Kalimpong 2023 Buddha Pāda Day 3 Awakening Factors

Today, we'll be talking about the seven enlightenment factors. Before we get into the topic of jhanas, which we will start tomorrow, it's important to understand what jhana is, right? What defines jhana? The way I would explain it is, jhana is essentially the absence of any of the five hindrances, and the presence of the enlightenment factors to varying degrees.

It's not necessary that all factors have to be there all the time, but it's more like the factors will be more predominant in certain jhanas, and when your mind is collected and filled with equanimity, and you come to that point where everything is in balance in terms of the enlightenment factors, then you experience Nibbana. So before we actually delve into what jhanas are, we should first understand what are their components in terms of the presence of the enlightenment factors.

So what are the seven enlightenment factors? Mindfulness, investigation, energy or effort, joy, tranquility, collectedness, and equanimity. So mindfulness, that's sati in Pali, mindfulness. We touched upon this a few days ago when we talked about how mindfulness is essentially remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. That's quite the statement. What does it mean to remember to observe how mind's attention moves from one object to the other?

That is essentially, as I spoke of, metacognition, the awareness of awareness, understanding how your mind works, understanding the movements of mind. That's what you have to start with. So when you sit down for practice, when you sit down to meditate, where is your mind? Notice what is present in your mind. Notice, is the mind agitated? Is the mind calm? Is the mind collected?

Does the mind have ill will? Does the mind have loving kindness naturally? Is the mind equanimous? Or is the mind filled with some kind of doubt? The moment you do this, the moment you just observe what is happening in mind. So the first few seconds, the first few moments while you're sitting is to notice what is going on. And this is why I suggested that you do the body scan. When you do the body scan, you are noticing any tightness and tension that might be present in the mind or the body.

This is one way to bring up mindfulness. There are two main suttas that talk about mindfulness. One is in the Majjhima Nikaya, and that is the four foundations of mindfulness. And the other is the Digha Nikaya, which is essentially the same, but it is the greater discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness with a further expansion of one of the foundations in regards to phenomenon. So what are the four foundations of mindfulness?

The four foundations of mindfulness are seeing body as body, mind as mind, feeling as feeling, and dhamma as dhamma. Here dhamma means states of mind, or phenomena in mind. So when we say mindfulness of body, what are we talking about? Mindfulness of body really means what is going on in the body. Is there tightness and tension there? There are different exercises, different meditations that the Buddha prescribes in the mindfulness of body. There he talks about the mindfulness of breathing. How does the anapanasati happen? That's mindfulness of breathing.

Breathing in, he knows he's breathing in. Breathing out, he knows he's breathing out. Breathing in long, he knows he's breathing in long. Breathing out long, he knows he's breathing out long. Breathing in short, he knows he's breathing in short. Breathing out short, he knows he's breathing out short. And tranquilizing mental and bodily formations as he does so.

So this is what Bhante Vimalaramsi saw when he formulated the right effort, when he understood that relaxing, tranquilizing is essential, is key to experiencing greater degrees of happiness and collectedness of mind. So here, the mindfulness of breathing is one exercise, one method of meditation. Another method of meditation is looking at the asubha aspect of the body. Asubha here means the impurities of the body, seeing the body as basically made up of different components, made up of the different organs, the different systems, so looking at the digestive tract, looking at the stomach, the spleen, the bladder, looking at the bones, looking at the nervous system, looking at the mesentery, looking at different levels of the body and realizing that this body is indeed impure.

It is essentially a sack of bones, a bag of bones, as the Buddha would describe it. And what is this practice for? This practice is usually a prescription for somebody who has a lot of identification with the body, a lot of lust in the body, or for the body. Because as you start to see that the body is really just made up of these things like bone and skin and tissues and fat, and blood and urine and feces and all of these things, what happens? The mind starts to become more disenchanted with the body, starts to realize this body is just body, not something else, not something to hold on to, not something to identify with.

That's one exercise. A second exercise is the mindfulness of the four great elements, seeing the body as made up of the four great elements. So what do we talk about when we say the four great elements? Traditionally, in ancient India, the four great elements are earth, water, fire, and air. So looking at the different aspects of the body in relation to these elements, and what are these elements if you look at it in modern day?

