Brisbane Retreat – Day 4: Morning Practice
Entering into 1st Jhāna
Let us continue working on the defilements and the hindrances as we looked in the morning. Reflect upon the five senses and mind as not yours.
The sight will not be as per what you want. Sometimes it can be, sometimes it won’t be. Reflect upon that you don’t have authority to say I need a sight in this way. You are presented with something. If it is unpleasant, you want it to be pleasant.
But when it’s pleasant, you want it to stay and it will not stay. Same thing with sound, taste, Touch, smell, and the mental concepts what we have created as family, as a city, as a country, which seems like having an ownership but doesn’t have anything.
Nobody owns any land except on paper. Even the money in the bank belongs to the bank not to me.
Such is the nature of conceptual reality. It’s only conceptual, not real. This is how you can work out on removing sensual attachments. Keep on reflecting on this for next 20 minutes.
Just make this mantra in your mind. All that appears disappears. If the sight appear, it’ll disappear. The sound appears to disappear. And it’s not fabrication. It’s not something to be doubted. You can see for yourself.
At the most you can be a witness. So the attention should be on the breath.
Awareness should be on the hindrances which are coming and should be aware that Doubt is arising in me. Restlessness is arising in me. Worry is arising in me. Ill will is arising in me. Sensual desire is arising in me. Boredom is arising in me. Sluggishness of the mind is arising in me. Sleepiness is arising in me.
Just be aware of this coming into the stream and as soon as they come, attend to them by throwing them out. The last three days you’ve been practicing how to work with hindrances. Just continue to do that. One thing to remember, don’t get upset with anything. Jhāna and upset don’t go together. Whether it is hot outside, let it be. Whether is cold, let it be. Anything as it is. Let the outside objects be the way it is and just note the character of the breath is long or short.
This is called as dhamma or dharma which means observing quality of it. In this case the object what we have taken is a breath. Is it long or short? You’ll notice in some cases the in breath is longer than the out breath. In some cases you’ll find out that out-breath is longer than the in-breath. In some cases they don’t seem to be the same. Can appear in one nostril. Let’s say right nostril or it can appear in left nostril or in both the nostrils. along with cutting the senses and the sense object. Keep on looking at it.
They both go hand in hand. The more you’re disconnected with the sense objects, the better would be the awareness on the whole body and attention to the details of the breath. Let us do the reflection to understand the truth.
Number one, I do not have a right to be born where I want. If the condition matches then the situation presents itself which can be present. So I’ll be seeing good things, hearing good things, tasting good things, smelling good things, touching good things and the thoughts also will be good. Can I wish all the time? I cannot. That is my first reflection. Whatever that has been given to me has come into existence because the condition is matched. I am not owner of any condition? You can now observe the breath throughout your body because it’ll lead to dispassion. The moment it becomes dispassionate, you’ll be able to penetrate the entire body and watch the breath.
So my good time is dependent on the condition and the bad time is also dependent on the condition. I don’t have any power, authority, ownership. to reject the condition. As a child, I’m tormented with one or the other condition. Nothing that I can And before the child was an infant, before the infant was an embryo, nothing could be done. If then I could not do anything, Can I do anything now? So my only refuge, only friend is this breath. With breath I have started my life. With breath I’m going to end my life. That’s the only friend who is going to be there irrespective of somebody’s there with me or not.
Second reflection. every hour going cuts one day. every day cuts a month, every month cuts a year. And every year cuts a life-stream. So aging is part of it. While an embryo became a child, while a child the body started growing. Then we begin seeing how it is. With birth comes aging. That is how it is dependent. If anything is born, it will get aged. If you buy a product, it gets aged. One day gone, 10 days gone, one year gone. Like that. aging happens. Nothing that I can do to stop the aging.
