Day 7 2022 MN 74 Dighanakha Sutta -July Retreat - -with Delson Armstrong

There are four Noble Truths. One, four Noble Truth of Suffering. So, yesterday you might have heard Bhante Sachinanda talk about Sariputta's story when he was fanning the Buddha and how he attained arahatship when he realized that the Buddha was not even attached to the Dhamma. So the sutta I'm going to read today is just about that.

It's Majjhima Nikaya 74, Dighanakha Sutta, to Dighanakha. Dighanakha means long nails. So that's the nickname of somebody who had very long nails. He is purported to be either Sariputta's cousin or his nephew, depending upon the tradition. Thus have I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Rajagaha in the Boar's Cave on the mountain Vulture Peak.

Then the wanderer Dighanakha went to the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him. When this courteous and amiable talk was finished, he stood at one side and said to the Blessed One, Master Gautama, my doctrine and view is this. Nothing is acceptable to me. My doctrine and my view is this. Nothing is acceptable to me. So this is a view of some of the ascetics that were there at the time that they clung to no views.

So they were said to be skeptics. They were said to be eel wrigglers because they never concluded one way or the other. There could be a Tathagata. There could not be a Tathagata. There could be Nibbana. There could not be Nibbana. We don't know. This is their view. So they hold on to no conclusions at all. So listen to what the Buddha says.

This view of yours, Aggivessana, that's his real name, Aggivessana, this view of yours that nothing is acceptable to me, is not at least that view acceptable to you? And so he says, if this view of mine were acceptable to me, Master Gautama, it too would be the same, it too would be the same. So in other words, the Buddha is asking him, you say that you cling to no views, but do you cling to the view that you cling to no views? In other words, are you attached to that view of no views?

And so Aggivessana or Dighanakha says, no, I don't. I don't cling to that view either. So now the Buddha will dissect this. Well, Aggivessana, there are plenty in the world who say it too would be the same, it too would be the same, yet they do not abandon that view and they take up still some other view. Those are few in the world who say it too would be the same, it too would be the same, and who abandon that view and do not take up some other view.

So when somebody starts this practice, the practice that you're doing right now, there are certain views. If you recall, when we were talking about dependent origination, we talked about clinging to certain views. Clinging to self-view, clinging to view about the world. Is the world eternal or not eternal? Is there a self or not a self? Taking up purificatory rites, like Jains say, or it's all about materialism, or there's nothing that matters, there is no meaning in anything. These are the different types of views.

But according to the Dhamma, these are the different types of views that are wrong, unbeneficial, not leading to Nibbana, not leading to your happiness, not leading to the cessation of suffering. So you go from that view, or those wrong views, and you come to the Dhamma and you practice the Dhamma. You do the Eightfold Path. You keep the precepts. You maintain your sila. You practice samadhi. You have collectedness. You have bhavana and mental development. You go through the jhanas and you experience some level of insight.

Having now experienced this, you understand what is right view. We'll get more into right view when we talk about the Eightfold Path. But right view has many folds. It's a view in terms of that there is meaning in generosity. There is meaning in keeping the precepts. There is meaning in having gratitude for one's parents because they brought us into this life, into this existence, first to be able to experience Nibbana. And then there is part of that view that there are those who have understood this and who know the Four Noble Truths, that there is this world and the other. Now that could be interpreted in a few ways. That could mean that there is this plane of existence, and there are other planes of existence, other Lokas, Deva Lokas, Peta Lokas, Hell Realms, Brahma Lokas, and so on and so forth.

But the other understanding, which is very interesting, because the last retreat there was somebody who mentioned this, and I like their interpretation, that there is this world, which is the mundane world that we're experiencing through the five physical senses. When the Buddha talked about what is loka, what is this world, what is this experience that we're having, it's all happening through the five physical sense bases. The world is measured and understood and experienced through the five sense bases and the mind, of course.

But what about the other world? That other world could be understood as the mundane world. That is the world of jhana. When you go into an experience of jhana, when you go through loving kindness and compassion and joy and equanimity, you go through the four jhanas, you go through the ayatanas, you're experiencing a different dimension internally. You're experiencing an inner world, another world. This is the super mundane level.

So that's part of right view. And then, of course, that there are people who know this and who are able to teach it. So there is some experiential confidence in the teacher, in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, primarily. And then there's a super mundane right view, which is the view of the Four Noble Truths. And you come to this through development, through bhavana, through samadhi, through practice.

