Day 5 Adv Retreat -Sn 41.7 With Godatta -Liberations -Delson Armstrong

So today I'm going to be reading from Samyutta Nikaya 41.7. This is the Godatta Sutta. On one occasion, the Venerable Godatta was dwelling at Machikasanda in the wild mango grove. The Venerable Godatta then said to him, as he was sitting to one side, one in meaning and different only in phrasing. So he's talking about these four things, measureless liberation of mind, liberation of mind by nothingness, liberation of mind by emptiness, and the signless liberation of mind. And his question is, are these things pointing to one and the same thing, or are they different things?

There is a method, Venerable Sir, by which these things are different in meaning and also different in phrasing. And there is a method by which they are one in meaning and different only in phrasing. In other words, they point to one particular state in one case, and in another case, they are different experiences. Here, one dwells pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving kindness.

Likewise, the second quarter, the third quarter, and the fourth quarter. Thus above, below, across, and everywhere, and to all as to himself, he dwells pervading the entire world with a mind imbued with loving kindness. Vast, he dwells pervading, with a mind imbued with these brahmaviharas, vast, exalted, measureless, without hostility, without ill will.

This is called the measureless liberation of mind. This is called the measureless liberation of mind. When you are, it's an interesting word, pervade. We say radiate. Usually that's the word we use. The challenge in using that word is it makes some people push the feeling of loving kindness. It's like, okay, this direction, this direction, all the loving kindness that can be possible here, in this direction, this direction, this direction, up, above, everywhere.

And to pervade, to pervade means to imbue, to watch, to observe, to have an intention, that may all beings in this direction, that may all beings in this direction, that may all beings in this direction, that may all beings in this direction, that may all beings in this direction, be free of suffering, be filled with loving kindness, or may all beings in this direction, experience joy and the freedom from suffering, may all beings experience clarity and tranquility and equanimity, whatever it might be.

And it's more about the intention that all beings in each direction experience these things. And because your mind becomes collected, you start to feel that in your own body, you start to feel that in your own body, or in your own body, or in your own body, or in your mind, or as an experience in the mind.

And at some point, there does feel like the experience of loving kindness, or compassion, or joy, or equanimity is like the radiance of a flame. And at some point, you start to feel that in your own body, or in your own body, or in your own body, or in your own body, or in your own body. And at some point, you experience that growing.

And just by your observation of it growing, you can feel into that. And as you feel into it, you start to experience an expansion. And then as you start to feel that expansion, you start to get into infinite space. And eventually, you get into this field of experience. And you start to feel that in your own body. And then as you start to feel like Mars.

Because every jhana is a temporary liberation. When you are in the first jhana, the mind is free from the hindrances, as it says, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters upon the first jhana, with vitakka and vicara, the intentionalizing of an object, which is followed by joy and comfort, piti and sukha, and unification of the mind.

It's not just cittekaggata. It's not just cittekaggata. It's cittekaggata. It's cittekaggata. It's cittekaggata. The mind becomes unified. And then when you are in any of the other jhanas, the second jhana, your mind is liberated from the thinking and examining thought. Your mind is free of the intentionalizing. And as you get into the third jhana, joy becomes a bit too much. Your mind gets liberated. And you get liberated from that as a condition. As you get into the fourth jhana, your mind gets liberated from the comfort. As you get into the fourth jhana, your mind gets liberated from the comfort and experiences purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.

Your mind is very pure, very equanimous, alert, aware. And then your mind is liberated from notions of form when it starts to experience infinite space. And then it's liberated from the experience of space as it gets into consciousness. Then it's liberated from the arising and passing away, which makes the mind see into the nature of the three characteristics.

By seeing that it's impermanent because it keeps arising and passing away. It's unstable. Consciousness is unstable. Consciousness is unstable. It becomes tiresome. It becomes tiresome and therefore there's dukkha. And you see I'm not controlling this process. It's an impersonal process. This is another kind of liberation. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. It's an impersonal process. So jhanas are temporary liberation because they cease the hindrances. There is the idea of the jhanagami or the jhanagami or the jhanagami. This is found in a couple of references in the suttas in I think Anguttara Nikaya.

And what it says is that one who enters the stream, when they continue to practice being in jhana. Meaning you have consistent, reliable, everyday practice of meditating and entering these states. And when the mind goes, when it's time to die, that the mind will incline to that particular jhana that is most prevalent, has been most prevalent in one's practice.

