Welcome everybody. I hope you can see and hear me. This is the sixth lecture in my course
on the Arahant and the For Truth in Early Buddhist Discourse. And today we are going
to get into the For Truths also. Yeah, I start again with some of the things that have been
said on the blog. It's just a small remark on the issue of time. Can you hear me? This
has been taken up by Hedvig Krenn and Soda Ardavas. And I just wanted to clarify what
I was trying to say last time. I said that time is our conceptualization of the fact
of change. So the change exists independent of our thinking or conceptualization. Time
is just the way how we conceptualize this change and how we deal with it and how we
portion it up into parts so that, you know, 2.15CPM, Summertime, Thursdays, Old Analia
is going to give us his ideas again and similar things. But whether we think about it or not,
change exists. There's no question about that. So it's not a product of our conceptualization.
It's just that the whole issue of time is the way we deal with it mentally. Then second topic
which had been taken up by several participants and I'm not able to name them all by name
is this issue of using power to control the mind. And what I gather what most participants
felt is that this has its place as an emergency measure. But in the long run it doesn't have
such good results and the main emphasis in the meditation practice should be on letting go.
It is by giving up that sense of control, that sense of self, that sense behind the sense of
control, that the road to freedom unfolds. Yeah, I'm not going to go further into this because I
think this has been very aptly dealt with by the participants. I just wanted to briefly mention it.
But there were a number of comments on the Brahma viharas and if there's no question on time and
power by any of those who are present now then I go for the Brahma viharas. Yeah, the first I have
Meng Hao Meng Shao. I hope I am pronouncing the name correctly. He just asked very practical
question. He says I like to ask how are the four Brahma viharas, the divine abodes of loving-kindness,
compassion, sympathetic journey, equanimity, how are the four Brahma viharas used in the suttas?
I'm wondering if the suttas mention how the Brahma viharas can be used as spiritual aids.
Yeah, so the main description of the four Brahma viharas as a set, we get meditation instructions
and these are the instructions that you see here on the board which is just for the case of Metta,
but it is the same for the other Brahma viharas and then we see them used in action so to say.
There is recurrent reference specifically to Metta, to loving-kindness or I prefer the
translation benevolence that it is part of what is expected of a monk or a nun that they have these
in bodily verbal and mental deeds and so this obviously is based on this whole basic training
scheme we find in the early discourses that we give a lot of emphasis to mentally cultivating
a certain attitude or a certain understanding and then this expresses itself in the way we
speak and act and deal with others and in turn the way we speak and act deal with others
has its repercussion our mind again this is where this whole training of monastics comes in or also
the type of behavior that you are asked when you go for a long retreat and so in this sense the
four Brahma viharas have a very crucial role to play because they do not only belong to what we
call Samatha, the development of mental tranquility as such, but at the same time they are also
required for social interaction and most monastics do live together with other monastics and also
have parodical exchange with laity so here the Brahma viharas have an additional perspective,
an additional function besides their bare function as a development of tranquility
comparable to mindfulness of breathing or kasina practice in that they are actually
required almost for us to be able to handle relationships with others
and saying that the Brahma viharas are a tranquility meditation object doesn't mean
that they have no relation to insight but we come to that a little later
so if we look at it from that perspective the Brahma viharas are of considerable importance
as spiritual aids in these ways
the next comment is by Rodolfo Rivas Molina
if when one meditates there is no inner chatting how can you meditate on something
any object or in terms how can you make an object the present moment at will
if there is no will during meditation how can you meditate on matter without an object that is
basically his question yeah there's one thing about the will there is sometimes an emphasis
on the need to let go of willpower during meditation and this is a very
very relevant and keen observation from the practical perspective that if we attempt to
control the meditation then we are continuously interfering with it but it should be clear that
this does not mean a state of mind without any kind of volition Chetana volition is
invariably part of every state of mind so if if somebody says no will no no volition
it is we shouldn't take that totally literal it doesn't mean that there is no volition at all
there is still an intention of the mind to meditate an intention of the mind to develop
certain things but this is more at the background of the state of mind in which we are
and there is more room given to let things unfold
it's a little bit maybe like you have to oversee a group of little children and you find out that
it's useless to try to tell them do this do that do that it won't work they won't listen to you
so you just sit back and you let them play however they like but you are still there and
present and when one of them does something that it's going to be getting hurt or it's going to
damage the other then you just softly intervene so you are not you're not present as a dominant
person in front you allow these children to do what they are doing but you are still present
at the background and you keep this kind of monitoring quality which is actually mindfulness
which does that doing meditation but the issue about without an object here i have been
thinking about this a little bit and it's not that we don't have any object at all in doing
the brahma bihada meditation but maybe i i go through some of the other comments which already
make things a little bit clearer and then i say what what i would like to say about it
yeah
this is from Olga Gedrimight and she says that whenever matter naturally arises in me
then i just focus on how it feels like and being focused on that feeling starts to grow on its own
now just sit and observe how from the heart it emanates in all directions
this is a very nice description and i could very much relate to that this is this makes
makes a lot of sense to me this is this is what i was trying to convey last time that one might use
some type of reflection or a mental image or a memory whatever one needs like i had the example
of the map in the foreign town to find one's way so one uses such a map such a tool such a
crutch to to get the feeling going but once one has the feeling then there is no longer a need
for the crutch and one just knows what it feels like and allows it to to spread and pervade
and eventually becoming familiar with the foreign town one no longer even needs to look up the map
or in terms of practice when one becomes familiar with the feeling of a state with
mind with matter then one no longer needs to go to any tool or object
yeah maybe at this point actually before continuing with the others i i tried to improve
on the similes i i thought about how to explain the different brahma vihattas and last time i i
wasn't able offhand to come out with some sort of a simile but in the meantime i had time to think
about it yeah so if i am to describe the different brahma vihattas how they how their different
flavor is then i thought of let us imagine we are somewhere in a in a cold climate or on a cool day
in a hot climate where sunshine is experienced as something very pleasant where it's not this
oppressive heat then for i would i would say the matter the loving kindness or benevolence
is like the sun in the sky see it's it's it's it's it's full of warmth and light
radiates in all directions without any distinctions and around it is just so much of space
and it by itself it is willing to go everywhere the sunshine and some people might be blocking
the sunshine with something but it doesn't matter the sun just gives it sunshine it doesn't doesn't
