122: Retreat Dhamma Talk 17: Summary on Right Mindfulness (Samma Sati)

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

Tasabhavato Rahato Sama Sambudassa Namo Tasabhavato Rahato Sama Sambudassa Namo Tasabhavato Rahto Sama Sambudassa Retreat Series Dhamma Talk Number Seventeen.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

We have been talking about specifically about Satipatana Vipassana in many different ways from different angles for the past two weeks. Today we are going to summarize what mindfulness is. Indeed, based on all that we have discussed and taught. So, what is this full foundation of mindfulness? What is mindfulness? If one is observing the object, whether it is physical or mental, that is arising at the present moment, with full attention. If one is aware of the object that is arising at the present moment with full attention, that is called mindfulness or correct mindfulness, right mindfulness, samasati. One must be observing as such. So the key points are there must be an object that is arising at the moment, and one must be fully aware of that object. It must be distinct in your field of attention. And if you have that kind of awareness that is called right or correct mindfulness to start with, then how is one observing? Just as simply right mindfulness. If you want to increase the quality of that mindfulness, one must be observing in such a way, it covers the whole object, it spread throughout the whole object thoroughly and completely and penetratively. From the beginning to the end, the objects, all these physical and mental objects, they are always arising and passing away, arising and passing away. But you are always engaging with an object at the present moment, from the beginning to the end, with full awareness, thorough, complete, all rounded, deeply and penetratively. If one can observe that way, that samasiti, right mindfulness, become superior mindfulness. Same thing, but now it is only observing thoroughly and fully and completely, not superficially, and also not carelessly with a rapidity, fast and quick, jump onto the object with a force, cover it all around, thorough and complete, which means from the beginning to the end, penetrative, which means you are totally intact with that object. If one can observe that way, that right mindfulness become a superior kind of right mindfulness. Now that is only one observation, just for the one moment, the present moment, from the beginning to the end. But we are not observing only one object, we are observing any and every object that is arising at the present moment. Present moment is continuous from one present to the another, present to the another present, whatever present suddenly becomes the past, and what is in the future becomes the present, and it is continuously going endlessly. So our job is to observe every present moment. Not just one present moment, every present moment. So you observe from one object to the other object, another object, another object, but always staying at the present moment, not the one that's past, not the one that's in the future, but always at the present moment. And when you apply this full forcefulness or great attention, attentiveness, if you apply that, what happens is you are aware of it at every moment, continuously, constantly. Present moment is endless, continuous from one to the other. And if you can observe it continuously, without any break, without any gap, from the beginning to the end, all rounded, thorough, and penetrative, then suddenly that superior right mindfulness becomes the powerful and superior right mindfulness. The quality keeps on increasing. First is simply we just need to know what is samasati, right mindfulness is. And then secondly, that's how this samasity can become a superior kind. And then this superior kind become how can it become powerful? We need that. In other words, when it becomes powerful, which means there is a great momentum of mindfulness flowing from one to the other, one to the other, one to the other. When it has the momentum of constant awareness, full awareness of the objects of present or moments without a break and a gap, then you have the powerful and superior right mindfulness. In that way one has to keep on increasing the quality of mindfulness. Mindfulness is always mindfulness, but depending on how you execute and how you can maintain the quality becomes higher and higher and higher. You know how to develop the powerful, superior, right mindfulness or correct mindfulness. But how do you do it? All these things we are describing with so many adjectives in the operational sense and how you execute is first and foremost is you are always aiming. Okay, you are always aiming at the object that is arising at the present moment. Because these objects they come and go and come and go, come and go. So one after the other, whenever they arise, you must be aiming at it, aiming at it, aiming at it. To be able to aim at it constantly without missing it, you must have the urgent effort. Effort or energy, not just ordinary energy, urgent. Okay. There's a special quality applied in it, not average. In other words, again, superior kind, more intense kind of effort is applying. Only when you do that, you won't miss that object. You'll be always aiming at the object. So this aiming at the object, that is the exactly what we are doing. But in terms of the words in the scripture, that aiming at the object is called Sama Sinkappa. The right translation is called the right thought. The right thought, samasinkapa. In other words, you are applying effort so that you can be always aiming. In