This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

Yes, even in other traditions of Buddhism, like in Tibetan Buddhism, they talk about the bardo, and everything.

 Those periods of intervals don’t happen outside of the Mentality-Materiality, they still happen within the same Mentality. It might seem like it’s an interval period between one death and the next rebirth, but that interval period is happening in the Mentality, where the Kamma is searching for a suitable rebirth, a suitable point of conception. But it’s still within the Mentality of that same being before they’re dying.

It’s incredibly fast, it could be split seconds, it could be even faster than that, but it might seem like it’s slower, where the Kamma is searching for within the Mentality of that being.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

In the case of rebirth, on the macro level, one consciousness links into another Mentality-Materiality at the point of death, at the very deep layers of mind.

You might have heard of people that have had near-death experiences, or things like that. It’s happening in the mind, in the Mentality of the Mentality-Materiality. What’s happening is that the Formations are arising and producing these experiences. So then, that consciousness attaches to it through craving, clinging, and identifying. This happens with intention.

In the case of one who is experiencing death, there will be memories that arise, there will be other images that arise, and these are all different Formations coming to fruition. They’re coming into the mind’s eye, if you will, in the way of images, as I just said. Then, if any part of the mind attaches craving to it, attaches that sense of Ignorance that there’s a self here, then – through intention of attaching to that Formation – there is a new consciousness that arises. This spontaneously links with a new Mentality-Materiality, at the point of conception. That consciousness drives forward all the Formations that it attaches to. Those Formations will be at the foreground of that birth, so it will manifest in the form of a birth, related to those kinds of Formations.

This is why, when someone is dying, it’s important to keep them in a state of comfort, to keep them in a state of good feelings, good Formations, and good thoughts and experiences. Because that can relate to a better rebirth, or better circumstances for better rebirth.

Having said that, that does not mean that there are certain Formations related to negative experiences or negative Kamma that won’t come to fruition. They will still manifest, even if you have a ‘positive’ birth, or better circumstances.

On the flipside, if you are in a negative situation and you have a negative birth, so to speak, there will still be the seeds of the positive Formations that will still take root through the experiences that you have.

So, it’s not necessarily completely black and white. But what I’m saying is, to simplify, when at the point of death, you see these experiences; if there is clinging to them, if there is attachment to them, if there’s identification to them, the intention to attach to them drives forward the Consciousness. It transfers all those Formations and links spontaneously through that process of rebirth, to a new Mentality-Materiality, at the point of conception. That creates the rest of the links of Dependent Origination, on the macro level. In the case of a human birth, that consciousness dissipates, and more consciousnesses arise within the development of that fetus, in the womb. And then, of course, the physical birth happens for that being.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

  Formations are, as I always say, the carriers of Kamma. It’s the kammic impulses. It’s always the Formations that start to form the images and the feelings and so on.

But it’s the consciousness, which is hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, which is to say that it takes that to be self. It takes the images that it sees to belong to a sense of self, and it craves for that being. So, because of that, that intention of craving drives forward that consciousness. I mentioned in the past that the faculty of intention is rooted in the Mentality-Materiality. It’s through that, that the process of the Formations arise and that gives way to the intention behind speaking, thinking and reflecting, and  behind acting, breathing and so on.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

In the case of rebirth on the macro level, one consciousness links into another Mentality-Materiality at the point of death, in the very deep layers of mind. You might have heard of people who have had near-death experiences. This happens in the mind, in the mentality of the Mentality-Materiality. The Formations are arising and produce these experiences, and then that consciousness attaches to it through clinging, identifying, and craving and that happens with intention.

When one is experiencing death, there will be memories that arise, there will be other images that arise, and these are all different Formations coming to fruition. These are coming into the mind’s eye if you will. If any part of the mind attaches craving to it, attaches that sense of ignorance that there is a self here, then through intention of attaching to that Formation, there arises a new consciousness that spontaneously links with a new Mentality-Materiality at the point of conception.  Then, that consciousness drives forward all the Formations that it attaches to. So, those Formations will be at the foreground of that birth. It will manifest in the form of a birth related to those kinds of Formations.

