May 2023 Retreat -Day 8- MN 117 The 8 fold Path - How it all works together

So today we're going to be talking about the Eightfold Path. Majjhima Nikaya 117, Maha Chattarisaka Sutta, the Great Forty. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jetavana Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There he addressed the Bhikkhus thus: Bhikkhus. Venerable Sir, they replied. The Blessed One said this: Bhikkhus, I shall teach you noble right concentration with its supports and its requisites.

Listen and attend closely to what I shall say. Yes, Venerable Sir, the Bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this: What, Bhikkhus, is noble right concentration with its supports and its requisites? That is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right effort, and right mindfulness. Unification of mind equipped with these seven factors is called noble right concentration with its supports and its requisites. Generally, we don't use the word concentration because concentration denotes the idea that you become very focused.

But understand that when I use the word concentration, I also mean collectedness. I don't mean that you focus. Focus is different from collectedness. Focus means that you make an effort, undue amounts of effort, that pinpoints and locks your attention on your object of meditation to the point that you become attached to the meditation. You attach yourself, your sense of self, to the object.

Here when we talk about right concentration, that is, samadhi, that is right collectedness. Samadhi. Now this word samadhi, what does that mean? Samadhi means even, to be balanced all the time. It is the same. And dhi, so sama dhi. Sama dhi comes from the word buddhi. Buddhi there means your mind. Having a mind that is balanced. So would a mind that is one-pointed, focused, concentrated be considered balanced? It's not balanced. What a mind that's attention is loose, unaware, unable to remain composed. I like that word, composed. I'll explain what I mean. Is that balance?

Because it's loose. The attention is scattered everywhere. So there has to be a balance. is, the six Rs, allows the mind to remain collected. There is a word called compose, a composure. I got this from Venerable Dhammananda while I was talking to him in an interview about Bhante Poonaji and one of his translations is mental composure. I like that phrase, mental composure. The mind remains stable. The attention remains unscattered.

Now, somebody asked this question: what does it mean, unification of mind? Because unification of mind, does that mean that all components of the mind become unified? Or what does that mean? Unification of mind comes from the word chittas ekaggata. Ekaggata. Generally, ekaggata is translated as eka, that is one. Agrata, to make, to point. That's always generally translated as one-pointed, ekaggata. But you forget about the first part of that, chittas ekaggata, unification of mind. Chitta, what is chitta here? Chitta can mean consciousness. Chitta can mean mind. Can mean mindset.

What is a mindset? The way I define a mindset is that it is a collection of similar thoughts. In the same way a mood is a collection of similar emotions. You would say to somebody who's not feeling so well emotionally, down. Why? Because the collection of different emotions that he has makes up that kind of mood. But a person who's upbeat, who's lively, who's happy, you say he's in a good mood. What does that mean? His thoughts and his emotions generally are uplifted.

So here when we talk about unification of mind, it is a collection of similar thoughts. That's why when you meditate in loving kindness, in compassion, in joy, in equanimity, what happens? There are similar thoughts that arise in relation to that loving kindness. It's not necessary that your mind remains completely still. That's not the key here. Your mind will remain still naturally. Still the mind like that. Not until you've let go of all the fetters. By then your mind is absolutely still anyway. But when it comes to stilling the mind, there is a process to this. So when we talk about unification of mind, what it means is that the attention is balanced. The attention remains unscattered.

It's around similar thoughts or ideas related to the object of meditation. For example, when you think about your spiritual friend, what might come up is how loving your spiritual friend is, how kind your spiritual friend is. The image of his or her smile comes up. The image of his or her bright face comes up, whatever it might be. Now that is in conjunction with the feeling of metta. There is a collection of thoughts coming into play here. A collection of images, a collection of ideas.

So don't get bothered by the idea that your mind is not completely quiet or still. That will happen gradually, naturally. So the attention is unscattered. So when we say chittas ekaggata, we are saying the unified mindset. The mind remains collected. The mind remains steady and stable. But in order for this to happen, you need additional factors. This is why the Buddha says that noble right concentration, or we can say meditation, with its supports and its requisites, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness.

