Today's the 4th of October,
2023,
And this training of the mind is something important.
To train the mind well brings us happiness.
So why do we need to train the mind?
Well,
The nature of the mind,
The citta,
Is to know things.
The mind is the knowing element to know all the various sense impressions and moods,
All the aramanas,
And they're the aramanas of the world,
The sense impressions of sight,
Sound,
Taste,
Smell,
Touch,
Mind objects that arise in the mind.
You can also call it dhamma,
Aramana.
So the mind knows these already.
It's the nature of the mind without wisdom,
That lacks wisdom,
To chase after these sense impressions,
To cling to these sense impressions,
And that's the cause for suffering to arise,
For the sense of self to arise,
For wrong view to arise,
Delusion to arise,
For personality view,
Attachment to rites and rituals,
Skeptical doubt.
These first three fetters arise.
These first three fetters are that which tie the heart and mind,
Which wrap around and tie down the heart and mind.
So these three fetters arise,
And they are strong and firm,
And they're the three fetters that we meet with first,
That we have to cut first.
Once these first three fetters are cut away and gone,
The seven remain fetters,
It doesn't take long for them to be cut away as well,
And no more than seven lifetimes one is able to destroy the remaining seven fetters.
In the beginning we have to strive and endeavor to abandon the first three fetters,
To abandon strong view,
This liking and attraction for the six senses,
And abandoning behavior that's outside of virtue,
And not to get lost in practices that are outside of the Noble Eightfold Path.
This is the way to see the Dhamma,
To attain to the Dhamma.
It's what we do in the beginning.
So we have to go against the stream of the world to enter the stream of Dhamma.
So we practice and have patient endurance,
Restraint,
Restraint in terms of bodily behavior and verbal behavior,
To be within the bounds of virtue,
To be firmly established in this,
One must patiently endure.
One patiently endures to have the five precepts,
Patiently endures to have the eight precepts.
One sees the value in virtue,
The drawback in not having virtue,
In having just agitation and chaos,
Because not having virtue is a state of chaos and agitation.
So we have to train in this,
To train the mind in the beginning,
Because the mind lacks wisdom in the beginning,
Follows after these sense impressions.
If there's greed,
It follows the greed.
If there's anger,
It follows the anger.
If there's delusion,
It follows the delusion.
So that's normal.
We have to train and practice to increase the intelligence of the mind.
We may ask,
Well,
Who is it that trains the mind?
It's the one who knows.
The mind,
The citta,
Is the knowing element,
And it's lost.
So we have to cultivate the one who knows.
It's just like a child being cared for by its mother and father,
So that it's safe,
Looked after well.
Even if the child is not small,
But grown up or big,
But if the mind of that individual is not balanced,
Then that child can destroy itself or hurt others,
Hurt itself or hurt others.
So the parents need to care for the child,
Watch over it,
So that bad events or bad things don't happen.
The one who knows,
The knower,
Needs to watch over the mind to see what is the mind thinking.
Is the mind thinking in terms of greed or hatred,
In terms of liking or disliking,
In terms of destruction or ill will?
So we have to see where the mind is running after,
Or where it's running to.
We have to have mindfulness.
This quality of mindfulness is important.
Mindfulness or sati,
Quality of recollection,
Sampajanya,
Clear awareness.
These are dhammas that are very helpful,
Very useful,
To destroy that which is unwholesome,
To destroy greed,
Hatred and delusion,
Or to reduce them,
Make them less,
Which thereby reduces suffering.
So we have to endeavor and have effort in this,
Because the days and nights are constantly passing by,
Constantly passing by,
Cycling between day and night,
Day and night.
They just keep going like this.
So our life keeps reducing every day,
Every week,
Every month,
Every year.
And if we're lost or deluded,
10 years go by,
20 years go by,
30 years go by very quickly like this.
So we have to increase the value of our day,
To cultivate goodness every day,
Train the mind every day.
We increase this value daily,
We start to see the drawbacks of agitation.
This mind that doubts is a mind that's agitated.
So we have to train in mindfulness to bring the mind to recollect a single object,
Whether it's recollecting the Buddha,
Recollecting the Dhamma,
Recollecting the Sangha,
Buddha Nusati,
Dhamma Nusati,
Sangha Nusati,
Recollecting that which one is given,
Jagannusati,
Recollecting one's five precepts or eight precepts,
Silu Nusati,
Or recollecting the goodness of Devas,
Heavenly beings,
Deva Nusati,
To make this the object of the mind.
Or we can contemplate that life is uncertain,
Death is certain,
Marana Nusati,
Recollecting death.
So we train the mind to have mindfulness,
To see where the mind is going.
And if the mind lacks mindfulness,
The mind is busy.
The mind follows after sense impressions.
The mind follows after greed,
Aversion,
And delusion.
The mind's not still,
So we need to train it.
This is the way to see the Dhamma,
To make mindfulness continuous,
To make the mind peaceful,
And calm,
And samadhi,
And stillness,
And we train the mind to see,
To see what?
To see that which we cling to,
That which we're lost in,
That which we're taking as self.
And we see that which we cling to and are lost in and take as self,
We see it anew.
We see it according to the truth,
According to nature,
That it's not self,
That it's all convention.
Just like a house or a building,
We call it a certain name,
Like a sala,
A vihara,
An uposatha hall.
But in truth,
It's the four elements of earth,
Air,
Fire,
And water.
If we separate them out,
Then there's nothing there.
