151: Retreat Dhamma Talk 46: A Beautiful Mind

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SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Portrait series, Dharma Talk number 46. In the last 40, over 40 Dharma talks, we discuss very specific about each mental state, each technique in details. We talk, we discuss, we practice. So by now I think most of you are quite familiar and skillful with it. And now we are starting to weave all those that we have learned into a tapestry. So many factors will come in to see in a bigger picture. Whenever we talk about any specific things, we should look in terms of two aspects. One aspect is in very detailed moment to moment with the penetrated thorough investigation that is applied in our talk. And also the same thing one should reflect and understand in a larger picture, which means what you are doing, what we are doing every day, the situation, condition, any and every aspect we are facing on a day-to-day basis. The Buddhist teaching is applicable to both situations and one can apply as needed. Last talk. That's one aspect, one freeze. And then second one is atta samabaniti. Basically, one who has learned and studied, understand all the theoretical aspect of this sublime Dhamma. One uses all those things that he had learned and apply correctly and practice intensely and live accordingly the best that you can. That is Atasama Panidi. So two things. And we talk those two things in terms of what to upgrade, uplift our human qualities. The purpose of being a human from the Buddhist point of view is always to keep on improving and upgrading the human qualities. That is the purpose of life. Always trying to make better and better for yourself and for the humanity as well. So those two phrases we talk in terms of uplifting the human quality. Now let's see what these twos can do in a different way related to us. Let's see, all of us, the whole human race, men, human, male, female, everyone, children, adult. We like to be beautiful. We like to be handsome. We like to look good. That is automatic for every one of us. So what do we do? In general, we bathe, we keep ourselves clean and tidy, neatly dress properly, color coordinated, fashion, designer, and so on. And also we put cosmetic and perfumes to make ourselves beautiful. Now they even even go farther. Like position, botox, surgery to make yourself beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, because we all want to be beautiful. Everybody, to the greater or lesser degree, that's what we are doing. We are trying to make ourselves more specifically, the body looks beautiful. And that's common to all of us, to the lesser or greater degree. We are always in that direction. Even the monks, great monks, they like to be beautiful, they like to look smart, they like to do good, dress the rope properly, according to the rules and regulations, composed. Why? They want to look beautiful, handsome, smart, respectable, and we are always trying all our means to do that. All these cosmetics and perfumes and makeups is very obvious. But how much, how many people, what percentage of the humanity try to make their mind beautiful? That's a question. Only uh a few percentage of us is really trying to make our mind beautiful. Beauty of the body we all do, but beauty of the mind, not many does. And how can we make our mind beautiful? Then it comes at two little phrases. Sadhama Javanna and Adasama Banidi. Last time we talked about how to uplift our quality as a human being. And this one, the same thing now, it is how to make your mind beautiful. These two things come back in. And how does these two come and apply again? Okay, to make our body beautiful, we have a whole load of a basket of cosmetics and makeups and lipstips and perfume and so on and so on and so on. Whole baskets of them. And not only that you have these things, you have to have an instruction how to do it, how to apply it with what skin, what color, and so on. That is a whole load of baskets of instructions how to do it and the products. And in here, Sattama Jawana is the basket of cosmetics and makeups and perfume or lick steps to make your mind beautiful. And it comes with instruction details how to do it. That is listening to the Dharma, reading, discussing, reflecting. That is, you are accurately studying how to all these products, how to apply them. That is the basket. The first basket, cosmetic and instruction how to do is Satamacha what not. And then second one is having these cosmetics are not enough. Instruction is not even enough. You have to practice again, apply again and again and again and again. You even have to bring experts to put it these makeups and cosmetics. You need experts, instruction how to do it. And you do again and again and again, and when you become skillful, you can make yourself beautiful. The same thing. All the things that you have learned from the first word, you are putting into practice. What you have learned correctly, what you have read correctly, you are applying practicing correctly again and again and again. And at times you have to bring an expert to correct you, to teach you, to direct you. Then you try again and