Day 5 "Dependent Origination Part 2" Oct 26-Nov2 Retreat at St Francis

So yesterday we discussed the latter half of dependent origination. I just want to quickly review those links so we can go in the flow of what all that is. So we started off with jara marana, which is old age and death. And this is part of the larger umbrella of dukkha. Dukkha here is suffering or the instability of existence in many different forms. In the form of old age, sickness, dying, grief, despair, sorrow, lamentation, changes in the form of an inherent sort of suffering that's present whenever we identify with any of the five aggregates.

And then dependent on that is what we've said is birth, jati. And here birth is referring to birth in terms of coming into being in a physical existence or even a non-physical existence. We also said that birth is the birth of action, the birth of karmic action, which is a birth of intentional action rooted in the sense of self. And this is dependent upon and conditioned by something known as bhava. And bhava here is translated sometimes as existence, sometimes as being or becoming, sometimes as habitual tendencies, various kinds of reactions that we have to different situations that we've experienced in the past and relate to different levels of consciousness in the mind.

This bhava is dependent upon something known as clinging. And as we discussed, there are four types of clinging. There's the clinging to sensual pleasures, the clinging to views, the clinging to rites and rituals, and the clinging to self-views. We make associations and rationales for why it is that we like something, we don't like something, or we identify with something. And this is dependent upon something known as craving, tanha. And there are three types of craving. There's craving for sensual pleasures, there's craving for forms, and craving for existence is a better way of putting it. These are the three broad categories.

But craving in essence is the obsessive desire to control how things ought to be from a sense of self. I don't like this, I want it to change. I like this, I want it to continue. Or I am this and I defend that. Now, we ended with saying that the condition for craving is feeling, vedana. But how does feeling go to craving? Is feeling just an impersonal process?

What is feeling? What is vedana? Vedana means to know something, right? To understand something, to experience something. So I don't like to use the word feeling because that can complicate things in terms of emotions and things like that. It is all-encompassing. It can be a physical experience, it can be a mental experience, it can be an emotional experience, it could be a spiritual experience.

And that encompasses all of that. And there are three broad categories of vedana. There's pleasant, unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant. So how does vedana lead to tanha? Through what are known as the underlying tendencies, anusayas. These underlying tendencies arise in conjunction to or in reaction to whatever the vedana is, or the quality of vedana that is arising. What are these seven underlying tendencies?

There is the underlying tendency towards craving, the underlying tendency towards aversion, doubt, the underlying tendency towards views, the underlying tendencies towards conceit, the underlying tendencies towards becoming, and the underlying tendency towards ignorance. So here's what happens. When there is a pleasant sensation in the body or the mind, the mind sees and perceives that as, this is pleasant.

So we're going to take the classic example, chocolate cake. So chocolate cake is an object, right? But to me, it's a pleasant object, because when I see chocolate cake, there is this immediate sort of perception of, this is pleasant to me. So now that it's pleasant to me, there arises in me this reaction: I want this, and I won't stop until I have it. That is the underlying tendency towards craving.

So when I have that underlying tendency towards craving, now my mind is in full-blown craving mode in search of that chocolate cake. I want to get a piece of that chocolate cake. And I push and shove and I go past everybody for that chocolate cake. And now there's the clinging. I like chocolate cake, and this is why, and so on and so forth.

So let's say I'm on my way to go and get chocolate cake, but Jordan has something to report about the retreat. And my mind is just thinking about chocolate cake. But Jordan is speaking and telling me, we've done this and this is going on, and what do you think about this? And now Jordan is annoying me, because he's getting in the way of my chocolate cake. So he becomes my object of aversion.

And so when I look at Jordan and I say, Jordan, in my mind, can you get out of the way so I can get chocolate cake? That is my underlying tendency towards aversion. And if Jordan doesn't get out of the way, I'm going to have to use some stern words and say, look, Jordan, let's talk about this later. I need that chocolate cake. I don't care about hurting Jordan's feelings. I just want chocolate cake. That's the obsessive desire that I have, and that's the level of craving that arises.

