111: Retreat Dhamma Talk 6: The Five Aggregates in Real Time

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SPEAKER_01 0:02

Namo tasa bhago arahado samma sambu tasa nammo tasa bhagado arahato samma sambu dasa nammo tasa bhagoado arhato samma sambu dasam retreat series dhamata number six we are practicing Satipattana vipassana meditation what does it exactly mean what Satipattana Vipassana meditation Satipattana or full foundation of mindfulness is one is observing anything and everything, all objects, physical objects or mental objects. We observe them to know exactly what it really is in its true nature. Satipatthana means we are observing all physical and mental objects in your field of attention to know their own true nature. In other words, to know their specific characteristic as it really is. That's Satipattana. And what is vipassana? Vipassana is one is observing all these nama and rupa, both physical and mental objects, to know their characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and non-self, no soul nature. In other words, one is observing this mind and matter or cheta and chitasika and the body to know the three marks of characteristics nitcha, dukkha, andatta, impermanent, suffering, and non-self. In other words, they are general characteristics. That's vipassana. So when we combine the two, satipattana vipassana, one common thing is we are observing this nama and rupa mind and matter. To know these specific characteristics and to know the general characteristics, then it becomes satipattana vipassana. That's why whenever we are observing these mind and matter, there's one critical point, important point. In the instruction is incline your mind to know the cessation of the objects. Only when you incline your mind to know the cessation of the object, then you will understand the arising and passing away. Then you will understand the nature of impermanence and nature of unsatisfactoriness and the nature of non-self and no soul. That's a combined factor. That's what it means by Satipattana Vipassana. In technical sense, ones give you in-depth understanding of the specific characteristic, and the other will give you in-depth understanding of general characteristics of mind and matter. This mind and matter, okay. This body and this consciousness, we observe it. And when we are using this full foundation of mindfulness, what are we observing? We are observing full groups that is, we can observe and experience directly. Okay, without any thoughts or concept. What are they? Mindfulness of the body. In other words, you're observing the matter, materiality, mindfulness of the feeling and sensation, Vedana. That is something you can directly experience, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. And mindfulness of the mind. You can directly experience through the thoughts. Okay? Through various kinds of thoughts. Thoughts are what? Thoughts are consciousness. You can experience directly in your observation. And then you observe the Dhamma Nupasana, which are the various aspects. We all know the five hindrances, the six external bases, the six internal bases. In other words, they are all Nama and Rupa. And full foundation of mindfulness, nature of suffering, natures of craving, natures of cessation, and the nature of the eightfold part. So this is the types of observation, four types, full groups. And what are we observing? We are observing Nama and Rupa, mind and matter. But when we are observing, we go a lot more details than that. Of course, we can go like highly in hundreds detail. But the Buddha gave us five aspects of it. What this mind and matter is. Again, this is something that you can directly operate upon, see upon, touch upon, understand upon. What are they? The five aggregates. And the third one is sunnya, perception. Perception is simply how one tries to put certain points, certain marks so that one can recognize the same object, whether it's a physical object or whether it's a mental object, whether it's a condition or whether it's a situation. When you have experienced it, when you have seen it, touched it, known it, then next time when you see, you remember, you cognized it. You create your own markings to remember or to recognize a certain object that you have already experienced. That is synya. And the fourth is Sankara. Shankara is all the volitional activities, all mental formation or karma formation. That's what Sankara is. And then finally, Vijnana. Those are the five aggregates. Five aggregates mean we just this mind and matter, this body and mind. We split them into five different specs. Two become five. The first one, rupa, is simply rupa material, material. But nama we divide it into four spec. Feeling and sensation, okay, perception, volitional, karmic activities, and consciousness. And we said Satipatthana Vipassana is we are observing mind and body, mind and matter. In other words, we are constantly observing these five aggregates. We are always observing this. So each and every observation is upon these things that we are observing. So that is what Satipattana Vipassana is. We are constantly, consistently, always all the time observing these five aggregates to know their specific characteristics and to know their general characteristics. That is Satipatana Vipassana. Okay. So we said we observed and we understand that we, these five aggregates, we observed. And how is it operating in your life? How is it happening in your daily life? Let's put a scenario that we can clearly understand. Okay, let's say there's um a hundred pounds of weight in front of you. Okay, you are going to live. So you know how to live. So there's a weight with a