive. What is seeing the repulsive in that? It is seeing the danger of that craving. It is seeing the danger of creating that craving, which turns into clinging, which then turns into being, into becoming, which then turns into birth of action and creates suffering.

So it's important to see both. It's important to see and exercise what is situationally pertinent, depending on the situation. Experiences, look and reflect in the mind if that is attaching to that experience a sense of self. As soon as you do that, you have clung to it and you're starting to create, proliferate different stories about it. So it's important to let go of that. It's important to exercise the four right efforts with right intention to let go of it. Likewise, when you see something or experience something that is not

conducive to your peace of mind, and that creates the repulsive, you have to deflect that by seeing it as being impermanent, by seeing it as creating suffering, by seeing it as impersonal, and realizing that this requires equanimity, or this requires compassion, or this requires loving kindness, whatever it might be. And the Buddha talks about equanimity here. He specifically talks about equanimity. Because, and I would say now more than ever in this climate in relation to the COVID situation, the pandemic situation, in any time really, but specifically now where there is a lot of uncertainty, you have to have loving kindness, you have to have compassion, but I would now recommend that one develops and actively develops equanimity, because it is through the process of equanimity, mindful and aware of what is arising, in a way that leads you to being detached, dispassionate, and disenchanted with whatever is arising.

That doesn't mean that you don't have compassion. Rather, the way I see equanimity is that it is the fulfillment of the three preceding brahmaviharas. So you have loving kindness in the beginning, and then you have compassion, which is having the compassion for all those who are suffering. Having the ability to see that they are suffering, giving them the space and time to heal from their suffering, but not allowing them to make you a crutch so that you take away their suffering. You have to give them the space to allow those insights to arise for themselves.

The actions that they will take so that they can arise out of the suffering on their own. By all means, you are there to support them. You are there to give them clarity and wisdom and words of support and anything else that you can give. But at the end, they need to arise from their own suffering by having the insight, awareness, and wisdom that they have to cultivate on their own. So compassion is the understanding of this while being supportive.

Joy is seeing them coming out of that suffering, and when you see them come out of that suffering you actually see them being successful, and you relish in their success. You are joyful for the sake of their success, and this can also translate into your worldly affairs, whether it's in your business place or your workplace or wherever it might be. When you see other people succeed, it's important to celebrate those people's successes. This creates and develops a harmonious and emotional foundation for you to interact with the world.

Too often there are times where people become jealous of other people's successes. But that's not the way of the Buddha. The Buddha talks about actively celebrating in people's successes, or at the very least exercising that as an antidote for envy and jealousy. And finally, equanimity, in this case and in this context, is really the equanimity that is fulfilling the other three. So it's not being detached in a way that is apathetic.

It's not being completely void of any compassion for the other being. Rather, it's being undisturbed, mind to go through whatever is happening, but not attaching to the good or repelling from the bad. It is being completely calm, clear, and undisturbed. So in this case, when it is having the agreeable or the disagreeable, or both the agreeable and disagreeable, or the repulsive and unrepulsive, and so on and so forth, it's a mind completely filled with equanimity so that it doesn't get disturbed one way or the other. It doesn't get attracted to it. It doesn't get repelled from it. It just stays there, understanding that this is the nature of the reality right now. This is the reality of the situation that is arising in this present moment.

And to be mindful, so exercising the four foundations of mindfulness. The whole point of exercising the four foundations of mindfulness is to be able to be clear in your mind and in your awareness of the mind and the body, the feelings and the mental contents of the mind. It's essential to do this to see if there is any craving or aversion present.

So if there is not, then you have successfully exercised mindfulness and seen that there is no craving. If there is craving, you have again successfully exercised mindfulness because you are aware of what is present or not present. It is after that then you exercise the four right efforts. If there is craving arising, if there is any hindrance that has arisen, it's at that point then you exercise the four right efforts and then come back to a more collected state of mind. is doing, it is always imperative, completely important, totally important that you are always aware of the Sixth Sense Bases and the experience of the Sixth Sense Bases in relation to whether there is craving or aversion present.

If they are not present, then you can relax and come back to your more balanced state of mind or whatever your object of meditation might be meditation. But in your daily life, it's always important to come back to the present awareness of your emotional state, of your mental state, and what is arising in the way of not just the mind, but the five physical senses.

If there is mental proliferation arising, then you know that craving has arisen. So you have recognized that, utilized mindfulness, and you continue to use the rest of the 6R's to come back to a more balanced state of mind. Questions? We have quite a lot of time for questions so people can ask as many questions as they like. Hi, Jason. Hello. I have a question regarding the same sutta. It says that agreeable and disagreeable. Can I take it as confusion? Because it doesn't know whether I need to agree or disagree this particular side or whatever it is.

