DO Series - The Link of BHAVA-BEING-BECOMING

All right, so I don't know if you spotlight me, Kirsten, or how that works. Hello, welcome. Welcome to this latest talk of Delson, and I saw it was "Being Delson." I was thinking, oh, it's kind of like "Being Delson Armstrong" could be a movie. So I just wanted to, as some of you may remember, take a couple of minutes at the beginning of these talks to introduce different aspects of Delson's new online presence. I just wanted to report that we had our first AMA, or Ask Me Anything session, last night, and we had a really wonderful two-hour session with Delson. He did some new things. He did a couple of wonderful guided meditations, one that we're all familiar with and one that was part of a new set of practices that he introduced, which I found personally extremely helpful, and everyone enjoyed it. It was also

a fairly intimate setting, conversational, and the questions were also very much practice oriented. There's a kind of serious but fun atmosphere to it that I think everybody really enjoyed. So there's another one coming up on August 31st. Just to remind you how that works: you go to delsonamstrong.com, and then it's Ask Delson, which is up here. And then you can sign up for the latest AMA, which is here. It's going to be two hours from 1 p.m. Eastern time on August 31st. You can set your own time zone here to see what time it's going to be for you. So if we had Eastern time, it would be 1300 hours, or 1 PM.

So Delson is just back from Europe. He's going to give his talk tonight, but there won't be a Q&A for these talks. He'll basically give the talk and that'll be it for tonight. We'll share the merit and go, or for today, depending on what time it is here. It's just after midnight in Tokyo, and with that, let's hand it over to Delson. Thanks very

much. Thanks, Sean. Hello everyone. I just wanted to, yes, John was talking about the subject of David's email, which was "Being Delson." I thought that's a great title for somebody to write a biography of me: "Being Delson." What does it mean? But actually it reminded me of a movie, a Peter Sellers movie called "Being There." That's a movie everyone should check out. It shows you what it means to be an awakened person living a life according to causes and consequences and synchronicity. So it's not a Buddhist film, and it's not any kind of serious film. It's sort of a serious comedy, but you should check it out, and you'll really like it. Anyway, today we're going to be talking about being bhava. So the last few weeks we've been doing this dependent origination series based on the books that I've written. We started off with dukkha, with suffering, with jara marana, and we explored the different categories of suffering. We have dukkha dukkha, viparinama dukkha, and we have what's known as sankhara dukkha.

Then after that we went through birth, or jati, and we talked about how birth isn't really rebirth itself, but also jati, which means classification. We went into the understanding of what that means in terms of the classification of beings, but also how you are known by your deeds, by your actions. It's the understanding that birth is birth of action. What precedes that birth is what we're talking about today: bhava. Not bhava, bhava is something else completely. That's the d-h-a with the long line on top of it, bhava, which means emotion. What we're talking about is bhava, which can mean existence. It can mean being. It can mean becoming. We also understand it as habitual tendencies. So what is bhava when you look at Majjhima Nikaya number nine? That is Sammaditthi Sutta, or Right View. It's a great sutta, because Sariputta goes through the entire chain of dependent origination, all of the different

links, and in that he mentions what bhava is: existence. It is the threefold existence, three categories of existence. That is what we could call the sensual realm, the kamadhatu, the rupadhatu or form realm, and the arupadhatu, which is the formless realm. These are categorized in these ways. So what is the sensual realm, the kamadhatu? That is essentially everything from what are known as the hell realms up until the highest, sixth sensual heaven. All of that encompasses kamadhatu. The second one is called the rupadhatu, which is the form realms, and what it's talking about is the luminous forms.