Really what they are are states of matter. So looking at the solid states of matter in the body, looking at the liquid states of matter in the body, looking at the gaseous states, and then looking at the heat and temperature of the body, the fire. Then there's also another meditation that's prescribed, which is seeing the decay of the body. This is a very aesthetic practice. You go to a charnel ground and you look at a body that is decomposing. You look at a body that is just a fresh corpse, then you start to look at the rotting of the body through the different aspects. So you start to see the body with green flesh, oozing and bloated, and then you start to see the body as made up of sinews and bones and being picked on by jackals and dogs and vultures.

So it's a very extreme practice, let's say, for people who are in the lay life. So this is usually suggested to monastics because they have the time and they have the inclination to do it, but this also lets go of the fear of death, because the fear of death is essentially, one aspect, the identification with the body again. So realizing that this body too is subject to change, this body too is impermanent, one lets go of that. And the fear of death starts to decline, starts to diminish.

Then we have mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of vedana. When we talk about mindfulness of feelings, we're talking about mindfulness of anything related to experiences of the six sense bases. So we're looking at the mindfulness of things happening with relation to the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and even the mind, to some extent. And what we're looking at is the impermanence of these different states.

So that's mindfulness of feeling. Mindfulness of mind is essentially, when we talk about mind, it's coming from the word chittanupassana. So what is chitta here? Chitta can be understood as consciousness, it can be understood as mind, it can be understood as mindset. I like to use the word mindset because mindset denotes the idea that it is really a collection of similar thought patterns coming together to bring up a mindset. The same way a mood is basically a collection of similar emotions that cause you to be in a certain mood throughout the day. You say that person is in an unhappy mood. It's because the different kinds of emotions they're feeling throughout the day are unhappy, are sad, are depressed.

Likewise, when we talk about mindset, there are different kinds of mindsets. There is an uplifted mindset. There's a mindset that is contracted, a mindset that is expanded, a mindset that is luminous, a mindset that is jhana, a mindset that is liberated, a mindset that is unliberated, a mindset that is exalted, a mindset that is unexalted, and so on. So all of these are denoting different kinds of qualities of mind. So when we talk about liberated mind, what does that mean? Liberated mind can mean the temporary liberations of being in jhana. Or it could also mean having gone through one of the states of enlightenment, stages of awakening. This mind here is now the mind of a stream entry.

Or this mind here is now the mind of a once-returner, a sakadagami, and so on. Let me talk about exalted mind, surpassed mind, contracted mind, distracted mind. So what is a contracted mind? A contracted mind is where the mind is trying too hard. A contracted mind is where there is a lot of concentration going on that's causing the mind to start to become dull rather than being sharp.

An expanded mind, that's a mind with open awareness. A surpassed mind, that's a mind that's experiencing infinite space, infinite consciousness, and so on. An exalted mind, that's a mind that is free of the five hindrances. So this is chittanupassana. This is the third foundation of mindfulness. When we talk about the fourth foundation of mindfulness, we're talking about different kinds of phenomena. We're talking about different kinds of, let's say, ideas, because that also includes the understanding of the four noble truths. It includes the understanding of the five hindrances. It includes the understanding of the seven enlightenment factors, and so on and so forth. So when you read the four foundations of mindfulness, it seems like it is a gradation, right?

It's like you go from one step to the next. But that's only because of the way that it's been described in the suttas. In essence, when we talk about this practice, you are doing the four foundations of mindfulness in an integrated approach. You don't have to do one thing at a time. You don't have to pinpoint what is going on.

When you are practicing, when you are using the twin practice, when you are using loving kindness or any object, using right effort, you already have mindfulness of the body. You're noticing what's going on in the body. If there is warmth in the body, there's a sensation in the body, that's also feeling, that's vedana. You're noticing if loving kindness is present or not, that is seeing if the mind has any mindset related to loving kindness. You're noticing if the mind is in jhana or not. You're noticing if the five hindrances are present or not. So it's not like you need to pinpoint. This is already integrated.

It's already nested in each other when you do this practice. So mindfulness, coming back to the basic definition of mindfulness. Mindfulness is essentially being aware of mental movements. What is going on in the mind, and doing it in such a way that you don't identify with it. This is very key. This is very important. Because this is what it says in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as well. The Buddha says, "He sees the arising and passing away of states. He understands what is present and what is not present, without any covetousness or grief for the world." Covetousness or grief for the world? Covetousness, desire, sensual desire, wanting things. Grief, aversion, ill will, and so on.

