Pure Awareness

The Buddha said to Bahiya of the bark cloth, “There is no hearer, just hearing; no seer, just seeing.” Then, Bahiya became fully enlightened. The nature of pure awareness explains how this happened and how we can awaken.

Transcript

Chuck Lorre is a screenwriter, Television producer, He's done a lot of sitcoms, He did Darman, Greg, Sybil, Grace Under Fire, Big Bang Theory, I haven't seen any of them. But I understand that at the end of them, Or some of them anyway, That as the last few moments of the show is fading, That there's sort of some musing, Sort of a voiceover commentary on something to do with the episode. So I had a yogi that sent me one of these, This was aired in October, The first of October. He writes, Sometimes I have conversations with people who are not there. Not out loud conversations, No Thorazine yet, Thank you very much. But I definitely catch myself having spirited debates and heated arguments with folks who exist only in my head. Which doesn't stop them from speaking forcefully and at times eloquently on their own behalf. On occasion they are people I know, Other times they are purely fictional characters brought into existence to question my thinking, My actions, Or just piss me off. Because there's not enough real people pissing me off, I've got to make some up. Anyway, The reason I thought this was worth discussing is that I'm fascinated by what I like to call the bifurcated self. Consciousness that has split itself in two in order to create its own suffering. Because there's not enough real suffering going on, We need to make some more. And recently I've become fascinated by the idea that there is no self at all. That the solution to bivurcation is not reuniting worrying selves, It is dropping the entire concept of self. The memories, Emotions, Thoughts, And attitudes that combine to create the self are finally recognized as nothing more than ripples on the surface of a pond. And the truth of what we are, Collectively and individually, Is the pond itself. That which silently embraces the endless dance of form. Deep, Clear, Still, Reflecting the infinite and eternal while receiving with equanimity both the beauty and the ugliness that falls into it. Even the critical inner voice which is talking to me right now, Excuse me while I respond, Shut up, I am too a pond. It says shut up, I am too a pond. I am too a pond. Isn't that lovely? I mean to show up at the end of a sitcom of all things. So this evening I would like us to explore pure awareness and selflessness. Pure awareness is a clear, Kind, Spacious awareness that has no sense of self in it at all. It is just a flow of phenomena. I was going to start off by tracing all this through dependent origination. There are like four strands that run through dependent origination as it flows downhill. One is increasing tension, Along with that is increasing distortion, Along with that is an increasing denser, More convincing sense of self and of course an increasing sense of suffering. Well it starts at the top, Yeah. So we always think of it as twelve lengths but if it is looking for continuities. Increasing ignorance, Yes, Yes, Yes, Increasing ignorance, Right, Along with distortions. So I was going to delve into that but I think I have been talking all together too much so I just want to plant that idea with you and we will skip ahead to just another way of coming to the same topic which is to read you a story from the suttas that give some flavor of how the Buddha worked with this whole topic. This is the Bahiyas Sutra. It is from the Uddhana which is a collection of shorter suttas and some of the oldest. They were probably recorded within a hundred years after the Buddha as opposed to five hundred years. So a lot of the language etc. Is a lot simpler. It has not been stylized. Just to be completely open, This rendering of it comes from translations by John Ireland, Anasara Bhikkhu, With comments or with some notes from Lee Braisington, John Peacock and a few other people. Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was staying near Sravasti in Jettas Grove at Anithopandikas Park. Sravasti is a small city in northern India. Jettas Grove is a wooded area outside that and Anithopandikas Park was a section of that grove that was bought by a wealthy merchant named Anithopandika and then given to the Sangha. They built a monastery there. It is actually just a collection of kutis. The foundations of those you can still see them there today. The Buddha probably spent about thirty of the three month reigns retreats there at Anithopandikas Park. I can't get it off my tongue. At that time, Bahiyyadabharkloth was living by the seashore at Supartaka. Supartaka was probably up on the west coast of India near Mumbai. It's about twelve hundred miles from Sravasti. Later commentaries suggest that Bahiyyadabharkloth was probably shipwrecked and lost everything. That's why he was wearing this bark. And a much more plausible explanation comes from John Peacock who says that he was probably a follower of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Brihadaranyaka means the great forest and the Upanishad was out of the Vedic literature. He was probably one of the followers. There's a lot of teachings and stuff in it so he was probably a follower of that. The followers were really into trees. They would commune with them, They would live with them, They would wear them, They would do all that stuff. And this is actually really important. We'll see why later. He was respected, Revered, Honored, Venerated and given homage and was one who obtained the requisites, Alms, Robes, Lodging and medicines. So this indicates that he was not just an isolated yogi and probably not a shipwrecked person either but was really highly accomplished and probably had a lot of followers, Probably fairly well known. Now while he was in seclusion, This reflection arose in the mind of Bahiya. Am I one of those in the world who is an arahant or on the path to arahantship? So Bahiya is wondering about his practice and he goes off into seclusion and is wondering if he's an arahant, He's fully awakened or if this path he's on is getting him close to it. Have any of you ever wondered about your progress and whether this path is actually getting you anywhere? A devata, A spirit, Who was a former blood relation of Bahiya of the bar cloth, Understood that reflection in his mind. Being compassionate and wishing to benefit him, He approached Bahiya and said, You Bahiya are neither an arahant nor on the path to arahantship, You do not follow a practice whereby you could become an arahant. Yes, Yeah, A little bit of bummer, Good to know. So don't take the dialogue literally, You know in the Buddhist time there was no real understanding about how thoughts arise out of the unconscious and all these kinds of things so often times these inner thought patterns were explained in dialogues, Particularly inspiration. I think all of us have felt that, Something comes in and we go, Wow, Where did that come from? In this case Bahiya is reflecting on his progress and he thinks, Nah, I'm not enlightened and I'm not sure this thing is even getting me there. Even in this world where are the arahants who know the path? So he's asking himself, Where in the world can I find a good teacher? And he has a flash of insight, An intuitive flash which is quite specific. Bahiya, In a far country in a town called Sravasti, There lives a blessed one who is fully enlightened. He is indeed an arahant and he teaches Dhamma leading to arahantship. Bahiya was profoundly stirred, Then and there he departed from Subaraka, Stopping only for one night everywhere