Abandoning the Hindrances

Abandoning the Five Hindrances

Whoever has gained release from the world, is gaining release, or will gain release, all of them have done so by abandoning the five hindrances, the mental impurities that weaken wisdom, and by firmly establishing their minds in the four abidings of mindfulness, and by developing the seven factors of enlightenment as they really are. This is how they have gained release from the world, are gaining release, or will gain release.

AN10.95

When one can consistently dwell “contemplating mind, in mind, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world,” the mind is stable and sensitive enough for the next stage in the Gradual Training: Abandoning the Five Hindrances by developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

Abandoning The Five Hindrances: Overview

The practice of Abandoning the Five Hindrances is a cleansing process that purifies the mind of mental impurities that hinder wisdom, habitual tendencies, and defilements that prevent us from cultivating Right Mindfulness, the Four Dwellings of Mindfulness, and maintaining a concentrated and collected mind. These hindrances prevent us from discerning more subtle mind states, abiding in Jhana, and thus hinder our progress on the path to liberation.

At this stage of the Gradual Training, we abandon the hindrances by cultivating the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. These factors serve as both the means and the result of balancing and purifying the mind, enabling it to perceive and penetrate all phenomena with wisdom and equanimity.

When fully developed, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment lead the mind to nibbāna, where suffering is completely comprehended and eradicated.

The Five Hindrances: What are they?

There are Five Hindrances that block progress on the path to liberation; these are:

Sensual Desire: Craving sensual satisfaction and clinging to sensory experiences, such as pleasant sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations.
Ill-will: Feelings of hostility, anger, resentment, or aversion towards oneself, others, situations or states of being.
Sloth and Torpor: Sloth is mental lethargy, sluggishness, or dullness, while torpor refers to physical and mental inertia or drowsiness.
Restlessness and Worry: Restlessness is an agitated, unsettled mind characterized by worry, anxiety, or mental agitation. Worry refers to excessive concern about past or future events, leading to a scattered and distracted mind.
Doubt: Skepticism, indecision, or lack of conviction in the teachings, the practice, or one's own abilities. It undermines confidence and commitment to the path, hindering progress toward liberation.

What these Five hindrances have in common is that because of desire, aversion or delusion, one feels pressure to react to the current situation by either seeking pleasure, avoiding discomfort, or seeking a distraction from the current situation, which results in lack of mindfulness and loss of concentration.

The Five Hindrances: The Gradual Training

Each stage of the Gradual Training progressively addresses hindrances, ranging from gross to subtle mental afflictions.

The Practice of Sila: We let go of desire, aversion, and attachment in interactions by practicing Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. We renounce expectations, assumptions, and taking others for granted. We avoid harmful interactions that disturb the mind and cultivate goodwill toward everyone.

Guarding the Sense Doors: We avoid entanglement by not grasping at sensory signs that provoke greed, aversion, or delusion.

Moderation in Eating: We resist delighting in or craving flavors and food.

The Practice of Wakefulness: We maintain a clear mind by not getting lost in unwholesome thoughts.

Right Mindfulness: We abide in one of the Four Dwellings of Mindfulness, subduing greed and aversion toward the world.

At this stage of the Gradual Training, the Five Hindrances should no longer manifest as overt actions, speech, or even as clearly formed thoughts. Instead, they may arise as residual forces, subtle karmic momentum, or background tendencies.

The mind has become sensitive enough to detect suffering closer to its root: within the mind-stream itself, where Mental Formations arise and propagate into further experience. Here, the Hindrances may still manifest, but in refined, more implicit forms.

For instance, sensual desire may no longer seek physical gratification but might linger as clinging to subtle perceptions, such as attachment to the body or the expectation that experience should be predictable, satisfying, and under our control.

Ill-will may appear not as anger but as aversion toward residual discomfort—the subtle bodily, mental, or verbal fabrications that remain, accompanied by a quiet urge to eliminate them.

Doubt can manifest as the subtle urge to assess one’s progress in practice, reflecting uncertainty about the unfolding of causes and effects.

What these manifestations share is a reactive pressure: driven by desire, aversion, or delusion, the mind leans toward seeking pleasure, avoiding discomfort, or distracting itself from the immediacy of the present moment. This reactivity disrupts mindfulness and undermines the stability of concentration.

The Five Hindrances: The Stages of Liberation

Until one reaches a stage of liberation, the Five Hindrances can only be temporarily weakened and overcome so that one can abide in jhāna.

As one progresses through levels of liberation, some of the hindrances are permanently eliminated:

Doubt is eliminated at the initial stage of liberation, the path and fruition of Stream-entry.
Sensual desire, ill-will, and remorse are eliminated at the third stage, the path and fruition of Non-returner.
Sloth and torpor, and restlessness are eradicated at Arahatship.

Therefore, every step taken in weakening these hindrances brings us closer to the stages of liberation, where freedom from them becomes unshakable.

A person who has completely destroyed the taints, or mental intoxicants (āsava), sensual desire, existence, views, and ignorance, has developed and well-developed the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. This person is called an arahant, a fully enlightened being.

Purifying the Mind: The Cessation of Craving

It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it.

SN 56.11

It's important to keep in mind that at its root, the Gradual Training is to bring about the cessation of craving: craving for sense satisfaction, craving for becoming and non-becoming. This requires a purified mind that can penetrate into the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self nature of experience. Only then can dispassion arise, which, when developed, leads to seeing the fading away, the cessation, and ultimately the release of all craving.

Here a disciple knows a mind with lust as a mind with lust, a mind without lust as a mind without lust, a mind with hatred as a mind with hatred, a mind without hatred as a mind without hatred, a mind with delusion as a mind with delusion, a mind without delusion as a mind without delusion, a contracted mind as a contracted mind, a distracted mind as a distracted mind, an exalted mind as an exalted mind, an unexalted mind as an unexalted mind, a surpassed mind as a surpassed mind, an unsurpassed mind as an unsurpassed mind, a concentrated mind as a concentrated mind, an unconcentrated mind as an unconcentrated mind, a liberated mind as a liberated mind, an unliberated mind as an unliberated mind.

DN22

In the above passage, the Tathagata teaches us that to purify the mind, we must first recognize the mind states that manifest as mental formations, mental energy, which propagate into unwholesome mind states.

The mind must be purified so that it is clear, concentrated, unshakable, free from entanglement, imbued with the single-minded intention of destroying the taints. To create the causes and conditions for such a mind requires developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

The Tathagata compares the abandoning of the Five Hindrances to the process of purifying gold. Just as a goldsmith removes impurities, like iron, copper, tin, and lead, from raw gold through repeated smelting and refining, so too does a practitioner remove sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse, and doubt through diligent practice.

As the impurities vanish, the mind becomes bright, malleable, and ready for work, just as purified gold is fit for crafting exquisite ornaments. In this purified state, the mind can penetrate higher wisdom for the destruction of the taints.

Disciples, these five impurities of gold, which when present in gold, make it neither pliable, workable, nor radiant, and it does not properly come to fulfillment in any craftsmanship. What are the five?

Iron, copper, tin, lead, and silver: these are the five impurities of gold, which when present in gold, make it neither pliable, workable, nor radiant, and it does not properly come to fulfillment in any craftsmanship.

But when gold is freed from these five impurities, it becomes pliable, workable, and radiant; it is not brittle and properly comes to fulfillment in any craftsmanship. Whatever ornament one wishes to make from it: whether a ring, earrings, a necklace, or a golden chain: it serves that purpose.

Similarly these are the five impurities of the mind, which when present in the mind, make it neither pliable, workable, nor radiant, and it does not properly attain concentration for the destruction of the taints. What are the five?

Sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt: these are the five impurities of the mind, which when present in the mind, make it neither pliable, workable, nor radiant, and it does not properly attain concentration for the destruction of the taints.

But when the mind is freed from these five impurities, it becomes pliable, workable, and radiant; it is not brittle and properly attains concentration for the destruction of the taints.

AN5.23

But before we explore the Seven Factors of Enlightenment and how they help us overcome the Five Hindrances, we first need to understand what we are trying to purify. This means learning some basic concepts about the mind stream and what the Tathagata calls "mental formations."

Purifying the Mind: Karmic Energy

To understand the practice of Abandoning the Five Hindrances, it's useful to see the hindrances as karmic energy.

karma is mental energy with momentum or volition and is rooted in past desires, which manifest as intentions to fulfill those desires. This volitional mental energy is what drives desire for existence and creates a sense of "being," leading to the desire to take on a birth in a body in order to seek satisfaction in the world through bodily, mental, and verbal actions, what the Tathagata calls bodily, mental, and verbal formations.

Since karma is rooted in greed, aversion, and delusion, it manifests in the present as restless, scattered mental energy, constantly seeking satisfaction by "feeding" on objects of the "world", what we call obtaining sensual satisfaction. This continual seeking and restlessness result in a tainted, disturbed mind, clouded in ignorance and incapable of attaining liberation.

By progressing on the Gradual Training and developing the Eightfold Path, this scattered mental energy is reduced, resulting in a more collected and settled mind, which is now solely intent on liberation.

However, even at this stage of the Gradual Training, restlessness remains, as a constant stream of ingrained karmic mental energy still seeking an outlet as the desire for existence by clinging to the Five Aggregates.

This unsettled mental energy is what the Tathagata refers to as "five impurities of the mind, which, when present in the mind, makes it neither pliable, workable, nor radiant, and it does not properly attain concentration for the destruction of the taints."

To progress on the path to liberation, we must transform this impure, scattered mental energy by developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, to purify the mind into a pure stream of pliable, collected mental energy, which is single-mindedly intent on the destruction of the taints.

But, disciples, when the mind is freed from these five impurities, it becomes pliable, workable, and radiant; it is not brittle and properly attains concentration for the destruction of the taints.

Purifying the Mind: Purifying New Karma

To understand purification of the mind, it is essential to remember the Tathāgata’s teaching: The mind is the forerunner to all experience.

It is not that things simply exist and the mind perceives them exactly as they are. Instead, driven by tainted karmic volitional intentions, the mind of an ordinary person is constantly seeking and selectively paying attention to objects in the world. As a result, perceptions are inherently stained by the craving to feed on satisfactory experiences or avoid unpleasant ones.

In other words, the mind, by its intentions, what it pays attention to, and how it perceives things, creates experience.

The physical things of the world exist as they are, but our perceptions of them being good or bad are shaped by our desires and intentions, which create mental, bodily, and verbal formations that shape the whole of our existence, influenced by greed, aversion, and delusion.

To understand this important point, first consider that intention is the "builder of karma." As soon as the mind leans toward an action, even subtly, karma is being formed. Depending on the amount of volition created, this will shape future actions when conditions are ripe.

karma does not only manifest in outward action. It is also the subtle intentional energy that shapes perception, choices, and identity, moment to moment. Even the most subtle perceptions, when rooted in craving, aversion, or delusion, are karmic energy.

At this stage of the Gradual Training, we purify the mind by abandoning unwholesome states of mind, the Five Hindrances, and by developing wholesome ones in their place, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

This requires further purifying our views, purifying our intentions, purifying our inner speech, purifying our actions, purifying how we practice, purifying our effort, and how we pay attention to and perceive the "world," into a single collected stream of mind energy intent on destruction of the taints.

Purification of the mind naturally results when we practice correctly. It does not come from trying to make words into reality.

Purifying the Mind: The Eight Fold Path

At this stage of the Gradual Training, we should no longer view the Eightfold Path as separate parts of the Tathāgata's teaching. Instead, we should see it as a unified force for purifying the mind, leading to liberation. This means we now employ all eight factors of the path as a cohesive whole. Every practice or contemplation we engage in must be permeated by all parts of the Eightfold Path.

Right View

Right View, or clear seeing, is the starting point. It is the foundation for all practice. It means perceiving impermanence in all formations, stress in clinging, and not-self in all experiences. Every mental state becomes an opportunity to see things as they truly are, free from our usual distortions. The goal is to purify how we see the world, how we construct reality, and to see the way to liberation.

Right Intention

Simultaneously, we direct the mind toward renunciation with Right Intention. To do this, we must become increasingly sensitive to our intentions, not just their outward expression, but the underlying energies that shape the mind's direction. We observe every mental impulse: "Is this coming from craving, aversion, or delusion, or from letting go, goodwill, and wisdom?"

Since intention is the "power" behind Karma and mental formations, Right Intention and Right View together form the Wisdom component that propels one to liberation.

Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of the mind.

MN19

Right Speech

In the same way, we need to learn how to detect the earliest stirrings of speech: our initial thoughts, silent formulations, and inner dialogues. At this stage, "speech" isn't just what leaves our mouth, but what begins in the mind. These seeds, such as "this is good," "this is bad," or "I want", are the ground for either delusion or wisdom. Instead of using inner speech to label or judge, we use it skillfully, as directed thought and evaluation (vitakka-vicāra), to support the path of letting go.

Right Action

Right Action is no longer solely about outward behavior. It is about the inner movements of the mind, how it responds to feelings, perceptions, and thoughts. Do we tighten or soften? Grasp or release? Resist or open? When seen this way, action becomes the practice of renunciation, the moment-to-moment letting go.

Right Livelihood

At this point in the Gradual Training, one's livelihood is no longer an external profession, it is living the path itself. Right Livelihood becomes the practice of the Eightfold Path as the sole basis for one's inner and outer orientation.

Right Effort

With Right Effort, we continuously incline the mind toward the wholesome. Through repeated practice, this effort becomes natural, not forced. The Four Right Efforts (preventing unwholesome states, abandoning unwholesome states, cultivating wholesome states, and maintaining wholesome states) merge into a single, unified application of the mind. Eventually, no sense of effort remains; there is no one directing anything, only the unfolding of a karmic process that naturally moves toward liberation.

Right Mindfulness

Mindfulness is no longer something we consciously "try to do." The processes of remembering, abiding, and contemplating now arise naturally and continuously. Right Mindfulness is established, not through an act of will, but as a steady presence. We are no longer trying to be mindful; instead, mindfulness becomes the seamless thread that binds all other factors together.

Right Concentration

When all the other factors are developed and established, through the weakening of the hindrances and the development of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, what arises is Right Concentration.

When view is clear, intention pure, inner speech is skillful, action is renunciative, effort is effortless, mindfulness is stable, then the mind becomes unified.

It is collected and capable of seeing things as they really are.

At this point, the Eightfold Path is no longer seen as a structure; it has become the path itself, a single, flowing stream of mental energy directed toward the destruction of the taints.

Purifying the Mind: Understanding Mental Formations

The application of the Eight-Fold Path is the purification of Karma, the purification of the mind stream. We are changing the causes and conditions that result in a tainted mind, turning it into a purified mind. However, to better understand Karma and the application of the Eight-Fold Path, we must first understand Mental Formations.

Mental Formations are the architects of our experience. They are the deep mental activities that arise from how we perceive the world. Mental Formations are not just overt intentions or deliberate choices; they also include the subtle inclinations of the mind, reactions to stimuli, emotional tones, and ingrained mental habits. They are the driving force that shapes becoming, constantly molding consciousness, behavior, and future experiences.

Mental Formations are not simply about action; they are about how the mind constructs experience. While actions are intentional, they do not arise from a fixed "self" or an inner controller. Instead, they emerge from a vast, interdependent web of conditions. To truly grasp this is to unravel the very core of self-view and open the path to liberation.

Therefore, understanding how Mental Formations arise, how they operate beneath the surface, and how they can cease is crucial for liberation. However, merely grasping Mental Formations as an abstract concept does not lead to freedom. We must see them through direct insight. By tracing them back to their root in the views we hold and clearly seeing their impermanence and not-self nature, we begin to loosen the grip of saṁsāra.

Mental Formations: Shaped by views

To understand Mental Formations, consider how profoundly they are shaped by our views, especially those deeply held beliefs that define our existence. The mind, through the views it holds, interprets experience through lenses like: "I exist," "this is mine," "I am this body," or "this will make me happy." These aren't just abstract philosophical ideas; they are deep-seated assumptions rooted in ignorance.

By letting go of wrong views, we dismantle the very structure upon which Mental Formations are built. For example, if we no longer cling to the view, "I am this body," then all mental suffering related to the body ceases.

For example, consider: when the view "I am this body" is held, every ache, illness, or wrinkle transforms into a source of personal suffering. The body is no longer seen as a constantly changing process, but as "me" or "mine." Consequently, fear of death, an obsession with youth, and attachment to physical comfort naturally arise.

