131: Retreat Dhamma Talk 26: Purification and Heedfulness

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Sama Sambudassa Namo Tasambagato Rato Sama Sambudassa Namo Tasambato Rahato Sama Sambodassa Retreat Series Dhamma talk number twenty-six for quite a few Dharma talks we have been discussing under the major heading of Bamada and Abamada, heedlessness and heedfulness. If you summarize that the whole thing our teachers has put us for our understanding, even though we're not in the scripture divided as such, you will see the gross form of heedfulness or heedlessness. Heedfulness is if one is observing the ten practices or ten habits which produce suffering. If one practice those things, then it is heedless. And if you observe and if you refrain from practicing these ten duchiriyak, ten suffering-producing practices, then it is heatfulness. In general, you can say it's the precepts in general. That is the basic fundamental gross form of heatfulness. And then the other one is restraining oneself from sense pleasure, sixth sense pleasure. And if you can restrain yourself and live with the moderation, then it is heedfulness. And if you can't restrain and if you live or if you give free hand to these six sense pleasure, then it is heedless. Second part. And the third one is the final one is called refined form of heatfulness or heedlessness. Refined form or superior kind of heedfulness, refined form of heatfulness, the highest level. If you put it in one way, if one is practicing full foundation of mindfulness, satipatthana, in full force, then it is heatfulness. And if one is not practicing, still practicing but not in the full force, the way Buddha has taught us, then it is heedless. It is not that you don't practice at all, you still practice, but not to the extents of perfection. As the Buddha has instructed us, it is called heedless. And in there, the Buddha taught us how to be refined form of heatful and refined form of heedless. He taught us in a very different approaches and angles. Okay, we'll just read it in terms of uh Pali. It's always start with the kuslanan dhamanam bhavanaya. Okay. If one is accumulating superior form of kusala wholesomeness, okay, kusla wholesomeness or kusla karma to produce the great benefits if one is practicing what is called bhawanaya, mental culture, mental development. In other words, if one is practicing full foundation of mindfulness, atteya sabamada, kuslanandamanam bhavanaya, you will find that starting in everything that what Buddha taught. And the latter part is the point. If one is practicing this heedfulness, refined form of hatefulness. And if one is not practicing respectfully and seriously, then you are heedless. You are still practicing, but you don't pay much respect. No, it's run of the mill, superficially, not seriously, then it is heedless. But if you practice respectfully and seriously, it is heedful. That's one. And the second one, see, guslanandaman bhavanaya. You know what that means? Already start with. And what is atriata bamado? That means if one observation, if one mindfulness is not connected or continuous with another mindfulness, then you have heedless, heedless from the refined form. We are always talking about refined form, not in the middle form or the gross form, refined form. So in here what it means is in short in English, if one is taking a break in your practice, especially in the retreat. Even short ones, seven days, ten days, two weeks, or one, two, three months, six months. If there are some times, some cases you feel very tired, exhausted, and you take a break. And if you are taking a break, that means you are heedless. You are not developing refined form of heedfulness. It's a break. Another one is gap. The gap is from one noting to the other, one noting to the other, one noting to the other. And if these notings are not continuous, okay, if there's a gap, then it is not a refined form of hatefulness. It is heedless. Heedlessness. So that is the second one. These two, first and foremost, it is respectfully and seriously, and then without a break, without a gap, practicing seamlessly, every mindfulness, seamlessly. These two express on a technical level how to do it with precision, technically teaching. Some people are very good at following instruction, technical instruction. And if people follow these two respectfully and seriously without a break and a gap, if you can do that, you are being hateful at the refined level. Just those two. And then the Buddha went on to teach us in a different way too. This one is kusalanan dhamanan bavanaya odina vukita. Okay, odina vutita. What it is is in here you are not slacking, you are not taking an easy ride. You you practice boldly and bravely and courageously. In other words, your practices are not low and vulgar. If you remember the word all. Then you have a responsibility to reach that goal, to achieve that goal, and you must carry it out your duty and responsibility. So that approach Buddha taught us. And then he approached another way for different type of people with different mental state. And here is um he approaches from the desire. Okay, chanda is a noble desire. Some