Michael The Sangha UK 277 12 19 24

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Transcript

Michael: Okay, so this is the. I hear my voice echoing. I think somebody. Okay, thanks Ivan. This is the Wednesday UK sangha call. It is 1pm central in the US. I’m not sure exactly what time it is in the uk to be honest. I think maybe a little later in the evening, possibly seven or eight. I am filling in for Damadassa today. He had some stuff to do with his kid and some kid stuff to do. So just filling in for him. And we have two questions that we’re going to start with. The first was about sloth and torpor. What to do to prevent sloth and torpor from arising. And then if sloth and torpor has already been seen to be arisen, than what to do with it or about it. And then the other question was about old Sankaras, old complexes, old patterns of behavior arising now and specifically about the urge to essentially dominate or feel superior to somebody else in different types of situations and contexts. So we will start with sloth and torpor. So yeah, I mean the suit does give an answer to sloth and torpor. So I’ll start with that in brief and then I’ll give a little bit more about my thoughts on it. You know, sloth and torpor is a feeling of lack of energy, a feeling of laziness, a feeling of drowsiness, feeling of tiredness. And you know, there are some suttas and you know, important to understand that sloth and torpor is one of the five hindrances. And the five hindrances are called hindrances because they restrict the mind from achieving seclusion from sensuality. They restrict the mind from achieving the enlightenment factors, the Jhna factors. Hindrances basically restrict the mind to its enslavement, to sensuality. And so wholesome, I guess you can say not wholesome but like pleasing and unpleasing states is what the hindrances tie the mind to. Prevents the mind from experiencing non greed, non hatred, non delusion. They restrict the mind from experiencing unrestricted awareness, liberation of mind, things like that. And the hindrances are all rooted in the kilesas, the defilements, which are greed, hatred and delusion. These are the three forms of craving. Three forms that craving takes. They’re sometimes called Mara’s daughters. So you think of, you can think of Mara as craving. Craving. Mara rules over sensuality. It’s what keeps the mind bound to the senses, all five senses. And the mind as well. Mono in this case here. And so craving takes these three forms of greed, which is movement towards an object, desire for an object that is pleasing, it takes the form of hatred, which is movement away from something that is displeasing. And it takes the form of delusion, which is usually a state of uncertainty about a neutral feeling. And it results in a desire to distract oneself. So if we sit with a neutral feeling, we’ll have a desire to distract ourselves. The hindrances arise from our acting out on these forms of craving, acting out on greed, acting out on hatred, and acting out on delusion. So sloth and torpor falls into the delusion category of hindrances. So the fact that we live our lives unable to be okay with peace, essentially with neutral feeling. Sorry. The fact that we live our lives unable to just be okay with calm, unstimulated neutral feeling. So that if we feel that neutral feeling, we turn on the tv, we pick up our phones and go on discord or Facebook or whatever. I don’t think people use Facebook anymore. Whatever it is, you find some way to stimulate the senses in order to distract yourself from neutral feeling, which the mind is uncertain about. Because it’s so used to greed and hatred. The mind is so used to chasing after what is pleasing, feeding on what is pleasing. Pleasing sights, pleasing sounds, pleasing flavors, pleasing sensation, sensations, pleasing ideas. My one year old keeps climbing up on the trampoline that I’m sitting next to. And then it’s so used to feeding on dislike and hatred of unpleasant sensations or feelings, ideas, people, sensations, whatever it may be, and as I said, distracting itself from the neutral. And so because of this, because of this habit of chasing, avoiding, spinning around in circles, the mind doesn’t know what to do with, with neutral feeling. So the delusion aspect here is usually with the mind, solution to neutral feeling is to dive into sleepiness. So it’ll want to go to sleep in order to dream, so it can find stimulation and mental phenomena, or it’ll go into daydreaming so it can find stimulation again in mental phenomena. So this is where sloth and torpor comes from. It comes from our conditioning. We’ve conditioned ourselves to need to be stimulated all the time, right? We have this need in ourselves to be stimulated all the time, which is what sensuality is referring to. Sensuality is this logic, this belief that is implicit in the back of our minds that, that pursuing sensual stimulation at some point can be sad or that it is satisfying. I mean, there’s no denial in the Dhamma that pleasing sight sounds and so on are pleasing. There’s no denial that unpleasant sight, sound sensations are displeasing that they don’t feel good. There’s no denial that the mind wants to distract itself when it encounters neutral feeling like the breath or just sitting and doing nothing. But what the whole. What sensuality is, which is one of the four fuels for clinging, is this valuing of that. You know, we say like, you know, I don’t want to give up my passions. That’s who I am, right? I have a passion for music. I have a passion for travel. I have a passion for reading books or I love binge watching shows on Netflix. I love going out and having stimulating conversations. I saw a reel of that one comedian. I can’t remember his name right now. He’s a standup comic who does his shows without a shirt on. He’s got a big old gut. He was talking about how much he loves drinking, how he’ll never give up drinking. He went into all of the little details about, oh, when you’re about to get that beer and when you’re sitting at brunch and they say we have bottomless mimosas. And he just went on this long, detailed rant about how much he loves drinking. And you know, the Buddha basically, in any summary of the teachings, talks about passion as the adhesion to samsara. Passion is like the glue that binds the mind to samsara, to this cycle of seeking and avoiding. Seeking pleasure, avoidance of pain, being completely bound up in the sensual realm, intoxicated with the fabrications of our engagement with the sense realm. And so because of that habit, because of that value, when you don’t have some form of stimulation, then you go into one of the hindrances and sloth and torpor, as I said, is a common. Just a place the mind seeks stimulation just to keep it, to shorten it up a little bit. Thank you, Michael.

Speaker B: Michael, Just to jump in.

Michael: Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker B: I don’t know if it’s just me. I had my hand up just because I wanted to let you know you’re on a weird. You’re at the wrong angle, you’re. You’re vertical. I don’t know if that’s the same for everyone. There you go.

Michael: Yes.

Speaker B: Game changer.

