Austria 2025 | Mechanics of Karma

Where the Eightfold Path, the Seven Enlightenment Factors and the Transcendental Links of Dependent Origination were all elaborations of the third and fourth Noble Truth, which is the cessation of craving which leads to the cessation of suffering, and the fourth noble truth which is the Eightfold Path. Now what we'll be exploring is the elaboration of the first and second noble truth, which is there is suffering, and these are the causes and conditions for suffering to arise.

So the twelfth link in the in the schema of dependent origination is dukkha. That's the Pali and Sanskrit dukkha. And dukkha actually it's interesting because dukkha also means to some extent something that is unstable. One of the ways the etymology translates to is it's like the axle of a horse cart that's just not exactly right and so there's an imbalance and so when we're riding the horse cart it's a little rickety you know it's not a smooth ride the modern equivalent of this is when you go to the the shopping center to the grocery store in this case in austria it's villa i guess i've been seeing villa everywhere so you take a cart and there's always that one wheel in the cart that's a little rickety so when you're pushing it it's like it makes a sound and it wobbles and it's just cumbersome this is dukkha right nothing is perfect there's nothing seamless not it's just there's always something there that's not exactly the best in terms of outcome or exactly how we expected things to be, or anything like that.

So this is dukkha. Dukkha is that instability. Anicca is instability. Dukkha is that suffering. They use the word suffering, but it's a very dramatic word. Leigh Brasington uses a nice word, which I like. Bummer. It's a bummer. Life has bummers. That's what it is. And there are three categories of dukkha, overarching categories of dukkha. There's what's known as dukkha dukkha, so that's dukkha original, right?

Then we have diet dukkha, no, we have viparinama dukkha, and then we have sankhara dukkha. So dukkha dukkha is all of the kind of suffering that we are aware of in our experience. For example, Aging and death, illness, pain in the body, different kinds of diseases, not getting what you want, depression, anxiety, mental anxieties and depression and grief, sorrow, lamentation. under the umbrella of dukkha dukkha and we all know what that feels like at one to one extent or another at some point in our lives we've all experienced what it means to be sick even if it's as minor as a cold or as drastic as cancer or getting hurt and getting injured in some way we all know what it feels like to age as i said we're starting to age right from the womb So we know what that feels like in terms of our body as well.

Maybe our immune systems are not as strong as they used to be, and therefore we have more illness. Maybe our eyes aren't able to see as good as they used to. Maybe we're starting to feel like we can't really hear everything, or things get warble, so we have to ask the person, can you say that again? Things are part of dukkha. We talk about sadness.

Sadness is part of dukkha. It's a mental painful experience. Grief, that's part of dukkha. The anxieties that we experience, the nervousness, when we have an anticipation for something, we have kind of anxieties about it. The depression can be, you know, something where we feel like the world just make sense anymore, what's the point of doing anything, and we feel lethargic, we feel like we don't want to do anything. And it's different from disenchantment. It's more of just this very bleak state of mind. And so the idealization is to escape all of this, is to get rid of all of this, is to be free of all of it. So long as we have a body, so long as we have the sense basis, so long as we have a mind, we will not be able to escape it, because these are what affect the body, they affect the mind, they affect the sense basis. And so what we have to do is to be

aware of dukkha, understand dukkha. That is the first noble truth. The whole basis of the first noble truth is to understand it, is there, to accept it, to acknowledge it, not to run away from it, not to put a band-aid over it, not to say, okay, well, I'm going to ignore that, I'm going to put it in a basket somewhere and I'm never going to open it and I'm going to just ignore it. No, that's pent up in our minds, in our hearts, and we're not able to experience that, and that can manifest in many different ways. This is the dukkha dukkha. The viparinama dukkha. Viparinama means the turning of things.