So he's looking at it in such a way, the mind is looking at it in such a way that it's not clinging to anything. It's just observing everything like a movie. This is what the meditation is. You're just observing what is going on in mind. The moment you do that, the moment you create this distance between the mind and the experience, then you have the full picture of what's actually going on.

Don't try to look for, is there loving kindness in the mind? Don't try to look for, is there joy in the mind? Don't try to look for, am I being distracted? What's going on? Just observe. In the observing itself, you will have everything. Which brings us to the next part, which is investigation. Dhamma vichaya. Dhamma vichaya. Vichaya means to examine. It means to research. It means to investigate. It means to understand what states are present and what states are not present.

I like to use the word understand, because the word examine and investigate, those two words bring up the idea that you have to look very closely and look very deeply, and then analyze and find out what happened there, and then what happened before that, and what happened before that. The moment you start to do that, you start to get distracted and you go down a rabbit hole of mental proliferation.

So what does it mean when we say dhamma vichaya? Dhamma here means mental states. Dhamma means phenomena. What is going on in the mind? What states are present in the mind? Vichaya here is to understand. Is the mind in loving kindness or not in loving kindness? Is the mind radiating or not radiating? Is the mind in quiet mind or not in quiet mind? Is there present any hindrance in the mind? Is the mind free of hindrance? Is the mind experiencing spaciousness in infinite space? Is a mind experiencing infinite consciousness? So it's not that you have to ask yourself the question. You just have to be able to be open to all experiences that are happening, in the same way. For those who understand perception and feeling, which will delve deeper into dependent origination, but what is feeling?

What is vedana? Feeling is the experience that's going on, dependent upon contact between the six sense bases, right? Any of the six sense bases and their objects, and the corresponding awareness of those six sense bases. That's feeling. That's the experience. That experience can be pleasant, it can be unpleasant, or it can be neutral. But the knowing of it being pleasant, the knowing of it being unpleasant, the knowing of it being neutral, is perception. The ability to recognize what is going on, the ability to understand what is going on. So in the same way, there is a state present in the mind. There is loving kindness there in the mind. That is the experience. The knowing of the mind being in loving kindness is the investigation of states, is dhamma vichaya, is the understanding, is the perception of that.

So mindfulness naturally brings up the investigation of states, the understanding of what is present and what is not present. From here we go into virya, which is energy, which is strength, which is effort, which is exertion. Now when we use the word effort or exertion, we don't mean that you have to make a big effort to do something. It's essentially making the effort to relax and let go.

If you notice that there is present in the mind a hindrance, so you have mindfulness. Now you've recognized that there is a hindrance present. You recognize that this is the hindrance, and so that is the investigation of states. Now, in relaxing the mind and body, in letting go of that hindrance, you are making the right effort. So that is the level of exertion that you're doing. It's not to cling. It's not to grasp. It's not to hold on to anything. It's not to create an experience. It's not to fabricate an experience. It is to let go. And in letting go, then the mind experiences tranquility.

So the exertion that we talk about, the virya that we talk about, is essentially abandoning unwholesome factors, abandoning unwholesome states of mind. When you are aware that there is present an unwholesome state of mind, you're mindful, and you have understanding, when you make the effort to let go. Now you have the third enlightenment factor, which is the right amount of balanced energy. As a result of which you experience joy, piti. Now this joy can be experienced in the first and second jhana, which we'll talk about tomorrow. But this joy is present as a result of letting go. This joy doesn't arise because you fabricate it. This joy doesn't arise because you create the experience of joy. What you're doing, if you do that, if you try to bring up the experience of joy, if you try to construct an experience of joy, then all you are doing is creating causes and conditions that are essentially impermanent and liable to change, liable to disintegrate.

And so if that joy is clung to, if that joy is identified with and it disappears, what happens? There is dukkha. There is suffering. So instead of bringing up joy in that sense, by letting go, the mind experiences what's known as relief. From that relief, the piti naturally arises. From that relief, that joy naturally arises. And from that joyful state, there is tranquility.

So what is that tranquility? That tranquility is where the mind is free of any afflictive states, free of any formations, that is, sankharas, rooted in any kind of craving, in any kind of aversion, in any kind of attachment to views, in any kind of identification, conceit, and ignorance. So every time you do the relaxed step, you are essentially tranquilizing bodily formations and so on.