These feelings, in turn, give rise to Mental Formations. The mind begins to seek, control, preserve, beautify, fear, or resent anything that threatens this core view. While such reactions might appear to be natural responses to bodily experience, they are, in fact, fabrications, karmic constructions rooted in our not knowing that holding such views causes suffering. It is the view that activates these formations; without the view, the suffering loses its foundation.

The big challenge is that when we fail to recognize wrong, or latent views, we remain governed by them. When we believe our views are reality, not through conscious belief, but by simply assuming that's the way things are, Mental Formations remain hidden drivers of our karma.

Mental Formations: Craving and Intention

From deeply held views craving arises, along with fear, identification, and, most crucially, intention.

Mental Formations often manifest subtly. For example, a slight leaning toward pleasure, a tightening sensation when a familiar trigger appears, the mental rehearsal of a previous conversation, or the unspoken need to be seen in a certain way. These are not yet full-blown actions, but they represent the formative energy that perpetuates the cycle of suffering.

However, when we apply mindfulness and wisdom, we begin to observe: "Ah, this intention is rooted in fear. This reaction arises from the view 'I am this.' This subtle anger is being constructed by a view of being harmed."

By seeing things as they really are, we neither suppress the formation nor feed it. We simply observe its conditionality. As this seeing deepens, dispassion arises, and the formations begin to quiet down from the lack of energy fed to them.

We begin to observe:

A thought arises: where did it come from?
An impulse to act arises: what fed it?
A moment of anger arises: what contact triggered it?

This investigation, known as yoniso manasikāra (wise attention), begins to loosen the grip of clinging. We no longer declare, "I am angry," but instead perceive, "Anger has arisen, conditioned by contact, perception, memory, habit."

We need to develop insight into Mental Formations by seeing that while our actions are intentional, they are not "owned." They don't arise from a fixed "self," but from a web of causes and conditions. And in seeing this, the entire machinery of clinging collapses.

However, this understanding cannot be merely philosophical; it must be seen directly and completely.

Mental Formations: Intention, attention, perception, and effort

If wanderers of other sects were to ask you, On what are all things rooted, friends? From what do all things arise? Where do all things originate? Where do all things converge? What is the foremost of all things? What is the ruler of all things? What is the highest of all things? What is the essence of all things? What is the immersion of all things? What is the culmination of all things?

Being asked thus you should answer those wanderers of other sects in this way: All things are rooted in desire, friends. All things arise from attention. All things originate from contact. All things converge in feeling. Concentration is the foremost of all things. Mindfulness is the ruler of all things. Wisdom is the highest of all things. Liberation is the essence of all things. The deathless is the immersion of all things. Nibbāna is the culmination of all things.

AN10.58

As we have just covered, Abandoning the Five Hindrances and cultivating the Seven Factors of Enlightenment requires a more subtle knowing, being able to see intention, attention, perception, and effort, which manifest as subtle movements of the mind.

Just as a goldsmith carefully applies intention, attention, and effort to separate impurities from gold, making it pliable for crafting ornaments, we must further develop Right Intention, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Investigation to purify our mind and its perceptions, for the destruction of the taints.

Intention: The Sign of the Mind

Recognizing our intentions, even in their most subtle forms, is crucial because intention shapes what we pay attention to, how we perceive, and the quality of our effort. To do this, we need to be attuned to what the Tathāgata called the "sign of the mind." This is the mental impression, tone, or inclination the mind picks up and starts to lean toward. This "sign" isn't always a visual image; it might be a subtle flavor, an emotional charge, or a subtle inclination that conditions how our perception unfolds and how karma begins.

As stated in the DN22:

A disciple knows a mind with lust as a mind with lust, a mind without lust as a mind without lust; a mind with hatred as a mind with hatred, a mind without hatred as a mind without hatred; a mind with delusion as a mind with delusion, a mind without delusion as a mind without delusion...

DN22

This "sign of the mind" is the seed of intention. If there's a leaning, a preference, or a subtle emotional tone even before a thought has fully formed, this sign reveals the mind’s direction. If left unnoticed, it becomes the basis for craving and mental proliferation.

So, when we talk about "the sign of the mind," we're often referring to the object or quality the mind is tuned into, for example, lust, irritation, or renunciation. It's the underlying tone or leaning that reveals the mind’s tendencies, the seed from which thought, chains and karmic intentions grow. Recognizing these signs clearly and early allows us to stop the wheel of becoming before it even begins to turn.

When the Tathāgata taught the Abandoning of the Five Hindrances and the development of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, he wasn't giving two separate instructions. Instead, it's a single process of purifying the sign of the mind, or inclination it rests on.

Each Awakening Factor counteracts a specific inclination created by a hindrance by inclining the mind toward a new, wholesome tone. For example:

Sensual desire has a grasping, excited tone. Using Mindfulness and Investigation, we cultivate clarity and dispassion.
Ill will has a tone of resistance and harshness. Using Joy and loving-kindness, we cultivate softness and kindness in the mind.
If Sloth & Torpor are present, the mind has taken on dullness and heaviness. We apply Energy and Rapture, and the mind becomes bright with vitality.
If there's Restlessness, the mind has taken on agitation and tension. We apply Tranquility and Concentration, and the mind becomes calm and steady.
If there's Doubt, the mind has taken on a tone of fog or confusion. We apply Mindfulness and Equanimity, and the mind becomes clear, confident, and non-reactive.

The practice, then, is not about suppressing or fighting the hindrances, but about changing their inclination. When you notice restlessness, you recognize that the mind is picking up a nervous inclination, an inclination towards incompletion or anxiety. If you shift your attention to a tranquil sign—such as the breath, the body, or a calm perception, restlessness loses its footing.

Keep in mind that the path isn't about suppressing every flicker of mental activity. It's about recognizing the inclinations of the mind, not identifying with them, and learning to release unwholesome inclinations. Instead of feeding the Five Hindrances, we train the mind to rest upon wholesome mind states, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. In this way, the mind is purified at its root.

Also, when we pick up on the inclination of the mind, what we're seeing is old karma. If you understand this, you stop blaming the world for how it appears or yourself for what arises in the mind. You start seeing: "This is old karma playing out." And you begin to take full responsibility for what happens next, for how you respond to the "sign of the mind".

Mental Formations: Purifying Attention

The result of intention is attention. Attention is what directs the stream of consciousness. Attention is an intentional act directed toward perception, for example, the breath. It’s more fundamental than perception, for without attention, there is no perception. Perception requires contact, but before contact, attention directs the mind toward the field of attention.

The mind can be purified by how and what it pays attention to: by not paying attention to unwholesome perceptions or states of mind, but instead paying attention to wholesome ones.

Intention is the power or energy behind Mental Formations; attention is how this energy is manifested. Attention is how consciousness engages with experience, and depending on the type of attention or what it engages with, this has a bearing on the outcome of karmic energy.

Attention can be wholesome and unwholesome. Wise attention is attention guided by Right View, leading to disenchantment, dispassion, and release. Unwise attention is attention that leads to proliferation, craving, views, and bondage.

What one pays attention to grows.

In regard to purifying the mind, two types of attention need to be developed:

Vitakka, the initial application of attention. It is the turning of the mind toward an object. It is the act of bringing something into the mental field.
Vicāra, sustained attention. It is the sustained application, keeping the mind engaged with it, investigating it.

Vitakka and vicāra are pre-verbal or sub-verbal processes, also known as proto-thoughts. They are attentional formations that are verbal in nature but have not yet formed into inner speech.

We must train our mind to be sensitive to these proto-thoughts. For example, the mind might lean toward the breath, followed by quiet monitoring of it, noticing and investigating experience without verbal labeling.

We use proto-thoughts, vitakka, and vicāra to direct our attention and sustain it in such a way that it is established on wholesome perceptions and grows there.

Just as a skilled bathman mixes bath powder with water into a smooth lather... so too a disciple drenches his body with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion...

In this simile, the Tathagata shows us how vitakka and vicāra work subtly as proto-thoughts, not coarsely like inner speech but more like silent inner shaping, shaping a unified experience of joy and pleasure.

When you intentionally direct the mind (vitakka) and sustain it (vicāra) on a particular way of seeing, like "this is impermanent," "this is empty of self," "this is unsatisfactory," you are forming proto-thoughts, a mental habit that turns your attention repeatedly toward the liberating characteristic of the experience.

This is a volitional perception, meaning it's intentionally formed and sustained through proto-thoughts that shape attention, which shapes perception, and results in insight.

In other words, we need to become aware of our intentions, how and what we pay attention to, and how we perceive experience to create the causes and conditions for wisdom to arise.

The result is the opposite of scattered attention; it is the purification of the mind stream, which leads to concentration and insight.

Purifying Attention: Wise Attention

Not understanding what things are fit for attention and what things are unfit for attention, he attends to things unfit for attention and does not attend to things fit for attention.

And what are the things unfit for attention that he attends to?

Whatever things, when attended to, lead to the arising of unarisen sensual desire, or to the increase of arisen sensual desire, to the arising of unarisen desire for existence, or to the increase of arisen desire for existence, to the arising of unarisen ignorance, or to the increase of arisen ignorance: these are the things unfit for attention that he attends to.

And what are the things fit for attention that he does not attend to?

Whatever things, when attended to, do not lead to the arising of unarisen sensual desire, or to the increase of arisen sensual desire, to the arising of unarisen desire for existence, or to the increase of arisen desire for existence, to the arising of unarisen ignorance, or to the increase of arisen ignorance: these are the things fit for attention that he does not attend to.

By attending to things unfit for attention and not attending to things fit for attention, unarisen defilements arise and arisen defilements increase....

He attends wisely to: This is suffering; This is the origin of suffering; This is the cessation of suffering; This is the path leading to the cessation of suffering.

By attending wisely in this way, three fetters are abandoned: identity view, doubt, and attachment to rites and rituals.

MN2

So what is the fire that burns away these karmic impurities?

In MN2, the Tathagata describes the seven methods for abandoning the taints: by seeing, restraining, using, enduring, avoiding, removing, and developing. The key point to understand is that only two of these methods lead to the Supramundane path and ultimate liberation.

Abandoning by seeing: Mindfulness and clear knowing always come first; there can never be enough mindfulness. We must be able to completely see our mind states or hindrances before they can be addressed. Often, just seeing clearly and completely is enough to let go and abandon a hindrance. Through Right View, seeing a mind state as not-self, impermanent, and suffering, we develop the insight necessary to let go of wrong views.

Abandoning by developing: By cultivating the factors of enlightenment, we directly weaken and destroy the hindrances. This is the active process of progressing on the Supramundane path.

The other five methods, restraining, using, enduring, avoiding, and removing, are effective for temporarily suppressing the hindrances but do not eradicate them. While they may be helpful in certain situations, they do not lead to the destruction of the hindrances and therefore do not result in liberation.

At this stage of the Gradual Training, generating wholesome states of mind occurs through the development of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment by abiding in one of the Four Dwellings of Mindfulness.

As every individual is different, one will need to identify which hindrances affect them the most, understand how and when they arise, recognize their inner strengths to counter each hindrance, and actively cultivate relevant practices to overcome them.

And what are the defilements to be developed?

Here a disciple wisely develops the mindfulness enlightenment factor, which is based on seclusion, dispassion, cessation, and leads to relinquishment; he wisely develops the investigation of states enlightenment factor... the energy enlightenment factor... the joy enlightenment factor... the tranquility enlightenment factor... the concentration enlightenment factor... the equanimity enlightenment factor, which is based on seclusion, dispassion, cessation, and leads to relinquishment. If he does not develop them, defilements, distress, and fever arise in him.

MN2

Mental Formations: Perception

Intention directs attention. With attention, the mind turns toward an object, resulting in contact. Contact gives rise to feeling, and from feeling, perception arises.

Purifying perception is essential because perception shapes how we experience the world, what we react to, and how we create karma. When perception is clouded by past habits, defilements, or unwise attention, we misinterpret reality, seeing permanence in the impermanent, beauty in the unattractive, self in what is not-self. By purifying perception through mindfulness and wise attention, we begin to see things as they truly are, free from distortion. This clarity weakens craving and clinging, leading the mind toward peace and liberation.

To understand the purification of perception, let us first look at perception itself, how karma shapes perceptions, and how perceptions can be used for the purpose of liberation.

Perception is the function that recognizes and labels objects. For example, you see a shape and your mind identifies "tree," or you hear a sound and know "music." This is perception; it classifies and gives meaning.

In essence, all hindrances are habitual clinging to feelings and perceptions. Feelings and perceptions, although they fall under two separate aggregates, the Feeling Aggregate and the Perception Aggregate, work together in tandem. Feelings influence our perceptions, and perceptions create feelings.

Since feelings and perceptions are created and shaped from past accumulated karmic volition, we can work with them just as a goldsmith works with gold to cleanse ourselves of attachment to unwholesome perceptions, while at the same time developing wholesome ones, the seven factors of enlightenment.

Regarding the purification of karmic formations, there are two types of perception:

Passive perception, such as seeing a color or hearing a sound when the sense doors are open. These perceptions arise and pass away on their own without the mind attaching to them.
Intentional perception, which involves directing the mind to investigate, sustain, or even fabricate perceptions, both wholesome and unwholesome.

Perceptions do not, by themselves, create karmic energy. Karmic energy is only created when there is intention, that is, when intention attaches to perceptions by clinging to them, acting on them, or fabricating new ones.

If one intentionally directs the mind to perceive something with craving, aversion, or delusion, for example, perceiving beauty with lust or perceiving threat with fear, then intention drives and makes that perception volitional and karmically potent, and these lead to the propagation of wrong intentions and unwholesome thoughts.

On the other hand, if one intends to use specific perceptions, for example, the perception of emptiness, which is rooted in Right View, this creates wholesome karma. The perception of emptiness purifies the mind stream, and Mental Formations are purified.

For example, in MN 62, the Tathāgata teaches his son Rāhula to practice the perception of impermanence, non-self, unattractiveness, and others for his development. These perceptions are not passive; they are intentional and cultivated with awareness.

It's important to understand that perceptions are not intellectual; they are experiential. For example, the perception of impermanence is attention directed to the constantly arising, changing, and passing away of feelings and perceptions, which manifest as bodily formations, mental formations, and verbal formations.

Instead of clinging to whether these phenomena exist or not, we set the intention to see, “there is passing away,” “there is fading away.” By seeing that nowhere in this constantly changing and impermanent process is there anything to cling to, dispassion, cessation, and letting go naturally follow.

We need to see for ourselves that any perceptions seen through the lens of the mind, hijacked by the mind, will be clung to and made impure, tainted with greed, aversion, and delusion.

This is why concentration, a collected mind, and abiding in jhāna are crucial, as they remove the unwholesome perceptions the mind can get entangled with. With unwholesome Mental Formations not obstructing clear seeing, perception becomes purified and can be used for the destruction of the taints.

Although the purpose of purifying perceptions is to see things as they really are, we should not confuse this with trying to see the truth of the physical world or some other ultimate, metaphysical truth. It’s not about establishing a philosophical reality, but about refining a perception that is tainted by unwholesome tendencies, especially sensual craving, which prevent clear seeing and wisdom.

Fabricating Perceptions

Because some of our perceptions are deeply ingrained, for example, attraction to the opposite sex, simply seeing things as they really are may not immediately prevent unwholesome thoughts from arising. In such cases, the Tathāgata teaches us to fabricate the perception of the unattractive. This is not because the person is objectively unattractive, but simply to address our unwholesome thoughts and tendencies.

Therefore, in some instances, it is wholesome to fabricate perceptions, even if they are not "objectively real," if doing so leads to the cessation of clinging and craving. If a perception is used to weaken greed, hatred, and delusion, and at the right time in one's development, it is skillful.

Whatever is useful for the abandoning of unwholesome states and the development of wholesome ones, that is to be cultivated.

AN2.19

Remember that perception is one of the Five Aggregates and is by nature constructed. Perception is not objective truth; rather, it's a conditioned mode of recognition that can be trained.

So, when we perceive something as beautiful or desirable, that's already a filtered, fabricated way of experiencing it. If we train ourselves to also perceive its unsatisfactory, impermanent, or disagreeable aspects, we are not being untruthful. Instead, we are skillfully balancing our perception in order to avoid clinging and suffering.

Those who perceive permanence in the impermanent, pleasure in suffering, self in the non-self, and purity in the impure are beings with wrong views, with scattered minds, and without understanding.

AN4.49

Perception: Using Antidotes

Just as impurities in gold can be neutralized using chemical treatments that dissolve unwanted substances while preserving the precious metal, we can also purify our own perceptions by using antidotes.

