Devon Hase: Fourth Foundation in Satipatthana Practice (Retreat at Spirit Rock)

So, welcome to the penultimate morning of the retreat. Just like any excuse to use that word. And we've come really far, actually, if we think about retreat as a journey. Some of you have been here for 17 days. We've covered this territory of the 16 steps of Vandapanasatti. And now in this insight retreat, we've been walking diligently day by day through this framework of the Satipatana Sutta for foundations of mindfulness. This is really the bedrock, the ground, the whole frame for this insight meditation. This is the Pasana that we do in our tradition. And the Buddha said it in the Satipatana teachings in the Sutta he says, this is the direct path. This is the direct path for overcoming all sorrow, grief and lamentation. That's really all we need. And he also makes a pretty big promise at the end. He says, you know, just do this. Be mindful of your body and Vedana, your heart mind and all the dharmas. And you'll attain enlightenment in seven days. So today's the day. We look forward to hearing about it. And then he says, you know, if it doesn't happen in seven days, maybe seven weeks, maybe seven months. And just at most he says seven lifetimes. So some of us are a little bit on the slow path, but we've got good company with Ananda, you know, just slowly stepping our way in. But I wanted to give you the framework for the fourth foundation and we'll meditate some with us today. So we started with this body fullness. So important. And Eugene named all the different ways we can be mindful of the body. The Buddha lays out, you know, we're mindful of the breath, mindful of sensations, the posture, activities, mindful of the four elements that Tweri guided us in. You can be mindful of the 32 body parts and the nine stages of the corpse and decay. And then we talked about Vedana. We can feel these pleasant, unpleasant, neutral feeling tones in the body. And also we have Vedana in the mind. And so when we feel these feeling tones for mind states, thoughts and emotions, it's the bridge into the third foundation. As Vedana can be body, it can also be mind. And so then in the third foundation, mindfulness of Chitta, we're aware of the state of the mind as Tweri taught. Is it contracted, expanded, concentrated, dispersed, surpassable, unsurpassable, unliberated or liberated? I mean, look at if there's greed or not or delusion or not or aversion or not. It's really understanding what is happening in the heart mind. What's happening here? It's a beautiful way to practice. In retreat, we get more refined. We understand how the emotions are connected to the thoughts are connected to the body. But also in daily life, rain can be a wonderful daily practice. Just noticing all of the mind states we move through in our day. And the momentum we've gained, you've seen this doesn't have to throw you off. You can be very mindful of all the things happening in the mind without being distracted by it. And then we get to the fourth foundation. She has usually said we're mindful of the Dhammas, mindful of Dhammas or Dharmas in Sanskrit. You could say mindful of phenomena. And the Buddha here, he just, he gives us all of his lists. It's very comprehensive. So you can think about the fourth foundation as the catch-all. Right? So he lists. We're mindful of the six sent spheres, the five aggregates, the five hindrances, the seven awakening factors, the four noble truths, and the eightfold path. It was pretty comprehensive, you know? We're mindful of everything else. And I do encourage you to learn these lists, to really learn them by heart, because they get more and more familiar in our practice. This is fourth foundation practice. We can identify, oh, this is doubt. Oh, we're working with the aggregates, their inroads to not solve the way Eugene talked about. We can really be with all of these different sent spheres in a vivid, immediate way. Understanding how the four noble truths unfold. We've been in some of that territory where we notice dukkha, we stand under dukkha, which leads to an understanding that it's based in tanha, this clinging. And when clinging is released, then this leads to the possibility of freedom. And we get there through this eightfold noble path. And I think we'll talk a little bit more about the eightfold path, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow as well, as we start to go home, get ready to go home. And one of you noticed the prayer wheel down at the gate as we come up the hill has these eightfold, these beautiful practices, eight of them, all painted on that wheel of the turnit. So wise view and intention, wise speech, action and livelihood, and wise mindfulness, concentration and effort. We've been in this territory already. We get more and more and more familiar with how to practice with this kind of authenticity and skill. So today you don't have to worry too much about