MN 19 Two Kinds of thought - Good vs Bad results-Dvedhavitakka Sutta

Let me share my screen here. We go. Here we are in Majjhima Nikaya 19, Dvedhavitakka Sutta, the Two Kinds of Thought. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There he addressed the Bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus." "Venerable Sir," they replied. The Blessed One said this: "Bhikkhus, before my enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, it occurred to me, suppose that I divide my thoughts into two classes."

Then I set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill will, thoughts of cruelty. And I set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non-ill will, and thoughts of non-cruelty. So what the Buddha is describing here is the discernment factor. This is what's known as dhamma-vicaya, the ability to discern between what is wholesome and unwholesome. So what he's saying here is, suppose I divide my thoughts into two classes. It's like, what are the thoughts that are causing me and others harm? And what are the thoughts that are not causing me harm or others harm, and are, in fact, beneficial, as we'll see.

Now, when you look at these thoughts, thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill will and thoughts of cruelty, and then thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non-ill will, and thoughts of non-cruelty, these are basically the first set are wrong intention, and the second set is really all about right intention, right? So we'll get into what we're talking about here as we continue. As I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of sensual desire arose in me.

So here the Buddha is saying, as the Bodhisatta meditating in this way, he was mindful. He had mindfulness established before him. He had enthusiasm. He had the determination to sit. And while this was going on, like it does invariably for all of us in meditation, a distraction arises. In this case, it's a thought of sensual desire. I understood thus: this is the discernment, this is the sati sampajanna. This thought of sensual desire has arisen in me. This leads to my own affliction, to others' affliction, and to the affliction of both.

It obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana. When I considered this leads to my affliction, it subsided in me. When I considered this leads to others' affliction, it subsided in me. When I considered this leads to the affliction of both, it subsided in me. When I considered this obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana, it subsided in me. Whenever a thought of sensual desire arose in me, I abandoned it, removed it, did away with it. So it's interesting. Here what he's talking about is the ability to discern the effect of a certain kind of thought. And this discernment can be used or utilized for any kind of distraction.

What is a distraction? What is a hindrance? What is an unwholesome state? What is an unskillful state, right? It is something that constricts the mind. So the Buddha here is saying, it leads to my own affliction. I feel tightness or tension, for example, or I feel unease, or I feel pain, or I feel whatever it is. So when I consider this, it subsides in me. Why? Because I consciously let go. I realize, oh, this is not helpful. This is not beneficial.

Likewise, that it leads to others' affliction. If I have an unwholesome state in mind, in my mind, if I have an unskillful thought in my mind, and I know that such a thing will then lead to the affliction of others, I let it go. Moreover, this leads to, or this obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana. How do you know something is obstructing wisdom? How do you know something is causing difficulty? How do you know that something is leading you away from Nibbana, well on the path to Nibbana? It is the understanding that my mind gets clearer and clearer, calmer and calmer, my mind gets quieter and quieter and more and more collected. If this does not lead to those experiences, this thought.

If this thought obstructs wisdom, which is: it makes the mind foggy, it makes the mind heavy, it makes the mind dull or restless, it creates doubt in the mind, which means the lack of discernment between what is wholesome and unwholesome. It causes difficulties. It creates resistance in my mind. It takes me away from Nibbana, which means it leads away from dispassion, from disenchantment, from collectedness. When I see this, then I choose to let it go. So here the Buddha is saying, I consider these thoughts and they subsided in me. So in this case, when they subside, they subside because I abandon, right? I let go. And this is so important to understand.

The other practices, where they are portraying themselves to teach what the Buddha taught, are just saying: note it, be aware of it, be with it, have equanimity towards it. No, there is a way and methodology in which the Buddha is pointing out: when it arose in me, I abandoned it, I removed it, I did away with it. Obviously, the attitude with which we do that matters as well. If we have aversion towards it, then we need to let go of that aversion.

Now look at this: what he frequently thinks and ponders upon. You have to understand, when we talk about thoughts, they can be categorized in two different ways. Passive thoughts are thoughts that come up, which you didn't cause to come up. You didn't consciously think of them. You didn't bring them up. And then there is that which you ponder upon, which is to say active thoughts, in which you intentionally think about what it is that has arisen in the form of that passive thought. So whatever one continues to ponder upon, that becomes the inclination of the mind.