Since the mind fabricates good and bad perceptions of the world and all other dualities, we can retrain or reprogram the mind by neutralizing perceptions that result in greed, aversion, and delusion. We can cleanse the mind of its attachment to dualities by applying antidotes to these perceptions.

For example, just as we can neutralize acids with alkaline, stop a fire with water, cool heat with ice, or remove darkness with light, the mind can be purified of the Five Hindrances by using antidotes. These include using the perception of the unattractive to counter the attractive, the perception of energy to counter dullness, goodwill to counter ill-will, and the many other practices and perceptions that the Tathagata recommends.

As our mindfulness deepens, we begin to see that certain patterns arise repeatedly. For example, we may notice tightness or tension in the body. At first glance, it appears to be physical. But with sustained awareness, it becomes clear: this tension is not just physical, it is a manifestation of ill will, rooted in unpleasant feeling and aversive perception.

This is where purification begins.

When we recognize aversion in perception, when we see that tension is being shaped and sustained by a mind that resists or rejects, we can counter this with the perception of goodwill.

Instead of verbalizing goodwill, we apply it through intention and directed attention, using proto-thoughts and gently bringing awareness to the area affected by ill will or tension. The perception of goodwill is infused into that space. By holding the tension in awareness with goodwill, the perception is purified. The aversive construct begins to dissolve. In its place, a sense of brightness or joy may naturally arise.

Likewise, when there is dullness or heaviness in the mind, when perception is foggy or flat, it may be the result of sloth or torpor. We do not need to fight it directly. Instead, we can introduce the perception of energy, alertness, attentiveness, presence. Simply by attending to the experience with a slightly more upright, awake quality of perception, dullness can lift.

This is a subtle but powerful form of practice. We are not changing what arises: tension, dullness, irritation, but we are changing how it is held in perception. Each hindrance has a corresponding counter-perception that helps to disentangle the mind from its unwholesome shaping.

This process is moment-to-moment. With mindfulness, we observe the quality of perception, notice when it is influenced by a hindrance, and gently introduce the opposite quality. Over time, perception itself becomes clearer, more balanced, and less reactive. This is purification, not in theory, but in practice.

Perception: Disrupting the Chain of Suffering at the Root

In the Tathagata’s teaching on dependent origination, suffering doesn’t arise all at once. It unfolds as an energetic force: from contact, to feeling, to craving, to clinging. But this process is not inevitable. Each link requires something to sustain it. That "something" is often a subtle, unnoticed mental act: perception. Not perception in the sense of bare recognition alone, but perception as it usually functions: layered, personalized, distorted, and reactive.

When perception is purified, it no longer builds upon what is contacted or felt. It no longer drives the mind into craving or aversion. It simply recognizes, and lets be. In this way, purified perception becomes a wedge that disrupts propagation at its root, not by blocking experience, but by refusing to elaborate it.

The Tathagata’s description is simple and profound:

In the seen, there will be only the seen; in the heard, only the heard; in the sensed, only the sensed; in the cognized, only the cognized.

UD1.10

When perception remains at this level, direct, non-conceptual, and free from mental objectification, the mind does not get involved. There is contact, but no fabrication. There is feeling, but no clinging. The link is cut not by resistance but by clarity.

Ordinary perception reacts. It doesn’t just notice; it judges, names, compares, identifies, anticipates. When you see something pleasant, the mind says, "I like this. I want more." When you feel pain, it says, "This is bad. I need this to stop." These reactions aren’t inherent in the contact or the feeling. They are added through perception.

As the Tathagata said, "Perception conditions thinking. Thinking conditions proliferation. From proliferation arise desire, views, and conflict." In this way, perception doesn’t just inform; it steers the whole mind.

Purified perception doesn’t steer. It lets experience stay simple. When contact occurs, the mind doesn’t rush to interpret. It knows: "This is contact." "This is painful," not "this is unfair," not "this is happening to me." Just "touching has happened." That’s it. Contact is just the intersection of conditions. If the mind can perceive at this level, it doesn’t get entangled.

Feeling, too, is purified through perception. Feeling arises, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, and perception often seizes on it: "This is good. This is bad. This shouldn’t be happening." But if the mind is trained to see just feeling, it knows only the tone, not the story. There’s no ownership or judgment. Yet, the key is how we relate to it. If perception is clean, feeling is allowed to arise and pass. No craving grows from it.

This also means seeing perception as just perception. Not as truth. Not as a final label. Training the mind to notice perception as a mental activity, not as the thing itself, reduces clinging. One begins to see: "This is a perception of pleasantness," not "this is a pleasure." The perception becomes transparent, not sticky.

Without this transparency, perception fuels proliferation, complexity, and mental entanglement. The root of mental suffering is not just in the contact or the feeling, but in what the mind does with it afterward. With clean perception, proliferation doesn’t ignite. Thoughts don’t build. Stories don’t form. Suffering doesn’t multiply.

Perception: Training Perceptions

The Tathagata didn't just tell us to stop reacting impulsively; he provided methods to cleanse our perception. These methods involve specific ways of seeing that help us break free from our usual mental patterns.

The Four Elements One such method is to perceive things as the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air. Instead of seeing our body as "mine," appealing, or easily hurt, we view it simply as these elements. This not only cleanses our experience but also removes any sense of personal ownership from it. It helps us understand that physical contact is merely a mechanical process, not something inherently meaningful to be taken personally.

The Unattractive

Similarly, the perception of the unattractive counters our mind's tendency to enhance sensual experiences. Where an untrained mind sees beauty, charm, and pleasure, this perception reveals decay, impurity, and fragility. Its purpose isn't to disgust us, but to bring our minds back to reality. When our perception no longer glamorizes physical forms, there's nothing left to pursue.

Danger

Another powerful perception is that of danger. Pleasant feelings might seem safe, but the Tathagata taught that they are profoundly unreliable. Recognizing the inherent danger in feelings helps us naturally let go of our urge to grasp onto them. The perception of risk replaces the illusion of endless pleasure.

Dispassion and Cessation

The perceptions of dispassion and cessation go even deeper. Most people believe that continuation is good. However, this perception trains the mind to see the relief in things coming to an end and the peace that comes from not acquiring anything new. This prepares the mind to let go, not with a fight, but with ease.

Develop the perception of cessation, it leads to dispassion and peace.

AN10.60

Not-Self

Finally, the perception of not-self removes the final hook:

Whatever is felt is not mine, not I, not myself.

SN22.59

This profound understanding completely changes our perspective. There's no personal "self" experiencing these things. Feeling is simply feeling. Perception is merely recognition. No one owns these experiences, and there's no need to do anything about them. When this is seen clearly, the act of clinging simply cannot happen.

These different ways of perceiving aren't adding anything new to our experience; instead, they are removing distortions. They don't create new viewpoints; rather, they dissolve the mistaken ones we already hold. They bring perception back to its original simplicity: just seeing what is, and nothing more.

Purifying perception isn't some mystical ability. It's a practice of quiet, honest recognition. When the mind doesn't add its own interpretations, it doesn't chase after things. When it doesn't chase, it doesn't cling. And when it doesn't cling, suffering doesn't arise.

This is how the mind achieves freedom: not through forceful control, but through a perception that sees clearly without distortion, allowing experience to pass without turning it into a "self," a narrative, or a future desire.

Perception: Applying The Seven Factors of Enlightment

When we train the mind to perceive impermanence, not-self, unattractiveness, or any of the Tathagata’s recommended perceptions, we are pointing the mind toward truth. But even with these wholesome perceptions, the mind can still respond in distorted ways. Perceiving impermanence may give rise to aversion. Reflecting on unattractiveness may bring dullness. Observing not-self may become a dry, lifeless view.

This is why the seven factors of enlightenment are not just supports for insight, but correctives for how insight is perceived. They help keep perception balanced, bright, and open, so that what is meant to purify the mind does not itself become a source of imbalance.

For example, when using the perception of impermanence, we may start to feel disheartened or anxious. "Everything changes," the mind thinks, "so what’s the point?" If this turns into aversion or collapse, the factor of joy (pīti) is the antidote. Joy reminds the mind that release from clinging is uplifting, that there is happiness in simplicity, in letting go. Perceiving impermanence with joy makes it liberating, not grim.

Or perhaps, in contemplating the unattractiveness of the body, the mind falls into dullness or aversion. The perception becomes heavy, lifeless, even depressive. This is where energy (vīriya) is needed. The factor of energy brightens the perception, renews engagement, and keeps it active and investigative, not morbid.

When contemplating not-self, the mind might drift toward detachment or a kind of blankness, an intellectual understanding without intimacy. Investigation (dhammavicaya) here brings the perception alive again. Instead of thinking "there’s no self" in a detached way, investigation asks: "What is the nature of this experience? Where is the ‘I’ imagined?" This inquiry sharpens perception and dissolves passive dullness.

Sometimes, the perception of danger in feeling can provoke agitation, a sense that every feeling is a trap or threat. If the mind becomes reactive or tense, tranquility (passaddhi) soothes it. It reminds the mind: "There is danger, yes, but no emergency. Let the mind be calm and careful, not alarmed." Perception becomes clearer when it’s quiet.

If the mind becomes overly analytical while investigating the elements or trying to penetrate subtle impermanence, it may lose cohesion, jumping from thought to thought without stability. In such cases, concentration (samādhi) grounds perception. It allows the mind to stay with just one aspect, the breath, a sensation, the body’s stillness, until clarity deepens.

And finally, with any of these perceptions, impermanence, unattractiveness, not-self, danger, the mind may start to subtly lean: preferring some experiences, rejecting others, trying to shape the unfolding. Equanimity (upekkhā) is the balancing point. It perceives clearly, but doesn’t grasp. It allows perception to remain sensitive without being reactive. It brings a poised neutrality that allows insight to deepen without craving or resistance.

In this way, the seven factors of enlightenment do not just arise alongside purified perception, they actively balance it as it is being developed. Each perception, no matter how skillful, can be misapplied or received by the mind in a skewed way. But each factor can bring it back to center:

Joy counteracts aversion or dryness in seeing impermanence.
Energy lifts heaviness in contemplating the unattractive.
Investigation brightens lifeless not-self reflection.
Tranquility calms agitation that may arise in perceiving danger.
Concentration stabilizes over-analysis and mental scattering.
Equanimity balances preference and dispassionately holds all perceptions in awareness.
And mindfulness keeps us aware of how each factor and perception is functioning moment to moment.

With these seven forces alive and well-tuned, perception becomes a pliable stream, not just accurate, but balanced, bright, and fully engaged. What is seen is true, and how it is seen is skillful. In this way, the purification of perception and the cultivation of the enlightenment factors move together, each guarding and guiding the other toward freedom.

Mental Formations: Understanding Clinging

It is our clinging to perceptions, such as "this exists," "this doesn't exist," or labeling things as "good" and "bad" (objectification),that keeps us entangled in the "world" of suffering. This clinging to perceptions prevents the mind from becoming collected, single-minded, or concentrated, thereby obstructing clear seeing.

At this stage of the Gradual Training, we must also be able to discern more subtle forms of clinging. Sensual desire, for example, is not merely the appearance of a thought or image, but the mental entanglement with it, the taking up of the object with craving.

The unintentional arising of a sensual thought does not count as a fault. But if one welcomes it, delights in it, and persists in it, that is where the fault lies.

sn41.3

This is a critical distinction the Tathāgata offers to Citta the householder: a thought appearing is not the same as clinging. A sensual thought, like the image of a beautiful body, can arise simply due to past karma and present conditions. What matters is what the mind does next. Does it welcome the thought? Does it delight in it? Does it sustain and build it into a narrative?

That process, welcoming, delighting, sustaining, is the clinging. That’s where karma is created. The initial image, no matter how seductive, is not yet karma unless taken up with craving.

To understand what fuels becoming and karma, the Tathāgata taught the four types of nutriment that sustain saṃsāra. One of them is Mental Volition:

Mental volition is the fuel for consciousness. Where there is fuel, consciousness establishes itself.

sn12.64

Clinging is compared to fuel. Without it, the fire of becoming does not continue to burn. So if an image appears and the mind neither resists it nor delights in it, but simply knows it as a passing phenomenon, then no clinging arises.

You can ask yourself:

Am I reacting with desire, aversion, or identification?
Is there a feeling of wanting to possess, replay, or resist the image?
Or is the mind simply aware: “There is a sensual image”?

That’s the core of mindfulness with clear knowing: knowing not just what’s happening, but how it’s happening in the mind. The moment you know, "Ah, desire is present," you are no longer entirely caught by it. You have space to let it pass, to refrain from fueling it. This awareness is already liberation in progress.

Latent Tendencies

Is the path about removing all reactions?
Are we responsible for our habbitual reactions to present circumstances?
Are tainted perceptions the problem themselves?

The arahant has eradicated even latent tendencies, and thus no longer reacts with greed, hatred, or delusion even subtly. For the rest of us following the Gradual Training, the path involves gradual purification, beginning with restraint, leading to mindfulness, then to deep insight.

So the early steps may involve observing reactions even if tinged with greed or aversion, and not fueling them. Over time, the root dies.

The very recognition of the perception being colored is part of wisdom arising. Your task is not to eliminate every arising reaction instantly, but to understand its nature, to avoid feeding it, and to incline the mind toward non-clinging.

Purifying the Mind: Right Effort

Just like every other part of the Gradual Training, Abandoning the Hindrances depends on Right Effort, the purification process requires using Right Effort to incline the mind into skillful perceptions.

Just as a goldsmith, working with raw and impure gold that is dull and unworkable, places it in the fire and carefully controls the heat, using his tools, tongs, crucible, and hammer with skillful attention, removing impurities bit by bit until the gold becomes pure, bright, and malleable, ready to be shaped into an ornament.

In the same way, dwelling in Right Mindfulness, we use investigation of dhammas to examine hindrances in our perceptions. Using Right Effort, we apply mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, satisfaction, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity to purify the mind of its unwholesome states.

Using Right Effort to address the hindrances throughout the day and not just during practice is essential.

Right Effort Balancing Right Effort.

Now let's examine how to apply Right Effort by skillfully using intention, attention, perception, mindfulness, and the Seven Factors of Enlightenment to purify the mind.

Effort in this context is not about straining, but about establishing the right causes and conditions for effort to become effortless. Consider a goldsmith: the goldsmith does not just hammer metal, but adjusts and refines it, removing impurities. Through practice, this process becomes effortless. This is how Right Effort is to be developed and applied: a steady flow of intention and attention, coupled with vigilance, gradually developing, strengthening, and balancing the factors of enlightenment.

Preventing Unwholesome States

Preventing unwholesome states from arising is like keeping soot out of the gold crucible, protecting purity from the start. Initially, the Right Intention is set to purify the mind of unwholesome states.

Attention is gently directed through subtle proto-thoughts such as: "subdue desire and aversion," "soften and open awareness," "cultivate an all-encompassing presence," and "remain alert to the arising of clinging."

The way to prevent unwholesome states from arising is by cultivating and maintaining an all-encompassing awareness, steadfast and vigilant, clearly recognizing the stirrings of desire and aversion before they give rise to clinging.

Abandoning Unwholesome States

Abandoning unwholesome states that have arisen is comparable to a goldsmith skimming impurities from molten gold. The mind is refined by using Investigation to identify what obstructs awareness or disrupts stillness, whether it is clinging to perceptions, restlessness, dullness, or something else. It does not judge these states, nor suppress them. It investigates them with precision and patience. It sees their rising, their passing, and, most importantly, their dependence on conditions.

Then, the appropriate antidote is applied: if there is dullness, energy is aroused by recognizing the urgency in practice. If there is restlessness, attention and perception are softened into tranquility.

If there is clinging to perceptions, investigation is applied with questions such as: "What is causing this clinging?" "Where is the greed or aversion?" "How am I making this me or mine?" "What is the underlying expectation?" " Is it stressful?"

As previously covered, to subdue greed and aversion, we must first recognize how they manifest as the driving forces behind clinging. Whatever is held tightly in awareness is often accompanied by clinging, rooted in either desire, aversion, or delusion, depending on the underlying feeling tone.

To let go of clinging, we must relinquish the desire or aversion associated with the experience, or bring greater clarity and mindfulness to dispel delusion.

Instead of becoming entangled in these formations, we release the grasping energy that sustains them. This can be done directly, by clearly seeing and letting go, or by applying one of the Tathāgata’s teachings to calm the restless momentum that fuels our clinging to phenomena.

For example, the perception of impermanence dissolves attachment to perceptions. The perception of not-self reveals: this is not me, not mine, not myself. Furthermore, the perception of suffering reveals: this is not worth clinging to.

