Talk 3 -Dukkha (Suffering) Dependent Origination Conf. with Delson Armstrong

Yeah, today we're going to, well now we're going to be a little pessimistic and talk about dukkha. So, yes. I just wanted to debrief you about some things. Last night I did the guided meditation, and I want to welcome you to customise it according to however it seems suitable for your mindset. That was one kind of framework for the contemplation. But you're welcome to start with equanimity. You're welcome to start with whatever works for you, and then in whatever order seems most suitable, for the five aggregates. The key there is to start to let go of any time the mind sees any little bit of clinging to the sense of self in relation to that particular aggregate or part of that aggregate.

You come to a level of stillness in the mind. And then all you have to do there is rest in that stillness, nothing else. Now, for any questions that you might have, let's leave that for this evening. This evening is basically a whole chunk of time for us to do Q&A for dukkha and the preceding link that we'll explore, which is birth. Out of the way, let's discuss dukkha. Dukkha is, I like to just use the word dukkha because it is polysemous, which means it has so many different connotations and meanings depending upon context and usage of the word. Dukkha can denote suffering, dukkha can denote uneasiness, dukkha can denote unsatisfactory, not worth holding on to, all things like that.

What does the word dukkha mean, or where does it actually come from? When you hear the word sukha, not the cat, for those of you who remember the cat, I'm talking about sukha in terms of the happiness that you experience in the first and second jhana. Piti and sukha. Sukha means happiness. Sukha and dukkha. Su here means good or wholesome or easy or balanced. Du here in dukkha means uneasy or unwholesome or bad. And then ka actually is the Pali for sta in Sanskrit, which means to be stable, to be balanced. So sukha means that there is good stability, and that's why you feel happy. There's a good foundation there.

But dukkha means it's unstable, very much related to anicca. Anicca means impermanent, so dukkha is also used as an image. Back in the time of the Buddha and ancient India, they used to ride around in chariots, and when the axle of the chariot didn't exactly fit into the hole in the wheel, that was said to be dukkha. If you don't have a proper axle and the wheel is off balance, what does it feel like? If you've ever been to Walmart and you're pushing around a cart and one of the wheels is out of balance, that's dukkha, the nature of existence. We're unable to really feel complete happiness because of the conditions themselves, all conditions themselves having the nature of dukkha.

Everything is unstable. It's always changing, subject to change, all the time. Now, in ancient India, and as extensions of those philosophies, there were different views about dukkha. But before I get into that, I want to talk about the three types of dukkha, the three categories of dukkha. There is what's known as dukkha dukkha, viparinama dukkha, and sankhara dukkha. Dukkha dukkha is the plain and simple dukkha. It's just proper dukkha. That is the dukkha of pain in the body, mental suffering, disease, illnesses, sicknesses, aging, birth, death, grief, sorrow, lamentation. All of these are part of dukkha dukkha. Viparinama dukkha. Viparinama means to turn, to change. That's the dukkha of change, unexpected things happening. So when we talk about viparinama dukkha, an example of that could be your flight getting cancelled, for example.

On the way to the airport, you're looking forward to some time off, and your flight gets cancelled, and you need to be there at a certain time because you have an appointment or something. Things get in the way. That is viparinama dukkha: unexpected results or unexpected events that arise in your life. For example, a very common one is you taking a really nice warm shower, and all of a sudden the hot water cuts out and there's just freezing cold water. That change is viparinama dukkha. So the key here is to understand that and to let go of the expectations that things in life will run smoothly. They will not.

You have to come to terms with that. You have to be available to all kinds of changes, good, bad, or indifferent. And that's really mental resilience. That's what this training and practice is about: to have total mental resilience to all events. Any activity or event is essentially the beginning of conceit and craving, because there's an expectation that things must be a certain way, or I must be a certain way, or the world and people must be a certain way. If you let go of these words, must, should, have to, it needs to be this way, you let go of viparinama dukkha. Because now your mind is very agile. It can be in the worst of circumstances and yet still experience joy and happiness and bliss.

That's the whole purpose of experiencing jhana: to be able to have the utility of this internal joy, this internal happiness, internal calm and collectedness. And then we have what's known as sankhara dukkha. Before I go with that, viparinama dukkha is also with us, so we will see examples of that, but that's basically, as the Buddha would say, being attached to that which is unloved and being divorced from or unattached to things that are loved. That's part of viparinama dukkha as well. Dukkha here is the dukkha of the world itself, of existence itself. We've all come into this samsara countless times, over and over and over again. And that is dukkha. That is dukkha. Even if you've been in the deva realms, in the brahma lokas, in the arupa brahma lokas, still dukkha.

By the very fact that all these states and realms and conditions are impermanent. They will change. They will decay. That's the nature. So the whole point is for the mind to come into a place, into a dimension, into some level of clarity affected, and so sankhara dukkha is related to the five aggregates. The five aggregates affected by clinging and craving: are they one and the same, or are they different? We're going to explore what that means.

So, the inherent quality of existence ultimately is feeble, fickle, futile. Not worth holding on to. But there is that place, for lack of a better word, that space, that dimension, that clarity, that is the unconditioned. Conditions, and that is what you are doing with the meditation practice. That is what you're doing with the path. The path itself is conditioned, so you're using conditions, the right conditions: the path, that is to say right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right collectedness.

To come to what's known as right knowledge and right liberation. So you're using the raft to get to the other shore. Don't worry about this shore here. This is samsara. The whole point is to get off of samsara. And don't worry what's on the other shore either. You'll know what it is when you get there. So we'll talk about the three kinds of views that were prevalent at the time in relation to dukkha. These three views are essentially eternalism, annihilationism, and the middle path. So eternalism is all about the fact that, oh, this dukkha is inescapable, or that, I will come to a level of being where I will leave the dukkha of this world and go to an eternal heaven.

That is another viewpoint. Eternity is boring. It's dukkha. Just imagine being there for millions and millions of years. Same old thing. Partying all night long, never getting a hangover, but doing it over and over and over again. That's the deva realm. For some reason, devas don't feel disenchanted. Very few do. And eventually, before they know it, it's too late. There are certain signs that they realise that, oh, this is impermanent, I'm going to leave now, and they immediately feel dukkha. So eternalism doesn't work. And then there's a counterpoint to eternalism. What about hell? An eternal hell. That's absolute dukkha. So annihilationism is the idea that, yes, there is dukkha in this world.

But when I am gone, that is to say when the five aggregates are dissolved and there is no more me there, there is no more dukkha there. So this leads to the craving for non-existence. In the first scenario, eternalism, leads to the craving for existence, a higher existence, an eternal existence. And the annihilationist view is, in order for me to not experience dukkha, I have to no longer exist. And so what happens? This has happened in the case of the Buddha and students. They misinterpreted what he was talking about in relation to nibbana. He went out, went on his own retreat, came back, and found out that those people had killed themselves, because their idea was, oh, the end of dukkha means the end of this life.

Not the case. Suicide is never the answer for anything, let alone letting go of dukkha. In fact, it adds to the dukkha. So how do you let go of dukkha? How do you experience the eradication of dukkha? So long as you're with the five aggregates, you can't. You can eliminate mental dukkha completely. And that's the mind of one fully awakened. No more mental suffering. But they are still subject to physical pain. They're still subject to aging. They're still subject to illness and sickness and disease. But they don't have any kind of mental suffering around that. Mental agitation around that. of that dukkha. That is the end of taking things personally, of identifying with them. That is the way to let go of that dukkha, which would lead to further dukkha in the form of more future rebirths, whether it's in this life or another one.

