Day 3: Awakening Factors-Netherlands Oct 2023

So today we'll talk about the seven factors of awakening. Yesterday we spoke about the five hindrances. These are the challenges you will meet up with in your meditation. Now I will talk about, I found this on the web, five things are the challenges you meet up with in your meditation. Okay. So the five hindrances are the distractions that you will have to deal with in your practice, but the enlightenment factors, the seven enlightenment factors, can be seen as antidotes in some ways to the five hindrances. But more importantly, the way to look at how one experiences jhanas as you start to progress on this path is that it is the eradication, or the temporary stilling at least, of the five hindrances, the non-presence or the absence of hindrances, but also the presence and activation and maintenance of wholesome states of mind, which include these seven enlightenment factors. So what are the seven enlightenment factors? Mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, joy,

tranquility, collectedness and equanimity. So when we look at these enlightenment factors, there's a reason why they're called enlightenment factors. You require them in your meditation, you require them in your daily practice, for the purposes of awakening, for the purposes of letting go and experiencing deeper states that allow you to have the ability to have a profound wisdom and insight that naturally arise. So let's talk first and foremost about mindfulness. Mindfulness comes from the word sati, the Pali word sati, which comes from the Sanskrit word smriti. Smriti means to remember. It is the process of memory itself.

So in the sutras, actually, you will see in some sutras it talks about how mindfulness is the ability to remember things very clearly. That's one aspect, but it's also the application of right effort, and the first part of that is applying the ability to see and know where your mind's attention is in every moment. So in Majjhima Nikaya 10 we have the Satipatthana Sutta. The difference between the two is that in the Satipatthana Sutta it talks about mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feeling, mindfulness of consciousness or mind, and mindfulness of phenomena. It does the same thing in the Digha Nikaya version, but the difference is that there is a deeper elaboration and explanation of the four noble truths as part of the phenomena that happens in everyday

life. So we talked about mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feeling, mindfulness of mind, or citta, and mindfulness of phenomena. So coming back to this understanding, if you use this understanding that mindfulness is the ability to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other, then you can apply it for any of these different foundations of mindfulness. The Satipatthana linked to mindfulness is something known as sampajanya. In Pali, sampajanya is usually seen as the ability to see and recognize things as they arise and pass away.

But there are deeper layers to sampajanya. It also can mean seeing the links of dependent origination at one level, at least this is what the commentaries might say. But for practical understanding, sampajanya is just being aware of things as they are, right. So in other words, if you're walking you know you're walking, if you're thinking you know you're thinking. For those of you who have done other kinds of practices, particularly like the noting practice, this is part of it, where it's like you are a scientist observing things. You're just observing what's going on, so you're more aware of: okay, mind is experiencing loving kindness, mind is experiencing this hindrance, mind is experiencing expansion, and so on. You take the I out of the equation, you take the sense of self out of the equation, then you don't become so invested in

the practice. Then you don't become so attached to the outcome of the practice. Then what it is is just a process. There is a sutta, or a series of suttas, in which Ananda, the Buddha's chief attendant, sees Sariputta, one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, from afar, and he says, your faculties are glowing, your face is shining, what are you doing? And he said, today I have been in the first jhana. I have been spending the last day, the whole day, let's say eight hours, in the first jhana. He does the same thing for the second jhana and the third jhana and the fourth, all the way up to

cessation. And then he also tells Ananda that it did not occur to him that he is entering the first jhana, nor that he is in the first jhana, nor that he is coming out of the first jhana, but just aware that the first jhana is present. And so Ananda says that is wonderful, that is because you have no more conceit in your mind. You're not applying the meditation as something that I have to do, that I have to achieve.

