Re-normalisation Of The Mind’s Consciousness

0:00 Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for doing that, Gloria. My eyes these days are not good. I'm sort of deemed to be totally blind these days. I haven't driven for four years or something now, so I've given up my architectural work and everything. I'm still writing on the computer, though, which I'm thankful for, but seeing is not really one of my strong suits these days. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:26 But having said that, too, that's... I've been quite wonderful really for meditation, so I'm grateful for that much anyway because it does help me sort of go into my mind or understand mind a little bit better, just to have one of the main senses kind of lacking these days. But tonight I thought that I'd sort of just work with something that I've been working with too in my own meditation at the moment. Report an error in the passage at 0:26 Highlight the passage at 0:26

1:00 I've been sort of finding a lot of good sense in it all because I suppose about two or three years ago I went to a retreat over here with a Cambodian monk called Bhante Dhamananda over at the Cambodian temple and he was, in the way that he introduces meditation and that, he always talks about making your mind clear, pure, pure and not dirty, you know, like. Report an error in the passage at 1:00 Highlight the passage at 1:00

1:32 He talks like that. And, you know, in the first instance, when you might sort of talk about purity, you're thinking, you know, really, well, maybe just bad thoughts or things like that. But in actual fact, I've discovered that really making your mind pure is really much more detailed than that. And I've kind of understood this a little bit from Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

2:03 kind of introduce a little bit of it, but hopefully not too much that it'll sort of turn you all away from, you know, from understanding it. But I've found since working for this, I have a much better understanding now of what Saṃsāra is and just the trap that Saṃsāra is in the way that you get caught into Saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 2:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03

2:27 And I've done this by learning about a phrase that some physicists use in their work when they're unifying the universe itself. There's four forces in the universe that physicists talk about. There's gravity. That's the main one. I'm going to start from the other end, really. The first one's electromagnetic radiation. Report an error in the passage at 2:27 Highlight the passage at 2:27

2:53 radiation and Report an error in the passage at 2:53 Highlight the passage at 2:53

3:06 And all of these forces, of course, they have a carrier particle or a particle. For the electromagnetic radiation, that particle is a photon, which we all know about. So in the light that's coming down here, that's... to us by these particles called photons so that brings the electromagnetic radiation and then the next force is a weak force and weak force has got to do with fission you know the way that some that that uh particles can be um uh sent off into all sorts of you know they just they can be dissipated and uh and then the third force is a strong force which is really It's really the the exact exact opposite opposite of that way. Report an error in the passage at 3:06 Highlight the passage at 3:06

3:54 and particles are held together by what they call the strong force. So the strong force is the third factor in this unification process. And then the fourth factor is gravity. Gravity is the overall sort of holder of really the... Report an error in the passage at 3:54 Highlight the passage at 3:54

4:17 You know, everything that goes on in the universe, it builds the whole universe, in fact. I mean, it's not exactly quite as simple as that, though, because whilst the physicists have had a great deal of success in unifying the first three, so in 1956, for instance, the weak force and the electromagnetic force were combined together by three physicists, and they actually won the Nobel Prize for it. Report an error in the passage at 4:17 Highlight the passage at 4:17

4:46 And then only just a few years ago, you might remember there was a big buzz in the media about a particle called the Higgs particle. And this Higgs particle was the particle that combines the electroweak force with the strong force. So you get the electroweak strong force and it all turns out to be like one force. Report an error in the passage at 4:46 Highlight the passage at 4:46

5:07 And then gravity is... They've had some success with that too because it wasn't that long ago. It just started back in 2012. They managed to... These great telescopes, they're not really like optical telescopes at all, but they're telescopes where there's laser beams and they're hugely long lasers, laser tunnels, you know, that go for a kilometre or more and they cross. Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

5:34 But when you get two of these facilities in different countries... Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

5:44 comes through, and a gravitational wave is mediated by what they call a graviton. And when that comes through, you can see a ripple in the laser beam. And when there's two of these facilities that are wide apart, like, you know, in different countries, well then you can use trigonometry to sort of, to go back to where the star, that where the This gravitational force came from, or the gravitons came from, it usually comes from a big, huge explosion, a supernova explosion or any of these sorts of things. Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

6:22 Now, all of that might sound a bit sort of funny, but we try to really, the Buddha was trying to do that too with meditation. He wasn't trying to, he was very successful at it too. But in fact, the whole process of meditation is really about unifying the mind, unifying it. And he did this by a process that one of these physicists calls, you know, in this study that they do, he named this thing called a renormalization. Report an error in the passage at 6:22 Highlight the passage at 6:22

