WEBVTT 00:02.123 --> 00:03.247 OK, good evening, everyone. 00:07.966 --> 00:09.552 Welcome to our evening Dhamma. 00:24.635 --> 00:29.180 We hear a lot nowadays about non-dualism, as Buddhists we do. 00:30.161 --> 00:35.367 I think anyone who studies Buddhism has at least heard of this concept of non-dualism. 00:36.187 --> 00:37.469 It's gained a lot of prominence. 00:39.030 --> 00:48.541 Early Buddhism doesn't really have that concept as one of its main tenets. 00:48.561 --> 00:51.604 I don't have a problem so much with duality. 00:53.339 --> 00:57.826 We don't have the same sort of criticism of duality for the most part. 00:58.507 --> 00:59.488 It's not really an issue. 01:02.032 --> 01:06.499 There are schools of Buddhism that take non-duality as very important. 01:06.739 --> 01:19.598 It's actually a school of Indian thought apart from Buddhism, but it became somewhat caught up or picked up by schools of Buddhism. 01:20.620 --> 01:21.962 I want to talk today about 01:26.296 --> 01:28.680 dualism according to our tradition. 01:29.781 --> 01:41.900 We have a sutta in the Sutta Nipata called the Dvayatana, Dvayatanupasana Sutta. 01:41.920 --> 01:47.489 Dvayatanupasana Sutta. 01:47.509 --> 01:49.772 The sutta on seeing duality. 01:54.072 --> 01:59.678 In this sutta, I think the idea here is to counter some of this philosophy. 02:00.979 --> 02:02.641 Because as I said, it was outside of Buddhism. 02:02.701 --> 02:14.073 There were philosophers in the time of the Buddha who held the view of non-duality, that we are all one, this sort of idea that we are one. 02:15.835 --> 02:23.843 In fact, if you look up nirvana in the dictionary, you often get definitions like becoming one with everything. 02:28.396 --> 02:34.844 There's a joke about the Buddhist monk who walks up to the hot dog vendor and says, make me one with everything. 02:43.355 --> 02:54.910 Which is, as I said, it's a common philosophy in Buddhist thought, but it appears that in the time of the Buddha, or from the texts that we have, 02:56.493 --> 03:01.719 tradition that we follow, they're sort of arguing against that. 03:02.399 --> 03:13.011 But more importantly, this is a really sort of deep and profound teaching from a meditation perspective. 03:13.051 --> 03:22.501 It gives us a chance to highlight some aspects of the Buddha's teaching that are quite experiential, useful for meditators. 03:23.842 --> 03:24.964 This is a deep teaching. 03:25.244 --> 03:26.365 This isn't a teaching about 03:28.167 --> 03:31.091 how to treat people well or so on, or how to live well in the world. 03:31.131 --> 03:32.453 This is a meditation teaching. 03:33.214 --> 03:38.763 So to understand it, we should be mindful. 03:39.684 --> 03:44.431 And let's make an attempt now to listen to the teaching mindfully. 03:45.072 --> 03:46.935 I'm going to skim through it here. 03:49.959 --> 03:57.330 Try to understand it from a perspective of experience, your experience right here and now in this moment. 04:08.347 --> 04:14.655 So the Buddha asks the monks, he says, what should you tell people? 04:14.675 --> 04:33.679 If people ask you, he doesn't ask them, he says, if people ask you, what is the purpose of learning all of these principles, skillful principles that are noble, emancipating, leading to full enlightenment, he says, 04:36.123 --> 04:52.023 To see as it truly is, for the knowledge of, as it really is, of the dhammas, the dhammas of duality, whatever dual realities there are. 04:54.947 --> 04:58.992 In fact, it appears to be saying that duality is quite an important concept. 05:00.473 --> 05:16.212 You see, because there's this idea, these ideas in later Buddhism that samsara and nibbana are the same, which of course doesn't really show itself in early Buddhism, at least not in Theravada Buddhism. 05:16.232 --> 05:18.455 So we have duality. 05:19.877 --> 05:22.580 And the first duality, the Buddha says, how should you understand duality? 05:22.600 --> 05:23.881 And he gives 16 ways. 05:24.642 --> 05:26.785 And we'll go through them fairly quickly, hopefully. 05:31.118 --> 05:35.363 The first way to understand duality is that there is suffering and there is the cause of suffering. 05:36.524 --> 05:39.688 That's one, one part, one side of the coin. 05:41.751 --> 05:47.157 And then there's a cessation of suffering and the path which leads to the cessation of suffering. 05:47.177 --> 05:48.038 This is duality. 