That's what craving is. Just because you want something, just because you desire something, is not craving. It's the obsession around it, the desire to control how things should be. Just because somebody is irritating and annoying doesn't mean that you have aversion in such a way that you're obsessed by it. That is the aversion. So then, we have something known as the underlying tendency towards views. So the underlying tendency towards views can be for a pleasant sensation, an unpleasant sensation, or a neutral sensation.

I develop certain opinions about that particular experience. This is wonderful. This chocolate cake tastes amazing, right? And so now I create a certain kind of opinion about chocolate cake. So now next time we are in a discussion and somebody brings up red velvet cake, I'm like, what are you talking about? Chocolate cake is the best. I have created opinions around that chocolate cake, right? And this is what happens with everything in our experience. With certain experiences, we've already concluded this experience is not that great, or this experience is excellent, or this experience is mine and I have to defend it. This is what the underlying tendency towards views is. And when I go in that form of opinionating everything, then there is the propulsion towards full-blown craving and clinging and so on.

The underlying tendency towards doubt. So there is a sensation that arises, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, but I'm not so sure about my mental state in reference to that experience. There's a certain cloudedness in my mind, there's a perplexity in my mind. I'm not sure where my mind is in relation to when it becomes agitated, and I may make a decision that is not rooted in intuition, not rooted in clarity, not rooted in mindfulness, which can lead towards craving, towards identifying, lead towards clinging, and so on and so forth.

Then there's something known as the underlying tendency towards conceit. What is conceit? This word conceit comes from the word mana in Pali. And mana means to measure. You've all heard the saying, comparison is the thief of joy. This is what happens. I have this chocolate cake, but I see the person in front of me has a triple-decker chocolate cake.

And now I compare my measly chocolate cake with that other chocolate cake. And now I desire that chocolate cake, and I do everything I can to get that particular chocolate cake. I get obsessed. I no longer enjoy the chocolate cake I used to, because it's not enough, because I've compared it. And that comes from a sense of me. Mine. Myself.

It's either better than what I have, or it's less than what I have. So maybe my chocolate cake is better, so I have pride about it, right? Or that it's equal to. Even the sense that it's equal to comes from a sense of this is me. This is mine. This is myself. There's over 30 different types of conceit.

I don't know the exact number, but it is more than 30 for sure. And they're related to the different experiences in the mind with reference to the sixth sense basis, with reference to feeling, with reference to contact, with reference to mental feeling, and so on and so forth, the aggregates. So anytime there's a process of this is me, this is mine, this is myself, and I compare that this I have and this that person has, then there's agitation.

And from that agitation I act. And so my mindfulness is muddled, if at all, if it's there. And so when I act from there, there's an obsessive desire to either make it this way or to push it away, or to become more rooted in the sense of self. Then there's something known as the underlying tendency towards becoming, towards bhava.

Now we've already talked about bhava. We've already said what bhava is. Bhava is the habitual tendencies towards a specific reaction dependent upon the situation at hand. It's an automatic thing. It's a reaction. rooted in mindfulness, rooted in clarity, rooted in what is happening presently. Giving the mind time enough to come together and instead of reacting, deciding what is the best option here for the given situation.

But in the case of the underlying tendency towards becoming, it's basically saying that I have this feeling. And it could be pleasant or it could be unpleasant. And I want it to continue. I want it to continue in existence if it's a pleasant experience. I don't want it to continue if it's an unpleasant experience. And that initial reaction from there is the underlying tendency towards becoming. Ignorance.

What do we mean by ignorance? Ignorance is, for all intents and purposes, practically speaking, the lack of mindfulness. What is mindfulness? Present moment awareness, along with the clear comprehension of what is arising in reference to the present moment. In other words, as Bhante Vimalaramsi would say, how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. But when I have ignorance, I'm unable to be aware of what is arising in the present moment. I have what is known as muddled mindfulness.

And why is that? Because in the seeing, there isn't just the seen. In the hearing, there isn't just the heard. There's a me over there. There's a duality over there. That this is me experiencing so and so and so. And that ignorance is the misperception of that which is conditioned as unconditioned, that which is impermanent as permanent, that which is dukkha as sukkha, that which is not-self as self.