You're just sitting back and relaxing and watching the show. That's the attitude to have. This is the mindfulness that we're talking about, the metacognition, just being aware of how mind is meditating. If you're doing the forgiveness practice, being aware that there is forgiveness happening. Yes, it can be a very cathartic process and it's a process of a lot of emotions and everything else, but at the end of the day you realize that too is just a process, a process coming from letting go. So these four foundations of mindfulness, it seems like when you read the sutta, that they happen one after the other, because they seem to follow one after the other: you have mindfulness of body, then that's followed by mindfulness of feeling, then that's followed by mindfulness of

mind or mental states, and that's followed by mindfulness of phenomena. So it feels as if you have to see these things in a certain order, or it seems like you have to see them at a subtler and subtler level. Not necessarily. When you're doing the meditation, when you're doing this practice, you're actually integrating all the foundations of mindfulness together. When you bring up the feeling of loving kindness, for example, how do you feel it? It is an experience. It is a pleasant feeling. You feel a warm sensation in the body, you feel some heat in the body, you feel joy in the body. What is that? That's mindfulness of the body and feeling. You notice that your mind is in an uplifted state, you notice your mind is in an elevated state, you notice your mind is in a state of relief.

What is that? That's mindfulness of mind. You notice when a hindrance arises. You notice that the mind is in a hindrance, you notice that the mind is now distracted and going to the hindrance. You let go of that, you generate a wholesome state of mind. What is that? That's mindfulness of phenomena. So it is all part of an integrated practice. This is the beauty of the practice: any practice which is incorporating the enlightenment factors and the other elements of the practice. Throughout that process you don't have to do this. I'm just giving you some clarity on these different layers.

Then there's contemplation of the body as the four elements, seeing the different components of the body as different elements. Right, we have four great elements. We have earth, we have water, we have air, and we have fire. These are in essence, you could say, the states of matter. And the Buddha says do the contemplation of the body, and we have a lot of identifying with that, taking the body as something that's beautiful. Then another kind of contemplation in mindfulness of body is contemplation of the body as a corpse in various stages of decay. Now, generally this is a practice that is quite intense. You would go to the charnel ground

and look at the different kinds of corpses. I've done this. I've gone to Varanasi, there are actually two places in Varanasi. When you go by the river, you go on the river cruise on the Ganges, you'll see these chimneys and they are burning the bodies at the ghats, as they call them, at the riverbed or at the side of the river, and so you'll see all these different bodies there in different stages of decay. You'll see skeletons, you'll see skulls, you'll see bloated bodies.

You'll see fresh corpses, and so on. So the idea is you go here and you look at the body and you see them in different stages of decay, and finally you realize, so too is this body, the nature of this body, it too will one day be the same. It's quite intense, it can be quite scary for some people. So it's generally recommended for people who are more ascetic, who are inclined to do those kinds of practices, not necessarily recommended for

Everybody, and so on. One of the things that you see in the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha says, is that he becomes mindful and aware in relation to the body as body, or he sees the arising and then the passing away, or the arising and passing away, in relation to the body. And he says this like a refrain. He says this for the body, for the feeling, for mind, and so on. Our feeling in itself doesn't have any kind of quality. It is the perception aspect of the mind that projects a quality to the feeling: that this is pleasing to me, that this is pleasing to me, that this is unpleasing or unpleasant, or that this is neutral.

But he talks about feeling in terms of worldly feeling and other worldly feeling, so in other words mundane feeling. So on and so on. Feeling is smelling, feeling is smelling, feeling is tasting, feeling is tasting, feeling is touching, feeling is touching, feeling is thinking. But we don't control that. It arises due to causes and conditions, namely contact. We'll explore this further when we talk about dependent origination, but what we're seeing is we're just aware of what feeling is present, what experience is present.