again and again, and then you become skillful. When you become skillful, automatically you become beautiful. The mind becomes beautiful. That is how Satama Jawana and Ada Samabanidi can make your mind beautiful. And in here, it's the mind. The mind is something that you don't see. The body, yes. You put makeup on, you dressed up. You go in front of a mirror and you look at it, you check at it, and you can correct it. The mind you can't see that way. As you couldn't see that way, where and how would you correct it? You have to look into the mirror of the mind, the mind mirror, which is wisdom. You have to realign yourself with insight and wisdom to see how to make your mind more and more beautiful. And in here, it is an endless process. You think you have made your mind beautiful already? Know that there's still more room to improve. Make it more and more beautiful. Always know that. Why? What is this mirror of the mind? What is this wisdom and how is why do we need to improve more? Close your eyes and observe what your mind and matter, the body and the mind. You observe and you observe and you observe. When you observe then what you see in that mirror, sometime some thought arises, related with greed, related with lust, related with anger, related with dissatisfaction. How often are they arising? How intense are they? There you go, that is the mirror of the mind. In the mirror of the mind you see, and whenever you see these things, you know that you need to improve, you need to improve, you need to improve. That's why always know that there is always room to improve in the beautification of your mind. There's always room to improve. The mind associated with raga, lust, greed, likes, but you fawn off, and also mind associated with dosak, various levels of aversion, anger, hatred, ill will, jealousy, envy, anxiety, worries, all these things. You can see it, you can experience it if you are observing, if you are looking into the mirror of the mind, you can see these things and you can correct these things. Always we talk about only these two, loba and dosa, greed and anger. But actually it's not two, actually it's three. If you remember, whenever there is a greed or loba, there is a delusion, moha is associated with it. They are always in pair together, arise together, disappear together. The same thing whenever anger arises, dosha arises, and moha, uncontrollably uncertainties always arises together. So there are three fires, not only two fires. In Buddhist scripture, these mental states are presented as fire because it burns you. It burns you dangerously, it burns your mind, it burns your name, it burns your fame. It is dangerously hot. Two fires, but in fact, it's three fires, Loba, Dosa, and Moha. They burns you. And after they have burned you, all that that is left is what? Only useless charcoal and ashes. In other words, whatever is left after it burns you, it's totally useless. That's what you are left with. When it burns. So those are the mental defilements, Loba, Dosa, and Moha. And you can look into the mirror of your mind and see how are they arising, what frequency are they arising, at what intensity they are arising. You can always watch. And by observing then you can improve and you can make yourself, you can make the mind more and more and more beautiful. So this is beautiful mind. Don't think about the movie beautiful mind. Beautiful mind actually is a word, a Buddhist word. In the scripture, the original word is called Sobanat Jaitak. Sobhana means beautiful. Jita means mind. Sobhanat Jaitak is beautiful mind. Or beautiful consciousness. We know in general there are about 121 types of different consciousness. A certain type are called sabanat jaita, beautiful mind. So that is what it is. We are trying to develop this sobanat jaita, beautiful mind. With what? With those two little phrases, listening to Dharma and applying it in a practice. So sobita is two things, sabana and chaitta. Chaitta is the mind itself, the mind or consciousness. The mind or consciousness is simply the ability to know the object. Beautiful. That's called it in English not sufficient, but sobana. It is a chitasikha mental factor. So the mind that arises together with beautiful shaita sea is called beautiful mind. Now we go into the occult dharma, not a beautiful mind from a movie. A mind that arises together with the beautiful mental factors. What are these beautiful mental factors? Let's pick up something that we are very familiar with. Sadha. Sadda, faith or confidence. Buddhist faiths are verifiable faith. Verifiable faith, faith or confidence. Consciousness that arises together with this sadda. If you look at them, number one, that is the quality is very pure. Quality is very clear. There is a clarity in that consciousness. That's a purity in that consciousness. Clarity means that consciousness is not muddy, not turbid, not foggy. Look at it, it's clearly everything is with clarity. Looking at a very still clear pond, you can see everything underneath, pebbles, moss, little fishes. Just like that, that clear mind can see everything with perfect, pure, and clear vision. That is the mind associated with sadha. It has a swiftness