Day 8 UK Retreat (Sept 2023) - Transcendental Dependent Liberation

A couple of days ago, we were discussing dependent origination. And what we understood from that is that dependent origination is the elaboration of the fourth noble truth, or I should say the first noble truth of suffering and the second noble truth of the cause and conditions for suffering. Today what we will discuss is what's informally known as transcendental dependent origination. Or another way I would say it is dependent cessation or dependent liberation, however you want to put it. But when the Buddha talked about dependent origination, he had 12 links. Ignorance, formations, consciousness, mentality, materiality, sense basis, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, birth, or clinging, being, birth, and suffering. Then he said, from suffering, there arises 11 more links that have to do with how the mind is liberated.

In other words, not how the mind causes itself suffering, but how the mind experiences and realizes it for itself, the cessation of suffering, the third noble truth, which incorporates or interweaves the Eightfold Path, which is the fourth noble truth. So what is the first link in transcendental dependent origination? Technically, the first link is suffering, dukkha. We already know what that is. We've already experienced it, we deal with it. But what the Buddha has said is suffering leads to two paths or two destinations. One is further suffering. So a person experiences mental and physical suffering and they try to alleviate that suffering by numbing it, right? So they will use food, sex, drugs, alcohol, all kinds of sensual pleasures in the pursuit of reducing or ceasing that suffering.

But in reality, what they're doing is they're identifying with sensual pleasures. They're identifying with the sense basis, which only causes in the future further suffering. So that's the first way. The second way is eventually a person says, "All right, I've had enough." This has gone on for quite enough, right? There has to be a way out. There has to be another way out of this. And so this is what the Buddha calls the search for the Dhamma, the search for the way out of suffering. And quite literally, in some cases, including mine, the search can be an actual YouTube search.

Right? What is the way out of suffering? And so I got introduced to Bhante Vimalaramsi, then I did a 10-day online retreat with David Johnson, and I saw, indeed, there must be a way out of the suffering, and I found the path for myself. So this search is conditioned by what's known as samvega. Samvega is a smaller form of disenchantment, basically becoming tired, right? So one path leads to further confusion, and the other path leads to the search. And in the suttas it says, he asks, is there a person who knows one or two things about the cessation of suffering? That's the search. So this samvega is a form of disenchantment. It's basically saying, I've had enough.

A form of saying, There must be a way out. Then based on that, one is introduced initially to the Dhamma. Right? One attends a retreat like this. And there is a Buddha or a Buddha's disciple or somebody who has studied and practiced for themselves who says, this is the way out. And all those who come to a retreat or all those who come to the path will do so out of some level of faith. Now when we say faith, which comes from the word saddha, we're not saying that you need to believe in anything. We're not saying that you need to believe in the Buddha. You need to believe in the Dhamma. You need to believe in the Sangha.

So in the mornings when you do your refuges, the idea is not that I pray and bow down to the Buddha or the Dhamma or the Sangha. Buddha has experienced for himself. And I'm open to investigating for myself what this Dhamma is. And I'm open to the Sangha of teachers and monastics who might show the way out. So it's basically having an open mind. That's why the Buddha says the Dhamma is Ehipassiko. Come and see for yourself. So experiment and experience for yourself. Don't take my word for it, don't take anyone's word for it. Try it out for yourself, and if it works, great. If it doesn't, no harm, no foul, right? So that is the openness that you need to have. That's how I would say the open-mindedness. Later on, that faith turns into experiential conviction, and you realize for yourself, yeah, there is something to this.

I am starting to experience the alleviation of suffering. I am starting to experience wisdom. I am starting to see for myself with insights that my mind is teaching itself. And therefore, I'm starting to have experiential confidence. There are other suttas. This particular chart that you have, transcendental dependent origination, comes from Samyutta Nikaya 12.23, which is called the Upanisa Sutta. There are other suttas which come from the Anguttara Nikaya: Anguttara Nikaya 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, which all have variations of this chart. And there, it talks about not necessarily faith, but virtue and keeping the precepts. So again, when we take the precepts, it's not about having a moral high ground. It's not about any kind of self-righteousness.

What is the purpose of the precepts? I sometimes call the precepts habits, you know, because they're really habits that you start to form, start to cultivate, which is you cultivate a habit to not harm yourself, and not to harm other living beings, not to kill other living beings. You form the habit to not take what is not given. You form the habit to refrain from any kind of sexual misconduct, sensual misconduct, refraining from using false and harsh speech, and refraining from dulling your senses with intoxicants. So let's break that apart. There is a direct or indirect correlation with keeping the precepts and the hindrances. First of all, why do we keep the precepts?

It's the same kind of idea of the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You wouldn't want someone else to harm you and your loved ones, steal from you. You wouldn't want someone to cheat on you. You wouldn't want someone to lie to you or to use abusive speech against you. And you wouldn't want somebody to be rowdy and intoxicated and behave or misbehave. So that's the idea. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What is the connection with the hindrances? When you harm another being or kill a being like an insect or a fly or whatever it might be, generally speaking, when you are harming, there is the intention of ill will.

So every time you harm another being, you are cultivating and strengthening the hindrance of ill will. When we say taking what is not given, generally that means stealing, right? Not to steal from another. But look at the way it's phrased. Taking what is not given. It goes beyond just stealing. In other words, you don't just take something from someone. Permission, right? Even if it's as little as borrowing a pen. You don't just take the pen. You ask them, can I use this pen? Can I borrow this pen? That's one level of understanding it. Another is that when you steal or when you take what is not given, it's not just physical possessions. It's also things like energy and time and attention.

When you are in a meeting, you take the spotlight away from someone. Where does that stem from? It stems from mental restlessness and agitation. So the more you do this, trying to take credit for something that is not due to you, this is also infringing on copyright, and so on and so forth. Very layered. You can start with the basics of not stealing and not taking what is not given. But then, as you start to evolve through this progress, you start to have a more refined understanding of this.

But breaking this precept is from the mindset that is rooted in agitation, in restlessness. I can't be the way I am unless I have this. So here, when you do this, you bring up the hindrance of restlessness. What is sensual misconduct? Sensual misconduct is the pursuit of sense pleasures that is blind, that is drunk, that is intoxicated, where you are misbehaving with others in the pursuit of sensual pleasures. So you might break other precepts. You might lie. You might cheat. You might steal. You might kill. You might harm in the pursuit of that sensual pleasure. So where does that come from? The hindrance of sensual craving. The more you do it, the more it strengthens that particular hindrance.