And how does that happen? Through the 6R's. The 6R's allow you to know and understand the four noble truths. When you recognize that there is a hindrance or an irritation or frustration or some kind of anger or whatever it might be, that's suffering right there and then. You notice that there is this irritation at an unpleasant feeling or craving for a pleasant feeling.

Or you see that the mind is identifying with this, and has conceit and says, no, I am this, or I am not this. And based on that, you see there is suffering. So recognizing that allows you to understand the first noble truth of suffering. Putting your attention on that, that is the origin of suffering, the fuel for that suffering.

When you have a hindrance, if your attention is on that and you continue to resist it or you continue to crave for it, there is undue attention given to that hindrance and it feeds it, it fuels it. That is the origin of the suffering. So you recognize that and you abandon that second noble truth by releasing your attention from that hindrance, the craving associated with it. When that happens, you experience the third noble truth of the cessation of suffering, of nirodha.

In that moment when you relax, you experience mundane nirvana. Having then experienced this, you then generate a wholesome state of mind through the smile, through uplifting the mind of meditation. Doing this, you are cultivating the fourth noble truth of the path leading to Nibbana, the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Because you have cultivated the 6R's, you are utilizing the 6R's, which means you are practicing right effort. And right effort is the core of the Eightfold Path. As I've said before, through the 6R's, through right effort, you go from the wrong view to right view, wrong intention to right intention, wrong speech to right speech, wrong action to right action, wrong livelihood to right livelihood, wrong mindfulness to right mindfulness, wrong collectedness to right collectedness, and because of that you are cultivating the path, and as you cultivate the path you understand that fourth noble truth. So every time you do the 6R's you are actually establishing super mundane right view of the Four Noble Truths.

But then there comes a point when you become an anagami that there is clinging to the Dhamma, craving for the Dhamma. Clinging to the Dhamma means that there is conceit and pride of the Dhamma. You become a Dhamma defender. Somebody criticizes the Buddha, somebody criticizes the sutta, somebody criticizes TWIM, somebody criticizes the 6R's. What happens? Their jolt of wanting to defend the practice, that is the clinging to Dhamma. That is the clinging to right view.

So for you to become an arahant, you have to let go of all views, of all attachments to all views. So you go from wrong view to right view, and then from right view to non-attachment to all views, including right view. Aggivessana, there are some recluses and Brahmins whose doctrine and view is this, everything is acceptable to me.

There are some recluses and Brahmins whose doctrine and view is this, nothing is acceptable to me. And there are some recluses and Brahmins whose doctrine and view is this, something is acceptable to me and something is not acceptable to me. Among these, the view of those recluses and Brahmins who hold the doctrine and view, everything is acceptable to me, is close to lust, close to bondage, close to delighting, close to holding, close to clinging. Why?

What he means when he says that everything is acceptable to me, that creates attachment to existence. This is the view or the umbrella or category of views associated with eternalism, associated with materialism. So that gives rise to a self. Now that self can be understood as either a soul or that self could be said that that material is myself, that body is myself. That there is an underlying self, and then when there is an underlying self, what happens?

Such a mindset is always looking to satisfy that sense of self. So when you have this idea that everything is consciousness, or consciousness is me, consciousness is mine, or the world and I are the same, this is the Atman Brahman idea. Hold on to that view, and you create a sense of self. Then, when you have that, you identify with it. Some will identify with the material body, some will identify with the feeling, some will identify with perception, some will identify with intentions and choices or formations, and some will identify with awareness itself.

This process of identification leads the mind towards wanting something for that sense of self. It leads the mind to cling to something. But then the Buddha says, "The view of those recluses and Brahmins who hold the doctrine in view, nothing is acceptable to me, is close to non-lust, close to non-bondage, close to non-delighting, close to non-holding, close to non-clinging."

Now, the very extreme understanding of this is that there is no self, that there is no meaning in giving, that nothing matters. This is annihilationism. My self will be destroyed when this body goes away. My self will be fully destroyed when feeling goes away, or perception goes away, or intention and choices go away, or formations go away, or awareness goes away.

This is annihilationism. And related to that is nihilism. Nothing matters. Nothing matters. When someone has this kind of view, they don't hold on to anything. But they still have the concept of no self. And there is a self that says that there is no self. So they hold on to an idea of no self. When the Buddha was asked, is there a self or is there no self? answer one way or the other. Because if he answered that there is a self, he would lead people into the idea of eternalism, which creates clinging, which creates craving.

