Delson's 4th Talk on the 8 fold path-Right Mindfulness

Hello, sir. Hello all. Today is supposed to be right mindfulness, or samma sati, but before I continue with that, I think it's only appropriate to talk about right effort, since that's a precursor to right mindfulness. This will be quite brief because right effort is essentially the heart of the path. I've always said this in previous talks, that right effort is the heart of the path, because it is through right effort that you're able to go from wrong view to right view, or wrong intention to right intention, and so on. Now, right effort consists of four components. These four are essentially: to recognize and stop the arising of unwholesome states of mind; the second is to abandon those unwholesome states of mind that are currently present; the third is to generate wholesome states of mind; and the fourth is to maintain. So, to recognize and stop the unwholesome states, to abandon the already arisen unwholesome states

to generate a wholesome state and to maintain that wholesome state, and essentially that is what you do when you do the 6R's. So this practice of the 6R's is essentially weaving through the right effort, or the four right efforts. Traditionally, when we talk about right effort, it's also basically the first part. The first two are, with regards to hindrances. As we know, there are the five hindrances and so on. And traditionally speaking, the latter two, which is to generate a wholesome state and to maintain that wholesome state, can include the seven enlightenment factors. But in this case, what we're doing is we're using the smile to bring up the factor of joy.

And then we return back to the object of meditation, which could be loving kindness, it could be compassion, it could be quiet mind, whatever it is. And so when we recognize that there's an unwholesome state in the mind, which is a hindrance, we are actually utilizing mindfulness right there and then. And I will elaborate on that shortly.

But what I'm saying is, when you recognize, you are stopping the arising of unwholesome states from further arising. There's a flow of thoughts that come into the mind, but as soon as you recognize that flow, immediately it stops, and so what you're left with is whatever hindrance is present in that mind in that moment. Therefore you release it. You release the hindrance, you release your attention to it, and you bring it back to the mind and body, and you relax any tightness intention, because that tightness intention is craving. It is a manifestation of, creating a manifestation of tanha. So when you relax and release, you are abandoning that unwholesome state of mind. So that's the second right effort, when you bring up this smile.

You are generating a wholesome state, and when you continue with the feeling of loving kindness or whatever the object of meditation is, you're maintaining that wholesome state. Moreover, when we talk about the enlightenment factors, these two are interwoven throughout right effort. As I mentioned earlier, when you recognize, you're essentially utilizing mindfulness. So when you recognize that there's an unwholesome state, you have mindfulness, and then you also have the investigation of states. The investigation of states doesn't mean that you're trying to analyze something. That doesn't mean you're trying to investigate in the sense that you're trying to figure out what exactly it is. All it means is you are aware that there is an unwholesome state of mind present. That's it. That is the investigation of states. So this could be understood as dhamma vicaya in Pali, which can mean the understanding of dhammas, the understanding of phenomena in the mind. So when you recognize, you're doing two things: you have mindfulness, you have investigation of states. When you release your attention from it, then, and you relax, then you're having the balancing of the energies.

That is to say, now mindfulness has led to investigation of states. Investigation of states has led to energy, or viriya. Energy here means that we are adapting, or adopting, I should say, applying the right effort by letting go. The right effort doesn't mean that we're trying to build up something through our focus. It means that we're naturally bringing up collectedness by letting go.

When you let go through that process, you experience a level of tranquility, which happens at the relaxed step. And then when you bring up the smile, there's the joy. But joy and tranquility, these two factors are interwoven, or interdependent. When you have a tranquil mind, a tranquil body, joy naturally arises. When the mind is uplifted and joyful, there is naturally tranquility.

So when you relax, the mind is uplifted already. Because in that moment, for that split second, when you relax and you abandon whatever conditions are present in the mind, in terms of unwholesome states of mind, for that moment, you experience Nibbana. You experience the mundane Nibbana. That is a mind without craving, a mind without any greed, hatred, or delusion.

And because of that, the mind is naturally uplifting, obviously, and therefore joy arises, and the smile only further propagates that joy. Then when you come back to your object of meditation, the mind is already collected, so now you have the collectedness factor, and you continue this process, and therefore you have equanimity. You remain unaffected by whatever is present, whether it's a hindrance, whether it's an enlightenment factor, whether it's loving kindness, whatever it is. You are just observing. And so now this is right effort, and it is this right effort that brings about right mindfulness. In the last few weeks we've talked about the aggregates, in terms of the three aggregates or the three composites. That is to say, we have sila, we have samadhi, and we have panna. Sila is comprised of right speech, right action, right livelihood, which we covered last week. Panna is essentially comprised of right view and right intention. Now we are starting to talk about samadhi. Samadhi is collectedness.

Now we're starting to get into the territory of meditation. We've done the groundwork, which is the sila. We've developed our generosity, we've developed our sila, we've developed wholesome states of mind, and now the mind is ready for meditation. So oftentimes you will see in the suttas where the Buddha will talk about this, where somebody will sit down for meditation and establish mindfulness before him. What this means is now the mind is ready to observe. The mind uses one of the satipatthanas in order to bring up mindfulness.

Now, this word mindfulness, it's not really the best descriptor or the best translation, I would say, even though it has now been used all over the world. And people understand to a certain extent what you mean by mindfulness. But mindfulness has become a commodity in this world. It has become something that we call mech mindfulness.

You're mindful of this, you're mindful of that, you're mindfully eating, you're mindfully drinking, you're mindfully taking a shower, you're mindfully taking a walk, you're mindfully driving, you're mindfully writing an email, and so on and so forth, right? So this idea of mindful has become like this overused word. But let's get back to the roots of what mindfulness actually is. So I will use the word mindfulness since everybody is so used to that word. But in reality, when we go back to understanding mindfulness, it comes from the word sati, S-A-T-I, sati in Pali, which in Sanskrit is smriti. And smriti, S-M-R-I-T-I, smriti, is memory.

It means to recollect. It means to recognize. It means to remember. Now, Bhante Vimalaramsi would always give this definition of mindfulness, which is a very succinct definition for our purpose of meditation, and what he always said is, mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to another. This is exactly what you do when you do the recognize step. As soon as you've recognized that your mind is distracted, what are you doing? You have remembered to observe. Yes, the mind's attention has moved from this object of meditation to now a hindrance, to now a distraction. But we can also understand mindfulness or recollection. We can call it remembrance, we can call it recollection, we can call it observation. And the reason why we call it observation, or to observe, is because we also have what are known as anusatis. So in the suttas as translated, they're called recollections.

Well, we have three recollections, the five recollections, the six recollections, and the ten recollections, and essentially what they are is recollecting the Buddha, recollecting the Dhamma, recollecting the Sangha, recollecting our virtues, recollecting our dana, our generosity, recollecting the devas, then recollecting the mindfulness of breathing, recollecting death, recollecting the body, and recollecting that the mind is calm.

So oftentimes, when we talk about mindfulness, the one sutta that we will always use, or generally speaking, we will always use, is the Satipatthana Sutta, right? This is found in Majjhima Nikaya, and it's also found in Digha Nikaya. So we have the four foundations of mindfulness. Now, satipatthana, what does that actually mean? Satipatthana. Patthana means the basis.