These factors, along with the unification of mind, which means a mindset that is unified, will bring about the correct form of meditation, right collectedness, sama samadhi. So it's not like you can just go and sit down and meditate. Because if you try to do that, all kinds of hindrances come up. All kinds of thoughts come up. All kinds of ideas come up. And it is more difficult for you to be able to let go unless you know the right way to do it. The harmonious way to do it. The effective way to do it. The way that leads towards Nibbana. There is a way that leads to Nibbana and there is a way that does not lead to Nibbana.

The right way and the wrong way. The right way is the Eightfold Path. There's a reason why this path is the way it is. Because it supports, it's like a ladder, it supports one another. One leads to the other and supports the process of right meditation, and supports the process of right collectedness. So how does this happen? Now we're going to get into the Eightfold Path. What are the different factors of the Eightfold Path? Therein, Bhikkhus, right view comes first. And how does right view come first? One understands wrong view as wrong view and right view as right view. This is one's right view. That's the simplest understanding of right view. Understanding the difference between what is wrong and what is right.

Unfortunately, there are some people in the world who don't even know that. That's a tragedy. They're not even aware of what is right and what is wrong. So in order for you to understand right view, you need to understand what is a wrong view. So you know that your mind is not following in the footsteps of wrong view.

And what, Bhikkhus, is wrong view? This is wrong view: it does not look at karma. It's the view that says that there is no meaning in giving. There is no meaning in being generous. There is no meaning in being charitable. Because it doesn't have an effect. There is no cause and there is no effect. It says there is no this world and there is no other world. Here, like I said the other time, you can interpret this in two ways: there are no other realms, or that there is no possibility for you to enter altered states, that is to say, higher states of mind.

That there is no possibility for you to experience jhanas. No mother, no father. What does this mean? Here the wrong view says we don't owe anything to our parents. That there are no beings reborn spontaneously. Now, there are two ways of understanding this. That is to say, that there are no devas, there are no brahmas, there are no other beings aside from what we see here.

I'll grant you that that doesn't need to be believed in until you see it. But there is another way of understanding this. That is to say, reborn in terms of every moment. In your meditation you will see this. You will experience this. You will see the arising and passing away of individual consciousnesses. You will see how dependent origination works and you will see for yourself that indeed there is rebirth in every passing moment. this world and the other world.

In other words, that there are no teachers present who can show the way out of this suffering. But we see that for ourselves now. We see the Buddha and the Arahants and their students. They were practicing and they saw for themselves the way out of suffering. But to deny that is wrong view. So how do you come from wrong view to right view? You experience for yourself the Dhamma and see that it works. You teach yourself how the mind works and you listen to the voice of another. That voice of another is the Buddha or an arahant or his student, or at this point in time whatever it is that we read from the suttas.

Whoever that might be who is reading the suttas and explaining it. When that Dhamma is given, you see for yourself and you don't just blindly believe in it. You experiment using the confines of what is given to you in terms of the precepts and the other factors of the Eightfold Path. And using those tools, you investigate and examine and practice and see whether this process works for you or not. And from there you gain experiential confidence.

And then there is no doubt in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. And then right view is beginning to be established. The first level of right view is beginning to be established. Because now you see, as the Buddha says, and what, because, is right view? Right view, I say, is twofold. in the acquisitions. And there is right view that is noble, taintless, super mundane, a factor of the path. And what, Bhikkhus, is right view that is affected by the taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions? There is what is given, what is offered, and what is sacrificed. There is fruit and result of good and bad actions. There is this world and the other world.

That's the mundane right view. You come to this from your own experience. You realize that actions do have consequences. You realize that bad intentions lead to bad states of existence. Good intentions lead to good states of existence. That there is meaning in giving and being generous and charitable. That we owe a massive debt of gratitude to our parents, because we realize had it not been for them we would not be in this life, and from this life be introduced to the Dhamma that allows us to understand escape from suffering.

