176: Retreat Dhamma Talk 71: The True Nature of Mind and Matter

YouTube Video Link

YouTube Channel Link

Website:
www.satipatthana.ca

Donations and Memberships

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Retreat series Dhamma Tong number 71. We are practicing mindfulness insight meditation. And here most of you, I take it that are well-versed and skillful in the practice and have been progressing a bit. At this stage, you observe in Paris Nama and Rupa, mind and matter, along with their causal relationship when events are taking place in sitting, standing, walking, and lying down, all four postures. First, focus on the rupa body, and gradually Nama, the mind, intention will become obvious. And also they are cause and effect relationship. And all these are born out of direct experience of the ultimate reality through specific characteristics of mind and matter. Sabha Lakana. Specific characteristic. Let's try and discuss on a lying down posture. Let's say you are lying down. Most of the time it is in the evening before going to bed. And after a while, after a few minutes, suddenly the body, in the body, you will feel stiffness or tightness or numbness, a kind of discomfort. You will feel that when you lay there for some time, and at that moment, intention will arise to move so that you can release that discomfort. And once that intention arises, what happens? The body moves, you change into a certain position. So in that movement too, if you want to, and if you can, observe detail, there's an intention of wanting to roll, and you roll. There's an intention to stretch and then stretching. And then there's an intention to bend, bending. And even it might be just the head or just the legs that you want to move, or just the hands you want to adjust. Each and every one can be observed quite clearly and sharply. Because that time, that period, you are in a quiet zone by yourself. You can these things very deeply and clearly. After about three, four weeks, it's more like a habit. The mind automatically, the intention automatically, attention automatically go to those things without purposely applying to it. Practice make perfect. So observe to see the process or observe to see the actions in pairs, both mind and body, and their causal relationship. And if you can do so, you will see there are two phenomena in operation. Only two of phenomena that are operating this whole thing. All the intentions and movements. You will see it is not I doing it, self doing it. You won't see I as an operator, self as an operator, but simply two phenomena operating. You will clearly see, you will clearly feel it. And many, many moments of this mind doing its own function, its own job. Mind just do its own job, not anything or anyone's job. And the body, rupa, seems like voluntarily doing its own fashion, function, its own job. You will see them clearly, each are doing their own function, their own job. Along with that, along with the body doing its own job. In there, you will feel, you will see heaviness, lightness, stiffness, softness, etc. etc. You can also experience these things. All these things that I just described are specific characteristics, or you can call it natural characteristic as well. Specific or natural characteristics of mind and matter that you are experiencing in this lying down position. All that you need to do is pay attention in that quiet moment. And if you have those kinds of experiences and those moments, and all these precise moments, you are free from the self concept. Concept of self, concept of I. You are free from it. You don't have to think, analyze, or apply or label it. You are simply free from the concept of self. When observing all actions and movements and intentions in all four postures, you will also experience feelings, Vedana, feelings from both the body source as well as the mind source. Let's see hard, feeling hard, tough, rough, edgy. In scripture it's called other element. Hot flashes, cold chills running down your spine. That's a fire element. Stiffness, tension, tightness, movements. All these things are wind elements, sticky, sweaty, tear elements. They are water elements. All these specific by name that I mention, they represent bad sensation and bad feelings. Such as you will call it numbness. Or in extreme case, unbearable pain. Exhaustion. These are dukkat dukkat, obvious suffering, numbness, extreme pain, unbearable pain, exhaustion. They are obvious. Dukat. Or dukkha dukkat suffering. And these are called dukkha vidana. In English, unpleasant feeling. All these things that I just mentioned, they are unpleasant feeling. But you don't have to label unpleasant feeling hard as heart, chill as chill, exhaustion as exhaustion. That's it. But they are all dukkatana. Unpleasant feeling. And they arise due to the disbalance of the full elements in your body. Disbalance of the earth, wind, fire, and water elements in your body. Then these bad sensations and feelings arise. Whenever the proper condition is met, pain will arise. All that it needs is the proper condition. In extreme cases, you broke your leg, there's a pain. You hurt your hand, there's a pain. Those are the conditions. I can go more detail of course, but in general, that's a condition. And when pain arises, you have nowhere to run, but you have to face