and it is the purity. What is swiftness? Sometimes you know you think about something and you just can't figure it out. Sometimes you look at something and by the way, bingo, you know exactly what the answer is. The second part that's called swift. Swiftness, it can penetrate into things and see the root very clearly. That is the quality of this sadha associated mind, faith or clarity. It has a swiftness, it has a clarity, it has a purity. That's the quality, and these qualities make the mind beautiful. That is sadha, just one. And in sada is these are just simply explaining when the consciousness with the sada, how it functions. Now and see it is now we are not just talking about sadha in a general sense. Okay, there's a sadha is called faith. There's a fine blind faith. Blind faith is not the what sadha in Buddhist words means, implies. Sadha in Buddhism is that faith, that belief system is always associated with intelligence and investigation. Without associating with intelligence and investigation, that cannot be called sadha. So even among the Buddhists, let's see it in a two aspects. What do we do? Oh, we have sadha, faith and confidence. What do we do have in sight and faith and confidence? Okay, well, from the from the books, from reading, from listening a thousand times, we have faith and confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Sangha, and Kama Vipaka. Okay? Kama Vipaka. Kama and its resultant. Okay, of course, that's what it is. But people who were born, especially in a Buddhist country, let's call it like a place in Burma, people just born, they are born as a Buddhist. From day one, as soon as they know how to, the parents make sure they say Buddham Buddhami, Dhamam Buddhami, and so on and so forth. They grow up as a Buddhist. They go to the monastery, they learn something, they recite something, they go and offer food, and that's about it. I'm a great Buddhist. I don't hurt anybody, I don't harm anybody. Yes, I believe in Buddha Dharma and Sangha. I believe, I believe. I have full devotion to this Buddha Dharma Sangha, karma, I believe. Ask them what do they really believe? They don't know. They can't see. They hear something, they memorized it, and everybody around believed, and I believe. It is the environmental conditioning. Everybody believes, I believe. I'm my parents are Buddhists, my great-grandparents are Buddhists, I'm a Buddhist. We believe, we really believe, we really devoted to Buddha Dhamma Sangha. Yes, that person has faith, that person has sadha, but his sadha is superficial, superficial sadha, especially people in Burma, because that is the environment. It's the environmental conditioning. So it's good, not so bad. Not even having anything, having something is not bad, but it's a superficial belief. But if once one to say, I really have sadha, faith and confidence in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, there must be intelligence related to it and investigation related to it. You must really study, learn, discuss, and practice and see for yourself and investigate for yourself. After your investigation, your own findings, your own result, you feel very satisfied with the result after your investigation. Then you claim, I believe I have sadha. Then only sadha has a full force and effect. Otherwise, sadha has a superficial effect. This is sadha. So investigate through literature, through discussion, investigate through actual application, and find out the result yourself. Find out the benefit yourself and then analyze, reflect upon that result, and flect upon that benefits. It's really good, you really like it, then you embrace it, you take it as your own, then that person has the beautiful mind. That person has the mind with true sada that arises out of intelligence and investigation. So to have sadha, to have belief, you need uh they call it sadhya wittu. Sadhya Vattu means sadhya is let's say sadha, faith and confidence. Vittu means object. Okay, so you simply just don't have you can believe in many things, you can investigate in many things and you can embrace many things. But as a Buddhist who are a practicing Buddhist, okay, who are a practicing Buddhist, then you need the correct sadhya with two, in other words, the correct object so that you can place your sadha. And of course, the other one is actual investigation. Of course, you can go and investigate on how to send a rocket to the Mars or to the moons or to across the universe. That's also investigation. We're not talking about that. We are talking now as a practicing Buddhist. As a practicing Buddhist, what do you investigate in? You investigate into the sadhya with an object that will produce the sadha in terms of mental state within the confines of Buddhism. And even in Buddhism, it's Tiravara Buddhism. We always use the word sama, samha, even the atta samabanid. Sama is correct, right, right and correct, rightly, correctly. As soon as you say rightly and correctly, there's another part that's wrong. An error. So we should understand what does Sama mean? What is right and correct mean in terms of our practice? We are not trying to say I am right and they are wrong. My philosophy is right