So instead of calling it feeling, perhaps we can call it experience. It can be a pleasant experience, it can be a pleasant experience. It can be an unpleasant experience, it can be an unpleasant experience, or it could be a neutral experience, or it could be a neutral experience. So what is an example of something that is a worldly or mundane pleasant experience? Seeing something beautiful, hearing a beautiful symphony, smelling a beautiful fragrance, a beautiful feeling, a beautiful feeling, a beautiful, a hindrance, a hindrance, a hindrance. It actually goes into also mental phenomena, because the five hindrances are part of it, but they're experienced nonetheless as an experience, as an experience, as a feeling in the mind. What about a neutral super mundane feeling? This would be equanimity, a mind that is able to see things as they are without getting affected one way or the other. Complete balance of mind.

So this is already happening when you have mindfulness and you're observing the meditation in this way. You're aware of what's happening in the body: there's tightness in the body, there's tension in the body, there's pain in the body, there's a hindrance in the mind, or there's loving kindness present. This is the way to do it: metacognition. You are just sitting back and observing the

and then i choose to let it go and then i choose to let it go relax i bring up a wholesome state through the smile and come back to my object of meditation as you take you no more than four to five seconds that whole process as soon as you notice okay hindrance is present you let go relax smile come back and the beautiful thing is it's not just a meditation it can happen in any moment of your daily life so the five hindrance is part of this mental phenomena so the five hindrance is part of this mental phenomena the seven enlightenment factors or the awakening factors or the awakening factors that we are now discussing are part of that what is present in my mind do i have mindfulness do i have mindfulness do i have investigation do i have investigation do i have energy is there more energy or less energy is there more joy or less joy is there more

tranquility or less tranquility do i have more collectedness do i have more collectedness or not enough collectedness then there's also the understanding of the four noble truths this happens at a very deep level where you're noticing okay here is present suffering the mind is suffering in some way maybe it has some kind of anxiety maybe it's sad about something maybe it's in grief maybe it has a painful feeling it's a painful feeling it's noticing this it's noticing this letting go of that understanding that the undue attention to it and taking it personally is the cause of it the second noble truth letting that go and experiencing the cessation of that that's the third noble truth every time i do this i'm cultivating the fourth noble truth using right effort so seeing these different kinds of qualities so seeing these different kinds of qualities of the mind or factors of the mind or factors of the mind or factors of the mind or factors of the mind or factors of the mind or factors of the mind is part of mindfulness of phenomena or mindfulness of phenomena or mindfulness of mind

objects. So that's just a brief overview of the foundations of mindfulness. The gist of that is a couple of things: having the awareness of the present moment, and keeping a space, a distance, between the sense of the mind and the mind is just observing itself and seeing what is present and not present, which now takes us to the next enlightenment factor, which is called dhamma vicaya, which usually is translated as investigation of states. But here investigation can denote a mind that analyzes, a mind that analyzes, a mind that looks through and

reflects, but that's not necessary. When we talk about investigation of states, they are actually, or this factor is a mind that is a mind that, or mind that you are doing the investigation of states, or mind that analyzes a mind in the mind that analyzes a mind. When the mind starts to dull out, then you bring up the energizing enlightenment factors. So I'll explain that shortly, but let's go through this. So energy here, when we talk about energy, it means to make some level of effort. It might mean that you have to bring a little bit more focus. As soon as you're aware and investigating, or aware of what state is present, you make the effort to let go, or you make the effort to focus. This naturally leads to what's known as joy, as elation, emotional elation, and so on.

elation and so on, but there is another understanding of joy for practical purposes that you can implement in your practice, which means what this joy can mean: interest. When you don't have enough interest in the object of meditation, then it starts to veer into sloth and torpor. But if you bring more interest in what is going on in the mind, to the extent that you're aware, you're present, and you're staying with the object of meditation, then you have balanced joy, balanced interest. So this is an energizing factor. Energy, obviously, and joy are energizing factors. Investigation of states, being more attentive to what's going on, this joy then leads to what's known as passaddhi, which is tranquility, relaxation. And so now we get into tranquilizing enlightenment factors. So passaddhi, or relaxation: how do you do that? Sometimes people will ask how do you do

