Mar 30 2025 Sunday Sutta Study "All the Taints" MN 2-Delson Armstrong

How are you seeing this? Is this okay? Oh yeah, that's perfect. All right, so let me get started then. All righty, let's go. Delson Armstrong, thank you. So here we are with another sutta reading. We've been thinking about which reading to do, and we have a few in the list, but I figured this is one that we haven't touched in some time, and really it's the entire path, and it talks about the taints. You know, the asavas, which is essentially what we're trying to do: excuse me, destroy the asavas. So, this is Majjhima Nikaya 2, Sabbasava Sutta, All the Taints. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park.

There he addressed the monks thus: Bhikkhus, I shall teach you a discourse on the restraint of all the taints. Listen and attend closely to what I shall say. Yes, venerable sir, the bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this. Give me one second, I want to make sure I don't get that sound when people come in. Okay, oh yeah, I was gonna do that. That's okay. So he says: because I say that the destruction of the taints is for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and see. Who knows and sees what? Wise attention and unwise attention. When one attends unwisely, unarisen taints here, it's fermentation, that's one particular translation, arise, and arisen taints increase. "When one attends wisely, unarisen taints do not..."

So what do we mean by wise attention? This is from the translation of the word yoniso manasikara. This is such an important word, because this is really the tool that we're using in order to understand what is arising in our mind and what is passing away. Yoniso, yoniso means the source of something. It literally means the womb. So we're looking at what is the origin of whatever has arisen in this moment. Manasikara: mana means heart, it's the heart mind, it's the mind itself, and kara is to do. So it's to take something to heart. And what are we taking to heart? We are seeing how something arises. When we are not attending in this way, then the mind remains scattered. When the mind is scattered, it goes in different directions and gets caught up in all kinds of thoughts, ideas, concepts. This is what's known as mental proliferation. So yoniso manasikara, wise attention, excuse me, is important for us to keep at bay

craving, and when craving does arise, when we have our attention back in yoniso manasikara. So ayoniso means unwise, yoniso is wise. When we have our attention now geared towards how this has arisen, using the four noble truths, when we attend wisely to the four noble truths, then we are understanding what is the arising of something, what is its origin, how do we let it go, and what is its cessation. So in other words, when there is craving, craving is the first noble truth. In this instance, the second noble truth would be the origin of that craving, which is feeling, and in particular undue attention to a painful feeling or a pleasurable feeling, a pleasant feeling, that gives rise to that craving.

The cessation of that undue attention to the pleasurable feeling or the painful feeling is the cessation of that craving. And how do you cease that? Using the eightfold path. The heart of the eightfold path is right effort, and right effort is essentially the 6R's. So when we have our wise attention, we are able to use the four noble truths and see them in every moment. When our mind is scattered, then we are unable to see them, and therefore suffering arises through craving, clinging, being, and so on. There are seven ways to remove the taints: to be abandoned by seeing, those to be abandoned by

restraining, those to be abandoned by using, those to be abandoned by enduring, those to be abandoned by avoiding, those to be abandoned by removing, and those to be abandoned by developing. So what are the things to be abandoned by seeing? What taints should be abandoned by seeing here? Because an untaught ordinary person, that is what is known in Pali as a puthujjana, somebody who doesn't know the Dhamma, who is your average run-of-the-mill person who hasn't been acquainted with the Dhamma, who has no regard for noble ones, and is unskilled and undisciplined in their Dhamma, there you go, who has no regard for true men and is unskilled and undisciplined in their Dhamma, does not understand what things are fit for attention and what things are unfit for attention. Thus he attends to those things unfit for attention, and he does not attend to those things fit for attention.

What are the things unfit for attention that he attends to? There are things for which, when he attends to them, the unarisen taint of sensual desire arises and increases in him. The unarisen taint of being arises and increases in him. The unarisen taint of ignorance arises and increases in him. These are the things unfit for attention that he attends to. What are the things fit for attention that he does not attend to?

