In today’s FBA Podcast, “This Way Up – Living the Spiral Path” Saraha delivers a beautiful and engaging talk seeped in the Pali Canon. Leading with the Vatthupama, Simile of the Cloth, Sutta, Saraha gives us a very detailed look into the stages of spiritual development as described in the Lokuttara Paticcasamuppada Sutta – The Spiral Path.
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This Way Up – Living the Spiral Path
This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma, for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. So, speaking of depth and power, this is the Majminikari, it's the major part of the Parley Canon and if you're serious about Buddhism, buy a copy and delve into it, read it, enjoy it. There's one in the bookshop I noticed. So what I'm going to be doing now is reading one of the suttas in here, the simile of the cloth and talking about it, talking around it. It's very important, if you read the Parley Canon, if you read the suttas of the Parley Canon, there's a lot of content, there's a lot of technical terms, there's a lot of the Buddha speaking words of wisdom, but there's also a drama. Every sutta has a drama, there's a certain situation where the Buddha is, there's certain people he's talking to, things happen, sometimes very dramatic things happen. In this sutta, he is sitting by a river and he's talking to bhikkhus, he's talking to monks. But what you find out at the end is that there's a Brahmin who has a Hindu sitting nearby and the Buddha is talking about purity, the Buddha is talking about how to practice the Dharma, how to purify oneself and at the end the Brahmin pipes up, there's obviously been eavesdropping on what the Buddha's been saying. And what the Brahmin says is Buddha, Gautama, have you bathed in such and such a river? If you bathed in this river, you will be purified. And the Buddha says, what can these rivers do? They cannot purify an evil doer, a man who has done cruel and brutal deeds. One pure in heart has ever more, the feast of spring the holy day. One fair in act, one pure in heart brings his virtue to perfection. It is here Brahmin that you should bathe to make yourself a refuge for all beings. And if you speak no falsehood, more work harm for living beings, nor take what is offered not with faith and free from avarice, what need for you to go to Gaia for any well will be your Gaia. So the Buddha is saying, if you purify your heart, you don't need these special rivers, any old well will do. When this was said, the Brahmin said, magnificent master Gautama, magnificent master Gautama, master Gautama has made the Dharma clear in many ways, as though he were turning upright what had been overturned, revealing what was hidden, showing the way to one who was lost. Or holding up a lamp in the dark for those with eyesight to see forms. A very open description, he is saying, it is like bringing a light into a dark place. He doesn't say anything about what you see when the light is brought. The Brahmin goes on, I go to master Gautama for refuge and to the Dharma and to the Sangha Vikkhus. I would receive the going forth under the master Gautama, I would receive the full admission. So he wholeheartedly takes on the Buddha's teachings on the strength of this encounter. He decides that he will have the full admission, he will do what the Buddha advises wholeheartedly. But that's the end of this sutta, near the end, the real ending is when there's a description of the Brahmin's next few months and the Brahmin gains enlightenment. But the sutta begins, and it begins as most of them begin, with thus have I heard. Thus have I heard, on one occasion, the blessed one was living at Sarvati in Jettas Grove, in Arta Pincus Park, there he addressed the bikus thus, bikus, venerable sir they replied, the blessed one said of this, bikus, suppose a cloth were defiled and stained, and a dyer dipped it in some dye or other, whether blue or yellow or red or pink, it would look poorly dyed and impure in colour, why is that, because of the impurity of the cloth. So too, when the mind is defiled, an unhappy destination may be expected, bikus, suppose a cloth were pure and bright, and a dyer dipped it in some dye or other, whether blue or yellow or red or pink, it would look well dyed and pure in colour, why is that, because of the purity of the cloth. So too, when the mind is undefiled, a happy destination may be expected. So the Buddha uses this image and he goes straight to your mind, very, very simple, the image of a cloth and a dyer and your mind. And this is very significant, what he is saying is it is your mind that matters, that is what matters, the current state of your mind is the foundation for the future state of your mind, and it is not by chance, if your mind is pure, a happy destination may be expected, it does not happen by chance, you can expect to result if you are wise, you can know what you are going to get. So a question, what are you like when you are at your best, what qualities do you have when you are feeling at your best? What qualities do you admire in other people? Who do you want to be in five years time, what sort of person do you want to be in five years time, or ten years time, next week? So it is your choice, what you dwell on that you become is a phrase of the Buddhas. So this is a call for us to be honest, it is a call for us to know our minds, to know what our mind is like and to know the contents of our mind, listen to the