Day 4 -2022 10 Day June Retreat - MN 131 'A Single Excellent Night'

Okay, so today we're going to be reading from Majjhima Nikaya 131. It's the Bhaddekaratta Sutta, A Single Excellent Night. 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 bhikkhus thus. Bhikkhus. Venerable sir, they replied. The Blessed One said this. Yes, venerable sir, the bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this.

I had such perception in the past. I had such formations in the past. I had such consciousness in the past. That is how one revives the past. So here the Buddha is talking about the three time zones, right? The past, the present, and the future. A lot of times you'll hear people talk about meditation being about the present moment. Meditation about staying mindful of the present moment.

And that the mind feels a lot of joy and happiness while being in the present moment. But as we'll see, that's not always the case. Being in the present moment is one thing, but being in the present moment with wisdom is another. And a lot of people say that there's something wrong with being nostalgic about the past or thinking about the past rather.

Or there's something wrong about thinking about the future. And that anytime you're in the past or anytime you're in the future, that somehow is ineffective. That is somehow wrong. But technically, you are in the present moment while you're thinking about the past. You are in the present moment when you're thinking about the future. It's not like you're actually going there to the past or going there to the future. So what is the Buddha talking about when he says this? He says, the future has not been reached.

Now, anyone who reads this or listens to this thinks that, okay, what the Buddha is saying is that, let me not think about the past. Let me not go back to past memories. Let me not go back to thinking about what I did and what was done or what they said and so on. And then when the Buddha talks about the future, a person might think, okay, let me not be anxious about the future. Let me not think about what I have to do in the future.

And then he says, instead, with insight, let him see each presently arisen state. So a person might think, okay, that means that I have to be in the present moment and use insight. Here, insight is talking about wisdom, a very important word in the Dhamma. Wisdom refers to dependent origination. So dependent origination is something we'll explore in a little bit in the next few days. But just understand that when he talks about insight, he's not talking about focusing on the present and seeing it as impermanent, seeing it in this way, seeing the arising and passing away of states. You could do that all you want, but no insight would arise.

So there's nothing wrong with thinking about a memory. Memory is not the enemy here. In fact, it is through memory that you have perception. It's through memory that you can recognize what is good or what is wholesome. You can recognize what is bad or unwholesome, and so on. So the imperative word here, the operative word here, is one who nurtures delight there.

A thought about the past might come up when you're in the meditation. How do you deal with that thought? Do you see that thought and say, oh, you know, that was a great time that we had. I wish we could relive that again. That's the craving there. The memory itself is the memory. It's the craving, it's the aversion, it's the identification with that memory.

Many people will say, you have to let go of all memories. But here the Buddha is talking about delighting, which is another word for craving, another word for taking something personal. So when you remember something, it arose, why? Because of causes and conditions. There was contact in the mind about something. A thought arose and that led to another thought. That led to another thought. That led to a thought about something you did in the past. Or that led to a thought about something someone said in the past. Or just a wholesome memory. Aren't you doing the same thing when you bring up loving kindness in the practice?

Don't you bring up a wholesome memory? But there's no craving for that wholesome memory. There's no identification there. You're bringing up the wholesome memory as a way of feeling the loving kindness, and then what do you do? You let go of the wholesome memory and you stay with the loving kindness. But if you get caught up in the wholesome memory, if you get caught up in the details of that by feeling nostalgia for it or feeling some kind of craving for it, then you're not doing the practice. So the understanding here is not about staying in the present moment, because you can have craving in the present moment as well. It's about knowing and understanding whatever it is that you're seeing, whether it's about the past or whether it's about the future or whether it's about the present.

It's all dependently arisen. It arises because of certain causes and conditions. So the idea that you think about your former self in the form of a body. Maybe you were better looking in the past and you think about that and you realize, oh, I was so beautiful or I was so handsome in the past. I wish I could still be that way.

Right? That I wish I could still be that way. In other words, I had such a material form in the past and I wish I was still like that. That arises because you take this body to be self. Or you take this body to be related to self in one way or the other. When it comes to feeling, when a feeling arises, that is to say, a vedana, that's a sensation, that could be an experience, any kind of experience that's felt.

