26. Delight in Dhamma

To direct to things that are wholesome

to direct to things immediate,

but also which have a long-term uplifting

and supporting effect on our lives,

compared to other kinds of happiness,

that are more quickly consumed and quickly vanish

and leave us sometimes feeling a little hungry.

So these ways of delighting,

here that the Buddha explains

in this beautiful sutta

are very wonderful and skillful,

and have tendency of filling up our hearts.

And so he says:

[AN VI 6.78]

“Monks, 

Possessing six qualities, 

A monk abounds in happiness and mental grace

            here and now, 

and one is thoroughly undertaking the way 

            to stilling of mental influences.

These are called the āsavas.

The word āsavas, from the root ‘śru’, which means “to flow”

and these āsavas are the tendency of the mind to be in-fluence-d,

 in-flux-uation towards things.

And, basically said, ‘distractions’

or mental wavering,

mental movement,

mental agitation.

And here the Buddha says it’s the ‘āsavakkhaya’

the way to stopping these flows,

these currents of the mind.

Because, with current comes friction,

with flowing comes friction.

And this friction, even though sometimes it is subtle,

becomes established and we don’t really notice it.

So these are the six ways of delighting in things that

bring freedom and bring liberation

and wholesome happiness:

(1) Delights in the Dhamma

Obviously, this one is fairly important,

but in a more concrete way, this means

taking delight in the Teaching,

taking delight in the training,

taking delight in virtue,

taking delight and seeing happiness in developing

these wonderful, wholesome qualities.

Once we develop this delighting in the Dhamma,

we align with the Dhamma

and this brings a lot of happiness

and this is an investment long-term

We invest now, like I said a few times,

it is not like eating a chocolate bar,

the effect is not as instantaneous, 

but it will manifest over time, and

as we learn to invest wisely into this kind of delight,

delighting in the Dhamma, in helping others,

well then, we find a source of happiness,

a source of delight that is very strong

and very unshakeable,

and that supports us at the same time.

(2) Delights in [mental] development

This simply said is abandoning selfishness, selfish states.

Cultivating a generous mind, an open mind,

a mind that is free of tension.

And letting go of dislikes that also create tension.

When dislikes arise, well, there might be dislike,

but we can learn to develop our mind in a wholesome way

so that when dislike arises, it does not create havoc in the mind,

and it is seen for what it is, and is easily let go of.

So we abandon states that create friction,

create tension within us.

And by doing this, the mind becomes very uplifted,

because these selfish states, aversive states,

‘disliking’ and ‘liking’, judging everything,

the mind becomes a bit like a rock,

and it tends to sink,

because it is very heavy,

and when we learn to develop the mind,

when we learn to re-open it,

and let go of that tension,

and the mind naturally,

like the Buddha says, ‘like ghee in water’,

it will naturally flow up.

(3) Delights in abandoning

This one is interesting…

not all kinds of abandoning,

but abandoning the unwholesome,

abandoning things that are unskillful,

and that are harmful to us.

What is that? What is the main cause of that?

That is ’tension’, creating tension.

Having strong, strong judgements and opinions,

and strong attachments.

Hard like rock.

Like big blocks of salt in our lives,

that we try to [adjust around].

and the more we hold, the more we crystallize this tension

which is  ‘taṇhā’, which is called ‘craving’,

but this is a big, nasty word, I try not to use too much,

And we learn that these big blocks in our lives

they are not really comfortable to work around,

and often they have sharp corners,

and we have to rub up against them,

and the more we have them,

the more they take space in our life,

the more we have knots, and big, sharp, salty edges,

With learning to delight in abandoning

well, it’s like dissolving these big blocks in our lives.

And we just abandon all these things that are creating us

so much tension inside,

because this tension, nobody really wants it.

We can do much better without the tension.

