The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 - Rob Burbea's Digital Garden

#Talk | [[2017 Eros Unfettered|🡅]] | [[The Way of Non-Clinging Part 2|🡆 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 2]] Series: [[2017 Eros Unfettered]] Transcript: [[0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1]] Transcript PDF: [[2017_0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1.pdf]] <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40190/20170115-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_1-40190.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> ## Notes - examples for dependent origination (and thus craving/clinging): smoking, dating - techniques to work with craving 1. "just let go of everything" 2. skillful reflection 3. understand papanca 4. focus on vedana 5. experience the pressure involved with craving 6. pay attention to impermance - problems: - "just let go" can be oversimplistic - dropping of desire is often not the right way => Be wary of teachings with limited depth and breath ## Index _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (85) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (66) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (30) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (28) · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> (22) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (21) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (20) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (19) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (18) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (18) · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (18) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (15) · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> (13) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (13) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> (12) · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> (12) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> (11) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (11) · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> (11) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (10) · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (10) · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> (10) · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (9) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (9) · <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a> (9) · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> (8) · <a data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">Fetters</a> (8) · <a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> (8) · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (7) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> (7) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> (7) · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a> (6) · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> (6) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> (6) · <a data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">Sankhara</a> (6) · <a data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">Aversion</a> (5) · <a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a> (5) · <a data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Death</a> (5) · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> (5) · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (4) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (4) · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a> (4) · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (3) · <a data-href="Birth" class="internal-link">Birth</a> (3) · <a data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">Kama</a> (3) · <a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a> (3) · <a data-href="Rebirth" class="internal-link">Rebirth</a> (3) · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Energy body" class="internal-link">Energy body</a> (2) · <a data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">Kusala</a> (2) · <a data-href="Vedic" class="internal-link">Vedic</a> (2) · <a data-href="Alchemy" class="internal-link">Alchemy</a> · <a data-href="Anxiety" class="internal-link">Anxiety</a> · <a data-href="Aruparaga" class="internal-link">Aruparaga</a> · <a data-href="Asavas" class="internal-link">Asavas</a> · <a data-href="Chandaraga" class="internal-link">Chandaraga</a> · <a data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">Divinity</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="History" class="internal-link">History</a> · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Kamacchanda" class="internal-link">Kamacchanda</a> · <a data-href="Kameti" class="internal-link">Kameti</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Manifestations" class="internal-link">Manifestations</a> · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Mode of mind" class="internal-link">Mode of mind</a> · <a data-href="Mystical opening" class="internal-link">Mystical opening</a> · <a data-href="Payutto" class="internal-link">Payutto</a> · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> · <a data-href="Phenomenon" class="internal-link">Phenomenon</a> · <a data-href="Samsara" class="internal-link">Samsara</a> · <a data-href="Samyutta Nikaya" class="internal-link">Samyutta Nikaya</a> · <a data-href="Sariputta" class="internal-link">Sariputta</a> · <a data-href="Seeing That Frees" class="internal-link">Seeing That Frees</a> · <a data-href="Spaciousness" class="internal-link">Spaciousness</a>_ ## Paragraphs [[The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 -|plain list]] ##### Could be a standalone talk on clinging, but will set context **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^1-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^1-1" class="internal-link">1-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3) · <a data-href="Alchemy" class="internal-link">Alchemy</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (2)_ What I would like to do tonight is give a talk that in some ways could just stand alone, talking about <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">non-clinging</a>. But in other ways (and this is my main purpose, really), hopefully give something in a way that serves or gives a kind of preface, if you like, to the set of talks that we're going to start around the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Alchemy" data-href="Alchemy" class="internal-link">alchemy of desire</a>, around <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> and practice. So a kind of preface - a slightly strange preface, but one that serves to give a context, or at least _part_ of a context, for what many would probably consider relatively unusual teachings in the rest of the set. So I want to give part of a context tonight, and as well as context, begin also to contrast different <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understandings</a> or visions or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a> that we can have of <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, and of this teaching of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">non-clinging</a> in the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>. --- ##### Different conceptual frameworks, different understandings **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^1-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^1-2" class="internal-link">1-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (3) · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (3) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (2) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a>_ That's the main point, to begin to contrast something. Because we can take away, from listening to teachings, or reading teachings, or even be given through teachings an <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> or a <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> of what the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> is that shapes our practice, and shapes our whole sense of what the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> is, and what the project is, and what <a data-href="awakening" class="internal-link">awakening</a> is, and what we're moving towards, and what's involved, an <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a>, <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a>, that is certainly helpful to a degree for many people, and certainly freeing to a certain extent, again, for many people, but that also shuts doors. This is the contrast I want to make, between different <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understandings</a>, different <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a>, one of which, if you like, or a group of which, I would say, helpful as it is, freeing as it is to a certain extent, also ends up shutting doors - doors that, if you like, open to a much wider and much more radical <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a> and <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, and openness of being and of the sense of existence. --- ##### You've probably heard the teachings about non-clinging before **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^1-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^1-3" class="internal-link">1-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ So part of a context, begin to contrast some different large-scale <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understandings</a>, and where they might lead, or what they might block off. Actually, I think I've pretty much talked about all of this before, and certainly written about much of it, and I don't particularly like to repeat myself. I don't see the point if it's already out there, generally, [and] would rather move on to new stuff. So a lot of this will be quite brief. Also, not all of this, but much of it is widely available. There's probably not a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Dharma teacher</a> alive, and certainly not an <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Insight Meditation</a> teacher, who doesn't talk about <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, certainly at one of the levels that I want to talk about. So some of it will be moving through territory quite briefly for those reasons, but I do want to draw out a couple of things, a couple of main points that I've maybe only mentioned before here and there, important as they are, again, for the sake of context and for the sake of contrast. --- ##### A lot of English and Pali words for clinging, desire, greed, etc. **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^1-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^1-4" class="internal-link">1-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (3) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (5) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (4) · <a data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">Kama</a> · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> · <a data-href="Kameti" class="internal-link">Kameti</a>_ When we look in the <a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a>, the collected teachings, the early teachings of the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>, the historical <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>, we find a lot of different words, like English, a lot of different words - like English, we have <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, greed, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a>. Many words. English is a very rich language. And similarly in Pali, in the language of the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>, we have a word like _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">rāga</a>,_ which actually is meaning 'to colour' or 'to dye.' The colouring, like especially rouge; it's related to the word 'red,' 'to make rouge.' But it really means '<a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>,' 'excitement.' Later on, we'll emphasize this: the <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> colours something. When we colour things red, we become impassioned, or <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> also colours things, so there's a link there. But there's this word _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">rāga</a>_, usually translated as '<a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>' or 'lust.' _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kama" data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">Kāma</a>_ can have two meanings. One is 'the object of sensual <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">enjoyment</a>.' The _object_, so something that is sensually pleasing. But also 'sense <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>.' The verb _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kameti" data-href="Kameti" class="internal-link">kāmeti</a>_ means 'to <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>' or 'to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">crave</a>.' There's the word _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">lobha</a>,_ which can be translated as 'greed.' _Gedha_, also translated as 'greed.' --- ##### Chanda is impulse, intention, will **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^2-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^2-1" class="internal-link">2-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a> (4) · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (2) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">Kama</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a>_ There's a word, _<a data-href="chanda" class="internal-link">chanda</a>_, which is an interesting word, because sometimes you can talk about _<a data-href="chanda" class="internal-link">chanda</a>_, for example, in Pali, called _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">hitacchanda</a>._ That's 'the effort to do good.' _Hita_ is what's 'useful,' or 'suitable,' or 'beneficial,' or 'friendly.' So when we talk, for example, in _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_ practice, about well-wishing or doing good in the world, it's _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">hitacchanda</a>_. _<a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a>_ is really 'impulse' or 'intention' or 'will.' It could be 'virtuous.' It could be 'a virtue' or 'a vice,' 'the motivation to accomplish.' It means all that. It can also mean 'excitement,' related to 'impulse' there. Sometimes people want to make a distinction: _<a data-href="chanda" class="internal-link">chanda</a>_ is positive because it's good intention, or it _can_ be good, and words like _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">rāga</a>,_ _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kama" data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">kāma</a>_, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">lobha</a>_, etc., these are negative words: they lead to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, they are unskilful, etc. --- ##### Clinging supports suffering **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^2-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^2-2" class="internal-link">2-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a> · <a data-href="Sariputta" class="internal-link">Sariputta</a> · <a data-href="Samyutta Nikaya" class="internal-link">Samyutta Nikaya</a> · <a data-href="Chandaraga" class="internal-link">Chandaraga</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">Fetters</a> (2) · <a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (2)_ However, there are also plenty of instances in the <a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a> where, for instance, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sariputta" data-href="Sariputta" class="internal-link">Sāriputta</a>, in the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samyutta Nikaya" data-href="Samyutta Nikaya" class="internal-link">Saṃyutta Nikāya</a>,_ says, "_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Chandaraga" data-href="Chandaraga" class="internal-link">Chandarāga</a>_, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> and lust, these are <a data-href="fetters" class="internal-link">fetters</a>."