I'm going to actually use the suttas to talk about dukkha, because here in Digha Nikaya 22, the Maha Satipatthana Sutta, this is where the Buddha lays out all of dukkha, all of the different categories of dukkha. So it's an excerpt from the Digha Nikaya, and it says: And what, monks, is the noble truth of suffering? Birth is suffering. Aging is suffering. Death is suffering. Sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress are suffering. Being attached to the unloved is suffering. Being separated from the loved is suffering. Not getting what one wants is suffering. In short, the five aggregates affected by craving and clinging are suffering. Out here, but listed in different places, is illness, sickness and disease. So we're going to discuss birth later on today, so we'll first talk about aging and then go into illness. And what is aging? In whatever beings, of whatever group of beings, there is aging, decrepitude, broken teeth, grey hair, wrinkled skin, with age, decay of the sense faculties.

That, monks, is called aging. Aging is inescapable. Even in the deva loka, aging is inescapable. It happens at a very, very, very slow rate, but it catches up with the devas at the very end of their lives, and they realize, oh, there is aging. And we're all experiencing aging, whether we want it or not. Not some of us are more inexperienced with aging and some of us are less. Some of us know what it feels like to have wrinkled skin and some of us don't, but we'll all get there, don't worry. So aging is inescapable. The notion that doing some kind of cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery is very, very on the surface.

They're still aging of the mentality. You have dementia. You have Alzheimer's. People forget. As the body starts to decline, the sense faculties decline. Your vision isn't as good as it used to be. Your hearing isn't as good as it used to be. Your digestion, your heart, your liver, your kidneys, whatever it might be, they start to fail. They start to decline. And that's the truth of the matter. You can take as many supplements as you want. That's fine. You can do all kinds of things. But in the end, something or another will fail. Something or another will change and decay. When we talk about the decline of the faculties, it also means that the mind itself can start to lose focus, can start to lose its ability to concentrate.

There might be more agitation, or there might be a depression that arises. There could be a reflection on one's life throughout life, and the aging process is wow. I've lived here a long time and I feel like I haven't done anything. That doesn't really matter because everybody feels that way. It doesn't matter what you've done. If you've been a superstar, a rock star, whatever it is, they all feel the same. And why do they feel that way? Because of conceit. Because there's still some sense of self tied to their personality as a musician or whatever career they have, with their job, with their responsibilities, whatever it is. So aging is suffering and it is inescapable.

It'd be great if we could, but we can't fix our aging, unfortunately. Just imagine, just recognize it, release, relax. The wrinkles are gone. And then we have illness. So I'm actually going to read an excerpt from the book. If you guys want to follow along, that's fine. This is the Dukkha book, page 22 to 28. Illness is suffering. It's known as byadhi in Pali. So this is what it says. There are different types of illnesses that one may suffer. These include but are not limited to infectious diseases, illnesses by malnutrition, hereditary diseases, and physiological diseases. Some illnesses are preventable and some are unpreventable. Some illnesses are acute and some are chronic. Others are caused by lifestyle choices and others are due to certain deficiencies or imbalances.

There are mental illnesses which can arise through various causes and conditions. Whatever the illness is, it will always cause some form of dis-ease or uneasiness or discomfort in mind or body or both, and thus all illnesses are dukkha. Health is a form of wealth and sukha. There are many beings who have wealth in the form of money and possessions, wonderful relationships, a good reputation, and so on. But all of those forms of wealth can be impinged by an illness. Illness causes trouble in the body, and by extension, one feels unhappy, unable to function as one would in an optimal way. And one's entire mindset is plagued by the effect of this illness. This can cause you to make rash decisions, or see people in a different light and create unruly situations due to misunderstandings.

Depending on the intensity of the illness, one can lose one's ability to enjoy life fully because the illness can become the central focus in one's life, causing one to never completely be happy or present. Even if you were present, the nagging pain or distress caused by the illness colors that mindfulness. With the Buddha, him having back pain all his life, the only escape was to be in the third jhana or in nirodha, complete cessation of pain. But there is some kind of pain that arose, some kind of illness even that arose with the Buddha. We see that towards the end of his life, he experienced some kind of unease in the body, in his digestion and whatever it was.

And it was inescapable. That was a cause and condition for him to say, okay, I'm going to let go and experience parinibbana. In the spirit of fully understanding dukkha, let's take a look at some of the types of diseases afflicting the human condition at one point or another in time. Infections. Infectious diseases are communicable illnesses born from pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, and can penetrate the immunity wall of a being. These diseases can manifest various types of aches, pains, and other disorders within the organs of the body, such as respiratory discomfort and dysfunction, cardiac arrest, or even complete death if not treated. The common cold is an infectious illness arising from the rhinovirus, which mutates and has multiple variations throughout the year.

It is just a fact and symptom of life that at some point or another, this common cold will affect the body. And it brings with it fever, congestion, stuffiness, malaise, weakness, and other symptoms. And for about three to ten days, one suffers through this period of the common cold. Other infectious illnesses can arise through various transmissions of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. One can experience an airborne transmission of viral droplets, foodborne transmission that can cause severe food poisoning and gastrointestinal pain. I had this experience while I was in India. I remember this was last year, sometime around March or April, and this was a couple of months after my father passed, and we were in Mumbai.

I really thought my stomach was made out of steel, but it was whatever it was that I ate that went into my stomach. And I felt like, how you would be describing in the suttas, sharp winds carving up the belly, really, really painful. So painful that I became dizzy. So that is suffering. That is dukkha. It's inescapable. You can treat it. That's the wonderful thing about modern medicine that we have. We can treat these diseases, but still we're experiencing their dukkha. Cause severe food poisoning and gastrointestinal pain, sexual transmission affecting the genitals primarily, but can then affect other parts of the immune system, such as the immune system, as well as the organs of the body.

Intravenous transmission through needles, vector transmission, such as through mosquitoes who can carry malarial infections and the West Nile virus, waterborne transmission, skin transmission that can cause fungal infections like ringworm, an athlete's foot, and transmission from the mother to the infant where the mother may have an existing infection, which then transmits into the fetus, thus causing the infant a pre-existing infection. of unease, from a subtle but noticeable discomfort in the body to excruciating pain and even loss of life. Some infections may lie dormant in the body and flare up intermittently during one's lifetime.

Malnutrition is a severe lack of proper and efficient nutrification of the body. It can happen for those who have a lack of nutrients and thus face the wasting away of the body. While for others who may be overweight or even normal weight, the body is unable to process certain nutrients effectively, thus causing imbalances as well as deficiencies of essential vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients. In the case of the malnourished due to lack of resources, there are several symptoms that can be easily noticeable, such as a distended abdomen, skeletal frame, dry eyes, dry skin, muscular wasting, loose skin, and brittle or sparse hair, among others. There are also internal symptoms such as slow heart rate, poor memory, delayed growth, skeletal deformities, loss of reflexes, as well as behavioral effects such as diminished cognitive capacities, lethargy, and anxiety.

Osteoporosis and rickets due to calcium and vitamin D deficiency. Goiter due to iodine deficiency. Keshan disease due to selenium deficiency. Anemia due to iron deficiency. Growth retardation due to zinc deficiency. Beriberi due to thiamine deficiency. Pellagra due to niacin deficiency. Scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency. Night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency. On the other end of the spectrum, there is malnutrition in the form of over-nutrification of the body. This can include metabolic imbalances due to overeating, causing obesity, which can lead to other ailments like diabetes and cardiovascular issues. This is mentioned in the suttas as well. There is King Pasenadi who comes to the Buddha, and he has to climb uphill and he's huffing and puffing.