And we come to the understanding of rebirth. We come to the understanding of the fact that there are those who understand the Dhamma and are able to show the way. So this is the mundane right view. This is the view that you come to when you enter into stream entry. When you experience that first experience of having let go completely and dropped the first three fetters. What are the first three fetters? The first fetter is belief in a personal self. You start to see that there cannot be a permanent personal self because everything is interdependent and arising depending upon causes and conditions.

The second fetter, doubt in the path, doubt in the Buddha Dhamma. You no longer have that because you have walked the path and you have seen for yourself that indeed this process works. The third, clinging to rites and rituals. You let go of that completely because you understand rites and rituals have a place in whatever that is. Whether it's chanting or lighting a candle or lighting a lamp, it uplifts the mind to that extent. But it does not directly take you to Nibbana. takes you to Nibbana. And that is the practice itself.

So you let go of any clinging to rites and rituals. This is stream entry. The breaking of these three fetters is stream entry. And so he says, this is right view affected by taints because there are still the asavas present. What are the asavas? The asavas are threefold: there are three asavas. There is the asava of sensual craving, there is the asava of being, and there is the asava of ignorance.

These are still present to some extent, one way or the other. Partaking of merit and ripening in the acquisitions, meaning this view still partakes in the process of karma, ripens in the process of karma. There is still a sense of being taken personally, that is identified with. This is where you have to understand, just because you let go of the belief in personal self, doesn't mean that the mind automatically lets go of taking things personally, or identifying with things. That is because conceit is still there. The belief in a personal self, or letting go of the belief in a personal self, is the experience of understanding that everything that arises, arises due to causes and conditions.

That's it. But the intrinsic taking of this is me, this is mine, this is myself is still present in the fetter of conceit which goes away at full awakening. And what bhikkhus is right view that is noble, taintless, super mundane, a factor of the path. So right view that is noble. Have entered into the stream and moreover taintless, which means you have destroyed the three asavas. Supramundane, that is beyond just this world of the five sense bases. It is now locked into the mind. A factor of the path. The wisdom, the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom. The investigation of states, enlightenment factor. The path factor of right view in one who is noble, whose mind is taintless, who possesses the noble path and is developing the noble path.

This is right view that is noble, taintless, super mundane, a factor of the path. So usually the super mundane right view are the Four Noble Truths. That is, you fully understand what suffering is. for suffering. You fully realize and experience Nibbana and the cessation of suffering and you perfect the cultivation of the Eightfold Path. But here the Buddha goes even deeper and he says there are factors to the super mundane right view that is taintless and that is the wisdom. What is the wisdom?

The seeing of dependent origination. The seeing and understanding and experiencing of dependent origination when you come out of cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness. The faculty of wisdom and the power of wisdom. So the faculty of wisdom is that which you exercise in the form of practicing. The power is a result, is the natural condition of wisdom present in the mind.

The investigation of states, enlightenment factor. Are. This is the second enlightenment factor that is dependent upon mindfulness. Remember when I talked about investigation of states, I said it's not about analyzing and going deep into, it's about seeing things as they are, understanding what is present and what is not present. And the path factor of right view in one whose mind is noble, and possesses the noble path or is developing the noble path. Now, how do you get to this right view, whether it's mundane right view or super mundane right view? How do you get to it? Here the Buddha says, one makes an effort to abandon wrong view and to enter upon right view. This is one's right effort.

Ours. You recognize if there is present in your mind any sort of wrong view or components of wrong view because now you know what is right view and what is wrong view. You see for yourself this is right view and this is wrong view. You have been told so now you can compare. Is my mind identifying with this process? Is my mind being ungrateful? Is my mind being blind to the understanding of action and consequence?

