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Namo tassa bagavato, arahato, samma sambuddhsasa, Namo tassa bagavato, arahato, samma sambuddhsasa, Namo tassa bagavato, arahato, samma sambuddhsasa, Buddham, dhammam, sangham, namassami.
Ok, everyone, so, we're going to carry on where we left off, long time ago, maybe a little bit more light, I can see who is, because we're going to have maybe some questions of things, maybe little bit light is nice, yeah, that's good, that's great, yeah.
So we're going to carry on with the Samannyaphala sutta, we have been looking at for a while there.
And last time we looked at this, we had a look at the idea of sensory restraint, we find the whole of the gradual training inside the Samannyaphala sutta, so in fact it is an extended version, this is the Digha nikaya, the long, discourse version of the gradual training and it's especially, especially extensive and long.
We look at sensory restraint at some point, because one of the arguments that I was making before with sensory restraint is that it is mostly about using wisdom, and not so much about using willpower.
And this of course fits very well in with how Ajahn Brahm teaches the idea of how to practice the path, using wisdom all the way through.
And I wanted to show in a more detail how to actually apply wisdom with sensory restraint, and of course the two main departments that people struggle with are on the one hand ill will, and on the other hand is the sensory desires or sensory attachments to the world.
These are the two main areas that you have to deal with, especially sensory attachment, because that is the thing that blocks you from Samadhi and blocks you from really enjoying the path fully.
Before I do that, because I said I was going to do mindfulness and Sati sampajanya, mindfulness and clear comprehension or whatever you want to call it, I'm going to have a look at that first and if we have time today we'll come back to the idea of how to deal with these defilements towards the end of the session.
So this comes after sensory restraint that in the gradual training, remember the idea of the gradual training is the idea of you start out on the path, you start going from the very beginning of the path, when you hear the word of the Buddha, that's kind of the beginning, you get some faith and some confidence in the Buddha, and it goes all the way to the awakening experience itself, all the way to Arahanship.
It's a beautiful kind of expansion if you like, of the noble eightfold path, that's really what it is, this whole thing, it's an expansion of the noble eightfold path, teasing out all the details, what the various factors actually mean on that path.
And we're dealing with mindfulness and situation or the awareness, or however you want to translate it, we are dealing in a sense with a right effort on that path, how to apply the mind in the right way, so as to cultivate that mind and to kind of bring it closer to meditation practice first of all, because the factor after right effort is right mindfulness, that of course is all about meditation practice, and then how that meditation practice then takes you all the way to Samadhi,
which is of course the last factor of the noble eightfold path there.
So we are dealing with the area of right effort, and this is then an extension of the idea of sensory strength, how to kind of take that further in ordinary life.
So Sati Sampajanya, what do these terms really mean, and what do they mean specifically in this particular context?
The word Sati, first of all, is used very broadly in the sutras, and it is very often found in connection with Sampajannya, it seems to be two terms that are used together very, very commonly in the sutras, and which is kind of fascinating, because on the one hand, when you look at how these terms are defined, they actually define differently.
Sampajanya is always defined according to the formula we will see in a second, whereas Sati is always really defined in terms of Sati Patthana practice, mindfulness of breathing, in other words meditation practice.
So the definitions are quite different, and yet despite that, they are used together in the suttas, kind of almost like a compound everywhere.
By the way, if anyone wants to comment or you want to ask a question, please, this is more kind of casual, this kind of sutra classes, so feel free to stop me at any time if you wish.
And so the idea of Sati, the main import of Sati in the suttas, of course, is Sati Patthana, that is the main kind of significance of it, and that is why it is defined like that when it is defined.
But Sati is also mentioned earlier on the path, before you come to Sati Patthana, this is one such situation, and not a situation is where the Buddha talks about, you know, you have some kind of defiled mind state arising, and then he says, when you see the defilements in the mind, and this is kind of a very powerful one, there is a very, very strong admonition to how we should really react when there are problems in the mind.
He says, you should act as if your hair is on fire, or your hat is on fire, or whatever it is, and in other words, it is really urgent.
The idea is that if you don't kind of get onto dealing with those defilements straight away, you are not really practicing the pathful manner.
So whenever you see something coming up, and this can happen in relation to other people in the monastery or whatever, straight away you see something go wrong, maybe suddenly you find yourself arguing with something, wait a minute, what am I doing, right?
And you kind of hold back, and you know this is not going to go anywhere, and so you react as if your hair is on fire, quite literally, and that is the early stages of Sati, just having sufficient awareness to know that defilements are arising in your mind, and then dealing with it,
as if it is a matter of real urgency. Life is short, you don't know what's going to happen here in the next life, and now is your opportunity.
If you don't take it now, you never know if it's going to come back again in the future.
And then of course Sati is used in this particular context with together with sampajannya, then it is found in the Sati Patthana Sutra, when it context is meditation,
you are going up here, up levels, more and more profound Sati as we go along here, and then when you come to the Jhana, Sati is again mentioned in the third and the fourth Jhana, you find Sati mentioned again, right?
All the time different levels and more powerful Sati. Now what is interesting is that in all of these cases, sampajannya is actually used together with Sati.
So in the first case where your hair is on fire, it says you have Sati and sampajannya to overcome those defilements.
And that kind of makes sense, because Sati is just the ability to be aware of her, but sampajannya is the wisdom faculty that you bring with that Sati.
sampajannya is what tells you there is a problem. sampajannya is what tells you the means to overcome that problem, what kind of reflection do I need to do?
What is the perception that I need to bring up? So sampajannya is always the wisdom partner. So taking Sati and Sanpajannya together in this way, that is where they become powerful there.
And this is why I think there is a lot to this idea that wisdom power is really the way to overcome defilements. sampajannya is the wisdom power, Sati is the awareness, and the two together really is what actually deals with the defilements on the path.
You find words like Yoniso manasikara, Wise attention also used in a similar kind of way. So these are all kind of, if you like, variations on the theme, they are all about being wise, about being aware, attending and the right when all of these kind of things are.
So they are always revolved around each other.
And then you come to mindfulness and situational awareness. Again Sati and sampajannya are used together. It reminds us that yes, there is a wisdom aspect and there is an awareness aspect.
You come to the Sati Patthana Sutta and in the introductory paragraph after that Sutta, it always says Satima, Satima, atapi, Sanpajannya, Vineya Loke Abijjha-domanassang. Satima mindful sampajannya is the same thing as sampajannya. It's just a different form of the same word.
Again, you have the wisdom aspect and you have the awareness aspect. They also work together in the Sati Patthana practice.