It's the unexpected things, the unintended consequences. The things that we want but we don't get. We have an expectation of things to be a certain way. The death of a close one, the death of a loved one, the death of a friend, of a family member. Unexpected, oh my God. Sometimes it's like, I was just talking to them last night, and then I hear the news in the morning that they're gone.

That's viparinama dukkha. The getting what you don't want also, right? So it's like a very mundane example. On a cold day like this, for me it's cold, coming from India, you go into the shower and you want hot water. So you turn the hot water on and you're enjoying it. You steam up. Like me, I just steam up the whole place, right? Just blazing hot water.

And I'm underneath it and I'm enjoying it. And then all of a sudden, it just becomes icy cold. It's like the pipes burst or something. That is viparinama dukkha. Unexpected things happen. Unexpected challenges and difficult situations happen. Then there is sankhara dukkha. Here when we say sankhara, it's an inherent dukkha. It's the dukkha of existence itself. It's caused by the identification with one or more of the five aggregates.

The clinging to one or more of the five aggregates, the desire to identify with something, the desire to belong, the desire to have security and stability. But we live in an existence that is unstable, and that is the bummer aspect of life. We can enjoy life, absolutely relish every moment, celebrate every moment, enjoy the hell out of everything.

Squeeze the last drops of every moment. That is what we are here to do, to fully experience it. But what gets in the way is when we have expectations of how that moment should be, and we have identification with that moment. I have said this time and time again: experience everything fully without the sense of I. And I realize when I say that, it is difficult to understand.

Or it can be difficult to understand. But really what I'm pointing at is the ability to have an experience without any expectation. The reason why there is the inherent dukkha is because, let's say we are enjoying the most wonderful experience of being with our loved ones, eating a bowl of ice cream and just watching the beautiful sunset. And it's just beautiful. Everything is perfect. We're with our loved ones. We feel comforted with them. We feel warm. We taste the sweetness of the ice cream. We see the sunset and we're just enjoying it.

But there's this sense of lack in the mind, where it's like, I don't want this to stop. I don't want to leave this. I want this to continue. And that desire for it to continue is the inherent dukkha, the sankhara dukkha. The identification with the experience is, this is pleasing to me. Okay, that's good enough. Wonderful. But I don't want it to stop.

I want it to continue. That gives rise to inherent dukkha. The ability to experience everything fully in every moment without the sense of I means that you are fluid. You flow with the experience. You fully relish the experience but you don't have any attachment to it. You don't have any identification. You don't desire to continue because you are so fully immersed in the experience that you're content with it.

You are fulfilled in it. And that is the training. How can we learn to be fulfilled? How can we learn to be fully engaged with the experience? It doesn't mean that we have to hold on to something. It doesn't mean we have to change anything. It just means when there is this desire of, I wish this would continue, or I want more of this, see that, acknowledge it's there, and just relax back into the moment.

Let the next moment take care of itself. Right now, right here, I'm enjoying it. And when this happens, there's no thought about the future. There's no relating to the past. It is so fully immersed in the moment that there is just the seeing, just the hearing, just the cognizing, just the sensing, just the experience. And is it possible for us to have this all the time? Potentially we can be in it most of the time. Something better, even in our meditation, we're enjoying the meditation but I could maybe I could just do this one thing, maybe I should just tweak this, and I'll get there. What is there that you're getting to? It's a conceptual idea that you're getting to.

So these are the different kinds of dukkha. And what the Buddha says, or what he's contemplated on, is that the cause and condition for this dukkha is what he calls rebirth or birth. And here we can contextualize it as the birth of action, of a specific kind of action, a specific kind of intention. If you were to look at dependent origination as a river that flows, and you understood that each link is a vortex, a whirlpool that strengthens the currents of the river and the flow, and that the bend towards the waterfall is the

process of becoming, which we'll get to shortly, then you can see the birth of action as having crossed that bend and going down the waterfall. And when you go down the waterfall, there's no way for you to come back up. There's no way for you to recover from that. It is all the way down. The same way, the mental intentions that we have, the words that we speak, that we take with intention, we cannot recall those.

