The 7 Factors Of Awakening: Exploration

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Thank you so much for watching.

Thank you so much.

So,

As most of you here know,

This year I've been diving much more into the actual skeleton of the Buddhist teachings.

The more specific direct steps that the Buddha laid out for us in the suit is really diving into that this past summer of course,

We spent some time exploring the great sata patanus Uta.

Some of you went on retreat had a whole four or five days studying that the sata patanus Uta.

If you recall is essentially the Buddha's main roadmap for how we're being asked to practice.

And this Sutta,

Which is commonly known as the four foundations of mindfulness as a review includes mindfulness of body feelings or Veda na mind and dharmas or damas.

And you might recall that those first three body feeling and mind are really essentially training us how to be in this home in this body,

How to become awake in this home in this body,

Aware of what's going on in the body.

And of course,

What's happening in the mind and the heart.

In the Buddha's time,

This was actually an incredibly radical concept that our spiritual lives are to be experienced within this body,

And that we don't discover freedom by leaving our body,

Or by indulging in the body,

Or by depriving it,

This is actually really radical.

That was the Buddha's message then.

And by the way,

It's still to this day,

Considered radical,

Isn't it right this idea that our happiness and our freedom are only found here within the body not outside of ourselves,

But right here in the home of our own body,

Mind and heart,

Not outside.

It's radical still.

Even today,

Some 2600 years later,

This can be still a quite difficult journey,

Right to discover true happiness and freedom right here in this body.

And also really difficult to train ourselves to stay present in this body,

Moment by moment by moment by moment,

Without leaving it or vacating it.

Really difficult practice,

Right.

And it's difficult because as we all know,

We all tend to vacate the premises quite often,

Don't we?

Right.

And in fact,

If we are really honest with ourselves,

We're more often away than at home,

Aren't we?

And where we tend to travel the most,

Of course,

Is the fantasy land of the mind.

We like to go there,

Where our thoughts often act like tricky tour guides that are constantly trying to convince us that our happiness and our freedom lies somewhere else.

Anywhere but right here at home,

Right somewhere else.

That's what our thoughts are all trying to convince us if you'll stay with me with that.

And sadly,

This trip that we've been on,

You know,

Can sometimes just feel endless.

We just can't get off the train,

If you will.

And this means that our Dukkha,

Our suffering,

Can also sometimes just feel completely endless.

Happily for us,

There was a real human who lived on this earth,

Who discovered that actually freedom was possible.

And more excellent news,

Really excellent news,

He not only offered us a very detailed roadmap to help us find our way home,

But he assured us that we all have the same capability.

We can all do this.

This enlightened human was 100 percent confident,

100 percent confident that for those of us who have the capacity to contemplate the mind,

We are all in fact fully capable of training ourselves to cure our own suffering,

To get off that train.

We can do it.

And we're also fully capable of actually developing the qualities of enlightenment itself.

We're already doing it,

In fact,

Developing those qualities of enlightenment.

Essentially,

He said,

It's really in our hands.

It's all in our hands.

I have a new sticky note that says it's in your hands.

It's really been helping me.

You know,

Not in somebody else's or something else's hands.

Right.

And again,

It's just right here,

Right where we are.

The ancient Chinese Zen poet,

Tai wrote this about the search.

Though I searched all day for spring,

I could not find it.

Carrying my staff,

I crossed over mountain after mountain.

Coming back home,

I happened to grasp a spray of plum blossoms.

And there I saw spring blooming at its tip.

So if we think of the Buddhist teachings as kind of like a roadmap,

What he's done is to lay out the best directions for us,

You know,

On our journey into our own minds and hearts.

How we make our way home,

Actually.

And the more precise,

Nuanced directions for this journey can be found in that fourth foundation of mindfulness,

Mindfulness of dhammas.

This is the foundation that shows us how we can access this unique human body and our capacity for intelligent evaluation to discover what is truly leading us to our suffering and what's leading us to freedom.