bar, then you are going to live. So what do you do? If you are going to live, first and foremost is you must want to live. If you don't want to live, you would not live. I'm just giving you a setting. Okay. 100 pounds weight, a person standing and going to live. In that instant, first and foremost, what it's required is desire to live, wanting to live. And what is this desire to live, wanting to live? In other words, it's you have an intention to live. That is vinyana, consciousness. If you are fully aware of your desire to live, the wants to live, your intention to live, at that moment you are observing your consciousness in a practical field, wanting to live, desire to live. And then suddenly you are going to live. But in your mind, because 100 pounds is a lot of weight, or some people for 150, 200, in other words, it is near the max that you are going capable of doing. So if you want to live and suddenly you are going to live, when you're going to live, what is happening in your mind? In your mind you are accurate. Okay. Keep your feet apart. Okay. Roll your shoulders, relax your muscles, okay? Put dust on your hand so that it won't slip all these things. Check, check, check, check, check. What is it? You are recalling your previous experience of how to live. Through your repeated training, you already know how to live. So you are making all the checkpoints. You are playing back in your mind. What to do, how to do, how to prepare, how to live. That aspect is sunnya perception. In other words, you're recalling how to do it with all the characteristics and marks of what you have done and how you have put it into your program. In your mind, you just play around. And suddenly, as soon as it's play around, your feet become apart, your shoulders roll, and your palms, you put powder on, it won't be greasy and slippery. That's perception. The first one, wanting to live, desire to live, is your consciousness, you're observing. This one, you are going to live. You haven't lived yet. Going to live. That is the you are observing or you are with the perception sinya. Number two already. And then what happened? You are lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting. When you're lifting too, you are not just you bend, you watch, you pull apart, everything is properly done. And in other words, the weight is moving, the weight is moving, moving, lifting, lifting, lifting. Stages by stages, you cannot go through. And then sudden point it comes up to your knee level, a certain point you come up to your chest level, and then finally you just push it up. This whole thing is you are doing a job to accomplish that lifting, to complete that lifting. That whole process of lifting it, lifting it, lifting it, lifting the weight, lifting the weight, lifting the weight. That is Sankara Mental formation or volational activities. You are actually executing something. Sankara. The first one is wanting to live. It's your consciousness. Aggregates of mind. Second one is sannyakanda. And the third one is Sankara Kanda. Sankarakanda is you are actually doing it. And then at that moment, while you are doing it, at a certain point, you might feel sort of pain in your knee. You experience the pain. And sometimes you feel that really heaviness loaded up right near your chest.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Sudden of a big pressure. And then finally you lift it right up. At that moment you have completed successfully. So you feel great and you're good. It's feeling good, pleasant sensation. Unpleasant sensation, unpleasant sensation, pressure, pleasant sensation because you completed. So these sensations are what? If you are fully aware of it, that pain in the knee, that heaviness in the chest, that pleasant feeling because you have completed the task. That is with the Nat Kanda aggregates of feelings and sensation. If you are fully aware of it, that's what it is. And then finally, if you look at the whole process, if you look at the whole process, when you are bending over, okay, you might feel a stiffness around your waist because there's a big leather band putting up there. And then when you pull it up, there's a heaviness. And then when you push it up, the pressure builds up. There's a stiffness. There's the muscle vibration because the weight is quite heavy. The muscle by weight. So in other words, heaviness, stiffness, vibration, and then there might be a feeling of coal from the iron rod to your palm. Coal. And then when the weight is totally lifted, what's a feeling of lightness? What are these kanda aggregates of the body? In other words, all the material process. So this one is just uh to be very clear, I try to put it with the external object. Okay, external object and a weight lifting. And that weightlifting, if you are fully aware of the moment that you want to live till to the completion, what's happening? You are observing many things. Okay, whatever that is prominent at that moment, you're observing, observing, observing. And what you're observing is the five aggregates. Wanting to live, consciousness, going to live, perception, lifting, mental formation, volitional activities. And then pain and pleasure with the nakala feeling stiff, cold, hot, vibrate. That is the rupa kanda. And there is all the five aggregates just in your weight lifting. Okay, we use it with the external object. But we are not doing that all the time. So let's do it something that we are always all the time doing. Okay? So what do we do all the time? There are many things that we do all the time. But let's take one. A hand. Okay? Whatever do, whenever we're doing bending, stretching, bending, stretching. That we always do.