These luminous forms are in alignment with the four rupa jhanas. So you have the first brahma loka and the second brahma loka, the third and fourth, and they correspond to the different experiences in each of those jhanas. The first brahma loka will have some vitakka and vicara, which means there'll be the thinking and examining thought, but it will be predominated by the joy and the bliss, the sukha and the piti, that's found in the first jhana. Then you have the second brahma loka, which are the abhasara beings, and they have some level of vitakka, but mostly they are getting high on piti and sukha. Then you have the third, which is predominantly sukha. Then the fourth: in the fourth you have subcategories, which are related to the pure abodes, the asanyata realm, where beings are basically unconscious, meaning their minds aren't functioning but their bodies are functioning. The basis for the fourth jhana, being the arupa dhatu, is to do with what we call the arupa jhanas, but actually they're not jhanas in of themselves

they are an extension of the fourth jhana. So they are what's known as infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. So these make up all of existence. This makes up all of samsara. How does that help us in understanding this? Am I saying that we need to believe in these different realms in order to progress on our practice? Am I saying that it's important for us to know each element of each of the six sensual heavens and the realms, and the rupa jhanas, and all of these things, in order to benefit our practice? No. This allows you to understand the schema that the Buddha presented to people at the time. It doesn't mean that this schema will work for everybody, but it's the schema that works, the cosmology that works in understanding our

psychology. So this is what bhava is. It's our inner psychology. What is it that we are bringing to the table before there is birth of action? When we talk about the sense of self becoming concretized into some sense of "I," "me," "myself," from which there is the birth of action, from which there is a process of doing, intention, whether it's in thinking or mental action, whether it's in speaking or verbal action, or if it's in physical action, a bodily deed.

All of that is birth of action, coming or stemming from the prior condition of bhava. So sometimes it's also known as habitual tendencies. Very simply put, when we talk about habitual tendencies, they are like a library of different kinds of tendencies. They're different from underlying tendencies. Underlying tendencies are that which underlie a type of feeling, a quality of feeling. If it's a pleasant feeling, then there'll be the underlying tendency towards craving. If it's an unpleasant feeling, it'll have the underlying tendency towards aversion, and so on and so forth.

But habitual tendencies are something else entirely. You can call them habitual reactions, habitual inclinations, and so on. So what does that mean? Let's look at the entire scheme of dependent origination. Why are we even talking about dependent origination? What is so important about dependent origination? We know that in the suttas Sariputta says that the Buddha has said that one who sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination, and one who sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma. Great, wonderful. But what does that actually mean? What's the big deal about dependent origination? What's the whole purpose of it? Is it that you make it into an academic study and understand all the links and all the intricacies and the connections between each link, and so on?

Or is it just a model? This is what the Buddha was getting at when he talked about the raft. The dependent origination model allows us to understand how we create our own suffering. It is an elaboration of the first and second noble truths. It is an elaboration of dukkha, of suffering, how that comes to be, and the cause of that suffering, which is craving. So look at it from that perspective: this is helping us understand how we cause ourselves our own suffering, and how we can let go of that suffering. So when we look at, for example, bhava or habitual tendencies, those are conditioned by clinging. Thinking is conditioned by craving.

Craving is conditioned by feeling. Feeling is conditioned by contact. Contact is conditioned by the six sense spheres. Six sense spheres are conditioned by mentality-materiality. Mentality-materiality is conditioned by consciousness. Consciousness is conditioned by formations, and then formations are conditioned by ignorance. Ignorance is conditioned by the asavas. That is the starting point of one cycle of dependent origination. The asavas, those are the viruses, the taints, the defilements. There are three of them. Every time we have lack of mindfulness and understanding of the present moment as it actually is, which means every time we mistake something for being permanent when it is impermanent, every time we mistake something for being lasting happiness when it is actually a cause of suffering, and every time we take something personal when it is actually impersonal, that is ignorance.

That's the practical understanding of ignorance. So when we have lack of mindfulness of what is arising in the present moment, we are feeding back into that energy of the asavas. That is the first asava, avijja asava, the taint of ignorance. Every time we grasp at sensual pleasures and we say this is me, mine, or myself, that feeds back into the sensual desire asava, that is kama asava. And every time we have an attachment to a specific outcome that we want, and I will talk about this more when we discuss bhava because this is also part of it: every time we say, I want to get to the first jhana, and we get obsessed with wanting to experience the first jhana, we become obsessed with wanting to achieve something in this world, and we are attached to the outcome, that it has to be this way, it must be this way, it should be this way. That is the bhavasava, or bhavatana. So these asavas circulate and propel forward that ignorance

