Feb 7 2021 - MN 18 - The Honeyball - Cessation of Mental Proliferation is Nibbana

I'm going to start reading from Majjhima Nikaya 18. This is the Madhu Pindika Sutta, or the honey ball, and the translation I'm using is Bhikkhu Bodhi's. "...and taking his bowl and outer robe, went into Kapilavatthu for alms. When he had wandered for alms in Kapilavatthu and had returned from his alms round, after his meal, he went to the Great Wood for the day's abiding."

"And entering the Great Wood, [he] sat down at the root of a bilva sapling for the day's abiding. [Then] he also went to the Great Wood, and when he had entered the Great Wood he went to the bilva sapling where the Blessed One was and exchanged greetings with him. When this courteous and amiable talk was finished he stood at one side leaning on his stick and asked the Blessed One, 'What does the recluse assert? What does he proclaim?'" The Sakyan was both the Buddha's maternal uncle as well as his father-in-law. So he was also, according to the commentary, someone who supported Devadatta when Devadatta was trying to create the schism within the Sangha. So he's not somebody who's necessarily very supportive of the Buddha, for a few reasons, mainly being that

the Buddha went out into the forest to basically get enlightenment, leaving behind Yasodhara, who was his wife and who was the daughter of Gandapan. So here's what the Blessed One says to him. Now, the question that he asks the Buddha is, "What does the recluse assert? What does he proclaim?" Notice he doesn't really provide or offer any sort of greetings of respect, even though it says they had a courteous and amiable talk. But his question is quite direct and not necessarily completely respectful of one who should be, or who ought to be, for a Buddha.

When this was said, Dandapani the Sakyan shook his head, wagged his tongue, and raised his eyebrows until his forehead was puckered in three lines. Then he departed leaning on his stick. Obviously Dandapani was not satisfied with his answer. He probably took it as a jab against himself, because he was probably looking to quarrel with the Buddha, and the Buddha wasn't having it.

"Then when it was evening, the Blessed One rose from meditation and went to Nigrodha's park, where he sat down on a seat made ready for him, and told the bhikkhus what had taken place. Then a certain bhikkhu asked the Blessed One, 'But Venerable Sir, how does the Blessed One assert and proclaim his teaching in such a way that he does not quarrel with anyone in the world with its gods, its Maras and its Brahmas, in this generation with its recluses and brahmins, its princes and its people? And Venerable Sir, how is it that perceptions

if nothing is found there to delight in.' So, which means he's talking about perceptions and notions born of mental proliferation. Mental proliferation happens after you perceive a feeling. And that mental proliferation comes through three particular links. Number one, craving, where one has craving for that feeling, which is one identifies with that feeling. One has aversion towards that feeling or has craving for it, wants more of it and becomes greedy.

And that's the first link related to mental proliferation. Then there is clinging, where one has clinging to sensual pleasures. One has clinging to views. One has clinging to the different self-notions. One has clinging to the rites and rituals. And this then causes one to accumulate the different tendencies. In this case, the underlying tendency to lust, to aversion, to views, to doubt, to conceit, to desire for being, and to ignorance. These seven underlying tendencies are those tendencies which are accumulated into what is bhava, into what is being. So when one is able to see these proliferations and let them go, whether one identifies, recognizes and detects that there's craving or clinging or being present, and one is able to catch it, recognize it, use the 6R's process to let it go, then one creates for oneself circumstances in which these underlying tendencies will not arise.

And so that is why one will not quarrel, one will not have disputes, one will not debate, one will not argue, because there is no being there to defend. There's no sense of identification with views to defend or to have quarrels about. So that is what the Blessed One said. Having said this, the Sublime One rose from his seat and went into his dwelling.

Then soon after the Blessed One had gone, the bhikkhus considered, Now, friends, the Blessed One has risen from his seat and gone into his dwelling after giving a summary in brief without expounding the detailed meaning. Now who will expand this in detail? Then they considered, the Venerable Maha Kachana is praised by the teacher and esteemed by his wise companions in the holy life.

Then the bhikkhus went to the Venerable Maha Kachana and exchanged greetings with him, sat down to one side, and told him what had taken place, adding, 'Let the Venerable Maha Kachana expound it to us.' The Venerable Maha Kachana replied, 'Friends, it is as though a man needing heartwood, seeking heartwood, wandering in search of heartwood, thought that heartwood should be sought for among the branches and leaves of a great tree standing possessed of heartwood. And so it is with you, Venerable Sirs, that you think that I should be asked about the meaning of this after you passed the Blessed One by, when you were face to face with the Teacher,

the Lord of the Dhamma, the Tathagata. That was the time when you should have asked the Blessed One the meaning. As he told you, so you should have remembered it. Surely, friend Kachana, knowing the Blessed One knows, seeing he sees, he is vision, the Tathagata. That was the time when we should have asked the Blessed One the meaning.