But, and this is kind of the interesting, this particular paragraph that we kind of look at now in a second here. But it's also found inside the Sati Patthana Sutta.
But as I will show later on, it doesn't actually belong there. It belongs here. It belongs earlier on the path, not under the idea of meditation practice.
And this is a very interesting idea that comes out of people having done some historical research into the Sutta.
I think it's a very interesting and important point. And then you go into the Jhana States and Law and Behold. You find Sati and sampajannya again.
Again, also in the Jhana, in the third Jhana specifically, not in the fourth Jhana, I think, but certainly in the third Jhana. So again, all the way along the path, Sati and sampajannya, always becoming stronger, always becoming more powerful.
And so they have different meanings, different purposes, depending on where you are on the path.
And now we're going to look at one particular purpose for mindfulness and situational awareness.
Actually, situational awareness is good in this context. But sampajannya, when it comes to the Jhana, their situational awareness does not really work so well.
Yeah, there is more like a general idea of awareness. And that leads us to what is the actual meaning of sampajannya. What does it actually mean there?
Yeah, and I think in the context we are in now, the idea of situational awareness, which is a coinage by Bantu Sujara, actually works very well because it is about understanding the circumstances that you are in at any particular time.
And that, of course, is important, understanding what you're doing and how you're doing that. But later on in the path, for example, when you are meditating on the breath, situational awareness is not as relevant because you're sitting down, you're watching your breath.
Is it situational awareness? Well, you have to know that you're meditating, but it's more about having a general awareness of what you're doing, whether you're heading in the right direction, whether you are following the object, whether you're making progress, that kind of thing.
And certainly when you come to the Jhana, the idea of sampajannya has much more over wisdom idea than it has an idea of situational awareness.
So these words, they can be translated differently in different places, or you have to find a more general translation. And that's why people like Bikkhu Bhodi, who uses clear comprehension sometimes, of the people who use the idea of full awareness, clear comprehension, comprehension has the idea of understanding again. That's why I use a comprehension because the idea of wisdom is part of that term.
But in this context, we're looking at now situational awareness is good because it is about understanding the situation you are in and having awareness of that, whether you're doing the right thing or not.
So it works in this particular context.
So let's see what the standard formula is for this thing here.
Is everyone with me so far? I haven't lost anyone yet. So everyone okay? Excellent. Good.
So let us go on to the start of this very important paragraph that is found everywhere in the gradual training. It must be important, right?
So it starts off by saying they act with situational awareness, or he or she acts with situational awareness. They here is like the they singular, gender neutral, they singular have.
So they act with situational awareness. And that already gives an idea of what situational awareness is about. It's about the activities that we do.
In other words, it is not so much about meditation practice. Meditation practice is one aspect of our lives. But there's also a lot of activity in monastic life. There is the work, there is the pinnabat, or the lunch here in the monastery.
There is when you have to give a talk, you have to chat to someone, or whatever it is. There's a much more going on that just sitting in meditation.
And so in that time, when you're not sitting in meditation, that is where situational awareness kicks in. It's about all those times in life when you're not doing meditation practice.
When you're not sitting in watching your breath or entering the jhana or whatever it might be. So you act with situational awareness. So what are these times? And this is what I want to look at now. Specifically, some of these areas mentioned here.
But before I do that, I'm going to look at the explanation for clear comprehension or the explanation for situational awareness as it is found in the commentaries.
I want to see why it stands for commentary here. Because again, it is good to get the broader understanding of what this is referring to. And in this case, the commentaries are often referred to because they are quite useful in gaining an appreciation of what is going on there.
So there's four areas, according to the commentaries of this idea of situational awareness or clear comprehension here. And the first one is called the clear comprehension or situational awareness of purposefulness.
This is the sataka, sampajannya. And sataka is, here is atta. It means purpose or aim or goal. That's why you have purposefulness here. So we have the purpose, what is the aim that we're having? What is the goal? What is the meaning? What is it leading to?
So the idea here is that you have an idea of the purpose of why you're doing things. And of course, the idea in Buddhism is that everything ideally should have the purpose of taking you forward on the path.
It should be in accordance with the dhamma. It should be something that leads you in the direction of more good qualities, of being a better person, of being more peaceful, allowing meditation to happen in all of these kinds of things.
So what is the purpose? And of course, this, because we're looking outside of meditation practice, we're looking at times like, now this is one of those times, well what is the purpose of sitting here?
What is the purpose of teaching? What is the purpose of listening here? And so you remind yourself that purpose, so you can't do the listening in the right way. You do the teaching in the right way, so that you fulfill those ideas that you have in the dhamma.
When you eat downstairs, the same kind of thing here, when you go into the village, you go into the serpentine or whatever you do, but all of these activities, and we'll have a look at them in more detail later on, you always remember the purpose. This is the highest idea, always remember the purpose of what you're doing here.
It is quite difficult to do that, it takes a lot of mindfulness, but this is the kind of the, what we're trying to achieve here.
The second one is called the clear comprehension of suitability, sapaya, sapadano, and sapaya means like the means, as a kind of common word in Buddhism, the means that we use.
So is it suitable what we are doing here?
We want to do something, maybe we want to go into town or whatever it is, but we ask ourselves of the suitability, is it the right time?
Is it today the right time? Is this the right kind of doctor, the right kind of dentist, is it the friendly dentist or an unfriendly one?
Is it going to torture you or not? This is not really sapaya here, but maybe that's part of it, you don't want to be tortured too much.
The idea is that you understand the suitability of what you're doing here, is it actually going to be advantageous for you?
Is it going to bring you forward on the path or not while you're doing things for the right reasons?
These are the two most important of the fourfold scheme of Sampajannya in Buddhism, and these are the two things everyone should always think about.
Especially when we talk about the idea of the clear, of situational awareness, the things that we do outside of meditation.
This is what is important outside of meditation.
Now the last two are more specialized, and they have more to do with meditation practice.
The next one is called the situational awareness of the, is called the here resort, gocarara Sampajannya, and resort here usually means meditation resort.
Resort is kind of the place where you hang out, it doesn't mean resort as in a kind of holiday place, it doesn't mean that.
It means the resort as in the cows, they resort to the pastures, the other pastures where they hang out because they want to eat grass or whatever.
For a monastic, the appropriate resort is the four foundations of mindfulness, the four applications of mindfulness, the mindfulness meditation, that is called the gocara of the monk in the suttas.
So it is really about being with your meditation object, so staying with the breath, staying with the whatever it is that you're doing on the meditation object, that is what this is about.
