Ajahn Sucitto: Restraint supports gladness

So I'll start with some Sutta readings. This one is the first Sutta of the Samyutta Nikaia, connected discourses. The verse is a group of poems, with prose with poems in them. This is the first one, Crossing the Flood. As I heard, on one occasion the Blessed One was the welling at Savati, in Jethas Grove, an arthapendicus park. Then, when the night had advanced, the certain Devatar of stunning beauty illuminating the entire Jethas Grove approached the Blessed One. Having approached, he paid homage to the Blessed One. Stuttvan's silence said to him, Now, dear sir, did you cross the flood? By not halting, friend, and by not straining, I crossed the flood. But how is it, dear sir, that by not halting, and by not straining, you crossed the flood? When I came to a standstill, friend, then I sank. But when I struggled, then I got swept away. It is in this way, friend, that by not halting, I, by not straining, I crossed the flood. The Devatar comments after a long time, at last, I see a pravn who is fully quenched, who by not halting, and not straining, I was crossed over attachment to the world. Of course, this is the Devatar's expression. And it's a nice image, and they say, so what is it? Now, standing still, not pushing. What's the flood? Well, here, so the glossary says, the flood is the four floods, the river Olga, which is so on and with Yassava, the flood of becoming, the flood of sensuality, the flood of ignorance, the flood of views, views and opinions. And I think that's, yeah. And yet the Buddha doesn't say the floods. He says that the flood, perhaps something more fundamental, more felt, swept, swept along, swept along. There's a kind of currents in that, swept along. And if we even recognize the flood, time, events, faces, people, concerns, seasons, regrets, joys, internal, external, it's constant flowing along. Is it a problem? Is it painful? Or is it just, it just keeps going on? As we meditate, we come into this particular form, witnessing the flood, the movement. The sudden flood generally means something, there's some danger in it, because one could easily go under, get capsized, get swept away from something more stable, something more grounded. So in the word of the flood itself, you get a feeling of, yeah, when I actually just hold a position here and open to what my experience is, it is pretty dynamic and going monohor, sometimes going back on itself, cross currents, vortices, surges, waterfalls, puddles, torrents. Oh yeah, right there. And for a start, if you cultivate that, you're very difficult to, whenever you're creating a person in that, things lock, because clearly there's not a person in that, because everything is moving. You can't form an identity out of one of those, because another one comes along. Sight, sounds, feeling, moves, desperation, desperation. Which one is the real me? Or am I the flood? Through which all things pass. Well, we know this movement changed. We know there's places where it gets stuck, and that gets intense. Or it gets, sometimes intensely, I really want to do this. Oh yeah, or I can't stand this, or I need this, I don't like that. Within that flood there's these places where it begins to spin around, you get vortices, and that's where the I am, kind of arises, it becomes very powerful. So the chance to just step back, yeah, there are vortices, there are rocky places, it's all moving along. What is it that makes this intensity occur? Where there's dukkha, suffering, stress, and selfhood. We don't add the selfhood to it, which is not a concept, it's an emotional heightening. Maybe things will flow along, and there could be something to be learned there. You know, I get to my little obsession or something, oh, just that, it's just naming it. This is me getting into my obsession, and careful, and it's lift, lift, lift from that. Okay, yeah, just something, some conscience, some care, some worry, some misunderstanding. Okay, it's a lift from that. Maybe the I am softens in that, oh yeah, this is just, it's understanding, irritation, frustration, wanting something to happen. Okay, okay. Everybody gets this, it's not personal copyright, it's just a step back. And then we can do that. We can do that. It doesn't mean it's all we can do, there's so an answer, but we can do that. We can at least get that. And that gives us more space and deeper wisdom than just the immediate identification with what happens internally, externally, each of these sheets that, we can quite easily generate selfs around other people, what we experience other people as. And then how we think they feel about me and all that, it gets, can get very intense. Okay, keeping that spaciousness. Community life, that's the basic practice. Yeah, it's decisive engagement. Yeah, maybe decisive engagement is just to be able to hold something without grasping it. This is just a problematic bit, it is problematic. There's some, you know, difficult things here, but I'm not meltdown by that. I