unknown 21:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Whether you want to open the door, or whether we want to lift a plate, or whether you are washing dishes, picking up a glass of water, bend, stretch, bend, stretch. So let's see. And here is just the indisposition. Let's see. You want to bend. You want to bend, that is, aggregates of mind. Okay, consciousness, want to buy. And then you are going to ban. Going to ban is perception. But how can this come to be? So do understand that let's put it this way. Going to ban is, of course, as we know it, we don't even think about how to ban. Going to ban, oh, I'm going to live and I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. Weightlifting is very clear to show. But in here too, perception is always there. Let's use an example. A child, I know let's say one year old or eight months, nine months old. Around that time, okay, they are always kicking and bending and stretching, but they have no idea. But let's say if you go and say, bend your hand, bend your hand, they don't know what to do. Bend your hand, they don't know what to do. Because number one, they have to actually do this thing consciously. That's number one. Number two is you have to associate it with the concept, the word, name, nomenclature. Bending, bend, bend. And when you say bend and this, then you have a complete understanding it. You are bending, and then also you know the word bend. The child began to know the word bend. And after about three or four or ten times the mother taught the child, this is band and bend, stretch, bend, stretch. And next time, if the mother asks the child, bend, boom. But till then the child has no perception of what bending is, no sunny. So you have to have the experience, and once you experience this at the beginning, the child has to really put an effort to take the words to understand the meaning of the meaning, and then the movement go inside, and then when it is successful, the parents praise them and they are happy. Okay, that is the they are taking marks and characteristics of a certain action. And the same thing for us too, we don't think that way anymore because it becomes like a setting second nature. Wanting to bend and going to bend. As soon as you say going to bend, your hand is not moving yet. But if you slow it down, if you slow it down, it comes out. Going to bend, you haven't been yet. At that moment, you can actually feel the little tension or little slight jerking movement. It always happens, but you are not aware of it. But when you slow down it, automatically you know and that spending is going to take place. In other words, this whole thing. That is perception. And then bend, bend, bend, bend. Okay? In other words, when you're not slowing down, ban, straight. But if you're doing very slowly, you will even see that the mind is giving a command, bend it, bend it, bend it, bend it, bend it. Okay? That's why in our meditation everything slows down. Because whenever everything slows down, okay, number one, you can observe the physical activities and behaviors in a more detailed nature. That's number one. Number two, when you slow down, it gives you a space to observe. Whenever you have a space to observe, whenever it is, before the one physical movement, you have a space to know or to observe or to feel your intention. Bend it, bend it, bend it, bend it. But if you do like this, there's no space to know your intention. That's why in this meditation, slow down, slow down, slow down, slow down. Whenever you slow down, you know more details about the physical activities, behaviors and characters, and also in between space, the walk or the play of your consciousness or intention. Intention and behavior, intention and behavior, intention and behavior, you will see everything. That's what it is. That's why slow down, slow down, slow down. By slowing down you see both. Intention and behavior. That's more like a comment. Bend it, bend it, bend it. So that is sunya. Wanting to bend is consciousness, desire. Okay, going to bend is perception. And then bending is the execution or doing it. Volitional activity, sinkara. And while you are doing so, what happened? There's a arthritis fingers. So whenever there's a little bit of bending of the fingers, there's a pain. And then there's a pain in the elbow, and you can even feel in the shoulder. And that is unpleasant feeling with the nekanda. And and that's during this whole process, you also know the stiffness, the muscle tightness, tension, and then the movement and vibration. That is Rupa Kanda. So here you're bending it, that five aggregate is right there. You are observing the five aggregates. The slower you do, the more you see the spect. Aggregates of the mind, aggregates of perceptions, aggregates of volitional activities, and aggregates of feelings and sensation, and the aggregates of the materiality. Every observation and every movement, every thought and everything, that five aggregates is there. You are whatever you are observing, you are actually observing all the five aggregates. It's simply a matter of how deep your mind is. The deeper your mind is, the more you can. See. The deeper and deeper your mind is, you can see these things in a series, stage by stage, stage by state, one after the other, one after the other. They come and they go, they come and they go. So whenever you are observing the rising movement of your abdomen, you