It could be. It could be that the mind is not aware of whether this is agreeable or disagreeable. But the way I'm looking at it is the Buddha is talking about what is agreeable in the way of what is pleasant, or what is disagreeable in the way of what is unpleasant, or in the case, what is agreeable and disagreeable. But in that context, it is quite applicable what you just said, that if it is agreeable and disagreeable, the mind might be confused as to what it is. But at that point, if the mind is confused, it has already attached some kind of identity to it. So at that point, then you just let go of it.

Thank you. Yeah, so the third noble truth of cessation of nirodha, that is to say the cessation of suffering, I see that as Nibbana. In other words, Nibbana is the quenching of the fires of delusion, of hatred and greed. It is the blowing out of all of the causes and conditions that create suffering. It is the complete cessation of the causes of suffering. So in one way, one can see cessation as Nibbana. But when you talk about states like cessation of perception and feeling, you can say that that is Nibbana to the extent no suffering is present. But it is also a state of mind, actually. Cessation of perception and feeling is a state that is brought on about by causes and conditions.

So while there is a cessation of perception and feeling, it is still a state of mind brought on about by formations, even though it's a cessation of formations. Because it comes about at a later stage, when one becomes an anagami and an arahant, where one can determine to get into cessation of perception and feeling. It is determined by intention, and so intention is a condition, and so it conditions that state. But Nibbana, broadly speaking, is the cessation of suffering, and so you can say that the cessation of perception and feeling in that regard is an experience of Nibbana. When you do the relaxed step, when you see that there is tension in the mind, or when you see there are hindrances present, the moment you let go, the moment the mind stops grasping, that too is an experience of Nibbana.

It's considered to be a mundane Nibbana. But there is that Nibbana which is transformative on a permanent basis. It is the irreversible, unshakable knowledge and vision of the Four Noble Truths. It is the understanding of dependent origination through and through. It is the seeing and experiencing of the three symptoms of reality, the three characteristics of reality. And then, of course, there is the Parinibbana, which is the complete cessation and indeed the extinguishment of all the five aggregates. Thank you very much. Also, how do you see the difference between equanimity and indifference?

As it's often understood, indifference is almost the opposite of having strong emotions, which is driving one's actions to change a certain situation for the good or the bad. And one can argue that equanimity is moving to inaction in a given situation. Suffering arising when you see another person suffering, you have indifference to them, so there is that very sharp distinction between equanimity and indifference. There's indifference to pain, indifference to the pain and suffering of other individuals or other beings, but that is indifference, and in that case that would be the enemy of equanimity. But equanimity is really seeing that that person is suffering, but not having your own internal state of mind or your own internal state of being be disturbed by it.

There is a motivation to help the other person or to help the other being, but it doesn't ruffle the mind. It doesn't disturb the peace of the person who is in equanimity. So whatever might arise in the way of good or bad, if they are inclined to help that other being, they do so, but they are not doing it out of a motivation that is rooted in fear for that person's suffering, or pity for that person's suffering, or sympathy for that person's suffering. Rather, it is done out of a way that is completely balanced.

When you have equanimity and you act from equanimity, your mind is balanced and so it is actually more efficient. It is able to process things better, and you are actually able to help that person's suffering much better than you would have been if you were either indifferent, obviously, or if you were ruffled and affected by that person's suffering, that created aversion in you or created a sense of fear or a sense of disgust or distaste or repulsion in what is arising.

So it's like when you see, really, a very stark image would be if you were somebody who was affected by seeing blood and somebody bleeding and you went to go and help them, it would be very difficult for you to help them because you are disgusted by the sight of blood, or the sight of blood might cause you to faint or to go a little numb. But in the case of somebody who has that, possibly, but who comes into a state of equanimity, who rarely has strong sense of equanimity, and they see the blood, they already have the wisdom to see that that blood is just a series of causes and conditions. There is a motivation to help them, and so they're unruffled by the sight of that blood, unruffled by that sensory experience.

And going through that, penetrating through that, then they go and help that person, heal that wound or whatever it might be. If I may, I have two comments. First, there is a sutta where the Buddha rebukes the bhikkhus for being totally equanimous towards a sick monk who is lying there in his own filth. And he says there that equanimity is not always the most suitable option for compassion and things like that. And another thing is that what I really like is that indifference is often characterized as being absent of mindfulness, while equanimity is where mindfulness is very present.

So just to add. Those are very good comments. Thank you. You're saying that if equanimity is present in all of the jhanas? Yes, you can say that. You can say that. Because, as I said, in regards to the seven enlightenment factors, for example, they are present when you are in jhana. So, they will be present to certain degrees or certain levels of being there. They might not be as present in the first and second and third jhana, let's say. But then, of course, their equanimity, for example, and I'm sorry, I'm referring to equanimity, it might not be present in the first, second or third jhana as much, but in the fourth jhana it is very prevalent. It is really the signature of the fourth jhana, but you will not have indifference in the jhana. It's definitely not questions.