^[SN 35:191] Okay? So _<a data-href="chanda" class="internal-link">chanda</a>_ there is not qualified; he's just saying it's a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fetters" data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">fetter</a>. There are words like _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">taṇhā</a>_, which is usually translated as '<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>,' and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">upādāna</a>_, '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>,' usually translated, or 'attachment.' This is quite an interesting word, because it also means literally 'a fuel,' or 'that which supports' something. So it can be '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a>,' 'holding on,' '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>,' as something that _supports_. And what does it support? It supports <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>. But as we go deeper, we'll see that it supports a whole lot more than that. It supports the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">sense of self</a>; supports the very sense of reality; supports <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a> too; supports any <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>. It's fuel for <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>. This is taking the whole thing to another level. We'll come back to this. --- ##### Fetters **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^2-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^2-3" class="internal-link">2-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (3) · <a data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">Fetters</a> (4) · <a data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">Kama</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a>_ But there are all these words in Pali. And in the <a data-href="Pali Canon" class="internal-link">Pali Canon</a>, one way or another, the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> says, "<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">The path</a> leads to the end of ...", and he uses any of these words, _any_ of them. So in a way, they're kind of used interchangeably. We can certainly make <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, and try and carve out <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a> there, but generally, although there are <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, generally they're pretty much interchangeable. And the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> and the teachings say they are all <a data-href="fetters" class="internal-link">fetters</a>: _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kama" data-href="Kama" class="internal-link">kāma</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">taṇhā</a>, gedha, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">rāga</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">lobha</a>,_ <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>, lust, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, etc., <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. All <a data-href="fetters" class="internal-link">fetters</a>, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fetters" data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">saṃyojanāni</a>_, which means '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fetters" data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">fetter</a>,' like 'yoke,' like an oxen that's ploughing a field has a yoke to pull that on. It's something that imprisons. --- ##### Fetters and arahantship **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^2-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^2-4" class="internal-link">2-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Fetters" class="internal-link">Fetters</a> (2) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> (6) · <a data-href="Kamacchanda" class="internal-link">Kamacchanda</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (3) · <a data-href="Birth" class="internal-link">Birth</a> · <a data-href="Rebirth" class="internal-link">Rebirth</a> (3) · <a data-href="Aruparaga" class="internal-link">Aruparaga</a> · <a data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">Jhanas</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (5) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a>_ And the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> talks about different <a data-href="fetters" class="internal-link">fetters</a>, and in the process, in the stages of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">enlightenment</a>, how different <a data-href="fetters" class="internal-link">fetters</a> are 'eradicated,' is really the word that he uses. So _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kamacchanda" data-href="Kamacchanda" class="internal-link">kāmacchanda</a>,_ or 'sensual <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>,' is eradicated at the third stage of <a data-href="awakening" class="internal-link">awakening</a>, and at full <a data-href="awakening" class="internal-link">awakening</a>, full <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">enlightenment</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">arahantship</a>, the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">rāga</a>_, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">rūparāga</a>_, or the <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> or the lust for material existence, for material <a data-href="birth" class="internal-link">birth</a>, for forms (if you prefer more experientially, getting away from the whole teaching of <a data-href="rebirth" class="internal-link">rebirth</a> and all that). The <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>, the lust for material forms. And _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Aruparaga" data-href="Aruparaga" class="internal-link">arūparāga</a>,_ the <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> and lust for immaterial realms or immaterial _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Jhanas" data-href="Jhanas" class="internal-link">jhānas</a>_, or, if you do the whole <a data-href="rebirth" class="internal-link">rebirth</a> thing, <a data-href="rebirth" class="internal-link">rebirth</a> in a formless realm. And also eradicated at <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">arahantship</a> is _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">uddhacca</a>_, which is an interesting word: '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">restlessness</a>,' 'agitation,' 'excitement,' 'flurry,' 'imbalance,' 'shakiness' (in the sense of being shaken by <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>). It's the opposite of being subdued. It's also related to the word 'lifting up,' _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">uddhata</a>_, 'to lift up,' 'to rise high,' 'to be risen.' So that too - being able to be lifted up, being able to be excited, out of balance, in a flurry, not being subdued. What's the opposite of 'subdued' in English? That's '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">restlessness</a>,' sometimes, usually translated as _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">uddhacca</a>._ That's also eradicated. --- ##### Clinging is more obsessive craving **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^3-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^3-1" class="internal-link">3-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (4) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (4) · <a data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">Aversion</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40190/20170115-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_1-40190.mp3#t=11:57" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> As I say, we could make <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a> here. One of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a> it's quite common to make these days is between '<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>' (_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">taṇhā</a>_) and '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>' (_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">upādāna</a>_), so that '<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>' is the momentary impulse to have something or to get away from something. It can work both ways, as an <a data-href="aversion" class="internal-link">aversion</a>, aversive movement, to move away from something we don't like, what's unpleasant, or to move towards: "I want that thing. I want to get it. I want to have it." This is <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, that kind of movement of the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, that <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>. And then, if we distinguish them, then <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">upādāna</a>_, is when that becomes more obsessive, if you like, or more entrenched, so we start circling around that thing, thinking about it a lot, scheming ways to get it, etc. There's a consolidation, a tightening, a reinforcing, a solidification that's happening. --- ##### Distinguishing between clinging and craving is sometimes not necessary **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^3-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^3-2" class="internal-link">3-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>_ So, can be helpful to distinguish them. Certainly can be helpful at a certain level. But distinguishing and differentiating them won't actually solve the issues that I want to address and draw <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to tonight. Can be helpful. But those doors that I alluded to earlier, that can actually be shut by thinking about practice in a certain way, thinking about practice and <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> in a certain way, conceiving of it a certain way, they will remain shut even if I make certain differentiations here among those Pali words. --- ##### Relationship to Dependend Origination (2 of the 12 links) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^3-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^3-3" class="internal-link">3-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> (6) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Vedic" class="internal-link">Vedic</a> (2) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (3) · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (2)_ Historically, by the way, I don't know if there's that much - if you really study the texts, you see how much overlap there really is between all these words. And historically, you know, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links of dependent origination</a> - so _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">taṇhā</a>_ and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">upādāna</a>_ are two links in those <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links of dependent origination</a>, of the wheel of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, as some people call it - those <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links</a>, and in fact the wheel, there's good evidence they were taken from a <a data-href="Vedic" class="internal-link">Vedic</a> creation hymn/myth that pre-existed the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> by a long time.