Arousing Wholesome States

Arousing wholesome states that have not yet arisen is like applying the right amount of heat to gold so that awareness begins to glow. By nature, the awareness of an unliberated person contains a mixture of wholesome and unwholesome perceptions existing together in varying proportions. Wholesome perceptions are always present somewhere in awareness.

With full mindfulness, awareness becomes the basis for investigation, and attention is skillfully directed to establish and sustain contact with wholesome perceptions.

Using Vitakka, the initial application of attention, the mind is turned toward a wholesome perception. Then, using Vicāra, sustained attention, the mind is kept engaged with it, investigating it. As attention is sustained on it, it grows.

While sustaining attention, it is essential not to generate a secondary mental stream that evaluates how well we are doing. This divides the mind, scatters awareness, and disrupts sustained attention, splitting it between observation and self-monitoring, which undermines concentration. The fruit of investigation will reveal itself naturally; no additional effort or analysis is required.

By using proto-thoughts to incline the mind toward what is wholesome, the mind is directed to investigate the existence of already present wholesome perceptions, such as energy, joy, happiness, and tranquility. For example: "There is joy," "let joy arise," "let joy grow." "Let attention dwell in satisfaction," "may stillness deepen."

Again, remember these are proto-thoughts; they are the directing of attention, there is no verbalizing.

Sustaining and Deepening Wholesome States

Once the gold is forming, it needs shaping and cooling to become stable. Wholesome states that have arisen are sustained and deepened by resting attention on wholesome perceptions. When pīti (joy) arises, it is not rushed past. It is dwelt in. It is allowed to fill the body. When concentration stabilizes, equanimity is allowed to emerge naturally.

Even wholesome states must be released without clinging. Even joy is seen as changing. It is not mine, not self. When joy is released, there is a deepening of wholesome states. Instead of striving to increase wholesome states, stillness is protected, keeping it pure from ego and from craving to own the experience. Release occurs through letting go, by seeing that even holding on to joy is suffering.

Effort is like the hands of a skilled goldsmith, knowing precisely when to heat, cool, stir, or pause. In the same way, we learn to make subtle adjustments, for example:

When the mind is dull, energy and brightness are gently introduced.
When agitated, calm and soft breathing are applied.
If there is clinging to joy, its impermanence is mindfully observed.
When striving becomes excessive, equanimity is allowed to settle and harmonize the effort.

In this way, effort ripens into wisdom, it discerns what the mind needs to remain balanced, steady, content, and unmoved. Over time, balancing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment becomes natural, and Right Effort flows without strain, self-adjusting in response to conditions.

This pure stream of collected, unwavering, yet pliable mental energy is sustained and becomes suitable for the destruction of the taints.

Purifying the Mind: Right Effort and the Middle Way

The Tathagata did not teach us to perfect the five aggregates, but to see through them, to understand their nature, and ultimately, to abandon attachment to them.

When using Right Effort to purify the mind, it has to be practiced without obsession. The aim is not to control every mental formation or eradicate every hindrance in some final, absolute sense, but to weaken and ultimately let go of our craving and identification with them.

When we speak of removing the hindrances, the task is not to attain a permanent, purified mind where none of these ever arise again. That would be clinging to purity itself. Rather, the Tathagata encourages a wise abandonment:

There is the case where a disciple has heard, ‘Nothing is worth clinging to.’ When a disciple has heard that nothing is worth clinging to, he directly knows everything

SN35.80

The cessation of clinging, not the perfection of mind-states, is the liberation the Tathagata pointed to. Similarly, in the calming of bodily formations, the instruction is simple:

He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in calming bodily formations.’

MN10

Not eliminating, not conquering, but calming, softening the force of formations so that they no longer obstruct stillness or insight.

When expanding awareness through mindfulness or abiding in Jhāna, we may become obsessed with achieving vast or infinite awareness. But this, too, can be a subtle form of grasping.

Even in the boundless states, he teaches us to recognize the danger in attachment. Awareness is to be cultivated for the sake of insight and release, not for its own sake or to attain some metaphysical vastness.

And in the bliss and peace of Jhāna, the Tathagata does not point to these as ends in themselves. In MN 111, Sāriputta goes through each jhāna and notes:

Whatever qualities there are in the first jhāna… he discerned those qualities. As he remained thus heedful, ardent, and resolute, those memories and resolves disappeared.

MN111

Even the most refined qualities are seen as conditioned and abandoned.

Thus, the path is one of relinquishment, not refinement. We might fall into the trap of spiritual perfectionism, trying to have the "perfect" breath, the "perfect" posture, or the "purest" mind. But such striving, unless tempered by wisdom, leads only to more clinging.

Letting go does not mean being passive, it means a wise engagement with phenomena, guided by understanding their impermanent and non-self nature. The aggregates, form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness, are not obstacles to be purified, but processes to be seen clearly.

Our task is not to make the aggregates shine, but to understand them so thoroughly that we no longer grasp at them.

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment

Now that we have looked at some basic concepts regarding perception, attention, and intention, we can now look at developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

It is important to understand that these factors do not arise randomly or through an act of will, but rather when the necessary conditions are present. Intention and perception play a key role and must be guided by wise attention.

Additionally, the factors unfold progressively, with each factor nurturing the arising of the next:

Mindfulness, when developed and cultivated, fulfills investigation of Dhamma.

Investigation, when developed and cultivated, fulfills energy. Energy fulfills rapture.

Rapture fulfills tranquility. Tranquility fulfills concentration. Concentration fulfills equanimity.

SN46.3

The factors are not only interdependent, but their balance is also vital. For example, excessive energy leads to restlessness, while excessive calm leads to dullness. An exception is Mindfulness, of which there can never be too much. As the first factor, it oversees this balance.

Each of these factors represents a form of letting go, avoiding clinging to perceptions, and reducing stress and dissatisfaction.

It is also important to understand that there are multiple pathways for developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

When a disciple is devoted to the development of the perception of impermanence, the seven factors of enlightenment go to fulfillment through development.

This illustrates that a specific type of perception, namely the perception of impermanence, is powerful enough to develop all seven factors. Similarly, Anapanasati, the Brahmaviharas, developing Sila, and many other practices (if not all) lead to the development of all seven factors.

Let us now examine each of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment individually.

when a disciple's mindfulness is established and not confused: the mindfulness enlightenment factor is aroused, he develops the mindfulness enlightenment factor, and the mindfulness enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment.

Dwelling thus mindful, he investigates, examines, and inquires into that state with wisdom. ...the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor is aroused at that time, he develops the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor, and the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment at that time.

As he investigates, examines, and inquires into that state with wisdom, energy that is not slack is aroused in him. At the time, Ānanda, when the disciple's energy that is not slack is aroused: the energy enlightenment factor is aroused at that time, he develops the energy enlightenment factor, and the energy enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment at that time.

When energy is aroused, joy that is free from sensuality arises. At the time, Ānanda, when joy that is free from sensuality arises in the disciple whose energy is aroused: the joy enlightenment factor is aroused at that time, he develops the joy enlightenment factor, and the joy enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment at that time.

When the mind is joyful, the body and mind become tranquil. At the time, Ānanda, when the disciple's body and mind become tranquil: the tranquility enlightenment factor is aroused at that time, he develops the tranquility enlightenment factor, and the tranquility enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment at that time.

When the body is tranquil and happy, the mind becomes concentrated. At the time, Ānanda, when the disciple's mind becomes concentrated: the concentration enlightenment factor is aroused at that time, he develops the concentration enlightenment factor, and the concentration enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment at that time.

Dwelling thus with a concentrated mind, he carefully observes with equanimity. At the time, Ānanda, when a disciple dwelling thus with a concentrated mind carefully observes with equanimity: the equanimity enlightenment factor is aroused at that time, he develops the equanimity enlightenment factor, and the equanimity enlightenment factor reaches fulfillment at that time. ...

Thus developed, Ānanda, the four foundations of mindfulness thus frequently practiced fulfill the seven factors of enlightenment.

SN54.13

And what is the nourishment for knowing and liberation?

It should be said: the seven factors of enlightenment...

And what is the nourishment for the seven factors of enlightenment?

It should be said: the four foundations of mindfulness...

And what is the nourishment for the four foundations of mindfulness?

It should be said: the three kinds of good conduct...

And what is the nourishment for the three kinds of good conduct?

It should be said: restraint of the senses...

And what is the nourishment for restraint of the senses?

It should be said: mindfulness and clear knowing...

And what is the nourishment for mindfulness and clear knowing?

It should be said: wise attention...

And what is the nourishment for wise attention?

It should be said: faith...

And what is the nourishment for faith?

It should be said: hearing the true teachings...

And what is the nourishment for hearing the true teachings?

It should be said: associating with good people...

Thus associating with good people fulfills the hearing of the true teachings, the hearing of the true teachings fulfills faith, faith fulfills wise attention, wise attention fulfills mindfulness and clear knowing, mindfulness and clear knowing fulfill restraint of the senses, restraint of the senses fulfills the three kinds of good conduct, the three kinds of good conduct fulfill the four foundations of mindfulness, the four foundations of mindfulness fulfill the seven factors of enlightenment, the seven factors of enlightenment fulfill knowing and liberation.

AN10.61

Seven Factors: Mindfulness

Right Mindfulness, the first of the enlightenment factors, has already been extensively covered in the previous stage of the Gradual Training. It serves as the foundation for developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. Right Mindfulness is the basis for all the other factors. The other factors cannot arise if we are not fully aware and mindful. Also, unlike the other factors, you can never have too much mindfulness.

In regard to developing the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, it fulfills the mental seclusion required before we can practice, as we must subdue desire and aversion for the world before the mind can be quiet and subtle enough to develop the other factors.

Mindfulness provides the real-time awareness needed to identify hindrances as soon as they start to appear, and provides the continuous attention required to purify them. It anchors the mind in the present, allowing wise attention.

Seven Factors: Investigation of Phenomena

We have also covered the investigation of mental states or phenomena (Dhamma-vicaya), the exploration and discernment of mental processes and experiences through contemplation, appropriate attention, and seeing things as they really are.

At this stage of the Gradual Training, we must refine the way we use our attention, vitakka and vicāra, with wise attention.

When we look closely into our moment-to-moment experience, we must come to a startling insight: nothing we experience is "just there" as it seems. Everything we experience is an assumption. This is not merely an abstract idea but a truth that can be discovered through the practice of the investigation of phenomena. This is not a conceptual inquiry but a penetrating interest in the truth of what is really happening, under the surface narratives of the mind.

The Tathagata emphasized this quality as an indispensable factor for awakening. In the Gilāna Sutta, he encouraged:

Disciples, develop the enlightenment factor of investigation of phenomena. Make it your vehicle, your foundation, establish it and properly undertake it. When this is developed and cultivated, it leads to the realization of the fruit of true knowledge and liberation.

SN46.14

However, this factor does not arise on its own. It follows naturally after the cultivation of mindfulness, the first factor of enlightenment. The Tathagata makes this sequence explicit:

When mindfulness is established, a disciple investigates phenomena with wisdom, wisely examines them, and gives them close attention.

SN46.3

So, mindfulness is the forerunner, providing the clarity and presence necessary for investigation to unfold. Once the mind is stable and present, it begins to see into experience, not merely rest with it.

Crucially, investigation must not be driven by greed or aversion. To investigate a hindrance or mental state while trying to get rid of it or cling to insight about it is to perpetuate fabrication.

The mind might be tempted to stare at the sensation of dullness, agitation, or craving, hoping to force transformation. But that is not investigation, it is entanglement.

Investigation looks beneath the fabrication, gently uncovering its causes and conditions, and seeing these as impermanent, not-self, and unsatisfactory. It does not fixate on the content of a thought or mood, but turns attention to the causes that give rise to it, revealing its empty, conditioned nature. This opens the door to true detachment, not through pushing away, but through knowing.

Experience, in the ordinary untrained mind, is layered with assumptions. The five hindrances are not just passing moods, they are entire assumed worlds. When sloth and torpor arise, there is not only a felt dullness; there is the deeper assumption that "nothing is happening," that "this is not worth investigating." But this is already a mental fabrication.

In fact, sloth and torpor are not passive states, they are active concealments. The investigation factor gently lifts the veil by asking: what is this dullness? What conditions it? What is assumed here that may not be true? Is it always there? Is it unchainging?, Is it mine? (We use proto-thoughts. Not full verbal thoughts to ask these questions.)

Similarly, sense desire comes with the embedded belief that satisfaction lies in the object. The mind doesn’t just crave; it assumes that the craving is justified, even necessary. This is not just a desire, it is an entire constructed view. The same holds true for ill will, restlessness, and doubt. Each of these is not only a feeling but a narrative, an explanatory frame that asumes all other data under it is true.

This is where investigation enters as the liberating force. It does not judge these states, nor suppress them. It investigates them with precision and patience. It sees their rising, their passing, and, most importantly, their dependence on conditions.

In the Sallatha Sutta, the Tathagata distinguishes the worldling from the disciple through this very lens:

When touched by a painful feeling, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, and laments... He is touched by two kinds of feeling: bodily and mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow, and then shoot him with a second arrow.

SN36.6

The second arrow is not the pain itself, but the assumption, laden mental proliferation that follows it. The disciple uses investigation to recognize and disentangle this second arrow.

Even subtle states like restlessness are not as they seem. Restlessness assumes there is something more important elsewhere, that this moment is insufficient. Doubt assumes there is no clarity to be found. But once seen as assumptions rather than truths, these hindrances lose their grip.

Thus, everything in experience should be seen as an assumption until it is investigated. With investigation, we unearth the hidden views embedded in our moods, our cravings, our aversions, and our doubts.

This investigation is not the end in itself, but the beginning of liberation. When we no longer build a self around the assumed, the mind becomes light, joyful, and still. It begins to see things as they are, not as the mind habitually fabricates them to be.

Seven Factors: Energy

And what is the faculty of energy?

Here a noble disciple lives with energy aroused for the abandoning of unwholesome states, for the attainment of wholesome states, being steadfast, strong in exertion, not shirking the responsibility for wholesome states.

He generates desire, makes an effort, arouses energy, exerts his mind, and strives for the non-arising of unarisen evil unwholesome states; for the abandoning of arisen evil unwholesome states; for the arising of unarisen wholesome states; for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, expansion, and fulfillment by development of arisen wholesome states: this is called the faculty of energy.

SN48.10

Energy is the third of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. It is also one of the Five Faculties, one of the Five Powers, and a component of the Eightfold Path (specifically, Right Effort).

This energy refers to the mental energy generated by Mental Formations, or karma. It can manifest as a scattered energy that quickly exhausts the mind, or as a pure and refined energy that arises from cultivating the Factors of Enlightenment or engaging in any wholesome practice.

Because karma is energy, past intentions shape its appearance in the present. However, what matters most is how this energy is channeled, shaped, and used.

Through Right Mindfulness and the Investigation of Mind States, clarity arises. This clarity lifts the burden and stress caused by either keeping perceptions scattered in awareness or suppressing them due to a lack of mindfulness. As a result, energy is freed; it becomes a purified, uplifting force rather than a tainted, tiring one.

The Tathagata offers many similes to illustrate how to develop mindfulness, investigation, and energy. Many of these examples relate to death or imminent danger, and for good reason.

When the mind is free of content, its natural tendency is to rest or shut down. To counteract this, awareness must be increased, and the subtlety of investigation refined. Increased curiosity and mindfulness generate more energy.

Often, this is not enough. Ardency or urgency also needs to be cultivated. Consider that in a dangerous situation, awareness and energy are far more heightened than when lying in bed in the dark.

In the Simile of the Beauty Queen, the Tathagata teaches that the kind of awareness that senses danger in all directions, 360 degrees, must be maintained. This is because there is a tendency to focus forward, often ignoring formations that arise in other parts of awareness, such as the back of the head or along the spine. Wherever mindfulness is lacking, mental fabrications can emerge or lie hidden.

When there is the perception of danger, the mind must release its clinging to existing perceptions and thoughts, and become aware of any external threat. Contrary to popular belief, as long as one remains calm and collected, this letting go of existing perceptions allows awareness to become unobstructed. When awareness is free and alert, energy is released and can be refined for skillful use. This is the goal of the practice: to cultivate clean, pure energy that can penetrate the taints.

Ultimately, the true danger does not come from an external swordsman poised to strike at the slightest lapse in mindfulness. The real threat lies in the Five Aggregates, and the constant onslaught to fill awareness with hindrances, with greed, aversion, delusion, and ignorance.