7:02 Renormalization. I really love that term, renormalization, because it means that you can apply it in the same way that they do in physics to Buddhism. But in the physics, what they are doing is that when this fellow Feynman, Richard Feynman, he... Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

7:28 was finding that he couldn't work the maths in the whole thing because there was all these infinities that were just just coming up everywhere there was infinities and he just couldn't get rid of the infinities and he didn't know what they were all like or what why they were there you know and why why they kind of kept on interfering with his mathematics but then he realized that he could just use uh he could just cancel infinities Which was something that physicists wouldn't really ever want to do that. But he found that when he did that, it worked. It worked and it made the whole process right. Report an error in the passage at 7:28 Highlight the passage at 7:28

8:06 So this renormalization these days has become a part of the scientific language. You can look it up on the internet and you'll sort of learn all about renormalization. But in actual fact, that's sort of really what the Buddha did with renormalization, because we have the same trouble with saṃsāra. Saṃsāra is something that also has these infinities everywhere, you know, like even in our own bodies, you know, these infinities sort of work just in the systems that sort of create our bodies. Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:45 There's 11 systems in the body that... Or just identifiable, easily identifiable systems in the body anyway that really operate quite some, well, not to put a too fine a point on it, but in a nonlinear way. And when I say nonlinear, it means that you can never really know the beginning or the end of any process that's going on. It's always caught in a... Report an error in the passage at 8:45 Highlight the passage at 8:45

9:19 rebirth, there's always rebirth there and this is sort of the nature of saṃsāra anyway once you're sort of trapped into it, it's very very difficult to get out of saṃsāra because it's just so compelling and even when we die when we die of course the conditioning Conditioning is is still still there, there the conditioning of our karma, and then the karma just runs on. Report an error in the passage at 9:19 Highlight the passage at 9:19

9:50 It's like the 12 steps Report an error in the passage at 9:50 Highlight the passage at 9:50

9:59 ignorance again, and then around, and then a new life, and then a new life. And they are very difficult to see, these past lives, but I guess I've been very lucky in a way to have been able to. Report an error in the passage at 9:59 Highlight the passage at 9:59

10:22 a good understanding of of their own past lives or they can they can actually know them so well you know even i've had people that have even sort of visited their own graves you know in and and uh People too that, you know, because I usually record these sessions when I was doing them, when I do them. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:42 And, you know, I remember this one chap, he took the recording away from him and he went to the Batty Library here in Perth with a recording that sort of, because he was able to tell me the name of his wife and all of his children and where he was living and, you know, had some idea of where his family came from in Ireland at the time. Report an error in the passage at 10:42 Highlight the passage at 10:42

11:06 he was a redcoat. When he first told me that, I thought, oh, you know, you're probably just someone from over in America or in the UK, something like that. But he said, no, no, no. He said, no, we're talking about Perth. I was talking about the Barracks Arch in Perth. Report an error in the passage at 11:06 Highlight the passage at 11:06

11:33 It was quite amazing because he took all this information that we got from the tape that we made and he went to this Batty Library and everything that he said in this session came out quite accurately and true in the history that he was able to sort of check from. So, you know, I've had a few hypnosis sessions where that has sort of happened and it really, it's just... Report an error in the passage at 11:33 Highlight the passage at 11:33

12:02 And I suppose the other thing that's really important about that, that I might just, just jumping around a bit here, but I hope it's sort of helpful though. When you, when I was watching him, I was just noticing his emotional state, you know, when he was remembering this stuff, it wasn't sort of like a brain dance that he was doing. Report an error in the passage at 12:02 Highlight the passage at 12:02

12:26 He wasn't, he wasn't sort of working, working with his, with his thinking mind at all. He was sort of locked inside his body and he was, it was a feeling. It was all about feeling. And those that practice know that sort of knowing feeling is really very, very important. In fact, feeling comes in the 12 steps of dependent origination. Report an error in the passage at 12:26 Highlight the passage at 12:26

12:56 The Buddha sort of always praised feeling. And also... Just in the way that we practice mindfulness, it's just always very important to know that you're feeling inside of your body. You're not kind of caught up in just a thought process that's sort of going on where you get caught into the universe and caught into different thoughts and that that you're living. Report an error in the passage at 12:56 Highlight the passage at 12:56

13:20 But when you're anchored into your body, this is really one of the most important things with meditation, to be able to To really know with mindfulness. So those four satipatthanas, four foundations of mindfulness that the Buddha taught, are actually very, very important. And I'll certainly go on and just talk about those a bit, perhaps even when we're doing the meditation session itself. I'd like to just talk about that with you so that you can sort of see the importance of it, but also... Report an error in the passage at 13:20 Highlight the passage at 13:20

