2025 SN 46.54 Proof of Jhanas attained using Metta with Delson Armstrong Sunday Series at DSMC

Here we are again. Got my AI-created image of the Buddha with loving-kindness, which we will be talking about today. I believe we are doing the sutta accompanied by loving-kindness. I'm not mistaken? Yeah, I have that ready to share. Delson, please take it away. You can share the screen when you're ready. Yeah, please go ahead. Okay, here we are. So this is Samyutta Nikaya 46.54. "On one occasion, the Blessed One was dwelling among the Kosalans, where there was a town of the Kosalans named Halidavasana. Then in the morning, a number of bhikkhus dressed and taking their bowls and robes entered Halidavasana for alms. Then it occurred to them, it is still too early to walk for alms."

In Halidavasana, let us go to the park of the wanderers of other sects. I've always wondered about that. When you have the bhikkhus, or the Buddha, saying let's go out for alms, and then they realize it's a bit too early for alms. Very interesting setup. I don't know why they do that, but here we are. "Then those bhikkhus went to the park of the wanderers of other sects. They exchanged greetings with those wanderers, and when they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk, they sat down to one side. The wanderers then said to them, 'Friends, the ascetic Gautama'" - that's how they addressed the Buddha, because that's the name that... Here's an interesting thing about the Buddha, right?

So the Buddha is a title for one who is awakened. Buddha literally means awakened, the awakened one. And he always referred to himself as the Tathagata, which means the thus one gone, or the one who has experienced that, which is, experienced the Dhamma. Gautama is actually his clan name. So that's what people who were outside of the retinue of bhikkhus would have addressed him as, the ascetic Gautama. Siddhartha was his given name. So that's why he's Siddhartha Gautama before he then became the Buddha.

He says it with one quarter. the forward direction, another quarter, the right, another quarter behind you, another quarter left of you, and then above and below and to all as to himself. What does that mean? It means that that doesn't mean that you don't stop sending loving kindness to yourself. You become the loving kindness. You become the source of loving kindness. You become the source of compassion. You become the source of equanimity and joy and so on. So you don't forget about yourself. You are actually, pervading through you, so to speak, and therefore you're shining out the loving kindness in all directions. And so thus above, below, across, and everywhere, and to all as to oneself, dwell pervading the entire world with a mind imbued with equanimity, vast, exalted, measureless, without hostility, without ill will.

And so they say, "We too, friends, teach the Dhamma to our disciples thus. Come, friends, abandon the five hindrances." And so all of those things that the Buddha said. So, friends, what here is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the ascetic Gautama and us? That is, regarding the one Dhamma teaching and the other, regarding the one manner of instruction and the other. That's an interesting question. So what is that suggesting? The Brahma Viharas are present, or have been present, in other traditions. It's not a new meditation object. It has been available in many different traditions. But there is a difference, right? They say also, we will try to abandon the five hindrances. But now the question is, what is the difference between what they're doing and what the Buddha is teaching?

I'm going to have to ask you guys to excuse me for one second. I will be back. "...in it without rejecting it." They rose from their seats and left, thinking, we shall learn the meaning of this statement in the presence of the Buddha. Then those bhikkhus had walked for alms in Halidavasana and had returned from the alms round. After their meal they approached the Blessed One, having paid homage to him, they sat down to one side and reported to him the entire discussion between those wanderers and themselves.

The Blessed One said this: "Because when wanderers of other sects speak thus, they should be asked: Friends, how is the liberation of the mind by loving kindness developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal? How is the liberation of the mind by compassion developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal? How is the liberation of the mind by altruistic joy, mudita, joy let's say, developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal? How is the liberation of the mind by equanimity developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal?"

"Being thus asked, those wanderers would not be able to reply. And further, they would meet with vexation. Why? For what reason? Because that would not be within their domain. I do not see anyone, because in this world with its devas, Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and Brahmins, its devas and humans, who could satisfy the mind with an answer to these questions, except the Tathagata, or a disciple of the Tathagata, or one who has heard it from them." So when he says liberation of the mind by loving kindness develops, what is he saying? It's being translated from the word "chaito ve muti", liberation of the mind by loving kindness. This could mean two things.

