Bonhays UK Day 4- Retreat- Jhanas Pt 2

Today we'll continue our discussion on jhanas. Yesterday we talked about the first four jhanas and how jhanas basically mean levels of understanding or levels of cessation, and how different coarser things cease as you get higher into the jhanas. To recap, in the first jhana what ceases are the hindrances. You let go of the hindrances, you feel piti, you feel a relief, and then your mind is quite secluded, feels joy, feels comfort, and has vitakka and vicara in the form of bringing up an object of meditation. In the second jhana, what ceases is the vitakka and vicara, the thinking and examining thought, the intentionalizing of bringing up an object. That goes away. In the third jhana, the joy, that is the piti, fades away.

And in the fourth jhana, there is a balance of mind. So the sukha ceases, that is the comfort. And now what is left is purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. So we talked about how, as you progress through the jhanas, you're cycling through the enlightenment factors, and you're strengthening them bit by bit as your mind gets more and more collected. As your ekaggata develops, what is ekaggata? It is not one-pointedness. Ekaggata means that the mind is unified, the attention is non-dispersed, the attention is collected around a singular object. One of the analogies I gave to someone here for one of the interviews was: you think about your mind being open and aware.

It's the same as when you would look up in the night sky and see all these beautiful, wondrous stars, and you take in the epic glory of all of that. But then you look at one particular constellation. So in other words, your attention goes from here to here, to a particular constellation. But you're still taking in everything. That's the way meditation is: your mind is open, your mind is aware, but it's using loving kindness or any kind of object as its central point. The mind revolves around it, orbits it, stays plugged in to it. Now, in the second jhana, what's understood is that your verbalizing goes away. So, what is known as verbal formations.

Verbal formations are sankharas. Sankharas mean to cook up. It cooks up something. So these sankharas are informing your intention to do something. And they are dependent on previous intentions that you've done. That's why when you're met with certain choices, your mind will gravitate to a certain choice, a specific choice, because it is inclined towards that choice through habit. And the more you choose that particular choice, the more the mind almost automatically inclines to that choice. That process is facilitated through sankharas or formations. So the verbalizing, which is allowing you to think about something, reflect on something, and express in speech, ceases in the second jhana. The bodily formations, these are formations related with inhalation and exhalation. It is understood that they cease at the fourth jhana. Does that mean you stop breathing in the fourth jhana? Some people would believe so. But that's not true, that's not the case, it's not practical. What happens is that the bodily formations start to subside. They start to calm down, they start to still, and your breath becomes

imperceptible. It becomes so soft. This is what I would call the tranquil breath. I'm borrowing this from kriya yoga, because it's actually very pertinent to this process. Your breath becomes shallow, but it doesn't become energized. It's just very soft, gentle breathing. But along with that, there are other processes involved with bodily formations. That includes walking, that includes sitting, that includes standing, everything that you do in terms of your body. This is all facilitated through the process of bodily formations. Obviously, when you sit down, they start to calm down. And then when you get into the fourth jhana, you stop feeling your body. Your body becomes very stationary, very still, and it's like everything is around here in the head, in this region, and things feel more expansive.

And this is because the contact that arises will still be there, but there won't be so much attention being given to the body. As a result of this, what arises are the ayatanas. Ayatana means dimension, sphere or place. There are four ayatanas which are part of the fourth jhana. These four ayatanas are called infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. So today we will talk about these four, along with what cessation is.

So what does infinite space mean when you get to the fourth jhana? I will change your meditation. I will give you further instructions. I will say that now it is time for you to break down the barriers. So what I'll give you is: you select other people in your life, different categories of people, other spiritual friends, family members, neutral people, difficult people, and you send them loving kindness. That breaks down the barriers. It makes the loving kindness more refined and more spacious. Once you do that, then I'll give you the instructions for the six directions. What are the six directions? Forward, behind you, right, left, below you, above you.

It doesn't matter what order you want to use, but you would take one direction and you would what is known as radiate, or pervade, one direction with loving kindness, so that all beings that are in that field, in that direction, are receptive, or receiving, that loving kindness. And you do this five minutes each direction. So already you're sitting for 30 minutes. Now, a lot of people might have challenges with the word radiate. What the hell does radiate mean? That's what they'll ask. Radiate essentially means that you pervade the entire space with your energy of loving-kindness. It doesn't necessarily mean that you need to push it. It just means that you open up the floodgates in that particular direction and you allow that feeling to go.

You can gently push it, you can gently nudge it along, and understand that it's there in that particular direction. You do that in each direction, and then in all directions at the same time. Now some people might have challenges with this as well. So instead of making it three-dimensional, make it two-dimensional. What do I mean by that? Three-dimensionally, we're saying that we are in a sphere or a bubble of loving-kindness that continues to expand in all directions and starts to encompass everything around you, encompasses this room, encompasses this building, encompasses this entire center, and so on and so forth, as much as you can do so. But two-dimensional means sometimes you have difficulty with understanding how to radiate in all directions at the same time.