these lists. We've been in this territory already. And awareness, as I was saying last night, has a room to hold all of this. So rather than going out and looking and getting tight about all of this, we can just rest back in this very natural knowing, the capacity of the mind to be aware, and you can let the dhamma reveal itself. At this point there's enough momentum. So we're going to do this awareness practice where you're not even choosing what object to notice. You're letting the mind, heart, body, system, the world, all of reality just reveal its nature to us within this space of awareness. And then you know, okay, we're doing Satipatana. This is the dance of Satipatana within awareness. And that's all we need. All is coming. All these insights, everything you've been wanting is right here. It will be revealed in its own timing. So we can practice some together with this. If it feels right to take a little deeper breath, just coming into your breath body and feeling the newness of this moment now. And you might spend a little bit of time just grounding body sensations or the movement of breath and letting yourself rest, letting yourself be simple and trusting the momentum of your practice to carry you. And then we can widen out a little bit in this open awareness, choiceless awareness practice. It's like our awareness, this knowing mind can be wide, spacious. And then we notice the arising and passing of our experience, whether it's in the body, it's a thought or emotion. And knowing awareness has a room. This is the refuge in the Dhamma. It's refuge in your own capacity, this knowing heart mind. And then as these experiences arise and pass away within the space of awareness, you can notice they are impermanent. And because each one is passing, there's an unreliability. There's a dukkha there. It's all a passing show. And if there's any little bit of the mind that is sticking to it, identified or tangling, we feel this little rub of dukkha, the stress. And as we rest back seeing these truths, we can also see that it's all just empty phenomena rolling through. There's nothing owning this experience. There's nobody controlling it. You look behind the curtain and there's nobody here. When we become aware of awareness itself, we can see it's just awareness. It's empty of a self. We rest. Nothing more to do. So today is another wonderful day for practice. And I really want to encourage you to stay in your practice. Today you have all of this momentum. The fruition's are right here. So stay open to them. You know, you might notice that your mind is packing your bag or you might have already packed your bag. That's just another mind state to know in this moment because you're still here at Spirit Rock. And probably tomorrow and the next week and seven days from now you're going to wish you were here. And so to just enjoy this morning and this time for silence and simplicity before things start to change. So same schedule as always, all the way up until 2.30. For those who are just in the insight retreat, that will be a sit just like any other. Please come here for meditation at 2.30. And for the 23 of you who are stayovers from the concentration retreat we're all going to meet in the council house at 2.30 for some integration. So stayovers in the council house, everybody else here at 2.30. You'll have a walking meditation and silence as usual. And then everyone please gather at 3.45 here in the hall because there'll be some important closing announcements and you'll do some mindful speaking and listening, some integrating. So come at 3.45 for that. And then we'll have our usual evening. And the schedule will be posted so you can see that. But really this is your time to give yourself fully, wholeheartedly to the practice. And Tuare was reminding us this morning, you know this beautiful chant, the recollection of the triple gem. You can find it on Dharma Seed and other places, E.T.P. So chant. So there's all these beautiful qualities of the Buddha and then the qualities of the Dhamma that we talked about last night. And then there's this recollection of the qualities of the Sangha. And there are things like Eugene's been talking about impeccability. The Sangha is impeccable in virtue and worthy of honor and worthy of gifts. And you know what the last line is. So beautiful. This Sangha gives occasion for incomparable goodness to arise in the world. That we give occasion for incomparable goodness to arise in the world. That's us. And so today as you practice with this awareness, feel that. Feel that what we've been doing here and us together as a shared body, as a community that we're giving occasion for this incomparable goodness in the world. And trust that. That's what's happening. Good. Okay everyone. Have a wonderful day of practice. We'll see you soon. Thank you for listening. To learn how you can support the teachers and Dharma Seed, please visit dharmaseed.org. Donate.