along the way he went to Sravasti and out of Pandikas Park. So when I'm thinking about going on a retreat, I check my bank account, Look for flights, Check schedules with my family, Try to fold up the business, Answer email, Put up an autoresponder, It can take me several months to figure out how to get away for a few weeks. But Bahiya, He's dedicated, He's inspiration and he's out the door and he doesn't stop at spas, He doesn't stop at friend's house along the way, He just hightails it for Sravasti, He's stopping at night to rest enough so he'd have the energy for the next day. So how about you? What kind of machinations do you go through before you go on a retreat? Never mind. Bahiya arrives at Jeddah's Grove. At that time a number of monks were walking up and down in the open air. Bahiya the bark-cloth approached those monks and said, Where, Revered sirs, Is the blessed one living? They wished to see that arahant, The fully enlightened one. The blessed one Bahiya has gone for alms-food among the houses. Then Bahiya hurried out of Jeddah's Grove and during Sravasti he saw the blessed one walking for alms-food. Pleasing, Lovely to see, Just listen to these words, It sounds like the person is in love with the Buddha, It's very sweet. Pleasing, Lovely to see, With calm senses and tranquil mind, Attained to perfect poise and calm, Controlled, A perfected one, Watchful with restrained senses. On seeing Bahiya approached, Fell down with his head at the blessed one's feet and said, Teach me Dhamma blessed one, Teach me Dhamma, One well gone, So that it will be for my good and happiness for a long time. So again we get a measure of his dedication. He arrives in Sravasti, There are all the monks, They're doing their walking meditation, And I don't know about you, But my instinct would have been to kind of sit, You know, And wait for them to get finished, But he goes right in there and says, You know, Where's the blessed one? And they say, Well, You know, He's gone for his morning's alms round. So again you'd think he might sit and wait for him to return from his alms round, But he doesn't, He goes straight in there. He finds the Buddha and right there, Out in the middle of the neighborhoods, Drops to his feet and says, Teach me, Please, Teach me. So how do you think the Buddha would respond to this? Upon being spoken to thus, The blessed one said, It is an unsuitable time Bahiya, We have entered among houses for alms food. Sounds very genteel, But for a Buddha to say it is an unsuitable time is about as brusque as saying, Look fella, Cool your heels, You know, We're at alms rounds here, Don't be so rude, I'll be back to you later. So Bahiya gets reprimanded quite severely. So what does he do? A second time Bahiya said to the blessed one, It is difficult to know for certain, Revered sir, How long the blessed one will live or how long I will live. Teach me Dhamma so that it might be for my good and happiness for a long time. So despite the reprimand Bahiya goes right ahead, Asks him again and he ups the ante. He says, Look, You could die any moment, I could die any moment, You know, Let's get on with this. A second time the blessed one said, It is an unsuitable time Bahiya, We have entered among houses for alms food. I've wondered about that, I wonder why he always refers to himself in the plural. We have entered among, Anyway. So the Buddha shoots him away second time. A third time Bahiya said to the Buddha, It is difficult to know for certain how long any of us will live. Teach me Dhamma for my good and happiness for a long time. So there is this kind of formula and it is common in a lot of these cultures that when you ask a teacher three times they have to respond. Another way of saying it, It is an indication of the depth of their sincerity, It is not just offhand about that. He is saying, No, I really want to know. So the Buddha can't refuse his wish. Bahiya, This is the Buddha speaking, You should train yourself thus. In seeing, There is merely seeing. In hearing, There is merely hearing. In sensing, There is merely sensing. In cognizing, There is merely cognizing. This is the way you should train yourself Bahiya. So why in the heck is the Buddha giving him these particular instructions? I mean we have heard lots of things in different places, Why these particular ones? Remember the Buddha as a nobleman, You know, Was educated so he knew the Upanishads, He knew these scriptures and he recognized the bark cloth. I always pictured the bark cloth when I first heard this, It is sort of like he was wearing scabs of pine bark or something scattered around his body. But it also could have been as refined as they were just talking about, It may have been some tree that had some fiber that could be spun, You know, Could be woven in the cloth. But whatever the case, The Buddha sees this guy is wearing trees and bark cloth or in some sort of clothing made out of bark and recognizes that he is probably a follower of the Brihan Dharan Upanishad. So let me read you just one passage from that Upanishad. It encourages yogis to look for the unseen seer, The unheard here, The unthought thinker, The un-cognized cognizer. This is thyself, The inner controller, The immortal. And perishable is the unseen seer. This is Vedic scripture, This is not Buddhist. And perishable is the unseen seer, The unheard here, The unthought thinker, The ununderstood understander. Other than it, There is not that sees, Other than it, There is not that hears, Other than it, There is not that thinks, Other than it, There is not that understands. So what these instructions are, Are to look for the real self inside your experience. It's a real self that hears the sound. It's looking for the Atman, The higher self. And Bahiya has been doing this for years. He is a highly dedicated, He is wearing the trees for heaven's sakes. So he has looked everywhere for this inner self, Looked in his feelings, In his thoughts, In his ideas, Probably looked around under trees too for all we know. And he hasn't been able to find this. He can't find the unthought thinker. And as we know from earlier, He has begun to doubt this practice, Begun to doubt himself. He is wondering, You know, He has failed. This is not working. And I think the Buddha would have recognized that too. Why else would he be coming to him at this point? So the Buddha says to him, There is no unseen seer. You know, The self you are looking for, It's not there. And to drive it home, He continues, And he says, Bahiya, When there is only seeing in seeing, Hearing in hearing, Sensing in sensing, Cognizing in cognizing, Then you, There will not be a you with that. When you, When there is not a you with that, You will not be in that. When you are not in that, You will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering. So bear in mind, The Buddha didn't speak English. So you really kind of have to let your mind go loose and kind of feel your way into what he is talking about. So for example, Is there a difference between hearing and listening? Did we talk about this here? No, I talked with somebody. Is there a difference between hearing and listening? Yeah, So what is it? In listening there is an intention to actually pick up what is going on. In hearing it simply occurs without necessarily listening. So in listening it is like you have an agenda and in just hearing it is wide open. So in. . . Does that imply an I? Yes, If you have an agenda, That it applies, There is somebody that has an agenda that is looking for something. So it is also you look at the difference between looking and seeing. So if I am looking for Jordan in a crowd of people, I am out there