face to face these kinds of intense dukkha, intense suffering, dukkha vidana, unpleasant sensation. How does it manifest? I just mentioned you the specific how it comes about. But in you it manifests as mental exhaustion, physical exhaustion. Or a weak mind, weak body. Short temper. One becomes short tempered. That's a manifestation of unpleasant feeling. Less tolerance. Before you might be quite tolerant, but at that moment you have less tolerance. Depression, disheartening. I can go on. These are the manifestation of unpleasant feeling. That's how you will be experiencing. So these all these things that we just described are specific characteristics. And its functions and its manifestations of dukkha vidana, unpleasant feeling. In one form or the other, you will be experiencing directly, depending on your depth of your concentration. These unpleasant physical sensations are rupadhamat. Dhamma of the body. And experiencing those Rupadhamak. Those sensations are Rupadham. Experiencing it is the Nama Dhamma. You will see that way if you are observing correctly. These are of course unpleasant sensation. Let's try and see its opposite. Sukat vidana. Pleasant feeling. Throughout your whole body, or it may be a part of your body. You will feel them if you have the right conditions for them to arise. Or do you understand in a different way? Let's say you can imagine on a very hot, sweaty summer days. Suddenly a cool breeze blown, and you feel very good. The feeling of the cool breeze. That's a physical example. But in your meditation, there's no breeze, there's no hotness, but you will feel like that as if you are experiencing a cool breeze on a hot, sweaty summer day. That kind of feeling. To put an example, you are come out of the below zero temperature, really cold, just come in, and then you sit in front of the fireplace feeling oh, so good, so warm. That kind of feeling, a warm feeling on a chilly day. Suddenly you feel that way. In your meditation at that moment, that's how you are feeling it. Sometimes you feel very light, as if you are even floating. Especially elderly people will experience more. All the bodies hold stiff and tense and really painful. Sniffness gone. Tension's gone. The body becomes very pliable and malleable. And there is the whole body, sometimes you see sense. There's not a movement, not even a twitch, not a single vibration in your body, and also the mind. The mind has no movement, the mind is quiet, absolutely quiet, both the body and the mind. That kind of feeling, those are Sukha Vidana, pleasant sensation. You will experience in your meditation when the right conditions are met. And all these things that I just mentioned are the characteristics of pleasant sensation. Characteristics of pleasant, refined feeling. This Sukha Vidana pleasant feeling arises from the contact with the body sensitivity. We have body sensitivity and these feelings come in contact with the body sensitivity. These feeling vibrations are itself is one, one matter rupa. Body sensitivity is another rupa. They will come in contact. And all these sukha vidana, pleasant sensation, how do they manifest? In other words, how do you perceive it? When you feel joy. Those are the manifestation of these pleasant feelings. There's no object but simply you feel happy, you feel joyful. Because of these Sukha Vedana are taking place. Both pleasant and unpleasant body sensation and mental feelings are very distinct and evident to observe. And all these experiences you cannot really and fully learn from books and lectures, but you can fully learn or know or understand directly from the experience, direct experience in the practice in meditation. That is Sukha Vedana. Characteristics, functions, and manifestation. And then there are, we all know there are six external sense objects. And correspondingly, there are also six internal sense bases. The twelve bases we call it, and then six types of consciousness. All together, we also call eighteen elements. Whenever these corresponding three, external, internal, and consciousness come in contact. When the twelve bases come in contact, sixth consciousness arises. Let's try to understand the word consciousness. Think about simply being conscious. Consciousness can be known in a different way. Knowing elements. Whenever there is a motion goes within that range, it knows the motion. That's it. That is the elements. Motion detecting element that knows the motion. Just like this, consciousness is a knowing element. Or another word, we can call it knowing phenomenon. A phenomenon in which there's knowing. That's consciousness. Or you can call it experiencing phenomenon. A phenomenon where things and objects can be experienced. That's consciousness. Understand consciousness in that way. You have a little bit better clarity from the Buddhist point of view. Knowing element, knowing phenomenon, experiencing phenomenon. There are six types, those will arise whenever the twelve sense spaces are there. They all arise together. Okay, let's use an example so that we have a clearer picture. Let's use this hearing, the word hearing. Whenever hearing takes place, there's a there must be a very distinct external object. What is the distinct external object? Sound comes from outside. We call it external object because it comes out of the body, but