And of course,

The great paradox is that in order for us to take this journey,

We actually first need to be willing to stay home,

To not go away somewhere,

Away from this vulnerable,

Imperfect body,

Mind,

Heart,

You know,

And even away from this very wild,

Unpredictable,

Complicated world that we live in.

We need to stay to go on our journey.

As we all know,

Unfortunately,

There's a really common but misguided belief about meditation practice,

Which is that if we can just get to a place where we're not having any thoughts,

Or if we can just learn how to somehow blissfully float away from it all,

Then we're doing it right.

You know,

And of course,

It's extremely tempting for all of us to want to practice that way.

Right.

Because honestly,

Who among us does not want to check out every once in a while,

And just get away from it all right away from our crazy busy minds even maybe that the most,

You know,

Sadly though,

If what we're practicing is constantly going away from ourselves.

That means that how we're training ourselves to live,

Or to relate to ourselves in the world is just constantly go away from it.

That's what we're training ourselves to do.

And as we all know this kind of relating doesn't actually work.

Darn it.

Right.

As it turns out,

Instead of being helpful.

This kind of relating just ends up being endlessly frustrating to try to just go away or get away.

You know,

The truth is,

As long as we live,

None of us can escape any of it.

We can't escape ourselves.

We can't escape other people,

The world as it is.

Not how we want it to be the world as it is.

My favorite Buddhist nun,

Pema Shodran,

Actually wrote an entire book on this subject.

If you're interested.

It's a great book.

It's called the wisdom of no escape.

That's the title,

Wisdom of no escape.

And I realize that this might sound really depressing in a way.

Right.

But the point here is that even though we can't escape ourselves,

Other people,

Or the world,

The cool part is the teachings are assuring us that there is still a way out.

Even though we can't escape the rest of it,

There's still actually a way out.

And of course it isn't an easy way out.

But it's a worthwhile one,

Especially if we want to lessen or even end our suffering.

Since if we can learn to investigate the nature of our own minds,

Ultimately,

We can also learn how to transform our minds.

Because that's where we live.

We can transform that.

And maybe like the Buddha and so many others who have followed this path over hundreds of years,

We might also along the way discover enlightenment,

You know,

Or complete freedom,

Nirvana.

So as you might imagine,

How we try to find our way out is crucial if we want to achieve any kind of freedom from suffering.

In fact,

It really determines everything,

All of it,

How we do this.

So for example,

You know,

We don't want to train the mind so that we can become so excellent in concentration practice that we end up earning millions of dollars as a top notch killer assassin.

We want to very consciously transform the mind by training ourselves to access and nurture the more wholesome qualities that are going to lead us towards enlightenment and abandon those qualities that are going to just lead us right back into suffering.

And that might seem like very common sense,

You know,

And I've said that over and over.

The truth is very often,

Especially when we first start to practice,

Maybe even for years and years.

Many of us tend to get focused on the getting rid of aspect of this practice.

What happens is that we tend to closely hone in on all those qualities of mind and heart that are difficult,

That cause us to suffer,

Or those qualities within us that are considered unskillful or harmful to ourselves and others.

And just to say,

Of course,

This is something we absolutely want to do,

You know,

We want to very intentionally consciously weed out those beliefs and habits of mind that are causing ourselves and others harm.

It's an incredibly important part of the practice.

But we also don't want to be confused about this and become stuck here,

Right?

Because instead of helping us to find more freedom and ease,

What happens is that this can very easily turn into a kind of harsh critical self-improvement project or self-improvement kind of practice,

Rather than a kind,

Compassionate,

Letting go practice.

Okay?

So,

For instance,

We might find ourselves using the practice as a way to constantly judge ourselves in some way.

We're not doing it right.

We have to do it better,

Right?

Like a strict,

We're sinning or something.

It's not that.

Or we find ourselves becoming averse to ourselves,

Instead of meeting ourselves in our minds with kindness and compassion and a true sense of letting go,

Letting go.