So you can imagine a ring of loving-kindness, just a small ring around you that continues to expand sideways in all directions. That way you're not too bothered about how big the ball is or how big the ring is. It's just in all directions. When you do this, you start to experience what's known as infinite space. And the feeling of loving kindness starts to change automatically, naturally. It goes into what's known as compassion. So infinite space is a feeling of spaciousness where the border between what is internal and external starts to become diminished and ultimately no longer perceptible. It's just all space. There's a feeling of expansion. There's a feeling of spaciousness. And so I had referenced the sutta yesterday, which is called the Metta Sahagata Sutta.

And in that sutta, the Buddha says that the limits of loving kindness are up until the fourth jhana. The limits of compassion are up until the fifth jhana, or infinite space. So what does compassion feel like? Qualitatively, when you are in the meditation, compassion is softer, less vibrant. It's like cotton candy, very wispy. And sometimes there's a color to it. Some people see a certain kind of color and denote it by that. But the feeling of compassion is much softer, much more relaxed, much more diffused. Now, what does compassion mean in the practical world? What does it mean to abide in compassion? When the Buddha used to start his morning meditation practice, yes, even the Buddha still continued to meditate. Would you believe it?

But why? He said there were two reasons why he meditated. One is because it's a pleasant abiding. You're walking all day long. You're going from one city to the next city. You want to take some rest. You might take a nap, or you might sit down to energize with meditation, give some rest to your body and to your energy. And second, out of compassion, to inspire future generations. In other words, the Buddha keeps talking about meditation, but I never see him meditate, right? So he's setting an example, so that people also sit down for meditation. So when he would get up, now this is the schedule that he had, his morning routine, which is in the commentaries. The routine is he would get up in the morning, he would freshen up, do his morning walk, and then come back and sit down for practice.

And he would abide in what is known as Maha Karuna Samapati. Maha means great, karuna means compassion, and samapati means the attainment, so the attainment of great compassion. And what he would do is he would send compassion in all directions. He would pervade the entire sphere, the entire globe, with his compassion. And with his eye, his third eye, he would look around and see: was there anyone who required assistance? Was there anyone whose mind was ripe to understand the Dhamma? So you would see in the suttas that sometimes the Buddha would be doing this. He'd be abiding in compassion, and he would see that this particular individual is ripe for the Dhamma. So now he knows his schedule for the day.

He's going to go walk to that city, go meet that person, and somehow explain the Dhamma to them. So he would do this for two, three hours, just sitting in compassion. I'll tell you, sitting in compassion for that long is a wonderful replacement for caffeine. You don't need to drink coffee, because compassion actually builds up and activates what's known as the gamma brain waves. The gamma brain waves are associated with how the mind interprets information. It's what's known as the binding principle of the brain. So all parts of the brain work together, and there is a certain level of energy that you feel. So you can try it in your own time and see if you can abide in

Compassion. So this compassion, how is it applied in daily life? Compassion can be understood as empathy, recognizing the suffering of others the same way you may have suffering, and wanting to help them come out of that suffering. Now there's a difference between that and sympathy. Sympathy means you look down on that person and say, "Oh, poor, poor them." But compassion is understood as an antidote for cruelty. This is how it's translated in the suttas. So loving kindness is understood as an antidote for ill will. What is ill will? Well, irritation, frustration, anger, hatred, the desire to harm someone, and so on and so forth. But what is cruelty? How would you define cruelty?

It is this: knowing that another person is suffering and adding to their suffering. Many times when you get into an argument, many times when you get into a debate or you get into a situation where the other person is upset with you, what is the usual reaction? The usual reaction is we flare up and we say, "How could they say that?" and then we think about another thing to say to them. What are we doing? We're unable to recognize that they're suffering. That is why they are behaving the way they're behaving, out of ignorance, out of whatever it might be, out of sadness, out of being deeply hurt, whatever it might be.

And so we get hurt and we recognize that hurt, but why are we not able to recognize the hurt in the other individual? So all that takes is a certain pause before you react and instead respond with compassion and wisdom. So instead of immediately reacting and saying, "How can you say that?" then starting, you know, an eye for an eye kind of thing, if you pause even for a couple of seconds before you respond, what happens is your wisdom arises. You give enough time for the prefrontal cortex in your brain to say, okay, I shouldn't react in a way that causes further aggravation, escalates the situation. Let me try to calm this person down. So you do that, and through the wisdom that you have and the compassion in recognizing the other person suffering, you try to calm them down.

You don't come from the ego. You don't come from identifying with what it is that they said. You come from wisdom that this person is suffering. So compassion is also showing a person the way that might help them out of their suffering. But you cannot take on their suffering. You can't take their suffering away from them. You can point the way and say, this is the way out of suffering.

There is a sutta in a book called the Majjhima Nikaya where there's a layperson who approaches the Buddha and he says, you know, I've heard a lot about you. I've heard a lot about your Dhamma, I've heard a lot about your teachings, but I've also seen there are those who listen to you, right, and they don't attain nibbana, and there are those who listen to you and they do attain nibbana. Why is that? And so then the Buddha says, okay, let me give you an analogy. Let's say there are two people that want to go to a certain place. This place is called Rajagaha, it's a place in India. The first person goes and asks the individual, somebody, what is the way to Rajagaha? And the guy says, take a left here, when you see that make a right, and all of that. And he says, okay, thank you very much. Second guy goes to him and says the same thing: how do I get to Rajagaha? He gives him the same instructions.