If he said that there is no self, that would lead people to not wanting to do anything, because why does it matter if there's no self? What the Buddha taught in terms of anatta is not that there is no self. He said what is not self. There is a difference between no-self and not-self. Anatta. There was an idea of a self in ancient India, which was that this self is all-pervading, is permanent, and a source of joy and happiness. And the Buddha said, okay, fine.

Let's say, for the purpose of understanding, that you say that that is such a self. It's known as Satchitananda. It is existent, it is conscious, and it is joyful. But if that's the case, and you look at everything in reality, you see that it is always changing, subject to change, because it is dependently arisen. That which is dependently arisen is conditioned and therefore impermanent, subject to change.

How could you consider that to be self? When we look at the categories of different experience, we have the body, form. We have feeling, experience, the sixth sense basis. We have perception, recognizing and labeling what it is that you're experiencing through the sixth sense basis. Formations. Formations are that which allow you to experience. Mental formations allow you to feel and perceive. Verbal formations allow you to express.

And bodily formations allow you to experience the body, in breathing, out breathing, moving, and so on. And then there is awareness, consciousness, the cognizing of what it is that you are experiencing. The consciousness. Now, if you were to take all of these different heaps, aggregates, the khandhas or skandhas. These are the different categories of experience. Take each of these and then use the touchstone of this ancient Indian idea of the self.

Does it match the idea of self? Is form permanent or impermanent? Impermanent. If form is impermanent, it is liable to change, to cause suffering one way or the other, then is that your self? Does that qualify as that self that we just talked about? Form. If form is impermanent, and we say that the idea of a self is permanent, we say the idea of a self is not subject to change. The idea of a self is a source of bliss. Everlasting bliss. Does form qualify as self? No.

What about feeling? Whatever it is you're feeling right now, you're hearing what I'm saying. There are arising and passing away of sound waves. In that moment, you're experiencing sound. But if I stay silent, there's no experience there. sound. Was that permanent or impermanent? Impermanent. If that is impermanent, is it liable to cause suffering if you hold on to it?

And if that's the case, can you consider it to be self? Any kind of feeling whatsoever is impermanent, liable to change, liable to cause suffering, and therefore not considered as self. What about perception? You're listening to me. You're seeing me. And then that part of the mind recognizes, oh, this is Delson speaking. Oh, this is Delson's voice.

That recognition arises dependent upon memory. But that perception can go away. If I disappear right now, you don't perceive me. You don't perceive my sound. You don't perceive my voice. You don't perceive me here. Let's say I disappeared. So if that's the case, your perception is dependent upon contact with the ear and sound, with the eye and form.

If that contact goes away, that is to say, Delson goes away, has disappeared, now that perception is no longer there. If that's the case, then that means that perception is also impermanent. If perception is impermanent and liable to change, liable to cause suffering, can it be considered self? No. What about formations, choices, intentions? When you think about formations, they arise dependent upon contact. How do you make a decision?

How do you make an informed decision? A decision comes about because you have contact with information. And you make a choice based on whatever it is that is received. Take that away and your decision changes, or your decision is not there. Your choice is not there. So when we talk about choice, when we talk about intention, when we talk about inclination, they are dependent upon contact as well.

So if they are dependently arisen, they too are impermanent. Can that be considered self? No. What about awareness, cognition? How does awareness arise? Awareness arises dependent upon formations, dependent upon contact. When you see me, you're cognizing me. You're cognizing the experience of seeing and hearing Delson. You take Delson away, and now that cognition changes. Awareness of Delson changes.

If that's the case, then awareness also has dependently arisen and is therefore impermanent, therefore liable to cause suffering. Because if you cling to it and it disappears, and if it was pleasant and it disappears, now it's unpleasant. And therefore that too cannot be considered self. So that is anatta. It's not that there is no self. It's that there cannot be anything considered self, because all conditioned things are impermanent and therefore liable to cause suffering one way or the other, and can't be considered self. What about Nibbana? Is Nibbana self?

But they say Nibbana is permanent in some cases. So can it still be considered self? Nibbana is not a thing. Nibbana is not a process. Nibbana is not a state. It's all these things and not these things. Nibbana is like in quantum mechanics, the wave and particle. It can be a particle or it can be a wave. Nibbana is just this, the cessation of suffering. Nibbana is non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion.