So when you tranquilize bodily formations, when you tranquilize verbal formations, when you tranquilize mental formations, then the mind starts to experience deeper levels of collectedness. So that is samadhi. So what does samadhi actually mean? Samadhi, when we talk about sama, sama means to be even, to be balanced. And dhi here is the short form for mind, for buddhi.

So the mind is balanced. The mind is ripe for experiencing jhanas. That's why when we talk about sama samadhi, that is, right meditation or right collectedness. Right concentration is another translation. Sama samadhi. Sama samadhi arises when everything else comes into the mind. That is to say, mindfulness naturally leads to investigation, that is, the knowing of what is present and not present. That leads to proper relaxation and energy. That leads to joy. That joy naturally leads to a tranquil mind, where there is the stilling of formations. The mind is relaxed.

The mind is free of hindrances. Free of any agitation and activities. As a result of that, then there is samadhi. Then the mind becomes unified. So when we talk about samadhi, when we talk about unification of mind, there's an analogy that I like to use. Generally, the understanding would have been that it is one-pointed. The mind becomes singularly focused on an object, and to the point that it disregards everything else around it. Then when that happens, the mind becomes one with the object of meditation.

This is experienced in different traditions. The mind, or the self, becomes one with whatever it is. It's absorbed with its object of meditation. But when we talk about unification of mind, when we talk about collectedness, think of it in this way. It's like the mind is orbiting the object of meditation, orbiting around the loving-kindness, for example.

So in this case, the analogy here is the object of meditation, let's say it's loving-kindness, or radiating in the six directions, or quiet mind, whatever the object is. That is the object, and that is the planet, that's the Earth. Now, the satellite that orbits around the planet, that is your attention. That is your mind's attention. And as long as it is orbiting the object of meditation, as long as it is in the vicinity, unified around the object of meditation, then it is experiencing samadhi.

But if the satellite gets too close to the planet, what will happen? The gravity of the planet will start to pull it in and it will crash onto the Earth. We don't want that to happen. But if the satellite's orbit starts to become wider and it starts to go out of orbit and starts to go somewhere else into space, we don't want that to happen either. So what do we do if that happens? That means the mind's attention is distracted. So what do we do? We get somebody else up out there in space and say we need to bring the satellite back in, right? That is the four R's. We recognize the satellite is distracted.

It's going somewhere else. And we relax, bring it back. We smile and we bring it back into orbit. And all is well with the world again. So the utility of right effort brings about naturally progressive samadhi. And as your mind starts to become more collected, it will start to experience the different jhanas. The first jhana, the second jhana, the third, fourth, and so on.

From this samadhi, there comes upekkha. So this upekkha is translated as equanimity. So this equanimity, what does that mean, equanimity? Upekkha. Here, the mind is free from dualities of pain and pleasure, wholesome and unwholesome. It is completely balanced. When somebody is in a state of equanimity, you will know it because of the way that they move, because of the way that they talk, because of the way that they walk. There's a certain... it's like they're floating, right? And you listen to them in the interviews. How's your meditation going?

Everything is fine. It's all good. The mind there is unaffected one way or the other. An unwholesome state is present. It's okay. It's fine. It's all good. I'm just going to let it go. A wholesome state of mind is present. There's joy coming up. There's piti coming up, the first jhana is coming up, there's greater degrees of sukha coming up in the second jhana. That's okay. It's all good. The only way you can have that upekkha is if you have that attitude of being a moviegoer, of just watching what's happening on the big screen. If you have that attitude, then you have naturally that metacognition, that ability to observe the qualities of mind without getting affected or identifying with those qualities of mind.

Without getting caught up in them. So mindfulness leads to understanding. Understanding leads to the proper effort. The proper effort leads to joy. Joy leads to tranquility. Tranquility leads to collectedness. Collectedness leads to equanimity. Now that equanimity strengthens, whenever it strengthens, the next cycle of mindfulness. And this is what's happening as you continue with this practice. The mindfulness becomes deeper. The understanding becomes sharper. The energy becomes more balanced. The joy becomes more tempered. Not necessarily more joy. Because, believe it or not, joy is overrated.