It's the foundation. It's the place on which you put your mindfulness from where your mindfulness begins so this is what it means to establish mindfulness before you in other words when you sit down for meditation you just become aware of what is happening and you can use any of the foundations you can use the body you can use feeling you can use mind or mental objects and you can use phenomena now oftentimes when you read the sutta the satipatana sutra mahasatipatana sutra it feels like or some people might interpret that the buddha is giving you a step-by-step process of how to establish mindfulness and to refine it going from the body all the way down to damas or mental phenomena

but really what he's just doing is giving you different ways in which you can establish mindfulness different pathways let's say from where you can establish mindfulness in the case of the body he talks about the recollection of the breath paying anapanasati coming back to the breath doesn't mean to control the breath it doesn't mean i have to breathe in four four counts breathe out eight counts and all of that other stuff which is actually pranayama what he's referring to is you're using the breath to bring back the recollection of the present moment so here sati is also to remember to come back to the present moment right this is not a new thing oftentimes we see that happening in a lot of different kinds of schools of thought that come back to the present moment come back to the present moment but 2600 years ago the buddha talked about this as well.

If you look at the suttas from Majjhima Nikaya 131 all the way to 137 or 138, they are all variations on one sutta called One Excellent Night. And in that sutta, there's a deva that talks about the Buddha's teachings and he refers to it as: one does not ponder or look back into the past, and one does not ponder into the future, but remains in the present moment, remains with presence of mind on what is happening here, what is happening now. Because that is probably the easiest way to come back to mindfulness for a lot of people: to remember the present moment. And remembering the present moment is essentially remembering, or using, right mindfulness, or to establish mindfulness using the Dhamma.

That's one way of understanding the mindfulness of the Dhamma. Another way of understanding mindfulness of the Dhamma is to remember the Dhamma itself. What that means is when you get distracted, there is a greater degree or a greater risk in that process of distraction for the mind, for the intention, to be unwholesome. When you become distracted, the mind might have a tendency to become reactive or overreactive according to the situation, and it is in that reactivity that we cause karma. It is in that reactivity that we cause suffering to ourselves.

But if we go from a reactive mindset to a responsive mindset, which is to say a mindset that is established in the present moment and pauses to understand the situation, to understand what is going on in the mind, whether it's in meditation, or what is going on in the mind, whether it's a conversation with a person, or anything that you are doing, then when you have this responsiveness you're allowing the mind to have wisdom, and you're allowing all of the elements of the Dhamma to come into the foreground of your mind. If you have studied the Dhamma, if you have read the suttas, if you have practiced to some extent the Dhamma, then you are allowing that Dhamma to come into the pathways available through the establishment of that mindfulness, which means just taking a pause and observing what's going on. When you do this, you open yourself up to intuition.

When you open yourself up to intuition, it will bring up a download, or bring down a download, of the Dhamma. That's when you have that insight: I should not speak this way, or I should not react in this way, or this person is hurting right now, I should send compassion to them, or right now my mind is somewhere else, let me use right effort to come back to it. This is how you establish mindfulness. This is what is samma sati, or an aspect of samma sati. There is another sutta in which the Buddha talks about this, to Malunkyaputta. This is found in the Samyutta Nikaya, I believe 35.95, and in there Malunkyaputta goes to the Buddha. He is an elderly gentleman, a monk, and he asks the Buddha, please give me a teaching that I can apply, since I am now very old and I couldn't pass on at any point.

Very similar to the Bhaddekaratta Sutta, which I often quote, and the Buddha gives him praise, because Malunkyaputta is in this way; he's very much in the Dhamma, he's very much hungry for the Dhamma, so to speak. And so it's an admonishment for the younger monks. And in that, the Buddha talks about mindfulness. What he says, essentially, is that mindfulness is the gatekeeper from unwholesome states. So when you establish mindfulness in the present moment, what you are doing is you are becoming available to all the experiences that are happening right here, right now. Yes, so that means that in the context of dependent origination:

Right, you right now are seeing me, you are hearing me. That is the contact, the phassa, the phassa that happens. From that contact there arises a feeling, the vedana, which is the sensation, the experience of hearing me, seeing me, and listening to what I'm saying. Then there is the perception: it is Delson who is speaking, it is his voice that we are hearing, he is speaking about so and so. That is sanna, that is perception. Perception and feeling are tied together. Now, if your mind is distracted and you're thinking about something else, you're thinking about this, that or the other, you will not be able to remember what I said. You will not be able to remember what was spoken in this talk. But as soon as you become mindful and you recognize that your mind was distracted, and you've used the six R's to come back, now you're back in the present moment and you're listening to every word that I am saying.

So mindfulness is the gatekeeper between feeling and craving. Feeling can be pleasant, it can be unpleasant, it can be neutral. Depending upon the quality of the feeling, there can arise certain kinds of underlying tendencies. These underlying tendencies arise when you are not in the present moment. When your mind starts to identify with the experience, not being established in the present moment, not having presence of mind, a lack of mindfulness, a lack of sati, is the same as and equal to ignorance, avijja. Ignorance here is not knowing, not understanding, not remembering the four noble truths.

But as soon as you become aware and you are mindful, then you start to cut away at the roots of the anusayas, the underlying tendencies. But when you are distracted, the underlying tendencies arise. What are the underlying tendencies? They are the bridge between feeling and craving. You have the underlying tendency to ignorance, the underlying tendency towards doubt, the underlying tendency towards views, the underlying tendency towards conceit, the underlying tendency towards becoming, the underlying tendency towards aversion, the underlying tendency towards craving, and all of these different underlying tendencies can give rise to further craving.

And they only arise when there is muddled mindfulness, as that sutta talks about, Samyutta Nikaya 35.95. When mindfulness is muddled, then these states arise. But if mindfulness is unmuddled, that is to say when you have the ability, the presence of mind, to understand what is going on right here, right now, then there's the opportunity for the Dhamma to arise through your intuition and be able to utilize it in such a way that you are following the Eightfold Path automatically, without even having to think about it, when you open yourself up to the situation.

Without reacting, even in your mind, and catching the reaction in the mind before it turns into a verbal reaction or a physical reaction. When you're able to do that, and you establish mindfulness by coming back to a mind free of any kind of expectation, of any kind of aversion, of any kind of identification, then you essentially have a mind in that moment that is free of greed, hatred and delusion, and in that moment you can function, you can practise to function, like an arahant, where you utilize intuition, and with that intuition your speech will always be right speech, your action will always be right action, your behaviour will always be right behaviour. That is to say, it will be established in right speech and right action. So perhaps it might be better to say something in a way that is de-escalating the situation, so your mind knows what to say, your mind knows how to say it, or perhaps it's required to be silent in that moment. So instead of trying to defend this ego, trying to defend this sense of self, how dare they say this to me, by being in a reactive mindset,

you become more aware of what's going on. You see the percolations of that craving arising as bhava, saying that this is who I am, how dare they say this to me. You can see that, and you can let it go. Once you let go of that, your mind is free of that, and now intuition can arise and say, this person is suffering, they need compassion, let me help them by de-escalating the situation, let me help them by not saying anything at all. So mindfulness is really the key to this practice. This is why the Buddha has emphasized, in the Satipatthana Sutta, the value of mindfulness, that if one establishes

mindfulness, let alone for a year, let alone for six months, let alone for three months, let alone for a month, let alone for a fortnight, but just for even a week in this way, one can attain arahatship. And if there's still some craving left, become an anagami. Still not bad. But mindfulness here is essentially the understanding of what is happening here and now, and establishing the Dhamma in your mind. So let's get back to the basics. Let's get back to the root of understanding what mindfulness is. That is remembering the Dhamma. Sati means that. Sati means to remember. So whenever you remember to observe how your mind's attention moves from one object to the other, you're establishing the Dhamma in your mind right there and then.

