Ajahn Sucitto: Moderate drive, widen focus

This was from the 12th book, the Sun-Huta. And it's the Suta 23. And it's a really just taken at the end section, it's a long one, snippet. It's something you're probably quite familiar with in some respects, but it has an unusual term. Thus because with ignorance as approximate cause, volitional formations come to be. With volitional formations as approximate cause, consciousness comes to be. With consciousness as approximate cause, name and form. Name and form as approximate cause, six sense bases. Six sense bases, contact. Contact as approximate cause, feeling. Feeling as approximate cause, craving. Craving as approximate cause, clinging. Cleaning as approximate cause, existence. Existence as approximate cause, birth. Birth as approximate cause, suffering. Suffering as approximate cause, faith. With faith as approximate cause, gladness. With gladness as approximate cause, rapture. The rapture is proximate cause, tranquility. With tranquility is proximate cause, happiness. Happiness is proximate cause, concentration. Concentration is proximate cause, the knowledge and vision of things they really are. Knowledge and vision of things they really are is proximate cause, revulsion. Revulsion is proximate cause, dispassion. Dispassion is proximate cause, liberation. Liberation is proximate cause, the knowledge of destruction. Just as big as when rain pours down in thick droplets on a mountain top, the water flows down along the slope and fills the cleft, gullies and creeks. It is being filled up the pools, it is being filled up the lakes, it is being filled up the streams, it is being filled up the rivers, it is being filled up the great ocean. So too, with ignorance is proximate cause, volitional patience come to be. With liberation is proximate cause, there is the knowledge of destruction. So there is a lot in there, a lot of it is jargon specific, I don't mean to be, it is just kind of difficult for us to get a feel for, so take it up in your head. But some key points, cessation means cessation of action, not annihilation. Something stops happening. Destruction means destruction of craving, not destruction of view. These are powerful terms and revulsion is often translated as disenchantment. So there are tonalities there that are debatable. Essentially some kind of not, awe-ja, awe-ja, lack of clarity. It doesn't mean you don't have information, it's just you've got misinformation. You've got the focus right. Clarity, you see through, oh yeah, that's that. You're not hoodwinked by appearances. The main reforms are too complicated to go into at the moment. Formations, sankhara, volitional formations, so you get the sense it's about doing. The big part of it, sankhara, kara, to do sankhara, that which gets doing coordinated. It takes a particular possibility of action, forms a particular direction. So three, two dominant features of it, one is intention, motivation, oh yeah. Another one is attention, something that I aim for, that. And then my energy runs down there. And the other aspect of it, which also comes up later is contact. Because something triggers me, I look that way. That very vibration in the heart when something touches you. This is where it kind of begins. You remember something, oh yeah, there's a good of that. The image comes with mine that we aim for it. This is very much, you know, I'll pick the language, oh yeah, that's what happens, all right. I see something and my eyes sharpen on it, I aim for it, or I think about it, or I get something going on it, or I push it away, or certainly I get activated. So this triggering is extremely compulsive. You find yourself doing it before you even know what you're doing, you're in there. So though it's volitional, it's not necessarily chosen. It's like you get programmed. It's something you run. Here's a signal run. See the thing that tense up. Hear the alarm, jangle, jump. So, and if I see clearly, it's just the sound, just the sight, just the touch, it'll come and go. Just the thought. Keep that boom, boom, that kind of wait, wait, wait. Over that piece, very, the hair trigger. It's what volitional formations are about. And any liberation has to be to do with dismantling or getting through this compulsive reflex of triggering, surely. And this is really, I think it's really pertinent because our workaday world, you know, people like Jirbel, who's on Andreddlin, that's good, efficient worker, you know. So that sort of thing, you really got a lifestyle and push against it. It gets embedded as the way to succeed. And then, name four means how we see things. Really, very loosely speaking, how we interpret things. Things are there, how we interpret them. How you interpret what you call dirty or clean. Some people get very fastidious other people just like, you know. They give you horses over this. Whether you put the toothpaste cap on the toothpaste tube or not. It's like you're quite triggering one's taste of preferences. You