The first guy gets lost, doesn't end up in Rajagaha, but the second guy, listening very carefully, ends up in Rajagaha. Right? So then the Buddha says, why is that? And the layperson says, obviously it's because he was listening. The second guy was listening and got to Rajagaha; the other guy didn't follow instructions. So the Buddha says, in the same way, those who listen to what I say but actually follow the instructions attain nibbana, while those who are unable to follow the instructions

don't. So I can only point the way out for you, but you must walk the path. You must actually follow the instructions and do it for yourself. In the same way with anything where anybody is suffering, you can show them the way out. You can say everything you can. You can even guide them, but they themselves must take the initiative to want to come out of the suffering and take action to go from suffering to happiness, or the cessation of suffering. So compassion is not about taking on the suffering of others. Compassion is about being there with a person suffering and helping them out, but making sure that they take the steps, otherwise it is a fruitless effort for that person.

Think about it for your own self, right? If you experience nibbana all of a sudden, if somebody could snap their fingers and say, now you can experience nibbana, what's the purpose of that? What's the point? Because the insights that arise will not give you the clarity of mind. It's just another state to be in. But because you made the effort, because you saw in your own mind, this is the way, this is not the way that I should go, in this direction and not in this direction, because you have walked the path yourself, you have the insights that you can truly say are your own, so to speak. Otherwise, if somebody were to just do it for you, then what's the point? So now in infinite space there is that compassion component. After a while, as you're radiating outward and you experience this infinite space, at a certain point things start to break down in the mind, in a good way, not in a bad way. They break down in the sense that you start to see the arising and passing away of what's known as consciousness.

So we'll be talking about consciousness when we discuss dependent origination in the next couple of days. But what you're seeing is, or what you can see, is a ring of light in your periphery. You can see little dots, you can see little glimmers, you can see different kinds of colors and lights flickering behind your eyelids, or you can hear little flickering in your ears.

You might feel some tingling on your skin, you might smell phantom smells, you might taste phantom tastes, or you might start to notice the gaps between thoughts. What you are seeing is the arising and passing away of individual consciousnesses. In the commentaries it's mentioned that when someone snaps their finger, that is a hundred thousand arising and passing away of sound consciousness. For us it sounds just as a snap, but in reality, when you break it down, there's a hundred thousand individual awarenesses that arise and pass away. So what would seem like a snap is actually multiple sound waves causing a fluid sound to arise. Now this can happen in the meditation and it can happen even outside of the meditation. I can tell you from my own experience, when I was in San Diego and I was doing the online retreat with David Johnson back in 2016, I was walking into the kitchen and all of a sudden things became

slower. It was like the people that were moving in the kitchen started to be like under the strobe light, when you go to the club and people are dancing and you see almost every other movement. It was like that, and I thought, something's going on here, maybe I'm having a stroke, I don't know what's going on. But then I realized that actually this is looking into individual consciousnesses. The frame rate of awareness starts to slow down, the same way you would see a movie right back in when we had actual film, and the film reel would start to slow down. You would actually see individual frames, and you would see the spaces, the blank spaces in between those frames.

That's what's happening. You might experience that with any of the sixth sense spaces. A person who's more, let's say, of a musician, they might notice it in their ears. A person who's more visually oriented, they might notice it in the eyes, and so on and so forth. So what's actually going on here? What's going on here is your awareness is starting to become even sharper, and you're starting to notice what's known as contact. So we call it infinite consciousness, but really you're starting to see the points of contact. What does contact mean? The points between when light hits the eye at one rate and the next rate, and so on and so forth, or when the sound the air makes contact with the ear, and likewise with the nose and the tongue and the body and even the mind.

When the thoughts make contact with the mind, you start to see the gap. So tied to this is what's known as the brahmavihara of empathetic joy. Now in this empathetic joy you experience an even greater downshift. Now, joy would mean that there's some kind of vibrancy to it. But actually, when we talk about empathetic joy, it's a different kind of joy. Remember when I said there was the joy that's like the flickering flame? That's the piti that you experience in the first and second jhana. But this empathetic joy is like a stable, still flame. Very calm, very clear, very soft. Now, empathetic joy in everyday life is a wonderful antidote for envy, for jealousy.

People have certain insecurities about themselves. They have certain kinds of thoughts about the goodness of other people. Maybe somebody had a promotion, somebody was graduated, somebody had a new job, or whatever it is. And there's always this thought, sometimes for people. It's like, oh, why not me? How come I don't have a promotion? How come I don't have that car? And so on and so forth. If you flip the script and you say, good for them, and generally mean that, and say, I'm so happy for them, then that's empathetic joy. Empathetic joy is being happy in the success, the wholesome success, of a person's efforts. Empathetic joy doesn't mean you're happy that somebody got a million dollars because they've robbed the bank.