In short, we must develop the kind of mindfulness and investigation that remains alert to danger from every direction within one's own experience, the Five Aggregates.

Seven Factors: Investigating Energy

When there is full mindfulness and investigation combined with ardency, it creates a positive feedback loop of motivation and effort that helps sustain energy.

Part of developing energy also involves investigating the absence of it. We can begin to explore what is hindering or blocking the free flow of energy within.

Although sloth and torpor are two of the Five Hindrances, in the context of investigating energy, we must look deeper into their causes. They are often rooted in clinging to something within awareness or in repressing certain experiences.

We feel dullness or sleepiness because we are holding on to some aspect of ourselves. For instance, if we cling to a fixed idea of what our practice should be, and our current experience does not meet that ideal, a conflict arises. This internal friction drains our energy. This is how we can work with the so-called Hindrances. When we access and become more receptive to them, the energy that was previously used to suppress or deny them becomes available. In doing so, we release a source of energy.

On the other hand, when energy is not balanced by the other Factors of Enlightenment, especially the calming ones like tranquility, concentration, and equanimity, it can be mistaken for an end in itself rather than a means for progress. This imbalance may lead to restlessness, overexertion, or a distorted sense of purpose in practice.

Seven Factors: Rapture

Just as a slave would later be freed, becoming independent and free to go where he wishes, thinking, I was a slave, now I am free and independent, and he would be joyful and happy.

MN39

It’s important to recognize clinging to the Five Aggregates as a form of slavery, or bondage. Our attachment to them limits our well-being and keeps us in bondage. Through practice, when we become, even temporarily, free from attachment to the Five Aggregates, the resulting seclusion brings a joy that can feel like being released from captivity.

Rapture (pīti) is the energetic release that arises when we let go of mental preoccupations and become fully present. It’s an exhilarating feeling, similar to experiences like skydiving, thrill rides, riding a motorcycle, or engaging in sports, moments when the mind completely lets go. People often pay a great deal for such experiences just to escape their own thoughts.

This rapture is born from letting go, from withdrawing from objectification. It arises when the mind stops trying to control everything and instead simply abides in what is.

As investigation deepens and understanding grows, joy arises. It is the natural result of release, a sign that defilements have temporarily fallen away and that stress has eased.

Unlike fleeting worldly pleasures, pīti arises from letting go and becoming temporarily free from attachment. It is born from seclusion, from stepping back from the constant objectification of sense contact. It offers a genuine taste of inner freedom and liberation.

To develop joy, we must use Right Effort, abandon unwholesome perceptions, and develop and fill our body and mind with the feeling and perception of joy.

As joy grows, all bodily, mental, and Mental Formations are calmed.

Joy is also a step toward further purification of the mind. Rather than being scattered in the formations, the mind begins to settle and concentrate.

However, even joy is a coarse or impure energy. Excessive joy can become stressful. That’s why it needs to be balanced with tranquility so that it matures into calm happiness or satisfaction. As the mind continues to settle, it will naturally let go of the more intense aspects of joy, leading to deeper tranquility.

Since joy is born from letting go, it’s essential to approach practice with a sense of lightness, openness, and curiosity, not with rigid, goal-driven effort. This attitude enhances the experience of joy.

Joy uplifts the heart when practice becomes dry or heavy. Even amidst suffering, joy arises through seeing progress on the path, through generosity, virtue, and reflection on the Dhamma.

Like all conditioned phenomena, joy is volitionally fabricated, impermanent, non-self, and ultimately unsatisfactory. Allowing it to arise and pass naturally helps prevent attachment or disappointment.

Seven Factors: Tranquility

Once joy arises, tranquility gently soothes the bodily energies and mental excitement, stabilizing the mind for deep insight.

Tranquility is the calming and settling of both body and mind. By calming the bodily, mental, volitional, and verbal formations, these perceptions have all been replaced with the feelings of joy. Joy, born from energy, is a type of exhilaration, which can be tiring. With the letting go of joy, tranquility comes.

Tranquility naturally arises as the more active factors, investigation, energy, and joy, begin to settle internal agitation. It emerges gradually as the result of further letting go.

Tranquility in Practice

Tranquility can manifest in varying degrees, from subtle relaxation to profound stillness. Recognizing these levels helps one determine if the current state is conducive to further practice.

When tranquility feels unreachable, investigate potential hindrances such as unwholesome habits, physical tension, or external distractions. Addressing these obstacles can create a clearer path for tranquility to emerge.

Relaxing physical tension through gentle movements or conscious body awareness fosters receptivity to mental stillness.

Rather than resisting mental disturbances, acknowledge their presence, investigate their nature, and allow them to arise and pass naturally. This process gradually leads to deeper levels of tranquility.

Cultivating tranquility is essential for deepening insight and wisdom. As the mind settles and distractions fade, awareness sharpens, and the subtle workings of the mind become clearer. This refined clarity provides a stable foundation needed for the final factors of awakening, concentration, equanimity, and liberation.

Seven Factors: Right Concentration

And what is the faculty of concentration?

Here a noble disciple, having made letting go the object, attains concentration, attains unification of mind.

He dwells secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, entering and remaining in the first jhāna, which includes directed thought and evaluation, as well as joy and pleasure born of seclusion.

SN48.10

Right Concentration (Sammā Samādhi) is the eighth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path as taught by the Tathagata in the early discourses. It is foundational to the cultivation of wisdom, serving as the still and unified ground from which insight into the nature of reality arises.

In the suttas, the Tathagata defines Right Concentration as:

And what, disciples, is right concentration? Here, disciples, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a disciple enters and dwells in the first jhāna … the second … the third … the fourth jhāna. This is called right concentration.

MN117

Thus, Right Concentration is precisely the cultivation and abiding in the four jhānas, profound states of meditative absorption characterized by increasing levels of serenity, stillness, and equanimity.

One-pointedness is often misunderstood as intense focus on a single external object. However, in the suttas, it is consistently described as a quality of the mind itself:

What is the faculty of concentration? The one-pointedness of mind.

MN44

This refers to the unification of the mind, a gathering inward of attention and energy so that the mind is no longer scattered among various sense-objects. It does not refer to a spatial "point" from which perception arises, but to the collected, stable state of consciousness.

Mental fabrications, primarily feeling and perception, are gradually calmed as concentration deepens. In the Ānāpānasati Sutta:

He trains: ‘I will breathe in calming mental fabrication.’ … ‘concentrating the mind’ … ‘liberating the mind.’

MN118

Through calming and concentration, the habitual tendencies of the mind to fabricate perceptions and emotional responses subside. This leads to the next step.

As the mind becomes concentrated and one-pointed, the conditions for mental proliferation diminish. This is reflected in the fourth jhāna:

With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, he enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.

MN140

At this stage, the mind is tranquil, neither producing new fabrications nor reacting to old ones.

Right Concentration as a Support for Letting Go. Collected and calm, the mind becomes a fit basis for insight. In the simile from the Aṅguttara Nikāya:

When the water is still and clear, you can see to the bottom … In the same way, when the mind is concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilements, it becomes malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability.

AN5.28

This concentrated mind does not cling. Insight arises naturally when the conditions are right, and the mind lets go not through force, but through seeing.

Right Concentration is a calm, stable state of mind that naturally arises through sustained mindfulness. Rather than being forced, it emerges when the mind lets go and fully settles into the present moment.

True concentration is a collectedness of mind, a deep stability that occurs when there is no urge to control or resist life's conditions. It is the peaceful unification of awareness.

As we continue to cultivate tranquility and contentment, the mind gently settles. It becomes still, unified, and free from the need to seek anything beyond this moment.

Develop concentration, disciples; a disciple who is concentrated understands things as they really are.

What does he understand as it really is?

The arising and passing away of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.

And what is the arising of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness?

Here a disciple delights in, welcomes, and remains holding to.

And what does he delight in, welcome, and remain holding to?

He delights in, welcomes, and remains holding to form.

From delighting in, welcoming, and remaining holding to form, delight arises.

The delight in form is clinging.

With clinging as condition, there is becoming;

with becoming as condition, there is birth;

with birth as condition, arise aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair.

Thus arises this entire mass of suffering.

SN22.5

Seven Factors: Equanimity

This is peaceful, this is excellent, namely, equanimity. For him, whatever arises as pleasant, unpleasant, or both pleasant and unpleasant ceases; equanimity remains. Just as, Ānanda, a strong man might easily spit out a lump of saliva gathered on the tip of his tongue; in the same way, Ānanda, for anyone, whatever arises as pleasant, unpleasant, or both pleasant and unpleasant ceases quickly, immediately, and effortlessly; equanimity remains, this is called, Ānanda, in the discipline of the noble ones, the unsurpassed development of faculties regarding tastes discernible by the tongue.

MN152

Equanimity (Upekkha) is a state of inner balance, an unshakable calm that remains steady despite external events or internal emotions. It embodies acceptance, non-reactivity, and mental stability.

This deep sense of balance allows the mind to remain undisturbed, regardless of circumstances. Rather than being tossed around by life's highs and lows, equanimity fosters a steady, peaceful perspective.

Equanimity allows us to face suffering directly without reactivity, neither craving for escape nor sinking into despair.

When we develop insight into the impermanence of perceptions, the mind naturally stabilizes. It ceases to be shaken by fleeting joys, satisfactions, or disappointments. Even what we once viewed as pleasurable, such as contentment or excitement, can be seen as a subtle form of stress.

By directing our attention wisely, especially toward perceptions of impermanence, danger, and detachment, we cultivate the conditions necessary for awakening. These insights give rise to the development of the seven factors of enlightenment.

As the final and culminating factor of enlightenment, equanimity represents inner wisdom and freedom from emotional reactivity. To cultivate equanimity is to let go of attachment to pleasant experiences and resistance to unpleasant ones. It is grounded in the understanding that everything is impermanent and beyond personal control.

Equanimity is often mistaken for indifference or apathy. However, true equanimity is not about suppressing emotions; rather, it is an engaged and balanced response to life, free from being overly swayed by external circumstances. It arises from wisdom and an open-hearted embrace of every experience.

At the heart of equanimity lies the understanding of impermanence. When we see that all things are in constant flux, our impulse to cling to or resist specific experiences diminishes. This shift in perspective allows us to navigate life's joys and challenges with greater ease.

Moments of equanimity often arise naturally, even without deliberate effort. By recognizing these instances, we can cultivate a deeper appreciation for equanimity and integrate it more fully into our daily lives.

Far from being passive resignation, equanimity is a dynamic quality that harmonizes insight with compassion. It empowers us to move through life's complexities with grace, freeing us from mental entanglement and emotional turmoil.

By nurturing equanimity, we cultivate openness, understanding, and inner peace in all situations. This balanced state of mind is not only the pinnacle of the path, it is also the foundation from which true liberation unfolds.

Just as this body is sustained by food, stands because of food, and does not stand without food; in the same way the seven factors of enlightenment are sustained by their respective nourishments, stand because of nourishment, and do not stand without nourishment.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen mindfulness enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen mindfulness enlightenment factor?

There are things that are the basis for the mindfulness enlightenment factor. In this, appropriate attention is frequently given: this is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen mindfulness enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen mindfulness enlightenment factor.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen investigation of dhamma enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen investigation of dhamma enlightenment factor?

There are wholesome and unwholesome dhammas, blameworthy and blameless dhammas, inferior and superior dhammas, and dhammas that are dark and bright with their counterparts.

In this, appropriate attention is frequently given: this is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen investigation of dhamma enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen investigation of dhamma enlightenment factor.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen energy enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen energy enlightenment factor?

There are the elements of initiative, exertion, and endeavor. In this, appropriate attention is frequently given: this is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen energy enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen energy enlightenment factor.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen joy enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen joy enlightenment factor?

There are things that are the basis for the joy enlightenment factor. In this, appropriate attention is frequently given: this is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen joy enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen joy enlightenment factor.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen tranquility enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen tranquility enlightenment factor?

There are tranquility of body and tranquility of mind. In this, appropriate attention is frequently given: this is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen tranquility enlightenment factor, or for the development and completion of arisen tranquility enlightenment factor.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of unarisen For the arising of the concentration enlightenment factor, or for the development and fulfillment of the arisen concentration enlightenment factor? Disciples, there is a sign of concentration, a sign of non-distraction.

Here, frequent wise attention: this is the nourishment for the arising of the not yet arisen concentration enlightenment factor, or for the development and fulfillment of the arisen concentration enlightenment factor.

And what is the nourishment for the arising of the not yet arisen equanimity enlightenment factor, or for the development and fulfillment of the arisen equanimity enlightenment factor?

Disciples, there are states conducive to the equanimity enlightenment factor. Here, frequent wise attention: this is the nourishment for the arising of the not yet arisen equanimity enlightenment factor, or for the development and fulfillment of the arisen equanimity enlightenment factor.

Just as this body is sustained by food, stands dependent on food, and does not stand without food; in the same way these seven factors of enlightenment are sustained by nourishment, stand dependent on nourishment, and do not stand without nourishment.

SN46.2

Seven Factors: Working with Suffering

When suffering arises—physical pain, emotional pain, grief, or fear—the untrained mind reacts with aversion, clinging, or confusion. The Disciple, on the other hand, uses the seven factors, balancing them to work together as a perfect medicine:

Mindfulness notices suffering.
Investigation understands its nature.
Energy sustains the effort to remain present.
Joy prevents despair.
Tranquility calms agitation.
Concentration steadies attention.
Equanimity allows full awareness without identification or aversion.

Seven Factors: Applying the Seven Factors When Suffering Arises

The Tathagata does not teach us to avoid suffering, but to meet it with wisdom. The mind’s habitual reactions are craving, aversion, and ignorance. The Seven Factors provide a balanced response to suffering, which leads not to further entanglement, but to release.

Using Mindfulness, we see it directly. We do not suppress or deny it. We simply recognize that "Pain is present. Fear is present. Anxiety is present." Mindfulness anchors us and prevents habitual reactions.

Through Investigation we look into the nature of the suffering: Is it physical? Emotional? Mental fabrication? Is there craving for it to stop? Fear that it will continue? Is it permanent? Investigation allows us to see suffering as a process, not as “me” or “mine.”

We use energy to become relentless. We strengthen our intention not to fall into despair or aversion. We make the effort to stay mindful, to examine, and to patiently endure. This is courageous energy, perseverance.

Even amidst pain, we gladden the heart by seeing: We are practicing the path of the nobles ones. We are meeting suffering with wisdom, not blind reactivity. This is noble, we are walking where the Buddhas walk. Joy here does not mean pleasure, but gladness born of inner confidence, uplift, and warmth.

As joy balances fear and heaviness, tranquility arises. Breathing slows and relaxes. The heart settles. Tranquility allows for endurance without tension.

The mind becomes settled and unified and is not shaken by thoughts or emotion. Concentration allows clear seeing of impermanence, non-self, and the conditional nature of suffering.

With equanimity, the mind is now neither clinging nor resisting. Pain is seen as pain. It arises, it stays, it passes. Equanimity frees the mind from identification and reaction. The mind rests simply noticing: "This too is not mine, not I, not myself."

The Seven Factors are the mental qualities that allow insight into the very root of suffering. Without these factors developed, insight cannot take root deeply.

Seven Factors: The Five Spiritual Faculties

The Five Faculties are the "engine" that powers the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. They regulate and balance the development of the factors according to your personal tendencies.

Faith: supports Joy, Tranquility, and Equanimity. Faith brings confidence and trust in the path, in the Tathagata, and in our capacity to awaken. It uplifts the mind when doubt or discouragement arises. For those prone to excessive skepticism or dryness, developing faith directly supports the arising of Joy (pīti) and softens the heart.

Energy: directly powers Investigation and Effort. This is the same energy as one of the Seven Factors. For those prone to laziness or sluggishness, energy must be emphasized. Without energy, investigation and mindfulness do not sustain.

Mindfulness: is both a faculty and a factor. It governs the balance between faith and wisdom, energy and concentration. Mindfulness is always useful.

Concentration: supports Tranquility and Equanimity. For those prone to restlessness or distraction, developing concentration helps steady the mind. Concentration allows insight to go deep.

Wisdom: guides Investigation and Equanimity. Wisdom knows what is skillful and unskillful. It understands dependent origination, impermanence, and not-self. For those prone to blind faith or emotional overwhelm, wisdom must be emphasized to guide investigation wisely.

“When faith is too strong and wisdom weak, one becomes gullible.
When wisdom is too strong and faith weak, one becomes skeptical.
When energy is too strong and concentration weak, one becomes restless.
When concentration is too strong and energy weak, one becomes lazy.