So,

If you're doing this,

Know it's common,

Especially in the beginning,

But even for years,

This can be very common,

Especially in this culture.

We're so hard on ourselves,

Right?

It's a habit.

So,

To help combat this habitual kind of aversion then,

What we need to do is to consciously,

Very consciously,

Balance this out.

And the way we do this is by coupling this weeding out or abandoning of the unwholesome qualities with a very conscious nurturing of,

Leaning into,

The more wholesome qualities.

The ones that are going to bring us more happiness and freedom.

And there's a line that I love from the Buddhist writer Peter Matheson that I think really speaks to this,

Which is,

In the jungle,

During one night in each month,

The moths did not come to the lanterns.

Through the black reaches of the outer night,

So it was said,

They flew towards the full moon.

So tonight I thought we might dive into the teachings and how we can do this,

Avoid the flames of that lantern,

And instead fly towards the full moon.

How we can aim our wings,

If you will,

Towards enlightenment,

Towards nirvana itself.

The main teachings on this involve what are called the seven factors of awakening,

Or the seven factors of enlightenment.

And some of you might recall these seven factors from our study of the four foundations of mindfulness.

Of damas,

Which is a reminder,

Also includes the Four Noble Truths,

Right?

The Six Sense Gates,

All these lists,

The Five Aggregates,

And the Five Hindrances.

So in the Pali language,

The term for the seven factors is Satta Bojanga.

I love that.

Satta Bojanga.

And to break this down a little bit,

Satta means seven,

Bodhi means enlightenment,

And Anga means causation.

So this means that when we cultivate these seven factors,

Or qualities of mind and heart,

They become the causes of enlightenment.

You know,

The causative factor.

And a traditional way to think of these is like building a house,

And these are the materials that we want to use to build a really good house,

Right?

And of course,

Since our body is home,

This is referring to our own body,

Mind,

And heart.

And in the Sutta,

The Buddha tells us this.

Just as monks,

In a peaked house,

All rafters whatsoever go together to a peak,

Slope to the peak,

Join in the peak,

And of them all,

The peak is reckoned chief.

Even so,

Monks,

The monk who cultivates and makes much of the seven factors of wisdom slopes to nirvana,

Inclines to nirvana,

Tends to nirvana.

So tonight I'm going to just briefly summarize these seven,

And over the next several months I'm going to go into much more detail exploring each one of these seven factors.

Okay?

These include mindfulness,

Sati,

Investigation,

Investigations of akhaya,

Energy or effort,

Virya,

Joy or rapture,

Which is piti,

Tranquility,

Pasaditi,

Concentration,

Samadhi,

And equanimity,

Which is upekka.

Okay?

Those seven.

According to the teachings in an actual practice,

These qualities of mind and heart tend to flow in a progression with each factor supporting the development of the next one.

Okay?

I'm going to briefly review these.

So for instance,

When we first start to practice,

As you might guess,

We want to begin with that first factor,

Which is mindfulness,

Sati.

It's the foundational factor.

We can't have the rest without mindfulness.

In fact,

We can't really develop a mindfulness practice without first actually learning how to do this.

That's why it's the first factor.

In Pali,

Sati,

Mindfulness actually means to recollect,

Remember,

Keep in mind,

Which means that we want to continue to remember to be present.

We want to practice that.

We want to practice not going away,

Right?

Constantly remembering,

Keeping our practice in mind.

Okay?

In the suttas,

The Buddha tells us,

One recollects the Dhamma and thinks it over.

One recollects the Dhamma and thinks it over.

So we don't let ourselves forget our practice.

We remember,

Recollect,

Recollect.

Once we've gotten much better at this and have established some mindfulness skills,

This very naturally leads us into investigation,

Vikaya,

Right?

Where we begin to actually investigate what we've been thinking,

What we've been saying to ourselves,

What we've been believing.

When we can finally see what we've been thinking about,

Our habits of thought,

The investigation part is where we can start to do that gardening process,

If you will.