that, sometimes people will ask how do you relax? What does it mean to relax? Well, you know what it means when you clench your fist: it's tight, it's tense. And when you let go, what happens? You feel relaxation, you feel the tension going away. It's the same kind of quality in the mind, where the mind feels too constricted, too contracted, and so you bring some space by just pulling back a little bit and relaxing and letting go, and you notice an expansion in your mind. This was something that was told by Venerable Metananda, and he talked about doing this exercise and seeing for yourself. If you take your finger and you put it in front of you, you can all try it if you want, you take your finger and you put it in front of you, and you just look at your

fingernail. What you're going to notice is there's a certain level of contraction of attention just pointed towards the fingernail. But if I tell you to let go of that and observe what's going on all around, not the fingernail but everything else, you'll notice a certain spaciousness in your attention, a certain kind of relaxing in your attention. That's the quality of mind that you want to have when you relax: it's ease, it's uplifted, it's relaxed, it's tranquil. This is the tranquility factor. So when you have too much restlessness, when there's a lot of things that are going on, what can you do? You can drop a little bit of relaxation, drop a little bit of tranquility, just let that go, take a step back, keep the mind's attention more expansive. This naturally leads to what's known as collectedness, the mind's attention, so part of this is to revolve around it, to orbit it.

So a mind's attention that is around its object of meditation is collected. When the mind's attention is dispersed and it goes from here to there, then it doesn't have samadhi. The attention is distracted, the attention is diffused. So one of the analogies that I use to understand this is: you imagine your mind's attention like a satellite orbiting a planet. So the planet is your object of meditation, whether that is feeling loving kindness, whether that is quiet mind, whatever it might be, radiating equanimity, whatever it might be. And you notice how the attention orbits that experience of loving kindness or quiet mind or whatever the object is. Now, if the satellite is orbiting the planet, all well and good, but if it gets too close, what happens to the planet? What happens there? There's a tendency for it to get sucked in by the gravity and crash. But if it goes out of orbit, what happens? It starts to drift away. It starts to drift away. So what do you do? You need to send someone or something to bring it back into orbit. And what is that, right?

Effort. Right effort. Right effort will balance your attention to bring it back into right effort in the mind. What mind's attention moves from one thing to the other naturally leads to you understanding what states of mind are present and not present, which allow you to balance the energy if you need to, and therefore allows you to take more interest or bring a little less interest if it's too much focus. Take it out a little bit. And which allows you to have more relaxation, more tranquility, as a result of which your mind remains more collected. So these are all integrated in the right effort that we do every time you recognize. You what happens? What happens now? You're balancing the energy and you're in the right, why it's there, right? Leave it alone. So this balance is very calm. It almost seems like it's very calm, it almost seems like it's very flat, not much going on there, and that's okay because the mind is super clear on what's going on. And the beautiful thing about these enlightenment factors

factors is that not only is there a linear process in which they lead into the next, but also there is a circular process. That is to say, now that you have equanimity, your mindfulness is rooted in that equanimity, and your mindfulness becomes much stronger, and therefore your ability to recognize becomes faster, quicker. Your energy becomes that much more balanced. Your joy is that much more pronounced. Your tranquility is that much deeper. And so this is how you can use the enlightenment factors. In the case of mindfulness, you can never have too much mindfulness, but in the case of the other factors you can have too much of it, so you need to be able to balance. You don't have to look for what is present and what is not present. Just notice if there's too much energy, if you notice there's too much restlessness

okay, do a little bit of tranquility, a little bit more collectedness, a little bit more equanimity. If you notice there's sloth and torpor, okay, investigate, be more attentive of the states that are present, bring a little bit more joy, right, and balance the energy, bring a little bit more focus. So as I said, the enlightenment factors can be antidotes for the five hindrances. In the case of mindfulness, it's the foundation for everything. You need mindfulness for the other things to come up, for the other factors to come up. So investigation of states, as I said, can be an antidote for confusion, confusion about whether you are in a wholesome state or an unwholesome state. You can be a good antidote for restlessness. Collectedness can be a good antidote for restlessness, again, for even doubt, because doubt can also have a quality of restlessness to