And you think about an experience. Maybe it was a wholesome memory of some vacation you had, or you think about that, you feel happy. That's fine. But then the mind says, I wish we could go there again. I wish we could relive that memory. I wish we could recapture that moment. A lot of people are tied up in the idea that those were the good old days, that was the best time of my life, I wish I had that again. Fine, maybe it was the best time of your life, but it arose because of certain causes and conditions. If you take that personally and say, I want to revisit that, that's the craving that you have to let go of. Likewise, in another sense, when you had a terrible memory, what happens? You have a terrible memory of a terrible experience that already arose, and if you continue to relive that memory, what's going on? If you continue to hold on to that memory, somebody said something terrible to you, somebody said something unkind to you, you're only torturing yourself by continuing to think about that.

And you think, I should have said this, or they shouldn't have said this, or if only I had done it differently. That aversion that arises is because there's identification with that experience. You take that feeling to be self, or you take that feeling in relation to some kind of self. Likewise with any kind of perception. You look at what is perception.

Perception, as I said, is rooted in memory itself. There is a perception that recognizes what is arising. Just as feeling is an experience, perception is that which labels the experience. Here is a tunic. And it is the color blue. How do you know that it's a tunic? How do you know it's the color blue? Because you've seen the tunic before. So you recognize it. You recognize that it's a tunic. You've seen the color blue before. You've learned what that color is. So you're recognizing it.

So as little kids, when they learn about colors and numbers, and seasons and all of these other things that we take for being basic understanding of the world around us, what are we doing? What are they doing? They're basically cognizing for the first time, oh, this is the color red. Oh, this is the color blue. This is the color amber. This is the color yellow. This is the color brown, and so on and so forth. This is what it means to be in wintertime. This is what it means to be in summertime, to be in autumn time. This is how you tell time. It's three o'clock when the shorthand is on three and the longhand is on twelve.

They learn all of these things for the first time. Little kids don't know how to tell time, but then eventually you show them, okay, this is how you read the clock. Once they learn that, once they cognize it, what happens? Now, every time they see it, they're recognizing. Every time they see it, they're recognizing what the time is. This is perception.

So perception is rooted in learning and memory. So when you're experiencing loving kindness for the first time, that's your cognition of loving kindness. That's your experience of loving kindness. Now you know how to bring up that loving kindness. Now you know what that loving kindness feels like when you experience compassion or joy or equanimity for the first time.

Now you know how it feels. So when you experience it again, you can recognize, oh, this is loving kindness. Oh, this is joy. Oh, this is compassion. Oh, this is equanimity. Which means you don't have to start over again in your meditation. You recognize what it is and you bring it up because you have the memory of what that feeling is and you can stay with it. Something, it's stored, or when you have a cognition of something, it's stored as memory, and then you're able to perceive what that thing is. You make a note of it, you label it, you see it for what it is in terms of different ideas and concepts.

So perceptions that are rooted in the past. In other words, I had such a perception in the past. I wish I had that same kind of perception again. I wish I could see things in this way again. Maybe you had an experience and you saw that in a very wonderful way. Then you learned a bitter truth about someone and that changed your perception.

Your perception of a person was one thing and then it changed based on some kind of information you got about them. And then you might think, I wish I hadn't known that about that person. Now I'm perceiving them differently. Perceive them in the same way I was perceiving them before. So this sense of I wish, whenever you find yourself or catch yourself thinking, I wish, that's the delight and the craving for the past.

Or I wish it didn't. Or I have regrets about this. I wish I had done it a different way. That's the aversion towards it, towards the past. What is the past? The past is just thoughts in your head, dependent upon previous experiences. The past is in your mind. The past does not exist. It only exists in so far as in your mind.

It exists as a reality in your mind. But the past is ever-changing, depending upon how you perceive it. Sometimes when you are in a happy mood and you think about a person, you think about them in a wonderful way. You think about them in a positive light. But when you get upset or irritated and you think about that person, you don't see them in the same way.