To walk or sufficiently get enough exercise, so the Buddha offers him a meal plan, a diet. He says whatever amount of food that you're eating, cut it by a third and see how it goes. And he does that and he starts to lose weight. He has better cardio fitness, and when he climbs up the hill he's completely fine. All good. Then there can be hypervitaminosis, such as too much vitamin A that can cause all sorts of vision, appetite, bone, skin, and liver problems, or too much vitamin D that can cause large amounts of calcium to be deposited in the bones, heart, tissues, and kidneys, causing dehydration, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

As a result of vitamin B3 toxicity, the body may suffer from liver inflammation, prediabetes, high levels of uric acid, macular swelling, and cysts, and vitamin B6 toxicity can lead to peripheral neuropathy and other neurological and psychological issues. Too much iron can lead to liver failure, brain, and other organ damage, as well as shock, leading to potential death, and mental illnesses. Genetic disorders can be passed down from genes to another and can include physiological proclivity of the body towards certain conditions like a defective heart valve or other congenital heart conditions, Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, Huntington's disease, and can include other physiological illnesses like hypertension, Alzheimer's, cancer, and even obesity. In the way some causes arise and being carriers of karma from one life to the next.

This can include the diseases and defects the body may have a tendency to develop based on factors including but not limited to lifestyle choices, the strength of certain karma, and even environmental factors of being a subject to during their lifetime. Choices and intervention through corrective surgeries can help prevent the tendencies of awakening certain illnesses carried forward by genes as well as treat pre-existing conditions. That's a good thing about today's world. Now we're going to talk about NCDs or non-communicable diseases, which include problems with certain organs and bodily systems. This can include cardiovascular and cerebrovascular issues, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and chronic respiratory disease. Vascular diseases can include strokes, heart failure, aneurysms, and vascular dementia among a whole host of other diseases.

Diabetes can be type 1 where the pancreas loses its ability to produce insulin due to the loss of certain cells as an autoimmune response. Type 2 where gradual insulin resistance can lead to a lack of insulin for the body and this can be caused by a lack of exercise and excessive body weight. high blood sugar levels. Kidney disease where the kidney loses its ability to function and it can be either acute or chronic in nature. Cancer is the overgrowth of cells which fail to die and this can cause damage to the body leading to malignant tumors and cysts and it can happen in any part of the body and spread if it becomes metastatic. Autoimmune disorders arise when the immune system attacks the body itself and this can lead to various types of disorders including diabetes, lupus, and over 80 different types of autoimmune disease.

They can have genetic or environmental causes. Finally, chronic respiratory illnesses include asthma and COPD, which are treatable but not yet curable. Mental illnesses have an array of causes ranging from genetic to environmental to autoimmune disorder to brain damage, the womb or external factors after one's birth. Substance abuse as well as infections and toxins can cause mental disorders along with disorder in the neurotransmitter systems of the brain. Mental illnesses can include but are not limited to various types of anxiety and depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, dementia, paranoia, and psychosis.

That's a whole lot of dukkah, right? But this is the reality of the world. There are so many beings experiencing different types of diseases. Some of us are more fortunate to experience less crucial diseases, let's say, less excruciating diseases, just a common cold and fever and things like that. And some of us are experiencing chronic disease, chronic illness, of existence. Now the key is how do you deal with that? How do you deal with it in the form of your mentality? You can't just again, you can't just six hour away these diseases, these illnesses, but you can deal with them by calming your mind, collecting your mind. Your mental state has a big effect on how these diseases affect you.

If there's a lot of mental agitation, if there's frustration, if there's anger, if there's whatever it is, it only makes it feel worse from a subjective perspective. It's like the disease is one thing, but then the mentality around it is another. Control, in the sense that you can use the six R's to recognize any time the mind starts to gravitate towards some kind of depression, some kind of agitation, some kind of anxiety. And you can slowly release that, let that go, relax, and replace it with a more wholesome and positive state of mind, a more resilient state of mind. It's definitely easier said than done. But the point is to keep doing it over and over and over again until at least your mental state is collected.

And then you can deal with the physicality aspect if it's possible. Then we will talk about death. And what is death? Of beings, there is a passing away, a removal, a cutting off, a disappearance, a death, a dying, an ending, a cutting off of the aggregates, a discarding of the body. That, monks, is called death. Dying is actually very easy to do. It's very simple.

What's difficult about it is all of the anguish that is experienced prior to that dying process, or the anxiety around death itself. Death anxiety, this is a big thing that was discussed in some psychological circles. You talk about death anxiety, that's really, you're so afraid of death, or some beings are so afraid of death that they can turn to violence. At least there, they have some level of control over who lives and who doesn't. And for that reason, it's some kind of resolution in their mind, some kind of safety net in their mind. But dying itself is like the snap of a finger. The dying process is never so prolonged as it would seem.

What happens in the dying process? This is very important to know because we're all going to die. We're all going to die. If you don't know it yet, please understand, you are going to die. When a being dies... That's right. Don't take it personally. When a being dies, there's a way in how that being dies. So the process of dying is basically the four elements that we talk about. The earth element, the water element, the fire element, the air element. That starts to cease in different ways. And the first to go is the air element, naturally. The body stops breathing. Then the fire element. The body loses temperature, loses heat.

Then the water element. The circulation slows down until the blood basically congeals. And then finally the earth element. The decay of the skin and the muscles and the bones and so on. That happens at a much slower rate. But there's also a decline of the sense faculties and there is a cutting off of the aggregates and the discarding of the body he talks about. So we're also talking about the sense bases. In what order do the sense bases also depart in the dying process? First, there is a decline of smell. Then a decline of taste. Then a decline of sight. Then of touch.

Of sound, and finally mind itself. That's why it's so important, even if a loved one is medically dead, that is to say their breathing has stopped, they are in cardiac arrest and there is no more brain activity. The mind is still functioning. The mind is separate to the brain. The mind is still functioning, and there is still hearing going on. So that's why it's important. Even if somebody is in a coma, even if they're past the part of death, past the point of death, it's important to be positive and wholesome. Do some chanting, read a sutra, whatever it might be. Do not immediately weep for that person as much as you want to because it can create confusion in the being that is going to go.

And so in the dying process, what happens is we go through a process of experiencing certain signs or certain states. There's a life review process that can go on. You start to look at certain karmic nexus points in your life. The veil between one life and the next is lifted. This can create all kinds of memories that come up. And this is why there is, as I said before, the emphasis on being wholesome. Because the more you do that, the more you try to be wholesome, the more wholesome your mind will be. And the more automatic your inclinations and your choice will tend to the wholesome. Of dying, where everything is just gone. When the mind is experiencing those few moments prior to death, it's experiencing whatever were the highlights of that life.

And if there were more wholesome highlights, the mind will gravitate towards that. But if the mind has been unwholesome, it will not be an easy death. The mind can go and die in confusion and this can lead to an unwholesome state of existence. So that is why there is an emphasis on being wholesome and ultimately letting go of even identifying with the wholesome. So there's also what I want to talk about, how to let go of the fear of death and attachment to the body, because the fear of death is really related to the body. The mind perceives death as a death of this body because it takes this body to be me, mine, or myself.

And so this is an excerpt from the Majjhima Nikaya 10, Satipatthana Sutta. This is section 14 to 30. So this is the contemplation on the dying process itself, or I should say the decay of the body. The Charnel Ground Contemplation. So here it says, Again, Bhikkhus, as though he were to see a corpse thrown aside in a charnel ground, one, two, or three days dead, bloated, livid, and oozing matter. A Bhikkhu compares this same body with it thus. It's very interesting. When my father passed away, he was already starting to lose color before he passed away, starting to become a little more yellow because his liver was failing and he had more jaundice and all these other things.