Yeah. In the daily situations, while we are working and everything, sometimes it's not very easy. Probably the practice of mine is not that strong yet. I don't know. The five senses that comes up is, I have to say, I'm not mindful there. But however, I have a tendency to watch in my mind, so that let's say I see something comes up. I see things that I like comes up on the internet or something. And then all of a sudden my mind is saying, either like mindfulness and come in and either just do medical or just seeing these things that, Oh, okay.

So it's like a two-step kind of thing. When you're seeing, it's one thing. And when you're liking or liking, it's another thing. So every day, I try to practice satipatthana on the daily situations. Then I catch it right there. Not on the contact of the eyes and then whatever that I may be looking at level. Is that a good practice, or is that, do I have to do a little bit more mindful just to seeing right there, I should be able to realize it? Can you comment on that? Yeah. Yeah. So, the way I would look at it is like this. Yes, of course, when you are doing your formal sitting, it's quite easy and it's more manageable.

Number one is a lot of the sensory experiences that we have, especially in today's modern world, starts with the eyes. We are always being bombarded by colors and sights and visions and all kinds of things. And then secondly, through the years. So when you're meditating, you close your eyes, and so you really have blocked up all of that for that to arise.

But when you're in your state where you're doing your daily chores or your daily activities, you are bombarded by all of the sensory experiences, including the eye. So I would say pay more attention in that regard to what is happening with the eye and the ear specifically. And then when you're eating, pay attention to the tongue and the nose. So you can actually divide in that sense the senses based on what you're doing, so if you're eating, for example, as I said, you can focus more on the taste and the tongue and see if there's craving arising from it, see if there's any proliferation arising from it, or through the odour or the fragrance or through whatever is arising, smelling the food or whatever, does it start to proliferate different ideas and different thoughts and memories and things like that? And if it does, it starts to create stories.

As soon as you recognize that, then you're able to say, okay, I see it. I'm going to come back to my mind and the body and I'm going to relax it. And I'm going to come back to the present awareness of eating. When you're on your computer, as you said, and let's say you're working or you're on the internet and then your eyes find something like an advertisement or something that is flashy and then the eyes are immediately struck by it. And now there is this desire to buy something, there's this desire to look more into it.

You have to then reflect and see, number one, if this desire to buy something, is it coming out of an impulse to buy it, or is it coming because you see that perhaps there's a practical requirement to buy it? In other words, there is a difference between seeing the need to buy it in the sense that this could be helpful for your living, as like, okay, I really need to buy this, because now I have an impulse to buy it, and later on you completely forget about it. So you can divide up your awareness of the senses depending on what you're doing. When you're out walking down the street, the elements are around you, meaning the weather is there, so are you feeling cold, are you feeling hot? So now you have more primarily feeling what is happening in the body or around the body.

Bring your awareness to the body and see whether the cold creates aversion in you, whether the heat creates aversion in you. Another thing is when you take a shower, for example, in a winter climate, it's cold, and you take a warm shower, immediately the body relaxes and then there is this identification with it. Wow, the shower is great. I really like it and all of that. So this is what I mean by dividing up the awareness spaces. In fact, if you look again at what consciousness is, how it's translated, cognition or consciousness, it's translated from vinnana. Vinnana means jnana, which is knowledge or cognition, and vi, which is divided. So it's the divided cognition, cognition that is divided by the senses or the sixth sense space experiences. So this could help you, if you do it in this way, to not have to come back to the present awareness of all of the senses at the same time, but come back to situationally aware of what is happening, come back to the senses that are most pertinent and probably the most utilized for whatever is occurring.

In the case of eating, it's, like I said, the tongue and the nose. In the case of walking down the street, it's primarily the body. It could be the ears. It could be the vision. Music, if you're watching a movie, whatever it is, you have to be more mindful of what sense is being used more and be more aware of whether there's proliferation arising because of it. Thank you. As no one is asking a question, I will go for another question. In MN 44, it says that, is the Noble Eightfold Path conditioned or unconditioned?

And the answer is the Noble Eightfold Path is conditioned. Can you explain about that? There's only one unconditioned element, so to speak, that is Nibbana itself, Nirvana or Nibbana itself. That is the only thing that is unconditioned. The Eightfold Path, or the Four Noble Truths, or the Three Symptoms of Reality, or any kind of insight, any kind of awareness that arises. So whether it is the jhanas in right collectedness, in the eighth step of the Eightfold Path, whether it's right knowledge and then right liberation.

These are all conditions that take you towards the unconditioned. It's in the same way you can liken it to when I talked about earlier, where cessation of perception and feeling has arisen because of the condition of an intention, in the case of an anagami or an arahant who has developed those determinations, those determination practices, that leads to the cessation of perception and feeling. That's why the Dhamma in its whole is conditioned. That's why you have that simile of the raft, right? You take the raft from one shore to the other shore to get to the other side. So you're using the conditions of the path, the Eightfold Path, to get to the unconditioned. Another simile where you have a thorn in your foot and you're using another condition.