other words, without missing the object that is arising at the moment. And that procedure, that stage is called samasinkapa, the right thought. But as it is aiming and aiming and aiming, okay, there is another word which applies to that constant aiming or applying. Okay, your awareness towards the object that is arising. But not in a vipassana usage, but it implies and have the same sense of the meaning. It's called vitaka. Vitaka is used as one of the five jhanic factors in Samatha meditation. Vitakat is the application or applying the mind towards the object repeatedly. So you can also know this as a vitakat. But strictly in this vipassana, we use the word samasinkapa because in here there's a purpose behind it when you are applying it. The purpose behind it is you are applying this awareness or attention to the object so that you could understand the nature of it. So there's the bent on the knowledge or intelligence or understanding. As soon as you say samasankhapa, that application has a purpose behind it. That purpose is to understand the nature of it, which means there's an intelligence or wisdom is associated with it. Vitaka is you simply choose a single object and you repeatedly apply it on it. You repeatedly direct your mind towards the same object again and again, but it doesn't have the purpose of to understand it. And the purpose behind is to simply just to be with it. So there is no wisdom or intelligence behind it. So that's a difference. Vidaka and Samasankapak. Exactly the same, the same procedure, but the intention or the purpose behind is different. So one must be applying this constantly. And then once you apply it, you come in contact with the object, which means mental contact. Your mind is totally in touch with the object. That means your mind is fully aware of the object. Once you come in contact with the object, you don't change any direction to anything to any object. You simply stay with the object till that object passed away from the beginning to the end. So number one, one must stick with it, stay with it as long as it lasts from the beginning to the end. And at the same time, one must have the a sense of observation, a sense of investigation onto the object. What kind of marks and characters can I be aware of, note it, come to be aware of. There is the a sense of investigation, not a sense of just simply to be with it. That is second part, and that second part simply staying with it. In the samatha meditation is called vijara. Vijara is sustained thought. Vitaka is applied thought. The other one is sustain thought to be with it. And in a vijara, sustained thought in Samatha meditation is simply to stick with it. And in vipassana or full foundation of mindfulness is there's a sense of perceiving all these true qualities or characteristics that associate with the object. That's the difference. They are the same, but the purpose, the drive behind is different. So samasankapa or aiming and sticking. The other one is vitaka and vijara. This vitaka and vijara is the two of the jhanic factors of the five. Okay. Those are the five jhanic factors and samatha meditation. But in vipassana meditation, we don't go to the remaining three. Just the first two. Apply and stick with it. Apply, stick with it till it passed away and simply let go. After that, you don't think of it again. You don't try to recall it again. All that you are doing is you are during that period, you're collecting information about that object. So those are the two. As long as you are doing those two, you have done a complete job of your meditation or bhavana. We call it bhavana. In our purpose. Aim and stick with it. Aim and stick with it and let it go. Aim, stick, let it go. And if you can do that, okay, of course, all the adjectives we have talked before is there. Then you have established the right mindfulness, Sama Sintappa. So in terms of operation, in terms of procedure, that's all that's need. So you can even call it, you can even call it this aiming and staying with it is the proximate cause, proximate cause of mindfulness. On a procedural level, operational level, this aiming and sticking with the object till it passed away is right mindfulness, samasati. So those two are the proximate cause of right mindfulness. How to explain on a procedural level. But of course, in the scriptural level, we know what is it? Yonis Homanasikara. That's in the scriptural level. In the operation level, we can say simply aiming and staying with it at the present moment with an object is the cause, and right mindfulness, samacity is the effect. Now we know how to do it and we can accurately execute it, and the only thing is we have to do it so that we become skillful. Okay? One noting great, two noting grade, three noting great. But if you have to do ten, a hundred, a thousand, then there becomes a problem. We slip and we slip and we slip away. That kind of thing happening. So in here, we have to what do we need to do? We need one more mental quality. That one more mental quality is called persistent. You observe sometimes it's precise, sometimes it slips away, sometimes you just hit it partially, just like shooting a target. Sometimes you don't hit it at all, sometimes you hit the the rim of the target, sometimes a little bit inner. Once in a while it's the right at the center, bullseye. Just like that. That's what we are doing with our mentally. We are shooting the bullseye. And you hit, you miss, you hit, you miss. And there might be lots of misses at the beginning, but number one, don't be disappointed with yourself. Miss, fine. How do you know you missed it? All the