I know everybody wants to be happy. I know everybody wants to have joy. I know everybody wants to feel bliss. But it is overrated, guys. There's something better than that. Trust me. That joy, once it's tempered, brings about tranquility. And that tranquility is so much more satisfying than this short-lived joy. Then that joy brings about that concentrated mind, that naturally collected mind.

And from there, there is equanimity. That is the highest. That is why when we talk about the brahmaviharas in that order, it's the metta, loving kindness, then the compassion, the karuna, then the empathetic joy, the mudita, and then finally upekkha. Upekkha or equanimity is the last brahmavihara to be experienced before the mind goes into what's known as pabhassara citta. Pabhassara citta means the luminous mind. The Buddha has talked about this. He says, luminous is the mind, monks. Luminous is the mind. But due to adventitious defilements, the mind becomes cloaked and covered by these defilements.

But in essence the mind is naturally luminescent or luminous. And so what you're doing with this practice is starting to uncover those defilements, first at a shallow level, at a surface level. But at deeper levels, as you continue to let go, as you continue to use the four R's, the defilements that are deeper start to get more and more uprooted.

And then there is this great amount of luminosity, brilliance, radiance of the mind. And then when you experience that, then the mind is utterly quiet. Absolutely no movement at all. There is immense relief in that. And eventually the mind then experiences nibbana. So when we talk about the factors of awakening, the enlightenment factors, they are essential to this practice.

But understand that it's not essential for you to look for them. It's not essential for you to bring them up. They will arise, and they will continue to be so as long as your mind stays with the object of meditation, and more importantly, right effort. When you're doing right effort, when you're doing the four R's, when you are recognizing, relaxing, re-smiling and returning, you are naturally bringing up these enlightenment factors. Because as soon as you recognize the hindrance, you have regained your mindfulness. And the fact that you recognize that the mind is distracted, now you have investigation. Now you have understanding that there is present this. As soon as you then relax, then you have balanced in your efforts. Now you have balanced energy. You have abandoned the unwholesome state, and because you've relaxed, you have tranquility. And as a result of being tranquil, your mind feels relief in that moment. When you're relaxed, the mind experiences a mundane form of nibbana. As a result of which, there is this joy that arises, anchored by the smile.

And then when you return back to your object in meditation, your mind becomes naturally collected, orbiting around the object in meditation. So long as you are able to remain unaffected by the hindrance present, and you're saying, okay, it's just this, you have the beginnings of equanimity. And if you continue down that path of the four R's of recognizing, relaxing, re-smiling and returning, then equanimity starts to become more tempered and it starts to become more present in the mind. So every time you use right effort, you are naturally bringing the enlightenment factors into balance.

As a result of which, you will start to experience jhanas, which we'll talk about tomorrow. Any questions? Yes? Yeah, in other words, if you're too close to, if you become too close, what happens? You become one-pointed in your mind. So in the case of the analogy, if the satellite gets too close, the gravity pulls it in and it crashes. Likewise, when you are with your object of meditation and you start to become one-pointed and you get too close, you become absorbed by the feeling of loving kindness. Then you start to suppress your mind, and in suppressing your mind you're suppressing the hindrances. When you do that, you might experience some bliss for a while, but then when the hindrances come up, they come up in full swing.

And that's where the suffering arises. Yes? That's right. That's right. Exactly. No. That's the thing. That's what I'll talk about tomorrow with jhanas. When we talk about jhanas, there's the jhanas that are traditionally understood as where the mind becomes super focused and there's no interaction with the outside world and it becomes absorbed. When that happens, the mind might experience great states, but when it comes out, there is no wisdom tied to it. If we read Majjhima Nikaya 1.11, which is the Anupada Sutta, there the Buddha talks about Sariputta's journey through the jhanas. And he talks about how Sariputta is able to observe what is happening in the jhanas. If your mind is absorbed, you won't be able to know what is going on.

But if you have what would be called the tranquil aware jhanas, that is to say, a mind that is just observing everything as it is, then it doesn't get caught up into the factors of the jhanas. It knows what jhanas are present, what factors of jhanas are present. Yesterday I used another analogy of when you're having a conversation with a friend and you're in a restaurant and there's ambient music. The ambient music are the factors of the jhanas. If you get caught up in the ambient music, or the ambient music becomes too loud, then you're not able to focus on what your friend is saying, which in this case is the object of meditation.