Now, when we talk about anussatis, what are the anussatis? I talked about the recollections: that is the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, your virtues, dana, the devas. What does all of that mean? So anussati, remember this word, anussati. Sati is right there in that word, anussati, which means to recollect, to recall, to become aware of, to infuse the mind, to infuse the awareness with that particular object.

So in this case, when you talk about the recollection of the Buddha, recollection of the Dhamma, recollection of the Sangha, what does it mean? Knowing and understanding that there is, or there was, a Buddha who had rediscovered this path to the end of suffering. What does it mean to remember the Dhamma? Understanding the qualities of the Dhamma: immediately effective, inviting to test and see for yourself, and so on and so forth.

And also the Eightfold Path. Understanding and remembering to utilize the Eightfold Path is understanding the Dhamma, recollecting the Dhamma. Recollecting the Sangha, what does that mean? Having appreciation and gratitude and reverence for those who have gone into the brahmacharya, the holy life, as monks and nuns, as bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, and understanding that without them this tradition would not continue.

And so they are the forebearers, right? They are the ones who continue the path of the Dhamma. But more than that, or in addition to that, I should say, there is the recollection of the Sangha in terms of the local Sangha, the community of meditators with you. Right now, we have so many good people here. They are the community. They are part of the community. And having that divine friendship, that spiritual friendship, right? Kalyana mitta. Actually, kalyana doesn't mean spiritual. Kalyana means for the betterment of, so kalyana mitta means friends in this life who want your betterment.

And who you want their betterment for. So you have such friends around you, that is your sangha. People who support you in your practice, people who come together to discuss the suttas, to discuss the Dhamma, to help invigorate that inspiration in you, to help understand where you're going wrong. Now, that is a true friend. A true friend is somebody who tells you this might not be the approach to take, but you must have the wisdom and patience to accept that too. Oftentimes, maybe the ego will come in and say, yeah, I'm not going to listen to that. I know what's right, and I'm going to do that.

Have the humility to be open to having these spiritual friends with you who can take you on the right path, who can help you take you on the right path. Now, when we talk about recollection of virtues, what does that mean, recollection of virtues? Well, this is very important to understand because we've always talked about sila as being the precursor to samadhi. When you keep the precepts, when you continue to be honest in your dealings, in your words, when you continue to be peaceful, cause no harm to other beings, when you continue to be content and don't seek or try to take what is not given,

When you continue to use or utilize mindfulness in such a way that you're not having sensual desire and you remain faithful to the people around you. And, of course, not indulging in intoxicants that dulls that mindfulness, overindulging in things that cause sloth and torpor. When you do this, this immediately has a profound effect on your mind. You might not see it right away. But if you have mindfulness and you recollect, these are the times when I kept my precepts, you will notice that the mind was uplifted. This is how you recollect the virtues. Recollecting dana. What does that mean? Being generous, right? Going back to the times when you were able to help somebody, whether it was financially, whether it was being an emotional support to somebody, whether it was donating to the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, going to the bhikkhuni sangha and offering robes, offering food, building a shelter for them, building a monastery for them, or contributing financially to the establishment of a monastery or meditation center, or whatever it is.

These things uplift the mind and whenever you think about them, whenever you recollect them, they allow you to establish mindfulness so that you become more collected. That's the whole point of mindfulness, right? Mindfulness, sammasati, leads naturally to sammasamadhi. Without sammasati you can't have sammasamadhi. Without right mindfulness you can't have right collectedness, right meditation, effective meditation, the meditation that leads you to nibbana, that leads you to the freedom from suffering, that leads you to the liberation of the mind, that leads you to arahatship. So this is the recollection of that dana, just remembering the times when you were generous. And the recollection of the devas might happen at a later stage, when you start to have greater and greater faith in the words of the Buddha and understanding that there are actions and consequences to those actions, which could relate to rebirth in higher dimensions.

Being open to that and understanding that if we take these actions that are wholesome, they can lead to deva mindsets. They can also lead to deva realms, celestial realms, if you haven't attained full awakening. That is to say, when you start to recollect your own virtues, you naturally recollect that, yes, my mindset is a deva mindset. My mindset is naturally filled with gratitude, naturally filled with the virtues, naturally filled with generosity, naturally filled with compassion and patience and forgiveness and so on and so forth.

And the rest of that is, for example, mindfulness of death. Now, this has been a more recent thing, in especially the retreats that I would conduct. One of the things that I've added to it is to have the five recollections. That's separate to what we've talked about. Or it's the understanding that I am subject to old age, I am subject to illness, I am subject to death, I am subject to separation from the people that I love. And the people that I love are subject to all of these things as well. This, in that sense, is the recollection of death and decay.

This leads to a profound understanding of impermanence. This helps you with your decision making process. It helps to refine what really matters in that moment, right there, right now, because if you don't have that understanding that indeed everything that is arising has the condition to also pass away, everything that we experience in this world, in this samsara, is conditioned by certain causes and conditions. Because they are conditioned and because they are dependent on previous causes and conditions, when you take away those previous causes and conditions, then that particular arising will not no longer be there. Therefore, being dependently originated, they are impermanent.

So the mindfulness of death is essentially the mindfulness of impermanence. The understanding that right now everything is impermanent. So why do I have to be so afraid of something? Why do I have to identify with what's going on? Indeed, the perception and understanding of impermanence leads to the eventual destruction of conceit, because you start taking things less personally.

Is it really that big of a deal if somebody says something to you in that moment? Is it really that big of a deal if you lose your job right now? Is it really that big of a deal if someone dies in your family? In that moment, it feels terrible, and that is the aspect of suffering, dukkha, that's also part of the perception. But in hindsight, when you look back, you realize that it really was not that big of a deal. Yes, you will go through the grieving process when somebody dies that's close to you. You'll go through the grieving process when you have a breakup. You'll go through the process of being depressed or worrisome or feeling anxious because you lost your job, or this or that. But all of that is tied to conceit, and that conceit arises because we don't have mindfulness of impermanence. We take things to be permanent that which is impermanent. We take those to be permanent.

So mindfulness of impermanence allows you to distill what is important in this moment without taking it personally, without identifying with that process. And this is what I say to everybody. When you have an experience, experience it fully. Whatever the experience is, that is to say, be completely 100% with that experience. Whether it's a pleasant experience, unpleasant experience, neutral experience, however, experience it fully without the I, without the me, mine, or myself.

This is the cessation of suffering. This is what is meant by when the Buddha talked to Bahiya and gave him that instruction. That in the seeing, there is only the seen. In the hearing, there is only the heard. In the sensing, there's only the sensed. In the cognizing, there is only the cognized. When you, Bahiya, see this, then there is no I in that. When there's no I in that, there's no I before it. There's no I by it. There's no I in it or after it.