know, just wait a minute. What's a reasonable managerial? And sometimes things go a bit, but you know, let's just get out of the compulsive. And I talk about this quite a lot, particularly I'm mostly teaching, well, I mean, urban westerners, but even Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, they're pretty workaholic. Very nice, very good people. And because they have a lot of faith to help to counterbalance it. And they have a lot of companionship and fellowship to help counteract it. The human element is warm and strong. It just helps them to get to fried. But I've done westerners, it's tricky because the relational field, the work scene is not necessarily that deeply. It's just grunt, hello, by a boss, secretary, and so on and so forth. And even there's a higher meaning what we're doing. We're working for the dharma. No, you're working to stop getting fired and get their pay. It's hardly a sign of faith. So we've gained very much work up to the material world. So much so that, you know, even coming into some kind of life still these programs. I remember a woman, lovely person, a lot of faith, helping to manage retreat, five years retreat. Her sense of what was needed, appropriate, and good, extremely refined. But got so, her guts got so tightened up with the tension, the pressure. She just constantly paid it for five days solid, the guts froze up. Just trying to get everything right, cover everything. And nobody told her. It's just, that's how you do things. Gee, just loosen up, you know. So we're doing this kind of conditioning. On the secretaries, you know, Mark was the secretary. He ended up kind of lost so much weight through not drinking and eating in the office. And he ended up, and nobody noticed. Nobody noticed. And that's if you remind people in the Buddha looking after the sick monk, who's lying in a pool with his own urine and vomit. And he says, Bikku, why is nobody looking after you? Well, Bikku didn't think I was going to use, they're not looking after me. So the Buddha cleans him up, gets a nice pair to lie down. It's just Bikku who's, you have no mother, you have no father, but help each other. Didn't get it, you know, so busy practicing. So this sort of thing, where we get so, um, total vision, and intense, and kind of, you know, well, nobody driving us, because the program's already established. To do things well means to neglect your own welfare. Well, the monk had just robed after 30 years, because he didn't feel he was an Aryan. And his teaching was reportedly very highly attained. He didn't feel he'd done it, didn't waste on wasting laypeople's time by existing as a monk. Disrobed. Kept sealer, nice person, disjointed. Oh no, nobody told you, nobody could criticize. You know, your own staff started doing it to you, the feeling of guilt and adequacy, because you can't, you know, live up to what you think you should be. You know, and in volitional formations, there's a source, consciousness, conditions consciousness, what we will see, what thoughts pop into our minds, what messages we get from other people, what perceptions arise of, well, I'm the odd one out here, everybody else is doing, I'm not much good because she's so pure, and he's so well-born, you know, perceptions. It comes with consciousness, consciousness established in this way. Now as this suit progresses, we see the end of somewhere else's turnaround, dukkha. Okay, the dukkha. And dukkha has a core, proximal cause for faith. But I don't think it's inevitable. I think dukkha could be a proximal cause of nervous breakdown, addiction, dysfunction, and suicide. You know, one has to have a sense of, you know, conditionally existence, it's unsatisfactory, sure, but you have a sense of something, you know, there's a way out of this. That's very crucial, you know, and, you know, one to remind us all again, you know, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha asks you, you know, can we at least not destroy the faith? A sense of openness, of willingness, and aspiration, you know, because even if we don't intend to, the sense of just encouraging and supporting and looking after each other, that's what we can do, the books can't. The Buddha says, you know, he said, look, anybody who wants after me, you should look after sick monks, you know. And now, sickness is not physical, it's psychological, in my opinion. Look at it, mental, what they call mental health issues. And so people will look okay, and then they begin to get a sense of where the compulsive things are for people, for ourselves. So faith then is really crucial. It's the turning point, where by one sense I've had enough of this or something beautiful that I could be touched by. You know, not even have to run for it, but actually could come to me. You know, it's there for me. Which is a little bit of clearing, a little bit of restraint, a little bit of persistence, a little bit of support, you know, I could light that fire. And this is really the ongoing example of the