As he told us, so we should have remembered it. Yet the Venerable Maha Kachana is praised by the Teacher and esteemed by his wise companions in the holy life. The Venerable Maha Kachana is capable of expounding the detailed meaning of this summary given in brief by the Blessed One without expounding the detailed meaning. Let the Venerable Maha Kachana expound it without finding it troublesome.' So Maha Kachana is known and esteemed by his wise companions, meaning his fellow arahants, as somebody who is able to take the short statements by the Buddha that would need some expounding for other people and be able to elaborate it in such a way that one understands it through the context of consciousness and through the other links of dependent origination, as we will see.

beset a man or woman with respect to past, future, and present forms cognizable through the eye. So let's break this down. He's saying dependent on the eye and forms, eye consciousness arises. The meeting of the three is contact. That is the stimulation of the eye through seeing that visual form, and the attention to that, being eye consciousness.

With contact as condition there is feeling. There is the sensation of seeing, there's a sensation of knowing and seeing that form. What one feels, that one perceives. This is perception. One is able to recognize what one sees. If, for example, one sees a tree, one understands that those are the branches and leaves, and in a matter of split seconds the mind has already perceived what it has seen, which is to say it knows that that is a tree, that what it is seeing is a tree. What one perceives, that one thinks about. So here the thinking about that can be the beginning of craving, depending on how one perceives that tree. If one is perceiving that tree as related to a sense of self, identifying with it, and then creating in one's mind thoughts about the shade in that tree and taking comfort in that shade, and then craving more for it, or having a nostalgic memory of what it was like to be under that tree or a tree like it, that one mentally proliferates. So this mental proliferation, this is what is known as papanca in Pali.

And Papancha really is this conceptualizing, this idea of creating all of these notions and thoughts and concepts around what one is experiencing. And this is done through having craved for what, either craving or through averting or through identifying, or all three in some manner or another. Attaching that sense of self to it and then creating stories around it related to that sense of self. So that is the clinging aspect. That is the clinging link within the links of dependent origination, where one identifies with what one is seeing or experiencing and then considers it as self, or considers it as affecting a sense of self, or considers it born from self, and then creates views around it, has attachment to views around it through that sensory experience, creating memories which can be accessed later, creating further stories, and so on.

And then that proliferation continues through those accumulated tendencies, those underlying tendencies, which create that sense of being. And then he says, what one has mentally proliferated as the source, perceptions and notions born of mental proliferation beset a person with respect to past, future and present forms cognizable through the eye. So in this way the mental proliferations arise. Let's say for example somebody had gone to that tree and encountered a snake, and that memory, that past memory of that snake, creates a sense of discomfort of being around that tree, and so one has this underlying aversion

towards the tree because of a past memory of seeing a snake, which one was possibly frightened of. And so seeing that tree, trying to prevent that from happening again, even though it probably won't happen again, they have thoughts about the future of what if it does happen. And so restlessness arises, worry arises, anxiety arises, and this can cause anger. This can cause frustration.

And it can cause one to become belligerent towards somebody else who recommends going to that tree, for example. And that can cause quarrels and all kinds of things. So with respect to the past, the future and present forms. So every time one has anxiety about the future, it is triggered by a past event. One has a memory of the past proliferating. What if this happens again? And we'll have anxiety about it.

On the flip side of that, one has craving towards something and wants more of it based on a past memory. Perhaps it was a very good meal, and one goes to that restaurant and is looking forward to that meal, and that meal is no longer on the menu, and has this, and so now they have identified with that, and now they have not only craving but now they have frustration and anxiety, clinging to that sensual pleasure, and then creating this accumulated tendency of being that if this is not present, it creates irritation in the mind, and one might quarrel with the waiter, for example. One might quarrel with the restaurant management about the food. This is obviously an extreme example, but if you think about how memories can trigger your reactions to the present and to the future, those trigger points are the beginning of proliferation. So if you find yourself

recognizing those trigger points, identifying with that, whether it's from the past, meaning something in the present has triggered you from a memory of the past. If you recognize it and use the six R process to recognize it, take your mind away from that, bring it back to the body, relax it, uplift the mind and realize that this doesn't have to be the case, where what happened in the past has to happen again now, and just have that mind of Nipapancha, because Nibbana is also known as Nipapancha. It is the cessation of mental proliferation. It is the non-proliferation of concepts, the non-proliferation of attaching memories to something that might not happen.