That's it. It is the emancipation of the mind, vimutti, freedom of mind. Where is self in that? It just happens because the causes and conditions are gone, completely gone. It's deconditioned to the point where it is unconditioned. So you cannot attach a self to it. It happens like that. When you come out of cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness, mind makes contact with the Nibbana element, let's say. That contact is said to be signless, void, and undirected.

The reason why is because when you have this experience, the mind has understood impermanence. And therefore it doesn't take anything as an object. Nibbana cannot be said to be an object. It doesn't even take it as an object. It's understood to be undirected, because it has no desire for anything. There is no desire there. And it is said to be void or empty of self.

Because there's no self projected onto it. It just arises, or it just is, because all conditions have been let go of. Making contact with the unconditioned, there arises a feeling that is the joy and relief that you experience. When you come out of cessation and the mind comes back up, you feel this arising of great joy, arising of great relief.

That arises, or that happens, as an experience, as a feeling. That is conditioned by the unconditioned contact. And by that, from there, you see dependent origination. You might see flickering, you might see lights, you might see spirals, you might see whatever it is. But that arises as pure links, until you take them personally, until you say, that relief was amazing, I want more of that. And what happens? Now craving comes up.

So in each attainment, little by little, craving goes away. Right? So first, some level of delusion goes away in terms of self-view, because now you realize this whole process is impersonal. And then at Sakadagami, the craving goes a little bit away. The aversion goes a little bit away, because now when you see that experience, you're not clinging to it so much. You still experience with a sense of self. You say, oh, that was wonderful. to recognize easily when craving arises, when aversion arises.

And if you do react with craving and aversion, you immediately are able to recover from it. You're able to recognize it, which means your mindfulness gets clearer. Your mindfulness gets sharper. When you have this experience as a Sakadagami, or you have the Sakadagami attainment, let's say, it happens because you continue to practice the 6R's. Continue to sharpen your mindfulness to be able to recognize when a seed of craving occurs.

When a seed of aversion occurs. And you're able to? 6R's. Let that go. Or if it happens where you act upon it, you recognize it and you let go of it. And so your reaction isn't so deep. Your reaction isn't so long-lasting. You let go of it. You're able to recognize it. As an Anagami, when you get to Anagami, you have that experience again: contact with Nibbana, the joy and relief come up, but now there's pure equanimity that arises. So you don't really take anything in terms of craving for anything. And because you have continued to 6R craving and arising as they come, when the actual experience happens of cessation, and then the feeling of Nibbana, or the experience of Nibbana and the feeling that arises, which is equanimity, you don't cling to that.

So there is no sensual craving anymore. There is no more aversion. It's all cut off now. But now you still have the five higher fetters. You have restlessness, you have conceit, you have clinging to form realms and clinging to formless realms. That's clinging to jhana, clinging to the ayatanas, and ignorance. Because you still have some iota of pride there.

Dependent upon conceit, restlessness, arises. Dependent upon conceit, clinging to jhana arises. Dependent upon conceit, clinging to arupa jhanas arise. Or, let's say, clinging to the formless realms arises. And then, of course, ignorance, not fully understanding the four noble truths. So when arahatship happens, when you have the experience, you have no clinging at all. There's no clinging to any view, not even right view. It's just seen. You see dependent origination, you see the Dhamma, that's it, no big deal.

No relief, no nothing. Just, okay, you see it. Because there's no fuel of clinging with an identity, because there's no fuel of identifying with that process, the conceit goes away. And because the conceit is the foundation for restlessness, clinging to jhana, clinging to ayatanas, they fall away like a house of cards. And because you have seen the four noble truths, you have fully understood suffering, you have fully abandoned all kinds of craving: craving for sensual pleasures, when that happened, when you had the state of anagami, craving for existence and craving for non-existence. And now you have experienced nibbana completely. Your mind has become fully pure, purified of all greed, hatred and delusion, and therefore you have perfected the Eightfold Path.

You have perfected the practice. Now the practice becomes the automatic way of responding to the world around you. That's the default mode of functioning for such a mind. So there's no clinging to any views there. No clinging to the Dhamma. No looking forward to this happening or looking forward to that happening. It's all just, okay, whatever happens, happens.

When one says nothing is acceptable to me, they are closer to non-clinging. They are closer to non-bondage. Closer to non-delighting, according to the Buddha. Because they have less attachment to views. So then he says, Aggivessana thinks that, oh, so he's saying that I'm an arahant. He's saying that, yeah, I don't have any clinging now. But guess what happened? He has pride for that clinging to no views.