I remember when this spiritual friend did so-and-so for me or so-and-so for others, and how it was uplifting. Or when you're radiating in the different directions, maybe you're pondering that all beings in this direction might represent my family, or may represent my teachers, or may represent my friends, or may represent my employees, or whatever it might be. Or that when I radiate upwards, I'm thinking about, for example, all the devas and the Brahma beings. And when I radiate downwards, my mind goes to loving kindness towards the animal realms, towards the asura realms, towards the hungry ghost realms, towards the realm of hell, you know, the realms of hell. So towards those beings residing there.

And so the loving kindness is the object, but thematically there are things tied to it in terms of the thoughts. But if I'm constantly within those themes, my mind will incline always to loving kindness. And that is how my mind gets reconditioned. I abandon thoughts of ill will and aversion and stay with thoughts of loving kindness.

Likewise, with compassion, I abandon thoughts of cruelty and stay with thoughts of compassion. I abandon thoughts of jealousy and likewise stay with thoughts of mudita, or empathetic joy. I abandon thoughts of indifference, of agitation and restlessness and anxiety, and likewise am with thoughts of equanimity. So this is really, in some sense, the understanding of becoming. Whatever you continue to think about, whatever you continue to actively pursue, that can lead to becoming, that can lead to your habitual tendencies.

You see, the habitual tendencies can be positive or wholesome, or negative or unwholesome, right? So it goes from reconditioning the mind from the unwholesome to the wholesome, and then letting go of the undue identification with the wholesome, so that the wholesome is used as the raft to get to the other shore, but it doesn't become another mode of ownership by the ego structure. And so then the Buddha says: just as in the last month of the rainy season, in the autumn, when the crops thicken, a cowherd would guard his cows by constantly tapping and poking them to this side and that with a stick, to check and curb them. Why is that? Because he sees that he could be flogged, imprisoned, fined, or blamed if he let them stray into the crops. So too, I saw in unwholesome states danger, degradation, and defilement, and in wholesome states the blessing of renunciation, the aspect of cleansing. So what are we saying here? He's using this analogy: the cowherd continues to guard his cows,

bringing them into line. Otherwise, if they do any kind of damage, he's liable for that. Likewise with the hindrances, the unwholesome states, the distractions: if we don't poke and prod at them, if we don't bring them into alignment by doing what? By utilizing right effort, by utilizing the 6R's. If we don't do that, then those thoughts will run amok, and they will cause further aggravation in our mind, further defilements, further proliferation. And then you see that in wholesome states there's the blessing of renunciation. What do we mean by that? The blessing of renunciation, the blessing of letting go.

The blessing of being content. The blessing of non-reactivity. The aspect of cleansing, visuddhi or vishuddhi in Sanskrit, the act of purifying. The 6R's cleanse and purify the mind: the discernment that you get from recognizing, the letting go that you get from releasing and relaxing, the upliftment you get from re-smiling, the collectedness you get from returning, right, and the equanimity you get from repeating whenever necessary. That all is purifying and cleansing. It's reconditioning from the unwholesome to the wholesome. As I abided thus, diligent, ardent and resolute, a thought of renunciation arose in me. I understood thus: this thought of renunciation has arisen in me. This does not lead to my own affliction, or to others' affliction, or to the affliction of both. It aids wisdom, does not cause difficulties, and leads to nibbana.

So I studied my mind internally, quieted it, brought it to singleness and collected it. Why is that so, that my mind should not be strained? Let's break this down. In this case a thought of renunciation arose. What does that mean? A thought of letting go, a thought of contentment, a thought of being at ease. It doesn't lead to my harm, doesn't lead to the harm of others, doesn't lead to the harm of either. It aids wisdom. Why? Because it clarifies the mind. It does not cause difficulties, because the difficulties are gone when you let go. And it leads to nibbana, because it is the active development of non-clinging, of dispassion, of disenchantment, and of dispassion, and of vimutti. And he says: if I were to stay with this thought for a night, for a day, for even a night and day, I don't have anything to fear from it. But if I excessively keep at it, in terms of keep initiating the thought and trying to keep that thought at bay, I'm going to tire myself out. And when I tire myself out I feel

pressure. I feel my mind becomes strained and it's no longer collected. So when you experience, for example, loving kindness or compassion or whatever it might be, if I continue to think about those thoughts, if I continue to keep lighting up the ignition, it just keeps restarting the car. It's not going to do anything. Once I have the experience of loving kindness, I stay with it. I allow the thematic thoughts of loving kindness to come in tandem with the loving kindness as the object. But I don't have to actively stay with it. Once it's there and it's flowing, then I just have to stay with it by relaxing into it, by just observing and resting into it.