looking around. If I am just seeing a crowd of people, Then I am back wide open. And so in the looking and the listening there is an applied self in there. So that he is saying there is just hearing in the hearing, You know there is no self in that. Does that make sense? Or another way of saying it, When there is pure awareness, When there is nothing added on top of it, When there is no agenda, There is actually no self. So through hearing this brief explanation of the Dhamma from the Blessed One, The mind of Bahiya, The bark cloth, Right then and there was freed from the taints through lack of grasping. So lack of grasping means completely relaxed and freedom from the taints means he became a fully enlightened arahant, Just right there. Having heard, Having instructed Bahiya of the bark cloth with these words of the Dhamma, The Blessed One left. Maybe to finish his alms round, I don't know. The story now takes a turn. Not long after the Buddha departed, A cow with a young calf attacked Bahiya the bark cloth and killed him. So his premonition from earlier were accurate. He sensed that his days were numbered, But he died, Fulfilled, Died a fully enlightened being. So the strong, I'm not going to say subtle, Not so subtle message and all that is like, Get on with it. You don't have much time here. You too can get enlightened, So be diligent. The sutta winds down from there. So let's back up and just hear these words that had such a profound effect. When there is only seeing in seeing, Hearing in hearing, Sensing in sensing, Cognizing in cognizing, Then you will not be with that or they will not be a you with that. You have to listen through the translations here, When you, When there is not a you with that, You will not be in that. When you are not in that, You will neither be here nor beyond nor in between the two. So Bahiya hears these words and he becomes fully enlightened. You have heard the words twice. Do you have any arhats? You want it one more time? Okay. When there is only seeing in seeing, Hearing in hearing, Sensing in sensing, Cognizing in cognizing, Then you will not be with that, When you are not with that, You will not be in that. When you are not in that, You will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. Did it work? And you fully realize it. So we hear those words and they can remove them but we don't wake up necessarily, Fully. So what is the difference between us and Bahiya? We have different problems. Because Buddha told him, Pointed out that he thinks that he has been missing, That he has been craving for everything, That is all he does. Right. So Buddha straightened him out and said, You did absolutely wrong. This is basically non-self. Yeah. So when you just said that you repeat the three times, Basically for me understanding the whole chain of, I don't know, The suffering. Dependent origination. Yeah. Stop and wonder. It didn't go down any more. Yeah. So he took the self out and that is why it doesn't mature. So did you wake up? No, I said that is not my problem. I think that is the point. Like all of Buddha's teachings, That was directed just for him. Right. It wasn't meant to wake anybody else up. It was meant to wake him up. Right. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this stuff. He had all this background. All he needed was that one little piece. Yeah. And I have them so much in the Buddhist teachings. Right. Everybody has got all this stuff. You just give them the one little piece. Right. That is all they needed. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see if we can zero in on what that one little piece was because I think there is a lot of clues there. I think there is lots of clues. I think that it is clear that he deeply believes that the Buddha is fully enlightened. That he is capable of being enlightened. So he may be more charismatic than me. There is also this whole process of having done this helter-skelter journey to get to the point where he can actually receive this teaching from the Buddha so that there is very high levels of motivation and intensity on his part. Okay. Good. So there is still another piece which is kind of there. But let me just. In a way I would want to say that the Buddha is precisely defining a stream entry experience at least probably more than that. So in a sense you could say that he is actually delivering a package stream entry experience as well. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think the first thing to understand about these is they were not a logical argument. This was not a philosophical proposition. These were instructions about how to direct his awareness. And so what he is saying to Bhāhiya is look inside yourself. See if you can find the self. Really look. And the distinction is really important because it is logically impossible to prove the absence of something. So for example if I believe that the center here is infested with tiny space aliens who are spying on us. Okay. And so now you want to convince me that they are not here. So what do you do? Well maybe you take me through the whole building and we search through everything and when we don't find any evidence, You know that just confirms what I have always known about these guys. They are very clever at hiding. They probably have some cloaking devices. So when you look, When you don't find evidence for self, When you don't find evidence for space aliens, All that proves is that you don't have evidence. It doesn't mean that they are not there. However if I spent the next year searching through this place every day, Looking around, Etc. , You know with that long search, Gradually it might sort of work away. Well you know, Maybe it is a trick of the mind. Maybe it is not there. So Bhāhiya has been searching diligently for years and years and years. He knows the territory. He has been through that over and over again. He can't find any evidence and he thinks it is because he is not doing the practice right and the Buddha just turns it back on him and says you are not finding it because it is not there. There is no ātman, There is no soul. Now we can think it and hear that but maybe we haven't explored it quite as deeply so it doesn't actually sink in quite as far. There is still, Maybe there is there if I just look a little bit more. But he has searched so far he has gotten discouraged by the whole process. So that is what the rightness was. It was right there. And so the Buddha just said, You don't see anything because it is not there and he got it on a really deep visceral way because he had been looking all that time and it wasn't there. So I think this… One thing comes up is the ultimate relative. This is an ultimate truth. On the relative level the Buddha listened to the idea. On the relative level, So what all the Buddha is saying here, All he ever said is that there is no self-essence separate from everything else. And if you listen to that Upanishad, That is what they are looking for. They are looking for the ātman. You know you can just hear it in the language. The imperishable is the unseen seer, The unheard hearer, The unthought thinker, The ununderstood understander. People are looking for this essence that has eternal existence. So that is what he has been looking for. And so I think there are lots of suggestions in this about how we can practice. One of them is to just look for this sense of self. And the truth of the matter is that when we look for it, There is a sense of self that most of us find, But it actually waxes and wanes throughout the day. You know when we are grumpy, Frustrated, Angry, Perturbed, The sense of self is very dense. And it is obvious. It feels awful. When