The Indryas

This talk touches on deepening your mindfulness practice and the role it plays in your life. It also talks about the other qualities of the heart and mind that are essential to the process of understanding and liberation of the self. A truly enlightening listen for anybody on the conscious path to personal growth.

Please note that this was recorded live. Audio quality may not be optimal.

Transcript

As we go through the days of sitting and walking,

We use the quality of mindfulness as the central feature for developing and deepening practice.

It truly is a key quality that allows for clear seeing and understanding of how we create suffering for ourselves,

Not of what it takes to stop creating suffering here and now,

But be more free at ease and at home within ourselves and within our world.

In addition to mindfulness,

There are a number of other qualities of the heart and mind that are most essential to the process of understanding and of liberation.

There is a group of so-called mental factors and they are called Indiyas or shaping faculties.

Five of these are known as the so-called spiritual shaping faculties.

And these five are faith,

Trust,

Confidence,

Number one,

Energy,

Effort,

Number two,

Mindfulness,

Number three,

Collectedness,

Concentration,

Number four,

And wisdom,

Insight,

Number five.

These are the five qualities we need to strengthen if we wish to deepen our understanding of life,

Of our relationship to life.

The common function of those Indiyas consist in exercising and dominating,

Governing,

Or shaping influence over the other emotional mental factors associated with them.

The word Indriya derives from the Pali word Inda or the Sanskrit word Indra,

Which means ruler or governor or lord.

Indra is said to be the king of the devas,

King of the gods.

And these qualities or factors rule or influence or determine or shape the mind state in which they are present.

That's why they are very important and powerful.

That's why they're called determining or controlling faculties sometimes or shaping faculties.

Because they bring their negative,

Unwholesome,

Opposite under control,

They're called controlling faculties.

Faith draws confidence,

Keep doubt,

Fear,

Worry,

Discouragement,

And lack of devotion under control.

Energy and effort overcome laziness and drowsiness.

Mindfulness eliminates unawareness and collectiveness,

Concentration controls restlessness and distraction.

And wisdom dissolves ignorance and delusion.

The first one of these qualities or Indriya is faith or trust or confidence.

The Pali word is Sastar and it derives from the word Sam,

Which means well,

And the root is dha,

Which means to establish the place,

So it's something like well placed or well established.

And traditionally that means in particular well established confidence in Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha.

I mentioned on Saturday,

This means faith and trust into awakening from delusion,

Into the possibility,

The potential for awakening,

For liberation.

Or faith and trust into the awakened ones.

So meaning someone who is awakened.

It also means faith and trust into the teachings and the way and means which helps us to recognize the universal law,

The laws of life,

The true nature of reality,

And bring us into harmony with it,

Dharma.

It also means faith and trust in those who have walked the path before us,

Those who walk ahead of us,

Those who walk together with us,

Sangha.

In very practical terms in our meditation here it means we trust this process of awakening,

Of seeing what is,

And we trust that understanding and directly feeling how we create suffering and how we can be free will move our hearts and minds to relate more and more in wise and compassionate ways.

We trust in this clarifying and healing process rather than reacting with our old strategies,

Trying to fix things the way we think they should be or the way we want them to be.

Faith has many helpful functions.

If faith or trust is said to appease the upheaval and commotion of the tormenting emotions of heart and mind,

Of greed and anger,

Fear,

Anxiety,

Feelings of separateness,

It brings relief.

It purifies also the state of mind in which torment is present.

The text says,

Just as the water-purifying jewel of a legendary universal ruler dissolves mud and algae and purifies and clears the water,

Just so does trust,

Faith,

And confidence purify and clarify the heart and mind.

Also faith and trust act as a gateway for all the wholesome and beautiful qualities of heart and mind.

Saying,

In other words,

That when sat-tai is present,

Then openness,

Generosity,

Kindness,

And all those wholesome,

Wonderful qualities are present.

It's a really desirable and wonderful quality in our life and in our practice.

The text speaks of three kinds of faith or trust.

There's the bright or enthusiastic faith,

The verified faith,

The unshakable faith or certainty.

