thuxem

Transcript of Dharma Talk by

Brother Phap An in

Hong Kong

28 May 2008

 

Transcribed by Terence Chan

 

Respected brothers and sisters,

Three sounds of the bell

 

I will review the meditations we practiced over the past few days. You might want to put your arms around you and embrace yourself.

 

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in

Breathing out, I know I am breathing out

In

Out

 

Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body

Breathing out, I relax my whole body

Aware of my whole body

Relax my whole body

 

Breathing in, I visualize the universal love (*)

Breathing out, I am being embraced by that love

Aware of the universal love

Embraced by universal love

(*) Avalokiteshvara, my mother, my father or anyone who has loved me unconditionally

 

Breathing in, I am in touch of the situation or person who has caused me suffering

Breathing out, I embrace my negative emotion with my own love

Aware of the situation that has caused me suffering

Embraced negative emotion with my own love, I feel so much love in myself

 

Breathing in, I am in touch with the wounded child within me

Breathing out, I embrace that child with all of my love and care

In touch with the wounded child within me

Embrace the wounded child with all my love and care

 

(I see the wounded child in me is reacting, fighting, and he wouldn’t let me embrace it. But I know even though it is fighting it needs my love and care.)

 

Breathing in, I feel the pain and the suffering of the wounded child

Breathing out, I embrace the child with all my love and care

I feel so much love for you. I feel so much love for myself.

 

My dear abandoned child, for so many years, I have abandoned you. I have not taken care of you. I didn’t now. But now I know. I am determined to go back to take care of you with all my love and attention. Please accept my love.

 

Breathing in, I am in touch of the universal love.

Breathing out, I feel the universal love is embracing me.

Aware of universal love.

Being embraced by universal love.

 

Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body

Breathing out, I relax my whole body

Aware of my body

Relax my body

 

Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in

Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out

In

Out

 

Thank you brothers and sisters for practicing together. You might want to take this exercise back and practice it and embrace the wounded child within. Talking to him, having a conversation with him. Develop an intimate relationship with him. Slowly it will accept you and change. It is very effective.

 

Yesterday we talked about the time before the Buddha was born. In India there was a Dravidian practice locally. Their practice was to look inward and practiced a sort of concentration, without enquiring much. They were just sitting to calm themselves. The Aryans came from southern Russia through the Iranian plateau, and settled between the Yamuna River and the Ganges River. That is the cradle of Brahmanism. That area is very orthodox. The Buddha was born in the Sakya country. It was a new territory to the east. Orthodox Brahmanism was not affecting the area so much. He had some freedom in his way of thinking. At that time the Kingdoms of Kosala and Magadha were struggling to gain power form the Brahmin class. People there were more ready to experience new ways of thinking. As I said yesterday before the Buddha was born there was Orthodox Brahmanism. Then there were a lot of movements reacting against it. In 700 BC the Upanisad tradition began to form. In the pre-Upanisad period people were looking for self, for their ontological ground, for what is underneath our being. They proposed that there is a self called atman, and outside there is a self behind the natural phenomena called Brahma. The Aryan tradition of orthodox Brahmanism, based on the Vedas, pushed out the native tradition of the Dravidians. About 700 BC people tried to go back to the Dravidian practice. There was a mixing of Vedic and Dravidian traditions. Some Vedic practitioners were using Dravidian techniques to prove that atman exists. Before that they denied the Dravidian practice. They meditated, went deeper and deeper to try to experience the self. They say underneath us there is the individual self. Outside in the world, there is a self called Brahma. Our self is limited, but Brahma is not. But Brahma does not know itself, whereas our self does. Through reasoning and deduction they concluded that atman is Brahma. They expand the self into the universe and take the expansive quality of Brahma into the self. It is all speculation without basis. The Upanisad tradition was able to break away from orthodox Brahmanism for some time. Later the orthodox absorbed the Upanisad’s idea that atman is Brahman. This is how Brahmanism works. Nowadays after two thousand years Buddhism has become a part of Hinduism, saying that the Buddha was a reincarnation of Visnu (a Brahmanic deity). They like to absorb things. The idea of an eternal, permanent and universal self was popular at the time of the Buddha. Did the Buddha follow this tradition to ascertain the self? In his search for enlightenment did he pursue the self? In other words was he interested in the ontological direction? In my research and looking into the Pali Nikaya, we can say to a certain degree that the Buddha did not try to prove the self exists. The Buddha’s search for enlightenment was based fully on his emotions. Yesterday we say that Buddhist practice consists of stopping and looking deeply. Stopping has to do with emotions and looking deeply has to do with vision or cognition. I believe the Buddha began his search with his emotions. It is clear from his description of his enlightenment. There is a sutra called the Noble Quest (number 26, Majjhima Nikaya). You can find it on www.accesstoinsight.org. Another sutra called the Great Discourse Given to Maha-Saccaka, who practiced in the Nigantha tradition (number 36, Majjhima Nikaya). These two sutras are very interesting. Number 85 and 100, Majjhima Nikaya, do not give as much detail. In the first two sutras, the Buddha talks about his youth and his motivation to go on the path. In the Anguttara Nikaya, there is a sutra called the City Dweller (number 338), where the Buddha also talks about his youth. At one time when he was young, nine or ten years old, he was sitting under a rose apply tree and his father was officiating the ceremony to open the ploughing season and to sow the seeds. He took time to practice meditation under the tree and saw the big birds were eating insects in the field, and the smaller insects were killing each other. He felt a great compassion for them. In the City Dweller sutra (Nagara Sutta, number 65, section 12, Samyutta Nikaya), he recalls that he was a spoiled child. His father built for him three palaces for three different seasons: rain, summer, winter. During the winter he lived upstairs and never had to go downstairs. Upstairs there were beautiful female artistes dancing and trying to provide him with pleasure. He and his servants were eating whole rice and meat, while the people ate broken rice and lentils. Then he saw death, old age and sickness. He contemplated that when a young person sees an old person, he feels disgusted. But how could he when eventually he too would be old. He did not feel disgusted, but felt bad and wants a way out. He said when his hair was black and he was in the energetic period of life, he felt that worldly life was like a dusty road, while the life of one gone forth was like the open sky. Within him there was a great desire for freedom.