The thoughts we may have, the active thoughts about someone we may have or a situation we have, it's there already. It's there in the mental imprint of the mind. The words that we speak, we cannot recall them. You have released the arrow. You have shot the gun. You can't call back the arrow, you can't call back the bullet.

The thing that we've done, the step that we've taken physically, we can't recall that. That's the birth of karmic action. Karmic in what sense? What is karma? Karma is intention. Karma is intention, which means that every intended action, Mistakes. I did not see that bug on the grass and I stepped on it. It was not my intention to harm that bug.

But it happened. But if I intend to crush that bug with my foot, now there's ill will. There's an intention to destroy the bug. There's an intention to harm. So paying attention to our choices. If our choices are conditioned by our previous patterning, then we will just repeat the same thing over and over again. And that is rebirth.

That is rebirth. Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. That is rebirth. One life is enough. Of these things, one life is enough to see how rebirth happens: how we cause ourselves the same kinds of pains because we continue to behave in the same ways, how we seem to attract the same kind of people in our lives that we're trying to escape from, similar kinds of relationships that we're trying to escape from, because we haven't healed, we haven't learned. We haven't let go.

That's the whole principle behind the Dharma, behind Buddhism, so to speak, is letting go of our expectations, letting go of our patterning. And thereby, the actions that are produced are rooted in the Eightfold Path. And the Eightfold Path, as the Buddha would describe it, is the way leading to the cessation of karma as well. Why? Because every aspect of the Eightfold Path is rooted in surrender and letting go.

First, right view allows us to understand action and consequence. Right intention is rooted in letting go, renunciation, letting go of our ill will, letting go of our desire to harm, to cause pain. Things that are unnecessary in our speech, harmful in our speech, untruthful in our speech, letting go of the actions that cause harm to ourselves and others, letting go and simplifying our life in a way that does not intentionally or directly cause harm to oneself or others.

Letting go in itself is the right effort, the surrender, the relaxation, the abandoning. Letting go. Surrendering to the moment, that's right mindfulness. Letting go and the mind collects itself, that is right collectedness. The action that is rooted in that, which means what? Practically speaking, actions without any expectation. Actions not stemming from a sense of self, not stemming from pride, not stemming from the desire to be accepted, not stemming from the desire for validation, not stemming from the desire to identify with something, not stemming from the desire to control how things should be. That's the birth of action. It has intention, of course, but the intention is not rooted in the desire to produce something, the desire to become something, the desire to hold on to something, or even the desire to push away something that is uncomfortable, because as long as there is that, there will be some kind of dukkha that will arise. This birth of action is rooted in, conditioned by, something known as bhava, which is translated as existence.

It's translated as becoming. And usually we translate it as habitual tendencies. There are three types of becoming that are categorized in the suttas. The sense realm becoming. The form existence becoming. And the formless existence becoming. mean by that? In a sense, when we talk about ourselves in the form of humans, what is it that makes us human?

For all intents and purposes, we are animals. We are social animals. We are mammals. We function in the way mammals do. So what separates us from animals? What separates us from fellow mammals? There's arguably many different things that people can say that separates us from that. The ability to discern and critically think about our actions separates us and possibly makes us human.

The ability to be aware of our actions, our actions is possibly what makes us human. Or maybe it's the ability to have a culture in such a way that we have certain standards and morals and ethics and structures to society. But that can be said about some animals also. Chimpanzees have their own religion. Chimpanzees have their own pecking order. There is a tribalism aspect to different kinds of animals, with wolves and tigers and lions.