The first one,

The bright,

Enthusiastic faith,

Can arise when we perhaps meet a very inspiring person or when we hear a convincing discourse or teaching or piece of wisdom.

For some it can arise through a piece of art,

Maybe a touching image of Mother Mary or a beautiful Buddha statue or an impressive sense,

Calligraphy or whatever.

We feel touched,

Attracted,

Inspired,

Enthusiastic,

Enjoying devotion and faith through our hearts.

It's a kind of faith that can cause us to make contact,

To maybe begin a spiritual practice,

To enter the past.

Compared to the faith of falling in love in a relationship,

Sort of the honeymoon faith.

When I first met my teacher,

Kesharaabh – my body hair stood on end and looking back I don't think I had a clue what it meant but something spoke to me,

I don't know whatever it was – when I was first introduced to the Pasmana meditation at the so-called Guinika retreat,

Same thing,

Very inspired.

It seems like coming home or as if everything were suddenly clear,

There may be a much that really is clear but it's the way it feels.

Or we feel that there's something we always knew or we always were looking for and we found it.

Most of the bright,

Inspiring or enthusiastic faiths are important in our lives.

They can change our lives completely,

Move ourselves in a different,

In a new direction.

Yet this enthusiastic faith can also be dangerous because it lacks an element of wisdom.

Therefore it can easily become blind faith or mere belief and stay that way.

Not very wise faith or mere belief tends to become richest quite easily.

Critical investigation of the person,

Maybe the guru or the teacher or the teaching or the method we believe in is then unwished for.

Even positive,

Good alternatives can be seen as undermining.

In this way sectarianism,

Even fundamentalism can arise and we have that then in Buddhism too.

And so the positive bright faith can degenerate into fanaticism.

We need to verify,

To investigate,

To test or try out what has inspired our faith.

And it's very obviously the key.

And through our own practice and application that very fine faith begins to arise.

You could say if you're here the first time it was the first kind of faith who brought you here.

It was strong enough to make you think,

You know,

I want to go there.

Maybe you hurt somebody's face for things.

Or you read something about the place or the practice and it brought you here.

But once you're here what you're doing now is to verify to actually put what is taught into practice and then to find out for yourself if it's of value,

If it's true,

If it does what it is said to be able to do.

So very fine faith is deeper and more solid or steady than the first kind.

It's a less exuberant but more sound and steady kind of as we've read.

If we remain limited to bright faith,

The first one,

We can easily lose our momentum of thoughts.

Unfortunately we do see this at times.

We see people sometimes who have been touched and inspired by the teaching,

By someone who lived by it or by the first taste of their own practice.

The people who then somehow don't manage to find the time,

To find the interest,

To find the energy necessary to make what they had discovered really their own.

And then their inspiration slowly evaporates,

Their enthusiasm fades and nothing but a lingering bit of taste of regressed remains.

And I've seen this and sometimes I find it quite sad.

It's like having missed their one chance in a lifetime of entering the gate to genuine happiness and freedom.

So very fine faith is important but of course isn't enough in itself.

We also need the other four spiritual faculties to be developed.

Faculties of energy,

Mindfulness,

Of collectedness and of wisdom.

We do apply and generate this in a consistent way.

We start to see and experience the healing and the liberating powers of the practice ourselves in our own experience.

We begin to feel lighter,

Freer,

Kinder and wiser.

And in this way verified faith becomes certainty,

Becomes eventually we see and understood deeply ourselves becomes unshakable faith beyond all doubt.

It's just the fruit of a mature practice.

In this way bright enthusiastic faith becomes verified faith and eventually unshakable faith.

Effort,

Energy,

Virya.

The second quality or indriya here.

A text says effort,

Energy should be seen as the root of all realizations.

Virya or effort is an indriya or a spiritual shaping faculty because it overcomes laziness.

Virya,

The Pali word,

Really means literally heroic or do you say heroinic in a female form.

Points out the important aspects of the faculty.

The Burmese master Upandita Sayadaw often speaks about heroic effort with respect to a consistent continuous application of effort to being mindful and present.