tone of voice of your mind, how do you speak to yourself, sometimes in meditation we are following the breath and the thought arises, I think it does not happen to anyone, but sometimes that happens, listen to the tone of voice of that thought, listen to the content of that thought, make note, go back to the breath. In early Buddhism, consciousness is always consciousness of something, there is no such thing as consciousness, the idea of consciousness transmigrating from one life to the next is late, it is a little later, it is still partly canon, but the very early suttas, consciousness is of the eye, ear, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind and the Buddhas says it very explicitly, there is no other consciousness, consciousness is always a consciousness of, so what that means, what your mind is doing, what you are doing is your consciousness, what you are doing at any moment, that is the state of your consciousness, so be honest, let's be honest with ourselves, 24/7, not unkind with ourselves, but honest, and clear, I got a friend who is now an order member and I was talking to him the other week and we were talking about friends from our past, friends from our childhood and he said that he has got a very particular friend that he is still in good contact with and he believes, he believes then and he believes now that this friend of his has got more spiritual potential than he has, that he is not doing anything with it, whereas he, my friend, he feels that he had very little spiritual potential, he has got a structure, he is engaging with a sanger, he is engaging with a set of teachings and he has made a lot of progress, he is an order member, he is doing very good things with his life, with his time. I was struck some time ago by somebody saying it was a man who would ask for ordination and he was a bit, he was sort of complaining, he was saying something like, it seems to me that guys who live in communities get ordained quicker, guys who work in right livelihood businesses get ordained quicker, through his making this as a bit of a, bit of a complaint and I was quite shocked, what I say to guys who want to join the order is that you have to do two things, firstly you have to effectively go for refuge to the three jewels, secondly you have to be in good, clear communication with order members so that that is recognized. If you live with order members, you are likely to be in better, deeper, more regular communication. If you want to learn to play the guitar, you can sit at home with the guitar, you will get somewhere, you can sit at home with the guitar and a book you will get somewhere, you can go to a weekly class, you will make more progress, if you live with guitarists you will make a lot more progress, very interesting, obviously there are exceptions, I know many people who, because of their responsibilities, are unable to live in communities, are unable to work in right livelihoods, and they can make enormous progress, rapid, substantial progress, there are exceptions, there are people who can live in communities and not quite get it, not quite understand or not, it doesn't quite click, there are communities and there are communities, after all, a community is simply the people living there, if you are living there, well you are one of the conditions that make it vibrant or not community. So what I am saying is that conditions are important and that we should value the conditions that are available to us, particularly we should value the communities, we should value the institutions of the movement, value them simply because they are beneficial, so I work at a public centre and well I live here and I have seen so many people benefit from our movement, I have seen so many people turn up at the centre in a bit of a state and over the next years they have really changed, they have become much more confident, upright, much more authentic, much more real, much happier. The important thing with that is to recognise the importance of conditions, to work out what conditions you need and to take initiative, if there is a community near you, be in communication with it, celebrate it, invite them around for dinner, invite yourself around for dinner, if there isn't a community, well start meeting up with friends more regularly, try to get some of the benefits, the spiritual benefits of community living, of working with other Buddhists, so conditions are important, what you do is important, as I said I was on a solitary retreat this summer, in a cave in the Pyrenees, and whenever I am on retreat I try to practise Brahmacarya, so I try to practise contentment, sexual contentment of body speech and mind, I was very struck by that on this occasion, on my previous two or three solitarys I found it very difficult, I have been chewing the carpet, it has been very hard to be still, to be content of body speech and mind, and I often felt that I wasn't making progress, I was trying to do something that was impossible, I was trying to do something that I couldn't do, there was too much several million years of the survival of the roundiest, pushing me onwards, pushing me, but on this last solitary, it wasn't an issue, I think for the first month I didn't have a single sexual thought, the second month I had two or three sexual thoughts of one or two seconds each, it was quite remarkable, and it didn't feel like, often when I try to practise Brahmacarya, it feels like there's a hole inside