people they start something with great desire. And some people are really effective whenever they desire something, they don't stop, they approach, they drive. So this one is aimed towards the people who does things with great desire. Okay. So if you have got that kind of desire, those kind of people they don't really care what is going to happen, what's going to, whether it is their physical danger met or any form of danger, they don't really care. They only go gung-ho straightforward for their desire, their objective. And with that approach, with that noble desire for those kind of people, he taught this one. Because they call it a chanda jeta. Okay. Consciousness with that desire. Chanda jeta actually it's the very peaceful, okay? Very peaceful, very quiet, very calm states of consciousness. Those have no mental defilements, loba, dosa and moha. The mind is not shaken or even vibrating with the mental defilements. That kind of consciousness is called chandajita. If you practice with that, you achieved it. So in here, the Buddha approaches with a desire, you can reach that kind of a state. And the emphasize on a technical side that he approaches through the wita and wijara. Okay, witat, wijara, and then vipassana jhana. Based on the jhana direction he approached and he taught us. That one. The last one we have taught, it's called Kusala Nambhak. Kusalanandaman bhavanaya. Anasewana pamado. So you must link the pen. Use and keep it. Okay. What do you depend upon? What do you use? What do you keep? That is the five mental faculties. Of course, five mental faculty is there, but the way it's put is you must lean on, you must depend upon, you must use it, you must keep it in what fashion, in what way? As if one depends on the air and the water and the food to maintain and to sustain your life. That kind of importance one has to give. And when you take food too, it varies in whether junk food or a good food, nutritious food or non-nutritious food, and so on. Through that approach, Buddha taught us. And these are all, if you don't have it, if you don't do it, it is the you don't have the refined form of heatfulness. In other words, heedless. If you do it exactly the way he has instructed, then you have the refined form of heatfulness. So these are the different ways the Buddha has taught us how to practice this heatfulness, how to achieve this refined form of heatfulness. So if you look at it in here all different ways, but one thing is what are we doing? We are practicing full foundation of mindfulness. Why do we practice full foundation of mindfulness? We practice it so that we can develop the five controlling mental faculties. That is the fundamental, the basic. We are always developing five controlling mental faculties. Sata, faith, warya, effort, sati, mindfulness, samadhi, concentration, and pinya, wisdom. These five. You have to develop in such a way it comes to the point of palat pinchendriya. Five controlling mental faculties called Pinchendriya or Pincha Indriya. Five controlling mental faculties. But you have to develop to the point it becomes Pala Pincha Indriya. In other words, strong and firm. Five controlling mental faculties. You have to develop to that stage. Strong and firm state. Because that strong and firm, when we can coin the word bala, it becomes strong, powerful, and firm. Because that is the first stage one will reach. The first stage that you have jumped the major huddle, the significant progress you have reached there. That's why it is pointed towards there. All these things he taught us, of course, eventually we reach to the final objective, nibbana, the end of all physical and mental suffering. But on the way there, on the journey there, the first stage is to reach that stage. What? Firm, strong, and powerful five controlling mental faculties. And to reach that stage, all these different techniques or variations or approaches Buddha taught us, we must practice. Always come back down to five controlling mental faculties. So in here, we develop these five controlling mental faculties through the strong and powerful state. To do that, we use the technique or method or practice of full foundation of mindfulness, observing the mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of the feeling, mindfulness of the mind, and mindfulness of the Dharma. That's a technique we practice. And when we practice, how do we practice all these variations the Buddha taught us? We practice with these on the full foundation of mindfulness. So in here you will see the word mindfulness. And then there's another word, heatfulness. Mindfulness, basically mindfulness is sati or satipatthana. Okay, heatfulness is apamada. Two different words. Two different words. One is being mindful. Sati. One is being heatful. So they're not exactly the same. But when Buddha teaches us exactly how to practice in there, he used the word mindfulness, satipatthana. But when he taught us how to conduct our whole life, okay, and any time, every time, whether you are very serious or not very serious, or somewhat in the middle, and there he always reminds us with the word apmada and pamada, heatful and heedless. So that is the