Michael: Just trying to. Just trying to, to make you guys pay attention. Okay, so, yeah. So in order to not experience sloth and torpor, then you have to take the Buddha’s advice. Practice sense restraint. Moderation and eating. Moderation and sleeping. Right. Because when we delight in eating our fill of food, it makes us lazy and tired. When we delight in sleep, then the mind will seek sleep or daydreaming for a form of stimulation you can make a practice or a habit out of when morning comes, instead of like wanting to stay in bed and stay warm and stay comfortable, just get out of bed, you know, and sort of create a distance in the relationship between what you do, what you intend, and what state or mood the mind is in. So that, that’s, that’s. That. That’s sort of like it really comes down to having a different lifestyle if you don’t want the mind to get in the habit of going into sloth and torpor. So that’s sort of where it comes from and how to prevent it from coming. There’s other things you can do, you know, contemplate or when sloth and torpor has arisen. There’s a couple things they say in the suttas, like imagine light, create the perception of light. And these are people who, the people, the Buddha speaking to, their lives are already restrained. Most of them are already sutapana. They already have restrained lives. And so if they’re experiencing sloth and torpor, it’s probably because they’re practicing too hard, they’re not sleeping enough, they’re eating too much, or the mind is maybe off its circadian rhythm or something. So he tells them to create the perception of light in the mind. That doesn’t necessarily help for people who are, you know, bound up in sensuality, unrestrained, everything that they do. So that’s why I think it’s difficult for that advice to help meditators who don’t live highly restricted lifestyle. So you can try that. I don’t know if it will work, but I think all those things I discussed Prior is paying attention to what you allow the mind to feed on, what you allow the mind to delight in. And that is a good way. So, I mean, like, look, if you have, if you have someone who watches TV all day and you give them a book, they’re not going to be able to pay attention to a book. If you have someone who plays video games all day and you give them a book or just their breath, they’re not going to be able to settle their mind on the breath or the book, right? If you have someone who reads all day and you give them the breath as a meditation object, that’s going to be a little bit more subtle and more difficult for them to settle their mind on. But it’s more subtle than reading a book. So whatever level of stimulation you’re used to, the more subtle levels of stimulation are going to be difficult for the mind to settle on. And that being said, though, you know, there’s, there’s. There’s a deeper solution to, to, to all of this, and which is essentially to understand the whole realm of sensuality and the whole sort of unfolding of the hindrances to be rooted in our habit of acting out on greed, hatred and delusion. And how acting out on greed, hatred and delusion essentially strengthens the sense of ownership that the mind has over the aggregates. And because of that sense of ownership that is coming from craving and clinging, that’s what leads to suffering. And then the suffering leads to more seeking sensuality as a relief to suffering. So you have to break that spell that some form of entertainment or stimulation is going to put an end to suffering. It’s only going to temporarily soften its sting, essentially, but then it’s also the cause of suffering. So then you kind of get stuck into this cycle. So breaking that spell of sensuality by understanding deeply the four Noble Truths and then even further understanding the teaching on Anatta, the teaching on non ownership, there can be created a distance between. Well, there could be an understanding that whatever has arisen is already enduring there on its own. So that. That because it’s there on its own and your knowledge of it is secondary to its presence, it’s inherently impossible to own. This is what the Anatha teaching is all about. It’s inherently impossible to own, impossible to control, impossible to gain any satisfaction from. And so anything that arises in your experience will be seen to be already there, persisting on its own, and the desire to feed on it or the desire to resist it will go away. But that’s a bit of a deeper understanding that comes through paying attention to experience with a mind that’s already been cooled down and clarified through sense restraint. The analogy that I like to use is that bottle of Italian vinaigrette dressing that is made up of oil, vinegar and a bunch of seasonings. You know, we’re constantly, through sense sensuality, we’re constantly shaking that bottle. And so everything is mixed up and muddled. But when we practice a certain degree of restraint, you know, with the precepts as a guide, then it’s like putting that bottle of vinaigrette down and giving it time to settle still. Then the oil, the vinegar and the seasonings will all separate out, and it will clarify that each of these exist in separate domains, so that they. That each of these qualities of mind exist in separate domains. But the most important thing to discern is that the sense of self the sensation of self is a dependently arisen phenomena that is secondary to all of the other phenomena that we experience at the level of mind and body. And when that can be, can be seen clearly, then it helps to uproot any interest in clinging to sensuality, clinging to views, clinging to self view, clinging to practices and precepts. Those are the four fuels, the four feeding grounds for craving. So I don’t want to go too far too much further on that question. Are any questions about what I said or any clarification about what I said? Neither. Anything you guys want to say about it? How you guys deal with sloth and torpor?

Speaker B: Maybe I’ll just. Couple of questions. I think the first one. Sorry, I just, I just. Would you mind just repeating that connection between. The mind is unsure of what to do when it’s in that neutral state. Because I think that’s something I can definitely resonate with when, when you’re, when you’re. Especially when I’m in a. It’s all, it’s all very well when I kind of make a bit of a purposeful decision to, you know, meditate or to take a step back from, step away from my laptop or whatever, you know, at the end of the day or the beginning of the day. But I find throughout the day, you know, that those. That neutral state that is just constantly looking for something to distract it is saying. It definitely resonates with me because I find particularly with, you know, YouTube and whatever, it’s just constantly something to feed that distraction and it’s, it’s something I really struggle with. So if you could just, if you don’t mind just sort of repeating that bit about how is that sloth? What’s the connection between me, you know, watching yet another YouTube video that I don’t really need to watch and slop and talk. That would be one question and then the follow up one would be based on your experience or anyone else in this group, what actually works? Because I try weaning myself off this stuff and to give you an example, I’m currently not checking any news sites. So I’ve really weaned myself off the news. But what I find is because of that neutral state that I get in, I end up sort of just replacing it with like there’s this like secondhand online clothes store in the UK that’s really popular at the moment. I just find myself browsing stuff that I don’t even need. So I kind of cut out one thing and then replace it with another. And so that can Be a little bit.

Michael: That’s cogsy. I’m sorry.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. The wheel, it’s very much there. So, yeah, I guess just. Any thoughts on. Based on your experience, what living in the world, in this busy world with all of its distractions, what, what has worked for other people to, to get better at this, even if we haven’t perfected it yet.

Michael: Can let anybody else go first? Because I know I can. I have a tendency to go on.

Speaker C: For a while for me and firstly, I’m not the, the best to give advice on this because I do also watch a lot of YouTube videos. But like you, I don’t engage in news because I found it very unnecessary for me. Like I’ll get news dripped in for me from like my friends and for other content, but like news sites directly. Nah, I don’t check those. But in general to break that Samsara chain for me, what works is just reminding myself of what my intention is. Like if I’m on YouTube and I’m feeling curious and I want to learn about something, my intention is, oh, I’m learning something. So I’m going to pay attention to that YouTube video. But it means when I’m watching that YouTube video, I’m not doing anything else. I’m like, as much as I can fully digesting that information, thinking about like what notes I would make, almost treating it like a lecture rather than just a YouTube video. And that way if I find something like not engaging enough or stimulating enough to treat like a lecture, I will stop watching it because it’s like it’s not worth my time, it’s not meeting up to my intention. So I’m not going to continue giving it my attention. So figuring out and realizing what my intention is leads me to direct my attention with a lot more certainty and control than just whatever the winds of the Internet sends my way. Like TikTok is very non intentional. Like it doesn’t really have a lot of intentions when you scroll TikTok because like you’re just getting a random video, random video, random video. Like you can’t base intention around just random algorithm. So yeah, just think about what your intentions are when you consume content and try have that align, try have the content align with your intention and I think it will become slightly easier. At least for me it has.