What is that ignorance? Not understanding the Four Noble Truths, not being able to see and recognize the reality of the situation in every given moment. When this is still present in the mind, it gives rise to karmic formations that are rooted, or can be rooted, in one or more of these three: greed, hatred or delusion. A greed-rooted formation inclines towards wanting more of something. An aversion-inclined, or aversion-rooted, formation inclines towards pushing away something. And a delusion-rooted formation inclines towards grasping it as me, mine or

myself. Such formations give rise to a specific kind of consciousness. When we say vinnana, we're talking about the knowledge of something. Vi is to divide, jnana is knowledge. It is that which divides up the knowledge of what is being received by the receptors of the six sense bases. That's why you have eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mind consciousness. But they can be stained based on the formations that are rooted in a specific kind of kilesa: greed, hatred or delusion. These stains are known as the upakilesas. Now, it's not important to know the entire list and all of that, but what's important to understand is this is how it starts off as potentials. Prior to this moment we can't control what has happened. We can only perceive what is arising in this moment and deal with it as and when it comes. But this is helping us to understand how it informs our choices in this particular moment. So the mentality-materiality then that arises based on that cognition

based on that consciousness is already inclining towards greed, inclining towards hatred, or inclining towards delusion, or a mix of any of those. And so that nama-rupa, mentality-materiality, housed in it are these six sense bases. When the six sense bases make contact with the outside world, so to speak, with their corresponding sense-based objects, there arises the contact. And that is made up of three things: the sense base, the sense-based object and the sense-based consciousness corresponding to that particular sense base. Which means contact is wherever attention flows. Right now you're listening to my voice, so your attention, hopefully, is on my voice, and therefore there's been contact made between the sound of my voice. But now somebody else's sound came up, so now your attention went over there. First there was the attention given to myself, my voice, but as soon as your attention went there, what happened? There was contact between that secondary sound and the ears, and therefore the corresponding ear

consciousness. So wherever your attention goes, if I tell you to look there, now no longer is there the consciousness dependent upon what you saw before, but now it's looking at something else. This is how contact changes. Based on that contact there's feeling. Feeling is basically experience. Feeling doesn't mean emotion, although it can have that. Feeling doesn't mean just that it is a pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling. It is any experience. This is why the Bahiya Sutta is so crucial to understanding how to see suffering. In the seeing there's only the seen. In the hearing there's only the heard. In the sensing there's only the sensed. In the cognizing there's only the cognized. Just, and when there is no you in that, there's no you by that. When there's no you by that, there's no you after that. Just this is the end of suffering. What is he talking about there? He's saying, in other words, experience everything as it actually is, without projecting the sense of me, mine or myself onto the

experience. Fully experience everything. Let the mind be fully immersed in the experience. But by taking it personally, by saying this is me, mine, or myself, you might catch yourself doing that. Fine. No problem. But as soon as you recognize that that's what's happening, relax back into the experience. The tightening around the experience is the suffering. The constricting of the I, me, mine, myself, around the experience is the tightening, is the suffering.

But once you recognize it and you let it go, you release it, you relax back into it. Which means what? You don't swat it away. You don't say, this is bad and I don't like it, and swat it away. You acknowledge that this is what's happening. It's okay. Give it a few moments. It's fine. It's all right. Release your attention from it. Just gently bring your attention back into the present and relax back into the experience.

When you relax back into the experience, there's a more expanded sense of the experience, and there's no more taking it personally. It is just an experience. However, if the mind does constrict more on the experience, then there can arise the underlying tendencies, which bridge into craving. And that craving then conditions the clinging. That clinging, which we'll talk about next week, is fourfold. There's four kinds of clinging. That gives rise now to the habitual tendencies to bhava. So what does that mean? How are the habitual tendencies arising? Now you have an experience. You say, this is a pleasant experience, I enjoy this experience, all well and good, I'm having a great time, all well and good. But as soon as the experience goes away, or even the thought, oh no, this experience is going to go away, there is the initial arising of the underlying tendency towards craving. And now if you hold on to it more, you're like, I don't want this to stop.