Misconduct. What does sexual misconduct mean? Sexual misconduct is very, very limited. It basically means not to cheat on your partner. It doesn't have anything to do with sexuality. It doesn't have to do anything with whether you are in a heterosexual relationship or a homosexual relationship or a pansexual relationship, whether you're a throuple or polyamorous or whatever it is.

What it means is that you remain faithful to your partner or partners. That's it. And obviously not causing harm through the sexual act, meaning no rape, right? No pedophilia, bestiality, and all these other things, which obviously are basically causing harm to others who can't defend themselves. So this is sexual misconduct, and that also stems from sensual craving. And so it starts to strengthen that hindrance of sensual craving. Then we have false and harsh speech, primarily false speech. But when we talk about harsh speech, when we talk about abusive speech, what kind of speech is that? That is speech that causes division in people, right, that creates disturbances in their mind, that is used to inflict mental pain on another.

But when we talk about false speech or gossip, using speech that you either know to be untrue or just speaking without really verifying whether it's true or not. So sometimes you can preface it with saying, is true or not, but this is what I have heard. Right? You don't just outright say something you don't know to be true or untrue. And this form of lying, or this process of lying, this false speech, it creates doubt within you. Not only in terms of doubt in others, because if you can deceive others, then others can deceive you. And so you have doubt in others and then you have doubt in yourself and you become confused about what is right and what is wrong in terms of what is wholesome, what is unwholesome, what is beneficial, what is unbeneficial, what resonates, what doesn't resonate.

So this strengthens the hindrance of doubt. And then finally we have abstaining from intoxicants. Now, this precept was recently added, relatively speaking, by the Buddha. Why was it added? Because once upon a time, an arahant went to the bar, got a little too drunk, and made a fool of himself. So the Buddha said, okay, I think we need to make sure that we don't indulge in intoxication. So intoxicants at that time would have been alcohol. It can mean drugs. It can mean anything. Overindulgence in anything. The latest show on Netflix is on. What do you do? You spend an entire Saturday binge-watching that whole season. How do you feel at the end of it? Like a zombie.

Dull of mind, sloth and torpor. So overindulging in anything can cause sloth and torpor. So the question invariably arises: what about psychedelics, right? Can we use psychedelics? I'll leave that up to you. So when you start to keep the precepts, this is what happens: you start to bring stability in the mind. The mind starts to stabilize. The mind starts to become unagitated.

And it becomes free of regret. And so that's why in Anguttara Nikaya 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, it says that keeping the precepts leads to a mind free of regret. When a mind is free of regret, it is very stable. And therefore, it experiences relief from the get-go. And that relief translates into what's known as Pamoja. Pamoja is gladness. Gladness in the Dhamma. Remember when I said that when you experience the first jhana, the first thing that you have to do is let go of the hindrances. And when you let go of the hindrances, you feel relief. Tapping into that feeling of relief is the gateway into jhana. Realizing for yourself that, yes, I am free of these hindrances.

And naturally what arises is gladness in the Dhamma. Oftentimes when people are reading the suttas or listening to a Dhamma talk, their mind becomes uplifted. That sense of being uplifted is pamoja, resonating with what is being spoken and what is being experienced and practiced. So that naturally leads into joy, piti. So now that you're free of the hindrances, now you start to experience joy. So this joy is both an enlightenment factor, right, as well as a jhanic factor of the first and second jhana. Now, in this process of transcendental dependent origination, you also have the Eightfold Path, and you also have the Enlightenment factors. When you make the determination to keep the precepts and take refuge, what you are doing is cultivating right intention, right speech, right action, and right lifestyle.

When you do this, you are also cultivating mindfulness. You understand the difference between beneficial and unbeneficial states, wholesome states and unwholesome states, which means now you have investigation. And you are choosing to let go of the hindrances, which means now you have energy. And so that naturally leads into piti, joy. Path, parts of the Eightfold Path and parts of the Enlightenment Factors going through this journey of transcendental dependent origination. Then what happens? What does that joy lead to? That joy leads to tranquility. Passaddhi. So that tranquility arises due to right effort of letting go.

Recognizing, relaxing, re-smiling, returning, that gives rise to tranquility, serenity, calmness in the mind, which is a factor of the third jhana and the fourth jhana. And you also have what's known as sukha. What is sukha? Sukha is stability and comfort in the body. The body is quite relaxed and stable, ripe for sitting for a long period of time. And you see this as a factor in the first and second jhanas. So not only do you have passaddhi, or tranquility, which is an enlightenment factor, as a result of using right effort, but you have sukha, which is the fruit of tranquility, of letting go, of relaxing. When all of that comes together, that culminates into right collectedness.

Why? Because now you have right mindfulness that allows you to see and observe how your mind's attention moves. And with the cultivation, the natural, organic, almost automatic cultivation of the enlightenment factors, there is collectedness. So this is the factor that is an enlightenment factor, as well as an Eightfold Path factor, as well as a factor in transcendental dependent origination. So the faith, the open-mindedness to see is there a way out of suffering, leads you to seeing that there is indeed a way, and you have the openness to try it out for yourself, to take and keep the precepts, which is the sila, the foundation, which results in a mind free of hindrances, so that results in gladness.

Then your mind is ripe for the first jhana, which is in piti, and then tranquility, and then sukha. And now your mind is collected, further collected in the fourth jhana. This is intentionalized, it is all just happening as a result of causes and conditions. You don't need to choose to bring it up. It happens when you bring in the right ingredients, right? When you bring in the right factors, when everything comes together, it happens naturally.

As a result of this, yatha bhuta jnana dassanam, which translates to the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are. Yatha bhuta: that is reality, or things as they actually are. Jnana: knowledge. Dassanam: vision, seeing things as they actually are. How do you do that? How does that happen as a result of collectedness? Because that collectedness, which is also an enlightenment factor, gives rise to equanimity, to see things as they actually are without being affected one way or the other. Is equanimity being able to see that, okay, here is present a hindrance, and being okay with that? That is the reality of the situation. I can't do anything. If I try to push it away, it's going to come back to me. If I try to fight it, if I try to suppress it, it's going to come back again with full force. So I'm gently acknowledging it and saying, okay, this is the truth of the moment. This is the Dhamma. This is the truth of the moment. So how do I deal with it? I gently let go and I back to a wholesome

object if it's something that is wonderful: oh wow, look, I'm in infinite consciousness! Oh, I'm experiencing spaciousness! Wow, all kinds of insights are being downloaded into my mind. You don't have equanimity there. There's a lot of oh me me me me, this is wonderful, right? But if you have equanimity, you're just: okay, this is what's going on. So seeing things as they are without being affected one way or the other, whether it's wholesome, unwholesome, positive, negative, or neutral, whatever it is, just observing. You're just watching the show. That's it. Just observing how your mind works. You're just dropping this, dropping that, and then seeing what happens. That's it. So when you're in quiet mind, now we'll get into quiet mind eventually, but first you are radiating equanimity.