The inability to grasp the moment as it actually is, which is ultimately empty of all self. So when I take something personally in that way, there's the underlying tendency towards ignorance. And from there I act out of craving, clinging, becoming, and the birth of action arises. Experience and craving. So how do we let go of these underlying tendencies?

By just experiencing. By allowing experience to flow. Experience everything fully without supplanting a sense of I onto it. Let interpretation go on, let perception go on, let whatever is going on in terms of cognizing the experience happen. But as soon as you notice that I'm taking this personally, you disengage. You drop the I and let experience flow just as experience. And there then is that meditative practice of: in the seeing there's only the seen, in the hearing there's only the heard, in the sensing there's only the sensed. In the cognizing, there's only the cognized.

Just that is the end of suffering. And in that is nirvana. When you are just experiencing everything as it actually is, without the interrupted flow, the interruption here being the sense of I, when you catch that I'm taking this personally, and you disengage, then what do you do? You sink back into full awareness of the experience, without me as the ego experiencing it, but rather just a flow of experience as an impersonal process that's happening.

And when this happens, therein is nirvana. In that space is nirvana. That awareness remains untethered to anything, as we were talking about before, that non-reflective awareness, where all concepts cease and all there is, is flow. Now this experience, vedana, is conditioned by something known as contact, phassa. What do we mean by contact? Contact is made up of three things.

The first is the sense base: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. The second is the sense object: forms and colors, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings in terms of the tangible to the body, internally and externally, thoughts. When they make contact there is a corresponding underlying awareness tied to them: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mind consciousness. Now here's something important to understand. When we think about or talk about thoughts, there are two categories of thoughts.

There is the passive thought, where there's a stream of thoughts coming and going in the mind. And as I always say, it's like the green of the grass. You can't make the grass blue. You can't just say, let the grass be blue. Thoughts are going to be whatever they are. Here is a thought of lust. Here is a thought of ill will. Here is a thought of happiness. Here is a thought of empathetic joy. Here is a thought of stillness. Whatever the thought is and the quality of the thought is, we are not in control of that. However, how we respond to that thought is what we are in control of in every given moment.

Then there is the active thinking, vitakka and vicara. Vitakka and vicara is thinking and examining thought. Here is a thought. What do I choose to do with it? If the I comes up, the me, mine, myself comes up, then I look at that thought and I own that thought. I make that thought me. Now, instead of being in the background as the observer, just the silent witness of the stream of thoughts, I engage with one of those thoughts in the proliferation of that thought.

Another word for samsara is prapancha, or prapancha, which is proliferation of thoughts. That is our world. It is a world of concepts and ideas. Nothing more than that. But we take that and we make it more than it actually is. But as soon as we see that our world, as it were, is just made up of various kinds of concepts ideas and thoughts then we learn to disengage from that and Nibbana is ni prapancha nish prapancha no proliferation but what it actually means is the non-proliferation of thoughts and ideas in other words the eye is removed from the stream of thoughts whenever we put on the brakes and disengage and back into that background awareness which is the beginning of Nibbana.

And the more we sink into that and allow thoughts to come and go and don't interfere with it, because in the interference of it is the proliferation, is the prapancha, is the samsara. But the non-interference of it and the disengagement from it is Nibbana. Let's talk about contact. Right now, hopefully, you all are paying attention to my words.

You're listening to what I'm saying. The sound of my voice is making contact with your eardrums. And if the nerves are there, there is an underlying consciousness that arises dependent upon those two. And the meeting of those three is contact. What is contact dependent upon? Or what is contact creating? Attention. Attention carries forward consciousness. Attention is the direction of the flow of consciousness.

If you are all looking at me right now, there is a consciousness that is arising dependent upon the eyes making contact with me. But as soon as I tell you to pay attention to the statue of this Buddha, now all your eyes are diverted to that. And therefore there is contact with the Buddha statue. And there is an underlying awareness dependent upon the two. And there is contact there. And there is a seeing of the Buddha. But where did I go? Right? Where did the underlying consciousness dependent upon making contact with me go?

