Contributed by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated, Australia
Mentor: Bennie Spirit
Editor: Yinyue(Ivy)
With gratitude to Google AI Gemini
With gratitude to NotebookLM
Draft Date: Aug 14, 2026
Location: BPI Meditation Center
Attendees at the Dharma assembly: Bennie, Ivy, Ellie, Grace, Enid, Dawn,
Can you clearly see what your mind truly is? Furthermore, what is your delusion (vikalpa)? What are the essential elements of delusion? First, how many points do you personally define and label? Second, you dare to think and act (an extension of delusion) without knowing the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Third, every single point of yours is mixed with afflictions (kleśhas), and afflictions are one of the elements. Delusion is formed by these three major elements.
You must precisely know each of these three elements: how many points have you defined, and why did you define each point in such a way? Many things simply do not exist in this world; yet, once you define them, you believe they exist. Therefore, this is one of the core elements of your delusion. The key is that it originally did not exist, but you defined it as existing, and ultimately you firmly believe it must genuinely and undeniably exist; in reality, it does not. This is extremely terrifying: you laugh, cry, rejoice, and get angry over things that fundamentally do not exist—this is sheer insanity. Everyone is like this, only their episodes are not as intensely manifested.
Let us see exactly how much we have defined that fundamentally does not exist. We must carefully distinguish them to deeply explore the ultimate nature of delusion. Delusion is erroneous thinking, erroneous belief, and erroneous understanding. If you look closely, any state of madness like that of Yajñadatta (from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra) is a concrete manifestation of delusion. It is the insistence on defining something as existent when it is not. His head was originally there, but he defined it as having lost his head. In your definitions of existence and non-existence, do you know how much of it is your error? It is merely your definition; the matter fundamentally does not exist. You might ask: “If a specific thing actually exists and I define it as existing, is that correct?” It is still wrong; it is still delusion. This is because for something you define as “existing” to truly count as existing, it must be permanently unchanging. If it is currently changing, merely a phenomenon in the process of transformation (anitya), the moment you say it “exists,” it has already changed in the next second and is gone. Therefore, the belief held by those who consider all phenomena to be substantially existent (svabhāva) is still a severe error, because this substantial existence does not exist. It is still torturing yourself with something that does not exist.
**[Summary]**
* How many labels are there?
* Erroneously attaching labels when facing existent things.
* Erroneously attaching labels when facing nonexistent things.
Second, speaking and acting without a perfect SOP.
SOP can be considered a type of law or rule.
Third, speaking and acting recklessly while simultaneously adding afflictions (kleśhas).
Sentient beings in the state of ordinary worldlings (pṛthagjana) always have these problems, and in every present moment, they reside in this state of delusion. Even if one thinks and acts perfectly according to a standard SOP, it is still a delusion. This is because one takes this SOP as ultimately real again. The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) states: “As the Tathāgata speaks of dust particles (paramāṇu), they are not dust particles, they are merely called dust particles. As the Buddha speaks of world systems, they are not world systems, they are merely called world systems.” Many things are just labels attached by human beings once again. SOP is also a label; if you simply treat it as the absolute process itself, you are mistaken again. SOP is just SOP, but the letters do not inherently represent the absolute “Standard Operating Procedure”; for the sake of everyone’s memory, these three letters are used to represent it, but you cannot say it intrinsically *is* it. Then, is the genuine and complete operating procedure correct? It is still wrong, because when spoken, it is sound, and when written, it is text. The entire operational process is neither sound nor text.
Perfection means it perfectly aligns with its requirements: following every step perfectly, providing perfect equipment, materials, and labor perfectly. If every step is flawless, the product you create will be flawless. This process is not text; it is not language. Whether it is collective karma/industry, agriculture, or commerce, everything has its precise laws; establishing rules based on these laws is the SOP. If you establish this rule according to the law and execute it precisely, you can create existence out of non-existence. For example, mobile phones and computers do not naturally exist in the world, but you can create them. Nowadays, many agricultural products are not inherently present in nature either; they are also created by humans. Through countless generations of improvement, new species have been created to satisfy the needs of society.
Do you know this law precisely? If you cannot know it precisely, many blind spots (avidyā / ignorance) will appear. If you insist on doing something based on these blind spots, you can only fail. How many blind spots do humans have? Nearly one hundred percent.
Some people might genuinely object, thinking: “How is it possible that I am entirely wrong?” Of course you are entirely wrong; I dare not speak falsely (mṛṣā-vāda). It is because you consider it to be absolutely real, and you even think it has no errors; you take things that do not exist and consider them to exist.
Many people are unconvinced. In fact, colors, tastes, and so forth also do not inherently exist; they are defined by you. Every language uses different words to describe them; the languages are different. Even if the words are the same, the pronunciation varies in different places, and sometimes you simply cannot understand it at all, even if it is the same word. Because it is neither the word nor the sound, you can only say a label has been attached; you must definitely know it is a label, not the thing itself.