Empathetic joy means that you're happy that somebody is genuinely happy for something that they've achieved. So it's a perfect antidote for jealousy, for resentment, for envy. Now, the compassion downshifts into empathetic joy from infinite space to infinite consciousness. Now while you're experiencing infinite consciousness, you might experience it and you might not experience it in the way that I've described it, and that's fine. But eventually what you will see for yourself are what is known as the three characteristics.

Eventually you'll see that, seeing the arising and passing away of consciousness, you understand that it is impermanent. The fact that it arises and passes away, arises and passes away, meaning consciousness itself is also impermanent. Eventually, you get bored of this, right? It becomes tiresome. And that is dukkha. So now you're seeing anicca, impermanence, and you're seeing dukkha, the suffering aspect of it. Then you also see that I am not controlling this. This is happening due to impersonal causes and conditions. This is not me. This is not mine. This is not myself. This is anatta. Anatta means not self.

the impersonal nature of reality this is not me it doesn't belong to me and it is not myself that's all we're seeing as we start to notice this we get into what's known as nothingness and in that nothingness you will not notice that the flickering or whatever it is that you see starts to fade away and what is left in its place is a blank space it could be any color it could be a dark translucent space it could be a bluish space it could be white it could be whatever the space is but this is nothingness there's an awareness of no thing in the mind in other words you're no longer bothered about the externalities of what's going on your mind is thoroughly engaged in what is going on right here right now and tied to this nothingness is a feeling of equanimity so what is equanimity feel like nothing at all it's very difficult to grasp equanimity because it's so subtle it's so calm it's so clear it's so translucent but the feeling of equanimity is a balanced

mind right and so when you radiate equanimity you're just basically saying may all beings be calm may all beings be balanced if you want to start radiating that equanimity now all throughout this process you are radiating you're still sending out loving kindness first when it down shifts to compassion you send out compassion when it down shifts to empathetic joy you send out empathetic joy and then when it gets into equanimity you send an equanimity as well but here it's a lighter kind of sending out it's like a rippling doesn't matter how far that equanimity reaches as long as there's movement going on this is to keep the mind balanced keep the energy of the mind balanced so what's going on here is eventually the equanimity will stop radiating and it'll just be this pure aware space and then what I'll tell you is radiate again and how do you radiate the analogy I use is imagine your mind like the surface of a still clear pool of water absolutely

still and you drop a little pebble and what does it do starts creating ripples on the surface in the same way you have a small intention of sending out equanimity and you see the rippling of that equanimity until it gently fades away again so what do you do do it again send out the equanimity eventually the mind says I don't want to do that anymore there's a certain kind of tension that arises where it says I'm okay just being by myself so the mind is now resting in itself so now the object here is mind mind observing mind and you don't do anything that will be my final instruction to you when you get there don't do anything easier said than

done because the mind always has a tendency to want to oh maybe I should balance this enlightenment factor maybe I should look there maybe I should relax maybe i should rest maybe i should do something don't do anything don't cling to anything just let the mind be where it is and as you do that if the mind starts to gravitate towards something all you do is relax and return back now the the mind is your home base this is where you are all the time starts to go in this direction okay relax

come back that's it as you keep doing this your mind will start to sink deeper into what is known as neither perception nor non-perception what does that mean neither perception or non-perception so perception perception the word perception is translated from the Pali sanya sanya means to recognize something so what that means is when you feel something the feeling here is the let's say you see the color red so you're seeing it that's happening in your visual field you're seeing but the knowing that it is the color red is the recognizing of it that is the perception right knowing I mean seeing a tree is one thing but knowing that it is an elm tree or an oak tree or an apple tree that's the perception in other words perception is rooted in memory what you have learned so every time you see or experience something your mind will take from the memory bank and say oh this is what it is right this is Telson this is Morty, this is the Rose, that's Rick, right?

So that all is concepts that your mind has collected through learning, just by merely experiencing things. And then when you perceive, you recognize, oh this is what it is. So neither perception nor non-perception means neither recognition nor non-recognition so what happens is as your mind sinks deeper into this state you get into a place where the mind feels like it's asleep but alert at the same time it's aware and there are things happening to that extent it is cognizing it's comprehending something is going on but unable to perceive unable to really make out what it is that it is seeing there's all kinds of wispy thoughts and dreamlike states and disconnected patterns and images and memories that feel like they're from another lifetime all of these will come into your mental field but the key is not to get disturbed by them here you are in the eye of the storm your mind is in the eye of the

storm now everything else is in the periphery the moment you start to get attracted or enamored by what it is that you're seeing now you're perceiving so you're no longer neither perceiving nor non-perceiving you come out of that so how do you come back let go relax back into mind and then mind will sink deeper into that. Eventually that mind will get into what's known as quiet mind or luminous mind. This is what's known as the Prabhasara Chitta in Pali. The Buddha has said, luminous is the mind, monks. Luminous is the mind. But due to adventitious defilements, the mind becomes darkened. In other words, the nature of mind itself is luminous. What does it mean, luminous?