05:53.745 --> 05:58.290 This means as you can act in certain ways, there are certain things that can be done. 05:59.907 --> 06:02.671 And those certain things lead to suffering. 06:03.331 --> 06:03.972 This is one way. 06:05.214 --> 06:08.378 And the other way is really a simplification of reality. 06:08.698 --> 06:12.063 And our whole existence can be boiled down to these two paths. 06:13.084 --> 06:14.385 Are you increasing your suffering? 06:14.446 --> 06:16.128 Are you doing that which causes suffering? 06:17.910 --> 06:19.552 Or are you creating peace? 06:21.074 --> 06:22.316 Are you removing suffering? 06:23.037 --> 06:25.780 Are you on the path which leads to the cessation of suffering? 06:31.514 --> 06:41.808 If you understand these two paths, the Buddha says, there's only two, well, you're on your way to become enlightened, basically, is what he says. 06:42.369 --> 06:46.195 But then he says, well, is there another way to understand duality? 06:47.697 --> 06:52.864 If they ask you, you can say, yep, there is actually yet another way. 06:56.084 --> 07:17.841 Whatever suffering there is, it is caused by something called upadhi, which I think is translated often as attachment. 07:17.861 --> 07:22.328 So let's just not get into the details of it and talk about attachment. 07:23.827 --> 07:25.189 That's one way of understanding. 07:26.010 --> 07:27.832 It's one part of the coin, one side of the coin. 07:29.754 --> 07:34.040 And the other side is that the cessation of suffering is caused by freedom from attachment. 07:34.080 --> 07:41.549 When attachment ceases without remainder, suffering ceases without remainder. 07:51.181 --> 07:52.483 This is another duality. 07:52.683 --> 07:58.512 Again, it's saying the same thing, but it's explaining it in a different way. 07:59.254 --> 08:05.764 Not just understanding the two different paths you can take, but understanding cause and effect. 08:06.285 --> 08:07.928 What is it that causes suffering? 08:07.948 --> 08:11.834 What is it that we're saying you could do and you can engage in? 08:11.854 --> 08:13.417 Well, it's craving. 08:15.881 --> 08:16.402 Attachment. 08:16.942 --> 08:18.505 Because when you attach to things, 08:25.606 --> 08:42.164 You cultivate expectations, you cultivate partiality, you cultivate a categorization of reality into that which is and what is not the things that you attach to. 08:42.204 --> 08:54.297 I mean, it's very much caught up in concepts as the things we attach to are bound up with people, places, and things. 08:57.162 --> 09:05.051 But no matter whether it's reality or concepts, because it's impermanent, this is the cause of suffering. 09:06.072 --> 09:10.557 The things that we attach to will ultimately inevitably lead to disappointment. 09:10.878 --> 09:24.013 They can't possibly be of any value because they're subject to change, to cessation on a moment's notice. 09:33.697 --> 09:41.767 And there's yet the third way is whatever suffering there is, all of that suffering is caused by ignorance. 09:43.248 --> 09:44.991 And with the cessation, that's the one side. 09:45.031 --> 09:51.318 And with the cessation of ignorance, again, there's the cessation of suffering. 09:51.338 --> 09:58.627 And we're getting into the various ways suffering can be understood or the various links in the chain. 10:00.790 --> 10:03.653 It's important that we understand each part of it. 10:04.612 --> 10:12.089 A lot of this is, as you can see, it's the same sort of ideas, highlighting different dumbness. 10:15.337 --> 10:21.591 And this is probably one of the most important ones, because Buddhism puts such an emphasis on wisdom. 10:23.461 --> 10:26.045 It's our lack of wisdom, our lack of understanding. 10:26.085 --> 10:29.670 It's not actually the craving that's the problem, right? 10:29.690 --> 10:34.557 Craving is just a symptom. 10:34.637 --> 10:35.919 Why do we cling to things? 10:36.660 --> 10:37.761 Why do we have attachments? 10:38.743 --> 10:41.406 Ignorance. 10:41.426 --> 10:48.476 Not because we apply our minds wrong, and if we just pry our minds off of our attachments, somehow we'd be free. 10:48.556 --> 10:49.738 That's not really how it works. 10:51.608 --> 10:56.854 The only way to be free is to understand that those things that you cling to are not worth clinging to. 10:56.894 --> 11:01.418 Hence the practice of vipassana, the practice of mindfulness. 11:01.779 --> 11:03.741 We're not actually trying to fix anything. 11:03.781 --> 11:05.623 We're not trying to change our minds. 