What we're trying to do here is certainly very demanding.

Not for cowards to expose oneself to oneself for hours,

For days,

Even weeks and years of courage.

At times we believe or hope that the practice of meditation,

The life of spirituality is a matter of following our heart.

It's kind of a new way of saying I'm following my heart.

Sounds quite good.

It's almost death but not quite.

There's a Southern nuance that Ashram Sumedho expresses when he says,

Not a matter of following our heart but it's a matter of training our heart.

Interesting difference and that's where effort,

Energy,

Enthusiasm comes in.

The Lama Tsongkhzak Kentsir Rinpoche calls the same quality discipline.

He once said,

With discipline it's very interesting.

It's something we don't want to have.

It's something we want to have around us.

Discipline,

Effort,

Energy.

What's important is that we understand clearly what it is that we make our effort for.

There's an interesting statement by Krishnamurti that it's the truth that liberates,

Not our effort to be free.

Not our effort to be free that liberates the truth.

It does take tremendous interest,

Effort and attention but it's not the effort to change things so much or to control or to manipulate or to improve them according to what we think,

The way we think they should be improved,

According to our wishes or ideas.

Rather it's the effort to see reality,

The effort it takes to see the truth as it is.

It's the truth seeing and understanding reality as it is that will transform us,

Liberate.

And that means it's the effort to come back to where we already are,

To mindfully feel and perceive what is present right here and now.

Certainly not always easy but it's extraordinarily simple,

It's really simple.

Over and over when things get very complex,

Remember it's just to be with what is happening.

If you want to once more do this little exercise,

Feel your hand where it's right now.

Just move your attention there,

It doesn't take much to feel it,

If you feel it the way it is right now.

That was the right effort.

Bring the attention there,

Feel how it is.

Mine is a little warmer,

It touches my leg and it's cold in the fingertips.

It's touch sensation.

I imagine you would try to make it feel totally differently.

Like you would move your attention there and feel it's really hot.

That would be a problem,

Isn't it?

We often do that.

We don't just make the effort to feel how things are but we think they should feel differently,

They should be differently from what they are.

So we make effort to be there and then extra effort to change things.

Usually we want to change it from unpleasant to more pleasant or if it is pleasant then it seems to fade.

We try to make effort to keep the pleasant.

And that's too much effort or wrong way understood effort.

It will be really hard work and it will be useless.

It's to be just with the way it is,

That's right effort.

Now to make things a bit more complex,

Complicated,

Seemingly complicated,

Let's look at how right effort is described traditionally.

Right or appropriate effort is said to be fourfold.

It's there to cause wholesome mind states that aren't yet present within us.

Like kindness,

Mindfulness,

To arise.

Therefore to strengthen wholesome mind states that are already present.

Strengthen them.

Third one is therefore to avoid unwholesome negative mind states that haven't yet arisen,

That are not yet present in us.

Number four is the effort of letting go of unwholesome negative mind states that aren't present in us.

So hearing this,

Now one might get the impression that a lot has to be done,

A lot has to be changed,

A lot has to be controlled or fabricated.

And yet in fact what it takes to achieve this fourfold effort,

To achieve all this,

Really is the appropriate kind of mindfulness or awareness.

Exactly that.

Whenever we are present with an interest,

A careful and a truly non-judgmental,

Could say a friendly,

Caring mindfulness,

The fourfold effort is achieved.

This kind of wholesome space of awareness will engender and strengthen wholesomeness and will cause unwholesomeness to lose momentum,

To lose energy,

To taper out and to heal.

Thus the appropriate effort really is to cultivate this third spiritual faculty.

Right.

Right mindfulness.

Space to engage in the practice,

The effort it takes to really be present with what is here right now.

And then a third fact of the right mindfulness or samma sati.

Really the heart of this practice.

The word sati is related to the word to remember.

Remember to be present in this moment,

To be awake,

Attentive and aware.

It's not a judgmental,

Evaluating,

Critical awareness,

But an interest,

Kind and equanimous,

Sensing,

Recognizing,

Seeing of what is right now.