So this comes into effect, and this is where the Sampajannya, all the Satipatthana, Sutta, comes into effect.
This is not so much what we're looking at now, because you cannot keep your meditation object in mind during daily activities.
There is no evidence for that in the suitors. This is kind of a later idea that you should always have your meditation object in mind.
But I think it is, personally, I can't make any sense of that. And I follow Ajahn Brahm's idea, is that whatever you do in life, that is what you focus on there.
If you try to divide your meditation, the attention between your meditation object and whatever else you're doing it, all you're doing is dividing your attention.
And that's a bad idea, regardless. So if you're doing the work focus on the work, if you're learning chanting, focus on the chanting, if you're doing walking meditation, focus on the walking meditation,
but don't divide your attention here. And this is, I think, what Ajahn Brahm talks about, and there is no evidence in the suitors for this.
And I think the commentary is going too far here. So this is about meditation practice. It's when you sit down, you cross your legs, or you go on your walking meditation path, and that is where you have this kind of clear comprehension, this kind of situation awareness.
And then you have the last one, which is called the situational awareness of non-delusion, asamoha, sampajannya, sampajannya.
And this, to me, is an even more profound aspect of situational awareness. Now I think we really have to call it clear comprehension, doesn't make any sense to call the situational awareness so much anymore.
And I think this is where the idea of sampajannya in relation to the jhana states come in, because this is where you have enough power to really be non-deluded.
Before that, there's going to be a lot of delusions still, but once you get to the jhana, this is what this, to my mind, really kicks in there.
So there's a sequencer of what we mean by sampajannya, what we mean by these things.
So that is the commentary idea. I mentioned before the idea of overcoming defilements that you find in the suit as everywhere, and the commentary is divide this up into this way, and of course all of these two have to do with overcoming defilements in one way or another way.
So now, please, Mr. Murata.
The first two points that you have. I'm wondering whether, for example, when we speak of purposefulness and supervisory theory, speaking of in relation to the so-called world-eating that we are doing audit in relation to the eight-fold path then.
It's in relation to the eight-fold path then.
So whether what we are doing serves the eight-fold path.
It's more like how you are doing it, because there are many things in the world. Actually, both, right, is what you are doing, but also how you are doing it.
Because there are some worldly things that you have to do.
And so then you have to decide, I'm going to do it in such a way that it is helpful for the path.
You have to go to the dentist, for example, right? It's not really a part of the dhamma, but you do it in the right way.
You are nice to the dentist, you look at the right things, you do the right kind of things.
So that's what I would say here.
So everyone else is okay? Yes, please, whatever.
In the last five years, I've tried.
The situation of awareness, non-emissioning, the levels of people that have been to mind of internal insight, and so on.
Yes, that's what it is. It is usually connected with non-self. That's kind of the main delusion at this point.
But I think that these kind of things, they really come into the fore towards the end of the path, especially non-self, because that is the main thing I have talked about here.
Of course, it is important, as well, early on.
So I don't think it's a general thing that you bring into your meditation practice of daily activities. Yes, you may want to focus on that as a perception, as a specific development, but to have it in your mind at all times, seems to me to be not what the suit as I'm talking about.
The most important purpose here of ordinary activities, and we'll see that in a second, I think, is to overcome defilements.
The real deal is to overcome desires, the quite early on the path, and you need to focus on that purification process, first of all, then you come to the more profound things that are these things here.
Yes, you can use non-self for that purification, from that that's kind of a specific perception, or a specific development of the mind, which I actually want to talk about, if I get a chance.
Because it's actually very interesting to think in that way. So, yes.
Everyone happy?
All right, so now we come to the actual instructions in this particular suit, and it starts off with this, when going out and coming back, when looking ahead and looking aside, when bending and extending their limbs, they act with clear comprehension.
I can divide it up a little bit, because otherwise it becomes too long, so they act with clear comprehension in all of these little details. So, what is this?
And what this is, when you read the other suit, and you kind of compare it to other places, this is exactly the standard passage that you find for people going on alms around, you go out, you come back, you look ahead, you look aside, you look kind of the one of alms food or not.
And then, when you're standing and extending your limbs, this often has to do with kind of putting out your alms bowl, if they want to kind of offer food, otherwise you carry your alms bowl under your robe, that's kind of the standard way of doing things.
So, this is what this is referring to. And in the modern life, we don't actually go on alms round very much, we have the little kind of the Mickey Mouse pinda patta down here. I shouldn't say that's really bad thing to say, but that's kind of small than usual.
But we do many other things, go into town, for dentist appointments, for all kind of things that we sometimes are necessary, and of course this is where this comes in, having clear comprehension about all of these activities that we do in daily life.
And again, the idea here, and one other thing that I want to show, as we go through this, is that this idea of when here is a mistake in translation, when going out and coming back.
That gives the idea as if you have situational awareness at all times, as you are going out, as you are coming back.
And the reason why you get this kind of translation, this is actually a very interesting point of, you know, that comes out when you do the research into, or you look at this sutta in a more broad view,
it comes because this passage is included in the satipatthana sutta.
In the satipatthana sutta, you are doing meditation, and because you are doing meditation, you have to be aware at all times, right?
And that is when this idea of when going out comes in, because you have to have the awareness at all times in the satipatana sutta.
So there, it kind of makes sense. But here, we are prior to the satipatthana sutta. Here we are doing right effort in daily life, right?
And of course then the idea of when doesn't really make some much sense, because what we are trying to do is to understand the purposefulness, the suitability, we are trying to keep a pure mind, we are trying to avoid defilements to arise.
So really, what the correct translation here, I think, and it is kind of obvious once you start to think about it, it is about going out and coming back.
Whereas you have clear, you have sit, you act with situational awareness, about going out and coming back, about looking ahead and looking aside, about bending your limbs or extending your limbs.
In other words, in regard to these things, with respect to these things, concerning these things, about these things.
So you know what you are doing, I am going in for this reason, not for any other reason. It is not a continuous awareness, it is a general understanding of what you are doing here.
Let's see in a second why this has to be the case. And once you take this sampajannya formula out of the satipatan, a suit where it does not belong, and you put it in this rightful place, in the noble, grateful path, then everything falls into place very beautifully here.
And this is what we are seeing here. So the idea here, again, is the suitability of all of these activities.
Are we doing it? Does it give rise to defilements or not? Is it helpful for the path? Is it actually leading to stillness, to peacefulness, to more mindfulness, etc., etc.?
And if it is, then we are doing the situational awareness in the right way here. If we forget what we are doing and things start to get out of control, that is what the problem arises.