we are feeling mellow, Light, Loving, Gentle, The sense of self is very porous and very thin. But we are not necessarily looking for it or feeling it then. So we tend to notice it when it is denser. And so part of the suggestion here is just if you look for it, Not in a forced way, But just sort of gently, You know keep looking on and off throughout the day. So where is this self? What is this self like? You begin to see that it actually waxes and wanes. You know we get stronger and weaker and stronger and weaker. And then as you can locate where that sense is, As we were doing the other night, You know just look for yourself, You know where does that self locate. There is that tension in there. And then you can just soften it, Allow it to relax. Another self is another person or another, Yeah. So yeah, We are wired for relationships. You know there is all this stuff about how the brain, If I move my arm like this, There is a certain pattern of neural firing and if you are watching me move my arm like this, The same pattern will fire, Well, Right the mirror neurons. If I do this and if I watch you move your hand, The same pattern will fire inside me. So we literally experience inside ourselves what we see in other people. And it is very strong. So it is just the neurological wiring, You know creates that. So we can watch it come and go and it gets stronger at those times. And then the question becomes where do you experience that self inside. And as we were doing the other night, Why don't you just do it for a moment here. So just find where that sense of self seems to reside, Whether it is strong or weak. It feels like just a little bit of tension there and then just allow that to soften. So what happens there? I think we did this on the first night and not even practiced and you probably see it more clearly and can you soften it? Sometimes for some people it gets a little spacey. What else do you experience? The thing that I was noticing was curiosity and as you were talking about those things that you are seeing, It is like myself, I can hone in, The curiosity and intensity of wanting to get in. So where this focus is in the sense of my mind, It is driving me. And to soften that and keep a sense of alertness versus that kind of driving trait. Yes, So with the drive there is that tension there, If you relax that, Then it softens. I tried to imagine myself in the lunch line with my play and there is someone in front of me so my tension was actually in my stomach. I felt connected, There wouldn't be someone in front of me. So there is a loss of a sense of separation, Which is actually a big piece of what the Buddha was talking about. It is not that there is not a self, But there is not a self that actually separates us. Jennifer? Is pure awareness self or not self? So the question is, So you can see the tension come and go, You see the sense of self come and go. And pure awareness that has no tension in it. There would not be any sense of self. There would be no self in pure awareness, That sense of self is actually laid on top of the experience. So if you just hear right now, Actually let me do one little exercise with you and we will come back to this one because I think it will help hone in just to what you are talking about. This is a fun one. One way that you can play with this is just look at one mental phenomena very openly and very with a lot of mindfulness. So let me give you one to do right now. Close your eyes and slowly count from one to twenty. And when you get to twenty, Open your eyes just so I know who is still counting. Ok, Now I am going to ask you to do that again. And let the counting do its own pace. And as you are counting, See if you can see where the numbers come from. Watch them arise. And then open your eyes when you get to twenty. One more time. What do you observe? You said a lot of discomforts. What's the discomfort? We waited for the numbers to arrive. Ah, Okay. And where are they coming from? The wires are sending them faster than that. And can you see where they come from? Well, I have a kind of a, I mean they come from, I have a narrative about where they come from. But can you see where they come from? Yeah, We all have a narrative. I can see them. We say, I'm counting. Can you see an I that's counting? No, They're just coming. They're just appearing out of nothing. And so the most we can say about it experientially is that it's probably a conditioned reflex. You know, When you say one, You just know that two comes, You know, That in the wiring somewhere there's that. But if you relax and just let it run, There's nobody doing it. Right? They just kind of come on their own. I have to tell you, I came across this in the gym. I don't have a lot of upper body strength, But I had a trainer once and he had me doing crunches and I could do, You know, 30 or 40 or 50 or something like that and I would tire out. And then I was there on my own and I realized I was really fighting it, You know, I was really tensing up. And I said, Well, What happens if I just relax and just let the crunches happen? And the first time I did that I did a thousand. Which that was just interesting because then I would push it a little bit and then I would, You know, Collapse after 25. But you know, It's a little bit compulsive of me. I wanted to keep track of how many was actually doing. And so, You know, Counting 120 might, But when you're doing this long sequence of numbers and after a while it's like, Where are these coming from? You know, They just fall out of space. And what's fascinating about it is the mind can drift off, You know, 57, 58, I wonder what those guys are doing over there. Oh man, You know, Okay, There, 64, 65. It doesn't seem to miss. It's just something that's just automatic. So let's do it one more time and just watch, You know, Watch the whole process. Just sit back. Sometimes I will say, Sometimes what happens when you relax is actually the pace of it will slow down. You know, If there's not something that's driving it or sometimes it will vary. At least that's my experience. So let the experience be whatever it is. So do everything you can to just sort of relax and be there and just let a sequence of numbers come up and just watch the process. And again, When you get to 20, If you get that far, Open your eyes so I'll know. Here's the normal routine. So, Other comments? Yes, For me, If I image them rather than speak them, That's a much less practiced thing. So, When I speak them, It sounds more intentional as an internal speech because it parallels my excellent speech. Whereas just imaging them is much less connected with the apparent effort on my part so that it feels less me. For I have to tickle them, I notice that they were starting to fizzle out. It was like, You know, I got up to like nine, And they were fading. It was like there was no push. Nothing driving it. They could get all the way to 20, You know. Each one got me through it quicker. Actually, Mine went right back. It just didn't show up. Yeah, Yeah. I found all those things will happen. I was talking the other night about, You know, Melodies going through your head and just watching it. And if you just really observe openly, Sometimes it will slow down. And sometimes there's some other energy or something there that just, But it doesn't seem like you're doing it. Yeah. So, You can actually do this with all of your thoughts. You know, Sit back and just kind of observe them, You know, Come up. I mean, Good luck, But you can do it from time to time to just, You know, So for example, You know, I say to you and just watch what happens inside your mind. That's different than what we're