One is the full release of the mind. That is, it becomes free of all the bondages of samsara and therefore has attained final fruit. Or it could be a temporary liberation, which is to say that it actually leads you into a jhana. And jhanas are temporary liberations. Now this is the question that the Buddha has, or he's now going to discuss it. And what does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal? Factor of mindfulness accompanied by loving kindness. The enlightenment factor of, okay, so what are the seven enlightenment factors?

Mindfulness, discernment, or what I call understanding, investigation, as it's usually translated, energy, joy, tranquility, electiveness, and equanimity. These are the seven enlightenment factors. So what is the relevance of the enlightenment factors here? What are we talking about when we're talking about the enlightenment factors? Are they something to be concentrated on? Or are they something that happens in tandem with whatever is happening with the meditation? It's the latter in this process. What is the enlightenment factor of mindfulness? Mindfulness is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. This is what we've heard over and over and over. And it will be something you will continue to hear over and over and over until you understand, on an experiential level, what mindfulness is.

When we talk about mindfulness, it is the ability to observe what is happening right now, here in the present moment, and discerning what is going on, where the mind's attention is. Is the mind distracted, or is the mind collected? Of the investigation is curiosity. It's a process of where is the mind right now? It's not an investigation into, okay, I need to figure out all of the steps that are leading to this and this and this. It's just an open awareness that remains curious. And if then that curiosity remains, that interest remains, there is an experience of a balance of energy. Is this so? Because we have to go back to the five hindrances in order to really understand this.

The enlightenment factors themselves are antidotes or deterrents against the five hindrances. When we have a level of curiosity towards an object, towards whatever is happening in the mind, we're doing this as a deterrent against sloth and torpor, a mind that has fogginess, a mind that has drowsiness, a mind that has dullness, or the body is tired, which results in the mind being a little too, I don't feel like doing this, or a little lazy. So when you start to add that, what does it do? It balances the energy. It brings up the energy level in the mind. You're bringing the mindfulness again, realizing, okay, there is some level of sloth and torpor here. So I'm going to bring a bit more investigation.

This leads to an arousal of energy, balanced energy. So now this can lead to some level of joy. So now we have mindfulness, we have investigation, we have energy or balancing of energy, and then joy. Why do we have joy? Because when we realize we are free from that hindrance, whatever the hindrance is, there's a pamoja that arises. And when the pamoja starts to become more prevalent in the mind, it transforms into piti, it transforms into joy, a mind that is uplifted. And when that mind is uplifted, it's easier for the mind to remain attentive to one particular object. Therefore, now collectedness is present, the mind has equanimity. Equanimity is being able to see things as they are, one way or the other, without getting affected one way or the other.

So in other words, yes, now there is sloth and torpor, but the mind remains equanimous to that. Okay, yes, there is restlessness. The mind is mindful, aware of that. It doesn't get caught up in it. To have equanimity means that we don't get caught up in it, getting caught up in it. And then we can relax. We can use a 6R's process. I've said this before in some of my talks, where the 6R's themselves are essentially the balancing of the enlightenment factors. How so? Every time we are able to recognize that we are distracted, we have brought back our mindfulness. Curiosity is the investigation, the realization, the understanding, the discernment of what is present in mind and what is not present in mind.

And when we choose to release our attention from that distraction and then relax, we're rebalancing our energy. When we come back to the smile, we now have a level of joy. When we relax, we have tranquility. Tranquility results in joy. The joy and tranquility can be interrelated. When the mind is joyful, there's tranquility. When the mind is tranquil, there can be joy. This tranquility leads to further collectedness. So what do we do? We are bringing our mind back to its object. This is collectedness. And by doing that whole process, we are developing stronger and stronger equanimity. It happens quite naturally. We don't need to bring up these enlightenment factors in a way that is like, now I have to make this effort.

As soon as you do that, what's going to happen? It's going to result in suppression. And when you have suppression, when you have one-pointedness, it creates all kinds of problems later. What are those problems? When you are finished with the meditation, you may feel very calm. You may feel very equanimous. Very joyful. You may feel you're floating on cloud nine. But then something happens to trigger the arousal of those hindrances, and you haven't developed the wisdom to deal with them. So when the hindrances come, treat them as guests. In India, we say, which means the guests are like devas. How would you treat devas when they come to you? You would treat them with respect.