bother so that is that is a nice image i find for this description of meta of loving kindness or
benevolence in this this radiation way you you it's like an inner light an inner sun and inner
warmth from the heart that radiates out in all directions and then if i continue to develop this
image with the other brahma vihattas i would say then karuna compassion it's like the setting sun
in the evening the color of the sun has changed
and darkness is close by you have this feeling darkness is going to happen soon darkness is
near and the the karuna the compassion has this this this there is more awareness of the suffering
of others of of problems or whatever it doesn't need to be verbalized it's just a feeling just
as when you see the sunset you don't need to think oh now it's going to be dark soon you just
have this feeling of the of the sun is disappearing kind of and if i keep on developing that same
image then for mudita for sympathetic joy it would be the rising sun obviously early morning
the day starts the birds are singing there's this this joyful atmosphere if you if you meditate early
morning you can hear the birds outside how they are getting ready for the day and it's almost
difficult not to have joy even in the meditation from this whole joyful atmosphere around
yeah and to complete my simile and afterwards you tell me if if i'm making sense or not
then the equanimity would be like the full moon it's night it's the full moon is reflecting the
sunshine the warmth is gone but still on a full moon night you can you can see very very clearly
and the full moon night is a very very powerful thing especially for those who meditate who like
to try to meditate into the night if you sit outside if you sit outside and you get the moon
shining on you you can absorb almost this moonlight with with with your body it's very energizing
but it has this coolness which is different from these three suns
it's it's a very different feeling the full moon if in a full moon night you can walk you can see
but it's very different from early morning noon or evening so there's a very different feeling for
it but it's still it is up in the sky it's giving light it has all the space around so we have this
continuity of these four images about being out in space no boundaries radiating in all directions
giving light and and we have these slightly different flavors to to each of each of the
three this is the example i i i'm able to come up it's better than i did last time i said something
very silly about salt he was very stupid but anyway or somebody like my similes i'm i'm glad
i've been thinking about it
yeah so the last i had from Olga was this
was this very nice description of of how to actually practice
here i have something from lizar fankard she put it in last minute on the blog
excuse me and she says i have often found it easier to do sitting meditations through two of
the four brahma viharas mudita that is sympathetic joy and meta loving kindness then by focusing
attention on the breath somehow when i am restless or have a busy mind the act of focusing on the
breath seems to narrow the mind when the feeling of sympathetic joy or meta arises in me it is more
relaxed and open i have abbreviated some of what she said this this um well lizar says they're
really i think it's a very important aspect and this is why i am uh so interested in this uh
description in the suttas uh that uh it brings out this flavor of the openness of the mind
and i um i did not get that when i was following the commentarial method of uh verbalizing and
thinking of particular persons and and and this this it is this this openness of the mind which
in fact as lizar quite quite widely points out is a is an excellent way of getting started when
to meditate usually from many of us especially meditating in the evening after a day of doing
several things there's a need for some transition and this can be done by i don't know going jogging
or practicing yoga or tai chi some physical action but if that is not possible or was too short
then directly sitting down and trying no i'm not meditating suck ready go um it doesn't work
normally the mind jumps and if i then try to put it in place uh it can get worse and there are some
some kind of openness some open type of meditation practice that allows things to be and stands at
the background of experience in such a way that those things that are open out are not disturbing
the observing position there's a very good way of transition that may later on then if one wishes
or lead to something more specific and focused so before i continue with i maybe i just have one
more remark and then i come to what head figure said this was made by ann dillon and she said the
way object meditation was described she was referring to a paper by juliana sounds similar
to kasina practice and there is a lot of similarity kasina are these kasina actually means totality
the original idea was to develop anything a color an element earth water fire air as a totality so
that perception of the meditator is totally engulfed in this one kind of thing and eventually
it comes to stand for the devices that according to visuddhi manga are used for this type of
meditation where one makes some kind of a round object and concentrates on that round object
suppose blue and i just have here my little thing here that i saw something like this this is just
for my cup and so you have some round object that is a bluish color and you look at it and then you
close your eyes and remember it you look at it close your eyes look at it close your eyes eventually
with closed eyes you're able to see this round object and at some point this round blue color
is going to open up and everything is going to become blue and you are going to become engulfed
in blueness so to say and this is a kasina practice kasina this is called but kasina or kritzna the
Sanskrit originally actually means just means totality and i thought the comment by andylen
was very interesting because there's a lot of similarity just that the procedure is different
we we we don't have a small object that we expand but we have this radiation to which i'm going to
turn in a little while which we have here on the board there was a question by headway how does the
feeling of sympathetic joy feel different from the piti sukha one can experience in samad and vipassana
meditation it has a lot of uh similarity between them i was i think i was saying last time there's
a lot of similarity between sympathetic joy and joy in general and this is even uh terminology
why is mudita then there's this anumudana the rejoicing and mudumana it all has a lot of
similarity between them but if it is practiced within the context of the brahma viharas
in the long run one can feel it there's a difference
again i'm now i'm getting all these wonderful questions and then i go like i'm gonna explain
this well last time i had that and i came up with this nice sense similarly i'm not sure if i'm
going to be able to give a beautiful simile for headwig next week but somehow i think that the
mudita is more a mental attitude and the joy i get in the tranquility meditation and inside
meditation is more like a factor of the mind yeah this doesn't make much practical sense i know but
it's the best i can come up at now but it is it is a little bit like that you see the the the joy in
concentration even in deep concentration also the joy inside is part of something else
and the sympathetic joy this this this is more like the overall thing this is the best i can
i can do julian martini says mudita doesn't have rapture to it in my experience
yes but it can
yeah it is usually because pete suka is more exciting mudita is more tranquil yeah juliana
and rosa grower pointing in the same direction
maybe there's something to add yeah
maybe i need another week to think of a simile and if i don't find a simile then
next week i'm not gonna talk no
yeah
i i sometimes get little thrills of rapture in the mudita practice
especially if there has been a some kind of a blockage and it breaks through
and the pita is definitely more exciting but then the suka is less exciting pete suka mark
says pete suka still seems body based whereas mudita has no limit uh-huh right the radiation
mark mark i think that was really helpful at least to me right the mudita is a radiating out
and the pete suka the joy and happiness normally is not really radiating out how about karuna