doing anyway, I was going to say. As thoughts arise and meditation. . . I was thinking of something to say. So, Just watch what happens here. Dick Cheney. Hillary Clinton. Vanti Vimalaramsi. I would suspect that for most of you, Those words do not hang out there just as sound, But there's a whole bunch of stuff that comes along with them. So, It can be, I think, Fascinating to just watch that whole process. And then it comes back to this question about who's doing it. Okay. The image I have of this sometimes is like becoming an anthropologist, A field anthropologist, That is just sitting back, Watching the thoughts go through. Not actually, You know, Getting into them, But just letting them go through. Okay. Are there thoughts, Comments, Reflections? Yeah, The time for me, Which seems where there's more identification with a personal self doing something, Is if I'm planning something or I'm writing a report or writing something so that there's an intention to produce a product. Right. Yeah. So, Some of the part of that that's really helpful for the meditation is just noticing the level of tension. Because without tension, There's just a flow of phenomena. So, It goes back to your question about pure awareness. Yeah, So you got it. Without there being some tension, And if there's just pure awareness without an agenda, Without a tension, There is no self because the self is something that's layered on top of it. So before we came down, I was reading a section on the original seven john chapter. And this sounds like it's somehow connected to that. So, It seems like for the seventh john, There's actually some instructions about what to do while hanging out. Right. Right. And it sounds similar. Can you talk to us about that? I don't know. I'll give it a shot. We'll see who's here. With the seventh jhana, There's one of the terms in the practice is that there's enough equanimity that you're down to just cleaning up even a very subtle thing. So one thing is there's six R in any tension that comes up at all, Whether you know what it is or not. And so, In the seventh jhana, You're seeing a subtler and subtler phenomena. Okay, Let me back up. This is a part I was going to leave out, But I think may be helpful. I've just run through dependent origination. I just want to do one of those strands. So we'll start with pasta with contact, With raw sensation. With raw sensation, There's just sensation, There's just phenomena. There's no person there at all. Right? And then what that can trigger very quickly is vedna, Is a feeling tone. Feels pleasant, Unpleasant, Or neutral. If it's pleasant, There is this tendency to lean into it. If it's unpleasant, There's a tendency to move away. So you can see there's a little bit of sulfine starting to come up there. There is something in here that is pushing or pulling against some phenomena. So you begin to have like more of a sense of self. It's just starting up. And then what happens if the tension is not drained out, Then the mind kind of shrink wraps around it and gives it a label. It's all pre-verbal, Pre-cognitive at this point. It gives it a label. So let's say I was groping in the dark and I touched something that was cold and wet and smooth. There's just contact, There's just sensation, There's no self there particularly. It's a little bit unpleasant, There's a little bit of self. And the mind says, Oh, That's a glass of water. And suddenly the whole thing concretizes into there's an object there and there's a me observing the object. So the sense of self is getting stronger. And then that labeling, That first thought will trigger whole things about, Well, Am I thirsty and where did this come from? And so you begin to get this whole elaborated universe that has all these objects and me in it. So we alienate the object and personalize the perception. Yeah. Or as we go the other way, Say that's my object. But yeah, There is this experience that gets divided into self and other. Well, The division is other. I mean the touching of the me. Right. So that's the alienation. So the existential world we're constantly alienating is not me. Right. Unless we're like one year old and then it's all mine. No, It's not. No, It's not. There is no self in a one year old. There's not the intellectual capacity to actually separate that out. Is it the two year old where everything is mine? Yes, But so that's, Yeah, It sort of begins there. But even that, You know, If you or I were having a tantrum it would be mine. But sometimes in a two year old it's just pure wanting. So the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget talks about those early stages of being perceptually seduced. There's just what's going on without necessarily separation. So there's a proliferation of ideas and thoughts and if there's still some energy in that then you go from habitual tendencies, The concepts and stuff, Into birth of action. So you're starting to interact with it as self and other which gets even denser and that has potential to lead to suffering. So you go back to the seventh jhana when you're actually much further upstream. You know, So you're noticing basically it's a tanha. More and more, Sometimes it will go into a thought and stuff but sometimes you're catching it before you even know what it is, Before the mind has a label for it. Which is a hard thing for a lot of people to do initially because we're so used to labeling. But if you can just feel the tension come up and soften at that point it actually doesn't solidify so much. Okay, So that's kind of what…so the seventh jhana being that state slows everything down or clarifies everything between the one and all. The point is that we have time and ability to actually feel the tanha before it gets us. That's right. There's a part of this stuff that I just find endlessly fascinating and I won't try to explain what it is because I don't really know. But sometimes you're seen in slow motion, Seen in slow motion events that are going by like that. Particularly in the eighth when I was talking about the night about seeing those formations. They go by at thousands per second. And the subjective experience is not that, It's just like… And I don't understand that. I don't understand how that works. I know the phenomena. Can I ask you one more thing about this? Here we talk about distractions in the present that are related to events in the past. I think this is related to what we call karma where there's some tension that's still holding us in the past. And so we're still reacting to it here in the present. And you say you six are enough. And what I wanted to know is, Is it done then or do you get six are enough sometimes more than once? Sometimes you get to do them more than once. It depends on how deep the six are and actually goes. And I would not even recommend trying to make it go really deep. You just six are it. Because there's a couple of things that can happen. One is you may release all the tension. If you try to release all the tension, You just put more back into it. But you may release it completely. Or the other thing that can happen is I think of them sometimes like log jams. And you get a couple pieces pulled out and then they just clear themselves out. Sometimes in the seventh and up into the eighth, One thing you can just notice is what I think of as a sort of a stickiness in the mind. Anywhere you can feel anything where it starts to stick or something a little bit, You can just soften and six are that right away because it's really the very beginning of this whole process. It's like even that from the tension, It's like those things are just starting to feel like they might. Right. And it's