 

So first there was his experience of suffering and second his yearning for freedom. Regarding the experience of suffering, it is clear from some of the autobiographies recorded later that the Buddha did suffer from his mother’s death. I think the Buddha suffered deeply because he was a sensitive man. Although she passed away when he was seven days old, a few days old or at birth, depending which version you find, the truth was that she died shortly after his birth. As a child the Buddha was very sensitive and felt his mother had passed away. It happens to many children when they are young and separated from their parents, they lose the bond throughout their psychological development. So the Buddha had been a wounded child since he was a child. This block of suffering started early in His life and grew because he did not know how to practice. So he approached the dharma because of his emotions. He did not approach it through reason or philosophical enquiry. That is for sure, He confirmed this in these two sutras. First he went to a teacher called Alara-kalama. This teacher belonged to the Vedic tradition. There was perhaps evidence that he belonged to the Upanisad tradition. In Alara-kalama’s meditation he tried to experience the ontological ground. The Buddha practiced very well and within a short time he had reached the level of his teacher. But then he said I have searched for the most noble way leading to blissfulness, but this meditation could only lead him to the realm of Nothingness. In this realm his mind was temporarily in the state of non-material and he experienced some calm and peace perhaps because the mind was not working as usual. There was some stopping, but outside of meditation the suffering emerges right away because the meditation could only lead to some stopping, but not to the understanding of his suffering. He could not find complete peace. He searched for the most noble because society was rigid and oppressive. He was affected by the collective consciousness. The Vedic system believed in god’s order. In the Upanisad period people wanted an alternative, but their idea of atman being the same of Brahma actually strengthened the caste system. The Buddha saw so much injustice and suffering in the world. That is why he searched for the most noble. Internally he was looking for bliss. He did not feel peaceful at all.

 

He went to another teacher called Uddaka-ramaputa, the son of Rama. Ramaputa also belonged to the Upanisad tradition. This teacher went further that the last one to the state of Neither-percetion-nor-non-perception. The Buddha practiced so well. Again in a short time he was able to excel even Uddaka, who then asked the Buddha to stay and be his teacher instead. He was very kind. The Buddha declined and continued the search for the noble way leading to peace by himself. In that process he attained a few stages of enlightenment. So enlightenment did not happen suddenly in one night; it happened slowly.