So this is the first one, going on alms around, and the other activities that you may have in your ordinary life.
Then we have, when bearing the outer robe, bowl and robe. This outer robe is sangati, and the other robe here is the cibarasa. That is just the robe, if you like.
And here what we are dealing with, bearing the pali word is da-dada-na. So this is sangatipata-chibarada-dada-na.
And the bearing, they were da-dada-na, from da-reity, really just means to have something. This has all kind of connections with your robes and your balls or ball.
What is your connection to your ball? What is your connection to the robes? Have you got the right connection to these kind of things?
And to find out what this means, a very nice suit that you look to is actually the sabha asava sutta, Majjhima nikaya too, on all the defilements.
Because that tells you what you should do, what kind of relationship you should have with your robes.
Let's have a quick look at the sabba asava sutta. I'll bring that up because it is...
So here we are, straight on. Well, I really have things organized today.
So here we have, what are the defilements? There was the asava, that should be given up by using it.
Take a mendicant who reflecting rationally, not about rationally, but anyway, reflecting wisely, I would prefer, Yoni So is the Pali word. It means like correctly or rightly or wisely.
Rationally, I guess it's within the ballpark. He makes use of robes. And then you have this formula. This shows you how you're supposed to make use of your robes.
Only for the sake of warning of cold and heat, for warning of the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun and reptiles, and for covering up the private parts.
So this is the idea, why you use the robes. You don't use the robes for showing off. You don't use the rob because you want the best robes in the world.
And you'll be surprised. I know people here probably think quite differently because we have a teacher like Ajahn Brahm. But it's amazing how much to travel around the Buddhist world. And people get into requisites.
Having the right kind of requisites, the robes have to be so one by the right people in the right place. It has to be this kind of quality.
And your status as a monk depends on what kind of robes you have and all these kind of things. It's kind of crazy. We left the world for goodness sake to leave these things behind. It's kind of weird that people get into these kind of things.
So we tend to, it's so easy to fall into these kind of traps. Or then you have the opposite trap where you kind of wear a rag robe. I used to be guilty of that. To wear a rag robe.
And I used to wander around the world and it's kind of ragged into the airports and everything. I actually really enjoyed that to be honest. But that too can become a kind of conceit.
I am wearing the rag robe where, and you do it for the wrong reason. You do it to impress people. You do it for whatever.
So this is the reason why you should wear a robe, not for any ulterior motive, not for the wrong kind of purposes, only for the usual reason why we dress in anything at all. That is why you wear the robes.
So it should be simple. And you should have these kind of, this should be the reason.
The reflecting rational here is Pati Sankha Yoniso. So the same thing as you find in Yoniso, Manasi kara. Pati Sankha is related to the Pali word.
What is it, Pati Sankhara? I'm not sure, what is related to. Pati Sankhara is something. I think it just means like reflecting or reviewing or something like that.
What is it related to, I'm not sure. I don't think it's related to Pati Sankarot, I can't be. Anyway, reflecting wisely, reviewing wisely, you make use of the robe in the right way.
And this is, I think, just an alternative formulation from what you see in the gradual training where it talks about keeping the robes in the right way.
Having the right attitude to these things, and not kind of being proud or stupid about the way you are dealing with your requisites.
They are meant to support us, they are not meant to build up a sense of self or having a sense of status or anything like that.
So you may think this sounds weird because we live in the monastery, it doesn't really think like that. But you will be surprised how common these things are in the world.
So this is the using the outer robe, the ball and the robe, in this particular way, understanding how to do that in the right way, having clear comprehension about that.
Then we have the idea of how to deal with the food, eating, drinking, chewing and tasting. So this is having clear comprehension about this.
And again, this means, again, has the general idea of knowing how much to eat, not eating too much, not eating too little.
Some people get carried away with fasting, some people get carried away by overeating. Sometimes you hear about monks, they go back to the court and they are all light on the bed for three hours because, wow, eaten too much today.
You are rolling around on your bed because you really got your eating wrong here. It happens occasionally here.
Knowing the right kind of food for yourself, this is very important. One of the interesting things about someone like Ajahn Brahm, he always eats meat.
Some people criticize him for that, but he says that his constitution requires that. I just have to take his word for that. That is what works for him. So he eats meat.
I think that is probably more important than we kind of follow some kind of external ideals that we are supposed to follow. You have to be vegetarian or a vegan or whatever.
It is to follow what actually works for you. That is probably the most important thing of all. And then these additional niceties, they come on top of that.
It is actually what works. This too has a parallel in the sabhasa masryata. Let us check it out again in the sabhasa masryata.
Reflecting rationally, they make use of alms food, not for fun, not for indulgence, adornment and decoration. They do not belong there.
They should be taken out of their believer, but anyway, they are only to sustain the body, to avoid harm, to support the spiritual practice.
In this way, I have put an end to all the discomfort and not give rise to new discomfort. And I will live blamelessly and at ease.
Using alms food in the right way, knowing the right thing, not for indulgence. I understand that this does not mean you should not enjoy your food.
I think which Ajahn Brahm says talks about enjoying our food. Otherwise, you might have stomach upset if you do not enjoy it.
That is kind of fine. But indulgence means like overdoing, going beyond what is really necessary or whatever. That is again fine in this beautiful middle way, where it sustains the monastic life.
I think we have these evening drinks in the evening, and it is okay to have a little bit then, but if it is necessary, you do not have to have those evening drinks. Because if you kind of get into that too much, into the sugar rush, into the chocolate or whatever,
it can sometimes become an indulgence. And I think maybe everyone falls into that trap every now and again. I certainly have myself many times. I plead guilty on that front.
But it is good to remember these things, to keep those at the back of our minds.
So eating, drinking, chewing and tasting, having clear comprehension, doing it to further the spiritual practice, doing it so that it actually maximizes the wholesome states and minimizes the unwholesome states.
Then comes an interesting one. In urinating and defecating it. So you have clear comprehension or you have a situation of awareness about this.
And it is interesting because it is not immediately clear why this is important, why this matters.
But I suppose it matters because you, first of all, I guess it has to do with health, you do this things in a reasonable way. In certain places in the suttas, they are amongst soupaantly, they did not go to the toilet. They had to look impressive.
They kind of stay for many, many hours or whatever, just to avoid these kind of things. Again, as an ulterior motive, they would avoid these kind of things. You do not do it for that kind of reason.
But I think the main reason why it is here is because these are the things of the body which we do not tend to be proud of.
We do not talk about these things. We are many people usually because it is not something that is kind of attractive or interesting about human beings.