Third – reflection upon the diseases. No matter what you do cannot remove hunger and thirst. You only find solution to it. And because of hunger and thirst you have to find a place for urinal and for the poop or feces that come out and create a septic tank for it to fill up. No matter how many people stay in a house, all of that is going to combine into one stinky mess. If I’m a girl or a woman, need to get tortured every month of the menstrual cycle. with birth aging with aging diseases and with diseases death every night. There is temporary suspension of the conscious experience. No family, no myself, no sight, no sound, no taste, no touch and no dreams as well.
And I need to maintain this body by constant washing. So require soap and detergent. Then I have to wear something for the wound. Bathing is a dressing for this body and covering it with clothes is a dressing. And there is constant pain. If anything touches like mosquitoes, glad flies, insects, heat, cold. The wound gets inflamed. Need to address it in one way or the other. Then I require a room, a bed and a washing machine. utensils. Creating of food takes hours while eating takes minutes. Again, we have to wash it. After doing all of this, we are to let go of everything in the night and that’s called sleep.
Fourth – reflection on death: We all are dying each moment and by the end of the day, we are dead. And when the lifespan ends, there is permanent sleep and the body is thrown out. Be it human beings, all relationship ceases to exist in sleep.
Fifth – reflection on losing the loved ones – We are going to lose the loved ones, be it material comforts or relationships. All of them end by the end of the day and one should keep on reflecting on it. When deep sleep takes over, the relationship with world ends for that time.
Sixth – reflection on karma – And what comes with me is the karma I have done with intention for the whole day. So if I have bad intention that follows me. If I have good intention that follows me. If I have no intentions at all then no karma can be there. receive it.
You don’t have to believe in any philosophies, traditions, opinion or anything. The moment they throw the doubt by seeing what it is by reflecting on it, restlessness goes away, and since that you have precepts worry goes away. And since you have stopped going behind the sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, and thoughts as we did in the beginning, quest for sensual pleasure goes away. with that, ill will also go away. And what is left is only one that is boredom that cannot survive without sensual pleasures. Since there is no worry, the sluggishness of the mind will not be there.
And because there is energy in reflection, the sleepiness will not be there. As soon as you let go of hindrance, you start to feel the energy in the whole body just like somebody is putting water from head to toe or in other way just a coolness and you feel relieved.
You might feel lightness as though your burden has been removed. All of these are not an imagination or mind at play, you can really see that indeed this is what it is. And that’s the entry of the first jhāna and for the this whole day wherever you are sitting however you are sitting doesn’t matter continue working on it if some sensual thought comes reflect upon its fleeting nature can be on sight sound taste or smell just let it go.
Then reflect upon the aging process. As soon as some disturbance comes in the mind, look at the aging. Look at the disease and look at the death. Look at how everyone are going to lose all their loved ones. Not at once, every every night. So all that we have is few hours before death takes over in the night. Let’s make best use of this opportunity.
The indications of the first Jhāna is that you are able to feel the breath the entire body and those from the going to Goenkaji tradition would see it like a free flow unhindered throughout the body or some people will have it like a cool feeling of entire body or lightness of the body. In either one of them is the first jhāna. Have an attention on the breath and have the awareness of the thoughts or the feelings or the sensations, emotions that are coming. If you allow them, they will take the breath away. Don’t allow that to happen.
All of these background things will die. Don’t let go of the friend which is the breath. You’re born through breath. and you’re going to die through breath. So don’t give it to anyone. There is no imagination in this. It’s the fact that as soon as a child is born means it’s breathing. And when somebody is declared you’re dead means it’s not breathing. So every breath is precious.
etaṁ santaṁ etaṁ paṇītaṁ yadidaṁ sabbasaṅkhārasamatho sabbūpadhipaṭinissaggo taṇhākkhayo virāgo nirodho nibbānan’ti.
May all of you attain the supreme bliss of nana during your stay here. May all defilements, hindrances come to an end. May all of you be happy.
Day 4 – Mindfulness of the Breath and the Path to Jhana