Another good example of this would be where, and I might have used this example elsewhere, but this is also pertinent here, where you had a friend from high school or from your school, and it's been a few years since you met them, and you have a certain image of what that friend looks like because you haven't really spoken to them since you left school. And so when you meet them you have all of these ideas and notions and concepts of them based on your experience in the past with them, without realizing that that person, that friend of yours, has changed and has had their own experiences and attitudes and different philosophies that they've... So they have grown in their own way.

And so there's a cognitive dissonance between what you thought about and proliferated and what is reality. So mental proliferation is really the filter. It's the veil of ignorance. It's the veil of delusion, which stops the mind from looking at reality as it is. Expectations, letting go of different notions about what one should see as reality, or how reality should be seen, or how reality should be, this should be, has to be let go of. This idea of this is how it needs to be, and projecting that onto reality, creates that ignorance, creates that craving, creates that being. There is this disparity between what is actually real and what the mind is experiencing whenever it mentally proliferates. And so that is why, when you use the six R process, when you notice this and you relax, you let go and you relax, you come to that mundane Nibbana, which is the stopping of that proliferation.

It's the Nipapancha, meaning it is the complete silence of the mind, no longer proliferating all of these concepts, and now mind is unconditioned enough to be able to see reality as it is and be able to interact with reality as it is, without being conditioned by all of these concepts, without being conditioned by craving, by ignorance and conceit.

So what he's talking about really is the recognize step, meaning you notice it at the point of contact. You can recognize through mindfulness, through using mindfulness of being with the mind and body as reality unfolds before you, before the mind, and notice when the contact arises. Notice when the feeling arises. Notice when the perception arises. Notice if craving arises, using mindfulness. So being able to point it out, meaning using the six R process to recognize it first, and then being able to uproot it through the rest of the process of the six R's. When there is the ear, a sound, and ear consciousness, so you'll be talking about the rest of the senses. When there is the nose, an odour and nose consciousness,

and tongue consciousness, when there is the body, a tangible and body consciousness, when there is the mind, a mind object and mind consciousness, it is possible to point out the manifestations of besetment by perceptions and notions born of mental proliferation. Now here he goes on to say what would happen if there is no contact, and so on and so forth. When there is no I, no form, and no I consciousness, it is impossible to point out the manifestation of contact.

But if there is no stimulation of the eye, there is no contact, it is impossible for there to be feeling. If feeling is not seen or understood as feeling, one is not able to point out perception, because feeling and perception go hand in hand. doesn't point out perception, it would be impossible to point out thinking or reflection.

When there is no manifestation of reflection, it is impossible to point out the manifestation of besetment by perceptions and notions born of mental proliferation. So there's one way to understand this, in that Nibbana is also known as the cessation of being, bhava nirodo. It's the cessation of clinging, upadana. It's the cessation of craving. It's the cessation of feeling. It's the cessation of contact. And it's the cessation of the sixth sense basis as well. So how does one experience, for example, the cessation of being? That these tendencies have arisen, and there is the sense of self from which one is going to act. If one can recognize it, one lets go of it, and there is the cessation of being.

If one sees that there is clinging, in that one has stories around the sensory experience, stories or views around the sensory experience, the notions of self around the body and the mind and the aggregates, the attachment to rites and rituals, if one recognizes it, uses the six R process and lets it go, that is the cessation of clinging. If one sees that there is identifying with what is happening in the way of the senses, the feeling born from the sensory experiences or the mental experiences, there's identifying with it, and thus there is that sense of I want more of this, or I like this, or I don't want more of this, or I don't like that, in the form of tension, for example. Letting go of that through the six R process, there is the cessation of craving. And so that is why one experiences that Nibbana experience after having relaxed, there's that space in the mind, which is the unconditioned mind. But beyond that, what about feeling? What about contact, and what about the sixth sense basis? When it comes to feeling, it's further identifying with that feeling, completely understanding that this feeling that has arisen

is dependent upon contact, so that feeling arises because of some kind of sensory stimulation. But that stimulation is not being controlled by any sense of self, so one lets go of even identifying with the feeling and identifying with the process. The impersonal process of contact, which is where, for example, the light hits the eye. You're not controlling that. That's just happening. Even when you close your eyes and you sit down, there is still some light that can be experienced in some way or another. Or with regards to the ears, you can't control what is happening in the way of sounds hitting the eardrum.