Actually, tigers are solitary for the most part, but lions. So what is it that separates us from other animals, from other mammals, from other fish and birds and reptiles and so on and so forth? and perceive in certain ways? Is it our ability to help our fellow humans? Is it our ability to be generous and empathetic and compassionate and loving and kind? This is not an easy question to answer. But these are certain pointers that we can look at. And what is it? How do we define what humanity is? Discussing this and bringing this up is because there are certain concepts within the cultural milieu of Buddhism which talks about different varying psychological states, starting from the hell realms all the way up to what are the formless realms. Whether they exist or not is not a question we need to answer. But the typology of psychology that's there, the states, the mindset that are present, direct us towards a special kind of existence in our minds.

And the way that is defined within the context of, let's say, Buddhism, is that the hell realm is full of suffering. Hell is said to be unrelenting suffering, not a moment's peace. There are people who live like that in life. Agitated all the time. I need this, I need that. I can't live in a way that is, I can find any relief anywhere.

Even when I'm in relief, I, no, I need to look at something else. I need to look at my phone. I need to distract myself from my phone. I need all of these different things. And there might be even people who are more hateful and spiteful and seeking revenge and violence. and all of these things, and that is said to be a hellish kind of being.

There are these beings that are known as hungry ghosts. And the psychology of those hungry ghosts are said to be jealous, are said to be never satisfied. Ghosts in the Forbes list of billionaires. They're never satisfied. There's always more. There's something more I can do. The inability to feel content is a certain kind of existence in the mind.

Of course, when we talk about animals, the way we see it from our human perspective, or certain perspectives, is that the whole creation that we have in life is basically to make sure that we don't die. We survive, and that we continue our lineage, continue our genes, our DNA, reproduce, collect as much food as you can, have as much sex as you can, and make sure you don't die.

That's what animals do. And if a mind is oriented towards just that, that's said to be an animalistic kind of mindset. And again, there's no judgment in that. That's fine. If a person wants to be that way, then that's how they are. underlying tendencies that are there based on that, which is how that manifests in behavior that can lead to one's own detriment and the detriment of others.

So if you think about the Dhamma, it is not an isolated experience. No matter how much we talk about renunciation, there is actually a kind of social order in the Dhamma, a kind of sense of, to be beneficial to myself and to others. It's like a fabric that connects all of us. So no matter how much we say we want to go into the forest and we want to retreat and we want to meditate and all of these things, you still have to come back to society and you still have to interact with people and other beings.

So that's where we're talking about becoming, the behavioral patterns that drive our actions that can lead to suffering. Then on the flip side of that, there are what are known as devas, different levels of devas. Devas are deities or beings that are supposedly superior to humans and they have all kinds of things that are available to them in the different heavens and all of that stuff, but set aside all that.

It is understood that the devas have a certain kind of very natural generosity, a natural way of living that is rooted in compassion, rooted in loving kindness, rooted in generosity, rooted in forgiveness. of existence where when you are imbued with loving kindness, when you are imbued with compassion, when you're imbued with joy, when you're imbued with generosity, when you help your fellow individuals, when you think well of other people, when you have empathetic joy towards others, when there's a lack of jealousy, this is a more elevated state of mind, and it doesn't come natural to humans.

It doesn't. You think about little kids. We have to teach them how to share. They're very territorial about their toys. They throw tantrums. And that's how they become conditioned. If I throw a tantrum and my mom gives me this thing, then I know I just have to do that. So there's no sense of understanding of delayed gratification.

Babies are jerks. They're so cute and so wonderful in how they seem. But in terms of their behavior, they don't know anything better than, this is me, this is mine. Do not touch my toy. And so humans develop from that. And parents and elders, and teachers show that in order for us to live in the social order, we need to be more compassionate and more understanding and more caring and more sharing and more generous.

And this is a more elevated kind of living. And this is understood as being associated with devas. And then there's what's known as form existence and formless existence. Form existence is essentially having a meditative state of mind rooted in one of the four form jhanas. And so it can happen that we become addicted to meditative states. We become identified with meditative states.

We become identified with the joy of the first jhana, the equanimity of the fourth jhana, the contentment or tranquility of the third jhana, and so on. We create an identity around it. I am a great meditator. I can get to the fourth jhana. I can get here and I can do this and so on and so forth.

