Day 9 2022 AN 10.3 -Transcendental Dependent Origination -with Delson Armstrong

So today we will be going over transcendental dependent origination. In some suttas, like Samyutta Nikaya 12.23, which is the Upanisha Sutta, that's not what we're going to do today, but in that sutta, it shows all of the 11 links related to or leading to awakening. Origination, the one that we've gone through so far, is the elaboration of the second noble truth. How suffering arises. What are the causes and conditions for suffering?

The transcendental dependent origination allows us to see the elaboration of the third noble truth. How does suffering cease, and how do we get there, to the cessation of suffering? Noble Truths. The sutta I'm reading today is from the Anguttara Nikaya, the Book of Tens, number 3. So, 10.3. Anguttara Nikaya, 10.3. It's called Virtuous Behavior. Now, in the Upanisha, it talks about 11 links.

Here, in this particular sutta, it talks about ten. It joins together a couple of those links into one link, and I'll explain how that is. Bhikkhus, for an immoral person, for one deficient in virtuous behavior, non-regret lacks its proximate cause. So here we're starting with what happens when you don't have these different links. The first link in transcendental dependent origination, it will not lead to the next link.

So here we're talking about an immoral person, somebody who does not follow the precepts. So here the first link is virtue, keeping your precepts, being virtuous, that is refraining from harming or killing beings, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from sexual misconduct, refraining from using false speech, gossip, slander, and so on, and of course refraining from intoxicants. So keeping the precepts results in non-regret. So non-regret is a mind that is rid of any kind of restlessness. If you keep your precepts for a long and continuous period of time, your mind becomes collected. Your mind becomes calm, naturally.

Which means you don't have regret. When you break a precept, what happens? The conscience in your mind says, I shouldn't have done that. And it agitates the mind. And now that agitation leads to restlessness and remorse and anxiety, worry, and so on. But if you keep your precepts, if you're not harming yourself, if you're not harming other beings, then there's nothing for you to be restless about.

You are content. You're free from any kind of non-virtuous behavior, from any kind of unethical behavior, any kind of immoral behavior. Because of that, your mind naturally lets go of that restlessness, naturally has non-regret. Now in the Upanisha Sutta, the 12.23 Samyutta Nikaya, there the first link is actually suffering, dukkha. Dukkha leads to faith. The reason being is everyone who came upon this path came upon it because of suffering. They've had enough of suffering.

So what happens? Suffering, you have dukkha. One of two things can happen. One is you find a way out of that suffering through all kinds of ways of distracting yourself from that suffering. Using intoxicants, watching movies, plays, all these other things. Trying to just distract your mind away from the suffering. Or two, you search a way out of the suffering. So you might go on YouTube and search for Bhante Vimalaramsi. You found the path. Now you know about meditation. You learn about meditation. You learn about dependent origination. So suffering is the beginning.

The suffering, if you have enough suffering, it will lead you to some samvega. Some samvega means a mind that wants out of that suffering. It's not aversion. It just realizes, wow, I've had enough of the suffering. And it's related to disenchantment. So it's called dismay. So now you have that dismay and you look for a way out of that suffering. You come across somebody who is talking about the Dhamma and now you listen to them. You lend your ears to them and you're listening to the Dhamma. Now you're bringing up faith.

So now that faith that you have results in your mind letting go of what it thought was the right way. You start to develop what is known as saddha in Pali. You start to develop a let's just see what happens kind of attitude. Let's try it. You're open to seeing what this whole process is about. And so from there that results into the next link which we'll talk about.

But in this case here it's saying when there is no non-regret, meaning when the mind has restlessness and remorse and anxiety. When the mind has that, because it's not keeping its precepts, joy lacks its proximate cause. So when there is no non-regret, for one deficient in non-regret, joy lacks its proximate cause. Here the joy is not referring to piti in Pali. It's referring to pamoja.

So pamoja is the joy of the Dhamma. Some of you might be listening to a Dhamma talk and you go into a meditative state or you start to experience a lot of joy that comes up from listening to the Dhamma. That joy is pamoja. When you see for yourself your mind is free of any kind of hindrances because you are keeping your precepts, is collected and calm and not restless, the natural resultant of that is the pamoja, the joy of the Dhamma. But if you don't keep your precepts and you have non-regret, then you don't have joy. And so for when there is no joy, for one deficient in joy, rapture lacks its proximate cause.