So we give our attention to the wholesome and unwholesome qualities of the mind,

Right?

We're mindful of those.

And then we weed out those things that lead to suffering and nurture those that lead to more joy.

It's a very active process.

It's gardening.

About this quality of investigations,

The sutta tells us,

One discriminates the Dhamma with wisdom,

Examines it,

Investigates it.

Okay?

Investigating the nature of our minds.

Once we can see the nature of our minds more clearly,

It almost organically leads us to a desire to put more energy or effort,

Virya,

Into our practice.

Since we start to see the benefits.

And you've all experienced this,

So you wouldn't be here week after week,

Right?

Wouldn't be here.

That's energy.

Driving here actually is energy.

Listening to this talk involves a sense of energy on this cold,

Kind of wintery evening.

When we start to exert more energy,

What happens is that this leads us to more joy,

Which also arises as we gain new insights into our reality,

Into our minds.

You also wouldn't be here if you hadn't experienced some joy in practice,

Right?

With these new insights and more joy,

What naturally arises is even more tranquility,

Especially as we begin to discover more and more that we can simply rest in awareness itself.

Without the constant,

Never-ending struggle of wanting,

Not wanting,

No?

We can rest more and more with life as it is.

Again,

Not how we want it to be.

We rest in that.

As you might guess then,

The calmer,

More tranquil state of mind is going to lead us even more into concentration because then we'll have a mind that is not so distracted by the constant battle of wanting and not wanting,

Right?

And we can have more concentration.

When we have more concentration,

This leads,

Of course,

To more equanimity,

The fruit of our practice,

Balanced awareness and needs.

When we've learned to simply rest in the flow,

In awareness itself,

Diligent,

Clearly knowing and mindful,

Free from desire and discontent in regard to the world,

Which you will likely remember as the refrain from the Sattapattana Sutta.

Diligent,

Clearly knowing and mindful,

Free from desire and discontent in regard to the world.

And finally,

Of course,

Our hope is that eventually the maturation of these seven factors is going to lead us to full enlightenment itself,

Nirvana,

Nirvana,

Because we're practicing the factors of enlightenment,

Right?

Causing enlightenment.

Nibbana or nirvana is often translated as blowing out or quenching.

And it's pointing to this idea that when we've finally extinguished all the flames or sometimes the poisons,

If you will,

Quenching the poisons of our wanting and our not wanting and our delusion,

Which are all the ways that we struggle with a sense of self.

And of course,

Because this is a journey and a practice,

We don't need to completely master any of these factors for the other ones to show themselves.

Of course not.

The seven factors can be present in all different stages of our development or in Pali,

This is called bhavana,

Right?

Our development.

When they are fully developed and mature,

These seven factors of enlightenment are known as satta sambha janga.

Satta sambha janga.

And sam means full,

Complete,

True in Pali.

In the suttas,

There's a story about when one of the Buddha's main disciples reached the satta sambha janga,

The full maturation of these seven factors.

This monk,

Mahakasapa,

Is often called the father of the sangha.

Since when the Buddha died,

This is the monk who became the leader of the sangha.

Even though,

Interestingly,

The Buddha didn't really want anybody to become the leader of the sangha after he died.

But as with all groups,

Even the Buddha's,

This just naturally happens,

Doesn't it?

People naturally turn to somebody to be the leader.

And so this was that monk.

But according to the story,

Which happened when the Buddha was still alive,

Mahakasapa had gotten very sick with an intestinal illness.

He was so sick,

In fact,

That the Buddha was summoned and he came out of his noble silence,

His secluded meditation,

To go visit him.

And as you might imagine,

This monk was very well taken care of by the sangha,

But he was kind of like in a hospital kind of situation.

And when the Buddha sat down next to this monk,

He started asking his friends some very kind questions,

Much like we might ask our own loved ones or friends if we visited them in the hospital.

And he said,

I hope you are getting better,

Kasapa.

I hope you are comfortable.

I hope that your pains are lessening and not increasing.