Is my mind not being charitable? Is my mind being stingy? Is my mind being not generous? And you can recognize that. You can release that. You can relax. You can uplift the mind and replace that wrong view with right view. Every time you identify with a process, recognize that, let go, and come to the right view of the Four Noble Truths. Indeed, whenever you experience and adapt and apply the six R's, you're coming into alignment with the Four Noble Truths.

Mindfully, one abandons wrong view. Mindfully, one enters upon and abides in right view. Mindfulness. Mindfully, what does that mean? What does it mean to be mindful? It means to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. Remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. So mindfully, meaning you recognize that the mind is in wrong view and you bring it to right view. This is mindfulness. You see that it was in wrong view and now it comes back to right view.

Thus, these three states run and circle around right view. That is right view, right effort, and right mindfulness. How? Because with that initial right view, you're able to recognize what is wrong view and what is right view, to right view, that is using the six R's. By recognizing this, the first R in the six R's, you're using mindfulness to see where the wrong view is and recognizing and seeing how your attention goes from that to right view.

There, in monks or bhikkhus, right view comes first. And how does right view come first? One understands wrong intention as wrong intention and right intention as right intention. This is one's right view. So first we have to understand right view is samma ditthi, that is the right perspective, the right view. What is right intention, or how do you come to right intention? Here it is through right view. So when we say right intention, it comes from the word sankappa, which means to have a motivation. Sankappa means to make a goal, to have an inclination.

And what is that right intention? We'll explore that here. So first you have to understand what is wrong intention and what is right intention. That's the right view. And what bhikkhus is wrong intention? The intention of ill will and the intention of cruelty. This is wrong intention. So what is sensual desire here? The mind experiences something through the five physical sense bases and grasps at it and wants more of it. What is the ill will?

Here the mind has aversion towards it or against it. Whatever it is that it is experiencing. The mind identifies with something and has aversion towards anything that is not with what the mind identifies. And then what is cruelty? Cruelty is the inability to recognize the suffering in another being. It is the intention to harm. And what bhikkhus is right intention? Right intention, I say, is twofold. There is right intention that is affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions, and there is right intention that is noble, taintless, super mundane, a factor of the path.

And what bhikkhus is right intention that is affected by taints, merit, ripening in the acquisitions: the intention of renunciation, the intention of non-ill will, and the intention of non-cruelty. This is right intention that is affected by taints, ripening in the acquisitions. The intention of renunciation. That comes from the word nekkhamma, which means to let go. What are you letting go?

Your identification with whatever you think you possess, or whatever you think you want to possess, or whatever you think you are. Letting go of seeing things as me, as mine, or myself. Whether it is the clothes that you wear, the house you live in, your relationships with others, your emotions, your thoughts, your ideas, your works, your job, your career, whatever it might be, your meditation.

Non-ill will. Non-ill will, which means that you don't have aversion towards things. You don't have hatred towards beings. You don't have the intention to inflict harm. How is that cultivated? Through the practice of loving kindness. Non-cruelty. How is that cultivated? Through the practice of compassion. Because compassion is recognizing the suffering in another being and wishing them free from that suffering. Being there, supporting them in their own process of coming out of suffering. Not adding to their suffering, inflicting harm to that person who is suffering, not adding to their suffering. So in other words, you are there as a support system, but you allow that person to walk the path out of suffering. You cannot walk the path for them.

So another way of explaining or understanding mundane and super mundane is that the mundane is where you are exercising the factors of the path. The super mundane is where it becomes natural to you until it becomes the automatic process in your mind when your mind is free of all taints. So the factors of such a super mundane right intention are the thinking, the thought, intention, mental absorption, mental fixity, directing of mind and verbal formation.