You would treat them with, come, please stay for as long as you can or whatever it is. And when you're ready to go, you can go. But if you have rudeness, if you have resistance, what's going to happen? It's going to create more ruffles in the mind. Likewise, you treat the hindrances like, yes, they're coming in. I see you here. That's fine. My attention to the hindrance is the fuel for that hindrance to stay. As soon as I put my attention back on the mind and body or just the mind and intentionalize to relax, now my mind is collected. Now my mind is tranquil. Now my mind is joyful. And the smile reminds me of that.

And when I come back to the object, everything is great. There's total equanimity. So all of these enlightenment factors are developed when they're accompanied by loving kindness. In other words, whenever you use right effort, in the process of right effort, it is the cultivation, and right effort is the 6R's, it is the cultivation of the enlightenment factors and the abandoning of the hindrances. Dispassion and cessation, maturing in release. What does that mean? What is seclusion? Based upon seclusion, which means the mind has withdrawn from all sense-based experience. Already when you close your eyes, you're not seeing anything outside those eyelids. And as your mind gets more collected, the outside world becomes less and less.

Dispassion. What is dispassion? Dispassion is a process in which the mind remains unaffected, disengaged with whatever is arising. It doesn't happen in a process of I consciously disengage. The moment I start to bring in that I consciously disengage, now you're making more effort than it needs to be. The dispassion happens naturally, and the more secluded your mind gets, the more collected it becomes. As your mind gets more and more collected, the mind remains in a state of equanimity. As your mind becomes more equanimous, it experiences disenchantment. This is dispassion, disenchantment: I've had enough of the distractions, I've had enough of the thoughts that are coming and going, with whichever jhana I'm in, wherever I'm in my experience. I've had enough of that, and whatever comes now just passes the mind by without sticking onto it.

That's the dispassion. And cessation. What is the cessation? The cessation of the hindrance. The cessation of the distraction. The cessation of all mental suffering. Maturing in release. What is that release? Release from the bondages of samsara. Release from any kind of only forced distraction, external distraction, but internal distraction, where the mind is totally at peace. And there comes a point where the mind just drops, and there's a complete release. And from that release, there is Nibbana. And then the mind has wisdom. The mind sees through the nature of reality. perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive? He dwells perceiving the repulsive therein. If he wishes, may I dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive? He dwells perceiving the unrepulsive therein.

First he says, the repulsive in the unrepulsive. What does that mean? What is the unrepulsive? The unrepulsive is something that might attract us, something that causes us to crave for something. So we see the danger in the craving. We see how craving or getting enamored by the unrepulsive can create suffering. And so the repulsive in that is the suffering that results from that craving. Or from that object of craving, which is unrepulsive. May I dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive? So what is this? The unrepulsive in the repulsive. What is the repulsive? An object that creates aversion, brings up some kind of hatred, some kind of hatred, some kind of ill will, aversion.

How do I dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive? By letting go of the aversion, I experience the relief from it. That is the unrepulsive. If he wishes, may I dwell perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive and the repulsive? What's he talking about here now? level, which is identifying with either the unrepulsive or the repulsive. When you let go of the repulsive or the unrepulsive, that is to say, you let go of your craving or your aversion, there can arise a sense of doership. And that's still keeping the mind caught up in the experience. Yes, you've let go, but there's a process of saying, this is me, this is mine, this is

myself. That can still be repulsive. Why? Because it can still tie you to samsara. It can still tie you to existence that results in suffering, some kind of bhava or becoming or habitual tendency that can result in suffering at some point in time. And finally, avoiding both. May I dwell and clearly comprehending. So you let go of all of it. You just remain equanimous. It doesn't matter what is arising, what is passing away, whether there's craving or not craving, whether there's an object of craving, I should say, or not an object of craving. Your mind remains disassociated, detached, equanimous. Mindful and clearly comprehending. So this is very important to understand. Equanimity. What is the equanimity?