 

He went to a place to sit down and practiced. It occurred to him that when a piece of wood is alive, there is it sap in it. If we immerse it in water, can we burn it? No, we cannot. In the sutra he says that this wisdom came to him without anyone telling him before. So he thought when this piece of wood is taken out of the water, can we burn it? No, we cannot. When this piece of wood has been placed under the sun to dry for many days, can we burn it? Yes, we can. He thought his body is like a piece of wood with a lot of sap. So he practiced self-mortification to take the ‘sap’ out so he can light the fire of liberation within him. He was experimenting, and he practiced self-mortification severely. He became so thin that when he touched his belly, he touched his spinal cord. While he was practicing, he struggled with his block of suffering. He tried to control it, to force it down. Please read the sutra because it is very interesting to see how the Buddha struggled for enlightenment. He practiced as if the block of suffering was outside him. It was a dualistic way of thinking. There is the evil and I have to use my inner strength to conquer. That was why he was unsuccessful. He was about to die and fainted. A young shepherd girl, Sujata, found the Buddha. She went home and her mother told her to offer some rice to the “god” in the forest. She thought the Buddha was a god. Sujata poured milk into god’s mouth and He slowly recovered. He realised that his practice has not been the right way. It was too extreme. So the first enlightenment of the Buddha was realising the middle way. To dwell in sensual pleasure was like soaking a piece of wood. He then tried to dry up the sensual pleasure with self-mortification. Having tried the extreme form of self-mortification he found the middle way between sensual pleasure and self-mortificaiton. The practice of self-mortification by the Buddha was different from other forms of the practice during his time. There were quite a few movements against orthodoxy at the time, one of which was the practice of self-mortification, like crawling like a dog or a cow, barking, eating cow dung, etc. but I don’t think the Buddha did all that. In the Pali canon, his students attribute all these practices to the Buddha, but I think the Buddha’s self-mortification was different. Sometimes students venerate the teacher so much that they give the teacher qualities he does not have. I believe that is what happens in the Pali canon. Some scholars say at least 75% of the Pali canon is interpolation and only 25% is fact. So this is the practice and the Buddha found the middle way. While practicing the middle way, his friends who practiced self-mortification left him. He continued to eat and gained strength, progressing towards the third stage of enlightenment. But before that, he had the second stage of enlightenment when he recalled the experience under the apple tree when he was nine years old. He entered into his first meditation state and felt very peaceful and told himself that this kind of pleasure was not bad. That sensual pleasure from the peace and calm of meditation is allowable. But later on many traditions misinterpreted the Buddha and denied all sorts of sensual pleasure. They say when you feel peace and calm in meditation don’t get trapped into it. One day it will stop, but the suffering will remain. But the Buddha said it was acceptable. People later questioned the Buddha: do you nap after a meal? The Buddha says why not. The questioning Brahmin says if you nap in the afternoon, your mind get dull. The Buddha says when your body is tired allow your body to have a rest. In the afternoon when the weather is hot and you need a nap, take a nap. Your mind’s cloudiness is a different issue. The last stage of enlightenment happened during the night.

 

One sound of bell

 

The next breakthrough for the Buddha was the night of enlightenment. Before that the Buddha tried his best to contemplate and practice the teachings of Alarakalama and Udakaramaputa again and again. He used the same techniques taught by them and trained his mind to go one step further, reaching the state of Cessation of Feeling and Perception, where you don’t have any cognitive function anymore. You turn yourself into a vegetable or a stone. Even though it is higher than other states of concentration, it has not proved to be useful. Some traditions believe that this is necessary for enlightenment, but I don’t think so. The Buddha never praised this state of concentration. He said whoever practices meditation cannot go beyond this state of concentration, but it is useless. So he goes back. Traditionally there are 8 states of meditation plus the last or ninth state. They are the four dhyanas: Pleasant Sensations, Joy, Contentment and Utter Peacefulness, followed by the realms of Unlimited Space, Unlimited Consciousness, Nothingness (by Alarakalama) and Neither-perception-nor-non-perception. The ninth state is Cessation of Feeling and Perception. The Buddha sees that states five to nine, although they are advanced and they alter the mind, have nothing to do with our emotions, which are not present in these states. So they do not go to the root of our problem, our emotions. He then spent time going back and forth between the first four states. Finally at the fourth state, he directed his mind to his emotions. In this state, the mind is not altered yet, but it is calm with equanimity, very flexible with strong concentration, so you can still deal with the knot of human emotions, which is still there. When you reach the fifth state, emotions begin to disappear until they disappear completely in the ninth state. He then went through three states of discovery.