The object of meditation is your anchor. It allows your mind to be present and unified while it makes this journey through the jhanas. The key, the goal, is not to experience jhanas. The jhanas will happen naturally as a result of the practice. They are stepping stones on the way to nibbana, on the way to... Yeah, that's it. We're saying, okay, this mind now is in this genre. That's it. Yeah. After... uh, when you use the word permeating and pervading, what do you mean? Right. So he talks about, he pervades in one direction and the other, and so on and so forth. Yeah. And the difference between that and absorption.

Yeah. Pervading here actually brings about a sense of spaciousness. Absorption is closing in, is pinpointing. So when we talk about pervading, when we talk about radiating in the six directions, a lot of people ask, do I radiate from the heart? Do I radiate from the head? I say you don't radiate from either. Where do you radiate from? No, yet. Now at that point there's no body there, right? At that point what's happening is you have the experience of loving kindness, which is mental. And this is why I like to use this way of looking at it, because it helps you get out of the body, get out of the head. Because if you start radiating from the head, what happens is people experience pain and tension, because they're trying too hard. They're pushing, they're forcibly pushing out the feeling of loving kindness from the head. I say instead of that, just imagine your body surrounded by a bubble of loving kindness, or a bubble of compassion. It's like an aura that's around you, right?

And so from that aura, you're just noticing that aura increasing. That's the pervading that's happening. This is very much similar to the kasina practice. When we talk about kasina, it's generally understood that kasina is you take a color or you take an element, and then you become very absorbed in that. But if you think about the word kasina, which comes from the Sanskrit kritsna, it actually means to expand, to pervade. So in the same way, when you are pervading, when you are radiating, you're just allowing the feeling to expand on its own. The direction is just your observation. You're saying, okay, let's observe what's happening in this direction, and you're just observing the aura starting to radiate in this direction, and then in this direction, and so on and so forth.

Whereas the absorption is like you're trying too hard, you're making a forcible effort. So in the example that you used of watching like a movie, can we say it becomes like the brightness of screen in thinking? You don't focus on a central point, you just observe the brightness that you're thinking on and on. Right, so you're not just focused on one character of the movie, you're not just focused on one set of the movie. You're looking at the whole picture. You're looking at what's going on with this character and that character, and this scene and that scene, and so on. Yeah. Samasamadhi means right collectedness, right? Samasamadhi arises when the right factors are present.

That is to say, the mindfulness, which naturally leads to understanding, which naturally leads to energy, which naturally leads to joy and tranquility, and then as a result there is samadhi. So now another way of looking at it is, samasamadhi is the eighth in the eightfold path. You cannot have samasamadhi unless you have samasati. Unless you have right mindfulness. You can't have right mindfulness unless you have right effort. You can't have right effort unless you have right livelihood, right action and right speech. You can't have those unless you have right intention, and you can't have that unless you have right view. So all the factors have to be present in the mind, in the day-to-day experience of what's going on, in order for samadhi to happen.

Balanced mind, unified mind, collect it. Yes, yeah. You imagine now, first of all, when you're radiating, it might help for you to actually have loving kindness in your heart, and you just allow that to be there, and you allow that to start to expand on its own. So when we talk about the first jhana and the second jhana, it says he permeates the body with joy and stuff. Really he's observing the permeation happening. There's no willful permeation. It's just looking at things happening on their own. So when you start to notice that the mind feels more expansive because the loving kindness is more expansive, then you imagine it's like an aura around you. Then from that aura you take a direction. You, with your attention as the spotlight, you go left or forward or above you or below you, and then you just observe. The mind is observing that this energy of loving kindness is being spread out in that direction, rather than you as a self trying to push it out.

That's right. There's a small intention of, okay, in this direction, let it be pervaded, and you just observe that happen. Yeah. When you say aware of breathing, what do you mean? Like you're getting concentrated on your breath, or you're just aware that the breathing is happening? You can look at the breathing as just being there. If your mind starts to get concentrated on the breathing, treat it as a distraction and let it go, relax, and then come back to the feeling of loving-kindness. That's okay. And I think what I would suggest is, in that case, just have the understanding that the friend is in your heart as you're feeling the loving-kindness.