and upeka andrew asked do they have rapture to it interestingly they do that was a question that
really bothered me for some time i thought how does one get into equanimity as a brahma vihara
if you cannot develop the lower jhanas with it because upeka is without joy it is not without
joy very fascinating even though upeka has has some joy to it
and karuna definitely has some joy to it but it's it's it's nevertheless good to do as the
as the suttas i think suggest to really take a firm stand on on loving kindness the the the
the benevolence the the meta practice like i i wouldn't i wouldn't start with upeka because
because it seems to me that the firm basis in meta is making sure that the other three go in
the right direction i was saying last time that the compassion needs to be based on on the meta
in order to avoid having too much uh an attitude towards as if i'm better than the others like a
like a there's a danger need not necessarily be but there's a danger that it could be condescending
and for the moody term i think when it comes based on meta then it is it will it will not
be simply joy just simply oh that's nice kind of it will really be that that that that rounding
off of one's attitude towards others and i think what most of you have said and yeah i'm learning
a lot again today thank you yeah i think there's a point to it it is not so rapturous i think
julian and rosa are right and i think mark has really really hit me again once more
with that with that uh that that the the morita is really related to the radiation it has this
feeling of spreading out whereas the the pete and the sukan do not necessarily have that
very helpful no joy is the center of the wheel yeah yeah lisa that is the in the in the awakening
factors that was what i was trying to say the other time that joy is so it's so so it's like
the hub of the wheel of meditation as in the bhojangov and the awakening factor stands right
at the center and it's something that is related to both the redevelopment of insight and the
development of tranquility juliana moita seems to have a more ethical nuance happiness at feeling
the goodness of the heart good karma such as in anomordana it's not exciting more suka just happy
yeah i think what you said before yeah it's not so thrilling
listen yes the function and purpose of this is really important for me to understand as
a practitioner what is the purpose where is this leading the purpose is purification of the mind
it is going to lead to freedom
puddism recognizes different types of freedom
not all freedom is ultimate there is freedom of the mind chetuvimoti that comes through the
development of tranquility alone this is already in itself highly beneficial very much recommended
often talked about in the discourses and this type of mental freedom where the defilements have
not yet been eradicated is excellent basis for the development of insight that then leads to
lasting freedom the type of liberation where the defilements have been liberated so the brahma
viharas have the function of being an in an important part of the path of liberation the
path of mental purification they fulfill the purpose of tranquility they are an excellent
basis for the development of insight and as i was trying to say before they also fulfill the purpose
of easing our social relationships of teaching us for attitudes that in themselves cover all
the responses required in whatever situation you may imagine so in this sense i think that they
they are of extreme importance and i personally think that especially for us westerners and i i had
that problem myself the brahma viharas are particularly good for the development of
the aspect of mental tranquility because they especially in this radiation manner
they do not so easily give allow us to control things this was my problem with mindfulness of
breathing this is why i related so much to what you said lisa on mindfulness of breathing
that i was all the time trying to control and they also bring about a type of mental healing
if i may call it like this there's one famous tibetan rimpoche and i'm sorry i forgot his name
but he at one point he's quoted as having said that the problem with people in the west is
that they are all hungry ghosts you first have to teach them meditation so they become human
beings and afterwards you can start insight and i thought that was it was a stark saying but there
was there was a lot to it many westerners this is what i experienced with people in meditation
courses carry with them wounds from the past they need healing that need that need and it is
only then possible to to to go for the stronger aspects of insight meditation i think somebody
has put it like you need to be you need to first have a self in order to understand not self and
so with the have a self i think the point was you have to first integrate yourself you have to first
become a full person before you can understand that not self is freedom and last time rodolfo
had so nicely depicted what happens when one overdress inside i i can't quote it offhand
now but he had this whole beautiful description of everything is not self and you can't even kill
yourself and and that was a very nice example of how things can go overboard so my personal feeling
is that if if i can i never give recommendation for people to go here and there and meditate but
if i can give a general recommendation of meditation practice i would always recommend
brahma viharas always especially metta very very useful basis many many benefits
and and and it is even relevant to continue on the topic that you have said the purpose and
function it is particularly relevant not only for the beginner it is also specifically relevant
for the progress from stream entry to non-return actually because uh loving kindness by the fact
that it develops inner joy and happiness weans the mind from desire for sensual pleasures
and by its very nature of being opposed to anger and hatred it also takes care of the other main
defilement there's two main defilements that the stream entry has to face one's sensual desire
the second is anger and hatred and aversion and so the development of loving kindness catches
both in a single goal it takes care of both this is why in many discourses in Pali discourses and
chinese agamas we get this saying and now forgive me one more time little Pali
the liberation of the mind through benevolence leads to non-return it leads to a very high level
of freedom for one who has the insight of a stream entry obviously but i'm chattering and here are
more comments so let me see mark eventually we may drop pete sukha we never drop mudita
or the other brahma viharas mudita goes all the way through to nibbana is this correct
and yes and no mark i mean uh even the other hand might go into a second or first jhana and
experience pete sukha so the progression through the four jhanas up to a level of the fourth jhana
where you drop third jhana you drop pete third fourth you drop pete sukha it's just how you can
refine the jhanas and how you refine the brahma viharas is at the upeka level this does not mean
that the arrand only has upeka he or she will have all four brahma viharas at their disposition
the buddha had a lot of karuna compassion so one is not limited to these but there is a there is a
there is a there's a cycle that one goes through with the jhanas by dropping pete sukha and with
the brahma viharas by moving up to upeka andrew lie does upeka naturally arise from metabhavana
last of pojanga or does one have to switch metabhavana to upeka bhavana
uh upeka as a awakening factor andrew is is slightly different than equanimity as a diviner
bold and the four diviner bones the four brahma viharas do not naturally arise from the practice
of loving kindness or benevolence the loving kindness or benevolence is the basis and it is
the one practice that i feel as far as i understand the discourses is the one that should be emphasized
made the basis but once this is established you will have to make a conscious effort
to integrate the others like if if i may say my own practice usually i mean i sit many hours
so usually i will sit almost half of the time in metta and then the other half of the time
i portion it up and do the go through the other three but my practice is not really complete if
i stay only with metta and the rest doesn't come naturally there's a there's a conscious decision
at some point i feel okay now it's time and then there's a conscious decision a change