I hope that there are signs of their lessening and not of their increasing.

But Mahakasapa said to the Buddha,

Lord,

I am not getting any better.

I am not comfortable.

My extreme pains are increasing,

Not lessening.

There are signs of their increasing and not of their lessening.

And when you think about it,

Haven't we all had those moments in our lives where we've been experiencing some pain,

You know,

Some suffering.

We just,

We think it's going to get better soon,

But it just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse.

I know we've all been there.

And of course,

Metaphorically,

We're all suffering in some way all the time.

It's just a fact of life.

It's the first noble truth.

There is suffering.

Anybody here not suffering with anything?

Nothing?

Anybody?

Ah,

See,

No hands.

And again,

As a reminder,

As always,

The Buddha wasn't saying that all life is suffering because that would be a huge bummer.

It's just a simple truth.

We experience suffering.

And what's causing us to suffer,

Of course,

Are what are called the three poisons.

When we're meeting our life with wanting,

Not wanting,

And delusion,

Delusion about this concept of self,

What we think is going to make us happy instead of meeting life again as it is.

And as the teachings show us over and over,

We are also so much more than our pain or our struggle.

We're so much more than our suffering.

So knowing this,

The Buddha said to this head monk,

Kasapa,

These seven factors for awakening rightly taught by me when developed and pursued tend to direct knowledge to self-awakening,

To unbinding.

Which seven?

Mindfulness is a factor for awakening rightly taught by me when developed and pursued leads to direct knowledge to self-awakening,

To unbinding.

Analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening rightly taught by me when developed and pursued leads to a direct knowledge to self-awakening,

To unbinding.

He goes on,

Energy is a factor for awakening.

Joy,

Calm,

Concentration,

Equanimity.

Kasapa,

These are the seven factors for awakening rightly taught by me that when developed and pursued lead to direct knowledge to self-awakening,

To unbinding.

Then the sutta goes on to simply say this,

This is what the Blessed One said,

Gratified Venerable Maha Kasapa delighted in the Blessed One's words and Venerable Maha Kasapa recovered from his disease.

That was how the Venerable Maha Kasapa disease was abandoned.

So easy.

Just like that.

He recovered.

And so I read some commentary about this and it makes more sense to consider that this older,

Longtime monk who was trained by the Buddha himself was so fully matured in these factors that he simply needed that final encouragement or reminder from the Buddha to put him over the top.

So the Buddha was essentially reminding this wise old monk that he had mastered these seven factors,

That he knew how to meet his own illness and this pain and this situation.

You know how to do it,

Basically,

Is what he was reminding him.

And in practice,

It's also important to remember that these seven factors or qualities also are exactly what we want to use as antidotes to what are called the five hindrances.

These are the antidotes.

And I'll go over this in more detail in the other talks.

So as you might recall,

These five hindrances are those qualities of mind and heart that are considered obstacles to our development,

Obstacles to our bhavana.

These are the qualities that we are asked to weed out or abandon or work with.

These include sense,

Desire,

Greed,

Wanting,

Aversion,

Ill will,

Not wanting,

Sloth and torpor,

Restlessness and worry.

You guys know the last one?

Doubt.

You know,

We really need our mindfulness,

That first factor,

To become aware that one or more of these hindrances,

These five hindrances are present in the mind.

When we become aware of these,

We can then consciously apply one or more of these factors of enlightenment as an antidote.

So as my friend and teacher Pat Coffey often likes to say,

We can be contemplative artists here and discern for ourselves what's really needed as an antidote,

What's really needed.

So for instance,

When we become aware using our mindfulness that we're experiencing some kind of sloth and torpor,

Dull and sleepy mind,

Which is the way,

We can consciously try to balance this with what are called the energizing factors.

There are seven of them.

Mindfulness is neutral.

The energizing factors are joy,

Investigation or energy.

On the other hand,

When we become aware that we are experiencing restlessness and worry,

We want to consciously apply the calming factors,

Which are concentration and tranquility,

Ease,

Equanimity.