Seeing things as they are being affected by them one way or the other. Mindful, observing where your attention is going. Clearly comprehending, that's the sampanjanya. What does that mean? Where is my mind's attention? Is it in some kind of hindrance or is it in loving kindness or is it somewhere else? Where is my mind in this moment? That's the clear comprehension. mean? He has these three aspects which result finally in a jhanic state. And being in this jhanic state, it can result in the limits of loving kindness. What does that mean? You can experience loving kindness from the first jhana all the way up to the deliverance of the beautiful. What is the beautiful? That is the fourth jhana.

Why is it called the beautiful? Because it really is beautiful. When you have total equanimity, there's nothing going on in the mind. And you're basically up here without the body. It's very beautiful. It is, in that sense, super mundane. Not the ultimate super mundane, but still good enough. And how, bhikkhus, is a liberation of the mind by compassion developed? So it's the same thing over again. But what he says here, he says, or else with the complete transcendence of perceptions of forms, with the passing away of perceptions of sensory impingement, with non-attention to perceptions of diversity, aware that space is infinite, he enters and dwells in the base of the infinity of space.

Bhikkhu is the liberation of mind by compassion as the base of the infinity of space. It has its culmination, I say, for a wise bhikkhu here who has not penetrated to a superior liberation. So, what is going on here? Complete transcendence of the perceptions of forms. There comes a point when you're experiencing the metta that you will feel that the experience of metta pervades the entire body or starts to get up into the head. Generally most people will experience this. It feels like the metta has risen up to the head and everything down below is sort of you can't perceive, you can't feel, and sending perceptions of form. Now you are in just mind. With the passing away of perceptions of sensory impingement, which means there's less contact with the body, less contact with anything that's going on in relation to the sense base of the body or hearing or smelling or tasting or whatever else it is.

With non-attention to perceptions of diversity. Non-attention to perceptions of diversity. What is diversity here? Those are whatever factors are present in the mind. Those are the diverse factors. The mind remains unified. It's already unified in all of the first four jhanas. But at this point, there's a certain level of steadiness that the mind now experiences a transcendence of form. It gets into the formless. It experiences a spaciousness. So for those of you who are doing the six directions, for example, there is a question that arises. If I am going through the six directions, am I going through the first four jhanas? It depends. For some people, they might skip through that and go directly to infinite space, depending upon what?

Depending upon whether they experience a spaciousness in their mind. There is a quality of spaciousness, a quality of the mind expanding, or the awareness of the mind expanding. For some people, it starts off with the first direction, the second, the third, and fourth. What is that doing? The intention: May all beings be happy in this direction, and so on. Some people verbalize it, but generally there's just an intention, a mental non-verbal intention. And it takes a while before the mind actually experiences spaciousness. But until it does that, it is going through the first four jhanas. Or if it's not, it's bypassing all of that and immediately placing the mind in the fifth jhana. So that in that fifth jhana, compassion is where you start to see arising.

What is compassion? Compassion is, practically and experientially speaking, a softer form of loving kindness. Loving kindness has a certain kind of density to it, let's say. Compassion is more diffuse. It's like cotton candy. It's very wispy and it's more spacious. Compassion is the recognition of one's suffering, as well as the suffering in others, and the desire that all beings be free of suffering. So the upper limits of compassion is essentially the fifth jhana, spaciousness. That is the culmination of compassion. What is this saying? It doesn't mean that you only experience compassion in infinite space. You can experience or use compassion as an object from the first jhana onwards, up until infinite space.

Then we go scroll down, if somebody can scroll down. All the same stuff as he talks about, or else by completely transcending the base of the infinity of space, aware that consciousness is infinite, he enters and dwells in the base of the infinity of consciousness. Bhikkhus, the liberation of mind by altruistic joy, that is mudita, empathetic joy, has the base of the infinity of consciousness as its culmination, I say, for a wise Bhikkhu here who has not penetrated to a superior liberation. So, at this point, we experience infinite consciousness, and tied to that can arise joy. What is this empathetic joy? What is this so-called altruistic joy? That's the flip side of compassion, so to speak.

And what do I mean by that? If it's the recognition of suffering in oneself and the suffering of others, and the desire, and the wholesome desire, I should say, and the wish for the removal of suffering in other beings, that all sufferings, all beings be free of suffering, then mudita is the realization and recognition of the joy in which people experience or beings experience that freedom from suffering. In the same way I experience pamoja when I'm free of the five hindrances, I feel great about all other beings experiencing that as well. At a more material or fundamentally physical level, where we are outside of jhana, we still experience empathetic joy when you see somebody celebrating their joy, somebody celebrating their birthday, somebody celebrating their graduation, somebody celebrating the birth of their child, somebody buying a car for the first time or whatever it is.