So in other words, it's the intention, the inclination towards Nibbana. It's the inclination and intention to collect the mind, right? And any verbal formations that arise in the form of thoughts and thinking are inclined towards Nibbana. Well, how does this happen in the first jhana, right? What is in the first jhana? What are the factors of the first jhana? Secluded from unwholesome states, letting go of the hindrances. Quite secluded from unwholesome pleasures. Secluded from unwholesome states, I should say. So that is secluded from, or letting go of, hindrances and secluded from unwholesome pleasures or sensual pleasures. Some pleasure is the experience of the joy that arises and the happiness that arises, born of seclusion, born of letting go of the hindrance.

And that arises due to the thinking, the applied and sustained thought. How does that happen? You bring up an intention of loving kindness. You bring up an intention of going into meditation. Then you come to mental fixity. That is, the mind becomes stable, starts to become stable. You have mental absorption. Absorption here does not mean that the mind becomes one with the object. It means that the mind orbits the object, right? It becomes collected around the object.

So whenever you're practicing meditation and you bring up a wholesome state of mind meditation, you are practicing the supramundane right intention, which is a mind inclined towards Nibbana. One makes an effort to abandon wrong intention and to enter upon right intention. So every time you notice a hindrance and you let go of it, you go from the wrong intention to the right intention. Every time you notice in your daily life, there is an intention to hold on to something.

Or there's an intention to reciprocate an unwholesome speech. Or there's an intention to inflict harm through your words or actions upon someone. When you can recognize that as wrong intention, let that go and uplift the mind and come to the right intention by letting go of taking things personally, of identifying with experiences, by cultivating loving kindness, by cultivating compassion, then you are experiencing right effort. You are exercising right effort to go from the wrong intention to the right intention.

Mindfully, one abandons wrong intention. Mindfully, one enters upon and abides in right intention. This is one's right mindfulness, meaning you are observing how your mind's attention goes to wrong intention, and you let go using the 6R's, and you observe how your mind is now in right intention. Thus, these three states run and circle around right intention, that is, right view, because you know what is wrong intention and what is right intention, first and foremost. Right effort, because you use the 6R's, and right mindfulness, because you are recognizing when you go from wrong intention to right intention.

Therein, bhikkhus, right view comes first. And how does right view come first? One understands wrong speech as wrong speech, and right speech as right speech. This is one's right view. So first you have to recognize what is wrong speech and right speech. And what, bhikkhus, is wrong speech? False speech. Malicious speech. Harsh speech. And gossip. This is wrong speech. What is false speech?

Telling lies. Intentionally telling lies. Intentionally saying something that you know to be untrue as true, or you know to be true as untrue. What is malicious speech? Malicious speech is where the mind wants to use words to bring harm to another being. Malicious, to bring malice, to bring harm. That is crude speech, abusive speech, using all those four-letter words. And gossip.

Gossip is speaking about another person which you don't know whether it's true or not, but you're speaking about them in a way that is critical, in a way that is maybe true, maybe untrue. But how do you know if it's gossip? If you feel uncomfortable talking about that person if they were in this room with you, right? So if I was telling you about somebody here and they were not in the room, and I said, this person is so-and-so and they said this and this, and this is what happened, and they broke up with this person and now they're doing this, all kinds of things.

That's, I'm saying all that. Would I say the same thing with the person in the room? If I feel comfortable doing that, then that's not gossip. But if I feel uncomfortable, it means that I have an intention to besmirch the character of that person. is right speech. Right speech, I say, is twofold. There is right speech that is affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions. And there is right speech that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path. And what, bhikkhus, is right speech that is affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions?

Abstinence from false speech. Abstinence from malicious speech, abstinence from harsh speech, abstinence from gossip. This is right speech that is affected by taints, ripening in the acquisitions. So a nice way to understand right speech is an acronym that I use, which is called THINK, to think before you speak. So that's T-H-I-N-K. T stands for timely. Is it the right time to say what you want to say?

H is for honesty. Do you know what you are going to say to be truthful? I is for intention. What is the intention behind why it is that you want to say whatever it is you want to say? Is it intentionally wholesome? N is for necessity. Is it necessary for you to say it? Is it necessary for the other person to hear it?