MN152

When there is doubt, discouragement apply Faith which results in Joy, Tranquility.
When there is laziness, sluggishness apply Energy which results in Investigation, Energy.
When there is distraction, restlessness, apply Concentration which results in Tranquility, Equanimity.
When there is Blind faith, emotional overwhelm apply Wisdom which results in Investigation, Equanimity.

Mindfulness is usefull under all circumstances.

Seven Factors: The Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths describe the problem and its solution. Dependent Origination explains how suffering arises and ceases. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment are the internal mechanism that brings the mind from ignorance to knowledge, from bondage to release.

The Seven Factors help you see, understand, and directly realize each of the Four Noble Truths:

Dukkha — Suffering: Mindfulness sees suffering as it arises. Investigation examines its nature.
Samudaya — Origin of suffering (craving): Investigation and Wisdom recognize craving as the cause. Energy sustains this observation.
Nirodha — Cessation of suffering: Concentration allows seeing the fading and cessation. Joy and Equanimity gladden and balance the mind to rest here.
Magga — Path leading to cessation: The Seven Factors are themselves a refined version of the path. They fulfill Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Effort, and support Wisdom.

Dependent Origination describes how suffering is manufactured moment-by-moment. The Seven Factors work as the counter-condition to this process:

Ignorance (avijjā): Investigation of dhammas (dhammavicaya), Wisdom.
Volitional formations (saṅkhārā): Mindfulness sees the formation arise and pass.
Consciousness (viññāṇa): Concentration stabilizes attention to see consciousness clearly.
Contact (phassa): Mindfulness and Equanimity balance the response to contact.
Feeling (vedanā): Equanimity allows feelings to arise without craving.
Craving (taṇhā): Investigation reveals craving as unprofitable; Joy counters dissatisfaction.
Clinging (upādāna): Equanimity allows release from attachment.
Becoming, Birth, Aging and Death (bhava, jāti, jarāmaraṇa): When craving and clinging cease, the whole chain collapses.

Imagine Dependent Origination as a fire fueled by craving and ignorance. The Seven Factors are like seven streams of cooling water poured on the fire:

Mindfulness pours awareness on the burning.
Investigation exposes the fuel sources.
Energy keeps pouring water steadily.
Joy refreshes the heart, preventing panic.
Tranquility cools the heat.
Concentration directs the flow precisely.
Equanimity allows the burning to cease naturally without interference.

The Battle Within

Upāsikā Kee Nanayon

Clear insight doesn’t come from thinking and speculating. It comes from investigating the mind while it’s gathered into an adequate level of calm and stability. You look deeply into every aspect of the mind when it’s neutral and calm, free from thought-fabrications or likes and dislikes for its preoccupations. You have to work at maintaining this state and at the same time probe deeply into it, because superficial knowledge isn’t true knowledge. As long as you haven’t probed deeply into the mind, you don’t really know anything. The mind is simply calm on an external level, and your reading of the aspects of the wanderings of the mind under the influence of defilement, craving, and attachment isn’t yet clear.

So you have to try to peer into yourself until you reach a level of awareness that can maintain its balance and let you contemplate your way to sharper understanding. If you don’t contemplate so as to give rise to true knowledge, your mindfulness will stay just on the surface.

The same principle holds with contemplating the body. You have to probe deeply into the ways in which the body is repulsive and composed of physical elements. This is what it means to read the body so as to understand it, so that you can explore yourself in all your activities. This way you prevent your mind from straying off the path and keep it focused on seeing how it can burn away the defilements as they arise, which is very delicate work.

Being uncomplacent, not letting yourself get distracted by outside things, is what will make the practice go smoothly. It will enable you to examine the defilements in the mind in a skillful way so that you can eliminate the subtlest ones: ignorance and delusion. Normally, we aren’t fully aware of even the blatant defilements, but now that the blatant ones are inactivated because of the mind’s solid focus, we can look into the more profound areas to catch sight of the deceits of craving and defilements in whatever way they move into action. We watch them, know them, and are in a position to abandon them as soon as they wander off in search of sights, sounds, smells, and delicious flavors. Whether they’re looking for good physical flavors, bodily pleasure, or good mental flavors, we have to know them from all sides, even though they’re not easy to know because of all the many desires we feel for physical pleasure. And on top of that, there are the desires for happiness imbued with pleasurable feelings, perceptions that carry pleasurable feelings, thought-fabrications that carry pleasurable feelings, and consciousness that carries pleasurable feelings. All of these are nothing but desires for illusions, for things that deceive us into getting engrossed and distracted. As a result, it isn’t easy for us to understand much of anything at all.

These are subtle matters and they all come under the term, “sensual craving”, the desire, lust, and love that provoke the mind into wandering out in search of the enjoyment it remembers from past sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. Even though these things may have happened long ago, our perceptions bring them back to deceive us with ideas of their being good or bad. Once we latch onto them, they make the mind unsettled and defiled.

So it isn’t easy to examine and understand all the various defilements within the mind. The external things we’re able to know and let go of are only the minor players. The important ones have gathered together to take charge in the mind and won’t budge no matter how you try to chase them out. They’re stubborn and determined to stay in charge. If you take them on when your mindfulness and discernment aren’t equal to the fight, you’ll end up losing your inner calm.

So you have to make sure that you don’t push the practice too much, without at the same time letting it grow too slack. Find the Middle Way that’s just right. While you’re practicing in this way, you’ll be able to observe what the mind is like when it has mindfulness and discernment in charge, and then you make the effort to maintain that state and keep it constant. That’s when the mind will have the opportunity to stop and be still, to be stable and centered for long periods of time until it’s used to being that way.

Now, there are some areas where we have to force the mind and be strict with it. If we’re weak and lax, there’s no way we can succeed, for we’ve given in to our own wants for so long already. If we keep giving in to them, it will become even more of a habit. So you have to use force, the force of your will and the force of your mindfulness and discernment. Even if you get to the point where you have to put your life on the line, you’ve got to be willing. When the time comes for you really to be serious, you’ve got to hold out until you come out winning. If you don’t win, you don’t give up. Sometimes you have to make a vow as a way of forcing yourself to overcome your stubborn desires for physical pleasure that tempt you and lead you astray.

If you’re weak and settle for whatever pleasure comes in the immediate present, then when desire comes in the immediate present you fall right for it. If you give in to your wants often in this way, it’ll become habitual, for defilement is always looking for the chance to tempt you, to incite you. As when we try to give up an addiction to cigarettes, or meat: It’s hard to do because craving is always tempting us. “Take just a little,” it says. “Just a taste. It doesn’t matter.” Craving knows how to fool us, the way a fish is fooled into getting caught on a hook by the bait surrounding the hook, screwing up its courage enough to take just a little, and then a little more, and then a little more until it’s sure to get snagged. The demons of defilement have us surrounded on all sides. Once we fall for their delicious flavors, we’re sure to get snagged on the hook. No matter how much we struggle and squirm, we can’t get free.

You have to realize that gaining victory over your enemies, the cravings and defilements in the heart, is no small matter, no casual affair. You can’t let yourself be weak or lax, but you also have to gauge your strength, for you have to figure out how to apply your efforts at abandoning and destroying to weaken the defilements and cravings that have had the power of demons overwhelming the mind for so long. It’s not the case that you have to battle to the brink of death in every area. With some things, such as giving up addictions, you can mount a full-scale campaign and come out winning without killing yourself in the process. But with other things, more subtle and deep, you have to be more perceptive so as to figure out how to overcome them over the long haul, digging up their roots so that they gradually weaken to the point where your mindfulness and discernment can overwhelm them. If there are any areas where you’re still losing out, you have to take stock of your sensitivities to figure out why. Otherwise, you’ll keep losing out, for when the defilements really want something, they trample all over your mindfulness and discernment in their determination to get what they’re after: “That’s what I want. I don’t care what anyone says.” They really are that stubborn! So it’s no small matter, figuring out how to bring them under control. It’s like running into an enemy or a wild beast rushing in to devour us. What are we going to do?

When the defilements arise right before your eyes, you have to be wary. Suppose you’re perfectly aware, and all of a sudden they spring up and confront you: What kind of mindfulness and discernment are you going to use to disband them, to realize that, “These are the hordes of Mara, come to burn and eat me. How am I going to get rid of them?” In other words, how are you going to find a skillful way of contemplating them so as to destroy them right then and there?

We have to do this regardless of whether we’re being confronted with physical and mental pain or physical and mental pleasure. Actually, pleasure is more treacherous than pain because it’s hard to fathom and easy to fall for. As for pain, no one falls for it because it’s so uncomfortable. So how are we going to contemplate so as to let go of both the pleasure and the pain? This is the problem we’re faced with at every moment. It’s not the case that when we practice we accept only the pleasure and stop when we run into pain. That’s not the case at all. We have to learn how to read both sides, to see that the pain is inconstant and stressful, and that the pleasure is inconstant and stressful, too. We have to penetrate clear through these things. Otherwise, we’ll be deluded by the deceits of the cravings that want pleasure, whether it’s physical pleasure or whatever. Our every activity, sitting, standing, walking, lying down, is really for the sake of pleasure, isn’t it?

This is why there are so many, many ways in which we’re deluded with pleasure. Whatever we do, we do for the sake of pleasure without realizing how deeply we’ve mired ourselves in suffering and stress. When we contemplate inconstancy, stress, and not-selfness, we don’t get anywhere in our contemplation because we haven’t seen through pleasure. We still think that it’s a good thing. We have to probe into the fact that there’s no real ease to physical or mental pleasure. It’s all stress. When you can see it from this angle, that’s when you’ll come to understand inconstancy.

Then once the mind isn’t focused on wanting pleasure all the time, its stresses and pains will lighten. It will be able to see them as something common and normal, to see that if you try to change the pains to find ease, there’s no ease to be found. In this way, you won’t be overly concerned with trying to change the pains, for you’ll see that there’s no pleasure or ease to the aggregates, that they give nothing but stress and pain. As in the Buddha’s teachings that we chant every day: “Form is stressful, feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, and consciousness are all stressful.” The problem is that we haven’t investigated into the truth of our own form, feelings, perceptions, thought-fabrications, and consciousness. Our insight isn’t yet penetrating because we haven’t looked from the angle of true knowing. And so we get deluded here and lost there in our search for pleasure, finding nothing but pain and yet mistaking it for pleasure. This shows that we still haven’t opened our ears and eyes; we still don’t know the truth. Once we do know the truth, though, the mind will be more inclined to grow still and calm than to go wandering off. The reason it goes wandering off is because it’s looking for pleasure, but once it realizes there’s no real pleasure to be found in that way, it settles down and grows still.

All the cravings that provoke and unsettle the mind come down to nothing but the desire for pleasure. So we have to contemplate so as to see that the aggregates have no pleasure to offer, they they’re stressful by their very nature. They’re not us or ours. Take them apart and have a good look at them, starting with the body. Analyze the body down to its elements so that the mind won’t keep latching on to it as “me” or “mine.” You have to do this over and over again until you really understand.

It’s the same as when we chant the passage for Recollection while Using the Requisites, food, clothing, shelter, and medicine, every day. We do this so as to gain real understanding. If we don’t do this every day, we forget and get deluded into loving and worrying about the body as “my body,” “my self.” No matter how much we keep latching onto it over and over again, it’s not easy for us to realize what we’re doing, even though we have the Buddha’s teachings available, explaining these things in every way. Or we may have contemplated to some extent, but we haven’t seen things clearly. We’ve seen only in a vague blurry way and then flitted off oblivious without having probed in to see all the way through. This is because the mind isn’t firmly centered. It isn’t still. It keeps wandering off to find things to think about and get itself all agitated. This way it can’t really get to know anything at all. All it knows are a few little perceptions. This is the way it’s been for who knows how many years now. It’s as if our vision has been clouded by spots that we haven’t yet removed from our eyes.

Those who aren’t interested in exploring, who don’t make an effort to get to the facts, don’t wonder about anything at all. They’re free from doubt, all right, but it’s because their doubts have been smothered by delusion. If we start exploring and contemplating, we’ll have to wonder about the things we don’t yet know: “What’s this? What does it mean? How should I deal with it?” These are questions that lead us to explore. If we don’t explore, it’s because we don’t have any intelligence. Or we may gain a few little insights, but we let them pass so that we never explore deeply into the basic principles of the practice. What little we do know doesn’t go anywhere, doesn’t penetrate into the Noble Truths, because our mindfulness and discernment run out of strength. Our persistence isn’t resilient enough, isn’t brave enough. We don’t dare look deeply inside ourselves.

To go by our own estimates of how far is enough in the practice is to lie to ourselves. It keeps us from gaining release from suffering and stress. If you happen to come up with a few insights, don’t go bragging about them, or else you’ll end up deceiving yourself in countless ways. Those who really know, even when they have attained the various stages of insight, are heedful to keep on exploring. They don’t get stuck on this stage or that. Even when their insights are correct they don’t stop right there and start bragging, for that’s the way of a fool.

Intelligent people, even though they see things clearly, always keep an eye out for the enemies lying in wait for them on the deeper, more subtle levels ahead. They have to keep penetrating further and further in. They have no sense that this or that level is plenty enough, for how can it be enough? The defilements are still burning away, so how can you brag? Even though your knowledge may be true, how can you be complacent when your mind has yet to establish a foundation for itself?

As you investigate with mindfulness and discernment, complacency is the major problem. You have to be uncomplacent in the practice if you want to keep up with the fact that life is ebbing away, ebbing with every moment. And how should you live so that you can be said to be uncomplacent? This is an extremely important question, for if you’re not alive to it, then no matter how many days or months you practice meditation or restraint of the senses, it’s simply a temporary exercise. When you’re done, you get back to your same old turmoil as before.

And watch out for your mouth. You’ll have trouble not bragging, for the defilements will provoke you into speaking. They want to speak, they want to brag, they won’t let you stay silent.

If you force yourself in the practice without understanding its true aims, you end up deceiving yourself and go around telling people, “I practiced in silence for so many days, so many months.” This is deceiving yourself and others as well. The truth of the matter is that you’re still a slave to stupidity, obeying the many levels of defilement and craving within yourself without realizing the fact. If someone praises you, you really prick up your ears, wag your tail and, instead of explaining the harm of the defilements and craving you were able to find within yourself, you simply want to brag.

So the practice of the Dhamma isn’t something that you can just muddle your way through. It’s something you have to do with your intelligence fully alert, for when you contemplate in a circumspect way, you’ll see that there’s nothing worth getting engrossed in, that everything, both inside and out, is nothing but an illusion. It’s like being adrift, alone in the middle of the ocean with no island or shore in sight. Can you afford just to sit back and relax, to make a temporary effort and then brag about it? Of course not! As your investigation penetrates inwardly to ever more subtle levels of the mind, you’ll have to become more and more calm and reserved, in the same way that people become more and more circumspect as they grow from children to teenagers and into adults. Your mindfulness and discernment have to keep growing more and more mature in order to understand the right and wrong, the true and false, in whatever arises: That’s what will enable you to let go and gain release. And that’s what will make your life in the true practice of the Dhamma go smoothly. Otherwise, you’ll fool yourself into boasting of how many years you practiced meditation and will eventually find yourself worse off than before, with defilement flaring up in a big way. If this is the way you go, you’ll end up tumbling head over heels into fire, for when you raise your head in pride, you run into the flames already burning within yourself.

To practice means to use the fire of mindfulness and discernment as a counter-fire to put out the blaze of the defilements, because the heart and mind are aflame with defilement, and when we use the fire of mindfulness and discernment to put out the fire of defilement, the mind can cool down. Do this by being increasingly honest with yourself, without leaving an opening for defilement and craving to insinuate their way into control. You have to be alert. Circumspect. Wise to them. Don’t fall for them! If you fall for whatever rationale they come up with, it means that your mindfulness and discernment are still weak. They lead you away by the nose, burning you with their fire right before your very eyes, and yet you’re still able to open your mouth to brag!

So turn around and take stock of everything within yourself. Take stock of every aspect, because right and wrong, true and false, are all within you. You can’t go finding them outside. The damaging things people say about you are nothing compared to the damage caused inside you when defilement burns you, when your feeling of “me” and “mine” raises its head.

If you don’t honestly come to your senses, there’s no way your practice of the Dhamma can gain you release from the great mass of suffering and stress. You may be able to gain a little knowledge and let go of a few things, but the roots of the problem will still lie buried deep down. So you have to dig them out. You can’t relax after little bouts of emptiness and equanimity. That won’t accomplish anything. The defilements and mental effluents lie deep in the personality, so you have to use mindfulness and discernment to penetrate deep down to make a precise and thorough examination. Only then will you get results. Otherwise, if you stay only on the surface level, you can practice until your body lies rotting in its coffin but you won’t have changed any of your basic habits.