That's the craving. And then you rationalize why it is you don't want it to stop, or why it is you want to continue it. That is the clinging, the association for why it is good to you, why it feels pleasant to you, the association of why you want that more, or why you want it to stay. And the rationale of why it is that you like it, why it is that you want it, why it is that you want to keep it. So if you were to think about it in your mind, you say, I like this. Or you start off with saying, this is pleasant. When we say this is pleasant, we're saying, this experience is pleasant, I like it, no problem, I don't want it to stop. Now you have the underlying tendency towards craving: I want it to continue, and you hold on to it. Now you have the craving.

I like it, and I want it, and I don't want it to stop, because. So now when you say because, or you rationalize, that is the beginning of clinging. Because of so-and-so, because it was due to a past traumatic experience, because it was due to the way my mother made this particular food, it was because when I was experiencing this particular music I had an amazing time, or whatever it is. It's the associations you made and rationalizing why you keep and keep holding on to it.

Therefore, I am going to, or I will. Therefore, I am. That means that's the bhava, that's the habitual tendencies. So these habitual tendencies, or habitual reactions, are the series of choices that arise dependent upon how you take that particular experience. Let's say that there is a person that you don't particularly enjoy spending time with, because they're a blabbermouth. They talk too much. They have all of these highfalutin ideas, and you get bored by them, and you're like, I just hope this person stops talking. What is going on there? Your mind has made contact, or your sense bases have made contact, with that person. So you have seen that person. You are starting to hear what that person is saying.

Now your mind is making contact with the thoughts that say, I wish this person would stop talking, or let's hope that they cut this short. What is that? That is the unpleasant experience. You're saying, I don't like this right now. This is unpleasant. I hope they stop talking. And now your mind is constricted, and you can start to act in one way or the other. You might get upset internally, and now you're causing yourself suffering. So now you have aversion towards this person.

And the reason is because you associate them with somebody else who you don't like, who talks too much. In other words, now the clinging is there: this person I don't like because they remind me of so-and-so in my childhood, who used to do the same thing. And so when I would have to meet with such a person, this is how I would act. This particular series of choices that you're presented with, now these choices are almost automatic. Those are the habitual tendencies, that is part of the bhava. So therefore I will act in this way. Therefore I will just keep nodding and pretend to listen. So that's one choice. I will say, I want to stop you right there, that's another choice. Or you can just walk away without saying anything, that's another choice. These are the choices that are presented before you. Now, bhava is always rooted in some kind of past

if a person is going to speak in a certain way or act in a certain way based on similar kinds of circumstances, then all they're doing is propelling forward and propagating that same karma. That's also part of bhava. And therefore the birth of action, or the renewal of that reaction, causes further suffering and the further propagation of that karma. So you don't break the karmic cycle. That is why, for a fully awakened being, they can say birth is destroyed. There is no more coming to be. There is no more bhava, because they're no longer acting from the clinging. They're no longer acting from the craving. Their choices are rooted in the Eightfold Path. They're acting spontaneously, conditioned, so to speak, by the wisdom arising from their exercise and practice of the Eightfold Path.

So in other words, the process of bhava is rooted in: this is how I used to act before, and this is how I'll continue to act. And it happens immediately if you don't have any forethought, you don't have any ability to stop it immediately, or you're just like, okay, this is what I'm going to do, and without even thinking you do it. And then what happens? Then there's the suffering. Why did I do that? There's a regret: I shouldn't have said that, I shouldn't have acted that way. Or you experience a repercussion from the other person. So bhava is that process in which the self has fully come up, and now there's an action rooted in the library of tendencies, library of reactions. So I also touched upon the psychology, the inner psychology. This is why, when we talk about this, the threefold existence, or the three categories of existence.

This is actually also denoting the inner existence that we have. What does that mean? If we continue to be angry all the time, if we continue to be upset all the time, if we continue to be violent in our speech, in our actions, in our words, in our intentions, in our thoughts, then not only is that wrong intention, but it also propagates the bhava of being hellish, being violent, being somebody who prefers to derive pleasure from giving other people pain. That's a hellish kind of

psychology. If we continue to be jealous of people, if we continue to say, I wish I had what they are having, right? I wish I could have that. I wish they would give it to me, right? This obsession with I want more of this, rooted in jealousy, rooted in treachery, tricking people to get what you want. That's a very hungry ghost kind of existence. What is a hungry ghost? They're basically just floating around, unable to do anything, but they want liberation ultimately. They want something and they're not able to get it, so they become obsessed by it. And so that's the kind of mindset that you have. Think about the last time, whatever that might have been, where the latest gadget came out. You see this all the time with the latest iPhone that comes out, or the latest PlayStation, or the latest movie, or whatever. People get so obsessed by it, they become like fans. They're like, I need to get that latest iPhone. I have to stand in line and I have to get that.