don't have to succeed. I don't have to, you know, sort of assain sort of intensity to it. No, finding this middle way and one thing we can arrive at this suit to is this really is a poetic description of the middle way. Not straining, struggling, bound up with craving, aversion, not holding, gripping, taking a position, establishing, this is what I am, this is what I will be, this is what I was. Consciousness gets established and then once that gets established, more floods occur. Ah, get established upon this, then the world starts to get established upon a memory or a projection or anticipation and only more stuff starts accruing around that. Another flood appears. Whence it's going to be? It's noticing a simple example, noticing a series of medical appointments which they say, well, give me another date. I think, okay, well, I'll go get this date. There will be a place where we arrive at some conclusion. Right, I get, oh, that's the date. It's September or something. It's like there's no graphic conclusion and then I'll be here and go there. It's a subject. Well, we think maybe this and then maybe that. Looks like you need another appointment. For no conclusion. Nothing like that. Feeling frustrated, upset, disappointed. Yes, there it is. When she tried to lock on to something as definite, get established. Once this is that, then I'll be there. No, no, you stay here until the last grain of impatience has been worn out of you. The liquidity has arrived and you can move on. Testing, testing, testing. And yet these places where the decisive engagement always checks us. You think you've got no attachment? Try this one. You don't have a responsibility to see what happens when you're the work-mogne-guess-mogne or the habit or something. And then of course, this doesn't go the way it should be done according to that. Okay. Patience, equity, there we are. Yeah, you know. So it's an uncomfortable process, but the arrival of that lightness is rare to find in the world and wise and stable, not halting, not fixating oneself as being something or as not being something. Not establishing consciousness on a particular position. From here to the pindabhad, different. Suddenly the core of what disappears, we take what we can with you. You're out there exposed. Are you going to have established your training internally to resist the flood? But I'd also like to suggest this, this not halting, not straining, is itself, is another kind of fluidity because it's constantly apprehending what arises, sight, sound, touches. So it has to keep alert to that and adjusting. And there's an underlying basis that supports that, which is the basis of good qualities, now, such as virtue and harmlessness and very obvious things and unkindness and restraint. Actually, perhaps one of the leaders of it, perhaps the leader of it, is a restraint. Because unless there's that ability to restrain the push of the flood, then these other qualities aren't able to come forth because we're swamped. Here's another reading. This one, Sanjitinakaya 35.97. I would teach about one who dwells negligently and about one who dwells diligently. How does one dwell negligently? If one dwells about restraint over the eye, hear the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind, I've kind of rearranged the sutta, the citta, the heart, is soiled or sprinkled, and the stuff is scattered into it. Amongst forms cognizable by the eye, hear the nose, the tongue, the body and the mind. If the citta is soiled, there is no gladness. There's no gladness, there's no rapture. There's no rapture or joy, there's no tranquility. There's no tranquility or calm, one dwells in dukkha, stress, suffering. The citta of one who suffers does not become concentrated and dumbers do not become clear. And why I've used citta, because although the translation uses mind, there's a bit of an issue here because the mind is used in two senses. One is the citta sense, one is the mano sense. I always feel there's quite a distinction because where gladness and rapture arise, I consider that to be more like a heart experience, something welling up. This is citta. And the mano is very much associated with sense contact. It is one of the sense bases. It is the dominant sense base because it links up all the others. It says, oh that's so and so, that's citta. It looks like this reminds me of that. This citta belongs to that word. This side, if I touch it will give rise to this feeling. This side, if I taste it, it will taste pleasant. So it's the mind, the mano that does the linking up and labels things. So it's very much associated with sense consciousness. And citta is very much affected by this, but it's actually, I would say, a different domain. Because gladness, for example, is a mood, it's a feeling that arises. And it arises not from outside, something impinging, it arises internally and spontaneously. And that's how you know you have a heart, because you feel gladdened. And when you feel gladdened, and you know you