Before he passed on, he was, we took photos with him. We took a photo of me holding his hand and my sister did the same thing. My mother didn't have a chance to do it while he was still alive. And so when he passed on, it was just his corpse. And within the hour already, the body was decomposing. It had become green-yellow. And so we took a photo of her holding his arm, and you could see the difference between her arm, which was vibrant and normal skin color, and the corpse's arm, which was just decaying, green and yellow. That is the case of the body.

Disconnected bones scattered in all directions. Here a hand bone. Here a foot bone. Here a shin bone. There a thigh bone. Here a hip bone. There a backbone. Here a rib bone. There a breast bone. There an arm bone. There a shoulder bone. Here a neck bone. There a jaw bone. Here a tooth. There the skull. Bhikkhu compares this same body with it thus. This body is of the same nature. It will be like that. It is not exempt from that fate. When you go to Varanasi, if you ever have a chance to go to Varanasi, you will see on the ghats, on the shores of the river, there are funeral pyres going on. And you will see dead bodies that are being burned.

You see the charnel ground. And sometimes if you take a peek, you can actually see the decaying body where it's just rotten flesh and bones. That's the nature of the body. I encourage all of you to check it out. Yeah, really. It's very important to see these things. Get face to face with it. Understand it. See how your mind responds to it. See how your mind reacts to it. You might have a visceral feeling, a visceral sensation. That's a common reaction because there's so much anxiety around that dying process. Again, as though he were to see a corpse thrown aside in a charnel ground, bones bleached white, the color of shells, bones heaped up, bones more than a year old, rotted and crumbled to dust, a bhikkhu compares the same body with the dust.

This body, too, is of the same nature. It will be like that. It is not exempt from that. So when you get a chance, you should definitely do these body contemplations because if you have an attachment to the body or if you are afraid of death, this is really going to help you with that. And then there is the flip side of the dying process, which is those who are left behind, right? Death is much more difficult for those who are left behind. What is grief? Grief is not for the person who's dead. Grief is about, I no longer get to speak to this person. I no longer am able to interact with this person.

So grief can also be in the form of relationships. You know, the loss of a relationship. You know, you break up, you feel grief about that. A person dies who's close to you, you feel grief about that. But there's a way of letting go of that as well. And the Buddha has talked about this to Ananda. This is from Samyutta Nikaya 47.13. This is called Chunda. On one occasion, the Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. Now on that occasion, the Venerable Sariputta was dwelling among the Magadans at Nalakagama, sick, afflicted, gravely ill. And the novice Chunda was his attendant. Then, because of that illness, the Venerable Sariputta attained final Nibbana.

The novice Chunda, taking the Venerable Sariputta's bowl and robe, went to Savatthi to Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There he approached the Venerable Ananda, paid homage to him, sat down to one side and said to him, Venerable Sir, the Venerable Sariputta has attained final Nibbana. This is his bowl and robe. Friend Chunda, we should see the Blessed One about this piece of news. Come, Friend Chunda, let us go to the Blessed One and report this matter to him. Yes, Venerable Sir, the Novice Chunda replied. They approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him and sat down to one side. The Venerable Ananda then said to the Blessed One, This novice Chunda, Venerable Sir, says that the Venerable Sariputta has attained final Nibbana.

And this is his bowl and robe. Venerable Sir, since I heard that the Venerable Sariputta has attained final Nibbana, my body seems as if it has been drugged. I have become disoriented. The teachings are no longer clear to me. This is what happens when just a few minutes after the body of a loved one passes away, the mind feels so much grief. How it is inescapable. They are gone. It's done. And it feels like you're disoriented. Absolutely. It feels like you're disoriented. What am I going to do now? And the reason is, the grief is not about that person. you. And this is the Buddha's response to it. Why, Ananda, when Sariputta attained final Nibbana, did he take away your aggregate of virtue, or your aggregate of concentration, or your aggregate of wisdom, or your aggregate of liberation, or your aggregate of the knowledge and vision of liberation?

That's interesting he says that to Ananda. Your aggregate of liberation, and the aggregate of knowledge and vision of liberation, because Ananda was not yet an arahant. However, here liberation can also mean anyone who's become a stream-enterer, above, and the knowledge that you are a stream-enterer. So Ananda says, the Dhamma. He was helpful to his brothers in the holy life. We recollect the nourishment of Dhamma, the wealth of Dhamma, the help of Dhamma given by the Venerable Sariputta. But, Ananda, have I not already declared that we must be parted, separated, and severed from all who are dear and agreeable to us? How, Ananda, is it to be obtained here? May what is born come to be conditioned and subject to disintegration, not disintegrate.

That is impossible. It is just as if the largest branch would break off of a great tree standing possessed of heartwood. So too, Ananda, in the great Bhikkhu Sangha, standing possessed of heartwood, Sariputta has attained final Nibbana. How, Ananda, is it to be obtained here? May what is born come to be conditioned and subject to disintegration, not disintegrate. That is impossible. Now here is the key. Therefore, Ananda, dwell with yourselves as your own island, with yourselves as your own refuge, with no other refuge. Dwell with the Dhamma as your island, with the Dhamma as your refuge, with no other refuge. Those bhikkhus, Ananda, either now or after I am gone, who dwell with themselves as their own island, with themselves as their own refuge, with no other refuge, who dwell in the Dhamma as their island, with the Dhamma as their refuge, with no other refuge.

It is those bhikkhus, Ananda, who will be for me topmost of those keen on the training. Be an island unto yourself. You have to come to a point in your mind that you are so resilient and so independent that the mind does not look for happiness in the form of others, in the form of possessions, in the form of relationships, in the form of connections and people and expectations. Not even jhana. When your mind is clarified and clear and you take yourself as your own refuge, what does that mean? It means that you are not dependent on anything for happiness.

That grief arises because that person, who has parted, was a source of happiness for us. Our relationship to that person, our connection with that person, was a source of happiness. And now that source of happiness is gone. But if we find in ourselves the Dhamma, are able to practise, maintain sila, keep the precepts, keep meditating. Then when death approaches us or approaches our loved ones, that is the crucial time to utilise the Dhamma. That is the crucial time to remember the Dhamma. That is the crucial time to remember what we have achieved through the Dhamma. That's when the rubber meets the road.

It's great to be happy and joyful in jhana when everything is going wonderfully, but what about when everything goes wrong? You lose your job, you break up with someone, somebody passes on, somebody's diagnosed with an illness. These are the crucial moments when you should be applying the Dhamma. And it's okay if you cry, if you feel upset. It's okay. Don't beat yourself up for it. But don't let the mind sink into that. At some point in time, you have to remember the Dhamma. Otherwise, all of that practice is in vain. There's no point. Then we are going to talk about the decay of nature and the destruction of the cosmos. So when we talk about the destruction of the world, what we're saying is, okay, fine, we understand that all beings are subject to change, subject to decay, subject to decline, subject to ending and death and so on.

But what about what we leave behind in terms of the world, in terms of this planet, in terms of the star system, the galaxy, and so on and so forth? Do they still continue? Or do they too depart? And this is what we'll see. So this is from Anguttara Nikaya 7.66, the seven suns. On one occasion, the Blessed One was dwelling at Vesali in Ambapali's grove. There, the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus. "Bhikkhus." "Venerable Sir," those bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this: "Bhikkhus, conditioned phenomena are impermanent. Conditioned phenomena are unstable. Conditioned phenomena are unreliable. Conditioned phenomena, enough to become dispassionate toward them, enough to be liberated from them. So you really have to start with disenchantment.