The effort to be aware isn't an act of will or force,

But a waking up to see clearly.

Ram Dassa,

It's an act of tuning.

We tune into this moment's experience.

What needs to be part of the mindfulness we're talking about here is the quality of great care,

Quality of deep interest and of continuity.

Here's a well-known saying by the late Thay teacher Ashankar.

He said,

Your practice of mindfulness should begin as soon as you awaken,

In the morning.

It should continue until you fall asleep at night.

Don't be concerned about how long you can sit.

Some people think that the longer you can sit,

The wiser you must be.

I have seen sickens sit on their necks for days on end.

What is important is only that you keep wakeful,

Whether you're walking or sitting or going to the bathroom.

Maybe we could say what is needed is the quality of the silence,

Careful listening.

As Kabir said,

Why do they call God in such a loud voice,

In their praise,

A duck?

Surely the Holy One is not deaf.

She hears the delicate anklets that ring on the feet of a tiny insect as it walks.

Get the picture?

We need the careful listening that hears the delicate anklets that ring on the legs of a little insect that walks along.

What does it mean to be aware of this moment?

Not thinking about the present,

Not analysing very much this moment's experience,

Not comparing,

Judging,

Changing or controlling the experience.

It means we make contact.

We feel and see,

But mostly feel directly what's present.

We connect with the breath or with the pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral body sensation that we have started doing today.

We're aware,

Mindful of our sense experience,

Of hearing,

Of seeing,

Of smelling,

Of tasting when they're present.

We're mindful of our feelings,

Emotions and various mental factors.

We're aware,

But not lost in them.

We know when thinking and ideas and concepts and images are present in the mind,

Again without being identified so much,

Without being caught so much in them.

We're mindful and aware more and more of any experience that arises in the present moment.

Is appropriate or right mindfulness?

Is it India or spiritual shaping faculty?

Because it awakens us from unawareness,

From mechanical habitual ways of acting and being and from identification with experience.

My teacher,

Nyashore Kanrapuche,

Who died a couple of years ago,

He wrote this poem,

Being Tibetan,

He uses very evocative,

Sometimes also very blunt language and imagery.

It's called,

Mindfulness,

The Mirror of the Mind.

I am the mirror of mindfulness.

Look undistractedly at the nature of the mind.

Mindfulness is the root of the Dharma.

Mindfulness is the main practice of the past.

Mindfulness is the stuff for the mind to lean on.

Mindfulness is the friend of primordial wisdom awareness.

Mindfulness is the support of Mahamudra,

Of Satsang and of Madhyamika,

Types of awareness and wisdom meditations.

Without mindfulness one will be overcome by Mara,

The unwholesome qualities of the mind.

Without mindfulness one is carried away by laziness.

Through lack of mindfulness all negative actions are committed.

Through lack of mindfulness one's aims cannot be accomplished.

To be without mindfulness is to be like a heap of shit.

To be without mindfulness is to slumber in an ocean of pits.

To be without mindfulness is to be a lifeless corpse.

Friends,

I request you,

Take mindfulness as a support.

Safe,

Effort,

Energy.

And there's mindfulness.

Continual effort to be aware and present brings about collectedness and concentration,

The fourth Indriya,

The fourth spiritual shaping faculty.

Mindfulness is comparable to the light or the brightness,

Let's say of a candle,

That which makes it possible to see things.

Rightness.

Collectiveness,

Concentration can be compared to the steadiness of the flame.

So if it's burnt in a windless room very steadily,

That's what allows for a clearer,

For a more precise,

Continuous,

More profound seeing.

That's how they're related.

Collectiveness and steadiness is an Indriya or a spiritual shaping faculty because it brings distractedness,

Scativeness and restlessness onto control.

Collectiveness or concentration is defined as a quality which enables the mind to abide one-pointedly on an object for a prolonged period of time.

Collectiveness and steadiness is the most helpful and supportive quality,

Very obviously,

Of heart and mind,

Particularly in meditation,

But of course also elsewhere in life.

In order to develop collectedness and steadiness,

We need to strengthen two specific qualities of mind.