it. Now joy can also be an antidote for ill will. If you're enjoying things, if you're happy in the meditation, what would you have any ill will towards? And then finally, equanimity. Equanimity is a great antidote towards doubt because your mind remains balanced. It's a great antidote towards restlessness because it's tranquilizing, and it's a great antidote towards sensual craving because your mind is just observing. Okay, here's craving present. It doesn't get caught up in it, it doesn't grasp it. It's a great antidote towards it. So this is another way to see enlightenment factors: they are great antidotes for any of these hindrances that might arise. Now, how do you utilize this in the practice? How do you bring them up in the practice? Well, it's simple: just use right effort. That's it.

Because, as I said, these enlightenment factors are all in the practice. Well, it's simple. So you don't have to do anything for the most part. So once you start to do this, what you will notice is that the mind starts to become further and further collected, further and further

attentive, and experiences the jhanas. We will explore the jhanas much later, but all you have to understand is when we talk about a mind that is experiencing deep levels of understanding, deep levels of cessation, also, because it's ceasing the hindrances. It's ceasing other qualities of mind that are unwholesome, and it's bringing up and maintaining those wholesome qualities. That's why I say, in order for one to go into jhana, to experience the jhana, as we would experience the jhana through this practice, which is let's say relatively lighter, and maybe other practices which go much deeper, and that's okay, but the whole purpose of jhana is to get to a level of understanding, insight, and ceasing unwholesome qualities of mind. So in order for the mind to get into that, you have to let go of hindrances and experience relief from hindrances, and balance the enlightenment

factors. So the jhana can be defined first and foremost by the absence of hindrances and the presence and alignment of the enlightenment factors. So the more you're able to apply this right effort in daily life, the easier it becomes for you in the meditation, and the deeper you will go. And that's all dependent upon having a mind, again, as I repeat and I will continue to repeat: a mind that is light, a mind that is spontaneously joyful, a mind that finds joy in everything, a mind that is childlike, a mind that is smiling. We made some improvement today. I saw in the dining hall. Yeah, let's see how it goes tomorrow. So the mind that is light and always just seeing everything in a very lighthearted way is able to let go and not identify with things, not take things so personally, and in doing so the mind is able to let go much quicker, and then experience deeper insights and wisdom. So are there any questions? Are there any questions? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So here I'm using the word super mundane to denote any kind of experience that is outside of the purview of physical, sense-based experiences. Super mundane, we're saying surpassing or outside of the experience of seeing something with the eyes, hearing something with the ears, smelling something with the nose, tasting something with the tongue. It's more mental. Yes, there can be mundane mental experiences. For example, we talked about feeling a certain way, but that can also be super mundane in the sense that it's outside of the purview of the physical sense bases. Like some hindrances, like aversion or restlessness or doubt, are more related to the mind more than anything else. So here it is outside of the world. It's not this world, it's the other world.

But more strictly speaking, when we talk about super mundane, that can be reserved, as you said, it can be reserved for certain states like nibbana. Nibbana is the ultimate super mundane state. When we use super mundane, we can also talk about super mundane in the form of the eightfold path. There is a mundane eightfold path, and there is a super mundane eightfold path that has to do with those who are in training, and there are the factors of the super mundane path that have to do with those who have completed the training or are on the verge of completing the training. So the words mundane and super mundane can be used in different kinds of contexts.

contexts yeah yeah so pain in the body this is a big one Bhante Vimramsi would say that pain is usually the last hindrance to go and it's not the pain that's the problem and it's not the pain that's the problem it's the aversion around the pain that we have to deal with because a painful feeling is a painful feeling whether it's physical or mental and so what we have to deal with is how do we identify with the pain are we holding on to the pain by identifying and saying is it going to go away which is aversion or are we saying okay okay there is simply just pain here so when we talk about using right effort whether it's you call it the six hours the four hours you can't just if you could it would be great but you can't you can't just six are or four are the pain