 

The first phase, from 9pm to 12am, the first watch of the night, he discovered Retro Cognition. He was able to see his past life experiences. Countless lifetimes. One lifetime, two lifetimes, …. He saw where he was born …….

 

The second phase was from 12am to 3am, the second watch of the night. He discovered Clairvoyance. He asked himself why he went through different manifestations in the past? Are other living beings different? He turned his attention to other living beings and found they go through the same experiences. He saw that people who have done good deeds in their lives, who did wholesome deeds and made wholesome speech, they are reborn in a god realm … It was clear to him there was the law of karmic retribution. This confirms to him the belief of transmigration in the Upanisad tradition. They saw that when people passed away they continue in another form. So the Upanisad tradition found the rebirth phenomenon, but they believed that the ontological self could not be destroyed; it passes from one life to another. They called this transmigration, in which even though the physical body disintegrates, the ontological self goes on. The Buddha confirmed the law of karmic retribution. That means there is the phenomenon of rebirth.

 

In the third phase, from 3am to 6am, he discovered something that was not known before in the history of the world. He discovered that the view of an ontological self that transmigrates is not correct. He addressed the problem that motivated him in the search: the problem of suffering, the problem of dis-ease within him. For many years he had been struggling with it. He once thought it was sensual pleasure and he did a lot of things trying to remove it. He failed. That night he directed his mind to the suffering and began the process of looking deeply. The first two phases we might call the process of stopping, and the third phase we might call looking deeply. He asked himself what gives rise to this mass of suffering, the pain of death, the suffering of old age, the sorrow of sickness. He saw there was birth. Because of birth this suffering came about. He began to go back one after another, and discovered the Links of Co-dependent Arising. It goes like this:

 

Old age, sickness <- Birth <- Wish for becoming (Sanskrit: bhava) <- Grasping <- Craving <- Feeling <- Contact <- Six sense bases <- Namarupa (English: body and mind) <- Consciousness

 

The wish for becoming is like this. Because you wanted to learn something you came to the retreat. That willingness to come to learn, to attain, is the wish of becoming. This is an original discovery. In most Pali Nikaya this is portrayed as the Twelve Links. There is one sutra [called the Mahanidana Sutra, number 15, Digha Nikaya] that has these 10 links. This is very important compared to the 12 links because the Buddha explicitly says that what conditions namarupa is consciousness. And he asks what gives rise to consciousness, and he found out that namarupa gives rise to consciousness. He says he looked and looked and he could not go beyond consciousness; consciousness folds unto itself. Without consciousness, namarupa cannot be; and without namarupa, consciousness cannot be. He could not go beyond consciousness. Consciousness is conditionally arising. That statement declares clearly that the search by the Upanisads and those before them for the ontological self was a failure. There is no ontological point which when we touch it we are liberated. That is a false assumption. There cannot be a separation between the body and the mind; they are one. Like I said at the beginning of the retreat: body is a continuation of the mind, and mind is a continuation of the body. This is a modern statement of what the Buddha says: consciousness folds unto itself; consciousness gives rise to namarupa and namarupa gives rise to consciousness. Up to this point the Buddha sees clearly that the search for ontological self by many generations up to the Buddha is useless. He approached this wisdom not through rational thinking, but through looking deeply into his emotional problem. After his enlightenment, whenever a philosopher tried to confront the Buddha about the ontological ground, the Buddha could defeat him easily because he saw that it was useless. He had solved the problem of human suffering in this direction, the direction of epistemology. He sees very clearly that human problem arises because we do not understand. Later on in the Noble Eightfold Path, the most important point is Right View. By having the correct perspective about things, we can solve our problem. The block of suffering is like a prism distorting our perception. He found the root of our suffering comes from three sources of energy: greed, hatred and confusion. They modify our view and stop us from seeing clearly.