The empathetic joy that arises is like, wow, I'm genuinely happy for them and I want to celebrate in that joy for them, with them. That is why empathetic joy is seen as an antidote for jealousy, for envy. And it is tied to infinite consciousness, which is to say the upper limits of empathetic joy is infinite consciousness. What is infinite consciousness? There comes a point when you are experiencing infinite space and you come to some level of a gap in your awareness. That is to say, it's not a cessation. Let me explain what I mean by that. Maybe you start to see thoughts, and you start to see one thought and another thought in the background or just in front of you, but then you start to see gaps in between one thought and the next thought, one concept and the next concept. Or you might see flickering of lights internally, or you might start to feel like there's a buzzing in your ears. You can feel it at any of the sense doors. What's happening there is you're experiencing infinite consciousness, the arising and passing away of consciousnesses.

And as you're experiencing this, you're also experiencing, actually, the arising and passing away of contact. Not necessarily happening on an external level. It's happening at an internal level. Why? Because ultimately, the mind is the processor of all of these experiences, all of these contacts, all of these consciousnesses. Mind is chief. Mind is the forerunner of all states. It's the one that's picking it up and interpreting what's going on. That's why all of these experiences are dependent upon mental formations that allow you to feel and perceive. So in this experience of infinite consciousness, you're starting to see that. And as you start to see that, you also realize, oh, it's impermanent. There's an arising and passing away.

And I feel tired. It's like, okay, now what? Like I've had enough of this. That's the suffering part of it. And then you realize there's no controller here. It's all happening due to certain causes and conditions. So these realizations are known as the three characteristics of existence: the tilakkhana, impermanence, suffering, and not self. Not self, not no self, not self. Which is to say that this whole thing is an impersonal process. To see the gaps in between the arising and passing away, and those gaps start to widen. And what is in between that?

So what is that nothingness that we're talking about? The mind becomes more and more internalized. It becomes less and less thinking about background thoughts or getting caught up in background thoughts. Or the infinite space is sort of externalized, because you have the intention of compassion towards all beings outside of you. The empathetic joy as well is externalized. The equanimity, it's like it doesn't care. It's different from indifference. The shadow of equanimity is indifference, where it has a tinge of aversion.

Equanimity is aware of everything but remains neutral and unaffected. Equanimity doesn't care if it's internal or external, so the mind starts to feel another layer of calmness, another layer of tranquility, another layer of serenity. The image I always get when I think about equanimity: when I was in Austria, I was doing a retreat there. There was a really beautiful lake nearby the retreat center, and we used to go, once in a while, for a walk there. It was just complete serenity. You could see the entire lake, the stillness of the lake and the blueness of the clouds reflecting on the stillness of the lake. It's just pure stillness. That's equanimity: nothing going on, nothingness. Eventually, now I guess that's the end of the sutta, but I'm going to continue forward. What happens next? Eventually the mind starts to become more collected.

And it doesn't feel like it wants to do anything anymore. So there's a certain tension that arises in trying to radiate equanimity. And so what do you do? You let that go and let the mind rest in itself. This is what is usually called quiet mind. We'll just call it mind, because there are a few things coming and going here. And as you're in this space, all you have to do is just rest. I say do nothing. Just be aware, be mindful, recognize whenever mind is getting distracted by formations. These are the proto-thoughts that start to arise. And now you're getting into the territory of the eighth jhana, neither perception nor non-perception, where you're starting to see disconnected images, patterns, colors.

It feels like you're seeing memories from a different life or something. It's just very, very strange. It's like a hypnagogic state. Like you're awake, you're asleep, but you're awake at the same time. So this sort of lucidity is there, but it's also kind of like, okay, I'm not really sure what I'm seeing. That's why neither perception nor non-perception.