Away, that's not how it works, but what you do is you recognize any kind of tightness or tension in your mind in relation to the pain, where there's aversion, where there is a pushing away, trying to avoid it, and you let go of that and you create spaciousness in the mind, and you come back to your object, and the pain will still be there, but it might not be as excruciating as it was before, and you might have to go through cycles of that before you finally just rest in your meditation object. The other thing is, sometimes people will experience pain, and the way I've described it before to people in individual interviews is that pain can also arise due to some kind of unresolved

emotion, which means that we might hold on to different kinds of resentment, we might hold on to different kinds of guilt and shame, and that manifests or starts to turn into a knot in the body. So for that I would recommend forgiveness practice, which means you use and apply the forgiveness practice to actually look at the pain and say, "I forgive you for being here," and then notice what comes up, any kind of unresolved emotional state that comes up, and then you apply forgiveness towards that as well. What I have seen when people do that is, when they go back to sit, even if it's for longer periods of time, there is no more pain, or very little pain. So it could be that there's certain things that they've had to resolve in their mind. And finally, what I will say about it is that

if you just apply more equanimity towards the pain or in your mind itself, you will have more disenchantment and dispassion towards the pain. So we'll be exploring this later when we talk about what's known as the Upanisha Sutta, which talks about 11 more links of dependent origination that are understood to be transcendental, and the few last links that are there are disenchantment and dispassion, which then leads to freedom of mind, but prior to that disenchantment there is what's known as yatha bhuta nana dassana, which means the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are. And essentially that's just a long way of saying equanimity, so understanding things as they are without getting caught up by them.

And so if there isn't enough disenchantment, then the mind starts to get aversive towards the pain, or it starts to get caught up in different kinds of things that are going on. If that's happening, and this is for somebody who's an advanced practitioner going through the process of radiating, if that happens, all you do is you take one step back and you start to radiate equanimity, and that starts to balance the mind so that there's enough equanimity, and that's a good foundation and support for disenchantment to naturally arise. And finally, the last thing I'll say about that is there is

the analogy of the two arrows or the two darts. So what that means is there is the first dart, which is always unavoidable for the most part, which is a painful experience. It could be bodily pain or whatever it is. And then there's the second dart, which is the mental pain related to it, and that happens because we identify with it. So we have to understand that the pain may be unavoidable, but if there's the second dart, that can be removed using right effort and letting go. We identify with it, so we have to understand it, so we have to see how things

manifest when you do it that way, then there's still some kind of gap. There's still some kind of distance. You're not getting caught up in trying to bring something up. It's just like, okay, there's a little intention there, and now wait and watch. It's just a mental process. Yes, when we get into dependent origination we'll talk more about that too, which is mentality and materiality, so mind and body. So mind is made up of different factors, which also includes intention. So I don't go to the mind and body. That's right. Yes, that would be an example of intention. You bring up the feeling of love and kindness, that's another kind of intention. You have the intention of radiating, that's another kind of

intention. Now when you use phrases like "may I be happy" and so on, that's related to verbal formation. So that means verbal intentions go away, but intention can still arise as a mental experience, as a mental experience of bringing up some kind of phenomenon like an enlightenment factor, or of letting go. That's also an intention of relaxing and letting go and coming back to the smile. So intention is always there, part of the process, all the way until the end when you get to cessation, and then you get to the end of the process. The process of memory, it can, but not necessarily. So what that means is sati, in the strictest definition of the word, is essentially memory, to recall something, to remember something, or the process of remembering something. But here when we talk about sati we're also saying, in conjunction with sampajanya, which is observing what's going on, is remembering to observe