11:08.246 --> 11:19.978 We're just trying to observe and to see the corrupt state of our mind, how we judge everything, liking this, disliking that, arrogance and conceit and so on. 11:21.562 --> 11:33.458 The states of our mind that are impure, that are so shriveled and caught up in situations and consequences. 11:34.639 --> 11:36.422 Our own egos. 11:47.837 --> 11:48.818 Just ignorance. 11:50.317 --> 11:54.737 if we got rid of the ignorance, if we really understood what we were doing to ourselves, that's all it takes. 11:56.525 --> 11:57.188 And so, 11:59.260 --> 12:06.628 It could be said that if you're causing yourself suffering, it's because you don't yet realize that you're causing yourself suffering. 12:06.668 --> 12:07.689 You don't yet understand. 12:08.911 --> 12:16.900 Which seems kind of confusing, because we do keenly understand and feel like we're causing ourselves suffering. 12:17.260 --> 12:20.103 Ordinarily, we know that we're attached to things. 12:20.163 --> 12:23.147 We know that we get angry and cause ourselves suffering. 12:23.167 --> 12:25.369 And so we think, I already know it's bad. 12:27.121 --> 12:27.782 We think that. 12:28.003 --> 12:28.924 The truth is we don't. 12:29.445 --> 12:39.023 The truth is we haven't ever explored deeply this moment-to-moment process. 12:40.747 --> 12:46.277 And when we finally see, when we finally look and see and remove this ignorance, 12:47.607 --> 12:48.708 I realize it's true. 12:48.728 --> 12:57.780 I really did think that somehow there would be some benefit from getting angry or greedy or trying to control my reality. 13:01.124 --> 13:04.948 Ignorance is another way of understanding reality. 13:04.968 --> 13:06.090 Understanding duality. 13:07.652 --> 13:09.514 Ignorance and the cessation of ignorance. 13:12.447 --> 13:15.494 And then he goes through the chain of Paticca Samopada. 13:15.554 --> 13:16.336 So I'll go through it. 13:16.356 --> 13:18.180 Might as well go through them because they're quite interesting. 13:18.200 --> 13:26.137 He says, another way of understanding it is that Sankara is what leads to Dukkha. 13:26.157 --> 13:30.186 And that with the cessation of Sankara, there is the cessation of suffering. 13:32.512 --> 13:48.897 Sankara here refers to abhisankar, which are our, basically our ambitions, our drive to attain good things and our aversion to bad things, our good and our bad karma really. 13:51.040 --> 13:53.203 It's our inclination. 13:55.546 --> 13:56.247 We're ambitious. 13:56.667 --> 13:57.888 We want to be this. 13:57.968 --> 13:58.869 We want to be that. 13:59.309 --> 14:01.571 It comes from ignorance. 14:01.591 --> 14:07.316 But it's why ignorance is such a problem, because ignorance leads us to seek out things that can't satisfy us. 14:07.417 --> 14:11.880 It leads us to run away from things that actually aren't a problem. 14:12.261 --> 14:14.283 So we chase away pain. 14:14.363 --> 14:21.669 We chase away experiences that we find unpleasant. 14:22.490 --> 14:24.912 But in fact, it's the displeasure that's the problem. 14:26.157 --> 14:33.106 Chase after pleasant experiences when in fact the chasing after is really the problem. 14:33.186 --> 14:34.588 It's not the not getting what you want. 14:39.033 --> 14:40.635 Sankara, then we have vijnana. 14:42.097 --> 14:43.979 Because of sankara, then there's vijnana. 14:44.079 --> 14:46.242 Vijnana is the cause of suffering, the Buddha says. 14:47.302 --> 14:51.090 With the cessation of vinyāna, the cessation of suffering. 14:52.133 --> 14:54.137 This is a little bit harder for people to swallow. 14:55.039 --> 15:00.712 No one wants to think that freedom from suffering means no consciousness. 15:04.220 --> 15:04.821 Very deep. 15:06.961 --> 15:13.450 I don't want to push this one too hard because there's an interesting teaching further down, I think, near the end. 15:13.470 --> 15:14.612 I think the last one. 15:15.273 --> 15:25.767 I'll talk a little bit more about how to deal with this idea of how sensitive we can be about the nihilism of it all, really, right? 15:27.169 --> 15:30.454 Without consciousness, how could you possibly be happy? 15:34.265 --> 15:37.690 The problem is that consciousness is bound up with ignorance. 15:38.512 --> 15:48.948 Because of the consciousness, we cling to the things that we're conscious of. 15:48.968 --> 15:52.033 The real point to consciousness isn't actually a problem. 15:52.233 --> 15:57.041 It's a symptom, or it's a byproduct. 