Just this is the end of suffering. This is also the tool to understand karma. Mindfulness, establishing awareness of the present moment. As things arise, this allows you to see the arising of old karma. And because you have presence of mind, and because you have presence of mind, you're not identifying with the situation. There is a gap. There is no longer an emotional charge to the experience.

Now you're able to see it in some sense objectively, or as objective as possible. And there wisdom arises. The yoniso manasikara, the attention rooted in reality, the proper attention, which is established in the understanding of impermanence, dukkha, and not-self, arises. And therefore, you don't take it personally. Because of that, no new karma can arise. No new karma is craving, the process of craving, the process of clinging, the process of habitual tendencies, the process of birth of new action, which then gives rise to the further propagation of that karma to be or to be experienced at a future time. You cannot escape your karma, whatever that karma is. If the causes and conditions are right for that karma to arise, it will arise. But mindfulness allows you to understand this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. It's not a process of spiritually bypassing it. It is to be present fully, to be experienced fully, without taking it personally.

When you do this, you allow the flow of that karma to dissipate. And when it dissipates, it might arise again, but it will be weaker. But when it's weaker, your mindfulness will be sharper, your wisdom will be sharper, and bit by bit that old karma ceases. There is the remainderless fading away of that karma, the remainderless fading away of that craving, the remainderless fading away of that ignorance. So that's all you have to do, right? When we go back to the four foundations of mindfulness, it's a rich text of all kinds of processes that you can do. That is to say, you have mindfulness of breathing. You have the contemplation on death. You have the sati sampajanna, which I'll talk about shortly. But you have the mindfulness of the decay of this body, the mindfulness of the components of this body as the elements, or as made up of these different kinds of organs.

You have mindfulness of feeling in terms of a pleasant experience, unpleasant, neutral experience, and so on. You have mindfulness of mental states. My mind is contracted. My mind is expanded. My mind is in jhana. My mind is not in jhana. My mind is liberated. My mind is not liberated. My mind is distracted. My mind is not distracted, so on and so forth. And then phenomena, mindfulness of Dhamma. What that means is mindfulness of the four noble truths in this moment, mindfulness of the three characteristics in this moment, mindfulness of there are present hindrances in this moment, mindfulness of there are present seven enlightenment factors in this moment, or one of the enlightenment factors in this moment, and so on.

So what is sati sampajanna? So, sati here is remembering the Dhamma, remembering to be aware, remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. In other words, having the presence of mind to remain in this moment. Sampajanna can be translated as clear comprehension. So for example, in the mindfulness of breathing, when I am breathing long, I am aware that the breath is long. When I'm breathing short, I am aware that the breath is short. When I am with loving kindness, I am aware that the mind is full of loving kindness. When I am walking, I am aware that the body is walking.

When I stand up, I am aware that I'm standing up. When I eat, I am aware of the process of eating. When I am urinating, I am aware of the process of urinating. In other words, I'm here right now in whatever is going on, and I'm aware of that. Now I have established mindfulness, and what do I do? I keep that mindfulness going. How do I keep that mindfulness going? Just being, observing, just being aware of what's going on moment to moment. This is the establishment of unmodeled mindfulness. This is the process of experiencing everything fully without the I being present in that process. This is essentially the mind of the arahant. There is a sutta in which Sariputta is asked, what do you practice? What do you do now? Because the question will arise once you become fully awakened: what is the use of meditation? You don't need to meditate. Let's say that's the case, but then why is it that the arahants, or why is it that the Buddha would meditate? One, because it is pleasant. It is a pleasant abiding.

In the day-to-day activities of walking from one place to another, destination, teaching, speaking to the devas, whatever it is that the Buddha did, or whatever it is that the arahants did, there is still a time and place to just sit down and let things start to decompress. That is the pleasant abiding, coming back and just decompressing and what's going on. And the second is to inspire others. That's why they continue to meditate: is to set an example, to be a shining light of an example, saying that yes, even until now one continues to meditate, one continues to practice. It becomes automated, it becomes automatic, but one still continues to practice. And what Sariputta refers to is that one has the four foundations of mindfulness present. Why? Because the mind of the arahant is ever mindful. The mind of one who is fully awakened is ever observing what is arising and passing away. When you go back to the Satipatthana Sutta, you will see this as a refrain in every single passage.

He establishes mindfulness to the extent of understanding if covetousness and grief are present, covetousness here being craving, grief here being aversion, or to the extent of being aware of what is arising and passing away. What does that mean? The awareness of impermanence, the awareness of dependent origination. The awareness of dependent origination is twofold. There is the establishment of wisdom by seeing for yourself how this process works. When you go into meditation, when you become very collected and your mind experiences release, nibbana, and then from there you're able to see the links of dependent origination. But the second aspect to that, the other way of looking at it, is to understand: is there now present a process of identification? Is there now present a process of taking things personally? Is there now a process of conceit? Is there now a process of clinging to something, grasping onto something, craving for something, having aversion, trying to push it away? So when you see the arising and passing away of things, you are only seeing the arising and passing away of an experience. When you are able to do that, then

you don't need to do anything else, because your mind is already in a pure state. There is no craving there. There is no identification there. If you're truly doing it the way I'm explaining it, which is to say you're just aware of what is arising in the present moment without trying to conceptualize or proliferate, that's the other word that the Buddha uses: papancha is proliferation. Proliferation of what? Proliferation of craving, clinging, habitual tendencies and the birth of action, proliferation of identity, identifying with one or more of the five aggregates, in this case the experience that's going on. But nibbana

is nipapancha, or non-proliferation: no more activity in the mind, total cessation of all roots of greed, hatred and delusion. But it all starts with understanding this word, mindfulness. It means to come back to the Dhamma, the Dhamma of this moment, what is going on right here, right now. Once you do this, the more you do this, the more you utilize the six hours, that is to say right effort. Your mindfulness becomes stronger automatically, and the stronger your mindfulness becomes, the more collected your mind is. And with that collected mind, which is the yoking of samatha and vipassana, there arises naturally without you having to do anything.

No expectations, dropping of all concepts, dropping of all effort when the time is right, because you still need the effort of letting go. But when there is nothing else left to let go, when all conditions are right and when all conditions have dropped, then you have the total cessation of perception, feeling and consciousness, and then there is the capacity for nibbana to occur. All right, I'm going to stop here, and I'm going to take some questions now. Can I ask a question? Delson: yes, who is speaking? Brian: yes, there you go, yes, go ahead. Well, that talk was worth more than all the money in the world, I'll tell you that. Could you describe what you mean by process of identification? I haven't. Still, I know what identification with an experience means. Yeah, so when I say process of identification, it means that you take yourself to be the experiencer. In other words, when you have some kind of experience of something pleasant, if you take that experience to be mine, or I am the originator of that experience, or I am beholden to this experience

How would I be able to identify that? Well, you will when you start to see that tension that arises. Very simply put, when that tension arises, the mind saying, I like this or I don't like this, and then there's a further tension built upon it, saying I hope this doesn't stop or I hope this does stop, if it is pleasant. When you start to notice that and you let go of it, then you let go of identification. Where it can also arise, very generally put: when we talk about conceit, there's different kinds of conceit, but that conceit is basically saying that I'm greater than this, or I am less than this, or I'm equal to this. Whenever you have this word of I am, in other words you're just letting the mind do its thing. Here is an experience, and you are taking a back seat, so to speak. I'm a lot, I'm just saying this for the purposes of illustration. You're essentially becoming the so-called silent witness of everything that's happening.

