June 8 -Liberations SN41.7 Sunday Sutta study with Delson Armstrong

Oh, that's great. So, for those of you who just joined, we're here with Delson. He's in the Dhamma Hall, the Dhammasukha Dhamma Hall, and he'll be doing his Sutta study from the hall where we have a retreat going on. Okay, let me share my screen. How is that? Yeah, yeah, everybody can see? Okay, okay. So today we're going to be reading from Samyutta Nikaya 41.7. This is the Gaudata Sutta. On one occasion, the Venerable Gaudata was dwelling at Machi Kasanda in the wild mango grove. Then Chitta the householder approached the Venerable Gaudata, paid homage to him, and sat down to one side. The Venerable Gaudata then said to him, as he was sitting to one side,

Householder, so this is actually Gaudata asking Chitta the householder questions. He says, "Householder, the measureless liberation of mind, the liberation of mind by nothingness, the liberation of mind by emptiness, and the signless liberation of mind: are these things different in meaning and also different in phrasing, or are they one in meaning and different only in phrasing?" There is a method, venerable sir, by which these things are different in meaning and also different in phrasing. And there is a method by which they are one in meaning and different only in phrasing. So what is he saying here?

There is a way in which these statements, or these words, are not only different in the words themselves, but also different in what they're referring to. And there is a way in which they're referring to the same thing. So we're going to explore what he means by that. And what, venerable sir, is a method by which these things are different in meaning and also different in phrasing? Here a bhikkhu dwells pervading one quarter with the mind imbued with loving kindness, likewise the second quarter, the third quarter and the fourth quarter, thus above, below, across and everywhere, and to all, as to all, as to and to all, as to himself. He dwells pervading the entire world with the mind imbued with loving kindness: vast, exalted, measureless, without hostility, without ill will. He does the same with compassion, with altruistic joy or empathetic joy, with the mind imbued with equanimity. Likewise the second quarter, the third quarter and the fourth quarter, thus above, below, across and everywhere, and to all

as to himself, he dwells pervading the entire world with the mind imbued with equanimity. In this case, vast, exalted, measureless, without hostility, without ill will. This is called the measureless liberation of mind. So what are we referring to here? We are referring to the brahmaviharas. The brahmaviharas are not just things that we should use as objects of meditation, but they're actually fundamentally intrinsic human qualities.

Not even human qualities, qualities that are intrinsic to essentially all mammals, if you think about it. I have doubts about reptiles being able to experience this, or birds, for that matter. But mammals have a capacity to have a certain level of empathy. I may be wrong about this, but this is my impression so far. But what is it that distinguishes us from the rest of our beings in this world? That is to say, the animal world. What is it that separates us? What is it that makes us human? And I would say what makes us human is that we overthink. Animals are just there. And yes, they are predominantly attracted to or engaged with food, reproduction and survival.

Humans too, to an extent. But as we start to become more comfortable in our lives, we have the capacity to overthink about things. Why did they look at me that way? Why did she say it in this tone? What did I do? Did I say something wrong? All of these things come up. Why? Because we are very much aware of our relation to the world, of our capacity to engage with the world. We have a level of self-awareness that is sometimes detrimental to our own well-being.

And the Buddha understood this, and he said that in order for us to let go of this process of overthinking, that is to say this process of mental proliferation, we must let go of our conceptual framework of the world. Because our conceptual framework of the world is essentially samsara. There is consensus-based reality, which we all see as some level of objective samsara, but supplanted on top of that is our internal samsara: what we think about people, how we view the world, the different ideologies that we have inherited from the world, and the different behavioral patterns that we think are essentially what we are in our reality. So the measureless liberation of the mind, when we talk about liberation of the mind here, what we're saying is that loving kindness. And the word loving kindness, you know, it's such an ephemeral word, it's such a nebulous word. It's like, what does that mean?

Loving kindness. It's basically the desire for others' happiness and the desire for my happiness. Let's put it that way. It's a desire that I should be happy and others should be happy. So no ill will should be present in me or for others. And so when we radiate loving kindness, what is he saying? In one quarter, ahead of us, behind us, to the right, to the left. These are the four quarters. Below us, above us, everywhere, in all directions, as to and to himself, and to ourselves, as to the entire world around us. Why do we do this? Because it is measureless. How do you actually measure how much equanimity you have? How do you measure how much joy you have?