So that's a condition. So you want to get unconditioned. You want to decondition it. You use another thorn to take out that thorn from your foot, and then you let go of the other thorn as well. In the same way, to get to the unconditioned, you use the Eightfold Path all the way to its completion and let go of the path as well.

That's where the anagami gets stuck, because the anagami in the Dhamma takes the path and identifies with the path. They identify with the jhanas. They identify with cessation of perception and feeling. They identify with the factors of the Eightfold Path. Whereas the arahant has understood that these are all causes and conditions for a certain effect, which is the unconditioned.

They can let go completely of all the factors of the path and still stay. Can I also say something like the Eightfold Path is conditioned because we need to learn the mind, we need to practice it, we need to put effort, the mundane path. When they have the glimpse of Nibbana and that perspective and personality shift happens, they then become a sotapanna. There is a perfecting of right view. It hasn't been perfected yet. When then one becomes an arahant, or has attained arahatship, the right view is completely established, which is the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. But I will also say that the Four Noble Truths themselves are also conditioned.

There is only one element that is unconditioned, and it is always going to be Nibbana in this case. And Nibbana itself, you have to remember, is anatta. So there's nothing in this world, conditioned or unconditioned, that has a sense of self. So there is the understanding that it has to be developed, and so you are developing the mundane path or experiencing the mundane path, and then having the supramundane path, which is the establishing of the right view, the supramundane right view.

The mundane right view is essentially the understanding that there is mother and father. And that really means there is a gratitude, a debt of gratitude to ones who raised us in this life, who first and foremost gave birth to us or provided us with the conditions to have this birth so that we could develop the path. And, of course, other people who may be foster family or relatives or whatever it might be, elders who brought us up, gave us the knowledge that we require to live in this world, let's say. There is the understanding of there is meaning and generosity.

There is a give and take. There is kamma. There is cause and consequence. There is this world and the other world. There are sages or people who know or have knowledge and vision of this world and the next world, and so on. So this is the mundane right view that needs to be developed, which means that when you enter the stream, you have established this view, you have understood that there is something known as kamma, there is something known as rebirth consciousness, or rebirth of consciousness, or consciousness takes rebirth in the sense of arising and passing away. There's no idea that there is a sense of self in any of it, right? And you've destroyed that fetter, you've destroyed the fetter of doubt in the path.

So you've established the mundane right view, but there's still work to be done by developing the rest of the path factors, developing further the intention of letting go to the point where you perfectly are having let go of everything, that there's nothing else to let go of, essentially. You're completely perfecting the brahmaviharas in every way possible, perfecting right speech, what to say, when to say, knowing whether what needs to be said needs to be said now, abstaining obviously from false speech, abstaining from harsh speech, abstaining from divisive speech, and so on. Right action, you completely are aware of the fact that there is no intention to harm in whatever action that you're taking.

There is no intention to steal, and your senses are not swayed where you have misconduct because of them, including sexual misconduct. And then right livelihood, where you are having a livelihood that does not take away from another being their ability to develop their path, their ability to evolve in samsara. And then you have right effort, which is, again, perfecting right effort is to always be aware of where there is the unwholesome externally, for example, and letting go of that, coming back to a more wholesome state of mind. Mindfulness, in the case of one who is perfected, there is mindfulness through and through. One is aware of every aspect of the mind and the body, of the senses and the mental contents. This is why there is no mistake made, or intentional mistake made, through the sixth sense basis, because there's no identification with them. One sees them as being a series of causes and conditions that arise and pass away.

So this is the development of right mindfulness. And then, of course, right collectedness, which is really, first and foremost, the first four jhanas, the rupa jhanas, and then the higher levels of perception, the ayatanas, which are infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception or non-perception. But primarily, first and foremost, the first four jhanas. into right knowledge. The knowledge that there is no more present in the mind, the projections, the defilements. There is no more sensual craving. There is no more sense of being, craving for existence or non-existence.

And there is no more ignorance, because one has understood through and through that the Four Noble Truths are what are the reality of every situation. It is present in every moment of reality. Freedom or right liberation. And to that extent you can say right freedom is the unconditioned. It is getting to that point of the unconditioned. What is training and what is higher training, exactly.

So the way I'm looking at it, or the way I would interpret it, is that there is the disciple in training who is yet to have attained at least stream entry. And in the higher training is having established the mundane right view, and in the higher training is to perfect the rest of the path factors, to come to that perfection, come to arahatship. Okay, let's share some merit for the acquisitions of all kinds of happiness. May beings, inhabitants, trees and herbs, devas and nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May we long protect the vigorous dispensation.