^[Joanna Jurewicz, "Playing with Fire: The pratītyasamutpāda from the perspective of Vedic thought," _Journal of the Pali Text Society,_ 26 (2000), 77-103, [https://www.academia.edu/8181977/Playing_with_Fire_The_prat%C4%Abtyasamutp%C4%81da_from_the_perspective_of_Vedic_thought](https://www.academia.edu/8181977/Playing_with_Fire_The_pratītyasamutpāda_from_the_perspective_of_Vedic_thought)] There would have been a concept, that whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links</a>, that was already quite well-known in the society. The <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> picked it up, used those <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links</a> and the whole as a set, which was already there, and he used it in a very different way, pointed in a very different direction. One would think, well, if the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedic" data-href="Vedic" class="internal-link">Vedic hymn</a> had had eleven links, would there be certain <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, or would the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> have picked up a set with eleven links? Sometimes he talks about <a data-href="dependent origination" class="internal-link">dependent origination</a> with ten links. Other times he a^[E.g. at SN 12:65, where _avijjā_ and _saṅkhārā_ (the first two links in the standard twelve-link presentation of dependent origination) are omitted.]dds ones; they overlap. I'll say more about this tomorrow: the whole project of getting too picky about fine <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, and trying to carve out this kind of clarity, sometimes it's helpful, and sometimes it's actually not that helpful. Why bother? It actually doesn't open what needs opening. So there's a little caution there. But for what I want to get at tonight, it actually does not help that much. --- ##### We could pick out any example for the 12 links ... **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^3-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^3-4" class="internal-link">3-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a>_ In probably part two of this talk, I want to go into, actually explain more in detail, a very important practical reason or reason for practice and for <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a>, why differentiating, for example, between <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> is actually not that helpful sometimes, [and] in fact doesn't actually make sense, the deeper we go into practice. But for now, actually, let's respect that distinction that's there with those different words, and very briefly kind of go through some examples using the map of the links of <a data-href="dependent origination" class="internal-link">dependent origination</a>. I'm hoping you're familiar with this already. I'm going to go through very briefly as a way of kind of looking at the anatomy of that whole process of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, and the way it leads to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>. So we could pick any example, really, all kinds of things: what happens when we see chocolate cake, looks very enticing, and the whole process that happens there, could happen inside us. So we could take that as an example. pdf: [[2017_0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1.pdf#page=3]] --- ##### ... ==Smoking==, Avijja **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^3-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^3-5" class="internal-link">3-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (2) · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> (4) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a>_ Let's take <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> for a cigarette, for someone who's addicted to smoking. If we start, there is a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_ in the Pali, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a> or <a data-href="ignorance" class="internal-link">ignorance</a>. Really, in this case, one aspect of that <a data-href="ignorance" class="internal-link">ignorance</a> is not really getting it, not really <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a>: "This is bad for me. This is not healthy. This will cause <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> in the future to my health." I know two friends who have family members really, really seriously ill with emphysema after years of smoking. Something much earlier on, it _knows_ this is bad for us, doesn't really get it - the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_ is too thick there, too entrenched. So not really <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a>. --- ##### Sankhara **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^4-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^4-1" class="internal-link">4-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">Sankhara</a> (3) · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> (6) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a>_ There's _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sankhara" data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">saṅkhārā</a>_, the second link, these kind of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sankhara" data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">habit formations</a>, if you like, or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">tendencies</a> - so all the <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a> of moving to reach for the cigarette pack, to light up; the whole, if you like, momentum that gets wired into the nervous system, into the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, into the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, that <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a> of doing that, those <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">habits</a> involved in that. It may be a <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a> when we feel a little bit uneasy, that that's the impulse, to reach for the cigarettes. A little socially anxious, or just after dinner, to relax or whatever it is. These <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">habits</a> are part of the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sankhara" data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">saṅkhāras</a>_. --- ##### Craving **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^4-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^4-2" class="internal-link">4-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (2) · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (4) · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a>_ And then we might take an example, you know, if you're addicted to cigarettes in this example, and maybe you're out somewhere, and you see how the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> and senses, the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> and the <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a> and the sense doors, become, if you like, honed or primed or cocked a little bit to notice, for instance, other people smoking. Maybe we're walking down a city street, or sitting outside in a cafe at night, and we see other people smoking, and the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> arises. So easily the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, just this little impulse, this little sort of <a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a>: "I want." Maybe it barely has a thought at first, but there's a movement, a kind of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a> movement of the being, this <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. --- ##### Clinging **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^4-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^4-3" class="internal-link">4-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (3)_ And then that can intensify into what we might call '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>,' _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">upādāna</a>,_ so that this <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, this <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> for a cigarette, comes more to dominance in the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. And maybe the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> starts thinking, "I really need one. I really need a cigarette right now. I could really use a cigarette. It would be really nice," whatever it is. So thinking starts to get involved, and it starts to become more dominant and more tenacious. The <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a> is more tenacious. And then this intensifies even more to what could be called 'becoming.' Sometimes it's translated as 'becoming.' So maybe we _do_ start playing with the cigarette packet. Maybe even take a cigarette out, roll it in our fingers. Maybe even stick it unlit in the mouth, and just sort of hang it there. "That's okay, right? Because I haven't lit it yet." And maybe we say to ourselves, "Ah, just one. I know I was going to quit. I can quit tomorrow," or whatever. The <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> starts justifying something to itself, justifying this whole mechanism of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> and its wily ways. --- ##### Birth **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^4-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^4-4" class="internal-link">4-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Birth" class="internal-link">Birth</a> (2)_ And eventually this gathers enough force and momentum and dominance that we do light up, light that cigarette, take a long inhale. And then there's relief with that, relief of all this tension that was building up, both through the physical addiction, in this case, but also the tension of what was involved in the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> there. They're lighting up, enjoying that cigarette. And in a way, that process, we could say, we've taken <a data-href="birth" class="internal-link">birth</a>, physical <a data-href="birth" class="internal-link">birth</a> as the smoker self. The smoker is 'born' at that point. --- ##### Death **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^4-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^4-5" class="internal-link">4-5</a>**: _<a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (3) · <a data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Death</a>_ But, unfortunately, that relieved smoker self is a very fragile, sort of brittle self, and very soon something flips. Maybe a little while after the cigarette we start to feel, "Ah, I failed. I failed in my resolve." Maybe the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> becomes "I'm weak. I can't do it. I don't have the willpower. I'm bad in some ways." So there's this relieved self, the smoker self that was enjoying the cigarette that was born. It actually dies, it fractures, it collapses, and it's actually replaced with a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> self, if you like. You could say that. So <a data-href="death" class="internal-link">death</a> and - what are those words? - despair, lamentation, sorrow, etc. Strong words. But the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> comes out of that. In this case, it's just the view, "I just can't do it. I failed again. I'm weak," and the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> with that. --- ##### Process gets reinforced **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^5-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^5-1" class="internal-link">5-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (2) · <a data-href="Samsara" class="internal-link">Samsara</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> (2) · <a data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">Sankhara</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a>_ But out of that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, it doesn't stop there, out of that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, because then those self-views are reinforced: the belief that I can't, and actually through that, the will, if you like, the willpower to quit smoking, is strengthened. Something rolls on, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Samsara" data-href="Samsara" class="internal-link">saṃsāra</a>_ rolling on, flowing on. And of course the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">habits</a>, the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sankhara" data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">saṅkhāras</a>,_ the movement, the programming of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">tendencies</a> of <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> (in this case, to reach for cigarettes, to go for cigarettes when we don't feel that good, or when we do feel good, or whatever), all that gets reinforced through this whole process. --- ##### Another example: ==dating== **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^5-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^5-2" class="internal-link">5-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> (3) · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (2) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a>_ So, if you like, so to speak, one time through the cycle just gives the whole wheel momentum there. This is very briefly sketching these processes out. We could take another example, maybe a more complicated example. Perhaps I've been out with some friends for a night out, and we were in a bar or something. And there's, I don't know, a group of women there, and I'm with my male friends or whatever, and a few of us go over to chat to these women. And I'm chatting to one who I find attractive. I'm in the course of this brief chat, and she seems maybe a little coy or whatever, but I give her my number. I give her a card with my phone number on it. But wrapped up in all that, in my impulse, is lots of different kinds of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>, <a data-href="ignorance" class="internal-link">ignorance</a>. It's not a simple thing, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_. But let's say I have a pattern of believing that if a woman shows interest in me, then it proves my <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">okayness</a>. It proves my loveability. So there's some belief that something here will prove something about <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a>. There's all kinds of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>; maybe _that's_ my <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">particular