uh of my mental attitude where i move from from metta to karuna to compassion in fact it was
precisely when i was doing that that i thought oh i got my simile for the next course that's when i
got the got the sun doing my last retreat on last sunday this i got when i got the image of the sun
setting because i was i was flavoring that difference of the compassion and i was thinking
like i was getting into a more kind of reflective mode i was thinking like how can i communicate
that how can i express that yeah and that's a conscious decision and when one is well established
in the loving kindness practice it is meaningful to extend the practice but one should first be
well established in it in in the matter not not make it difficult at the beginning because the
beauty of this practice is the simplicity and openness and that simplicity and openness should
not get lost by making it complicated for oneself by thinking oh no i have to get this one and wait
wait is it now karuna is it morita well what is the next one so taking it easy and just seeing
that there is there is something more to this practice at some point in the future i'll take
up these other aspects this is just my suggestion there are a few typings
yeah mark i'm just hitting in something i have here and then you come
yeah there's a comment by sister kinchena and she was saying meta without object
uh she understands that as with uh with a general object all beings or whatever is there
the brahma viharasa also described as unlimited apamanya and i thought i was very very relevant
so i i would like to a little bit correct what we said last time uh so i would not say it's
it's it's without an object the object is boundlessness
and this boundlessness has become one with the mind that has metta
and i just if we can look for a moment again here at the at the blackboard and i i just read it one
more time so 12 pervading one direction that means you have aroused the state of meta and you
you allow it to radiate in one direction usually in front say and then likewise the second so you
uh you you kind of open up the the right side and then the third you open up the back side
and then the fourth you open up the left side and the four intermediate directions you make sure
it goes all around there's no no gap and then it it it it moves up the whole upper part is
being covered and then it moves down everything downwards is it's radiating in all direction and
you make sure all around it's like a ball there's no like like a ball that has no hole so the air
cannot go out it's it's complete it's it's going everywhere but this ball is does not have a fixed
surface it's just a like light like the sun yeah like the sun just radiating the sunlight in all
directions so it does have an object the object is limitless all directions if you like
and it is at the same time also meta is the object because the mind that has been loaded with meta
has become one with this boundless space so you can say the object is meta the mind with meta that
has become boundless or you can say the object is boundlessness but the instruction we are getting
here is clearly giving us some aid it's not leaving us in a complete like hey how do i do this now
what am i supposed to do i mean it is giving us some some way of working with it and it is useful
also for those who start to to go slowly just work with one direction and then slowly move
up the next one not just go i one two three four five i got it yeah so i i think that
when we say without object we just mean it's it's there's no person as an object it will affect
persons anybody in the area animals whatever and it will also be possible to use it in interrelationship
but as an actual meditation practice there is no need to bring in uh confined objects
objects that have boundaries we have infinite object boundless object
mark i have a question about the use of the heart hoga uses the same approach i do in that she uses
the heart center as the source of the unlimited radiance i find this easy and useful as well
what are the pros and cons if any of using the heart as the center
yeah i it depends on what we mean when we say heart uh the i i understood hoga to mean the
the the the mental heart that's just the center of the body where the
mind is not the physical heart if and and that is usually uh uh uh what the hada yavattu in pali
and i think it's somewhere in the abhidhamma kishna will be able to tell us i think in the
patana it's just it's not mentioned directly it's just mentioned indirectly but there is this this
this idea that the mind arises based on the heart now if we talk about the physical heart
there's um the physical heart and the brain are two parts of the body where it is good to be a
little circumspect before um focusing on them in a strong manner if it is done in this kind of open
way as a starting point for metamedication that is not so much a problem but the the the brain and
the heart are areas where focusing very strongly on them and the body can create physical problems
i know cases where people have begun to interfere with the heartbeat through their misguided
meditation i know one person who has completely messed up his meditation by focusing on pain in
the brain and focusing focusing focusing and the brain has the pain has become uh yeah it's not
going to wear anymore for years now because of that so brain and the heart are things that one
might if you do like a body scan or a thing you just move through that's fine if you have it just
as a loose reference point it's fine but i i just yeah i understood you mean the heart chakra we are
perfectly fine mark i just wanted to use this opportunity to mention these two areas of the
human body which are not suitable for a strong energetic focusing of the mind because it simply
can create physical problems juliana to me the brahma viada however beautiful can be a little tiring to
to stay with the simile of the sun sometimes it gets a little too much too bright
so naturally we can proceed towards cooler ones up to a pekka but then one just wants to let it
all go is there something wrong in the practice if it goes like that towards its own end
yeah if if i think if it becomes tiring then the very effect that it becomes tiring means that
there must have been some effort and if there has been some effort then i am not sure if that is
really what the idea is so perhaps i mean it's a little difficult to to say offhand but if
perhaps the way would be to see to just allow
this this this is brahma viada to be without trying to make it to be something
the the radiation the sun doesn't have to do anything to shine it just moves to the sky
if you use that image then this effect of getting tired may not may not be there
but it should in principle be possible to stay within any of these brahma vihals and develop them up
uh up to to to to jhana level without getting tired of it in any way that is in fact the
question stewart has i'm a little confused can you go straight from metta to jhana without going
through the other oh yeah definitely definitely in fact if if possible i think it would be very
useful to develop meta up to at least first channel every if not second before going for
the other brahma viadas because then it's really well established
not tired from the effort just from the experience itself but how can this
experience be tiring juliano i don't see that
you might just want to look if there's some effort there that you haven't noticed before
i just don't see how this experience can be tiring as such that's simply a genuine
openness of the mind this is a state of mind of arahants this is just the feeling that arahants
have when they interrelate with each other they have meta towards each other the karuna is just
the feeling the buddha has when he teaches how can that be tiring mark so do you recommend
radiating from the heart center i'm not clear on this i think this is a very meaningful suggestion
yeah i'm not giving meditation instructions this is university course but it makes a lot of sense
yeah there's still two more comments
orga get remind she says being familiar with how it actually feels to feel meta
it becomes so easy to make it arise in any situation so far when needed for example when
a slight aversion arises in the mind but then the question arose how actually to balance practice of
vipassana and metta yeah yeah well that was two beautiful things thank you one in fact that is a