thoughts coming in from all directions, pounding on you from everywhere. That means you miss it. Don't get disappointed, but be persistent. Okay, again and again and again and again. Slowly and slowly, you'll be hitting the target. And eventually you'll be hitting the bull's eye. And then you keep repeating the same process, eventually hitting the bull's eye becomes very, very frequent. And eventually, at the very higher level, you don't even really need to put effort to aim and trigger or shoot automatically, automatically, it's just hitting the object right on the dot, right on the dot, right on the dot. And just like a gunslinger, when they become super skillful, what happened? They are not tense, they are always relaxed and quick, and they don't make anything a big deal out of it, they just draw the gun and shoot it and hit the target. Just like that, the same thing in meditation. At that moment, you don't have to really squeeze your effort anymore. Very relaxed, very natural, and then you just observe it with ease and you are hitting it. That is when you are not disappointed with yourself and when you're persistent to keep doing it again and again to reach to that stage, to be very skillful. And when you become very skillful hitting all the time, what happens is automatically there arises another mental state. But this mental state we call it samadhi or concentration. Of course, this samadhi or concentration is whenever we have a right mindfulness. Whenever we have a right mindfulness, this concentration or samadhi is always there. You have the right mindfulness along with it, automatically there is a right concentration. But it is simply just in a one-noting, two-noting. So you cannot really feel it, see it, know it, or sense it. You can't feel that concentration. But it is always there. If you have executed the correct kind of mindfulness, right mindfulness, samasati, the concentration that arises along with it is also samasamadhi. Not simply samadhi, not simply concentration. That is the right concentration, correct concentration that arises together with it. So as we know in the mindfulness, what would we do? We have to hit the target again and again and again repeatedly, which means there's no break, no gap. At that time, mindfulness becomes very powerful. It starts building up the momentum. When it starts building up the momentum, at that moment you can feel, see, and sense the concentration. Because before it was just simply at one moment. It's called Kanika Samadhi, momentary concentration. But if you can connect these momentary concentration dot after dot after dot without any break in between, they become very powerful. And when they become powerful, you can feel, you can see, you can sense that power of that concentration. Automatically, what happens is how can you feel or see or sense that concentration? First of all, that samadhi concentration, if it is there, your mind doesn't wander anymore. Your mind doesn't wander anymore. In other words, thoughts stop, they stop coming. In other words, your awareness doesn't go to any other object other than the object that is right in front of you at the present moment. That's one way of knowing it. It doesn't wander anymore. And then suddenly the mind, as it doesn't wander, it becomes more united and consolidated. United and consolidated. The first one doesn't wander anymore, is that is how you can recognize the samadhi concentration. Now what happened is whenever you are observing the object, let's say one moment you're observing. Let's break it down and see. When you're observing, you are doing the aiming process, you are doing the sticking process, you are applying effort, warriya. And you try to be precise, and you try to be with it from the beginning to the end. So all these effort and mindfulness and aiming and sticking and so on, all these things. In other words, these are all mental factors, chitasika. So whenever you are observing an object, there are so many Chaitasika or mental factors are involved at that particular moment. Right at that present moment, all these mental states are there. And each mental state has a power of its own. They do their own job. They do their own job. But when samadhi comes in, samadhi is also another mental factor. Samadhi comes in, samadhi has his own job. What is his job? The job of the samadhi is it unite all other mental factors which are present moment together. It try to unite them, it consolidates them. So that all of them work as a team, united team. All of them work as one. When all of them work as one, it becomes very powerful. Before, let's say they are about in a platoon, there are 20 soldiers, one running left, one running right, and then the one hiding, one jumping. Under a pressure. And then there's the team leader. Team leaders, oh, don't do this way, don't do that way. You must take hold your ground, doesn't matter. There's the team leader. As soon as the team leader just comes in and give them purpose, what to do of each of them, and it becomes a powerful team, and the enemy cannot destroy them. That team leader is like samadhi. Samadhi is that's what it does. It just makes all the other mental factors come together, united, and work as a powerful one team as one. That is the function of samadhi. The purpose of samadhi, the function of samadhi is it united all the mental factors that are present at that moment together and make them work super efficiently as one. That is samadhi. And then when those are happening, the mind's not wondering, that's the characteristics of samadhi, the mind's united, all other mental factors. Those are