And K is kind. Can you use kind words? Can you speak kindly? Now somebody asked me this question, but what if you have to, if you're a parent and you have to shout at your child, you have to scold your child, or somebody's not being, somebody's being belligerent in the workplace, having insubordination at the workplace. How do you deal with that? Can you shout kindly?

Can you scold kindly? So it's all about the intention. It's all about making sure you don't take it personally with yourself and you don't make it personal for the other person. If you have to criticize them, bring to light their action, not what they are or what you think they are. Bring up what are the actions that are wrongful and address that.

One makes an effort to abandon wrong speech and to enter upon right speech. This is one's right effort. You notice the intention of what it is that you want to say, and if it's a wrong intention, and it's going to result in wrong speech, you recognize that, you release it, you relax, you uplift the mind, you re-smile if you can, you uplift the mind, and you utilize right speech. You replace the wrong speech with the right speech. Mindfully, one abandons wrong speech. Mindfully, one enters upon and abides in right speech. You recognize that there is an intention to commit wrong speech, and you observe how your attention goes from that to the intention to have right speech.

And what, bhikkhus, is right action that is noble, taintless? So what is the difference? It's the same thing except for one key difference. In the mundane right action, you make an effort, you make a conscious effort to abstain from breaking the precepts. In the second case, of the supramundane right action, your mind automatically desists, abstains from doing it. It just can't. It can't break the precept.

There is power in what you do in the mornings by taking the precepts. Whether it's the five basic precepts, the eight precepts, the ten precepts. How many other precepts? But there is power in taking just the five basic precepts. Because what you are doing is you are setting your intention rightly. And you are entering into right action.

You're making the intention to commit right action all the time. Make sure, is my mind intending to break a precept? Is my mind intending to harm a living being? Is my mind intending to take what is not given? Is my mind intending to indulge in sensual misconduct? So when we talk about harming living beings, that comes from the intention to harm, right? That comes from the intention to have ill will, hatred, and aversion. That translates into the hindrance of ill will, hatred and aversion. When we take what is not given, which is essentially stealing, but on a deeper level, it's trying to look for things and grasp at things that are not ours.

Whether it's seeking attention from another person, whether it's seeking credit where credit is not due, and so on and so forth. And when we have that kind of intention, our mind is restless. And so that gives rise to the hindrance of restlessness. When we want to indulge in sensual pleasures, and in the process, we have misconduct. So in the pursuit of a sensual pleasure, we break the other precepts. That is sensual misconduct. And there it activates sensual craving. And therefore it translates into the hindrance of sensual craving.

And then when we use false speech, speech to trick, to have deceit, to deceive, that means that we are creating a falsehood when we speak lies. And this can create the hindrance of doubt. Because now we start to doubt others. If I'm not telling the truth, how can I be sure that person is telling the truth? And we start to have doubt there, and then we start to have doubt in ourselves, and that results in the hindrance of doubt. Now here it doesn't talk about the indulgence in intoxicants, but it is implied through the process of mindfulness.

But let's take that also, indulging in intoxicants. Even if you're indulging in cocaine, which is something that activates the mind, that creates activity in the mind, ultimately what does that do? It weakens the mind. It dulls the senses. It dulls the mind, which translates to sloth and torpor. Indulging in intoxicants. Intoxicants just doesn't mean alcohol and drugs, but overindulgence in anything.

Binging on a Netflix show, right? Watching too much news or reading too much. Or browsing and surfing the internet too much. What does that do? It dulls the mind. It creates sloth and torpor. Or even just indulging in excessive thinking. That also dulls the mind. So the breaking of these five precepts results in the arising of the five hindrances.