And as a result of that, the mind becomes very quiet, doesn't want to do anything, and then it comes into quiet mind. And what happens? For a little while, the mind experiences what is called the B word. The word that Bhante Vimalaramsi absolutely hated. Boredom. My mind is bored. It wants to do one thing or the other. It's too quiet here. There's not a lot of stuff going on. Maybe if I just tweak this. Maybe I should do this. relax. Maybe if I investigate into this, what is all that stemming from?

Restlessness caused by boredom. When the mind doesn't have enough stimuli, it doesn't have enough stimulation as it was used to, then it becomes bored. It's like a little kid. Needs to do something, so it becomes restless. Or it does something else. It takes a nap, goes into sloth and torpor. Says, you know what, I'm checking out. If you're not going to feed me what I want, I'm checking out. It's always wanting to do something or not. It's always wanting to tinker. No, no, maybe I shouldn't radiate loving kindness. Maybe I should focus on this. And then from there, I'll get it. And from here, something might happen. Maybe I shouldn't be in quiet mind. I'll just look into my past lives.

Or maybe I'll just let go of this and experience another realm. All these things, the mind wants to just trick itself into thinking that this is the way to do it, whereas it is really that simple: to just rest in that quiet space, in that quietness. Do that, then you don't do anything. You literally don't do anything. Stuff comes up, you let it go. It's like clouds in the sky. They will just drift away. And then you'll start to get into the neither perception nor non-perception, where you're in this dreamscape. Things are coming, different kinds of patterns. Maybe you are seeing into past lives. Maybe you're looking at something that you did, or it's just something very, very dreamlike. And then the fog clears away and the mind becomes even quieter, into still mind, and this is where you have disenchantment. What does that mean, disenchantment? It comes from the Pali word nibbida. Nibbida literally means revulsion, different from aversion. Example of nibbida, or disenchantment.

Today we were served a wonderful piece of brownie, wasn't it? I like brownies. They're really great. If I told someone that and they said, oh, that's great, let me make you a batch of brownies. And they kindly come to me and say, here, have a plate of brownies. And I love brownies. What do I do? I'm going to eat a couple. And then they say, no, no, no, take some more. And I say, thank you very much. I want to be polite. So I said, okay, we'll take another one. So I eat that brownie and I'm pretty full, very content. But then the host says, I made another batch for you.

Please have some more. And at this point I say, okay, with some resistance. And I still eat that. So before, I was like, oh, brownies, wonderful. I love brownies. I want some more. I'm eating them. And I take some more. And eventually, I'm full. And eventually, the same source of delight becomes a source of revulsion. I've had enough. That's it. This is disenchantment. Other things. Maybe I should do this, maybe I should do that, maybe I should investigate into this, maybe I should go for a walk. Nothing is happening in the meditation at this point. It seems to have lost steam. So let me get up and go and do something, right? But you've been only sitting for an hour, right?

Or, maybe I should look into what happened a couple of days ago, yeah, that's the right way. So now your mind goes there and it's like it's trying to recreate that experience. Because it becomes enchanted by things, or other things start to bombard you. All kinds of formations start to bombard you, all kinds of thoughts, all kinds of pictures, all kinds of images start to bombard you, and your mind says, I can't take this anymore. So that's another kind of. So how do you deal with that? How do you deal with the boredom? How do you deal with the restlessness? How do you deal with the sloth and torpor? There's a couple of ways of doing it.

If you find that there is more agitation and restlessness in the mind, then you use the tranquilizing enlightenment factors, which means you are aware that the mind is restless, so that's mindfulness, and then you relax, let go, and be equanimous. If you find that the mind starts to gravitate towards sloth and torpor, starts to disengage in a way that causes dullness of mind, then you bring in the energizing factors, the energizing enlightenment factors, which is you bring some joy to it. You bring some interest to what it is that you're watching. There's nothing going on. You just bring a little bit more attention. So you're bringing in more energy. You're bringing in more joy.

And you're bringing in a little bit more collectedness. Some investigation into what's going on. Now if that still doesn't work, then what do you do? Look at your chart. What does it say? Yathabhuta nanadassana. The seeing of things as they actually are, which is the equanimity, leads to disenchantment. So if there's not enough disenchantment, if the mind is grasping at things, what do you do? Take a step back. Go back to radiating equanimity again. Send it out for a little while until the mind starts to get quieter again. Until that radiating starts to dissipate and the mind is in quiet space.

Can't generate equanimity, what do you do? What is equanimity dependent upon? What does it say? Collectedness. How do you bring in some collectedness? Maybe go back to loving kindness, go back to joy, go back to compassion. Send some loving kindness to yourself, experience the joy again, experience the tranquility again, experience the sukha again, and then your mind becomes collected. Then you radiate equanimity, and eventually you come back to quiet, and then you have disenchantment. There will come a point where you're in quiet mind and there is nothing going on for long periods of time, and actually you will find relief in that. You will say, wow, this is amazing, not a single thought except the thought that wow, this is amazing. And that's okay if your mind perceives that, or it's commenting on what's going on.

That's just a function of perception. That's just the nature of the mind, to commentate or perceive on what's going on. That's all. You don't need to 6R that. You're just aware that, okay, this is what is present. And this can happen for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour, two hours, three hours, of no vibration in the mind. You might notice little flickers in the corner. You might notice a little vibration here. You might notice a little bubble here. You might notice this or that. The key there is not to let your attention go towards that. Go towards the vibration, go towards this flash of light, go towards this bubble, whatever it is. Just stay here. Don't do anything. Just stay here, because that is disenchantment.

Not being engaged with what is going on. Bhante had a student some time ago who would be in quiet mind for long periods of time, and they would then just get up. They would just stand up. And Bhante would ask, so what happened? Everything okay? What's going on? Oh, I'm in quiet mind, a deep sense of quietness. It's even deeper than quiet mind. So Bhante said, okay, what do you do after that? Oh, I just get up from it. And he said, no, no, no, don't do that. Just stay there as best as you can. Now, granted, there are times where you just lose fuel, right? And that's fine. You just have a certain level of inertia.

And for that, all you need to do is, yeah, get up from your sit and do something active. Walk. It's important to do brisk walks because that starts to bring up circulation, right? And then when you're ready, come back to sit and you'll find that the body and the mind are re-energized. Another student, Abantes, was in quiet mind and then he would look at the formations that came up and it would take him into a memory, and then he would go down that memory and he would investigate into the nature of that memory. And Bhante would say, what are you doing? He says, well, this is what I found. I am in quiet mind, and something comes up, and I think it's important for me to really investigate into this particular thought pattern.

