DO Series - The Link of CLINGING or UPADANA

Greetings, greetings, everybody. Welcome to Clinging. I think what I'm going to do is spotlight John, and he's going to talk about a few things before we get started. Great, thank you, David. Yeah, major plot twist at the end of the book. It's really going to be a page turner and a wonderful one. So as you all know, or some of you know, I've been introducing various different things that are going on in the world of Delson and et cetera. And a couple of things today. First of all, we talked a couple of weeks ago about the Delson bot, a chat bot, which Kun is developing with Manu and others.

And so we want to give it some robust testing to strengthen the model and also make sure it doesn't give bad advice and so on. And so I've created this new event, which I'm just going to show you a little bit about. It's going to be a chatbot AMA, Ask Me Anything. So this will be an online event on Saturday, August 31st, at 11 a.m. Eastern time for just a small number of people. We're looking for six to eight solid Twimmers, people who are really seasoned practitioners who can throw great questions at the chat bot. So the idea is, it'll be Delson meets Delson bot. So you'll ask challenging questions, Delson will answer, and then Delson bot will answer, and they'll see if there's any sort of creative tension between those two replies.

And then look at the responses, and there'll be a chance for some interaction with the people who are asking the questions. We're looking for six to eight solid people, first come, first served, assuming that you have a solid background in TWIM and are there to help dig deep. And so if you're interested in signing up, please send an email to David, and I'll drop the email into the chat after it's david.damasuka.org.

Yeah, so I'll be dropping that email in the chat right after this. And just one other thing I wanted to mention, which is kind of great, is the Freedom of Mind website has been up now for a couple of weeks, and we're getting it all together. I showed it the other week, and it's a pretty cool place. But I just wanted to mention that we are interfacing with this wonderful service called GiveButter that helps to make sure the maximum amount of donations go to the nonprofit.

and not to say PayPal or something, which would probably charge a larger fee. And so we received our first online donation, actually, from India. That was really exciting, and it happened just over a week ago. So I just wanted to make people aware that this is here. The volunteer form: a couple of people have volunteered, thank you very much, and we're just getting them together, so that will become sort of active in September. But just making you aware that under the get involved part, or how to help, you can access that at freedom of mind, and that's it for me for now. Thanks very much. Okay, all right, so welcome everyone to Clinging, Upadana. So what is

Clinging. A couple of weeks ago we started off with dukkha, with suffering, with jara marana, which is actually the link. But in any case, we start off with that, and then from there we went to birth, and we understood that birth is not just rebirth, but it's also classification of being, that is what jati means. And also that we are known by our actions, not by our birth alone. And then from there we went into bhava, or being, or habitual tendencies. We talked about the different psychological states, or psychologies, that we go through in everyday life, which are associated with the different planes of existence. Of course, remember, you don't need to believe in any of those planes of existence. What this was helping you to do was realize that we start to create a sense of self at this level, at this particular link. And now we'll talk about clinging. If you recall from last week's talk, I mentioned this statement that the mind generally will go through, which is: if it's something that's pleasant, it'll say, I like

this. And so that's, or you could say, this is pleasant, and that's a pleasant feeling, and therefore I like it, and I want more of it, and I don't want it to stop. That's the beginning of the underlying tendency. And then we feel tense, and we say, if this goes away from us we will feel pain. And so now we have craving for that particular experience, for that particular sensation, for that particular vedana. And then we say, so we say, this is pleasant, therefore I like this, and I don't want it to stop. That's the craving, because of so-and-so, and therefore I am this way. So 'I am this way' is the being, and then from there there's an action.

Now we're going to talk about the 'because' in that sentence, which is the rationale behind why it is that we crave something, or have aversion towards something, or why we identify with something. And the way the Buddha has talked about this is basically there are four different kinds of clinging. What is the difference, really, between clinging and craving?

Because craving is essentially this: I like it, I don't like it, I am mindset. And clinging is where it gets even stickier. At this point, we dig our heels into that craving, or into that aversion, or into that particular identification, and we hold on to it. And so sometimes the translation for clinging will be grasping: we grasp onto it, we don't let go of it. And another word that can be used is fuel. It's the fuel for further rebirth, or further rebirths. Craving, of course, is part of it, but clinging is like it really projects this idea of, I want to hold on to it and I don't want it to stop, and I'll do everything I can to keep it the way it is because of so-and-so. So this 'because' part is essentially the process of associating and rationalizing what it is that we don't like and why it is that we don't like something.