happening suddenly, it comes, it blooms into something. Like a flower blooming. What it is is there is the result, or you can call it manifestation, the proper word it manifestation. I just call it bloom. It blooms, what does it bloom? It blooms or it manifested as calm. Totally at that moment, everything is, even all those mental factors are walking crazy from all directions, but under a one united force under samadhi, the whole environments become very calm. Very calm and collective. That calm and collective is the blooming or the flower or the manifestation of samadhi. That's what it becomes. And as soon as at that moment, even though everything is in a rapid succession, arising and passing away and aiming and shooting and putting effort and everything, being aware, all the characters jumping hard, soft, even with all these activities, the mind is totally calm and can look at it, at all those activities. That is calm. That is the result. That is the manifestation of concentration. Totally calm. When you're calm, even though everything is in a very active mode, you can see them with clarity. Just like you're watching a television, you put it into mute. There's no sound. You're simply watching, and you can see everything moving. There's no sound, very clear. Just like that, you can see everything with clarity what is happening. That is manifestation. And when the calm sets in, that is when you can see the object with clarity, with sharpness.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

What it is is you begin to pick up all the characteristics on all the qualities of the object at that moment. Whether it is moving or rapid movement or rising and passing away, or hard or soft, or pressure, or stiffness, or a flicker of thought just passing by like a shadow. Even before the end of the one little mini movement, thoughts come and disappear, and you can still see that movement. That movement is moving, started, haven't ended yet. A flicker of thoughts come in, and when it is gone, you can still see the end of the movement. That fast. You can see all these things when you have that. Samasati in a total calm and still state. That is samasati. Now we understand what samasati is. It creates a calm and stillness. It gives you a perfectly calm environment so that you can observe everything without any disturbance. Now we know what causes samasity. It is the continuous constant. Mindfulness causes samasity. And when it comes in, the thought stops, and then all the mental factors that whatever you are doing to observe become united, and then the calmness set in. When the calmness set in, you begin to see the objects with clarity and you start picking up and cognized and recognized or recorded all the qualities that the object represents. And that understanding, that understanding, the collection of this data under this calm mind on the object, that what it means by as you are seeing the object as it really is, or you are seeing the object, feeling object in its true nature. That's where the intelligence comes in. It is the direct knowledge. Because you are experiencing directly, but you have to have a certain condition. That condition is a calm created by the concentration. And under that calm, concentrated moment, you see and you pick up all information of the object. Those informations are the true nature of the object. In other words, you are understanding as it really is. From your direct experience. It's called the direct knowledge. And that's what Buddha taught us to have a direct knowledge of everything that we are investigating or exploring. He wants us to have direct knowledge. Why? Because direct knowledge is never wrong. It's never wrong. It's your personal experience, it's direct, and also, of course, you have to have a certain set of conditions built up exactly as Buddha has taught us. Not different conditions, not different sets of conditions. This full foundation of mindfulness is how to procedure in a precise way. Then you are having these direct knowledge, direct knowledge. They are always right, they are always correct, they are true to the nature, and that is why they are called as it is. And you are collecting these data again and again and again and again. And when you have repeatedly collected these data under the calm state of mind, eventually those individual data that you collected finally becomes wisdom. Binya. The first one is the if you want a scriptural word, specific characteristics. Wisdom is the general characteristics. That's what you get. Eventually it become a wisdom. So we no know one must have all these things to be able to attain wisdom. To attain wisdom, one must execute. Okay, precisely as being instructed. And to do all these things, as we have set out, you cannot simply do it. You need some fundamental or preliminary stage. That fundamental or preliminary state is first and foremost, you must know what kind of benefits we can get out of practicing this Satipatthana Vipassana meditation. Not superficially. Know them one by one and apply it to your life. Adjust it with your life, with your intelligence, and then you can feel the result. You can see the result. And when you can feel and see the results, suddenly you have confidence in this practice. You have faith in this practice. First of all, must know the benefits. If you truly know the benefits, you will have a confidence of faith, which is sada arises. And once you get the sada, and once you know the results, then you have the desire arises. Desire to have these results. Desire to have these things that can be achieved through the practice of this meditation. So