12-05-22-Gil-Gladness Pentad (1 of 5) Flow of Goodness

7:50AM Dec 15, 2022

Speakers:

Gil Fronsdal

Keywords:

reactivity

flow

gladness

buddha

joy

retreat center

experience

little bit

mindfulness

begins

life

thoughts

describes

lousy

preoccupations

river

inspired

present moment

channel

part

Hello, everyone. And here we are in New Monday, a new week that PDB with you. And in a sense, I bring with you a little bit of the last retreat that I was teaching on that the inside retreat center and ended yesterday. And it was wonderful to be at the retreat center in person and even more more wonderful to be meditating there and kind of being in the flow. Very, very relaxed flow of the practice of the schedule of the whole life, they're at the retreat center. So I come here happy with this. And also, I come here with little bit, the theme of the retreat. And what I'm inspired to share with you this week, is what has been come maybe locally been come to be called the gladness pen Ted. And I probably talked about this before, certainly parts of it. And these are five inner states qualities that can grow. As we develop practice, on the way the Buddha presented, these five, was not something that we generated, or create or construct for ourselves, make happen, like we're the in charge, and we're going to make kind of pump this up, but rather, something that emerges. And, and then begins to flow and merges and begins to flow into each other one after the other. And the role of the practitioner is to know it, allow for it, they groom for it, and not interfere with the process. We interfere with it by getting lost in thought. Part of the value of learning how not to be wander off in thought and be caught up in preoccupations is that when we're really here that is that those thoughts, those preoccupations are a dampener, they limit they close the doors to something flowing and moving something that can happen, that when those are not there. It's kind of like you, you know, if you're on the radio, and you turn onto the channel of the news, as horrible as the news might be, and you get all you missed the you know, you're tuned into a different channel. And but you turn it back to the channel, where maybe there's some really inspiring music that really kind of touches you and opens you and delights you and and it helps you to be in the present moment. And so when we stop being distracted, and mindfulness has developed, so we're really here, it's a new channel, and it's a new, something new can flow and move that can't move if we're distracted. And, and that's part of one of those descriptions of this is the gladness pen tat. So this is gladness itself, that's the first first quality get that gives it its name, joy, tranquility, happiness, and Samadhi concentration. And, and one of the salient features of some of the description of these is that it doesn't say that the meditator makes these happen, but they from one the other arises the other flows from one to the other. And this idea of flowing or arising flowing is kind of maybe the, I think maybe one of the preeminent ways in which the Buddha talks about the growth the expansion and movement of healthy states of mind. And the mitt number of places he uses the metaphor of water flowing in a river flowing and a stream and or water flowing from an underwater spring into a large, peaceful lake. The flow of that water from the inside out or really finding the current of the river and then flowing in the current. Or as the rivers go down the mountainside and combined, they get bigger and bigger, bigger. So as these good qualities kind of come together and grow, something within us gets bigger and bigger, more expansive. And this idea of the of becoming expansive, is part of what the Buddha talks about as practice develops, video flowing. The alternative to this is, is what we could call reactivity, and the reactivity and kind of my language, but the reactivity in that kind of what the Buddha points to, is very different metaphors to describe it. He admits to carbs at his fire that burns you, he describes that as a bar, a kind of an arrow that, you know, pierces you a sickness that comes from the outside, and maybe a virus that comes from outside, that is not an alien little bit to who you are, but makes you sick. A, a tumor, which is also kind of, you know, not you, it's something that's extra, sometimes he calls it a burden. So there's something outside that's weighing you down, like a heavy thing you have to carry. And these are very different kind of two different three different ways in which we can go through life. One, which is a burden, which which is we kind of afflictive and the other which is we're being carried along, something's moving within us, that we make space for and allow for this movement to towards freedom. And so the way the Buddha describes this, gladness, Penton, it begins by something that inspires us. And sometimes it's the faith or the trust we have in the dharma and the practice. Sometimes it has to do with some experience of, of freedom that we've experienced, not necessarily the Big Bang, freedom that that Buddhism might be emphasizing, but just a small ways in which we learn to let go and experience ourselves independent of our reactivity or preoccupations, or our kind of ways in which our rumination is self afflicting we kind of repeat the same kind of self critical kinds of thoughts over and over again. And it's is a kind of a burning fire that sin cinches us to have this over and over again. And so to have that stop, or cease or quiet down enough, that we have a different experience of ourselves. And we're inspired, that it's possible. What's remarkable, I think, for many of us, is how we can go through a life growing up and good parts of our life. Thinking that how the mind is our mind is operating is normal. That's the way it should be. And if the mind is involved with reactivity, and react, what I mean by reactivity is that there's a habitual mental emotional activity that gets triggered by some event outside or some event inside. So, you know, if I sit here quietly and think about you know, that you know, I haven't had my car oil changed for a while now. It's time to do it. And, and so that's just realizing that or there can be a reactivity to that inside. Like, Gil, I tell myself, you're a really lousy, terrible car owner. You don't really take care of that. Well, this is a thing that should be cared for and respected and how could you and I get angry with myself? And if that's an automatic pilot, that kind of criticism and anger, that's reactivity. And, and then that reactivity then can produce more reactivity. So once I get angry with myself for being a, you know, a lousy car owner, who doesn't care for his car, then I remember that I started remembering. You know that I'm supposed to be a mindfulness teacher who doesn't have reactivity, perhaps, you know, and, oh, now,