So what does it mean when we say there are different categories of clinging? There are four different types of clinging that the Buddha has mentioned. So the first one is sensual clinging, or sensory clinging. The second one is clinging to rites and rituals. The third one is clinging to self-view. And then the fourth is clinging to views. So what is clinging to sensual pleasures, or sensual clinging? It is the associations that we make with sensory experiences that are then lodged into our memory. And every time we have that experience, it brings about that memory.

And then we rationalize why it is that we consider that thing to be painful, or pleasant, or neither painful nor pleasant, and we say to ourselves, I don't like it because of so-and-so, or I like it because of so-and-so. So over here, one of the examples that I usually give is when we look at advertisements. I mean, whether you're on social media or on television or browsing the internet, there's just a plethora of different kinds of advertisement going on, and

you know, you look at, for example, a show like Mad Men, right? That really shows you how they create advertisements to create an image for the consumer. The idea is that when I am watching this particular advertisement, it creates an experience for me, and it associates an identity around that particular product or service. And so you'll always see, in a lot of the grocery stores, that all of the colorful cereals, all of the things that seem very colorful, are on the bottom shelves, you know, around three feet, four feet, because that's the size of the average child, the toddler. And they look at that, it's very colorful and it's pleasing to the eye.

And they say, I want that. And then they take it, and they associate goodness with it, they associate good feelings with it. And so we are tied to, in some ways, the preferences that we have. But I want to make sure that you guys understand that preferences aren't clinging. Preferences are just basically what the mind and body have gotten used to, and it would prefer this over another, right?

If you've grown up eating, you know, American food, you've grown up eating, you know, different kinds of food, according to your culture, and you go to a different culture, or a different country, and they have a different kind of palate, you would probably prefer your home food over that. If it's not pleasing to you, does that mean that you're clinging to it? No, it's just that that's how you've been built up, that's how you've grown up. And it's the same with preferences for music, or preferences for certain kinds of smells or sounds or images or colors. The process of creating favorites and things like that can lead to clinging. And well, how do you know if it's clinging? It's because when, let's say, you wake up in the morning and you are used to drinking a cup of coffee in the

morning and you're traveling and you are at the hotel, and you decide to make a cup of coffee in your hotel room. There's a coffee pot and coffee maker and everything, but the electricity runs out, and now the coffee and coffee pot's not working or it's broken, it's just dysfunctional or non-functional. So now you're a little bit irritated, you're annoyed, like, I want my coffee in the morning, what am I going to do about this? But then you walk out and see if you can go to the breakfast buffet and if there's a coffee machine over there, but somehow they've run out of coffee. So how do you feel now? So basically what's happening here is because of lack of mindfulness, right?

The irritation has come up. You have been so identified and so used to the idea that I am a coffee person and I drink coffee in the morning. You made that association that a good morning leads to a good day, and so on, as long as I have my coffee. So now when the coffee is not available, things start to go awry. And now one after the other, your mind goes through this process of mental proliferation, and it gets irritated with the person at the front desk, it gets irritated by your partner, it gets irritated by this or that or the other, and things start to spiral out of control.

And now the clinging has become in full swing. Now you're just because of that one particular moment where you got upset, right? So craving, clinging and being are the ingredients for what's known as papancha, that's proliferation of concepts, mental proliferation. That's why nibbana is called nipapancha, which means not proliferation or non-proliferation. It's the mind that is still. It's the mind that is free of any kind of grasping. You know, in a lot of the texts and a lot of the suttas, when you read, when somebody attains full awakening, it says, "and the taints of his mind were destroyed through not clinging." He experienced nirvana, or his mind was liberated through not clinging, or through not craving, which means he had let go, or they had let go completely, of any kind of

clinging, which means that they've let go of holding on to something. They've just completely let go. And even in the, I believe it's in the Anapanasati, but it's also in the four foundations of mindfulness, where the Buddha talks about, you know, let alone six months, let alone a year, let alone six months, let alone three months, let alone a month, let alone all the way up to a week, it's possible for one to attain arhatship through this process of observing the four foundations of mindfulness and going through mindfulness and experiencing the rest of the practice. But if there is still an iota of clinging, the Buddha says, then one does not attain arhatship in this very life but experiences the fruit of anagami, which means there's still some level of clinging. We'll talk about that as we go forward with this particular topic.