It disappeared as soon as my attention moved from me to the Buddha statue. And this is what happens in meditation. The hindrance and the underlying consciousness depend upon the mind, and the hindrance that arises, and there is hindrance going on continuously. But as soon as I acknowledge that this is the process that's happening and I gently disengage from it, redirect my attention, now what has happened? The attention has moved from the hindrance to something else, and now the hindrance disappears from my view. To the hindrance that causes its sustenance, its nutriment, its further proliferation.

So the cessation of contact means the cessation of attention given to any specific object, and therefore the cessation of the experience of that object, and therefore the cessation of any potential craving for that specific object, and so on and so forth. This contact is obviously dependent upon the six sense bases. That is the salayatana. So that is the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind. These sense bases are receptors.

They receive signals from the so-called outside world. The eyes pick up certain frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. The ears pick up certain pressure points in the air, in the atmosphere, internally and externally. The nose and tongue pick up, in the case of the nose, the olfactory bulb picks up, I should say, odor molecules. The receptors in the tongue pick up flavor molecules and interpret whatever that is, and then the body internally and externally senses certain changes in the pressure, and then the mind. Where is the mind? Is it here? Is it here? Where is it? Apparently it picks up thoughts, the thoughts.

Right? Our mind is the main receptacle for all of that, which then experiences and perceives. Is the mind the brain? Is the mind the nervous system? In the old days they say that the mind is the citta, is in the heart, the spiritual heart. And actually this is mind. And so they were called that heart mind, or translated as heart mind.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter. It's another concept. What should be understood is how the mind takes all this data and interprets it for us. It takes all of this, intellectualizes what it is, creates views about what it is, and so on and so forth. But if you just leave the mind without the sense of I, then the mind is just another function.

It's just another receiver of things, of information. And that little commentator that happens in the meditation that says, oh, now I'm feeling this. Oh, now loving-kindness is going on. Oh, now I'm in the seventh jhana. Oh, now I experienced this. We think that that's something to be let go of. But that's part of mind. That's the nature of mind. So these sense bases are essentially the things that allow us to experience this matrix.

That's all it is. They allow us to plug into the matrix. The experience of the matrix seems to be pointing towards some kind of consensus reality, but how can we be objectively sure about that? So these sense bases are dependent on something known as mentality-materiality, namarupa, which also means name and form. What is name? It's made up of five things as per the Buddhist understanding.

It's feeling, perception, intention, attention, and contact. And form is made up of the four great elements: earth, water, fire, and air. In other words, these are the different kinds of states of matter: solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasma. So heat and temperature and fire and all of those things. But when we talk about the mentality, these are faculties of the mind.

So the faculty of feeling is essentially an instrument through which we can pick up experience. Faculty of perception is an instrument through which we perceive, that is, that which we label what we see as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral at the very foundation of it. Or that this is the color yellow, this is the statue of the Buddha, this is a phone, this is a table. It's cold. All of these are perceptions, labeling.

It's cold. All of these are perceptions, labeling. So the faculty of perception allows for that to happen. The faculty of intention allows for volition to happen, for choice to happen. But choice is conditioned. So therein comes the modern question, is there free will? have free will we have what is known as conditioned will in every given moment we are provided a choice and due to our samskaras which we'll get to shortly it pushes us in a certain direction where we almost automatically make that particular decision or choice however we have something what my friend venerable would say is free won't the ability to say no in that given moment if our mind is geared towards being upset at a very aggravating situation it's obviously expected that our mind will be upset in that moment but there is something that rises and says no I can choose not to be upset in this moment.

That is conditioned by new information that lets us know that there is another way out. And so I make that choice. And the more I make that choice, the more I condition or recondition that process. And that is the basis of all the Dhamma, is a reconditioning from that which is unwholesome towards the wholesome. And in a further reconditioning of disengaging from adding a personal self to that choice and seeing it all as just an impersonal process.

Then attention. Attention is the directionality of consciousness, of awareness. And contact. We already talked about contact. Our contact is the instrument that allows that process to happen. In some sense, you can say it's the nerves that allow us to pick up sound, pick up light, pick up color, pick up odor molecules, pick up flavor molecules, and so on and so forth.