Michael: Yeah, intentions are very important to be aware of. And you know that second factor of the noble Eightfold path. And also, you know, the, the precepts, they’re all related to intentions, you know, so the precepts are related to intentions intentionally harming, intentionally stealing, intentionally lying, intentionally cheating, or you know, over, you know, mis indulgence in sexual or sensual conduct and intentionally intoxicating the mind. That second path factor, right, intention is the only intention there is. Non greed, non hatred and non delusion. So that’s that. So the precepts, the intentions related to the precepts are related to mundane Right view. And the intentions related to that second path factor come from super mundane or Noble Right view. And in the pre stream entry realm of the precepts, intentions are personal. And in the sort of post Noble Right view Sama Sankapa, intentions are seen as, you know, dependently arisen. Not me, not mine. The sense of self is seen to become secondary to intentions. But to make it concrete, the whole Samsara that we’re talking about is rooted in the relationship between. Because every factor on the 12 link chain of dependent origination, which is just the broad principle of dependent origination of. With this, there is this, that everything, all phenomena are, you know, concurrently dependent or concurrently arisen phenomena, meaning they, they all exist together with another condition, essentially. And so seeing through the lens of dependent origination, that Noble Right viewing is seeing things to. To endure as they are together with their causes and conditions, so that we can understand their cessation. But the 12 link chain of dependent origination is a specific case of this principle related to the arising of suffering, which is where the Buddha focuses teaching. So dependent origination is a broad principle, it’s a universal principle. But as the Buddha said in the handful of Lee’s simile, he focused his teaching on the dependent origination of suffering. If you understand suffering completely and you understand its origin, then you understand its cessation and the path leading to its cessation. Because when you understand a phenomena completely together with its causes and conditions, then you also, you have no doubt or perplexity about what it is, where it came from, how to, how to deal with it, right? So that’s, that’s why seeing through the lens of dependent origination eliminates any need for a view about anything. Because views are sort of mental constructs. They’re positions, they’re theories, they’re not based off of, you know, present observation. Here, this is what these are for. This is, this is an illustration of the relationship between Mano and Chitta, by the way. So, so you guys can read into that as much as you want. So the, the key here in this experience of Samsara that we’re talking about, of, you know, perpetually seeking Pleasure, avoiding pain. It’s. It’s all in that relationship between the craving and clinging links of dependent origination. So feeling is implicit, right? As long as you have a mind and a body, as long as you have mentality and materiality and consciousness of that, whether it’s in the human state, the animal state, or any of the deva realms, if you want to, you know, you want to go into any of that, then there’s going to be feeling present, there’s going to be form, feeling, perception, thinking and consciousness. These are the aggregates of experience. So those are all there. They’re there as such, the real as such. And so mundane right view is. Is there so that we don’t get into a form of nihilism or denialism where it’s like, oh, nothing’s really here, nothing’s really real. It’s all just an illusion, that kind of stuff. Mundane right view is the Buddha asking us first to acknowledge, like, the reality of what’s present. Because getting into a view about everything is just made up of emptiness and everything isn’t real. That’s all just. That’s just another avenue. That’s a view that craving takes to avoid suffering and the avoidance of suffering. Craving itself is the avoidance of dukkha, and that is what perpetuates dukkha. But this relationship between craving and clinging that I want to talk about the whole reason that we crave sensuality, that, you know, that we feed on sensual experience, sensual stimulation, that we cling to views and opinions, that we cling to theories of self. You know, what is the self, what is not the self, whether it be there is a self or there’s no self. Those are both views, neither that, neither of which the Buddha taught. Whether we were clinging to sensuality, to views and opinions, to doctrines or theories of self, or to practices and precepts, which is like, you know, when you challenge somebody on the practice that they do, they cling to it, right? The reason that we cling to those things, it’s all because existence is born of craving and clinging, right? We want that sense of existence. We want to feel a sense of existence. We want to exist as the one who is, you know, the one who, like, you know, as a liberal or a conservative or a Democrat or Republican or a Christian or. Or an American or, you know, a Buddhist or someone who loves Pepsi and not Coke or someone who loves Coke and not Pepsi. We want to exist. And these, you know, this is all the way at the form of birth, right? Where it’s become an identity. But prior to that, just that feeling of existence comes from the feeding of craving on one of these four fuels, right? The feeding of craving on sensual stimulation. We experience a sense of existence when we are stimulating the senses. We experience a sense of existence when we are clinging to views and opinions. We experience a sense of existence when we’re clinging to doctrines of self or not or no self. We experience a sense of existence when we’re clinging to practices and precepts, like the ways, the right way of doing things, essentially. Um, and it is our addiction to feeling that sense of existence that makes it that. That’s what we’re not interrogating. We’re not interrogating our addiction to. And then, you know, so there’s, there’s the four fuels of craving or clinging that I just mentioned. Sensuality, views and opinions, doctrines of self, practices and precepts. And then there’s the three modes of craving. Craving for sensuality, sensory experience, craving for existence, right? Some realm of being, whether it be the animal realm, the human realm, the deva realm, which you can think of as different states of mind in the, in this present life, or non existence, which is, you know, deep sleep, even daydreaming, all the way down to thoughts of suicide, you know, this craving for non existence. And so those are, those are the three forms of cravings. So this is, this is the sort of net of samsara that our lives are caught in. And this is like the mind completely intoxicated with this aspect of the chain of dependent origination. And as long as we keep feeding, you know, as long as we keep fueling craving, essentially, we keep giving it what it wants, then we continue to exist. And as long as we continue to exist, we continue to experience birth. And as long as we continue to experience birth, we experience aging, illness, death, sorrow, pain, grief, lamentation, despair, this whole mass of suffering, as the Buddha summarizes it, these five domains of experience, experience as a whole, afflicted by clinging, which you know is possessiveness or identification. And there’s an analogy for this. Death. Death. The experience of non clinging is what the Buddha calls the deathless. The experience of non craving, non greed, non hatred, non delusion, non clinging. This is the, what the Buddha calls the deathless. And a good analogy for this is just to put a cap on this is. And, you know, it doesn’t illustrate it perfectly, but just think of, think of like a relationship between two people. And in the beginning, when you call the love innocent, there’s a lot of joy, right? It’s not necessarily a great analogy because passion is involved, but it is. But as soon as the passion increases, right, then possessiveness enters. It’s because of the people’s passion for one another that they then become possessive. And that just chokes the love away, right? There’s no possibility to experience love in the sense of metta, essentially, which love is a bad translation, you could say just goodwill, essentially. There’s no way to experience that in the presence of possessiveness. And this possessiveness is like, I like to say it’s like a mental illness or like a demon that lives inside of us. It takes possession of everything, it’s strand. It’s what creates death. That’s why the Buddha says that the unmindful are as though dead. Then the mindful, you know, don’t experience death. Because the mindful use the Dhamma appropriately at each moment of contact, at each experience of the aggregates, in order to prevent craving and clinging from arising. So there’s no birth and there’s no death. That’s what the experience of the deathless is. So that’s, that’s why, you know, as soon as, as soon as the, the aging and death of whatever last birth starts to kind of come to the cessation, there’s like an alarm that goes off in you and you’re like, okay, I need to watch a YouTube video, or I need to like go up and go do something, or I need to daydream, or I need to proliferate. Even about the Dhamma sometimes, or whatever it may be, you have to, you do something to stimulate one of the six sense doors or the sixth sense bases in order to create, in order to prevent craving from ceasing. But the cessation of craving is what gives you the experience of Nibbana. It’s just nobody, most people have never experienced it and so they don’t know what it feels like. And so their whole way of living is the maintenance of existence. And this is what creates the underlying fear and anxiety because you’re maintaining this thing that is, you know, fragilely, dependently arisen. And it’s exhausting. That’s why there’s sloth and torpor. That’s why people who, or that’s why sake, as those who have, who’ve seen the Dhamma and beyond only sleep two to three hours a night because they’re not tired, because they’re not maintaining this sense of existence by feeding these four forms of clinging. So that’s, you know, that’s one aspect of the chain of causation that leads to our dukkha, this existential anxiety of trying to maintain that which is difficult to maintain and difficult to endure and impossible to control. That’s those three characteristics of existence.