thing i very much much relate to i had that had that experience when i started to do this
type of meta meditation now you want to get another story yeah i was living in Sri Lanka and
i was going begging every morning and i always had to go by this the place where there were a lot of
street dogs and mark is already told about the street dogs and somehow uh they always come and
start barking when i came and that was a little um it's a little difficult to handle that because
you know they come very close and two times even one of them started to pull at my ropes
like biting it and pulling but at the same time you're a monk you're supposed not to show any
anger or do anything you're not supposed to react in any way you're supposed to be looking like
you're meditating very calm walking down the road bare footed hoping somebody gives you food no
so that was the one of those little challenges every day on my begging tours then Sri Lanka to
how do i deal with these street dogs now and when i started to practice this meta then i again i i
had different roots so i was again coming through the road where the all the dogs were and i i kind
of without thinking about it i just started to practice meta and the funny thing was dogs they
saw me from afar and they came and they came closer and closer and then they somehow must
have felt it anyway they run past me they run past me and kept barking there was nothing to
bark but somehow this this meta energy this kind of uh that i was not getting all anxious about oh
my god they're gonna pull them out my robes how am i gonna do now all this uh how am i gonna look
now in front of all the people excuse me all this stuff had just gone and i was just just
letting happen whatever and having this meta and because of this meta attitude kind of the the
thing they were barking at there was no resistance i think this is the way i explain it and so they
kind of they kind of went past me and i kept walking and they kept barking at nothing and then
they went back and sat down somewhere and since then i never had a problem anymore with these
street dogs from then on there was no more reaction when they saw me i just sometimes just came and
looked a little bit and then went off again but because before i had been
even a subtle kind of aversion nervousness within me had been and children feel that animals and
children feel your energy they had felt that energy and they had reacted on that
but now the real question that Olga has been asking not just for me to get rid of my stories
again the question arose how i should to balance practice of vipassana and meta and this is this
is this is really the very crucial very important question now there's a comment by uh Rodolfo that
dogs can smell adrenaline and Rosa that dogs won't bite you if you're not afraid of them yeah
yeah i i didn't know that earlier but i agree now
yeah how to balance the practice of insight and and and the meta meditation yeah this is this
is actually very important and and i think what we need to understand is that tranquility and
insight are two complementary qualities in the suttas there's sometimes in modern days we get
some that they tell us only insight only insight forget about the other and then in response to
that the others they say only only only only samatha only only tranquility forget about the
the other will come automatically i am not really comfortable with both approaches because my feeling
is that both tranquility and insight have their real place and this is what i see in the suttas
and so when the the time is there and you're practicing say meta and you feel you're getting
into some deeper concentration then that time it should really be the mind should be allowed that
experience it should be allowed to go deeper there should not be an attempt to force in insight in
some way and there's a there's a simile i like to give to my Sri Lankan students it doesn't work so
well here in the west but i still like to tell that simile you see in Sri Lanka we we have all
this we eat by fingers and you have to continuously clean the plate because like you know here in the
west after you've eaten you clean the plate and the next day you can take out the plate and just
eat from it but in Sri Lanka the problem is there's a lot of dust there's also cockroaches everywhere
so you also need to clean the plate just before you eat even if it looks like clean because you
might you might get something so there is this rule kind of rule whenever you get hold of a plate
you must clean the plate and this is a little bit like the rule we have whatever you do in
your meditation you have to practice insight so you have to see impermanence tukka and not self or
whatever however i tell my students when you when you when you get your plate and you've just put
the food on top of it is that a good time to clean the plate they say nay nay nay nay nay
yeah that's not a good time to clean the plate no when the whole of the food is on your plate
that's the time to eat so when the food of metta or whatever other tranquility object your practice
is on your plate that's not the time to clean it because if you clean it all the food is gone lost
so that's the time to eat you eat you enjoy you allow the nature natural tendency of the mind
for to look for happiness you give it that happiness you let it have that stillness
there is naturally going to be a time when the plate is empty when you have eaten you're full
when the mind naturally is less concentrated that's the time for insight and that is a master
at that time to practice insight and it's so wonderful to practice insight at that time
and it's so powerful so when the mind naturally comes out of the concentration when the
concentration becomes less you realize look things are changing i had this bliss and happiness and
now it's becoming less and precisely this is insight into impermanence and it is a very
powerful insight into impermanence because what you have just been experienced was so deep
so powerful so full of happiness and bliss and even that changes let alone other things
and at that time this insight fulfills a number of functions it fulfills one of first of all the
function of helping you next time why because if at the end of your present tranquility
sitting you have trained in letting go of what just happened next time you sit down you will not
get a regular problem many of us have this last time it was like let me see if it's coming again
oh oh that is just the thing to do not to have it happen again expectation not being in the present
moment thinking of what things should be like instead of allowing them just to be as they are
so it's absolutely crucial even just talking about samatha to let go of whatever has happened
so for the next time the mind can start fresh and all the more for the insight in fact one very
famous monk reputedly an arahant in shrillanka was passed away recently he has this very very stark
saying he was asked what is vipassana and he just said vipassana the anicha of the jhana experience
it means inside is the seeing the impermanence of deep experience of concentration it's a very
powerful experience of impermanence and so there it has its full place and you are also more agile
you're coming out of the concentration you're still somewhat concentrated but the mind is ready to
to to take in more than just one thing it wants to open up allow it to open up and use that for
insight and that way you're catching catching two in one go and juliana has given a quote even for
that and i'm just pasting it in and then i have a look for the what the others are saying she said
she has quoted from the from the sutra magimini kaya 52 this liberation of the mind from it is
conditioned and intentionally produced but whatever is conditioned and intentionally produced is
impermanence subject to cessation that's it this this profound state of mind that you just experience
is is just the product of my practice that's all just a product of the mind because of my keeping
morality sitting down to meditate etc i got this now it's becoming less it's going to pass away
i let go of it very simple and very very powerful
juliana is again saying the feeling of tiredness i was talking about has to do with what you're
saying now sort of getting tired from within self-tired i don't know how to put it yeah i think i
have an idea juliana but i think it's not maybe we discuss that on another occasion because that