Samana, a peaceful, kindly, gentle, you know, modeling it. And very clear, not fuzzy or indulgent. A sense of lean, but not harsh. I think it has to be really modeled because it's an unusual model for our society. And sometimes it's even sensing, please just do this. Just get this established. Just get that properly established. Modest, lean if you like. Not starved, just modest. And persistent, you stay with it. You know, bust in a gut, you can just stay with, stay with, stay with that. And then that will grow. That's going to grow. You can't expect a seedling of a tree to abuse or eat acorns. It's going to grow. And this is really so important that the embedding of faith and how faith, as the first of the five spiritual faculties, is in a way the seed point, the turning, the generate of the rest of the path. Without that, God. Remember the five injures of faith, virya, energy, mindfulness, samadhi, discernment. And they have to be balanced. And the Buddha says, you've got to get them balanced because it's rather like a building. If the foundations are properly even, then the building is upright. If the foundations aren't even, the roof falls off. So you get the foundation of faith. So faith is then as important as wisdom. Wisdom is as important as faith. So they're all equal players. And so you start to look at really, and what is the first one? Must be faith, surely. Because otherwise we are even bother. Does faith give rise to gladness? Can we make the turning of our intentions towards exploring? I mean, if you're a sense of gladness in our own being, in our precepts, in courtesy, in kindness, in simplicity of means, then we, yeah, I like this. This is a good fit for me. This is a good fit. Lingering that, one warms. And then this is where, I'm saying, flow is initiated there, in war. And then, you know, the energy is aroused in a wholesome way. It's not flogged. It's a warming. Hey, let's do some stuff here. Yeah, let's get going, you know, right. I'm eager. Yeah, let's do this. And it's amazing, you know, you can do a huge amount of work, so-called work, but it's just like, yeah. This is kind of, certainly you know, you see these, the way that often we find that the time-munks operate. They just, they get a lot of fun out of it. You see them throwing bags, they're cementing around. It's all voluntary. They just line up because they just love being part of a group. And that sense of belonging to the group, there's a bonding that occurs around a work scene. And we get it, perhaps, when we throw our logs into the wood store. Yeah, you know, it's a bit of muscle, but you're swinging along. It's not that complicated. And yeah, your friends are there, you're kind of working together. It's all right, it's okay. It's really not quite nice. Yeah, the energy's there. You know, and I can choose, personally, between two hours of, two or three hours of throwing logs, and two or three hours sitting in an office, listening to people complain, the whole three of them phone calls looking at the computer. There'd be no choice. Because you can get to something that's repetitive and simple, no brain-flag, just, you know, just keep your eyes on the saw, the other guys, float. But you see, when you do it, it's very highly, it's a good thing, your attention's jumping. Something's coming in this way, something's coming in that way, and then this didn't work, and then it's broke down, and somebody comes in the door, what's this, that, and the other. It's just, you're Francis, you can't get into a flow. Because you're just, you might do that. And then trying to get it, you know, all signed off by the end of the day. No, no, no, no, no. You've got to really, if you're doing those kind of things, you've got to say, look, just take your time. You're not going to get it all figured, you're not going to get it all covered. You'll do a good hour and a half or so, take a break. Get into your body, roll your wrists, come down, do some cheek roll, have a three, five minute breather. Because this stuff definitely is difficult. And sure, it has to be done, you know, but then you've got to kind of train yourself to know how to moderate intentionality. And one eye of intentionality has to be on what's happening here, you know. Because if that's not there, that's ignorance. What's happening? What am I expecting? What am I, you know, if I don't get this down, people will blame me, or talk it right, and say, no, no, no. That's where you need to clear away. And you need to, you know, say you are. Okay, thank you, take it, slow it, change it, you know. And you have some kind of autonomy within our form that you can kind of, you know, ease the speed, moderate. So you keep it intelligent with it. So the important quality of the faith, balanced by discernment, because if we're not discerning, our faith can be blind, you know. And again, what do you say? But as you sort of see some amazing, attained teacher, and he does this, incredible stuff, oh, I got to be like, no, no, you