15:57.061 --> 16:01.808 And without any ignorance, of course, there's no rebirth, and there's no more consciousness. 16:03.509 --> 16:04.630 It's still very difficult. 16:04.750 --> 16:06.613 There's no good way to explain that to someone. 16:07.353 --> 16:12.379 It's not something I'd want people to accept blindly. 16:13.841 --> 16:21.309 But it's important to point out that, at the very least, consciousness is something that we have to understand. 16:22.611 --> 16:27.016 We have to see that it's our attachment to basically experiences. 16:27.316 --> 16:28.858 Consciousness means experience. 16:30.644 --> 16:34.228 We're attached to having this type of experience or that type of experience. 16:35.590 --> 16:39.755 What we're actually attaching to is consciousness, one way of understanding. 16:40.936 --> 16:43.078 I want to have this experience. 16:43.239 --> 16:44.360 I want to have that experience. 16:49.406 --> 16:52.790 After consciousness comes, well, we're skipping ahead here. 16:52.950 --> 16:57.495 After consciousness comes the six senses, but we're going right ahead to context. 16:59.652 --> 17:05.198 And with the cessation of contact, again there's the cessation of suffering. 17:05.218 --> 17:08.241 Contact here means the contact of consciousness and the object. 17:08.261 --> 17:11.064 When you're conscious, you're conscious of something. 17:12.786 --> 17:15.990 So it's just a part of the chain, the contact. 17:16.931 --> 17:22.036 Because consciousness itself wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't the contact with the object. 17:22.557 --> 17:26.301 But when we see something, we're contacting with the light, 17:27.412 --> 17:29.114 And that's where attachment comes from. 17:29.134 --> 17:32.039 We see something and we like it, or we see something and we don't like it. 17:34.923 --> 17:41.973 So rather than try to, I mean the idea isn't here to be repulsed or reject these things, not write out, it's to observe them. 17:43.134 --> 17:45.758 The rejection comes when you see that they can't really make you happy. 17:47.982 --> 17:52.931 And deep teaching, if you're not meditating, it's not very comfortable or interesting even. 17:54.214 --> 17:58.381 For meditators, they can understand because they're watching this, they're experiencing, they're seeing. 18:00.926 --> 18:08.320 Oh yes, it's all these seeing and hearing and smelling and tasting and feeling and thinking and bombarding me, not actually making me happy. 18:19.201 --> 18:20.923 As of contact, there is vedana. 18:20.943 --> 18:25.850 So the next way of understanding duality is that suffering is caused by vedana, by feeling. 18:27.272 --> 18:34.242 And with the cessation of feeling, there's the cessation of suffering. 18:34.262 --> 18:35.824 It's the feeling that is the flavor. 18:35.844 --> 18:37.807 I mean, this is a very detailed exposition. 18:37.827 --> 18:41.211 If you're familiar with Paticca Samuppada, you know where this is going. 18:42.753 --> 18:44.796 So there's a detailed exposition of experience. 18:45.217 --> 18:46.939 Every experience has all of this. 18:46.979 --> 18:48.381 It goes from one to the other. 18:49.137 --> 18:55.708 But the feeling is the core, it's the kernel, it's the essence of the experience. 18:55.728 --> 18:58.633 Happy, unhappy, neutral. 18:59.955 --> 19:04.483 Each experience has a feeling associated with it. 19:04.503 --> 19:07.788 And based on the feeling, there is liking of it or disliking of it. 19:09.411 --> 19:10.673 There's delusion about it. 19:17.302 --> 19:18.623 As a result, there is suffering. 19:19.745 --> 19:23.649 Some teachers stress very much the concept of vedana. 19:25.391 --> 19:28.374 Because vedana is the last time where it's actually fairly objective. 19:28.414 --> 19:30.016 Vedana itself isn't a problem. 19:30.076 --> 19:34.561 The problem is we cling to it. 19:34.581 --> 19:35.482 And that's the next step. 19:36.443 --> 19:37.144 Tannha. 19:38.205 --> 19:42.229 Tannha is yankinchi dukhang sambodhi. 19:42.344 --> 19:52.135 Whatever dukkha there is, , all that is caused by craving, thirst. 19:59.244 --> 20:01.526 And then we have upadana. 20:01.546 --> 20:02.968 Because of craving, there is clinging. 20:03.328 --> 20:04.690 So clinging is the cause. 20:12.972 --> 20:17.979 Without any clinging, without any craving, there's no clinging, without any clinging, there's no suffering. 20:30.617 --> 20:35.444 Then he has something called Aramba. 20:35.464 --> 20:38.068 I've got an English translation here. 20:41.812 --> 20:43.374 Arhambha means to get started. 