Those who are scrupulous by nature, who know how to contemplate their own flaws, will keep on the alert for any signs of pride within themselves. They’ll try to control and destroy conceit on every side and won’t allow it to swell. The methods we need to use in the practice for examining and destroying the defilements within the mind aren’t easy to master. For those who don’t contemplate themselves thoroughly, the practice may actually only increase their pride, their bragging, their desire to go teaching others. But if we turn within and discern the deceits and conceits of self, a profound feeling of disenchantment and dismay arises, causing us to pity ourselves for our own stupidity, for the amount to which we’ve deluded ourselves all along, and for how much effort we‘ll still need to put into the practice.

So however great the pain and anguish, however many tears bathe your cheeks, persevere! The practice isn’t simply a matter of looking for mental and physical pleasure. “Let tears bathe my cheeks, but I’ll keep on with my striving at the holy life as long as I live!” That’s the way it has to be! Don’t quit at the first small difficulty with the thought, “It’s a waste of time. I’d do better to follow my cravings and defilements.” You can’t think like that! You have to take the exact opposite stance: “When they tempt me to grab this, take a lot of that, I won’t! However fantastic the object may be, I won’t take the bait.” Make a firm declaration! This is the only way to get results. Otherwise, you’ll never work yourself free, for the defilements have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves. If you get wise to one trick, they simply change to another, and then another.

If we’re not observant to see how much we’ve been deceived by the defilements in all sorts of ways, we won’t come to know the truth within ourselves. Other people may fool us now and then, but the defilements fool us all of the time. We fall for them and follow them hook, line, and sinker. Our trust in the Lord Buddha is nothing compared to our trust in them. We’re disciples of the demons of craving, letting them lead us ever deeper into their jungle.

If we don’t contemplate to see this for ourselves, we’re lost in that jungle charnel ground where the demons keep roasting us to make us squirm with desires and every form of distress. Even though you have come to stay in a place with few disturbances, these demons still manage to tempt and draw you away. Just notice how the saliva flows when you come across anything delicious! So you have to decide to be either a warrior or a loser. The practice requires that you do battle with defilements and cravings. Always be on your guard, whatever the approach they take to seduce and deceive you. Other people can’t come in to lead you away, but these demons of your own defilements can because you’re willing to trust them, to be their slave. You have to contemplate yourself carefully so that you’re no longer enslaved to them and can reach total freedom within yourself. Make an effort to develop your mindfulness and discernment so as to gain clear insight and then let go until suffering and stress disband in every way!

Purifying the Mind: Using the Four Elements

The Tathāgata taught that all forms, whether gross or subtle, internal or external, are ultimately composed of the Four Great Elements: earth, water, fire, and air. These elements, when wisely contemplated, offer powerful antidotes to the Five Hindrances and serve as a way to develop the Seven Factors of Awakening.

The Five Hindrances—desire, ill-will, sloth, restlessness, and doubt—do not always appear as distinct, easy-to-identify obstacles. Often, they are embedded within experience itself: in the way we see the world, how we hold our breath, our posture, how we relate to pain, crave control, or resist discomfort. They shape perception from within, like a hidden lens we're unaware we're looking through. They are subtle impressions. We don't always see them directly; instead, we see through them.

Just as a doctor uses contrast dye in an X-ray or MRI scan to reveal what’s hidden in the body, so we apply one of the four elements to perception to reveal what is hidden in the mind. When we perceive everything as the earth element, for example, we create a contrast. It is a way of perceiving, of simplifying the field of experience so that what is impure becomes obvious. What sticks out is the clinging, resistance, and the making of "me, myself, or mine."

In the same way that a physician chooses a specific contrast dye to highlight different systems in the body—blood vessels, bones, or tissues, we can use the perception of the different elements (earth, water, fire, and air) to highlight different types of clinging, aversion, and delusion. Each element has its distinct energetic quality, and when brought into focus, it allows distorted perception to stand out clearly—so it can be known, understood, and ultimately released.

The Tathāgata taught us to contemplate the four great elements not only as a way to recognize the hindrances when they arise, but also as a way to purify perception at its root. When we perceive everything as the earth element, for example, we have purified perception. By doing this continually, the mind becomes more and more purified.

When we purify perception, we unify the field of experience. The mind becomes collected and unified (concentrated), no longer scattered among different perceptions. This results in a bright and clear mind, with perception no longer stained by craving or aversion. The mind it is pliable and steady and is now ready for deep insight.

This is why contemplation of the elements is so potent: it both exposes the hindrances and develops the Seven Factors of Awakening.

Just as a goldsmith can fashion gold into any ornament: a ring, a bracelet, an earring, or a crown, so too a disciple can use the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air, in any skillful way to highlight the hindrances and purify perception.

Keep in mind, however, that the following are just examples. Just as the four great elements: earth, water, fire, and air, can come together to create all forms, we too can use them skillfully, flexibly, and creatively to highlight the hindrances and purify perception.

Let us now look at each element and some examples to understand how it can counter a particular hindrance and foster a corresponding Awakening Factor.

The Earth Element

Counteracts: Ill will, restlessness and worry.
Develops: Tranquility, Equanimity.

The earth element, which represents stability, hardness, and groundedness, helps still the agitated mind and ill will. When one contemplates and perceives all experiences as grounded in the earth, with a mountain-like steadiness, restlessness fades. This stability develops the tranquility factor, bodily and mental calm. Just as the Earth is unmoved by storms or anything else, the tranquil mind is undisturbed by agitation with anything in experience

Just as people throw what is clean and what is unclean on the earth, feces, urine, spit, pus, or blood, and the earth is not horrified, humiliated, or disgusted because of this; in the same way, you should develop a mind like the earth, vast, exalted, and measureless. You should develop this perception for the removal of anger.

AN5.161

Just as a rock mountain is unwavering, immovable.. even so, when one dwells with a mind imperturbable by contacts

AN6.55

Just as, Rahula, the earth is not repelled, humiliated, or disgusted by anything clean or unclean placed on it; similarly, Rahula, develop meditation that is like the earth.

For, Rahula, for one who is developing the meditation that is like the earth, agreeable and disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not overpower his mind.

MN62

Contemplating the Earth Element

To practice, we are not merely observing things as earth, but we immerse ourselves in the earth, realizing unity of perception, seeing everything as earth itself:

My experience, this very body and mind, is earth. And all experiences, without exception, rise and fall back into earth. Nothing stays in experience. From this earth-element, thoughts arise, feelings arise, memories arise, but none of them remain suspended. Each one, no matter how high or bright, falls back to earth.

Joy rises — it is earth. Fear rises — it is earth. Craving rises — it too is earth. All formations arise from earth and dissolve into earth.

Nothing escapes this gravity. All formations return. Like ashes falling on ashes, like dust settling on dust, all experience returns to where it all came from — earth.

So what is there to cling to? Where is the 'me, myself, or mine' in all of this?

When I place my mind on the unshakable, my mind does not waver, does not become agitated, does not settle, becomes liberated. Thus, one should be mindful there.

MN122

The Water Element

Counteracts: Ill-will
Fosters: Loving-kindness & Joy

The water element represents cohesion, softness, and fluidity. It counters ill-will by washing away hardness of heart. Contemplating the water element, or visualizing gentle flowing water melting away all experience, dissolves rigidity and hostility.

We use the water element to purify our awareness by seeing it as a lens through which to view all experience. Through this lens, everything is fluid, nothing solid, everything flows, nothing is static. There's nothing to cling to, which naturally leads to non-attachment, equanimity, and insight into impermanence.

Contemplating the Water Element

We see the entire body, mind, and world of experience as immersed in the water element, observing all phenomena as flowing, dissolving, disappearing, and ultimately being swallowed by the great ocean of emptiness, non-clinging, and cessation.

All of experience is water. Thoughts surge like waves. Emotions rise like the tide. Memories swirl like eddies. Desires ripple and then fade.

We immerse ourselves in this water, no longer standing apart, no longer trying to resist the current. We become the stream.

Each perception is a droplet. Each contact is a ripple. Each 'I am' is a fragile foam on the surface. And where do they go?

These aggregates, these appearances, they arise like ripples, float like foam, burst like bubbles, vanish like illusions, and all of it flows away.

They disappear into the great ocean, where names, forms, and perceptions vanish, where there is no more coming and going.

When you see form as foam, feeling as bubbles, and perception as a mirage, there is nothing to hold, nothing to resist, and the clinging mind dissolves.

For everything is already flowing. Already dissolving. Already being swallowed by the great ocean.

What are you trying to hold together that wants to flow?

Fire Element

Counteracts: Sloth and torpor (thīna-middha)
Fosters: Energy (vīriya-bojjhaṅga)

Fire is the element of heat, transformation, and illumination. When the mind is dull, invoking inner warmth or meditating on the dynamic nature of heat in the body rekindles vitality.

Just as a smith blows up his fire, so should a disciple torpor by arousing energy.

SN46.53

The Tathagata praised the energy awakening factor, as a counter to mental sluggishness. Fire inspires motion and action, igniting the torch of wakefulness.

Contemplating the Firekarm Element

The body is on fire, the eyes are on fire.

But this fire does not hold. It does not preserve. It does not cling. It burns away.

Thoughts arise, and already they are burning away.
Feelings swell, only to dissipate.
Pleasure flickers, and then it's gone.
Grief arises, and it dissolves in the heat.

There is no need to control.
Everything is burning away on its own.

What remains when nothing is held back, when all formations are surrendered to the great fire of time?

Let it burn away.
Let it pass.
Let it vanish, naturally, gently, truly.
No self is lost, only the illusion of permanence.

There is just this moment, this warmth, this flickering, this releasing.

This is not annihilation — this is clarity.
This is not destruction — this is the law of nature.

All is burning… burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion… burning with birth, aging, and death.

SN35.28

Air Element

Counteracts: Sensual desire (kāmacchanda)
Fosters: Mindfulness (sati-bojjhaṅga)

Air represents motion, breath, and expansion. When caught in sensual craving, attention is drawn outward. By observing the breath — the expression of the air element, one can recollect the body and cultivate sati, clear mindfulness.

Just as a skilled turner… trains himself breathing in and breathing out… mindful, he breathes in… mindful, he breathes out.

MN118

Seven Factors: Brahmavihāras

The Brahmavihāras: mettā (good-will), karuṇā (compassion), muditā (empathetic joy), and upekkhā (equanimity), are traditionally practiced toward living beings. However, their highest potential is realized when they are applied inwardly, toward one's own mind and its formations. This inner direction not only purifies the heart but fosters the direct development of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment by transforming our relationship with experience itself.

Whatever mental fabrications there are that are rooted in desire, all are abandoned through the mind released in loving-kindness...

AN8.63

Let's look at how each Brahmavihāra can be inwardly applied toward our own mental states to cultivate each of the seven bojjhaṅgā:

1. Mettā: Good-Will Toward Our Mind States

Instead of directing mettā outward, we turn it inward toward our own mind, especially when observing unwholesome thoughts, irritation, or fear. Rather than resisting or condemning these formations, we meet them with an unconditional kindness or good-will. This practice softens the resistance that prevents mindfulness and unifies the mind, preparing it for both rapture (pīti) and concentration (samādhi).

Whatever thought arises, one understands: ‘This is a mental formation.’ With kindness, the mind does not cling.

SN47.10

The utility of mettā lies in its ability to counter not only overt hatred or anger but refined layers of aversion, such as:

Frustration at the mind wandering during practice ("Why is this happening again?")
Irritation toward tiredness, dullness, or sluggish effort ("I should be doing better.")
Judgmental thoughts toward mental distractions ("This thought is unworthy. This state is wrong.")
Impatience with emotional pain or sorrow ("This shouldn’t still be here.")
Harsh striving masked as discipline ("I’ll push through this, whether or not it hurts.")

All of these are subtle versions of ill-will toward one's own mind. They perpetuate the cycle of suffering not by aggression, but by resistance.

For example, during practice, when a difficult mental formation arises, see it with good-will. Repeat gently. Do not expect immediate transformation—but watch how the resistance softens, and mindfulness stabilizes.

As we refine our practice, mettā is no longer something we do, but a way of seeing. It is not a phrase, not a feeling, not even a deliberate attitude, it becomes the very lens through which the mind regards its own processes.

2. Karuṇā: Compassion for Painful Mind States

Compassion, inwardly directed, is the ability to hold your own suffering states, grief, anger, regret, with tenderness and wisdom. Rather than pushing these away or falling into aversion, karuṇā sees the dukkha in the formation. This clarity supports mindfulness and investigation.

You can silently see: “This is suffering, this too is a part of my condition,” thereby stabilizing awareness and opening a gentle space for exploration.

Seeing the danger in unwholesome states, the mind inclines to compassion toward its own wounded tendencies.

MN19

3. Muditā: Joy in Recognizing Wholesome States

Joy or Muditā becomes a powerful force when applied to our own skillful thoughts and inclinations. When a wholesome intention arises, like renunciation, patience, or clarity, we rejoice! Take joy in the arising of wholesome states. This inner joy becomes energy and rapture, sustaining the practice and counteracting dullness or dissatisfaction.

Rather than focusing on what's wrong in the mind, recognize what’s working. Let the joy of the path feed itself.

One recollects their own virtue, and joy arises… from joy, rapture; from rapture, tranquility…

AN11.2

4. Upekkhā: Equanimity with All Arising and Passing Formations

Equanimity or Upekkhā, when inwardly directed, means regarding every arising mental fabrication, pleasant or painful, with deep equanimity. Not apathy, but clear seeing: "This too is conditioned. This too arises and ceases." Such equanimity naturally supports mindfulness, concentration, and the factor of equanimity itself.

Equanimity allows you to see the composite nature of all experience, neither clinging to delight nor recoiling from distress.

He regards feeling as feeling… mind as mind… he dwells independent, not clinging to anything in the world.

MN10

The Brahmavihāras, inwardly directed, become a compassionate frame for observing impermanence. They protect against self-judgment, energize wholesome qualities, and balance the extremes of indulgence and aversion.

Purifying the Mind: Developing The Higher Mind

Now that we have covered the mind stream and how intention, attention, and perception need to be purified into a collected energy for clear seeing, and the destruction of the taints, it is important to understand one key point.

It is not the mind itself that penetrates the taints, it is wisdom. This wisdom depends on awareness to see things as they truly are, free from the fabrications created by the mind.

That is why we purify our intentions, attention, and perceptions, resulting in a collected and purified mind. Only when the mind is purified, and awareness embraces all experience, can wisdom truly see things as they are.

This is why, throughout the Tathagata's teachings, he emphasizes the importance of developing awareness that is both broad and refined. Such awareness helps prevent us from becoming caught up in our moment-to-moment experience.

To avoid entanglement in our own fabrications, we must cultivate awareness that embraces everything arising in experience without clinging or aversion. This requires gathering the scattered mind by calming bodily, mental, and verbal formations, while at the same time expanding awareness so that all experience is encompassed.

In the Gradual Training, this process begins with coarse bodily awareness, "dwelling body in body," then moves to "feelings in feelings," progresses to the subtleties of the mind, and ultimately reaches formless perception. This is how we develop the "higher mind," Jhana, which is the goal of this stage in the Gradual Training.

Beginning with Full-Body Awareness

In Right Mindfulness, we first start by experiencing the whole body, so that all bodily formations are known as they arise and pass away. Instead of getting lost in fabrications, we experience everything with detachment. Awareness becomes broad enough to include the entirety of physical experience, preventing entanglement in sensations or thoughts.

Here, a disciple, having gone to the forest, to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut, sits down; having folded his legs crosswise, set his body erect, and established mindfulness in front of him. Ever mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out... he trains thus: 'I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body.'

MN10

As stability is established, the Tathagata instructs further refinement of awareness in the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118). One trains to become aware not only of the breath (body), but also of feelings, mental states, and mental processes. The field of mindfulness expands and becomes more subtle with each of the four dwellings of mindfulness. This gradual subtlety is crucial. Without it, one remains stuck at the level of coarse bodily sensations and emotions.

Having dwelled “feelings in feelings,” this marks the beginning of transcending coarse identity, the physical body. As one withdraws interest from the physical and begins to observe the mind as mind, dwelling in the mental body, one starts to see that thoughts too are conditioned phenomena, not worthy of clinging. Thus, refinement naturally leads to dispassion.