It is something that we tend to hide or not do in the open, so to speak.
Because of that, when you are clearly comprehending about these things, when you actually do these things, when you have to do these actions, it means that you become more aware of the nature of the body.
This is the nature of the body, this is what it is.
And it reminds me, I think there is a certain place in the suitors, somewhere I can't remember exactly where it is now.
It has something to the effect that this physical body is like a feces factory here.
It is kind of nice because what does this body produce? Basically, it produces these things that we are expelling all the time, things that are basically impure and are problematic.
When you become aware of these aspects of the body, it also gives you a kind of a suba and a kind of more neutral feeling of the body right away here.
I have a slight problem because my cutie is on the heel and I have this bush toilet.
It is an incredible view of my bush toilet. It is just a hole in the ground.
It is kind of very primitive, but I love that bush toilet. I tend to look at the view here.
But that is wrong. This is what I should focus on, right? I should look at the view.
I am kind of missing my chance to kind of see the reality of the body. It is the next time.
Sampajannya.
I think this might be the reason why it is there because it neutralizes and it kind of brings the reality into effect.
Everything should be clear.
Then we have the last part. This is where it becomes more clear why the when word is misleading.
But anyway, this is about when walking, standing, sitting, sleeping, being awake, speaking and keeping silent.
You act with clear comprehension or you act with situational awareness.
These things again are of course walking, standing and sitting is very similar to what we saw before.
You do these things for the right reason. You do them in a way that actually is helpful for the path.
Sleeping is an interesting one. This is the critical one.
You act with clear comprehension when sleeping. That doesn't work.
You cannot have mindfulness and clear comprehension while you are sleeping. This is impossible.
This is the given way that this translation is wrong.
It really means you should act with clear comprehension about sleeping.
Regarding sleep. You know the amount you should sleep. You know the right way to sleep.
You know maybe you are in the lion's posture, not to sleep on the bed that is too soft, not too short, not too long.
What is appropriate for you? That is the idea of having situational awareness about sleeping.
About sleeping, not when sleeping here.
What is so interesting about this, which I always have kind of marveled at when I see the world, I see people because this is the translation,
people start to come up with justifications how you have mindfulness and situational awareness while you sleep.
People are sitting there, I am mindful all the time when I sleep.
What are you talking about? What do you mean you are mindful when you sleep?
I think the answer would be something like, oh yeah, because I wake up really sharp or whatever.
Actually, I think that means I am mindful while I am sleeping or something like that.
So you start to adjust the perceptions of what is happening to you according to the wrong translations.
So you start to experience the world according to the wrong translations in the sutras.
This shows you how experiences and wrong translations, wrong understandings always go hand in hand.
This is such a massive problem on the Buddhist path.
One of the biggest problems we see this later on when we come to the janas and these kinds of things is that you downgrade the jhanas.
As soon as you downgrade the jhanas, people start to experience precisely those kinds of janas.
You experience the wrong translation in the suttras and this is a very big problem.
So getting the translation right and then calibrating your experience in the right way according to what is the most likely word of the Buddha.
Actually, it can matter quite significantly here.
Otherwise, if you get the jhanas, if you get the idea of meditation wrong and all of these kinds of things,
you are guaranteed you are never going to come to the end of this path.
There is no way here because you are getting some of the most important aspects of the path completely wrong.
This is a small example of that.
Actually, it is a big deal and you think, I will come back to this in a second.
So, you know the amount of sleeping here.
You know waking, the right amount of being awake.
You speak in the right way.
You speak in a way that is friendly, that is not too much at the right time and place to the right kind of people.
In a way that gives rise, that promotes the path of practice.
All of these things are about promoting the path.
You keep silent at the right time.
You don't overdo the silence.
You don't keep silence for three months or the rains retreat because that is actually against the rules.
It is against the Buddha's admonition in the suttras.
You keep silent at the right amount.
What works for you?
How do you feel at ease?
If you keep silent too much, they don't feel it is.
They need a little bit of social interaction, etc.
So, you do that.
And you find that beautiful balance in your life with these things actually work to promote the path and promote the practice.
Then you are on the right track.
So, remember these things.
And this is one of the reasons why I have said to Ajahn Brahm,
sometimes I think it is good that we have the office downstairs.
Not everyone wants to go back to the kuti every single day.
Sometimes you need to talk to somebody.
Sometimes you are feeling a bit miserable.
And you want to have a chat with someone.
You want to have a nice cup of coffee.
You chill out for maybe 20 minutes or half an hour.
You go back to the kuti and you feel better here.
We have needs.
We are human beings.
We are not kind of above those needs.
And if we don't acknowledge our own needs,
if we pretend that we haven't got those needs,
we are going to make life very miserable for us.
You find the balance, you understand your needs,
and you act according to those needs.
It is okay to be a bit needy sometimes.
Everyone is needy sometimes.
Everyone needs certain things.
And that is fine.
It is fine because this is human nature.
So, this is the idea of clear comprehension,
or situational awareness.
And I want to round it off by just discussing very briefly
the problem of what happens when this is found in the wrong place.
I was mentioning before that this particular paragraph
I've just been looking at now.
It is found here in the gradual training as part of right effort.
But it is also found in the right mindfulness in the Satipatthana Sutta.
This is exactly the same paragraph.
So, how come the exactly the same paragraph is found on two different places on the path?
That doesn't make sense.
Usually when you have a complete paragraph,
that means they usually have a very specific place on the path.
Individual words, yes, individual words like Satipatthana,
they can occur in many different places,
but they come in many different strengths.
But when you have a full paragraph like this,
it usually refers to a particular kind of practice,
a particular kind of stage on the path.
So, why is it in the Satipatthana Sutta?
What is it doing there?
Or maybe it is wrong here?
Maybe it should be in the Satipatthana Sutta.
And this is where we come to the very interesting idea
of doing a bit of historical research.
By people like Bhane Sujato or Venerable Analiya,
they are two of the main kind of special Venerable Analiya research
into the historical development of the Sutta,
how they may have changed over time through comparative studies,
through various kinds of tools that you use for these kind of things.
And of course, what you find out when you do a comparative study
of the Satipatthana Sutta is that many parts of the Sutta
don't actually belong to the Satipatthana Sutta.
Or at least not initially, they were not part of it.
And the main thing that belongs in the Satipatthana Sutta
under body contemplation, body contemplation
is the first part of that Sutta, kaya nupassana,
contemplation of the body is the 31 parts of the body.
Not the 32 parts, the 31 parts of the body,
under kaya nupassana.
This part here, clear comprehension,
does not really belong there.
