ต่อจากสังโยชน์เบื้องต่ำ พระอาจารย์อธิบายสังโยชน์เบื้องสูง 5 ประการ ได้แก่ รูปราคะ อรูปราคะ มานะ และอุทธัจจะกุกกุจจะ พร้อมชี้ให้เห็นว่าการเอาใจไว้ภายในตามหลักอริยสัจ 4 คือทางออกจากทุกข์ทั้งปวงContinuing from the lower fetters, the teacher explains the five higher fetters — craving for the form realm, craving for the formless realm, conceit, and restlessness — and points to keeping the mind turned inward, per the Four Noble Truths, as the way out of all suffering.
Continuing from the previous session, the teacher was asked to finish explaining the remaining five of the ten fetters.
The five aggregates (body, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) are tools for living, belonging to us alongside our inner sphere of — but knowing that inner sphere requires first knowing the Triple Gem. The unwholesome side wants us to cling to the five aggregates as "me" precisely because that makes it easier to imprison and control us. In truth the body is only the mind's tool; whoever seizes the mind first gets to use that body first.
When consciousness — the faculty of knowing — goes out delighting in sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, it becomes established, and a new state of becoming arises. As the Buddha taught: whatever a monk intends and dwells upon becomes an object for consciousness to be established on; when consciousness is established and grows, a new becoming arises, and with it birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair — the origin of the entire mass of suffering.
The Five Higher Fetters
After abandoning the lower fetters, one meets the higher, subtler ones: craving for the form realm (attachment to form-jhana) and craving for the formless realm (attachment to formless-jhana), both of which require meditation to let go of gross worldly attachment — though one can then become attached to the bliss of jhana instead. Next comes conceit, the clinging to self-importance, which side uses to inflate the ego through others' approval, and restlessness, which arises from comparing oneself to others and prevents clear realization of .
The Four Noble Truths and Letting Go of Defilements
Luang Pu Doo taught: "A mind that goes outward is the origin of suffering." The result of a mind going outward is suffering itself. Keeping the mind turned inward, within the body, is the path; the result of that is ceson — the ending of suffering. There are several ways to let go of defilements: eradicating them through tranquility meditation, or using an opposing wholesome quality as an antidote — meeting irritation with , or tightness with a sense of spaciousness, and so on.