Speaker C: I have a question. I think you mentioned something about like, when your mind is like in a neutral state, looking for something to cling on to, sometimes it clings on to suicidal thoughts. And I thought that was very interesting because sometimes I get this feeling like. So to preface, on the whole, I’m a very like joyful person, right? I go about each day living as joyfully and effortlessly as possible in like the spirit of the Dharma. But then every so often I get this weird feeling of I feel like I’ve lived enough, like I would be happy to die. Now I don’t, I don’t know if I would describe that as a suicidal thought, but at the same time it seems strange to me because I have meditated upon my death and, and I’m kind of okay with it. But in a sense that it’s like I don’t want to die, but if I don’t see tomorrow, I’m also content. Would that be considered the brain in a neutral state latching on to dying? Because I feel like it is. Right?

Michael: Well, this is, this is the importance of the mundane right view in that though the experience as a whole depends on the body, the body is also, is also an experience in the mind. They codepend. And you know the Buddha, when he speaks of rebirth, he speaks of like a fire being carried by the wind. He would say that, that, that fire is wind sustained. And so when the body breaks up, the being is craving sustained. So as long as craving exists in the heart, we can’t solve suffering through the death of the body. So that’s an important aspect of mundane right view. Because you know, physical death isn’t a solution to the problem. But to answer your question more specifically, when the Dhamma is seen, when dependent originate or dependent origination is seen, there’s it, it dissolves. Any thought of life after death or life ending after death, life continuing after death falls away. Life or myself, sorry, the self continuing after death dissolves away. Or the world continuing without me after death dissolves away. Because what’s seen is that both the world and the self are born within this fathom long body, within this constituents of experience dependent on craving that is rooted in ignorance and clinging. That’s. That becomes clear to the mind. Sorry, the sun just parted through the clouds, so I’m blind now, but so that when that is seen clearly, the thought that, you know, that eternalist sense of existence, of wanting to experience other lives or a life in heaven or fearing a life in hell or whatever that goes away or the annihilation is the view of like, I’m okay with dying because I’m at peace with my experience ending. That’s still a conceptualization of death rooted in end, a sense of existence that’s rooted in craving, that’s rooted in ignorance. So all of those types of assumptions, you can say conceptualizations or conceivings, the Buddha calls it, those all go away. You know, he says to Vajra Ghota, to all of his questionings, that the Tathagata, the one thus gone. The Buddha has no positions. He’s done away with all positions. He’s done away with all eye making, all mind making, all obsessions with conceit, and all conceiving. He says, so when you perceive directly, you know, this is suffering, this is the origination of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering, this is the path leading to cessation of suffering, then there’s no conceiving. Or when you perceive this is birth dependent on existence. Birth arises, you know, dependent on clinging, existence arises dependent on craving, existence, sorry, clinging, dependent on feeling, craving and so forth down to ignorance, then no conceiving. So what he’s saying is, and all of that is that if you’re looking at a fire and you know that because there’s fuel, there’s heat and there’s oxygen, fire comes to be. And when you remove fuel, heat, or, and, or oxygen, the fire goes out, then you’re not going to think that, you know, like, where was the fire before, where is it now, where is it after? Those are the conceivings that go away. It’s the same thing with the sense of self, existence that goes away upon the scene of dependent origination. Because it’s that, that sense of existence that is born of this concurrence of conditions that the Buddha describes, independent origination. So I don’t know if that answers your question, but let me see if I can block that sun.

Speaker C: I mean, yeah, it makes sense, right?

Michael: Like, there we go.

Speaker C: Essentially, once you actually let go of that craving, it’s not even a fool that comes to mind, essentially what you’re saying, right?

Michael: Well, when it’s been abandoned for long enough for the mind to clear and clear up enough to kind of see, to see dependent origination clearly, then, then, yeah, then it becomes, then conceiving or sort of as damrata would say, making things up, that goes away. And, and very importantly, what makes it impossible to suffer at that point is that all sense of ownership goes away. Her own ability. What’s there is what’s there. And it seemed to be already there, enduring while changing prior to your awareness of it. So your sense of knowing, your sense of self having come to know any phenomena, is always seen then as secondary to the phenomena, which makes it, you know, makes it inherently unownable and then illogical. The whole realm of sensuality becomes irrational. Because if, let’s say, you encounter the mind in a bad mood, there’s the mind in a bad mood. It was already there in a bad mood before I was aware of it. So why do anything about it? You know, you encountered the mind in a good mood, it was already there, enduring in a good mood. I can go turn my attention this way, come back. Oh, the mind is still in a bad mood, or, oh, it’s still in a good mood. It becomes. You become dispassionate towards the changing moods of the mind. You become dispassionate towards the senses. They’re seen to be organisms in an environment doing their thing. You know, you’re restraining them because their feeding is fueling craving and clinging. But they’re seen as not me, not mine. Right, right. Like the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, the mind. They’re, they’re, they’re at first, through the practice of virtue, restrained, but once dependent origination is seen clearly, they don’t even really stir up anymore. They sort of become still on their own. The mind becomes still on its own because you’re not, you’re not fueling it with craving and clinging, essentially. Yeah, go ahead, Edward. I can see now.

Speaker D: Okay, sweet. Yeah. One thing I would like to have a better distinction on is when do I genuinely need rest and when is it like sloth. Is there like something Buddha said about that?

Michael: Yeah, he. At first, a lot of your tiredness is, Is craving born? I mean, it’s getting, getting past the point where everything you think, feel and do is born of craving. That takes, that takes, that takes like a training of the mind. Right. Because, you know, with the Buddha, I mean, there’s different names for mind, but the mind in this situation that I’m referring to is what the Buddha calls the chitta, which is like the.