20:46.677 --> 20:48.539 It's translated here as karmic activities. 20:48.599 --> 20:50.361 That's maybe what the commentary calls it. 20:50.381 --> 20:56.628 But arhambha just means to initiate something, attempt. 20:56.648 --> 21:00.452 The point here, the next one in line would be karma. 21:01.032 --> 21:04.396 But it's the initiation, the impetus. 21:04.416 --> 21:07.279 You want something, you go for it. 21:10.381 --> 21:14.588 When you want something and you cling to it, then you strive for it. 21:15.891 --> 21:18.154 The word arambha is often used in that way. 21:19.497 --> 21:23.604 What got you going, the beginning, the initiative. 21:25.948 --> 21:28.913 Ambition maybe is a good way, as I've already mentioned. 21:31.441 --> 21:34.845 I already talked about this, but ambition is really the problem. 21:35.706 --> 21:40.572 If we could be content, if we were at peace, what is the difference between boredom and peace? 21:40.993 --> 21:46.099 Some people sit here and they're bored or they're frustrated or upset. 21:46.419 --> 21:47.881 Other people sit and they're at peace. 21:48.662 --> 21:49.643 Their minds are calm. 21:50.524 --> 21:52.066 It's nothing to do with the situation. 21:56.111 --> 21:57.533 It has only to do with our 22:00.230 --> 22:01.832 reception of the experience. 22:10.061 --> 22:22.734 Another way of understanding duality is that whatever suffering there is, ahara, nourishment, nourishment is a cause of that suffering. 22:23.135 --> 22:26.018 Without any nourishment, there is no suffering. 22:27.652 --> 22:30.275 This is an interesting sort of twist on this. 22:30.536 --> 22:31.757 This is an important teaching. 22:33.019 --> 22:36.844 We feed our attachments. 22:37.525 --> 22:38.526 We think we're caught up. 22:38.946 --> 22:41.009 We look around and we think, I'm so caught up. 22:41.169 --> 22:43.773 I have a family. 22:43.873 --> 22:45.575 I have commitments. 22:45.735 --> 22:46.616 I have a job. 22:46.796 --> 22:47.557 I have a house. 22:48.559 --> 22:50.301 I have loans or whatever. 22:54.566 --> 22:56.629 I'm so caught up. 22:57.250 --> 23:00.576 People have obligations to others. 23:00.756 --> 23:03.100 I have requirements to eat food. 23:03.141 --> 23:05.204 We think we're so bound by so many things. 23:06.246 --> 23:08.630 Buddhism doesn't allow for that. 23:10.273 --> 23:12.618 That's not true attachment. 23:12.738 --> 23:14.080 Those are not real attachments. 23:15.202 --> 23:18.448 We might be attached by obligation and so as a duty we 23:20.285 --> 23:23.448 in certain ways or we engage with others in certain ways. 23:24.249 --> 23:26.531 But it's a surface attachment. 23:26.731 --> 23:28.773 It's a surface obligation. 23:28.793 --> 23:30.394 It's nothing to do with ultimate reality. 23:31.615 --> 23:34.918 In reality we feed our attachments. 23:34.938 --> 23:39.482 And mindfulness is really this alternative. 23:40.543 --> 23:50.072 Instead of feeding our bondage, when you like something, when you want something, 23:51.436 --> 24:02.888 Instead of going back again to the object and feeding it, increasing the desire for it until it leads you to go and get it, we change that. 24:02.908 --> 24:06.792 We take the mind away from the fuel, the object. 24:06.892 --> 24:09.434 If you see something and you like it, the seeing is the fuel. 24:10.295 --> 24:11.376 So we take you away from that. 24:11.396 --> 24:12.558 We focus on the wanting. 24:12.698 --> 24:16.341 We say wanting, wanting. 24:16.361 --> 24:18.243 Or we say instead seeing, seeing. 24:19.324 --> 24:20.886 And you take away the fire. 24:22.418 --> 24:23.240 We separate it. 24:23.480 --> 24:28.951 There's no more fueling this chain of circle, circle of causality. 24:29.812 --> 24:32.919 When we're anxious, then we get more anxious about it, so we feed it. 24:34.021 --> 24:36.245 This is what the Buddha meant by nourishment. 24:38.169 --> 24:43.579 He didn't mean that by eating rice and curries you become, you suffer. 24:44.642 --> 24:44.882 He meant 24:45.824 --> 24:48.928 different kind of nourishment, that we feed our attachments. 24:49.909 --> 24:54.394 If we would ever stop clinging, we would have no bondage. 24:54.494 --> 24:55.936 We would not be tied to anything. 24:56.576 --> 25:00.561 There'd be nothing that could keep us suffering. 25:11.734 --> 25:12.895 And we have one more. 25:15.085 --> 25:18.209 Injita, movement. 25:19.310 --> 25:27.520 Whatever suffering there is, it is caused by injita. 