And there's a desire to become that. That's the craving for existence, a certain state of existence. Or on the other side of that is the formless jhanas, the spaciousness, consciousness, the nothingness, the neither perception or non-perception, all of these things. There's a desire to stay in that. I want more of that. This is great. I don't want it to change.

And I identify with that. We do everything we can to replicate the best meditation that we've had. Yesterday was a great sit. Sit in the chair. What time of the day was it? What did I eat? What did I drink? Did I go to the bathroom before or after? And so we decide to do all of these causes and conditions that seemingly are in our control, but there are others that are not in our control. So how can we say that every sit is going to be the same? How can we say we can always go into this particular jhana, in this particular state, and I want to stay there for as long as I can.

Yes, of course, there is a certain level of mastery that happens as you progress on the path. But what's the big deal? So what? So what? It just gives you bragging rights. I can go from the first jhana to the seventh, and I can jump from the seventh to the fifth. I can do this and this and this, and what? It's just another form of pride. What's the big deal? be and these are the things to look out for when the mind has these kinds of desires, these kinds of craving. This is the becoming we're talking about, the habitual tendencies. And beyond that, there are... it's like a library of reactions that are there in our mind that are associated with a situation or a person or an experience, and we almost automatically

choose a certain way of behaving from that library. And that library is being. That library is bhava. That library is the library of habitual tendencies from which we act. And when we act from that, it causes dukkha one way or the other. This becoming is dependent on what's known as upadana, which is translated as clinging. And this clinging is the way in which we rationalize why we like something, why we don't like something, and why we identify with something.

So if craving was, let's say, in our mind, craving was, I like this thing, or I don't like this thing, or I am this thing, clinging is because of so-and-so-and-so. It's the rationale behind why it is we crave something, aversion towards something. And then aside from that, or along with that, it's the associations that we have in our mind with regards to certain situations, certain people, certain ideas, certain views, certain experiences.

So trauma, for example. Trauma informs our decisions many times. We can look at people and we have a bias towards them because they remind us of similar kinds of people that betrayed us in the past or did us dirty in some way. And that's the clinging, the association that happens. There are these four subcategories of clinging. Clinging to sensual pleasures.

Clinging to rites and rituals, clinging to views, and clinging to self-view. The clinging to sensual pleasures is essentially the rationale behind why it is that you like something. And this is where marketing geniuses really prosper, because they understand what it is that makes us tick as humans. At the very, very core, we are seeking security. We're seeking stability, and that comes in the form of validation, that comes in the form of status, that comes in the form of recognition, that comes in the form of power, that comes in the form of money, that comes in the form of whatever it is, acceptance. And so you see a wonderful ad for a BMW, and you see the successful person driving a BMW through the valley and beautiful hills, some bold slogan that says, this is it, this is what life is about.

Right? And what happens? I want that BMW. And because we associate that with success, we associate that with validation, we associate that with acceptance. Kids especially, the way they market toys and cereals and chocolate and candy and all these things. I remember as a kid when I was in the U.S. watching TV, it should be so colorful and bright, and the kids were so happy and they were like, yeah, this is amazing. Look at the Super Soaker, and let's go have fun and let's do this. And the kids are like, oh, this is great. This is what it means to have life, to enjoy life.

And so we go to our mom and dad and we say, I want that for Christmas. We go to a toy store and it's all colorful. These are the clinging to sensual pleasures, the associations that we have. We associate comfort with certain kinds of material, comfort with certain kinds of scents, comfort with certain kinds of foods, comfort foods, the food that our mothers would make us.

And so this process of clinging to that in this way, the association in itself, that needs to be seen as bad. Look, we're not trying to say anything is good or bad. We're just showing for ourselves how it leads to certain kinds of behavior. How it leads to certain kinds of things that we may not want in our lives.