13:56 of when we get to mindfulness of mind just knowing what mind is but anyway all of this is is really important in terms of understanding saṃsāra because this word renormalization is something that you know I think even though the Buddha used his own language to explain all of this too when he was talking about this he It's very different than the scientific language of today, but nonetheless, he was able to explain. Report an error in the passage at 13:56 Highlight the passage at 13:56

14:35 And when I look at them, you know, the Buddhist explanation and the scientific explanation of all of this, of the infinities and sort of the way that all of that works when you're looking to unify your mind, as we do in meditation, you see the similarities of what they're talking about. So this renormalization. Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

14:56 I see that as being quite important because in saṃsāra, saṃsāra is what we call a non-linear system. In other words, you can't really never know a beginning or an end. And I might just point out again that when the Buddha was asked by his monks, you know, where does consciousness begin, Buddha? You know, where does it come from? And the Buddha said that he'd been back in his mind over 24 kalpas. Report an error in the passage at 14:56 Highlight the passage at 14:56

15:26 Now, a kalpa is a universal cycle, a full universal cycle. And he said he'd been back over 24 kalpas and he said, no beginning can be seen. No beginning can be seen. Implying, too, that there is no end to it. And I guess that, you know, in realising that, you know, especially as he was practising, something has just happened here now. Report an error in the passage at 15:26 Highlight the passage at 15:26

15:52 Am I still going? Yes, I think someone just accidentally unbuilt themselves. Okay, very good. So when the Buddha realized that just the gravity of the situation, when you're sort of caught into the samsaric situation and you're kind of trapped, just as a trap, and he realized that the only way that he could get out of that trap was... Report an error in the passage at 15:52 Highlight the passage at 15:52

16:25 By turning this non-linear, speaking in scientific terms again, a non-linear system, turning that non-linear system into a linear system. So, you know, a system that has a beginning and end. So this is very clear to me when you look at the Four Noble Truths now too, you know, just if we, I'll just take it as given that we all understand to some extent what Duker is, but I mean, even that's sort of difficult to... Report an error in the passage at 16:25 Highlight the passage at 16:25

16:54 To understand just the suffering and so on that he's trying to talk about there because a lot of people will say, oh, you know, I might have a bad time, but I don't suffer. This life is okay. But sort of thinking in that way, you kind of never get to see rebirth. You don't get to see that you're going to be around again and again and that you've been around countless times before with a rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:23 So it is very good to understand that when we're kind of trapped in this system, it is very difficult to, trapped in the samsaric system, to get out of it. So when the Buddha, you know, what I'm going to sort of postulate or say to you is that the Buddha renormalized, renormalized himself by... Report an error in the passage at 17:23 Highlight the passage at 17:23

17:47 And by bringing up the second and the third noble truth, so that he says, the second and third noble truth, the second truth says that all suffering, all dukkha has a beginning. So he's indicating there is a beginning. And then the third noble truth is that all suffering and dukkha has an end. So he's kind of very clearly there telling us in that very first teaching that he ever gave, the four noble truths. Report an error in the passage at 17:47 Highlight the passage at 17:47

18:16 But the second and third noble truth is really about, it's about a linear process, a beginning and end, a beginning and an end. So how do you get to a beginning and an end? And the way to do it is to renormalize. You've got to renormalize all the infinities. Understand all of those infinities that we get sort of trapped into and the conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 18:16 Highlight the passage at 18:16

18:45 Renormalizing your conditioning is probably more to the point, probably the name of this talk probably should be more about that, making conditioning pure or purifying your conditioning. Because I wanted to just explain why conditioning isn't pure and why we get trapped into it. We can't get out of it. And it is because when... Report an error in the passage at 18:45 Highlight the passage at 18:45

19:12 Yeah, well, first of all, I'll just sort of come back and just talk about how the Buddha, he got himself out of this mess by realising that he, you know, at the extremes, there was no way out there at the extremes. Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:29 And he realised that he had to come back to the present moment. He came back into the present moment and he thought, the middle way, the middle way, that's maybe the way that I should go. And in fact, it was a very... I think even when you're... Report an error in the passage at 19:29 Highlight the passage at 19:29

20:11 Well, I'll sort of talk a little bit more about this in practice when we're actually practicing meditation too, because when you're able to sort of understand fairly well just what mindfulness of mind is and what the mind is, how it feels, how it feels in your body, because there's two parts to this consciousness, the consciousness of mind, because there's a stillness. Report an error in the passage at 20:11 Highlight the passage at 20:11