Radiant? Bright? What does that mean? It's aware of things without becoming enamored by them. That's the true nature of the mind. It's to know, it's to understand, it's to see, but just to see, not to become something. There's a wonderful statement by the Buddha which I will unpack in the coming days. It's called, The statement is, in the seen, there is only the seen. In the heard, there is only the heard. In the cognized, there is only the cognized. When there is no you in that, then there is no you before that or after that. Just that is the end of suffering.

In other words, seeing without supplanting any kind of sense of self to it. Hearing without saying, this is me, this is mine, this is myself. This is the nature of quiet mind. This is how you bring quiet mind in daily life. Being aware of things as they are, without getting affected by them one way or the other. Very much like equanimity. Now when you're in this quiet mind, you have what's known as disenchantment. So this disenchantment, we'll explore a little further later on. But disenchantment really means the mind is no longer interested in seeing what's going on. The mind will, you know, throw all kinds of formations at you. All kinds of thoughts, all kinds of ideas, all kinds of patterns.

But if you remain here and you don't do anything, then all of that drops away and then you are left with just mind. that is disenchantment and that goes into dispassion where the mind remains totally unaffected it's like in its own bubble there's a beautiful film called little buddha from the 90s and in it it shows the the night of when the buddha became fully awakened and there he's meditating under the Bodhi tree and Mara is there trying to trouble him in all kinds of ways Mara here actually represents, symbolizes all of our desires, all of our concepts all of our thoughts and identification with these concepts and so what does Mara do?

his armies come together and they launch a million arrows at the Buddha and while the buddha is here meditating there is a barrier of force field around him and every arrow that goes beyond that force field turns into a lotus flower and just floats down onto the ground if you have that level of dispassion whatever comes up disappears into that force field of this passion and at all that all that means is just being still not being enamored not being enchanted by this or that allowing the mind to be there that takes you into what's known as the Anamita Samadhi here what that means is the collectedness of signless mind or objectless awareness. So this objectless awareness, the analogy I would use is it's a ray of light.

Imagine you take a flashlight and you point it up into the sky and for the purposes of this example Imagine that that light continues outward into space without hitting anything, without being deflected by any object, and it just keeps going, keeps going. In the same way, in the signless collectiveness of mind, there is no object there. The awareness of the mind, the light of awareness, doesn't land on anything, isn't deflected by anything. It just is. there's a pure clear awareness that just is and eventually using that analogy of the flashlight the batteries run out and the light goes away and the mind enters cessation because your attention is not fueled or fueling anything and remains enclosed in itself then eventually because of no objects fueling further attention the consciousness starts to dissipate completely and there is what is known as the cessation of perception feeling and consciousness now Now, this experience, as I said, of the cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness can happen from the first jhana onwards.

It can happen at any point in time. When you least expect it. This is a very important phrase: when you least expect it. Because oftentimes, people are in the waiting room of their mind, waiting to see cessation, just expecting it to happen. But if you let go of that and you're just enjoying the practice, when you least expect it, your mind drops. And how is this experienced? You can know that you were in it when you come out of it. It's like your mind went somewhere for a moment there. There was a blip in the consciousness. If you look back into the memory bank of your mind, it's like there was something that happened, but I can't find it. No data found, right? Error 404, right? So in that moment the consciousness has dropped, and when it comes back up there are certain things you will experience. Primarily you will experience an exuberant radiance of the mind. You will experience overwhelming joy and

relief. It's as if a thousand tons have dropped from your shoulder, and what Bhante has called it, as you've dropped an ocean of suffering in that moment. That's where you feel that relief, and that is not nibbana. That is having touched nibbana. When all conditions cease in the mind, in that moment the mind makes contact with the nibbana dhatu, the nibbana element. And what you experience after that is a result of that, which is the joy and the relief. And you might see certain things in your mind's eye. You might see certain patterns. You might see certain things. You might have certain insights into the nature of reality. And you most probably will say, oh wow, what was that? In your mind, that's why Bhante wanted to call this meditation the oh wow meditation, because people see amazing things in that. And when you come out of it, it will feel like as if you have been reborn. It will be like everything is new. Everything you touch, everything you see, everything is so vibrant

ecstatic and you have so much energy, to the extent that you might not even be able to sleep that night. That's okay. There's this exuberance that's there. Everything is bubbling up. When you see the leaves, you can see every detail on a certain leaf. You can see every outline of the clouds. You can see every blade of grass. Everything is just new. It's like the filters have been removed, and you're seeing color and form and everything for the first time. And you might report this to me and say, this is amazing, this is wonderful, I've had this experience. And I'll say, great, congratulations, now go sit again.

Because this is just the first step. You go back and you allow the mind to integrate this. And because your mind is so purified, the meditation makes it much easier for you to go deeper. So you go back and you sit, and you go even deeper. And you might have another experience. You might have more experiences. Whatever happens is whatever happens. I'll tell you this: the first time around is easy because you don't know what to expect. But once you've had the experience, once you've tasted it for yourself, what happens? Oh, I want more of that. And then you see the precipice of going there, and it's like, oh yeah, I'm going there, and then nothing happens. The agitation, the craving comes up, so you have to have that disenchantment. So for those of you who have that challenge, what you do is, when you notice the mind is starting to get agitated and you're like, oh, there's something going on, you have to let go and relax, go back to radiating equanimity.