We all prefer certain things in our lives and that's fine. That's okay. But how does it drive our behaviors unconsciously? Can we be aware of that? Can we be more mindful of the choices that we're making, the rationale behind why we make certain choices, instead of being unconscious? Instead of just going with whatever it is, getting caught up in the stream of colors and form, a stream of beautiful music. Again, when we say we want to enjoy everything fully, we are there with it, present, but the desire to repeat that again, the desire to prolong that, the desire to associate good feelings with that and want to repeat that again, that's part of the clinging. Can you just be in that, and when it ends, it ends?

This is the training. You know, in the mornings we hear about the reflections. I am subject to illness. I am subject to death. My loved ones will depart from me one day, separate from me. I am an inheritor of my karma, and all of these things. This is a very stoic way of doing things. You start off and realize, yeah, one day I will die. One day I will be sick. One day my loved ones will separate from me.

But it's not meant to be bleak. It's not meant to be dark. It's meant to make us realize all we have now is now. All we have here is this moment. So when they're gone, they're gone. When I die, I die. But until then, can I appreciate, can I relish, can I be, can I celebrate with the people that are still in my life?

Can I learn to forgive? Knowing well that one day this relationship will end one way or the other, whether it's by death or separation. So being able to see that and put some perspective on things is the utilization of wisdom. When we say, or when the suttas say, he sees, or they see with proper wisdom, thus: this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself.

It's not a mantra that you need to chant. This is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. It's the realization that I don't own anything in this life. But I'm here to enjoy it. I'm here to experience whatever it is. of the good things in my life, nor the bad things in my life. I am entering the stream in the way that I'm entering it, but I do not get caught up in the whirlpools.

So the clinging to sensual pleasures is the rationale of why we like certain things and why we hold on to those things in terms of sensual experience. Rituals. This, along with a couple of other kinds of clinging, is the reason why we have wars in the first place, but I'll get to that later. First, when we talk about specifically clinging to rites and rituals, what does it mean? It means that we cling to certain ideas, that if I just do this, I'll get this right. Clinging to things should be a certain way.

Clinging to a certain kind of routine. Being obsessed about, oh, I forgot to take the precepts this morning. Things aren't going to be great now. Obsessed with, if I don't have my morning coffee, then this won't happen. And then the day is going to be ruined. Things like, I have to wear my lucky socks on Tuesday. These kinds of little things, you know, these kinds of clinging to rites and rituals. It's a funny thing, yeah. It's definitely laughable. But it's also very curious to see how humans behave in that way.

Why does that clinging arise? For what reason? Again, it's security. It's comfort. It's stability. Consistency. And I rationalize and I say, oh, when I do this, I'm a great meditator. And when I do this, the day goes great. When I do this, everything happens wonderfully. Until it doesn't. And you are faced with the realization that I'm clinging to something that I have created in my mind, that means that this is what it will result in.

Our training, in that sense, is to recognize that. And little by little, let go of all of the attitudes, ideas, and things that we have thought is the Dhamma, is the thing, is this, is that. The attachment to concepts, the attachment to, okay, this is what it means to be this. This is what it means to have broken down this fetter. This is what it means to do this.

Let go of all of that. Then the question arises, then why are we practicing? Isn't it about, isn't it about, I have to be this particular special person, and I have to have these special traits? Isn't it about that? Isn't it about being enlightened and awakened? What will you get when you're awakened? What will you get when you are enlightened? It's a concept. It's this idea that once I'm awakened, that's it, everything will be perfect. I won't experience any suffering anymore. I'll never get sick. I'll never age. I'll never decay. I'll never experience all of this, these things.

Awakening is nothing more than a glorified sense of the afterlife. That's it. So clinging to rites and rituals is also about clinging to ideas about things that you learn and holding on to those ideas. Clinging to views. That's the one I'm talking about that causes wars. The reason why we have war in the first place is because it goes from I'm right and you're wrong, and I'm going to do everything to show you how wrong you are, and I'm going to convert you to my rightness.