20:37 The first part is still. And the second part is that the stillness of mindfulness of mind, that stillness is really the third satipaṭṭhāna. Then the fourth satipaṭṭhāna is the phenomena of mind. So here the Buddha is talking about the creations that we make. And these creations, when you kind of start to understand that a little bit more in your meditation, you see that there's a stillness there in consciousness, but there's also the flow. Report an error in the passage at 20:37 Highlight the passage at 20:37

21:07 The flow is like the third factor in the 12 steps of dependent origination. So understanding those two things. And I was impressed with Ajahn Chah. So Ajahn Chah, in his book, well, he even named a book. He named his, I don't know if he named it, but certainly the chap that wrote it for him or the monk that wrote it, that ended up sort of putting it all together in an autobiography for him. Report an error in the passage at 21:07 Highlight the passage at 21:07

21:35 He called the book Stillness Flowing. And actually Ajahn Chah says, you know, he says when he's doing this that you can sit and just watch stillness flow. So I'll try and talk about that a little bit more too, just to make that a little bit clearer, but stillness flowing. So there's these two things in the one sort of consciousness that's there. Report an error in the passage at 21:35 Highlight the passage at 21:35

21:59 So you can see the stillness of it and you know what the stillness is. You can feel it. But then you can also see how the creations come out of that stillness and the movement of mind, the way that it flows, that comes out. And, you know, I guess, you know, all of this is sort of picked up when the Buddha talks about the second and the third noble truth, because those two truths are really pointing us back to this path of linear, a path where there is a beginning and an end. Report an error in the passage at 21:59 Highlight the passage at 21:59

22:34 Not like saṃsāra. Saṃsāra, you know, you'll never find the beginning and end of saṃsāra. It just is not there. You can't get there. And that's what the Buddha realized. That was one of the most fantastic things, I think, that he ever came across, really. Just the fact that the middle way is just such an important place to be. Report an error in the passage at 22:34 Highlight the passage at 22:34

22:56 So I wonder... I wonder if maybe it's, I've been talking now for about half an hour or so. So I'm just wondering if we maybe should just do a bit of meditation if we can. And I'll try and bring a few of these points into the meditation so you can get a feel for it in your own bodies. Because we've all got a personal view of this. That's one thing that's... Report an error in the passage at 22:56 Highlight the passage at 22:56

23:28 That's certainly very true. You know, when the Buddha got enlightened, I didn't get enlightened. You know, you've got to do the enlightening part yourself. You've got to be able to do that for yourself. Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

23:38 So, yeah, so I'm seeing that Gloria's giving me the thumbs up there. So I'll just maybe ask everybody, we're all probably sitting on seats, so just make sure that your feet are nicely anchored onto the ground. I usually find that it's very... Report an error in the passage at 23:38 Highlight the passage at 23:38

24:02 touching. But without too much pressure, don't try and sort of hold them too tight. Try and hold them a bit loose because when you hold them sort of loose like this, you can start to feel the tingling that comes from the energy in your fingertips. And this is really, again, what we're kind of looking for. Yeah, that's good, Gloria. You're doing that very good. But then when you kind of, oftentimes when I go a little bit deeper, I kind of just put my hands more into a mudrā pose, you know, just like this, you know, just holding the fingers like that. Report an error in the passage at 24:02 Highlight the passage at 24:02

24:42 But I do all this for a purpose, too, because you can feel the energy in there. And that energy, when you get really deep into meditation, that energy can be quite wonderful. You know, Ajahn Brahm talks about this, you know, just the wonderful feeling that comes from when energy, you know, when you get absorbed into your body and then you sort of let your body go and go into the mind, the mind, you know, the... Report an error in the passage at 24:42 Highlight the passage at 24:42

25:13 You're then involved with the energy, the energy in the body. In all of the Buddha's lists that he made, if you think about the seven factors of enlightenment, it starts off with mindfulness and then investigation and then energy. And once the energy is there, then he talks about rapture. And this is sort of, you know, it's a good way to... Report an error in the passage at 25:13 Highlight the passage at 25:13

25:46 touching nice straight back always make sure that your back is nicely nicely straight with that little kink in the in the lower back just just just nicely rested I never have my back against the seat that doesn't mean you can't do that though you can rest against the seat but just try and make sure that that that little part is that little kink in the right down the bottom near the coccyx here And just breathing Report an error in the passage at 25:46 Highlight the passage at 25:46

26:32 through your nose, closing your mouth, breathing through your nose. And just take a few breaths. Report an error in the passage at 26:32 Highlight the passage at 26:32

26:47 And remember here, the first satipaṭṭhāna, the first foundation of mindfulness is always understanding the mindfulness of feeling. So we're not thinking about a discursive thinking or a discursive thought that's coming out of your brain. It's a feeling that you can feel inside yourself. You can feel it. Just in the same way that I could see how all of my... Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