way it is, and they are very close. If you are mindful, you become heatful. If you have a heatfulness, definitely you have a mindfulness. But they are two different, two different things, but very close, very close person. That is what we have been talking for quite a few last Dhamma talks, heedless and heedfulness. This is the summary of it. We are developing five controlling mental faculties. And when we are developing five controlling mental faculties, how do we develop? Okay. How do we develop? And how do we develop is it comes to we can approach it under the heading of one way is from hatefulness to purity. We can approach that way. From hatefulness to purity, you're hateful and there's a purity. It's just a different words, coining different words, and slightly different, just like mindfulness and hatefulness. These two have hatefulness and purity has a connection too. So when you are hateful, you are practicing developing five-controlling mental faculties. Faith. Everything, anything. When one approaches something or takes on a project of significance, faith or confidence is the starting point. And then you apply effort, a lot of exertion. Once you have a confidence, you start doing things and you do things very carefully. That is the approach we do and we are doing now is full foundation of mindfulness. When we break this full foundation of mindfulness, the foundation, okay, the foundation to start upon this full foundation of mindfulness is Sila. Sila, the right translation is precepts. Now you can call it morality. Sila is the foundation. And we all know Sila. The minimum as a Buddhist to observe is the five precepts. And then on special occasion when we are practicing, when we want to be with Dharma throughout an hour, throughout a day, throughout half a day, throughout months. In those cases, you take eight or nine or ten precepts as a layperson. Of course, if you have a desire to renounce this world, to renounce a sense pleasure, become a monk and practice seriously, then you observe 227 precepts or rules and regulations that you follow. So those are morality. Let's stick with what we are doing. There's to be heedful. What is it? We need the basic form of heatfulness is called precepts. Or ten suffering-producing practice. To abandon, to avoid. So when we are practicing, we take precepts. Five precepts. Every time we started, we take five precepts. Or every time we are in a retreat form, we take eight precepts, nine precepts. On a full moon days, we take eight precepts, nine precepts, and observe as much as we can. So when we take these precepts, we don't take it casually. We take it seriously and respectfully. And we make sure during that period we are not going to break it. So when we are practicing this, we always take precepts, and as we put great effort, great effort to observe these precepts, we do not break it through that period, throughout the duration. Of course, there are periods before that that you have might have broken this or that, but that is one segment. But once you have decided from this moment until to this moment, I will not break it. When you take it, you have this precepts of morality, and you observe with great care and attention. By doing so, what happens? Your precepts or your morality become very pure. In other words, you don't break it. It is faultless, it is blameless. There is no fault to find. Sila visauti. Purity of precepts of morality. That's the fundamental. And here in a hatefulness, the lowest form of or the gross form of hatefulness. If you offer the gross form of hatefulness, where what type of purity do you reach? You have reached the purity of morality. Purification of morals. That's directly related. Now we are approaching in terms of purity. That's the connection between hatefulness and purity. So we start with that and of course we practice, we practice, we practice. And there are many ways, of course, to harness your mind, many techniques, many methods, both samatha as well as vipassana, concentration as well as insight practices. But here we'll talk about insight practice. In insight practice, we observe full foundation of mindfulness. We are not trying to reach to get absorbed into an object or to be in a state of jhana. That is not our objective. Our objective is to be able to observe any physical or mental object that is arising at the present moment. That is our objective. So, based on that objective, we are observing. Let's say there's a rising movement, we are aware of it. From the beginning and stages and right to the end, and there's a falling movement from the beginning to the end. The same thing with lifting, pushing, dropping, you are aware of it. The same thing when you're bending, you know bending, bending, bending movement, stretching, stretching, stretching, stretching movement. And then thoughts come in. At the beginning, of course, you drift away with thoughts. Slowly and slowly you are aware of the thoughts instantly when they come. And sometimes even the thoughts stop coming. In some cases, depending on the yogi. But if it stops coming, fantastic. If it comes but instantly you know that is also fantastic. Because as soon