The Path To Victory | Online Retreat Oct 2023

Lord Buddha answered the question of the wandering ascetic Subhadda on the practice as follows: “So long as the disciples of the Noble One practice correctly according to the Noble Eightfold Path, the world will not be void of Arahants.”

We have been in the company of the five hindrances for a long time; these are friends our hearts hold dear. Our minds need to seek out new friends of a better kind—namely, mental cultivation.

Stay with mental cultivation a lot, practice a lot: polish and purify the mind so it becomes clean and bright.

Simply knowing the sense of impressions as they arise, with neither delight nor disdain, is the way to Nibbāna. It is not some other way, other path. The more mindful we are, the closer we are to the Buddha. Keep on the path, of morality, concentration, and wisdom.

Transcript

So today's the eighth day of training our minds.

And we see if we don't train the mind,

The mind lacks wisdom.

The mind then clings to sense impressions.

In terms of sense impressions,

What does that refer to?

This word aramana.

It's the sights,

Sounds,

Smells,

Tastes,

Touches,

And mind objects.

These thoughts that which we call dhamma,

Aramana.

So these are the outer objects.

They're the outer objects that come into contact with the sense bases.

This body has eyes,

Ears,

Nose,

Tongue,

Tactile sense,

And the mind.

And so these six senses receive their respective objects.

And these objects go to the mind.

And it's the mind's nature to chase after these objects.

Before these sense impressions come in,

The mind is still.

The mind's not liking,

Not disliking.

The mind is still.

And then when these sense impressions arise,

The mind clings to them.

There's liking arises,

Disliking arises.

This happens all the time.

So this is with the arising of contact or passa.

Liking arises,

Disliking arises based on the feeling tone,

The vedana.

And the problems arise from there.

There's attachment,

Upadana,

There's becoming,

There's birth.

So dying,

Or this human body dying and being born again,

That's one type of becoming,

One type of birth.

But the becoming we experience in the present,

Even in a single day,

We are born into many lifetimes in a single day.

We experience becoming and birth many times in a single day,

Whether they're pleasant or unpleasant births.

If we have a sense impression we like,

And it's a pleasant becoming or birth,

And if it's something we dislike,

Then it's unpleasant or painful.

So it's like this.

It's like we have some clear water.

We put in red dye,

Yellow dye,

Green dye,

Blue dye,

And the water gets colored from that.

The mind is the same way.

The mind is clear,

But then these sense impressions come in.

And so the mind becomes colored by these sense impressions,

Becomes less clear.

And so this follows after this whatever sense impression arises.

So this is a mind that's lacking peace,

Lacking samadhi.

So we need to train the mind to have mindfulness.

You can ask,

Well,

Who is it that trains the mind?

What's the one who knows that trains the mind to practice following the path of virtue,

Collectiveness,

And wisdom,

Or sila,

Samadhi,

Panya?

The sila,

Samadhi,

Panya cares for the mind,

Takes care of the mind,

To train the mind,

To give rise to knowing.

And the mind with samadhi,

With collectedness,

Is bright and radiant,

And it's able to reduce the sense of self to become less.

This is the Noble Eightfold Path,

Which includes right view,

Right intention,

And so on.

This Noble Eightfold Path,

We can say,

Is sila,

Samadhi,

Panya,

Virtue,

Collectiveness,

And wisdom.

And the sila,

Samadhi,

Panya is that which fights against the defilements,

Fights against ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment.

And if the strength of the path factors is a lot,

Then it's able to win over ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment.

But if the path is strength is less than ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment win,

Which is the cause for suffering to arise.

But if we don't put up a fight,

If we just surrender and give in,

Then ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment cover over the mind completely,

And one is completely filled with suffering.

So one needs to train the mind.

If one doesn't train the mind,

Then birth and becoming keep cycling around the cycle of birth and death without count,

Without end,

Because the cause for birth is still there.

So we practice to train the mind to be intelligent.

We train it according to the teachings of the fully self-awakened Buddha.

We have effort,

Patient endurance,

Perseverance,

And we care for the mind and heart.

It's like we have a valuable item,

Like a diamond,

Like a diamond as big as a fist or even bigger than that.

Or we have some kind of rare element that's even more valuable than a diamond.

And if we had such an item,

We would try to care for it such that it wouldn't get lost,

Wouldn't get destroyed.

We'd care for it very well because it'd be very valuable,

The most valuable item in the world.

So this is talking about outer wealth.

We see that the mind is of great importance.

This citta is very important.

And now our minds are covered with ignorance.

They're not yet bright.

But the true mind is bright already.

But it gets covered over.

It gets covered over and gets darkened.

Ignorance covers it over all the time.

But we have to understand that ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment in the mind,

They're two different things.

They're not one thing.

If ignorance,

Craving,

Attachment,

And the mind were the same thing,

We wouldn't be able to destroy ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment.

But it's that ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment controls the mind.

So we have to train the mind in order to achieve victory over ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment.

We have to have care,

Circumspection,

Restraint.

When the eye sees a form or the ear hears a sound,

For instance,

We have to take a great deal of care with that.

And with our thoughts as well,

We have to be very careful to have mindfulness,

Restraint,

And care like this all the time.

So therefore one has a meditation word to care for the mind,

To tie the mind down.

Because the mind likes to float here and there,

To think here and there,

Be distracted here and there,

Thinking about the past,

Thinking about the future,

Having worries and concerns or doubts or agitation and annoyance,

Liking and disliking,

Sleepiness,

And so on.

And so these five things are close friends of the mind.

And they've been close friends of the mind for a very long time already.