And that leads to war. That leads to conflict. My opinions. You have your opinions and those are your opinions. Okay, cool. Can we engage in healthy dialogue? I don't know. It seems like humans can't. Because we become so attached to our views. We become so attached to the worldview that this is the only way. This is the way that things should be.

And then we look down on the people that don't cater to our views or don't subscribe to our views. Oh, those people don't know the Dhamma. They're worldlings. I feel so sorry for them. Oh, those people don't know how to meditate. Let's see if we can get them on a retreat. This idea of holding on to a certain kind of view creates a certain kind of conceit, a certain kind of pride in the mind. We are superior in some way to the others.

And that can intensify to the point where it's a battle of the wits. It's a battle of the wills. It can cause actual war and desolation and genocide and the destruction of life. So, traditionally speaking, it talks about clinging to certain kinds of views that are opposed to the Dhamma. And there are different kinds of views, like the view of materialism, that it's just this, and it's just the senses, and we're here to just eat, drink, and be merry.

And the Buddha says, no, no, there's more beyond that. experience joy internally, that is from meditation. Or there's the view that if I only do these ascetic practices, then I will burn off my karma. Before this retreat, this reminds me, we had a tour of parts of the crypt in Vienna, which was the crypt for the Habsburg. The tour guide was mentioning, she said, it was fashionable for some of them to have these little whips, because at that time we had something called self-flagellation. And the idea is, when I do this, I am repenting.

And who knows if they actually did it, but it was a way of showing that, yes, this is the kind of person I am. So those kinds of ascetic practices where, oh, if I fast on these days, then I will be favored. My meditation will go great. If I do this particular thing, if I give up this, I'll give up meat for 40 days.

Why? For what? To do what? So these kind of practices, the Buddha said, they're not going to take you anywhere. They're just causing yourself unnecessary suffering. You're trying to get out of suffering by causing self-suffering? Does it make sense? So then there are different kinds of views which are related to nihilism and fatalism. Nothing matters. There's no meaning in giving. There's no meaning in doing anything. It's all just predetermined.

Things just happen. It's all random. But if we see for ourselves, there is a certain kind of logic. There is a certain kind of causality and conditionality. This is what the Buddha points out. He says that is a view that's opposed to the Dhamma. So there are many different kinds of views like this. And then finally he says clinging to the Dhamma itself.

Clinging to the way things should be according to the Dhamma. And clinging to the Dhamma itself. Using the Dhamma as a weapon. Using the Dhamma as a shield. It's so interesting. In my experience of having traveled in this world of the Dhamma as a teacher and as a practitioner, it's amazing to see how the clinging to Dhamma results in, oh, that particular kind of meditation, that doesn't lead you to where it should be. This particular meditation that we do leads you there.

People's faces when you talk about that particular meditation. No, no, no, don't do that, what we have is the true Dhamma. And I cringe when I see that. So that's a kind of clinging to the Dhamma that we want to let go of. Everything can be Dhamma. We can learn from anything and everything if it allows us to see for ourselves where our blind spots are. If it allows us to actually let go of suffering, let go of craving, in that moment you do what works for you, as long as it's not causing you harm or another person harm. And then there's something called clinging to self view. Clinging to self view is traditionally understood as identifying with one or more of the five aggregates as belonging to self, as self, as separate from self, or as self in one of those aggregates.

So this is how the number comes up as 20 different types of self-view: the five aggregates multiplied by the four types of view. But to simplify it, it just means whenever I hold on to something as me, mine, or myself, I'm clinging to it. If I can just be in the experience and allow things to flow, that's different from me wanting to control how things should be. And that is the way we identify with the aggregates.