25:27.540 --> 25:32.967 Injita would, in this sense, mean commotion. 25:33.007 --> 25:37.312 There's a word, can't think of it. 25:37.412 --> 25:43.540 But again, initiative. 25:44.954 --> 25:48.226 the lack of stillness, which is basically what he's saying. 25:48.246 --> 25:52.140 Because our minds are not still, we fidget mentally. 25:55.091 --> 25:56.837 We're not able to be present. 25:58.589 --> 26:00.392 Boating in the river of experience. 26:00.452 --> 26:01.634 Wouldn't that be wonderful? 26:02.495 --> 26:05.099 When we saw things we just saw, when we heard we just heard. 26:06.161 --> 26:12.771 We could just be with the experience without reacting, without jumping every time. 26:13.171 --> 26:15.875 Good and bad, right and wrong, me and mine. 26:18.119 --> 26:20.182 We could just experience it as it is. 26:21.444 --> 26:23.006 Moment by moment by moment. 26:23.808 --> 26:24.208 Quiet. 26:25.410 --> 26:26.672 The mind works still. 26:28.643 --> 26:29.965 If the mind were still, we could see. 26:30.005 --> 26:32.548 The Buddha likened a still mind to a forest pool. 26:33.950 --> 26:39.597 If the pool is still, you can see all the fish and animals and stones on the bottom of the pool. 26:43.182 --> 26:46.386 Just like the mind, if the mind is still, you can see everything about it. 26:46.406 --> 26:47.668 You can understand it very well. 26:48.749 --> 26:58.262 If the mind is not still, just like a pool in the forest that is all stirred up, muddy, you can't see anything in it. 27:04.975 --> 27:13.282 So our practice of reversing the cycle, of breaking the cycle, is about stilling the mind. 27:14.303 --> 27:16.766 Having the mind just be with the object. 27:16.786 --> 27:19.828 It's not stillness in the sense of running away from experience. 27:19.928 --> 27:22.631 Oh, well, this experience is chaotic. 27:22.671 --> 27:24.473 Let's run away from it, because that's easy. 27:25.634 --> 27:26.935 Most meditation is like that. 27:26.975 --> 27:30.478 You find stillness just by running away, by escaping. 27:31.779 --> 27:33.000 That's not what this is. 27:33.020 --> 27:33.801 That's not what this is. 27:35.047 --> 27:37.670 This is a stillness in experience. 27:38.231 --> 27:41.095 When you experience things, you experience them with stillness. 27:41.115 --> 27:42.637 Floating on the river of experience. 27:43.758 --> 27:46.322 Not running from thoughts, not running from feeling. 27:49.145 --> 27:50.026 But still with them. 27:51.008 --> 27:51.969 They are what they are. 27:57.116 --> 28:00.560 There's yet more, and they're of a little different nature. 28:00.580 --> 28:01.341 So the next one is 28:03.312 --> 28:07.118 This is one half. 28:08.981 --> 28:11.165 The dependent are vulnerable. 28:16.634 --> 28:17.996 No, it's not vulnerable. 28:20.401 --> 28:27.312 The dependent is someone who is dependent, is perturbable maybe. 28:29.806 --> 28:30.969 This is the one side. 28:31.210 --> 28:40.738 And the second is the independent. 28:41.440 --> 28:42.162 Do not waver. 28:46.597 --> 28:47.979 A very important teaching. 28:48.039 --> 28:49.300 It's something I bring up a lot. 28:49.400 --> 28:53.806 And it's nice to have a clear quote of the Buddha to back it up. 28:54.727 --> 28:55.768 So we can refer to this. 28:55.928 --> 29:00.253 The dependent waver. 29:00.333 --> 29:06.841 What does this mean? 29:06.861 --> 29:13.589 It means that if your happiness is dependent on something, you're vulnerable. 29:14.971 --> 29:16.232 You're not unshakable. 29:20.330 --> 29:23.420 You still have some ambition, some dependency. 29:24.262 --> 29:26.530 Hey, this will make me happy, or I need this. 29:27.292 --> 29:29.479 If I don't have this, I can't be happy. 29:31.130 --> 29:32.872 That's vulnerable. 29:33.894 --> 29:35.736 That person is easily shaken. 29:36.778 --> 29:38.420 That person is shakable, perturbable. 29:39.922 --> 29:51.619 If your happiness depends on Zabli, if your peace of mind is dependent, if you're dependent, Buddha said again and again, one dwells independent. 29:52.820 --> 29:56.766 One clings to nothing in the world. 29:58.771 --> 30:05.330 Whose mind is not perturbed by the vicissitudes of life. 30:08.559 --> 30:09.642 The worldly dhamma. 30:17.063 --> 30:20.527 Which is why mindfulness is so powerful. 30:20.927 --> 30:22.709 We talk again and again about mindfulness. 30:22.769 --> 30:22.990 Why? 30:23.010 --> 30:23.751 For this reason. 