You might be irritated by that person or you might be irritated in general. And then when you think about that person or whatever it is, you have irritation towards that. Maybe you had not so good relationships with somebody in your family. So that experience brings about a recognition or a perception of that person in a certain way. So when you think about them, you bring up certain emotions. Way all the time, you've just labeled that person as being unwholesome, or you've just labeled that person as being negative. But sometimes you might be in a jovial mood, sometimes you will be in a happy mood, sometimes you will be uplifted, and when you think about that person, the shade of how you think about that person changes. You don't think about what they did or what they said. You think about all the happy things, happy times you've had with that person.

Or even if you think about that person and what they did, but you're in an uplifted mood, it shades the way that you perceive that experience. So this is the whole process of forgiveness, for example. When you're doing forgiveness practice, what happens? You bring up an experience, or rather an experience comes up, or a person comes up that you want to forgive, you should forgive.

But because you're ready to forgive, because you're ready to be in that state of calm clarity in the first jhana, and you're forgiving them, you're not thinking about all the things that they said and did in such a way that it irritates you. You're just saying, I forgive you for not understanding. I accept what happened and I'm letting it go.

That's happening because of the clarity of mind that you have in the meditation. That's happening because you're perceiving them through that lens of a meditative quality. So perceptions are fickle. They keep changing. So if you think about a person a certain way, think about an experience a certain way, and then you think, oh, I wish I kept thinking about it in that way, that's not going to help. That's the craving for it. That's the aversion for it. That's the identification for it. What about formations?

What are formations? Formations are related to your intentions, to your choices, to your inclinations. Maybe you intended something good to happen, but it didn't turn out great. So you think about, oh, I had that intention before. If that intention had continued and turned into something great, maybe you made a terrible choice, and you personalize that in the past and you think about it and say, I wish I had not made that choice. You have regrets because of that, and that arises again because you take your intentions, your choices, to be self. You relate it to a sense of self. You take it personally. But if you truly understood that all choices that arise, arise due to causes and conditions, then you understand, okay, those were the choices I made in the past, those were the choices that were available with the limited knowledge I had, and that's how I behaved, that's the inclination I had. Fine, whatever it was, good, bad, or indifferent, wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral. But if you take it personally, then you're going to have suffering, because you're going to delight for that, might not work out.

You're going to regret about it, and it's going to cause you suffering in the present. Consciousness. It says, I had such consciousness in the past. What is consciousness? Consciousness is the awareness of something. It's the cognizing of something. Maybe you saw something that was terrible for the first time. You heard something terrible. And you go back and you think, I wish I hadn't heard that.

And I wish I wasn't aware of that situation. I wish I wasn't aware of this experience. Or maybe it was a great experience and you were aware of it and you say, oh, I remember how that was and I wish it was the same. So nostalgia, in essence, is the craving. And regret there is the aversion. And then identifying with that is the neutral aspect of that.

So not to revive the past doesn't mean not to think about the past. Thoughts arise. They arise because of causes and conditions. You're not in control of your thoughts. There's no controller there. They arise because there was contact with an experience. It caused the mind to think this or that. You see a certain tree and you think about seeing that tree in your childhood. You eat some food and you think about when was the last time your mother made something like this. That in itself is not inherently the issue here. That's not inherently the cause of the suffering here. The cause of the suffering is seeing that and then taking it personally and wanting it.

Identifying with it. Or having aversion towards it. Other people, like I said, they will say that you should not think about the past. Or you should not dwell in the past. Dwelling in the past is another word for craving in the past. But thinking about the past, can you really control that? It just arises. How do you deal with it? Do you keep having nostalgia for it? Do you keep having regret about it? Identifying with it? Or do you see it for what it is? Just a memory. Just a rose. That's okay.

It might be a pleasant memory. It might be an unpleasant memory. It might be a neutral memory. In either case, in any case, you're seeing that memory for what it is. That it has dependently arisen, meaning it arose because of causes and conditions. And because it arose due to causes and conditions, it's impermanent. It's inherently impermanent. It arises and it passes away.

Therefore, holding on to it, clinging to it, can cause suffering, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. Therefore, it should be seen as impersonal. There's no control there. You didn't want to think about the past. You couldn't control that. It just arose. So it's impersonal. It's not me, not mine, not myself. Even though it seems like that memory, you know, lived that memory, or I was in that memory, or I experienced that memory, even though you have that sense now with the wisdom, you see it as having arisen because of causes and conditions. Both the memory and the memory in the past when it was experienced. Once you see it for what that is, that is impermanent, suffering, and not-self. Then you can let that go and not dwell on it, not let that affect the mind.