But cultivation and commitment and acting on that commitment to keep those precepts starts to clarify the mind, starts to purify the mind, so that there is no more further arising of these hindrances. So one makes an effort to abandon wrong action and to enter upon right action. This is one's right effort. So you have the intention to break a precept, you recognize that, you release it, you relax, you re-smile, you come back, and you make the intention to keep that precept. Here you are using the right effort to abandon the wrong intention, the wrong speech, the wrong action, and come to the right intention, right speech, right action.

And what bhikkhus is wrong livelihood? This is interesting, but this is specifically for monks. Scheming, talking, hinting, belittling, pursuing gain with gain. This is wrong livelihood. For the purpose of the ordinary life, wrong livelihood is any kind of livelihood that inflicts harm on oneself and harm on another. So, any kind of job or career which causes harm to another being, one way or the other. Livelihood.

I'll trade you two robes for this bowl. Or hinting. Hinting meaning, I really like that piece of chocolate cake. I wonder if anyone can save me a piece. Right? But there is also a whole array of different factors of wrong livelihood that the Buddha talks about, which includes things like being an astrologer, reading palms, reading the sky, all kinds of things related to that. Or being a doctor.

And the reason is because all of these detract a person who has become a monk for the purpose of what? For the purpose of attaining Nibbana. The Buddha is not saying there's anything inherently wrong with becoming an astrologer or a palm reader, or a doctor, or any of these things. What he's saying is, if you are a monk, what is your first and foremost duty?

To attain Nibbana. Anything that takes you away from that, and you get yourself involved in all of that, that's wrong livelihood for a monk. And if the Buddha had said that being a doctor is wrong livelihood, then why did he himself have his own personal physician? Jivaka. Jivaka? No, no. No, Jivaka was a layperson who was a doctor. He was a doctor for all of the different kings of the kingdom there. Of that place there. And he was also the Buddha's personal physician.

Exactly. So then he didn't have wrong livelihood as a layperson. So my point here is, there's nothing wrong with being a doctor if you're a layperson. But as a monk, your foremost duty is to attain Nibbana. Right? So anything that detracts you from that. Yeah, so they don't do anything. That's the best. Don't do anything. Well, yes, they were taking care of the monastery. They were tending to the sick, right? Like Sariputta would tend to anybody who was sick, make sure people were fed and things like that. Well, I wouldn't say that. But remember, when Sariputta was taking care of the sick, he was just helping them make sure that they were getting enough medicines and requisites and everything else.

He himself was not necessarily trying to heal them. He was just administering medicine if they needed medication and things like that. As you would do from one fellow human to another. That's it. But I'm saying in terms of a job, in terms of a career. Arahats are like jobless. You know? No career. There's no career path in becoming an Arahat. You know? But I see what you're saying, but I hope you understand what I'm saying here. No, no, I understand. Yeah.

So what you're saying here is that our career path is to retire at Arahat. That's right. That's right. What a great retirement, right? They're all about the blame, whether it's I've seen monks in cars, you know, all kinds of stuff. And as a layperson, it's not our place to be like, hey, are you following the Vinaya? But at the same time, at the same time, they're wearing the banner of the Arahat. That is true. They are in the robes. They have to behave a certain way. I think in the modern world, it is difficult.

for someone not to carry money in the form of a credit card or a debit card or something like that, but for that you would have to talk to somebody who is a Vinaya expert. You know, how does that, how can somebody be a monk and still travel the world or travel around without money? Venmo who said that? You can be a hobo, that's right. When you become a monk, you're basically in the life of a homeless person, right? That's the life into homelessness.

You're wandering from place to place. What does it say? Your life is dependent on others. Well, no, not begging. Standing there and whoever is generous will provide and offer alms. That's interesting. Right. Yeah. That's interesting, yeah. That's very interesting. But, yeah. I don't know what to tell you about that, you know. Yeah. I think what I would say would be that if it's a higher ordination monk or a nun, they shouldn't be doing that. They should have their copy of it. That's what the samanera is for. She would pay for the meal to get the requisite. She's alone in her, there's no samanera. About Sophia. Maybe Sophia can help. Two and a half hours away?