They are things for which, when he attends to them, the unarisen taint of sensual desire does not arise in him, and the arisen taint of sensual desire is abandoned. The unarisen taint of being does not arise in him, and the arisen taint of being is abandoned. The unarisen taint of ignorance does not arise in him, and the arisen taint of ignorance is abandoned. These are the things fit for attention that he does not attend to. Attending to things unfit for attention, and by not attending to things fit for attention, both honors and taints arise in him, and herisentates increase. So let's understand what these three things are. The word asava really means, literally, to float. Whether it's to flow out or float in, it means there is a stream, and these are movements that happen even before we are aware of them. It's understood that the entire mechanism of samsara, if we were to see it as the wheel of samsara, and there are gears within it, and each of these different gears are the different links of dependent origination.

The main crux of that entire wheel are these three things. I call them asavas, or I call them, I should say, viruses, because they infect the mind. When you have a mental virus, what happens? It increases, because of lack of proper attention. So the taint of sensual desire is like a potential. It is the ground beneath the links of dependent origination. It is the starting point, it is actually the origin, and reason, for ignorance to arise as a link. This is what Sariputta says in Majjhima Nikaya, Sammaditthi Sutta, the Right View Sutta, and he says these three taints give rise to ignorance, but ignorance as a link then gives rise to these three taints. What do we mean by that? Ignorance, for all practical purposes, is the lack of mindfulness. The lack of mindfulness of the four noble truths in every moment. When we don't have this, then sensual desire can arise.

The desire for being can arise, and ignorance can arise. Sensual desire is essentially the desire to capture and hold on to an experience that is, to the senses, pleasurable. Being, or the desire for being, the desire for existence, whether it's form existence or formless existence, is a desire to hold on to the specific jhana that you might be in, or the desire to want to get to the next jhana, instead of just paying attention to what's going on in every given moment. And then the taint of ignorance, as we understand it, is the actual inability to see the four noble truths in every moment. This is how we attend, excuse me, this is how he attends unwisely and inappropriately.

Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what did I become in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I become in the future? He is also inwardly perplexed about the present: Thus am I, am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where will it go? So all of these questions that come up once in a while in the mind are due to an intrinsic clinging to the notion of self. Oftentimes I will get this question, especially in retreats, when we get deeper into dependent origination and karma: which is, so then what is that self that arises? Is it something? Who is it that is experiencing it? Who is it that's seeing the links of dependent origination? And this arises because there is an ingrained, deeply ingrained, idea of a self in the mind. It happens the moment

that we are born. It happens even before we come out from the womb. It happens in the womb, where the world that we see or experience is being created, and there's a duality of me and the world outside. For a time being, for about nine or ten months depending on which calendar you use, the being is seeing itself as this, in relation to everything else. And then when it comes into this world as the newborn infant, there is a separation from the mother, and there is anxiety, and there is all this grief, and there is this newness to everything. What is going on here? And the sense of self, the conceit that arises, that's the ingrained idea: who am I, what is going on, who is this, who is that? All of these questions arise from that conceit, and when we attend to those questions, we're not going to get a satisfactory answer. We're just going to get different kinds of theories. If you read

one, which is the Brahmajala Sutta, there it talks about all the different kinds of views that arise, many, many different kinds of views about the world and the self, and the self in relation to the world, and so on. And then he says: when he attends unwisely in this way, one of six confused and deluded views arises in him, perceived by him as true and established. The view of self exists for me. The view of no self exists for me. The view: I perceive self with self. The view: I perceive not-self with self. The view: I perceive self with not-self. The view: it is this self of mine that speaks and feels and experiences here and there the result of good and bad actions, but this self of mine is permanent, eternal, and not subject to change. So these are different kinds of self-view that can arise in a person.