If Bhante's head was not shaven, he would probably pull out his hair. He said, don't do that. It took that person months and months and years to finally listen and say, okay. Don't go down that rabbit hole. Just stay in quiet mind. And before they knew it, everything ceased when they least expected it. So this disenchantment is so important. But in order for you to cultivate it, you cannot just bring up disenchantment. Disenchantment is a fruit of your efforts to cultivate equanimity. More relaxation. If relaxation is not there, bring in more joy. Because remember, joy and tranquility are interdependent. When the mind is happy, it's naturally relaxed. When it's relaxed, it's naturally uplifted. When it's naturally uplifted, it's naturally collected.

When it's naturally collected, it can see things as they are without getting affected. Now it has equanimity. When it's able to do that, the natural fruit of that, when it is ripe and ready to pluck or falls off the tree, that is disenchantment. This disenchantment then leads into what's known as dispassion. Dispassion comes from the Pali word viraga. Viraga means color or passion. V is known. It's a level of detachment, a level of non-attachment. And again, this is a natural fruit of equanimity. This passion, when it arises, it creates a bubble effect in the mind. The mind remains insulated. No matter what arises, if anything at all does arise, swerves through the mind. The mind becomes like Teflon, like a non-stick pan.

Nothing sticks to it. Everything just glides through it, glides past it. And so this passion happens when the mind comes from quiet mind into still mind, where absolutely no vibration is there. No matter what is coming up, the mind doesn't go in its direction. It remains stable and steady. So this dispassion, again, is a fruit. You can't bring it up. You can only reside in it. The mind can only experience it as a result of cultivating joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity. So this dispassion allows the mind to be very still. And what can happen is that even the still mind, the mind that has zero vibration, can become tense. It's too coarse an object for the mind.

And so for that reason, you let go of even mind as an object. This is where you get into objectless awareness. An awareness that is undirected, signless, empty, just pure awareness, not looking at anything in particular. I used the analogy of the flashlight some time ago about this, right? You put the flashlight beam up into the sky, and imagine it goes out into space, doesn't land on anything, and eventually, once the batteries have run out, it ceases. That is to say, when the formations, which are fueled by your attention, start to dissipate. Because at this point, all there is are mental formations dependent upon your attention. And so the last formation to go is the sense of me, mine, or myself.

So if you ever find yourself, so to speak, in this signless state of mind, in this signless collectedness of mind, anything. As soon as you see a formation come up, in the very seeing of it, it dissipates. The moment you try to engage with it by relaxing it, guess what happens? Now you've taken something as an object and you come back out of that. So when you are in this very subtle stage, how do you know you're in the subtle stage? You get into the doorway of the signless. What is the doorway of signless?

It can be mind as like a screen of light. If you remember the old television sets we used to, which used to have like those mosquitoes, you know, like the black and white static. Sometimes it looks like that. Sometimes it's got a greenish hue, sometimes it's got a bluish hue, sometimes it's got a very bright white light kind of hue, or whatever it is. If you just let the mind merge into it, you go into it. You no longer just observe it. Your mind just goes into it. It crosses in through that light, and there is the silence. So this objectless awareness, when you're in that, there is no up, there's no down, there's no this, there's no that. There's no sense of observer necessarily. There's no sense of directionality, so it's undirected. There's no object, that's why it's signless, and there's, as I said, no sense of I, me, or myself. There it's just pure awareness. So this is as close to Nibbana as you can get. This is as close to anidassanam vinnanam as you can get. And while you're there, your goal there is to do nothing.

Don't even relax. Just don't do anything. And then when the last formations of conceit dissipate, then the mind experiences vimutti. That's the next step, liberation. Vimutti, what does that mean, vimutti? So there's different contexts to understand vimutti. In the larger context, when we say vimutti, we're saying getting off of the wheel of samsara, having played the game and exiting the game, right? Unplugging from the matrix. That is vimutti. Another way of looking at vimutti is that the mind experiences liberation from all causes and conditions.

And at that point, experiences the unconditioned. That is Nibbana. The unconditioned. There are other names for Nibbana. Nibbana is just one. There's 32 other synonyms for Nibbana. It is the absolute. It is the beautiful. It is the island. It is the refuge. It is the wonder. It is the marvel. It is the unconditioned. Non-conceptual. Beyond concepts. The mind touches that. But you don't know the mind touches that, because there is no ignorance, no knowledge. It is where no earth, no water, no air, no fire touch. It is rootless. When that mind touches that element, then it experiences freedom. When you come out of this, then you experience the joy and the relief and the high energy that comes up from it.

Because you have experienced a level of rest that not even the deepest of sleeps can get you to. It's beyond all kinds of notions of rest. And so that post-cessation experience that you have, the joy and the relief, it gives such rest to all of the sense spaces that when you go back out into the world, senses experience as if you're experiencing everything for the first time. All colors become sharper, all sounds become crisper, everything you taste tastes amazing. It's got a burst of newness to it. It's like you're floating on cloud nine. But once you experience it, you have to test for yourself. Is there more work to be done? Has craving subsided in my mind?

Do I still get irritated by things? Am I still taking things personally? Is there any doubt in me? Does my mind experience restlessness? Meditation? How do I understand the truth of existence? And you will see that, yeah, there's craving here, there's aversion here, there might be doubt here, there might be this or that. So what do you do? Rinse and repeat. Go back. And now when you come back to faith, that faith becomes experiential conviction. It I have touched the truth, so I know that there is indeed a way out. And so now the next time you walk the path, it's easier to experience jhana. It's easier for you to experience joy. It's easier for you to experience tranquility. It's easier for you to experience equanimity. But then now when you get back to the gate, when you're in the waiting room, now you know what to expect. So now there's anticipation.

Oh, I'm right there. I'm going to get there. That in itself prevents the mind from going there, because that identification with it, the restlessness that comes from it. So what do you do in that case? Cultivate equanimity again. Disenchanted again, naturally dispassionate again. And then, before you know it, when you least expect it, your mind ceases again, goes for a dive into Nibbana. Once again, you experience it. And once again, you come out of it, and your mind is that much more clear and crisper. What happens is you start to see dependent origination more clearly. You start to see the impersonal nature of things more clearly. And then your mind is able to let go of the attachments, the craving for Nibbana itself.