Speaker C: The.

Michael: More sort of primordial or fundamental aspect of mind. And it’s, you know, it is, you know, it’s going to throw a fit when you don’t give it what it wants. And it’s going to get sleepy when you don’t give it the food that it’s used to getting. So at first, a lot of your sloth and torpor, a lot of your sleepiness, your drowsiness, your laziness is ways in which that craving pressures you inflicts, inflicts influence on you in order to give it what it wants. Right. So craving wants to. It wants some form of stimulation. Maybe it’s already made up something that it wants. And, you know, this is why it’s just switching out, just renouncing. Like little bits of things don’t work. Like, okay, I’m not going to watch tv, I’m not going to listen to music, I’m not going to read books, but I’m going to, I’m going to. I got distracted by my daughter. You, one second here. She’s getting tired, so she was getting a little fussy. So we’re talking about sloth and torpor and repeat the question, because when she, when she starts fussing, my brain stops.

Speaker D: Oh, yeah. How does one know when they genuinely need rest and when it’s just sloth in disguise or torpor in disguise? Or it would be unskillful to rest?

Speaker B: And you would just. At the point where you were saying that, you know, that’s why swapping out one thing for another doesn’t work.

Michael: Yeah. Essentially, you know, the, the analogy would be like, let’s say you were diagnosed with diabetes and you’re like, okay, I’m gonna stop eating cake and brownies and cookies, but I’m Gonna continue having KitKats and Snickers. You know, you’re not, you’re not, you’re not getting that like the root there, you know, that you should just not have sugar. Or let’s say that, you know, you’re, you’re trying to deal with like, having too much weight on your body for your own particular health. And, you know, same example. The, it’s, it’s the like you’re, you’re eating 4,000 calories a day and you stop eating cake and ice cream, but you’re instead eating like big giant bowls of pasta at night. You’re still giving yourself 4,000 calories. So just restricting certain foods that craving feeds on is not going to stop craving. I mean, craving can sustain itself on just one thing for the rest of your life. You can take everything away and just give it one avenue to feed, and it’ll just feed on that. This is what, what distinguishes the Dhamma from a Lot of other religions, because, you know, the Buddha closed every door on craving by not taking a position on consciousness or the self. Because oftentimes that’s sort of the last avenue for craving to go and establish a sense of self. Right. Concepts like pure awareness and things like that. Not to say that there’s no such a thing as pure awareness, but to say that if you take that on as a view, then you’ve given craving a view to feed on. So until you’ve. Until you’ve. To answer Edward’s question, until you’ve been able to sequester the. The mind afflicted with craving, the chitta afflicted with craving, through enough restraint and allowed it to sort of calm down temporarily, you essentially can’t distinguish between a hindrance and an actual need for sleep. It’s very difficult. So what you can do is you can sort of define your. Like they do in aa, they define their sobriety. You can sort of define your boundaries. So you could say, like, okay, I’m going to sleep, you know, for however many hours you think your body needs. And when I go to sleep, just going to go to sleep, and when I wake up, I’m going to wake up. I’m not going to, like, linger in bed. I’m not going to delight or indulge in sleep. When I say delight, it’s like, I’m not. Like, you’re not going to be passionate about sleeping because that conditions the mind to see sleep as a food. Essentially. It gives craving. Sleep becomes a food for, a fuel for craving and then also in eating. This is another area the Buddha talks about related to sloth and torpor. If any of you guys have ever tried intermittent fasting. Eating is such a root fundamental need, but it’s also a fuel for craving. And so finding a way to balance that can really isolate craving so that you can see where it’s at. So if you try, like intermittent fasting, for example, where you give yourself a short eating window and fasting hours are like they do in the Theravada tradition. They don’t eat after noon, essentially, and they don’t eat to the point where they’re extremely full. They. The. The food reflection says that, you know, food is only going to be used to keep the body healthy, to support and sustain the spiritual life, and to get rid of the unpleasant feeling and not stir up new ones. That line is about attenuating hunger but not creating the discomfort of overeating. It doesn’t say it specifically, but that’s what it’s referring to quell unpleasant feelings, hunger, and to not stir up new ones, which is like that overeating, feeling sick and full and overtired. So, you know, you create boundaries in these necessary requisites of, of sleeping and eating and you know, you. And just to kind of bring it down to du language for a little bit, because I know I can get real technical with dependent origination, things like that. When Demarado talks about being satisfied, at least the way that I understand it, he’s talking about undermining craving at its root. So craving is going to tell you that you need to do things, you need to get things, you need to acquire things, you need to be things or be someone. And, but if you can get in the habit of being okay with things as they are not mean, you know, to clarify, that doesn’t mean being okay with, you know, eating everything you want to eat or watching everything you want to watch, or just feeding, going with the grade of craving but being okay, not feeding, craving, essentially it’s going to hurt at first, but that’s how you sort of figure out where it is and you sort of, sort of break the spell that it has on you. So you have to break the spell that craving has on you in order to distinguish or to discern between genuine need for food or sleep and what craving is giving rise to. You know, just to make my fussy one year old into a teachable moment here, you know, the Buddha compares the chitta, the mind more the feeling, sort of the fundamental feeling mind, not the thinking aspect of the mind, which he calls the mano. He compares it to a wild animal. And it is the chitta afflicted with craving that is constantly pressuring, you know, you to. To feed it. And you know, your thoughts when you’re not able to discern it are conditioned by the chitta. So, you know, the example he gives is like an elephant. In India and Thailand, they do this when an elephant is going through puberty. It basically loses its. And they tie it to a tree or a post until it finishes going through puberty so that it can clear up. So you create these restrictions, these restraints in order to cool and tame the chitta. And that’s why you get that image in older traditions of like, I mean, like northern traditions, like, of like the sage riding atop the ox. When the citta has been calmed and cooled and liberated from craving, then you can sort of just like relax because it’s not going to be there fussing at you all the time. Or like, if you’re training a puppy and you’re not constantly feeding the puppy everything at once to the point where it starts whining and barking. You know, you use a crate, you use different forms of training to get the dog to have, as Cesar Millan would say, rules, boundaries and limitations. And, you know, he says, you know, no touch, no talk, no eye contact to states of mind that you don’t want the dog to have. And then you give touch, talk and eye contact to the states of mind you do want to have. That’s the relationship in that virtue stage of practice that you have to the mind in getting it to not dominate your life with its chronic dissatisfaction with it being dissatisfied all the time and always having to feed it constantly. You just can’t rest, you can’t relax. If you have a poorly trained puppy or spoiled child or an untamed mind that does nothing but want, want, want, want, want, need, need, need, cry, cry, cry all the time. So this is why, you know, prior to the arising of the super mundane, right, view that the precepts are important because they sort of mimic the type of behavior that a mind that’s not continuously fueling craving behaves like. So if you, if you think to yourself about the precepts and you feel like, oh, I don’t want to do that, you know, like, that bugs me to even think about the idea of like, not, you know, what’s it called? You know, just the five best, the five basic precepts, or even the eight, maybe once every two weeks. The fact that you don’t want to do that is because you’re still heavily bound to, you know, to the whole realm of craving and sensuality. So to shorten my answer, Edward, it’s just, you can’t, you can’t discern it when you’re under that intoxication. Now, my other son, my other child’s here.