goes a little uh what i think of now is a little very personal not to be discussed maybe in front
of everybody and after serving spent most of my time with meditation my favorite topic now we're
going to get back to the discourse so that at least they don't say well it's it's still a
university course isn't it not so we're going to my jiminikaya 28
again our sari puta is visiting somebody who is sick this time it is annata pinnika
annata pinnika is a famous householder in early buddhist discourses a very
generous donor who supported the buddha and the monks yeah i had a whole thing on him but i'm
thinking because i have i'm a little bit running out of time i'll be not saying so much about him
i just go straight into the discourse the venerable sari puta asked how is your ailment
now householder how much are you eating and drinking are you painful feelings subsiding
not increasing and the householder nada pinnika replied my ailment is becoming critical i cannot
eat or drink my painful feelings are increasing not subsiding the venerable sari puta said don't
be afraid householder don't be afraid why not in the case of ignorant ordinary whirlings who are
wanting in faith with the breaking up of the body at death they go to a bad realm of existence
being reborn in hell but you know householder are not wanting in faith rather you are of superior
faith by recalling your superior faith householder you may be able to extinguish your pain and give
rise to happiness by relying on your superior faith householder you may attain the fruit of
once returning or even the fruit of non-returning as you have already attained stream entry
yeah so basically the situation is our anata pindika is very sick and this time
sari puta is again giving a teaching to a sick person but now he is building on the qualities
that anata pinnika already has and he teaches him recollection of these qualities and this is
in fact an important practical gist of this sutta for us to see the importance of being
we are not only of our defects but also of our good qualities and to recollect them
this is not about creating an ego but is giving us strength for the practice
so the qualities that according to the madhyama agama virgin he should recollect besides his
faith or confidence would be a translation i personally prefer are virtue learning generosity
wisdom right view right intention right understanding right liberation and right knowledge
now if we look at the pali parallel
the faith which was just a single quality in the madhyama agama has become threefold
we have faith in buddha faith in dharma and faith in community and we have virtue again
see learning and generosity do not come wisdom also don't come but here we get the whole list of the
the tenfold path factor right view right intention right speech right action right
livelihood right effort right mindfulness right concentration right knowledge and right liberation
there's a problem here and i'm going to call bhikkhu bodhi on that
yeah i think i paraphrase he quotes another discourse and he says it is said that the
trainee in the practice is eight factors the around ten yeah so from right view to right
concentration this is the eightfold the eight factors of the eightfold noble path
but the last two right knowledge and right liberation are qualities only of an arahant
anata pinnigawa is not an arahant and you'll see we have right liberation right knowledge also in
the madhyama agama so here bhikkhu bodhi i continue here yet here strange if the last two factors
samanyan and samavi mutti which are supposed to be unique to the arahant are ascribed to the
stream and run out of pindika the last line of the sutta confirms that this was not a mere
editorial oversight we will come to that last line later for another example of such anomaly
c 47 13 this is another discourse and it's a mutiny career where two factors of an era
arahant liberation and knowledge and vision of liberation are ascribed to the trainee
so if you look at the discourse that whenever bodhi has pointed out to us we have the other
statement this is a situation when saree puta has just passed away he has just died another is
very sad he tells the buddha look saree puta has just died and then the buddha says why
why saree puta has died but has he has he has he taken away your aggregate of virtue i mean has
he taken your virtue away with him is it also gone or has he taken your aggregate of concentration
it's a very very nice way of helping ananda to kind of see that well saree puta has passed away
but he has not taken away all the qualities that you have so has he taken away your aggregate of
wisdom has he taken away your aggregate of liberation or your aggregate of knowledge and
vision of liberation and the phrasing is clear kinu te ananda is talking your has he taken it
away from you and that's a very nice finding i made when i checked the parallel the samyukta
agama parallel it does not have this you so i i hope i'm not being too unclear here the point is
i try to say it again the Pali version in the Pali version the buddha is speaking as if ananda
were an arahant because the question seems to be uh ananda has saree puta taken away the aggregate
of liberation and knowledge and vision of liberation from you which ananda is only
a stream and it can't be taken away from him because he doesn't have it in the first place
in the samyukta agama parallel we do not get the question you and i'm just pasting in here for those
of you who read chinese i just paste in the chinese here so there it is just a general question
has saree puta taken away these aspects and it's not specifically on ananda so here we see that
it's just this little te here in the in the in the Pali version which makes the difference
so if we leave out that te and assume that this has come in through some editorial
transmission mistake whatever then the whole thing makes sense and there's no longer a problem with
4713 because it's just a general statement has saree puta by passing away taken away
these aggregates these aspects in general but in in in in the case of
the discourse we are concerned here now we do not get the solution to the problem we see that
there's a difference you see here we have we do not get the full listing or we only get 10
qualities altogether but we have right liberation by knowledge and here we get we get the whole 10
fold part so from the practical perspective interesting for us is that this recollection
of his qualities helps our anata pindika we are back to our sutta here to overcome his sickness
and he becomes normal again he recovers from his disease and he gets up into the sitting position
and he says oh very good very good your teaching of the dharma to this sick man was marvelous very
special whenever saree puta on hearing your dharma teaching for a sick man my pain has been
extinguished and happiness has been aroused when saree puta my illness has now vanished and my
condition has returned to normal it's an interesting testimony for the power of positive recollection
yeah and at the end of the discourse i thought i had it here but it doesn't seem to be here no
uh the buddha praises them let me see if i have it here
yeah so uh in the samyata nikaya version then anata pindika gives saree puta a meal
and then uh when they come back to the buddha it's actually ananda the buddha praises saree puta
and in the madhyama agama we get a much longer story
but before i get into that longer story i just want to see
there's a final saying here that by when we have that in both version that the buddha says
that saree puta has taught the four limbs of stream entry in a tenfold manner
the four limbs of stream entry are faith in the buddha dharma and sangha and virtue these are the
four ways these are the four qualities of of a of a stream Indra and this four and ten is interesting
we have all together 10 qualities in the madhyama agama and we have 14 qualities
you see one two three four and the 10 path factors in the samyata nikaya
so trying to find a solution for this problem of right liberation right knowledge
my suggestion would be that at some point in the transmission the that the original point
could have been this is just a hypothesis the original point of the listing could have been
faith just a simple faith or confidence which implies the three we have here in the pie that
would be one and virtue we have in both faith and virtue two and then the eightfold path
those two and eight would make ten the stream inter is endowed with the eightfold path