From this perspective, is the world one hundred percent wrong? Even just from the single point of labels, it is entirely wrong.
If speaking from the perspective of SOP, it is impossible for the continuity of your brain to have no errors at all during a continuous process. Once there is a single error, it is no longer an SOP, not to mention that you will also be mixed with the emotional afflictions (kleśhas) of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt (rāga, dveṣa, moha, māna, vicikitsā). Of these three elements, occupying just one constitutes a delusion; how much more so when you perfectly possess all three elements—that is a pure, unadulterated delusion!
Living in this kind of delusion, people cling to what is good, cling to what is bad, cling to right and wrong; after clinging for so long, there is still nothing at all. Precisely because of your delusion and clinging, you suffer in the present moment, you will suffer in the future, and eventually, your good karmic affinities will be exhausted, and your bad karmic affinities will manifest. Tell me, what is everyone busying themselves with?
Can you thoroughly figure out what delusion is? Now, do you still want to have delusion and clinging? What does it have to do with you whether it arises or not? Ignore it; let it come if it comes, let it go if it goes—it has nothing to do with you. In the past, you were always falling ill (deluded), chasing clouds and pursuing dreams. Now, stop chasing clouds and pursuing dreams; see everything clearly and distinctly, see everything genuinely, see things exactly as they are (yathābhūta-darśana).
The preceding paragraphs were not explained in detail: Can you genuinely see that you are a skeleton? Can you genuinely see what is packed inside the skeleton, what is stuffed inside the stomach and intestines? You are merely a mobile toilet. The outer skin is already dead skin, exactly the same as the skin of a corpse. Do you like corpses? Yet you still like the skin of others, or smear things onto the skin. Tell me, do you really like the skin of a dead person? Let’s study it carefully again: what exactly is this body in the material world? The material world is dead, but you are alive. How do you make the material world come alive? That is, how do you make this physical body of yours in the material world come alive? Why are you able to control it now?
**Explained from the perspective of Buddhist concepts:**
Recognition (Clinging/Identification) + Causes and Conditions (Hetu-pratyaya). That is, you recognize this body as “you,” and coupled with the convergence of causes and conditions, you are then able to control this body.
**Analyzed from a scientific perspective:**
If you want to understand how you control this body of the material world, we have to start from the beginning. When the parents’ sperm and egg combine, a basic framework for a body is constructed: the fertilized egg. With this basic bodily framework, when you are about to be reborn, your information (soul, consciousness/vijñāna, spirit) enters. This informational state of “you” attaches to the framework provided by your parents and recombines. Having some of the parents’ DNA, it recombines according to your needs, and while recombining, it is simultaneously inscribed onto your DNA. In science, this is called genetic mutation. When your information is inscribed, it changes its initial code and enters your entirely new code. After this, along with the condensation of your powerful good and bad karma, it forms the good and bad karmic retributions (karmaphala) that you must endure; this must first manifest on your DNA. When the time comes, your DNA will release information, and the information it releases is no longer in a pure informational state—it is called proteins. The information it releases consists of immeasurable types. How does one type represent immeasurable types? Different folding methods represent this immeasurable information, influencing what kind of state you should manifest. Therefore, your body, under the direction of DNA, initially establishes the physical framework, and subsequently lays down the information network, which is the nervous system. You can find videos showing how the human nervous system is initially laid out, how it is paved, and how it extends—it is extremely exquisite. Why is it laid out this way? Because your information provided the blueprint, it definitely paves the way according to your information. After being laid out, all your information reaches every corner of the body, and you can then control this body. Your brain nerves are responsible for taking your mother’s daily life—she is habitually perfuming (vāsanā) it every day, perfuming it into consciousness—and the brain nervous system is constructed to accept the commands of consciousness, and their terminals even fuse together. After you are born, not only can you utilize every part of your body, but you can even independently observe, think, and establish your own new nervous system. The more times you use it, the thicker and stronger your nervous system grows. Therefore, you can control your body and mind. Your body is the material world, and your ability to control this physical body of the material world is exactly this process. Because of this process, you are able to control it.
Why is it that when you die, you can no longer control it? When you die, you will find that this system has shattered, corrupted, and been destroyed by you. (You accelerated its degradation into waste; for example, the liver filters, absorbs, and excretes, and is tormented by you every day to the point of absolute exhaustion, all just for your mouth to enjoy a brief moment; you desperately stuff things in, stuffing what you think is delicious. You are destroying your body, and destroying it to the end, it can no longer hold up, it collapses, and dies). You will then find that no matter how much force you use, you can no longer use it.
In other words, possessing this body only means being dragged down by this material world, because it simply cannot endure wear and tear; once worn down, it breaks.
What else do you have that will not be subjected to wear and tear?
You lack the capacity to lay out the ability to control everything. Attaining Buddhahood means you will be able to utilize everything, understand everything, and manifest functions across everything.
ENDING
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