So sensual clinging is the associations that you make. And here you can also have a lot of responses that come or are rooted in some kind of trauma. That happens a lot in craving as well, which we'll talk about next week. But in clinging, it's all of the associations that you've made that cause you to look at the world a certain way, cause you to have certain kinds of views.

And when you experience those same sensations, it triggers those emotional memories that might not be wholesome or might be even traumatic, and you go through that process of reliving that trauma. And then, because your mindfulness is not present, your mind completely sinks into that and then identifies with it, and then it just creates more suffering in the mind, and you're just repeating that same level of suffering. And to an extent that's okay for somebody who doesn't have the tools to come out of it. But now that you're here, reading up on the suttas and practicing TWIM, understanding the practice through your experience, you can see that really, when we talk about the 6R's, when we talk about the TWIM practice, it's a process of reconditioning our responses or our reactivities, our reactions. Because it's our reactions. What is a reaction? The reaction comes from instinct. It comes from this process of, like, okay, immediately reacting without even thinking. And that's due to muddled mindfulness, which means our mindfulness is not fully there. We are not aware with attention

rooted in reality with yoniso manasikara, that is proper attention, with proper wisdom. In other words, we don't see that this process is actually impermanent. That okay, fine, it is really bad right now, and I do feel bad about it, and there's nothing wrong with feeling bad about it. But what can I do now to disengage from it? Because you have to disengage from it. It makes no sense for you to continue to look at it and be with it, because all you're doing is creating further

formations. Yes, you can recognize that there is this particular clinging, there is this particular emotional memory that's being triggered, and you can stay with that. That's fine. You don't want to, with an aversive mind state, just be like, I'm going to release it, because now you're not releasing it, you're flicking it away, and you think that you're releasing it and you think that you're relaxing it. You can stay with it insofar as acknowledging that it's there. But you also have to understand, as per the Buddha's instructions in the suttas, he talks about the four right efforts. The first is to recognize. The second is to let go of it, is to abandon it, but it doesn't mean to push it away. Give me one second. It doesn't mean to push it away.

It doesn't mean to, you know, I don't like it here, I want it to go away. It's just like, okay, I see you here. Now I'm going to gently release my attention from it. That's the second R. I'm going to embody my attention, which means I'm going to bring my attention back to my body, and I'm going to relax. Yes, when you are in the higher jhanas, when you are in the formless jhanas, you're relaxing insofar as letting go of any mental tension. In any case, after you do that, you come back to a more wholesome state, which is triggered by the smile. Again, when you are in the higher jhanas, especially in quiet mind, you might not need to do that.

And you just remain in that space. And then you come back to quiet mind, or you come back to whatever the object was while you were meditating. But this process can be used in any moment and in every moment. This is what you have to really dig deep in your mind with: that this process is the heart of the entire practice. The ability to recognize whenever the mind has lost its mindfulness. When it has lost its mindfulness and you recognize it has done so, what has happened is you've brought it back. By bringing the mindfulness back, what you do is now your attention is fully on what's going on in the present moment. This particular present moment is unpleasant, and it's okay.

There is a hindrance. There is anger. There is clinging. There is grasping. There is not wanting to let go of something. Fine. It's okay. You acknowledge it. You're there now. You gently take your attention away from it, and you just bring it back to the body, or the mind and body, or just the mind. You bring it back to present moment. That's basically what it is. The body or the mind are anchor points for you to come back into the present moment. So the present moment, as we talk about it, it's not something that is new age. It's mentioned in the suttas as well. You go to Majjhima Nikaya 131, you will see that the Buddha talks about that as well. So being present, being in the present moment, is coming back to the awareness of what is happening right here, right now, and then relaxing any tightness, intention, or relaxing what the Buddha calls the bodily formations, tranquilizing the bodily

formations. Once you do that, then you come back. And so what have you done at this point? When you come to that level of clinging, you've recognized it. You've let it go through releasing, which means you haven't pushed it away. You just acknowledge it's there, and you've let your attention go from there to come back to the mind and body. You relax. Now you have done the first two right efforts. The third right effort is to come back to a wholesome state of mind. That could be as simple as the smile, or coming back to quiet mind, or whatever the object is. And so that's the return. And you stay. That's the fourth right effort, maintaining that wholesome state of mind.