And that changes.
This is what changes is kind of the whole idea of how
we should translate this paragraph.
If it is part of the Satipatthana Sutta,
as I mentioned before, then the idea of when walking,
when standing, when sitting, sitting, that we see here,
makes a very good sense, because it isn't about the continuous awareness
of the breath, continuous awareness of whatever you're doing.
But once it's taken out of the Satipatthana Sutta,
and it's seen as an earlier aspect of the path,
part of right effort, part of the idea of overcoming defilements,
then it is not about being continuously aware,
it is about having the idea, whether this is leading to good qualities of mind
and reducing the bad qualities of mind.
So you can see here how putting things in the wrong place.
It seems innocuous.
Of course, this belongs in Satipatthana Sutta,
because it is called Satipatthana Sutta,
right?
Okay, so we'll add that to the Satipatthana Sutta,
it looks very innocuous, but it has consequences.
And these consequences are often kind of,
like everything in the world has consequences,
and they are unforeseeable, they are for the future.
Everything has unforeseeable consequences.
This is one of those examples of that,
and it affects, can affect the way we live our life,
and the way we actually think about the whole practice of the dharma,
which is kind of really fascinating.
Okay, so that is the idea of Satipatthana Sutta,
as part of the gradual training.
Does that make sense to people?
Are you do you approve or disapprove?
So, it's a bit tiring.
So, yeah.
Okay, yes, please, yeah, right?
I feel that with practice,
perhaps it is possible to be more conscious
while you are in a great state,
and follow the pretext,
while you are actually asleep.
No question, while you are asleep,
and you are actually getting great in your dreams,
and it's not like it's a conscious state.
Yeah, I mean, if you have, you know,
what do you call it, lucid dreaming or whatever,
those kind of things,
then sure, because you have intentions, right?
So, you're supposed to come,
I exactly the same way, yeah.
So, but if you are doing lucid dreaming,
but you agree, then you have awareness in your sleep.
But I would say that, you know,
some part of the night might be lucid,
and with other parts of the night,
you will be deeply asleep,
hopefully, and get some real rest, you know,
so there will be a kind of a probability there.
Yeah, but it will be subject to that,
if it's the case.
Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah, please.
One of the things that I have said is,
the way it's all done for our fixers,
some of the other things that you're supposed to do
is, you know,
our side of the patient wants to do
a little bit of meditation.
So, that's what we've done.
I think he's just making a big difference
in the practice on that,
and then you can transfer it to the patient.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, actually, I should have said that more clearly,
because that's exactly what I really wanted to say,
I didn't actually say it clearly enough.
But this is the idea that once you take the sampajjannya formula
into the satipatthana sutta,
and also take the four postures as well into it,
at that moment, you make daily life into meditation process,
because these are daily life activities.
And from that, come is very much the modern repost and movement,
whereby you're told to be mindful in daily life,
as if that is some kind of magical thing in its own right,
and the idea behind that seems to be that,
if you are mindful in daily life,
that will help you to be mindful when you meditate.
That will help you when you sit down, right there.
But actually, what I never said is not.
What I never said is mindfulness, bigots mindfulness.
What he says, the two things that bigots mindfulness
are right view, yeah, Udruka ditthi, right view,
and see that, these are the two things that actually make
for mindfulness in life, not just being mindful
without any kind of further process to it,
or further kind of idea behind it.
Because this is what you often learn in the past,
and you don't just be mindful without being told the purpose of it,
and then somehow that will translate into the meditation later on there.
So what we should focus on, yes, we should be mindful,
but we should be mindful to keep a degree of purity about this.
That is what really matters.
Or we should be mindful to contemplate what is happening around us,
things being impermanent, things being dukkha,
giving up the world, letting go or something like that,
or contemplating matter, because you need to have that matter
for people around in ordinary life, or whatever it is.
That is really the purpose of these things,
and that gets lost once this gets taken into the Satipatthana sutta,
and we get a completely different way,
a completely different approach to the idea of meditation,
and what meditation is about.
And for that reason, this is actually very interesting, right?
And actually really it gives us a very different,
you know, it kind of changes the world view.
And the reason why it may sound, maybe it sounds very arrogant,
or someone like me saying these things when the rest of the repulsion
of the world said something else, but I don't think it's arrogant.
But the reason why we can do this now,
and why this has not usually been understood,
is because we have a very different outlook here.
Now we have access to scriptures that have not been available
in the Theravada world for thousands of years.
Yeah, we have the Chinese, scriptures in Chinese,
we have scriptures in Tibetan, we have in Sanskrit, we have in Gandhari,
we have all of these kinds of various languages.
They have become available only over the last couple of hundred years,
and only seriously taken into account in meditation circles,
very recently here. So we have a different viewpoint,
and that's why I'm saying it's not arrogant for me to say,
but it's actually that I have different information.
I have a different viewpoint. I have more information
that actually allows you to come to these kind of conclusions.
And for that reason, I think it's reasonable, yeah?
And then we have to kind of spread this word to the rest of the world,
that's kind of one of the things that we have to do, yeah?
I make it clear to everyone, and I think gradually these are such obstacles,
are such obvious truths that they will eventually make themselves felt,
yeah, across the Theravada world, and across the Vipassana scene,
and whatever else there is in the world of meditation.
Please, sir.
But I'm reminded of the modern meditation retreat.
Formatism is in itself a kind of sort of,
something that seems to be designed to facilitate this understanding of,
I'll say, the common fact that it is,
because what doesn't have anything else to do,
and so you see that quite in-chance of having mindfulness
whilst doing all of these things.
And so if you get out of here,
this ought to be possible outside of this retreat,
but they find it a decent,
which is one of the number more questions
that those retreating toys ask you how can I do this at all?
Right.
I continue this, so on.
It seems that I have a particular account
to that because, yeah.
Basically, it doesn't seem possible.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm also using,
I think that.
Absolutely.
I would argue, even on retreat,
actually, it's not about being mindful all the time.
It's about contemplating things,
or being aware what's happening in your mind,
because even on retreat, the filaments arise.
And so you have to actually keep the pure mind.
That's to be the main focus when you're not sitting on your mat,
but even when you're sitting in mat,
sometimes you have to make sure your mind is pure, right?
Because all kinds of things come up.
So this is always true,
and I think that is also true, then,
but instead of doing that,
you are told to be mindful while you're eating.
And of course, being mindful while you're eating
comes directly from this passage here, right?
You are Sampajannya kari,
while you are eating,
you are showing it comes precisely from this.