Is no joy, there is no rapture. Now that rapture is the piti that we're talking about. So now this piti that results from the joy of the Dhamma comes from the mind starting to become collected. It comes from the mind starting to see the mind is free of hindrances, secluded from unwholesome states of mind. Being secluded from unwholesome states of mind, you're also fairly secluded from the sense basis. Now your mind starts to become very collected, and then the joy arises. Now this joy also is a factor. It's an enlightenment factor. So what we're going to see is how the enlightenment factors interweave through these transcendental links of dependent origination. The first link, or the first factor rather, is mindfulness.

How do you become mindful? How do you gain your mindfulness? How do you gain full awareness? How do you gain clarity? You need a mind that is non-agitated. How do you get a mind that is non-agitated? You keep the precepts. When you keep the precepts, your mind becomes naturally more mindful. And, of course, the quick way of doing that is starting to realize, oh, there's hindrances present here. Then you use the 6R's. You regain your mindfulness.

Having done that, you have energy. Keeping the precepts actually takes energy, right? It takes effort. It takes effort for your mind to see that you have a choice, either to keep that precept or to break it. Now the right effort is to recognize your mind's inclinations, the wrong, unwholesome inclinations that lead down the wrong path, that lead to suffering, and you make the effort to let go of that and come to the right path, come to keeping that precept, leading to further clarity of mind, which leads to that pamoja, which leads to that joy, to that piti. We have investigation of states.

Dependent upon that investigation of states, we have effort or energy. Dependent upon that energy, there comes joy. So now what is that investigation of states? Investigation of states comes from the word dhamma vicaya. Dhamma vicaya means basically knowing what is present, what phenomena are present. So in other words, you're recognizing what phenomena is present in your mind.

If you're recognizing that there is an unwholesome state of mind, you're investigating to that extent that there is an unwholesome state of mind. That's all the investigation you need. You don't need to go into how did this happen, why did this happen, all of these other processes of reflection, contemplation, analysis. Just know, oh, mind is distracted. So the awareness of mind being distracted is one thing: mindfulness. And knowing that the mind is distracted, that's the investigation of states. Then releasing your attention from that is the effort that you bring up. So now you have mindfulness, then you have investigation of states, now you have energy, and that leads to joy, the piti, the rapture.

When there is no rapture, for one deficient in rapture, tranquility lacks its proximate cause. So what is tranquility? That is the relax step. So you relax your mind. Your mind naturally becomes tranquil. So when you keep your precepts, you're mindful of what is present and what is not present. You're investigating what is wholesome, what is not wholesome. You make the effort to let go of the unwholesome and come to the wholesome.

Experience the pamoja, have that joy that arises, and now your mind is tranquil. Your body is tranquil. So now, that is the next factor, the next enlightenment factor you require. The next awakening factor that you require. That is the tranquility factor, the relaxation. Now, as I said before, the seven enlightenment factors can be activated through using the six R's.

When you recognize that your mind is distracted, you bring up mindfulness. Knowing that your mind is distracted, you bring up investigation of states. Releasing your attention from that, you bring up the right effort, the right energy. Now, when you relax, you bring in the tranquility. When you re-smile, you bring up the joy, the piti. And then when you return back to your object, you bring up the collectedness. And the equanimity is present whenever you use the six R's, not becoming agitated, pulled in one direction or the other about what you need to do.

So when there is no tranquility, for one deficient in tranquility, pleasure lacks its proximate cause. Here the pleasure that we're talking about is the bodily pleasure. That is to say, when you experience the joy coming up, you experience sukha in tandem with that joy. Not the cat, remember. Although he does bring a lot of sukha to people.

That can be experienced in the body. You feel like your body is very comfortable, just the right temperature, everything's going well, everything is relaxed, and the mind also feels comfortable because the body is comfortable. So that's the sukha. That's the pleasure in the body. When there is no pleasure, for one deficient in pleasure, right collectedness lacks its proximate cause.

So now, where are we now? First, we kept the precepts. We were mindful of what is wholesome and what is unwholesome. We knew what is wholesome and what is unwholesome through the investigation of states. We made the effort to let go of that. So now we have the right energy. We have the pamoja, the joy of the Dhamma, the gladness that arises, and then the joy that arises from that. Now the mind is tranquil.

