Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

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ody, and the other khandhas. This shows us not only whether we are ready to dothese things, but also what these hindrances really are and how subtle they can be.People sometimes think that they have overcome the hindrances. But they have not,because they are still too far away from being able to enter into a jhāna. Entering thejhānas is the acid test. That is why I can’t see any reason for a person to stop at theentrance into a jhāna and say, “This is good enough! Now I can contemplate. Now Iwill be able to find out”. The usual practice, the common practice, is to suppress thehindrances and then having as it were, the door of jhāna wide open to us. The jhānajust happens: the jhāna sucks us in or I should say sucks the mind in, sucks awarenessin. It shows us states where the hindrances are overcome. It’s a moot point whetherwe could stop at the gate into jhānas anyway.I’ve mentioned on many occasions that there comes a time in the practise of samādhiwhen a snowball effect happens. We can neither stop the process, nor can weaccelerate it. We become just an observer. With this wonderful focussing of the mindand abandoning of the world, that effect gets stronger. It gets stronger in the sameway as a snowball that is rolling down a hill gets larger and larger. We might be ableto stop the snowball somewhere near the top of the hill. But when the snowball getsright down to the valley, it’s so big and it’s so fast that I can’t see how it can bestopped. We call that state upacāra samādhi (neighbourhood samādhi). It is theoutside edges of the jhānas were there are no hindrances. I cannot see how the mindcan stop and linger with upacāra samādhi. The process will pull the mind throughinto the jhāna. The jhāna is a state without hindrances, which can be clearly seenwhen one emerges from the jhāna. Those hindrances stay knocked out for a longtime. If a jhāna has not been achieved, the five hindrances, together with discontentand weariness, of the body and mind invade the mind and remain.When a jhāna has been achieved these things can’t invade the mind. They can’tremain, and there is freedom from the hindrances. This has classically been seen asthe precursor to the arising of deep insight. Insight gives rise to the powers and thefruits of the practice. It happens because the five hindrances are overcome, and themind can look back over those experiences, the jhānas. Standing on those233
experiences, resting on them, based on them you have the data to actually see into thenature of the mind and the body – the nature of the five khandhas, and the nature ofthe sense bases. Without that data it’s very hard to imagine how anyone would beable see the truth.So overcome those five hindrances and use that state of the jhānas as the place whereone focuses one’s investigation in order to discover why, where and how those statescame about and what they mean. Suppressing the five hindrances is the key to thiswhole practice that we call the liberation of the mind. You’ve heard about these fivehindrances often before, but they can always be restated and explained at deeper anddeeper levels. Remember, these five hindrances are not just ordinary sensory desire,ill-will, restlessness and remorse, sloth and torpor, and doubt.Sometimes we look at our minds and think: ‘I’ve got no sensory desire. I don’t reallywant anything. I’ve got no lust or greed. I’m not looking for a cup of tea or food, forwomen, or whatever. I’ve got no ill-will towards anybody, towards myself, or toanything. I haven’t got any real restlessness or sloth and torpor. I’ve got no realdoubts. I know I’m alright’. That happens very often, but it’s not sufficient. Wecan’t get into jhānas from that state. That’s why I tell people that when we’remeditating, if there is a blockage, if we can’t get further, it must be because of one ofthe hindrances, one of the nīvaraas.Be methodical in the meditation practise, don’t waste so much time. Discover whichhindrance is blocking progress, identify the problem, and actually find a solution.I’ve got tremendous faith in the Buddha’s teaching. If there were six hindrances orseven hindrances or eight hindrances the Buddha would have said so. The usual list,the five hindrances, is sufficient to describe all the obstacles between the meditatorand jhāna. So we should look at those and investigate them.Sensual DesireKāmacchanda,the most important hindrance, comes first. Kāmacchanda is not justsensory desire. There are times when the English translation of these terms leaves somuch to be desired. People who just follow those English translations miss so much.234
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Simply ThisMoment!A COLLECTION OF T
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CONTENTSPage1 Ways and Means into J
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This gives one great insights into
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ūpaloka, even though we are only a
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too much body-awareness. With body-
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and thoughts - apart from the exper
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faculty of the mind to sustain and
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- and this is a natural phenomena -
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involved I stress the word ‘fully
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though he was a Noble disciple pass
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Anyone who claims the experience of
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Sometimes people have so little con
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the shelf and we know how this whol
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The Delusion of Freedom‘That whic
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monk telling me once that his fathe
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say that in the Anupada Sutta (MN 1
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it’s been still for a long time,
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3 DETOXIFYING THE MIND2 nd of Febru
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consciousness - or as I would prefe
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is letting go of the pleasures of t
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never overcome thirst in that way.
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Use the triple practice of sãla, s
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after another, hundreds, thousands
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much fire in their minds. This is w
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4 LOOKING FOR THE SWEET CHILLISeeki
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Listening to fine music. Is this it
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freedom is not freedom at all becau
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We have a story in Buddhism of the
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This is real contentment! This is r
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Watch this inner conversation going
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monastic life does respect the sile
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delusion because it has kept us goi
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This is the opposite of suffering.