pattern</a>. --- ##### Example cont. **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^5-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^5-3" class="internal-link">5-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (2) · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> (2) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a>_ So there's an aspect of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a> that has to do with my belief in what would prove my loveability. Even in that, you can see that's got all kinds of components involved in that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>. Now, with that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_, with that particular ball of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_ there, I also unfortunately have a tendency to view myself, of course, as perhaps not okay or as maybe not attractive, and with that also a tendency to try to prove my attractiveness, my <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">okayness</a>, to others and to myself. So there's this belief maybe that I'm not okay; there's a belief in what would prove it; and there's the tendency to view myself that way and to try to prove it. I keep trying in the world. How much of my actions and choices and speech and dress and everything is trying to prove something? --- ##### "Is she going to call?" **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^5-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^5-4" class="internal-link">5-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a> (4) · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> · <a data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">Sankhara</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (6)_ Already there's _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_ there, there's <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a>, you can see. And all this - I've given her my number, and I've gone away, but it's loaded. The whole thing has loaded my <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a>, because of the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_, because of these _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sankhara" data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">saṅkhāras</a>_, loaded my <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a>. It's primed my <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a>, my <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, and my senses. So the next day, the next few days, I'm at work, and I can see how the <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a> perhaps narrows around this: "Is she going to call?" And maybe it builds, you know, and the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> keeps checking the mobile phone: "Any messages? Any messages? Any messages?" And maybe it starts building. It's actually impinging on my ability to concentrate on other stuff like my work. There's <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> there. The <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> already is complex: I'm <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> a certain sound or message notification from my phone, but that's wrapped up - a lot of stuff is wrapped up in that. <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> to check, to be able to check my phone. So there's <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> there, all kinds of levels of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. Maybe I even get irritated in those stretches of time when I can't. Perhaps I have to go for a meeting with the boss, and I have to look really sharp and present something or whatever, or listen to what he/she says very carefully, and I'm a little bit irritated because at that point I can't check my messages. --- ##### Rise and fall of the becoming of the self **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^5-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^5-5" class="internal-link">5-5</a>**: _<a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (2) · <a data-href="Anxiety" class="internal-link">Anxiety</a> · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a>_ So this whole thing is building, and perhaps there's increasing frequency to how I'm checking the messages, and obsessive thinking about it. And I can notice in all this how the mood and the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> are really buffeted around with waves of excitement, anticipation, hope, <a data-href="anxiety" class="internal-link">anxiety</a>, despondency. It's just going up and down. "There, someone's ringing me now. I don't recognize the number. Oh, maybe this is her." And I pick it up, and it's someone trying to sell me health insurance or something. There was that swelling up, anticipation, excitement, the becoming, and then the crash. Or again, it rings, and again, it's a number I don't recognize. I pick it up, and it's just someone with the wrong number. And the same thing, this <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">rise and fall</a> of the becoming of <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a>. And then maybe a few days go by, a week or I don't know how long, and she doesn't call. But in that week I'm becoming increasingly despondent: "She won't call." And that's reinforcing something: "I _am_ unattractive. It's true." --- ##### “She didn’t call, therefore I am unattractive” **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^6-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^6-1" class="internal-link">6-1</a>**: _<a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (3) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a>_ And let's say she doesn't call, and then that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> gets solidified: "Now I have evidence there." Usually this is not so clear as a thinking process; it's kind of jammed together like spaghetti that has kind of melted into each other. It's not so clear, "She didn't call, therefore I am unattractive." Something is happening in the whole <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, getting compressed and mixed up and confused and oppressed. But basically, she didn't call, and this <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> of being somehow not okay, somehow unattractive, has been solidified through this whole process. Then a little more time goes by, a week or a couple of weeks or whatever, and that whole painful <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> that has become so jammed and dense and heavy and painful, that actually just, over time, being involved in other stuff, etc., having other things demand my <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>, preoccupations, etc., distractions, whatever, it gets a little less solid, a little more broken up, a little less intense. --- ##### Pattern gets reinforced **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^6-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^6-2" class="internal-link">6-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Death</a> (2) · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (3) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Asavas" class="internal-link">Asavas</a> · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> (2) · <a data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">Sankhara</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a>_ There is the break up or the <a data-href="death" class="internal-link">death</a>, if you like, of that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> to a certain extent. In this case, it's a negative <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> that's dying, so there's some relief. But still, what the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> called the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Asavas" data-href="Asavas" class="internal-link">āsavas</a>_, the 'outflows,' the 'effluent' (actually, it's a related word for 'sewage'), the outflows from all that, if I don't question all this business about <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a> and how I'm trying to prove something to myself and to the world, if I don't question all that, the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_, the <a data-href="ignorance" class="internal-link">ignorance</a>, and the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sankhara" data-href="Sankhara" class="internal-link">saṅkhāras</a>_, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">tendencies</a> to try and prove, to believe certain things - without questioning, that process, that whole cycle goes through its whole painful contractions, and life and <a data-href="death" class="internal-link">death</a>, and dissolution, or relative disappearance or abeyance for a time. But without the questioning of my belief that there's one way to address this sense of unattractiveness or not-<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Pleasantness" data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">okayness</a> (that's by proving it), without questioning all that, I'm just reinforcing. The whole pattern gets reinforced. --- ##### The seeds have gotten bigger **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^6-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^6-3" class="internal-link">6-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (2)_ So it rose up, it got solid, it dissolved over time, but because there was no questioning, the whole thing just got reinforced. The seeds have gotten bigger, so the next time it comes back, it's perhaps even a little bit stronger. This will happen until something other, until I have another way of relating, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a>, prying loose this whole process. So <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a>, <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a>. <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> and <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and all that process bringing <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, bringing _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_. --- ##### Craving for extinction **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^6-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^6-4" class="internal-link">6-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (7) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Death" class="internal-link">Death</a> (2) · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a>_ Now, sometimes what we <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">crave</a> is actually what the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> called _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">vibhava-taṇhā</a>_, a <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> for kind of non-being, for kind of like <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Death" data-href="Death" class="internal-link">extinction</a>. Sometimes we have that just when we want to go to bed at night. There's a <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>: "I just want to turn everything off. I've had enough of the day," you know? But sometimes there are really strong instances. For instance, someone wanting to just get completely plastered drunk. There's something seeking a kind of oblivion and a kind of dissolution of <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a> in that wish, that we seek obliteration, oblivion, a kind of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Death" data-href="Death" class="internal-link">extinction</a>, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">vibhava-taṇhā</a>_. Sometimes what's happening is, in the object that we seem to be <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> (maybe it's the chocolate cake or whatever), that there's actually a painful emotion underneath. Maybe we feel lonely. Maybe we feel unloved. And it's painful to be with that, and something in the chocolate cake, and in that whole putting it in the mouth and chewing it in this very primal way, there is pleasure involved in that, absolutely, but at another level of the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, we're seeking to obliterate or cover over or numb out the painful emotion underlying it. This is quite common in relation to food. --- ##### Craving itself is dukkha **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^7-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^7-1" class="internal-link">7-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (5) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a>_ So it's complex, all this. There are different forces operating, if you like, different intentions operating. Or also what happens - and this is interesting too - is that if we pay <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to this, actually <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> itself is uncomfortable. There's a kind of pressure that builds with <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. I want that thing, like with the cigarette example, or could be the chocolate cake, whatever it is, and that <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> itself is _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>._ It feels uncomfortable. So what we end up actually wanting by the time we have access to the cigarette or the cake or whatever it is, it's as much the pleasure of the cake as it is the relief of the pressure, the bursting of that uncomfortable bubble of pressure of the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, so that we're seeking a kind of obliteration of the pressure, the uncomfortable pressure of the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. --- ##### The tragedy but also the comedy of human life **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^7-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^7-2" class="internal-link">7-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> (3) · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> · <a data-href="Seeing That Frees" class="internal-link">Seeing That Frees</a> · <a data-href="Payutto" class="internal-link">Payutto</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (3) · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ All this can be involved in what's going on for us with <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and that whole process. Now, I'm going through this very quickly. We could have gone through it much more slowly - certainly a whole talk on one example like this, and kind of taking apart the pieces, and mapping it onto those <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links</a>. If you _do_ want more detail, with more <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, this kind of stuff is not hard to find these days. One place is in the book that I wrote, _<a data-href="Seeing That Frees" class="internal-link">Seeing That Frees</a>._ Chapter 10, I think, is devoted to going into this in quite a lot of detail.