me, there's something missing, or there's a gap, and sometimes that gap is sucking in energy, sucking in awareness and energy, and sometimes there's energy pouring out of it, energy for meditation, energy for reflection, pouring out of that hole, but on this retreat I felt, I didn't feel that, I just felt, I felt whole, I felt integrated, that hasn't lasted since I got back, I hasten to add, but I was very struck by this, and I thought that effort is never wasted, on this last solitary, I wasn't having to make any effort to practise Brahmacarya, I'd done that in previous years, and it just happened, so effort is never wasted, on this last solitary, yes I was working on things and seemed to be making no progress, but I felt a great confidence, I felt so sure that if I was making this effort with honesty, with integrity, then it would have an effect. I also felt that, well I've been practising our methods for many years, I've been teaching or communicating our methods for many years, I can just get on with them, without having to keep questioning them, I felt I've got enough faith in Banti, I've got enough faith in our tradition, in the Buddha, I've got enough faith in the practises that I have inherited from the Sangha, but I can just get on with them, without having to be looking over my shoulder to seeing what effect they're having, and that was such a relief, it was such a relief just to be able to, just to let go into trusting that they would work, so the sutta goes on, I'll read the next few passages, so to repeat myself, bikus, suppose a cloth were pure and bright, and a dyer dipped it in some dye or other, with a blue or yellow or red or pink, it would look well dyed and pure in colour, why is that, because of the purity of the cloth, so to, when the mind is undefiled, a happy destination may be expected, what, bikus, are the imperfections that defile the mind, covetousness and unrighteous greed is an imperfection that defiles the mind, ill will, anger, revenge, contempt, a domineering attitude, envy, avarice, deceit, sword, obstinency, presumption, conceit, arrogance, vanity, negligence. So knowing that these sixteen are imperfections that defile the mind, a bikku abandons them. So why do we abandon them? We abandon them because they defile the mind, and if the mind is defiled, an unhappy destination may be expected, if they're abandoned, and a happy destination may be expected. So we abandon them because they make us suffer, not because the Buddha said, we abandon them because they make us suffer. There's a, again in the Maginikaya, in number 75, the Magandius Sutter, there's a very, very graphic image of this process of why we abandon such things. So the Buddha is looking at us and he's seeing what we get up to, and he said, what he says is, it's like a leper. So a leper has a disease, a very, very terrible, painful disease, where the flesh rots, usually the extremities, so you see people in the, you've got lepersies, their fingers can be rotted off, their toes, their nose, their ears can be rotted off, and it's very, very painful, very itchy, very scratchy, it's very painful. And lepers, they're experiencing that pain, and it's so bad that they feel sometimes that to put their hand in a fire of burning coals is an alleviation, it reduces the pain. We probably all experienced this to some extent, if you've got a scar, it sort of helps to push it somehow, it helps to, to sort of change, just to change it. So the Buddha sees this leper, he's obviously seen a leper doing this, putting his hand in a fire, and he sees us, with these imperfections of mind, thinking we enjoy them. We enjoy our ill will, we enjoy revenge, we enjoy a domineering attitude, but the Buddha sees that that is just like this leper, we're trying to alleviate one pain with another pain. So we know these imperfections that defile the mind, and we abandon them. When Abhikkhu has known that these sixteen imperfections that defile the mind, and has abandoned them, he acquires perfect confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Sangha. Very interesting, you abandon them, and you know I have abandoned them. So there's a reflective element, there's a reflective element there. And that word perfect confidence in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha is Pasadena, which means clear, it means bright, it means purity, remember the cloth when it's pure and bright. So if you know the imperfections and abandon them, and then you reflect, I have abandoned them, you will develop this brightness in relation to the Buddha, this purity, this joy. It also means joy, it means satisfaction, it means a happy mind or a good mind, it means virtue, and it means faith. So the translation is homing in on the word faith, you attain faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. So this is the first two lengths of the spiral path on your list. Independence upon suffering arises faith. It isn't just independence upon suffering, there's open to misinterpretation now. If you say independence upon suffering arises faith, well that's not my experience. For me independence upon suffering arises misery, resentment, anger, frustration, not faith. So what does one need to do to make faith arise independence upon suffering? Well, you need to recognise that suffering is suffering, you need to recognise the causes of your suffering, and then do something about it. If you do something about it, then faith can arise. So he goes on. When