Has an element of craving that is craving for the Dhamma, then they turn into an Anagami. They don't become an Arahant, because there's still some identification going on. So the first time it happens, initially, when it happens for the first time, you don't know what to expect. You experience it, and your mind says, wow, what was that? That was amazing. Something happened right there, and your mind says, I want more of that. So that's craving. So the relief has been identified with, the craving has been identified with, taken personally. And then when you go back out into the world, then you keep recognizing, oh, craving has arisen, you let go of it. Aversion has arisen, you 6R it.

Conceit has arisen, you 6R it. The more you do this, and then you meditate deeper, the next time it happens, the craving becomes reduced, the aversion becomes reduced, and the joy becomes less vibratory. The joy from touching Nibbana becomes more like tranquility, more like equanimity. And then when the third time it happens, how does it happen the third time? Now you're able to recognize craving even more, and craving starts to arise less and less in your daily life, because you are basically grinding away, chopping away at the roots of sensual craving and aversion. That experience, that dip into Nibbana again, snips it, cuts it. And so now, the next time you experience it, as a result of which, you have deep equanimity.

But there's still identification there. There's still some kind of process of conceit. Oh, I have experienced Nibbana. I have experienced these states. So what do you do? You rinse and repeat again. While you're doing it, you notice anytime the mind is taking something personally. You notice anytime the mind tries to defend the Dhamma. Don't become a Dhamma defender. Just see it for what it actually is, the raft to take you from one side to the other shore. And as you do this, you notice restlessness and you let that go. You notice the mind wants to be in a certain genre, you let that go. You notice the mind has lack of mindfulness, you bring up mindfulness again. So you grind away at ignorance, and then you repeat that process again, and then when you have that experience of Nibbana, there is no joy.

There is no relief. There is no equanimity. It is just Nibbana all the time. Now the mind hasn't come out of Nibbana. The mind is Nibbana. The mind goes from samsara to Nibbana. It has cut off at the roots all greed, all hatred, all delusion. It has torn asunder all of the taints of sensual craving. It already happened when you became an Anagami. Of all kinds of existential craving. Of all kinds of identification. And all kinds of ignorance. And so that mind is now Nibbana. It has experienced the Absolute. And it is in the Absolute. And so this mundane Nibbana happens all the time for one who is fully awakened. And so there is a Sutta which talks about this, and it says there is the Nibbana with remainder and there is the Nibbana without remainder.

The Nibbana with remainder generally is understood as Nibbana that you can experience here and now while the five aggregates are still active. And the Nibbana without remainder has been equated to parinibbana, the final Nibbana that the mind experiences before the five aggregates dissolve. But I propose a different way of looking at it. You can still experience Nibbana without remainder. What is Nibbana with remainder? That is just the mind that is fully awake, free of all greed, hatred, delusion. The Nibbana without remainder is when that mind sits down, relaxes, lets go of all five aggregates, and experiences dipping into the super mundane Nibbana, what is known in Pali as phala samapatti, the attainment of the fruit, the fruit of awakening. And there, that's the dimension, that's the space, that's the element where nothing can be touched.

Nothing can touch it. No concepts can arise. And so the arahant keeps touching that in meditation. And when that is possible for the arahant, that final step is there. The knowledge of the destruction of the taints. The mind reviews and sees, yes, indeed. All greed is gone. All hatred is gone. All delusion is gone. The mind no longer has any identification. That's the end of the path. You have finished the game and fully unplugged from the matrix.

And when you do that, even if you are in the matrix, you can never be affected by it again. Because you know the truth. You have become the one. Any questions? How many brownies did you have today then? I only had one. Because that's all I got. That's all I was given. I think, is it possible to be in quiet mind while out and about doing your daily? Absolutely. That's what I thought. Absolutely, yeah. Your mind is very quiet, and it's just doing whatever it's doing, which means there is absolute pristine mindfulness in whatever is happening. Thank you for that talk. Really insightful. Question I have. I've looked into some other traditions, like the 18 Siddhas, the Kriya Yoga tradition, Babaji.

Yeah. I am teaching Saint Germain, Ascended Masters. And a lot of those traditions have the goal as some form of immortality. Yeah. They have the ascended master, the brotherhood, things like that. How do you equate the ending of, or the completion of this path to those types of paths where it's a different type of goal, or even Christ consciousness, whatever that means? Right. Yeah, how does that? The real defining factor is that there is still some sense of self.

Whereas here, what it's doing is, it's letting go of all sense of ego and self. So the goal for achieving some level of whatever it might be might still be stemming from a self or a sense of self. Whereas if you just let go completely, then there's no notion of self or not self. It's just whatever it is. But what's interesting is Nibbana is also known as the eternal, the permanent. So that's where people ask the question, when an arahant passes away, what happens to them? And the Buddha has said, he's given different kinds of analogies, but basically the five aggregates of the arahant are like ash. You can't do anything with it. But what happens to the consciousness?

That's part of the five aggregates. And the idea is that the consciousness doesn't go anywhere. So one way I would explain that, and I'll be very careful in explaining this because I don't want anyone to take away that this is talking about some eternal self, the way to explain that would be that you can imagine this entire cosmos and samsara as vibration. All energy is vibration. All karma is vibration. on is just vibrations interacting with one another and creating different kinds of wave patterns that form into a being or form into a karmic circumstance or form into a realm or whatever it might be. But for the arahant, they get into the state of no vibration. It's just all vibration just ceases, and it's like it goes into the background behind all vibration. That could be mortality.

- Okay, thank you. - I have two questions. One should be a quick one. So basically, the first dip into cessation potentially could release you from the first three, and then from the third to the 10th consecutive dips, meditation, nothing different, no other practices, is literally the same rinse and repeat? Yes. Okay. And then the question, but rinse and repeat with deeper understanding in daily life? Yes, yes. So suppose one hasn't achieved that dip, the first hasn't popped off, and one goes home. How should one's practice be to maintain a good chance of, and is it like, should you take more retreats, because my home retreats, my online retreats, are not as deep as right physical ones, you know? So yeah, so it's best to understand that when you get off a retreat, it's important to still keep the same principles, which is keeping your precepts going and trying to keep a life that is as simple as possible. Now that could mean whatever it is to a person, depending upon their life situations.

But one of the things to do is to create a routine practice. Absolutely essential. In the time of the Buddha, what they would say is, for the monastics, not necessarily for lay people, they would go out for their lunch, and they would come back, maybe they would take some rest, and then they would go for the days abiding. That was the work they were doing. You could say they were meditating 4, 6, 8, 10 hours a day. Not possible in the lay life. Not necessarily possible all the time. But a good practice might be to take one or two times off in the month where you can go away somewhere, disconnect from the world, maybe over a weekend, and just go into self-retreat mode.

