163: Retreat Dhamma Talk 58: Mindfulness of Mind

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Retreat series, Dhamma Talk number fifty-eight. We have recently discussed mindfulness of the body and mindfulness of the feeling. And in between the causal relationships and the benefits we discuss. Today we are going to touch upon mindfulness of the mind. Also translated as contemplation of mind. In Pali it is called Jitta Nupassana. Jitta Nupassana. So before we go into the contemplation of the mind or contemplation of the consciousness, let's go into a brief understanding of what consciousness are or about. When a life begins in a life. That's the first one that arises. And then it keeps on arising throughout your life. We baka jigda. Just to understand in a plain language, such things as seeing or seeing consciousness. Hearing. When we say hearing that means hearing consciousness. Seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness, smelling consciousness, taste consciousness, touch consciousness. Those are vibaka jita, resultant consciousness, programmed from the actions of your past life. The actions that you had done. Those arises. And they are resultant consciousness. That's the extent we need to know. Whenever these arises, their arising is associated with pasab mental contact and weight on our feelings. So that is one type of consciousness we need to know. And the other one is whenever there's a feeling, what happens? We take actions based on the cue of the feelings. And when we take actions, that means we do something physically, verbally, or even mentally. And when we do things, when we take actions, there are two types. One is wholesome, kusala. And another one is unwholesome, akusala. Wholesome actions and unwholesome actions. Unwholesome actions are always related or associated with lobad Greek, dosat aversion, and moha. Confusion or uncertainty. So we now know there are three types. One is a resultant consciousness, one is the wholesome consciousness, one is a group of unwholesome consciousness. And these wholesome and unwholesome consciousness are associated with wholesome mental factors or unwholesome mental factors. These mental factors you can understand like coloring. So those are the colors, are the ones, all sorts of mental factors or mental associatives that arise together with the consciousness. So they are the mental factors, or let's say colorings. So when we are observing the consciousness, we are observing those colors. So this observation of the different kinds of mental associate associated with the consciousness constantly, continuously, and very closely. That is called Jitana Pasana, contemplation of mind or mindfulness of the mind. So one needs to know three groups of consciousness and one need to be paying close attention to what kind of colourings are associated with closely, continuously, constantly. That is mindfulness of the mind or jitanipasana. But in practice, of course, we are not repeating these definitions in line. In practice, in our meditation, we are observing our consciousness, whether the consciousness is associated with anger or associated with happiness, frustration, irritation, love, hate, etc. And if you are observing those things, then you are practicing jitta nupassana, contemplation of mind. So as we are practicing satipattana vipassana, mindfulness and side meditation. We are using full foundation of mindfulness as a tool to practice vipassana meditation. So we'll approach this according to the discourse on full foundation of mindfulness. In that sutta, this contemplation of mind is explained through our six pairs of consciousness. Six pairs of consciousness or let's say twelve consciousness. Divided in such a way because those are the ones that you can effectively observe or contemplate upon. And what is sa raga chaita? Sa is with or together with. And another word for raga is loba, loba, raga the same. Chaita is consciousness. So sa raga chaitha means simply consciousness associated with raga las or loba. That is sa raga chaita. In other words, this is a mind or consciousness in a simple way. Where there's the wanting, cravings, desire, grasping. Those natures associated with that consciousness. Wanting, craving, grasping. They are associated with this saraga jita, consciousness with raga or with lust. And these types of consciousness are always arising in an unmindful mind. If one is unmindful, whatever is arising is this sarada jaita. Most of the time they are dominating your stream of consciousness. And not only the unmindful mind, let's say you are practicing mindfulness, and if your mindfulness is superficial, and if your determination is not strong, these saraga jita will be arising. And even if you are practicing with strong determination and quite closely and penetratively, even with that, there are moments whenever your efforts weaken. At that moment, these hard raka chita can arise. So they are different situations, but they will still arise. That's saraga