Understand first and foremost that all conditioned phenomena, that is everything, everything, except Nibbana, that is conditioned, everything is impermanent and unstable, subject to change, subject to decline, including this universe. And so the Buddha starts small. He talks about just the destruction of this planet before he talks about the destruction of the entire universe. And he says, of years, for many hundreds of thousands of years. When rain does not fall, seed life and vegetation, medicinal plants, grasses, giant trees of the forest wither and dry up and no longer exist. There comes a time when after a long time, a second sun appears. So first he's talking about the first sun. This is implied. There comes a time when the world experiences drought.

There comes a time where all seed life and all vegetation decays, declines and is destroyed. And then there comes a time when a second sun appears. Here he's not referring to, at least this is how I interpret it, that there are not multiple suns that come up in the sky. It's just that, as we know, this sun is so many billions of years old and will continue to age for so many billions of years. As it does, it starts to grow. So first, there is a first sun and then there's a second sun and so on. So it starts to enlarge until it becomes quite large and engulfs the earth. So we'll see how that happens.

With the appearance of the second sun, the small rivers and lakes dry up and evaporate and no longer exist. There comes a time when even after a long time, a third sun appears. With the appearance of the third sun, the great rivers, the Ganges, Yamuna, the Achiravati, the Sarabu, and the Mahi dry up and evaporate and no longer exist. There comes a time when after a long time, a fourth sun appears. With the appearance of the fourth sun, the great lakes from which those great rivers originate, Anotata, Sihapapata, Ratakara, Kannamunda, Kunala, Chandanta, and Mandankani dry up and evaporate and no longer exist. There comes a time when after a long time a fifth sun appears.

With the appearance of the fifth sun, the waters in the great ocean sink by a hundred yojanas, two hundred yojanas, three hundred yojanas, seven hundred yojanas. The water left in the great ocean stands at the height of seven palm trees, six palm trees, five palm trees, four palm trees, three palm trees, two palm trees, a mere palm tree. The water left in the great ocean stands at the height of seven fathoms, six fathoms, five fathoms, four fathoms, three fathoms, two fathoms, a fathom, half a fathom, up to the waist, up to the knees, up to the ankles. Just as in the autumn, when thick drops of rain are pouring down, the waters stand in the hoofprints of cattle here and there, so too waters left in the great ocean will stand here and there, in pools, the hoofprints of cattle.

With the appearance of the fifth sun, the water left in the great ocean is not enough even to reach the joint of one's fingers. There comes a time when, after a long time, a sixth sun appears. With the appearance of the sixth sun, this great earth and Sineru, the king of mountains, smoke, fume, and smolder, like a potter's fire when kindled first smokes, fumes, and smoulders. So, with the appearance of the sixth sun, this great earth and Sineru, the king of mountains, smoke, fume, and smoulder. There comes a time when, after a long time, a seventh sun appears. With the appearance of the seventh sun, this great earth and Sineru, the king of mountains, burst into flames, blaze up brightly, and become one of flame. As the great earth and Sineru are blazing and burning, the flame cast up by the wind rises even to the Brahma world. As Sineru is blazing and burning, it is undergoing destruction and being overcome by a great mass of heat. Mountain peaks of a hundred Yojanas disintegrate, mountain peaks of 200 Yojanas, 300 Yojanas, 400. So this is the fate of our planet.

Eventually it will be engulfed by the sun and it will just evaporate. Just disintegrate. So that is why the Buddha says, so impermanent are conditioned phenomena, so unstable, so unreliable. It is enough to become disenchanted with all conditioned phenomena, enough to become dispassionate towards them, enough to be liberated from them. So I hope you guys are seeing a pattern here: equanimity, disenchantment, and dispassion. That is what is going to lead you to the liberation of the mind, liberation from samsara. Whatever it is that you have as a source of clinging, whatever it is you have as a source of anxiety, as a source of craving, look through it with equanimity, disenchantment, and dispassion. Understand the gratification, and the danger, and the escape from that.

Gratification is to indulge in it. The danger is that it is ever-changing and can lead to dukkha. And the escape from it is to let go, is to abandon it. Then we come to the destruction of cosmos by fire, water, and air. So when we talk about the destruction by fire, that is really the seven suns. And then when we talk about the destruction of water, there are two ways of understanding it. So destruction by fire can be, of course, destruction of the earth through the sun, but also the destruction of an entire solar system through the sun. You have quasars and pulsars and all kinds of things.

Destruction by water is destruction when the earth is flooded by water. All the time, but we're talking about total destruction of the planet and the universe as we see it, or as we experience it. And so, Sariputta has mentioned this in Majjhima Nikaya 28. There he talks about the destruction by water, that there is a great ocean underneath the earth, and when that is disturbed, it shatters the earth, and the world is flooded by that water. Another way of looking at it is gravitation itself, gravitational fields and waves that can rip apart space entirely, the fabric of space. That is destruction by water. And in destruction by air, the winds on the earth, you have hurricanes and tornadoes, you have all kinds of gusts and gales that can cause destruction. Destruction by air, or wind, which is in relation to what we see in terms of black holes.

It just disintegrates everything. That's another way of looking at it. So within that understanding, it says here that the fire destroys everything up to the first Brahmaloka. The water destroys everything up to the second Brahmaloka. And the air destroys up to the third Brahmaloka. After seven destructions by fire, there is a destruction by water. After 56 destructions by fire and seven by water, there's a destruction by air. Which means this isn't the first time that the earth is going to go out like a flame ball. It's happened before and will continue to happen. Deal with it. Or not, your choice. But the point here is that samsara is cyclical.

Everything happens in cycles. We see that on our planet as well, with the seasons, with the trees growing and then decaying, growing and decaying. That's the nature of the universe, the nature of existence, arising and passing away, arising and passing away. Once you start to notice this, the gateway, the pathway, towards the destruction of conceit is the perception of impermanence, and that only happens once you understand dependent origination, once you start to see everything is dependently arisen. So there are these levels of perception. The perception of seeing things as dependently arisen leads to the perception of impermanence. That perception of impermanence leads to the perception of dukkha, that this is tiresome. And so that leads to disenchantment.

And then finally that leads to the perception of anatta. You stop taking it personally, that this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. And that leads to a very stable and collected equanimity. You see this in the practice of the jhanas as well. In infinite consciousness, you see the arising and passing away of consciousnesses. That is the impermanence. You become tired of it. And that is the dukkha. You realize there's no controller here. That is the anatta. What follows after that? The seventh jhana of nothingness, where there is equanimity as an object. So that's the perception of equanimity. As that happens, that equanimity deepens into disenchantment. Whatever formations start to arise in the 8th jhana, the mind becomes undisturbed by it.

It doesn't try to follow it along. It's just, okay, it is whatever it is. From that, there is dispassion, where the mind is in that bubble. So from that dispassion is cessation. So these are the levels of perception: the perception of dependent origination, the perception of impermanence, the perception of dukkha, the perception of anatta, the perception of equanimity, the perception of disenchantment, the perception of dispassion, which leads to cessation and liberation. Then we will go into sorrow and lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. And what is sorrow? Whenever by any kind of misfortune anyone is affected by something of a painful nature, sorrow, mourning, distress, inward grief, inward woe, is called sorrow. And what is lamentation?