I'm really kind of a bad person because, you know, I'm, you know, now I'm a lousy teacher in addition to it. And now that I'm a lousy teacher, then Um, and talking about it to all of you that met you know, I just, I just get caught up in my reactivity, my embarrassment, my conceit my ideas. And it's possible that some people that's all they're living in it just reactivity, triggering more reactivity triggering more activity and just swirling around. And it's so normal, that the mind doesn't think that anything of it in a sense, this is what life is and the reactivity has some truth to it, the messages from it, to have it all quiet down enough to experience ourselves without that reactivity. Where one thing doesn't trigger another harmful thing and another little fire that cinches us or a BB that pokes us, but we experience the mind the heart and poked a on singed kind of becoming, relaxing, softening, opening, wow, this is possible. And that and for that, to give rise. For the Buddha, this, this kind of experience gives kids one of the sources for gladness. For this kind of it's kind of an inspiration, oh, and whether the word is should be gladness, it's the word is pop moja. And I kind of liked the word delight, kind of be with can't say joy and happiness, because those are coming may be kind of a joy. It's evaluative in nature. It's the kind of sense of joy that comes from evaluation or realization, understanding, oh, this is a good thing. So it does require some engagement involvement to reflect on Oh, yes, take the time to reflect on to think about all this is a good thing. This is this I appreciate this is valuable. The nature of reactivity is that it goes down can go non stop, it never takes a vacation. And so we just go from one thing to the next to the next to the next. And there's no room to pause and stop. And just appreciate the present moment appreciate the what can live within us that is not reactive. And the non reactive life, where something begins to flow as movements to flow is one of the things that dharma practice is moving us towards where we get out of certain RV activity gets out of the way. So that the current of goodness, that is a vet that lives within us as of potential can begin to flow and to begin getting an inkling of this possibility and feel it within us. And take the time to appreciate that is allows us to begin feeling a gladness and appreciation and certain kind of joy. That's important because when that becomes strong enough, or present enough in this non distracted state of mindfulness, that becomes the the seedbed or the the the river that grows into a stronger one bigger river. And that's for the grows into joy. From gladness, there arises joy, says the Buddha, he doesn't say from gladness, now make yourself joyful. The joy just flows a current. So so perhaps today, you can take a little bit of extra time here and there through the day to see what it's like to be undistracted in the present moment to allow yourself to find a way to appreciate just being present here and now and see that in that kind of letting go of reactivity and thoughts enough not that you have to stop thinking but enough that maybe you can find some kind of bubbling up flowing up some little hints within of, of something that wants to flow radiate move, that is good. May be beginning of a smile, an inner smile, smile of the heart. So thank you, and I'm very grateful to all of you that you're here to keep me company as we engage in the karma together this way thank you