The subtle states of mind, when the mind becomes relaxed and then quiet, and then dull, how does one bring up energy, because it's so subtle that, you know, it's like breathing puts you back to process state breathing? Breathing, you said? Basically, my tendency is that if there is a subtler state, mind becomes spoilt, the legs spoilt, and then dull, then they need to breathe more energy to breathe in rather than doing anything else. But breathing in. What does the dull mind feel like? It's very spacious, but things are happening, but there's this random, the attention is not there. It's very random things are happening, but the perception is very dull. And then usually what happens is that it becomes so dull that it feels like napping, and then coming up from the neck, basically.

And does your mind feel groggy? No, it feels very dry, very good, it's a really good neck. But then I start from, let me talk to you about this in the interview. Just know that it's not dull. Let it be, it's fine, because yesterday you asked that question: what is the difference between being in the perception and non-perception and sloth and torpor? We're jumping ahead of ourselves, but I'll explain it now because I'll be talking about quiet mind. What happens is the mind experiences a very quiet space where it starts to experience winking out, which means it feels like the head is bobbing, it feels like the mind is starting to fall asleep, but it's also alert at the same time. This is one state of mind which has nothing to do with dullness and sloth and torpor. Sloth and torpor seems like it could be that, where the same situation is present, however.

The mind feels heavy. The mind feels like it's groggy, like when you've woken up from a very long nap and you don't know where you are and what's going on. That's how the dullness is. There's just this resistance in the mind, that's dullness, whereas here what's happening is the mind is starting to experience deeper levels of quiet. And if that's happening, then that's okay. Just keep going, see what happens. There's nothing else to do there. You don't have to bring up the, because as soon as you bring up the breathing, you know what you're doing. You're basically starting over. You are coming to a point where your verbal formations have ceased and your physical formations are starting to diminish, and now your mental formations are going to cease. But in mistaking that for dullness, you're reverting back to bringing up mental verbal formations and physical formations. So let it be, keep up, we keep watching it. Don't do anything else, just observe it. No, there is a difference.

We are really jumping the gun, guys. This is like day seven, I'm going to be talking about this. But okay. Equanimity is essentially a mind that is balanced and unaffected by one thing or the other. Another word for equanimity is yathabhuta nanadassana, which means the knowledge and vision of things as they are. From there you get disenchantment. The knowledge and vision of things as they are means you start to look into the nature of reality as being impermanent, liable to cause suffering, and not self. As a result of which, you get tired of the arising and passing away of phenomena, and that tiredness is the beginning of disenchantment. There, the mind turns away from all mental activities.

From that disenchantment, then there comes dispassion, where the mind is insulated by this dispassion, and anything that comes up just goes past it, and it doesn't even look at it. It's coming to a point where there's a signless collectiveness of mind. So equanimity is the conditioning factor for disenchantment and then for dispassion. If one is experiencing some of the not-self aspect in nature and it is impacting the meditation itself, how will one be able to do that? I think what you have to understand is, when you look at things as not-self, you don't have to investigate them as not-self. The experience of not-self happens naturally. It doesn't happen as a result of analyzing and investigating.

And so even that experience of seeing not-self is actually a fabricated experience. The true experience of anatta is a result of letting go. And then there will be no difference in what you see in daily life or in practice. And this happens when you experience infinite consciousness. When you see the arising and passing away of consciousness, then you realize, oh, this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. As a result of which, then you experience equanimity in nothingness.

There is no self, or you can't say that there is a self, and you can't say that there is no self. All you can understand is that everything that we think of as self does not hold water as self. Because the idea of self is what? The idea of self is that it's permanent, the idea of self is that it's blissful, and that it's all-pervading. Sat-chit-ananda, right?

But when you look at and see all our experiences, the five aggregates, the links of dependent origination, experiences, feeling, perception and so on, you realize that none of those match the sense of self that is talked about. And so you let go of that, and whatever is remaining is not self or not not self. It's just the mind with wisdom, a mind that is liberated through the experience of not self.

Sure, if you see not self, what you're going to notice is there's a deep level of equanimity. That should be the fruit of seeing not self: equanimity. If you can bring that into your practice, then from there you start radiating equanimity, and then you start to experience disenchantment, and this. Yes, yes. Wisdom is essentially, yes, that's insight, wisdom, understanding links of dependent origination. It's letting go, it's experiencing greater degrees of cessation. These are all different ways of understanding wisdom or looking at wisdom. Yes. So we have the five aggregates. We have body, feeling, perception, consciousness and formations.