there's also internal object. Internal object is a sound that comes from inside the body, the sound in the stomach. Or throat clearing, sneezing, coughing. Those are sound, internal sound, and there's the external sound. That sound is a rupa materiality. And when those sound strike the internal sense basis, internal sense basis. This case it's the ear. Those sounds strike the ear. More specifically it's the eardrum and the little hair and turner inside your ear. When the sounds strike this internal sense basis, hearings happen. Hearing arises. You can simply call one word hearing. More complete word is called hearing consciousness arises. Hearing arises or hearing consciousness arises. Or you can call it knowing phenomenon through ears arises. Knowing phenomenon of the sound through ears rises. The meeting of these three external object, internal, sense basis, and the corresponding consciousness. And whenever there's a mental contact, suddenly if it is a beautiful sound, pleasant feeling arises. If it is an ugly, irritating sound, unpleasant feeling arises. That's simply a strict mathematical formula, just like that. So if you look at in this process, you can identify three things: external object, internal sense space, and the corresponding consciousness. You can accurately identify or know or seen in your meditation. But if we don't have the practice, if We have lack of experience in meditation, lack of understanding, experiential understanding, that lead us to think as I hear. I heard. I will be hearing. That misunderstanding, that ignorance lead us to think of the concept of atta concept. Automatically it happens. You don't need to dissect. So at the point of hearing this mind and body. Okay, body, physicality. God's a physicality. In that physicality, in that body or in that matter, sound. Sound is the domain of consciousness. Sound is the domain of consciousness. Ear is the place of contact or the bridge between the sound and consciousness. Place of contact or act as a bridge. That's a sense base. And Nama mentality is simply knowing experience. Knowing, experience, knowing phenomena. And they are all very obvious in your meditation. Obvious and evident objects to observe. And at that time, the practitioner will be aware of something, or one thing. It might be acutely aware of the sound wave vibrating in the ear. The focus is on the sound wave vibrating in the ear. Which we also call it striking element, the sound. And also you might be acutely aware of the ear. It's in the ear. The focus is on the ear. Connecting point. You might be more acutely aware of it. That is a receiving element. Sensitivity. Or you might be more focused and acutely aware of the phenomenon of knowing. You know that you know. Something like that. Phenomenon of knowing the sound. Or hearing consciousness. Or it's also called igniting element. One or the other, you'll be more acutely aware than the others. If your concentration is good and sharp, and hearing arises when all these conditions are met. Nothing, nothing can arise without a required set of conditions. Nothing can arise without it. It's all due to the required sets of conditions. Those are not created by any creator or the powerful being. Simply a phenomenon, simply a process. Whenever the conditions are met, it arises, eventually come down to the so-called consciousness, hearing consciousness, in this case. The same principle. You are in a state of believing in self. And I. Striker, receiver, and ignite thing element. When you encounter those three, and every observation repeatedly, repeatedly, again and again and again and again, you can eventually eradicate this concept of attack. Intellectualization would not do for this job. In our everyday modern education system, it always goes from schools and university, from theory to practice. First of all, you learn theory and then you practice. But in mindfulness insight, education. And here is from practical experience. We go to concept or theory, totally reverse from our modern education system, from practical experience, and you will have your own concept or theory based on the facts. Ahead of the practice, you are very well read, you study, you have a sharp mind, you can understand everything is written in the book. Inclined to think the answer. And maybe you'll be getting the suggestive answer. You've been suggested before and you are going in that direction, and the answer is a suggestive answer. Not a true experiential answer. That could happen, in fact, it happens quite often. And people who think they are enlightened with the suggestive answer, it would be very difficult to straighten them. So in mindfulness insight, Sripadana Vipassana, one must follow how to instruction precisely. But some yogis they like to modify the techniques. If you are looking towards the total liberation, let's see. Let's take the sitting. You're observing sitting. Sitting down. When you sit down, you know if you're observing it. You know the desire or intention to sit, wanting to sit. With clarity. If you're really observing, wanting to sit, desire to sit very clearly, just pure intention by itself. And then also you will know every little stages of movement in the physical sitting process. Move, move, move, move, move, move. And also associated mental qualities of the