We have the first two of the so-called Jhana factors,

Or factors of absorption,

You could call them.

In Pali they're called vitakha and vichara.

Vitakha means something like applied attention,

Which means going towards the object,

Making contact,

Let's say,

With the in-breath or with the sensation that we're feeling right now or the sound that's happening.

Going with the mindfulness,

Going there and making contact,

The first one.

The act of applying mindfulness to the object.

And secondly,

Vichara means sustained attention.

Staying with that object,

Holding the contact with that in-breath.

We touch it and then we stay connected as long as it lasts,

With the sensation.

We touch it and then we're with it for a while,

Exploring,

Feeling.

Or with the sound.

It's not like there's a sound and then we make some commentary about it,

And now with it.

The sound and then hearing,

And sustaining the mindfulness of being with the hearing for as long as the hearing lasts.

Again,

The first one,

Vitakha,

Is the movement towards the object,

The making of contact with the breath or with the tension in the shoulder or the warmth in the heart or the sound,

Whatever.

Vichara,

The second,

Is the staying with the object,

The holding the contact.

And it's the militations that I find useful,

And I'll list them just maybe to make more impact,

Maybe so throughout the day to remember connecting,

Sustaining,

Contact,

Holding the contact.

One image,

One inspiration is hitting the bell.

The first one is hitting,

And then the sound stays,

Sustaining the contact,

As long as it lasts.

Or it's like a bee that flies into a flower,

And then the second one is like whatever bees do in the flowers,

You know,

They enjoy.

Or it's like,

The first one is like a bird flapping wings to take off,

And the second one is like a bird gliding along.

Or it's like grasping the plate and then rubbing,

Drying the plate.

If you remember in the meditations,

Really pay attention to that second aspect.

We do go there,

We do touch,

We stay there.

That's what's helpful,

That's what strengthens the capacity to stay present.

That's what eventually generates collectedness,

Or generates steadiness.

Doing it with continuity deepens the collectedness of the steadiness,

Much the way the rubbing of two pieces of wood will generate heat,

And eventually higher if we rub them long enough.

Yet all this space,

All this effort,

All this mindfulness and collected awareness serves one purpose.

Creating the conditions for insight,

For wisdom to arise.

The fifth spiritual shaping faculty,

Centered through wise and clear seeing that equanimity,

Serenity,

Inner freedom and also love and compassion will arise.

Panya,

Understanding,

Wisdom,

Is related to path,

Which means right,

Correct,

And niya,

Knowing,

Understanding.

Panya,

Wisdom here means correct comprehension of reality,

Insight,

Correct insight into things as they are,

Into the process of the heart and mind,

Into the processes of existence,

Into the nature of things.

Wisdom or insight eliminates or illumines or enlightens us from ignorance,

From delusion,

From unrealistic perception of things and of life.

That's why it is an indriya,

The spiritual shaping faculty.

What panya or wisdom sees clearly is the impermanence of all things in existence,

Of all composed things in existence.

Outside or within,

Ourselves or the world,

There's nothing solid or fixed,

But it's a dynamic process,

Constantly arising,

Changing,

Disappearing,

Experiencing.

There's nothing solid,

Nothing we can really draw and hold on to,

Much like a dream,

Much like a reflection,

Like a mirage.

The American Indian,

Kraus first said,

What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass that loses itself in the sunset.

And the Ajahn Khandrimpoche writes,

All the dharma,

All the phenomena,

Though thought to be permanent,

They do not last.

When examined,

They are just empty forms.

They appear without true existence.

Look outward at the appearing objects,

And like the water in the mirage,

They're more exclusive than delusions.

Unreal like dreams and delusions,

They resemble a reflected moon or a rainbow.

Look inward at your own mind.

It seems quite exciting when not examined,

But when examined,

There's nothing to it.

It cannot be identified saying,

That's it,

But it is elusive like mist,

It's nature sky-like and boundless.

You think of Saturday evening,

Or yesterday,

Remember?

Sleepiness,

A little difficult,

All that stuff.

Where is it?