And then let the mind sink into itself again and go through that whole process, because there's not enough equanimity. Disenchantment is dependent upon equanimity. If you don't have enough equanimity, what do you do? Bring in more relaxation, bring in more collectedness. If you don't have that, what do you do? Bring in more joy. So these are the ingredients that take you all the way to the end. Any questions?

Hi. Mahayana make a big deal about compassion. You know, they talk about great compassion and then bodhicitta with the aim of becoming a Buddha in order to help free living beings from their suffering but to me it seems well there are so many world systems yeah and when you look around I see people still suffering and what's the other thing it's gonna take a huge amount of time for Maha kappas wasn't it look nice up actually it's three point nine six billion years per maha kappa right so for less able people it could be even longer right so I just kind of think well oh is it is it a worthwhile goal you know and and also I understand that it will stop you attaining Nibbana right right so I just what your comments are yeah yeah so this is this is getting to the territory of theory but I'll I'll explore it with you so one is the understanding is that for one to want to become a buddha they have to become a bodhisatta

first and that is basically taking the vow of becoming a bodhisatta and different schools have different interpretations of what that means but primarily what it means is that you are striving for the goal of buddhahood and a buddha only appears when there is no more dhamma left so in other words while we are in an eon where there is a Buddha, there is the capacity to learn from his teachings and yes, even in that process decide to become a Bodhisattva just because there is that chanda, that wholesome intention.

You know, in the case of Siddhartha Gautama, the more recent Buddha, when he went to one of the Buddhas in one of his past lives many, many, many billions of years ago, let's say, when he did it the first time, he says I want to become a bodhisatta and attain buddhahood for the purpose of enlightenment and to enlighten all of the beings. That Buddha said no. So he had to wait until another Buddha emerged many, many billions of years later, and then he asked that Buddha, and he said I want to take this vow. And that Buddha looked into his future and he said, yeah, it's possible, go ahead. So there's that part, right? But the idea is for the bodhisatta, what they're doing is they're perfecting what are known as

paramitas, great perfections. So for the Buddha he has to do it for so many mahakappas, as you mentioned. For a chief disciple they have to do it for maybe half that time, and so on. So the idea is that when a Buddha comes into this world, a samasama buddha, mind you, so there's a pacheca buddha, which are solitary buddhas, which become buddhas but don't go out and teach. But the samasama buddha is one who becomes fully enlightened, has the capacity to teach, is requested to teach, and takes up the job, the role, of teaching. In that case, when there is a samasama buddha, then the dhamma is well expounded, well explained, and there are those who can become like a buddha, that is an arahant, somebody who has attained the same level of awareness and consciousness as a Buddha. The only difference is the Buddha did it first. He founded the way, he re-founded, let's say, because it's always there, but he kind of dug up and found the system, and then he introduced it to the world, and then those who follow that path become arahants. In fact, in the

Pali scriptures it says that there are different connotations for an arahant, different kinds of synonyms for an arahant, and one of them is actually Buddha. An arahant is like a mini Buddha in that sense. So I think the idea is, it should be according to that person's inclination. What is it that they want? And there are many people who say, I want to become a bodhisatta. More power to you. Completely fine. There is the idea that if you do become a bodhisatta, until your final experience, you won't have nibbana. You will have glimpses into it. You'll have certain understanding into it. You'll have the understanding into the nature of reality. You'll have the understanding of emptiness.

and so on. But you won't have that entire experience of nibbana until it's your final life, where you are, quote-unquote, destined to become a Buddha. So you kind of stave off nibbana until the very end. And when you say nibbana, do you mean arahatship? Arahatship, exactly. Now, in other traditions, there will be the idea that they do attain arahatship, and then they relinquish that state of arahatship for the purposes of becoming a Buddha. So it just depends on what tradition you subscribe to. Hey, in the model that you described, where does stream entry fit into that model, or does it not? Stream entry, so stream entry can happen at any point during your practice, where you're meditating, and then, as I said, in the first genre onwards, you have an experience of cessation, and then you drop, and what happens is you drop certain fetters.

like the first three fetters, and that can mean stream entry. But stream entry can also happen where somebody is listening to a dhamma talk or reading a sutta, and they completely understand it, and they experience stream entry there. Okay. Okay, thank you. And one other quick question. The arising and passing away, which I've heard other teachers talk about, is that a permanent shift or is it just a signpost? You experience it and then it's like you kind of go, you carry on. It's a signpost. It's a signpost. It's permanent in the sense of like, oh, your perception changes a little bit. So you have a deeper understanding into impermanence. But the state itself is temporary.

Gotcha. Thank you. I heard you use three different terms: consciousness, awareness, and mind. Are you using them interchangeably, or do they mean different things? I could be. Sorry? I could be. Okay. Because this is a question, actually, in the suttas as well, because there's vinnana, which means consciousness. There's mano, which means mind. And there is citta, which means mindset or awareness, depending upon usage and context. So there is a way in which these have multiple meanings, right? And there's a way in which they mean one thing. So sometimes you can use them interchangeably, but when you're using them in different contexts, mano can mean mind, which is the physical mind or brain. Citta can mean the mindset, which is a collection of similar kinds of thoughts coming to be.