Now that the mind is tranquil, the mind can become happy, comfortable. The body becomes comfortable and happy. Now the mind is ripe for collectedness. Now you have the Ekagatha. So what is Ekagatha? Ekagatha is generally translated as one-pointedness. But that gives a connotation that your mind has to be super, super focused, like a laser. Ekagatha is really unification of the mind, which is the unified mindset.

In other words, what's the mindset? Like a mood, right? When you have a certain kind of mood, it's a collection of emotions that you have throughout the day. You are in a happy mood because you have predominantly happy emotions. You're in a lousy mood because you have predominantly sad or angry or irritated emotions. In the same way, the mindset is a collection of similar thought patterns.

When you have a mindset that is collected, your mind is filled with thoughts of gladness, thoughts of happiness, thoughts of tranquility, thoughts of loving kindness, thoughts of compassion, and so on. Because that feeling is so nice, and because those thoughts are themselves directed towards something that's so nice in terms of its pleasant experience, the mind naturally collects itself around that experience.

So this is a natural collectedness that arises, not something you have to construct. Once your mind is relaxed, then the collectedness comes to fruition. But if you're constructing that process, then you're going into that laser-focused one-pointedness. If your mind is letting go of hindrances, letting go of unwholesome states of mind, as the joy is relaxed, then it will naturally just orbit around the object, which is a beautiful experience.

The loving kindness is a beautiful experience. The compassion, the joy, the equanimity, the quiet mind. When the mind collects itself around that, it's orbiting it. The loving kindness is like a planet that orbits around that. When it comes out of orbit, and now it gets distracted by something, you use the 6R's to bring it back into orbit. And now you stay with the object of meditation. This is right collectedness that results from that tranquility.

When there is no right collectedness, for one deficient in right collectedness, the knowledge and vision of things as they really are lacks its proximate cause. The knowledge and vision of things as they really are. That's what it is in Pali. It's quite the mouthful. But basically, it's denoting equanimity. Equanimity is being able to see things as they are and not being affected by them, pulled in one direction or the other. Things as they are, plainly, now getting affected one way or the other, that is equanimity. So now we have the equanimity factor present. We started with the mindfulness, mindfulness of what is wholesome and unwholesome, letting go of or recognizing what is unwholesome and wholesome. So now you're investigating, letting go of that. So now you have the effort, the right effort, the energy that brings up the collectedness.

Now that collectedness leads to equanimity. So that equanimity is a Brahma Vihara, but it's also an enlightenment factor. That equanimity is a mindset. This is what is meant by when I say experience everything fully. Don't run away from it. Don't try to grasp onto it. Don't land on it. Just experience it fully. It's pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, but without the sense of I.

You're just looking at that experience. There is no experiencer there. There is just the experience. There is no one feeling it. There is just the feeling. There's no one perceiving it. There's just the perception. There's no one intending it. There is just the intention. There is no meditator. There is just the meditation. So from that standpoint, so to speak, there is equanimity. This is true equanimity. Not being bothered by anything because you're not taking anything personally.

When there is no knowledge and vision of things as they really are, for one deficient in the knowledge and vision of things as they really are, disenchantment and dispassion lack their proximate cause. So the disenchantment and dispassion are two things, but here in this sutta they've put it into one category. But they are unique from themselves. So the disenchantment, that's the mind that says, I've had enough of this. That's the mind that says, I'm tired of all of these formations that are coming up in the mind.

Becoming disengaged with those things. No longer interested in trying to figure out this or that. Many times when meditators are in the quiet mind, some kind of formation will come up and they'll say, I saw this brilliant white light. Or I saw this pathway leading to a past life. Or I saw this really interesting picture. I saw this really interesting shape. I saw all of these different things. Now the mind is enchanted by that. Now the mind wants to go and try to figure out what that thing is.

