Goodness and Path Factors

0:03 [chanting]

0:21 Of Report an error in the passage at 0:21 Highlight the passage at 0:21

0:35 course, we have to start by making sure we have right view. When we come to the Buddha's teachings, when we come to practice, all the arahats from Buddha and his great disciples, Venerable Maha Moggallani, Venerable Sāriputta, right down to the present. Report an error in the passage at 0:35 Highlight the passage at 0:35

1:00 They all teach right view. The right view, starting with worldly right view, to patujjana, and then as one enters the dharma, by developing a higher determination, or realizing that we can't prove it, so one gains. Report an error in the passage at 1:00 Highlight the passage at 1:00

1:28 You know, the standing of right view. The right view is very central. So the thinking, the inclining, focusing of the mind onto the dharma, away from the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

1:44 However many times, you know, ten thousand thoughts of dharma is better than a single thought of the world. So there's not a problem in inclining the mind to dharma. It's not a problem in breaking away from our old habits, from the tendencies of the wild. We know where the tendencies of the wild go. They go downhill. The Brahmaloka becomes the Devaloka. Report an error in the passage at 1:44 Highlight the passage at 1:44

2:12 Devaloka becomes Manusaloka. It just goes down into the animal realms. So we have to see greed, hatred and delusion, great fires, the world is on fire, a ball of lava. It's hot on the top, it's hot on the bottom, it's hot on the sides, as Ajahn Chah would say. It's hot all over. There's nowhere you can find that there isn't suffering. Report an error in the passage at 2:12 Highlight the passage at 2:12

2:43 But there is a relief to suffering and that is the barma dharma. And that barma starts with worldly right view. There's actions that lead to heaven. There's actions that lead us upwards. And then beyond that, accessing Lord Buddha's path, the path of Sotāpanna, because Buddha said it's better than suffering rulership over all the earth, better than rulership over the heavens, is to be a Sotāpanna, because suffering is finally limited. Report an error in the passage at 2:43 Highlight the passage at 2:43

3:33 Absolutely. You could chop off the arms, chop off the head and the Sotāpanna won't break a certain level of virtue. And so that's why the Buddha describes his disciples as different levels and only those who attain to Sotāpanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahatship are Report an error in the passage at 3:33 Highlight the passage at 3:33

4:02 You know, fully representing the Buddha. And, I mean, there are many good monks, but obviously, you know, the purpose of the Buddha's teachings, and many good lay people, is to actually realize the dharma. Because we don't know when we're going to get out. We don't know when there's an end to suffering. So the opportunity to hear the Buddha's teachings and to practice is rare. Report an error in the passage at 4:02 Highlight the passage at 4:02

4:32 That's what the Buddha said, you know, to practice, like, the hair's on fire, like, the clothes are on fire, because it's important, it's urgent, you know, if our clothes were on fire, our robes were on fire, you think we would sit around idly, doing nothing? No, you know, anyone would put great effort to put out that fire, and so it is, putting out the fire of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 4:32 Highlight the passage at 4:32

5:01 And so we have to make sure first of all that we have right view because this is the way that we see the world and this is what brings us back to the dharma. And of course the Buddhist disciples are ones that are inclined to silence, to solitude, to peace because when we have that, that inclination to world each other, That inclination to divisive speech, to hatred, to all these problems of the world, when one has verbal silence, the mind inclines to calm, the mind inclines to peace. Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:45 And when we have a peaceful mind, when we have right view, then we can cultivate the mind so that it can develop. No nimitta, so that it can develop samādhi. And that has to be developed on very strong noble silence. And so noble silence at the first level is just learning to control one's tongue, to control one's mind. And then at the deeper levels, it's actually representative of the factors of jhāna. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:21 Being able to, that will develop the factors of like vipi-sukha. Or unifying the mind in equanimity. And these are states that the Buddha's disciples can develop. And by the time one becomes anagama, you know, the Kuba Ajahs would tell us, you know, that's when many of the problems will disappear. Because greed and hatred have come to an end. So before that point, you know, we have to be careful. Report an error in the passage at 6:21 Highlight the passage at 6:21