 

One sound of bell

 

He exclaimed how strange it was that sentient beings for countless lifetimes went through suffering that was unnecessary because they all have the capacity to be joyful and happy, but they let these energies take them over, became attached to these energies and then drowned themselves in the ocean of suffering. He said their nature is the nature of joy and peace. Just stopping the manifestation of these energies is the achievement. It is not something we have to look for. Peace and joy are already there within us. We don’t need to look outside for them, but because we don’t see, we don’t have the right perspective that we allow these energies to manifest. Once they manifest, we get caught in them and that is how we suffer. How pitiful they are!

 

 So the moment we know we can recognize the manifestation of these energies and we don’t follow these energies we naturally have peace and happiness. We do not have to look outside. We just need to stop the manifestation of these energies. So nirvana is not something we reach after thousands of years of practice. It is the way we see. I see this is greed, and I don’t listen to that. This is hatred, and I don’t listen to that. This is confusion, and I don’t listen to that. Then I am able to be free. There is a lot of misunderstanding that on the night of enlightenment the Buddha was able to get rid of these energies. No! He saw clearly the nature of their manifestation and how they control the human mind. Seeing like that was the great enlightenment. It is not that he could destroy these energies. He was able to see the operation of these sources of energy. If we do not listen to them, do not allow them to control us, then we are free. You see the difference? That night he reached the great enlightenment. Many of his disciples out of devotion, respect and veneration put Him on a big altar and turned the Buddha into a kind of god. After his enlightenment he remained to be human. He was not different from a human. The only difference was that he had the right view about things. That was all. That was all about His enlightenment. When you perceive things, and you are able to stop and generate the right view within you, you are a buddha. Once he discovered that, he lived his life according this principle and became a teacher. It is not that he had destroyed these energies and turned himself into a superhuman. It is very clear.

 

In the Tevijja-Vacchagotta Sutta (number 71, Majjhima Nikaya), the wanderer Vacchagotta says that a lot of people say the Buddha is omniscient, that He knows everything about every time and place at every moment. The Buddha says whoever says so is putting down the Buddha. He says He has attained the three knowledges or understandings:

 

1.         Retro-cognition (Knowledge of Past Lives),

2.         Clairoyance (Knowledge of the Passing and Arising of Beings) and

3.         Knowledge of the Destruction of Taints.

 

I prefer the word understanding because it is direct perception, while knowledge is intellectual. The Buddha says if he wants to, he could enter into these understandings and see. At other times, he says he was like everyone else and do not disrespect the Buddha by saying that he is omniscient. (The Jain leader Mahavira, the Buddha’s contemporary, claimed omniscience because they have a different theory about liberation. In their theory action is fundamental to mind and speech; and there are seven types of actions. A liberated person in the Jain tradition must have omniscience to be able to choose the right action at any time. We are not omniscient and therefore cannot look into each of the seven alternatives all the time and be able to choose correctly. But according to Buddhism, mind is the forerunner of speech and action.) The Buddha says I do not claim to be omniscient. I claim to understand the problem of suffering. Suffering comes to be because we do not have the right view of our suffering, the right perspective. The approach of Buddhism is epistemological. Next we go to the 30 Verses.

 

One sound of bell

 

The first verse in the Sanskrit version, according to Richard Robinson’s translation:

 

 “The metaphor of ‘Self and Elements’, which functions in several ways is upon the transformation of consciousness. This transformation is of three kinds.”

 

Thay’s translation is like this:

 

“The metaphors of self and dharmas, which function in so many different ways take place in the transformation of consciousness. And this transformation is of three kinds.”

 

Note the difference in wording: upon vs. take place in. Now let’s look at the Chinese version, translated by Dan Lusthaus:

 

“Due to the provisional expressions ‘atman and dharma’ there is the proliferation of their mutual operation. They [i.e. the interaction between self and its perceptual field] depend upon consciousness for their alterations. That which actively alters is only three.”