So what does that mean, building up hope upon the future? Sometimes the mind goes into planning mode, right? Inherently wrong with it, you need the planning mind to be able to understand what to do, where to go. You know, should I go here, should I do this, should I do that? You need that process of decision-making. So what is building up hope on the future? You're experiencing something in the present moment and you're thinking, I hope this doesn't go away. I hope this continues on in the future.

You're having a wonderful meditation. Everything is flowing great. No distractions. A thought arises, oh, this is great. Okay, good. Perception arises, okay, this is wonderful. But the next thought that arises is, I hope I don't lose this state. I hope I can continue being here. Continue is the hope built upon the future. That's one kind of hope. Another kind of hope, or let's say the polar opposite, is anxiety.

Something hasn't happened, but based on the experiences that you're having, based on a look you see of a person, based on the tone of voice of somebody, you think, oh, I hope they're not upset. I hope they don't shout at me. I hope they still like me. I hope they don't do this or that. So based on the present moment, you're thinking that they might do something in the future.

Or based on even the past, maybe they reacted a certain way because of something that you did or said. Now because of that something that you said or did, you're more cautious and you think, oh, if I see it this way, they might act in this way. How do you know that for a fact? How do you know that's true? You're only basing that upon your past experience.

So any kind of hope for the future is dependent upon, or any kind of anxiety, let's say, for the future, or based on the future, is dependent upon terrible experiences in the past. Or storing up some kind of memory about this particular present moment that might be unpleasant. If you do that, then you see everybody in a certain light, right? You see everybody in a certain way, that is, okay, this person is happy when I do this, this person is upset when I do this, or this person reacts in a certain way. So you start to build up characters about people in your mind. You start to build up characters about how they are and who they are, when they might not even be that.

Or sometimes you feel like you are a certain person based on how people react to you. You think, I'm like this because they always behave in this way for me. So I hope I don't do this. I don't become this in the future. So this is the desire for something, whether it's the desire to, you know, be a certain way in terms of your looks.

It's always good to be healthy, but if you get obsessed by it and say, I hope I live to 100. And if I want to live to 100, I should do all of these things. And you get obsessed by it, in terms of your material form, in terms of your health. Who knows, maybe tomorrow you might die. That's what the Buddha says, right?

So why build up all of these ideas in your head about the future? Do everything that you're doing in the present. Not because it has to be a certain way in the future, but because it feels good now. It's pleasant now. So don't build up hopes or don't build up anxieties. Don't build up expectations. If you've had an experience of Nibbana before, if you've had an experience of cessation before, now you know the territory of how to get there. So what happens?

You recognize this is the territory. Oh, we're going to have now, right? There's this idea, oh, and so that idea, what happens? That idea brings about expectation. That idea brings about waiting for something to happen. Waiting and expectation are another two terms for craving, two synonyms for craving. So you can recognize, okay, here's the territory, but as soon as something comes up and says, here it is, now I'm waiting for it. Now the mind is imbalanced. Now the mind has restlessness. Now the mind is no longer on its object. So what do you do when you see that? You recognize it. Release your attention from that. Relax the mind. Come back to the wholesome state of mind.

Stay with your object. So what about feelings? Same thing. This meditation is going great. I hope it continues this way. Not every meditation is going to be the same. There's never going to be the same meditation all the time. In every instance, every meditation will be different because of causes and conditions that are there. Yes, you'll still have the same experiences of jhana.

You still have the same experiences of the Brahma Viharas. They too might be different because you might have a deeper clarity into a certain jhana, deeper insight into a certain Brahma Vihara, a deeper experience. And what happens? Then you think, oh, that was very deep. I hope the next meditation goes the same way. So as soon as you have the hope for that, there's craving there. And then you try too hard to recreate that experience for yourself.