27:16 Really good hypnosis clients were able to just feel. You could see the way that they were emotionally feeling what they were experiencing. And you know that they were kind of right onto truth. They weren't sort of making anything up or trying to get anywhere. They were really right there, right there with their feeling. Report an error in the passage at 27:16 Highlight the passage at 27:16

27:39 So that's the first satipaṭṭhāna is mindfulness of feeling. And then the second satipaṭṭhāna is This is a mindfulness of feeling in your body. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

27:51 So I won't go too much into that, but you could really just start to maybe feel just down to your feet, you know, feeling your, and just maybe even wiggle your toes so that you can get an anchor there in your shoes or in your socks, on the carpet or on the boards, on the floor. Report an error in the passage at 27:51 Highlight the passage at 27:51

28:11 just feel there and then just allow your attention to run over your foot so you feel feel the arch of your foot and you feel the way that that's Report an error in the passage at 28:11 Highlight the passage at 28:11

28:20 arching up and then coming back down onto the heel and then noticing then as you're coming up the legs of it you can notice the the ankle and the way that it articulates you can you know that your foot moves around in an articulated way on the bottom of your leg and Report an error in the passage at 28:20 Highlight the passage at 28:20

28:43 then i'll just sort of move relatively quickly up through the lower legs and again you can when you've got time to do this too just to stop and Notice the different feelings that you can feel in that leg. You can feel the hardness of the shin and juxtapose that against the softness of the calf muscle behind, you know, when it's nice and relaxed like it hopefully is right now. Report an error in the passage at 28:43 Highlight the passage at 28:43

29:13 That lower part of the leg is really quite interesting, the way that the front part is so hard, bony, and the back part so muscular. Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

29:28 Then moving up through the knees. Again, just noticing the articulation. And again, if there's any tension or issues going on around that tension, the tension as you're moving up, just relax it. Just put your feeling into it and just let it be. Relax. Then moving up into the thighs, those big, thick, strong muscles of the thigh. Report an error in the passage at 29:28 Highlight the passage at 29:28

30:05 And then your seat, just noticing what it's like to sit, the pressure that's there on your bottom, then up into the tummy area. And probably for most of us, it's not that long since I've just had a nice big tea, nice big dinner. So I can sort of still feel the way Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05

30:35 that my stomach feels, just to be full. Oftentimes there's a bit of gurgling that might go on, or you might even start to notice a bit of movement. Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

30:46 Things start to flow around a bit. And then just moving around to the back where you've got that nice, that backboney part with that little indentation I was talking about at the beginning. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

31:02 Just making sure that that's all secure. It's got energy. Give it energy. Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:13 And then moving up to the chest. And then in here there's always plenty of things to be able to notice in here. Just feeling into your chest. Report an error in the passage at 31:13 Highlight the passage at 31:13

31:25 Certainly the heart rhythm is there. And Report an error in the passage at 31:25 Highlight the passage at 31:25

31:32 there's even oftentimes little, funny little vibrations and things that are happening there, little clickety-clacks as vowels are opening and closing and the arteries and the veins are sort of pumping. They're kind of moving and pushing blood around. And Report an error in the passage at 31:32 Highlight the passage at 31:32

31:58 you can feel just quite a lot. And also... Report an error in the passage at 31:58 Highlight the passage at 31:58

32:11 when my body now has been working like this for 78 years, you know, it's a long time for a heart to pump. Report an error in the passage at 32:11 Highlight the passage at 32:11

32:24 do all of these things so that the gratitude and Report an error in the passage at 32:24 Highlight the passage at 32:24

32:30 Just the wonder, the wonder of it really. All those systems there inside your body. the pulmonary system, the vascular system, the... The breathing system, muscular system, skeletal systems, you know, they're all there working together. And Report an error in the passage at 32:30 Highlight the passage at 32:30

33:01 then moving around to your back and maybe feeling those big shoulder blades, how they're just locked into your back and connected to your arms. And you can maybe just feel through your shoulders and down through the top of your arms, down through your elbows. Again bent and sort of articulated a bit too, down into your forearms and your wrists, then Report an error in the passage at 33:01 Highlight the passage at 33:01

33:39 into your hands and your fingers. Report an error in the passage at 33:39 Highlight the passage at 33:39

33:45 Now I'd always like to just stop and just rest a bit with my fingers, just to feel just that light touch that you've got there. Can you feel tingling there, the tingling of energy? Report an error in the passage at 33:45 Highlight the passage at 33:45

34:03 This tingling will also help you a little later on because it's this energy that's flowing through is... It's really coming from the mind or through the mind, through Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:20 what you might call the zero point of the present moment. The Report an error in the passage at 34:20 Highlight the passage at 34:20