This creates a momentum in the mind so that when it goes back into the world, it continues with that routine practice, but with deeper experience. One or two retreats a year might be good. Anything more than that, you cause yourself retreat fatigue. You don't want to be a serial retreater. Ideally, a teacher should become obsolete, or any Dhamma teacher should become obsolete. The Dhamma itself should become obsolete.

So rinse and repeat. Keep the precepts. for seclusion, and you'll pop off. Just on that topic, I find Delson's book. Sorry, just on that topic, I find Delson's book of the 10 days. If you're doing a self-retreat, I've done it a couple of times, and that takes you pretty deep. And there are videos that goes with it. So if you want to do a structured 10-day. There's a video to listen, the suitas to read, and then daily reflections of the book itself. For me, it's a perfect 10-day kind of guided retreat that you can do at home. And that's pretty powerful stuff. And I don't know if you guys know, but those books are free to take, right?

Yes, they're free to take. So just take as many copies as you want. That's fine. I'm going to put this experience, I find it's very intuitive, yeah, and when you describe all the stages, I think, oh god, did I go through that one? Am I cheating? Should I have gone through that? Or if I... And then I think, have I been doing something wrong? Or should I be doing more of this or less of that? But for me, the end result seems to be the kind of proof of the pudding. So I think, well, if I get the proof, if I get the pudding, there must be something right.

So I'm guessing one can skip little stages. I might be wrong. Yeah, I think more than skipping, what can happen is they're short-lived. So they're touched upon. Or maybe the mind already has that innately and doesn't require more of it. Yeah. And just is able to carry along. It might be just, I'm so lazy, I don't do anything anyway. Comes naturally. Right, there you go. You haven't mentioned path fruition at all. Yeah. Whereas in David Johnson's book, that's basically, you know, yeah. Yeah. Each path. Is there a reason? No, there's no reason. It didn't come up. But now that it has. So path and fruition. So you notice this sometimes in the suttas. They talk about, you know, there are seven categories of people or eight categories of people.

There's one who is a Dhamma follower, somebody who is a stream winner, or somebody who is a once-returner on the path and once-returner with fruition, and so on and so forth. Now, there's no consensus on what actually this means, path and fruition. And I think the best way to go about doing it is allowing the mind to verify for itself what has happened. Generally speaking, when somebody has the experience for the first time, they have a level of stream entry. So that means they've gone into becoming a Dhamma follower, or they've become a stream path to stream entry, and then there is the fruition. Likewise, they're on the path towards Sakadagami, and then they have the fruition when they have the experience.

But also, not every cessation will be a path or fruition. And the reason I say that is because there have been people with 16 cessations. By then, they should be double arahats. Right? They aren't. And the only reason is because the causes and conditions haven't come to be where they have fully let go of something. Which just means that you need more practice in your daily life of 6R-ing and letting go anytime any kind of fetter comes up, anytime any kind of hindrance comes up. So the path is where you have the entry into, sort of like a preview into, or a direct experience of what this process is, and then the fruition could be understood as having locked in or confirmed or verified for yourself, then indeed you have this experience.

Now, if you have the path and not the fruition, does it mean that if something happens, you won't get the fruition? Meaning, is it possible that you would slide back down? No. If you have the path, upon death, you will have the fruition. That's the way to understand it. Okay, another question. Also in David Johnson's book, he talks a lot about going through the links of dependent origination once you come out of this cessation. Speak up, speak up. Oh, sorry. And that on first part you go through one, once, second part twice, third part three times, fourth part four times, which I haven't read anywhere else before. Do you find that to be true?

Not all the time. It can happen that way, but what generally happens is somebody gets a deeper insight into dependent origination. So that means they might see dependent origination more clearly. Somebody could see dependent origination. Again, like I said, the dashes or the lights, whatever you see are all mental representations. And so sometimes you will see the karmic connections that happen all throughout the different lifetimes. Or you might see wheels. Some people have seen wheels. Some people have seen wheels within wheels. Some people have seen tree branches just branching off. And these are all mental representations. So what's more important to see is how the mind understands dependent origination. What level of depth is there in their wisdom when it comes to dependent origination?

The links once, or twice, or eight times, or whatever it might be. I have a question about... you were telling about perceptions in quiet mind, like, commenting, like, yes, nothing. Can it happen in the... like, the still mind and all, and also the other state you mentioned, I can't remember the... - Signless. - Yeah. - Yes, yes. Perception is still there. - Okay. There was another question. Sorry, I forgot. - It's okay. - I'll give this to you. - Yeah. - I have a question about the relationship between when the mind touches Nirvana and mastery over the different aspects of the path as one evolves, like for instance, the cities and attainments and things like that, like you said, the attainment of the road, does that happen as a result of intention or does that happen as a result of just practice and almost like a gift?

because one is the Siddhis and one is being able to go into Nirodha, which is Nirodha Samapati. When it comes to the Siddhis, you don't need the jhana to experience the Siddhis. Siddhis are psychic powers, being able to read other people's minds, being able to fly, being able to dig into the earth like as if it's water, being able to touch the sky, being able to do all kinds of very interesting things outside of the ordinary. That can happen to anyone at any point. That's just a karmic thing that happens, or through a process of cultivation. But you don't need jhana for that. Now, being able to experience nirodha at will, that is, nirodha samapati, generally it's understood that when you have the third path, that is, you become an anagami, then the training changes to being able to go into nirodha at will.

And that training is quite complicated, in the sense that you start off in the first jhana, and you have to be able to go into the first jhana whenever you want for however long you want. So you can go into the first jhana for two seconds and then come out, for ten minutes and two seconds and then come out, and so on. Likewise, you do that for the second jhana, the third jhana, the fourth jhana, and the fifth, and so on. And then you have to be able to skip. Go from the first jhana all the way to the seventh. Come down from the seventh jhana and go to the fourth. Go from the fourth and go to the eighth.

Come down from the eighth and go to the second. And then from the second, go to the fifth. So being able to randomly go to any jhana whenever you want. Then the mind is ripe. Then the mind is malleable. Then the intention is able to be solidified, to be able to go into cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness whenever it wants. So that's the process. You come to a point where you do what I call JPS, jhana per second. Was that something you learned through meeting the TWIM practice? Yeah, so later on you kind of learn that and then they say, okay, so they throw all kinds of things at you. Say, okay, can you do this?

All right, try this. Try this. And you try it and you say, see for yourself and see if it happens. - Do you need to be able to do the Nirodha Samapatti to attain the final arahantship? - Not needed. - Okay. - Just bragging rights, that's all. - I remember the question. - Oh, good. - I was originally going to ask about the... - Yeah. - But I got the answer from you. The question I had was the person you mentioned about like having 16... - Cessations. - Cessations, like, is it like, how do you know whether you have these like mini cessations or is it based on like, you look at whether you have craving and all these things.