6:55 To cut off the head of laziness, to not listen to the comforts of the world, liking sights and sounds and smells and taste and touch, or being averse to them. This is just the way of the world. Just look at Lord Buddha when he was a bodhisattva, the hardships that he endured on beds of nail, burning in the sun. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:22 You know, emaciated without food, freezing in the cold, all the things that the Bodhisattva went through. You know, it was extreme, but such was his mindfulness that it didn't invade the... that these feelings did not invade the mind and remain. So it shows us the level of the profound mind focused on dharma. Report an error in the passage at 7:22 Highlight the passage at 7:22

7:51 Even though the Bodhisattva hadn't yet discovered the Noble Eightfold Path, his mindfulness was supreme. These feelings of the body did not invade the mind and remain. But of course the Bodhisattva then came across the middle way and he realized he didn't have to torture the body, but he did allow certain ascetic practices. Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:21 Such as just getting alms food from the first four houses or going without sleep and taking up the sitting posture. Sorry, not going without sleep, taking up the sitting posture, not laying down, living at the foot of a tree, wearing around a grove, standing in a charnel ground, staying out in the open. Report an error in the passage at 8:21 Highlight the passage at 8:21

8:46 In the time of the Buddha, the bowls of the monks didn't have lids. And it's this lovely thing, like this ascetic wandering with just a few basic requisites of the roads and the razor and the bar, living at the foot of a tree, living in a cave, living out in the open, practicing the dharma, devoting themselves to Adhisila, Adhicitta and Adhipanya. Report an error in the passage at 8:46 Highlight the passage at 8:46

9:19 And why? do monks gain samādhi to focus on their practice? It's because they fulfil each factor bit by bit and they develop Report an error in the passage at 9:19 Highlight the passage at 9:19

9:35 virtue when it comes to fullness, and then they develop their mindfulness and their restraint of their speech and restraint of their thoughts. And then, you know, there's Indriya Saṅkhāra Sīla, where... Report an error in the passage at 9:35 Highlight the passage at 9:35

9:52 It's like a simile of the six animals. What we're doing is we're tying the six animals to a post, no longer letting the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, the mind do what it wants. We're making a firm establishment in the first foundation of mindfulness. We're tying ourselves to that post and again and again. Report an error in the passage at 9:52 Highlight the passage at 9:52

10:19 As we focus on our meditation object, as we unify our mind again and again back to the object, whether we do it drip by drip or whether we do it in big bursts, the result is the same. So it's just about keeping at it, never giving up, developing things. The beginner, maybe they start with 15 minutes and then build up to an hour and then two hours. Report an error in the passage at 10:19 Highlight the passage at 10:19

10:50 And then the more that we practice, however many hours, the thing is to do it with the wholeheartedness and to do it with determination and to never think that it's easy, you know, and never think that we can't do it because the only way we can realize Sotāpanna, Sakadagama, Anagai, Arahatship is if we fulfill the factors stage by stage. Report an error in the passage at 10:50 Highlight the passage at 10:50

11:20 So when the mind, when the eye sees a sight, we have to give up liking and disliking, we have to give up indifference and we just allow those objects and those domains to be without getting involved with them, without being infatuated or being averse and keeping the mind neutral and the same with the ear to sound. Report an error in the passage at 11:20 Highlight the passage at 11:20

11:48 The nose to smell, the tongue to taste, the body to touch, the mind to damage. Whatever is occurring, we can see that this is just the eyesore. This is just the outflow. And as long as this is occurring, there will not be inner solitude. And so that's why we go to quiet places. That's why we have a quiet room. Report an error in the passage at 11:48 Highlight the passage at 11:48