Yeah. Well, maybe she should go to a monastery to get a fork. People will go out on their own. Everybody shouldn't be doing that. They need to stay with who ordained them within a monastery. Yeah. So let's come back to the sutta. All right, so we spoke about the right livelihood that is noble, taintless, super mundane, a factor of the path. The desisting from wrong livelihood. This is right livelihood that is noble, a factor of the path.

One makes an effort to abandon wrong livelihood and to enter upon right livelihood. This is one's right effort. You recognize whether what I'm doing is right or wrong. And you make the decision, if it's wrong, to deviate to the right. That's your effort. You're mindful of these options. You're mindful of how your mind goes and inclines towards the wrong and goes from that towards the right. This is right mindfulness.

The arahat possesses ten factors. So that is the eightfold path. The right view leads to right intention. Once you have the right view, your intention gets straight. Once you have the right intention, your speech and your actions remain wholesome. Because of that, you also have right livelihood. And when all these three are taken care of, you have right effort. You're able to progress in the practice by utilizing the six R's. And that results in you having right mindfulness, the ability to recognize and observe and remember to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other.

And then from there, with that all in place, your mind becomes collected, with the unification of mind, and starts to enter upon the first jhana, the second jhana, the third jhana, the fourth jhana. And then from the fourth jhana, experience infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, neither perception nor non-perception, and then ultimately let go of all perceptions and experience the cessation of perception, feeling, and consciousness. Out of that, it experiences stream entry.

And once it does that, then you rinse and repeat. And you keep doing that until you experience arahatship. And at arahatship, there are these two path factors that are unlocked. Right knowledge and right deliverance. Right knowledge is samma nana. Right knowledge, right wisdom, right intention. And right deliverance is samma vimutti, right liberation. So what is the knowledge that the arahat possesses?

The knowledge of the mind being liberated. Whenever you hear the arahat saying, birth is destroyed, there is no more coming to be. What had to be done has been done. That is the knowledge that the taints have been destroyed. And as a result of which one experiences right liberation. Has experienced Nibbana. Has experienced, more importantly, has experienced a mind that is now free of any suffering. Vimutti. Liberation.

Which means that mind has escaped from the clutches of rebirth. Escaped from the cycle of samsara. That's right. A mind without craving. Thank you. There you go. You get some of my royalties now. That's right. You see, all we've talked about so far is the path to Nibbana, which results in a mind without craving. That's right. That's right, Venerable Sir.

In one of right knowledge, wrong knowledge is abolished. In one of right deliverance, wrong deliverance is abolished. And the many evil unwholesome states that originate with the wrong path factors as condition are also abolished. And the many wholesome states that originate with the right path factors as condition come to fulfillment by development. Thus, because there are 20 factors on the side of the wholesome and 20 factors on the side of the unwholesome, this Dhamma discourse on the great 40 has been set rolling and cannot be stopped by any recluse or Brahmin or God or Mara or Brahma or anyone in the world. Because if any recluse or Brahmin thinks that this Dhamma discourse on the great 40 should be censured and rejected, then there are ten legitimate deductions from this assertion that would provide grounds for censuring him here and now.

If that worthy one censures right view, then he would honor and praise those recluses who are of wrong view. If that worthy one censures right intention, then he would honor and praise those recluses and Brahmins who are of wrong intention. If that one censures right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right knowledge, right deliverance, then he would honor and praise those recluses and Brahmins who are of these wrong path factors. If any recluse or Brahmin thinks that this Dhamma discourse on the great 40 should be censured and rejected, then these are ten legitimate deductions from these assertions that would provide grounds for censuring him here and now.

Because even those teachers from Ukkala, Vassa, and Bhanna, I don't know any of these teachers, who held the doctrine of non-causality, the doctrine of non-doing, and the doctrine of nihilism, discourse of the great 40 should be censured and rejected. Why is that? For fear of blame, attack, and confutation. That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. May all beings shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.