feel gladdened, something becomes stable. Oh yeah, this is true. This is right. Yeah, that's good. Stability gives you a sense of firmness, but the firmness is not holding a position. It's about resonating with a quality. And a quality that can then stream along. It acts the leader. Our qualities act as the leader, rather than thought qualities, which supported but have to, in a way, be used to wake the heart. So how mind quarries is, what does that feel like? Oh yeah. Oh, oh yes. So this could be tāgavichāra, the mind points, and the heart feels, senses. That's meditation is doing that. So this you begin to realize you opened it up, and you can do this probably to a greater extent, walking, sitting, lying down, working, talking to people, having a meal. Great. This means meditation is to expand beyond your 45 minutes, hour, whatever it is, of sitting. You keep trying to keep that system going. That's that. How does it feel? How am I with that? Even if sometimes what I am with that is confused, or hurt, or destroyed, at least I know what to deal with. Then, okay, anxiety has come over me. It's not anxiety. It's not thought. It's a mood. What does anxiety need? Anxiety needs simple stability, body breathing. Okay. Topic concerns me, put to one side, deal with the mood and the feeling. Oh yes. Working with the heart, and the body, have a strong relationship. It's supportive. And you're aware of all this, I'm sure. But what kick-starts that process? It has to be somewhere checking. Wait a minute. That's court restraint. And diligence, it means you're attuned to that possibility. So diligence, promoter, or upper-moder, hatefulness. You recognize that has to be somewhere near at hand. You're always like you're driving. You've always got one foot, one hand on the gear stick, one foot near the throttle, one foot near the brake. Slow it, moderate it, check. You don't want to drive on the brake, but you can have it very much there, if need be. Then you've got somewhere stepping out of the flood. Stepping out, then the possibility of capacity to step out. Oh, and then the heart can rise in that place. What's needed here? Just take it easy. Let's try again. Or softer this time. Or clearer this time. Or firmer this time. So this sense of adjusting to become into flow. A flow of Dunbar, rather than the flow of the world. This is a massive training. And I can't think of anything else. It takes a long, good time. But the mark of it, gladness, the originator of gladness is not feeling happy, but restrained. Because then the quality of gladness that arises has almost like innate nature. It's already potentially there if we step out. Oh yes, a sort of a whiff of freedom. And then you can foster it. Recollecting good qualities. Recollecting good qualities in yourself or in others. Because it's not about recollecting me, but recollecting good qualities. This was his persistence. That's quite inspiring. This was her courage. That's inspiring. This is the time when I apologized. That was beautiful. This was the time when I put forth a bit more effort. That was good. This is the time when I, you know, cultivated with clarity. By that I maintain attentiveness, intelligence. Seeing nature of things. Yesterday I was doing my things I do. And I was trying to build some tree guards. So to guard the trees. I mean I have these plastic coils which have been thrown away. So I have quite a sense of that. Plastic, earth, plastic, poison. Don't want it. Can I use it? Yes. Need something to get this plastic netting into a coil. Need to wire it together. Okay, go back to the scrap heap again. Chicken wire thrown away. Chicken wire, wire, rusty, earth. Not good. Can't use it. I was given. Somebody bought it and gave it to us. Useful. Don't take the chicken wire. Begin to unravel all the chicken wire. And untwist the mesh. And then some good wire. And then slip the wire into strips. Then I can make a coil out of this plastic. A webbing. And put it around the tree to stop the deer and the rabbits eating it. Gladness of rose. Even just picking up the chicken wire and seeing I could use, making use for gladness of rose. See something. Something that is other, perhaps one could just gloss over rubbish. No, not rubbish. Phenomena. It's a phenomena. It came from somewhere, it goes somewhere. It came here. Given, somebody gave it. Why? Gladness of rose. Naturally this stuff doesn't cost much. It takes a bit of work to do these things. I don't expect anybody's going to do it. But I do it. Because it gives me gladness. And then I feel when I look at the tree planted, I feel happy. The woman father died. Of course everybody's father dies. So, flower tree for her father. And she's kneeling by the sight on her knees. Eyes blooming with tears. I look at her, I think, yes. I had a father too. He died. I feel like that. Yes. I may have a tree. This tree is for him. He will stay here. I will look after it. I don't know how it goes forth. And I feel good about that. What does things one can do? Require not much intelligence really. Just looking at things. Clearly knowing the meaning of things. And knowing the significance of things. And the woman grateful. And goes to the chicken wire. Clearly, I mean, you know, it's a little story because that's the world I live in. I don't have it yet. I don't expect everybody sees that. They don't have their own areas to look at. Only areas to look at. But I would suggest that sense of being able to just... I know this is tricky because we're very much in a system which in order for a community to persist, there has to be a sort of... 