This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Dharmette; Sensitivity Grows (2 of 5) Roots of the Wholesome and Unwholesome

Yesterday, I spoke a little bit about my first experience of insight practice, which was on a retreat at Spirit Rock in Northern California many years ago. What I saw as the ethical integrity of the culture of the center really inspired the beginnings of my path in this tradition. I had this sense I could trust it.

I think if we consider the words wholesome and unwholesome, their connotations for English speakers anyway are very likely to include an ethical flavor—unless maybe we're talking about food. There's a famous verse in the Dhammapada^[7]: "Doing no evil, engaging in what's skillful or wholesome (the same word, kusala) and purifying one's mind, this is the teaching of the Buddhas." That's Gil Fronsdal's translation, it's verse 183. That verse is sometimes said to summarize the dharma in a nutshell.

"Doing no evil." That's a pretty clear pointer to ethics, ethical behavior. In Buddhist circles, I think often when we speak of ethics, there's an assumption that we're talking about ethical precepts, training rules that the Buddha instituted in his sangha^[8]. Especially we think of the first five precepts, which are the ones that lay people tend to pay most attention to, to make a priority perhaps, to commit to following, or to give a vow to follow for a particular period of time. Often we take them at the beginning of a retreat period.

What are they? The five precepts: not killing, not taking what is not offered, not lying, not using our sexual energy in harmful ways, not intoxicating ourselves. Of course, many religions share similar lists of unethical behaviors to avoid or to renounce. And it's possible to follow all those five precepts as they are stated, and at the same time to have a mind that has a lot of ill will, conceit, and greed in it. There's more to developing ethical sensitivity than just limiting our behavior in these five ways.

What I felt palpably on that first retreat, and how I felt in my relationship with this path, is that the orientation of the organization—and all the ways that it interacted with the yogis—was generous, respectful, kind, and trusting. It was so much more than simply knowing no one was going to steal from me or harm me in some way. It was so reassuring to know that there was also embedded in the culture of the organization, along with the trust that the yogis weren't going to steal or harm each other, a sense of care and respect for everyone who was there. An intention to benefit them. Trust, respect, and intention to be helpful. Altogether, those really conditioned the arising of a sense of safety and goodness that pretty much made my heart sing at the time. It was wholesome.

Thinking back on it now, I can see I was really learning the dharma directly through my interactions with people, with the culture of the retreat center. My first experience with the tradition was already inclining my mind in the direction of the skillful, the wholesome, the beautiful.

Wholesomeness is bigger than ethics or virtue. You can kind of think of kusala as the container for all the beautiful qualities of mind and heart that are inherent within us and that we cultivate in our practice.

In the Majjhima Nikaya^[9], sutta number 19 is the Dvedhavitakka Sutta^[10]. There's a very well-known teaching from the Buddha in that sutta, one I really love because it feels like it sets a kind of compass heading for the whole of our practice life. The word dvedhavitakka literally means "two-fold thinking," and in English, the sutta is usually titled "Two Kinds of Thinking" or "Two Ways of Thinking." It points to a way that mindful awareness can teach us how to distinguish the wholesome from the unwholesome.

In it, the Buddha describes a time before he was awakened—maybe not that long before he was awakened—when he decided to separate his thoughts into two categories. You may have heard this before: those of sensuality, ill will, or cruelty on the one side, and their opposites—thoughts of renunciation, non-ill will, and non-cruelty—on the other. Often we speak of non-ill will as metta^[11] and non-cruelty as compassion.

Then he went on in his meditation to examine, one by one, the results of thinking in each of those six ways. Is there benefit or is there harm to self, to others, to both, to the world? Does this kind of thinking lead to wisdom? Does it lead to full awakening?

He began with sensual desire. A sensual thought arose in the Buddha and he says he knew, "The thought of sensual desire has arisen in me. This leads to my own affliction, to others' affliction, and to the affliction of both. It obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana^[12]." He came to the same conclusion after thoughts of ill will and thoughts of cruelty arose. Each of those three would lead to the same results.

And then, when he looked at the other category of thoughts, he found that thoughts of renunciation, non-ill will (metta), or non-cruelty (compassion) led to benefit, not harm. They led to wisdom. They did not obstruct wisdom. And they were onward leading toward Nibbana, not causing difficulties, not obstructing the path. He saw also that thoughts of sensuality, ill will, or cruelty led to harm not only in the present but also towards bondage in the future. Those arising from renunciation, non-ill will, and non-cruelty led to benefit now and also towards freedom in the future. This all makes sense, I'm sure, to us.

The Buddha said that knowing these two kinds of thoughts had different results, these thoughts of sensuality, thoughts of ill will, and thoughts of cruelty subsided in him. He eliminated them. He abandoned them. He did away with them. Those are words that are used in the sutta. Whenever I read that passage, I think, "Oh, wouldn't it be lovely if it was as easy as that?" One arises, we see the downside of it, it subsides, and we abandon it.

Well, the Buddha was a quick study! But I think we do come to let go of those kinds of thoughts in the very same way, just a lot more slowly. The Buddha understood what the results of those thoughts would be, and we also see the results, just more gradually. Even if we do see the downsides of these kinds of thinking quickly—some of us do—the habit energy behind them is too strong to let go of them right away. Like the habit energy behind the clinging to that cookie, the flavor of the cookie that I talked about yesterday.

But once we see the results for ourselves, once we feel the harm—and we really need to feel it, feel the obstruction to freedom—that's the beginning of the path to abandoning what is unwholesome. The power of awareness, clear knowing, sati^[13], is teaching us the dharma.

The teaching in that sutta that is so often quoted and that I think of as central to our dharma path is something the Buddha says twice: "Whatever an individual frequently thinks and ponders upon^[14], that will become the inclination of their mind."

The inclination of one's mind. It's a very precious thing, the heart-mind, the citta. To incline it in a direction that is healthy, that is onward leading and beneficial both for ourselves and others—that feels like very worthy work for a whole lifetime.

In this sutta, the Buddha goes on to talk about how a cowherd needs to be really vigilant over the cows during the rainy season, when they could wander into the crops and destroy them. In the same way, until we really come to know the danger of unskillful thoughts so that they subside as soon as we see them—like happened with the Buddha—we need to be vigilant. We see them and we can keep them in check, as the cowherd does with the cows. Later, when the crops have been harvested, the cowherd just sits under a tree, very simply mindful that the cows are there. That points to those obstructive kinds of thoughts not having the potential to arise anymore. The other kinds of thinking—those arising from compassion, goodwill, and renunciation—can simply be seen. They can be allowed, knowing that they're beneficial.

Those three onward leading kinds of thinking that the Buddha pointed to—renunciation, non-ill will (metta), and non-cruelty (compassion)—are pure expressions of the kusala, the wholesome or skillful. Perhaps you've already recognized them as the three component factors of wise intention: Samma sankappa^[15], the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. They're a way of orienting our minds in a wise direction, a wise intention.

Just like the Buddha, when we're mindful of the flavor of the thoughts that arise in our minds and when we feel the effects on us, our minds will naturally begin to incline in the direction of what's onward leading. It takes time, of course. It takes sincere effort, and sometimes a little nudge from someone who's a little bit wiser than we are. But it's something worth doing.

Doing no evil, engaging in what's skillful, and purifying the mind. This is the teaching of the Buddhas. Beautiful, succinct, and lots of richness in that short teaching.

So that's what I have for today. Tomorrow we'll go on to explore a little bit more, maybe more subtle areas of wholesome and unwholesome. We'll see. I hope you have a lovely day spilling your wholesomeness out everywhere you go. Thank you.