Speaker B: Now, in terms of sort of weaning yourself off craving there, it’s not, you can’t just be like, well, books are slightly. Rather than like, binge watching YouTube, books are a healthier form of cravings. I’ll do that. Is it, is it better just do you think from your personal experience or whatever, like, to just literally go cold, Try and go cold turkey for one day a week and then increase that to two days a week and just go. You know, that way you’re really eradicating the craving itself rather than just as much as you can by living in the world without, you know, without substituting it for something else.

Michael: Eventually you need to get to the point where you’re not doing anything, none of your actions are motivated by greed, hatred, delusion. But it is a gradual training for a reason. And so the concept of weaning is, I think, a good concept. I sort of been doing this for a long time, I guess you can say. So I kind of want to just be like, just get to this part right here, like just throw it all away, throw the world away, throw doctrines of self away. Just get out of that spell and intoxication of craving and see things as they are right now. Like, I always have this tendency to like, want to kind of like to go there. But the Buddha was wiser than I am and he did teach a gradual training, right? He did teach sort of like a weaning away of, of fuel for craving essentially. And it also just depends on the person. If somebody has a higher aptitude towards, towards wisdom, then you could put them in the right set of circumstances for a short period of time, like a retreat, like a 10 day silent retreat. And they could see the thing that just undermines it all, you know, and, you know, go straight to it, like where you don’t have to be a disciplined person and you, you get the understanding. But if you’ve gotten there without the discipline, then, then there’s still so much conditioning that the mind will get sucked back in to its old habits and the wisdom will fall into the background until you can sort of bring the path back into balance. So this is why the Buddha taught, you know, sila, samadhi and panya, the virtue, you know, typically understood as sense restraint. And D’Amrado’s approach, it’s just this devotion to being satisfied with things as they are. It’s an attitude of satisfaction to undermine craving. And so that’s another way of communicating that. I think he’s been very effective with a lot of people. But there’s not going to be an end to this maintenance of your well being. You’re not going to get to a point where it maintains itself until you get the, you know, the, the vision of the Dhamma, essentially. The, the Buddha even talks about the Jhnas is not being permanently liberating. He talks about cheta vimuti, which is liberation of mind through Jhna, essentially, because while you’re in Jhna, there’s no experience of self, there’s no craving. Basically experiencing something very much like nibbana. When you’re in the JHNAs, especially the fourth JHNA, he says it’s the closest thing to nibbana without being nibbana that a person can experience. And, you know, those jhanas existed outside of Buddhism. The reason he didn’t accept those as his teaching is because they’re temporary. You know, there’s this criteria for the Buddha Dharma is, is unconditioned liberation, permanent, irreversible, unconditioned liberation. This is what makes it, you know, fully distinguished from every other form of stress relief, stress management, you know, general well being. Just different ways of life that are perfectly fine, you know, for having a good, happy life. But as far as the teachings in early Buddhism, the Buddha stressed not accepting anything that is conditional for liberation. So what’s necessary for unconditional liberation is what he calls panya vimutti, which is liberation by wisdom, which is liberation through seeing clearly, seeing the three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not self, which come from seeing the four Noble Truths and dependent origination. And these things cannot, cannot be seen by a mind that is intoxicated in the, in its normal way of being. It requires an entire, an entire change of lifestyle. And the instructions are quite clear. You see, a lot of people are confused, okay, what do I do? Then? What do I do? It’s like, well, you know, the instructions are quite clear. You know, you do what you need to do to satisfy the four requisites of life. You know, food, shelter, medicines, and what am I missing? And in lay life does have bigger expressions, you know, and you also have duties to family and things like that, to your job. You do, you do what’s needed to satisfy those needs. But you, you kind of practice undermining craving within that, within that way of life. But like I said, if you’re, if you’re able to get clear instructions on the Dhamma, and you take those instructions and you use them to, to pay attention to, as the Buddha says, yudniso manasikara, to the source of experience. And you practice dharma in accordance with Dhamma. You know, you practice the instructions correctly, in balance, then you’ll gain that knowledge that makes it impossible for these sources of suffering to continue coming up. Then it meant, then the practice maintains itself. Then there’s no need for, you know, holding on to certain practices and precepts. There’s no need to hold on to certain views. There’s no need to hold on. There’s no need for. No, no doubt is possible at that point, because the mind has seen to a certain point that, that the liberation then becomes unconditional. Okay, she wants a Nap. This is what you call genuine sleepiness, not sloth and torpor. And there’s. There’s two ways I like to put. Put these, these things that you see. One, you see through the four noble Truths that the whole value, the whole logic of sensuality is. Is absurd. There’s no end to dissatisfaction. There’s nothing that you can give dissatisfaction that it will permanently satisfy it, you know, and that dissatisfaction is there to fuel that sense of existence. So as soon as you give it what it wants, it’s going to create something else. If you want to watch a YouTube video, then while you’re watching the YouTube video, you might think of another YouTube video you want to watch or something you want to eat or something you want to do, you know, so you have to see the bottomlessness of dissatisfaction. That’s. That’s one important thing to see. That’s rooted in seeing the four noble Truths that you know, the single source of suffering is craving, this perpetual dissatisfaction. But then there’s also the scene of the fact that the sense of ownership is born of craving, but it’s also the source of craving. They’re kind of like feeding each other. And so being able to see the impossibility of ownership in all phenomena undermines that sense of ownership. And then when the sense of ownership is undermined, there’s no.

Speaker C: Then.