Now, when I say maintain, doesn't mean that I'm going to just hold on to that particular object of meditation. No, it's just, I'm resting in it. I'm basking in the awareness of the object of meditation. And when you do this, bit by bit, you are reconditioning your reactions into responses. So what is a response? We know a reaction comes from instinct, and comes from this taking things personally, by seeing me and the other, right? That other is something I want to possess, or that other is something I want to push away, or that other is something that I want to see as mine, as me, mine, and myself. But when you respond, you're responding with mindfulness. You're responding with having awareness of the present moment. You're responding with proper attention, with wisdom, which is you're saying, okay, I see this and I understand that it has come, but it will also go away.

You see, what's the point of studying the suttas, and what's the point of just doing the meditation on retreat or just doing an hour of meditation, when you can't apply what's happening when the rubber meets the road? Yes, there's going to be slip-ups. Yes, you're going to forget. Yes, it's going to happen where you go through this whole loop of, like, oh, I messed up again. But don't beat yourself up for that. That's fine. It's okay, it happened. But make it an effort and make it a point to be as present as possible, so that when you start to see the snake of clinging, the snake of craving, bringing its head up, you can gently, softly, just bring it back down and let it go, and instead of the snake, you replace it with something that's more wholesome.

So understand that we all make mistakes, and it's totally fine. It's totally okay. But make it a point to apply what you are studying, apply what you are learning, apply what you're watching, apply what you're listening to, as much as you can, on an everyday basis, starting from the moment you wake up. As soon as you wake up, notice where your awareness is. Notice where it is in the body. Notice where it is in relation to, maybe, looking at the ceiling while you're still in bed. And then notice if you're smiling or not. Bring up the smile. Bring up something that's wholesome. Bring up gratitude. Bring up feelings of appreciation. Bring up feelings of warmth and kindness, and so on.

And see how well you can keep that going. The reason why we instruct you to do this is because it helps you be more present, be more mindful. And the more mindful you are, the less likely it is that creeping and clinging will arise. Deeply rooted, you can use forgiveness. Forgiveness is a very powerful tool. We can use loving kindness to ourselves. We can use compassion to ourselves. We can be compassionate to ourselves and realize, okay, yes, I have suffered before, I'm suffering now, and it's okay. But I wish myself free of the suffering, not because I feel bad about the suffering and I have aversion towards it, but yes, the suffering is bad, and I see that there is something better, which is the process of healing, the process of relief, the process of letting go, and experiencing something much more profound, much more calm, much more liberating than being stuck in the same old rut.

So sensual clinging is basically anything to do with the five physical sense bases, right? We have associations with the things that we've heard in the past, the things that we've seen in the past. Maybe a scent triggers a memory from our childhood. For me it's very interesting, because there is this special memory of white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. We used to have those only during Christmas, when we were in New York City. We would go to these department stores, and we'd go to Macy's, and they had this little bakery over there. So I remember in my childhood those particular cookies and the smell of those cookies, and to date I still haven't found any cookies that match that. Why? Because I've associated that happy memory with that particular scent and with that particular experience. So we all have certain kinds of favorites. But as we start to grasp onto them and associate with them and create identities around them and act from them, we start to muddle our

mindfulness. We start to see or not see the nature of reality, which is that we start to identify with it and say, "If I don't get it, I'm going to be mad, right? If I don't get it, my world is going to end, right?" So we have to look at this. We have to look at these reactions and then be present with them, and then gently release them and relax them, notice the relief from them, and see what comes up through wisdom and through your intuition, because the birthplace of intuition is a mind that is quiet. And when the mind is quiet, that intuition will say, "Yeah, it's just this," instead of "I need to own it, I need to have it. Why isn't it this way? Why isn't it that way? I hope this doesn't continue. I wish this would stop." Instead we go to, "Oh, it's only this." And because we already find relief, we're not looking outward, or something or someone or some experience, to provide us that

relief. Then we have clinging to rites and rituals. So what are rites and rituals, and what does that mean, clinging to rites and rituals? If you recall, in the schema of the ten fetters, we have the destruction of the fetter of clinging to rites and rituals when somebody attains stream entry, and the reason is because you start to realize for yourself that the rites and rituals might be pleasant, and you might enjoy having those rites and rituals, and that's totally fine. But you also realize that they themselves are not going to take you to full awakening. They themselves are not going to take you to experiencing nibbana. Another element of rites and rituals is that we might tend to have a lucky charm or a lucky color or, you know, a lucky day or lucky number or whatever it is.