are observing the five aggregates. Falling movement of the abdomen, you are observing the five aggregates. You are walking, lifting movement, you are observing the five aggregates. Pushing forward movement, you're observing the five aggregates. Dropping movement, you're observing the five aggregates. Five aggregates is always there. It's two functions, how much you can see. Number one is how much you slow down. That's number one. Number two is how deep is your concentration. In other words, you must have the continuous, strong and powerful momentum of mindfulness. That powerful momentum of mindfulness will increase the power of concentration. Samadhi. When there is a samadhi, you see these things. When it is very deep, you see like a flow. You see like a flow. But at the same time, if you can go even deeper, that flow is not a seamless flow. It is one after the other. In other words, one frame at a time, one frame at a time, one frame at a time. In a movie picture, you know, they put a movie and they have to move, I don't know how many frames, 35 frames per second. If you go like that, all the moving pictures are on the screen. But otherwise, actually it is a one frame, one frame, one picture, one picture, one picture at a time. When the minds go very deep. In other words, when your mindfulness is super strong, you can see things like a one frame at a time, one frame at a time. Not a flow even anymore. In other words, there's a break between these frames. In other words, you are deeply and sharply experiencing the nature of nature and permanence. Comes, go one, another one, another one. At the beginning, it's more like a flow. They don't have much of a separation, more like a seamless. But the deeper your samadhi is, the more clarity you can see these kind of things. So there you go, whether you are bending or stretching or rising movement or falling movement or lifting or pushing or dropping, okay, we just say or lifting or rising, rising, rising, falling, falling, falling, touching, touching. But at that moment, five aggregates is there, five aggregates is there, five aggregates is there. You are observing the five aggregates. That is Satipatana Vipassana in action in the field. So whenever you are doing okay, whenever you are observing, know that there are five aggregates are there and then put an effort to see them. Of course, at the beginning you can't see all, but as soon as you see the intention, that's uh consciousness, aggregate of the consciousness. And whenever the actions are happening, that's the aggregate of the volitional activities, pleasant, unpleasant feeling, and the way you know how to do it, and so on and so on. That is the way to observe, that is the way to understand. You don't have to sit down and think and analyze and dissect. All that you need to do is constant, continuous mindfulness that will bring about the stronger level of concentration and these will unfold. At that moment, don't sit and analyze. After your meditation, you can sit down and analyze as much as you want. Oh, this is this, this is that. That is what it is. In other words, sort of a reflecting between your experience and the theory you understand, but not during the time while you are meditating. So that's Satipathana Vipassana, that is observation of the five aggregates in real time, in action, every moment you can do that. So in here we know what it is, but where do we where do we practice this? Where do we practice this mindfulness and sight meditation? Where is while you are sitting, you sit all the time every day. You sit at various places. So we can't really pin these. I sit here, I sit there. Basically just sitting. Where do you observe these things? When you are at the moment of the sitting. You stand everywhere here and there at the moment of standing. You walk everywhere at the moment of walking. You lie down and you rest here and there at that moment, and that is where. You don't say it is in this Dhamma Lab, or you don't say it is in a church, or you don't say it's in a hope or in a monastery or things like that. Where? Wherever this body is, where you are sitting, you observe. Where you are standing, you observe, while you are walking, you observe. While you are lying, observe. Where do you observe? In the four posture. Because these four buttons will be moving around and you just observe. That is where. What? Where? When? When do we meditate? Do we meditate in the morning, in the evening, or only once a week on Tuesday, or three or four days once a month at the monthly retreat? That's when. Yeah, you can say that way, but everybody is different, every group is different, every system is different. But when is the way I would like to put the when is when is what time? Time is you can put the time in a very clear one way is past, present, and future. Past is the time, present is the time, future is the time. It's a they are all in the time zone, present and future. But future has never been here yet. Future is not here yet. So you can't practice, you can't observe in the future. That is one of the when's gone. And in the past it's gone. You can't really go and practice in the past, it is gone. So basically, you cannot these tr three time zones, past and future, you cannot. Present is right here, right now. That is when when you can observe. So this is time. Time is when. What is when? The present moment. But you always have present moment. You are with