So what is that? You're a hungry ghost for the iPhone. You're a hungry ghost for that particular movie. You're a hungry ghost for that particular whatever it is. So that's the inner psychology there. And how does it feel? There's so much dopamine being released in the expectation of wanting that thing. Your mind becomes tired and zombie-like, just like a hungry ghost. Then you have the animalistic kind of psychology. You see this from people who think that it's just this body, and we have to just be able to take care of this body and

experience the process of fulfilling our sense desires. That's it. So people who are basically ruled by their tongue, by flavors, like, I have to get to, I have to go to the latest restaurant and experience this amazing food that everybody's telling me about. You become gastronomically obsessed by things, or when it comes to the latest music, or when it comes to the, again, I said the latest music, or whatever. It's basically like food and sex and the best of everything in terms of luxury, all of that, where the mind becomes obsessed by it. That is the animalistic kind of desire. Now, we live in a, pretty much almost all of us here are essentially non-monastics, so we have a life that's rooted in some sensuality. We experience some good food and some warm bath and this and that, and that's all great. And some of the people here also experience sexuality, and that's great too. That doesn't matter. What matters is how you start to identify with those

processes. The thing in itself, the sensual experience itself, is not the issue. Even the Buddha has talked about this in the discourse, the penetrative discourse as it's known, and he talks about it. It's not the wonderful things in the world that are the problem. It's the intention rooted in craving that's become obsessed by the sensual pleasure, that has identified with the sensual pleasure. What kind of being is that? That's an animal. So that is somebody who, like an animal. You see, for example, we have our very own animals at Damasuka. You have Duke. Duke is always going to different tables because he knows that if he nudges this particular person just a little bit more, they'll get just annoyed enough to give him some scrapings of food, and he'll enjoy that. So his mind is obsessed by, when can I get the next piece of meat?

When can I get the next piece of food from this person? He'll act all wonderful around you. He'll give those puppy dog eyes, but don't let him fool you. He's just doing it because he's obsessed by that food. So that's an animal. You look at somebody like Suka. Next, Suka is the cat. He naps all day long. He's interested in just getting his rest. So animals are basically predominated by, or preoccupied by, fulfilling their sensual experiences. That's it. So somebody who's just doing that all the time has an animal-like psychology. I'm not calling them animals. We're saying that they have an animal-like psychology. Now, if you are somebody who is generous, somebody who is grateful, gratitude is a huge practice.

This is a practice that everybody should be doing first thing in the morning when you wake up. Just think about the things that you're grateful for. You will elevate your mind amazingly. So if you start to have gratitude for the things that are around you, for the people in your life, for the relationships that you have, for the mental prowess that you have, for the ability to breathe air naturally, for food in the fridge, for water in your glass, for your car, for your house, whatever it is, the more gratitude you have, the easier it becomes for your mind to be uplifted. The easier it is for your mind to come back into the present moment, and it's much easier for you to fully experience and enjoy whatever experience arises without anchoring towards it, without clinging towards it, without grasping towards it, with the sense of I.

It's just what it is. I'm grateful for it. This is wonderful. This is great. Showing appreciation. This is the practice. This is the application of the practice of loving kindness: showing appreciation to others, showing appreciation for things in your life. If you're someone like that, if you are loving and kind, that doesn't mean just sending them out loving kindness, but actually being friendly towards them. Even if somebody is a jerk, you know, and they're being belligerent and they're trying to manipulate you or whatever it is, you still continue to have steadiness. What is that? Equanimity.