And in trying too hard to recreate that experience for yourself, there's craving, tightness, and tension. And you're nowhere near that experience anymore. So don't get attached to the experiences. Don't get tied to whatever is happening in your meditation. See it as a movie. Okay, here's what's going on. Okay, there's craving. 6R. Okay, here's loving kindness coming up. Okay, great. Just watch that.

Okay, the loving kindness has changed to compassion. Okay, don't hold on to the loving kindness. Let it go. Let it do what it's doing. Now the compassion has changed to joy. Or now there's this experience of infinite consciousness happening. Okay, fine. See it for what it is. It arose because the causes and conditions were right for it. The moment you try to hold on to it, you're not going to progress any further.

But if you see it and say, okay, this is what's happening, you're not noting anything, you're just aware. You're perceiving non-verbally that this is what's happening. But if you see that experience, if you have the experience of infinite space, if you have the experience of infinite consciousness, if you have the experience of nothingness, now you're looking for that, or it doesn't happen in the same way. Maybe the quality of the feeling of loving-kindness changes, and now you feel, oh, I've lost the feeling. But now it's gone into compassion, and you feel the compassion. You think, I hope I feel this again next time. Changes, or when you have the experience of infinite space, it's all very expansive, boundless space, but the next time you have it, it's not the same way, right? So your expectation of it's going to be the same way, may it always be like this, is what you have to let go of. Just see everything in the meditation, see everything in your reality in your experience as being dependently arisen.

Therefore impermanent, always arising and passing away. That which arises passes away. That which is dependently arisen will pass away when the causes and conditions go. Therefore, it's not worth holding on to. And if I hold on to this, there can be suffering. And if I identify with this, there can be suffering. Therefore, it's not me. It's not mine. It's not myself. What does that mean?

All of these things that we consider to be a self is arising because we identify with whatever it is. We'll go a little deeper and understand why do we talk about something as self or not self in a moment. And how bhikkhus does one not build up hope upon the future? Delight their thinking, "May I have such material form in the future?"

There's no craving for a certain kind of form. There's no craving for a certain kind of perception. There's no craving for a certain kind of intention. There's no craving for a certain kind of awareness. You're experiencing everything as it is when it arises. If it goes away, all right, it goes away. See everything in your experience, whether it's in your daily living or whether it's in the meditation, as being arising because of causes and conditions.

As soon as you hold on to a state and identify with it, whatever that state is, even if it's the highest state, like neither perception or non-perception, or quiet mind, or the signless collectedness of mind, or even if it's an attainment, that and say, okay, I've gotten there. I want more. There's a difference here. There's the chanda, which is wholesome inclinations, cultivated intention. The chanda is the rudder. You're inclining the mind away from the unwholesome to the wholesome.

You're inclining the mind away from suffering towards Nibbana. That's fine. You have the inclination. Now you let that go and continue doing it dependent upon that inclination. You don't have to hold on to the intention. You don't have to keep holding on to the inclination. The moment you start holding on to that, what's going to happen? You're going to get obsessed by that. And it's going to make it seem like, okay, it's not working according to how I want it.

This happened before, so why isn't it happening again? I had this attainment before. It happened this way. Why isn't it happening the same way? Expectations, right? So the intention is one thing that, okay, I've had the same experience. I'm inclining towards that. But obsessing over it, if it doesn't happen the way that you're expecting, that's the delight that you have to let go of. The identification you have to let go of. The aversion that you have to let go of.

Right? So if there was a terrible experience that you have and you think, it might happen again, there's craving there, again there's aversion, it's unpleasant as an experience in the moment as it comes about, but to expect that it's going to happen again is what you have to let go of. You had the experience, fine. Why live in fear of that experience again? Why live in anxiety of that experience again? Maybe it arose that one time and will never arise again. So creating these kinds of associations for yourself and saying, I hope it doesn't happen again, that creates fear in the mind. And fear leads to suffering.

Fear leads to anxiety. Anxiety leads to restlessness, or is restlessness. And that restlessness leads to further suffering. You're not able to let go of that. You're not able to calm the mind. And there's suffering in that. So whatever arises, don't hold on to it, lest you start to expect the pleasant or lest you fear the unpleasant. That might never happen again.