and their philosophy is wrong. My view is right and their view is wrong. My religion is right and their religion is wrong. Not that. Or even among the Buddhists, Mahayana is right, Hinayana is wrong, Tiravara is right, Tibetan is wrong. No. If you understand that for the word samma, right and wrong, you don't truly understand what samma means. One must understand what sama means, what right mean. That right is very specific. Buddha doesn't leave us astray, don't have to wander in the forest. That sama is anything that you are doing, that you are investigating, that you are applying, that you're reading, must be in the confines of the eight constituents or eightfold noble part. They are full, there are eight different kinds of mental states and application. And any investigation that you make contains that eight constituents. As a Buddhist, we call it Sama. If that eight constituent is not there, we don't call it Sama. Okay, we can call it Sada. It can be on anything, but as soon as you say Sama Sada, That means that eight constituent there. We control it varia effort. It can be any effort. Some people put enormous amount of effort. They climb Mount Everest up and down ten times, a lamous amount of effort. But not that effort, effort, that's simply effort. As soon as you say sama varia, right effort, that effort must have these eight qualities, eight constituents together. That's what Sama means. So don't need to argue with anything, don't need to debate with anything. You have a very clear defined based on Sama. So whenever we hear the word within the Buddhist confines of right and wrong, understand under that explanation. That's the right, correct Sama. So in here you have this sadha, the right. And in here is you have to have a sadhya wudu.

unknown: 31:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 31:16

Objects that can truly bring about the sadha. In other words, that is the proximate cause, those sadha producing objects are the proximate cause to bring about the sadha. Sadha is the effect. Those objects are the cause. What are those objects? Those objects are the one we already said. If you investigate into what Buddha is, if you investigate into what Dharma is, what Sangha is, what kama is, what viaka is, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Kama Vipaka are called sadhya vitu. Saddha producing objects. You must direct your mind to these things. And if you direct your mind to these things and if you investigate into these things, you will truly develop sama sadha, faith and confidence in this. So it's very, very precise understanding we don't have to arm-waving technique. You produce, you look and do these objects. These objects become the proximate cause, and the result is sadha. And if the sadha is associated with the consciousness associated with sadha, that is a beautiful mind. Simply beautiful mind. But here now you have sadha. Of course, we are doing under the sampaditi, you are applying all the techniques, the correct technique that you learn. Saddha is simply the first. And then because of the sadha, you investigate the Buddha Dhamma and Sangha, and what do you do? Whenever you investigate, you have to look, you have to observe, you have to observe. Moment to moment to moment to moment. That is the Buddhist investigation. Moment to moment you investigate. Whatever arises, there are only two things that arise. One is the matter and one is the mind. Nama and Rupa. You investigate into it. When you investigate into it, there's one critical point. The first one, it must be happening right now. And then when you investigate it, do not think, do not reflect on the object that you are investigating. In other words, without words, without words, without concept, you transcend the concept because concept can be polluted. You experience directly raw onto the object. That's your observation. When you observe that, when you observe an object at the present moment, you experience this directly, and whatever you experience, what do you do? You put it into the automatically, you put it into your memory bank. You note it, you record it, you document it, that experience. I'm trying to explain in words, but simply that experience is being put it into the memory bank. Without words, simply an experience. That noting, recording, documenting, remembering that object in that way is called sannya. Sanya is translated as perception. You record it. But when you record it with precision, with precision, at that moment when you are dealing with without any bias, automatically mindfulness arises. Sati arises. So basically, sanya perception is the cause. Sati mindfulness is the effect. Simply at first it's sanya perception, but when you apply correctly as instructed, it becomes mindfulness, sati. Now sati, the true mindfulness, sati arises. And the mindfulness arises, what happened? At the moment when mindfulness arises, there's the buyer stop. Likes and dislikes stop. Pleasant and unpleasant stop. Everything stop. Why stop? Stop mean doesn't mean it disappear. You begin to experience them as they really are at that moment. Truly as they are. You experience it. In other words, all the negative mental state