Michael: You can’t be touched by suffering. Essentially, unpleasant feeling can arise, pleasant feeling can arise, neutral feeling can arise. And you’re just okay with it being there. It doesn’t really touch you because, you know, it’s not you, it’s not yours. It’s not controllable. You know that views are not you or yours. You know, they’re. Everything’s sort of stands on its own. It’s dependently arisen, but it’s there on its own, happening on its own. It doesn’t need your involvement. As the Buddha says in the Bahia Sutta. You, you know, you don’t put yourself in it, you’re not with it, you’re not the owner of it. You know, you just sort of see the. See the broader context of experience that your sense of self is the shadow of. And it undermines your ability to feel. It’s. And it’s always, it’s always there already. So if you. If a habit of clinging tries to arise within your experience, that knowledge that’s always there in the background puts a. Puts a stop to it on its own. So you get to this point where the practice basically kind of maintains itself and then all that’s left to do at that point is to continue reducing the, you know, the, the lingering shallow roots of craving that are there, the habits of craving that are there, and a continual remembering of the Dhamma of, of dependent origination of the four noble truths of the three characteristics, not the sorry, you know, impermanence, uncontrollability, unsatisfactoryness and unknownability. I feel like this whole recording is going to have her whining voice in the background. So I apologize. But if anything, it’s a demonstration that one can practice on expert mode and still successful. I have found that if I was to use Buddha Das’s language that, that the. The poison that’s inside our experience, the disease, the mental illness, the demon. I’ve called it many different things. And you have to develop this sort of like this fed up ness with it. It’s the demon of selfishness. Selfishness, you know, the way we use it colloquially is it doesn’t really capture like what the scene of that selfishness is like. You know, it’s self centeredness, I guess you can say, where everything is about me, about my pleasure, about my views and opinions, about my way of life, my wants and needs, you know, my dissatisfaction and my satisfaction, my enlightenment or non enlightenment, my status, my gain and loss, all of that stuff. When that minus goes away, that’s when the liberation becomes unconditional. So I think that’s probably the last thing I’ll say because I know she needs a nap. And now my, my older, my 3 year old is also yelling at me. I don’t know if you guys can hear him. The repetition of Dada.

Speaker C: Thank you so much. Michael, it was a delight to hear you talk today.

Michael: Thank you. I know my style is different than Dama Das, so I apologize if you guys were coming here hoping for David.

Speaker C: Always welcome, always welcome.

Speaker B: Yeah, thanks a lot. Learned a lot. Thank you.

Michael: You’re welcome. Thank you.

Speaker C: Have a great day, guys.

Michael: Bye.

Summary of this Dhamma Talk

In this Dhamma talk, Michael discusses two main topics: sloth and torpor (Pali: thīna-middha) and old patterns of behavior, particularly the urge to dominate or feel superior. He begins by explaining sloth and torpor as one of the five hindrances (nīvaraṇa) that prevent the mind from achieving seclusion and liberation. Sloth and torpor arise from the mind’s inability to be at peace with neutral feelings, leading to a constant need for stimulation. Michael emphasizes that this hindrance is rooted in delusion, one of the three forms of craving (taṇhā), and is tied to the mind’s habitual pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.

Michael then provides practical advice on how to prevent and overcome sloth and torpor, such as practicing sense restraint, moderation in eating and sleeping, and creating a lifestyle that reduces the mind’s dependence on constant stimulation. He also discusses the deeper solution of understanding the nature of sensuality and craving, which is rooted in the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda).

The second part of the talk addresses old patterns of behavior, particularly the urge to dominate or feel superior. Michael explains that these patterns are rooted in craving and clinging, and he encourages listeners to see through the illusion of self and ownership. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-self nature of all phenomena.

Throughout the talk, Michael uses metaphors and analogies, such as comparing the mind to a wild animal that needs to be tamed, and the process of overcoming craving to weaning oneself off sugar. He also shares personal anecdotes, such as his experience with his children, to illustrate his points.

Outline of this Dhamma Talk

1. Introduction and Overview (0:04)

• Michael introduces the session, filling in for Dama Dasa.
• Two main topics: sloth and torpor and old patterns of behavior.
• The talk is part of the Wednesday UK Sangha call.
• Michael sets the stage for discussing the five hindrances and how they relate to craving.

2. Sloth and Torpor as a Hindrance (1:28)

• Sloth and torpor (thīna-middha) is one of the five hindrances (nīvaraṇa).
• It manifests as laziness, drowsiness, and lack of energy.
• Rooted in delusion, one of the three forms of craving (taṇhā).
• The mind seeks stimulation to avoid neutral feelings, leading to sloth and torpor.

3. The Role of Craving in Hindrances (3:00)

• Craving (taṇhā) takes three forms: greed, hatred, and delusion.
• These forms of craving keep the mind bound to sensuality.
• The mind is conditioned to chase pleasure and avoid pain, leading to distraction.
• Sloth and torpor arise when the mind cannot handle neutral feelings.

4. The Mind’s Need for Stimulation (4:11)

• The mind is conditioned to need constant stimulation.
• Neutral feelings are uncomfortable, leading to distraction through TV, phones, etc.
• The mind seeks stimulation through sleep or daydreaming when faced with neutrality.
• This habit of seeking stimulation is what leads to sloth and torpor.

5. Sensuality and Its Role in Craving (6:33)

• Sensuality (kāma) is one of the four fuels for clinging (upādāna).
• The mind believes that sensual stimulation can satisfy craving.
• The Buddha taught that sensuality is the glue that binds the mind to samsāra.
• The pursuit of sensuality leads to a cycle of seeking and avoiding.

6. Practical Advice to Prevent Sloth and Torpor (9:34)

• Practice sense restraint (indriya-saṁvara).
• Moderation in eating and sleeping is key.
• Create a lifestyle that reduces dependence on stimulation.
• Contemplate the perception of light to counteract drowsiness.

7. The Deeper Solution: Understanding Sensuality (12:45)

• The deeper solution is to understand the nature of sensuality and craving.
• The Four Noble Truths and dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda) are key.
• The mind must see that sensuality cannot permanently satisfy craving.
• Breaking the spell of sensuality leads to liberation.

8. The Role of Intention in Overcoming Craving (21:48)

• Intention (cetanā) is crucial in the Noble Eightfold Path.
• The precepts are related to mundane right view (lokiya-sammā-diṭṭhi).
• Supermundane right view (lokuttara-sammā-diṭṭhi) sees intentions as dependently arisen.
• Understanding intention helps break the cycle of craving.

9. Dependent Origination and the End of Suffering (23:32)

• Dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda) explains the arising of suffering.
• The 12 links of dependent origination show how craving leads to suffering.
• Understanding dependent origination eliminates the need for views.
• The cessation of craving leads to the cessation of suffering.

10. The Three Characteristics of Existence (34:56)

• The three characteristics (tilakkhaṇa) are impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anattā).
• These characteristics are seen through the lens of dependent origination.
• Understanding these characteristics undermines the sense of ownership.
• The mind becomes dispassionate towards the senses and experiences.

11. The Analogy of the Wild Animal (52:40)

• The mind is compared to a wild animal that needs to be tamed.
• Craving is like a wild animal that constantly demands to be fed.
• The practice of virtue and restraint helps tame the mind.
• Once tamed, the mind becomes still and no longer dominates life.

12. The Importance of Restraint and Boundaries (55:01)

• Restraint and boundaries are necessary to train the mind.
• The precepts help mimic the behavior of a mind free from craving.
• Without restraint, the mind remains intoxicated with craving.
• The practice of restraint leads to clarity and understanding.