he has given up, expelled, released, abandoned, and relinquished the imperfections of mind in part, interesting, before it was abandoned, now it's abandoned in part. These suttas are sometimes, you get the sense, they're a bit of a composite, they've been tinkered with a little bit. So when he has given up in part, he considers us. So he reflects to himself, I am possessed of perfect confidence in the Buddha, in the Dharma, the Sangha, and he gains inspiration in the meaning. He gains inspiration in the Dhamma, he gains gladness connected with the Dhamma. So he also does that. He considers his confidence in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. He also considers, he considers us, the imperfections of mind have in part been given up, expelled, released, abandoned, and relinquished by me. So we consider our faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. And we consider the progress we've made so far. If you do that then, well then he gains, and the word for gains is la bhati. And that's an interesting word, it means gains, it means receives, it can mean you receive a booty. It means you receive a wealth, you receive something very valuable. So what do you gain if you reflect on those, on that faith, and on your progress so far? You gain inspiration, you gain enthusiasm, even excitement, even awe, you gain awe in the ata, in the ata, in the good, in the meaning, but also inspiration, enthusiasm, excitement in the Dhamma. Also you gain gladness connected with the Dhamma. So that is link two to link three, and faith arises gladness. Like just gladness, it's inspiration, enthusiasm, excitement. So so far, just to summarize where we've gone so far. If you have a pure and bright cloth, you can do with it what you like. You've got control, you're free to make it whatever colour you like, to do with it whatever you like, you've got power. If your mind is undefiled, it will naturally gain confidence from the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Quite naturally. So what does that mean? What is the Buddha? Well the Buddha is the historical Buddha, the Buddha is the Buddha who gained enlightenment, but the Buddha in this context can mean the perfection of enlightenment. It can mean perfect freedom, perfect bliss, creativity. You could say it represents the eradication of greed, hatred, and delusion, which means the fulfillment of love, generosity, and wisdom. So that's what the Buddha means, it's the ideal, it's the ideal spiritual state. The Dhamma. The Dhamma is the truth, the Dhamma is the path to enlightenment. So the Dhamma in this context means you can do it. The Buddha said you can do it, the Buddha said anybody can do it, anybody can gain enlightenment. You're not special, you can do it. You need to know which way it is. You can't know what it is, you can know which way it is, and the Buddha is telling us which way it is. We know which way it is. We do the maths of breathing in the meta-barbner, we know which way it is. So that's the Dhamma. The confidence, the knowledge that you know the way, and that you can do it, if you try. And the Sangha, what is the Sangha? Well, the Sangha is the vast amount of people who have gained enlightenment. The vast amount of people who are practising the Dhamma, and there are a vast amount of people who are practising the Dhamma. One way I like to think of the Sangha, the Buddha represents the ideal of enlightenment, represents the perfection of the spiritual goal. The Sangha represents the diversity of enlightenment. If any one of us gained enlightenment, we'd be different to anybody else who gained enlightenment. We'd have some qualities that overlap, but there's a great diversity, there's a great wealth of possibilities. So we recognise and consider the attainment of faith, we recognise and consider very important words, recognise and consider one's progress so far. This naturally gives rise to inspiration, to enthusiasm, to excitement, in the meaning, in the good, in the Dhamma, and it naturally gives rise to gladness in the Dhamma. Sometimes I think we think that clearing away impurities, or what will that be like? We've got what the Buddha refers to as impurities, if we clear them away, what would life be like? And sometimes I think we think, well, it would be just the same, but without the thumb. It would be just the same, but without the interesting bits. Imagine that you've got a really dull, cloudy day, overcast, low cloud, cold. When you think, well, I could clear away the clouds, what would it be like? Well, it would just be the same, dull, cold, a bit bleak, there'd be no clouds, not true. You clear away the clouds, you've got a blue sky, a vast, infinite, unknowable blue sky, you've got the sun, you've got a radiant sun, the whole world takes on a colour and a vibrancy. It seems to take on another depth, another dimension. You've got the heat of the sun, you've got the wind, so a completely different world just by removing the clouds. So what happens next in the sutter? So he gains inspiration in the meaning, he gains inspiration in the dhamma, he gains gladness connected with the dhamma. When he is glad, rapture is born in him. In one who is rapturous, the body becomes tranquil. One whose body is tranquil feels pleasure. In one who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. See, lists like this, the parly calendar is full of lists like this, and they can seem quite ordinary. But do you hear that? Certainly