And even if you have the experience of anatta, there is a framework of "I'm experiencing anatta," or "not self," or "I am perceiving it as anatta." So who is that I? Is it the self? Is it not self? And so on. When you're deeply in that experience, all these views or ideas go away. And what are these views and ideas? They're essentially thoughts that are reactive to the experience. So if there's anything we need to do in terms of practice, it is to just remain with the experience as it actually is. Any thoughts that come as a reaction to the experience should be discarded, because that is the seed from which taints will arise, namely ditthasava, which is called the taint of views. It's not mentioned here in the sutta, but sometimes it's known as the fourth asava, the asava of views, or wrong views.

this speculative view because is called the thicket of views the wilderness of views the contortion of views the vacillation of views the fetter of views fettered by the fetter of views the untaught ordinary person is not freed from birth aging death from sorrow lamentation pain grief and despair he is not freed from suffering because a well-taught noble disciple who has regard for noble ones and is skilled and disciplined in their dhamma who has regard regard for true men and is skilled and disciplined in their dhamma understands what things are fit for attention and what things are unfit for attention thus he does not attend to the things unfit for attention and he attends to those things fit for attention what are the things unfit for attention that he does not attend to there are the things such that when he attends to them the honor isn't taint of sensual desire arises in him the and so on and so for.

no adding a personal self to the experience. It is just the experience. And when something arises, one understands: with the arising of this, there is the arising of that; with the cessation of this, there is the cessation of that. These two lines, which have been basically compacted, is what awakened Sariputta. It is what brought Sariputta to stream entry, and Moggallana as well. And so when he attends wisely in this way, the three fetters are abandoned in him: personality view, doubt, and adherence to rules and observances. Three fetters. So stream entry is gained. These are called the taints that should be abandoned by seeing. Taints to be abandoned by restraining. What taints, bhikkhus, should be abandoned by restraining?

These are the six senses, six sense basins. Here, bhikkhu, reflecting wisely, sorry, here, a bhikkhu, reflecting wisely, abides with the eye faculty restrained. While taints, vexation, and fever might arise in one who abides with the eye faculty unrestrained, there are taints, vexation, or fever in one who abides with the eye faculty restrained. What does restrained mean? You know, the words restrained comes from the Pali word samvara. And generally, people will take that to mean I have to hold on to the experience. I have to hold on. I have to be very cautious and careful of the eye and the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. But when we talk about restraint, what we're talking about is essentially having mindfulness.

Just being aware of what is arising in each moment. You need mindfulness, energy, and collectedness. This is what you need. What do we mean by mindfulness? Sati sampajana, the ability to remember, to observe how our mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. So if I'm looking at someone, if my eye faculty is restrained, that means I am fully in the present and looking at them. I'm fully in the present and listening to what they have to say. As soon as my mind wanders, my mindfulness is there as the gatekeeper to notice that and bring back my attention to the present moment and whatever is going on. That bringing back to the present moment, bringing back to what is going on in that moment, is the effort. It is the energy.

This is the 6R's. And collectedness. So as I keep doing this, my mind becomes naturally collected, naturally anchored to whatever activity I'm doing. This is best exemplified in the experience of meditation. When I am meditating, ideally, my mind remains on the object all the time, but that might not happen. There might be a distraction that arises, and because I have lack of mindfulness in that moment, which means my mind faculty is not restrained using this context, it will go somewhere. It will follow that distraction. But as soon as I recognize that I'm distracted, I release my attention from that, relax the tension, come back to the re-smile, come back to the object.

So using this, my mind becomes recollected onto the object. This is what we mean by restraint. And as we do this, we are whittling away, grinding away the taint of sensual desire, the taint of desire for being, and the taint of ignorance itself, because we are re-strengthening that muscle of mindfulness, because ignorance is lack of mindfulness. But to be aware and to have knowledge and wisdom means mindfulness is present. Taints to be abandoned by using. What taints, bhikkhus, should be abandoned by using? We're talking about the four requisites. Here, a bhikkhu, reflecting wisely, uses the robe only for protection from cold, from heat, from contact with flies, mosquitoes, wind, the sun, and creeping things, and only for the purpose of concealing the private parts.

