Day 4: Jhāna 1

Today we will speak about jhanas and we'll explore what happens in each of the first four jhanas. In reality there are only four jhanas and sometimes in conversation we'll say there are eight jhanas because we have what's known as infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. And these are all actually part of the fourth jhana. So in reality, there's only four jhanas, and there are ayatanas. So tomorrow we'll discuss the ayatanas. Today we'll just focus on what are jhanas. So what does the word jhana mean? J-H-A-N-A, jhana, comes from the Sanskrit dhyana. And dhyana means to collect the mind around something, to contemplate on something. It's a process of the mind starting to become more and more attentive towards its object of attention.

When we talk about jhana, it is part of the eighth fold in the Eightfold Path. So sometimes a question might arise, can you experience insight and awakening without jhana? Because there's something known as dry insight, which is essentially the mind contemplates impermanence, contemplates and sees for itself the arising and passing away of things and understands through self-inquiry the understanding of not-self and the emptiness of all self. And these are all great foundations for the mind to get into. It allows the mind to see for itself, gives a preview into the nature of existence. Are eight folds: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right behavior, right lifestyle, right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness.

These will lead you to the liberation of the mind, to true knowledge and vision, as he would put it. So part of right collectedness, which is samma samadhi, being in a deeper state of mind, which are the jhanas. In short, the answer is, if you want to have full awakening, you have to have a process of the mind going into a deep state and then letting go, experiencing cessation, even if it's for a moment, because it's there that the mind touches the nibbana element. In the suttas, there are examples of monks and bhikkhunis or nuns who've experienced the Dhamma, who've experienced Nibbana without seemingly having to sit in meditation. But the reality is, when the Buddha speaks, he is giving, for the most part, a guided meditation.

where he goes through the emptiness of all six sense bases and the six parts of those six sense bases, six aspects. And in the end of that sutta, it says, and 60 bhikkhus attained arahatship upon listening. The reason is because they are going through a guided meditation. In essence, they are meditating. Even if it's the case of someone like Kondanya, who was the first stream-enterer during the time of the Buddha, or when the five bhikkhus, the first five bhikkhus became arahants, when they listened to the emptiness of the five aggregates, it was still a guided meditation. They were going through a process of contemplation, meditation, and then insight. require the experience of a deep state of mind.

Now when I say deep state of mind, it doesn't mean that the mind goes into absorption. What is absorption? Absorption is where the mind becomes one with its object of meditation and is so absorbed. It seems like it's in the flow of the meditation to such an extent that it's impossible for any sound to penetrate the ear. It's impossible for anything to disturb the mind in that. But we don't need to go that deep. There are other schools of thought which will say, in order for you to get to the first jhana, you need four weeks of study and practice and meditation.

but that's because you want to go very deep in that process of the first jhana. The twin jhanas, as it were, the jhanas that we are experiencing here, are not meant to be at that level of depth, because it gets you into a state of absorption. What are the benefits of absorption? Well, for one, you remain completely steady and undisturbed by everything. Even days you feel happy, you feel elated, you feel wonderful. However, when something disturbs your mind, a whole barrage of hindrances arises and there's no way for you to deal with them, because what happens in absorption is that you are suppressing the hindrances. You are fighting mind with mind, they would describe it.

You are clenching the mind and you are pushing down the hindrances. And so the analogy here is if you take a ball, beach ball, and you suppress it underwater, you push it underwater and you let go of it, what happens? The beach ball erupts back out of the water. The same thing happens with the mind. If you suppress the hindrances, and then you go on about your day afterwards, you feel great, you make contact with something that is aversive, those hindrances come back in full swing and it feels disturbing to the mind. That's why what we're doing here is samatha vipassana. We are allowing the mind to be disturbed. We're allowing sounds to come, we're allowing thoughts to arise, because in that process we can see with that open awareness when a hindrance arises, and we can deal with it in a way that is effective, in a way that cultivates wisdom and insight into how the mind works.