In some sense, mentality, materiality is in itself the nervous system. But I want to go back to attention for a moment. Attention is so important to understand. Here is how you can think of meditation. Meditation is like a performance on stage. In the case of, let's say, for simplicity's sake, object meditation, so we have loving-kindness performing on stage.

Now what happens is there is here a dancer or a performer going from place to place on the stage of our mind. And there is a spotlight that follows the dancer or the performer. That spotlight is attention. That spotlight is what gives direction to our consciousness. That is attention. That which moves the spotlight around is intention. Choosing to stay with the performer.

And the stage manager who makes sure that the guy running the spotlight is not falling asleep is mindfulness. Right? And this is what meditation is. And our ability to pay attention for a longer period of time creates collectedness. And there is coherence to the performance. And that is samadhi. So attention is that important to understand. Because when we see that everything that we give our undue attention to, it is nutriment, then we have a choice to change the spotlight, go from seeing the villain to the hero of the performance, going from seeing the hindrance to the object of meditation. And our world is basically vying for attention all the time.

The greatest currency that we have in this world is our attention. Where do we choose to spend it? And how do we choose to spend it? How we choose to spend it determines whether we experience suffering or the cessation of suffering. So this mentality materiality, in essence, is a stand-in or another way of looking at the five aggregates. When you have form, the four great elements, that is the form aggregate. The faculty of feeling is the feeling aggregate. The faculty of perception is the perception aggregate. The faculty of intention is the formations aggregate, samskaras or sankharas. And the faculty of attention is the consciousness aggregate through which the consciousness flows.

So therefore, this mentality materiality is interdependent with what is known as consciousness. What is consciousness? How do we define consciousness? How do we experience consciousness? Buddhist understanding. Consciousness is always dependent. Consciousness is dependent upon some kind of fuel for it to arise. This is why we say we have the six kinds of consciousness: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness.

Now, when we talk about something like rebirth from lifetime to lifetime, that is known as the Gandhabba. It is known as the Patisandhi Vinnana, the rebirth-linking consciousness. But we don't need to know about that, because this life is enough to deal with. capacity for the samskaras, which are all of the different choices and all the potential karma that can arise, that carries it forward from one life. Why? Because in that previous life, we experience some kind of life review process.

We see our life. We see all the good things and all the bad things. Or there is some being that comes to us. You'll see this if you've been around people who are dying long enough that a couple of weeks, maybe 10 days, maybe a week, maybe a few days before they're dying, they somehow see and interact with their long-gone relative.

It's a sign that they're ready to go. And sometimes they may see other kinds of beings and they're not able to comprehend or don't have the ability to say that, I saw an angel, some kind of demonic figure, or whatever it is. And that gives rise to some kind of a reaction. So now, in the moments of dying, there are all of these events that happen, which can give rise to regret or remorse, which can give rise to craving. I want to experience that again. I want a do-over. And so that craving

fuels the jetting of all of the other samskaras that are present. And the consciousness, that is the Patisandhi consciousness, the rebirth-linking consciousness, takes all of that, takes it from that life and brings it into a new life. And so the Buddha says, as per what's known as the greater discourse on the destruction of craving, the Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta, there he says that this Gandhabba is just one component. You need three things. You need mother, father, and the Gandhabba. So you need the genetic material in order to be a perfect match for all of the samskaras to come together and connect with that genetic material. And then there's an evolution of that in the womb as a fetus.

And the samskaras continue to be pruned and tailored as per the experience of the mother that the fetus is in the womb of. And so when children are born, they have a larger collection of synapses. And those are pruned as we have other experiences as we're growing. And then identity is created around that, interdependent with nama-rupa, with mentality materiality. In order for mentality materiality to function, it needs an underlying consciousness. But for that underlying consciousness to function, it needs the vehicle of mentality materiality. You need both.