13. The Gradual Training and Weaning Off Craving (56:25)

• The Buddha taught a gradual training to wean the mind off craving.
• Cold turkey approaches may not work for everyone.
• The practice of undermining craving is a gradual process.
• The goal is to reach a point where no actions are motivated by greed, hatred, or delusion.

14. The Role of Wisdom in Liberation (59:00)

• Wisdom (paññā) is necessary for unconditional liberation.
• The jhānas are temporary states of liberation, but not permanent.
• Liberation through wisdom (paññā-vimutti) is permanent and irreversible.
• The mind must see the three characteristics clearly to achieve liberation.

15. Conclusion and Final Thoughts (63:36)

• Michael concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination.
• The practice of undermining craving leads to unconditional liberation.
• The mind must develop a sense of being fed up with craving.
• The talk ends with Michael’s personal reflections on practicing with children.

Metaphors, Analogies, and Stories

1. The Wild Animal (52:40)

• Metaphor: The mind is compared to a wild animal that needs to be tamed.
• Meaning: Just as a wild animal must be trained and restrained, the mind must be disciplined through virtue and restraint to overcome craving.
• Clarification: The wild animal represents the untamed mind, which is constantly seeking stimulation and satisfaction. Through practice, the mind can be calmed and liberated from its wild tendencies.

2. The Bottle of Salad Dressing (15:03)

• Metaphor: The mind is like a bottle of Italian vinaigrette that needs to settle.
• Meaning: When the mind is constantly shaken by craving, it becomes muddled. Through restraint, the mind can settle, and its components (oil, vinegar, seasonings) can separate and clarify.
• Clarification: The oil, vinegar, and seasonings represent different aspects of the mind. When the mind is still, these aspects become clear, and the mind can see things as they truly are.

3. The Puppy Training (54:00)

• Metaphor: Training the mind is like training a puppy.
• Meaning: Just as a puppy needs rules, boundaries, and limitations, the mind needs discipline to overcome craving.
• Clarification: The puppy represents the untrained mind, which constantly seeks attention and satisfaction. Through consistent training, the mind can learn to behave in a more disciplined and focused manner.

4. The Fire and Wind (36:30)

• Metaphor: The mind is like a fire carried by the wind.
• Meaning: Just as a fire is sustained by wind, the mind is sustained by craving. When craving ceases, the mind is no longer bound by the cycle of suffering.
• Clarification: The fire represents the mind, and the wind represents craving. When the wind (craving) stops, the fire (mind) can no longer burn, leading to liberation.

5. The Diabetic and Sugar (46:44)

• Metaphor: Craving is like a diabetic’s relationship with sugar.
• Meaning: Just as a diabetic must avoid sugar to maintain health, the mind must avoid feeding craving to achieve liberation.
• Clarification: The diabetic represents the mind, and sugar represents craving. Just as a diabetic cannot indulge in sugar, the mind cannot indulge in craving without suffering the consequences.

6. The Sage Riding the Ox (53:48)

• Metaphor: The sage riding the ox represents the tamed mind.
• Meaning: Once the mind is tamed, it becomes a tool for liberation rather than a source of suffering.
• Clarification: The ox represents the mind, and the sage represents wisdom. When the mind is tamed, it can be used skillfully to achieve liberation.

7. The Bottomless Pit of Dissatisfaction (64:36)

• Metaphor: Craving is like a bottomless pit that can never be filled.
• Meaning: No matter how much you feed craving, it will always demand more. The only way to end dissatisfaction is to stop feeding craving.
• Clarification: The bottomless pit represents the endless cycle of craving and dissatisfaction. The only way to escape this cycle is to stop feeding it through sensuality and clinging.

8. The Fire and Fuel (39:45)

• Metaphor: The mind is like a fire that depends on fuel (craving) to burn.
• Meaning: When the fuel (craving) is removed, the fire (mind) goes out, leading to liberation.
• Clarification: The fire represents the mind, and the fuel represents craving. When craving ceases, the mind is no longer bound by the cycle of suffering.

9. The Untrained Puppy (54:00)

• Metaphor: The untrained mind is like an untrained puppy.
• Meaning: Just as an untrained puppy is chaotic and demanding, the untrained mind is constantly seeking stimulation and satisfaction.
• Clarification: The puppy represents the untrained mind, which needs discipline and boundaries to overcome its chaotic tendencies.

10. The Deathless (31:38)

• Metaphor: The experience of non-craving is called the “deathless.”
• Meaning: When craving ceases, the mind experiences a state of liberation that is free from birth and death.
• Clarification: The deathless represents the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice, where the mind is free from the cycle of suffering and rebirth.

How to Practice

• Recognize Sloth and Torpor: Be aware of when you feel lazy, drowsy, or unmotivated. Understand that these states are hindrances and rooted in craving.
• Practice Sense Restraint: Limit overindulgence in food, sleep, and sensory pleasures. Moderation helps reduce the mind’s dependence on stimulation.
• Create a Balanced Lifestyle: Develop habits that reduce the need for constant stimulation, such as regular meditation, mindful eating, and disciplined sleep schedules.
• Contemplate Neutral Feelings: When you feel neutral or bored, resist the urge to distract yourself. Sit with the feeling and observe it without judgment.
• Understand Craving: Reflect on the three forms of craving (greed, hatred, delusion) and how they manifest in your life. Recognize when you are acting out of craving.
• Practice the Precepts: Follow the five precepts to create boundaries that reduce craving and clinging.
• Study Dependent Origination: Learn about the 12 links of dependent origination to understand how craving leads to suffering.
• Develop Right Intention: Align your actions with non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. Be mindful of your intentions in daily life.
• Use Analogies for Clarity: Reflect on metaphors like the wild animal or the bottle of salad dressing to understand the mind’s need for restraint.
• Gradual Training: If you’re struggling with craving, take a gradual approach to wean yourself off it. Start with small changes and build up over time.
• Cultivate Wisdom: Study the Four Noble Truths and the three characteristics of existence to develop insight into the nature of reality.
• Practice Mindfulness: Pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Mindfulness helps you see through the illusions of craving and clinging.
• Reflect on Ownership: Contemplate the idea that nothing is truly yours. This undermines the sense of self and reduces clinging.
• Seek Liberation Through Wisdom: Aim for permanent liberation by understanding the deeper teachings of the Buddha, rather than seeking temporary relief through sensory pleasures.
• Be Patient with Yourself: Overcoming craving is a gradual process. Be patient and compassionate with yourself as you work towards liberation.

Participate in one of our Live Sanghas (Free of Charge)

►The Sangha US, Friday 7 PM PDT Join Skype Call.

►The Sangha UK, Sunday 10AM BST Join Skype Call.

►The Sangha UK, Wednesday 7PM BST Join Skype Call.

There is nothing like direct transmission of the teachings in a one-to-one or one-to-group (Sangha) format from a skilled teacher. We encourage you to participate in our weekly Sanghas.