30:24.952 --> 30:28.115 When you're mindful, you've got an answer for everything. 30:28.356 --> 30:33.161 There's no problem that is outside of the scope of mindful meditation. 30:34.483 --> 30:36.064 When you're mindfulness, you're imperturbable. 30:36.385 --> 30:40.249 When you're mindful, you're imperturbable. 30:40.269 --> 30:44.674 When you have pain and you say, pain, pain, the pain can't hurt you. 30:46.544 --> 30:51.869 You're unshaken because happiness doesn't depend on whether the pain goes or stays. 30:53.611 --> 30:59.677 When you see something and you like it or want it, you say seeing, seeing, you become imperturbable. 31:00.938 --> 31:04.301 The pleasant experience can't shake you. 31:05.823 --> 31:12.349 Two people see the same thing, one person is very much infatuated by it, the other person is clear and at peace. 31:13.679 --> 31:16.766 Because they have no attachment to it. 31:17.187 --> 31:20.535 That's the power of non-attachment. 31:20.836 --> 31:31.080 We talk about it, but there's no denying how powerful it is to not have anything that you're dependent on. 31:42.299 --> 31:51.812 The next one is sort of interesting. 31:51.852 --> 32:08.374 The Buddha says, . 32:08.523 --> 32:10.405 Santatara. 32:12.387 --> 32:17.712 The formless is more peaceful than the form. 32:18.613 --> 32:20.395 Formless is more peaceful than form. 32:21.416 --> 32:27.943 This is a little bit, getting a little bit technical and esoteric, I suppose. 32:29.364 --> 32:32.167 Not really, but there are two aspects of existence. 32:32.207 --> 32:33.649 There's the form and the formless. 32:34.950 --> 32:37.112 And so 32:37.092 --> 32:44.091 We attach very much to form, and form is considered to be coarse. 32:44.472 --> 32:49.465 And this is not just a Buddhist concept, it's sort of an Indian religious 32:51.571 --> 33:17.140 philosophical concept that form is more more coarse one one outlook is this and so there's an attempt in Indian religion to attain the formless to attain states that are mind only is what I mean our existence as human beings we have physical there's there's physical reality so we talk about mind and matter 33:19.094 --> 33:21.597 There are other states of existence that are mind only. 33:21.618 --> 33:34.996 Everyone is born as a god, more or less, without a body and only mind, and exists for billions, millions, billions of years, just mind only. 33:35.036 --> 33:36.118 And it's much more peaceful. 33:37.620 --> 33:38.261 It's sublime. 33:38.361 --> 33:46.452 It's godlike, really, unfathomable by a human being who's so caught up in what we would consider more coarse attachments. 33:48.727 --> 33:53.334 That's one side, but the other side is that arupe hi nirodho santataro. 33:55.497 --> 34:00.425 That cessation is yet more peaceful than the formless. 34:00.926 --> 34:10.701 So even these gods, even this mind-only state, it's not nearly, it's categorically different from actual cessation of suffering. 34:12.773 --> 34:14.195 One finds true peace. 34:15.477 --> 34:21.487 This is again one of these teachings that's somewhat troublesome or distressing for people. 34:23.951 --> 34:32.905 It only really is comprehensible or palatable for a meditator who has experienced Nibbana. 34:32.925 --> 34:35.389 Because once you experience Nibbana, there's no denying it. 34:36.449 --> 34:45.084 You have this sense of this glimpse and you have this recognition of that peace, this taste of freedom. 34:48.390 --> 35:01.512 And then again and again a meditator comes, experience, comes to this experience and further and further able to see this, that it doesn't matter where you go, you still have 35:04.732 --> 35:06.657 sankhara, there will still be suffering. 35:06.917 --> 35:07.940 They're still arising. 35:07.960 --> 35:20.229 They're still ceasing. 35:20.249 --> 35:21.913 Two more, and we're done. 35:33.284 --> 36:01.266 Buddha says, whatever people, whatever this world, whatever the world with its humans and angels and whatever beings there may be, apparently gods and all kinds of beings, whatever they see as truth, the noble ones see as false. 36:05.684 --> 36:08.167 Not whatever, but the important things. 36:08.888 --> 36:12.252 That which they see as true, the nobles see as false. 36:13.213 --> 36:18.160 And that which the nobles see as false, the other side of the coin. 36:18.180 --> 36:35.421 That which goes with... That which the world sees as false... 