^[Rob Burbea, _Seeing That Frees_: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising (Devon: Hermes Amāra, 2014), 118-31] Or <a data-href="Payutto" class="internal-link">Payutto</a>, a Thai monk, wrote a book called _<a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a>_.^[Prayudh Payutto,_Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Conditionality_, tr. Bruce Evans (Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation, 1994), [https://www.dhammatalks.net/Books3/Payutto_Bhikkhu_Dependent_Origination.htm](https://www.dhammatalks.net/Books3/Payutto_Bhikkhu_Dependent_Origination.htm)] You can find it. It's not hard to find. It's also not difficult to understand. It's just, as I said, a kind of anatomy. Several times with different groups over the years, I've done teaching sessions where we sort of lay it out on the floor, these <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links</a>, and then we go through different scenarios of how <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> gets built up and tied together and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Contraction" data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">contracted</a> in difficult situations, either real ones or hypothetical ones. It's almost always interesting to me how much people enjoy doing that. You've got this map, and you're kind of together looking at, if you like, the tragedy, but also the comedy of the human <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> in this process of tying itself up in knots, etc. But people really seem to enjoy, interestingly, this kind of dissecting of the anatomy or physiology or the process of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> in this way, of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> in this way. --- ##### Does understanding make a difference? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^7-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^7-3" class="internal-link">7-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (2)_ And partly it's because something in the human <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> seems to like chopping things up and mapping them out, and feeling like, "Oh, there's this word that the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> used, and there's this in my <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>, and I can kind of map them together." It _seems_ to us that we recognize something of a truth here, and so we have the feeling I've understood something. I recognize a component of the process, and I understand it. So people often - we often enjoy that feeling. I'm sometimes not at all convinced that that seeming recognition and seeming so-called '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a>' actually makes much difference. Is it really helpful? What we _really_ need here is practices to be able to actually pick up these concepts, if those are the concepts we're using, and really practise with them. So if we're using this idea of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">twelve links of dependent origination</a>, where exactly can I come in, in that process? What are the points of entry (and there are various points of entry) that I can come in and actually contemplate in a different way in the moment, or pay <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>, bring my <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> to bear on a certain link or feature, whatever it is, in ways that actually make a difference, relieve <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, disband to a certain extent some <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>? --- ##### Illusion of understanding something **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^7-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^7-4" class="internal-link">7-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>_ Without that, then we get this kind of - it's really unfortunate: it's a kind of illusion of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> something, because it looks like we're being clear, because we've got something that looks concrete mapped onto some concept that is in the teachings that the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> used, that otherwise might have remained more abstract. "Great, I've understood something." There's this clarity of carving up and mapping and corresponding concepts. What we _really_ need is practice on the front, so to speak, where the action is, and ways of practising that are powerful, specific, helpful. --- ##### The Buddha on clinging **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^8-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^8-1" class="internal-link">8-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (6) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (2)_ So the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> said a lot about all this, and in different ways. You know, he said, he pointed out, we can <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> - there are lists of what we can <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> to or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">crave</a>. He said, for instance, to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a> is an obvious one. We <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> to the pleasures available in the senses. We <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a>, he said, also, to our views and opinions. We <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> to our customs and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">habits</a>, wherever they come from: the personal, or more social, or cultural, or religious, or secular cultural, whatever. And we also <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> to self-views, different views of <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a>, beliefs about <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a>.^[E.g. MN 9, SN 12:2] --- ##### "Just let go of everything" **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^8-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^8-2" class="internal-link">8-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (3) · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ So all that's there, and sometimes people do dissect this anatomy and present it as a teaching, or try and approach the teachings that way. And sometimes all this is there, and the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a>'s making all these <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, etc., and what we take as a message is this teaching: "Just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>." [laughs] Even as I say it now, you can recognize, it's like, it simultaneously feels like a hugely tall order, and at the same time, it's so attractive as a teaching. It's so simple: "Just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>." And we <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, something in us loves simplicity. Something in us is seduced by simplicity, and simple teachings, and simple solutions. Even if we acknowledge that that's very challenging, it's a very simple message: "Just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>. Just go with the flow. Be with the flow. Just be in the moment. Be in the present. But don't even <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> to that idea. Just be in the present." --- ##### "Don't try to repeat experiences" **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^8-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^8-3" class="internal-link">8-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (3) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> (4) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (4) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3)_ Very simple, and the attraction of what I've called 'simplism' in other teachings, in other talks I've given. In this "just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>," then <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a> has nothing to do, per se, with an <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>, or _any_ <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>. So you get the instruction, "Don't try to repeat experiences. Even if they're wonderful, insightful experiences and openings and mystical experiences and all that, don't try to repeat. That's just <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. Just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>. <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Liberation</a> is a relationship of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">non-clinging</a> with <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>. That's what <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a> is. <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Liberation</a> _is_ <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">non-clinging</a>." So it's not an <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>; it's a relationship. --- ##### How do I notice craving? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^8-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^8-4" class="internal-link">8-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ It's very enticing and attractive, the simplicity of that teaching. And then, people are different; they may take some of those divisions that the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> talked about, and take them as areas of investigation. But just basically, the teaching is "<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Let go of everything</a>. Just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>." And of course, we can be - I mean, some people _are_ - completely over-simple. So almost not even going into any tools of how we _might_ even <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>. But generally speaking, we offer tools, and tools are offered. The first one would be, for a start, how do I _notice_ <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>? Do I even recognize the <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>? Because how can I let go if I don't recognize it? So that's an important aspect here. It's an important question. How do I notice <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>? How do I notice that movement of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> or <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, whatever we want to call it? Well, one obvious way is my thoughts tell me. I have to be aware of my thoughts. My thoughts tell me, when they keep returning to this same object, when I hear the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> say "I want," or, even more, "I need," "I need that chocolate cake" or whatever it is. So my thoughts tell me in different ways. They reveal the presence of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> by the way they circle around some object or start to obsess around something or whatever. --- ##### Huge range of what contitutes craving **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^8-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^8-5" class="internal-link">8-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (9) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (8) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Manifestations" class="internal-link">Manifestations</a>_ But perhaps even more than that, we can recognize that <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> itself, as I mentioned earlier, is already _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_. It's not just that it _leads_ to _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_. So this smoking will cause <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, etc. The <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> itself, the force of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> itself, is already uncomfortable. It's already a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">dis-ease</a>. There is _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_ there. This presence of _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_, my <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> revealing a feeling of _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_, just slight <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">dis-ease</a>, uneasiness, etc., imbalance, if you like - all that reveals, "Aha, there's some <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. What is it that I'm <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>?" So that, at a much more subtle level than would be revealed in our thoughts, because <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> can be quite active and quite present even when there's no thought in the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. When there's no thought, there can still be <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. So this is what I want to go into, probably in the next talk, is that when we use these words, '<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>' and '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>,' we're really talking about a huge range from very, very gross and obvious to extremely subtle. So at some point, thought no longer needs to be there for the more