So it's interested in that. What has happened? The mind has become distracted from the object of meditation. So if you catch yourself, if you catch the mind starting to become interested in something else, this has happened a lot with meditators who suddenly will see a formation, and it leads to some kind of past life, and now they want to explore that. They go down that path and think about this and try to figure out what was I in a past life, what was I doing there, why did that happen, and so on. That's not meditation, that's just curiosity. You don't need that kind of curiosity, that's not going to be for your benefit. So the curiosity that arises, you need to let go of that. You need to balance that. You need to temper that with disenchantment. So another wonderful benefit of disenchantment is if you have walked this path before, now your mind becomes interested and now it remembers, it recognizes

oh, here are the stepping stones towards that experience again. And as soon as it becomes alerted by that stepping stone or those stepping stones, now there is no more equanimity. You see? Now the mind becomes too agitated by recognizing that stepping stone towards cessation. So what you have to do is come back and let go of that and redevelop, reignite, equanimity. Bring up some doses of equanimity. Let go.

Relax. Bring up the equanimity. Become collected. And then just keep watching without any kind of engagement with that process. Okay, cool. It's happening. So what? Once you have that kind of an attitude in your mind when it comes to the meditation, so what? It's no big deal. Disenchantment. Now, what about dispassion? Disenchantment naturally leads to dispassion. Dispassion is that mind that is in that bubble. It doesn't get affected by anything in the form of getting interested here or there. So, the disenchantment is the mind that is like a Teflon, kind of like everything kind of glides through it. But now, here, the mind becomes alone.

It's wrapped in this bubble, so it's sort of like just protected by that dispassion. It's not interested. It's detached. Completely detached from all formations. It sees the formations from afar, but it's just kind of noticing it, but not really engaging with it. It's like when you're eating your food at lunch, something comes to you trying to get some food.

And you're just aware he's there, but you're still eating your food. Not really paying attention to him. As soon as you pay attention to him, what happens? You get enamored by those puppy dog eyes and now you want to give him food. Now you're feeding him attention. Now you're no longer on your object of meditation. But you're aware, okay, Duke is there. It's fine. It's cool. It's alright. Eventually, Duke gets tired and realizes, okay, I can't win with this person. So he goes to the next person. The same with the formations. They just go away. Because you don't have the attention on those formations.

So now you have this dispassion. Now your mind is completely quiet. No vibrations. Everything is just very, very still. When there is no disenchantment and dispassion, for one deficient in disenchantment and dispassion, the knowledge and vision of liberation lacks its proximate cause. So again, they have packaged this into two. So what actually happens is, once you have that dispassion, eventually, because there are no more formations, there are no more mental formations arising, the mind ceases. Now there's cessation.

And then from that cessation, the mind is unconditioned, because you have let go of all conditions. As you're going through this process of jhanas, don't think of them as you climbing up somewhere. Think of it as you diving deep down into the mind. Think of it not as bringing up experiences, but as letting go of experiences. The jhanas are levels of cessation.

In the first jhana, what happens? You let go of the hindrances. The cessation of the hindrances leads to being in a jhanic state of mind. So that jhanic state of mind is now starting to get into the first jhana. Now you become collected around the loving kindness. You have the vitaka and vichara, the intentionalizing of the loving kindness.

You bring it up. You use a wholesome image. You use gratitude. You use a wholesome memory. You use wholesome phrases. Whatever works, and you feel the loving kindness. That's the vitaka and vichara, the thinking and examining thought. When you then have that feeling of loving kindness, you let go of the verbalizations. You let go of the wholesome image, the wholesome memory, the gratitude. Now you're staying with that feeling of loving kindness.

Or you bring up the spiritual friend, you stay with the spiritual friend. And then what ceases in the second jhana? The vitaka and vichara. Having let go of that, the vitaka and vichara cease in the second jhana. And you have more joy that comes up. You have more sukha that comes up, more comfort in the body and in the mind. In the third jhana, what ceases? The joy starts to taper off.

The piti starts to taper off. And now there's only the sukha. And there's the ekagata. The tranquility. The pleasant abiding, as the noble ones say. And then, as you get into the fourth jhana, what happens? Even the sukha ceases. And now your mind is just very calm. Very balanced. Deep equanimity. That's why you have what's known as the purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.

This is what's going on. You cycle through the enlightenment factors as you get through each of the jhanas. And then eventually you have the equanimity. And then that leads to further mindfulness, further collectedness, further deepening of equanimity. Ceases in because you have let go of the verbalizations, because you have let go of the wholesome image or the wholesome memory or whatever it might be, because you have let go of the intentionalizing. The verbal formations cease, because verbal formations are basically the thinking and examining thought, which allow you to think about something and then express that into words. That ceases.