 

The three translations use quite different notations. The word ‘metaphor’ is translation for the Sanskrit word upakara, meaning a linguistic short hand. For example the words ‘sister Hanh-ngiem’ is a metaphor for reality, a linguistic shorthand notation. When I say ‘Sister Hanh-ngiem’, she does this. I am just using the words and there is a response from her. The words ‘Sister Hanh-ngiem’ points to a reality that is much bigger than just the words themselves. So the term ‘Sister Hanh-ngiem’ is a metaphore, a linguistic shorthand. The linguistic terms called Self and Elements interact between them. According to Robinson, these interactions are upon the transformation of consciousness, as if consciousness is the base upon which these linguistic short hands called Self and Elements begin to appear. Our notion of Self and Elements is a factor of our experience. In his interpretation consciousness is the ontological ground. Thay translates the interactions take place in the transformation of consciousness. So these linguistic notions happen in the transformation of consciousness. When consciousness is transformed it gives rise to these linguistic short hands. Dan Lusthaus translates pretty much is the same spirit: the interaction between self and its perceptual field depend upon consciousness for their alterations. That means consciousness is the condition for the interaction between self and its perceptual field. So there are three translations with different connotations. To understand this text we need to understand a bit about the Buddha’s teachings about consciousness.

 

First of all from the 8th century forward, Chinese Buddhism has split into two directions. One direction was influenced by the Avatamsaka Sutra. Master Fa-zang was strong in promoting the ontological ground, the dharmakaya or anything. This approach affected Buddhism in a strong way so that from the 8th to the 20th century the practice of Buddhism has gone into a very direction. In the Avatamsaka Sutra, it is said that the three realms come from the mind. The ten thousand dharmas manifest because of consciousness. There is a separation between mind and consciousness, which did not exist in Early Buddhism at all. From this perspective people have come to believe that our consciousness and the collective consciousness give rise to the manifestation of the world, which is an ontological interpretation. I don’t believe that the Buddha approached this problem like that. It is true that as the human species we collectively or individually interact with our environment around us and modify it in the process, and the environment modifies us in turn. It is a two-way operation. But it is not true that our consciousness give rise to the world and ourselves, which is the interpretation of many teachers over these twelve centuries. From the 8th century onwards Chinese Buddhism took on a very different path from the original teachings of the Buddha. The 30 Verses mainly describe how our consciousness is transformed in the process of suffering because of these three sources of energy: greed, hatred and confusion. Once they begin to take control, our consciousness begins to alter. One very important sutra already describes in simple terms the process of the transformation of our consciousness. It is called the Discourse of the Honeyball. You can find it on the internet. It is called the Ball of Honey, Madhupindika Sutta , number 18, Majjhima Nikaya. It is perhaps the only sutra in the Pali canon that talks about the transformation of consciousness. It is about a meeting by the Buddha in Nigroda Park in the country of Sakya. After the meal, the Buddha goes to rest in the Great Wood. A man goes to ask the Buddha: my friend, what teaching do you give to people? The Buddha says: I have the teaching that makes people of this world stop their attachment to wrong perception. The words are very nice. I might want to read it for you:

 

The Sakyan asks, “What is the contemplative doctrine that you teach”

 

The Buddha says. “The sort of doctrine, friends, where one does not keep quarrelling with anyone in the cosmos, with its devas, maras and brahmas, with its priests, royalty and common folks. The sort of doctrine where perception no long obsesses the brahma, who remain dissociated from sensual pleasures, free from perplexity, his uncertainty cut away, devoid of craving for becoming and non-becoming. Such is my doctrine. Such is what I teach.

 

When this was said, the Sakyan was shaking his head, wagging his tongue, raising his eyebrows so that his forehead was wrinkled in three furrows, left leaning on a stick. (He does not understand a word.)

 

The Buddha came back and told the story to the monks. The monks do not understand either. So they go to Maha-Kaccayana, who then explains it to them. The interesting part is this formula.

 

  • Depending on the visual organ and the visual object, o my brothers, there arise the visual consciousness. The coming of these three (organ, object and consciousness) is called contact. Depending on contact, there arises feeling.
  • What one feels, one perceives. What one perceives, one thinks about. What one thinks about, one is obsessed with. Due to this obsession, there arise all kinds of conflict in the world.