That's the first step: just be the observer to everything that's happening. This, you can see a lot in meditation. When you're in the meditation, if you're truly meditating in the effective manner, as per that which leads to Nibbana, then you're just seeing all thoughts as clouds in the sky, having nothing to do with you. That is the wisdom, or that is the insight, that allows you to remain in that 24-7. So you remain. You allow things to happen, and you don't take them. You don't take the front seat of I'm controlling this, I am the controller of this. You just, okay, this is what is happening, being aware of this is what is happening, and not getting involved. I think I remember you saying that. That's right, the non-involvement of the experience.

Great, thanks. David's got his hand raised, and you can raise your hand under the reactions, just click reactions, and you'll find the hand raise there. And just a note, please keep the questions not too long, so the questions don't become the answers. Go ahead, David. Thank you, thanks, Delson. My question dovetails off the last short one. How do I, when I'm the observer and just developing awareness, how do I not see the awareness is mine, so that there's still an I, something that's doing the observing?

Don't worry about that, that'll take care of itself. So you say. I'll trust you. I'll trust you, brother. Oh, Lotus One. Thank you, Dustin, for your talk. Thank you, David. I'm trying to reconcile the different ways that mindfulness is always talked about. We talked about mindfulness as remembering to observe how your attention moves from one object to the other.

I always thought these objects were the sense objects. I noticed how my mind moves from eye contact to eye feeling, to pleasant eye feeling or unpleasant eye feeling, to craving. But then the Satipatthana talks about the four foundations of mindfulness: body, feeling, mind, mind objects. This seems to imply concentration, that to be aware is to notice these things. So I guess, how does the observing of how the mind's attention moves from one object to another fit with the Satipatthana Sutta, which seems to imply you're just noticing these things and concentrating on them, if you will? Yeah, so, the Satipatthana Sutta, as I was mentioning earlier, what I want to get across about this is the word patana is very important to understand. Prastana in Sanskrit also means to establish. So they're basically anchor points to establish mindfulness. So you could use the breath as coming back to the present moment,

or you could use the recollection of feeling as coming back to the present moment. You can use just being aware of what's going on. So you could use any of these as anchor points to come back, and thereby being able to be aware where your mind is moving from one thing to the other. So in the case of meditation you're using the object of meditation as your anchor point. I see. So it's just a starting point for mindfulness. It's not like that's right, and they'll be all my activity of mindfulness. It's just we, you might be meta, right, or the body. It's just, yeah, to come back to and then observe.

Yes, exactly. All right, thank you so much, that was clear. Next, Apple Pie. This is in the chat, evidently. Hi Delson, I have a question. Arahant is mindful all the time. Does this mean they sleep while awake? They are free from the five hindrances. Does this include sleepiness, or do they sleep differently? Can you talk about how the stages of the path influence changes in sleep patterns? You're going to have to ask an arahant about that, but what I'll say is, in the suttas, especially the Satipatthana Sutta, it talks about

how one mindfully goes to sleep, so he establishes mindfulness before him and then sleeps, determining the time of awakening or waking up. That is something that we also do on retreat, which is we say, try to, if you have a wake-up time at 6 a.m., determine you're going to wake up at 5:58 or 5:57 or 6:04 or whatever it is. Whether that means that the mind is asleep or not, it just depends on who you ask, but essentially, when we say mind sleepiness

that means sloth and torpor, but sloth and torpor is dullness of the mind. So that means that the mind goes into a state of just becoming very, very thick. It's like the awareness becomes like maple syrup. It's just very gooey. I can't really see anything clearly, and that does happen in sleep when you have the dreamlike states, when you have this so-called unaware state of deep sleep. So based on that, it could be interpreted that possibly for a fully awakened being, when they go to sleep they're still aware of the stages of sleep. They're aware: okay, now it's getting into deep sleep, now it's getting into REM, whatever it might be. But when you become an arahant, you can let us know how it works. Yeah, you can go ahead and come back and let us know that and many other things. Yeah, okay, Jordan.

Hi Delson, great talk today, very, very full of really great references. So you set up my homework for me tonight. Hey, just to kind of two things. First, really quickly, when you talk about the four foundations and I meet a lot of vipassana friends that are noting, and they're referencing the content of the four foundations, a feeling tone like I'm hot, or a thought like I'm worried, so do you, when you're referring to these foundations, are we referring to the context of it rather than the content? The content, context of thinking, the context of feeling. Could you explain that?

Yeah, this is a good point that you bring up, because I would say the noting practice is valid to the extent that it establishes mindfulness again: the mind is thinking this, or the body is walking, or whatever the experience is going on. But that is the first step of the 6R's, when we recognize that the mind is doing something. That's the first step. If you're noticing that the content of the mind or the activity or the experience is unwholesome, you can't just keep saying, unwholesome mind, unwholesome mind, unwholesome mind. That's not going to get you anywhere. That's just basically like you're putting attention where attention is not required. Noting is just the first step. Oh, mind is unwholesome right now. The release, relaxation, coming back to a wholesome state, and maintaining that wholesome state is utilization of right effort.

So in that way, mindfulness and right effort are kind of interspersed. When you recognize you already have mindfulness, but now you're utilizing the rest of the right effort to come back to something that is wholesome. That is the way one ought to look at it. Okay, uh, next, iPhone, I think that might be me. Thank you, David. Thank you, thank you, Delson, for the wonderful talk as always. Um, I've been listening to your talks for a while, and in one of them you referred to karma, I believe, is stale fair, and I was curious in respect to right effort. Is all that is manifest before us now effectively a result of historical craving, like from previous lives, and if and subsequently is all craving that continues now the seed of future karmic birth? Yes. Yes, to a certain extent. What I mean by that is we can't say that everything that happens to us is necessarily a result of past craving, but a large portion of it can be due to having clinging and craving and so on, and therefore we then experience the manifestation

of the effects of that previous craving as what is present now, here in the moment. If we choose to take it personally and become reactive to it, through the seeds of further craving and clinging, then we continue to propagate that cycle. So if we are able to establish mindfulness and notice that, and let go of that initial reaction to take it personally, then we allow the karma to be as it is, the experience to be as it is, and it dissipates, because there's no more fuel, no more propulsion, no more momentum given to it through further acts of craving. It starts to dissipate until it's no more, until the causes and conditions wear out.

The reason I say this, to a large extent, is because it's important not to become rooted in a predeterministic mindset, and the Buddha actually addressed this in a sutta called the Sivaka Sutta, where oftentimes the brahmins would say, it is due to your karma that you are this and that and all the other things. And the Buddha said, how do you actually know that, unless you've seen for yourself? How do you actually know that? All you can do is figure out what's happening here in the present and deal with it as and when it arises.

And the Buddha then said there are other factors present, not only our past karma, but there are also other things that come together with it. There could be the environment. There could be, in that time with the Buddha, it was the humors of the body, that is to say imbalances in the way the body functions, that could result in a negative effect on our health. There could be accidents. He gave a reason to say that accidents can arise too, or the things that are happening in society that have nothing to do with us. It's just happening as a result of other causes and conditions. Our karma might come into that field, so to speak, and give rise to the experience that is the fruition of previous karma, but it is not the end-all be-all of this process. That is why I say it's to a large extent.