When you get into the fourth jhana, now the feeling of loving kindness is up here in the head. You're starting to lose contact with the body. You might not even start to feel the body. The body feels either very heavy or feels very light. You will still have contact when, let's say, a fly lands on your skin or if you're meditating outside and there's a light breeze, you'll feel that.

But otherwise, you're not interested in the body. And for that reason, the bodily formations, cease. Now when you get into the fifth jhana, which is actually the ayatana of infinite space, it's not really a jhana because the four ayatanas, infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, neither perception or non-perception, they are part of the fourth jhana. The fourth jhana is the foundation and then you have the dimension or the base of infinite space.

When you're in the base of infinite space, what ceases is basically the perception of the equanimity, the perception of the other factors of the fourth jhana. Now you are aware of infinite space, but your object is loving kindness or compassion. Then when you get into infinite consciousness, the perception of infinite space ceases. And now you're seeing the arising and passing away of individual consciousnesses.

And then tied to that can be the joy. And then when you get into nothingness, the perception of infinite consciousness ceases. And then tied to that nothingness is the experience of equanimity. And then when you get into neither perception nor non-perception, the perception of nothingness ceases. And now you're in quiet mind. And now you're dealing with mental formations.

And they arise in the form of that light, in the form of words, in the form of pictures, in the form of shapes, in the form of all of these different kind of disconnected thoughts that just don't make any sense at all. So you're in that little dream-like lull. You don't have sloth and torpor. The mind is very attentive, but it just feels like it's going through this like star cloud of all of these different thoughts. This is neither perception nor non-perception.

And then eventually, once you develop that disenchantment, now you have equanimity, very strong in nothingness, and now you start to develop a disenchantment where all formations are just going through you. Or your attention is going through them, not exactly looking at them. And then the dispassion. And eventually, because all formations cease, ceases. So that's the cessation of mental formations.

With the cessation of mental formations, there is a cessation, obviously, of perception, feeling, and consciousness tied to it. Now because of that, you've let go of all formations. That's why Nibbana is also seen as this is tranquil, this is peaceful. Namely, the tranquilizing of all sankharas, the tranquilizing of all formations. The dispassion, the relinquishing, and so the release, the Nibbana. That's the unconditioned. You have deconditioned the mind of all things going through the jhanas. And then the mind makes contact with the unconditioned.

So when the mind comes back up online, the first spark that happens is contact. Phassa, with the Nibbana dhatu, that's the Nibbana element. So that experience of Nibbana is basically a mind that is completely unconditioned. Now, once we understand dependent origination, with the arising of contact there is the arising of feeling, which means the feeling that arises from contact with the Nibbana element is the feeling of joy and relief that you experience.

The feeling of equanimity that you experience, all of these other things. So then what happens? So you have made contact with the Nibbana element, and it feeds back into the pure formations that arise. Those pure formations have no craving in them. They have no conceit in them. They have no ignorance in them. They have no wrong views in them. Those formations you start to see in the form of dashes, or lines, or spaces, or flickering, whatever it might be. You might see them, you might not see them, it doesn't matter. But what's going on is the formations arise, the pure consciousness arises that gives rise to the pure feeling of that joy and that relief.

It's an otherworldly joy and relief that you experience. But then what happens is once you have the experience, once you have feeling, with the arising of feeling, there is the arising of craving. What craving arises? Great. How do I experience that again? I want that. I really like that. Now you identify with it. Which means, you know, some of the fetters have dropped, like the first three fetters. But now there's still the craving, still the aversion, because now you have clung to that feeling. How do I bring about that feeling again?

So now you practice to get to the next step. So what are you doing to get to the next step? Rinse and repeat. Go back to the first link of the transcendental dependent origination. Keeping the precepts. Developing the confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. Now it's there naturally. Making the right effort to let go of further unwholesome aspects of the mind. Experiencing the rapture, the joy of the Dhamma. Experiencing the rapture again. Experiencing the pleasure. Experiencing the tranquility, and the pleasure, and then the collectedness again. So rinse and repeat. Go through that whole process again.

Then it takes you again to further disenchantment, further dispassion. And that further leads you into the experience of cessation. Now, depending upon how you six are, how frequently you let go and recognize how frequently your mindfulness is sharp, it can bring about the next attainment, where you start to weaken the fetter of craving, weaken the fetter of hatred or aversion.