you know, you experienced, passed away without moving you, rocking you. All the positive mental state arise, you experience, you know, and they disappear without moving you. That's moment to moment. But when you have this kind of a very precise strong mindfulness, it gives you a condition. It creates a condition and environment for apamada. Apamada, heedfulness to arise. That strong, continuous mindfulness, create an environment for another mental state to arise. That mental state is called apamada. So mindfulness is give a create a path, a roadway for the apamada, another mental state to arise is one after the other. What is heatfulness? Heatfulness, if I have to explain a little bit more, it's heatfulness is in every instant, every situation, every condition, you just know exactly what kind of things to avoid. Or in other words, all unwholesome things automatically marked as things to avoid and you actually avoid. That is upha. Under update, that's one quality. And also, under that apamada quality, also knows everything that is good and wholesome, what needs to be done, and you actually execute it. That is up madha. Mindfulness is simply precisely knowing. Okay, give you full clarity because of sada. And there's a mindfulness, and then mindfulness continuity give rise to the apamada, hatefulness. You know the opposite word, madha, heedlessness. Okay, apamada is hatefulness. Heatfulness is you know the whole situation. In a bigger picture, you know the situation, what is wholesome and unwholesome, what to execute, what not to execute. You know the causal relationship, all these negative and positive things, and what is the right thing to do. That is apamada. Larger picture or the big brother of satip mindfulness. That's apamada. That upha arises. And then when that upha arises, automatically the minds become more beautiful. Before it was beautiful, sadha it was a beautiful mind. And when mindfulness associated in that group, it becomes more beautiful. Now there's apamada, another mental state comes in. The mind even becomes more beautiful, getting and close closer to the status of Mr. or Mrs. Universe Beauty Contest. Upper Madha, you got it. And at that moment, you have to remember step by step, everything started with sannya, perception. Perception gives rise to mindfulness. Now mindfulness gives rise to hatefulness. And every stage the minds become more and more and more beautiful. And when you have that, pamada, it's not only in the moment to moment meditation, it is carrying out into your daily life, into your daily life, but you practice, you practice, you practice again and again and again. And suddenly, along with it, another mental state arises. When you are fully heatful in all the instances in your daily life, in your activities, in your business, in your education, in your parties, uppermada is not forgotten. Then if you can practice that, the next mental factors arise. They are called hiri and utapa. Hiri and Utapa. Simply put, you feel ashamed to do anything that is wrong or unwholesome. And you always feel dread or fearful of the consequences if things, negative things would be done. Shame and dread, hiri and utap arises. First of all, it's simply you just know what to do, what not to do, and you execute, execute, execute. And suddenly not only that, the next level is you are like a as if one do not want to touch. What do you call poops? Dog poops on the road, nobody wants to touch it. Oh, yucky, unhealthy, full of disease. Just like that, the mindset is anything unwholesome, you don't want to do anything with it. That kind of intensity of feeling arises in you. That's called hiri and utapa. Hiri utapa arises continuously. When this hiri and utapa arises, what happens is the minds become very, very beautiful. These are the stages, but it is not just boom, everything comes in and beautiful. You practice and you practice, you practice, practice, practice, perfect the skill, perfect the skill, perfect the skill, and you go to this level. These hiri and utapayas don't underestimate it. It is when you have that, this has various names. We already know what it is. We don't want to do anything that is unwholesome. We don't want to do anything that has to do with loba, dosa, and moha. What it is is it is all this hiri and utapa is also called in the scripture with another name. It's called the white dharma. The white dharma means this has a base of white. This hiri utapa has a white base. And everything that they touch is turn into white. Everything that they touch is turned into white color. Because you know there are some mental factors. They are neither wholesome nor unwholesome. If they associate with unwholesome, they become unwholesome mental factors. If they associate with wholesome, they become wholesome factors. Just warya effort. If you're doing for bad things, that's a bad warya. If you're doing for good things, good warya. But this hiriota is those kind of neutral mental factors, anything that they associate it with turns into white. In other words, spotless, clean. That's why they are called white dharma. There's another one. Another name is known to this Dharma. They call it the Loka Pala