movement. Associated material qualities of the movements. You will know them in detail. That is, if you are doing the sitting, observing, mindfully, meditating. That's what you are doing in retreat. And of course, you all know we have to report. And when you report, just simply report that. That's it. What is report that? That's it means the ultimate reality that you experience to the teacher. No more, no less. Don't add it on, don't subtract it. Do not report your interpretation of your experience. Do not report the projection of your experience. As soon as you report the interpretation and projection of your experience, it becomes concept. The other ones are pure fact, the right experience. That is the ultimate reality, paramatta. The projection and interpretation is concept vinyati. So what you observe and directly know is ultimate reality parmathat. And after a thorough and direct experience, right at the point of arising and repeatedly. Most of them tend to think that way because of their experience. I am Sinkarupa Kanyana stage. But whatever stage, whatever experience you are experiencing, you must become really skillful at it, thorough at it, mature with it. Only then you can claim or you can say, I have this insight. Only then you may claim that you have that insight. Not just a few exposures of it. It's a very common mistake, most yogi mates, because we all want to be flying high. One you have seen in meditation, this mind and body, nama and rupa, discriminately, which means materiality is the one phenomenon, mentality is the another phenomenon. They are totally different and totally separate. And then you will have no more confusion about their separateness and difference. And also the direct experience of the causal relationship working, cause and effect of this mind and body. You'll come to understand. And all these things arise under a certain sets of right conditions. They don't arise automatically. You have to have a right condition to experience these things discriminately. Awareness of Nama and Rupa, causal relationship of Nama, Rupa, and so on and so on and so on. Only when you have achieved the right condition in meditation, you will experience them. Or in the theory of a creator. Because we have to have an answer. So we throw it into the unseen, all-powerful creator. It solves everything. But here you can figure out, you can experience yourself. At that point, a yogi will see. Oh, wanting to sit, that's an intention. And that intention is the cause. And all the movements and manners of sitting is the effect. Whenever you sit, you see and you understand very clearly. When you have that, even in a normal day, walking around, sitting, standing, you know, you feel that intention, mentality, and sitting process, sitting movements, physicality. Pay attention, pay attention every time you sit, every time you stand throughout the day. In this sitting process, there is no third party. There is no third object involved. Sitting is not done by me or you. So in here, I'd like to stress again one important thing. You must be very careful. You must be very careful when observing this process. It must not arise out of analytical power, logical thinking or reflection. This understanding must not arise out of analytical power, logical thinking or reflection. It must arise, this understanding must arise out of direct experiential knowing of sitting in meditation, in your meditative state. That's something one need to keep it as a formula. Whenever a true and correct knowing arises, how would you know? We'll say, how do I know that is true and correct? When they are arising with a higher frequency. You will know, but there's a measurement, there's a measuring tape. The yogi personality, the yogi's attitudes and viewpoints on things, on events, start to change, it transforms. It transforms voluntarily. It's transforming automatically by itself without using sheer willpower. I stress the word without using sheer willpower. Some people who have a great samatha meditation power, great jhana, they are sheer willpowers very strong. And then they put a set of belief non-self, anatta. And through that sheer willpower, they believe in Anatta. That is a blind faith using the willpower, not from your direct understanding and experiential knowledge. Be careful about that. Also, all these new values and attitudes and the concept that you have achieved or attained, you will feel that you have no doubt and no confusion. It's very clear, no bump, no obstacle. Those are the measuring tapes. So to achieve that kind of understanding and transformation, a yogi must follow the instruction of how to practice satipatthana vipassana, mindfulness, insight with precision. That's a requirement. Let me repeat how we do. Observe what is obviously and distinctly happening or occurring or arising at the present moment with zeal and urgent effort, one object after another, continuously and constantly, without a break or a gap, without thinking, without reflecting, without analyzing. Observe that way, you will truly understand the true nature of mind and matter. May all of you be able to practice mindfulness inside meditation precisely and correctly, and may you be able to fully understand their true nature and become enlightened as soon as possible. Sadu sadu sadu. Thank you very much.