Or we feel that this building,
It's beautiful,
That it's big or small,
That it's an uposatha hall or a vihara.
It's a feeling that arises based on proliferation.
So if we keep a watch over the mind,
The mind doesn't proliferate.
We see that it's really just as it is,
It's just nature.
The mind proliferates,
And we think that it really is that way in truth according to our proliferation.
We think that a cup is really big or really small in truth,
That a spittoon is really a spittoon,
That a human is really a human,
An animal is really an animal,
That it really is self in truth.
But we bring the mind to stillness with the meditation object,
And we see that all the methods of practice,
All these meditation objects,
Are for the sake of bringing the mind to stillness,
Like meditating on Buddho.
In some places they meditate on sammasambuddho,
And some people may think,
Well,
That's not correct,
It should be buddho only.
But someone who thinks like that doesn't understand that it's buddhanusati all the same to say sammasambuddho,
Recollecting the Buddha.
These are all objects of samatha,
Kamatana,
Tranquility,
Meditation objects to bring the mind to samadhi.
So we use this meditation object as an object of mind,
To train the mind in all postures of sitting,
Standing,
Walking,
Lying down.
We train the mind with these meditation objects to have mindfulness,
To bring the mind to samadhi and stillness,
To know the body as it is,
To know this body and mind,
To see it as impermanent,
Not lasting,
To see it as not self,
That there's just arising,
Staying,
And ceasing.
This is seeing the Dhamma.
So we have mindfulness to watch over the mind,
To see the proliferation of mind,
To see convention as convention.
When we understand this,
The mind becomes bright and radiant.
The mind can separate out from the body,
Can see clearly,
And brightness arises in the mind,
Just like the fully self-awakened Buddha saw already.
So the mind sees like that.
The mind that was dark becomes bright and radiant.
So the truth is like this.
Having been born,
Then beings cling,
Have wrong view.
It's like this,
Thinking in terms of self,
Thinking in terms of views and conceit.
It's normal for this to happen.
So we practice,
Practice according to the Noble Eightfold Path,
According to virtue,
Collectedness,
And wisdom.
We train the mind like this,
According to various methods.
In the end,
Wisdom arises.
We see that the training of the mind is important to bring the mind to wisdom.
See that virtue supports samadhi,
Samadhi supports wisdom.
When wisdom arises,
We can see the truth.
Belief and faith in the Buddha becomes firmly established,
Unwavering.
We see the truth.
In the beginning,
We see the Dhamma a little bit at a time.
The mind becomes firm and stable.
Then the mind can gather together and see.
So we should train in this every single day.
Our lives pass by every single day.
May you cultivate merit and goodness,
Abandon that which is unwholesome and purify the mind to make the mind radiant and bright,
To clean the mind.
It's not beyond your ability.
So may you set your heart on this.
In the beginning,
Practitioners may doubt about everything,
About what to do.
They have a lot of wanting,
Want fast results.
This makes the mind very agitated and troubled,
Wanting quick results.
Letting go is the fastest method.
We ask,
Well,
Are we able to let go?
We've heard that everything is not self.
We know that already,
That all materiality and mentality is not self.
But you're not able to let go.
One isn't able to just put it down.
So we have to cultivate first.
It's just like a very wealthy person.
We see that there are very wealthy people in the world.
And if you have the parami or spiritual virtues,
One day you are able to be like that.
But you have to cultivate first.
Someone may ask,
Well,
Why can't I just be rich straight away without doing anything?
So to see the Dhamma,
We have to train and practice first,
To cultivate first.
We can ask,
Well,
Is our virtue well established?
Is our samadhi firm?
When the samadhi starts to become firm,
Then we start to see clearly,
Beginning with kanaka samadhi,
Momentary collectedness,
Upajara samadhi,
Neighborhood collectedness.
With upajara samadhi,
We start to see and understand more and more clearly.
The doubts start to be dispelled.
The mind can separate from sense objects.
We see that which we haven't seen before,
Because these sense objects arise very quickly.
And without samadhi,
The mind takes all of it as self.
One thinks in a wholesome way,
One clings to it.
One thinks in an unwholesome way and clings to it.
It takes everything as self.
When the mind's still,
We see the thoughts are not self.
We see this proliferation arise and cease.
We see conditioned formations arise and cease.
This is knowing,
Seeing everything as convention.
This isn't proliferation.
This is just knowing.
This is wisdom arising.
This is clear knowing.
This is able to make the mind change,
Destroy the first three fetters of personality view,
Clinging to rites and rituals,
Skeptical doubt.
So may you do this,
Do this practice.
May you have striving and effort in this,
Because these bodies don't last.
Some people do live for a hundred years,
But even then they must die as well.
Living to 90 years old,
People may feel weary of the body.
They feel like it's worn out.
It's like living in a broken down house.
It's not fun anymore.
It's not desirable.
So some people,
Or many beings,
Die at the age of 70,
Or in their 60s,
Many die.
So if we think that we're going to live long,
We should think that it's uncertain.
We should contemplate death every day,
And contemplate it a lot every day.
Like Venerable Ananda is a stream-enter.
He contemplated death seven times a day.
So practitioners should contemplate,
Not be heedless,
But to cultivate mindfulness,
To train the mind,
To train the mind well.
Because a well-trained mind brings happiness.
Then in the end,
Samadhi arises,
Wisdom can arise.
One can see the Dhamma.
Doubts are dispelled.
So may you cultivate the knower,
Cultivate clear knowing.
So may you all set your hearts on this.