Reflecting wisely, he uses alms food neither for amusement, nor for intoxication, nor for the sake of physical beauty, but only for the endurance and continuance of the body, to survive, for ending discomfort, and for assisting the holy life, considering: I shall terminate the old feelings of hunger without arising new feelings of overeating, and I shall be healthy and blameless and shall live in comfort. Reflecting wisely, he uses the lodging only for protection from cold, from heat, from contact with flies, mosquitoes, wind, the sun, and creeping things, and only for the purpose of warding off the perils of climate and for enjoying retreat.

Reflecting wisely, he uses the medicine only for protection from arisen afflicting feelings and for the benefit of good health, to cure illnesses. Now, I often joke there is a fifth requisite in today's modern world, and that is Wi-Fi. Everybody needs Wi-Fi, right? So we must be able to use Wi-Fi in a way that doesn't cause us to create the taste that gives rise to the taste. But this is essentially instruction on how to mindfully use our resources. For the bhikkhus, it's the four requisites, because that is what they have. The monks or the nuns are dependent upon others, namely lay people, to provide for them: to provide shelter, to provide alms food, to provide robes, to provide medicines when they're sick, and so on.

And so one doesn't hoard up things. They just use it when it is required. And they use it mindfully, they use it skillfully, they don't waste things. They use it for the purpose of satisfying the body: if it's hungry, keeping the body warm when it's cold, keeping it away from the heat when it's too hot, to be in comfortable lodging, so that one can actually be on retreat. And here, when we are on retreat, like at Dhamasuka, those things are already present for you. You don't have to think about your food. Your food is prepared for you. You just go stand in line, take your food, and eat, and then you're done. Your clothes, that's something you pack. Your lodging is taken care of. The cabins that you stay in, they have air conditioning when it's hot, they have heating when it's cold, so it's comfortable enough for you to rest in. Then you have the big Dhamma hall, in which you have Dhamma talks and meditation.

And if somebody happens to be sick, they have medication for that. They have medicines for that, over-the-counter medicines, whatever is required. So when we're on retreat, we are using these things mindfully, and when we do this, we don't identify with that. We don't identify it with the food, with the clothing, with the lodging, with whatever it is. My cabin is not bigger than the other person's cabin, right? That cabin is not bigger than this cabin. I'm just satisfied with what I have. That is what we're talking about. While taints, vexation, and fever might arise in one who does not use the requisites mindfully, there are no taints, vexation, or fever in one who uses them mindfully. These are called the taints that should be abandoned by using. So what do we mean by taints, vexation, and fever? Taints, we understand, which is the asava. Vexation here is a mind that is restless, moving all the time.

Fever is the mind that is holding on to a sensual experience, attracted to it and not wanting to let go of it. So these might arise when we identify with these different requisites. Taints to be abandoned by enduring. What taints, bhikkhus, should be abandoned by enduring? Here, a bhikkhu, reflecting wisely, bears cold, heat, hunger and thirst, and contact with flies, mosquitoes, wind, the sun, and creeping things. He endures ill-spoken, unwelcome words and arisen bodily feelings that are painful, disagreeable, distressing, and menacing to life. While taints, vexation, and fever might arise in one who does not endure such things, there are no taints, vexation, or fever in one who endures them. These are called the taints that should be abandoned by enduring.

The word enduring here, it's almost as if we are being gung-gul about it: if something bites me, I'm just going to accept it and I'm not going to do anything about it. And all these, no, no, what it's talking about is the two darts. We have the two darts. The first dart is the actual pain that is experienced. So something bites me, I feel immediate pain. But the second dart is, oh, this is painful. I'm angry at the thing that bit me. I swatted away and I get flummoxed, I get flustered, I get upset, I get restless.

so what we're talking about is utilizing equanimity easier said than none when you're in very very difficult situations but we need to be able to use these difficult situations as anchor points and the more we do it our intuition arises and says we should stop relax equanimity maybe you're standing in line maybe you are at your gate at the airport and suddenly the flight is cancelled and you're looking forward to going wherever it is that you need to go or you need to go there to do some kind of business deal and then your mind is like oh darn it right as soon as you notice that it's like okay just relax let go equanimity from that equanimity now you can act in a way that is wise what do we mean by that in a way that is required for the situation appropriate for every given situation when you're hungry and you're waiting in line and you can't wait to get your food how do you feel there's the mind that is scattered soon as you notice that okay

relax, equanimity, and then you will get your food when you're ready to get it. It's basic. And then of course, ill-spoken, unwelcome words, that's the biggest one. People will say all kinds of things to you. They'll say all kinds of things about you. They will say all kinds of things that are untrue, or they will start to just basically reflect what is in them. This is the way to understand it: what we say is a reflection of our inner states.