How do you measure how much compassion you have? How do you measure how much loving kindness you have? Either you have it or you don't. It's like that old Sainful episode where he says, it's either dry or it's wet, can't be, you know, half dry. So in the same way, when we have loving kindness, the only thing we put limits on is to who do we put the loving kindness to. I like to send loving kindness to only these people, but those people out there, they don't deserve my loving kindness. We are the ones who create these limits, and the reason why we create these limits is because of our overthinking. Somehow we feel those people don't deserve it. And this happens also on a biological level, because as we start to experience loving kindness we start to have what's known as oxytocin in the body.

And oxytocin makes us feel very, very protective of the people around us. But it also creates very strong boundaries where there is us versus them. And this is where we need to understand: when we're sending loving kindness, it should be measureless. And that is a true measureless liberation of the mind. How does the mind get liberated? As long as we have that loving kindness, we are liberated from ill will. You can't have ill will and loving kindness together. You have one or the other. And you can't have compassion and cruelty at the same time. You either have compassion or you have cruelty. You can't have joy and jealousy at the same time. Either you have jealousy or joy in that moment.

You can't have restlessness and agitation and equanimity at the same time. It really depends on where you put your attention. If you decide to engage with the hindrance, with loving kindness and compassion, then you are no longer with the hindrance. You are with loving kindness and compassion, thereby you have abandoned that particular hindrance through that process. We use the 6R's as a strategy that is rooted in the understanding of right effort. And the way we abandon the unwholesome state of the hindrance is by replacing it with something like loving kindness or compassion or joy or whatever it might be.

So this is a temporary liberation, albeit a very powerful experience of liberation, because, as the Buddha also says in another sutta, you take a spoonful of salt and you put it into a glass and you drink the water, it will be salty. You take the same amount of salt and you put it in a large lake, you will not be able to tell the saltiness that's present there. And this analogy is used in terms of karma. When you have loving kindness, and when you have compassion, and you have joy, and you have equanimity in that moment, any kind of karmic arising that comes towards you, generally, let's say something that is displeasing to the senses and the mind, it's oh see, it goes from this is this big thing here to it's only this. And the experience of that karma becomes minuscule compared to if we didn't have loving kindness in our minds.

Because at that point, everything would feel very personal and everything would feel like an attack on us. Everything would feel out of control and we would feel much more unpleasant than we would when we have loving kindness. When we have loving kindness, whatever displeasing karma that arises in front of us is manageable. And because of our temporary liberation through that experience of loving kindness, we don't add any fuel to the fire through our ill will and through our cruelty and so on, but we just engage with it in a neutral, at the very least neutral level, if not in a way that is compassionate, thereby allowing us not to add any more fuel to karma. And so that karma starts to weaken.

Instead of talking back to somebody who has said something wrong to us, instead of lashing out at them, instead of ruminating and being upset by it, we have a different perspective. We realize that we are not the owner of the other person's reactions. They are their own inheritor of their own karma, which includes their own actions and intentions, and we are only responsible for how we respond to those situations, those reactions, and to those people. And if we give away our reactions so easily in that way, that causes us harm and causes the other person harm, then what use is the inculcation and imbuing of loving kindness? Loving kindness should ultimately liberate us from our harmful and unbeneficial reactions.

It should inform our decisions to be less reactive and more responsive, be rooted in that wisdom and in compassion. And what venerable sir is a liberation of mind by nothingness? Here by completely transcending the base of the infinity of consciousness, aware that there is nothing, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the base of nothingness. This is called the liberation of mind by nothingness. Pretty self-explanatory. You see any of the jhanas from the first jhana all the way up to neither perception or non-perception they are all liberations of the mind they are temporary liberations and this is why i espouse the idea of the jhanagami and what i mean by that is at the very least if you've gotten to stream entry whatever that means for you but generally what it means as per the suttas is that you have an understanding of the dhamma that doesn't allow you to take on a view of self or wrong view of self and that allows you to have a confidence in the buddha's words in the dhamma itself and in the community that you surround yourself with that are like-minded practitioners