36:37.257 --> 36:47.008 The nobles who see well, who see clearly, who see clearly with right wisdom, this they see as true. 36:49.511 --> 36:51.313 And here the Buddha is talking about self. 36:52.455 --> 37:03.267 They see what is self as not self. 37:03.307 --> 37:04.969 They see what is not self as self-self. 37:10.552 --> 37:14.759 It means the world sees things as being me and mine. 37:15.460 --> 37:18.526 We see things as controllable, our body. 37:18.546 --> 37:20.569 And when we walk, we think I am walking. 37:20.589 --> 37:23.314 When we talk, we think I am talking. 37:23.334 --> 37:30.326 We think of things as controllable and stable and satisfying. 37:30.346 --> 37:32.830 We have conceptions about the world that the world is 37:35.442 --> 37:44.153 that this room exists and I exist and I have a soul and that there's a God and so on and so on. 37:44.173 --> 37:53.664 Wrong views of Buddhist doctrine. 37:53.684 --> 38:04.858 And number 16 is the one that I've been referring to is that that which is regarded as pleasant, that which is regarded as pleasure by the one 38:06.374 --> 38:09.340 is regarded as suffering by the normal. 38:11.144 --> 38:18.119 And that which is regarded as suffering by the world is understood as happiness by those who actually know. 38:21.325 --> 38:22.989 So here it's worth talking about the verse. 38:23.470 --> 38:25.935 This is the Sutta Nibbata, so we've got some verses. 38:30.337 --> 38:50.275 All the six senses, sights and sounds and smells and tastes and feelings and thoughts, all of these. 38:50.295 --> 38:50.976 The world says these are pleasant. 38:50.996 --> 38:52.559 These are the cause of happiness. 38:52.579 --> 38:53.661 These are what leads us to real and true satisfaction. 38:57.691 --> 39:22.180 When you don't get what you want, when you can't see and hear and smell and taste and feel and do the things you want, stress, suffering, when you go away, you cry. 39:23.729 --> 39:44.281 And these people we love, these things we like, we suffer from depressed, dissatisfied, frustrated, angry. 39:44.301 --> 39:47.987 And the same goes with, this is talking about things like Nibbana, cessation of suffering. 39:48.007 --> 39:50.631 Ooh, the world thinks, wouldn't that be awful? 39:54.475 --> 40:09.669 Overcome by desire for new life. 40:09.689 --> 40:12.535 Overcome by desire for new life for things. 40:13.848 --> 40:17.574 Unable to stand with the idea of cessation. 40:17.594 --> 40:18.255 Unable to cope with it. 40:19.116 --> 40:20.038 Sounds horrific. 40:21.560 --> 40:25.866 Even just the idea of non-self is a horrific concept. 40:25.887 --> 40:27.329 No self. 40:27.349 --> 40:29.332 But how awful. 40:29.352 --> 40:32.076 How scary. 40:35.110 --> 40:43.303 Not to speak of cessation of consciousness. 40:43.323 --> 40:45.066 Consciousness is the cause of suffering. 40:46.248 --> 40:47.670 What would I do without consciousness? 40:47.690 --> 40:49.833 Feeling is the cause of suffering. 40:49.854 --> 40:55.262 How could Nibbana be peace if there's no, how could it be happiness if there's no feeling? 40:56.584 --> 40:59.008 How could you say something is happiness without feeling? 40:59.028 --> 41:01.472 This is very hard to understand. 41:01.452 --> 41:05.539 And the answer, of course, is it's precisely because there's no feeling that it's happening. 41:08.573 --> 41:18.326 food for thought, definitely a challenge and something that can be rejected by people who don't have meditation experience. 41:18.346 --> 41:23.713 But this is why meditation, the outlook of a meditator is very much different. 41:23.733 --> 41:35.728 You don't have these kind of attachment to views like the fear that comes from even the idea that you have to give up pleasure or you have to give up experiences. 41:37.683 --> 41:42.070 There's only an evaluation of things because you're observing those experiences. 41:43.913 --> 41:48.039 And if you do it enough, you're convinced of the fact that none of it's worth anything at all. 41:48.941 --> 41:54.189 There's no benefit to anything. 41:54.469 --> 41:58.315 There's no sense of loss when it's gone. 41:58.335 --> 42:03.403 There's an unshakable, imperturbable peace that happens. 42:06.235 --> 42:16.855 So that's duality according to Buddhism. 42:16.875 --> 42:23.929 One side of the coin and the other side of the coin. 42:23.949 --> 42:24.931 An important sutta in the Buddha is Sutta Nipata. 42:24.951 --> 42:27.496 Sutta Nipata 312, the first sutta in the Mahalabdha. 42:27.516 --> 42:28.057 That's the benefit of late. 42:28.077 --> 42:28.277 Thank you.