amazing because you can see it. And it even feels visceral. And people that don't have the direct experiences as you talk about them, And it sounds like some esoteric metaphysical something or other, But when you go into it, They're really quite accessible and they're just there. And the difficulty is finding language to talk about it. Because language, So if you've had the experience, You know what the language, If you don't have the experience, Then you have no idea what the person is talking about. What do you mean by falling in love? What's the classic example? What is an orange taste like? Yeah, Well I had one teacher who sat there once, There was some kind of South American fruit, And he said it cut up and it's kind of soft like a melon and it's got a little spicy, A little kind of cinnamony stuff and it's very sweet. And he says, Okay, Do you know what it tastes like? You don't have a clue. You just don't have a clue. I think of that term in terms of trying to figure out how to explain chocolate if somebody's never tasted it. Well, It's sort of earthy and maybe a little burnt and kind of sweet, But it sounds like, Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome, You're welcome. Anything else? Just have a poem to leave you with. I have a kind of tangential question. In the progress of insight, Mahasi Saigdha talks about the splitting of the string. And is that, I'm just trying to relate something from the past. Is that where we see body and mind as two separate things? Or is that where, I think, I don't know, It's one of the early three. It's not, But it has to do with balance. I think that what we're talking about in terms of stabilizing in the seventh, It's a balancing act. Yeah, But that's balancing energy and equanimity. And different flavors of energy, But that's what the basic. That's a complete different thing. Yeah, I think it's, You know, Maybe talking about Nama Rupa, You know. Yeah, That's what I was thinking. Which is a whole different. Yeah, Well, Good luck. Good strategy, Good strategy. So we heard the story, And we heard what we were told. How do you suggest we work with that in our practice? All the things we've been talking about, About these different, Not necessarily those exercises, But it's this sense of seeing phenomena as phenomena. And if there's, And if there's, So, With hindrances, For example, One of the things you can do is work to soften the hindrance. Another thing you can do is work to soften the sense of self that's experiencing the hindrance. You know, So if there's a loud sound and you find it really irritating, You can, You know, 6R the sound, Or you can see who or what it is that's irritating, That's irritated. You know, And there's this place in here that's going like that, And you can 6R it. Yeah, Yeah. And that's where irritation comes from inside you, Because if there is no self, There's no irritation. So that's one thing that's really very, Very practical. Because we get obsessed sometimes with whatever it is that's disturbing us, Of just come back and see who or what seems to be disturbed, And just let that soften. I was doing that today because there's this wonderful Buddhist practice which this place has been doing for us to help us look at our aversions, And it's called leaf blowers. Oh, Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. And so it was interesting that over time it got to the point where I was aware of it, But I no longer wanted to sort of, I no longer felt passionate about what should be done about it. Just sort of mildly. Yeah, Some of you have heard this story too. I was doing a retreat up in the High Sierras about 6, 000 feet in this house with John Travis. And there was, It was about a mile from a pass, And so the trucks would come over the pass, And then it's 18 wheels on flatulence, You know, And boy, I got to tell you, Early in the retreat that was like so annoying. And then after three or four days I was like so glad the trucks were gone. And I turned and I looked out there, No, They were all there. But they were just sounds. They were out there. So there's working with hindrances themselves that way, But I think one of the really valuable ones is actually, And it's pretty much, You know, In the seventh and up there you can do this, Is just actually watching the thoughts arise. So for example, When I think about something, There's a voice that comes with it. And there's a couple of things that can be interesting just to note the tone of voice. But sometimes you can also just actually see the voice as it starts to arise and then sixar it before it's even had a chance to say anything. So you're beginning just to watch these processes, You know, And let them soften. Any other people have sort of ideas about how to work with this in practice? I found that it's really important to be confident and patient and passive about it. So it's almost as if it feels to me as if I'm harking my consciousness somewhere in the vicinity of the arising thought. But I'm not going to get too active because that'll discombobulate and actually crash it down to a lower level, A more deep level of creation. So being passive, You have to resist the temptation to be frightened that it's not going to work, Which is another aspect of it, Not introduce tension on is this going to work or not. Or what I would say, Just to take that a little bit further, Is that if you see there's fear about whether it's not going to work, Is to sixar it, To really see the fear and allow it to soften. Because getting rid of fear is sort of like being afraid of fear. It's just aversion. And so you'll just see these on subtle and subtle levels. Today I had a strong thought and I kept trying to sixar it and kept coming back and then I realized I was agitated. And I thought, Oh that's interesting, So this thought has come from the agitation. And then so I sixar'd that and tried to go deeper. And then I remembered, Oh yes, When there's agitation maybe we should stand up and go for a walk. So I did that. Well, Yeah, There's lots of things. I mean, Because you can just watch it. And I know I said this before, But I think it really bears repeating, Is that when there's a repeated hindrance, There is a secondary response that comes up really quickly. And it will come up the basement steps or through the side. It won't walk in the front door. And it'll sit there and it'll be irritated at these irritating thoughts. And if you can see that irritation and just allow that one, The secondary one, To soften, That's the one that's actually driving it. It's sort of like they're in cahoots out there. One stands up there in his astuge and says, You know, You all can take shots at me. And meanwhile this is the one who's in there doing all the work. Hindrances usually come up in packs. They do. And it's actually, When you think about it, It's when the mind loses focus enough to allow hindrances. And once one can get in, It's the others can get in. But sometimes it feels like, You know, The first thief gets into the house and rather than look for the silver, He goes around and opens the door so all his other buddies can get in. And pretty soon you have a hindrance attack, You know, A hindrance party. What was I walking to do at that point? Because I walked and I felt better. Well, Well. . . That just kind of makes the hindrance wait until I sit down again. Well, So you look at where it's all coming from. The agitation is because there's too much energy. And so you go, You walk some of the energy off. So agitation is too much energy? Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. At least 99. 