subtle aspects or subtle <a data-href="manifestations" class="internal-link">manifestations</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. --- ##### How to tell that craving is active in the body **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^9-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^9-1" class="internal-link">9-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (2) · <a data-href="Energy body" class="internal-link">Energy body</a> (2) · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (3) · <a data-href="Spaciousness" class="internal-link">Spaciousness</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a>_ But when there's <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, there is noticeable (_almost_ all the time, let's say - no, let's say _all_ the time), there is with <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> a tension that is noticeable. In the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, maybe in the musculature; maybe even more subtle than that, when it gets really quite subtle, in the sort of felt space of what I call the '<a data-href="energy body" class="internal-link">energy body</a>' or the '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Energy body" data-href="Energy body" class="internal-link">subtle body</a>,' a tension, a <a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a> comes in; and even more subtle than that, in what we might call the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> space. So again, it's not about thoughts. It's about there's a certain cramping in the otherwise more natural <a data-href="spaciousness" class="internal-link">spaciousness</a> and openness of the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. This is what tells me that <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> is present, this tension/<a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a>, which will be felt as some degree of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">dis-ease</a> in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> or <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> space. --- ##### Bodily tension/contraction **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^9-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^9-2" class="internal-link">9-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mode of mind" class="internal-link">Mode of mind</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ That's different than deliberately narrowing the <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>. Like, right now I can deliberately focus my <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> on the tip of my index finger, and the sensations right there in the middle, so I'm deliberately narrowing. That's fine; that's a <a data-href="mode of mind" class="internal-link">mode of mind</a>, if you like. But with <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, there's a tension/<a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a> that comes into the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> and the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> space that we can feel, and that we can get increasingly sensitive to noticing. --- ##### ==Techniques of "just let go of everything"==, 1. notice craving and let go of it **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^9-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^9-3" class="internal-link">9-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (4) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (5) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ **(1)** So one teaching would be: when you notice <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">just let go</a>** of the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Just let go</a> of whatever it is you're <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. Let go of that. And again, sounds simple, and it might work sometimes. Sometimes this might work. It's just, let go of wanting the chocolate cake. <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Just let go</a>. Or I'm attached to views: "So-and-so said this, but I think that's wrong, _da-da-da-da._" It's like, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">just let go</a> of it. So that's one kind of instruction is just notice it and let it go. Let's run through a few of the sort of maybe more common tools, if you like, that are in the service of this "just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>" sort of teaching. So one is: notice it, and let go of whatever the object that you're <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> is, or whatever you're <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to, which sometimes works, and as you will all know, sometimes does not work. --- ##### 2. Skillful reflection **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^9-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^9-4" class="internal-link">9-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a>_ **(2)** A second would be to use some **skilful reflection**. So here's this thing. Maybe it's that chocolate cake that I notice there's this <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> towards it, whatever, and just to reflect, for example (this is a common teaching) on the <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a>. So I'm going to eat that slice of chocolate cake, or three slices of chocolate cake, whatever it is, and then an hour later, either I'm going to have a tummy ache [laughs] if I've eaten too much, or it will just be gone. It's like, where did it go? Where is that pleasure now? How much lasting fulfilment can it really give me? --- ##### Different kinds of reflection **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^9-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^9-5" class="internal-link">9-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (4) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a>_ So this is a very common teaching. It's just, reflect on the <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a>, of what we're <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to. And if it's <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to views and opinions, it's just actually, again, reflecting, "Well, how many times in the past have I changed my view, sometimes to the diametrically opposed one? And oftentimes I have views and opinions about things that I actually don't really know. If I'm really honest, I don't know what the truth is there. I'm so attached to my view and my opinion." And just to reflect: I don't really know, or my view might change. Or to reflect: here's this <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. Here's maybe this obsession about something, or again, whatever, the chocolate cake or whatever. Is this <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, or this obsession, or this thing that my <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> keeps chewing over, is this really taking me where I want to go? So I could go down this road of thinking about this, obsessing about it, worrying about it, fretting about it, etc. What will I have at the end of that? Will I have what I really want? Will I have peace? Will I have fulfilment? --- ##### These are some very common teachings **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^10-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^10-1" class="internal-link">10-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ These are some very [common teachings]. Again, I'm going through very quickly, and we will touch on these in the instructions. But you can find all this in plenty of other places, so I'm just kind of running through, as I said, to set a context for the other material that I want to touch on. This is very common. I, and probably every teacher, every <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Dharma teacher</a>, has given these kind of teachings. But that would be the second: skilful reflection. --- **(3)** The third possible tool is to **become acquainted with, through <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a>, what we call _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_**, or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">proliferation</a>, exaggeration, hype, storytelling that goes on, that the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> gets into when it gets really crazy about something. So I didn't really elaborate, but for example, in the example where I gave the woman my number, and then the whole story-building and hype around it, or maybe it's something that we want, or that's really terrible if it happens, and there's a whole identity-view and story and <a data-href="history" class="internal-link">history</a> and hyping up of <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a> and the issue involved. And we can see this happening. --- ##### People like to hear funny stories about papanca **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^10-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^10-3" class="internal-link">10-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a> (3) · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (3) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> (2) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a>_ This is another thing on <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">retreats</a>: how happy people are to hear <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a>, funny <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a> of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_. It's a relief. We realize, "Oh, I'm not the only one to be crazy that way." But just hearing these <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a>, it's not going to cut the mustard at a very deep level. But at any rate, we begin to recognize, our <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> begins to get more familiar with these times and states of <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> when the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> has just got into a complete spin. And we could say, using language a certain way, that when it's in this state of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">proliferation</a> and storm-building, building a storm in a teacup, we are <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fabrication" data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">fabricating</a>. The <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fabrication" data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">fabricating</a>. And instead of being with the basic <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of something - here is this <a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a> in my chest, and instead of just being with the sensations, I'm bringing in a whole story of my patterns of closed-heartedness, and that has to do with my mother and her mother, and all this stuff. Something that's, at one level, just some sensations that will pass, has become this whole heavy story, that "It's absolutely terrible. I must get rid of this," etc. --- ##### Papanca <=> fabrication **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^10-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^10-4" class="internal-link">10-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> (3) · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> (5) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (2)_ And afterwards, when it dissolves a little bit, we begin to see we were <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fabrication" data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">fabricating</a> something. There was this _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_ state, this whole web-weaving of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">complication</a> and elaboration and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">proliferation</a>, around self and around issue and all of that. There's <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a>. And in contrast to that, when we're so-called 'simply <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a>,' there's the sensation in the chest. Yeah, it's <a data-href="contraction" class="internal-link">contraction</a>, and it's unpleasant. We can be with that sensation in what we sometimes call '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>.' And that state of <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> and of so-called '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>' is a state of no _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_ and no <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a>. We're just with the thing 'as it is.' And through repeated <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> practice, we actually get more of a taste for this, more of a taste of living without _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_, not caught up in the maelstrom in that teacup, not entangled in the sort of cobwebs and the imprisonment, really, of all this intricate, thick, over-elaborated storytelling. --- ##### Mindfulness as antidote to papanca **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^10-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^10-5" class="internal-link">10-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a>_ So a degree of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> is released when we let go of that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_ and we're with things more in the way of what we could call 'simple <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a>,' or we could call '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>,' or we could say 'being with things as they are, simply.' So that **simple <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> practice in contrast to _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>,_ and _seeming_ to see that we're not <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fabrication" data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">fabricating</a> when we're <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a>**. That's a skilful tool