Thank you very much. Okay, John. Well, thank you. Well, I wrote this down so that I would have it. It would sound for it, I'm already still good. The only way that I've found to sharpen mindfulness is to have some interest in an object, and that interest is a kind of concentration, but as my mindfulness is sharpened, it becomes more like an autonomous function of mine, with no effort. And then there's a certain amount of mindfulness that's just automatic that I carry around with me. But then I still have to develop the practice and apply attention during a sitting, but it's more like I'm continuing to work at sort of the frontier of wherever I am. I don't need any more level of interest, but it's the same effort that slowly peels back. So that's where I am right now.

You had talked about right effort as being a way of sharpening mindfulness, and I wanted to confirm that I heard that correctly. I get that setting conditions of mind helps with sort of set and setting, but is there another aspect of right effort that helps with sharpening mindfulness? It would be nice to have another tool in the toolbox. Now, when you look at the factors of the eightfold path, they lead into each other, so to speak. Maybe it doesn't seem like that from the get-go, but right view leads to right intention. Right view informs the rest of the factors of the path. But right intention leads to right speech, right action, and right livelihood, because if you don't have right intention, you won't speak in the right way, you won't act in the right way in concordance with the Noble Eightfold Path.

In the same way, when we talk about right effort, which is the first component of samadhi, this composite that we call samadhi is an aggregate. We call samadhi, the right effort is the equipment. It's also mentioned in Majjhima Nikaya 43, where Sariputta is talking to Mahakotthita, and he says that right effort and right mindfulness are the equipment for concentration. They are essential, they are needed for this. But also, right effort is, as I said earlier, interspersed with right mindfulness, so not only does it lead to right mindfulness, but right mindfulness is part of right effort. As soon as you recognize that there was a distraction, you are, bit by bit, sharpening your awareness, bit by bit sharpening your ability to observe, bit by bit sharpening your ability to catch craving before it even can spurt out into full-blown clinging and so on. And thereby, when you do this, you are establishing that mindfulness. This is how you sharpen that mindfulness. Thank you. Okay, Quill. Hi, Delson.

Thank you for today. I aspire to doing night practices with some success and some not so successful. The question that arises, one of the trainings is to write down the content of the dreams that are not lucid, and to try to do that each day, and it seems to me that that's like trying to follow one's thoughts, like the content of my thoughts, which, knowing I'm thinking, is one thing, and coming back. So I'm wondering the value if I'm actually doing something contraindicated for bringing awareness into the dream state. I mean, I have that experience at times.

That's probably enough. Yeah, no, I understand. This isn't something we necessarily do with TWIM, which is observing our dreams, but since you mentioned it, we can talk about it as a larger part of the practice, which is observing what happens in meditation as well. But I'll be more specific with your question with regards to dreams.

The way I see it, and you can test it for yourself and see if it makes sense, so take it with a grain of salt, but this is how I understand it: when we become present to the situation, when we become present to, let's say, observing our dreams, we don't necessarily need to note every single content of the dream, but by the nature of being present to that dream, when we recollect that dream we're able to do so with greater ease. So the lucidity there is just being observing of the dream state and what is present, and then the process of revising or looking back into what arose is the memory that is established through mindfulness. Remember going back to the word sati, meaning memory, and that is only being sharpened or available to us when we're fully just observing, when we're fully just aware. Now, on a larger extent, when it comes to the practice of meditation, that's exactly what we're doing as well, or that is the way it ought to be, because that's what I tell people on retreat.

When, especially when you go into these more refined states where you're seeing the arising and passing away of impressions and sankharas, and so on and so forth, you don't need to be so aware of every single thing that's happening. All you have to do is keep letting go but be present. Then when your meditation is done, you just reflect on what happened, and whatever has happened will come into the forefront of your mind, and then you'll be able to write them down and then tell me in the interviews. So that, to that extent, I think is useful: it is to really sharpen the memory. Automatically it's nothing more than just being present and aware.

Thank you. Okay. Delson, there's a question in the chat. How do you maintain this sort of mindfulness when you're at work, you're in an intense problem-solving mode, programming brain, deep analysis, or even can you, yeah? So when we talk about day-to-day activities or even processes where it requires a lot of attention, being aware of what it is that we're doing, right there starts to bring a level of collectedness to the experience. So this is the true flow state that other people talk about, where the mind became so aware, and so in it, to the extent that everything else was blocked out. That is one-pointedness. And so it feels like the mind is in flow, but then when you come out of it, the mind is not refreshed. The mind feels tired. It feels like it wants to rest.

But if you're actually in a real flow state, which happens in meditation, if you're going through the jhanas and so on, which we'll talk about next week, but if you're in a real flow state, let's say you need some deep problem solving to do, maybe you need some brainstorming to do, all you're doing is just being available to what arises in the mind. In the case of brainstorming, allow that flow to happen, but you don't become so focused on it to the extent that now you're just trying to get back into that flow, right, in trying to maintain it. The same with any kind of deeper analysis. You know, when we talk about analysis and we talk about brainstorming, we talk about these kinds of things, these are all what might seem like mental, thinking-based, but you have to be more creative with this. You have to be more right-brained, as it were.

And the best way to do that is to open yourself up to the possibilities of what comes up. When you open yourself up to the possibilities, then you don't take these things personally. It is like you have opened up the floodgates and you're allowing whatever comes up to come up. And you are just being aware of what is coming up. And then you're utilizing your ability to say, this makes sense, or this doesn't make sense. But the chances are greater that if you do it through this process, this intuitive, creative process, then whatever does come up will most likely be the best solution for that problem in that moment, as per that particular situation.

So the utilization of mindfulness is not to be like 100%, like, now I'm just tunnel-visioned on what's going on. No, no, no. It's all about having an expansive awareness, having an open awareness, having an awareness that allows you to be present to what is coming up and trusting in the process of analysis or brainstorming or problem solving, whatever it is.

And most importantly is to have fun with it. When we start to become one-pointed, we become so serious, and you see it on people's faces. You know, there's like this fringe on the brow and people are just becoming very serious. There's no more smiling, nothing. But if you have fun with it, then you are naturally creative, you open yourself up to that intuitive creativity. So smile with it, have fun with it, make it a game. Whatever you're doing, we talk about that on retreat when we talk about meditation, make it a game. Do the same thing with your activities in your daily life, make it something that you can have fun with. Now, here's another thing to understand. Talking about this process of flow, you get lost in it, and that's not what you want to do. As soon as you get lost in it, now you're getting into that process of just not aware of what's going on. This happens also when you get used to habits.

You'll notice when you brush your teeth you might not be fully aware of brushing your teeth. It's just another mundane task that you have to do. Oftentimes when people are driving, they go from one point to the next and they're like, how did I get here? I was listening to the radio, I was having a conversation, I was driving, but I was not really aware of what was going on in terms of the turns and things. It became like a habit, especially when you're going from one route to the other every single day.