So the Buddha says, Aggivessana, as to those recluses and Brahmins who hold the doctrine and view, something is acceptable to me, something is not acceptable to me, theirs as to what is acceptable is close to lust, close to bondage, close to delighting, close to holding, close to clinging. While the view of theirs as to what is not acceptable is close to non-lust, close to non-bondage, close to non-delighting, close to non-holding, close to non-clinging.

So in other words, there are some who have the view that, or they have a partial sense of self. Well, this is myself, but that is not myself. Or this world is partially eternal, or this self is partially eternal in one way or the other. So they still have some clinging there, but they've let go of other aspects of clinging to self, and clinging to the idea of a self in relation to existence.

So when he talks about a wise person, that means they really intelligently look at any attachment they have to certain views, even if it's of the Dhamma. And if there's any resistance to opposing views, then they realize that this can cause vexation. This can cause craving. This can cause attachment. This can cause violence in the mind. So they let go of adhering to that view.

Fine, somebody criticizes a view, criticizes the Dhamma. Okay, fine. Why cling to the Dhamma? Why make the Dhamma self? Why make the practice self? Why make TWIM or the 6R's self? They're all just processes. So if you understand this, then you let go of any kind of attachment to a view. And then a wise man among those recluses and Brahmins who hold the doctrine and view, nothing is acceptable to me, considers this. If I obstinately adhere to my view, nothing is acceptable to me, and declare, only this is true, anything else is wrong, then I may clash with the two others. With a recluse or Brahmin who holds the doctrine and view, everything is acceptable to me.

And with a recluse or Brahmin who holds the doctrine and view, This is how there comes to be the abandoning of these views. relinquishing of these views. So somebody says, okay, there is no self. I'm not holding on to anything. There is nothing worth holding on to. And then somebody says, oh, but there is a self here. Or, this practice leads to Nibbana or whatever it might be. This practice or this is self and this is not self. And you hold on to a certain sense of there is no self at all. What happens? Your mind says, oh, that person is wrong. Immediately your mind says that person is wrong because it doesn't match with your view of the world.

It doesn't match with your view of what is self and what is not self. So you're clinging to that view. But if you recognize that and you let go of that, then you don't create agitation in the mind. You don't create vexation in the mind. And you experience peace right there and then. So this can be on a mundane level as well. You're holding on to some kind of view about this person or about this group of people or about politics or your favorite sports team or whatever it might be. This is the best or this is right and everybody else is wrong. What happens? Somebody comes up to you and tries to say, no, you're wrong.

This is the best or this is better than what you think, and so on and so forth. What is the reactivity that happens in the mind? The mind immediately says, no, no, no, they're wrong. And then what happens? It completely clouds your awareness. Now, going from a friend, you look at them as being an enemy. Now you say, oh, that person is wrong. I hate them.

Or you just say that person is stupid. They don't know what they're talking about. You come to all of these different conclusions and ideas. So what happens? There's agitation in the mind. There's craving and clinging in the mind. So let go of trying to defend any kind of view. Let go of all views together, all together. And you will experience full peace of mind.

Through food, through nutrition. It's subject to impermanence. This body will decay. This body continues to decay. From the very moment you are born, you have an expiry date. Your body has an expiry date. It grows. It changes. It declines. It is subject to impermanence, to being worn and rubbed away, to dissolution and disintegration. It should be regarded as impermanent, as suffering, as a disease, as a tumor, as a dart, as a calamity, as an affliction, as alien, as disintegrating, as void, as not-self.

Pretty strong words about the body. Saying is have complete dispassion for the body. Don't get tied up into I have to take care of the body in this way or that way. Yes, you want to be healthy, but don't get obsessed about that. Nobody, no body is getting out alive from this existence. They're all going to die.

We're all going to die at some point or another. When one regards this body, thus, one abandons desire for the body, affection for the body, subservience to the body. This is very important. People become slaves to their body. They adhere to a diet, a certain kind of diet. Maybe it's for medical purposes. Fine, that's fine. But they become so subservient to the body. I have to have my meal at this time, to go for my morning activities at this particular time.

Why? Because the body demands it. If it's not met, you feel terrible about it. So you become a servant to the body. But if you understand this body as being always changing, okay, no big deal. There are, Aggivessana, three kinds of feeling. Pleasant feeling, painful feeling, and neither painful nor pleasant feeling. On the occasion when one feels pleasant feeling, one does not feel painful feeling, or neither painful nor pleasant feeling.