the present moment all the time. That is when you observe, that is when you meditate. In other words, when do you meditate? Or forget about the word meditation, when do you observe mindfully? At every moment of the present time. In other words, every nanosecond is an observation time, mindfulness time. Depending on what you're doing, whether sitting or working or daily activities or socializing or eating or showering, every time. So know that is what is when is. Now we know what, we know where, where is in your full posture, when I will put it in that present moment, which is all the time. That's how you practice this Satipattana Vipassana. And then you are doing it. When you do something you just don't simply do blindly or carelessly, whatever comes fine, do it. That's a very, very beautiful, poetic sounds like that. What we say was uh, oh simply just do it, which is true, just do it. Okay, don't have any expectation. You don't do it for this, you don't do it for that, you don't do it for enlightenment, don't expect your insect, just do it. That's very poetic and very beautiful. And also makes sense to a certain degree. But if you want something that you do very effective, very effective, precise, concise, and then within a short period of time, you must have an objective. Without the objective, you get out and walk, get out of this room, get out of this lane. Without objective, without knowing whether you want to go to downtown or you want to go back to Surrey or Richmond or whatever, you will be just wandering round and round because you have no objective. Once you have the objective, okay, I'm going to go to downtown and pick up some stationery at staple, there's the objective. Once you have the objective, you automatically streamline it and you become constructed a very efficient system. When you don't have an objective, then it can wander away. Or finally it might come to that, but it will be a roundabout way and a long time and a long distance. Objectives are important. Must have an objective. Okay, what's the objective? You are doing this practice. Is your objective to get rich? Or is your objective to be famous? Is your objective to have um psychical power? Is your objective to have uh Dewa eyes or Dewa ears so that you can hear and see that people cannot see? Or is that objective to be able to read other people's mind? What are the objectives? Okay, you have to set up an objective. If you set up an objective, let's say I want to have uh Dewa eyes. In other words, you can see things that normal eye cannot see. You can see long distance, and if you put all your effort with that objective, all the energy that you built up will channel to that direction, and you will get it. Of course, you must know the method and you must be persistent, consistent, and resolute. You will get it. No if or but. So these are the things. Or you practice this to be healthy or to be physically and mentally fit. So many things. Why are you practicing this? For what kind of objective do you shooting for? You have to ask yourself, why do you do that? And in here is we observe these five aggregates. Complete sentence called five aggregates of clinging. That is not simply five aggregates, five aggregates of clinging. These five aggregates can make people cling to it. They cling to this body, they cling to this feeling, they cling to this know-how, perception, they cling to this consciousness, they cling to the activities that we execute. All these things have the power to make people cling to. That's why it's called five aggregates of clinging. And we are observing these five aggregates of clinging. Why? The thing is, it makes you cling. Whenever you experience a pleasant feeling, you cling to it. Whenever you see a beautiful form, you cling to it. When you cling to it means clinging, craving, grasping, cling gravegrass. One word is loba or raga that arises. These five aggregates promote raga or loba, las, grasping, clinging, craving, that promotes them. So when you observe these, when you observe these, what happened? You begin to understand their true nature. First of all, their specific characteristics and their general characteristics. And then suddenly and suddenly, slowly and slowly, once you begin to understand the true nature, what happened is you don't cling anymore. Because you begin to understand you cannot cling to it, regardless of how much you cling, they arise and they passed away. They arise and they pass away. You start to understand, even though these objects have the power to make people cling, only when they are ignorant about the specific and general characteristic there through nature, it can make you and binds you to cling. But once you understand this through nature, you let go, you don't clean anymore. In other words, you practice thing so that you can be detached to the physical objects and mental objects so that you will be able to let go of the physical and mental objects. That is the objective. Why? What is the objective of brightest thing the Sati Bhagavipasana? The objective is to get detached, to be able to let go. That's the objective. You must have a very clear understanding. Exactly know what it is and what you are doing, not beating around the bush. That's what it is. So we know what it is, where to practice, when to practice, and we have a set of objectives there. That objective because these things can make you cling. How do they make you