So for those things, I would say to combat that attachment to habit is to do things differently. Have fun with it. If you're brushing with your right hand, brush with your left hand. If you're taking this route from work, take a different route. Be more aware, be more attentive in this way. Next question. Okay, next question from Steve. Samatha and Vipassana. In this practice, what would be the Samatha part? And what would be the Vipassana? Trying to understand what is the anchor. TWIM. TWIM is Samatha Vipassana. Tranquil wisdom, insight, meditation. What does that mean? Tranquil. Tranquilize the formations.

That means to let go of any tightness and tension. Let go of any kind of hindrances in the mind. Let go of any kind of distractions, and the mind naturally becomes calmer. That's the samatha aspect, the tranquility aspect. Wisdom, insight is the vipassana, being open to what insights arise in the mind. Insights can never come from analysis.

Insights can never come from thinking and reflecting. Insights can only arise when you are open to them. So the vipassana part of that is just being open to what arises. This you will see in the meditation as well. When you get deeper into the jhanas, for example, in the fifth jhana and the sixth jhana, in the fifth jhana you have infinite space and you are aware of that. In the sixth jhana, you are aware of infinite consciousness. You become present to the experience of impermanence, the arising and passing away of causes and conditions, to the dukkha nature of it, to the anatta of it. These are the three characteristics that are the main insights that arise, especially in the sixth jhana.

And then other insights that arise are, how does the mind work? How does the mind go from non-craving to craving? How does the mind start to identify with this? How does the mind do anything? That is the vipassana aspect. That is the wisdom insight aspect of it. And when they are yoked together, it means that first you have let go of all of the very basic distractions that are there in the mind. And you get into these levels of understanding, which are the jhanas, and you start to understand, okay, here is present now joy.

Here is present now happiness. Here is present now a feeling of equanimity. That is the vipassana. So it can be samatha followed by vipassana. It can be aware to what's going on, and therefore the mind starts to let go. Or it could be yoked together, which is the twin practice, which then ultimately leads to nibbana. Okay. Chandima has a question. Could you please explain how we differentiate between the controlling mind with craving and an observing mind with wholesome thoughts?

Say that again, please. - Well, how do we differentiate between a craving mind and an observing mind where you're just simply, you're observing what's there in the present? I'm not sure it's a question. - Well, you can't differentiate. Well, here's the thing. If you observe the craving mind, then there's no craving. - Ah, there you go. Yeah, I think it leads to, I think he had another thought, which was he has some joy, for example, you have some joy arise and then your mind says, oh, I have all this joy arising, oh, this is interesting, and so that's, oh, is that craving? Should I... six, are that? That's the question. No, no need. Yeah, on it. Okay. Ryan

hi delson um firstly i just want to say uh thank you for all your talks and uh so my question is um so basically over the last uh seven months or so uh david johnson's been helping me a lot over email and uh so starting about a month ago i was i've been able to get into the eighth jhana and um so in my sits you know sometimes uh like a wall appears and uh you know i'm starting to like merge into it and then uh some excitement comes up because uh uh basically like i really like deep down like i really just want that uh the joy to come up after the nibbana experience you you know what I'm talking about uh all that like uh relief so um

yeah so then joy comes up and it takes me out of that like merging into the the wall so like oh you okay I just heard it takes you out of the merging of the wall and then I didn't get the rest of that oh sorry um yeah so then it takes me out of it so like what what should I do to like uh you know overcome that that craving that attachment all right so the one thing you might have heard me say in different talks is nirvana happens when you least expect it

so you can't want nirvana in the to the extent that you become like nirvana has to happen now i want nirvana right now like i i want to get that right now because that is an expectation So when I say when you least expect it, it means that there is not even a concern. There's complete disenchantment and dispassion.

I don't care whether that nebada arises or not. I'm just going to continue to meditate. That's the attitude that you have to have. So which suggests that you need to continue to have more disenchantment and dispassion. What is the difference between the two? Disenchantment means that you have become sick of craving. You've had too much of craving, you know, like, I don't care what happens now. Come what may, I'm just going to keep meditating. I'm just going to keep observing. Dispassion means what? Dispassion is a fruit of disenchantment where the mind remains unconcerned, unaffected. It's like a Teflon mind. Whatever comes up, it just goes past. It goes right through it. It doesn't stick.

But in order for you to have that disenchantment, you need equanimity. So what that means is, if you start to find craving coming up, if you try to start to find it's starting to merge into that particular experience, and now there's, oh, here it's come, here it comes, which means you're becoming enchanted, not enough disenchantment. So the factor for disenchantment is equanimity. So when you notice that, you let go of that, go back to radiating equanimity for a little while until you come back to that experience.

The thing is, you haven't had enough of that experience to be sick of it. You haven't had enough ice cream bowls to be like, enough, I don't want that anymore. So the relief will only happen, the nibbana will only happen when you don't even want it. You're just meditating for the sake of meditating and being present to what is going on. So the tool here is equanimity. You notice there's more enchantment, you notice the excitement arising. Okay, I'm going to let that go. I'm going to go back to radiating equanimity for a while until I get back into quiet mind, and then just be observant, see what happens. Don't do anything. Thank you. Okay, do we have any other questions?

Looks, not all right, Delson. It looks like that's it. Oh, we finished early today. Yeah, looks, looks that way. We've, we've attained cessation. Oh no, we have a hindrance, David. I am the hindrance. I am the hindrance. Um, yeah. Uh, Delson, you said I just needed clarification. It wasn't obvious to me. You said if you're aware and observing, then you're not desiring. Um, I desire to be aware and observing. Uh, good, nothing wrong with it. Okay, so how does it paradoxically drop out then? So there's something called tanha, which is the obsession over something, which is the craving, the clinging towards something. It's a reaction to say, I want more of this, more, more, more, or the reaction to say, get that away from me, that's the aversion, or the reaction of, you know, I, I, I am going to be this particular thing. But there's something else called chanda. Chanda is the wholesome intention and wholesome inclination towards nibbana, towards wanting to be aware.

Nothing wrong with that. You want to be aware, go right ahead. When you observe that, the mind starts to say, I want more, more, and more. As soon as you observe that, it drops away, and then you replace it with a mind that is free of any kind of craving. How, I'm just, it just, what desire, I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, I understand, uh, it almost seems like an impossible task. Uh, no, no, no. Listen, you're using desire to be an umbrella term for craving desire.

There's two kinds of desire. There's the unwholesome desire and there's the wholesome desire. The unwholesome desire is the craving. The wholesome desire is the intention to meditate, is the intention to keep the precepts, is the intention to be aware, is the intention to be generous, is the intention to follow the eightfold path. Without that desire, no action can arise, and without that action you can't make any progress. So, I appreciate that nuance. Uh, so I'm neurotic and I am so driven to want that, that I... going back to my earlier question, I am so stuck in my head in terms of constantly, um, looping into this awareness that becomes almost obsessive, and so I do want freedom from it, and that's, I guess, the impossible task that it almost seems like, the path is getting in my way. I'm, I'm like, again, so, um, constricted around holding on to it, sitting in meditation, doing the practice. What did Delson say about this? How do I do, to him? I'm supposed to relax.