jeta. So in practice, in practice, what do you do when you are meditating? You are not saying saraga jeta, saraga jeta. What is this when you are noting or when you are aware of the wanting, hoping, expecting, clinging. And if you are observing those things, you are observing this consciousness with lust. In other words, you have to observe the specific colours of the consciousness, not simply whenever it is thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. That's very general. But if you want Jitanyupasana, you have to go very specific. What kind of mental factors are associated with this consciousness? That's how one observes the consciousness with raga or last. And when you note it, sometimes just one noting, one thing, and simply it disappeared. And sometimes no, you just go one thing, one thing, one thing. Three four times you have to note till they dissolve. Sometimes one noting will take care of it, sometimes two, three, four noting has to be observed. Observed, not just reciting the word. Then it will dissolve or disappear. And when you note these mental defilements with last, a mental defilement or last, consciousness with mental defilements, that's called. Let's be specific with last raga or lobha. And that one disappear, and the next one that arises may be the same thing. Consciousness with some form of kilisa mental define. This consciousness with last disappear, and the next one would be consciousness with some time of some type of kilisa. Or it could be a consciousness without killisa, without raga that can also arise. So consciousness without raga or lobha, lust or greed, when they arise. Without them, then the consciousness is clear and pure. And that consciousness is called Vita. Raga jita. In simple one translation is consciousness without lust or greed. And in here, one need to be very careful because these are we are playing with words, concept, consciousness without. In other words, lack of lust. Consciousness without or lack of lust. If that's the case, automatically some people go and scan your thoughts, scan your awareness. Is there any lust? Scanning the lust. And if you are doing that, you are on a wrong trap. You do not go and look for raga or lobha. You do not go and look for the lack of raga and loba. In other words, you cannot look, you cannot observe and vipassana anything that is not there. If you are looking for something, anything that is not there, making sure that is not there, that means you are out of the vipassana. So what it is is as soon as this last or greed disappears, what happens is automatically the mind at that moment is clear and pure. That's what it is. Clear and pure. So at that moment, don't go and scan it or such as whether it is there or it is not there. What you know, what it is, is the purity of the consciousness, clarity of the consciousness. So at that moment, when you are noting, say clear, clarity or purity, clarity, purity. And if you are aware of the clear nature and pure nature, then you are observing the raga jeta consciousness without greed or lust. So that you need to be very clear about it. Very seems like you are doing the same thing, but it could be on the right track or on the wrong track. So if you look at it, why is this consciousness without greed or lust arises? Do they arise automatically? No, they do not arise automatically. Before that there was a consciousness with greed or lust. And you have to observe it, you have to be mindful of it. Only when you are become very observant, aware, and mindful of it, suddenly this pure consciousness arises. So mindfulness is the cause arising of this pure and clear consciousness, the effect. There's a causal relationship between mindfulness and this pure and clear consciousness. One needs to know. One level is there's a consciousness with greed and lust, and you are attentively, forcefully, powerfully observing it. You apply your attention, you apply your mindfulness towards it. And as you applied it, this consciousness with lust and greed dissolve, disappear. That's one way. But you are actually purposefully applying it, directing it, observing it. That's one way it disappears. And those are especially for people who are starting, beginners, or still working hard on the path. But once when one becomes skillful, what happens is there's a consciousness with raga arises and you simply know it. It arises and you know. And as soon as you know, it simply just dissolves. When you become skillful, simply by knowing there it is, and that consciousness with greed and last disappear, and the pure consciousness arises. So there are two levels. At the beginning, you have to start with earth and effort. Once you become skillful, simply you need to know. You just need to put effort to know that's it. So those are the little things that one needs to know. And Buddha said in the sutra, and when there is a let's call it in Pali, when there is a saragateta, consciousness with greed and lust, know that there is saragatha. In other words, there