And that's all fine, well and fine, but the idea is that if you start to associate with that and you start to see that as a process of transcending your karma, which means that we bypass the karma experience, then that's rooted in wrong view. It might help mitigate it. It helps us be more mindful. It helps us to be more attentive, possibly, and because of that we're able to see what's arising, and instead of reacting to it, we're able to just respond with it however it needs to be responded with, so that no further propagation of that karma. But to say that it burns out your karma without you having to experience it is in violation of right view and what the Buddha has talked about, which is that all karma that has to arise will arrive and

experience it. You can mitigate it, bypass it, still have to experience it. So clinging to rites and rituals is basically twofold. One is that you understand there is a process that you go through. There is an understanding that you get to, which is the full understanding of the four noble truths. And there is long study. And for whatever reason, Buddhism, it has become Buddhism, and I want to talk about this when we talk about views, but it's not that, when the Buddha introduced it, he didn't say, "This is Buddhism, name it after me, or whatever it is." He just said, "This is the Dhamma." And the Dhamma translates to teaching or methodology or practice or lifestyle.

And that's what you're adopting here. You're just adopting a way of seeing things, a lifestyle that allows you to experience the alleviation and total eradication of any kind of mental suffering, so that you can respond better and you can live a life that is free of any kind of suffering. So now when we talk about clinging to rites and rituals in terms of this process of the third fetter, or one of the three fetters, all we're saying is that because we've experienced nibbana, we realize that anything that we do is just for purposes of pleasing the mind. That's it. It's not for the purpose of transcending our karma. It's not for the purpose of experiencing full awakening.

It's just for the purpose of, like, if I want to light a candle, if I want to light a lamp, if I want to pray to this particular deity, if I want to go to church, if I want to do this or that or the other, that's fine. That's okay. It helps you have a more clear mind and a calmer mind, and that's okay. But understand that in order for you to experience full awakening, or in order for you to experience nibbana, you have to be able to let go. You have to be able to experience a process which is rooted in the Eightfold Path.

So that's clinging to rites and rituals. Then we have what's called clinging to self-views. This is another clinging that is eradicated at stream entry, if we were to look at that schema, right? So the clingable pleasures that would go away for somebody who has attained the third path, that's the understanding. And when it comes to clinging to rites and rituals and clinging to self-views, that also is eradicated when one experiences right view and one has entered the stream. So what do we mean by self-view? That is sakkaya ditthi. There is a difference between self-view and conceit. Conceit is that part of the mind that identifies with something as me, mine, or myself, and self-view is the intellectual belief in a personal self.

So when you see, when your mind experiences a deep and profound level of letting go, and then is able to understand the impersonal nature of this whole process, and realize that there is no one abiding, personal, permanent, independent self, but that it is a series of interconnected, interdependent causes and conditions that create the notion of self, then your mind lets go of that on an intellectual level. The conceit that's still present, and will still be present until you let go finally at the fourth path, that conceit is actually rooted in the fear. It's rooted in the mind that has delusion. It's rooted in the mind that is seeking

something that is seeking something that is stable in an otherwise unstable world. And so the destruction of conceit is the realization that there is nothing stable in this conditioned reality. And upon letting that go, one experiences the only thing that is stable, and that is the nibbana element, that is nibbana itself. So that is the destruction of conceit. But right now we're talking about clinging to self-view. So what are the different kinds of self-view that the mind can go through? Generally it's numbered to be 20, and it's a very easy formula. It's basically the five aggregates multiplied by the four kinds of self-view. What are the four kinds of self-view? One or more of the five aggregates is self, is myself.