Sometimes when I'm practicing,

I actually find it helpful to remember what I'm not supposed to be practicing.

That kind of helps me more.

So the Buddha gives us this teaching actually in the Aghi Sutta of the Samyutta Nakaya.

And in this Sutta,

He tells his Sangha of the monks that when the mind is sluggish due to the mental hindrance of sloth and torpor,

This is the wrong time to practice concentration,

Tranquility and equanimity,

As you might imagine,

And it's the right time to practice effort,

Investigation and joy.

And of course,

When the mind is restless due to the mental hindrance of restlessness and worry,

It is the wrong time to practice effort,

Investigation and joy.

Instead,

It's the right time to practice concentration and tranquility and equanimity to balance it.

And again,

Please know I'm very aware that I'm going through all of these really quickly because it's a summary.

So I really want to make sure you know that I'll be going over these seven factors in more detail in the next few months and definitely going over how we practice and how we can use them as antidotes to all the difficult mind states that happen.

Finally,

It's really also hugely important to remember that as we're nurturing these seven qualities,

We are not just doing it for ourselves.

We're doing it to benefit everyone,

The whole world really.

As the teachings remind us over and over and over again,

We are not separate,

Which means that what we all do to consciously train our minds matters to the collective whole.

It's why I do what I do.

You know,

Consciousness,

Changing consciousness matters.

And you're a part of that.

Just recently,

I was really struck by this piece of writing from one of my favorite writers,

John O'Donoghue,

That I think really speaks to this idea.

He said,

The world is not decided by action alone.

It is decided more by consciousness and spirit.

They are the secret sources of all action and behavior.

The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle yet hugely powerful force,

And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together.

Therefore,

The way you look at things is not simply a private matter.

Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on.

When you give in to helplessness,

You collude with despair and add to it.

When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation,

Your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in this world.

In this way,

Even in your own hidden life,

You can become a powerful agent of transformation.

It's in your hands.

So with that,

Let's just sit for a moment together.

And I'd like to invite you just to take a nice deep breath in and out and settle here.

You might even place one hand or both on the heart or one hand on the heart,

One on the belly.

Breathe into the fingers.

You might add a slight smile to the corner of the eyes and the lips.

It's a way of bringing friendliness here in the body.

And remembering that it is in your hands,

You might consider what you'd like to nurture and cultivate equality.

You'd like to nurture and cultivate in yourself,

Maybe even to counter,

Balance out what kind of suffering you've been experiencing,

What is needed.

It's in your hands.

You know what you need.

What do you need?

Once you discover that,

Can you lean into it and maybe make an intention,

A promise to your heart or an intention?

Promises are hard,

Maybe an intention to nurture that quality more,

Consciously nurture that.

Remembering you're not fixing anything or coming up with solutions.

Looking for a quality of heart.

Because fixing is a way of being averse to in some way.

This week you might use your mindfulness practice,

That first factor,

As a way to remember,

Recollect this quality of heart that you want to develop and nurture more.

You might even put a sticky note somewhere to remind yourself of some other way of remembering.

And finally,

With the eyes still closed,

Just listening to these words from Julia Ferenbacher,

Who writes,

Maybe today is the day to tip it all upside down,

To shake out what is stale and small and suffocatingly too sure.

Maybe today,

Rather than being tossed about by enough will never be enough expectations,

Rather than grabbing for another word,

Another way,

Another now,

You could step outside and watch sky make a new day.

Maybe today is the day to let go of doubts,

Smothering hand,

To stop hunting for worthiness,

To choose to follow only what feels like tail wagging enthusiasm,

Like fireflies warm sure glow,

Like love sprouting roots from the bottom of bare feet.

Maybe today is the day to remember that if it doesn't grow the flame warmer,

Truer,

Brighter,

If it doesn't feel like a deep diving breath into all that is here and now,

It is not meant for you,

Then lean close in to your own glorious glow and breathe yourself new.

Bell Bell