And vinnana can mean consciousness, which is the cognition or the bare awareness of an experience. And when you describe the four mental jhanas, like infinite consciousness, then when you said nothingness, you used awareness. And finally, when you used... Neither perception. Yeah, you said mind. In that context, do they mean the same thing? In that context, it is just mind that is experiencing it. So when I say awareness of nothing, it means you're cognizing that there's nothing. When I talk about infinite consciousness, there I'm talking about the jhana as the arising and passing away of individual quanta of awareness, let's say. And when I say mind, mind is pervasive through all of that, from first jhana all the way to the eighth.

Okay, and another question. When it comes to the first jhana, should I have the same attitude of just letting go of being secluded from hindrances and staying with a pleasant sensation, with the attitude of when I least expect it, it will arise? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you. My question is, you were talking about ayatana and how long generally a person stays in that one, like a few minutes or like 15 minutes? Yeah, so this is a good question you bring up, because sometimes, especially in the retreat, you can skip, and you might go from infinite space directly into nothingness, or infinite space and directly into neither perception or non-perception. That can happen too, and that's okay. The mind is just going to where there is the point of least tension.

Just wants to go there. Now, in terms of whether there is a predetermined duration of how long you're in a certain state, no, there isn't. Do we have the jhana chart? Did you get that? I have the one where different jhanas, and then how long it normally does you get, yes, I do have some samples. So you can just put it there on a dining table and people can look at it when they want, so it'll be there, and you can check that out. It'll tell you how long you're supposed to be with your object in that particular jhana and all and other things, so it's kind of helpful. Yeah, so another question. You were also talking about, in higher jhanas, about the relaxing. What about the smile? What about the smile, yeah, towards the mental jhanas as we recall them, or more towards the ayatanas, especially towards nothingness and neither perception or non-perception?

Smile becomes less of a thing because it's more physical. Okay, thank you. I've heard you speak about nirodha. Is it nirodha samapatti? Yeah. I've heard you speak about that before. And how does that fit into the... is that a prelude to nibbana? No. So, nirodha is the experience of cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness. Nirodha samapatti, so samapatti means an attainment. And so nirodha samapatti means you can go into cessation whenever you feel like it. So you can determine how long you want to be in it, right, and when you want to come out of it. And that's nirodha samapatti. And so is that developed through just continuous refinement of the jhanas? Yeah, that happens at a much later stage, where a person has let go of a lot of craving, a lot of suffering, and so on.

And their mind is now ripe to do that kind of practice. That's what's generally known as determinations. And that starts out with the first jhana. So you go into the first jhana and you have a predetermined amount of time where you'll stay in that particular jhana. Let's say 10 minutes and 35 seconds, or 7 minutes and 34 seconds, or something like that. And then eventually you have to be able to go in and out of that jhana, like four seconds in and then come out, or two seconds in and then come out. And you do that for each of the jhanas until you get into cessation. So it's like a gymnastic program for your mind, right?

Until your mind becomes very malleable and your intention becomes so malleable that you can just go into cessation whenever you want. And would the mind have to attend or realize nibbana for that to happen? Yes. To some degree? Yes. Okay. You'd have to be what's known as an anagami. The suttas say you'd have to be an anagami. In other words, you have to let go of the five lower fetters. You have to let go of fetters. So what are fetters? We have belief in a personal self. We have clinging to rites and rituals. We have doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. That goes away completely for somebody who has stream entry.

When the sensual craving and the aversion are greatly attenuated, so there might be maybe five or ten percent of that left, then that is a person who's known as a once-returner, a sakadagami. When that has gone away completely, then that means that person is what's known as an anagami, a non-returner, which means upon death they will no longer return back to the human realm. And the five higher fetters, which are restlessness, conceit, craving for jhana, craving for ayatana, and ignorance. So all of these are basically destroyed and one is fully awakened. So you need to get to that point where you've let go of all sensual craving and aversion before you can dabble in nirodha samapatti.

Interesting. Thank you. I think you touched on this, but in a lot of the practices we're emanating, whether it's loving kindness or compassion or equanimity, what exactly is the purpose of the emanating, the radiating? Yeah. So it's a process of sending it out to all beings. That's really what's going on. Whether they feel it or not is another thing, but it's creating the setting in the mind to start to experience infinite space, infinite consciousness, and nothingness. That's the primary reason. Now, when you get into something like quiet mind, if somebody is greatly accustomed to getting into quiet mind or neither perception or non-perception.

This is why in the beginning I told everyone who's doing that to first radiate, because that process of emanating or radiating or pervading energizes the mind, and it creates a balance of energy and a balance of all the other enlightenment factors, so that then your mind is ripe to go in itself and go into quiet mind. Okay, thank you. I think a couple of questions also. You were talking before about the differences between consciousness and awareness, and so when you're talking about the objectless

awareness, that's still a kind of consciousness in quanta, is it? Yes, yes, tied to the mind, right? Right, but it's not directed at anything. They're undirected. And I'm a little unclear: after the eighth jhana is neither perception or non-perception, but then you talked about other states like quiet mind, the objectless awareness, and the sensation perception. How are those all part of the eighth jhana up until cessation? That's all part of the ayatana. So what I've done is I've told you about the ayatana as neither perception non-perception, but I'm breaking it down into stages, so that I'm just giving you a further sort of terrain to look at, so that you recognize when you get there. That's all.