34:31 present moment you can always see as a zero point. As you get closer and closer to it, it's the actual heart of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 34:31 Highlight the passage at 34:31

34:44 You're getting closer and closer to what the Buddha talked about as enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 34:44 Highlight the passage at 34:44

34:57 your body, coming into your body through that zero point. Report an error in the passage at 34:57 Highlight the passage at 34:57

35:03 That zero point is available there for all of us. It's as if we are all really living inside that zero point. It's always right there. That energy is available, well, really not just only to us as human beings, but really there for the whole universe. Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:30 the planets and the systems. Report an error in the passage at 35:30 Highlight the passage at 35:30

35:35 So as you're kind of feeling into your fingers and feeling that effervescent feeling, that fizzy feeling of the energy. Report an error in the passage at 35:35 Highlight the passage at 35:35

35:47 And you can often, with that too, often I like to just experiment a bit by just taking a snapshot of what that feels like and taking that feeling and putting it on my shoulder or on my thigh. And you notice that that feeling, that buzzing. Report an error in the passage at 35:47 Highlight the passage at 35:47

36:10 Effervescent feeling is there everywhere on your body. And Report an error in the passage at 36:10 Highlight the passage at 36:10

36:18 just even as you're contemplating that now, maybe you can start to feel how your body is alive with energy. Report an error in the passage at 36:18 Highlight the passage at 36:18

36:27 Now we're starting to feel the third factor of enlightenment, the energy of the body. Report an error in the passage at 36:27 Highlight the passage at 36:27

36:40 And as you get deeper into that and you can feel it in the way that it works, you can start to notice the rapture, the joy. Report an error in the passage at 36:40 Highlight the passage at 36:40

36:56 And then as you're working with that, just as it moves into more subtle areas, like the calmness and the tranquility, which is the next factor after that, the calmness and the tranquility is the fifth factor. Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

37:18 You can become so still, just feeling that beautiful stillness. And then, of course, the sixth factor is moving into Concentration or samādhi is probably a better word to say. Samādhi starts to be there. And then the seventh factor is equanimity. You can start to feel the balance that you're moving towards, that balance of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

38:00 And this is all in the seven factors that the Buddha laid out in a list. All Report an error in the passage at 38:00 Highlight the passage at 38:00

38:09 just from that energy that's coming through your fingers. Report an error in the passage at 38:09 Highlight the passage at 38:09

38:16 But then if you move, we're moving, then move up to the neck area, around the neck, and then around the face. Report an error in the passage at 38:16 Highlight the passage at 38:16

38:26 And at all times there, when you're kind of doing this, if there is any tension, maybe tension behind your eyes or in your head, headaches, just allowing it all to relax. Just Report an error in the passage at 38:26 Highlight the passage at 38:26

38:42 let it relax. Report an error in the passage at 38:42 Highlight the passage at 38:42

38:47 And you can feel maybe that same sensation, that sensitivity around your mouth and your lips and your tongue, around your eyes. and really up to the top of your head www Report an error in the passage at 38:47 Highlight the passage at 38:47

39:13 .marcoparet Report an error in the passage at 39:13 Highlight the passage at 39:13

39:45 .com feel the diaphragm move pushing out to pull the air in then you start to breathe out just allowing it to push back to push the air out seeing Report an error in the passage at 39:45 Highlight the passage at 39:45

40:04 all this work all these systems working and Report an error in the passage at 40:04 Highlight the passage at 40:04

40:12 we are anchoring ourselves in the body but Report an error in the passage at 40:12 Highlight the passage at 40:12

40:20 then as you start to sit for a little while longer you'll find that After a time, when the mindfulness is starting to get strong and you know that it's strong, you know that you're kind of anchored into what you're doing with your body, you can start to just allow the breath to be there just at the tip of the nose, flowing in and flowing out at the tip of the nose. Report an error in the passage at 40:20 Highlight the passage at 40:20

40:55 And just watch the energy of the breath become more and more subtle. And Report an error in the passage at 40:55 Highlight the passage at 40:55

41:07 as it becomes subtle and more quiet, Report an error in the passage at 41:07 Highlight the passage at 41:07

41:15 It gives you the opportunity then to just start to notice this energy of the Report an error in the passage at 41:15 Highlight the passage at 41:15

41:23 energy that's coming into your body, the energy that's, because now you're starting to understand the mind. We're at a point where the body is absorbing into the mind. And Report an error in the passage at 41:23 Highlight the passage at 41:23

41:42 remember, we've got there through the body into the mind. And Report an error in the passage at 41:42 Highlight the passage at 41:42