You still have some level of loving kindness towards them. Yeah, they might be annoying. Yes, they might be irritating. Yes, you see that they're unpleasant to be around, but you don't wish them ill will. You don't wish them to be, whatever it is, in a negative way. You're just saying, oh, I see this person is suffering. What is that? That's compassion. And you even say, whenever this person is happy, I want to be happy for them, or I am happy for them. What is that? That is mudita, appreciative joy. So this is how you apply things. Apply the practice. It's not about just sitting all day long and starting to create this feeling of loving kindness and equanimity and all of that. Yes, that is very helpful, but what's the point of doing that if you sit there for three hours and experience great, amazing experiences of loving kindness, or you've forgiven this person, or you've forgiven yourself, in doing this, that, or the other?

And then the next step, you get up from your meditation seat and you continue doing something. And then you hear something annoying and you get upset at that person. Or you start thinking about the worries about the future and anxieties and restlessness about what if this happens? What if that happens? What if this happens? What's the point of meditating then? So it's all about applying the practice in daily life. If you make mistakes, fine. No big deal. There's nobody judging you for any of the mistakes. If you've broken a precept, okay, that's fine. Don't judge yourself and don't judge others. Nobody's going to judge you. And if they do, that's on them.

That's their problem. That's their karma. At the end of the day, at the end of your life, there's not going to be some great big judge that's going to say you did this, you did that. You are your own maker of karma, and so whatever karma you decide to make, you will experience the fruits thereof. At the end of your life you will be given an entire show, all of the things that you've done, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you've been wholesome most of your life, it will be a wonderful movie. If you've been a jerk most of your life, it will be a terrible movie. If you've learned to let go and be attentive and aware, it won't be a confusing movie. You will have enough attention to be able to recognize and let go.

So that there's no possibility of you descending down below the human realm. So all of these things, forgiveness, compassion, patience, generosity. What does it mean to be generous? To be generous means that you are giving of whatever you have. It doesn't mean money. It doesn't mean possessions. It can mean your smile. It can mean your ability to teach. It can mean just giving your time. Giving your attention is generosity enough, right? It's not about how do I get the most out of this person, right? It's about how can I help this person? How can we meet eye to eye in a way that we are in the spirit of friendship, and we can share together, and I can help them, and they can, maybe if they want, help me? Because beautiful friendship does lead to wealth as well. When you are somebody who is known to be happy, somebody who's known to be patient, somebody who people like to be around, they think about you when they think, I wonder who can help me with this, or I wonder who I can talk to about this.

They'll think about you. So that's generosity. Being able to show, being able to see, and then apply what it is that you can provide to another being. Whether it's food, shelter, water, medicines, whether it's your time, money, whatever it is, doesn't matter. But the inclination to want to give is the basis of wealth. So somebody like that, somebody who has generosity, somebody who is forgiving. What does it mean to forgive? It doesn't mean that you are somebody who's a walking mat, somebody who everyone walks over. No, it means that you no longer allow the other person to control your thoughts.

You have forgiven them because you understand that that was their suffering and that was their karma. And your karma can be either to take that and create terrible thoughts about it and create for yourself a bhava, an existence rooted in that. You're in your own personal health, that's what you're doing in every moment. You are creating your own bhava in every moment, you're creating your own existence. So you have the ability through your perception, intention and attention to disregard and let go of the bhava or existence that does not serve you, and instead start to look at the bhava that does help you. Which is, for example, I'm talking about these qualities which are related to the devalokas.

We talk about the devalokas. What are those? It doesn't matter if they're actually there. Just let's take away that for a moment. What does it mean to be a deva? A deva means one who shines, right? One who shines. What does that mean, to shine? One who shines with noble qualities, one who shines with good qualities. The shining ones, they're known as well. So you're shining. You might be physically shining, if you do, well, that's great, but it doesn't matter. It's about your mind being luminous, your mind being aware, purified from these defilements, by these principles, by these paramis, basically. Purified by forgiveness, by compassion, by loving kindness, by patience, by generosity, by gratitude, and so on.