If I'm feeling loving and kind, why would I want to inflict pain with my words on someone? But if I am feeling pain and I'm trying to cover that pain by inflicting pain on others, that is what it is. So the ill-spoken words, the unwelcome words that come in, are less to do with us and more to do as a reflection of the other person. If we can be aware of this as these words come in, number one, we can be aware that it's just sound, it's just coming by. As soon as our mind interprets and says, how dare they say that about me, or how dare they say that to me, don't they know who I am, this and that and the other, we recognize all of that and we let that go, we relax, and then we switch from me to the other person with compassion. This person is in pain, this person has an unmet need, this person is lashing out from their inner child that is throwing a tantrum. What can I do to bring solace to them? Maybe I should just stay silent, let them cool off, or maybe I

should carefully tread and say, okay, I understand what's going on, or I'm trying to understand what's going on, let's walk through this. Or even if you don't have to do that, you can just try to walk in their shoes, try to see it from their perspective. What is it that is the unmet need that they're required, and see if you can meet it. If you can't, just don't add fuel to the fire of the argument. Taints to be abandoned by avoiding: what taints should be abandoned by avoiding? Here, reflecting wisely, avoids a wild elephant, a wild horse, a wild bull, a wild dog.

Thankfully we don't have any of these at Damasaka, but we do have a snake, we do have stumps, we do have bramble patches. I don't think we have chasms or cliffs or assessment or a sewer, so that's good. If you see a snake once in a while, it's not going to do anything to you. Very rarely is it going to come at you. I had a situation where I was walking down to my cabin and I saw this little baby cotton mouth, it was a cotton, and its little head went like that, and I immediately saw it, and so I could have just run away or backed away and it would have bit me, but I just stayed there and it just retreated. So these snakes or these other beings that are there, animals, they're more afraid of us than we are afraid of them.

So if we send them loving kindness, if we send equanimity when we experience that, you seldom will experience that in any city. It's very rare for you to see a snake in any city. But I will tell you this: when I was in Mumbai in 2008, I was sitting by a place called Worli Sea Face. That time it was very different. I was sitting there and it was low tide, and behind me was the cityscape, it was like a proper city. There was no forest, there was nothing there. But all of a sudden I saw from the corner of my eye two slithering things. It was a cobra and its baby, and I was wearing sandals at the time, my feet were on the ground, and it just

slithered past my feet like this. If I had just done like that, they would have reacted and that would have been the end of me. And there were other people starting to gather because they were like, there is no way there's a cobra in the middle of Mumbai, but here you have it. So if you do see a cobra in the middle of New York City, know what you need to do, or incendiary or wherever else, just stay calm, just relax. Anyway, reflecting wisely, he avoids sitting on unsuitable seats, wandering to unsuitable resorts, and associating with bad friends. So this is specifically for bhikkhus, but I think in general for everyone. Unsuitable seats means essentially a bhikkhu who is sitting

unattended or alone with a female, with a woman. So that's not something a bhikkhu should be doing, or vice versa, a nun should be sitting unattended with a layman or a man in general. So that's what they're talking about. Wandering to unsuitable resorts, so going to your local dive bar or going to a gambling den or whatever it is, you don't want to be going there. There's no use in going to these places. And of course, associating with bad friends. Bad friends are those who influence you to break one or more of the precepts, and good friends are those who talk you out of those things, who motivate you to meditate. Here we are in good company in this group. Everybody wants to sit together and meditate from wherever they are, and that's good company. That is the holy life, as the Buddha says, because if he were to do that with the wise companions in the holy life

If he were to do that, the wise companions in the holy life might suspect him of evil conduct. So that's the idea. While taints, vexation and fever might arise in one who does not avoid these things, there are no taints, vexation and fever in one who avoids them. These are called the taints that should be abandoned by avoiding. Taints to be abandoned by removing. What taints bhikkhus should be abandoned by removing?