You can't control the odors that are hitting the olfactory bulb. You can't control the tastes being tasted by the tongue, or the pressure or temperature that is being felt by the skin, or the thoughts that are arising in the mind, or other mental experiences. It's all impersonal. All of these things can be ceased. There can be a cessation of that through the cessation of identifying with them. As soon as one lets go of identifying with them, seeing them as impersonal, seeing them as impermanent, and realizing that it's not worth holding on to, one has the cessation of contact.

And furthermore, seeing and understanding this form as impermanent, as dukkha, as tiresome, and as impersonal, one disidentifies, lets go of identifying with the body in which there is the sixth sense base. And so there is then the cessation of the sixth sense base in that way, of identifying with them. So he goes on with the rest of the other sixth sense bases. When there is no ear, no sound, and no ear consciousness; when there is no nose, no odor, and no nose consciousness; when there is no tongue, no flavor, and no tongue consciousness; when there is no body, no tangible, and no body consciousness; when there is no mind, no mind object,

and no mind consciousness, it is impossible to point out the manifestation of this segment by perceptions and notions born of mental proliferation. So this nipapancha is experienced through the cessation of the links of the parent origination, so one can experience cessation of contact, cessation of the sixth sense bases, through the process of de-identifying, through understanding the five aggregates as they truly are, which are always in flux. They are always impermanent, arising and passing away. And in the form, or in the body, the actual physical sixth sense bases themselves are also always arising and passing away, based on what's being experienced. There's an impersonal process going on. There's an impermanent process going on. Therefore, one doesn't hold on to it.

When this happens, the other links not arise through identifying with them. In that sense, you have Nipapancha. In that sense, you have Nibbana because you're not identifying and thus creating the ability for craving to arise. So when you have the destruction of craving through understanding with wisdom, by not involving a sense of self through the links of the sixth sense basis, contact and feeling, will not arise any reflection on it through identifying with them. There won't arise any craving for those experiences to arise from them or any aversion or further identification.

There won't arise any stories around them, any conceptualizations around them. There won't arise any being through those underlying tendencies. And so this is the destruction of craving and the stopping of that mental proliferation by understanding this mind and body and the five aggregates as being impersonal, as being impermanent, and not worth holding on to. Friends, when the Blessed One rose from his seat and went into his dwelling after giving a summary in brief without expounding the detailed meaning, that is, bhikkhus, as to the source through which perceptions and notions born of mental proliferation, a person, if nothing is found there to delight in, meaning if there is nothing to crave for, welcome, and hold on to, there won't be any clinging through holding on to it through your stories and concepts. That is the end of the underlying tendencies. That is the end of being. Bhava nirodho, cessation of being, the end of the underlying tendency to lust, the underlying tendency to aversion, to views, to doubt, to conceit, to desire for being, and to ignorance, because there is no being to defend

oneself for, because there are no longer any of these notions of self that one has to defend through arguments, through quarreling, and by identifying through different views, through clinging and being. That will be the end of resorting to rods and weapons. That will be the end of violence, of quarrels, of brawls, disputes, recrimination, malicious words, and false speech. Here these evil unwholesome states cease without remainder.

I understand the detailed meaning of this summary to be thus. Now friends, if you wish, go to the Blessed One and ask him about the meaning of this. As the Blessed One explains it to you, so you should remember it. Then Venerable Sir, we went to the Venerable Maha Kachana and asked him about the meaning. The Venerable Maha Kachana expounded the meaning to us with these terms, statements and phrases.

Mahakachana is a wise speaker. Mahakachana has great wisdom, which is to say that he understands dependent origination completely. If you had asked me the meaning of this, I would have explained it to you in the same way that Mahakachana has explained it, such as the meaning of this, and so you should remember it. When this was said, the Venerable Ananda said to the Blessed One: Venerable Sir, just as if a man exhausted by hunger and weakness came upon a honey ball, wherever he would taste it he would find a sweet, delectable flavor, so too, Venerable Sir, any able-minded bhikkhu, wherever they might scrutinize with wisdom the meaning of this discourse on the Dhamma, would find satisfaction and confidence of mind. Venerable Sir, what is the name of this discourse on the Dhamma? As to that, Ananda, you may remember this discourse on the Dhamma as the Honey Ball Discourse.

This is what the Blessed One said. The Venerable Ananda was satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Questions? Thank you, Delson. It appears to me that this sutta goes a lot deeper than just people not arguing and fighting. It seems like there's a big emphasis on sense restraint. Is this really important for progressing past maybe a sort of un-stage?