knowing the benefits, having confident sadha and having chanda, okay, the noble desire to attain those things. You need those as a preliminary stage. And when you have those things, at that moment you have that urdent energy pops up and apply. You have that rapid succession, forceful, great attentiveness and awareness on the object arises. Those are the fundamental base that is supplying energy to you to execute as it is needed. That must be fully aware. Preliminary stage must prepare on it. Now we have all these things, okay. We know because of the effort, okay, aim and stick, we have the mindfulness. Because of the mindfulness, we have concentration. Because of the concentration we have insight. And the collective amount of individual insights on each object eventually will give you the wisdom, which is common characteristics of mind and matter. So if you look at it, first of all, there is the effort. Okay? When you're observing, there's the effort, urgent effort. Samawariya. When you apply that samavariya effort, what's happening? You are establishing the samasati right mindfulness. When you have the continuous right mindfulness, you have the strong and powerful Sama Samadhi concentration. Samawariya, Sama, Sati, Sama, Samadhi. What are they? Those are the three of the eightfold noble path. In one observation, it is right there. And at the moment, in a procedural way, what are you doing? You are always aiming, you are always aiming, aiming, aiming, aiming, aiming at the object that is arising. What is that aiming? Sama sinkappa. When you have the right aim and when you have the observe the object properly, when you have the whole series of the concentration group, warya, sati and samadhi, you begin to see the object as it really is. You begin to see the object in its true nature. That is samaditi. When you see hot as hot, when you feel cold as cold, when you see hard as hearts, when you see fleeting thought as the thought, when you sense anger as anger, joy as joy, without any addition and connecting, having a loop, singularly as they really are, that is called samadhitti. So you have the when you are observing, you have the samasinkhapa and samadhiti. And these twos are what? These twos are wisdom group. The first three, effort, mindfulness and concentration is called concentration group. These are wisdom groups, samasankhapa and samadhiti. So whenever you're observing one moment on an object, there is the five. The five path, the five constituent is right there at the moment. But of course we know what do we do? Just before we start meditating, we took precepts. We even now today we take here nine precepts. In other words, you have the right deed. You are not doing anything wrong, anything evil, anything bad, which means you are doing good. You have the right deed. Samakamanta. And also you are totally not engaging with any wrong speech. Not engaging with any wrong speech or staying in silence is called Samawasa, right speech. And also at this moment while you are there, you are not engaging with any unlawful, wicked or killisa-related livelihood. In others, we are not engaging in any livelihood because we took that precepts. No killing, no stealing, no cheating, and so on and so on. Not even that we even go to the point of not engaging with shows and dance and singing and so on. So we have the right livelihood, right speech, right deed, and right livelihood. We are fully there because we use it as a base, foundation, preliminary stage. So whenever you are observing an object at the present moment with precision, thoroughly, completely and deeply and penetratively, at that moment you have the eightfold noble path or eight constituents. What are they? Sama deity. You see the object as it really is. You have a samasinkapa. You are always applying the mind towards the object to know is true nature. And also sama wasa, you have the right speech, sama kamanta, you have the right deed, sama a jiwa, you have the right livelihood. And samawak or effort. You are always making sure you are aiming, aiming, aiming not to miss. And you have the samasati. You are fully aware, cognize, know the object that is arising, coming and going. And samasamadhi, the calm is in there. In the middle of all the activities and chaos, there's a calmness. So every single noting is totally endowed with eightfold noble part. And what is eightfold noble part? Eightfold noble part is the only way one can used to get rid of all forms of physical and mental suffering and attain or achieve nibbana. So that is the summary of mindfulness we have been talking with all different angles. And of course, one thing is whenever you have sila, you have abandoned the Vitakama Kilisa, transgressive mental defilements. Whenever you have the concentration, we have the priyukta kilisa, obsessive mental defilements, and whenever you have wisdom, you have abandoned the anuktia killisa, latent mental defilements. All these mental defilements, transgressive, obsessive, latent tendency are all overcome because you have the eight constituents in your observation. So may all of you be able to observe every object that are arising at the moment with precise and correct aim and stick to create mindfulness, and may you be able to attain Nippana as soon as possible sad sharing merit imaya Dhammanu Dhamabati Patiya Buddhambuja Dhamu Dhamabati Patiya Dhambuja Dhamu Dhamabati Padeya Sangambuja Padepatiya Charamarnama Primochesame Edame Punya Asweka Wahahodam Magapalanyana Sa Pecheo Hodu Imano Punya Bagam Sabasadanam De Ma Sabesada Sukeda Hondu Sadhu Sadu Sadu Buddhamb Sangam Bujami. Thank you very much.