41:54 you can feel that buzzing energy that I experience it like a hum, a humming vibration. Report an error in the passage at 41:54 Highlight the passage at 41:54

42:06 And Jin Sumato talks about it as the sound of silence. Report an error in the passage at 42:06 Highlight the passage at 42:06

42:15 Myself, I prefer to see it as the feeling of stillness. Report an error in the passage at 42:15 Highlight the passage at 42:15

42:23 You can start to see the stillness. And this is the third satipaṭṭhāna, the third foundation of mindfulness. So Report an error in the passage at 42:23 Highlight the passage at 42:23

42:41 eventually we can get to a point where the body has just become totally absorbed into the mind. And Report an error in the passage at 42:41 Highlight the passage at 42:41

42:53 you can know too that the world, the universe is gone. It too, all the physicality has been absorbed into your mind. Report an error in the passage at 42:53 Highlight the passage at 42:53

43:06 I'm just remembering too that the Buddha said, mind is chief. Mind is the forerunner of all things. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:22 So when our mind is subtle like this, when the feelings in our body are subtle like this, mind will appear. You'll start to know what this feeling of mind is. Report an error in the passage at 43:22 Highlight the passage at 43:22

43:42 Whether it's like a humming vibration. Report an error in the passage at 43:42 Highlight the passage at 43:42

43:51 But it's not necessarily a sound. You can... Feel it right through your body. In fact, wherever your mind goes to, that vibration is there. It's right there, wherever your mind goes to. And Report an error in the passage at 43:51 Highlight the passage at 43:51

44:22 then as you start working with that and starting to get really quiet with all of that, the fourth satipaṭṭhāna, the fourth foundation of mindfulness will start to appear. Report an error in the passage at 44:22 Highlight the passage at 44:22

44:37 And in fact, these... Vibrations of consciousness are really always there. They're always there. It's just that they're so subtle. Report an error in the passage at 44:37 Highlight the passage at 44:37

44:49 It's only when we get to this state, when we start to become very still, understanding still consciousness, that we start to see this fourth foundation, which is the creation, the phenomena of mind, the phenomena that arises in the mind. And Report an error in the passage at 44:49 Highlight the passage at 44:49

45:17 this can be very interesting. Report an error in the passage at 45:17 Highlight the passage at 45:17

45:29 you know now that your mindfulness is strong. Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

45:39 able to understand this really clearly because and become confident with what you're doing here with your mindfulness to know when mindfulness is strong. Report an error in the passage at 45:39 Highlight the passage at 45:39

45:56 Because the mindfulness will just keep you on track, it'll keep you there, it'll keep the awareness there. Mindfulness is really all about awareness and it's a developing awareness that goes deeper and deeper until there's an awareness of mind and then an awareness of the phenomena of mind. The Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:21 phenomena of mind arises out of the stillness. Report an error in the passage at 46:21 Highlight the passage at 46:21

46:29 It's the fourth satipaṭṭhāna arising out of the third satipaṭṭhāna. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:36 Yet there's really consciousness, just one and the same consciousness and Report an error in the passage at 46:36 Highlight the passage at 46:36

46:51 that always appears like it's a flow. Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:02 I can tell you in my experience that when you look at that flow, that it's a delusional thing. Report an error in the passage at 47:02 Highlight the passage at 47:02

47:17 It's really part of our conditioning. We're conditioned to understand and be with this flow, the flow of life, the experiences of life, all of that. Report an error in the passage at 47:17 Highlight the passage at 47:17

47:34 What we're looking at here is something that's much more subtle than that. We're kind of going deep right underneath all of that, going right past it all. Report an error in the passage at 47:34 Highlight the passage at 47:34

47:44 Going past it all into the mind and understanding that there's two parts to the mind, there's a stillness of mind, then what appears to be the flow that arises out of it, I Report an error in the passage at 47:44 Highlight the passage at 47:44

48:04 like to see it as, feel it like a hiss and a hum. The humming vibration I know is still, but Report an error in the passage at 48:04 Highlight the passage at 48:04

48:16 the hiss flows out of the hum. Report an error in the passage at 48:16 Highlight the passage at 48:16

48:21 And I know that because the more absorbed I become into the mind, as the mind becomes more and more absorbed, that Hissing flow will disappear. So it's just the stillness that's left. And Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:46 when there is just the stillness there, you have turned a non-linear system. You've moved away from saṃsāra because the flow of consciousness is creating the saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 48:46 Highlight the passage at 48:46

49:04 But when you can cause that flow to cease and just be with the stillness, you know that you've turned that non-linear system of saṃsāra into a linear system that can stop and end. Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:24 And you don't need to do anything. There's nothing you need to do when you're watching that. You just watch it. Just watch the stillness with a mindful gaze. Report an error in the passage at 49:24 Highlight the passage at 49:24