12:15 room in the quiet corner of a house or a garden or a forest or a camp. So we can associate with that quiet and we can associate with the times of the day that we usually practice or the place that we practice. And we can do it regularly, we can do it often. We can commit ourselves to that wholeheartedly. And as we practice with this earnest endeavor, With this devotion, this is what sada means. This is what faith in the Buddha means. Report an error in the passage at 12:15 Highlight the passage at 12:15

12:55 Because if we have a teacher, like we have faith in the Kumbhachanas, we have to follow what they're saying. It's no good just to read the words on paper, just to listen to the voices. But we have to take it into our heart and see. What we're capable of ourselves. Because until we can temporarily suppress the defilements by the hindrances, how will the mind become bright? Report an error in the passage at 12:55 Highlight the passage at 12:55

13:28 How will the mind become luminous? And if we can't make the mind luminous, how will we cut away those cords of Māra that are tying us to the world? So, it starts by deeply looking. The Ayatollah, deeply looking into the mind and teaching ourselves that going outside is suffering, that the world is suffering, that we don't want to suffer, that the Buddha's teaching is leading us away from suffering. Report an error in the passage at 13:28 Highlight the passage at 13:28

14:03 I just thought that keeping the precepts, you know, breaking them is a form of suffering, that we don't have pure precepts. And there's going to be agitation and difficulty in the mind. So at the first level he learned to keep every precept pure, bright, like a conch shell. Because this brightness, this purity means there's no blamelessness. There's no blame in the mind. There's only this blamelessness, this ease, this peace. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:38 And the Buddha said if there was another way he would have found it. And there is no other way. So we can never think that there's any other way than having pure virtue. And you can imagine having pure virtue and falling from that state is the most difficult of things. So we have to make the foundation of the castle firm. And as we build upon it, then devoting ourselves to mindfulness of our body postures, Mindfulness of what we're doing, mindfulness of our speech and our silence, our urinating and deprecating, our coming and our going, our waking and falling asleep. Report an error in the passage at 14:38 Highlight the passage at 14:38

15:26 Every section of our day we have to see where is my mind and how am I attending to the Buddha's teachings and what further is to be done, what further is there for me to do. When we die, we are responsible for our actions. Life is not a game. Life is not something that is laughable. So we have to be very serious, very sincere, very devoted to this Adhisila, Adhichitta, Adhipanya, because without this devotion, Without this clarity we won't get this indriya-sambharasi level. We won't get this noble silence. We won't perfect our right view. Report an error in the passage at 15:26 Highlight the passage at 15:26

16:21 And so we have to see where the leakages are. Like an old steam train. It has that plate where the steam gets pushed through. It's a very refined plate. And that's how a steam engine works. And if there was a single leakage in that system, the train wouldn't run. It's a very refined form of engineering. Report an error in the passage at 16:21 Highlight the passage at 16:21

16:51 And this is the same with our samādhi. It has all of these supporting causes. And so we have to take every step of the gradual training seriously. And as laypeople, The dharma is very important. You can reflect on that dharma, all that goodness. It's a source of joy. All that goodness has been done in the past. Report an error in the passage at 16:51 Highlight the passage at 16:51

17:17 All that goodness while we're doing it. And then, of course, the sīla and the bhāvanā. So as we get samādhi, to start contemplating these five aggregates, to start contemplating the six sense bases. Start contemplating the four or six elements. Because we all know what lust is. We all know what greed is. We all know what infatuation is, what crime and conceit and anger and ill will and all these departments are. Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:57 We've been burned by them. We see them in the world. But the Buddha doesn't want us to worry about that. He wants us to To focus on goodness, to do good, to make merit. And then the highest merit is developing based on our right view, based on our virtue. We're developing our samādhi so we can see into the tilakana. We can see that in everything there is anicca. Report an error in the passage at 17:57 Highlight the passage at 17:57

18:27 In what is anicca, there is dukkha. In what is dukkha, there is anattā. We have to see all three together in one place. And then true wisdom arises. And this is the flowers of the Buddha. This is when we start to see death. Maybe we see ourselves dying again and again and again and again. Over and over you see graves. You see mountains of corpses, mountains of bodies. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