in Birmingham, you ask someone how they are. I felt gladness, I became rapturous, my body became tranquil. You don't hear that on the number 50 boss in Birmingham, that is not common parlance in our world, it is common parlance amongst dhamma practitioners. So this is the next few stages of the spiral path. This is the first half of the spiral path up to concentration. So I'm not intending to analyse that first half of the spiral path, but just to say if you set up conditions, these states naturally follow on one from each other. If you focus on your breath, your body relaxes, try it. Try it at work. Try it when you are sat in front of the computer, tense. I'll try focusing on my breath, see what happens. And with these, they are very positive images, that one pleasure, succor. It doesn't mean pleasure, it means worldly pleasure. It means the pleasure of good food, it means the pleasure of just enjoying life. But it also means bliss, it means spiritual bliss, it's a very rich word. It's one of the most common words in the parly canon, succor, pleasure and bliss, spiritual bliss. So you know you're on the right track with Dharma practice, because you're enjoying it, because you're feeling happy. You're feeling more yourself, you're feeling more together, more alive, more happy. Concentration arises out of making ethical choices, to do with your mind, to do with your mental states, and out of a joyful engagement with your experience. That's what you need. If you want to be concentrated, make ethical choices, and appreciate your experience. So now, what happens next? In the usual list, knowledge and division of things as they really are, yatta, buta, nyana, dassana. Dassana is vision, it's like darshan to see, nyana, it can just simply mean knowledge. It can be quite a refined wisdom quality, nyana. So independence, one concentration arises knowledge and vision of things as they really are. This is insight. But that's not always the case. Very important to remember that. In the Digganyakaya, we've got the Brahma Jala Sutter, and the Buddha lists a great long list of wrong views, they're dangerous wrong views, dangerous because they prevent you from the supreme bliss, they prevent you from being ultimately happy, these wrong views, these dangerous wrong views. Most of those wrong views in that sutter arise out of concentration, so beware. So this list of the 12 positive nyana's, you could say that this is the description of what happens, this is the Buddha looking back at his life and saying, "Okay, I'm free, how did that come about, how did that happen?" And he says, "I did that and that arose. I became concentrated and then I gained insight." But what I'm talking about is more what to do. This list, the traditional list of the 12 is what happens, what I'm talking about is what do you do? So do this and faith arises. Do what? Do purity. Do purity of mind and faith arises. Do this with faith, i.e. dwell on it, reflect on it, be conscious that you have faith and what happens, inspiration arises, enthusiasm, excitement or arise. And then joy, rapture, calm, bliss, concentration arise. So now, to go from concentration to insight, this sutter, the simile of the cloth, is very interesting. But first, it describes a, well, a pleasant side effect of the practice that you've done so far. So at the start, I mentioned that consciousness is intimately connected with what you are doing or what you're experiencing. And frequently, the Buddha in the Pali Canon says, "If you want to overcome attachments to pleasure, keep away from the sources of pleasure." It's actually quite a valid teaching now. If you want to practice simplicity, put yourself in a simple environment and don't take your laptop or your phone or your watch, even. But, this sutter is very interesting and this is the pleasing side effect of practice so far, bikus. To bikus of such virtue, such a state of concentration and such wisdom eats alms food consisting of choice hill rice, along with various chutneys and curries. Even that will be no obstacle for him, just as a cloth that is defiled and stained becomes pure and bright with the help of clear water, or just as gold becomes pure and bright with the help of a furnace. So too, if a biku of such virtue, concentration and wisdom eats alms food but it's delicious, that will be no obstacle for him. So if your mind is free of attachment, you can enjoy life without fear. You can kiss the joy as it flies, as I think William Blake said. You have to be on top of your mental states, but again, beware, it's up to you, to be honest, is what you're doing, increasing your attachment? Is what you're doing, really leading to pain, are you scratching a scab? What are you in this, without obstacle, enjoying life? So that's on the side, the usual list, independence on concentration arises knowledge and vision of things as they really are, and then withdrawal, dispassion and freedom. So what is knowledge and vision? Knowledge and vision of things as they really are, isn't seeing some metaphysical truth, it doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean accurately seeing the molecular structure of the universe, it doesn't mean seeing the laws of physics, it doesn't even mean seeing all the facts. Knowledge and vision of things that they really are means that you see the things to which you are attached as impermanent, insubstantial and unsatisfactory. So it's a knowledge and vision of attachment, of