too. --- ##### 4. Role of vedana **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^11-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^11-1" class="internal-link">11-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">Aversion</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Stories" class="internal-link">Stories</a> · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> · <a data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">Contraction</a> · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a>_ **(4)** Another one, a little bit more precise, if you like. Let's take a negative example. For example, the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> to be rid of something, what we call <a data-href="aversion" class="internal-link">aversion</a>. Here, maybe I'm sitting on a <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a> or something, and my back hurts, or my knees hurt or something. And there's the unpleasant _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, the unpleasant sensations, and there's a <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> to be rid of them. There's a rejection. There's a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Aversion" data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">pushing away</a>. Again, maybe my <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is saying, "Oh, come on. Ring the bell. When's this sitting over?", and spinning all kinds of <a data-href="stories" class="internal-link">stories</a> about, again, "I have this <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a> because I'm such a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Contraction" data-href="Contraction" class="internal-link">contracted</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Personhood" data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">human being</a>," etc., "Other people don't have it," whatever it is. --- ##### Technique: focus on vedana **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^11-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^11-2" class="internal-link">11-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">Aversion</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (2) · <a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a>_ But maybe even without thought, as I said. There's no thought. There's just this <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a> and this energetic push, rejection of that <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>, a kind of tensing of the being, of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> and of the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, to get rid of, to hold it at arm's length, to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Aversion" data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">push it away</a>. And this, again, we can feel, we can notice. And one skilful strategy is actually just to come, to **train the <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>, and just see: can I hold it right at that point in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a> where the unpleasant _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_ are just coming up like a fountain**? Moment after moment, there's that unpleasantness: unpleasant sensation, unpleasant sensation, unpleasant sensation, in my back or in my knee or whatever it is. Looking that way, kind of intent but with some relaxation as well, in a kind of balanced way, just honing, training, focusing the <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>, just as much as I can, at that kind of fountain, if you like, of moment-to-moment unpleasant _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_. And then I'll notice the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> go with that. --- ##### Impulsive, energetic movement **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^11-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^11-3" class="internal-link">11-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Pleasantness" class="internal-link">Pleasantness</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40190/20170115-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_1-40190.mp3#t=01:00:13" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So there's the unpleasant _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, and there's this rejection, and they kind of go together. There's the arising of the unpleasant, and then this kind of impulse of rejection, this energetic push away. Of course, I can see this with pleasant sensations as well. Sometimes it's really interesting, eating and watching this movement. Here's this delicious food that's being, maybe, again, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">on retreat</a>, cooked for me, or I cooked it for myself at home or whatever it is, and I'm eating, and I'm really paying <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to the arising of the pleasant sensations in the mouth. The food is in my mouth, and then I can still notice, curiously, how something in the being, in the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, is kind of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a>. It's like this movement of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a>, movement towards, to hold, to grasp, to hold on to, to encompass those pleasant sensations. So I see the <a data-href="pleasantness" class="internal-link">pleasantness</a>, and I see this impulsive, energetic movement to grasp. The food is already in my mouth, and the <a data-href="pleasantness" class="internal-link">pleasantness</a> is already there, and there's still this <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a>. --- ##### Clinging doesn't happen if we stay with the craving (vedana) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^11-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^11-4" class="internal-link">11-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (4) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> · <a data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">Aversion</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40190/20170115-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_1-40190.mp3#t=01:01:00" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So I can see it either way. I stay steady at the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, and then what happens is that - and again, this is separating notions of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> from <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> - I see the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, the impulse arise, but it doesn't build up so much. So I can just stay, for example, with this <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a> in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, this moment-to-moment arising of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, and just watch these little bursts of impulse, of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, of rejection, of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Aversion" data-href="Aversion" class="internal-link">pushing away</a>, arise. But they just sort of arise and they subside, they arise and they subside, and this consolidation and building of that, and solidification, entrenchment of that into what might be called '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>,' it doesn't arise, because I'm just staying closer to the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_ and the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. So that would be a fourth. --- ##### 5. Experience the pressure that is involved with craving **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^11-5" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^11-5" class="internal-link">11-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (2) · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40190/20170115-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_1-40190.mp3#t=01:01:51" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(5)** A fifth is, again, relating back to what I touched on earlier, to actually **develop an ability where I'm paying more <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to the actual <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, and noticing that pressure that is involved in <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>**. So back to the cigarette example, or the chocolate cake example, whatever it is, here the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> has the <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a> of the cigarette, and then I can feel this pressure build of the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, or maybe it's <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. I can feel that pressure build in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, maybe even more than the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>. And instead of seeking to obliterate and release and sort of pop that uncomfortable bubble of pressure by having the cigarette, etc., I'm actually - just give that some space, just let that pressure kind of build, ebb, and it swells, and then I'll notice: oh, it reaches a certain point, and it just subsides again. Maybe it does that again. But what's happening there is I'm staying with it and giving it space (that's key), and I'm learning to tolerate. I'm developing my capacity to tolerate that uncomfortable pressure so that I don't just have to give in to it. --- ##### And over time, the very force of the craving when it comes back next time is a little less **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^12-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^12-1" class="internal-link">12-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (4)_ In time, what happens is, instead of getting reinforced, that force of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, instead of being reinforced because I keep giving in to it because I can't tolerate that pressure, I tolerate the pressure, it ebbs. It releases. It subsides. And over time, the very force of the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> when it comes back next time is a little less, a little less. So I'm learning the skill of tolerating. I'm also eroding that particular <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, and maybe the pattern of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> in general. So that would be a fifth option. --- ##### 6. Paying attention to impermanence **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^12-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^12-2" class="internal-link">12-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> (7) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ **(6)** And a sixth is more general. Touching on what we touched on, elaborating a little bit more what we said before, is actually **just paying <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a> in general**, really being aware: _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">anicca</a>._ Everything is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>. This is so much the thrust of so much <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">insight meditation</a>: just see that everything is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>. Just notice. How can you not but notice? If you're <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a>, you'll see that things are <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>. And we start to notice it more and more. And if we notice that things are <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>, we let go. We see there's no point chasing things that will just be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>. There's no point <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to things that are going to dissolve anyway, etc. --- ##### Impermance brings less solidification **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^12-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^12-3" class="internal-link">12-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> (6) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (3) · <a data-href="Phenomenon" class="internal-link">Phenomenon</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> · <a data-href="Consciousness" class="internal-link">Consciousness</a> · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ At least that's the theory. And there's a certain amount of truth in that. When we see <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a>, we let go. So the noticing of <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a>, the <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a>, generally speaking, brings <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a>. That would be a sixth possibility. Maybe, with that sixth possibility, eventually, through practice, there are times where we see, "Wow, there really is just this process of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a> things. Where is the personality here? The personality is a process that's constructed. <a data-href="The self" class="internal-link">The self</a> is just a process of momentary <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Phenomenon" data-href="Phenomenon" class="internal-link">phenomena</a>, momentary factors of <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a>, momentary moments of <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a> or <a data-href="consciousness" class="internal-link">consciousness</a> or impulse, etc. There is just this process of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a> events or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a> things, and I am like that, <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a> is like that, everything is. That's all there is." And again, generally speaking, when we see that, a degree of fundamental _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_, fundamental <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a> about reality, if you like, is cut away. And there's, generally speaking, less <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, because