And that you realize that nothing will take you to freedom except the path of the Eightfold Path. If you get to that point, you will still have varying amounts of ill will in your daily life. You will still have varying amounts of craving in your life. But as soon as you get into jhana and experience jhana, because jhana is free of the five hindrances, free of craving, free of aversion, free of restlessness, free of doubt, free of sloth and torpor, for all intents and purposes in those moments your mind is free like the mind of an. So if a person who attains stream entry continues to practice, it doesn't mean you continue to practice just to develop jhana, but obviously you continue to aim for higher states of evolution, of awakening, whether that is a once-returner, a non-returner, or a fully awakened being.

It's always good to have that sort of goalpost, because it only allows you to do better in your expression of kindness. It only allows you to do better in your expression of compassion. It only allows you to do better in your understanding of the Dhamma. You become more voracious in understanding the Dhamma, not only at a knowledge level, but also at a wisdom level. But my point is, you are liberated when you are in jhana, insofar as the five hindrances are concerned. And you are liberated when you are in jhana, insofar as when you are a stream-enterer, at which point none of the five fetters, the first five fetters, are present in your mind.

And so, for such a person who continues to practice, if they have not moved ahead up the ladder, so to speak, then when they pass on, because of their consistent practice of meditation they will become a janagam. I stand by these words because I can refer to them in certain suttas. So at the very least aim for stream entry, but realize that the ultimate fruition is full awakening. So the liberation of mind by nothingness, here Citta is saying, is essentially transcending the base of infinite consciousness. And what, venerable sir, is the liberation of mind by emptiness? Here a bhikkhu, gone to the forest or to the foot of a tree or an empty hut, reflects thus: empty is this of self or of what belongs to self. This is called the liberation of mind by emptiness. This is very interesting, so I at some point want to talk about the three gates of liberation, and these three gates are signlessness, undirectedness and emptiness. Signlessness comes from the realization that all objects are essentially

impermanent within conditioned reality, and therefore they're not worth grasping onto, and you have the experience of signlessness, where you have pure awareness void of any kind of object. Then you have undirectedness, where you realize that any kind of intention that I have that goes in this direction or that direction ultimately leads to some level of suffering, because it's leading to something still in conditioned reality. And so I drop all intention. I drop all kind of trying. And I just rest in where I am. And I'm undirected. Now, this is a practice that's for more advanced practitioners. And the reason I say that is because if you decide that you don't want to do anything and you just stay there, chances are you're going to run into sloth and torpor.

But if you have the capacity to experience these states and realize the fundamental suffering of these states, not because they are suffering in themselves, but because they are temporary, and because they're impermanent, and because they are unstable, they will not lead to the ultimate, which is nirvana. They are not the ultimate, which is nirvana, I should say. And therefore we just drop all intention at that point, and we have the undirected nature, the undirectedness of mind. And the emptiness gate is the realization that I'm not the one in control here. I can't control myself, so to speak. I can't control the emotions that come up. I can't control what I see through my senses.

I can't control what other people do. I can't control what situations arise. There is no controller here. But there is something that I can be aware of and be able to navigate, and that is my own perceptions, but those perceptions too are conditioned by prior causes and conditions that I've inherited through learning, through knowledge, through my parents, through my teachers, through life, through society, and so on. And ultimately, as I start to investigate, not by analyzing but by seeing for myself, that this body has gone through so many different kinds of changes. The feelings I experience one moment are not the same that I experience in another moment. The perceptions I have of a person may change over time.