that would be a meaningful statement for stream Indra and that in the cause of transmission for
some reason or another in both version this listing got somehow mixed up i mean the two version
probably come from some ancestral version some time removed from the original delivery of the
discourse so in some way something has gone wrong i can't fully explain it but that is my only
hypothesis and it's clear that right liberation and right knowledge do not fit somebody who is
not an other hunt so something has gone gone wrong here anyhow rosa girl can this day be a kind of
dative of interest rosa that's not the way bikuboli takes it and i have to look up now what the
commentary says i can do that later on i don't have the time now for that i would i would be to
to see it would be nice to see what the commentary says how they take that statement
yeah good i think i'm now gonna be going very quick through the rest because i want to get us
started on the next topic okay what i have now you see the rest of this madhyama agama discourse
is very very long it gives all kind of different things about anathapindika anathapindika
now he has recovered you remember the situation he gets this teaching he recollects his good
qualities recovers and then he starts to tell sari puta about his first meeting when he met the
buddha for the first time he has an interesting little difference here that and i have translated
this for you from the madhyama agama here there's a story about anathapindika he is visiting
somebody the person is preparing a big meal he asks for whom is that meal i said buddha what
what the buddha work can i meet him yeah you go out here and then he goes out in the middle of
the night and still too early and it's all very very very dramatic finally he makes his way he
arrives there the buddha is i believe somewhere outside and so he walks up and in the madhyama
agama version the buddha says what is your name how do people in saudi address you and he says my
name is sudatta but because i regularly assist and give to the nidhi and the orphan the people of
saudi call me anathapindika that means to give her to the nidhi and the orphaned we have the same
story in the parivinaya but there we get a little one of those little miracles uh so i i have no no
i have only given the pari i'm sorry so the uh this is their first meeting the bhagava the the
buddha says to anathapindika hey sudatta come sudatta and then anathapindika thinks wow the
blessed one is speaking to me by my name because this name sudatta was not really known it was his
private name he was always known as anathapindika and he gets very very happy and very pleased by
that and approaches the the buddha so we have here a little miracle and judging from the madhyama
agama version this miracle may be a later later development where the buddha is depicted as
recognizing mentally reading the anathapindika's name and then eroding his faith but this
may not be an original story given that all of the discourse collection as we have them
tend to invest the buddha with miracles in miraculous powers so if the madhyama agama
reciters would have known they would certainly not have taken out that miracle they would also
have had the passage when the buddha just says hello sudatta and says he knows my name but here
it's just very simple what's your name and he says it that's just a little story then i had
this is uh yeah i had wanted to i have to be very quick on all these things now this is a
depiction of the donation of jeta's grove jeta's grove is the place where most of the discourses
are situated and we have the impression that it was the place where the buddha spent a lot of time
many of his rainy season retreats and there's a story which anathapindika in this madhyama
agama discourse tells sari buddha that it was difficult to get this grove he wanted the buddha
to come to savati and this prince jeta had this grove and the prince says i'm not going to give
you this grove even if you cover its ground with gold and arbini said done i'll do it
and he covered the floor with gold and the jeta said no no i didn't mean it like that and
but the judges said no if you have set a price the price is being paid you have to give him the grove
a beautiful story to show us the depict the generosity of this eminent householder
and here we get a depiction of these people who are these little square things are the pieces of
gold and there's another fella at the back who is just coming to bring the next load of gold to cover
the ground ah yeah here i have the final statement i'm sorry yeah so i i just read it again to
conclude my earlier discourse the buddha says at the end of the madhyama agama discourse also
similar to the pali the monk sari putters endowed with bright wisdom quick wisdom lively wisdom
keen wisdom extensive wisdom profound wisdom wisdom that brings release penetrative wisdom
eloquent wisdom i'm not sure if that is in the pali but now it comes why is that
regarding the four limbs of stream entry taught in brief by me the monk sari putter has elaborated
in them with 10 different explanations for the householder nada pinnika that the point of this
is just this four limbs of stream entry in a tenfold manner as a concluding statement in both
discourses whereas the actual listings one has 10 one has 14 qualities differ
yeah i wanted to talk about another pinnika and other discourses but i'm leaving that out
yeah so the the main point that this discourse is conveying us is the power of recollecting one's
own good qualities the the good things one does are worthwhile recollecting and this is a
practice that is useful in everyday life to strengthen them if one is obviously not creating
an ego it is something that is helpful in disease and it's also something that is usually recommended
at the time of death that's something that points the mind in a in a wholesome direction
so just as it is important to recognize our defects and negative qualities so it is important
to also be aware of our positive parts i think that is the main thing the main aspect that we
can take along from this discourse yeah still got 15 minutes so able to start with the next
discourse and get into the four noble truths of the four truths
magyama agama 29 Pali parallel is magymanikaya 9 we also have a pal in the samyukta agama and
sounds good fragments the setting is a little different here in the magyama agama it is
sari puta who is asking questions of another monk by the name of mark cottita
in the pali and the other version it's the other way around mark cottita is asking questions of
sari puta mark cottita is one of the foremost disciples of the buddha also not as famous as
sari puta but also among the well-known disciples and he is particularly known for his ability in
logical analysis yeah i'm not no need for him to go into any further into mark cottita
sari puta and mark cottita apparently were good friends and for us to understand this type of
discussion we it is important this is a in some way a long distant precedent for the tibetan
practice of debate you might have seen that especially i think in the gallu tradition
there's this not only in the gallum but i think i've seen gallum monks doing it this tradition
where two monks to strengthen their understanding debate certain points and it looks quite pictorial
one of them is they have this this slapping kind of thing and that is very animated and we have
here this is not a debate as such but it is a discussion where two who both know
it's not that one of them doesn't know and needs explanation from the other it's more like
both know and for the clarification of others they engage in an exchange where one
asks the question and the other will give the answers
so venomous sani puta asked i'm reading the discourse
venomous friend mark cottita is still a condition knowing to which among accomplishes view
acquires right view and having attained unwavering pure confidence in the dharma
arrives at the true dharma he is asking about stream entry at stream entry one has acquired
right view and has unwavering confidence in the dharma and has arrived at the true dharma
because one has had the first taste of nirvana at stream entry so the replies we get there's
a whole series of replies and today we're probably only going to be looking at the first two
when we mark cottita replied there is venomous sani puta it is this among knows the unwholesome