And it's fine, but I again, I find it like almost like, um, a golden cage where I'm so stuck and trapped in my mind, that freedom. Everyone says to me, you know, surrender, surrender, surrender, and like what you said, once you let go, then, um, it'll drop away, but, uh, I am... yeah, it's grueling for me. I've done plant medicine, uh, could not surrender. I mean, it's just, it's grueling. Yeah, so you know, uh, for this situation what I would say is it's better to not do anything at all, uh, because the more you try to do something, the deeper you dig yourself into this like never-ending loop of like, okay, now I gotta do this, now I gotta do that, oh, did I do it right, did I not do it, you know? Just sit, just sit, smile, stay with the smile, see what... okay, thank you. All right, yeah, sit and smile. It's a really powerful method. Go outside and sit and smile and just relax, and the mind just goes, yeah. A question in the chat.

when you're in an extremely unpleasant situation it's hard to separate yourself from the eye a conceit now i can 6r but do you have another method to just be in the situation without the eye yeah uh see the thing is what are we trying to six are we're trying to six are the process of reacting to the situation because we want to come to a point where we're okay with the situation no matter how unpleasant it is easier said than none absolutely because your nervous system becomes so aggravated by the unpleasant situation that it wants to react that is its tendency but if you understand the principle behind the six star which is to locate that okay aversion is present in this if aversion is present in this

then obviously conceit is already present in it as well. Notice the aversion and let go of that, and try to come into a mindset that is more accepting of the process, and you might have to do it over and over and over again. But remember not to use the 6R's like Bhante would say, like a stick, preemptively, trying to do the 6R's. I'm trying to relax, but as I'm trying to relax my mind gets tense, so I'm tensing up my mind and relaxing so that I can feel the relaxation. Now notice when the tension comes and relax it. Tension comes, relax, tension goes away, great, tension comes back, 6R's. All right. So you have to make it an exercise, and the best way to do it is do it in situations which is not that unpleasant, so that as you start to build up your chops, as it were, then you can deal with any situation, anywhere, at any time. Okay.

And, Ryan, yeah, so, doesn't... so I had another question come up in regards to what your answer was. So you said if the excitement comes up when I'm at, like, the doorway to the sign list, then I should go back to radiating equanimity. So my first question is, is there, like, a set amount of time I should be in the equanimity? And then another question is, uh, you know, when I'm in the eighth genre, like, uh, I can't really, like, bring up the equanimity, really, like, it kind of... I don't know, I can't really bring it up. So yeah. So here's what to do: make it a very natural process. Don't worry about how long it's going to take, or the time, and so on. So it's basically like, okay, there's excitement in my mind.

I'm going to let that go and try to just remain observing to what's going on. Do that a few times. It doesn't work. Okay. I'm going to just sit here and be with a quiet mind, and I'm going to just bring up some equanimity. I'm going to bring up some level of equanimity by bringing up the enlightened factor of equanimity, and see if that starts to kind of dull, I wouldn't say dull out, but starts to de-sharpen that kind of like grasping nature of the mind, and be like more wavy rather than just very sharp. When that happens and the mind becomes like looser, it becomes less, you know, less expecting of situations.

So, one, there is no real time frame as such. Second, try just letting it go and relaxing for a little bit. And if that doesn't work, then, okay, take back, take a step back and see what's going on. If you're able to just stay with the quiet mind and remain there, stay with that. If the quiet mind is, you know, a little bit shaky, take a step back again and go to equanimity.

And that doesn't mean that you have to force yourself to send out equanimity. It's just the intention of equanimity present, and that starts to radiate on its own. Thank you so much, Delson. Okay, let's see, there's another question by someone, but I guess the hand was down after that. Yeah, let's see. Okay, here's, oh, Samila, yeah, go ahead. Thanks. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Sorry, I lowered my hand because I only have like four percent battery left in my phone. Thanks so much for the talk. Uh, I have a question related to, like, the daily life in mindfulness and mindful, and also during the meditation. So during the meditation, when the mind is very quiet

I could, I could feel a sensation. It is, it is like when the community dissipates, when it's no longer there, I can, like, stay in the quiet mind, but then I can feel something. It's a mind feeling, feeling in the mind. And I can see the same thing during daily life as well, when I'm aware of what I'm doing, and, like, when I can look inward in my mind when it is utterly peaceful. I can still sense the same feeling even without the intention to radiate equanimity. So I was puzzled what to do, especially during the meditation.

Whether I should fixar this mental feeling I feel, or just stay with the mind, just what, what, in mind, how it goes. So, in daily life, during daily life, I kind of, like, get myself an anchor to this feeling, so every time when the mind suddenly distracts, because it quickly comes back, but I can feel that feeling. So it is, it has become like an anchor, even when I don't have the intention to radiate the community. So I'm not sure whether I'm putting more effort, and I am more aware of this feeling. So, okay. Okay, I think we've got it, Delson. So, always when you sit in meditation, I would say when you start out, you always radiate something, because that helps balance the energy. Once you get back, once you get into quiet mind, and there's the experience of quiet mind, of mind watching mind, stay with that. No problem. That's happening when you're in your daily activity. No problem. Stay with it. No concerns, no issues with that.

All right, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let's see, there was a question in the chat: could you elaborate on name and form? Name and form. You guys have another two hours. Yeah, maybe. That's, were you gonna do it? Yeah. Okay, we'll have to do it. We'll have to do a dependent origination series at some point, but name and form, right? That is basically mind and body, or nama rupa, mentality and materiality. Name is comprised of these components: contact, feeling, perception, intention and attention. And form is the five, the form aggregate. It's the four elements: earth, water, fire and air.

What that means is the form is this body that we carry around with us, let's say, so to speak. But the name is the mind. Now, it doesn't mean the mind is here, the mind is here, the mind is everywhere. It's just mind, however you want to take it. These faculties of mind is how you understand mind. It's a reflection of mind. That is to say, when you say contact, it is the faculty that facilitates for you to experience the contact of something. It is the feeling faculty that allows you to experience the sensation

or the vedana of an experience. It is the perception faculty that allows the mind to recognize, or recognize rooted in memory, what that experience is. If it's the color red, if it's a dinosaur, if it's a Bodhi tree, whatever it is. The intention aspect of that is related to formations. But intention here means inclining the mind towards something. It's the faculty that allows you to incline the mind towards something. That is the chetana, the volition, the intention.

And the attention is what carries forward the light of consciousness. Consciousness is the spotlight, or the light in general. Attention is the direction in which that spotlight is, and intention is where you move that spotlight. Okay. So mind is comprised, or mentality is comprised, of these five faculties: contact, feeling, perception, intention and attention. It is through these that you interact with body, that you understand what body is, and it is through body that these faculties are able to come together.

Consciousness and nama rupa, mentality and materiality, and consciousness are interwoven and interdependent, because consciousness gives light to the awareness of these faculties, including the body. And it is through the faculties, or the tools of mentality and materiality, that you're able to see or be aware, therefore have consciousness. I'll stop there. I mean, there's a lot to discuss there, but that's as far as I'll go. Okay, good. Um, there is a full dependent origination series that Delson went through on YouTube. I'd suggest everybody take a look at that.

Any other questions? We'll take one more question, or we can share merit. I think we're going to share some merit, so all right, let's go ahead. I think I can put this on the screen here. And there we go. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shadow 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 others. May they long protect, but as dispensation. All right, thank you everybody, we're grateful. Thank you. See you guys next week. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thank you very much.