We should be trying to incorporate into our practice almost on a full-time basis. Absolutely. You definitely want to be able to be more mindful of the experiences that you're having, and then noticing if craving is arising, because it's only through the process of craving arising that you have these other processes of clinging and being. And once you get to being, the action that you have, whether it's expressed through speech or through your thoughts or through physical action, can create suffering in the form of quarrels, in the form of debates and arguments, further creating suffering for the mind itself. So sense restraint is more about understanding how the experience arises so that you can prevent the craving from arising. So that's what's important to understand. There's nothing wrong with the experience that is happening in the way of the senses.

Whatever you are seeing, whatever you are hearing, whatever you might be tasting, whatever you might be smelling, whatever you might be feeling in the way of your body, whatever it might be, coming in the way of your thoughts, that is not the problem. The thing that you have to identify is when the mind grabs onto it and then identifies with it, when the mind has aversion towards it. So that same very experience could be different for another person who understands it with wisdom and lets it go and has peace of mind. Nothing changed except the way that they understood that experience. So sense restraint should be understood in the way of identifying: if the mind is craving for it, if there is attachment present, or if there is identification present.

Thank you. Grun, on the website there is scheduled only till March. Will there be a retreat in May? There should be. See what happens. Thank you, Delson. Another question, actually. There are quite a few mentions throughout the suttas, especially on reports of today's, but the Buddha also mentions that noble disciples frequently reflect on the qualities of the Buddha, like the Blessed One is worthy, rightfully self-awakened. It's something that I don't really hear getting said very, very often, and within the TWIM community, but the Buddha does seem to put quite a lot of emphasis on it. What's your understanding or recommendation with that? Yeah. First of all, the recollections of the three jewels, the recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, can create in the mind a very wholesome state. So that could actually be the beginning of your loving-kindness meditation, that could be the beginning of you feeling happy, and then use that as your object as you continue on with your meditation. But I see something deeper there as well, in terms of understanding that the Buddha, being the first

in this eon, or in this particular phase of existence in the universe, to have rediscovered the Dhamma, and so there is immense gratitude for that. Understanding that he was self-awakened, and he became, in that sense, the first arahant to be able to become perfected through understanding the Dhamma. The recollecting of the Dhamma should not just be understanding the importance of it in terms of its descriptions, but also living it, which means understanding the five precepts, maintaining the five precepts, and then precisely understanding the reality, or the nature of reality.

Dependent originations. So if you get deeper into that, you understand that. And then the Sangha, which is traditionally understood as the community of monks, one has gratitude for them, because they are the ones continuing the tradition of the Buddha, continuing the dispensation of the Buddha. But then also the larger community of lay people, also, because it's through having that support system that one can continue to ask questions, be able to clarify doubts with lay people as well as with the monks or the monastics, and you know, create this sense of community, so that you have that support system. The Sangha is there to be able to protect the dispensation, to be able to continue to let it flourish. And so we have gratitude for that. We have gratitude for the Sangha to be able to continue teaching. Thank you, Delson, again.

Delson, I have a question. Last week, I think from last week, you mentioned about the wrong view. So, we are not, so, the two kinds of wrong view are, there is a self and the other is nihilism or something like that so what is the standing of what is the our we should understand about the safety so the dhamma is really the middle way which means it's the middle of these two traditionally understood as extreme views there's the eternalism which is the understanding that there is immortal self an immortal soul that transmigrates from lifetime to lifetime through different realms of existence but it's the same consciousness it's the same eternal consciousness or the same eternal soul annihilationism is where one understands the body and the mind to be self and so with the dissolution of the mind and the body there is no longer itself and so that creates in a person wrong views because

what's the point then of having to follow the precepts if there's not going to be any consequences? So the middle path is understanding how the process of existence and being arises through dependent origination. So while eternalism does talk about rebirth, it talks about the rebirth of the same self. The Dhamma is talking about how the self is dependent upon factors. The self is dependent upon the arising of formations, the arising of consciousness, the arising of nama-rupa, the body and the mind, the arising of the sixth sense basis through which reality is experienced, the arising of sensations and feeling, the arising of perception. So this is how one understands how existence is made up or experienced through this process. But then there is rebirth in the Dhamma, but that rebirth is dependent upon craving, dependent upon identifying with the formations, identifying with the feelings, which causes one to create a sense of self in that moment and act from that sense of self.