We let go of this by developing compassion. And finally, taints to be abandoned by developing. What taints bhikkhus should be abandoned by developing? Here a bhikkhu, reflecting wisely, develops the mindfulness enlightenment factor, which is supported by seclusion, dispassion and cessation and ripens in relinquishment. Supported by seclusion, the mind remains in a meditative state. Dispassion, the mind doesn't go here or there. Cessation lets go of all unwholesome states. Total cessation of that ripens in relinquishment, the total dropping of the tapes. He develops the investigation of states enlightenment factor, energy enlightenment factor, rapture enlightenment factor, tranquility enlightenment factor, collectedness enlightenment factor, and equanimity enlightenment factor. So these are the things that we utilize, especially as we get into the seventh, eighth jhana and so on, where we use them to balance. If the mind is getting too dull, then we use the enlightenment factor of joy, the enlightenment factor of energy, and become more focused. If there is too much restlessness, there's too much activity and restlessness, then we have the enlightenment factor of equanimity and tranquility. And every time we do the 6R's we are actually rekindling or re-developing these enlightenment factors.

And they come into mind when they're not present. The mind is no longer in a collected state, therefore not in a jhanic state, and when it's not in a jhanic state it goes here and there. But as soon as we six are then our mind recollects onto the object, and thereby we have also redeveloped the enlightenment factors in that process. Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu has abandoned the taints that should be abandoned by seeing, by restraining, by using, by enduring, by avoiding, by removing, by developing, then he is a bhikkhu who dwells restrained with the restraint of all the taints he has severed.

craving fixing off the fetters and with the complete penetration of conceit the insight into the nature of conceit, which means we understand what conceit actually is, he has made an end of suffering, and so one becomes fully awakened. That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Any questions? I've got one real quick. Oh, okay, go ahead, Corey. Um, have any of you taken the text of these and then just done a text replace on them? I'm having a hard time with the word restraint. I've already forgotten your translation of it, that actually works better. It's the six R's, though, right? Yes. I'll just have to practice that. Thank you.

David, did you have a comment? You said yeah. I was just going to comment. I re-read this sutta a while back. Actually, we did a little sutta study session, and I was, you know, Bhante gives this sutta a lot, and he really concentrates on six hours' meditation because we're on a meditation retreat. But there's a whole bunch of other things that we should be restraining, you know: social media, Facebook, and all these things. Here's the restraint. So it comes up to us and gives us some, you know, bad speech. We're enduring this, we let it be there. There's so many ways that we can look at this sutta in our daily life and really use it. So I would suggest everybody take a look at that and see how you can put all these things into your daily life, because there's lots of opportunities to let go of these distractions. Distractions are physical distractions, you know, and whatever else. So, quick comment. Looks like Bill Woods raised his hand.

Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, yes. Um, could you talk about what he meant by investigation of states? Yes. So, you know, I generally don't like to use the word investigation, because many times people are like, okay, I have to investigate into the nature of this experience, which means I have to see the three characteristics over and over and over. I have to see all its impermanence and permanence, it's this and that, and it's rising and passing away. But really it is a process of just pure understanding of what is happening in the moment without trying to make it happen. So when we talk about mindfulness, for example, we have mindfulness which leads to investigation of states. I use the word discernment or understanding, which leads to, you know, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and then equanimity. So when we say discernment, what are we saying? We are just aware of what states are present in the mind. That's it. We're just like, you know, it's like when you are