as you become aware of the thought as it arises, you know and they are gone. So that means whatever mental defilements that associated with the thought does not have a chance to arise. So in other words, you still maintain that purity of mind. Rising and falling and sitting. And touching, you are continuously aware, and you all know if you are precision with precision aware of her from the beginning to the end, at that moment there is no mental defilement. Lifting and pushing, the same thing. Thoughts come in, the same thing. If that you are catching these thoughts so fast, there is no opportunity for any kind of emotions, negative emotions, or even whether it's a dukkha or sukha can arise. In other words, it's always pure, pure, pure, pure, pure. The mind is pure. To be able to do that, what? Your observation must be continuous from one object to the other, one object to the other, one object to the other. And that can be achieved through the great effort, urgent effort. Without that urdent effort, it's not. And it's even more difficult because it's a multi-object meditation, not just focusing on one only. So the mind is very pure. Why? Because of the urgent effort you are applying onto the object that is arising. And according to heatfulness, what are you establishing? You are establishing, you are observing with great care and respect and seriousness, and you don't have any break and you don't have any gap. That is in terms of heatfulness. But now here, all these consciousness or all these awareness coming one after the other, there is no mental defilements, no loba, no dosha, no moha. In other words, every consciousness that arises one after the other, or you can say every awareness that arises one after the other. They have no mental defilements. In other words, they are pure. When there is no mental defilements, they are called pure. So what happened? You have reached the consciousness states where there is a purity. In other words, you have reached the purity of consciousness. So that's called Chaitta Visauti. The first one is what? Purity of morality. Second one is Citta Visauti, purity of mind. And here, directly correlating with the hatefulness, refined form of hatefulness. When there's a hatefulness, these arises. Now we have two forms of purification or purity we have reached just from observing. But how? We must observe exactly as Buddha has instructed. Purity of mind or purity of consciousness have reached. Two levels of purity. And then we are observing. When we are observing, what happened? There's a rising moment. You observe. How's your mind take it? It doesn't say my abdomen is rising or my abdomen is falling. But at the same time, there's a sense of identification. This is my stomach and my abdomen. In other words, there's a I. Okay. My is moving. You observe that. And then slowly and slowly, when your concentration becomes power becomes stronger. Refer back to the purification of mind. That means concentration becomes stronger. Slowly and slowly, there's a movement. Occasionally, not identified with my stomach or my abdomen, the shape or the form of the sense of stomach is still there. And then slowly and slowly, finally, there's a no sense or awareness of shape or form or color, then there's no sense of my at all. Simply there's a vibration. Simply there's a vibration. And you're aware there's a vibration. Just like now we are hearing that fan going around, and there's a sound. The sound's going on. And you hear it. And you have no connection to that sound and you. You are one thing. That sound is one thing. You have a vivid understanding of it. Okay? Separateness of that sound and your awareness. And in here, it's exactly the same. That vibration of movement is just like the sound of the fan, and you are aware of it. That's two things. So what it is is you begin to understand this my body, my stomach, my abdomen, starting to break down, the sense of I break down, and you see them in its own nature. Whether it is a vibration or movement or stiffness or pressure, hardness or softness or cold or hot. Okay, all the different variations and presentation of these four great elements, wind, fire, and water. You sense them, you know them as if you are hearing that sound of the fan, totally unconnected with so-called I. Nothing to do with me. Then that you truly understand the nature of rupa, what rupa is. This what we call my body is not by body anymore. It is simply a material phenomena, material process. Not intellectual thinking, but simply knowing as is. Object pass away, there's a passing away of the awareness along with the object. That kind of sharp and distinct feeling or knowing arises. Before it is I know. Now it is simply it is a knowing phenomenon that is going. So in other words, you begin to understand this is rupa, this is materiality, this is nama, this is mentality. That kind of understanding arises. That kind of view arises. The view of this mind and body, nama and rupa. Before nama and rupa is my body, I am aware, I know my consciousness. Now it's simply as a phenomenon going. And that is view. What is view? View is deity in Pali. Okay. Mitcha Dity is the wrong view.