19:04 Mountains of birth, old age, sickness and death. And this is what gives us that sense of weariness towards the world. But based on all that pīti sukha that we've developed in our meditation, based on all that goodness of virtue, it actually makes the mind luminous and bright. It actually detaches the mind and leads the mind inwards towards nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:33 Now inwards towards the noble path, inwards to what Lord Buddha taught and set that great wheel in motion, the wheel of dharma that rolls down to the present. So if we want to realize these things and deepen our practice, we have to be focused on what is really important. We have to give the dharma, give right view. Report an error in the passage at 19:33 Highlight the passage at 19:33

20:03 Give noble silence, give our virtue and our good actions, our seclusion and our peace. We have to give all of these things a place in our heart that is high and noble so we can associate with the wise. Because the Buddha said, you know, if we're foolish, one is foolish. Report an error in the passage at 20:03 Highlight the passage at 20:03

20:30 You could spend a hundred years next to a wise person and it's not going to help because it's like a spoon cannot taste the soup. The spoon can be in the soup for a very long time and however much that spoon is never going to know the taste of that soup. You need a tongue to know the taste of the soup. Report an error in the passage at 20:30 Highlight the passage at 20:30

21:00 By knowing wise beings is not enough and we have to take those teachings totally into our hearts and let it transform us. Let us contemplate again and again. Yes, sometimes what we think may be wrong, but over time as we use our samādhi to contemplate again, then our errors are corrected. And we start to contemplate the eightfold path. We start to contemplate the five aggregates of being. We start to contemplate anicca, dukkha, anattā. Report an error in the passage at 21:00 Highlight the passage at 21:00

21:40 And it gives rise to wisdom. The factors, the spiritual factors, the rose to power, the factors of awakening. All these things start to come together in the heart. And this is what gives rise to the Makasavati moment where people see, have that vision of Nibbāna in the distance. And then the stages and fruits of Sotāpanna, Sakadagami, Anagami, Arahatship are just as this very vision of Nibbāna comes closer and closer until the Arahats themselves, as we are told, knows the state of And this is why we have to not only listen to the words, but we have to take it into our heart. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

22:39 Whatever Lord Buddha said was true and not otherwise. So we put our faith in the teachings. And then we have to choose those things that really get us to practice. We put our faith in the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 22:39 Highlight the passage at 22:39

22:54 Some people it's focusing on their suffering. Some people it's focusing on the wisdom. So we have to find those teachings that interest us, a way of meditating that suits us. In the classical books we have 40 meditation themes. But ultimately, like that old story of a monk having the nimitta of the... Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:24 large fish eating the smaller fish. And he took that as his meditation object and became enlightened. So, ultimately, we just have to have right view in unremitting sati. If we just have that true faith in the Buddha, unremitting sati, then we have what it takes. Because we're going to follow whatever Lord Buddha said. We're going to follow Report an error in the passage at 23:24 Highlight the passage at 23:24

23:56 We're going to give our life to the Dhamma, we're going to put our lives on the line. And that's when the defilements start to get frightened. So it's not by the lower means. So if we truly want to realize nirvāṇa we have to give up our comforts, we have to give up our old ideas and slowly but surely We can emulate those who have gone before us. Report an error in the passage at 23:56 Highlight the passage at 23:56

24:37 We can have beings that we bring up in lightness and goodness, those great teachers who are like the breast and the blood of the Buddha. Coming down to the present. And these are our living examples. These are our lifetimes. So we have to take the teachings to heart and pick them up one at a time and put them into practice. Report an error in the passage at 24:37 Highlight the passage at 24:37

25:06 And, you know, whatever our ability is and the way that we grow it is one bit at a time. And we start with the small details. Now, like in, as monks, we have the core what? So when you focus on the finer details, you know, and when you focus on your mental states and getting the mind in the right way, then everything comes good very fast. Report an error in the passage at 25:06 Highlight the passage at 25:06