That is how one is vanquished in regard to presently arisen states. So let's go back to that verse that the Buddha was talking about. He says, let not a person revive the past, which means don't have craving or aversion towards the past, or on the future build one's hopes, which means don't have craving or anxiety regarding the future. For the past has been left behind, and the future has not been reached. Instead, with insight, let him see each presently arisen state.

Let him know that and be sure of it, invincibly, unshakably. So when he says, instead, with insight, let him see each presently arisen state. We talk about insight, we're talking about insight in terms of seeing things as they actually are. Having equanimity for experiences. Whether it's pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Being balanced in your mind. Not getting affected by it one way or the other. Whatever states arise in your meditation. Okay, it's a pleasant state. Now you're experiencing greater joy. Or now you're experiencing greater equanimity. Or now you're experiencing infinite space. You're experiencing neither perception nor non-perception. Fine. That's the presently arisen state. It arose because the causes and conditions were right. But the moment you say, oh, I am experiencing this and I'm holding on to it.

I hope this state doesn't go away or this state continues. Now you're identifying with that experience. You're identifying with the jhana. You're identifying with the brahma-vihara. So how do you let that go? You see that the mind is starting to constrict itself and get attached to one of the factors of the jhanas. Or it's starting to constrict itself around the brahma-vihara. Just keep the mind open. Keep it relaxed. Let it be like a sieve that experiences pass through. Don't hold on to anything. Talk about self, the non-insight or the ignorance that's there, the opposite of the wisdom of the presently arisen state, is taking things personally. Why do you take things personally? Because there is a sense of self somewhere.

What is the sense of self? Historically and culturally, in ancient India, the sense of self was this idea of something that was all-pervasive, imperishable, and always a cause for happiness. Okay, so the Buddha said, fine, you consider that to be self? Let's say you consider that to be self. That's the touchstone for self. That's what you compare all other experiences to.

And how do you have an experience? You have it through body, material form. You have it through feeling. You have it through perceptions. You have it through formations, and you have it through consciousness. These constitute, these are the five aggregates, they constitute that in which there is experience and how experience is understood. Now you look at the five aggregates and you understand here is form.

So what is this form? This form is made up of different elements, different qualities, different aspects of materials. It's made up of the earth element, the water element, the air element, the fire element. Or, in a modern understanding, it's made up of the four states of matter. It's material. It's made up of matter in some way or the other. There are the bones and the tissues and the muscles and the fat and the organs and all of that. That's all made up of different kinds of material.

So you see that and you understand, okay, when I was five years old, this form was a certain way. When I was 10 years old, this form was another way. When I was 15, yet another way. When I was 20, yet another way. When I was 25, a different way. When I was 30, when I was 35. When I was 40, when I was 50, when I was 60. And you then look and see that this body continues to change. doesn't age all across those years, but it continues to change in every single moment.

This ear, or this nose, or these eyes, or the tongue, or the body, they continue to change in every moment, dependent upon causes and conditions. The skin on your body keeps changing in every moment. So once you really understand that, contemplate in the sense of not trying to analyze it, not trying to reflect on it, not trying to gain some kind of investigative process by looking at it, but just observing in every moment as things arise in terms of here is this body and you understand, okay, this is how it is now, this is how it was yesterday, this is how it's going to be tomorrow, this is how it was in the morning.

This body was... It's ceased. It's gone. It's impermanent. Yeah. No. All right. So this body, right, in the morning time, it was a certain way. It was feeling great. In the afternoon, suddenly, it feels not so great. in the evening, it changes again. Why? It's dependent upon causes and conditions. So this body, being subject to change, cannot be considered a self. Because what did we say a self was? The idea of a self, according to the ancient Indian cultural understanding. The idea of a self is that it's imperishable, unchangeable, the cause for happiness. But this body continues to change.

It's impermanent. One day it feels good, another day it doesn't feel so good. So it's not. It's liable to experience suffering. So how can it be considered a self? So it's not me, it's not mine, not myself. Feelings. We have so many different kinds of experiences. Pleasant experiences and unpleasant experiences and neutral experiences dependent upon the sixth sense basis. They can be, like I said, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. But it continues to change, these experiences.