cling? These five aggregates. It makes us cling, or it makes us crave these things, clinging and grasping, by two aspects. These two aspects is first of all, they make you cling. These five aggregates make you cling through craving. That craving will make you cling. That's one way of people clinging to these five aggregates. And also there's another way that makes you cling. Another way is it's the I. I. This I or self or ego or it, this egoic I. That I as soon as you see I see. A sense of ego. A sense of self. Self, ego, I. So everything is through that concept of self. Through that concept of self, through that concept of I. You began to do things, think things, talk about things, and you created solidification. You solidify things, I do it. And then suddenly you began to see this solid I as a self. It's as a permanent. You behave like a, it is permanent, you began to act with a sense of permanency. That is called deity. Daity means wrong view. Wrong view about the true nature of self or I. Wrong view in the sense that I, self, is permanent. You don't have to think this is permanent. You don't have to believe this is eternal. Some people believe eternal, that's fine. But simply just the way you are acting and doing is giving you a sense of permanency. So there are two things, dana and deity. Dana is craving. Daiti is the wrong view of self. These two really promote these five aggregates of clinging. That's how we cling. That's how we get attached. Through craving we got attached. Through daytime, wrong view of self or I make you attach. That is how this thing is. And that observation, observation, observation of these mind and matter is. There is no such thing that is being solid and constant that we can hold on, but arises and passes away. Through your observation you understand. And then through all the actions and you begin to see these processes, how this process, how this seeing process, hearing process, knowing process. And whenever these things are happening, whenever something is happening, something is doing, you see the five aggregates, and they just like a flicker, gone, gone, gone, gone. And then suddenly, slowly and slowly the solidification of I become loosened and loosened and loosened and finally dissolved. That is why we are observing these five agarades. They make you cling through craving, anna, they make you cling through deity wrong view. By observing, you neutralize these two powers and that the solution happen. That's why we break the Satiparana Vipassana. Now we know what the objective is and what makes you cling. And of course, objective is right now the way you can put another word, immediate result or immediate goal, immediate objective. But there is another goal or objective, the final goal. The final goal is in one word is nippana. In actuality, it is the liberated, totally become liberated from the physical suffering and mental suffering, or cessation of mind and matter, cessation of physical and mental suffering. That is the final goal, final objective. So this nibbana, there's a two types of nibbana. One type is with the aggregates remaining. Aggregates mean like you are alive. Whenever you are alive, there's the five aggregates in operation. These five aggregates are in existence, you are alive, but at the same time your mind is free. Your mind is free from what? Your mind is free from clinging of the five aggregates. And when you are free from the clinging of the five aggregates, the mind has no suffering. Whether due to the physical body or whether due to the mental body, the mind does not suffer pain anymore. That is called nippbana with your five aggregates remaining, with the body remaining. And then of course, and assuming that this is the last level, once you passed away that life, then there's no more five aggregates. And there's a nibbana without the remains of the five aggregates of this body. That is another nibbana. So you can experience nibbana right here, right now, while you're alive. You don't have to die to go to experience nibbana. So that can be done. And also when you passed away, that's nippana, which means this mind and matter do not arise anymore. Whenever we passed away, this mind and matter of this life passed away, due to the karma we have done, volitional activities we've done, another mind and matter arise again, which we call another life. But in the final phase of the arhatta level, mind and matter in this life exists, but you are totally free from the oppression. The tactics of these five aggregates, your mind is free, no suffering. But when you die too, there is no more volitional activities. The potentiality is all stopped and cut. So there's no more arising. That no more arising or no rebirth is nibana. When you are not born again, you cannot die. That's what it means by Amata Nippana. Deathless. Deathless doesn't mean you are born and you don't die, become immortal. Deathless means you never reborn again. That's the reason we practice Satipatthana Vipassana, the final goal and objective. That should give you a clarity of what we are doing, why we are doing, where we are doing, when we are doing, and what our objectives are. May all of you be able to practice satipharavipasana with a clear mind and clear understanding and may you be able to experience deathlessness as soon as possible.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu Bhutambujem Pujem Sangam Buchemi. Thank you very much.