49:42 And the more you allow yourself to absorb into that, eventually you'll see that even that still consciousness finishes. It ends. And Report an error in the passage at 49:42 Highlight the passage at 49:42

49:59 when that happens, you can really truly start to understand no-self. Report an error in the passage at 49:59 Highlight the passage at 49:59

50:14 There might be some strange things that happen all around that. Report an error in the passage at 50:14 Highlight the passage at 50:14

50:24 Strange, like... Dream-like images or Zhezhen Cha talks about lucid, lucid calm, that Report an error in the passage at 50:24 Highlight the passage at 50:24

50:43 you're mindful, you're watching everything, lucid calm. Report an error in the passage at 50:43 Highlight the passage at 50:43

50:50 But when your mind is still, this is where you're starting to burn up karma. You're Report an error in the passage at 50:50 Highlight the passage at 50:50

51:01 starting to allow things to finish. And Report an error in the passage at 51:01 Highlight the passage at 51:01

51:19 this is the state of renormalization that I was talking about. We're starting to renormalize consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 51:19 Highlight the passage at 51:19

51:35 Because we've changed it now from a nonlinear system to a linear system. A nonlinear system that's endless, beginningless and endless, to Report an error in the passage at 51:35 Highlight the passage at 51:35

51:49 a linear system that as you watch, you can start to see how your karma is getting burned up, it's finishing. Report an error in the passage at 51:49 Highlight the passage at 51:49

52:05 And even the mind itself is Report an error in the passage at 52:05 Highlight the passage at 52:05

52:13 starting to come to an end, starting Report an error in the passage at 52:13 Highlight the passage at 52:13

52:18 to move into the realm of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 52:18 Highlight the passage at 52:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

53:45 So now we're starting to move past that half an hour point for the meditation. So let's just stay still, keeping our eyes closed, just Report an error in the passage at 53:45 Highlight the passage at 53:45

54:04 noticing that still vibration, the still vibration of mind, the vibration of mind that's like the mind's matrix, like the container, the container of all the phenomena that gets made. Just Report an error in the passage at 54:04 Highlight the passage at 54:04

54:34 feel that stillness. Report an error in the passage at 54:34 Highlight the passage at 54:34

54:42 Right there at the heart of everything. Right there at the heart of the present moment. Right at the heart of truth. And Report an error in the passage at 54:42 Highlight the passage at 54:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

55:41 you notice that subtle vibration, that Report an error in the passage at 55:41 Highlight the passage at 55:41

55:50 dual vibration of stillness flowing, which Report an error in the passage at 55:50 Highlight the passage at 55:50

56:03 is just really a manifestation of the one consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 56:03 Highlight the passage at 56:03

56:29 And the most important thing about this consciousness is that it's starting to develop purity. As Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

56:38 your karma is being burned up with the stillness, your mind is becoming more and more pure and more and more able to release. Report an error in the passage at 56:38 Highlight the passage at 56:38

56:58 To release us from our bodies and this universe. Report an error in the passage at 56:58 Highlight the passage at 56:58

57:06 Consciousness is becoming purified. Report an error in the passage at 57:06 Highlight the passage at 57:06

57:13 This is what Bhante Dhamananda, the last thing that he said to me, abandon Report an error in the passage at 57:13 Highlight the passage at 57:13

57:24 your body. Report an error in the passage at 57:24 Highlight the passage at 57:24

57:28 Know the mind. Know the body as it absorbs into the mind. See how it is absorbed. Report an error in the passage at 57:28 Highlight the passage at 57:28

57:47 And then to notice how Report an error in the passage at 57:47 Highlight the passage at 57:47

57:53 that purity is again coming about. Report an error in the passage at 57:53 Highlight the passage at 57:53

58:15 The zero point is presenting to us Report an error in the passage at 58:15 Highlight the passage at 58:15

58:31 but with none of the impurities. Report an error in the passage at 58:31 Highlight the passage at 58:31

58:37 that come with the creation of Saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 58:37 Highlight the passage at 58:37

58:51 So maybe we can look at that and expand on that a little bit more. I invite you Report an error in the passage at 58:51 Highlight the passage at 58:51

59:07 all just to take two or three more breaths and then gently just come back to the room, come back to where you are, come Report an error in the passage at 59:07 Highlight the passage at 59:07

59:26 back to... A wonderful Gloria to Report an error in the passage at 59:26 Highlight the passage at 59:26

59:32 facilitate the rest of the evening. Report an error in the passage at 59:32 Highlight the passage at 59:32