One or more of the five aggregates is belonging to myself. It's something that is part, it's not part, but it belongs to me. The third view is that I am in one or more of these five aggregates. So these five aggregates are containers of self. And then the fourth is that the self is separate to, independent of, these five aggregates. So these are, generally speaking, the four different kinds of self-view. They might change here and there depending on the tuta, but these are the general points, and so these are the 20 kinds of self-view. So when you experience stream entry, you have let go of that at an intellectual level, which means now even though your mind takes something personally, even though your mind identifies with something, even though your mind is seeking to hold on to something as me, mine, or myself because it's afraid of the instability, this is all from conceit. But it knows at the intellectual level that actually, no, this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. It knows and understands anatta to on a very mental intellectual level. It understands

that yeah, this is an impersonal process, but the thing is it hasn't been internalized. It hasn't been metabolized in the system to the point where it becomes your lived experience all the time, and that only happens when you destroy conceit altogether. And then finally we have what's known as clinging to views. This is clinging to wrong views in general, and in the past I've talked about these different types of wrong views in relation to the Dhamma. There are generally six different types of wrong views, and they're related to different kinds of ideas about the world and about even the self. You know, the first view is materialism. It's the idea that there's nothing beyond these five physical senses, there's nothing beyond just the matter that we have over here, right? So which means that in order for me to experience joy, in order for me to experience happiness, all I have to do is continue to bring pleasant sensations to my sense bases, and I have to keep seeking those out.

And so that view is in violation of right view, because what does right view say? That there is this world, which is the world of the senses, and there is the other world, which is the world of super mundane states like the jhanas. So when I experience these mental states, these mental experiences and levels of understanding, levels of cessation, which we call jhanas, we start to realize that we are able to experience happiness without depending upon any kind of external factor or any kind of

Externality, then the second kind of view is moral nihilism. It's the idea that there is no meaning to anything, that actions don't have consequences, that everything is quite random. So the idea is that there is no good or bad, there is no absolute bad. But what we see through our own experience is that there is action and consequence. Not maybe immediately, not even maybe in this life, but some of the actions we've taken and some of the things we say have consequences. Always. You might have freedom of speech, but whatever you say and whatever you do with that freedom of speech will have consequences, one way or the other.

People might like what you say, or people might not like what you say. People might hate what you say and they might have strong reactions to it. You can't control that. But you see for yourself that whatever I say, whatever I do, however I act, I think it has some kind of direct or indirect effect. By seeing this, you realize that we can't have moral nihilism. We can't have this idea that there is no meaning, that there is no action and consequence. Then the third one is called eternalism. And eternalism is the idea that I am someone who is eternal, because there's an eternal self.

There's an atman, there's a soul that's present, there's a consciousness that is all-pervading and permanent all the time. And actually, very specifically to this particular view, at the time of the Buddha they talked about seven different kinds of elements that were eternal, or principles that were eternal, that included self, that included feelings, and other elements. You can see all of this in the Digha Nikaya number two, Samanna Phala Sutta, The Fruits of the Ascetic Life, where the Buddha, well, not the Buddha actually, King Ajatasattu goes to the Buddha and the Buddha asks who he has learned from and what they have told him. He summarizes what other people have told him, or what other teachers have told him, which includes this view of eternalism. But this can also be seen as being

mistaken, misguided, because you see this process of conditioned reality, and you see it in yourself. Self in the sense of you see your body aging, you see your loved ones changing, you see your relationships breaking or changing, or death. You see all these different things. So we can't objectively say that there is a self that is permanent, because it's not yet objectively experienced. It's a subjective idea that the mind lodges onto or latches onto as an experience, but it's an experience that's still rooted in mentality, rooted in the mind, rooted in maybe ideology, rooted in conception and conceptuality. So just the mere fact of the instability of life, the instability of experience, which is a nature generally translated as impermanence and sometimes spoken of as the arising and passing away of things, totally negates the idea that there is an eternalist principle out

there. Then you have the fourth view, which is usually known as predeterminism or fatalism, and the way it's described in the suttas is like a ball of yarn that you unfurl. So there's no point in doing anything. There are certain things that you have to do and you have to experience. And to some extent, that is true, and I'll explain what that means.

But generally speaking, what it's saying is that there's a time and place for everything. You will experience all of these sensations. You'll experience a certain level of life or longevity. And you'll experience Nibbana when it's destined for you, when it's determined for you. You have no say in the matter. You have no particular intention that can change that at all. One of the more sophisticated ideas that is a modern extension of this particular view is the idea that this reality is a simulation. Because that's a very depressing thought. If everything that we are experiencing is a simulation, and somebody takes that idea to the maximum, takes it to the extreme, that we are just ones and zeros within some kind of simulation that has been pre-programmed or programmed by some other higher intelligence, then what's the point of doing anything?