But it doesn't say it says be mindful eating,
that's the end of the instructions,
but that's not what it is about.
It is about understanding the context,
it's about knowing how to eat,
what to eat, not giving rise to too many filaments.
That is what it is about.
And so it changes, it's the whole kind of idea.
This whole idea of mindful eating,
mindful this, mindful vacuuming,
mindful dish washing,
whatever it is that they kind of they are talking about,
it actually turns out,
as far as I can see it to be from a misunderstanding
of what the dogmark is about.
And that's kind of very interesting,
and I kind of eye-opener in its own right there.
So thank you for that.
Any further comments?
All right.
So if that is the case,
I will do a little bit more.
Everyone will have a little bit more.
Okay, so I'm going to do, I'm going to,
I said before that I
wanted to go a little bit into the idea of right effort,
and the idea of what that means in practice.
And one of the most important things
on the Buddhist path,
one of the most important development,
and the biggest attachment that we,
most everyone has, is the attachment to the sensory world.
And this is not just about the,
it is about sensuality of course,
but sensuality is very broad.
It's about everything we experienced during the day.
Everything we hear, everything we see,
everything we taste, smell and touch with the body.
It's a very, very vast kind of thing,
the idea of the five-sense world.
And there are many different ways of dealing
with these kind of defilements.
Sometimes we have to deal with defilements very specifically,
because you have some powerful defilements coming up,
and then you use like the Asubha-kammatthana,
the 31 parts of the body,
or the four element contemplation,
or whatever it might be.
And it can be very powerful on those times.
And so you use kind of strong medicine
if it is required sometimes.
But there's also the general contemplation
of the five-sense world.
Understanding that sensory existence
is inherently problematic.
And as you understand that sensory existence
is inherently problematic,
you start to withdraw your interest
from that five-sense world there.
And when you withdraw your entire interest
from the five-sense world,
that is where Samadhi becomes possible now.
So a very important part of the idea of right effort,
overcoming the defilements of the mind,
overcoming the attachments of the five-sense world,
is a matter contemplating that world in the right way.
And how does you do that?
Things start to happen there.
And there is one suit in particular
where the five-sense world is discussed,
if you like, or it is,
the Buddha applies a variety of similes
to explain the problems of the five-sense world there.
And it's in my opinion a very, very beautiful suit
and very powerful and very helpful
for meditation practice,
because it kind of starts to help you
to let go of some of the interest
in that entire world basically.
And there is a particular perception used
in the suit called the Subba-Loke-Anabhirati-Sanya,
which means the perception of non-delight
in the whole world, the Subba-Loke-Anabhiratta-Sanya.
And that is kind of this kind of idea,
that entire world is kind of given up
because you understand that it is inherently problematic.
So these are the kind of things
that I always teach when I teach retreats.
But I think it is such interesting things.
And I think as monastics,
we can actually take these things far deeper
than most laypeople can.
And so for that reason, I think they are good fun to have a look.
I have a look at maybe one or two of these similes.
I'm not going to go on for too much longer,
but just to kind of bring out the idea
of the right effort in practice.
How to use wisdom power,
rather than willpower,
to understand the five-sense world in the right way here.
So this is the Potalia Sutta,
Majimali Kaya 54.
And this is the Buddha speaking to this householder called Potalia,
and teaching him about the five-sense world,
and the problems in that world.
And this is one, the first one, of seven similes
that he uses for two-potalia
to explain to him how to regard the five-sense world.
This is what it says, householder here.
Suppose a dog, weak with hunger,
was hanging around a butcher's shop.
I'll just go through it first of all.
Then a deaf butcher or the apprentice
would toss them a skeleton,
or a bone scraped clean or flesh,
and smear with blood.
What do you think householder,
knowing on such a fleshless skeleton,
would that dog still get rid of its hunger?
No, sir, why not?
Because that skeleton is scraped clean or flesh,
and smeared in blood.
That dog will eventually get weary and frustrated.
In the same way, a noble disciple reflects thus,
with the simile of the skeleton,
the Buddha has said that sensual pleasure
gives little gratification, and much suffering and distress,
and they are all the more full of drawbacks.
Having truly seen this with right understanding,
they reject equanimity based on diversity
and develop only equanimity based on unity,
where all kinds of grasping to the world's material delights
ceased without anything left over him.
This is the idea here,
and this is the famous simile of the dog,
which is weak with hunger.
The dog here is a being,
a symbolized and a human being specifically.
The idea of being weak with hunger here,
means that you are craving.
You are desiring in the world.
You are always running around, always hungry.
And hunger, of course, is one of the words,
that is sometimes used synonymously with craving.
You are hungry for something.
You need something.
This is demand within that has to have something in the world,
always running after things, always moving around.
And of course, the interesting word is that you are weak with that hunger.
Yeah, craving makes you weak.
And the reason why craving and desire makes you weak,
well, there are many reasons for that.
One is that your mind is quite scattered.
Your mind is always agitated.
It is always restless, always doing things.
It is dissipating its energy because of all that restlessness and things.
So if you have a lot of craving,
the mind is not strong, it is lacking in energy.
It is lacking in focus.
It is lacking in ability to really see things properly.
So you are weak because of that.
And not only are you weak because the energy is gone,
because the ability to focus is gone,
but you are also weak in the sense that it is very easy to trap you
when you have a lot of cravings, right?
You are trapped by the sense objects in the world.
They grasp you and you can't really let go.
They stick in your mind and you think about these things.
Sometimes you fantasize about them.
Why? Because you are weak.
You are Mara's prey.
Mara's prey is on you. Mara gets hold of you.
Mara grabs you by the ring in your nose.
That is what the bull is anyway.
And kind of pulls you around this way and that way.
And you don't have much ability to withstand that
because you are weak with hunger, weak with craving.
And of course when you have this weakness with craving,
the weakness with hunger,
you are hanging around the butcher shop.
And of course the idea of hanging around the butcher shop
is the butcher shop here is the central objects in the world, right?
So you are hanging around the central objects in the world
trying to find something that is satisfying.
So you are weak with hunger,
looking around, going to the various butcher shops,
going to the various places where you might get your
sensual desires, satisfied.
It is kind of a bleak picture, right?
This dog hanging around the butcher shop.
So that is what we are like.
We are like dogs hanging around the butcher shop.
Then a deaf butcher,
yeah this is the problem with the butcher, they are pretty deaf.
And the apprentice would toss them a bone, scraped clean,
a flesh and smeared with blood.
Of course when you go to the butcher shop,
you don't want just a bone with no kind of meat
and you want a real meat.