Which is why, when someone is dying, it is important to keep them in a state of comfort, in a state of good feelings and good Formations, and good thoughts and experiences, because that can relate to a better rebirth, or better circumstances.

Having said that, it does not mean certain Formations, related to negative experiences or negative Kamma, will not come to fruition. They will still manifest, even if you have a ‘positive’ birth or better circumstances.

And on the flip side, if you are in a negative situation and you have a negative rebirth, so to speak, there will still be the seeds of the positive Formations that will still take root through the experiences that you have.

It is not necessarily completely black and white, but to simplify; when at the point of death, you see these experiences, if there is clinging to them, if there is attachment to them, if there’s identification to them, the intention to attach to them drives forward the consciousness and transfers all those Formations and links spontaneously through that process of rebirth, to a new Mentality-Materiality at the point of conception. That creates the rest of the links of Dependent Origination on the macro level, to where there is a being, in the case of a human birth, that gets born [arises in the womb] and their consciousness dissipates and then more consciousnesses arise within the development of that fetus in the womb.  And then of course, the physical birth happens for that being.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 5 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

Yes, volition and Saṅkhāra are different. Sometimes the translations will, for whatever reason, say that Saṅkhāra are volitional activities, or volitional formations, or sometimes even equated to intention. But the Pali translation of volition, or what is intention, is cetanā.

The five factors of mentality, in mentality-materiality, are feeling, perception, intention, contact, and attention. Through the faculty of feeling – and that is the six sense bases-, the process of feeling occurs. Through the faculty of perception – that is memory and recognition -, the process of perception and recognition occurs. Through the process of intention, this is how the formations flow through the consciousness. So, the consciousness carries forward those formations, and then is lodged into the faculty of intention, which creates the intention behind acting, behind behaving, behind speaking, and behind thinking or reflecting.

And then you have what is the process of contact, which is happening through the faculty of contact, within mentality. The process of contact is the stimulation that occurs when the outside world meets with the six sense bases. This happens through the faculty of contact and mentality. Attention, manasikara, is what you’re using for mindfulness, to be able to collect the mind towards an object and unify it around it. Attention doesn’t control but is able to perceive and understand whether to take any of these other four factors of mentality, and their processes, as permanent or impermanent, impersonal or personal, or worth holding on to or not worth holding on to.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

Yes, even in other traditions of Buddhism, like in Tibetan Buddhism, they talk about the bardo, and everything.

 Those periods of intervals don’t happen outside of the Mentality-Materiality, they still happen within the same Mentality. It might seem like it’s an interval period between one death and the next rebirth, but that interval period is happening in the Mentality, where the Kamma is searching for a suitable rebirth, a suitable point of conception. But it’s still within the Mentality of that same being before they’re dying.

It’s incredibly fast, it could be split seconds, it could be even faster than that, but it might seem like it’s slower, where the Kamma is searching for within the Mentality of that being.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

In the case of rebirth, on the macro level, one consciousness links into another Mentality-Materiality at the point of death, at the very deep layers of mind.

You might have heard of people that have had near-death experiences, or things like that. It’s happening in the mind, in the Mentality of the Mentality-Materiality. What’s happening is that the Formations are arising and producing these experiences. So then, that consciousness attaches to it through craving, clinging, and identifying. This happens with intention.

In the case of one who is experiencing death, there will be memories that arise, there will be other images that arise, and these are all different Formations coming to fruition. They’re coming into the mind’s eye, if you will, in the way of images, as I just said. Then, if any part of the mind attaches craving to it, attaches that sense of Ignorance that there’s a self here, then – through intention of attaching to that Formation – there is a new consciousness that arises. This spontaneously links with a new Mentality-Materiality, at the point of conception. That consciousness drives forward all the Formations that it attaches to. Those Formations will be at the foreground of that birth, so it will manifest in the form of a birth, related to those kinds of Formations.