They continue to change. If they continue to change based on causes and conditions, then that means that they also are impermanent. Being impermanent, they cannot be considered self. Being impermanent, they can be liable to cause suffering. If that's the case, how can they be considered me, mine, or myself? What about perceptions? We understand that perceptions are fickle. They keep changing.

We get new information about things and it keeps changing our perception of certain things. New research in science comes out about the universe, about planets, about our body, about our biologies, about this world that we live in. And it continues to change the way we perceive and experience this world. So, if that also is dependently arisen, and that too is impermanent, how can we consider any perception to be self? If such a perception is liable to cause suffering, how can we take a perception to be me, mine, or myself?

In the meditation, you experience a certain kind of jhana, and you perceive, oh, here is the second jhana. You perceive the joy in it. You perceive the happiness in it. You perceive this or that. Whatever it might be. But then you perceive a change in it. So was there a self in that jhana? Was there a self in that experience of the joy factor of the first or second jhana? Was there a self in the tranquility factor of the third jhana? Or the equanimity factor of the fourth jhana? Or did it just arise because it transitioned into the next experience?

The loving-kindness that you bring up, that arise? There was an intention to bring up loving-kindness dependent upon either verbalizations or a wholesome memory, wholesome image, or just bringing it up because you have the memory now of the loving-kindness. But that too is dependently arisen. That too arises because of causes and conditions. Why did you bring up the loving-kindness?

Or how did you bring up the loving-kindness? That arose because you thought about, I thought about something wholesome and it came about. But that thought that arose, is that you? Or is that thought too impermanent? That verbalization that you brought up, is that you or is that too impermanent? So don't hold on to things that are impermanent, that are continuously changing, that are subject to change.

Because the moment you start holding on to those things, they can cause suffering. The moment you hold on to them and you take them personally, they can cause suffering. So don't take personally any of the experiences that you're having dependent upon your choices, dependent upon your intentions. You're responsible for your choices. You're responsible for your intentions. You're responsible for your actions in your mind, in body, and in speech. And you will experience their effects.

But don't take them personally. Understand you had a choice that you took and it led to this particular experience. Now don't have regret for it. Don't have anxiety about the choices you make. Don't think about, okay, if I make this choice or I made this choice, I hope it doesn't go this way or I hope it doesn't go that way. You don't know what's going to happen. Anything can happen, right? Dependent upon other causes and conditions. Dependent upon external factors.

So what are you responsible for? You're responsible for the present actions that you have right now. You're not responsible for anything that happened in the past in the sense that you can't change it. Yes, you're taking responsibility by experiencing their effects, but how do you choose to deal with those? Remember I talked about hindrances being the effects of choices made in the past of breaking a precept. At some point, whether it was in this life or previous life or whenever it was, you can't go back in time and change what happened.

You can't go back in time and change not breaking that precept. Now you have to deal with it here in the present moment in the form of some kind of a hindrance. So the only way that you can deal with it is in the present moment. And then once you make the choice, that's the choice. That's it. You can choose to have craving for that experience. You can choose to grasp at that experience. You can choose to have aversion towards that experience. You can choose to resist that experience. Or you can choose to say, why is this experience happening to me and identify with it and all of these other things. it as being an effect of a past intention, an effect of a past choice.

And then seeing it for what it is, acknowledging it, recognizing it, releasing your attention from it. When you're releasing, you're not ignoring it. When you're releasing, you're abandoning the craving. You're abandoning the identification with it by bringing your attention to something that is wholesome. That wholesome experience is the cessation of craving. The relief you experience from relaxing the tightness and tension in mind and body.

Once you do that, you're replacing your reactions, your habitual reactions to that experience, with the smile, with being uplifted, and bringing back something that's wholesome, returning the mind to something that's wholesome. Like a Brahma Vihara. So this process is, as I said before, first deconditioning the mind of any kind of unwholesome states or unwholesome reactions to unwholesome states.

And then reconditioning the mind with wholesome states towards or as responses to unwholesome states. The more you do this, the more the mind experiences peace, the more mind experiences freedom. Total freedom of mind is understood, conventionally speaking, as being in the present moment. But what does that mean? We asked that question in the beginning. What does that mean?