Whenever by any kind of misfortune anyone is affected by something of a painful nature and there is crying out, lamenting, making much noise for grief, making great lamentation, that, monks, is called lamentation. And what is pain? Whatever bodily painful feeling, bodily unpleasant feeling, painful or unpleasant feeling, results from bodily contact. That, monks, is called pain. And what is sadness? Whatever mental painful feeling, mental unpleasant feeling, painful or unpleasant sensation, results from mental contact. That, monks, is called sadness. And what is distress? Whenever by any kind of misfortune, anyone is affected by something of a painful nature, distress, great distress, affliction, with distress, with great distress. That amongst is called distress. So we have sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress.

These are all experiences that we've had at one point or another in our lives. Bodily painful feeling. When you guys have been sitting three, four hours, that's a painful feeling that can arise. Mental painful feeling. When I've been talking for three, four hours, there's a mental painful feeling there. So how do you deal with that? How do you let go of those feelings? You can't. But you can 6R. And how do you 6R? And what do you 6R? The relationship your mind has in relation to that painful feeling, or to that grief, and how is it identifying with it? You recognize that, you let go of that, you release the tightness and tension coming from that, you come back to a wholesome state of mind through your smile, and you keep doing that over and over again until there is the remainderless fading away of that pain or your relationship with that pain.

So you're transforming how you identify with that pain. So when you're sitting for a long time, and the pain is there, it can arise in two different ways. There can be meditation pain, which arises where the mind is trying too hard and focusing too much, or painful feeling where you're just sitting for too long, and you really feel that painful feeling. In either way, what do you do? You back off. You relax. You soften the tightness and tension around the mental pain and your mental relationship to that physical pain. Likewise with sadness, grief, and despair. And so I'm going to give you a sutta here which exemplifies that. And you probably have heard of this one.

This is called: Bhikkhus, the uninstructed worldling feels a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling, and a neither painful nor pleasant feeling. The instructed noble disciple, too, feels a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling, and a neither painful nor pleasant feeling. Therein, Bhikkhus, what is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the uninstructed noble disciple and the uninstructed worldling? Venerable Sir, our teachings are rooted in the Blessed One, guided by the Blessed One, take recourse in the Blessed One. It would be good if the Blessed One would clear up the meaning of this statement. Having heard it from him, the Bhikkhus will remember it. Then listen and intend closely, Bhikkhus, I will speak. The Bhikkhus replied. The Blessed One said this.

Bhikkhus, when the uninstructed worldling is being contacted by a painful feeling, he sorrows, grieves, and laments. He weeps, beating his breast, and becomes distraught. He feels two feelings, a bodily one and a mental one. So what is the bodily one? That is the painful feeling he has. What is the mental feeling? The sorrow, the grief, the lamentation, the despair. Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, and then they would strike him immediately afterwards with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by two darts. So too, when the uninstructed worldling is being contacted by a painful feeling, he feels two feelings, a bodily one and a mental one. Being contacted by that same painful feeling, he harbors aversion towards it.

That is the underlying tendency towards aversion that underlies the painful experience. When he harbors aversion towards painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion towards painful feeling lies behind us. I just said that. Being contacted by painful feeling, he seeks delight in sensual pleasure. Now he's trying to push that and replace it with a sensory experience that is more pleasant. For what reason? Because the uninstructed worldling does not know of any escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure.

That's what happened. You experience suffering and one of two things can happen. There can be further suffering through confusion. And some people go and try to replace that suffering through all kinds of addictions and cravings for food, for drugs, for porn, for sex, for whatever it is. So that's the sensual pleasure. When he seeks delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling underlies that. He does not understand as it actually is the origin and the passing away, the gratification, the danger and the escape in the case of these feelings. When he does not understand these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance in regard to neither painful nor pleasant feeling underlies this.

Attached to dukkha. So the ignorance here is that for me, to get out of dukkha, I just have to replace all painful feelings with pleasant sensations. But by doing so, I am attaching myself to dukkha. That's not the way. Bhikkhus, when the instructed noble disciple is contacted by a painful feeling, he does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, beat his breast and become distraught. He feels one feeling, a bodily one, not a mental one. Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, but they would not strike him immediately afterwards with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by one dart only. So too, when the instructed noble disciple is contacted by a painful feeling, he feels one feeling, a bodily one, not a mental one.

Why? Because he understands. He sees that this feeling that arose is dukkha. He understands it arose due to causes and conditions. It is a vedana. It is a feeling born from contact. That contact was born from one of the six sense bases and so on and so forth. Understanding this, he does not crave or have aversion, I should say, towards it. He does not push it away. He understands, okay, it's not like he won't say ow if he stubs his toe. Of course he'll say oh, it's painful, it hurts, but he won't be upset by it. He won't gravitate towards it and take it personally and identify with it. He will, he or she, will just see it as a painful feeling and deal with it in whatever way he or she can. Being contacted by that same painful feeling, he harbors no aversion towards it.

Since he harbors no aversion towards painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion towards painful feeling does not underlie this. Being contacted by painful feeling, he does not seek delight in sensual pleasure. So that doesn't mean that if you have a painful feeling, if you break your arm, that you don't go try to fix it. Of course you go try to fix it. But what he is saying here is, for what reason does he not seek delight in sensual pleasure? Because the instructed noble disciple knows of an escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure. And what is that? Siksar. Siksar, but what does that take you to? Jhanas: mental, pleasant feeling. Mental, pleasant experiences. Try it out for yourself.

After you stub your toe and you treat it, go into Sajjana. See how you feel after that. Since he does not seek delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling does not lie behind this. He understands as it actually is the origin and the passing away. This painful feeling arose due to contact. When that contact ceases, that feeling will cease. The gratification. If I take this personally, this is going to cause me more pain. And that's the danger. And the escape in the case of these feelings. 6R's. Not the feeling itself. Mental conditioning in relation to that experience, to that painful or pleasant sensation. Since he understands these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance in regard to neither painful nor pleasant feeling does not lie behind this.

This is the great difference between the wise one and the worldling. For the learned one who has comprehended Dhamma, who sees clearly this world and the next, who understands this world and the next, in this case being jhana, desirable things do not provoke his mind towards the undesired. He has no aversion. For him, attraction and repulsion no more exist; both have been extinguished, brought to an end, having known the dust-free, sorrowless state. The transcender of existence rightly understands. So, why does the Buddha say that when one does not have a mental feeling, painful feeling, and does not resort to sensual pleasure, that he is not attached to dukkha? Why does he say that? Because he understands the links of dependent origination.

If there is no ignorance there, whatever formations come up will give rise to consciousness, give rise to a certain nama-rupa, sense basis; there is a contact with a bodily painful feeling. That is the vedana, the sensation, the experience. But because he has wisdom, due to his experience with the Dhamma, he does not attach a sense of self or identify with that painful feeling. Therefore, there won't be any underlying tendencies towards ignorance, towards craving, towards aversion, which can give rise to craving, the link of craving. And so, having demolished that whole link, linkage system of craving, clinging, becoming, the birth of action, there is no suffering there. He has let go of all mental suffering. But that can only happen through continuous practice of the 6R's.