With that understanding, let's explore the jhanas, what we're talking about in the first, second, third and fourth jhana. The first jhana has some factors. Each of the jhanas have certain kinds of factors. One other thing to understand is jhanas are levels of understanding. They're levels of a certain kind of experience of understanding. There are also levels of cessation. And I'll explain as we get deeper into this. What does it say about the first jhana in the suttas? First jhana, it says, is first and foremost secluded or quite secluded from sensual pleasures and secluded from unwholesome states of mind. What does that mean? The mind has to be secluded from sensual pleasures.

And how is that? When you sit down for meditation, you do a body scan. Now you're not seeing anything in terms of the physical eyes, you're not seeing anything outside, and you start to center your mind around the body when you're doing the body scan and relaxing any tightness and tension. So you're starting to get quite secluded from sensual pleasures. What that means is, yes, you might still hear the fly buzzing, you might still hear the door being opened, still hear somebody clearing their throat. You might still experience some experience of the sense bases, but the key is, because your mind is relaxed, it just goes right through you, it doesn't create a disturbance. Secluded from unwholesome states of mind: what are unwholesome states of mind? The five hindrances.

Craving, aversion, restlessness, sloth and torpor, and doubt. So when the mind is free of these hindrances, through the equipment of right effort, the 6R's, or the four R's, and is mindful of its object, that is the loving kindness, so here what happens is the mind experiences seclusion from the hindrances for some time when it's six hours. Accompanied by thinking and examining thought. This is vitaka and vichara. Vitaka is the intentionalizing of bringing up something wholesome in this case. When you use verbalizing, like may I be happy, may I be well, and so on. Or you use wholesome memories or wholesome images.

Or you use gratitude practice. This is part of the vitaka, the initializing of the thought. Putting the key in the ignition and starting the car. That's the first step. Thinking. That's the thinking part of it. Examining thought, or sustained thought, or application of thought. Sustained application of thought. That means vichara, which means now there is a feeling of metta being aroused. It's coming up. And now the intention is to rest the awareness there. These are the factors: quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind, accompanied by thinking and examining thought. He enters upon and abides in the first jhana, which has joy and comfort born of seclusion. Piti and sukha. Piti, that's the joy that you feel.

There's some level of upliftment in the mind, and there's tranquility and comfort in the body, born of seclusion. This is very important to understand. Born of seclusion. Because whenever you let go of the hindrances, your mind experiences relief. And in that relief, there is a happiness. And so from that, this happiness and joy born of seclusion arises. It's not that you manufacture the joy. It's not that you create the joy. It's not like you feel the joy and you intensify it. No. The joy naturally arises as a form, as a result of letting go. Letting go of the hindrances. In the Digha Nikaya, Digha Nikaya 2, Samanna Phala Sutta, the Buddha talks about the hindrances in different ways.

He talks about them as somebody who is imprisoned, somebody who is in debt, somebody who is lost and searching for water. And the feeling that you get when you are freed and liberated, when you no longer have any debt, when you find an oasis, feeling that you experience when you let go of the hindrances. And it's only for a split moment. But as a result of it, the joy follows. Not that you have to create it. The joy follows. And the comfort in the body follows. There is a steadiness, a composure in the body. These are the factors of the first jhana. What ceases in the first jhana?

Is the collection of hindrances. This is why I said a couple of days ago, when you let go of the hindrances your mind is ripe for jhana and has wholesome states which include the balanced factors of awakening which we talked about yesterday. And so here the mind will experience some level of joy, of warmth. The mind, or it should be felt here, sometimes the piti can be felt in the entire body, sometimes it's felt in the hands, there's warmth in the hands, sometimes it feels like electricity through the skin, and sometimes it just has an emotive quality of being joyful, being happy, being elated. First jhana. The mind enters into the second jhana. Now, all throughout these jhanas you have what is known as citta ekaggata. Citta ekaggata means the unification of mind. The mind remains collected, unified, magnetized around its object of meditation. Second jhana.

says in the second jhana with the cessation of thinking and examining thought right he drops that in other words once you have the loving kindness you drop the intentionalizing of words in your mind of may i be happy or and so on you drop the wholesome imagery you drop the gratitude practice and you're remaining here. So, with the disappearance of thinking and examining thought. Now, here's a question that people might have. Okay, we say thinking and examining thought disappears, is set to disappear in the second jhana. But if somebody is in the seventh jhana, in nothingness, or if somebody is in neither perception or non-perception, why is it that thoughts arise? is it that the mind is still creating thoughts there's a difference here in the second jhana what is said to have ceased are verbal formations verbal sankharas formations coming from the word sankharas are that which allow you to think and reflect about something in order for you to break out into speech.

So it's an intentional process of thinking, reflection, and analysis. That goes away with the second jhana. But thoughts will be there, because that is the object of the mind. They will come and go. It's okay. These are tied to mental formations. Mental formations only cease when there's total salvation, visualization of perception, feeling and consciousness. Mental formations are called so because feeling and perception happen in the mind. What is feeling? In relation to the eye, it's seeing. With relation to the ears, it's hearing. With relation to the nose, it's smelling. With relation to the tongue, it's tasting. With relation to the body, it's tangibles, feeling, touching, making internal contact. With relation to the mind, it's thinking.

So thoughts will continue to be there as a part of mental formations. In fact, some people will say, "It feels like even though I'm in this very quiet stage, it's like the mind is commenting on what's going on." That's just a process of perception. That's just the nature of the mind, to feel and perceive. Nothing wrong with it. You don't need to 6R that. It's just going to do what it's going to do. What you have to 6R is if your mind diverts in that direction and thinks about it and starts to reflect on it, that you let go and come back. So in the second jhana, the thinking and examining thought, the vitaka, the vichara, which is the process of bringing up some words or gratitude practice or whatever, goes away, because now the car has been started and now it can drive forward.

And so in the second jhana you have what's known as self-confidence. The mind feels confident in experiencing loving-kindness. It is steady in loving-kindness. There's not much effort that needs to be made for the mind to remain in this experience. Can hindrances arise? Yes, they can arise. And when they do arise, you come out of that jhana. So what do you do? You let go. You 6R. You come back. And you continue staying with the feeling of loving-kindness. With the self-confidence there is what is known as joy and comfort, or piti and sukha, born of collectedness. Here the ekagata, the unification of mind, becomes even greater, and the mind stays with its object without veering off at all. It just remains there for quite some time. And while it's staying there, it experiences greater degrees of joy and greater degrees of comfort in the body.

So that's why it's saying it's born of collectedness. Because here the mind remains steady, more and more steady. And so the joy might feel greater. Maybe not as vibrant as you might expect it to be, but it starts to become more prevalent. So now at this point, the mind ceases all verbal formations. It ceases thinking and examining thought. And eventually what will happen is that the mind feels this loving-kindness start to become more expansive. It feels like the loving-kindness is starting to go into other parts of the body, into the territory of the third jhana. And one significant factor of the third jhana is that the joy starts to fade. So people feel like something's wrong here.

The joy is going away. The joy is fading. Remember I told you: joy is overrated. Joy is fickle. So there is an analogy that's used, which is, joy is like a candle flame in the wind, always flickering, not stable. But the sukha, the comfort, the happiness that you feel, which is still prevalent in the third jhana, the tranquility of the body, that is like a stable flame. It's more long-lasting. It stays, doesn't flicker. The joy fades away, the sukha arises even deeper, and there is a greater sense of tranquility. This is where the Buddha would say, and this is where the noble ones declare, he has a pleasant abiding, because it's so stable, it's so tranquil.

So here what you will feel are certain things in the body, perhaps. You might feel like the body becomes more grounded. You might feel like the body becomes more rooted in its seat. Maybe it becomes heavier. Or you might feel at the same time, or alternatively, that the body becomes lighter and more expansive. Or you might feel like you can only feel your hands, or your hands have disappeared. All of these are signatures of the third jhana. And along with that is greater degrees of mindfulness, greater degrees of sharpness and collectedness. So here the mind remains very, very stable. It's very difficult for the mind to get completely off track. Here the mind is able to see it and then come back.

See that the mind is getting distracted, come back. Now, so far in the first, second, third, and fourth jhana, there isn't so much depth in the form of the mind being unable to hear things. You will still hear things. But if you are doing this in the right way, that is, your mind is not becoming absorbed, your mind is not becoming one-pointed, then you will see for yourself that it remains undisturbed. For a moment the attention will go to the sound. For a moment the attention will go to the fly on your skin. But you still have steadiness of mind around your object. You still have steadiness of mind with the feeling of loving-kindness.

And then you get into what's known as the fourth jhana. So at this point, this is what it's known as. The main signature of the fourth jhana is purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, with the disappearance of joy and discomfort. So here the joy has left in the third jhana. With the third jhana, there's a cessation of joy. With the fourth jhana, there's a cessation of sukha. A little bit of happiness, too, that you might feel, goes away. Sounds counterintuitive, right? I thought this whole practice was about being happy and feeling happy. What's going on? And so oftentimes when people come in, they'll say, I felt this great amount of joy, and then all of a sudden it just disappeared, and now I just feel flat.

I feel flat. That's basically another word for equanimity. The problem is that minds are so used to wanting joy, right? They're dopamine addicted, right? Always wanting joy, always wanting happiness. That it feels like, and it has been conditioned to feel like, joy is the ultimate. You know, Sariputta was talking about the bliss of Nibbana. And one of the monks asks Sariputta, what does the bliss of Nibbana feel like? And Sariputta says, it is the bliss of no feeling. And the monk says, how is that possible, that it's the bliss of no feeling? And Sariputta says, the fact that there is no feeling is what makes it blissful. Because there's a deeper meaning behind that.

What he's saying is, the mind no longer seeks out experiences, is no longer craving for altered states. It just feels okay with whatever is going on. This is equanimity. Seeing things as they are without getting affected one way or the other. So purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, of previous joy and grief, meaning all dualities cease. And the mind is in this very sharp, clear awareness. And it's still with the feeling of loving-kindness. At this point, what you will see is that the feeling of loving-kindness starts to feel like it's going up into the head. What is going on is everything from the neck down starts to become less and less apparent. So even if the fly does hit your skin, it's a very faint contact that you feel.

And so everything seems to be around here, around the face. Or it also feels like loving-kindness is expanding even further. It's all around. And at this point, it's not difficult for you to 6R and go, and more importantly, you're able to stay with the feeling for longer periods of time on average. And that's it. So going back to the statement, purity of mindfulness due to equanimity, what does he mean by that? Purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. Remember yesterday when we talked about the awakening factors? What I said: mindfulness leads to investigation, investigation leads to energy, energy leads to joy, joy leads to tranquility, tranquility leads to collectedness, collectedness leads to equanimity. But I also said it's a circular dependency.

The equanimity informs the next arising of mindfulness. And so the mindfulness becomes even more stable. So as you're progressing through the jhanas, you're also under the hood, under the surface, cycling through the enlightenment factors as they get deeper and stronger and more and more balanced. Until when you get to the fourth jhana, you have total purity of mindfulness, total sharpness of mind, total awareness of what is going on, due to equanimity, where the mind does not go here or there. It remains completely stable. So the next question will be, can you experience Nibbana from the first jhana onwards? Yes, you can. You don't need to progress through all the jhanas. Indeed, you don't need to go through every jhana in succession, although that is the nature of the game.

But you don't need to do that in order for you to experience Nibbana. You can experience it from the first jhana onwards. Go ahead, it's very rare, by the way, so you can try it for yourself, see if it works out, and let me know. But what happens is the mind has a deep level of insight into the nature of the first jhana. It sees that these states indeed are impermanent. Having been impermanent, they are not to be held on to as me, mine, or myself. With that level of insight, that level of clarity, the mind just drops and goes into Nirvana. That can happen. So far it hasn't, but it can. And the sutta says that it's possible you can also experience liberation by the fourth jhana, or through the first four jhanas. So there are these seven different kinds of people that the Buddha talked about. There is one who is a Dhamma follower.

There is one who is a faith follower. There is one who is liberated by view, or attained to view. There is one who is liberated by faith. There is one who is a body witness. There is one who is liberated by wisdom. And there is one who is liberated both ways. So what do these different kinds of people refer to? They're referring to the different stages of awakening. So when we talk about somebody who is a faith follower, for example, this is somebody who has seen for themselves how this practice works and has total conviction in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. And as a result, enters the stream and becomes what's known as a sotapanna, with path.

One who is a Dhamma follower investigates into the nature of self and sees for themselves that indeed all states are impermanent. Having seen this at a very deep level, they then develop that conviction again in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. And they are again a stream-enterer with path, view, or attained to view is somebody who is having right view established. And this could be somebody who's like a stream-enterer with fruition. It's locked into their mind. And it could be anyone who's a stream-enterer all the way up to somebody who is an anagami.

Another one is one who is liberated by faith. This is somebody who is a faith follower and then has stream-entry with fruition and can become, or is, or could be, a sotapanna, a sakadagami or an anagami. Not yet an arahant. Then there is somebody who is liberated by wisdom. This is somebody who is liberated through the first four jhanas, attains nibbana and drops all fetters, and as a result becomes liberated by wisdom. Then there is the body witness. This is somebody who goes through the first four jhanas and can go through the ayatanas, has probably also experienced cessation, and this could be anybody who could be a stream-enterer. It doesn't have to be a stream-enterer, but anyone who can attain the four jhanas and anyone who can attain the formless jhanas.

And then finally, you have somebody who's known as liberated both ways. This is somebody who goes through the first four jhanas, then goes through the attainments, experiences cessation from, sorry, the ayatanas, not the attainments. So first four jhanas, then the ayatanas, then cessation, drops all fetters and attains full awakening. This is somebody who is liberated both ways. So, it is possible in that definition with liberated by wisdom to go through the first four jhanas and experience arahatship. Completely possible. So, for those of you who want to know what is a stream entry, what is a sakadagami, what is an anagami, what is an arahat, let me define it for you. In the Dhamma, in the suttas, it talks about the ten fetter model.

There are ten fetters that bind the mind, bind us to samsara. And these ten fetters are bit by bit ground away through the process of going into these stages and experiencing deep levels and attaining nibbana. You can experience arahatship, but generally speaking, what happens is it happens in certain stages, and it happens in gradual stages. So for one who becomes a stream-enterer, what does that mean? They have let go of the first three fetters. The first three fetters are a belief in a personal self, doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, and clinging to rites and rituals. For one to become a stream-enterer, they have to have total faith in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

And when we say faith, it doesn't mean you need to bow down and pray to the Buddha and all these other things. It just means you have seen the path for yourself and now you have no doubts about the path. You've experienced it for yourself. So this is an experiential conviction. And you've let go of the belief in a personal self. See this whole process as an impersonal process. Then, you let go of all clinging to rites and rituals. So what are rites and rituals? Or it should be said, the clinging to rites and rituals with the belief that they will liberate you. But you see for yourself that through this process of following the Eightfold Path and going through meditation, you experience Nibbana, not through just praying or chanting or lighting incense or whatever else it is.

It doesn't mean you can't do it anymore. It just means that you're not just bound by these certain rites and rituals. So that's let go of. Somebody who is a once-returner, a sakadagami, is somebody who has let go of further levels of craving, sensual craving and aversion. Not completely. So they might still have 10%, let's say, or 20% of craving and aversion. Which means the difference is, for a sotapanna, a stream-enterer, they might get irritated by something. They might be angry at someone. But instead of being angry at them for days and days, they might just say, oh, you know what? It's not worth it. I'm going to let this go.

A sakadagami, a once-returner, might get irritated by someone, and they might see the seed of that coming up, and because their mindfulness is sharp, they're able to let that go. And even if they do get angry and they shout, immediately they recognize, oh, I shouldn't have done that, and they let go of it and they recover from it. The anagami lets go. That's the non-returner. Let go of all aversion. Aversion can arise in the mind of an anagami? Not even the seedling of aversion. Not even the seedling of any sensual craving can arise for the anagami. It's a very wonderful state to be in for someone like that, because they're not motivated by any kind of greed for something.

They're not trying to use people. They're not trying to manipulate people. They are just living their lives. Right? So, then, Now, those are the five lower fetters that are gone. The five higher fetters are restlessness, conceit, craving for jhana, craving for ayatanas, and ignorance. That goes away in graduated steps until one becomes fully awakened as an arahat. But until that happens, you keep practicing. six are. Whether it's in your meditation or whether it's in daily life. We'll explore the ayatanas tomorrow because there's a lot that happens there and we'll talk about cessation proper, what happens there and also the levels that happen to be in neither perception or non-perception. We'll do all of that tomorrow because it's a big subject.

So I just wanted to cover the fourth jhana, or the first four jhanas, and then these different levels happen at any point in time when you're going through these channels. Are there any questions? Yeah, there's one in the back. happen in the same order and do you kind of feel a switch when you get to stream entry when you have the first three fetters or how does it feel from the inside? So with the ten fetters, it does happen in that succession or in that sequence, so you do drop the first three fetters in stream entry. Now, in Digha Nikaya, Ananda asks the Buddha, because the Buddha has proclaimed that he is going to enter Parinibbana, he will be no more.

So Ananda asks the Buddha, how will we know after you're gone who is a stream-enterer and who is not a stream-enterer? And so the Buddha says, as to that, Ananda, you use what's known as the mirror of Dhamma. It's essentially seeing if that person has any doubts in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. That's all he talks about. So for one to be a stream-enterer means you have total experiential conviction in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. And then the rest of that will follow, which is the belief in the personal self goes away, and clinging to rites and rituals goes away.

And you will feel a shift. So the first time you might go into cessation and you touch nibbana, it is a very, very different state of being, where the mind has immense clarity for a few hours to a few days. And that might fade away for a while, and I'll tell you, okay, keep sitting, that's it, just keep sitting. But what you will see is that there are deeper insights in the mind, and it starts to see things through the lens of dependent origination. It starts to see, oh, this is an impersonal process, why am I taking this personally? So a stream-entry can still take things personally. It might still identify with something, that goes away completely when conceit is gone for the arahant. But in the case of somebody who's a stream-enterer, on an intellectual level they know that there is no permanent personal separate self. It is all arising due to different causes and conditions.

This is the shift in their awareness. And it is an unshakable, irreversible shift, because once you see it, you can't unsee it. I guess you answered it already, because the question was whether stream entry is only possible experiencing cessation, or can it be otherwise? It can happen upon hearing. Also, there are instances where it can happen. In the suttas it talks about where somebody is listening to the Buddha, and because they're contemplating in their mind, they are getting into some deep state of meditation where they're able to drop that, and for a split moment their mind touches nibbana, and then the fetters drop.

Yes. So when we talked about the fourth jhana, you mentioned that joy and happiness are faded away. But then you mentioned that the feeling of metta or still expand and all that. But in my experience, I would say that joy and happiness are components of metta, in my case, for example. So I'm wondering, what do you mean by the word feeling in that sense? Is it just a bodily feeling or what exactly is meant by that?

Yeah. It is true that metta feels good. So there's a sense of happiness and uplifting mind in that. With the fourth jhana, what fades away is the piti, joy, which is a different kind of joy. And when we talk about the feeling of metta going up into the head, starts to arise or become more expansive, we're saying that in a way that's felt bodily, let's say. It's a sensation of something rising up into the head. That's a signature feature of the fourth jhana. So if I got it right, it means we are already experiencing the different levels of jhana in different kinds of ways and cycling deeper. And when I'm initiating the equanimity in the six directions, I also practice and experience the fourth jhana. Correct. Correct. That's a wonderful thing about this. We teachers can be very sneaky and just ask you questions, and then we won't tell you where you are, because what's the fun in doing that? You start to discover it for yourself. Yeah. Is it important to not take the result of the jhana, let's say, for example, the piti, as the object of meditation?

It's important not to do that. You just see it as a signpost. So using the analogy of the map, right? You walk the map and it says here, oh, okay, there's joy over here. But you might rest in that for a little while. You might experience it, you might spend a couple of hours on that signpost, but there's more to see. There's other vistas to check out. So the key is not to let the mind become attached to the joy. Let it just be seen as, okay, this is where I am now, and let me keep going. If you notice the mind starting to get attached to the joy, then you treat that factor like a hindrance.

Not that it is a hindrance, but you treat it like that, and you just six-hour your attachment to it. And you come back to your object and keep going. Can you maybe tell me more about the impersonal self? Like it's when I can observe the different states, like how my mind is moving and how the inner essentials are working, and that this is not the kind of me? Is this the process of impersonal self, or can you tell more about that? What you see, what you start to see, is the impersonal nature of self, or that everything is an impersonal process. And what that really means is that this is not me, not mine, not myself.

The three characteristics as a way of understanding. That's the impermanence, suffering, and not self. And what he's saying is, and this is a good point you bring up because somebody did ask the Buddha this question, is there a self or is there not a self? And the Buddha didn't answer one way or the other. And so Ananda asked the Buddha, why didn't you give him a direct answer? And the Buddha said, if I were to tell him that there is a self, then he will construct a self around that. If I were to tell him that there is no self, then he would construct a self around that which thinks that there is no self.

What did he say? He said, anatta, which is not self. Everything that is not self. At the time of the Buddha and in ancient India, there was a concept or an understanding of self as the Atman, as the soul. The soul is permanent, never dying, undying, and it is a source of happiness; its true nature is happiness, right? And it is self-existing, meaning it is independent. So the Buddha said, okay, I'll grant you that, we'll use that as the touchstone. Let's look at all of our different kinds of experiences: the five aggregates, our six sense bases, feelings, perceptions, intentions, all things, consciousness. And let's see what is going on there. When we start to investigate and see for ourselves the different facets of experience, we start to notice that these different facets are indeed dependent, or interdependent, with other causes and conditions.

Which means when those causes and conditions go away, to also go away or liable to change. Therefore, they are impermanent. Being impermanent, holding on to them can cause suffering. Therefore, they can be sources of suffering even if they are happy in that moment because that happiness also fades. Therefore, these states are not me, not mine, not self. That's the anatta experience.

Nature of all experience. Now then, the question arises: what is it that sees the impersonal nature of experience? It is just mind; it is a reflection of mind seeing it. But mind itself continuously arises and passes away, dependent upon or interdependent with its object. So you can see the mind like a mirror, right? That's just reflecting what it's seeing. So then there is something known as anidassanam vinnanam, the non-manifestive or non-reflective consciousness. This is a little deeper, a little subtler to understand, but what it's saying is this consciousness is like a mirror that reflects whatever is arising. So this is the object, and it's reflecting the object, but you take away the object and the mirror stands as it is, but it doesn't reflect anything. So that is the awareness, the non-reflective awareness, that sees what is going on but in and of itself is not self, because it can arise dependent upon causes and conditions as well.

I'm telling you, it's a little more subtle than that. When you see anidassanam vinnanam, you understand that it is undirected. There's no craving in it, that it is signless. It doesn't take anything as an object, and that it is empty. It doesn't even consider any kind of notion of self attached to other things or attached to the consciousness. So this is also called the eye of the Dhamma, which is opened up for the stream, that which sees everything with wisdom. But to simplify it, it is just mind. It is just mind experiencing all of these things. And the mind, dependent upon those insights, dependent upon that experience, changes. It becomes irreversible because it sees that shift, but it continues to change, with that permanent shift still present.

Any other questions? Yes. So who is it who has karma? Ah, this is the best question. This is a question that's asked in the suttas also. Karma. When you say in the morning, I am an inheritor of my karma, in the relative sense, what you're saying is, I am bound by karma. I have to experience karma. What the Buddha has also said is, there is karma which is to be felt and experienced. There's old karma and there's new karma. New karma is the process of taking things personally and causing further arising of those states.

But old karma is the sixth sense basis, everything from formations or sankharas, all the way down to contact and feeling. All of that is old karma. So, the six sense bases, the contact that arises dependent upon them, the feeling that arises dependent upon the contact, and the perception of that feeling, all of that is old karma. Now, the Buddha has said that, if all these aggregates and sense bases are impermanent, liable to cause suffering, and not myself, then the question arose in someone: then who does this karma belong to? Well, the Buddha said it. If all of this is impermanent, even karma is impermanent. Karma only arises dependent upon causes and conditions.

So if something arises dependent upon causes and conditions, to be changing, and therefore it too is not seen as me, mine, or myself, or belonging to a self, whether it is the aggregates or the karma. The aggregates experience, they are interdependent, so in the absolute sense it's all impersonal, but in the relative sense, when you are here with this mind and body, so to speak, it is liable to experience that karma when the causes and conditions are right. I have maybe a different question: if an arahant has no craving in his mind, that means, as I understand, he wants or does not want? How does he choose? So, for an arahant, there is no craving.

Now, choice in itself is also dependent upon causes and conditions. So, the arahant is met or presented with a series of causes and conditions, met with a series of choices. And when the choices present themselves, it's not like he or she will take one particular choice; they function at the level of intuition, which means they function at the level of the Eightfold Path. Their speech will be right speech, their intention will be right intention, their actions will be right action. So they will only see what is appropriate in that moment, not for themselves but appropriate for the entire situation and all involved, and the action that they take will be there, but it's not going to produce new karma because they're not taking that choice personally. So it's like they function without any choice. They're only using intuition that allows them to see what is the best way to maneuver the situation. Now, does that mean an arahant is like a robot? No, of course an arahant has personality, which it's inherited through different causes and conditions.

An arahant will have their inclinations, will have their preferences, will even have their behavioral tendencies of however they acted. If a person who was not fully awakened before was somebody who was abrasive in their personality, they will continue to be abrasive after they become an arahant. They will continue to use the same speech as they were before they were an arahant. The example is Kassapa. Maha Kassapa was a very strict monk. He was somebody who was a forest-abiding monk, and he was very strict. He would scold people, but he was not angry about it. It was just his personality. Oftentimes, you'll see that Kassapa and Ananda seem to always get into some kind of fights.

Kassapa would criticize Ananda and say, you're spending too much time with the female nuns. And that was just his personality. Then there was the arahant who liked to eat a lot. Then there was the arahant who would like to skip rocks. And all of these other kinds of personality tendencies. So what is it that defines the arahant? It is the total cessation of all ignorance, which means they function with the complete understanding and application of the four noble truths. Not just a continuous blabbering in their mind of, oh, this is the first noble truth, this is the second, this is the third. No, they have it as a lived reality. Their mind is rooted in the operating system of the Eightfold Path.

And so everything that arises for the arahant is never clung to. It's continually ceasing. This is the difference. Did you have a question? Yeah. Conceptually, I think most people don't understand the personal identification. So if you want to dissolve that, at what jhana state would you dissolve that? Does it automatically dissolve that maybe third or fourth jhana? No, it gets dissolved at arahatship. Total identification with all things. I told you, it's an intellectual view of taking things personally that goes away. That's the difference. So what we're talking about there is called conceit, mana. And so conceit is about the mind.

It's like this little puppet in the mind that says, comparing and identifying with things: how does this affect me? You know, and so one of the ways it talks about conceit is it was always comparing: as I am greater than, or I am less than, or I'm equal to, or in relation to one's family, or in relation to one's, you know, compassion or wisdom or whatever it might be. All of those processes of identification, the actual process of taking it personally and identifying, goes away at arahatship, but the intellectual view, which is, you know, now that there is not really a self, goes away at sotapanna. So there's the knowledge and then there's the application of that knowledge that happens. Yeah, yeah. So the intuition, would you say that is for everybody kind of a different experience? Like it's a knowing, or it's inside the picture, or whatever?

Or would you locate it like in a certain way? Intuition, right? Intuition is just a word for the mind of somebody who has no craving. So intuition is a process where the formations, or you can use the analogy of the brain where the synapses are all working in coherence, in accordance with the situation. So intuition, so how do you practice developing your intuition? That's a big question, and you can do it at any point in time. You don't have to be an arahant to do this. All you have to do is, if you are met with a series of choices, or if you are met with a blockage in your meditation, some kind of block, you can actually ask the mind, what is the

Reason for this block, but once you ask the question you drop it. You don't analyze it, you don't try to reflect on it, you don't try to investigate into it, because you're then involving the thinking aspect of the mind. Instead you just keep the question aside, and then when you least expect it, like a eureka moment, it arises. This is the reason for the block, and this is how you let go of it. So if you're with life decisions that you want to make, you can say, what seems to be the most appropriate life decision to be made here? And you drop it, and then all of a sudden the answer will come to you. Now, it's not an answer you might like or you might want, but it will be the appropriate answer. This is how you exercise and practice intuition. And it's like the sankharas all come together in cohesion. They work together in tandem, or any greed, hatred, or delusion present in them.

Okay, let's share some merit. Thank you. 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, of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.