um, driving or flying. You're in the driver's seat or you're in the cockpit, and you're visually seeing what's going on, and you're on the road, everything's on track. But once in a while you glance: okay, am I good with my speed? Am I going too fast? Am I going too slow? That's the investigation. Like, what states are present in this mind? We don't have to do it all the time. But if there are states that are unwholesome, they will be aware. I mean, they will be made aware, because they will feel a certain way. There will be tightness, there will be tension. Is there tightness and tension? Okay, what is the cause? The cause of this tightness, intention? It's because I'm trying too hard, or it's because I'm thinking about something in particular and I'm getting obsessed about it, whatever it is. But they will present themselves to you. You don't have to go deeper than that. You can just be aware, and the discernment is: here's a wholesome state and here's an unwholesome state. That's it. Then you use energy, which is right

effort. If you discern there's an unwholesome state, to let go of that, that energy or effort, the right effort, is the six R's. - Thank you. - Anything else from people? John, John. - Hi, what's the relationship between the three underlying tendencies and taints? A lot of the same language tends to get used, and so it's not clear to me whether that's a hierarchy or if they're co-equal, or maybe that's not the right question. - So I think you're referring to the roots of greed, hatred and delusion, right? - Yes. - So before any of this mechanism of the links of dependent origination arises, we have the taints. As I said, they're viruses, they are imprints into the mind, before we even do anything with it. And they give rise to the ignorance, which is we are immediately blank, mindfulness, and because of that the formations that arise will be rooted in these roots of greed, hatred and delusion.

So when we are acting from there, if we have a sensual craving and we grab onto it, the energy of that feeds back into the next arising of dependent origination, primarily before it arises through the taint of sensual desire. If we have a craving for a specific kind of existence, that is, I want to be in this jhana, I want to be in the arupa jhana, or I don't like being in this particular state, then that energy will give rise to the next arising of the desire for being as the taint.

And every time we have lack of mindfulness of an experience as just being the experience, and we hold on to it with me, mine, or myself, that feeds back in the next arising to the taint of ignorance, and round the merry-go-round we go when we do this. So the idea here is, every time we have mindfulness and we're able to let go of the desire for the sensual craving, or the desire to hold on to a sensual object, or the desire to hold on to a specific state, or the inability to recognize what is arising or passing away, then when we have mindfulness and that mindfulness arises, it is the gatekeeper. It acts as a filter, from where the mind is incapable of allowing craving to arise.

And then when we do that, when the next arising of dependent origination arises, there is a weaker arising of greed, hatred and delusion, because there is a weaker arising of the taint of sensual desire, the taint of being, and the taint of ignorance. So, and this is completely an academic kind of thing, the fact that there's a taint related to ignorance and there's an underlying tendency related to ignorance. I'm just trying to build a picture in my head of, like, what flows from what? What function does... I get the notion of viruses. That's a very clear, that's a really good metaphor. If the taints or viruses are underlying tendencies, molecules, I mean, what's the next metaphor that would help me understand

relationship between those things? I had a participant a couple of years ago who came to retreat in Dhammasuka. He's a very good meditator. He was explaining it in this way. When he was able to see the links of dependent origination as an experience, he saw these wheels. And within these wheels he saw dendrites, and it was like these red, green and black dendrites. That was how his mind was interpreting them, and these dendrites, red, black and green, were representative of the dates. But as they grow, as they get deeper, then what happens is it plants a seed, and those seeds are greed, hatred and delusion, and from those seeds sprout the cravings, sprout the aversion, sprout the other, you know,

experiences. Okay. Yeah, last week I'd asked you about the underlying tendencies, and you had said that the underlying tendencies are the seed, but by the time that something flowers, dependent origination becomes the flower. So in this context, the taints are the things that sort of form the seeds, and then the seeds can, may go on to form craving. Craving is a link into penetration, versus, you know, greed and desire at the level of underlying tendencies. So virus, seed, flower kind of thing, is that accurate? Okay, awesome. Yes, that's a good way of looking at it. All right, thank you. Anything else from anybody? Coming up on 10 o'clock. Yeah, I think we can stop here if there's nothing else.

All right, we can share some merit. Then may suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck fearless. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired, for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu. Okay, all right. Thank you, I'll see you guys later. All right. Thank you all, have a great one. Thank you.