And so now you have the entry into Sakadagami. Now that you have that, what do you do? Go back again. Rinse and repeat the transcendental links of dependent origination. Now as you're doing that, it is also dependent upon how often you six are your mind in your daily life. So six R's is not only for the meditation cushion or the meditation chair. Six R's also used for daily life.

Noticing when craving comes up, recognizing when conceit comes up, recognizing when that self-image wants to grab onto something and letting that go. The more you do that, the easier it becomes for you to go into the next stage of the Anagami. So again, you go through that whole process, keeping the precepts, having non-regret, the joy of the Dhamma, having piti. From that piti comes the tranquility.

From that tranquility comes the sukha. From that sukha comes the collectedness. From that collectedness comes the equanimity, seeing things as they are. From that comes the disenchantment and the dispassion, and then again, cessation. So then you experience cessation. Mind becomes unconditioned. There is contact with the Nibbana element. But this time around, because you have continued to whittle away at that fetter, that weakened fetter of craving and aversion, sensual craving and aversion, next time you have the feeling of joy and relief, it will be very subdued.

You'll have more equanimity than joy. You'll have more clarity than joy. The joy won't always be as vibrant as you experienced it the first time around. And so now you have more equanimity. You have more clarity of mind. Now as you have that, your mind doesn't grasp onto that feeling of joy, that feeling of relief. Now because of that, there's no fuel for further craving, no fuel for further aversion to arise.

You've let go, and those two fetters of craving and aversion have dropped. So what's happening there? The mind makes contact with the Nibbana element. Then there is the feeling of the joy and the relief, or the feeling of equanimity. So the contact with the Nibbana element brings about pure formations, pure consciousness, and then the feeling, because it's not grasped onto, because there's no sensual craving, then the formations that arise are not fettered by that craving, are not fettered by that aversion.

But they're still fettered by ignorance. They're still fettered by conceit. Why? Because you're still taking it personally. Your mind is still saying, I have experienced it. Now there is pride in the Dhamma. Now there's conceit related to the Dhamma. And so now you have to let go of that conceit. So how do you do that? Do that same process again. Rinse and repeat. Continue to keep your precepts. Continue to have the faith and the confidence and conviction in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

That develops further joy of the Dhamma. Further piti. Further tranquility. Further sukha. Further collectedness. Further equanimity. Disenchantment, dispassion, and then cessation again. This time around when you have the experience of Nibbana, it will be very interesting because now your mind makes contact with the Nibbana element. Pure formations arise, pure consciousness arises, but there is no feeling. None of the underlying tendencies are present. And the mind just sees what it is. Because there's no more craving, it understands that the taint of sensual craving was already destroyed at Anagami. But because it sees it doesn't identify with anything, the taint of the bhava, the taint of the craving for existence goes away.

Then it sees that it is completely attentive, completely mindful, completely aware of what is going on here. The taint of ignorance gets destroyed because it understands and it sees for itself the Four Noble Truths in that moment. And so now the ignorance goes away. The conceit goes away because there's no more identifying with that process. It's no big deal.

So now when that conceit goes away, dependent upon that conceit, there is restlessness that arises. There is craving for rupa jhanas, craving for arupa jhanas. In other words, the conceit, when you destroy that, everything else just falls apart like a house of cards. Because when you have that sense of I am, when you have that sense of that self-image, restlessness arises. What is that restlessness? It's not necessarily just the anxiety. It's not necessarily just the remorse. It's not necessarily all of those things. It's just mind movement, just a general mind movement.

You know, when you sit down for meditation and there's still some stirring going on, the mind of the arahant, none of that is there. That's gone. The restlessness is gone because there's no conceit. And then the craving for existence, the craving for the existence in a rupa jhana or in a brahma loka goes away, dependent upon the conceit.

And then the craving for arupa lokas, that goes away. And of course, the ignorance goes away completely. Now, is it as clear-cut as I've laid it out for you? No, I'm simplifying the process. It can take time. This is a gradual process. This is a gradual training. And as you go through the processes of cessation, the fetters can start to weaken and they can drop one by one or two by two.