are two aspects. One is the arising of the lust and greed, another one is the knowing or observing of the lust and greed. There are two little aspects, but in practice it's very difficult to differentiate. But one needs to understand that way. Arising of it and knowing of it. There are two aspects of it. So that's why we call it note. Note, note, label, label, greed, greed, last, last. It is the noting or recording or acknowledging or cognizing the object. This object is consciousness with greed and last. That's the object, and the other part is noting, recording, cognizing, or confirming oneself that you know. There's a two aspect. So Buddha said you must note. That's called the word note. And if the consciousness is pure, just know that it is pure. If it is clear, know that it is clear. Clear consciousness is the object, knowing is the effect. One needs to clearly understand that way. Two levels, of course, one is intellectually, another one is experientially. And Buddhists have no cognized record or just mentally labeled it. The fact of the matter. So that is the one pair, with or without raga. So two types of consciousness. The next one is sa dosa jeta and vita dosa jeta. I think you know by now sa is with, together with, dosa is anger, aversion, jeta is consciousness, consciousness with anger or aversion, consciousness without anger or aversion. That's another pair. We are always, all the time when we are, we are in contact with so many objects, physical and mental objects. Constantly, non-stop, we are always in contact. And when we come in contact with let's call it unsatisfactory object that doesn't agree with you. Whenever you come in contact with the unsatisfactory object, you become dissatisfied. Dissatisfaction automatically arises. And at that moment, one must note, one must be mindful. Cruel, malicious, hate. Whatever that comes up, the appropriate, one must know the intensity. A little dissatisfaction or anger or aversion or hate or cruelty or ill will or malicious have to be very specific. That is chitadupasana. One must be able to note it. And if you note it, this consciousness with anger and aversion. Sometimes it disappears with one noting. And sometimes you have to note three or four or five, and sometimes it comes back again and again, and you just keep on noting and noting and noting. Just to give an example, already explained it. Sometimes you have to purposely, purposefully note, sometime it is automatically you note and they are gone. Two levels of mention. I'll explain with an analogy. Somebody practicing to juggle balls, three balls, at the beginning you have to put a lot of attention. But once you master it, skillful, it's automatic. You're just throwing the balls and they just go round and round. Just like that. Before you become skillful, you have to be purposefully directing and noting. When you become skillful, you simply know and they simply dissolve and disappear. Two level. The same thing with the first. So if you note it, they will dissolve, and as soon as they dissolve, what happened? Pure consciousness or clear consciousness arises. That pure consciousness or clear consciousness is weita, dosa, jeta. Consciousness without, not associated with anger or aversion. Those are the two pairs. And there are some people who might see if you're focusing, paying attention on something, wouldn't this if you pay attention on anger or hate, wouldn't they increase? No, I observed it and I become angrier and angrier. These kind of situations may arise. If you focus on that anger, it will increase. If you are not mindful. But if you do correctly, it will simply dissolve. So that kind of consciousness is once it dissolves, the next one arises. That next one is without dosa. In other words, that's a pure consciousness, clear consciousness arises. That pure and clear consciousness is vita raga. Consciousness without anger or aversion. So that's a second pair. The first pair is with raga, last or love, with or without. Second one is Dorsha anger with or without two of them. So if one is awake, alert and mindful, if one is awake, alert and mindful of the environment, of his or her environment. At that moment, usually pure consciousness arises. You must be awake, you must be alert, you must be mindful of your environment. If that is correct, if that is true, pure consciousness will arise. So simply just look at it. You live in a domain, in an area where there is a lot of security and graph and safe area, caded area. In that area, there will be no problem, no danger, you will be safe and secure. But if you live in a place where there is no security, no safety, what happened? A lot of danger and trouble will arise. That's a natural process. There will be no loba, no dosa. You'll be safe and secure. If you are not mindful, that means you are in a trouble zone. Those will arise as simple cause and effect, nothing mysterious. It will sieve out, screen out all the impurities, all the colors, all the defilements, and everything