But the butcher is not going to give you that mara,
I am not going to give you anything truly satisfactory.
You are going to give this kind of thing
which doesn't really have any sustenance on it.
This is kind of the idea, there is no sustenance there.
All there is, there is blunder, there is the taste,
there is enough taste to make the craving even more powerful.
But there is not the thing which sustains you.
This is the idea of craving it.
This is the idea of the sensory realm.
There is no real sustenance in the sensory realm there.
All there is is the taste.
And as soon as the taste is gone,
of course the craving returns.
And you keep on running and running and running and running it.
What do you think, householder, knowing on such a fleshless skeleton,
would that dog get rid of its hunger?
Not really, there is no real sustenance in that bone.
There is only the taste and actually the craving comes back again there.
And then you keep on running and then you go to the next butcher shop after this one.
You go to another butcher shop.
You go to another butcher shop and your whole life is an endless sequence of butcher shops.
And then of course what happens at the end of your life is that you die here.
And then when you die at the end of your life you get reborn as what?
As a puppy here.
Where does your mum take you to the butcher shop there?
It starts over again, running again from butcher shop to butcher shop to butcher shop there.
And this is kind of the despair of this kind of craving.
Going from one relationship to another one, always moving on,
always trying to find satisfaction in that realm.
Never finding satisfaction.
And the penny never drops, maybe I should look somewhere else.
And that is really the issue here.
No sir, why not?
Because that skeleton is scraped clean of flesh and smeared in blood.
That dog will eventually get weary and frustrated.
Eventually you get weary because running after all these things in the world,
always craving, it makes you tired after a while.
Yeah, running too much after sensualness, either it makes you restless because your mind is moving too much or you get tired.
Because the mind gets also tired out by all the moving around.
You get tired and you get frustrated.
Living in the realm of sensual pleasures is always frustrating here.
It's always problematic here.
It never leaves the solution that you're looking for here.
And the problem here is, of course, that when you look at the craving within there,
and the craving says that you actually will be satisfied.
You will actually reach a conclusion there.
But that satisfaction never happens and that's why you get frustrated here.
And this is precisely the problem here.
And every time craving returns, you buy into that same delusion once more.
Again, you think that maybe this time it will be the right kind of thing,
the right kind of relationship, the right kind of whatever it is in that world.
Then you will be okay here.
But of course, that craving, that dream that you have is always lying to you.
There isn't no satisfaction in that realm.
And this is what is so interesting.
Yeah, if you compare this with the idea of meditation practice,
and I would guess everyone here has had enough meditation experience to know that
it's a different kind of satisfaction that you get in meditation.
In meditation, the craving starts to disappear.
And because the craving starts to disappear, yeah,
and because you are finding real pleasure not in the future,
not where craving is going to take you.
But in the here and now, you start to feel that real satisfaction.
You don't no longer frustrated here.
And you're no longer weary because that meditation practice also builds up your energy here.
It's a very different kind of experience, and you start to understand that
instead of running around, always looking for something which doesn't exist,
you start to find the very thing that you were looking for all along,
the very thing that craving promised you.
The satisfaction, the contentment, the real feeling of purpose and meaning in life,
you find it in the meditation practice instead.
You've always been looking in the wrong place.
Now you find what you're looking for here.
And this is kind of the miracle of the Buddhist teachings.
It actually shows you where those things that you were looking for all along,
where they can't be found.
In fact, you find far more than what you were looking for all along it.
You had no idea that the kind, the depth of satisfaction,
the depth of contentment that was available was so powerful that it actually turns out to be here.
And this of course is the whole idea of taking meditation to samadhi,
taking the meditation to profound sense of contentment that you found in these areas.
Most of our lives, we feel unfulfilled.
Most of our lives, we feel incomplete as if something is missing inside of us,
as if there's a hole within.
That's what craving is.
It's a lack of something.
There's a hole inside of us.
That is exactly the hole that gets filled in when you do meditation practice.
A state of samadhi means no more craving, no more hole inside.
It means a sense of completeness.
It means a sense of complete satisfaction and contentment.
And that is the magic of the Buddhist path.
And because you find a sense of completeness within,
it means you find the meaning of life.
This is the meaning of life, because there's no more going anywhere.
There's no more purpose. There's no more aim.
The meaning of life is found in that kind of meditation practice.
The very meaning that you were seeking all the way, all the time,
by pursuing the cravings inside of you, they are found in meditation practice instead.
And this is kind of the message from this kind of sutra.
Actually, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself.
Let me just finish off this first part here, Herr.
In the same way, a noble disciple reflects.
The simile of a skeleton, the Buddha said,
that sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress.
And that they are all the more full of drawbacks.
It's like the dog running after sensualness,
there's almost no pleasure at all.
It's just all frustration and weirdness.
That is what it is basically saying here.
Having truly seen this with right understanding,
they reject the equanimity based on diversity.
The equanimity based on diversity is the kind of sensory strength.
When your mind is quite even, it doesn't get taken away by desires,
nor does it get taken away by ill will or aversion.
But it's a kind of economist among the senses.
But you understand that that is not enough,
because the senses are still in operation.
So it is very easy to be led astray again by the five senses.
So you reject that.
And then what you do do, you develop only the equanimity based on unity.
This is the equanimity of the jhanas,
especially the third and the fourth jhana,
but all four jhanas to some extent,
where all the kinds of grasping to the world's material delights cease
without anything left over here.
So this is the jhana state.
This is the benefit of this kind of contemplation.
If you take it far enough, you lose the interest in the five sense world.
Let's go over that world and again, the equanimity that is based on unity,
which is the jhana equanimity instead.
That is the benefit, that is the outcome of this sort of thing.
This is a kind of unusual way,
it's kind of using wisdom, using reflection,
using insight to give rise to samadhi on the path.
It's a bit like the vimangsa samadhi, you find in the four iddhipada,
reflection leading then to equanimity here.
But it's also just a general contemplation that we can do at any time in your life,
because it kind of leads on the right track here,
and it's helpful as a general outlook in life to see things more in this particular way.
So, I'm going to stop there for today, because I reckon that's enough for now.
So anyone who haven't further comments they would like to make before we call it a day?
No more comments?
We come to that in a second.
I agree with that.
I find these things very powerful and useful, because I'm glad you are silent doing it.
Let's do the handa.
Handa mayam, dhamma kathaya sadhu karam, dadamase,
Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu, anumodami.
Araham samma samabuddho, bhagava, buddham bagavantam abhivademi.
Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo dhammam namassami, Supatipanno bhagavato savakasangho sanghang, namami.
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