Perception is also recognition. Recognition or non-recognition. In other words, it's a process in which the mind is kind of aware, it's cognizing, but it's not fully comprehending what these patterns are, what these images are. Eventually, those die down, and there is this pure stillness. There might be a little tension around the mind, and you might want to just relax that as well. Sometimes when you're in this space, you'll have to balance the enlightenment factors. If there's too much restlessness, there's a couple of things you can do. You bring in tranquility. You just expand the mind a little bit. Just kind of like go, like literally take a step back in your mind. That the mind can kind of breathe.

If there's too much sloth and torpor, you want to bring a little bit more attention, a little bit more arousal of energy. It's like micro-dosing on these enlightenment factors. It can make a big difference when you're in this quiet space, because the resonance of them is felt much more deeply. Sometimes what I will tell you when you're on retreat: if that's going on continuously, you may want to go back to radiating equanimity for a little while, until you come back to this quiet space. And the more times you do that, eventually the mind tires out. It's like it gets disenchanted. It's like, I've had enough, I don't want to do anymore. And finally the mind learns the lesson: it doesn't engage with this, doesn't engage with that. It just remains present but passive, present, passive but attentive. Eventually the mind can experience the signless state. The signless state is where the mind as an object just disappears, and there's just this awareness of nothing in particular. Again, it's not nothingness, because you're not of the nothingness.

You're just aware. It's like the light of awareness, like the flashlight that you shine up into space. And nothing is landing. No light. The light isn't landing on anything. In the same way, that awareness continues until either one of two things happen. There might be some conceit. Something arises, and the mind gets caught up in that. So what do you do? Relax. In the realizing of, oh, I got caught up, the mind relaxes. Or at a certain stage, when you least expect it, the batteries of the flashlight run out, which is the fuel of the attention to formations tires out, and everything switches off. And there we have full cessation. And then the rest of that which happens is, you know, Nibbana and so on.

And thus ends the talk. Any questions? Well, let me make one statement here first. This is where Bhante Vimalaramsi said, hey, Theravadans, we follow the Visuddhimagga, but Theravada may follow that, but it doesn't match the suttas. And so here is where the suttas pull away from the Visuddhimagga, or the Visuddhimagga pulled away from the suttas, and describe that you can go through all of these jhanas with the brahmaviharas. Can you maybe talk about that a little bit? Yeah, so I think there's been some kind of idea floating around in meditation circles within Theravadan communities, that brahmaviharas are great. You'll often find in a lot of the Goenka retreats that metta is used quite arbitrarily at the end of a retreat.

You know, it's a lot of, okay, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch. And then you experience one-pointed focus and then you experience other things coming and going. And then you go through maybe the 16 stages of insight, which again is, I don't believe you see it in the suttas, or if you do, it's very, I don't know, it's very obscure. You probably just see it in the Visuddhimagga. In any case, you go through all of these stages, and then it's great, and at the end of the retreat, I think, as I've been told (I've never attended any retreat except for an online retreat), you send out metta to all beings, and it's just used as an arbitrary, like, feel-good meditation. But actually, if you see right here, the loving kindness, the compassion, the joy, the equanimity are front and center.

And they can lead one to these refined stages of the jhanas and ultimately take you to Nibbana, which is completely different from what is usually understood in traditional circles. And the other thing to understand is, I was actually sharing this with another meditator on my Patreon when they asked me about this one question about the capacity of loving kindness to be able to deal with karma. So there is a great efficacy and power of loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. It's called the Sankha Sutta, which means the conch plur. And it talks about how when one has this loving kindness, when one has this Brahmavihara, any Brahmavihara, let's say loving kindness, that it subdues, it creates this greater sense of awareness, the greater sense of a capacity for wholesome states to arise, for a more uplifted experience in the mind, that any kind of negative or unwholesome karma that arises becomes nullified.

It disintegrates. Or if it is experienced and felt, it is minimally experienced in the whole scheme of things. The analogy that's usually used here is like the difference between putting a spoonful of salt in a glass of water compared to putting a spoonful of salt in a gallon of water, or putting it into a freshwater body like a lake or something. There's a difference in how you taste the saltiness. In the same way, loving kindness, or the brahmaviharas, has a capacity to expand our mind, expand our ability to contain karma, so to speak, to the extent that whatever karma arises is felt minutely, or can be felt minutely, or perhaps not even not at all, almost indiscernible.