Dharma. Loka Palace. Loka is the world. The guardian, the protector of the world, the Dharma that protects the world, the Dharma that God the world. Like you think, or some people believe, the great deity, the great powerful, wholesome deity is protecting the world, protecting you, protecting me. Not that. It is the Dharma, that feeling of not wanting to touch unwholesome states, like as if you don't want to touch the dog poops on the street. That kind of state is that hedi u daba. And because of that, that person is totally protected from anything negative because it won't create it. It's in peace. That's one moon. Another moon is people who are with that, who has a shame and drag towards the unwholesome mental states, unwholesome nature. Because they shines in the society, in your neighborhood. Everybody respect that kind of people. Automatically, you don't have to announce market promote. Automatically, people respect those kind of people and it shines in the middle of the society, the neighbors. Because of that nature, it is also called Dewa Dharma. Dewa is the deity, of course, angel. But Dewa in literally it is the beings of light. They are the brilliance. Dewa angels are beings of light. They have the brilliance, they shine. They are also called Dewa Dharma. So these are the names that are given to the Dharma Heri Utapata, the white Dharma, the guardian of the world Dharma, the Dewa Dharma. And if that quality is in you, if that quality is in the one who practice, that person has a beautiful, beautiful mind. That's how one you create a beautiful mind. When you have that beautiful mind, sobhanat jaitab, what happens is it is there's so many negative minds and positive minds. They are arising in us all the time. But those people who have reached to that, Apa Mada and Hili Utapa, most of the stream of consciousness that are arising, they are loba jitta, in other words, the mind with non-greed, the mind with generosity, the mind with non-anger, the mind with loving kindness, the mind with non-delusion, the mind who knows things with clarity. Those kind of minds, those kinds of jitta arise continuously. It arises in a stream of consciousness, it becomes like a norm. Other consciousness does not have much of a chance to arise. And when those arise, when you have this kind of nature, how can you measure it? How can you know about it? These are there. This is a beautiful storytelling. But there's a fact, there's a measurement, there's a measure stick. The measurement, measure stick is what? First and foremost, if you are meditating, if you are meditating, you will see the thought that arises does not associate it with loba, dosa, and moha. You will find that automatically. That's a measuring sticks. In your meditation, thought still arises. You don't stop the thought. If your thought is stopped, you are dead. The beautiful thoughts always arise. A loba, adosa, amoha arises. And even in your state meditation, you feel the body light. Light I call it the tree I try to remember is cat. A cat is a light on the foot, and the way it moves is very gentle and smooth and graceful. And it can fit into anything. It can quad up into little corner, it can stretch and cover the whole thing. There's a malleability in the mind. There's a lightness in the mind. There's a grace in the mind. Those kind of feelings you can physically experience it. You might be really burdened with a heavy weight, great, great, heavy weight of old age and disease, and the body is very heavy. You can actually feel the heaviness. You go and practice when you got to that state, suddenly that heaviness is gone and you feel like you are floating. Those are the measuring states that you are there. That kind of states. But regardless, Satipathana Vipassana. This mindfulness inside meditation is the best tool, how to make your mind beautiful. The best tool, the easiest tool, the most efficient tool, the most comprehensive tool, how to make your mind beautiful. But the Buddha, out of his great compassion, gave us so many different things. But Satipathanavi Pasana is the best efficient to. But we can practice loving kindness, we can practice compassion. We can practice sympathetic joy. We can practice deep concentration. Absorption concentration. These are the ones, how to make your mind beautiful. These are the techniques that can make your non-greed, non-anger, non-delusion consciousness arises in a stream, in a continuum. There are so many different techniques Buddha give us. You pick and choose which one you want and practice it with diligently and with commitment. Key thing is we all practice. How much are we committed to it? Do we put that as a top priority in a given time and day of our life? What kind of priority? That is commitment. Commitment varies. We all practice. Some committed more than the others. So there are so many tools to make our minds beautiful. The Buddha has taught us. Among all of them is mindfulness insight is the best. How to make your mind beautiful, how to produce sobhana jita. May all of you be able to make your mind more and more beautiful every day, and may you be able to live in peace and happiness as soon as possible. Sangambuchemy