Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

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This gives one great insights into a world which we cannot know unless we have beenthere. These worlds, these samādhi states, are so strange compared to the externalworld that they are very difficult to describe. Those who have not been there find itvery difficult to even understand that such states can exist.One has to start from the very beginning. Having practised some sense-restraint therecomes a time when one sits down on one's cushion or stool. Sitting very still, onestarts training the mind. That initial training of the mind should begin with what theBuddha called the iddhipādas. The iddhipādas are the four roads or bases of successor power. The iddhipādas are what empowers you to actually succeed in this processof meditation. The iddhipādas are the arousing of a desire for the goal. The firstiddhipāda is chanda samādhi – the maintaining of desire for the goal. This is aprerequisite for gaining any success in this meditation. If you do not set yourself agoal, then you will not set up the desire or movement of the mind to achieve that goal,and there will be no results. You do not get to a ‘one-pointed mind’ by allowing themind to wander around. The wandering mind will never get close. It needs to bedirected, to be pointed in the right direction, and that direction, that ‘pointedness’ ofthe mind, has to be done through a very clear resolution.The most important thing about the iddhipādas is that this resolution has to bemaintained throughout the course of the meditation. If you make a resolution and youmaintain it, then you have got a hope for success. If you make that resolution andafter one or two minutes you forget what you are supposed to be doing, what you areaiming for, then it is very easy to turn a corner and go backwards or go sideways andwaste a lot of time.These are very profound states and they need a degree of effort. Not immense effort,but constant effort. So we take our goal and keep it in mind. That generates energy toachieve the goal, it generates the application of the mind onto the goal, and theinvestigation of dhammas that go along with the desire for success. This investigationof the Dhamma is vīmasa samādhi, the maintenance of investigating whichdemonstrates that the path of samath and vipassanā is the same. In order to gain5
success in meditation you have to also use wisdom. You have to use the desire, theenergy, the application of the mind, and the wisdom faculty generated throughinvestigation and inquiry. In order to gain success all of these factors need to befunctioning, and they need to be maintained throughout the meditation.When I define the word samādhi as the sustaining of these things, you can see that ifyou sustain the iddhipādas – these roads to success, these functions of the mind – thenyour meditation will be successful. If you do not maintain these functions of themind, then the meditation does not succeed – one forgets.Setting the GoalsIt is very helpful at the beginning of the meditation to set a goal clearly in mind – itshould be achievable but at the same time test you rather than just sitting down tomeditate to see what happens. What happens is that you will probably see awandering mind, especially if you have not had success in deep states of tranquillitybefore. Set a goal that becomes the means to generate the iddhipādas. Do not beafraid of desiring a goal.We just chanted the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11), the first sermon ofthe Buddha. In that sermon, the Buddha talked about the noble truths. The secondnoble truth is the cause of suffering, dukkha samudaya. The cause is craving, whichleads to rebirth, which seeks delight here and there, and which is associated withpleasure and lust. That craving is called kāma tahā: the craving for the delights ofthe world of the five senses, the craving for existence, and the craving forannihilation. These are the cravings that give rise to rebirth. In contrast the desire oraspiration for jhāna to the end of rebirth and is part of the iddhipādas, because itgenerates the Eightfold Path and the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.When you have a chance to meditate, make clear what you want to gain from themeditation and keep that goal in mind. The goal that I encourage is to gain the firstjhāna, because that will equip you with an experiential knowledge of some otherworldly-state.It will also train you to let go of those coarse defilements that we callthe hindrances. The coarser defilements are the ones which keep us attached to the6
Page 2 and 3: Simply ThisMoment!A COLLECTION OF T
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTSPage1 Ways and Means into J
Page 8 and 9: ūpaloka, even though we are only a
Page 10 and 11: too much body-awareness. With body-
Page 12 and 13: and thoughts - apart from the exper
Page 14 and 15: faculty of the mind to sustain and
Page 16 and 17: - and this is a natural phenomena -
Page 18 and 19: involved I stress the word ‘fully
Page 20 and 21: though he was a Noble disciple pass
Page 22 and 23: Anyone who claims the experience of
Page 24 and 25: Sometimes people have so little con
Page 26 and 27: the shelf and we know how this whol
Page 28 and 29: The Delusion of Freedom‘That whic
Page 30 and 31: monk telling me once that his fathe
Page 32 and 33: say that in the Anupada Sutta (MN 1
Page 34 and 35: it’s been still for a long time,
Page 36 and 37: 3 DETOXIFYING THE MIND2 nd of Febru
Page 38 and 39: consciousness - or as I would prefe
Page 40 and 41: is letting go of the pleasures of t
Page 42 and 43: never overcome thirst in that way.
Page 44 and 45: Use the triple practice of sãla, s
Page 46 and 47: after another, hundreds, thousands
Page 48 and 49: much fire in their minds. This is w
Page 50 and 51: 4 LOOKING FOR THE SWEET CHILLISeeki
Page 52 and 53: Listening to fine music. Is this it
Page 54 and 55: 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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can try it with virāga.VirāgaPeop
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with all of its difficulties and al
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clinging stops us from experiencing
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the thirteenth giving up the critic
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13 THE OUTFLOWINGS OF THE MIND12 th
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from peace. The will ‘to be’ is
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the future, to fantasies, to the pa
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taught here. Going into the present
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that the core of all this is ‘emp
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14 STARVING THE TIGER TO DEATHOverc
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inappropriate for a monk to be doin
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When a person really understands wh
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getting angry and upset. This way y
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You will find simplicity means that
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use them to make progress in your m
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By developing seclusion from all th
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People in the world say everything
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15 THE LAW OF CONDITIONALITY3 rd Ja
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elate that sort of smell to a very
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When you start to see the will ceas
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up. You see that anger is not the c
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be a
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Once you can see this whole cause a
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whether you like it or not. So you
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anymore than you can break the laws
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is the barrier of the five hindranc
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experiences, resting on them, based
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attention to the sensory world, we
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Instead of having kāmacchanda we h
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distraction of ill-will? Outside, w
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Sloth and TorporSloth and torpor ar
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wherever you want mind, I’m compl
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Wherever there’s thinking, it goe
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17 I KNOW YOU MĀRA25 th August 200
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“Come on, who do you think you ar
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you don’t have a clue, that so ma
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unfolding. In fact, the more you le
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they’ve got into that habit. What
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As the Buddha said in the Indriya S
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about anything because worrying is
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seeing clearly. Sometimes people ge
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There is just so much happiness. Th
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see so much detail. It was always t
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after us, yet there is this loud mu
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When you start to see that, it’s
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this. So if we see where that disco
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mindfulness, you get pīti, more jo
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you can meditate, you can teach, be
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and restlessness cannot survive. Th
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19 PERFECT STILLNESS29 th June 2005
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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
Page 315 and 316:
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 -
Page 321 and 322:
Painissagga: “Letting go”, aban
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