Therefore, your mind is always in a devaloka, even if somebody isn't acting or is acting, I should say, belligerent around you, or things are going crazy around you. People are panicking and something or another is going on. You hear about the news and you do this and that, but your mind is at peace. And that's really the ultimate wealth as well. Peace of mind is the ultimate wealth. So if your mind is at peace, you are in the devaloka. It doesn't matter what's going on outside. And then when you get even more peaceful through meditation practice, right? So what have you done? You have utilized sila. This is why all of the traditions, doesn't matter which tradition you go to, all of the traditions talk about if you are a good person, if you are wholesome, you'll get to some kind of heaven.

What are they talking about? Because you are associating your mind with that particular kind of psychology, with that particular kind of being, with that particular kind of existence. So all traditions talk about it in that way. If you are a good character, you will get to heaven. If you are a bad character, most probably you will be in a lower realm. So the idea is, let's not be motivated, first of all, let's not be motivated by the future prospect of being in heaven, because heaven is overrated. It's impermanent, like all of these different existences, it's impermanent. And let's not be motivated by the fear of hell, because that's just another kind of aversion, right?

This is at the level of just level one of understanding. The second level to understand, the higher teaching about this, is that I am making my own heaven and my own hell in every single moment. So how do I make those choices? What do I do to lead myself towards a more heavenly state of mind or lead myself towards a more hellish state of mind? First of all, why would you want to do that? It's painful. So the idea here is to understand that every choice that we make is an intention, and that intention is karma, and that karma will bear fruit.

And so we have to start to pay attention to the choices we make, and that is at the level of bhava. So now let's say you're meditating and you experience the first jhana, the second jhana, the third jhana and the fourth jhana. So now your mind can associate with a particular kind of jhanic realm, the Brahma Lokas. So the first Brahma Lokas with the first jhana, the second with the second, and so on and so forth. Same with the arupajhanas and the arupa lokas. So these different states of mind, you are actually giving yourself a preview in meditation of what it can be like in those Brahma Lokas.

or what it can be like in those arupa lokas but again don't get attached to it why you can enjoy it you can have a great time with it but there's better there really is better right and you can see it for yourself you go back excuse me you go back to majjama nikaya 111 the anupada sutta one by one as they occurred what does sariputta do it goes into the first jhana looks at the different states okay this is great but there's more to be done goes to the second goes to the third goes all the way to the neither perception non-perception says there's still more to be done experiences cessation nibbana the whole shebang becomes an arhat right so there is more to be done don't get caught up in the desire for just joy and desire for just

bliss. And if you haven't experienced it, no big deal, it's okay, just keep going. What's important to understand is the wisdom that arises from these states, otherwise all your experiencing is just samatha. You need both samatha and vipassana. The samatha aspect is the collectedness of mind, which is being calm and collected. The vipassana aspect is the mind seeing how it moves. So that's the utility of mindfulness, and understanding how your attention goes from one place to the other, thereby starting to understand where this craving is arising

from. So you should be collected enough to keep the mind engaged with its object, but open enough so that when a hindrance arises you can recognize it, gently let it go, and then come back to your object. This is the exercise of samatha and vipassana. When they finally come into balance, then you have nirodha, then you have the experience of nirvana. So when we talk about bhava, understand that it's not some abstract concept of these are the levels of existences, or it's not just that, but that it is something to allow us to see that we make our choices in every moment. So how do we do it in such a way that we don't continue to propagate karma? First and foremost, I talked about this a little bit: not getting attached to an outcome. There are a couple of suttas which are about

intention, and there the Buddha talks about it. He says to Ananda that intention is karma, of course, but it's through our intention when there is still the underlying tendency towards that intention, and there's still the bhava, that there arises a new existence. Right? Consciousness is the seed, craving is the moisture that gives rise to further the propagation of that seed. What is he talking about in this particular moment? A consciousness has arisen that has been conditioned by karmic formations that are rooted in some kind of an intention, but if they're still craving, what is that craving? I don't want this to stop, I want it to be a certain way. Right? I don't like this, I want to escape from this particular moment because it is unwholesome, it is unpleasant for me. That's the moisture that grows that consciousness into further future consciousnesses. This is why arahants, or the awakened ones, say there is no more coming to be, there is no more bhava, because they no longer are attached to any kind of