9 percent of the time what the case is. There's a little bit too much energy in the system and then it gets bouncy. And how it gets bouncy may depend on your system and what particular flavor of it. But agitation is too much energy. And the energy is coming from where? That's a good question. There's always. . . I don't think there's a single answer to that. I think a lot of it just arises. Some of it comes up, Quite frankly, From just being in the body. You know? And so what we're actually doing with it, It's not, You know, Ultimately it's not so much getting rid of the tension, But softening it enough so that you can release your identification with it. Right? So there is just tension. You know, There is just irritation. There's not somebody who's irritated. There's just irritation. And then there's no problem. So what you're saying is trying to make this stuff go away. Yeah, If you're trying to. . . It's the wrong game. Yeah, Yeah. It just doesn't work. But just irritation is happening instead of bliss. Yeah, I haven't talked to. . . Yes, Right. I want bliss and I want irritation and so there's an I there that's doing that. I think it's helpful even how you language this stuff. So rather than I have irritation, There's irritation, You know, In the mind. And so you kind of see it objectively. It kind of encourages that kind of stepping back and taking a look at it. Because if I have irritation, Then it's a problem. If there's irritation in the mind, Heart, Oh, It's just a phenomena. And so language in it that way can actually push you a little bit in that direction. That would have helped with the bar. Yeah, Yeah. Learn is happening or will you go to the. . . No, There is irritation. There is irritation. There is irritation from the blower. There is irritation. There is, Yeah. From the blower is a conceptual overlay which has some kind of conventional validity to it. But. . . Rose from the sound. Irritations coming through sound. Well, We. . . I've been irritated, Annie. Sometimes, I don't know about you guys, But sometimes I have a. . . Sometimes, Emotions arise and then I find a call to attach them to it. That is most often the case. That is most often the case. I'm trying to be careful about. . . There is this tendency in the mind as a wayward wire to always look at the thing outside. Because with me, With the trucks coming down there, Other times the blower is out there, The trucks are there and there is no irritation, But they are still there. So, As long as you are blaming the thing out there, Then you are stuck. You are actually not free, You know, In a very kind of fundamental way. But if you can see that there is just arising in here, Then you can actually work with the root cause. You know, Whatever it is that is tensing up against that, Whatever it is that thinks that blower shouldn't be there, Whatever these ideas and opinions are. There is this. . . What about the sound that actually hurts the ears? Okay, So there is sound, There is pain, Yeah. So, As contact, It can be very sharp sensations, Which goes very quickly into unpleasant, Which goes into I don't like it. And you know, If you can see all of those, Then even the pain can be there. That's why I was talking about the loose tooth the other night. There can be the very sharp sensations. But if there is not, You know, An identification, A bunch of opinions about what ought to be there, And who I am, And what's the order of the universe right now anyway, Then they aren't a problem. But it's really physiological. Yes, Oh yes, And kāna, I think, Is physiological, Oftentimes. I think the point that you're very validly making is that some of us are what's called hyper-accusive, Where certain sounds don't really get us, Because it hits on part of the nervous system that's really sensitive within the hearing system. So it would be a different experience for you than somebody who wasn't hyper-accusive exposed to that particular sound. So, Yeah, Right, So I would look at a couple things in that. One is, Is the first to see if you can soften the irritation enough that it's not a problem, Or if it is something that is more than your system can actually work with skillfully, To know that and close the window, Or whatever. But even if it's physiological, So one thing is to look, So it is physiological, And so there's a question, Is it causing any damage? If it's actually not causing damage, See, Because we think that these exercises are just wonderful exercises, And then when something quote-unquote real comes along, Forget it, But those are great, Because there is something quote-unquote real that's going on, And so to actually be able to see how the mind's heart is dealing with those during that is really powerful, Because it goes a lot deeper. And it's not about getting rid of the irritation, It's about seeing how the irritation arises and passes, And if you sit there long enough, The irritation will pass, Maybe because the blower stopped, I don't know, But you know, Part of the, There's sort of a place inside that thinks this is going to go on forever. You know what, Yeah, This is it, For the rest of my life. There will be a leaf blower in my ears, Yes. Right, And one of the things that was, You know, It was really, It was really an interesting experience for me, Because I knew as soon as I first heard it that I needed to deal with this skillfully, Or it was going to wreck my experience, So that I was really conscious, And then what happened was this cat and mouse game where the blower would move over here, So I'd go somewhere else, And then it would come round and get me the other way, And I just knew that if I didn't handle this, I was going to get really burnt out of shape about it, And I was determined not to, But the context was, I'm doing Buddhist meditation. Now whether I have been as resourceful as that, Having not been in a workshop doing Buddhist meditation, I wouldn't like to say, Because there's a level where it can get quite emotionally violent that you are being pursued around the place. Like those invisible aliens? Those, Yes, We found proof. You can project sadistic intent on it, Not that I did, Because I think that's truly paranoid, But I don't think they're after me. They just want to clear, And what was so frustrating was then starting to generate those whole things that happened. We have a workshop when the leaves are falling. Well, Don't, It was really silly of you. You know, We planned it. I'm going to do it tomorrow. We're not telling. We're just going to start up the leaf blowers and let it run. And so the great thing about all this is actually just to keep learning to observe the process, Because when the awareness is clear enough, It will cease to be a problem, And it's the awareness that takes care of it. As long as we are trying to take care of it, We're going to be stuck. And so, It's just observing the whole waxing and waning. Can you say that again about the awareness? Say that one more time. Okay. So, Did I do this thing about wholesome and unwholesome qualities? Yes. Yeah. So, You have wholesome and unwholesome qualities. So, Here's the leaf blower. There's irritation. There's contraction. There's all that stuff. And what you're trying to do is to get rid of the irritation. So, You've added aversion to irritation, And now you're moving the chair all around and all over the building, And you've got this whole, You've moved into action. You have this whole drama going. And what I'm saying is that, Is just as much as you can, Just keep bringing a little more awareness in, And a little more awareness. And it may not change it. It may not do anything. You still may be irritated then. But over time, As that awareness gets stronger and stronger