listen, you take it, you chew it over, I can out of you. Look at this being, you know, and you sort of keep it, you're not going to do it the way he does it. And you can't. You know, this Marking was 15 years trying to get his limiter. And it's very exquisitely sweet, refined, Burby's teacher teaching, focusing on the point underneath your nose, not even a physical point, but just the space underneath your nose to get this limiter, little sign. So he's working around that 15 years trying to get his limiter. You got it? No. You got it yet? No, no, no, he's working with it. Do you ever think that maybe, just, maybe this isn't the right way for you? So he just roped, he couldn't get his limiter, so he chucked it. Oh Lord, I'm sure this, I don't know, you know. But some sense of, you see, so particularly his formative, because attention is very attractive. Like, for, like volition is attractive. Here, let's go for it. There's a sort of compulsive quality there. Yeah, energy rises, here we go, yeah, yeah, yeah. Attention is also compulsive. Needle point attention is really good. Precise. And of course we use it all the time, reading books, looking at screen, attention, attention is doing that so much, you think that's the only way. Now, I think, narrow things. So the intensity of the energy of volition is then pushed into a narrow channel. And that could get you concentration. And perhaps it could. I think these, some of these retreatries you're doing microscopic focusing, yeah, people get something. Some do, some of course. Give up, break down. Some do. Is that the only way for everybody? Yeah. And you know, well, attention, you know, formation, volitional formation that programs consciousness. Consciousness selects an object within a field of awareness. So where does all this stuff happen? You know, what is it, it's obscured by ignorance. What is it that doesn't get it? What is jitta? Jitta is obscured by ignorance. So when jitta is clear, it's not obscured by ignorance. And it says consciousness then stops. And it says, the Buddha says, you should really sense that place where mind consciousness stops. So what could do that? Jitta has his fundamental property, it's aware. It's aware it's obscured and muddied and twisted, but consciousness is always a selecting of a particular piece of data in a field and then starts perceptions, feelings, more da-da-da-da-da goes on. And the Buddha I suggest is saying, well, you can actually check that process by going to awareness. This is the sign, this is the sound, this is that. Do I need to focus on that? Do we need to sustain that thought? What happens if I flex my attention to go spacious and wider? I'm still attentive. Yes, I'm attentive. But the plunging into objects and the fascination and the triggered by objects ceases because I place my attention, I've stepped it back, could say, this detachment. So this we call, you know, one of the better word awareness, nyanā. So this awareness nyanā arises, knowingness. Knowingness replaces unknowingness. Yeah. And you see this kind of a scene that's repeated here and there. It turns the jitta, turns this jitta away from form, feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness. So this is painful. This is a nuisance. This is a disease. Once again the Buddha lays it on. These five aggregates are a pain. Turn away from that. This is the deathless. This is sublime. This is peaceful. The stilling of formations. The relinquishment of the basis of clinging, of that compulsive grab. The destruction of craving. That's what's destroyed. Expression, cessation, nibbāla. You see a different process there whereby deliberately you see the key there turning away from this process and there is something that can turn away from it. This is the jitta. You know. So as we look at something like, called like faith, is faith a thing? How big is it? It doesn't work like that. It's a general... It's not a thing at all, is it? I mean you might say, I have faith because of him or her. But that's not the faith. The sense of it is just like an opening. And the jitta rises. This is a jitta experience. That very quality itself is kind of lifting away from the messages of consciousness. So it sounds thoughts, particularly thoughts about me. Which will be extremely toxic. It's faith. Faith, you know, about what I'm not and what I could be. Turn away, faith. Well, so you... And that sense, and then the... It's like with faith it's like there's a sense of I'm available. You know, it's not lean back, not pushing forward, not slack, not tense, I'm available. I'm open. Then... Then there's a state to be able to receive some teaching or to receive the example. Yeah. Sometimes I'll just sit here and look at the Buddha group up and look at the face and the gentleness and the... This is what I want to follow for me. Yeah, because, you know, working through decades of self-dispatchment, and selfishness, and so forth, and workaholic, I've decided to go for refuge. Yeah, we're