This is why, when someone is dying, it’s important to keep them in a state of comfort, to keep them in a state of good feelings, good Formations, and good thoughts and experiences. Because that can relate to a better rebirth, or better circumstances for better rebirth.

Having said that, that does not mean that there are certain Formations related to negative experiences or negative Kamma that won’t come to fruition. They will still manifest, even if you have a ‘positive’ birth, or better circumstances.

On the flipside, if you are in a negative situation and you have a negative birth, so to speak, there will still be the seeds of the positive Formations that will still take root through the experiences that you have.

So, it’s not necessarily completely black and white. But what I’m saying is, to simplify, when at the point of death, you see these experiences; if there is clinging to them, if there is attachment to them, if there’s identification to them, the intention to attach to them drives forward the Consciousness. It transfers all those Formations and links spontaneously through that process of rebirth, to a new Mentality-Materiality, at the point of conception. That creates the rest of the links of Dependent Origination, on the macro level. In the case of a human birth, that consciousness dissipates, and more consciousnesses arise within the development of that fetus, in the womb. And then, of course, the physical birth happens for that being.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

Formations are, as I always say, the carriers of Kamma. It’s the kammic impulses. It’s always the Formations that start to create the images, that start to form the images and the feelings, and so on. But it’s the Consciousness, if you read today’s sutta which is: when it is hindered by Ignorance and fettered by craving – which is to say that it takes that to be self, it takes the images that it sees to belong to a sense of self – and it craves for that being.

Because of that, that intention of craving drives forward that consciousness.

 The faculty of Intention is rooted in the Mentality-Materiality. It’s through this, that the process of the Formations arise. That gives way to the intention behind speaking, behind thinking and reflecting, and behind acting, breathing, and so on.

[Question]

So the intention, let’s say, when not taking it personal, no personal involvement, doesn’t vanish but changes? Is it still there because you have to interact with the world?

[Answer]

Yes, at that time there’s no identification with that intention. In the case of an Arahant – somebody who’s fully realized and fully enlightened – Ignorance is no longer conditioning or hindering the Formations. And craving and conceit are no longer fetters within the Formations. Ignorance is replaced by Right View. Whenever the Formations arise, it’s due to Contact, Kammic contact. So, prior to full Awakening, they are experiencing the effects of old Kamma. The Formations, as Kammic carriers, will take the Kammic seeds, the Kammic effects of the old actions, old thoughts, and old deeds and speeches, that happened prior to full Awakening, and they will carry forward into the Consciousness. This will drive forward in intention.

But all throughout that process, there’s no sense of involvement, of a personal self. It’s just being seen, with Mindfulness, as a series of impersonal processes.

So, when someone like the Buddha, or an Arahant monk in the sutta says “It occurred to me….” they’re using conventional language that the thought came into mind. But the thought came into mind because of the Formations, and then the intention to say that maybe I’ll go out for alms today at this place or maybe I’ll go visit these people at this place, and so on and so forth.

Even though it’s using language that is very conventional, the understanding behind it, deep down, is that it’s all impersonal. There is no taking personal the intention. And since there is no craving or identifying with the intention, the intention is completely void of any fettered Formations, void of any craving and void of any identification.

 When that intention drives forward, it will still continue on without creating any potential for craving to arise, for any potential for identifying with the Feeling that arises, at the level of thought or at the level of the sensory experiences.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 6 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

Slightly edited to improve readability

Yes, even in other traditions of Buddhism, like in Tibetan Buddhism, they talk about the bardo, and everything.

 Those periods of intervals don’t happen outside of the Mentality-Materiality, they still happen within the same Mentality. It might seem like it’s an interval period between one death and the next rebirth, but that interval period is happening in the Mentality, where the Kamma is searching for a suitable rebirth, a suitable point of conception. But it’s still within the Mentality of that same being before they’re dying.

It’s incredibly fast, it could be split seconds, it could be even faster than that, but it might seem like it’s slower, where the Kamma is searching for within the Mentality of that being.

Watch it here