So the mind's associated for a long time with these close friends.

So we need to give the mind a new friend,

A better friend.

And that better friend is the kamatana,

The meditation object.

For instance,

We can recollect the qualities of the Buddha,

Bhutto,

The qualities of the Dhamma,

Dhammo,

The qualities of the Sangha,

Sangho.

This is an example.

Or we can contemplate,

Contemplating the body as a heap of natural elements,

Or as something not beautiful,

A subha,

Something unattractive,

Something simply covered over with skin.

We can think of the hair and think,

And normally think the hair is beautiful.

But if we don't clean it,

Then it becomes dirty or unclean.

Or we eat food,

We digest that food,

And that food exits the body,

And it's not clean.

Similarly with water,

We take in clean water,

Then it exits the body,

And it's unclean.

So we see that inside this body,

It's filled with unclean things.

So we can contemplate those unclean things for the not beautiful aspect.

And so the body is,

Or we can contemplate the body in terms of elements,

Earth,

Air,

Fire,

And water.

And this is,

These are ways to bring the mind to samadhi,

To peace and collectedness.

This is the kamatana,

The new friend for the mind.

So wherever we go,

We recollect our meditation object all the time.

Whatever work we have,

We recollect our meditation object.

This meditation object,

It's a work for the mind.

So wherever we go,

We bring buddho,

Dhammo,

Sangho,

Bring it to be so.

We try to have mindfulness well-established in the mind.

So for instance,

If we let the mind go,

Then the mind's just busy and distracted,

It's not collected.

And if we do that the whole day,

Then when we go to sit in meditation,

The mind will be distracted and unsettled.

But if we restrain the mind a lot during the day,

We do buddho a lot,

Or contemplate a lot,

However much we do buddho,

Or however much we contemplate,

That's how much we get merit and goodness.

Because the mind is gathering into samadhi.

And this gives the mind the strength and energy to fight with ignorance,

Craving,

And attachment.

To give rise to clear knowing,

To collectedness in samadhi,

According to various levels.

So this is the Sotapatta,

Sotapatti Magga,

Or the path of the Sotapanna,

The path of the stream-enterer.

So you sitting here right now,

That's the path of the stream-enterer.

So this is right practice.

This is practice that goes to the stream of Nibbana.

And when we say Magga,

The path,

That's sila,

Samadhipanya,

Virtue,

Collectedness,

And wisdom.

So we practice to put the path into practice.

We do the path.

And the mind gathers together.

We see convention.

We see liberation.

We see emptiness.

This is possible.

So we see Nibbana gradually,

Bit by bit.

And Nibbana,

What it means is coolness.

Greed,

Aversion,

And delusion reduce,

And coolness arises.

So right now,

It's greed,

Aversion,

And delusion are a hundred percent in the mind.

But we keep practicing,

It can go down to 90%,

80%,

And 75%.

That's the stream-enterer.

So we don't succeed all at once.

We need to train and practice,

And keep at it,

Keep going.

And then it improves gradually,

Bit by bit.

When the mind is full of suffering,

It's full of suffering because the cause for suffering is still there.

But we keep practicing,

And then we meet with a mind that's more pure,

More radiant than before.

This is a mind that's able to know,

Sense impressions in time,

As they arise.

Not to follow after liking or disliking.

So this is the path.

This is the path.

This is the path that leads to the paths and fruits of Nibbana.

It's not too complicated.

It's not too difficult.

Just have mindfulness.

However much you have mindfulness,

That's how close you are to the Buddha.

So we have generosity and virtue,

Well-established,

And we care for those qualities.

We have restraint in terms of our behavior,

Body,

And speech,

And mind.

And this is the way to realize the Dhamma.

There's only one way.

Towards the end of the Buddha's life,

Venerable Subbada came to talk to the Buddha,

And asked a question about noble beings outside of the Buddha's teachings.

And the Buddha answered that there are no awakened ones,

There are no noble ones outside of the Noble Eightfold Path.

In order to see the Dhamma,

One needs to walk the Noble Eightfold Path.

This is the way to the paths and fruits of Nibbana.

So Venerable Subbada contemplated this,

And he saw the clouds floating in the sky,

Covering over the moon.

When the clouds floated in front of the moon,

The moon was less bright.

But then the clouds passed by,

And the moon was bright,

Just the same as before.

So Venerable Subbada contemplated this,

And he saw that the sense impressions and moons were just like the clouds.

They cover over the mind,

But once they pass,

The mind is bright,

Just as before.

So he was able to see sense impressions arise and cease,

And he succeeded in attaining to full awakening arahantship,

Because his quality of samadhi,

Of mental collectedness,

Was full already.

And if the samadhi isn't full,

Then we keep training the mind to see arising and ceasing,

To put down liking and disliking,

To contemplate material form,

To contemplate one's body,

Whether one's own body or others' bodies.

Contemplate them as not beautiful.

Contemplate them as natural elements.

Contemplate them as earth,

Air,

Fire,

Water,

Something,

A subha,

Not beautiful.

And then the mind can reduce its attraction or liking for bodies.

And if there's disliking,

Then we can also contemplate the body,

Because we see that in truth,

Everything is empty.

There's no male.

There's no female.

There's no me or mine.

You are yours.

Seeing this,

The mind is empty.

This is understanding the Dhamma.

This is seeing the Dhamma.

So may you set your hearts on this.

May you be intent.

May you practice and cultivate the mind in this way.

Today is the eighth day of the retreat.

We see that there's one more day left.

So may you meditate to the fullest of your capacity,

To the best of your ability.

May you all succeed in your Dhamma practice,

And may you grow in blessings.

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