- Right. Is that the way? - That's the only way. - All right. - That's the only way. - Thank you. - Lots of questions today, huh? - How do the lights that you talked about show the links of dependent origination? - Like I said, they're just mental models. They will happen however they happen. And so it doesn't matter what the lights are. It doesn't matter what the dashes are. It's just like your mind just shows something. It could be just an explosion of light. It could be rings of light. It could be flashes. It could be dots. It could be things branching out. It could be, like I said, spirals. It could be wheels.

It could be whatever it is. But that doesn't really matter. It's just a mental representation. Okay. Thanks. I'll just quickly jump in now. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. I had some non-dual teachers talk about shadow work and awakening, and sometimes that your emotional repression gets in the way of awakening, and then some other teachers say, but you need to uproot the root of the problem, which is the self. What is your view on it? Well, when you meditate, what happens?

You meet face-to-face with the hindrances. Remember, I said there are five basic hindrances. But there can be other things. So what do you do with it? Forgiveness. There are things that are just very, very coalesced and you can't really do anything about it. Then you start to soften it with forgiveness practice. But at the core of it, it is really right effort. Keep letting go. It doesn't mean you are repressing anything. Whatever comes up will come up. But there's no point in trying to bring it up. Just allow it to come whenever it comes. uprooted on its own by the power of experiencing nirvana. Is letting go of possessions a requirement to become an arahant?

So, what do you mean by that, letting go of possessions? To not own anything. So does that mean the arahant doesn't have any bowls or robes or? Sure, they might have that. From what I understand, you've decided to... Don't ask about me. Okay, okay. Can I have a house, an apartment or... Or will that create an "I," "I own that," and so on?

So the question is, what does it mean to be an arahant? What does it mean in terms of day-to-day life? What does it mean in how such a being would travel through the world or navigate through situations, essentially. So in the suttas, what it says, there is one particular sutta, which is actually a trilogy of suttas. It's called the fire sermon, or it's the simile of different kinds of fire. And in there, the Buddha says that one who attains arahatship has let go of the fetter of householdership. mean the fetter of householdership? Now, you can interpret it in different ways, but really, tradition speaking, it means that somebody who has essentially let go of all things related to keeping an income, having an income, having a job, trying to sustain or maintain their livelihood or maintain their family and things like that.

So that means they don't, they're the ultimate slacker. That's what they are. They're the ultimate slacker. So the fetter of householdership means that you don't necessarily have any more, or you don't, I should say, at all, have any more interest in maintaining the life you already had based on the identity that was constructed. In the Suttas, it says that, you know, for example, Bahiya Sutta. in the end, and then he was gored by a bull. But the Buddha said to the monks that go and give him the same burial rites or funeral rites as you would one of us, even though he was not formally recognized as a monastic.

But other suttas will say, or Milinda Panha, which is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, and sometimes considered either extra to the Pali Canon, or sometimes in other traditions, part of the Pali Canon, impossible for one to become an arahant and not join the Sangha because when they attain arahatship they will have to die after seven days if they don't take on the robes. And the way to interpret that is that if somebody is an arahant the only way that they could maintain or be supported is through some kind of system that allows them to be fed and taken care of, meaning their requisites are taken care of. Their food, their clothing, their shelter, and their medicines.

They don't have to work for it. They don't have to maintain a job for it. They don't have to earn an income to buy these things. They are supported by the generosity of the Sangha, by the dana of the Sangha. would mean that there are attachments to possessions. In modern day, that's the modern conveniences of owning or renting an apartment or having a car, paying bills and all of these things. But in today's modern day, an arahant would be a slacker. It wouldn't be doing anything.

Now, does that mean they have to become a monastic? an arrow hunt? Will having possessions, a career, and so on, create too much of an I? Oh, yeah. The different types of conceit that are there. There are different types, something like 40 different types, and one of the conceits is related to one's career. Identifying with the career, identifying with possessions, identifying with knowledge, identifying with one's education, with one's relationships and so on. So it is better to actually be in a state of seclusion, whatever that might mean to you, so that you're not bombarded by the normal responsibilities of a householder in order to make that jump into arahant. Much easier to do.

Now I'll give you some examples of one particular person. Actually, a couple of examples. Very funny stories, in my opinion. In the Vinaya, so in the Pali Canon, we have what are the suttas, which are the sayings of the Buddha, and then we have the Vinaya, and then we have the Abhidhamma. So the Vinaya is essentially the rules and regulations for monastics, right? How to live their lives. And this was an evolving document, or evolving set of rules, put forth by the Buddha that was dependent upon circumstances. For example, keeping the precept of not indulging in intoxicants. Or, if it's a male monk, a male monastic, they can't be in the same room as a woman and all kinds of things like that because it could be seen in different ways.

That's all very much cultural based. But along with this, there are certain stories and situations that are mentioned in the Vinaya. And there's a story of this guy who's essentially had a huge house party. He's called all his friends, and they get drunk and all of that. And the next day, he's really hungover. He gets up out of bed. He sees all these people just drooling and slobbering. He's so disenchanted with all of it.

Down like just animals, you know, and he's like, I need, I need some fresh air, I'm hungover, so he walks out of his house and he goes to the park for some fresh air, and there happens to be the Buddha, and he's very much interested by this character, the Buddha, and he says, what are you on about? And so the Buddha says, well, this is what I teach, and he goes into a whole discourse about precepts and Samadhi and so on, and upon listening, this particular individual becomes a stream-enter. Shortly after, this person's father comes out of the house looking for them, calling out, seeing if he's there, and then he also encounters the Buddha, and he says, have you seen so and so? And through the Buddha's magical powers this person is hidden, because the Buddha realizes is that he has a potential to become an arahant.

And so the Buddha says, never mind that. Let me tell you about something. And so he gives him the same discourse. And then the father becomes a stream-enter. But while this person is listening for a second time, the same discourse, he becomes an arahant. And not shortly after, he joins the Sangha. He becomes a bhikkhu. An acrobatic performer. And while he's doing his pole vaulting and he stands up on the pole, he listens to the Buddha. The Buddha is looking up at him, and the Buddha says something to him, and the guy is looking down and he's listening to what the Buddha is saying. And upon listening to it, as he's balancing on this pole, he becomes an arahant.

And so as he comes down the pole, wants to join the Sangha. So the idea is that when you become an arahant, you lose complete interest in maintaining the same life you had before. You just want to go into seclusion. Second question. When Buddha died, he went up through the eight jhanas and back to the fourth before he died. Why the fourth? Does it signify something? Not really. First of all, the reason Buddha was doing this, so he went through the first jhana, then he went to the second jhana, then he went to the third, then he went to the fourth, then he went into the fifth, then he went all the way up to the eighth, then he went into cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness.