On that occasion, one feels only pleasant feeling. So in other words, when you're experiencing pleasant feeling, you experience pleasure right there and then. There's no pain there. neutrality there. There's pleasure. You actually have an emotion tied to it like, oh, this is pleasant. I really like this. Now, that's not craving. It's just perceiving that this is pleasant.

On that occasion, when one feels painful feeling, one does not feel pleasant or neither painful nor pleasant feeling. On that occasion, one feels only painful feeling. So in other words, let's say you're walking barefoot and you step on a thorn. In that moment, you feel just pain. You're not thinking about how pleasurable that is, unless that's your thing, but you know, that's another thing entirely. But in that moment, that pain is all you're experiencing.

There's no pleasant feeling there. There's no neutral feeling there. Say, ouch, right? You have a reaction to it. It's painful in that moment. On the occasion when one feels neither painful nor pleasant feeling, one does not feel pleasant feeling or painful feeling. On that occasion, one feels only neither painful nor pleasant feeling. This is that experience of just being in lukewarm water. You don't have any thoughts about it one way or the other. It's not pleasant or unpleasant.

So you're just experiencing it as, okay, whatever. So in that moment, when that feeling arises, it is neither painful nor pleasant. It's just neutral. Pleasant feeling, Agivesana, is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to destruction, vanishing, fading away, and ceasing. Painful feeling, too, is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to destruction, vanishing away, fading away, and ceasing. Neither painful nor pleasant feeling, too, is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to destruction, vanishing, fading away, and ceasing.

Why? If you recall dependent origination, we see that first we have ignorance, which conditions formations, which condition consciousness, which conditions nama-rupa, which conditions the sixth sense basis, which conditions contact. Contact gives rise to feeling. Take away the contact, that feeling goes away. Whatever it is you're experiencing is dependently arisen. Dependently arisen based on contact. If that contact goes away, that feeling vanishes.

And therefore it is subject to destruction. Feeling is subject to destruction. Any feeling, any experience you're having. Loving kindness in your meditation changes. It goes from loving kindness to compassion. Compassion changes to joy. Joy changes to equanimity. Equanimity fades, and then you have quiet mind. That too fades, and then you have the signless. That too fades, and you have cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

The first jhana is an experience. It's a feeling. It's a pleasant feeling. But that too changes. It is subject to cessation, subject to change, subject to vanishing, subject to fading away. The second jhana, and so on. Or just cease altogether and there's cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness. So don't hold on to anything. Don't hold on to any object.

The key is not to hold on to any object. The key is to just observe that object. When you get to quiet mind, don't hold on to even quiet mind. Don't do anything. Don't even observe, even watch, because as soon as you observe there's an intention produced. I have to observe quiet mind. And what happens? Now you become tunnel visioned.

Now you become attached. Now you crave. Now you cling. Let go of any intention and just see things as they are. Just stay there. Just be there. In that moment when you're in quiet mind, in that time when you're in quiet mind, mind will automatically relax formations. Any proto-thoughts that arise, that percolate up to fully formed thoughts, the mind just recognizes and releases, relaxes, comes back. That's it. Don't do anything.

Just stay there. The noble disciple becomes disenchanted with pleasant feeling. Disenchanted with painful feeling. Disenchanted with neither painful nor pleasant feeling. Disenchanted. When you come to quiet mind, when you come to any jhana, first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, fourth jhana, you come to any base of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothing, neither perception nor non-perception, see it as an experience that is subject to change. When that happens, you develop equanimity. Having equanimity, you have disenchantment.

You're not bothered by it. You're not attached to it. Whatever happens, happens. It doesn't matter. It's okay. So that disenchantment is a mind like Teflon, like a non-stick pan. Nothing sticks to the mind. Everything just glides through the mind. When you're in quiet mind and even deeper into signless state, you will see for yourself that the mind is not interested in paying attention to thoughts anymore. They just come and go and mind doesn't care. It's not that mind has apathy or any kind of indifference.

It's just been there, done that. Another alternate translation for disenchantment is revulsion. Again, that's not aversion. It's like when you have your favorite food, right? You're eating your favorite food. And the person who makes the perfect version of your favorite food says, hey, here is a plate of your favorite dish. And you relish in that. And you have, oh, that's great. It's a pleasant feeling. You experience it and you love it and you enjoy it. And they say, here is a second helping. And you say, okay.