 

This statement is very interesting and is perhaps the only one in the Pali canon because it is grammatically complex and skilful. It covers the whole process of transformation of our consciousness. Up to the end of part one, the process is a natural one. There is not an agency or a person underneath. Everything happens as a natural process, by condition. There are the visual organ and the visual object, say a candle. They give rise to visual consciousness, the image of the candle in our consciousness. The coming of these three is contact. Up to here, it is still the language of natural process. With “what one feels …”, the ego comes in. There is a sense of self, which is a notion due to the transformation of consciousness. Before that we are not attached to it. Then “what one feels, one perceives.” There is a transformation during the process of feeling, leading to the notion of ‘one’, the notion of self, giving rise to perception. So feeling decides our perception. This is exactly what I said. Our block of suffering bends our perception. Our perception cannot go straight anymore. So this ‘one’ is the problem. This is the process of transformation of consciousness because once we get caught into this perception, we begin to think about it, and we start a loop whereby perception gives rise to thinking; thinking gives rise to obsession; and obsession feeds back into feeling, creating a loop. And it is this loop that we are trapped in. The notion of self is a result of the transformation of consciousness when it goes from feeling to perception. Once we get caught into perception and we get obsessed with it, we are locked. When the loop continues to operate, it begins to strengthen and becomes a kind of habit energy that we have.

 

The 30 verses go into detail of this process. It gives rise to the notion of store consciousness, the manas consciousness (7th consciousness), mind consciousness and all the five consciousnesses. The point is: where does feeling come from? It comes form our past experience, our past (embodied) conditioning, which we call our sankhara. Sankhara is the past conditioning that we have received, and it strengthens our feeling. Say when we do something we like, we strengthen that act. When we do something we do not like, we reject that act. We have learnt in the past. This sankhara is past conditioning which affects the present situation. The present situation continues to strengthen the past conditioning. In the five-skandha model, we have rupa, feeling, perception, sankhara (or mental formation) and consciousness. I have no time to explain them. In the 30 Verse model the store consciousness is the combination of sankhra and consciousness in the five-skandha model. Feeling is manas, which is source of ego. Perception is our mind consciousness. So the five-skandha model was turned by Master Vasubandhu into these elements: store consciousness, manas, mind consciousness and so on. It is not so different, but just a different way to portray the transformation of consciousness. So don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged by its description language. It is very simple. It is not as complex as it seems. It is all modeling, which helps us to have the right view into our process of thinking. We understand it so we don’t let the source of greed, hatred and confusion to control us; so we can be free. That is the whole point of the teaching. The 30 Verses do not give the teaching of store consciousness as the ontological self, from which the self and the world manifest. But many people interpret like that. No. Store consciousness is a transformation beginning from this moment, after contact. Anyway time is up. We end there. I explain these things in a 10-day retreat in Thailand. Here I cannot do it in more detail. Sorry. I tried my best.

 

Brother Phap Tu and I have organized to have my cooking tools here, so anyone who wants to know the recipe and know how I cook can see the real demonstration.

 

People leaving the retreat today please remember one thing. For many lifetimes we have allowed this loop to operate. That is why we have many habits and these habits are strengthening the feeling of self, which is manas. When we interact in the work environment or with our parents, our brothers, our sisters, our beloved, these habits manifest themselves. That is how we are in conflict. In this Ball of Honey sutta, the Buddha talks about how conflict between people arises. We have so much conflict when we work or live together because we have this loop. The way to stop the process of strengthening of this loop is stopping. Learn to stop and learn to embrace your feeling. Now I give you the practice. In your interaction someone say something you react right away before and you allow the loop to operate. In the practice of mindfulness, you watch out for your feeling, your manas. Manas is only a different name for manas. Feeling is manas. When there is a feeling of upset or irritation, you gently go back to the breath.

 

Breathing in I am aware of my anger.

Breathing out I embrace anger with my love.

 

You learn to do this and you reverse this loop-building process. When you practice successfully, there will be one day when this loop stops to operate. It slows down and slows down. And you can be very free from your interactions. That is my experience. I have been through negotiations with the Communist government. Sometimes they abused me and they talked to me in very bad language. Thanks to the practice, I watched my feeling and I was able to embrace it and transform it, and then I helped to transform them, those who interacted with me, too. So it is possible. The practice is effective. You just have to practice and watch out for your feeling. The key is our feeling. That is where the manas comes from. That is the whole thing about the 30 Verses. Thank you.

 

Three sound of bell

 

End