So that whole idea is bogus, because all it does is take away your power. It takes away your understanding and clarity of the fact that your intentions matter. What you do has meaning. How you do things has meaning. So you can see for yourself that I have the ability to change things based on how I perceive them, but also based on how I change my intentions.

The fifth kind of view is what's known as, well, we have the modern version of that, which is now usually Jainism, which is still here in India and parts of the world. The idea is that we have to be able to deal with all of our karma before we become fully awakened. And that means we have to go through a process of purification, and we have to go through a process of asceticism. We have to do fasting, and we can't eat meat on Tuesdays, or this or that and the other. This is all this process of mentation. It's this obsessive idea that if I only do this, I'll be free of my karma.

And if I'm free of my karma, then I'll experience full awakening. Otherwise, I'm just a sinner and I have to keep making amends for my sins. So this idea that I'm burning off my karma by doing this, the Buddha had a question about that. He said, how do you know how much karma you have already burned, and how much karma is left? Are you aware of the karmic bank balance that you still possess, and what needs to be credited and what needs to be debited? No, all you can do is experience what's happening here in this present moment and deal with it with a response that is rooted in wisdom and understanding. That's how you deal with karma.

In the Mulya Sivaka Sutta, that was what the Buddha was addressing. He said there are some schools of thought who say it's all karma. But the Buddha talks about other things. He talks about accidents, the climate, the different humors of the body. At the time of the Buddha, there were different ideas about the state of the body, like the different bile, phlegm, and all that other stuff. So the mixture of those creates different kinds of things, diseases in the body. That's not your fault. That's not something you did. It's just happening because of causes and conditions. The Buddha is saying, do not go into that danger zone of saying, I'm trying to figure out why did I get this?

Is it because of something I did in this life or something I did in a past life, and now I have to deal with it? If you go through that, that's not helpful at all. It's like somebody gets shot and now they have to think about, why was this person shooting me, and where did this bullet come from? What is this bullet made out of? What kind of gun was the bullet fired from? You're not going to think about that. You're going to just think about how painful it is to have a bullet lodged in your body. And you're going to do everything you can to carefully take it out, or go to the doctor, or go to the hospital, obviously, and get it treated, get it dealt with.

In the same way, you're not going to ask, this particular karma, what is the nature of this karma? Why did it happen? How did it arise? How do I burn it off? No, all you do is see that it's arising right now, and you deal with it through non-reactivity, through non-engagement. What does that mean? Non-engagement and non-reactivity does not mean I'm pushing it away. It means I'm acknowledging it being here, but I'm seeing it for what it actually is, that it has arisen because of certain causes and conditions. But it is not going to be permanent. It is going to go away, and I'm just going to be present to it and allow it to go away, or bring some harmony to my mind and body by having a wholesome state of mind.

That's it. So that's one kind of view. And then the final view is what's usually translated as eel wriggling in the suttas. It's basically where I'm not sure about this and I'm not sure about that. It's like sitting on the fence. I don't know if I want to do this, I don't know if this makes sense, I can't say if there is a Tathagata or not a Tathagata, I can't say whether there is Nibbana or not Nibbana. You know, I can't really say about this or that or the other. So that is essentially a mind that is afraid to engage with healthy conversation

and sometimes even disagreements and debates. Completely fine, but you have to speak from your experience. If you don't know something, then just say it: I don't know. But if you have experienced something, then why would you be afraid to mention it or talk about it? Maybe you're afraid of the consequences, of how somebody will react or what they'll say. You have to let that go. So this is what's sometimes translated as skepticism. It's like, I'm not for this party or that party, not for this particular school of thought, not for that particular school of thought. This is different from transcending all views, because you're still rooted in right view. And this is the final part I want to talk about when we talk about clinging to views, which is there's also clinging to the Dhamma itself.

What does that mean? We take the Dhamma as something. We hold on to the raft, as soon as we've gone to the other shore, we've taken the raft and we're carrying it with us. Why would we do that? It doesn't mean that we let go of our teachings, what we've learned. It just means we don't reify it. We don't make it into another thing to be worshipped and venerated, and made into a thing to be defended or to defend. This is what I talk about in reference. Don't be a Dhamma defender. When you notice your mind starting to do that, what you're doing is trying to be an evangelist for the Dhamma.