And because one is already a sotapanna, the first three fetters are gone. What are the first three fetters? The fetters, sensual craving and aversion, ill will. When you are in jhana, the five hindrances are not present in the mind. The five hindrances are not present in the mind. Your mind is free in that moment. The five hindrances.

And thereby when the mind as a sotapanna enters into that jhana, it is also free in that jhana, it is also free of sensual desire and free of any ill will. And so effectively, one is an anagami. And what it says there is that the mind will then, there will be another rebirth in that particular jhana or in that particular brahma loka. From which then the mind will never come back. That's the mind will never come back. That's the anagami. That's the anagami. That's the anagami.

So jhanas are very powerful in that way. They liberate the mind from the hindrances. Notice that. See that, the purity of mind in that. Don't just get bored by the eighth jhana, by the quiet mind. Millions. Millions, if not billions of people. Millions, if not billions of people. Right? Have no access to this. They're suffering. They're suffering. They are identifying. They don't know any better. They are riddled with ignorance and craving and conceit.

But when you are in jhana, your mind is free from that. There may still be some conceit. There may still be some conceit. Because you, oh, I'm in this jhana. This jhana is pleasing to me. So if you just see jhana as jhana. In the seeing, there's only the seeing. In the heard, there's only the heard. In the sense, there's only the sense. In the cognizing, there's only the cognizing. In the meditating, there's only the meditation. In the meditation. There's only the meditation. In the meditation. There's only the one. It expands our ability. It expands our ability and capacity to experience that karma from, oh my god, what's happening to my life. in the conch plur.

Or it's related to the conch plur. Or it's related to that sutta, the conch plur. So the mind experiences liberation in that way. The measureless liberation of mind through the brahmaviharas. And what venerable sir is the liberation of mind by nothingness. Here by completely transcending the base of the infinity of consciousness, aware that there is nothing, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the base of nothingness. This is called the liberation of mind by nothingness.

So we talked about this. Nothingness being the seventh jhana. So we talked about this. It's a liberation of nothingness. It's a liberation because your mind is free of any kind of clinging towards any future rebirth related to those hindrances. So by transcending infinite consciousness, one enters into the base of nothingness. One enters into the base of nothingness. This is how you can call it the liberation of mind by nothingness. This is how you can call it the liberation of mind by nothingness.

And what venerable sir is the liberation of mind by emptiness. Here one gone to the forest or the foot of a tree or to an empty hut reflects thus. Empty is this of self. What belongs to self. This is the liberation of emptiness. This is the liberation of emptiness. This is the liberation of emptiness. This is the liberation of emptiness.

This is where you try to trace the I thought. This is where you try to trace the I thought. The me, mine, myself. And your mind doesn't find it. As soon as it tries to look for the I, what happens? There's just a blank space. The mind is kind of just in this space which is relaxed and free of any kind of conceit.

And this is the emptiness. This is what happens. This is what happens. This is what happens. This is what happens. This is not mine. This is not mine. This is not myself. It can be a very powerful experience. It can be a very powerful experience. And the mind experiences liberation in there. And this is one of the gates to liberation.

Three gates. The first is signless. The second is undirectedness. The third is emptiness. So when you're able to trace the I thought, when you're trying to find the self in the experience, only to find that there's no self there, your mind relaxes into that field of awareness.

And it is free of any kind of conceit. We'll get into the signless and the undirected shortly. Actually, we're going to get there. And what, venerable sir, is the signless liberation of mind? Here, with non-attention to all signs, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the signless collectedness of mind.

This is called the signless liberation of mind. So there is another sutta called the Bhikkhuni's Residence, which talks about the undirected meditation. So now we have three things: signlessness, undirectedness, and emptiness. So what do we mean when he says, here with the non-attention to all signs, he enters and dwells in the signless collectedness of mind?

As you take up an object of meditation, your mind collects around it and experiences the jhanas. And as you get deeper and deeper, usually when you get to the eighth jhana, from nothingness to the eighth, your mind becomes withdrawn and rests in itself.

And so it's no longer looking at the mental field, the mental screen on which there is the object. It becomes collected within itself. And this is what we call quiet mind. The mind takes itself as an object. It's a reflexive awareness. Some people like to call it awareness. Some people like to call it awareness of awareness.

You can call it whatever you want. It's fine. But there comes a point where the mind gets disinterested with even that. And the mind, collected in itself, starts to soften the borders around the mind. And so the analogy I use is like a beam of light that you shine out up into the sky and goes out into space.

And suppose there were no meteorites or asteroids or stars or galaxies or any kind of cosmic stellar body, and that this light continued on into space. And the mind is like a beam of light.