- Okay, thanks. - Does cessation mean automatic dropping of all three fetters, or not necessarily? You said stream entry, three fetters, but does that dip, does that also do the same? So the cessation can mean that, but not all the time. Like I said, stream entry can happen all of a sudden when you're just reading something and you get a eureka, like, oh, that makes sense now, and you get stream entry into the path, right? So that can also happen. Or you're listening to a dharma talk and it all makes sense, and now you have complete conviction in the path. You understand the impermanent nature of any kind of sense of self, and you don't have any clinging to rites and rituals.

That in itself is stream entry. There can be moments where you get what is known as micro cessations. I didn't touch upon this. So this can happen in the eighth jhana, in neither perception or non-perception, where your mind kind of dips in and out just for a few moments, right? And it's like luminosity that arises. So then the question is, what is the difference between a cessation and a micro cessation? Right. Micro cessation, it's like the mind is winking out for a moment because there's very little it can pay attention to, and it just kind of gets into that, drops, but it comes back up immediately, almost reactively. Whereas in the cessation, it just dips in, and it's followed by some greater amount of radiance and joy and relief and so on.

There's a question here. Okay, all right. Can I ask a question? You know, like in suttas, when you said like somebody's listening to the Dhamma talk and then they either became a stream enterer or even an arahant. And do you have to have a cessation to get to, like, an arahant state? Or did they have some sort of a micro cessation and then became arahants? Yeah, in that moment, they still had some kind of a cessation experience. Maybe they didn't recognize it. I'll tell you one example of somebody a couple of years ago. They came into the interview and they said, you know, this is the experience I had, and so on and so forth.

And I said, oh, great. Congratulations. You've had an experience. And he didn't believe me, and I could see he didn't believe me. So he was listening to the Dhamma talk that evening, and he went back to his room, and then the next morning he was like, yeah, you were right, I didn't believe you, but I actually had it, because while I was walking to my room, all of a sudden I blacked out for a moment, and then I felt immense relief and joy. It's good that you guys are all here and not driving around. That could happen while you're driving too, right? People have had it when they're having breakfast, and just as they're eating that piece of toast, it's like, oh, they have a blackout, it's like, where was I? And then they have joy and relief. So it can happen anytime. Is it true that cessation happens when all seven factors of enlightenment are just absolutely balanced?

There has to be a balance, yes. In the accounts I've read of the Buddha's enlightenment, there's never any talk about the four paths. Are we to assume that he tamed all four on the same night? I think in the case of the Buddha, if you think about it, first of all, even the account of his night of enlightenment is different from many of the other monks that followed after him. For example, I was telling you about Sariputta, where he goes through each of the jhanas and then experiences cessation and then enters into arahatship. But in the case of the Buddha, what he did was he went into the fourth jhana and then did the tevijja knowledge, which means he looked back into his past lives, that's the first knowledge.

He looked at the arising and passing away of all beings, that's the second knowledge. And then he had what's known as the destruction of the taints, that is the destruction of the asavas, those things that were binding the mind to have further and further rebirth. So if we extrapolate from that, what we can see is that, he probably, as he was looking into these different knowledges, he had greater degrees of understanding of dependent origination.

So when I said that after cessation you see certain things, what you are seeing is your mind's interpretation of the links of dependent origination. And when you go through the threefold knowledge, that's what's happening there as well. You start to see and have insight into karma, insight into dependent origination. So there's two ways to look at it. One is he went through each of the four stages, or in his case, maybe unique to him, he directly went into arahatship. If at any point along the way we encounter a powerful fear, like adrenaline, yeah, that's not in the mind, it's just in the body. Do we just allow space for that, because it's very hard to relax? Yeah, definitely. And that's something that's not often talked about, which is you can experience some degrees of fear or excitement or adrenaline, as you said, and that's just because that sense of self feels like it's going to go, and what you're actually experiencing is the process of dying without dying.

So all of you here on retreat are practicing how to die when you meditate. That's really what's going on. So that sense of self that wants to hold on, wants to cling, you have to be able to tranquilize, and you have to be able to let go of. And sometimes it's experienced in the pit of your stomach, sometimes. Or it's experienced throughout the body, or it's more of a mental fear. But all of that, actually, energetically, it all stems from your core, from here. So if it's overwhelming, what I would suggest is you take some time away from that. And then allow your attention to go here and tranquilize any energy that's happening over here.

And if it helps, do a forgiveness practice, because there might be certain things that are tied to that. I mean, in other traditions, they call that the third chakra over here. That's the solar plexus or whatever it might be. But this is where all of the different kinds of fear might be launched. And so you might just do a forgiveness practice to let go of that. Then come back to it and see how you feel. Thank you. Delighted? Satisfied? Everyone happy? Let's hear some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free and a fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation.