June 25, 2023 MN 9 Right View and Dependent Origination - We are going deep.

Now we are going to get really deep. Get ready. This is Majjhima Nikaya 9, Sammaditthi Sutta. It's called Right View. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There the Venerable Sariputta addressed the friends, bhikkhus. "Friend," they replied. The Venerable Sariputta said this: "One of right view. One of right view is said, friends. In what way is a noble disciple one of right view, whose view is straight, who has unwavering confidence in the Dhamma, and has arrived at this true Dhamma? Indeed, friend, we would come from far away to learn from the Venerable Sariputta the meaning of this statement. It would be good if the Venerable Sariputta would explain the meaning of this statement."

Harsh speech is unwholesome. Gossip is unwholesome. Covetousness is unwholesome. Ill will is unwholesome. Wrong view is unwholesome. This is called the unwholesome. And what is the root of the unwholesome? Greed is a root of the unwholesome. Hate is a root of the unwholesome. Delusion is a root of the unwholesome. This is called the root of the unwholesome.

And what is the wholesome? Abstention from killing living beings is wholesome. Abstention from taking what is not given is wholesome. Abstention from misconduct in sensual pleasures is wholesome. Abstention from false speech is wholesome. Abstention from malicious speech is wholesome. Abstention from harsh speech is wholesome. Abstention from gossip is wholesome. Uncovetousness is wholesome. Non-ill will is wholesome. Right view is wholesome. This is called the wholesome. And what is the root of the wholesome? Non-greed is a root of the wholesome. Non-hate is a root of the wholesome.

In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has unwavering confidence in the Dhamma and has arrived at this true Dhamma. Let me break this down for you. When we talk about Sammaditthi, or right view, that is the starting point of the practice. Because if you don't have your view straight, nothing else will be able to function. It's through right view that you then have right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness, and then you open up right knowledge and right liberation. So when we talk about right view, there are different ways that the Sutta has discussed right view.

Now here, Sariputta is really expounding as best as he can, basically to the limits of what right view means exactly. There are different ways of understanding right view. There is the mundane right view and there is a super mundane right view. The mundane right view has to do with understanding, essentially, that all our actions, all our intentional actions, have consequences.

Understanding that there is meaning in giving, there is meaning in what is offered, there is meaning in what is sacrificed, that means there is meaning in generosity. That there is mother and father, that we hold, we owe a debt of gratitude to our parents for bringing us into this world so that we can experience nibbana. And there, that there is this world and the other world. This world here could mean the six senses, or the five physical sense bases, through which we experience this world here. The other world can mean essentially jhana, that there is a possibility of escape from the five central cords of pleasure, and that the experience of jhana liberates us from having happiness that's dependent on sensual pleasures. This is a happiness born of seclusion, a happiness born of collectedness, a super mundane happiness.

Then when we talk about the super mundane right view, it's really talking about a number of things. That includes the activation of investigation of states, having mental fixity towards your goal, your goal here being the cessation of suffering, nibbana. But it also means the understanding of the four noble truths, coming to a level of understanding suffering, abandoning craving, experiencing the cessation of suffering, and cultivating the Eightfold Path.

So when you look at Right View, Right View feeds into each of the other elements of the Eightfold Path, and it feeds back towards Right View. Each one feeds back. So it's this interconnected, holographic, fractal system that we have in the Dhamma. If you know one element of the Dhamma, truly know one element of the Dhamma, everything else works in tandem with that knowledge. You know the 37 requisites for awakening. That's a lot of things to discuss, but if you understand one element, the other elements come into place. If you practice the Eightfold Path, everything else falls into place. If you practice the four foundations of mindfulness, all the other factors fall into place. If you have the five faculties and the five powers, everything else falls into place.

So there is this interconnectedness that you should understand. That's why, even though the suttas talk about breaking down the different aspects, like in the four foundations of mindfulness or the five aggregates and so on, in reality, when you are meditating, all is coming into play. When you're meditating, you're using right effort, you're using right mindfulness, you're using right collectedness. It's not something that you have to pinpoint. Later on, when your mind becomes super sharp, super clear, free of fetters, then your mind will be able to understand, even at closer range, what exactly is going on.

But trust and understand in the fact that when you do this process, you are developing everything else. When you are meditating the way that you're meditating, you are developing the enlightenment factors. You are developing the five faculties and the five powers. You are developing the four bases for psychic faculties. You're doing all of these things, but you just don't realize it. That's all. But the root of all of that is understanding what is wholesome and what is unwholesome.

Why do we talk about what is wholesome and what is unwholesome? Because first and foremost we understand cause and consequence, action and consequence, cause and effect: that if you produce a certain action with a certain intention, that will give rise to a certain effect. So what does it mean to be unwholesome? How do you know if something is unwholesome? When there is tightness there, when there's tension there, when the mind starts to become closed and limited? And how do you know when it is wholesome rather than unwholesome? When the mind becomes open and spacious, when there's clarity in the mind?

These precepts that you follow, that we all follow, the five basic precepts, they are universal. In every tradition, doesn't matter what tradition you look at, they all talk about the same thing, and it all comes down to that principle, the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The reason you are keeping these precepts is because you inherently understand what it feels like when somebody breaks a precept and harms you, hurts you, lies to you, steals from you, cheats on you, indulges in intoxicants, and behaves in a way that is detrimental to themselves and boisterous, and affects you as well.

When you wouldn't want that to be done to you, why do it onto others? That's the number one part. The second part about that is when you keep these precepts your mind is purified. That is the practicality of that. Sometimes some people who come to this practice, they think the word precepts or the word virtues makes it sound too religious, and call them habits. They're just habits. You're inculcating the habit to be peaceful by not harming others, by not killing beings. The habit to be content by not taking what is not given. The habit to be calm and collected by not indulging in and dealing in misconduct in the pursuit of sensual pleasures. The habit of being true to yourself by not indulging in false speech, in gossip, in harsh speech, and so on.

The habit of not indulging in intoxicants. All of these inculcate a mind that is rid of any kind of coarse aspects, like craving and conceit and wrong views. Because the more wholesome you become, the more steady your mind becomes. And the more steady your mind becomes, the easier it is to meditate. The easier it is for mindfulness to become sharp and see what exactly is going on.

So the root of the unwholesome is greed, hatred, and delusion. These are rooted, or I should say the formations will be rooted in this. When we talk about formations, I'll explain what that means. But the flip side of that is non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion. A mind free of hatred, a mind free of delusion, a mind experiencing nibbana. Saying, good friend, the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question: "But, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma?" "There might be, friends, when friends and nutriment, the origin of nutriment, the cessation of nutriment, and the way leading to the cessation of nutriment."

In that way, he is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. And what is nutriment? What is the origin of nutriment? What is the cessation of nutriment? What is the way leading to the cessation of nutriment? When we say nutriment, what they're talking about from the Pali word is ahara. Ahara means food or nutrition, or the source of a certain kind of energy, nutriment.

There are four kinds of nutriment for the maintenance of beings that have already come to be and for the support of those about to come to be. What for? They are physical food as nutriment, gross or subtle. Food is required for the maintenance of the physical body. That's the physical food. That's the gross food. What is the subtle food that we talk about?

The subtle food can mean two things. In some context it means food of the devas, and in another context it means food that you intake through any of the sense bases. So when we talk about the food of any of the sense bases, it means what kind of content you're watching, what kind of things are you listening to, what are you experiencing through the five physical sense bases that are either causing agitation in the mind, causing sensual desire in the mind, or leading to cessation of those things. It's very important to understand this, because a person can just come into meditation and struggle all day long, because they don't have the understanding that there's a lot of prep work to be done prior to meditation, which is to get your mind clean through cleaning up your intentions, by keeping the precepts, and by understanding what kind of things it is that you experience through the sixth sense base.

Contact as the second, mental volition as the third, and consciousness as the fourth. From contact, that is the nutriment for feeling to arise. For mental volition, that is the nutriment for consciousness to arise. It says nutriment, that's nutriment for nama-rupa, mentality-materiality, to arise. With the arising of craving there is the arising of nutriment. There is the cessation of nutriment.

So what does that mean? With the arising of craving, it is craving which gives rise to these things: physical food, or the food that you experience in the five sense spaces, contact. There's craving, a little bit of craving, in each of the links of dependent origination, because there is still the I, me, myself. There's still a sense of ownership there. There's still a sense of, this is mine, this is me, this is mine, this is myself. And that's a type of craving, by identifying with whatever is arising. That happens at contact, that can happen at mental volition, and that can happen at consciousness. With the cessation of craving, there is a cessation of nutriment.

What is the cessation of craving? It's letting go of any identification, letting go of any craving, letting go of any tightness and tension. The way leading to the cessation of nutriment is this Noble Eightfold Path, that is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right collectedness. When I say the Noble Eightfold Path, when I read this, because it's going to be there as we start to continue to read, as we continue to read the suttas, whenever I read the words Noble Eightfold Path, the 6R's are essentially just a mnemonic understanding, a mnemonic device to understand the four right efforts.

What are the four right efforts? Recognizing and preventing the arising of unwholesome states. Abandoning already arisen unwholesome states, generating wholesome states, and maintaining those wholesome states. This is exactly what you do with the 6R's. When you recognize any kind of hindrance in your mind, you're recognizing an unwholesome state there. When you release and relax, you are abandoning that unwholesome state. When you re-smile and return to a brahmavihara or your object of meditation, you are generating a wholesome state, and you are maintaining that wholesome state.

And then you repeat whenever the hindrance arises. So the 6R's are right effort. And in Majjhima Nikaya, well, it's called the Great Forty, Majjhima Nikaya 117, the Great Forty, there the Buddha talks about these three things: right view, right effort, and right mindfulness allow you to go from wrong view, wrong intention, and so on, to the right aspects of this.

So by understanding what is right and wrong, you have right view. By then making the effort mindfully of noticing if it's wrong, from the wrong factors to the right factors, and that is why I say that right effort is the heart of the Eightfold Path. Right view is the beginning. It's the starting point. But right effort is the heart, is the core of the Eightfold Path. Because it is through right effort that you go from any kind of wrong, unwholesome states to the wrong, unwholesome states.

Yes, friends, a noble disciple understands suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering. In that way he is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. And what is suffering? What is the origin of suffering? What is the cessation of suffering? What is the way leading to the cessation of suffering?

Birth is suffering. Aging is suffering. Sickness is suffering. Death is suffering. Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering. Not to obtain what one wants is suffering. In short, the five aggregates affected by clinging and craving are suffering. This is called suffering. So now we're getting into the beginning, or let's say the end point, of dependent origination, which results in dukkha. So what is dukkha? When we talk about the word dukkha, du means that it's in the wrong direction. It means that it is not good, not beneficial.

And when we say ka, that means stability. So dukkha really means to be unstable, instability, very closely related to anicca. So when we talk about dukkha, there are three types of dukkha. There is dukkha-dukkha. There is viparinama-dukkha, and there is sankhara-dukkha. Dukkha-dukkha has to do with birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, grief and despair. So these kinds of dukkha are mental and physical pain that we experience. Viparinama-dukkha is the dukkha of change, that is to say, not to obtain what one wants. Is that viparinama-dukkha? The way things change: we expect a certain thing and they change. That is viparinama-dukkha. And then sankhara-dukkha, that is the inherent dukkha in existence, that is the five aggregates themselves, the five aggregates that are affected by craving and clinging. Now the question is, when we say the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging, there's a question that says: are they the same or are they different? And what is that craving and clinging?

That craving and clinging in relation to the five aggregates is identifying with the five aggregates. There is a sense of self in regard to one or more of the five aggregates. We'll get deeper into this when we talk about clinging to self view. So once you let go of that, then there's just the five aggregates, and the five aggregates are seen as just an impersonal process. But until then there is this dissatisfaction with reality, dissatisfaction with inherent existence. Nothing really is satisfying at all, no matter what you do, because it's all in the realm of conditioned existence, conditioned reality. And what is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that. That is craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. This is called the origin of suffering. So that craving, when we talk about craving, tanha. Tanha means to thirst. Think about the last time that you were really thirsty, you haven't had a sip of water all day long. What is your mind gravitated towards? It wants to quench that thirst.

Just a sip of cool water is so satisfying, but until you get that you're always thirsty for it. So when you talk about craving for sensual pleasures, it's like you're always looking to grab and obtain and possess and own some kind of an experience through the five physical sense bases. You see something beautiful and you don't want it to stop. You hear something wonderful and you don't want it to stop. You smell a beautiful perfume, right, and you attach yourself to it. You taste a lovely piece of chocolate cake

and you want more of it. You feel something great, you know, maybe a warm blanket on a cold day, and you want to just snuggle up and not do anything. So all of these different kinds of wanting, not wanting it to stop, is another way of looking at craving. The tightness and tension that identifies with that is the craving. On the flip side of that is the aversion. When you have something that is unpleasant, unpleasant experiences in terms of unpleasant visions, unpleasant sounds, unpleasant smells, unpleasant tastes, unpleasant sensations on the body, you want it to stop.

So that craving is discontent, discontentment. It is not being okay with the dhamma of the present moment, not being okay with what is going on right now. That is the craving, craving for existence, craving for being. I'm not getting to the 7th jhana. I really want to experience the 7th jhana, and you push and you push and you push. This is obsession. Craving for existence, or more mundane than that, is I wish I could be the best meditator. I wish I had a million dollars. I wish I did this. I wish it were so. This is all craving for existence.

Craving for non-existence: I don't like being here, I don't like being in this place, I wish this stopped. The most extreme form of that is craving for suicide, suicidal ideation. Sometimes it's not the person's fault, it's because of medication, but sometimes when it comes to suicide or the desire for suicide, it happens because that mind is so broken and overwhelmed by so many different kinds of input that it doesn't know what to do. It becomes so confused that it just wants to end it all.

So these are the different types of craving that can lead to suffering, that are the causes and conditions for suffering. And what is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejection of that same craving. This is called the cessation of suffering. So what is that cessation of suffering? It's when you relax the tightness and tension, when you relax any kind of craving.

The relaxed step leads to an experience of relief. That's the third noble truth. Relief from suffering. Relief from craving. And what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path. So the 6R's are the way leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called the way leading to the cessation of suffering. When a noble disciple has thus understood suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma.

The aging of beings in the various orders of beings, their old age, brokenness of teeth, grayness of hair, wrinkling of skin, decline of life, weakness of faculties. This is called aging. The passing of beings out of the various orders of beings, their passing away, dissolution, disappearance, dying, completion of time, dissolution of the aggregates, laying down of the body. This is called death.

This is so. This aging and this death are what is called aging and death. With the arising of birth there is the arising of aging and death. With the cessation of birth there is the cessation of aging and death. The way leading to the cessation of aging and death is just this noble eightfold path. Can you six are aging and death? How wonderful it would be if you could, but you can't. Aging and death are natural parts of life. When you are born, you are born with an expiry date.

That's the truth of existence. A lot of people do a lot of things to let go of aging superficially, right? But that still doesn't stop the decline of the faculties. That doesn't stop, because once you are born, yes, up to a certain age you build up certain kinds of energy in the body and in the system, and if you take good care of yourself it might continue for a little while, but after a certain age things start to decline. That's just the nature. It's biology. It's part of our cellular systems. In our DNA, at the end of the chromosomes, there is what's known as telomeres.

These telomeres are the end caps, and they're like shoelaces. And when you see shoelaces, at the end of the shoelaces there's this wiring around it. That's what the telomeres are. And as you start to age they start to unravel, just like those shoelaces. You can do all kinds of things to delay the progression of the shortening of the telomeres. In fact, there has been some research done, I think in the last 10 years, and women will really like to hear this, which is that loving-kindness meditation delays the aging process for women by affecting the way the telomeres unravel, delaying or prolonging that process. Prolonging the inevitable. Yeah, I guess we suffer more somehow, but this is just a fact of reality.

This is the way this process works. And death, when we talk about death, there's a way in which the dying process happens for the body and the mind. Certain elements of the body start to unravel in certain sequences. The sense bases start to unravel in a certain sequence. And the last thing to go is the mind. That's why at the level of mind, it is so important to understand what your last thoughts are. What are your last reactions or responses to whatever is arising?

unwholesome their entire life, the almost automatic, 99% automatic tendency will be for that mind to incline towards the unwholesome. And there will arise, because of those unwholesome actions and intentions, remorse and regret and fear and confusion in those last moments. Not a good way to die. But if a person has been wholesome their whole life, the inclination will be that that person will go towards the wholesome. And so they will be met with memories that are harmonious and wholesome. Their minds will be uplifted before they pass.

And then with stream-enterers and so on, it's different. Because when you have stream entry, the mind is purified to such an extent that it will never go down below the human realm. It has cut off any kamma or karmic roots that can take them to any of the lower realms. The mind is inclined towards the upliftment, towards evolution, positive evolution. So this dying process, if you understand what you're meditating for, then you'll understand and be prepared for death. Most people want to meditate because they want to have a happy life, because they want to have a clear mind, a relaxed mind. They want to be effective in their work. They want to have better memory skills and all of these other things, and they're all wonderful and beneficial. But ultimately, the reason why you meditate is so you know what to do when you die. That's it. Every time you meditate it is a preparation for death. You're practicing how to die. Every time you go through these jhanas you're unraveling layers of the mind, getting to the core, and then when cessation happens

that's death. That's why people have a tendency to be a little afraid when they get to cessation. The heart races, it feels like the heart is racing again. The heart is not racing. It feels like you're dying, and the mind says, no, no, no, I don't want this, because it feels like you're dying. But I can tell you that no one has died on any of these retreats, so you're going to be fine.

So letting go of formations, the meditation, is exactly what you will have to do when you die. Where does your mind incline towards? What does your mind look towards? Oftentimes in near-death experiences people have this idea or this experience of going through a life review process, and they see the highlights of their lives. Some people aren't happy with it because it's not been that great, and some people are really happy and they go into the light. Now, here's a tip for you: before you go into the light, look around what's going on, because when you look around you actually see the fabric of reality. So remember that when you die, before you go into the light, just look around what's going on, as you will see how this whole process works.

There might be, friends. When, friends, a noble disciple understands birth, the origin of birth, the cessation of birth, and the way leading to the cessation of birth. In that way, he is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. And what is birth? What is the origin of birth? What is the cessation of birth? What is the way leading to the cessation of birth? The birth of beings in the various orders of beings, their coming to birth, precipitation in a womb, generation, manifestation of the aggregates, obtaining the bases for contact. This is called birth. With the arising of habitual tendencies, there is the arising of birth. With the cessation of habitual tendencies, there is the cessation of birth.

The way leading to the cessation of birth is just this noble eightfold path. So birth, when we talk about birth, we can see it in different contexts. When you talk about birth from one life to the other, we're talking about not just birth that happens coming out of the womb, but we're talking about birth when it comes to when conception happens.

When we talk about conception, what is that? That is essentially the seed of the father and the egg of the mother and the consciousness that descends into the womb. That is the gandhabba. That is the evolving consciousness. That is the patisandhi vinnana that goes from one life to the next, carrying forward with it all of the karmic influences, and makes a genetic match that will be available through gene expression and epigenetics for the activation of certain kinds of karma. And when they all come together, there is conception. That is the first birth that you have. From there, there is then the development of the embryo and the fetus and so on. And then there is the birth coming out from the womb.

And while that's going on, the six sense bases are starting to come together. They're starting to develop, and the aggregates are starting to develop. The idea that we start to experience life right after we come out of the womb, I should say, is a little misguided, because in the womb, all kinds of input is coming in.

How the fetus reacts, how the fetus takes in certain kinds of things, right? So the formations in the mind of that fetus start to take shape. That's why when a baby is born, when a child is born, they have a lot more synapses in their brain. And those are pruned as they grow, as they age, depending upon the different kinds of contact and feeling that they experience and start to create associations, start to crave and cling. And so certain synapses fade away and certain synapses are strengthened.

And so when we talk about formations, sankharas, those can be likened to those synapses. And that is also dependent upon the environment, what is happening outside. And so certain genes are turned on and certain genes are turned off, depending upon behavior and depending upon environment. This is how this whole process works in the evolution of a being through dependent origination.

That is at one level. The other level is understanding birth of karma. Birth of intention and action. So the birth of action, that is when you think something, when you say something, when you act, when you do something. Now, you cannot 6R an action, because as soon as you let go of the arrow, you cannot recall it back.

And what is being? What is the origin of being? What is the cessation of being? What is the way leading to the cessation of being? There are these three kinds of being: sense-sphere being, fine-material being, and immaterial being. With the arising of clinging, there is the arising of being. With the cessation of clinging, there is the cessation of being. The way leading to the cessation of being is just this noble eightfold path.

So when we say being, it can mean existence, it can mean becoming, it can mean coming to be, it can mean habitual tendencies. So Sariputta says there are three types of being: sense-sphere being, fine-material being, and immaterial being. At one level, at the macro level, what he's talking about is when the dying process happens, right, when you're going through the dying process, if certain formations are strengthened in the mind due to continuous intentional actions of committing those things, then the mind will gravitate towards them. So if the mind has been more generous, more forgiving, more compassionate, more accepting of things, more loving and kind

truthful and honest, then their mindset will be more like a deva, so there is the possibility that their mind will incline either to a wonderful human existence in the future or one of the deva realms. If the mind has been stingy, unforgiving, cruel, harmful, violent, jealous, greedy, and so on, then their mind will incline towards the unwholesome. And the existence that can happen later on can be rooted in one of the lower realms.

For example, if a person is always hungry for things and very jealous and possessive, their mindset is like a hungry ghost. Or if a person is violent and cruel and has wrong views that lead to their suffering, that mindset, that psychological state, is like that of a hellish being. If a person is always greedy for money and sex and food and power, they're more animalistic in nature.

And so their mindset will incline towards the animal realm. So that happens from one life to the other, but that can happen within one life, different kinds of psychological states of mind, depending upon what kind of actions you commit. If a person has been cultivating jhana, different kinds of jhana, the rupa jhanas, then their mindset will be such that their mind will incline towards one of the rupa lokas, one of the brahma lokas.

But within that one life, their mindset will be such that they will always be joyful. They will be shining with joy and happiness. They will have clarity of mind. They will have equanimity. They will have sharp and clear mindfulness. If they continue to cultivate the arupa jhanas, the ayatanas, then it's possible that their mind will incline towards one of the ayatanas at death. But just in one life as well, their mind can be infinitely spacious and compassionate. Their mind can be having infinite consciousness and joy, tiger it. Their mind can be in a space of nothingness and of equanimity. Or their mind can be very clear and go to the signless.

Now, called the Meta Sahagata Sutta, which talks about this. It says that each of these Brahmaviharas is tied to one of these ayatanas. So, for example, infinite space is accompanied by compassion. Infinite consciousness is accompanied by joy. Nothingness is accompanied by equanimity. And neither perception or non-perception in this case is essentially accompanied by a quiet mind. That's the way to understand it. And loving-kindness is present in the first three or first four jhanas. Or can accompany, let's say, the first four jhanas. So when you are cultivating these different Brahma-viharas and going to these jhanas, you are further purifying your mind. this process has a cumulative effect.

The more you do it on a consistent basis, the purer your mind becomes. And eventually, before you know it, when you least expect it, your mind drops fetters, experiences Vavana. So habitual tendencies is another way of understanding being, or bhava. Habitual tendencies means that there is a library of habitual tendencies, a library of habitual reactions that you have, dependent upon the choices that are presented to you in every given moment.

If a person is angry at you, there is a certain way you will act, based on previous actions where you were in situations like that. So habitual tendencies also means habitual patterns of thought and behavior, and habitual patterns of relationships and situations you find yourself in. You might move from one country to the other, but somehow you seem to have the same set of friends with the same set of behavior patterns, or you end up in similar kinds of situations. And that's because you haven't learned from them. That's because you identify with them. That's because you have reactions, habitual reactions that continue to propagate them. But the moment you learn from them, the moment you understand them, and the moment you let go of identifying with them,

sooner or later they start to dissipate. And those similar kinds of situations, the similar kind of behavior patterns, the similar kind of relationships that you seem to cultivate start to fade away. And it's all done through the 6R process at the mental level, pro-level. That's why when we talk about dependent origination, we see it like a river, and at the bend of the waterfall is bhava.

You can still recall the boat before it goes down to the waterfall of birth. You can still pull it back. It might be more difficult because there are all these chain reactions that are coming in, and you want to act, but if you can just pause in that moment and recognize that that reaction is going to cause you suffering, and then let it go and replace it with something that is rooted in wisdom and compassion, then that whole house of cards of suffering falls apart.

What is the origin of clinging? What is the cessation of clinging? What is the way leading to the cessation of clinging? There are these four kinds of clinging: clinging to sensual pleasures, clinging to views, clinging to rules and observances, and clinging to a doctrine of self. With the arising of craving, there is the arising of clinging. With the cessation of craving, there is the cessation of clinging. The way leading to the cessation of clinging is just this Noble Eightfold Path. Do we have clinging with us? Okay.

Can I have some clinging? Thank you for the clinging. So here we have the different kinds of clinging. So what you have here is essentially a handout, which was an outline that I used as a way of explaining clinging at the Dependent Origination Symposium. So it's kind of rough, but it shows you the different kinds of clinging that are there. So when we say clinging, we're talking about upadana. And it says here, upadana has been translated previously as clinging, grasping, fuel, or attachment. These words can be used interchangeably, but for the purposes of understanding this process, we may use the active aspects, therefore clinging or grasping.

And when we talk about clinging, there are these four types of clinging. Clinging to sensory pleasures or experience, clinging to views, clinging to rites and rituals, clinging to self-view or belief in a personal self. So before we go into the second type of clinging, let's just talk about the clinging to sensory experiences. So when we talk about clinging, the process of clinging is essentially the process of rationalizing why it what you crave or what you have aversion towards. It's the, so craving is the I like it, I don't like it, or I am it mindset. But the clinging is I like it, I don't like it, I am it because of so-and-so. It's the rationalizing of why you think that you like this or you don't like this.

So the associations that you make into sensory experiences is the clinging to sensory experiences. Like, you create an image with a certain kind of sensual experience, and when you create that image, you create an identity around it, and you create a rationalization of why it is that you crave for it in the form of some kind of sensual pleasure.

For example, marketing and advertising is perfect for this example. All kinds of marketing you see on TV, in the newspaper, and on social media. What does it do? You take something mundane, such as a supercar. Or not even a supercar, just somewhat of a luxury car like a Mercedes or a BMW. You see the marketing that's created. They create all of these taglines, and you see this person who's ultra-successful driving this BMW or driving this Mercedes, and so you rationalize: if I own this car, I am successful. That's the association that you're making, the rationalizing that you're doing, the best or nothing. That creates this kind of image in your mind, or using certain kinds of perfumes, or eating certain kinds of foods, or tasting, or using certain kinds of clothing. Those associations, the idea that if I only have this, I am this kind of a person, that's also clinging. So creating favorites in your mind.

You have a favorite type of food because you associate it with some kind of emotional satisfaction. Your mother used to make this type of food all the time on a cold rainy day, and when you eat this food, there's all that. That's what comfort food is. You make an association with that. Or when you smell a certain kind of perfume, there's a certain memory associated with it, maybe, and you think back to it. And so that is the clinging that arises. That's the process, the snowball effect of cooking up that sense of me, mine, or myself that is cultivated in bhava. The ingredients are all taken together and cooked up in clinging. Now, when we talk about clinging to views, there are different kinds of views that the mind can cling to.

That can be different kinds of opinions about something. We see this now in social media, right? Political views, religious views, ethical views, all kinds of views that the mind clings to and identifies with and makes into a character that you embody. And so the Buddha has talked about this. By clinging to views, it can lead to desolation and war.

It could lead to taking up of the sword and stick to views. The different wars that we see, that this world has experienced, at least in the last 200 years, even more than that, they've arisen because of some kind of clinging to views, some kind of clinging to an ideology. But then the Buddha also talks about clinging in terms of clinging to wrong views.

There are 62 different types of wrong views. Let's get into them. No, they're all there in the Digha Nikaya 1, the Brahmajala Sutta. But at the time of the Buddha, there were these prevalent views that we'll talk about a little bit, so you understand what those wrong views are and what the right view is. So first, in order to understand the wrong view, let's first understand what the right view is. And so this right view comes from Majjhima Nikaya 117.

And what, friends, is right view? Knowledge of suffering, knowledge of the origin of suffering, knowledge of the cessation of suffering, and knowledge of the way leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called right view. But there is other aspects to that, as I talked about: the mundane right view, the belief in generosity, the meaning in giving, belief and understanding of cause and consequence, action and consequence, and so on. This all comes up in right view, or under right view. So what are the types of wrong view that the mind can go into?

These were the prevalent views during the time of the Buddha. One of them was called amoralism. And that basically means that there is no belief in any kind of causation and conditionality. There is no result of actions. There's no belief in generosity. There's no belief in keeping the precepts. It just says, be however you want to be. It doesn't really matter.

And you see that in terms of even today, that people are like, why are you keeping the precepts? It doesn't really matter. These are just religious or moral things. In the modern day, when you talk about morality, you can see in people's minds a little wincing that goes on, someone who's going to be like a moral police to me. That's not what we're talking about. When we talk about morality, we're not talking about becoming evangelists and making everybody moral. All we're saying is, see the benefit of being moral, that is keeping the precepts. See for yourself. The whole thing about the Dhamma: the Dhamma never forces anything upon anyone. Coming into this with a healthy amount of skepticism is the best way to approach the Dhamma. The Buddha even encourages it.

And then, seeing for yourself, does it make sense to be moral? And then you start to see the benefits of doing that, namely how your mind remains uplifted, ready for Samadhi. The other view was pre-determinism or absolute fatalism. And this was followed by a group called the Ajivakas, and the leader of the Ajivakas was Makhali Gosala. And basically he said that this existence that we experience is like a ball of string that is unraveled until it's completely, you know, unraveled.

So that means there is no meaning in doing any kind of action. Everything is already predetermined. The suffering that you have to experience is predetermined. The experiences that you're going to have are all predetermined. Even the awakening that you're going to experience is already predetermined. So why do anything? But as we understand, using the right effort, that we have a choice in every moment to incline to the wholesome or the unwholesome, and it has a direct consequence, that shows it is not predetermined. This is where a lot of questions about free will come in. But when we talk about free will, what does that mean? Free will basically means that it is a mind, or there is a being, that is independent of any causes and conditions, that can have some kind of will that is outside the scope of any choices presented to it.

Absolute free will. In the context of the Dharma, what we have is conditioned choice. In every moment there is a plethora of causes and conditions that lead the mind toward a certain kind of choice. However, you also have the choice not to follow down that path in that given moment. And that is only present when you have mindfulness.

But it is conditioned. There's a difference there. And the conditioning can change depending upon how you see things, depending upon how you experience things, and how you perceive the experience in terms of whether this is wholesome or unwholesome. And there is karmic streams that relate to that in terms of whether you come to the Dhamma or not. It depends upon different aspects. For example, you either come to the Dharma because you've had enough of suffering, or you don't, because you haven't had enough suffering. Suffering can lead to two things: further suffering and confusion, or a search for a way out of suffering. In this case, for some people, it's actually a Google search: meditation retreats.

So when we talk about the way this existence works, everything that we do has some kind of consequence. Every intention that we have has some kind of consequence. If that is the case, then it is not predetermined. There's always the possibility of change there. The other view is materialism. Again, it says there is no result in actions. One can pursue sensual pleasures, ignore the precepts, but not necessarily. So this is materialism. This is the view proposed by a man named Ajita Kesa Kambala.

It's a very interesting name, Kesa Kambala. Kesa Kambala means a blanket, because that's what he wore. He wore a blanket made out of human hair. Very uncomfortable. So this view is basically: eat, drink, and be merry. Don't think about tomorrow. There's no consequence to any of that. There was another view like it, which was called Charvaka, during the time of the Buddha and also just around, I mean, in ancient India. And basically this view was the idea, there was a statement that identified this view, and that statement was eat, drink, and be merry. Eat and use lots of ghee, because ghee at the time was considered as good as gold. It was very precious, right?

Very luxurious. And eat and consume ghee, even if you have to steal or take out a loan. That sounds to me like capitalism, modern capitalism, right? So the idea here is just live for the sensual pleasures, nothing else beyond that. That's the only way we can satisfy our cravings, is to actually indulge in sensual pleasures. So that view is saying that there is nothing beyond that, there is no other world. But when you experience jhana for yourself, then you realize there is a pleasure that is not dependent upon the five physical sense bases. The more you are able to experience the joy of jhana, the less interested you become in the pursuit of sensual pleasures. But it means consistent practice and effort.

The fact that you can do this shows that this is a wrong view. Then there is the view of eternalism. This view talks about the idea that there are these seven different kinds of elements, and they cannot be destroyed, they cannot be harmed. There is no meaning in karma, there is no meaning in keeping the precepts. No matter what you do, if you even kill someone, they're not truly dead, they still live on, and all of these things. That's a very dangerous view to have. The idea here is, if I kill someone, it's okay because they're not really dead.

Experience the consequences of that. If not karmically in terms of one birth to the other, you do go on trial and possibly get convicted for that. So that's also a consequence of that. The idea of eternalism is also that there is some kind of consciousness or soul that reincarnates from one life to the next. But when we talk about a soul, the idea of a soul is something that is beyond the scope of any of conditioned reality, because anything that's conditioned is dependently arisen and therefore is impermanent and subject to change. Being subject to change is not holding on to, because it can, or it is liable to, cause dukkha.

Therefore, it cannot be seen as me, mine, or myself, because the idea of a self in ancient India was that it is eternal, that it is a source of happiness, and that it is always enduring. Sat, chit, ananda is what it's known as: sat, ever existing; chit, ever aware; ananda, blissful all the time. That is the concept of self at the time of ancient India. But if you look at all the reality, there's nothing you can see in your own experience, internally or externally, that truly matches that idea of that permanent, blissful self.

Then there is the view of Nigantha Nataputta, which is basically extreme asceticism. This is the forerunner, the ancestor of Jainism. And the essential idea and core of Jainism is that there is some kind of a soul that goes from lifetime to lifetime carrying out karma. And that karma is not rooted in intention. Any kind of action can lead to some kind of karmic consequence. But the Buddha, very important distinction here, he says, karma is intention.

What you intentionalize is your karma. But the Jains, or the Jain view, is that the soul, this idea of the soul, goes from one lifetime to the next lifetime, taking with it karmic particles, karmic dust, as they would call it. And as the soul becomes dirty with this dust, it leads to different kinds of realms that can be lower or higher or whatever it might be.

And the way to become clean again is to purify the mind and purify the body. And so through ascetic practices like extreme lifting and doing other kinds of ascetic practices, we actually let go of all of that karmic dust. We purify the soul of the karmic dust. This is the Jain view. And the Buddha actually just asked them about this, and they said, how do you know how much karmic dust is actually left and how much karmic dust has actually been cleaned up? Do you actually know the bank balance of what is the system?

And you really can't. And so the idea here is you can only deal with what is happening in the present moment. The Buddha talked about karma in terms of old karma and new karma. Old karma is everything that is felt and experienced, from formations all the way to feeling and experience. New karma is what you choose to do with what you are experiencing. And so the Buddha said there is a way to let go of karma and a way to let go of that cycle of karma. And that is to be ever aware of whatever feeling arises, through yoniso manasikara, attention rooted in reality. Not taking personally the experience or the feeling, and understanding it for what it actually is.

That it is impermanent, can be liable to cause dukkha, and therefore not me, not mine, not myself. The moment you see it in this way, you do not crave, you do not cling, and you do not become. The craving, clinging, and becoming are the ingredients for the renewal of further new karma, which actualizes at the level of birth of new karma and is experienced as suffering one way or the other.

What the Buddha says is that by using the Eightfold Path, we can let go of our karma. That is the only way to do it. And it's the practical way of doing it. You can see it for yourself in the meditation. Every hindrance that arises in your mind is a result of karmic actions, one way or the other. And it is the old karma that you're dealing with, in the form of a feeling. This hindrance arises in the form of a mental experience. The moment you react to it, the moment you start to take it personally, the moment you try to push it, the moment you try to do anything with it, what happens? That hindrance becomes stronger.

But as soon as you see it for what it is and you let it go, what happens? Maybe for a couple of seconds that hindrance goes away, but the next time it arises, it becomes weaker. And it starts to dissipate bit by bit by bit until it disappears completely. And this happens for all kinds of karma. If you truly understood just this principle of the 6R's, then you would be content all your life.

You would never have to be discontent and affected by any kind of karma, good, bad, or indifferent, because you understand that all that arises as a result of some kind of karmic action is something you have to experience here in the present moment. And how you take the present moment will determine whether you actually renew that karma or dissipate that karma until it no longer exists.

And so letting go and abandoning allows you to see that karma dissipating and finally fading away. So the relationships that you might have, the situations that you get yourselves into, the behaviors that might arise, all of these are a result of previous intentional actions. And the moment you see it as all a result of old karma, to be felt and experienced, then you don't take it personally. And the moment you see yourself taking it personally, and you 6R it and let go of it, then your reactions to that will not renew that karma. Your responses will be rooted in the Eightfold Path. It'll be rooted in right intention, the first component of which is to renounce and let go of me, mine, or myself. Therefore your speech will be right speech, according to what is required in that moment.

Your action will be right action, according to what is required for that moment. It will be intuitive, it will be spontaneous, dependent upon what is going on, and therefore it is not rooted in any old karma, but also doesn't result in any new karma. It starts with 6R-ing. Any kind of mental, verbal, or physical reactions, but namely, and most importantly, any kind of mental reactions that are rooted in craving, conceit, or ignorance.

That is the way to let go of karma. And finally, we have the eel wrigglers, that is, philosophical skepticism. They say, it might be this, or it might not be that. They sit on the fence, they don't make any conclusion. There might be awakening, there might not be awakening, there might be a Tathagata, there might not be a Tathagata. It could be, it could not be. I don't know. So that kind of eel wriggling, as they call it, is because they're afraid of getting into any kind of debate with the conclusion. That's essentially why they do it.

But guess what happens? That creates agitation in the mind. Whereas when you establish right view, you know for yourself, with complete experiential confidence, that this is right view. This is the way leading to the end of suffering. Namely, understanding the Four Noble Truths and understanding the mundane aspects of right view. Then we have something called clinging to rites and rituals.

So when we talk about clinging to rites and rituals, this reminds me of a joke from Bhante Sujato. It's a very corny joke, so I'm very grateful for what it is. But when we talk about attachment to rites and rituals, we're talking about sila pabbata, right? So sila is the foundation. It's the rock. And then pabbata is basically rolling forward. So what we're talking about is the clinging to rock and roll.

That's what we have to let go. Clinging to any kind of rock and roll music. No. This clinging to rites and rituals. When we talk about rites and rituals, the first component of that is the idea that these rites and rituals will take effect if you cling to them in that way, and then that is basically the attachment to rites and rituals. The other understanding is cultivating the idea that there is some kind of luck: if I only did this, if I carry this lucky charm, then my fortune will change.

If I only did this particular ritual, then my fortune would change. But that is basically taking a different view on karma, because when we talk about karma it's all about our efforts and what we do. The intentions that we have, and the actions that are rooted in those intentions, will lead to some kind of consequence. To this particular deity, then they will shower me with some kind of fortune? No, you also have to make the effort to do something. That's one kind of clinging to rites and rituals. Another one is basically using the occult arts. Now, this is considered wrong livelihood in the context of the Dhamma, for monks in particular.

And I had this question before: why does it say that monks can't be doctors? Because it talks about that in wrong livelihood. It talks about not dealing in astrology and palmistry, and reading the signs and telling fortunes, and being a doctor, and all these other things. It's basically because, why do you become a monk? Monty Kusala, why did you become a monk?

Trick question. There is no becoming. You are on standard. That's right. You plead the fifth. People go from the home life to the homeless life in the pursuit of Nibbana, for the purpose of releasing their mind from any kind of suffering. Doing anything like that, doing anything else, is considered wrong livelihood. So it's not like being a doctor is wrong. Being a doctor is a wonderful thing as a layperson, because you're healing people, and you're helping them, right? You're saving people's lives. But for a monk, their primary goal is the experience of letting go of all suffering and attaining Nibbana. So anything other than that would be considered wrong livelihood. And that includes the occult arts when we talk about clinging to rites and rituals.

Another kind of rite and ritual is animal sacrifice, because you're basically killing another living being in the pursuit of what you believe you will receive by killing this particular animal, causing harm. Now, here it says chanting. There's nothing wrong with chanting in itself, but being attached to chanting, being attached to the idea that if I just do chanting and nothing else I'll be fine, is clinging. You also have to do the other aspects: keeping the precepts, developing bhavana, and experiencing panna, or experiencing wisdom. Developing meditation and experiencing wisdom.

Another kind of clinging to rites and rituals is clinging to routine. My routine has to be this way, exactly. If I don't do it this way, something wrong will happen. Or you become so attached to that routine that if it doesn't happen, you get agitated in your mind. It's okay. You missed the bus, or you did this, or you did that. No big deal. It's fine.

People make a big deal out of a lot of things. But as soon as you let go of that and you say, it's just this. This whole society that we have, this whole existence that we have, we have literally made up. All of the concepts that we have in this reality is just stuff we have decided by consensus, this is what it is.

The other day I was telling you about this joke of this person about the economy. The economy is basically something that humans have made up, as a means of making money and this and that. And everybody worries that there's going to be a bubble, there's going to be a bubble. But the stock market literally shuts down every day at 5 p.m. and turns back on at 9 a.m. or whenever it is. So the guy said, why don't you just shut it off completely? We make this up, the concept of money and the concept of status, power, and all of these things.

And clinging to all of that, it has to be a certain way. Let go of all concepts. Nibbana is non-conceptualizing. Nipapancha, non-proliferation, conceptualizing. And then finally, we have clinging to a view of self. 20 kinds of self-views, and that is in relation to the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. And there are four types of views in relation to those five aggregates.

One of these five, any of these five aggregates as self, the self that possesses the five aggregates, the five aggregates in self, and the self in five aggregates. This is essentially the idea that you identify with one or more of the five aggregates, the idea that there is a self in them, or they are the self. But the moment you start to look at each of the five aggregates, you start to see that these five aggregates are fickle.

Form, feeling, perception, formations, consciousness. They are impermanent and subject to change. They can be liable to cause or experience dukkha. And therefore, they should be seen as not mine, not me, not myself. The moment you have stream entry, you let go of this. Because now you've seen for yourself how this process works, and you let go of any belief in a personal self.

The moment you attain stream entry, you also let go of any kind of clinging to rites and rituals with the idea that they will take you to Nibbana. You become a stream-enterer. You also let go of any clinging to wrong views. Then the moment you become an Arahant, you let go of any clinging to sensual pleasures. And when you become an Arahant, you let go of even clinging to right view. Because there can be attachment to the Dhamma that prevents you from going all the way. You carry the raft on your back after you reach the other shore.

So these are the different types of clinging. And the way to let go of them is using the 6R's. Recognize any time these kinds of thoughts arise in the form of rationalizing why it is that you like or don't like something, or you identify with or why you believe this to be self, or that this is my opinion and this is the right view, or any kind of rites and rituals. When you recognize that happening, there's a further tightening in the mind. When you recognize it, release it, relax it, and then replace it with wisdom. Then that whole stream of karma dissipates. When you let go of clinging, no habitual tendency can arise. When no habitual tendency can arise, no new birth of action can arise.

When no new birth of action can arise, no new suffering can arise. When a noble disciple has thus understood clinging, the origin of clinging, the cessation of clinging, and the way leading to the cessation of clinging, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma.

Craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for odors, craving for flavors, craving for tangibles, craving for mind objects. With the arising of feeling, there is the arising of craving. With the cessation of feeling, there is the cessation of craving. The way leading to the cessation of craving is just this noble eightfold path. So we delved into craving already when we talked about craving as the origin of or the condition of suffering. Here we're talking about the six types of craving, which are craving in relation to craving born of eye feeling, ear feeling, nose feeling, tongue feeling, body feeling, and even mind feeling. That craving manifests as tightness or tension.

And when you notice that tightness and tension and you let go of it, you experience that relief from craving. So that's how you let go of craving: it is to utilize the 6R's and the eightfold path. When a noble disciple has thus understood craving, the origin of craving, the cessation of craving, and the way leading to the cessation of craving, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. Saying, good friend, the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question. But, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma?

The way leading to the cessation of feeling is just this noble eightfold path. So when we talk about feeling, that is vedana, that can be any kind of feeling as an experience. It can be a pleasant experience. It can be a painful experience. It can be a neither painful nor pleasant experience. There can be up to 108 different types of feeling. Let's go into them. No.

But essentially, we're talking about any kind of experience that you have, past, present, or future. Any kind of experience that you have, pleasant, painful, or neutral. Now, you can't 6R an experience. But you can 6R any kind of underlying tendency that underlies that experience. What do I mean by that? In a feeling, there can be underlying tendencies.

There's the underlying tendency towards craving. The underlying tendency towards aversion. The underlying tendency towards ignorance. The underlying tendency towards doubt. The underlying tendency towards views. The underlying tendency towards conceit. The underlying tendency towards becoming, or bhava. They can underlie any of these feelings. These underlying tendencies are the bridge between feeling and full-blown craving. What is the underlying tendency towards craving? Starting to say, I like this, this is pleasant, I want more of it. That can give rise to full-blown craving. What is the underlying tendency to aversion? This painful feeling, I don't like it, I don't want this, I push it away. What is the underlying tendency to ignorance? Not seeing the truth of that experience, painful, pleasant, or neutral, and identifying with it. The lack of mindfulness, the lack of attention to that feeling, is the ignorance.

What is the underlying tendency to doubt? Being confused about what state is arising dependent upon this feeling. What is the underlying tendency towards views? Having an opinion about this particular experience and holding on to that particular opinion. What is the underlying tendency towards conceit? Identifying this as me, mine, or myself, and the pride that arises dependent upon that.

What is the underlying tendency towards, did I go through everything? Are you guys paying attention? What? Aversion. I talked about craving, aversion, doubt, views, conceit, ignorance, and bhava. I missed bhava. So that bhava, what is that becoming? You see this experience and you say, I want to own this experience. I want to become this experience, or from this experience, I want to obtain so-and-so.

So any kinds of these thoughts that arise in the mind in relation to a feeling can be the pathway to full-blown tanha. But the moment you are able to recognize that and let it go, you have regained your mindfulness and attention, which is the gatekeeper that prevents the arising of any further craving from feeling. So you have to be able to experience everything fully without attaching a sense of I to it.

It is just an experience. The moment you say, this is my experience, suffering arises. It's like that little comic strip panel that says, this guy goes to the doctor and he says, it hurts when I do this. And the doctor says, what? When I exist. Whenever there's that I that's there, then there is suffering. You let go of identifying with any feeling, then you are okay. Everything is fine.

And so I will always quote the Bahiya Sutta because of its profundity. In the seeing, there is only the seen. In the hearing, there's only the heard. In the sensing, there's only the sensed. In the cognizing, there is only the cognized. When, Bahiya, there is no you in that, there will be no you by that. Just this is the end of suffering.

Complete non-engagement of any sense of I in relation to an experience is the end of suffering. In other words, not taking things personally. When a noble disciple has thus understood feeling, the origin of feeling, the cessation of feeling, and the way leading to the cessation of feeling, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma.

There are these six classes of contact. Eye contact, ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, mind contact. With the arising of the six-fold base, there is the arising of contact. With the cessation of the six-fold base, there is the cessation of contact. The way leading to the cessation of contact is just this Noble Eightfold Path. So what is contact? Contact is made up of three things: the sense-base, the sense-base object, and the corresponding sense-base consciousness dependent upon the truth. These three constitute contact.

That means that if somebody is blind, and even if light is in the retina, and if they're blind, there is no consciousness that arises dependent on the two, then there will not be actually any kind of contact. If somebody is deaf, even if the sound waves penetrate the ears, there's no underlying consciousness that arises dependent on the two, then there is no ear contact. You need all three in order for it to constitute as contact.

Now contact being constituting these three, namely the base, the sense-based, the sense-based object, and the sense-based consciousness. Here when we talk about consciousness, we're saying consciousness flows dependent upon the attention. Where attention goes, consciousness flows. Right now you are all looking at me, right? Your attention is on me, and so there's contact between the eyes and here, the light bouncing off of this body, and there is a corresponding awareness of that, and these three are creating the contact which gives the feeling of seeing me. But the moment I point through these flowers, your attention goes from me to these flowers. The moment your attention goes from me to those flowers, that's the cessation of contact between your eyes and me as the form, and the arising of new contact between the eyes and the flowers, and the dependent consciousness that arises, that is dependent upon the attention being given to the flowers.

How does this work in the meditation? When you are meditating, there is the mind and there is the mind object and there is a corresponding mind consciousness. If the mind is paying attention to loving kindness, then there is contact with loving kindness as the experience. The moment a hindrance arises or a distraction arises, now the attention, the contact with loving-kindness ceases and the contact with that hindrance arises. So what do you do? You redirect your attention again. How do you do that? You use the 6R's. So the cessation of contact with that hindrance leads to the contact with the loving-kindness.

And cessation of all contact leads to the experience of the unconditioned. Because the unconditioned is beyond any kind of conditioned contact. And so that contact that arises when the mind makes contact with the nirvana dhatu is known to be that contact which is undirected because there's no desire there, signless because there's no object there, and void or empty because there is no sense of self there. Then dependent upon that contact, a conditioned feeling arises in the form of joy or relief or equanimity or clarity of mind.

And then the whole scheme of dependent origination starts again. That's how you see everything arising. When a noble disciple has thus understood contact, the origin of contact, the cessation of contact, and the way leading to the cessation of contact, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma. Saying, good friend, the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question. But, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma? There might be, friends. When, friends, a noble disciple understands the sixfold base, the origin of the sixfold base, the cessation of the sixfold base, and the way of the cessation of the sixfold base.

In that way, he is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma. And what is the sixfold base? What is the origin of the sixfold base? What is the cessation of the sixfold base? What is the way leading to the cessation of the sixfold base? There are these six bases: the eye base, the ear base, the nose base, the tongue base, the body base, the mind base. With the arising of mentality-materiality, there is the arising of the sixfold base. With the cessation of mentality-materiality, there is the cessation of the sixfold base. The way leading to the cessation of the six-fold base is just this noble eightfold path.

So the six-fold bases are basically the instruments through which you experience reality. They are the receptors of different kinds of vibrations. This whole thing that is there in terms of samsara is nothing more than just a... Now, how we experience reality is through certain kinds of subsets of vibrations, in the form of some kind of electromagnetic vibrations, vibrations of the atmosphere, vibrations of molecules that hit the olfactory bulb, or that make contact with the tongue, or changes in temperature and pressure internally and externally in relation to the body, all it is. And so these receptors are taking in those kinds of vibrations, and your mind then interprets what that experience is. This is the matrix. That's what it is.

There's nothing you can experience beyond what you can experience dependent upon the six-fold base, in one way or the other, by the six-fold base. And so what we perceive as reality is only a small percentage of what is there in samsara. Some birds can see better than us. Some animals can smell better than us. Some people can see more colors than other people.

Some people can hear different frequencies or more frequencies than others, and that's all dependent upon the clarity and the strength of those sense bases. But these sense bases themselves are impermanent and subject to change. That's why they decline as you age, and that's why the experience also changes dependent upon contact with these sense-bases. When a noble disciple has thus understood the six-fold base, the origin of the six-fold base, the cessation of the six-fold base, the cessation of the six-fold base, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma. Saying, good friend, the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question, but, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma? When, friends, a noble disciple understands mentality-materiality, the origin of mentality-materiality, the cessation of mentality-materiality.

And the way leading to the cessation of mentality-materiality, in that way he is one of right view and has arrived at this true dhamma. And what is mentality-materiality? What is the origin of mentality-materiality? What is the cessation of mentality-materiality? What is the way leading to the cessation of mentality-materiality? Feeling, perception, intention, contact, and attention. These are called mentality.

The four great elements and the material form derived from the four great elements, these are called materiality. So this mentality and this materiality are what is called mentality-materiality. With the arising of consciousness, there is the arising of mentality-materiality. With the cessation of consciousness, there is the cessation of mentality-materiality. The way leading to the cessation of mentality-materiality is just this noble eightfold path. So mind and body, name and form, mentality-materiality, these are all basically the five aggregates. In what way? Materiality, which is the form, creates the form aggregate.

The air element and the fire element. In modern-day science, we understand these to be the different states of matter. There is the solid state of matter, there is the liquid state of matter, there is the gaseous state of matter, and there is temperature and plasma, heat and plasma, that creates vibrations throughout these. And that is all creating the experience of this form, this body, whether it's near or far.

Whether it's subtle or gross, whether it is past, present, or future, all of that is form aggregate. And as a result of contact, there arises the feeling aggregate, the perception aggregate, and the intention aggregate that is in mind, or mentality, or name. These are the faculties through which the processes of feeling, of perceiving, and intentionalizing happen. And through attention is how awareness flows, how consciousness flows.

So it is all dependent upon contact, phassa, sparsha. And so the faculty for contact allows us to experience contact. The faculty for feeling allows us to experience feeling, and perception, the faculty of perception. The faculty of intention allows us for the process of creating an intention, of creating some volitional activity. And the faculty of attention allows the process of consciousness to flow in a certain direction.

In the same way, you can think about it in terms of the brain. There are different parts of the brain, there's the frontal lobe, there's a parietal lobe, there's the pineal lobe, all of these different components of the brain that allow for some kind of specialized function, but they all work together in some way. The same way in mind, in mentality, the components of contact allow for the processing of contact to happen, the component of feeling allows the processing of feeling to happen, the component of perception allows a processing of perception to happen, the component of intention allows for the process of intentionalizing and volition to happen, and the component of attention allows for the process of consciousness to flow. So when we talk about mind, it is not just the brain. When we talk about in the mind, it is

Happens through the brain and the nervous system, but mind, as we have understood through the Dhammapada, mind is chief. Mind is the forerunner of all states. It's through the sense-based receptors that takes this and creates some kind of an experience, and that is through the processing of mental formations that allow us to feel and perceive. This is mentality and materiality.

And the six sense bases are rooted in mentality-materiality. That is to say, the physicality of the sense bases is rooted in materiality. The functioning and the processing of the sixth sense basis is rooted in mentality. When a noble disciple has thus understood mentality, materiality, the origin of mentality, materiality, the cessation of mentality, materiality, and the way leading to the cessation of mentality, materiality, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. Saying, "Good friend," the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question: "But friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma?"

"There might be, friends. When, friends, a noble disciple understands consciousness, the origin of consciousness, the cessation of consciousness, and the way leading to the cessation of consciousness, in that way he is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. And what is consciousness? What is the origin of consciousness? What is the cessation of consciousness? What is the way leading to the cessation of consciousness? There are these six classes of consciousness: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness. With the arising of formations, there is the arising of consciousness. With the cessation of formations, there is the cessation of consciousness. The way leading to the cessation of consciousness is just this noble eightfold path."

So now, when we talk about consciousness, this is translated from the word vinnana. Jnana means knowledge, to know, and V is to divide. The knowledge is divided between these six sense bases. And so it is the bare cognition of an experience. When you have feeling, you have perception. When you have feeling and perception, you have consciousness or awareness of that feeling and perception.

Now, mentality, materiality, and consciousness are dependent, or interdependent. Consciousness gives rise to mentality-materiality, and mentality-materiality gives rise to consciousness. In what way? At the macro level, there needs to be a descending of consciousness into the womb with the sperm and the ovum for there to be the development of mentality-materiality. But in order for you to experience consciousness, you need some kind of an instrument. And those instruments are found in mentality-materiality.

Consciousness arises dependent upon something. It cannot be independent. So the experience of any of the six sense bases gives rise to a sense-based consciousness. As soon as the consciousness departs, that name and form goes. If the name and form is killed or destroyed, that consciousness dissipates and disappears. Now, that consciousness is a carrier of different formations that carry forward into another life if there is still craving, if there is still identification, if there is still some kind of ignorance there. That is why, in one of the suttas, the Vakkali sutta, when he goes up onto Vulture's Peak, as he attains arahatship and leaves, I mean, the five aggregates become cooled, there's a black smoke that's there.

And the Buddha says, "Monks, do you see that black smoke there? That is Mara, looking for consciousness that arises but unable to find one. Because there is no more craving or conceit or ignorance that gives rise to new consciousness that goes from one life to the next there." That means, that confirms that Vakkali had passed on as an arahat, let's say.

So consciousness, in terms of the experience that we have day to day, is essentially just the bare cognition of an experience. It's just aware of something, and it is experienced at the level of contact, dependent upon the experience of the sixth sense basis, contact, and feeling and perception. When a noble disciple has thus understood consciousness, the origin of consciousness, the cessation of consciousness, and the way leading to the cessation of consciousness, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. Saying, "Good friend," the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question.

"But, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma?" "There might be, friends. When, friends, a noble disciple understands formations, the origin of formations, the cessation of formations, and the way leading to the cessation of formations, in that way he is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. And what are formations? What is the origin of formations? What is the cessation of formations? What is the way leading to the cessation of formations? There are these three kinds of formations: bodily formation, verbal formation, mental formation. With the arising of ignorance, there is the arising of formations.

With the cessation of ignorance, there is the cessation of formations. The way leading to the cessation of formations is just this noble eightfold path. Formations, sankharas or samskaras, are essentially that which percolates in the mind as proto-thoughts in terms of mental formation, to be experienced as feeling and perception that give rise to feeling and perception. Bodily formations have to do with the inhalation and exhalation, as well as any different aspects of bodily contact.

The verbal formations have to do with thinking and expressing. In other words, you think about something, and then you express it in words. Now, formations are also karmic in the sense that they are carriers of karma. So when somebody has become fully awakened, what links continue to arise? Formations, consciousness, mentality-materiality, sixth sense basis, contact, and feeling. No more new birth, so therefore no more craving, clinging, becoming, or birth.

But no more ignorance. How do those formations arise, dependent upon what? Those formations arise dependent upon contact, which gives rise to some kind of karma, which the formations carry forward in the form of feeling and perception. Now, the formations can be rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion, and by doing so, lead to further karma. Or the formations can be uprooted from greed, hatred, and delusion, and therefore just be pure formations in that sense.

Purified of any greed, purified of any hatred, purified of any delusion. These are the roots that have been uprooted. When a noble disciple has thus understood formations, the origin of formations, the cessation of formations, and the way leading to the cessation of formations, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. Saying, "Good friends," the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question: "But, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma?" "There might be, friends."

"When, friends, a noble disciple understands ignorance, the origin of ignorance, the cessation of ignorance, and the way leading to the cessation of ignorance, in that way he is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. And what is ignorance? What is the origin of ignorance? What is the cessation of ignorance? What is the way leading to the cessation of ignorance? Not knowing about suffering, not knowing about the origin of suffering, not knowing about the cessation of suffering, not knowing about the way leading to the cessation of suffering. This is called ignorance. With the arising of the taints, there is the arising of ignorance. With the cessation of the taints, there is the cessation of ignorance.

The way leading to the cessation of ignorance is just this noble eightfold path." So, ignorance, avijja, the lack of knowledge, the lack of mindfulness, essentially. I always talk about this, the four levels of competence, right? Unconsciously incompetent, consciously incompetent, consciously competent, and unconsciously competent. In other words, the first level of ignorance is that you don't know what you don't know, or you don't know that you don't know. Never been introduced to the four truths, never been introduced to the Dhamma. That's one level of ignorance. Then you find out that there are these four noble truths and that there is the Dhamma, but you don't make any effort, and you choose to ignore them by having lack of mindfulness. Soon you make the effort, so that you start to let go of that ignorance, which is the lack of mindfulness, and eventually you uproot ignorance altogether, and you are always mindful, so that no new craving, clinging, and becoming can arise.

This is the way to understand ignorance. When a noble disciple has thus understood ignorance, the origin of ignorance, the cessation of ignorance, and the way leading to the cessation of ignorance, he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way, too, a noble disciple is one of right view and has arrived at this true Dhamma. Saying, "Good friend," the bhikkhus delighted and rejoiced in the Venerable Sariputta's words. Then they asked him a further question: "But, friend, might there be another way in which a noble disciple is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has unwavering confidence in the Dhamma, and has arrived at this true Dhamma?" "There might be, friends."

Now when I was working on the initial draft of A Mind Without Craving, the translation I used for taints was 'virus'. This was written during the time of the pandemic, and certain people reading that were like, "Are you sure you want to use that word?" I think we might want to go back to that word, because that is essentially what taints are. They are viruses that are encoded in the biology or the software of the mind. They are the viruses that infect the software of the mind. And so, because of them, they keep the rest of the series of dependent origination running. But as soon as you let go of the taints by installing the antivirus, which is the Four Noble Truths, which means you have let go of ignorance completely, then the software runs smoothly.

Then the mind is running smoothly. The mind operates under the operating system of the Eightfold Path, always, all the time. So the taint of sensual desire, what does that mean? Every time you have craving for a sensual desire, you bring it back to the taint of sensual desire for the next arising of dependent origination, where that sensual craving is stronger.

Every time you have the desire to become something, you are feeding back energy to the taint of being, or habitual tendencies, so that the next arising of dependent origination has a further strengthening of the habitual tendencies. Every time you have lack of mindfulness at the level of feeling, you are feeding back at the taint of ignorance, so that the next arising of dependent origination has further lack of clarity at the level of feeling. But every time you are mindful, every time you have proper attention, every time you have sati, sampajanna, and yoniso manasikara at the level of feeling, you are whittling away at those three taints. That means every time you 6R, you are whittling away at those three taints.

So at the moment-to-moment level, what's going on is every time there is contact arising, it's giving rise to new formations, or further formations, that give rise to awareness of that experience. That's happening at the level of mental formations. Mental formations allow you to feel and perceive, and the reason they're called mental is because even if you're seeing something, even if you're hearing something, even if you're tasting something, ultimately what's happening is it's being experienced at the level of mind.

All of these are essentially going into the mind. That's why it is said, mind is chief, mind is the forerunner of all states. So the instruments of the five physical sense bases feed into the mind to be experienced as something. Sorry, I forgot to ask the question. The question was, say again the question, because people want to know what the question is. How do formations lead to consciousness? That's the question. Next question. Yes. According to the dying process, when we achieve flat lines and when brainwaves flat-line, and we are all in precepts and we have so nice levers, we have all the levers and we have relaxed, how do we act according to the dying process? Through the near-death experiences, you know, 30 minutes or longer, breaking up of everything?

Yeah. So the question is, what is the dying process like? No. Yes. Oh. Yeah. Can we, yeah, can there be organ transplants and things like that? Yeah. So first and foremost, in terms of the dying process, when the EEG is flat and the brain is no longer active, and there's cardiac arrest, and all of these things are going on, in reality still functioning.

So the sankharas are still continuing there. And so, despite all of that, the mind being active, it's now going to either cling to something and give rise to birth, or right there and then just completely cease. Now, this process can take anywhere from three hours to a few days. It just depends upon how much the mind has to go through.

That's why it's important to keep their mind uplifted. And more importantly, after they seem to be dead, medically and legally speaking, not to mourn them right there and then, not to cry, but to continue to be uplifting to them, so that in that process the mind continues to be uplifted. Now, in terms of organ transplant and all of that, at that point the earth element is no longer functional for the purposes of the establishing of, or the continuance of, consciousness. It's happening at the level of mind. So in terms of materiality, whatever you give in terms of donating,

that will be okay. That's not an issue at all. But there's also an understanding that the cells themselves carry memory. And there are stories of people who had heart transplants, and because the sankhara is rooted in that, they have memories of the person that donated the heart to them. That can happen too. Yeah. I was curious specifically about the rebirth process. And since we won't have memory of this life, what can we do to help make sure that we can find Buddhism again in the next life? The question is, if we don't have memory of this life, how can we make sure that we find Buddhism again in the next life? Right. So, first of all, let's try to figure out how we don't have to get a next life.

But I will say that if somebody has been established in the Dhamma, the Dhamma will come back to them in the next life. It just will, one way or the other. Because the sankharas that have been instilled, the formations that are rooted in the understanding of the Dhamma, are strong enough to go forward in the next life, and carry forward, and create kammic experiences, or kammic streams, that allow that person to experience, or re-experience, the Dhamma again.

Just what? Think of Duke. Just think of Duke, yeah, there you go, Duke. Duke was like a greedy, hungry person in a former life, according to you. Well, I mean, you know. He's changed. You see how calm he is now. Still, some sankhara, some bhava is still there, you know. But it's starting to reduce a little bit. And Sukha, actually, you should remember Sukha, more than Look. Yes. When you were talking about mentality and materiality, you mentioned mentality as feeling, perception, intention, and the encounter and attention. If you don't particularly see formations and intentions, can you use them interchangeably? So the question is, can you use formations and intentions interchangeably? Yes. Yes.

Because the way to know the quality of your formations is to understand what your intention is. And through the process of intention, the formations flow. This is why I was saying that mentality is essentially the five aggregates. The form, materiality, is form. Through contact there is then the feeling aggregate and the perception aggregate, and intention, through which formations flow. If you have an intention for something, the formations will flow in that direction. And if you want the formations to change, you change your intention from unwholesome to wholesome inclinations. From unwholesome to wholesome, likewise with attention, through which consciousness flows. I would say that intention here. Yeah, this is a good question, because now let's make it more confusing. There's intention in terms of cetana, and then there's inclination in terms of chanda, and then there is volition, okay?

So the intention, the cetana, is sort of like where the mind inclines towards, right? Towards wholesome or unwholesome. And that choice is made at the level of volition. So you can think about it like if you want to go from one side of the road to the other side of the road. The other side of the road is your goal, is your inclination. The steps that you take to go to the other side of the road are your volition.

So that changes depending upon what choices you make in that moment, and those are volition. But the intention here, the cetana, is the intention. For example, the intention is to go to Nibbana. And so that intention to go to Nibbana is dependent upon prior formations, where you've heard about Nibbana, where you know a little bit about Nibbana in terms of reading the texts and so on. But then the choices in the moment that you make are the volitional steps that you take. That is separate to intention. Right? But those can be conditioned also, depending upon what contact arises and what choices you make in those moments. Yeah, I understand why you replace me. There are no actual synonyms.

In the sense, I have formation at the point where the intention is the point of my formation, but I have a choice in which formation you have to form. Actually, I would say they are synonymous, because if you read the Bhava Sutta, there also the Buddha talks about a certain consciousness. Consciousness being the seed. If there was no intention there, no new consciousness would arise.

And because there's no new consciousness, and no moisture for that seed, with kamma being the field, there would be no new bhava. So their intention is definitely synonymous with formations too. Practically speaking, what we're seeing is that formations can be, okay, you can see it as levels, formations being like the atomic level, and cetana being like the surface level.

And they're all sort of working together. I have another question to pick up on that question. What about self-consciousness? Could that formation be in self-consciousness, and every time the conditions are there, they come up in consciousness and then they go back there? I don't know. So do we have a storehouse? So, if you look at the level of unconscious, subconscious and conscious: unconscious is ignorance, subconscious is formations, consciousness and mentality, materiality and six-fold base, and consciousness is everything you do with regards to feeling and perception. There you make a conscious choice what to do in that moment when you are faced with an experience.

Now when you talk about a storehouse of karmic formations, really what we're talking about are bhava. Bhava is the storehouse of all kinds of inclinations and tendencies, which feed back to the formations. Now, just to clarify his question and your question again, what was the question again? I have to say it to the camera. No, his question was subconsciousness. Yeah. If you talk about subconscious, unconscious, conscious, this is how you see it in terms of dependent origination. Now, going back to a little bit about his question, because formations and intentions

if you think about formations, when you think about bodily formations, the intention to move arises due to a bodily formation, because it's related with the body. The intention to express and speak is rooted in verbal formations, because you think and then you break out into speech. When it comes to mental formations, they are basically, you can't intentionalize to feel and perceive a certain way, definitely, but they are rooted in the intentions prior to that, that allow you to see it in a certain way. In other words, even the contact is tainted by certain upakilesas, which are the defilements of consciousness. There are 16 upakilesas that include stinginess and greed and jealousy and anger and pride and conceit and arrogance and all of these other things that taint the way contact arises and also taint the way that feeling and perception are experienced.

Let's take this example. You have a verbal formation of saying something harsh against something, but in theory, you can, practically, you can catch it when you have the craving, when you need to change in your daily life. - That's right. - It's crazy. - Yes. - And you can't fix that. - Yes. - So that formation goes through all the path of dependent origination, create an intention of doing a harsh response to that person for whatever reason, but can still be captured at the moment, right? - Yes. - Or clearly? - Yes. Well, I'm trying to understand in the daily life, in the daily life, you can capture things at the six R's at the time of craving, clinging, all these habitual tendencies already. These are the three...

No, even at habitual tendencies. So the question is, can we recognize the intentions in craving, clinging, and becoming, or habitual tendencies? And yes, you absolutely can. The moment you are able to identify the craving and you let go of it, then your next set of intentions will deviate towards letting go of craving further. But maybe in meditation, can we go up to a subtle level, earlier in the kind of information we see? So the question is, in meditation, can we see it at a subtler level? Yes, we can. Every time you're in infinite consciousness, at the subtlest level, you're seeing contact, contact, contact.

You're experiencing it there as a reflective awareness of contact arising all the time. Beyond that when you go into neither perception or non-perception what you're actually seeing are the beginnings of intention Because the Buddha has talked about this in Suttas as well to Sariputta. He said Sariputta asks how is it that somebody can Exist because he talks about the four atabhavas Atabhava pratilaba the intention of oneself the intention of another the intention of both and no intentions at all the intention of neither And the Buddha says, only when one lets go of all intention, does the mind then go towards neither perception nor non-perception.

There you're starting to see the proto-thoughts that can arise to give rise to further intentions. So at that level, you are seeing at the level of formations, at the level of sankharas. So the sankharas are the building blocks of the intention, or the building blocks of a thought, or the building blocks of an experience. But they are interchangeable with intention, because it was through intention that the formations changed and gave rise to a new consciousness and further bhava and so on. Why, when you go into jhana, higher in jhana assignment? Then you are more working on the formation, then the formation. Yes. Up to the formation is in either position or position. Yeah. But then when you're in signless, it's really the conceit at the time.

Right. So the question is in the signless you are working at the level of conceit. And so the answer is that the level of conceit is also rooted in formations. So the signless is the border point between neither perception or non-perception and full cessation. And at that point, when you're in the signless, if you're truly in the signless, there is no ignorance there either, because you have complete sharp mindfulness that's going on over there. So you're going down to the roots, which, you know, beyond just the formations of greed, hatred, you're also looking at delusion, which is the conceit, and you're letting go of that. Which is the concept of I, which is the heart of the human being.

Yes. I have a question. In the case of seeing past lives, so we go to the fourth jhana, what actually happens? Are we generating new consciousness in relation to those past experiences? Yeah, that's a very good question. So in the past life exercise, when you go into the fourth jhana, are we experiencing new consciousnesses when you're looking at those past lives? And the answer is yes, we are.

Because we're manifesting new ones. The reason is because every memory that we experience, there's a consciousness tied to that memory. And every time we bring up that memory, another consciousness arises, dependent upon that memory. But it's not the same consciousness tied to that same memory. It always changes, because the quality of the memory can change depending upon the context. For example, when you see a memory that might be a harsh memory, if you're in a good mood and your mindset is in a pure state, you will not take that memory personally. You won't see it with hatred.

But if you are in an angry way to that harsh memory, because the consciousness is tainted by that anger, you will look at that harsh memory and further have aversion towards it. I'm talking about just general memory in one life. But going back to the exercise of looking back into past life memories, the consciousness that arises dependent upon the memory of that past life is not the same consciousness that was tied to the actual memory being experienced. Right. So, in that case, can you say that we are actually in the present? Yes.

Not actually in there. That's right. Right. That's right. No, no, we're not visiting the past. We're just reliving it, let's say, in a sense. There is no past. It's a concept. Time is a concept. If you think about this, like when we talk about infinite space, we're experiencing spatial awareness. When you go back into past lives, what you're actually experiencing is infinite time. But in reality, it just doesn't exist.

You had a question. And I was just wondering, let's say you find yourself in a situation where you are aware that your emotion is causing irritation or aversion or annoyance, but you are unable, in the heat of the moment, to let it go. So what happened there? There's a force that's taken up to switch the attention, to move the attention elsewhere, but things that are preventing that from happening are defiled by the pain. So it's like a battle of formations, the defiled formations that are preventing you from moving the attention, versus the wholesome formations that the mind will incline to. Yeah. So how would we simplify this question here? No, no. Hold on. So the question is, we have the chetana, which is the inclination or the intention, and then we have the formations that could be rooted in the unwholesome, let's say.

But then we want to change that to wholesome. And then there is this push-pull kind of thing that's going on. Well, it's a matter of volition in that moment, in the sense of, in that moment, with all of the conditions of paying attention to, so even the inclination to change the attention, based on the idea of this is the wholesome.

When you make that choice, then the next arising of formations are decluttered by, let's say, greed or hatred or delusion. It's still there, but it's now maybe 0.01% less. And therefore, the consciousness that arises, which is tainted by the upakilesas, that also is reduced by some level. And eventually, the more you do that, there's more reduction of greed, hatred, and delusion. There's more reduction of the upakilesas. And then the inclination is almost automatic towards the wholesome, where you don't even have to think about it. And is it the upakilesas that are defiling at that level, rather than the underlying tendencies? Yeah. So the question is, is it the upakilesas that are defiling, rather than the underlying?

Upakilesas are at the level of consciousness, and the underlying tendencies, the anusayas, are at the level of feeling. They're more active, let's say. The upakilesas are like the mindset that you might develop, like a greedy mindset or a jealous mindset or a covetous mindset or whatever it might be. The underlying tendency is happening where it's actually more active, in terms of a reaction to an experience, to a feeling. So they could be working in tandem? They can be working in tandem, and usually they do. Yeah. So the question is, is chanda and craving the same or two different things? It depends on context, because you have chanda raga, which can mean... Interest can mean passion?

Yes, with passion. Chanda raga would mean that it's interest, but it's an interest that is rooted in desire or wanting something, obsessed by something. But if you just use chanda, chanda can also mean a wholesome inclination towards something. For example, chanda for nibbana, or chanda for letting go of suffering. That can be a wholesome inclination. Whereas tanha is synonymous with chanda raga. What is the English word for upakilesas? Corruptions or defilements. So, could we see upakilesas, underlying tendencies, habitual tendencies, like a connection from a refined to more gross? You can see them more like from potential to kinetic.

Okay, so the question is, could we see the upakilesas, the anusayas, and the habitual tendencies, that is to say, the mental defilements, the underlying tendencies and habitual tendencies, as gross to subtle or subtle to gross? The better way of looking at it is from being potential to kinetic, potential energy to kinetic energy. I think everybody's delighted, satisfied, and tired.

So, let's share some merit. 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. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.