It's not gone somewhere where everything goes.

It's not still back there somewhere with Caesar and Alexander the Great or something.

Dashed.

Gone,

Completely gone.

Even as I speak my words,

They do something,

They have some effect.

And yet,

Completely gone,

The moment they appear,

They're all at the disappeared.

And then something else happens,

Arises and changes again.

We meditate in order to get directly in touch with that fact of impermanence,

That fact of the ingressibility of all things.

And that's why we practice and develop the Five Indriyas.

As Krishnamurti said,

It's the truth about how things are that liberates,

Not directed to be free.

We know that in this world that all things are impermanent,

Are in constant flux and not graspable.

Yet in spite of knowing better,

We hold on to things,

We hold on to people,

We hold on to situations.

We cling to them and want to keep them.

We must create tremendous amounts of suffering for ourselves whenever they do change,

They do go away,

They disappear.

But whenever we directly see and experience the dynamic,

Non-graspable nature of things,

We let go.

We allow them to be their own way.

We're willing to dance with the rhythm of the universe,

Rather than endlessly struggling against it.

In the hope that the universe will eventually adjust to my wishes.

Wei Wuwei says,

The reason why we have so much trouble in life is that we do 99% of all for ourselves and there isn't one.

The experience,

The insight which is deep enough to really touch us,

To really transform and liberate our inner attitudes,

Our inner being,

That is wisdom,

Or pannir prakṣṇa.

It's this kind of insight and wisdom also that deep through our seeming separateness and allows for deeper connectedness,

For belonging,

And that's for kindness and compassion to arise.

One last point I'd like to make.

I think what is interesting for us meditators,

The fact that the indriya complement and balance each other,

Or should balance each other,

Or need to be brought into balance perhaps.

The image that's used here is one of a chariot drawn by two pairs of horses,

Four horses.

To move safely and effectively a skillful chariot here is needed.

Proceed to it that the horses draw or pull evenly in the right direction.

Faith and wisdom,

Number one and number five.

Effort and collectiveness,

Number two and number four,

Are the two times two horses.

Mindfulness is the skillful chariot here,

Number three.

As we already saw in the beginning,

Faith needs to be balanced and complemented by wisdom,

So that faith isn't blind.

At the same time,

Wisdom needs to be complemented by faith,

So that it doesn't merely stay circle and intellectual,

But touches the depth of one's being.

When there is wisdom,

Understanding,

But no faith,

No devotion,

We may understand something very clearly,

Even from experience,

But we may not translate it into actual life,

Keep it at the intellectual understanding level.

Faith provides the necessary emotional component,

The depth,

Commitment and devotion actually translates things into life.

Faith and wisdom,

Two horses.

Effort needs to be paired and balanced with collectiveness.

Effort,

Energy,

Brings about wakefulness,

Clarity and strength in our mind.

While collectiveness with too little energy will cause the mind to sink,

Sink into the object.

We're with the object,

But there's no energy,

So it's a kind of sinking,

Not being clear,

Which can eventually even lead to dullness,

Drowsiness,

Sleepiness.

Right mindfulness is the quality that recognizes what is lacking and what is inaccessible.

It's the spiritual faculty which takes care of the balancing,

And thus allows for deepening.

It's the charioteer who directs,

Gives the chariot on its way to awakening and to liberation.

On the way,

Of course,

We don't only need insight and wisdom,

But also loving kindness and compassion.

We started to practice today.

Just as a bird needs two wings to be able to fly,

Yet when insight and wisdom is genuine and deep,

There does arise a deep sense of connectedness and care for living beings,

For all of life.

The Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj expressed this quite poetically.

I'd like to close with this.

He said,

Wisdom tells me that I'm nothing.

Love tells me that I'm everything between the two my life flows.

Wisdom tells me that I'm nothing.

Love tells me that I'm everything between these two my life flows.

It's a quiet wind.

Thank you for listening.

Reviews

Such a wonderful talk Fred, I wish I was coming to the center next month, had been postponed since 2020. But I will be there in spirit! Deep bows🙏

Outstanding !!!!!!!!!