We'll begin the day with puja.
It's always however you express that,
However form you use for that.
The theme of it is a sense of offering,
Offering the heart,
Offering aspiration,
Bringing up values.
May others be well,
May they be well being,
May the community be in harmony.
Make the offering,
Generally offer raising something to the forehead,
It's a kind of sense of bringing forth why the forehead.
The sense of intelligence,
What it represents.
Of course it's nothing particularly in a bone,
But the sense of the higher,
Higher intelligence.
Aspiration body tends to be reflected in many cultures associated with the head,
Top of the head,
Upper head,
Which we touch or,
Certainly there's an energy there in a particular place in the forehead.
You can focus on there,
There's generally a sort of a bright energy there.
And so when you're cultivating breathing,
You can focus even on that area and sense how it,
If it changes at all in the process of breathing in and out.
And so a place where we can experience tension and headaches,
So it's quite a good area to get to know about so that it can be released from tension,
Breathing through the forehead.
So obviously you're not blowing air through it,
But just touching the forehead with one's awareness,
Relaxing the eyes,
The forehead,
Opening,
Sense of opening.
As we pause there around that area,
There's only sense of any changes associated with breathing in and out.
Doesn't matter,
It's just staying with that.
And the aspiration,
May there be clarity,
May there be vision,
May there be understanding,
May there be harmony in the community.
Because aspiration energy is different from tanha,
Craving,
Because it's not,
It's offering something rather than trying to get something.
And the objects that we offer to are held graciously with may,
May there be,
Rather than I want.
Tanha naturally spins out many,
Many fantasies.
Motivation is quite simple.
In single words,
Single phrases,
Just resonating with that.
Aspiration is the beginning of the faith indriya.
It's an indriya supportive faculty.
And is indriya said to ripen into something called bala,
Which means strength.
So they're the only sequence of factors you see repeated twice.
One is their leaders,
And then as they establish they become strength.
It's actually firm into something that has a subtle form to it.
And one of these forms is the faith form,
Which becomes confidence,
Which means there's something that never gives up.
And the Buddha describing seven kinds of disciples or perhaps that's not quite the way we're putting it,
But the ways in which different kinds of people get their first degrees of deep realization,
Sotabhāna,
And one is called the faith disciple,
The one whose realization is rooted and established through faith,
Through this vehicle,
Through this process.
So this actually when it becomes a strength,
It's associated with the sri-mentra.
And another way of considering this or reflecting on this is intelligence,
If you like,
The arising intelligence that there is in faith.
It's not a belief.
It's a recognition something rises where we find an object or topic where aspiration resonates,
Becomes meaningful.
This is the second sign of faith.
It becomes meaningful.
We resonate with that something shapes a determination,
Chitta starts to arise,
Chitta,
Mind,
Awareness,
Heart,
Intention,
Intelligence.
It becomes a definite felt experience.
It has a strength to it and sada arises,
Chitta arises.
It has a sense of knowing,
But the knowing doesn't have to have a particular thought or an object to it.
You could say it's just basically awakeness.
One feels bright,
One feels meaningful,
One is listening,
One is reading experience,
One is awake to it.
They are not forming plans or strategies or measurements or self-definitions.
There's an awakeness.
This is helpful because it's a how to be attentive without having to keep established attention.
Attention is already here.
You want to first of all get the sense of attention being attentiveness before you see where it's going to be most usefully placed.
This is where sada is our recommended entry.
The doors of the deathless open for those who bring forth their sada,
Their faith,
Because it's a brightness there,
Meaningful.
And if that comes into focus,
We might realize despite our reasons and our moods,
We want to be here.
Despite not progressing or having difficulty,
We want to be here with it.
It's the same intelligence that begins to get a real confidence in sila,
In holding things skillfully,
Conscience,
Concern,
Respect,
Ethics,
And you feel strong with it.
So this kind of intelligence is not a lot of scheming in it.
You can turn things over,
But you're measuring in accordance with does this support faith,
My faith or confidence or not?
Does this feel right or not?
Not do I,
Am I,
Why should I,
Do I have to,
Why can't I.
It's not self definition.
This supports this energy,
This supports it is an injury.
And you can feel it resonating in your body.
That's the beauty of it.
This is when it becomes a bala strength.
And you begin to sense what body you're talking about.
An inner body,
Channels,
Energies,
Uprightness.
And it becomes a real strength and support for samadhi,
For mindfulness,
For right kind of energy,
Because you stay within that boundary of that body,
That body,
Not the driven,
But the true body,
The body of dhamma.
And not the mind that's confused that the mind is poised,
Attentive.
So then energy there,
It's intelligent energy.
And as we light that,
Light the candle of that,
Sensing,
Staying within this measure,
What is this body?
What is the hereness of this body?
What is there?
What can it need to widen,
Deepen,
Stabilize?
Can it be served service by breathe with the breathing in and breathing out with that rhythm from the place of intelligence of openness,
Attentiveness,
Before you establish attention,
Let it establish itself?
Takes a while.
In faith we have the trust in that.
Medicine.
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