So he says, so I steadied my mind internally. I let go and quieted it. I brought it to singleness. What does that mean? I unified the mind. The mind was composed and collected, so that my mind should not be strained. I relaxed into it. As I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of ill will arose in me. So a feeling of loving kindness, a thought of non-cruelty arose in me, a feeling of compassion. I understood thus that this thought of non-cruelty has arisen in me, and it does not lead to my own affliction or to others' affliction or to the affliction of both. It aids wisdom, does not cause difficulties, and leads to nibbana.

I let go. I quieted it. I brought it to singleness and collected it. I composed it. I brought it to relaxing tranquility. Tranquility leads to sukha. Sukha leads to collectedness, samadhi. The passaddhi, the passambhaya, the tranquilizing, leads to a body that feels relaxed. When the body is also relaxed and at ease, the mind becomes collected, is in samadhi. Thereby one experiences singleness or unification of the mind, which then leads to yathabhuta nanadassanam, the ability to see things as they are, which leads to disenchantment, dispassion and vimutti, liberation, so that my mind should not be strained. Because whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind, if he frequently thinks and ponders upon thoughts of renunciation.

This is very interesting, right? Because what we're saying is, as much as we understand the complexity to an extent of the brain, and that it has all of these conscious, subconscious, and unconscious inner workings, and there are synapses firing in every moment, and neurons are being connected, and so on and so forth, right? But when it comes to the subjective of mind, the reality is, as much as it feels like we're thinking many thoughts in a moment, we can only hold one thought in one moment. And so if I have feelings or thoughts of loving kindness

then I don't have thoughts of ill will. When I have thoughts of ill will in that moment, then I don't have thoughts of loving kindness. If I have thoughts of compassion in that moment, then obviously I don't have any thought of cruelty. So only one thought a moment. Very simplistic sounding, but it is the reality. Just as in the last month of the hot season, when all the crops have been brought inside the villages, a cow herd would guard his cows while staying at the root of a tree or in the open, since he needs only to be mindful that the cows are there, so too there was need for me only to be mindful that those states were there. He's using the analogy of the cow herd again, right? He knows that the cows are there and everything is fine. The crops have been brought inside the villages, so he doesn't have to worry about the cows going and eating up the crops.

He just has to be mindful that they're there, and that's enough. Likewise, if there's loving kindness in the mind, great. I don't need to do anything else. I just have to be aware that it's present and bask in it. So only when my mind goes astray, I recognize that, release the distraction, relax the mind and body, re-smile, return back.

The feeling of loving kindness, stay there and repeat whenever necessary. So tireless energy was aroused in me. He has the effort. Unremitting mindfulness was established; he now has the mindfulness factor. My body was tranquil and untroubled; he now has passaddhi. And my mind was collected and unified; he now has samadhi and ekagata. Quite secluded from sensual pleasure, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered upon and abided in the first jhana. So this is coming back to sutta 4, which we've already done, so you can revisit that to talk to see what he's talking about. He goes through the first four jhanas, and then he goes through the multiple rebirths that he's gone through. He goes through the arising and passing away of beings in accordance with their karma, and then he sees the destruction of the taints, and then we come to: I directly knew, birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.

This was the third true knowledge attained by me in the last watch of the night. That's about the destruction of the taints. Ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose. Avijja, the ignorance, the lack of mindfulness of what is happening right here, right now, has been replaced by the true knowledge of the four noble truths. Darkness was banished and light arose. The daydream of existence was awakened from. In the light of one's awareness, that knowing arose, as happens in one who abides diligent, ardent and resolute.

When you are mindful, truly mindful, you are in that knowing, that knowing state of the mind. Suppose that in a wooded range there was a great low-lying marsh near which a large herd of deer lived. Suppose a man appeared desiring their ruin, harm and bondage, and he closed off the safe and good path to be traveled joyfully. And he opened up a false path. And he put out a decoy and set up a dummy so that the large herd of deer might later come upon calamity, disaster, and loss. But another man came desiring their good welfare and protection. And he reopened the safe and good path that led to their happiness. And he closed off the false path.