Because that is the escape from sensual attachment. The more you are in a more elevated mental state, the less your mind gravitates towards sensory experiences to try to find or fill the hole in the heart, to try to fill that void. It replaces the attachment to sensory pleasures. You have to let go of the attachment to jhana itself, but first let's deal with the attachment to sensory pleasure. So now, I said we're going to get a little bit into karma, in the sense that we're going to understand what karma is in terms of contact, feeling, and what karma is in terms of craving and so on. So now he's still talking about the lists of dukkha. So now we have, back in the Digha Nikaya 22, Maha Satipatthana Sutta, he asks, course, good.

brother or sister or younger kinsmen or friends or colleagues or blood relations, and then is deprived of such concourse, intercourse, connection or union. That, monks, is called being separated from the loved. And what is not getting what one wants? In beings subject to birth, monks, this wish arises: Oh, that we were not subject to birth, that we might not come to birth! By wishing, just imagine if you could do that. I don't want to suffer anymore, I'm going to let go of samsara completely. If only, right! But this cannot be gained by merely wishing. This is not getting what one wants. And being subject to aging, to disease, to death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness and despair, this wish arises: Oh, that we were not subject to these things, and that we might not come to these things! But this cannot be gained by merely wishing. That is not getting what one wants. So these are all karmic in nature, all of these things that you are experiencing.

Separation from the loved, union with the unloved, not getting what you want, or getting what you don't want, let's say. All of these are karmic in nature. And what I mean by that is, first we have to understand what karma is. There are two types or categories of karma. There is old karma and there is new karma. There is the karma that has come to be and there is the karma that will come to be. There is the karma that is the activity born by or born from intention. And there is the karma that is called the vipaka, the fruit of previous actions. So that is the old and the new.

So I'm going to read a sutta to clarify what I'm talking about here. Bhikkhus, I will teach you new karma and old karma, the cessation of karma and the way leading to the cessation of karma. Listen to that and attend closely, I will speak. And what, bhikkhus, is old karma? The eye is old karma. To be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, to be felt. The ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, the mind is old karma. To be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt. This is called old karma. So what is that old karma? Sixth sense bases, to be made contact with and felt. How do the sixth sense bases arise?

With nama-rupa, through mentality-materiality. How does that arise? Through consciousness. How does that arise? Through formations. How do formations arise? Through ignorance. So everything from ignorance, to formations, to consciousness, to mentality-materiality, to the sixth sense bases, to contact and feeling, all of that is inherited karma. Karma that you inherit as a result of previous actions, previous intended mental, verbal, or bodily actions. So this is a little more cryptic, but I'm going to break it down for you. He says, called new karma, that's all he says. That's what new karma is. But new karma is of two kinds: the karma that is productive, and the karma that is non-productive, that is to say, the karma that is productive of further births of action, of further rebirths of action. Remember I told you yesterday, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

That's the definition of insanity and rebirth. Being in similar kinds of behavior patterns, being in similar kinds of situations, being in similar kinds of relationships, and so on, and not learning from them, and ultimately not being able to let go and identifying with them. New karma is productive whenever the mind identifies with it. And how does it identify with it? Now, as I said, all of old karma is everything from ignorance all the way up to feeling. If there is an underlying tendency, underlying that feeling that the mind clutches towards and identifies with, then it produces new karma that is productive of further rebirth, and further suffering. And what are the mechanics of that?

What are the gears that shift that new karma? Craving, clinging, becoming, leads to birth of action, which leads to all of dukkha. So how do you produce new karma without it being productive of dukkha? That's the key. What kind of action do you produce mentally, bodily, verbally, so that it is not productive of new karma? So first, the Buddha talks, because he always talks, sometimes about the four noble truths. He always contextualizes it with the four noble truths. So we've talked about the first noble truth of karma, right? So the reason I'm bringing this up is because we're talking about being attached to that which is unloved, loved and getting what one doesn't want or not getting what one wants. This is all karmic in nature. Remember, so all the sights that you have, all the smells, the tastes, the touch, the hearing, the sounds, the thoughts, all of that is old karma. All of that is a result of previous choices and intended bodily, mental and verbal actions. You are inheriting those.

Right now, you chose to come and sit and listen to me. That's your karma. You chose that, and now the old karma is listening to it, for better or worse. Right? But what about the new karma? The new karma can cease, but there is a certain way that that new karma ceases. And what, bhikkhus, is the cessation of karma? When one reaches liberation through the cessation of bodily action, verbal action, and mental action, this is called the cessation of karma. At the forefront, that sounds like you just stop acting, right? You stop thinking, you stop speaking, you stop doing anything. That's the only way to cease karma. But really, what we're talking about is action that has identification attached to it, action that is taken personally. But there is that speech, there is that action, there is that intention that is non-personal, that is impersonal, that is not taken personally, that is not identified with. And what is that? And what, bhikkhus, is the way leading to the cessation of karma?

It is this noble eightfold path that is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. That is the spontaneous action of an arahant. The spontaneous intention, the spontaneous speech, the spontaneous intention, action, livelihood, whatever it might be, that is non-productive of further karma. The way leading to the cessation of karma is encapsulated in the six R's. I'll give you an example. When you are meditating, a hindrance arises. What is that hindrance? It's a feeling. It's an experience. It's a mental feeling. Hindrance is old karma. It's the fruit of previous intentions. It has arisen due to something. Ill will arises because there was an intention of ill will.

Sensual craving arises because there was at some point an intention of sensual craving. Doubt arises due to certain actions, and so on and so forth. So how do you choose to deal with that hindrance? Push it away? Do you bring it more into the mind? Do you fight with it? Do you suppress it? What do you do with it? Any kind of action like that, which is to suppress it, which is to repel it, which is to push it, is only going to add further energy to it. So you acknowledge it. You understand that it is present as a feeling, as an experience. That's the recognized step. You release your attention from it and bring it back to mind and body, and you relax.

When you relax the tightness and tension, you're tranquilizing the formation so that you experience in that moment nirodha, cessation of suffering, dukkha nirodha. You experience mundane nibbana where the mind is clear, spacious. No kind of self-referential thought present. And then you replace it with a wholesome state of mind using the smile and whatever your meditation object is. So the mind remains collected. That is how you deal with that hindrance. But guess what? You could use the six R's to deal with any kind of karma. If you're dealing with situations that are difficult, if you're dealing with difficult people, that's your karma. What do you do with that? Do you argue with them? Do you fight with them?

Do you resort to violence and abuse and all these other things? Or do you see what's going on, what's actually going on? You're taking it personally, and so you recognize that, you let go of that, you relax. And what happens in that moment is wisdom arises. You go from the wrong intention that could lead to wrong speech and wrong action by six R'ing that, and it's replaced automatically with the spontaneous right intention, right speech, and right action. So the arahant experiences karma. But they experience old karma all the time. Whatever intentions they have is rooted in right intention. Whatever speech they have is rooted in right speech. Whatever action they have is rooted in right action.

So that karma is non-productive. The Eightfold Path is the way leading to the cessation of that karma. What karma? Of potential dukkha, cessation of potential dukkha that is propagated and proliferated through craving, clinging, and becoming, and the birth of action. Thus, because I have taught you old karma, I have taught you new karma, I have taught you the cessation of karma and the way leading to the cessation of karma, what should be done, bhikkhus, by a compassionate teacher, out of compassion for his disciples, desiring their welfare, that I have done for you. There are these feet of trees, bhikkhus. There are these empty huts. Meditate, bhikkhus. Do not be negligent, lest you regret it later. This is our instruction to you.

And now, finally, we will get into sankhara dukkha. That is the five aggregates themselves. So, going back to the Digha Nikaya 22, Mahasatipatthana Sutta, the Buddha says, These are, in short, the five aggregates affected by freedom and clinging that are suffering. And that amongst is called the noble truth of suffering. So the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.

Ultimately, to let go of all suffering, you have to let go of all identification with any of these five aggregates. That was a purpose of introducing that contemplation practice for yesterday, because when you properly do that, in whatever way it is applicable to your mindset, whether you want to see form in the form of the four great elements and then rip them apart little by little and see that there is no self there, whether you want to see them in the form of the body or the form of molecules, whatever it is, however you want to do it, the key there is to see the impermanent nature of each of these aggregates. Because as I said earlier, the gateway to the discussion of conceit is the perception of impermanence.