25:34 Because when we do the smallest of acts with mindfulness, you know, it helps build good karma, it helps. Like, you know, the day of is, you know, you shouldn't be leaving half. And so we have all these tiny little training rules, all these little observances. They're just ways of protecting the mind, of training the mind. And all those little efforts that we have in our daily lives of training our mindfulness, training our mind, they're all little moments of samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 25:34 Highlight the passage at 25:34

26:18 They're all little moments of concentration. And so, you know, that's why, you know, the patimokkha for the monks and the five or the eight precepts for the lay people, you know, these are of invincible power because, you know, they are like the highest level of core work and then the minor level of core work. Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:41 It's all the small things that we do in our daily life and we do with care and mindfulness. So, you know, this unremitting mindfulness is developed bit by bit, the noble silence, the restraining of speech, the giving up of bad thoughts, bad attitudes, bad actions, and the development of this indriya samparasila. Report an error in the passage at 26:41 Highlight the passage at 26:41

27:10 And for the monks, you know, we have the proper use and search for the requisites. And things like contemplation of food, development of perception of loathsomeness, perception of death. All these things are just ways of directing the mind to the dharma. Whatever of the 84,000 doors of the dharma that we use, that is developing also our samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 27:10 Highlight the passage at 27:10

27:39 Because samādhi, yes, develops calm. He develops jhāna, develops the factors of jhāna, but also when we contemplate correctly, then the mind will release that object and come to also a state of kāna. So contemplation and true bhāvanā also develops kāna. So we can see that the samatha and the pāsana goes together. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

28:08 And so whatever we do, In our practice, we just make sure that we have this right view, make sure that we have our sīla pure, make sure that we cut out all those things that are not helpful, that are hurtful, all those things that are not of the Dharma, that are not of the Buddha. And yes, of course, many people have the sense pleasures, but there has to be restraint. Report an error in the passage at 28:08 Highlight the passage at 28:08

28:40 There has to be a time for turning that off, a time for controlling the mind. So all things in right measure. And then with this composure, with this restraint, with this sambharasila, then we start to taste the dharma for ourselves. We start to taste the truth of the Eightfold Path, the truth of the five spiritual faculties. Report an error in the passage at 28:40 Highlight the passage at 28:40

29:09 You know, this only increases our faith in the Buddha, in his disciples, in the Kuberkha Jhans. Then we ourselves can realize higher determination and the path and fruit of Sotāpanna, the path and fruit of Sakhaladhamma, the path and fruit of Amidamma, and the path of fruit of Arahatship. So may we all have earnest endeavor in our practice. Report an error in the passage at 29:09 Highlight the passage at 29:09

29:44 Now Report an error in the passage at 29:44 Highlight the passage at 29:44

30:01 let us chant the verses of sharing inspiration. Through the goodness that arises from my practice, may my spiritual teachers and guides of great virtue, my mother, my father, and my relatives, the sun and the moon. And all virtuous leaders of the world, may the highest gods and evil forces, celestial beings, the high in spirits of the earth, and the lord of death, may those who are friendly, indifferent or hostile, may all beings receive the blessings of my life. Report an error in the passage at 30:01 Highlight the passage at 30:01

30:57 May they soon attain the three focus and realize the headless through the goodness that arises from my practice and through this I go sharing. May all desires and attachments quickly cease and all harmful states of mind Until I realize nirvāṇa in every kind of world, may I have an upright mind with mindfulness and wisdom, austerity and vigor. Report an error in the passage at 30:57 Highlight the passage at 30:57

31:40 May the forces of delusion not take hold nor weaken my resolve. The Buddha is my excellent refuge. Ajahn Kassapa Satsang protection of the Dhamma. The solitary Buddha is my Maha-Buddha. This anger is my supreme support. Through the supreme power of all beings, may darkness and delusion keep this hell. Report an error in the passage at 31:40 Highlight the passage at 31:40