And at that point, everybody thought, oh, the Buddha is gone. But one of the monastics said, no, no, no, he's just in cessation. And so he came back out, went into the eighth, went in the reverse order, and came back in the fourth. And then from the fourth, he directed his mind to Nibbana. So just because the fourth is really where that's the last jhana, actually. Remember, when we say fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, they're all extensions of the fourth jhana. So all he was doing is inclining his mind from the fourth jhana into Nibbana. Before, he was inclining his mind from the fourth jhana into infinite space, then infinite consciousness, then nothingness, neither perception or non-perception, then nirodha, then came back down.

And then when he came back to the fourth jhana, he inclined his mind to Nibbana. So the fourth jhana is the base from which a lot of things can happen. It's where you can activate psychic powers, you can go into past lives, you can go into different dimensions, you can do all kinds of stuff. Thank you. Is there a concept in Buddhism similar to that of grace? This is a very good question because this is a question I got while I was doing a three-day retreat in India. Because in India, the idea of grace is also very multilayered. It can be the grace of the divine. It can be the grace of the guru, the grace of the teacher, and so on.

And I think the way to look at that is that grace is... So normally when we see grace, it's seen as beyond the notions or bounds of any kind of karma. It just happens. It just flows. And I think the way to look at it within the context of Buddhism is that grace is merit. Grace is when we share merit, what we're saying is that we are sharing our merit with other beings. And whether those beings are receptive to it or not, because of that sharing of the merit, those beings receive that merit. And so in that sense, they're receiving

Grace. That's one way to look at it. Thank you. But also, you can be in still mind or silence, and whether or when there's a shift beyond that, in some ways, Grace, it seems. There's nothing you can do. Well, the only thing you're doing is you're getting out of the way and letting go. Grace is the interest that you live off of through all of the karmic bank balance. So letting go, letting go, letting go, letting go, getting out of the way. Causes and conditions are right. Boom. Nibbana. So it's still a process of effort. Or a fruit of effort, I should say. Just on that grace, like for example, like divine beings helping us in certain endeavour.

And if it would feel like grace, like suddenly things. - It's also karma. - It's also karma as well, right? Because they're helping out an individual for the endeavour because there's some sort of a karmic thing that they're trying to help support. - That's right. - And it will feel like grace from the receiving end. - The blessings of the divine. - It's a blessing of the divine. - It's a process of karma, yeah. No, it's okay. It's a question I had in an earlier talk about the Mara. So you were talking about all these different planes where we can have a good thought, so it's presented of the deva realm and other things, and health, and about the Mara, because I'm from Sri Lanka, so it's mainly depicted as not only a construct, but as a physical entity.

So I always had this doubt: is it a physical thing? Because I heard a lot of stories, like if someone is trying to pop out, there can be a lot of obstacles, like in the Matrix, where someone will come and try to do things like that. Agent Smith, right? Yeah. So the question is, is it a real entity, or is it just a mental construct? The reason I ask is, because in most of the, I'm going back to the near-death experiences, all these people come and tell us about a creator or a higher self creating the game or all these things. Is it kind of like Mara, who wants us to be in the matrix, or is it completely a mental thing?

- So first and foremost, which are in the form of hindrances, a bombardment of different formations that come up and disturb the mind. Secondly, Mara should not be seen as a demonic figure within the cosmology of Buddhism. Mara actually is a resident of the sixth highest heaven. Pretty good merit to be there. Seen a bucket or a pot of crabs, right? And the crabs try to come out. What happens? The crabs that are lower try to bring him down. That's what Mara is. He's having such a good time, and in his mind it's like, why is everyone escaping the matrix? The matrix is great, guys, stay. That's what he does. He's like a trickster god, like Loki, you know. He's

Will say, why are you meditating? It's fine, it's all good, there's no need to meditate. Why are you going to this jhana? He tries to prevent you from going to any jhana. So psychologically he's the hindrances preventing you from going into the first jhana and so on, but cosmologically he is a being who, yeah, is like Agent Smith, who wants you to be plugged into the matrix, and he sees the enjoyment in that, and he says, why are you trying to escape? Stay back. Stay with me. But in the cosmological perspective, that's not good karma to do that. And so eventually he will dissipate his tenure as Mara and go somewhere else. And another Mara will come.

Yeah. The funny thing is Moggallana, who was one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, is said to have been a Mara in a past life. So it's not that bad. Eventually becomes an arahant. Thank you. Yeah. Almost. Still some enchantment. Is it necessary to develop the jhanas? Advocate, try vipassana or something like that? My only answer to that is it's called the eightfold path, not the sevenfold path, which means the eighth part of the eightfold path is Samadhi, right? And Samadhi is culminating in the first, second, third, and fourth jhana. So the idea is you still need some experience of jhanas for you to be able to experience higher levels of insight.

So that means even if there's vipassana, it is followed by samatha. So there's four ways to get to Nibbana or the Dhamma. There's samatha followed by vipassana, which means that eventually the vipassana integrates into the samatha. There's vipassana followed by samatha, which means the samatha integrates into the vipassana. There's the samatha and vipassana yoked together, which is what the twin practice is. And there's agitation about the Dhamma, just like Ananda was agitated when, and this is a great story too. So after the time of the Buddha's Parinibbana, the monks later on gathered together, all the arahants gathered together and said, we need to now see what to do about how to collect the Buddha's teachings and be able to have them available for future generations. And they said Ananda actually has all of the teachings of the Buddha because he has such a great photographic memory. When Ananda was requested by the Buddha to be his attendant, Ananda said, I have a couple of stipulations. One is that you will take me everywhere that you go so that I can be there to listen to your teachings.

The second is, if I am not where you are, when you come back, you have to tell me all the teachings that you gave. So Ananda took all of that and he became this embodied encyclopedia of the Dhamma. But the arahants, being arahants, said that, well, it's a council of arahants and Ananda is not an arahant. So Kassapa, who was the senior most arahant, said to Ananda, you need to do some work. You need to become an arahant so that you can join the council and, you know, give us the goods. So Ananda was like, okay. And he paced back and forth just contemplating, and he was agitated, and he just didn't know what to do.

And then finally, he said, you know what, I'm just going to let go. And before his head hit the pillow, he was going to fall asleep. Just before his head hit the pillow, he let go completely, experienced Nibbana and attained arahantship. And how did they know that he attained arahantship? He had the greatest entry into the council. He comes floating in. And they're like, welcome. You finally did it. Thank you.

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. Thank you.