Now this consciousness is dependent on something known as sankharas or samskaras. There are three categories of samskaras. There's the physical, or the bodily, the verbal, and the mental. The bodily have to do with action and movement of the body, the inhalation and exhalation of the body, and so on and so forth. So these are different kinds of... Basically, it has many different connotations, but they are basically impressions, right? They are left behind from our previous experiences that continue to redefine and recondition what this mind-body complex is, what it is experiencing, and how it interprets that experience. So they are conditioners.

They're formations. They form up. Sankhara literally means to cook up, to create something. So in the case of verbal formations, why are they called verbal? Actually, we can say verbal, but another word for it is they are thinking formations, the active principle of thinking. Thought or concept or some kind of sensual experience, I have a reflection on that experience, and I think about it, and I express in speech what I think about it.

Those are verbal formations. They allow us to express. Mental formations allow us to feel and perceive. And formations also are the carriers of karma. That's why they're also called karmic samskaras, or karmic formations. Because what happens is when there is contact, now, this is where it gets interesting. When there is contact, we think it gives rise to feeling. But contact gives rise to feeling and perception. Contact also gives rise to intention.

Contact also gives rise to karma. Why? Because karma is intention. And karma is of two types. Old karma, which is the fruit of previous actions, that's also known as vipaka in Pali, and karma as an action that we do in every given moment. The active principle of that karma, the new karma, is created through a reaction to what we are experiencing in this given moment.

And when it has a sense of self and we take it personally, the craving arises, the clinging arises, the becoming arises, the birth of further karmically productive action arises. So the formations take that, and when there is the right set of causes and conditions that come together, that activates certain formations, that then condition how we see the world and cognize it, that's the consciousness, then conditions the functioning of mentality, materiality, the sixth sense basis, the contact, and then the feeling, and any underlying tendency that might arise. These formations are dependent on what is known as ignorance.

Ignorance means or comes from the word avija or avidya. That is lack of knowledge, lack of wisdom, lack of mindfulness. What is that wisdom that we're talking about? The realization and deep understanding that it is an impersonal process. Every time I'm not aware of that, ignorance arises. Every time I'm not aware of the Four Noble Truths, in so far as not recognizing that this is suffering and my reaction to it is causing the suffering, and not realizing the cessation of that suffering by not applying the Fourth Noble Truth, the Eightfold Path, which is also leading to the cessation of karma.

So when that ignorance is present, as lack of mindfulness in every given moment, that gives rise to those particular formations, and hence the whole chain reaction starts. But this ignorance is also dependent on something, or interdependent on something. What? Something known as the asavas. Asavas. This is translated as defilements, as taints. I define them as viruses. Because that's what they are. They infect the system.

And there are three types. There is the virus of the craving for sensual pleasures. There's a virus for the craving for a certain existence, and there's a virus of ignorance itself. So what do we mean by this? Whenever there is a sensual experience, I get caught up in it, and I take it personally. This feeds back to that virus, which strengthens that whole flow.

Every time I have a desire to control how things should be, to be, that's a desire for a certain kind of state, a desire for a certain kind of existence. This feeds back to that virus, conditioning that whole process. And this is dependent upon every time I have lack of mindfulness of what is the experience, which is basically just an impersonal process. Those viruses, and hence strengthens ignorance, and hence gives rise to the karmic formations, which then condition how I become aware of certain things. I didn't want to get into this because it would just further complicate things, but the consciousness also is underlying, or it has the underlying upakilesas, which are 16 in number.

We won't get into that. But this awareness then conditions how the mentality materiality picks up information and interprets it, and where it chooses to pay attention to things. And if my mindfulness is muddled, and I have what is known as improper attention, attention not rooted in reality, where I misperceive that which is impermanent as permanent, that which is dukkha as happiness, that which is not Self as Self, then invariably I will have craving and then clinging and becoming.

But every time I become aware of it and I let it go, in that moment I experience the third noble truth. The cessation of craving is the cessation of suffering. The cessation of clinging is the cessation of suffering. The cessation of becoming is the cessation of suffering. And all of that is nibbana, when I can tap into that cessation and allow my mind to relax into that, and there's nothing else for me to do, and there's only peace there. There's only this understanding that this is sublime, this is peaceful, namely, the destruction of craving, the relinquishing of all acquisitions. Nibbana.