Actually, the body, yeah, mindfulness of body is related to form. With body, mindfulness of feeling is related to feeling. Perception is related to mind or mindset. Then consciousness is also related to mindset. Formations are related to mindfulness of phenomena. You recognize there's anger, you relax, you re-smile and you return, that's what you do. No. If it takes time, it takes time. You just notice anger is there, you relax, you re-smile and you return. Anger is still present, do the same thing again.

What's the point of observing anger until it goes away? The more attention you give to anger, the more anger will come up. You have to let go and replace the anger with something. That is the Buddha Dharma. It's not about just observing to the point of oblivion. If that was the case, then the Buddha would have just said, monks, keep observing, don't do anything else. But he talked about the four right efforts. He talked about noticing what is present, letting go of what is unwholesome, as being whatever is present as unwholesome, and then replacing it with something that is wholesome. So the replacing is important. Fine, anger is there, but you have to make the right effort to relax the anger.

You can't just observe it. It's not going to do anything. Yeah, just say, okay, there's anger. That's to recognize, and then you relax, you let it go, you bring up the smile or something wholesome to replace the anger, and that should take you no more than one or two seconds to recognize that the anger is there, and then as soon as you recognize, you have to relax. Yes. Depends what you're experiencing, because dreamlike states can happen as a result of the mind getting distracted by something, and there's gaps in your attention, and now the mind starts to feel groggy. That's one kind of dreamlike state. Another kind of dreamlike state happens where the mind is bright and very radiant and is able to observe everything, but still there's things that are going on, and this dreamlike state happens in a state called neither perception nor non-perception. Yes. Yes. Yeah, you're awake, you're asleep and awake at the same time. No, the sloth and torpor is you have no mindfulness there at all.

And you're very present, that's important. If you're not present, then, and there's a lot of important. Yeah. I'm sorry, if it's possible, the whole sitting is delivered to the dentist. And you are at the point that you are trying to smile, but the smile is not going to be an actual set. Yeah, it's possible. The whole sitting could be delivered to the dentist. That's okay. That's okay. Yeah.

yeah is it uncomfortable what is your object there six directions this can happen in infinite space sometimes people feel like where what is up what is down what's going on yeah just this let go of any resistance to that yes so so you're talking about in neither perception on perception so the the mind as the object is just observing what's going on everything that's happening in either perception or unperception is just the mind sinking down into here and then when there's a blank and nothing is going on there's an awareness that there's a blank there that is a deeper level of quiet mind awareness should be there yeah yes there's a distraction yes stop trying so hard usually what happens is if the mind is trying too hard it will be filled with a lot of hindrances you know there's a tendency in the first couple of days where mind as i said it really wants to make a lot of progress and it does everything that it can do that's very much counter-intuitive

So you need to relax. You need to back off a little bit and just observe things instead of wanting things to happen. Yeah, because you guys are trying too hard. You're trying too hard, you're pushing too much. You have to relax and just enjoy and just observe. Anytime the mind starts to try too hard, it manifests as some kind of pain in the head or some kind of pain in the body. No, just back off a little bit, just relax and just observe what's going on, and then come back to your object and just be aware of it. Don't have to try to stay with it as long as you can. As long as you're just there, and so it's there, that's it. That's the level of effort you have to make, because that's aversion. That's aversion. You have to do the 6R's or the four R's on the aversion.

Yes, yeah, yeah, go ahead. What is what? Dhamma Vapasana. As long as you are aware of loving-kindness or compassion, as soon as your mind drifts away from that and then you know you're drifted, that's what I'm saying. Loving-kindness and compassion is your anchor. If you're no longer feeling that or if it's drifting away, then you're distracted. That's okay, you're fine, you're fine. Well, how do you know you're drifting? You're drifting because you're thinking about something else. Remember what I told you: when you feel loving-kindness, if there are thoughts in the background and you're still with loving-kindness, then you're not distracted. As soon as your attention goes to a distraction, then you're distracted, even if there's a fragment of loving-kindness that you're still aware of. Even if there are distractions, or so-called distractions, in the background, then you're not distracted, even if there's one atom of loving-kindness present.

You're not distracted. That's what I'm telling you guys. Don't observe the distraction. Observe that you got distracted and come back. Yeah, it's already up on YouTube. Yeah, we work fast here. All right, on that note, let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired, for the acquisition 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.