It means seeing things as they are when they arise. Any presently arisen state, seeing it for what it is. This is a pleasant experience, or this is an unpleasant experience, but seeing it in the right way, experiencing it in the effective way, seeing it as what it actually is, seeing it as being dependently arisen, therefore not taking it personally. So when you don't take an experience personally, you don't add fuel to craving. You don't add fuel to aversion. You don't add fuel to identification.

When you don't add to the fuel, there is no more clinging to it, associating with it, grasping towards it. There is no becoming it. There is no habitual tendency or emotional reaction that causes you to behave or act in a certain way in relation to that experience, so that when the experience happens again, you don't act out of habit, but you act spontaneously, given the choices that you have. And that choice is rooted in wisdom, rooted in the Brahma Viharas, rooted in seeing things as they are, which means you don't take anything personally. And how, bhikkhus, is one invincible in regard to presently arisen states? Here, bhikkhus, a well-taught noble disciple who has regard for noble ones and is skilled and disciplined in their Dhamma, who has regard for true men and is skilled and disciplined in their Dhamma, does not regard material form as self, or self as possessed of material form, or material form as in self, or self as in material form.

So that is remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. When you have mindfulness in that regard, then you can see things as they are. You don't project anything onto them. You see them as they are. So when we talk about these different kinds of self-views, we'll get into it further in a different session. But just understand, this is talking about self-views: form, or feeling, or perception, or formations, or consciousness as self. So you don't equate any of these as being me, as being some kind of a self.

Or self as possessed of form, of feeling, of perception, of formations, or of consciousness. In other words, you don't have this idea that these belong to me. They are just arising because of causes and conditions. Or material form, feeling, perception, formation, or consciousness as in self. So you don't have this idea that there is some kind of all-pervading self that you are, which is an idea in certain kinds of philosophy.

And that within that self is all of this experience, as in feeling, in perception, in formations, or in consciousness. So this idea is that there is some kind of core essence that resides in the body, that resides in self, that resides in perception, that resides in formations, that resides in consciousness. But if we understand material form to be always changing, that means that self that's tied to it is always changing. We already understand that self from that touchstone is supposed to be permanent.

So formations, or form, or consciousness, or perception, or feeling, all of these are always changing. How can there be a self in there? They arise dependent upon certain causes and conditions. And these are the links to dependent origination, which we'll talk about tomorrow. But once you start to see this, once you understand that they are impermanent, you stop taking them personally. And when you stop taking them personally, when you see them impersonally, then you have peace of mind. Then the mind is equanimous.

Then the mind is free in that moment. Any experience that's experienced is just experienced. There's no self there. There's no self in there. There's no self beyond there. It's just all arising, then it's just going away. The moment you attach a self to it by saying, how is this affecting me? Or why is this affecting me? The moment you do that, you take it personal. And then that gives rise to craving and clinging and becoming, and then birth of action, and the whole mass of suffering. That adds to your repository of karma.

Karma is experienced in the present moment. That's the old karma that you inherit from previous choices that cascade down into the present moment. How you choose to deal with it will then either result in the dissipation of that karma. The same way when you have a hindrance and you choose to let go of it using right effort, using the 6R's, that karma or that hindrance becomes weaker with every arising away, or do you choose to take it personally and start fighting with it, thereby adding more to it, and now your attention gives it more fuel, and your craving gives it more fuel, your aversion gives it more fuel. And so what happens the next time it arises? It arises with greater force, or it just keeps on going. And this is rebirth, the rebirth of that experience or the rebirth of that hindrance, and it continues until you recognize it for what it is, that here is a... I'm going to take my attention away from it and abandon the craving, abandon the aversion, abandon the clinging, experience relief, and replace that reaction of identifying and personalizing with it, and replace it with

that which is wholesome, with the smile, that which is rooted in the Dhamma, with the Brahma Vihara, coming back to a Brahma Vihara, coming back to quiet mind. might be. And then repeating that whenever it arises until there is the remainderless fading away of that hindrance. So it was with reference to this that it was said, Bhikkhus, I shall teach you the summary and exposition of one who has had a single excellent night.

That is what the Blessed One said. The Bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free. May the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition. 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. Nammo sarvadhattatate pere anatatate Sangyasam uttete Nammo maniavanukete