remembering to be attentive remembering to be attentive remembering to come back here to the present moment so we're going to be attentive to the present moment being able to see things as they are without getting caught up one way or the other in other words if it's a pleasant experience you're aware that the experience you're aware that the experience is pleasant but you don't get caught up in grasping at the experience if it's an unpleasant experience you're aware that it is an unpleasant experience but you don't get caught up in trying to push away that experience if it's a neutral experience you're aware that it is an unpleasant experience but you don't get caught up in trying to push away that experience if it's a neutral experience you're just mindful that it's a neutral experience and you don't get caught up in saying this experience and you don't get caught up in saying this experience is mine or identifying with that

experience, but when you don't get caught up in a self. But when we say that there is no self, what is it that knows that there is no self? The reason I'm asking that question is because, just understand, we're not talking about that there is no self. When the Buddha was asked this question of whether there is a self or there is no self, he didn't respond one way or the other. He didn't say that there is a self, but he also didn't say that there is no self. When he talks about anatta, what he's referring to is what is not self, to let go of

that, which means the process of identifying with things and taking them personally is what the mind lets go of. But the mind is there, it's still present. In fact, when we see in the sutras where it talks about somebody who has attained full awakening, it says, "and he knows mind is liberated," or there is the knowledge that mind is liberated, liberated from what? Liberated from any kind of conceit that can take things personally anymore. So equanimity here is a mental factor, is an enlightenment factor, is a quality of the mind, is a brahmavihara that you can use as a process of radiating, so wishing all beings to be tranquil and serene, and so on. So the ability to see things as they are without getting caught up one way or the other, yes, it requires the mind to be able to notice that it's an impersonal process

that this is not me not myself and therefore the equanimity arises but it's not me not my not myself and therefore the equanimity arises but it's not detachment can it be described as detachment can it be described as detachment or not detachment is something else detachment is dispassion let's say which comes much later but you need equanimity first you need the ability to see that this is an impersonal process and just allow things to be as they are so the process of allowing them to be as they are so the process of allowing them to be as they are so the process of allowing them to be as they are is equanimity and then the ripening of that is disenchantment and dispassion which i'll go into much deeper at a different talk but just for you for your clarification the disenchantment there is where the mind has had enough of becoming enchanted by distractions

And the dispassion, or the viraga, is essentially where the mind remains completely unaffected. So it's detached, so it's non-attached to anything in particular. It's detached, or not attached to anything in particular. It's detached. Upon you cultivating these states, from which, as a result, disenchantment and dispassion can arise. That's right, because there you're putting the space and not identifying with the process, and then the metacognition becomes much deeper when it is informed by an experiential wisdom that, oh, this isn't mine, this isn't me, this isn't myself. And then the metacognition becomes quite natural. It just is. There's a process going on here, there's a process of meditating going on here, there's a process of whatever is happening in the mind, but I remain completely unaffected by it. I'm just observing. You're okay, this is a good question, because it's okay if that's there. It's okay if that's there. It's okay that's there, but you're not identifying with any process. See, it's not about trying to kill the self.

It's not that. It's about letting go of the process of taking anything personally. So you're just adding the right ingredients: okay, there is this intention to bring up loving kindness, or there's an intention to radiate. And now the mind is observing what is going on in terms of the radiating, what is going on in terms of, you know, what elements are present, what elements are not present. That's it. That's it. So when we talk about conceit, when we talk about self-view, because that's one of the fetters, that's one of the fetters that's eliminated at stream entry: self-view, or the belief in a personal self. That is essentially letting go of the intellectual idea of an independent, permanent self, and that happens through experiential wisdom, where the mind sees for itself that actually that sense of self is arising dependent on many causes and conditions. So this is dependent origination, or interdependency, that's going on. You can't have one without the other. And so the notion of a separate self dissolves.