outcome. That doesn't mean that they don't have intention. They'll still have intention, but it's not intention rooted in the desire for a specific outcome, for a specific thing or person or relationship or whatever it is. So this attachment to outcome, where does it predominantly manifest for us? In the meditation. We meditate and we have an intention: today I am going to be in the fourth jhana. And when we don't experience that, what happens? We feel bad, we experience suffering. We only got to the third jhana, only got to the third jhana, couldn't get to the fourth. So what we have done is we're no longer grateful for what we've already experienced, and we're upset that we didn't experience what we were out looking

for. Remember, there is a difference between chanda and tanha. There's a difference between a wholesome desire, which is you incline the mind towards a goal, yes, the goal is the fourth jhana for now, and the tanha is the obsession: I have to get to the fourth jhana, I have to get to the fourth jhana, I have to get to the fourth jhana. That desire for the outcome is the bhava tanha. And when we don't have it, then we experience suffering. Ultimately, we have to see all jhana as this: impermanent, subject to suffering, and impersonal. Why is jhana subject to suffering? Because of the fact that it is impermanent. Why are jhanas impermanent? Because of the fact that they are conditioned.

Conditioned by what? Conditioned by intention, conditioned by action, conditioned by letting go. When we let go of hindrances, we experience relief. From that relief, there arises the joy of the first jhana. When we let go even further, we experience the second jhana, and so on and so forth. So actually, it's not about grasping at something in order to achieve it. It's about letting it go and relaxing into what's already present.

Even if this present moment is unpleasant, the ability to be okay with it, that is the practical application of equanimity, and that is you. That is done through the utilization of right effort, which means to relax, let go of your preconceived ideas of what should be in this present moment, and experience things as they actually are. Yatha bhuta nana dassanam: the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are is equanimity. But for someone who is fully awakened, they're no longer attached to how things should be. They see things as they are right now and understand what is required for each and every moment, and from their intuition there arises a spontaneous action, whether it's a thought, whether it's something to say, or whether it's something to do.

And whatever it is that they do is in benefit to them and in benefit for all others. Maybe not for all others, but at least for the majority. It's in a way that is the least harmful. And obviously, it's not rooted in any kind of intention to harm. It's rooted in the right intention, primarily the intention of non-ill will, meaning there's no aversion there, non-cruelty, which means there's a recognition of, you know, there are other beings who are suffering and taking that into account, and nekkhama, renunciation, letting go of a desire for a certain kind of outcome. Once you see this, and once you're able to just be fully present now in whatever is occurring, whether the experience is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, without adding to it that okay, I want more of this and get obsessed by it, or I don't like this and get obsessed by pushing it away, you won't have a new existence that continues to propagate that sense of self that's concretized. And you won't have the same series of choices, which are almost automatic. Which means what?

You're being insane. You're doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Or at that point, the mind has become so geared towards reacting in a certain way that it doesn't even realize that it's causing itself suffering. Now, when we talk about this, I spoke about this before with regards to the river of dependent origination, right? So adbhava is the point where you can stop before you make the action. Maybe you think of it, but you're able to catch your thought before it turns into speech or before it turns into action, which is at the birth of action.

It's probably the stickiest over there before you have any kind of action, but if you can find it and you can see, oh, my mind is becoming filled with all kinds of proliferation and thoughts, and I want to do it this way, but then you see that if I react in this way it's just going to cause the same thing over and over again, you just allow it to be there and let it go. Then what you're doing is you're giving your mind space. Whenever you are met with any kind of experience and you have a reactivity to the experience, there is the possibility of further karma to arise that's rooted in the craving, clinging and

becoming. But the more pause you give, make that a practice, the more pause you give between what is being said, how you should react to it, or what is being done to you, and how you react to it, as best as possible. Because I know there are times where you have to be quick on your feet and so on, but still give some pause to your mind as much as you can. Create that small little barrier space in your mind, because that allows enough time for the mind to go from reactivity mode to responsive mode, and that responsive mode is rooted in wisdom and compassion. That's how you break the cycle of bhava. That's how you break the habitual tendencies. That's how you break this process of always doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting a different result.

So I'm going to stop there and give a little bit of space, take a little pause, and then we can 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. Thank you everyone. We'll see you next week. Thank you, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you so much, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you, Delson. Thank you. Beautiful talk.