that is left is clear and pure. Clear and pure. Whether it is raga or dosa, without them, they arise. So simply just know the causal relationship and you understand quite clearly. And in here, I like to put in a after these two pairful consciousness something that is really practical and functional for us, for our society. What it is is our society is actually made up of a collective, a composite number of families. Many families make a society. So it's a family unit that makes the society. And what is the family unit? Family unit is the relationship between parents and children. That's a family. Of course, you can say grandparents, great-grandparents, but actually immediate is whatever level, parents and children. So that is the unit base of a society. And in here, especially nowadays in the modern day, we have so many different ways of bringing up children. Some are disciplinarian, some are say no. Modern psychology or most modern. Build confidence, let them find out their own problem, solve their own, learn from their experience. So many, so many, so many different variations of how to bring your children. Some don't even care. So in here, like let's say from the Buddhist perspective, I'm not claiming right or wrong. Everybody can believe what they want to believe, but this is Buddhist perspective. Let's look at children. Why do we call children? Because they are starting to grow up thoughtless. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. They are still young. They have no knowledge of the world. They are accumulating information and knowledge of the world. They are not strong enough yet. They are mentally not strong enough yet to make a decision what is right and what is wrong. Just look at an example in school. Everybody is pushing. Come on, smoke, come on, drink, have a little marijuana, puff. This is cool. And when that environment condition is so strong, the children began to believe this is a cool thing, this is a right thing to do. And they simply did it because they believe it is good and right and cool. And then what do you call? A kid's always in the library studying, talking to the teachers, things like, oh. What? Trying to suck up the teacher. What a nerd. And then they try to bully, push, and they make it really uncomfortable for that person life. And that's just a group of peer people, a peer pressure, bully group. And the other people watch at it, oh, oh, that's it. These are nerds. And suddenly the right thing to do as a student they don't do, and they do, they began to believe the good thing as not good. That's how they are, because they do not have enough mental strength to delineate right from wrong. Not everything, but one thing you have to know. Some aspects that are very important, critical to their growth. At that time, the parent has to come in, the parent has to guide, the parents have to teach. And even if discipline needed little discipline, but there are many aspects that are not that critical. Let them go on their own, make their own mistake. And when they make mistakes, help them to grow and to correct with them. That is how one needs to. It is not totally disciplinary, it is not totally a free hand. If you give a kid a free hand, it is more likely to become worse than being good. So the parent has the responsibility to give and to guide good habits to their children. That is the way, one need. To do that, you cannot just simply say yes, let's do it. You have to have a plan. You have to have a program for them. A plan and a program, but you must know yourself. And once you have a plan and program, make sure that plans and programs are infused with loving kindness and compassion. And they must be natural. And if you can set up a program or plan like that, your children will grow up as a very decent and good human being, outstanding human being. Of course, to do all these things, you yourself must be wholesome and insightful. Without that, you can't give it to the children what you don't have. So I thought that might be a useful. Based on this, raga and dosa, greed and anger, the two main emotions that is manipulating us. And it affects to the society, to our family unit, especially in relationship between parents and children. And if one is if one does not grow up caring about others, automatically that person mental state will be full of jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, and will have no patience and no forgiveness. That's a kind of person who will grow up and will be full of conceit of any level. And automatically those people will have a violent tendencies. These are the roads that the kids can take or walk into. That's why parents are responsible for their children. They brought it into this world. So if you have conceit, automatically conceit will create a competitive nature. And from that competitive nature with jealousy and envy, what happened? They will do anything, any means to an end is good. Anything just simply to win. Self-sacrifice for others. Don't have to be too