we don't _believe_ so much in such a solidified <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">sense of self</a>. Sometimes that's what happens, and that does work. --- ##### I'm not selling this very well **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^12-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^12-4" class="internal-link">12-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (2) · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (2) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>_ But you can already hear ... [laughs] I apologize. I'm not selling this very well. [laughs] I perhaps could have done a better job of selling it. But in a way, that's my whole point. That's my whole point. So all this, what I've said so far, what I've laid out in terms of teachings and approaches to <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> and <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and all that, in these ways and these approaches, it's not that it's wrong. It's not wrong. It's all good. It's not that the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> is _wrong_, per se. But it is _limited_. That's my main point: it's limited in both depth and breadth. If we only respond to <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> and only view <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, for example, with the lens, "Well, what can this really give me? Because everything is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>. Might as well let go," or if we only try to live with <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a>, with so-called '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>,' staying at the so-called 'bare <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>,' or staying at the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>,_ even, and if we believe that <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> and so-called '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>' is really a state of non-_papañca_, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">non-proliferation</a>, and really a state of complete non-<a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a>, if this more or less sums up my <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Dharma practice</a>, and what I'm trying to do, and how I conceive of the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, then I will have missed and I will continue to miss the possibility of really deep <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a>. --- ##### Dropping of desire is not always helpful **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^13-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^13-1" class="internal-link">13-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a>_ Something there, as I said at the beginning, shuts off certain doors - in this case, the doors of depth, the doors to a much more radical depth. It also, living that way, viewing that way, those ways, is simply not always going to be helpful. There will be situations, there will be instances, there will be streams or threads in my life where it's very helpful, but there will be plenty where it just is not helpful. Just needs some intelligence and some reflection to expose that fact. Plenty of threads in my life where it's completely not helpful to live with, to approach it with '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>,' to approach the dropping of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> because "what can this really give me?", to believe I'm 'being with reality' through <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a>. All of that, if I try and do that, even with a sort of feeling of breadth and all-encompassingness, or _especially_ if I have that feeling of all-encompassingness, there's something a bit - I don't know - silly in it. --- ##### How do we think of the Dharma? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^13-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^13-2" class="internal-link">13-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (3) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Mystical opening" class="internal-link">Mystical opening</a>_ Because as well as just simply discerning what are helpful and unhelpful <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> in different situations - very basic; we haven't even talked about that - but as well as that, so much more is possible. _So much more_ is possible. How do we think of the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>? Was the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> just saying, "Let go. Let go. Don't <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a> and live peacefully. Let go and live peacefully"? Is that what the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> is? Is that all the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> can be? "Let go and live peacefully." Whose <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> is that? Or is it - and this is what I want to go into in a bit more detail - is it, first of all, that through practice, through picking up this idea of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, etc., and exploring it experientially, with a certain (what I'm going to call) practical intelligence, facility in practice, I start to learn something about <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, through practice, at deeper and deeper levels? And something happens in that process: the whole world of <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> opens up, dissolves; opens up to a completely different level, if you like - a <a data-href="mystical opening" class="internal-link">mystical opening</a>, mystical opening_s_, plural. --- ##### Seeing the world unbound **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^13-3" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^13-3" class="internal-link">13-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a> (3) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> (2) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (2)_ We can see the whole world unbound. We open to the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>. If we follow this thread of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> in certain ways, or <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, we follow that, subtler and subtler, deeper and deeper, we can know what is <a data-href="unfabricated" class="internal-link">unfabricated</a>. Radical, different sense of existence, and we understand the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Emptiness" data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness of all things</a>. Something very, very deep, very profound here. Again, going back to what we said before, even contemplating <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a> more and more rapidly in the <a data-href="meditation" class="internal-link">meditation</a>, the <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> gets very intense. It's true that sometimes really intensely focusing on rapid <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a>, very finely, something can happen that can kind of 'pop' that whole <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>, and suddenly the walls are shattered, and the walls of the world are shattered, and we are opened to the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>. No subject, no object, no thing, no <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> in any kind of conventional sense, no space, no time. Not just no past and future - no _present_. Something utterly, utterly transcendent and different. --- ##### Can there be more? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^13-4" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^13-4" class="internal-link">13-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> (3) · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> (4) · <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a> (5) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (4) · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> (8) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3) · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a>_ But I'm not quite sure how that happened: "I was just contemplating <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a>, and then something popped." And it might be that indeed a certain <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a> comes out of that exposure to the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>, that knowing of that. But I come back to the ordinary world of <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>, of ordinary <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a>, and perhaps it's not really clear to me what the relationship is of that world of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a> to that world of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">non-appearance</a>, of the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>. Somehow I need to be contemplating this whole teaching about <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and practising with the teachings about <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> in ways that let me understand something about the relationship between <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a> and what we might call <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">non-appearance</a> or the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>; the relationship of this world of time, where it seems obvious that everything is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>, and the world of the timeless. Not the world of permanence, but not the world of <a data-href="impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanence</a> - the world of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Unfabricated" data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">timelessness</a>. What's the relationship there? And might not a fuller <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a>, a deeper <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a>, a more beautiful <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a>, and a greater <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Beauty" data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">sense of beauty</a> come when I really understand, through approaching the teachings about <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> practically, in <a data-href="meditation" class="internal-link">meditation</a>, in certain ways, in ways that let me understand this relationship of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a> to non-experiences, the relationship of the, if you like, <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">non-appearance</a>, the <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>, of the timeless, to the world of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a> and <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>, conventional experiences and time? --- ##### Teachings which are limited in depth and breath. **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^14-1" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^14-1" class="internal-link">14-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">Kusala</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a> · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ So if I'm too simplistic, and I have the goal of just living without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> ("That's what <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a> is"), and I'm not picking up this teaching of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> in a way that's actually going to unlock something much more profound, reveal something about existence much more profound, much more radical, there's a danger there. I need to pick it up in a way that will help me do that. So it can be limited if I take the teachings in a way that will limit them. It's limited in depth. It's also limited in breadth, and that's the second thing that I want to go into. So again, just having the idea of <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, etc., even when we differentiate <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">wholesome</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">unwholesome</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, even then, what I would like to go into is, there will be something in that way of approaching things, something in that attempt, something in that conception of the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, of what practice is and where it's leading, will not allow an adequate view of self, of others, of things, of the world, and also <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> itself, in other ways. Not just to do with this depth of knowing the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>, depth of knowing the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Emptiness" data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness of things</a>, but in other ways, it will not be adequate. That's what I want to go into on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. We'll say a little bit about it in part two of this talk. --- ##### Teachings of non-clinging can be oversimplistic **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1 > ^14-2" data-href="0115 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 1#^14-2" class="internal-link">14-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">Divinity</a>_ So there's a possibility that the way we're thinking about these teachings about <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">non-clinging</a>, the way that we're conceiving of it, is, if you like, oversimplistic, and it will limit both the depth that we're able to open to, and thus our whole sense of existence, and also a kind of breadth in terms of how we then view the things of this world in other ways, which I'll go into, that have to do with <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Divinity" data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">sacredness</a>. This is what I hope to elaborate. ---