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, you know, Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday thing. And it'll somehow be able to... Yeah, that's there. And yet, at the same time, at the most important moment, where the need to check, restrain, open the heart, see clearly, maybe... On the external level, not much difference. Internally, feel glad. And that gladness, and rapture, joy, and sharing it. Other people feel happy. And it's not just a trivial happiness. You know, it's a deepening effect. We deepen into the meaning, the value of things. You know? The value of people, what encourages, what lifts up, what this place is about. In a way, to me, it's the world becomes a place for sacredness. It's a curious phrase to use, but because I know what it's like when it's not. I know the desecration, the desecration, commodification of everything. Right? You know that. You know when it's like when it's just pay-out, everything just costs money. It's money that counts. The value is money. The value is not values. The value is money. The world is not a world of a good heart. The world is a billion dollars. You know what that is? You know what that is? You know what results with that? You know what the result of that is? People trashed, life trashed, lives desecrated, hatred. Well, opposite. Sacred. Things are precious. Things care. Everything matters. And it's... You know, it's not comfortable. Because in a desecrated world, seeing the sacredness of things is quite painful. But, so you just have to sort of lift from that, say, well, this I can do. Because we're not looking at some idea. We're looking directly in front of what I can contain with my life. My gladness arises because we recognize, you know, the one we can rescue is right here. Everything else we can affect. We can encourage. But this heart we can rescue. And it begins, restrained, clearing away the automatics, the mental congestion, preoccupation, full of ideas and thoughts and this and that, clearing away. Because of all the senses that must be restrained, it's the mind. It's the big one. Particularly in the monastery, seeing things, well, you know, it's not going to do you much harm. Hearing things where you can hear some chanting. It's not going to really get you too excited, is it? Tasting things, yeah. I'm grooling in the morning. I don't think it's really going to get whoopee about grooling in the morning. Covered tea. So what is it? It's going to be the mind. Thinking about myself, my past, my future, what I am, what I'm not. The incredible capacity for self-criticizing and self-critiquing. Restraint, restraint, restraint. Come out of that, you know, like, turn away from self to quality. Self is an illusion. If you arrive at balance, you cannot really claim an identity in any of this. You can certainly see that some painful flows. Absolutely. But when that vortex turns around, it becomes a solid thing. Maybe chewing your own tails. Then you know you're getting into the stuff, stuff. So it's there, we need the qualities. Is there something here you don't regret? A quality. I have done this. Made this. I have restrained from that. I was doing this and I've stopped doing it. Gladness arises. Thank goodness. I met so and so. Thank goodness. You know, it's not just internal qualities. We see them around us. We see the generosity. We see the virtue. We see the commitment. We feel, I see that. I see that in you. We look for qualities. And how did I notice that? Because of the flow. I just see somebody because of his accent. Or hear his accent. Or see his size. Or see his shape. Or I think it wasn't that. Then you discern the qualities. And that's hard. Does that. You know? The motivation, you know, the two-fold qualities of restraint. One is it takes us out of this swamped sense into relational sensitivity. We call it ethics. We can also call it loving kindness. They're two sides of the same thing. Ethics is not the law and order of punishment held damnation stuff. Right, wrong, law book. Ethics is sensitivity. This is painful. This is offensive. This is disrespectful. This, you know, stereotypes people. That's not right. You know? This puts people down. That's not right. This is me dominating. That's not right. Me to others. Sensitivity. Just... That means restraint. Restraint and listen. Restrain and look. Restrain and sense. This too counts. This too. It means something.