And you eat that and you try it and now you're full. And they say, here's a third helping. Now it's turned into like, I've had enough. That's enough. Right? That's the state of disenchantment. You've had enough of thoughts. All your life, you've just been enamored by thinking. All your life, you've been enamored by this and that. Enamored by this feeling and that feeling and this sensation and that sensation. This jhana, that jhana, this brahma-vihara, that brahma-vihara. This mind, quiet mind, signless mind. State, you're just enamored by all of that, but there comes a point where you've had enough of that. All right, I've seen enough, right? It's interesting when you see kids, little kids. And let's say you're a parent, or you know, you're an elder, and you're watching TV with your kid, and they're watching their favorite TV show. For some reason, a child can watch that same episode over and over and over and over again.

And you have to be subject to that. Don't you experience revulsion at some point? That's the disenchantment. I've seen enough of this. So everything that comes just glides on through. Being disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. This comes from the word viraga in Pali, or viragya in Sanskrit. This means to be detached. Now the mind is in a bubble. Now the mind is just completely detached from it.

It's like it's just looking up and seeing everything and just, okay, whatever, it's all happening, that's fine. The mind has no interest in anything. It's just completely at peace, satisfied and content within itself. Through this passion, the mind is liberated. Now cessation. You know what's happening is, as you get into deeper and deeper levels of quiet mind, the formations start to slow down, or they seem to, like they seem like they're slowing down, because you become disenchanted. When you become disenchanted to these formations, to these thoughts, don't go from here to there.

It's like you are in the eye of a storm, in the hurricane. And all of these thoughts are happening, but your mind doesn't get attached in either of those thoughts, any of those thoughts. And just stay centered. And because there's no fuel, those thoughts start to dissipate. And then the last formation to go, that sense of I am, that conceit, to go. When that goes away, there is cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

All conditions have been let go of. And then that mind experiences Nibbana. It is liberated. And when it is liberated, which means when it is fully liberated from all of the taints, having let go of all kinds of craving and clinging, there comes the knowledge: it is liberated. One understands birth is destroyed. The holy life has been lived. What had to be done has been done.

There is no more coming to any state of being. Birth is destroyed. Now there is no more rebirth. Over and over again, expecting a different result. No more getting clung to different kinds of situations and repeating those same situations. No more birth of different reactions and actions rooted in a sense of self, rooted in craving, rooted in conceit, rooted in aversion, rooted in ignorance, rooted in wrong views.

What had to be done has been done. The holy life has been lived. Eightfold Path now. Now the Eightfold Path has become your default mode of functioning. You have deconditioned the mind of all craving, of all conceit, of all clinging, of all ignorance, of all identification, of all wrong views, and reconditioned it with the Eightfold Path, which means now your view is always going to be right view. Your intention is always going to be right intention. Your speech is always going to be right speech. Your action is always going to be right action. Your livelihood is always going to be right livelihood. Your mindfulness will always be right mindfulness. Your collectedness will always be right collectedness. And this unlocks two more factors of the path, which is now the tenfold path: right insight or right knowledge, and right liberation. Your mind is completely liberated.

It knows it is liberated. And so that is the mind of the arahant. Always in Nibbana. Because there is no greed, no hatred, no delusion in such a mind. And there is no more coming to any state of being. There is no sense of I have to do this, or I need to become that. Because any sense of that is completely destroyed.

The mind doesn't project any kind of future that this has to be this way. It doesn't project from any kind of past that because this person was this in a past time, they will be like this now. There's no process of projecting anything on any one or anything whatsoever. Just everything is fresh. That's why that mind of the arahant is spontaneous.

The action is seemingly spontaneous. It's unconditioned. It just sees things as they are. So you can practice this for yourself. Every time you see that the mind is projecting something, recognize that. Let that go and come back to a state which is peaceful. Not grabbing onto this or that. A state of non-craving, non-hatred, non-delusion. A bhikkhu whose mind is liberated thus, Agivesana, sides with none and disputes with none.

He employs the speech currently used in the world without adhering to it. Such a mind doesn't hold on to this or to that. Anything can happen, no big deal. That mind just says, let's see what happens. Projection of, oh, it has to be this way, or this person is right and that person is wrong. And even if they know that this person is right or that person is wrong, no big deal. Okay, fine.