They can drop altogether sometimes. Of course, that's very rare for that to happen. It's a graduated process. And so these delineation points are the four attainments. That's the Sotapanna, the Sakadagami, the Anagami, and the Arahant. So this is the path leading to Nibbana. So interspersed, interwoven through this transcendental dependent origination is also the Eightfold Path. Because now you have the right view that this is the path leading to Nibbana. Now you understand, you have some understanding of the Four Noble Truths.

You've been introduced to them. And you're willing to try it, willing to see it for yourself. So now you have the mundane right view. And that leads to the right intention, which is the intention of letting go, the intention of contentment, the intention of loving kindness, the intention of compassion. And now because of that, you make it a point to keep the precepts. So you exercise right speech, you exercise right action, you exercise right livelihood, and you're making the right effort to do that. So you're exercising right effort using the 6R's. That gives rise to right mindfulness, which is interspersed through this process. That gives rise to right collectedness. So from right mindfulness to right collectedness, there are all of the enlightenment factors being present.

Investigation of states, the effort or energy, the joy, the tranquility, the collectedness, and then the equanimity. So as you go through right collectedness, you need right effort to stay there. So when you are in Samadhi, you need three of these. You need right effort, you need right mindfulness, and you need right collectedness. So in other words, it's not like, okay, now I've done right. Now I'm in right mindfulness. Now I'm in right mindfulness. Now I'm in right collectedness. No. It's a process.

These three are the instruments to stay in Samadhi: the right effort, right mindfulness, right collectedness. And the sila, the keeping of the precepts, that's dependent upon keeping right speech, right action, and right livelihood. And then that leads to the Samadhi, right effort, right mindfulness, right collectedness, and you continue exercising those as your mind gets more and more collected. And then once you have cessation, you have the insight, and now you have Panya. Now that Panya is the understanding of dependent origination, and that brings about the supermundane right view.

Once you have the supermundane right view, from seeing dependent origination, you enter the stream, and you close off any possibility of any kind of rebirth in any of the lower realms. So now, that right view, that supermundane right view, also has the right intention, or gives rise to the right intention, which is part of that Panya, because you have let go.

So this is the whole path. This is the practice you guys have been doing throughout the retreat. This is what you have been doing when I talk about these links of transcendental dependent origination. Cultivating the enlightenment factors. Bringing about or practicing and cultivating the Eightfold Path. And then going through this whole process and then rinsing and repeating. That's all you're doing.

And of course, in tandem with that, there are other aspects, like the 37 requisites of enlightenment, or let's say 37 requisites for enlightenment, rather, which are also interwoven in the Eightfold Path, which include the seven enlightenment factors, which include the four foundations of mindfulness, which include the four right efforts, and so on and so forth.

So you don't have to try to figure out what it is you're doing. If you're just doing it, allowing this process to unfold naturally, the fruits of that effort, which is the right insight, the samanyana, and the right liberation, the samavimuti. Now, it says here the knowledge and vision of liberation. So what happens is your mind becomes liberated, and it knows that it's liberated. Your mind enters the stream, it knows that something happened.

So when you come out of cessation, what happens? The formations come up in a certain order, in the reverse order that they ceased. So what ceased first? The verbal formations, then the bodily formations, then the mental formations. In this case, you experience first the arising of mental formations in the form of feeling, that joy and relief, body going all throughout your body, and then the verbal formation, which says, what was that, what just happened, wow, look at that. So that's how these formations arise in that order after you come out of cessation, and that results in the knowledge of the release of the mind, in the knowledge of the mind being liberated from certain fetters, and ultimately at the very end liberated from all the fetters and the taints.

Suppose there is a tree deficient in branches and foliage. Then its shoots do not grow to fullness. Also its bark, softwood, and heartwood do not grow to fullness. So too for an immoral person, one deficient in virtuous behavior, non-regret lacks its proximate cause. When there is no non-regret, for one deficient in non-regret, joy lacks its proximate cause. When there is no joy, for one deficient in joy, rapture lacks its proximate cause.

When there is no rapture, for one deficient in rapture, tranquility lacks its proximate cause. When there is no tranquility, deficient in tranquility, pleasure lacks its proximate cause. When there is no pleasure for one deficient in pleasure, right collectedness lacks its proximate cause. When there is no right collectedness for one deficient in right collectedness, the knowledge and vision of things as they really are lack its proximate cause.