I don't like the way I look. I don't like the way that I walk. I don't like the way I'm gaining weight. I'm losing hair. My hair is graying. Whatever it is, that's identification with form. I don't like this particular experience in this particular moment. That's identification with form. Or I enjoy this particular experience so much so that I don't want it to stop. This concept I have of, for example, the perceptions, the perception of the Dhamma in this specific way, if there is anything that is threatening that perception, then I'm identifying with that perception. But if I'm open to all perceptions and seeing how things are happening.

So we may say that this is a bowl, but somebody else says this is something else, but no, we say no, that is a bowl. I've identified with the idea that that is a bowl, but somebody else can say, no, but that's actually made up of many different kinds of atoms. It depends on your perception, your perspective. The choices that we make, the intentions that we have, we feel proud of certain intentions and we feel ashamed of other kinds of intentions. But intentions are just intentions.

Easier said than done, because we feel like we are the owners of our intentions. We feel like we are the doer. But if we start to use and engage these aggregates in a way where we start to see them as flowing processes of experience, then we don't see any self in that process, and we disengage from that. Likewise, when we talk about consciousness, we see it as consciousness as self, or self in consciousness, or there's a self separate to consciousness, or so many different ways. But consciousness in itself is just attention, the movement of attention.

And if we identify with that, that's a kind of clinging. So the ability to disengage from that and just see everything as a series of flowing experiences in every given moment is the function of the awakened mind. This clinging is dependent on something known as craving, tanha. Tanha, or trishna, which translates to thirst. There's an obsessive quality to something.

So when we say the different types of craving, there is craving in terms of I like this and I don't like this and I identify with this. There's the craving for sensual pleasures. There's the craving for existence, non-existence. So if we break that down, what we're saying is craving is the obsessive quality of the mind to possess something, to repel something, or to identify with something. So in the case of craving for sensual pleasures, I have to use this analogy: how can I not chocolate cake.

Everybody at this point knows I love chocolate cake. So I look at the menu in the elevator and I see, ah, there's special chocolate cake for dessert being made tomorrow. And I look forward to that chocolate cake. In fact, in my sleep, I dream of eating that chocolate cake, and I'm in the shower thinking about chocolate cake. I'm like, I'm going to have that chocolate cake. It's going to be wonderful. It's going to be amazing. I can almost taste the chocolate cake.

And then breakfast time comes, and I'm just trying to get a scent. Is there chocolate cake being baked for lunch? I'm eating my breakfast, but I'm thinking about chocolate cake. I'm craving for that chocolate cake. And then lunchtime comes, and I go and I have soup and I have salad and I have everything else, but in the corner of my eye as I walk towards the dining hall, I look at chocolate cake at the buffet. Yes, I'm going to keep one piece for myself. Mentally I've already decided this is the piece I'm going to have, so I hurriedly eat my soup, my salad, my entree, everything, and I go back, and what happens?

You guys have all eaten the chocolate cakes. There's not one piece left. So what has happened there? The obsession around something. I need this. I want this. That's the craving. It motivates everything that we do. Or on the other side of that, it's the repulsion towards something. I don't like this kind of person. I don't like this kind of situation. I don't like whatever it is, and we get repulsed by it. But in both cases, they are underlined by the craving of identification, desire to own something, desire from where we act, the sense of self that we act from, the ego.

So the craving for existence is the craving for a certain kind of state. This happens generally in meditation: a certain kind of jhana craving, that today I will be in a meditation which is free of distractions, and then I'm met with so many distractions. Today I will be walking in silent witness mode, but I get caught up by the birds and the trees and all of these things, and I'm like, oh, what happened? So there is an agenda, there is an inclination, there is an expectation, there's a desire to control. This is the craving for existence.

Likewise, craving for non-existence. I don't like being in this situation or in this state of mind, and I'm doing everything I can to escape from that. And all of these different kinds of craving arise because of one thing. There is a lack of fulfillment. And underneath that, there's a lack of contentment. And underneath that, there's a lack of full and total clarity and immersion in the moment as it's arising.