The perceptions I have about reality may change over time. The choices that I've made continue to change all the time. The awareness that is dependent upon all of these continues to change, because they're dependent upon all of these things. So I see the five aggregates and I realize that they are unstable, liable to cause suffering, and therefore not me, not mine, not myself. And so I have the emptiness liberation of mind, and this is what he means when he sees that empty is this of self or what belongs to self, whether it's my form or others' form, or this building that I'm sitting in, or this planet that I'm living on. All of it will be gone at some

point. All experience, all feeling will be gone at some point. All relationships continue to change. All perceptions continue to change. Choices and our awareness continue to change, and so we drop all of it and we experience the liberation of mind by emptiness. And the liberation of mind by emptiness is really mundane nirvana. And what, venerable sir, is the signless liberation of mind? Here, with non-attention to all signs, the bhikkhu enters and dwells in the signless collectedness of mind. This is called signless liberation. How do you have non-attention to all signs? By the realization that all signs or objects are impermanent, and you drop all intention of being with an object, and you're only in pure awareness.

This, venerable sir, is the method by which these things are different in meaning and also different in phrasing. And what, venerable sir, is the method by which these things are one in meaning and different only in phrasing? Lust. What is lust? Greed, the desire for something because you can't have enough of it, or you want to change a certain outcome because you can't deal with it, or you want to keep holding on to a certain experience because you want more of it, is a maker of measurement. Hatred: you don't like this, you don't like that, you have ill will towards a person, you have resentment towards our, you know, we have resentment towards our parents. We have resentment towards our siblings.

We have resentment towards our spouses or partners. We have resentment towards friends. We have resentment towards the world. All of these things are hatred. Delusion is a maker of measurement. Delusion is when I misperceive that which is impermanent as permanent, that which is suffering as happiness, that which is not self as self. When I take these things and grasp the world and life in this way, I'm deluded. I'm not aware of the larger truth, which is that all of this is free of any kind of self.

Is also a maker of measurement. What do we mean by maker of measurement? When I was here a couple of days ago, I said to all of you in this room that there is that statement, comparison is the thief of joy. To compare means to measure, and that comes from conceit. And that conceit arises when we are seeking something that is homeostasis. We're trying to make sense of the world, and we're trying to create an idea that things need to be stable in an already unstable world. And so we measure up everything to our certain expectations of ourselves, of the people around us, and of the world at large. And when we do this, greed can arise.

Greed creates more of that measurement process. Hatred can arise. Hatred creates more of that measurement process. Delusion can arise, and delusion creates that measurement process. However, for one whose taints are destroyed, for one who has let go of all kinds of misperception of reality, these have been abandoned, cut off at the root, made like palm stumps, obliterated so that they are no more subject to future arising.

To whatever extent there are measureless liberations of mind, the unshakable liberation of mind, the akuppa, as they say, is the unshakable. You cannot change it. It is fixed in Nibbana, and is declared a chief among them. Why? Because it is the destruction of measuring. It's the destruction of comparing. Now, that unshakable liberation of mind is empty of lust, empty of hatred, empty of delusion. Lust, venerable sir, is a something. Hatred is a something. Delusion is a something. In other words, we're saying that when we talk about the liberation of mind through nothingness, we are letting go of lust as something in our mind, letting go of greed or lust, hatred and delusion, as something that's still present in the mind. So when we have fully apprehended reality, understood it, and let go, abandoned and destroyed the taints, then we have the liberation of nothingness, the unshakable liberation of mind. This unshakable liberation of mind, that is the ultimate liberation of mind by nothingness, is declared chief among them. It is empty of lust, empty of hatred, empty of delusion.

Likewise, when we say lust is a maker of signs, hatred is a maker of signs, delusion is a maker of signs, what we're saying is lust is an object, hatred can be an object, and delusion can be an object. But through greed, we go for other objects. Through hatred, we try to push away other objects. Through delusion, we identify with objects. For one whose taints are destroyed, these have been abandoned, and to whatever extent there are signless liberations of mind, this liberation of mind free of greed, hatred and delusion is declared the chief among them. Now, that unshakable liberation of mind is empty of lust, empty of hatred, empty of delusion, and that is the unshakable liberation of mind due to emptiness.

So here, that same liberation of mind where we are free from any greed, hatred and delusion is the liberation of mind through nothingness, liberation of mind through signlessness, liberation of mind through emptiness. This, venerable sir, is the method by which these things are one in meaning and different only in phrasing. It is a gain for you, householder. It is well gained by you, householder, in that you have the eye of wisdom that ranges over the deep word of the Buddha.