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ight view. It’s very hard for a h
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always be on the wrong path, and on
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“Look, if this is causing sufferi
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out of control. The monastery goes
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the past and the future, and we’r
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at all. Who can trust memory? In me
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can. Give it full attention every m
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in the morning, afternoon or evenin
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yourself from all that’s happened
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mutti is releasing and anālaya is
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instructions without question.It’
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comes into the mind, then we start
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hold in the mind’s eye and I was
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of letting go, not stages of attach
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Sayutta there is something that imp
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pushes you out of sasāra whether y
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7 DHAMMA PRACTICE10 th May 2000I’
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Adult people look after their own k
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many people in the world who write
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What if you make that your goal, an
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things really complicated. It’s s
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‘The monks here, or the teacher,
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and surrender to the path. Surrende
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8 HUMAN RIGHTS IN BUDDHISMDhammalok
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doesn’t really have any meaning o
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These things are not freedoms, they
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told me in Malaysia and Singapore t
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When Jerusalem fell in 70AD, becaus
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To question is a right for people.
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embarrassed by my fellow Buddhists.
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many countries between laws which a
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It’s a very narrow truth. The tru
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guilty you have to be punished! You
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the Zendo - but the more you smile
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Having planed off the rough parts,
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got the flu and cancelled your appo
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I was taught to choose to watch the
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From Diversity to UnityMeditation i
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usually if someone is dead they wou
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There are other cases like that. On
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10 CONDITIONED REALITYDhammaloka Bu
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The Buddha very clearly outlined th
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even your bare perception is alread
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way, there has to be some other exp
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Seeing Truth and RealityI want part
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talked with one of the people - who
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was able to follow to get into deep
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ideas are not actually the true Nib
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that the air around it is not movin
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and find out what that pain really
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mantras, all words of instructions,
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just observing. Surely the thinking
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without valuing, without weighing o
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so difficult to attain. It is becau
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12 REFLECTIONS THAT ARE CONDUCIVETO
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the mind, and that’s the jhānas.
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need the calm which is developed by
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Page 185 and 186: with all of its difficulties and al
Page 187 and 188: clinging stops us from experiencing
Page 189 and 190: the thirteenth giving up the critic
Page 191 and 192: 13 THE OUTFLOWINGS OF THE MIND12 th
Page 193 and 194: from peace. The will ‘to be’ is
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Page 197 and 198: taught here. Going into the present
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Page 201 and 202: 14 STARVING THE TIGER TO DEATHOverc
Page 203 and 204: inappropriate for a monk to be doin
Page 205 and 206: When a person really understands wh
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Page 209 and 210: You will find simplicity means that
Page 211 and 212: use them to make progress in your m
Page 213 and 214: By developing seclusion from all th
Page 215 and 216: People in the world say everything
Page 217 and 218: 15 THE LAW OF CONDITIONALITY3 rd Ja
Page 219 and 220: elate that sort of smell to a very
Page 221 and 222: When you start to see the will ceas
Page 223 and 224: up. You see that anger is not the c
Page 225 and 226: Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be a
Page 227 and 228: Once you can see this whole cause a
Page 229 and 230: whether you like it or not. So you
Page 231 and 232: anymore than you can break the laws
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Page 237 and 238: attention to the sensory world, we
Page 239 and 240: Instead of having kāmacchanda we h
Page 241 and 242: distraction of ill-will? Outside, w
Page 243 and 244: Sloth and TorporSloth and torpor ar
Page 245 and 246: wherever you want mind, I’m compl
Page 247 and 248: Wherever there’s thinking, it goe
Page 249 and 250: 17 I KNOW YOU MĀRA25 th August 200
Page 251 and 252: “Come on, who do you think you ar
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Page 255 and 256: unfolding. In fact, the more you le
Page 257 and 258: they’ve got into that habit. What
Page 259 and 260: As the Buddha said in the Indriya S
Page 261 and 262: about anything because worrying is
Page 263 and 264: seeing clearly. Sometimes people ge
Page 265 and 266: There is just so much happiness. Th
Page 267 and 268: see so much detail. It was always t
Page 269 and 270: after us, yet there is this loud mu
Page 271 and 272: When you start to see that, it’s
Page 273 and 274: this. So if we see where that disco
Page 275 and 276: mindfulness, you get pīti, more jo
Page 277 and 278: you can meditate, you can teach, be
Page 279 and 280: and restlessness cannot survive. Th
Page 281 and 282: 19 PERFECT STILLNESS29 th June 2005
Page 283 and 284: Have You Come Here to Die?At one re
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At the last retreat I taught in Ipo
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process is about. You also understa
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go of everything. Letting go is wha
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the moment. It doesn’t matter wha
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moving up and down, the nimmitta is
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So, look upon your life as a journe
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Nirodha. Nirodha means cessation, t
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20 THE ENDING OF EVERYTHING7 th Dec
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delusion, to think of things as bei
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samatha and also the word upasama b
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quoting the suttas here; they are t
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I was talking earlier this evening
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opposite is true. The less ‘self
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senses are. Before that it’s just
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The mind creates; this is what it d
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Get into the jhānas, the real jhā
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whatever things come into existence
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2. Dukkha - suffering.3. Anattā -
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Painissagga: “Letting go”, aban
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