and stronger, It will take care of it. You don't have to. And I will tell you, There is this very difficult place in the beginning where the awareness is strong enough to see what's going on, Including all the irritation, But it's not yet strong enough to know what to do about it. And so, The art at that point is actually to continue to build the awareness. And there's two parts to that. One is to just straight on, Just be aware of what's going on. And the other is to recognize when your system has overloaded, And despite all your wonderful Buddhist, Melo intentions, It's overwhelming your system. And then it's time, Then you do something skillfully, Externally. And, Ideally, And this wouldn't work in this situation, But it's when these things build up or come from different places, It's recognizing, This is actually developing the wisdom, To know when something may be getting to the point that you won't be able to handle it, So that you handle it out of wisdom, Rather than wait until it goes into a version, And then you're acting out of a version. So, That's one of the reasons why white-knuckling it through things is just not helpful. Don't worry, He'll be back tomorrow. You're acting like Gajeet, You know, Who would hire the guy to be the super-earth, Or the community's supporters, Right? No, They did that Monday and Tuesday, They mowed everything. So, There's a beauty to this, And that is that these are, When you know that this is the game, That you can play it at the DMV, You can play it when you're on the road. We're in California, We're always going to be behind another license plate. There's no such thing as an open road. And so, This is a great opportunity that I've taken since, You know, I started the practice to use this in all of these circumstances, Because when the irritation comes up, That means the mindfulness has faded. And if we can carry this throughout the day, It becomes a massive tool for happiness. I mean, Yeah, The jhanas are great, But boy, If we can swing from vine to vine, And if something breaks, Hey, You know, And there's pain, There's pain. But, Like you say, When we lose the awareness and it builds to anger, And we forget the mindfulness, Then we're sunk. Well, Yeah, We are. And what I would say with that is that at some point the anger will wind, You know, And maybe because you've got to run screaming across the country, And you know, And 30 hours later it starts to calm down, But whenever you start to come out of it, That's a real good time to just be aware of what the mood and the attitude in the mind, Heart are. So, The way to build this is not to bring mindfulness in when something has pushed your buttons, But to just as often as you think of it throughout the day, Just look and see what the attitude is in the mind, Heart. What's the texture? What's going on there? And to do it just lightly, You know. Don't make a big deal of it, Because if you do that you'll get tired of it and stop. But it's just lightly, You know, Just be aware of it, And then let it go, And then, You know, Come back at other times. And what that will do is that begins to build, You know, More and more awareness, And as the awareness gets stronger it takes on its own momentum. So you don't even have to do that. Our job is just to notice the qualities of the mind, Heart, Awareness of awareness, Awareness of the qualities of the awareness, As often as we think of it. Are you saying that this will take practice, Become better? Yeah, That's a good way to summarize it, Thank you. And when you get caught, I've told a couple of people, I say this here, That Utejani has said there are no mistakes, They're just lessons. You know, You just, You know, When the mind comes down about it, You just learn what you can from it and go on. You also told me to laugh. Yes, Yes. I had a laugh. Yeah. Because when we laugh and when we're smiling it's very hard to take ourselves seriously. Those of us who are really good at it can pull it off, But it's hard, You know, So, You know, There's much lightness in the mind as you can. When we said this, We said maybe yourself is unfulfilled, So just make fun of yourself, Make a deal, It's all over you. Same as both of those. And then there's true personality change. I see this as people who do these retreats year after year, I see them change, You know, From like that year to the next year and it's just, It's amazing and it's these sort of habitual reactive patterns that keep us locked into habitual behaviors and much of this is self-defeating. And those habitual behaviors, The painful ones, Just do not survive in clear awareness, Even relatively clear awareness, You know. You don't have to get rid of them, But it's just like, You know, You see this is painful and then the next time it just becomes harder and harder to do that. Okay, Other comments? I did have a little nightmare at one point that I was thinking about it when we finally get to a higher level of an anigami, EPR, That Jordan and Monty are going to run around having alarms go off and things just detest us. Yeah, You're right. Scratching on the, Yeah. We'll start up leaf blowers and just let them run. And the thing is that they'll know what level we're really at. Yeah, Well, And the other one that you don't know is that we have recorded about three hours worth of fingernail scratching on a blackboard. That's the trouble isn't it? He's got ear muffs. So, Why would you want to imagine that? Yeah, He's listening to it, Not giving the lecture. So, We're going to actually pick up on this a little bit tomorrow, But I'm going to come at it from a whole different angle. And, It's pretty audacious. It's, If the Buddha were alive today, What would he teach? And I suspect that the core practice would be the same, But human consciousness has evolved so much in the last twenty-five hundred years that particularly when it comes to anatta, Self and selflessness, There's a whole different way that you can just slide around it that actually wasn't available during the Buddha's time. I call it the infinitely expanding self. It's a whole different way of coming at it. And so, We will play with that tomorrow. Yes, This is your cultural comparative ology. That's right. Yeah. So, I want to close with a poem. I forgot to read it to you last night. I think of it as the eighth jhana, And so I stuck it in my folder and realized, No, It's actually about selflessness too. It's called The Lake by Gail Turnbull. I remember once in a far off country. It doesn't matter where or even when. It had been a hot day and a lot of work to be done and I was tired. I stopped by the road and walked across a field and came to the shores of a lake. The sun was bright on the water and I swam out from the shore into the deep, Cool water, Far out of my depth and forgot. For a moment I forgot where I had come from, Where I was going, What I had done yesterday, What I had to do tomorrow, Even my work, My home, My friends, Even my name, Even my name, Alone in the deep water with the sky above. And whether that lake was a lake of the shore of some great sea or some lost tributary of time itself, For a moment I looked through, I passed through, I had one glimpse as it happened one day in that far off country for a moment. It was so. Just quietly in your own way, Allowing peace, Equanimity, Kindness, Radiate out from you, Out through this building, All the other people that are here, Radiate out, Touching those that are here whether they know it or not, Letting it radiate out, Out across the town, Out around this area, Around the planet, Sending kindness and peace and well-wishing and tranquility and clarity to all beings everywhere. Namaste.