So that same consciousness that we talked about, that gives rise to nama-rupa and that nama-rupa is dependent upon, is not the same consciousness that continues to transmigrate. That is dependent upon the different feelings, dependent upon the different sensory experiences. And dependent upon attention to those experiences, they arise dependent upon these things. So that's why you understand that there is no permanent self. There is the sense of self that arises by identifying with these, but that causes suffering. Of suffering is to understand these causes, let go of them, and experience nirvana, which is the dissolution of craving, the dissolution of ignorance, the dissolution of conceit, and it is that unconditioned mind. Thank you.

So Delson, a question. In the sutta, Ed reads that what one thinks about, that one mentally proliferates. And in daily life, where people have a job, that's often the notion we need to think hard about. This topic can be a problem, and it can be a business situation. And how can we combine these two? Is it a situation where one is not to take any of the thoughts which arise personally? Or how can we link the context of the sutta about mental proliferation with a daily life where one is doing daily activities which require something to be accomplished? In this case, is mindfulness, reflection, and insight?

So one has mindfulness in the sense of understanding that this is the project and these are the thoughts arising related to that project. The reflection that arises is analyzing what is the best measure to take in terms of completing this project, for example, or whatever it might be in one's daily life. The proliferation that arises is not due to reflection in the way of what is being experienced through the project, what is being analyzed. The proliferation that arises is due to the identifying with it, it's due to allowing the mind to go astray, allowing the thoughts to go astray. So what one thinks about in this case is related to what one identifies with, and then one creates and allows that thinking process in the mind to go astray. And then the third part is insight. A relaxed mind is actually more efficient than a mind that continues to reflect and analyze. So if you see these reflections and analyses of whatever it is that you need to do as being

wholesome and as being pertinent to what you want to do in terms of the project, whatever else it might be, then by all means go with that process, but at the same time don't identify with it and then allow the mind then to go astray. That's why you need the mindfulness, to understand if there's any tension present, if there's any craving present, if there's any aversion. That's why then, with that mindfulness, you can let go of the tension and have that relaxed mind. It's from that relaxed mind that insights arise. Insights arise because the mind does not analyze and reflect; rather, it takes a step back and just relaxes and allows the insights to naturally arise. And in that case I would say, from my own personal experience, that the insights are more valuable than the reflection and analysis.

Delson, I have one question. Regarding all of these suttas lately, like we've been reading and listening to, it's mostly always around the mind area. But what about the body part? How important is it for us to understand this? For example, the four elements and the way they form, appearing, disappearing, impermanence of them, to, I don't want to say the word contemplate, but basically that's what it is, right? Yeah, can you please comment on that one? Thanks. Yeah, so when you think about the body and the mind, mind always comes first in the way of understanding what this body is. It's through the mind that you understand what this body is. You're able to

penetrate into what this body is made up of, which, as you said before, create elements. But like anything in terms of the experience, it's not the body that needs to be let go of or that needs to be understood as a source of craving. It's that craving can arise through the experience of the body. But the body itself is just impersonal. It's neither good nor bad; it's how you perceive it. So the body is insentient, meaning the body is basically a corpse when there's no mentality there. The body is completely not of use. But the body is constantly changing, and it is dependent upon consciousness, even at the process of death and beyond death. And in the dissolution of the body you can see the body is actually changing. The body continues to decay, and so on and so forth. So what one needs to understand is how to understand the body as it is, which is impersonal.

Once you understand that, then you stop identifying so much with the body. The moment you stop identifying with the body, you take care of the attachment to the senses, which arise through the body. You take care of reflecting, understanding, and letting go of the craving that might arise through the sixth sense spaces or the experience of the sixth sense spaces.

So when you go back to nama-rupa, you have mentality. Mentality arises dependent upon the body, because mentality is within the process of this materiality. This materiality is made up of the four great elements, like we said. It's made up of the different states of matter. But it is the mentality that one needs to understand, the factors, like how contact arises, how feeling arises, how attention arises, how consciousness arises, and how perception arises. When you understand the mentality of that, then the body is not as important, because the body will take care of itself through its biological processes. What needs to be taken care of is the mind, by understanding that the mind has, let's say, or has grown up with the tendency to attach, or has grown up with a tendency to have doubts, or has grown up to have the tendency

of aversion or whatever it might be. So it's the mind always that needs to be understood, in terms of how to not allow the mind to identify with it, not allow the mind to identify with what is basically a corpse, what is basically just the four great elements. - Thank you. Let's share some merit. May suffering once 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, Delson.