They don't adhere to any of that, but they use the conventional language of I, me, myself. They say, I want this or I want that, or can you get me this or can you get me that, or this is mine, or whatever it might be. But they don't have any adherence to "this is actually me, mine, or myself." They're just using conventional words to transact with the world. I mean, how strange would it be if somebody said, one thinks in this way, or oneself is this or that, or whatever, and just used normal language.

Now, on that occasion, the Venerable Sariputta was standing behind the Blessed One, fanning him. Then he thought, the Blessed One indeed speaks to us of the abandoning of these things through direct knowledge. The Sublime One indeed speaks to us of the of these things through direct knowledge. As the Venerable Sariputta considered this, through not clinging, his mind was liberated from the taints.

Any Dhamma talk that the Buddha gave, any discourse that the Buddha gave, he was not attached to any of it. Any kind of training that he gave, he was not vested in the success of one or the other. Somebody did well, good. Somebody did not so good, no problem. He was not vested in, is this a good Dhamma talk or not? Do people understand or not? He just gave the Dhamma and oftentimes he would just stand up and leave. That's it. He neither relished or became excited when people were happy and delighted with the Dhamma talk, nor was he discouraged when people didn't understand what he was saying.

He had no clinging to the Dhamma at all. When he explained dependent origination, when he explained the Four Noble Truths, when he explained this or that, he was just explaining. He was just giving a discourse. If people liked it or didn't like it, it didn't make a difference to him. Just purely giving the Dhamma, abandoning any kind of attachment to the outcome of what he was saying, abandoning any kind of attachment to any of the aspects of the Dhamma. When Sariputta realized this, he said, oh, so what am I holding on to? Why should I be holding on to anything? Dhamma, my attachment to the Sangha? Why should I be holding on to my attachment to the practice?

It's just the practice. So when you practice, practice with detachment. It's easier said than done, but you can start to exercise that by understanding, let's see what happens. That's the attitude to have when you meditate. Let's just see what happens. You're watching a movie for the first time. Just watching. Now if you've had an experience of one jhana or the other or cessation or whatever it might be, now what happens? Now you recognize the steps leading to it.

They're like, oh, there it is. So what happens? Now you cling to that. But just watch it, just relax, just let it go. Just keep watching it. Let it unfold. Let the practice unfold. You are not doing anything. It's just happening. You're just there to sit and be present. That's it. That's mindfulness. Being present. Observing how your mind's attention moves means to be present. That's it.

Remembering to observe doesn't mean I have to actively be like, oh, this is what happened, this is what happened, this is what happened. Just be present enough to have the awareness so that the mind realizes, oh, it got distracted. Recognize that, let it go, and come back. So when you sit down, sit down because you just want to see what happens. Not because you need to attain this jhana, or you need to attain cessation, or you need to attain nibbana, or whatever it is.

Let go of all expectations. Expectation is another word for craving, for clinging. But in the Wanderer Dighanakha, the spotless immaculate vision of the Dhamma arose. All that is subject to arising is subject to cessation. The Wanderer Dighanakha saw the Dhamma, attained the Dhamma, understood the Dhamma, fathomed the Dhamma. He crossed beyond doubt, did away with perplexity, gained intrepidity, and became independent of others in the Teacher's dispensation.

In other words, he attained stream entry. He saw the Dhamma. Understood the Dhamma. He let go of all doubt. In the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. All confusion. And he gained confidence in the Buddha's teaching. And he understood impermanence, and therefore didn't hold on to anything in terms of a self. Understood on an intellectual, experiential level, that there is no underlying permanent personal self.

Then he said to the Blessed One, now this is very interesting what he says. Then he said to the Blessed One, "Magnificent Master Gautama, Magnificent Master Gautama, Master Gautama has made the Dhamma clear in many ways, as though he were turning upright what had been overthrown, revealing what was hidden, showing the way to one who was lost, or holding up a lamp in the dark for those with eyesight to see forms. I go to the Master Gautama for refuge, and to the Dhamma, and to the Sangha of Bhikkhus. From today, let Master Gautama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for refuge for life." Now listen to this part.

He was first a wanderer in the beginning of the Sutta, and now he says, I go to refuge to you as a lay follower. Why? Is that some kind of error in translation or a mistype? Because he completely renounced the lifestyle that he had as a wanderer, came back to becoming a lay person, and now sought refuge as a lay person. So that is the end of the Sutta. Thank you.