big, self-sacrifice means oh. Simply think sometimes your personal interest is less than the normal what you would have. That's self-sacrifice. This tendency will arise. And this satipattana vipassana, mindfulness inside meditation, will make this tendency become stronger and stronger and stronger in a person. In Paliwar is called Bhava Nabala. And if you have this bhava mental culture, if your mental culture or mental development become very strong, what happens is all these consciousness with raga and dosa will become consciousness without raga and without dosa. Just a simple transformation from with to without these anger, hatred, greed, and dissatisfaction. So these two are these two pairs are quite pronouns in our life. That's why it takes a long time to talk about it. And the next pair is called Sa Moha and Vida Moha. You know the word moha. Moha is not knowing, ignorance, delusion, illusion, uncertainty. Those are the meaning of the word moha. Sa moha means with them, with all the delusion and illusion, consciousness with delusion and illusion. Wita moha is consciousness without these delusion and illusion and uncertainty. That's the third pair. So this consciousness with delusion. In Pali word, basically wijchikea and oticha. Vijikea is skeptical doubt. Oticha is restlessness and worry. But in plain language, you don't have clarity about anything. You sort of know it, but you don't really know it. That is no clarity. You are in a diluted mode. You are in a confused mode. If you are in that mode, that's called sa moha. Conscious with diluted mind, diluted nature. This diluted nature, there's a one type is you can be diluted, but there is no radha and lava. There's no lust, there's no anger, but simply you are diluted and confused. That's one state. And whenever there is, what it is is you don't know the truth, your mind is hazy, your mind is blurred and obscure. You are hesitant about things, you are cannot decide, undecided. You're confused and diluted. That is the samoha consciousness. That's the nature of it. Another one is the same thing, diluted mind, but it is rooted in dosha. Rooted in dosha. There's a dosha there. There's a feeling of being frightened or afraid or fearful, anxious, worry, sorrow. Those kind of things. But they are not very clear, they are not prominent. You're afraid, but your fear is not prominent to you. It is obscure. There's an underlying current of fear, underlying current of vulnerability, but you are not quite aware of it. The only thing is you just can't decide. You are quite confused about it. That confusion and undecision is more prominent, but that underlying current of vulnerability is not obvious. It is obscure, it is blur. And that kind of state you call it diluted mind, rooted with dosa, rooted on dosa. The first one is without any dosa or loba. This one is rooted in it, different one. So in here, if you note, you just have to go in and note, not simply the underlying feeling. If you are very powerfully mindful, you can feel that underlying fear, afraid of anxiousness, a little bit of anxiety going through. You can detect it. That is the looted mind with dosa. Another one is that diluted mind rooted in loba. Pali is loba mula samoha chita. So in here is the same thing. There's a tendency, a tendency, or even let's call it the underlying current. There's an underlying color current of sense pleasure going through. There's an underlying current of sense pleasure going through that stream of consciousness. But you are not very clear about it, you are not very, you don't know distinctly about it. It is blur, obscure. But at the same time, you are still in an uncertain state, you are still in an unclear state, you are still in a confused state. That is more pronounced. And those kind of things is not knowing the truth. To give an example is let's say underlying current. So that is the another two pair. And when you observe them, if you observe them, and suddenly that has become clear, how do you observe them? Let's say a person who is in that kind of a situation, with that kind of a stream of consciousness, they have a tendency to do something abruptly, quickly, suddenly, because they are wondering, wondering, wondering, they are not sure what to do, and it's one or two, one or two, one, boom. Like flipping the coin type of a thing. Without knowing, they just execute something. That's why their actions become very centered and very quick when they start doing. At first, it was totally docile, and there's a sudden movement. That is the signal of these Amoha mind. And when you do suddenly, what happened? You miss the details, you miss the true nature of mind and matter. The nature of mind and matter are totally unclear, fuzzy, uncertain, and obscure. That's what happened. And you just simply dive in. That's why these sudden movements happen. These samoha jita, they arises because it's a lack of correct mindfulness. These lack of correct mindfulness give you ignorance of the true nature of mind and