unknown 40:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Sama deiti, which means a right view. Wrong view and right view. But in general, when you hear the word deity, it is considered as a wrong view. So in here you begin to have the correct view of what the mind is and the correct view of what the body is. Nama and Rupad. In other words, your views are correct and right. You have the right view. And that right view is called the Dikti Vishoti. Diki. Purification of you. You have reached that stage? Dikti Visauti. Purification of you. Purification of you is right there. Even though we are splitting topics and headings and talking differently, it is the same thing. We are practicing the same thing. And in there we are showing how it is what it is arising. Purification of morality, purification of mind, and purification of view. And in here you keep observing the same thing. Rising, falling, lifting, pushing, thoughts, feeling, pain, pleasure, sensation, all these things. And in here, let's say simply you're observing. Lifting, pushing, dropping, lifting, pushing, dropping. And then what happened is suddenly you become aware that lifting doesn't happen without an intention. Because of the intention to lift, it's lifted. Because of the intention to push, the foot moved forward. Because of the intention to drop, the foot draw. Not thinking, not figuring out. Just a simple sense. Just an imprint in your mind, that's how it becomes. So what it means is, in other words, intention is the cause, lifting is the effect. Intention is the cause, pushing forward is the effect. Intention is the cause. Dropping is the effect. In other words, there's a causal relationship. Cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect. Intention is the cause. And what is intention? Intention is jigdar consciousness. What is intention? Intention is the mental phenomenon. Once you have reached that purity of view, you don't look intention as my intention or I am intending or my desire. You don't look that way anymore. So simply put, you begin to see the causal relationship, how the mind and the bodies work, cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect. You see that causal relationship. And then also what? When you are lifting, you see the lifting movement and then disappearance of the lifting movement. Pushing movement, disappearance of the pushing movement, dropping movement, disappearance of the dropping movement. The same with rising and falling movement and so on and so on. You begin to see the beginning and the end, beginning and the end, beginning and the end quite clearly. You see all these things work through the network or a system of cause and effect. And what is happening is your view becomes even clearer before you simply just have a right view, Samaditi. In other words, it is Nama and Rupad, it is not I, it is Nama and Rupa, it is not a soul or a self, just a general view. Now you see the intricate detail within that view, causal relationship arising and passing away, arising and passing away. And when you see that, what happened was you have more clarity, deeper understanding into this, the nature of mind and body, or the nature what we call self. In other words, your doubts. First of all, it's not now it's detail. Detail your doubts into maybe this way, maybe that way, couldn't be this way, couldn't be that way. These kind of questions disappear because you don't need to ask the questions. You can see these details operation through causal relation and through rising and passing away. These two nature. And when you see that way, it's called ginkka wisarana wisodhi. Okay. Genkar is basically doubt or wichikea. Genka is wichigecha or doubt. Escape from not having. And we see kesa. This doubt. Doubt about what? About the nature of mind and matter. In other words, this nature of mind and matter as we are experiencing is taught by the Buddha. So doubt in the Buddha, doubt in his teaching Dharma, doubt in his Sangha. The great sages who follow the Buddha's path. We become clear from those doubts. That's called Genka Visarana Visoti. Purification of doubt. The full levels already, and all that we are doing was we are developing five controlling mental faculties. To a stage so that it becomes blah, strong and powerful. When you become strong and powerful, you see all these things and you achieve all these things. You already achieved the four levels of purification. Purification of sila morality, purification of mind, jitta, purification of view, deity, purification of doubt, full level already. And it is simply just reaching the bala, firm and strong level. If you want to correlate in terms of the inside level, you remember the first and basic is called Nama Rupa Parichira jnana. Okay, discriminative awareness between mind and body. It is the causal relationship between mind and body. You began to see the three marks of life. You got a peep into it. And then clarity of passing, arising and passing away. With clarity, with no doubt, with no confusion. That is the Udayaphyanyana. Insight into the knowledge of arising and passing away. If you look in terms of insight level, that's what it is. If you look in terms of purification, we have just set it out. And also, what are we doing? We are observing the gross level of refined, gross level of hatefulness, medium level of faithfulness and the refined form of hatefulness. We just simply develop up to this level. And that is the first obstacle, major obstacle for our Putujana. If you have passed that obstacle, if you have reached that goal, which means you have developed the five controlling mental faculties to the strong, firm, and powerful level. At this stage, you are called Sula Sotapana. Stream enterer. Sula is a junior, junior stream enterer. Not full-fledged yet, junior. What does the junior sotapana mean? That person will not be reborn in the full woeful state in the next life. One life guarantee. So this is just a little side explanation based on the hatefulness and heedlessness and try to pull in with the Visodhi Magad as a part of your vacation. We touched the first four. So may all of you be able to practice this Satipathana Vipassana meditation, and may you be able to develop the five controlling mental faculties to strong, firm, and powerful level and attain Sula Sotana. Be junior stream enter as soon as possible. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu Buddhambujem Damam Bujem Sangambujem.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

Thank you very much.