and knows the roots of the unwholesome what is knowledge of the unwholesome it is this evil
bodily actions are unwholesome evil verbal actions and evil mental actions are unwholesome
this is reckoned to be knowledge of the unwholesome what is knowledge of the roots of the unwholesome
it is this greed is the root of the unwholesome hatred and ignorance are roots of the unwholesome
venomous sani puta if there's a monk who in this manner knows the unwholesome and the roots of
the unwholesome then he is said to be a monk who has accomplished view acquired right view and
having attained unwavering pure confidence in the dharma has arrived at the true dharma
so sani puta approves and then he asks for another way these are
alternate descriptions of qualities of stream entry and in reply mark cottita gives us the same
just with the topic of wholesomeness so if somebody knows the wholesome and the roots of the wholesome
and the knowledge of a wholesome is then good bodily verbal and mental actions and the roots
is the absence of lust absence of aversion and absence of ignorance
yeah in the parallel versions we get these first two as one and that makes much more sense
uh the the clear understanding of what is wholesome automatically means that i clearly
understand what is unwholesome conversely clearly understanding what is unwholesome i will also
know what is wholesome so my impression is that here at some point in the transmission of the
madhyama agama version these two qualities were accidentally split this can very easily happen
during oral transmission and then this whole para here on a monk who in this methanos was then
added to the first and the second instance this is a very typical error that can happen and then
sai puta's question is there another condition can easily happen during oral transmission there's
no no point this is one of these nice examples that any any any editor making such exchange
would be meaningless there's nothing gained by this there's no advantage it's just a typical
type of error we get in oral transmission where somehow when you recite there's a little slip
and it splits up into two and after that because you get it from your teacher in this way you pass
it on in the same way and nobody kind of goes to correct it but it's clearly from the practical
viewpoint we are just talking about one topic now in the Pali version there is another passage
which i think as a transmission error this makes a this is a rather substantial issue
this is one of the my first discoveries when i started comparative studies one of my my first
paper i wrote on comparative studies i point out this and i feel like i really found something
yeah because it has been puzzling me all the time you see the whole topic here stream entry
but in here i'm reading bikubodi's biko nyana molly's translation edited by bikubodi
when a noble disciple has thus understood the unwholesome and the root of the unwholesome
the wholesome and the root of the wholesome he entirely abundance the underlying tendency to
lust he abolishes the underlying tendency to aversion he extirpates the underlying tendency
to view and the conceit i am and by abandoning ignorance and arousing true knowledge in here
now makes an end of suffering this is a description of an arahant not of a stream enter
still we get the final part in this way too a noble disciple is one of right view whose view
is straight who has perfect confidence in the dhamma and has arrived at this true dhamma
yeah so this this clearly is out of context the whole discussion is about right view and stream
entry and there's the right view at the point of attaining right view one has not yet done with
the underlying tendency one still has the conceit i am even only subtle and ignorance still needs
to be abundant and an end of suffering or dukkha needs to be made yeah so this this we have in both
versions instances of problems with oral transmission so the i have numbered it here the second topic
disregarding that the madhyama agam has split the first topic into two among those nutriment
as it really is knows the rising of nutriment knows the cessation of nutriment and knows the
path leading to the cessation of nutriment as it really is what is knowledge of nutriment as it
really is it is this there are four nutriments the first nutriment is physical food coarse or fine
the second nutriment is contact the third nutriment is intention and the fourth nutriment is
consciousness this is reckoned to be knowledge of nutriment as it really is so it is this idea
of nutriment is that that which nourishes nourishes the physical food nourishes the body contact
nurtures sense experience intention nourishes all kind of actions and consciousness is kind of the
nourishment the basis of whole experience i continue with the discourse what is knowledge
of the arising of nutriment as it really is it is this independence on craving nutriment comes to be
this is reckoned to be knowledge of the arising of nutriment as it really is
what is knowledge of the cessation of nutriment as it really is it is this with the cessation
of craving nutriment also ceases this is reckoned to be knowledge of the cessation of nutriment as
it really is. What is knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of nutriment as it
really is? It is this. The Noble Eightfold Path, from right view to right concentration,
eight factors. This is reckoned to be knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of nutriment
as it really is. Cessation of craving then, obviously, leads to going beyond physical
food and conduct, etc., only in the future, not right by one's own life. Vikubodi explains
that in this discourse each phenomena to be comprehended by right view is expounded in
terms of its individual nature, its arising, its cessation and the way leading to its cessation.
So this is what I would like to conclude on today. We get this basic pattern in this
exposition. We get an item. Here it is nutriment and next week we will see there is a number
of other items. Then that which causes it. Then the opposite and then that which causes
the opposite. And this is, in fact, the pattern of the Four Noble Truths. Dukkha, that which
causes Dukkha, the rising of Dukkha or craving, the opposite, the cessation of Dukkha and therefore
the path, the cessation of Dukkha. So you understand something and its opposite and in each case you
understand what causes it to look at conditionality, this key aspect of the early Buddhist teachings,
always looking for why it happened, how it happened, what is the condition. And there is a
practical procedure there from understanding something you see its cause and then you see
an opposite and you see the opposite causes. And there is a diagnostic scheme that underlies
these Four Noble Truths which has a parallel in Ayurveda in ancient Indian medicine and next time
I will be discussing why I think that this was already known at the Buddhist time even though
we do not have corroborating evidence in Ayurvedic texts. But now for the time being that has just
come to this very basic flavor of the Four Noble Truths where there is the diagnosis of the disease
there is Dukkha and this is what I find so fascinating about the Four Noble Truths. According
to tradition the most central kind of teaching of early Buddhism is framed in medical terminology,
not some kind of theory, declaration, the world is like this, like this, no, look there is Dukkha,
look there is a path again, there is a virus, there is something responsible for that, that's
craving pointing to yourself, whatever the others do but there is a contributing factor on my side
to my experience of Dukkha and that is craving. And then the vision that there is a state of health,
there is a state of freedom from Dukkha, nirvana and there is an actual cure, there is a practical
cure that you can take, there is a medicine you can take, you have to take it in such and such a
way, the Eightfold Path. Yeah, that's it for today, we had a lot of discussion on meditation which I
quite enjoy but still got a chance of getting rid of some of my suttas stuff and the most important
things I would like you to take with you are these two aspects of the two discourses, the one, the
power of recollecting our positive qualities and the second one to have just this basic feeling
for this diagnostic scheme of the Four Noble Truth which we will discuss in more detail next time.
Okay, thank you very much and see you in another week's time.