Entering the Higher Mind: Jhāna and Beyond

When awareness becomes tranquil, unified, and joyful, one enters the jhānas, Right Concentration. These are stages of the higher mind. In MN 8, the Tathagata praises the cultivation of these states:

Quite secluded from sensual pleasures... a disciple enters upon and abides in the first jhāna... second... third... fourth jhāna. This is called the development of the higher mind.

MN8

However, it is crucial to recognize that jhāna is not something one jumps into. In the Gradual Training, jhāna is the fruit of abandoning the hindrances through the cultivation of the seven factors of enlightenment:

When he sees that the five hindrances are abandoned in him... joy arises. In one who is joyful, rapture arises. The body becomes tranquil, and he enters the first jhāna...

MN27

The seven factors: mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity, are developed to remove obstacles and purify the mind. These conditions make jhāna possible and provide the clarity needed to observe formations without entanglement.

Jhāna then becomes not a state, but a dwelling place for practicing Right Concentration, enabling one to remain with the processes of perception and fabrication, detached, while clearly seeing their conditioned nature.

When he sees that the five hindrances are abandoned in him... joy arises. In one who is joyful, rapture arises. The body becomes tranquil, and he enters the first jhāna...

SN46.3

Without this progressive refinement of awareness, attention, and perception, the mind remains entangled with the coarse phenomena of form, feeling, and identity. The Tathagata repeatedly emphasizes that clinging arises due to ignorance and attachment to what is misperceived as permanent, satisfying, or self. By moving into subtler dimensions of awareness, these misperceptions become more transparent. As the Cūla-Suññata Sutta (MN 121) says:

Not attending to the perception of the village... of people... of earth, he attends to the singleness dependent on the dimension of infinite space... consciousness... nothingness... neither perception nor non-perception... He understands: 'This is empty of what is not empty of.'

MN121

This insight into emptiness culminates in the realization of non-self, where one ceases to identify with any experience at all, gross or subtle. Thus, true freedom arises not from escaping experience, but from deeply knowing it in its subtlest layers, without grasping.

A subtle but crucial aspect of this process is the necessity of remaining outside of fabrications at all times. Rather than being entangled in bodily sensations, thoughts, or even refined meditative states, the disciple must abide in a knowing that is always apart, observing but not identified. In these increasingly subtle states, awareness dwells beyond entanglement, perceiving all formations as empty and not-self. This non-entangled stance is the essence of liberation.

Integrating Collection and Expansion: Subduing and Seeing

To do this we must collect all the mental processes and formations, those that give rise to perception, feeling, and conceptual space, by subduing the forces of greed, aversion, and delusion.

This 'collected mind' refers to the calming and stilling of the fabrications through mindfulness. But simultaneously, we must expand our awareness beyond these very fabrications.

This expansion does not negate the collected state; rather, it ensures that our mindfulness includes and transcends these formations, allowing them to be clearly seen, understood, and ultimately let go.

This dual movement, of gathering inward through stillness and expanding outward through insight, prevents us from identifying with the aggregates.

In simple terms, we collect the mind and it's scattered formations, so that these formations do not obstruct clear seeing. At the same time we expand awareness, so that all of experience is included in that awareness without clinging. To refine our perception until all fabrications are seen as they are: impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self. Through this refinement of awareness, from body to formlessness, we dislodge the view that clings to identity.

Purifying the Mind: Seclusion

Being endowed with clear knowing, the Tathagata further instructs him: Come, disciple, frequent a secluded dwelling - a forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a cave, a cemetery, a forest haunt, an open space, a heap of straw.

He frequents a secluded dwelling - a forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a cave, a cemetery, a forest haunt, an open space, a heap of straw. After his meal, on returning from his alms round, he sits down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect, and establishing mindfulness in the body.

He lives with a mind free from covetousness, cleansing his mind of covetousness; he lives with a mind free from ill-will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings, cleansing his mind of ill-will; he lives free from sloth and torpor, perceiving light, mindful and fully aware, cleansing his mind of sloth and torpor; he lives free from restlessness and remorse, with an inner tranquility, cleansing his mind of restlessness and remorse; he lives free from doubt, having crossed over doubt, unperplexed about wholesome states, cleansing his mind of doubt.

MN107

Abandoning the Hindrances and progressing through the subsequent stages of the Gradual Training depend on seclusion, both physical and mental. This does not mean only brief retreats, but extended periods of solitude. As part of the practice of abandoning the Hindrances, it will be necessary to find a quiet, natural setting such as a forest, hill, hut, cabin, or a silent room.

It will be necessary to disconnect completely from human contact, phones, and all forms of reading except Dhamma. Only the bare necessities should be brought: clothing, food, water, and shelter.

Seclusion is primarily from the "world," meaning the Five Senses. Right Mindfulness requires subduing greed and aversion for the "world."

Seven Factors: Awakening

With the destruction of the taints (āsava), one’s mind is liberated. Knowing: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.

MN72

At Awakening:

Mindfulness (sati) holds steady, fully present, not wavering. The mind clearly sees what is happening without confusion.

Investigation of Dhammas (dhammavicaya): fully penetrates the three characteristics: Anicca: All formations are impermanent. Dukkha: All formations are unsatisfactory. Anattā: All phenomena are not-self.

Energy (vīriya): is unwavering but balanced — no more striving, but fully alert.

Joy (pīti): has matured into deep gladness at the nearness of release.

Tranquility (passaddhi): allows the mind to remain serene in the face of profound insights.

Concentration (samādhi): holds the mind unified like a steady flame undisturbed by wind.

Equanimity (upekkhā): allows total surrender: No clinging. No aversion. No fear. The mind fully lets go.

“There is, disciples, that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air... no this world, no other world... neither this nor that — this is the end of suffering.

ud1

The Seven Factors themselves are not Nibbāna. They are the conditions that lead to seeing Nibbāna. Once full liberation occurs, even the Seven Factors are no longer actively cultivated. The arahant lives with a purified mind that naturally abides without effort.

Here a disciple frequents a secluded lodging: a forest, the root of a tree, a mountain, a ravine, a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a jungle grove...

He sits down cross-legged after his meal, having returned from his alms round, setting his body erect and establishing mindfulness on itself. He lives with a mind free from covetousness for the world, cleansing his mind of covetousness; free from ill-will and harm, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings, cleansing his mind of ill-will; free from sloth and torpor, alert and mindful, cleansing his mind of sloth and torpor; free from restlessness and remorse, calm in mind, cleansing his mind of restlessness and remorse; free from doubt, having crossed over doubt, confident in skillful qualities, cleansing his mind of doubt.

Just as a person would take a loan for a venture, and the venture succeeds, he would then repay his old debts and still have surplus for supporting his family, thinking, I took a loan for a venture, it succeeded, I repaid my debts and have surplus for my family, and he would be joyful and happy.

Similarly, a sick person, suffering and severely ill, unable to eat and lacking strength, later recovers, can eat and regains strength, thinking, I was sick, suffering, unable to eat, now I am recovered, can eat, and have regained strength, and he would be joyful and happy.

Just as a person imprisoned would later be released safely without loss of property, thinking, I was imprisoned, now I am released safely without loss of property, and he would be joyful and happy.

Just as a slave would later be freed, becoming independent and free to go where he wishes, thinking, I was a slave, now I am free and independent, and he would be joyful and happy.

Just as a wealthy person traveling through a dangerous road would emerge safely without loss of property, thinking, I traveled through a dangerous road and emerged safely without loss of property, and he would be joyful and happy.

In the same way a disciple sees these five hindrances un-abandoned in himself as debt, sickness, imprisonment, slavery, and a dangerous road. When these five hindrances are abandoned, he sees himself as debt-free, healthy, released from prison, freed from slavery, and in a safe place.

Having abandoned these five hindrances, impurities of the mind that weaken wisdom, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, he enters and remains in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion...

MN39

Sutta Study

AN5.23: The Impurities Sutta discusses the concept of impurities in both gold and the mind, drawing parallels between the two. In gold, impurities such as iron, copper, tin, lead, and silver prevent it from being pliable, workable, and radiant, hindering its use in craftsmanship. Similarly, the mind has five impurities: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. These impurities make the mind inflexible, unworkable, and dull, obstructing concentration and the ability to achieve higher states of knowledge. When these mental impurities are removed, the mind becomes capable of extraordinary feats, such as recalling past lives, understanding the minds of others, and perceiving the karmic destinies of beings with the divine eye. The sutta emphasizes the importance of purifying the mind to attain deep concentration and spiritual powers.

AN5.176: Anathapindika, accompanied by 500 followers, visited the Blessed One and was advised not to be content with just supporting disciples materially. Instead, he should focus on experiencing the joy of seclusion. Venerable Sariputta praised this teaching, noting that when one dwells in seclusion, they are free from both pleasure and pain associated with sensual, unwholesome, and even wholesome states, emphasizing the profound peace found in such solitude.

AN8.63: A disciple asked the Blessed One to teach him the Dhamma briefly to practice diligently in solitude. The Tathagata instructed him to train his mind to be firm and free from evil states, and to develop concentration with loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. He was to practice mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind, and phenomena, removing covetousness and grief. After following these teachings, the disciple achieved arahantship, realizing the ultimate goal of the holy life and confirming the end of rebirth.

AN10.61: The Avijjāsutta explains the causal relationships that lead to ignorance and liberation. Ignorance is sustained by the five hindrances, which in turn are fueled by three kinds of misconduct. These misconducts are influenced by lack of sense restraint, which is affected by deficient mindfulness and clear comprehension. This deficiency stems from unwise attention, which is a result of faithlessness, itself caused by not hearing the true Dhamma. This lack of exposure to true teachings is due to associating with bad people. Conversely, liberation is nourished by the seven factors of enlightenment, which are supported by the four foundations of mindfulness. These foundations are upheld by three kinds of good conduct, which are influenced by proper sense restraint. This restraint is enhanced by mindfulness and clear comprehension, which are nourished by wise attention. Wise attention comes from faith, which is fostered by hearing true teachings, and this is facilitated by associating with good people. This Sutta uses the metaphor of rainwater flowing down a mountain to illustrate how these elements are interconnected, emphasizing the importance of good associations for achieving true knowledge and liberation.

SN46.55: The brahmin Saṅgārava asks why sometimes verses stay in memory while other times they don’t. The Tathagata replies that it is due to the presence of either the hindrances of awakening factors. He gives a set of similes illustrating each of the hindrances with different bowls of water.

SN46.2: The Sutta explains how both the body and mental states depend on nourishment. It likens the sustenance of the body by food to the sustenance of mental hindrances and enlightenment factors by their respective nourishments. Sensual desire is nourished by focusing on beauty, ill-will by focusing on repulsiveness, sloth and torpor by boredom and lethargy, restlessness and remorse by an unsettled mind, and doubt by ambiguous situations. Conversely, enlightenment factors like mindfulness, investigation of dhamma, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity are nourished by appropriate attention to conducive states and qualities. This analogy emphasizes the importance of proper mental nourishment for spiritual growth.

SN46.3: The Silasutta emphasizes the profound benefits of associating with noble disciples skilled in virtue, concentration, and liberation. Engaging with such individuals—through seeing, listening, and following them—leads disciples to experience both bodily and mental satisfaction. This satisfaction fosters mindfulness, which in turn triggers a series of awakening factors: investigation of Dhamma, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. As these factors are developed, they culminate in significant spiritual achievements. Depending on the extent of their cultivation, disciples can expect one of seven outcomes, ranging from enlightenment in this life to various states of liberation after death, highlighting the transformative power of diligently practicing the Dhamma.

SN46.4: Venerable Sāriputta, while in Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove, taught the disciples about the seven factors of enlightenment: mindfulness, investigation of the Dhamma, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. He explained his ability to dwell in any chosen enlightenment factor at different times of the day, describing each as 'boundless' and 'well cultivated'. He compared this mastery to a king choosing garments to wear, emphasizing his deep understanding and control over these spiritual states.

SN46.6: The Blessed One, while in Sāketa's Añjanavana Deer Park, was approached by the wanderer Kuṇḍaliya. Kuṇḍaliya inquired about the benefits of the Tathagata's teachings. The Tathagata explained that he lives for the benefit of knowledge and liberation, achievable through the development of the seven factors of enlightenment. These factors are cultivated by practicing the four foundations of mindfulness, which in turn are fulfilled by the three kinds of good conduct, underpinned by sense restraint. Sense restraint involves guarding the senses to prevent unwholesome states and maintain mental stability. This practice leads to good conduct, which supports mindfulness, fostering the factors of enlightenment essential for ultimate knowledge and liberation. Impressed, Kuṇḍaliya expressed his admiration and declared his commitment to the Tathagata, the Dhamma, and the Sangha as a lay follower.

SN46.26: The Udāyivagga Taṇhakkhayasutta teaches that the path to the cessation of craving is through developing the seven factors of enlightenment, as explained by the Blessed One to the venerable Udāyi. These factors, including mindfulness and equanimity, are cultivated based on seclusion, dispassion, cessation, and relinquishing attachment. This development leads to the abandonment of craving, action, and consequently, suffering, illustrating a direct path to the cessation of suffering through the cessation of craving and action.

SN46.35: The Ayonisomanasikārasutta discusses the effects of improper and proper attention. Improper attention leads to the emergence and growth of negative states like sensual desire, ill will, sloth, torpor, restlessness, remorse, and doubt. Conversely, proper attention fosters the development and fulfillment of positive qualities such as the mindfulness and equanimity enlightenment factors, enhancing spiritual growth.

SN46.38: When a noble disciple attentively listens to the Dhamma, fully engaged and focused, the five hindrances—sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt—are absent. Concurrently, the seven factors of enlightenment, including mindfulness and equanimity, are fully developed. This state of focused engagement and absence of hindrances allows for the deepening of spiritual understanding and progress.

SN46.41: Originating in Sāvatthi, the discourse emphasizes that ascetics and brahmins across all times—past, present, and future—successfully abandon the threefold due to their development and cultivation of the seven factors of enlightenment. These factors range from mindfulness to equanimity, underscoring their essential role in spiritual abandonment and enlightenment.

SN46.49: The Tathagata emphasizes the importance of wise attention in cultivating the seven factors of enlightenment. He states that no other single factor is as crucial for the development of these enlightenment factors as wise attention. A disciple with wise attention is expected to develop and cultivate these factors, particularly mindfulness and equanimity, both of which are rooted in seclusion, dispassion, cessation, and mature through relinquishment.

SN46.51: The Sākacchavagga Āhārasutta teaches about the nourishment and non-nourishment for the five hindrances and the seven factors of enlightenment. Sensual desire is nourished by frequent improper attention to the sign of beauty, while ill-will is fueled by the sign of repulsiveness. Sloth and torpor grow from discontent and lethargy, restlessness and remorse from non-quietude of the mind, and doubt from uncertain things. Conversely, the enlightenment factors such as mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity are nourished by frequent proper attention to conducive states and signs. Non-nourishment involves applying wise attention to counteract the arising and development of hindrances, such as perceiving unattractiveness to combat sensual desire, and cultivating loving-kindness against ill-will.

SN46.52: Some wanderers tell some desciples that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the seven awakening factors, so what is the difference? The Tathagata explains by giving a detailed analytical treatment that he says is beyond the scope of the wanderers.

SN46.54: Some wanderers tell some desciples that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the four Brahmā dwellings, so what is the difference? The Tathagata explains the detailed connection between the Brahmā dwellings and the awakening factors, which taken together lead to liberation.

SN54.2: The Bojjhaṅgasutta teaches that mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated, offers significant benefits. It involves developing seven enlightenment factors—mindfulness, investigation-of-states, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity—each accompanied by mindfulness of breathing. These practices are rooted in seclusion, dispassion, cessation, and lead to letting go, culminating in substantial spiritual rewards.

SN54.12: Venerable Lomasavaṅgīsa explains to Mahānāma that the difference between a trainee and the Realized One is that the trainees practice to give up the hindrances, whereas the Realized One has already ended all defilements.

SN54.13: In Sāvatthī, Venerable Ānanda asked the Blessed One if a single practice could fulfill multiple spiritual developments. The Blessed One confirmed that mindfulness of breathing, when properly cultivated, fulfills the four foundations of mindfulness, which in turn fulfill the seven factors of enlightenment, leading to true knowledge and liberation. This practice involves a disciple being fully aware and mindful while breathing, focusing on the body, feelings, mind, and phenomena, thereby cultivating mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. These factors, developed through seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, ultimately lead to enlightenment and liberation.