So there is great power, not only to mention the 11 benefits of loving kindness and so on. The Potfuls of Food sutta talks about this as well. It talks about how the Brahmavihara of loving kindness is equal to so many numbers of food given to, you know, an arahant, and so on and so forth. So there is importance given to the brahmaviharas. And this is why in the twin practice we're doing the brahmaviharas. Number one, your mind is immediately uplifted, and it's much easier for you to experience the piti when it does happen in tandem with the loving kindness. So then you're starting to experience the first jhana, and so on.

Not only that, but the capacity for your mind to remain open, tranquil and aware, so that you don't get boxed in and you don't get so one-pointed, singular in your focus, with the exception of everything else that's going on in the mind, that you're suppressing everything. More, let's say, success, for lack of a better word, for people in the twin practice who use brahmaviharas as their object, starting with loving kindness. And it's not like you need to transition from one to the other. It happens naturally. There's a lot more progress to be found in that way than there is, let's say, in Anapanasati. Because the tendency with Anapanasati, and first of all, Anapanasati, I mean, there's so many ideas about it.

You've got to focus here. You've got to focus here. You've got to do this and that. Nowhere in the suttas does it talk about that. In fact, it talks about tranquilizing in the Anapanasati, which means what? Relaxing. So we have to start with a relaxed mind. And how do you relax the mind? By enjoying the process. Stop taking things so seriously.

Just have fun with it. did that answer anything david yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's a good uh i i think there's one other point where i think that was sudi magas is meta will not lead if you practice meta it will not lead to anything higher than the third jana and here which is a completely um completely wrong based on what we're reading here that's beautiful is the fourth jana that's right that's right now we have a question from steve What does this sentence mean? If I say for a wise bhikkhu here who has not penetrated to a superior liberation. Yeah, I was going to talk about that too. For a wise bhikkhu here.

Interesting he mentions wise over here. He could be talking about somebody who has experienced seeing with wisdom. What do we mean by seeing with wisdom? Possibly seeing the links of dependent origination. lies in so far as having the wisdom and discernment to see where they are there's a couple of ways to understand them and i i guess the last thing would be that this sutta covers a brahma viharas but actually it's not the end that there is this next step of now you've developed your tranquility your samatha and now it's time for the the insight the wisdom of neither perception and just observing yeah yeah exactly it's so interesting how the suit that kind of it feels like abrupt just abruptly ends there's no like yeah you know and the because we're delighted and satisfied as you usually hear at the end of a sutta well that's that's why I rolled down I went wait a minute there's worse the the last part of this But it's found in other suttas.

Okay. Do we have any other questions here? Could I ask a question? Yeah. I couldn't find the raised hand icon. Okay. Today I experience random thoughts arising, disconnected, I would say, and then, you know, not making a lot of sense. And then I also experienced what you said about a tiredness, just... and I was wondering what do you do with that? These six R's, is that the precursor to nothingness, or does that sound more like the perception? Did you say tiredness, though? Yeah, I mean, initially I was experiencing some disconnected thoughts, and then I started just feeling tired of the whole

thing. Okay, when you say tired of the whole thing, you mean like, tired like disenchanted, or tired like dullness or slavishness? Almost like a tension that I was experiencing. That was just... I didn't know, you know, I did. It's like, oh my god, this is too much work. Yeah, exactly. So when you experience that, you just pull back a little, step back a little bit and let the mind just rest in it. Okay. Okay. Anyone else? Hi, Delson. Can I ask a question?

Yes. I just want to confirm that you said that you transition from radiating loving kindness to radiating compassion or equanimity, and this transition happens naturally. There's nothing that you need to do yourself explicitly. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Thank you. Anybody else? Well, I guess not. I guess maybe you have a chance to eat that pizza after all. Wow, great.

So shall we share some merit? Yeah, let's share some merit. Okay, let's see if I can. I've got it here. Share here. Boom. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the 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 well. I'll see you guys around. Enjoy your meditation and take care. Have fun. Bye. Thank you. See you next week. Going to talk about the origin of hindrances next week, right? I think we should. I think we should. All right. Thank you, Delson. Thank you, guys. Take care. Thanks, David. Thank you. Thank you, David. Bye.