seeing the impermanence, the insubstantiality, unsatisfactoriness, and naturally, if you see things like that, as the Dharmapada says, you will become wary of suffering, you will withdraw. But what will you withdraw? I had an interesting time a year or two ago, I was at the, I was working at the Buddhist Centre, and there was stuff happening that I didn't like. I felt sort of disregarded, I felt my opinions weren't being taken, and this was very painful. And I reflected, okay, so this is painful. If I had knowledge and vision of things as they really are, how would this be different? And I thought, well, in the traditional list, it's withdrawal, I'd withdraw. Does that mean I leave? Well, no, I wasn't going to leave. So what do I withdraw? What do I need to withdraw to turn this situation from a painful situation into a liberating situation? I had to withdraw selfishness, I had to withdraw my ego, I had to withdraw greed, hatred, and delusion. I had to withdraw attachment and aversion and self-centredness. And then I could engage with the objective demands of the situation. What actually is going on? What actually is needed? What do I want? What do I like? Is it relevant? What does the situation need? And I found that I could engage with that so much stronger if I could even have the idea of letting go of what I wanted, of my likes and dislikes. My opinions. So attachment and aversion is the natural response to pleasure and pain. If you withdraw, you stop basing your actions on your likes and dislikes. If you stop doing that, then quite naturally, dispassion. So dispassion, when you lose passion, you lose selfish passion and hey presto, freedom. So that is what happens. How do we make it happy? How do we go from concentration to knowledge and vision of things as they are, and then the freedom that follows, the freedom being the engagement with what needs to be done? So first, the mind becomes concentrated and then we enjoy without guilt. We enjoy without attachment good food. And then, he abides pervading one quarter of the world with a mind imbued with loving kindness. Likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above, below, around and everywhere, and to all as to himself. He abides pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill will. So the metabharthner is the opportunity of letting go of your likes and dislikes and moving into the objective situation. What do we do in the metabharthner? We sit down, we sit quietly, simple environment, turned off our computer, we're sitting there with ourselves and we deliberately bring to mind someone that we like. We deliberately bring to mind someone to whom we might have a little attachment and we try to be objective, we try to develop matter. We deliberately bring to mind someone we don't like or it doesn't like us. So we're trying to trigger our being into attachment and aversion. We're triggering likes and dislikes to give ourselves the opportunity of working with that. Sometimes I think that meditation, particularly the metabharthner, is like practicing your scales so that when you're in life, you're good. When you're in life, you can jam with the world in a good way. So you can engage with beings, regardless of whether you like them or not, regardless of whether they interest you, you can engage with them as they are. What's going on for them? Matter is natural, if you don't have selfishness, matter will be triggered by every single being that you meet. Matter is the natural emotional response of a Buddha. If you see clearly, which means without selfish attachment, then every being will be a trigger for matter, which is an actual desire to help beings. It's not just some nice, warm feeling, it's a wish to help. In living with kindness, Sangamakita says, and this links us back into the earlier discussion of what is consciousness. Consciousness is what you're dwelling on. So in living with kind of Sangamakita says, matter is not so much a state of mind as a movement within consciousness, or a medium within which consciousness can move. Matter is a medium within which consciousness can move. So that is how to withdraw, that is how to move from concentration to knowledge and vision of things as they really are, how to withdraw your selfish attachment. The sort of goes on to mention the rest of the Brahma Viharas, the compassion, appreciative joy, that the happiness to see somebody else happy, wonderful quality, equanimity. And he understands thus, there is this, there is the inferior, there is the superior. Very interesting. The point, he recognizes that, there is a good way to go, there is a not so good way to go. There is an inferior, there is a superior, and beyond, there is an escape from this whole field of perception. When he knows and sees thus, the mind is liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, from the taint of ignorance. When it is liberated, there comes the knowledge, it is liberated. So this is the stage of freedom, there is liberation. But liberation isn't enough, it's not enough to have success in practice. You need to keep looking and keep questioning, right to the end. So of the 12 links, link 11 is freedom, that is enlightenment, surely. But link 12 is knowledge of the destruction of the archivists. Link 12 is knowledge, I am free. You need freedom, and then you need to know I am free, before it is somehow complete. So what I have been talking about is a dialogue between what one does and what happens. Three