And conceit is much deeper than that. Conceit is the habituated pattern of continuing to still identify even though the mind has this experiential understanding that indeed there's no independent permanent self. There's still that grasping of mind, and that is something that's so deeply rooted that it takes time to keep letting that go until it's no longer there. And at that point there's just a process of mind observing mind, a process of mind observing everything as it is and not getting caught up in anything.

So a process of mind that is free and not already driven by craving. So what would be the motivations to be in the world? Or like, okay, so if fear does not necessarily put me into automatic response, or some unpleasant experience, or some unpleasant experience, then what would make me do something in the world? Okay, I mean, I answer to myself that it's values, that it's not pleasant or unpleasant, it's sila. Exactly. But I would like you to tell me how you experience it. I see it as being motivated, by all craving, would experience the world, would be that I see it as being motivated, to use that word, by two things: wisdom and compassion. That's it. So it's navigating this world through the wisdom that it has accrued through practice and experience of the Dhamma, and it's motivated by compassion.

to if it's if it's required to help in whatever way it is required to help in whatever way it is required otherwise that mind isn't motivated by anything else it just stays dormant it stays in a state where it just remains in this cessation it doesn't need to do anything but the process of karma still continues for that mind that is to say it's not motivated by letting go of any kind of karma that is to say it's just seeing it's just seeing the different karmic streams that are coming in because there's still the momentum of previous choices and previous intentions that were produced prior to having fully let go prior to fully awakening that's why any intention of somebody who's fully awakened is never personally motivated it's just seeing that there is some kind of the kind of karma here and then responding to that karma here and then responding to that karma usually it's a process of just okay allowing things to unfold as they would secondly when we talk about a mind that is full of free of any kind of craving a mind that is fully

awakened it is acting in that sense spontaneously so it's always intuitive so it's always intuitive it's using intuition all the time which means that it has applied the practice or you could say it's conditioned by the eightfold path primarily right view so ignorance is replaced by wisdom or right view which means any kind of formations that condition that intention are purified of any kind of ignorance craving conceit and so on but any kind of speech that is used any kind of action that is produced any kind of intention that is produced any kind of intention that arises is always rooted is always rooted in the eightfold path of including right intention right speech right action and so it won't be motivated by what can this do for me it's always using intuition to see what is appropriate for the situation for everyone

involved for everyone involved and sometimes it might seem selfish and sometimes it might seem selfish and sometimes it might seem selfish and sometimes it might seem harsh and sometimes it might seem harsh and sometimes it might seem harsh and sometimes it might seem unpleasant to others because it's like okay harsh not in the sense that it's abusive but harsh in the sense that it might seem cold like oh they didn't really look into why this person was crying and they didn't do anything about it or whatever it might be but it might seem to be a mundane example but going back to the intentions but going back to the intentions and sometimes it's always conditioned by having perfected the cultivation of the eightfold path and so in that sense it always is seemingly

spontaneous because it doesn't act out of like you know an eye for an eye it doesn't act out of like this is unpleasant so I'm avoiding it or this is pleasant and so I'm grasping at it so yes you're right about that ethics or morality so yes you're right about that ethics or yes you're right about that ethics or yes you're right about that ethics or yes you're right about that ethics or yes you're right about that ethics yes it's a very good question so like expanding or like the mind watching the mind as if you're outside of your body if it helps yeah definitely why not wow that's very loud okay so yeah if that helps just for the purposes of keeping things non-identified and please use that that's completely

And your answer is there is a situation where this mind, in a complex situation, will also apply violence, or not violence, but apply to stop something? Or is this something that's within this mind's ability, in looking at the bigger picture, to save more people from a compassionate stand, to also be violent, not violent? But I don't know how to say it. It's not a positive, but I don't know what. I don't know what I don't know. I don't know what I don't know. I don't know what I'm not. That precept of harming, with the intention of harming, with the intention of harming, killing, with the intention of killing.

If there are no more questions, may all beings shed all grief and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.