(4) Delights in solitude

And this is ‘viveka’…

Viveka is a special word because it means a few things:

In a way it means ’solitude’

Solitude, not only physical, 

like we are experiencing, and we have seen with Covid, 

(we’ve had a pretty good ‘forced retreat’, upon us,

which is good, has its benefits to it…)

but it is not only a physical retreat,

its also mental retreat, mental seclusion.

Viveka is a synonym for ‘Nibbāna’ also,

and it also means ‘detachment’.

And detachment in the wholesome perspective

in the way, in fact when we look at the way the Buddha taught his path of meditation,

the first level comes when we feel this

“Pītisukha vivekam” (Vivekajaṃ pītisukhaṃ)

this blissful happiness borne of detachment.

Because when we stop engaging with all the senses,

the mind becomes very relieved,

this is the thing that happens in mediation and longer retreats also.

And we don’t really notice it until we meditate for some time,

and then we realize “oh yes, my mind feels much lighter”

Because, viveka also means ‘disengaging’

Stop always being engaged, engaged,

gearing up, gearing up all the time

now it is gearing down a little bit, towards neutral

and then the mind is very happy and blissful

this is the meditative viveka,

meditative detachment.

(5) Delights in non-hatred

And delight in non-hatred, well, that is ‘loving-kindness’,

boundless love,

and when we learn to seek delight in this,

we become very, very happy

and our mind becomes very wholesome,

because when we have only loving-kindness,

and compassion for all living beings,

well, this state, by definition, is a happy state,

and to learn to direct our happiness

and perhaps dig for happiness in there,

make this the well of our happiness

we can tap into that wealth of happiness at any time.

And the more we develop it,

the more we enjoy it.

And having love and compassion all the time,

for all living beings, is very happy,

and we soon realize when we start training the mind in that way,

that we don’t really need much,

because the mind is just happy,

just very at ease and graceful.

And also, that its opposite state: hatred, or aversion,

or as I said ‘dislike’ earlier, is not a happy state.

And to clearly make that difference.

And once we move toward the non-hatred,

the loving-kindness,

the Buddha was big on saying that,

abyāpāda, non-hatred,

we also get to see a clear reflection of its opposite

which is disliking, aversion.

We can clearly see it as a very heavy, unpleasant state to be in.

So, why would we invest any of our mental energy

into this kind of unwholesome state for whatever reason.

There’s no good reason to be angry.

There’s no good reason to say bad things to someone.

There’s no good reason to feel hate for something,

because in the first place we are hurting ourselves.

So non-hatred is very good.

(6) Delights in non-proliferation

This is nippapañca [non-proliferation].

Papañca, in Pali, translates as ‘proliferation’. 

The propensity of the mind to get wound up on its own,

to propagate, it is also mental propagation.

And these are habitual tendencies we have cultivated fairly unconsciously,

its very subtle, but we indulge in them,

and we indulge in thinking, and thinking, and thinking…

and we solve all of our problems by thinking about the problem,

not knowing that most of the time,

thinking is the problem.

And it is keeping us from actually seeing the situation in all of its clarity,

because our mind is clouded by papañca.

Constant, constant…

the hamster rolling in the wheel,

so we are kind of shaded by this papañca,

always thinking.

And that thinking also has its weight,

 it has a weight on the mind.

And once this weight is lifted,

the mind is uplifted naturally.

And this is what we learn to do in the practice.

So these are the six ways of delighting in life

that the Buddha advised everybody,

the monks, everyone,

to develop and to invest in.

This is wise investment of our mental energy,

of our inclinations, of our aspirations.

By practicing in this way,

we abound, here and now,

in happiness and in mental grace.

And we are practicing the way to Nibbāna,

by practicing these six:

Delighting in the Dhamma,

Delighting in [mental] development,

Delighting in abandoning,

Delighting in solitude,

Delighting in non-hatred (loving-kindness),

And, delighting in non-proliferation.

These six lead to Nibbāna, lead to the complete stilling of the mental inclinations,

the stilling of the mental movements.