And he removed the decoy and destroyed the dummy so that the large herd of deer might later come to growth, increase and fulfillment. Because I have given this simile in order to convey a meaning, this is the meaning. The great low-lying marsh is a term for sensual pleasures. The large herd of deer is a term for beings. The man desiring their ruin, harm and bondage is a term for Mara, the evil one.

The false path is a term for the wrong eightfold path. That is wrong view, wrong intention, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong collectedness. This is the path that does not lead to nibbana. The decoy is a term for delight and lust. The dummy is a term for ignorance. The man desiring their good welfare and protection is a term for the Tathagata, accomplished and fully enlightened.

The safe and good path to be traveled joyfully, that path that leads to nirvana, is a term for the noble eightfold path, that is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. So because the safe and good path to be traveled joyfully has been reopened by me, the wrong path has been closed off, the decoy removed, that is, the delight and lust, the craving, and the dummy destroyed, that is, the ignorance, the avija, the lack of knowledge and understanding of the four noble truths in every moment.

What should be done for his disciples out of compassion by a teacher who seeks their welfare and has compassion for them, that I have done for you. Because there are these roots of trees, these empty huts. Meditate, because do not delay, or else you will regret it later. This is our instruction to you. That is what the Blessed One said. Because we're satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words. Yeah, meditate, don't delay. It's such a powerful message. Very true. The mind says, I'll get to it, I'll get to it later, I'll get to it later, and a later comes by and you're dead.

It's as simple as that. Make it a point to meditate as much as you can every day, even if it's just 30 minutes a day. If you don't have 30 minutes a day, there's something wrong with your life. You need to relook at your priorities. Yeah, I would add that this is a great instruction to be really mindful the whole day, just as you can see anything that's or it's the wrong type of thought, 6R's it, and just use the whole day.

Of course, your 30 minutes is your baseline, but keep in mind the sutta that during the day, you're going to have wrong thoughts leading to affliction, and right thoughts leading to non-affliction, which are fine, great, wonderful, but there is that stuff that comes up and you should be remembering to look at it and go, is that good or bad, or am I following that? And if it's not good, then stop. Yeah, don't follow. So, many people do ask me, how do I remain mindful when I have all of these tasks that need to be done? I have an intense workflow and I have all of these things going on.

And it could be as simple as putting up timers through the day on your phone, four, five, six, seven times a day, maybe every hour. And it just points to, oh, what's going on in my mind right now? And as you start to develop that, you start to do that automatically and it becomes a game. It's like, oh, let me see where my mind is right now. What's going on?

And if my mind is wholesome, great, I don't have to do anything. If my mind has tension, if my mind has craving, I 6R's it, I let it go, come back to the moment, I come back to whatever it is I'm doing, but with a gentler mind that's full of ease and relaxation. I have a comment. Yeah, so I've been thinking about the further insight I had while you were here on the retreat, and it was about someone on the retreat asked you a question about the wrong view, the thinking that we have all these things that we have to purify, and if we just purify all these things then, you know, kind of I guess maybe that's like the jane view so to speak, and the realization that we really only have one thing at a time happening. I just keep going deeper and deeper with looking at this and seeing that anywhere in the chain there's really only one thing happening, and you talked about that today too.

It's not like, because sometimes we want to go on these long retreats. I love to go on long retreats myself, because that way I could really do some work, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you can also just, in the moment, just ask what is the one thing that's happening? That's all you have to deal with, the one thing that's happening in that chain of dependent origination. Instead of thinking, oh my god, I have so much to purify, I just think there's so much relief in that. It's finding, it's just this. We had a person here, who I won't name, because I think he wants to be anonymous, but he said, what if this is all there is right now, this moment? What if this is as good as it gets? And so I just kind of keep coming back to that again and going, okay, yeah, this is this is it. So any thoughts you have about that is great. No, that's beautiful, Kirsten. The idea that really it is true that

whatever is present is present right now, and if I can just relax into this moment, my mind already is attuned to what is happening. Am I in an afflictive state or a non-afflictive state? Is my mind filled with craving, or is my mind at ease? Is my mind letting go? And so if I can simplify the practice into one moment at a time, then that moment leads to seconds, and those seconds lead to minutes, and those minutes lead to hours of mindfulness. So instead of being like, okay, I'll be mindful for the entire day, I'm going to just be discerning throughout the day, I can just take this moment right now, what's happening, and that can lead

to a phenomenal practice where we can be ever mindful all the time. 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. Thank you everyone. I'll see you around. Take care, have a good week. Bye.