order members in a room, one of them said, John Chen is the most profound. Another one said, how so? More profound than the historical Buddha, more profound than the Buddha at the Palikana. And I was curious, I reflected on that, I thought about that. I have got a great love of Zolchen, of those texts and of the Palikana, what is the difference? What did that mean? Why did that order member come to the conclusion that Zolchen is the most profound? Why did that other order member question it? Very interesting. My reflection on that, and I am not an expert, I have read and reflected, Zolchen tells of the effect. Zolchen offers you a grainy black and white picture of the vibrant universe of the enlightened mind. When that gets in very profound, it is a grainy black and white picture of the colourful, three-dimensional, moving universe of the enlightened mind. If an effect is suggested, one will, in a certain sense, feel that effect. Not in a very authentic way, in a very partial way, but one will feel it. Those sort of texts, they can give you an experience. The Pali, the Buddha in the Palikana suggests, just set up conditions, just set up conditions for genuine experience to arise. The Pali suggests, the Pali wisdom is a wisdom of lifestyle. If you want that freedom, and it doesn't describe what it is, it's like somebody brings a light into a dark room, it's up to you to look, it's up to you to make use of your eyes and that light. It's a wisdom of lifestyle, it's a wisdom of commitment, it's a wisdom of setting up conditions for you to experience that freedom. And Banti is very strongly, on that end of the spectrum, to set up conditions, experience clearly and honestly. In that recent document, Revering and Relying Upon the Dhamma, which was written, well, it's a joint effort, Sangevashita and Savouti, is on Sangevashita's website. Sangevashita says, through Savouti's pen, don't try to calibrate experience, fitting it into one or other hierarchical schema. If it is genuinely helpful to speak of your experience, and Sangevashita said to me once, if it is genuinely helpful to think about your experiences, just do them, have them, let go, move on. So I'm also setting up in this talk, a tension between, we should have experiences and reflect on them. This is what the Sutter says, develop faith, reflect, I have developed faith. And this, well, don't, just do it. The bird flying in the sky doesn't keep thinking, well, I just went to that bit there, I had that experience, you just keep going, just keep going. If it is genuinely helpful to speak of what happened at all, we should simply describe as best we can the raw experience. Don't force experience into the straight jacket of Buddhist terminology. I just picked up this, Walt Whitman. It is time to explain myself, let us stand up, what is known I strip away. I launch all men and women forward with me into the unknown. So you can be someone who looks in the shop window, you can be someone who reads about other people's spiritual experiences, who smells the aroma of other people's meals. And this can be great, reading about other people's egoless experiences can give your ego a real kick, it can give your ego a real sense of pleasure and excitement and awe. But Banty is not interested in this, Banty just offers us the recipe, don't smell other people's meals, here's the recipe, he shows us the path to genuine egolessness. And that path is ethics, that path. Know what's positive, know what's negative and make your choice, mindfulness, you need mindfulness to do that, spiritual friendship, you need spiritual friendship to help you with your ethical decisions, with your ethical choices. Metabharva, do the metabharva, be real in your metabharva, really try to trigger those responses of attachment and aversion, bring to mind people in the metabharva and be open to your first response, your initial response and then get on with that, get on with trying to see and know things as they really are. That person was born as I was born, that person will die as I will die, that person has joys, sorrows, loves, hates, friends, enemies, success, failure, what is the objective situation, what is my response? Ethics, mindfulness, metabharva, friendship and a completely wide open attitude, no descriptions of what happens. You could say that the Buddha is giving us a get out of jail free card, is telling us how to get out of the jail of our greed, hatred and delusion, is not telling us what to do once we're out, that's up to us. This is the most profound. This is the path, what happens is the unknown, what happens we don't know. Sanger actually once said, don't be someone who tries to copy a Jackson Pollock painting, by all means have a glance, but get on with your own canvas, put energy into your own life. If you practise, you yourself will plunge into the ocean of bliss, love and freedom. I was going to have lots of poems in this talk, but they all got squeezed out, but I couldn't resist this one, Rebecca Elson, and this is going to be my ending, two nuns. This is the season when the nuns come down to walk along the beach, in pairs like rare white wading birds, their windfalls whipping in the wind. Only their shoes shed, they hoist their habits up above their knees and walk into the waves. But if God is this turquoise jewel of sea, wouldn't he want to take them in unwrapped? Let them feel the lightness of their limbs, their buoyant breasts. [Music] [Music] [ Silence ]