matter. So at those times, what do you do? You have to note. You can say note, record, mindful, you have to note firmly on every actions and movement and behavior. Very firmly, very closely on every movement, actions, and behavior. And even if you forgot something, note that you forget. Forgotten, forgotten. If you missed, note missing, missing, missing. There are times you missed, but you must note that missing. Sometimes you forgot something. You must note that you forgot. To that degree you have to go and note. And if you do that kind of observation or noting, all these haziness, not sharp, unclear, blah, they will suddenly become sharp and clear mind. And at that moment, what do you do? You must note sharp, sharp, sharp, clear, clear, clear. Mindfulness never stops under any circumstances. When you are noting clear sharp, that means at that moment that consciousness is called non-diluted mind. Vita moha cheta, non-diluted mind. So that is the the third pair. The fourth pair. The fourth pair is called Sankita Jaitha and Vita Kita Ceta. Sankita Ceta. It's basically it's the consciousness with laziness. Slack, timid. Those are called Sankita Chaita. So in other words, those are the mind that has no effort. Without any other effort, if you're observing, you have there. You have no alertness, no wakefulness, no freshness, always dozy, lazy and sluggish. To make a shot, we all know, you all know, tina meita. Slot and topper. The mind with slot and topper is called sanketa jeta. And the next one is called wiketa jaita. That doesn't mean that the sluggishness and laziness without not in that sense. And here is little different. That is called viketa jaita. A restless mind. Dispersed mind. And at that moment, what do you do? You must note that restlessness, you must note that dispersion, you must note that worry. That's the fourth pair. And these four pairs are most common in the beginner's meditators. Those kind of jaitas will arise mostly in the biggest class or biganness yogis. And the fifth pair, the fifth pair called Samadhi Jaita, and Asamadhi Jaita. I think that's very clear. Concentrated mind and unconcentrated mind. So we all know samadhi, so we don't need to go too much in detail. Just to recap, what is concentrated mind? The mind that is not moved by greed and lust. The mind that is not moved by anger, hatred, and aversion. That is concentrated mind. And as they are not moved by it, as they cannot be shaken by it, the mind is very still and calm. That is a concentrated mind. A mind unshaken by raga and dosa and is always still and calm. An unconcentrated mind is why it arrives. Because you are not noting properly. You are missing a lot of your notings, observation. You are mixing up, you are noting with a lot of impurities. At that moment it's an unconcentrated mind arises. And the fourth or the final pair. It's called we muta jita and ah we muta jita. What it means is liberated mind or non-liberated mind. What is liberated mind? Liberated mind is a mind that escaped from the bondage of Kilesa. Kileita has killesa or mental defilement has no hold on it. That is the liberated mind. Or to put in a different way, a little more specific way, the mind that is not controlled by Nibarana, the five hindrances. The five hindrances have no control upon it. That is called Vimuti Jaida, the mind that has escaped from the bondage. And those kind of mind they have always peace and happiness in their state. And the mind is always associated with niwarana five hindrances. And as it is not liberated, in general, we say thinking mind, thinking, thinking, thinking. That is the non-liberated mind. Imagining lamberating mind, lazy, hazy, they are all non-liberated mind. Always under the influence of mental defilements. And this is not only now we have been under the influence of mental defilements from countless number of past life. We are there. That's why if once wants to escape with a sense of urgency from this bondage of mental defilement, all the realms of Kilisa, karma, and doa. If you want to have escape from that with a sense of urgency, you cannot just casually. What is this? This is in very short and precise is aiming and sticking, or aiming and staying with all objects that are arising at the present moment, one after the other, with a great urgent effort, and you must do it continuously, constantly. You aim, you stay with it, and know about what is happening as it is. That is the revolution. And even though it's called revolution, it's a wholesome revolution because there's no hurting, there's no harming, there's also non-violence. That kind of revolution, one must start upon it, and you keep taking the flag of revolution on till you reach to the point of non-reversible stage, which means you become a first noble person. May all of you be able to observe these six pairs of consciousness with precision and with clarity and attaining purity and may you be able to achieve the stage of first noble person as soon as possible. Thank you very much.