You don't need to do that. The Dhamma will take care of itself. All you do is be the light. You be the example through your actions. And there'll be people who come and ask you, what do you do differently? Because there's something about you. And then you can explain to them. But otherwise, you're just a shining example for yourself and for others. So clinging to the Dhamma is also like trying to get into the nitty-gritty of everything and being like, no, this is wrong and this is right. You know, what they're saying is wrong and what they're saying is right, and this and that and the other, for the purposes of just holding on to a particular school of thought. Right, just letting go of all of that, so you go from wrong view to right view, then you go to the supramundane right view, which is the understanding of the four noble truths, and from that you let go of all views. And all that means is you let go of being irritated whenever somebody tries to criticize your particular viewpoint on something.

And we see this a lot now. It's a mental virus, it's a mind virus. This is something that a friend of mine and I talk about all the time, well, not all the time, but whenever it arises, that when we look at the world around us, and opinions and news and stuff like that, it's just creating all these different kinds of mental viruses. And the Buddha has said holding on to views, holding on to opinions, is the start of taking up the stone and the stick, which means what? It's the start of letting violence arise because I need to defend the way I think about things. We see this in politics.

We see this in religion, we see this in all kinds of scenarios. And it stems from the idea that I need to belong to something. It stems from conceit, again, seeking something that seems to be permanent and what is actually impermanent, that seems to be stable and what is actually unstable. So see for yourself, if you can come to that point where you completely let go of all views, all attachments, all ideas, even for the purposes of trying to learn something, what you have right now, if you just knew the Eightfold Path, if you just knew how to apply right effort, everything else will take care of itself.

So there's no need to try to acquire more and more knowledge because you have everything for yourself. You have everything you need for nibbana. The only thing that is getting in the way of you and nibbana is you yourself, your expectations of what that means. You're trying to grasp at more knowledge, you're trying to grasp at unnecessary information. This is also clinging to views, like the idea of, are there devas, are they not devas, are there planes of existence, are they not planes of existence? Do I have to do this in this particular way, or do I have to do that in this particular way? Use your intuition. This is another aspect of clinging to views, which is be your own island. That's what the Buddha was talking about.

Be an island onto yourself. Your intuition, which arises thanks to the quiet mind, thanks to a mind that is still. How do you know that it's intuition and not imagination, or not something that you want? Because the intuition will arise on its own. It's a lot, it's a strong voice that sets you in the right direction. It might not be the direction that you want to go, but it will set you in the right direction and it will show you the path. If you only trust it, you will start to see synchronicities, the more and more you trust it. And by doing this, you are letting go of the idea that there needs to be somebody outside to show you how to get to that process.

Yes, the voice of another, that is the suttas, that is the Buddha, that is the teachers of the Dhamma, guides of the Dhamma. They will say, okay, try that. Check it out. You need to walk the path. You need to check it out for yourself. And don't do it blindly. Do it in a way that allows you to take a step-by-step approach, where you see, does this work for you or no? It doesn't work for you.

What is it that works for you, go down that road. We cannot be in that sense total absolutists. There's, again, Star Wars are my favorite franchises. There's that famous scene with, for those of you who know Star Wars, in Episode Three, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan, right? I'm not spoiling for you guys, because if you guys haven't seen it at this point, then I feel sorry for you. But you have to watch that Episode Three. In there, before the final duel, Anakin has now turned to the dark side and he says, all he gives this crazy speech and all of that. And Obi-Wan, who was his mentor, says, only a Sith deals in absolutes. The funny thing about that statement is that in itself is an absolute, right? But what is he saying? He says that because you cling to certain views, you have an absolute set of how things have to be.

And when you have that, you have conflict with the rest of the world. Because there's three levels of conflict that you will experience. One is how I have to be, how I must be. The second is how people around me need to be. And the third is how the world should be. And if you let go of these three notions, neither do you bother anybody else. And if they bother you, you remain unbothered. And when you let go of that, you experience true peace of mind. And then through that peace of mind, you have intuition and it will guide you in the right direction. You are your own teacher. Your experience is your guide.

All you have to do is listen, be present, and see and recognize those synchronicities. The more you do this, the less you cling to views and the more you become an island onto yourself, and the more you become stabilized in that experience of the Dhamma. I'm going to stop here. I think we can share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck fearless. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. All right, I will see everyone next week. Thank you.