Letting go of identifying with these aggregates is to understand that they are unstable, not worth holding on to, and should not be considered, therefore, as me, mine, or myself. Because it is through these aggregates that an identity arises, which is what I'll talk about now. Here it's from the Majjhima Nikaya 44, Chula Vela Sutta. This is the Vela Sutta, which is the discussion between Visaka and Dhamma Dina. And the question he asks is, Lady, identity, identity is said. What is called identity by the Blessed One? Friend Visaka, again, they're contextualizing this in the form of the Four Noble Truths. Friend Visaka, these five aggregates affected by craving and clinging are called identity by the Blessed One.

That is, the form aggregate, the feeling aggregate, the perception aggregate, the formations aggregate, and the consciousness aggregate. These five aggregates affected by craving and clinging are called identity by the Blessed One. Saying, Good lady, the lay follower Visaka delighted and rejoiced in the Bhikkhuni Dhamma Dina's words. Then he asked her a further question. Lady, origin of identity, origin of identity is said. What is called the origin of identity by the Blessed One? Friend Visaka, it is craving, renewal of being is accompanied by delight and lust and delights in this and that. That is craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and craving for non-existence. This is called the origin of identity. This is how the five aggregates came to be, through some form of craving or another.

We are all here due to craving. Not here specifically, but here in existence, due to craving. Craving has led to rebirth. Lady, cessation of identity, cessation of identity is said. What is called the cessation of identity by the Blessed One? Friend Visaka, it is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting of that same craving. It is the cessation of that, which is called the cessation of identity by the Blessed One. What is it that you're letting go? What is the craving that you're letting go? Identifying with these five aggregates, letting go of taking them personally. So what is the form aggregate here? The form aggregate is not just your body.

The form aggregate is this microphone. The form aggregate is this table. The form aggregate is this bowl. The form aggregate is this bottle. Whatever was there in the past, whatever will be there in the future, all of that is form aggregate, whether it's internal in terms of your organs or external in terms of whatever objects you see around you, whether it's near, like this bowl here, or far, which is my bowl somewhere in India, whether it's gross, which is here and now in terms of the body, or whether it's subtle in terms of levels of form, whatever they are, that is called form aggregate. So yes, you can let go of identifying with the body and you say this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. But what about this bowl? Somebody takes away this bowl, no, this is my bowl. Actually, I don't think this is mine. But it's all form. All of it is form aggregate.

What about feeling aggregate? Feeling aggregate is an experience. We'll take feeling and perception together since they're tied together. Feeling aggregate or perception aggregate, in terms of whatever you feel or experience right here or right now. You identify with it. You're taking it personally, and that leads to further craving and suffering. Feeling that you're experiencing here through the sixth sense basis, or that feeling could be another person's feeling. That too can lead to suffering. Identifying with another person's unpleasant feeling, which many people mistake as compassion, can lead to suffering. Don't identify with other people's painful feeling. The point is not to be cold and dismissive. The point is to realize: if you identify and take personally another person's painful feeling, how are you going to help that person?

You have to understand that that is their experience, that is whatever they are experiencing, and let go of any identification there. In other words, you let go of all identification to the point that you do not even have any attachment to the advice and suggestions that you're giving, the outcome of that advice or suggestion, whether they take it or not. That's the biggest challenge for a Dhamma teacher, right? It's so funny. I was talking to Bhante. He told me about this. He said, how many times he would drill it into students. This is how it is. This is the instruction and this is the insight and all of these things. And one day they'll come to him knocking on his cabin door and say, hey, I got it.

And they will just repeat everything he just said for the last decade. And all Bhante will say is, that's great, good for you. So all feeling, all perception, all concepts, not me, not mine, not myself. As soon as you identify with it, craving, clinging, becoming, and birth of personalized action that leads to dukkha. Formations aggregate. This is related to your intentions, choices, and decisions. Attaching to them can lead to one of two things. If it was a bad choice, it could lead to regret. If it was a good choice, it could lead to pride. Both of which can lead to further suffering. And both of which are rooted in conceit. And finally, consciousness. Six-sense consciousness, taking that personally.

And consciousness as something to be seen as an awareness outside of time and space. That too can be taken personally. That too can give rise to certain views and opinions that the mind attaches a sense of self to and feels like it has to defend. Any consciousness, whether it's here and now, the present, whether it was out and back in the past, or will come to be, whether it's consciousness internally, whether it's consciousness here, or consciousness there, or consciousness there, whatever consciousness it is, gross or subtle, all of that is consciousness aggregate. Whether it's consciousness that you experience in jhana, whether it's consciousness that you experience as quiet mind, whether it's consciousness you experience as the signless state, all of that is a consciousness aggregate.

But if you identify with it, that will lead to further rebirth, further dukkha. If you let go of the identification and just allow the consciousness to be as it is, not even identifying with the awareness, then you will experience cessation. Then you will know dukkhanirodha. Lady, the way leading to the cessation of identity, the way leading to the cessation of identity is said. What is called the way leading to the cessation of identity by the Blessed One? Path that is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The 6R's. How do you let go of identity? The 6R's. Notice the tightness and tension that arises whenever the mind is identifying with an experience, and let go of the I.

Let go of the me. Let go of the mind. Self. Let go of attaching a personal sense of self to it. Just recognize it. Let go of it. Relax. Stay in the awareness of that. But don't identify with that awareness. And a very interesting question. Friend, is that clinging the same as these five aggregates? Or is the clinging something apart from the five aggregates? Friend Visaka, that clinging is neither the same as these five aggregates affected by clinging, nor is clinging something apart from the five aggregates affected by clinging. It is the desire and lust in regard to the five aggregates affected by clinging that is the clinging there. That is apart from the five aggregates, then it would be a sixth aggregate that you could just let go of.

But if it was the same as the five aggregates, when you let go of the clinging, there are no more aggregates. But the clinging there is the lust and desire in regard to the five aggregates. What does that mean? The identification to those five aggregates. Letting go of that, then the five aggregates are just as they are, the five aggregates. And actually, in reality, believe it or not, the five aggregates have always just been that, the five aggregates. It's the mind and the conceit related to the five aggregates that have caused the suffering. Letting go of that, there are then just these five aggregates, the same for the arahant. Now the one who is fully awakened has let go completely of the link of ignorance.

So whatever formations arise are all impersonal, obviously, but they're just carriers of fruition of previous karma, allowing that karma to come to fruition, to be felt in the sixth sense spaces, to be made contact and felt at the link of feeling. But because there's no more ignorance, which means there's no more a lack of mindfulness, that there is total mindfulness and proper and total attention rooted in reality, which means the mind sees that experience for what it is, it will not give rise to any underlying tendencies that can give rise to craving or clinging or becoming. So for the fully awakened mind, there is no more ignorance there, no more clinging, no more becoming, no more birth, and no more birth of action either, because that action is productive of karma.

There's only action that is null and void, that is not productive of new dukkha, of new suffering, of new reactions. So what are present in that fully awakened mind? Formations, consciousness, nama-rupa, mentality, materiality, the sixth sense basis, contact and feeling. These are all related to what? The five aggregates. Five aggregates are still present. The difference now is there is no more lust and desire in regard to them. No more conceit. No more identification.

Thus ends the talk. Let's share some merit. We'll take a break. May suffering ones be suffering free and the fear struck fearless be. May the grieving share 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.