From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=y_J1pwQGTo4

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

tonight the discourse is going to be on

the satavahanas and death foundations of

mindfulness thus if I heard on one

occasion the blessed one was living in

the kuru country where there was a town

of the Kurus named Casas Adama there he

addressed amongst us monks venerable

survey replied the Blessed One said this

monks this is a direct path for the

purification of means for the attainment

of the true way for the realization of

Nirvana namely the four foundations of

mindfulness what are the four here of

monks a monk abides observing the body

as a body ardent fully aware and mindful

having put away covetousness and brief

for the world for those that have

practice Vipassana the four foundations

of mindfulness are a lot different than

what you think it is and I'll explain

that as we go along so the first part is

mindfulness of breathing and how monks

does a monk abide contemplating

observing I don't like the word

contemplating because it means thinking

but observing is a better word the body

as a body here among gone to the forest

or to the root of the tree or an empty

Hut sits down having folded his legs

crosswise and set his body erect and

establishes mindful

in front of him ever mindful he breathes

in mindful he brings out breathing in

long he understands I breathe in long or

breathing out long he understands I

breathe out long

breathing in short he understands I

breathe in short or breathing up short

he understands I breathe out short in

this description did you hear me say

nose nostril tip or abdomen did you know

why it's not that easy not there it

doesn't tell you to specifically put

your attention on any place in your body

it's just that you know when you take a

long breath and you know when you take a

short breath the key word to this is he

understands you understand when you're

taking a long breath you understand when

you're taking a short breath you

understand when it's fine the breath is

fine you understand when it's coarse now

we get to the actual instructions he

trains thus this means now you're doing

the instructions the way he's telling

you I shall breathe in experiencing the

whole body he trains thus I shall

breathe out experiencing the whole body

he trains thus I shall breathe in

tranquilizing the bodily formation he

trainings thus I shall breathe out

tranquilizing the bottle information now

this is key because it says on the

in-breath you tranquilize a bottle

information on the out-breath you train

lays a bodily formation that is

something that you never hear at a

Vipassana retreat what is it talking

about it's talking about your entire

body not as we think of in the West from

the neck down as your body and from the

neck up is your mind this is talking

about from the top of your head all the

way down to the bottom of your feet and

this is where you start to be able to

recognize that tension and tightness

arising in your brain the meninges is a

membrane that goes around your brain

anytime there's a thought

anytime there's a feeling anytime

there's a sensation it contracts it gets

tight and you can feel that you have to

intentionally look for it to be able to

see it and the way you tranquilize it

relaxing relaxed there's a distraction

your tensions pulled away recognize it

you release that distraction the content

of your thoughts is not important the

process is the thing that's important

so you you let let the distraction be

there by itself and then you relax the

tightness caused by that distraction you

can feel them open up and relax now

that's half of right effort the other

half of right effort is bringing up

something wholesome what is wholesome

smiling and your object of meditation

and staying with your object of

meditation for as long as you can and

that's what the six ARS are okay every

time you do that there is a brief moment

of relief because you've let go of

craving so this is immediately effective

because you let go of the unwholesome

mind and you're developing the wholesome

mind when you let go you can't be able

to recognize that your mind is clear

there are no thoughts there are no

distractions your mind is very alert and

bright and you bring that mind back to

your wholesome object smiling and your

object of meditation for most of you

that means loving kindness or one of the

brown of the harvest

now the translators of this book were

very strongly influenced by some

commentaries and they use awesome of the

commentary all things they just added it

into some of the soot discs which

eventually will be taken out I promise

in this way he abides observing the body

as a body internally externally and both

internally and externally this is

commentary and then the translators

start saying or he does something else

or he does something else or he does

something else and I take out the or he

observes in the body its nature of

arising he abides observing in the body

the nature of vanishing he abides

observing the body is nature of arising

and vanishing so you see how the process

works

it arises it's there for a little while

and disappears and that's what this is

talking about

then there there's a sentence in here

that is really taken from the

commentaries and it doesn't have

anything to do with what we mean great

now he abides independent not craving or

clinging to anything in the world that

is our monk abides contemplating the

body as a body so the instructions in

the mindfulness of breathing is four

sentences but almost everybody that is

teaching meditation only uses three of

those sentences they forget the last

sentence which is the most important

part of the practice and that is

relaxing on the in-breath and relaxing

on the out-breath

so the instructions in the the sutas

have been changed a little bit and

commentarial things have been put in its

place and that is the thing that is

caused the most confusion with people

that are practicing meditation and there

are some people that are very adamant

about using commentaries instead of the

original teachings and the commentary

that's most used is called the Vasudha

Mogga

I know there's a monk in Burma who

excuse me I have to sneeze maybe or

maybe not

yeah

he has memorized the entire visu team

Agha and he follows the instructions in

the visu team Agha very very closely and

he's become quite a popular mom the

problem with the Vasudha Maga is that

was written a thousand years after the

Buddha died and

the author who is named by the name of

Buddha goes up and roberto busa

was tired trying to take four different

sects of Buddhism and bring it all

together he was quite a scholar and

Buddha Gosa before he became a Buddhist

monk was a Veda scholar he understood

the Brahman Vedas and he didn't know

anything about meditation and when he

became a monk he went to one of the

universities in southern India and he

started studying Pali and he thought he

was getting very good at that

and he started thinking that he news

Pali better than his Pali teacher and

the Pali teacher read his mind it's not

good now you have to pay a penance for

this so the teacher told him you have to

go to Sri Lanka where they've written

many many commentaries but they've

written them in Sri Lanka and you have

to change them back into Pali

so when he came to Sri Lanka the first

book he wrote was the Sahaba the first

part of the city Makkah is actually

pretty good and it's on

the morality it's on Cielo and there's

there's a lot of things for amongst that

can learn a lot from that

the second part of the book is on

concentration and because he didn't know

anything about the Buddha's teaching of

meditation

he started thinking well meditation as

meditation right it's all the same I

don't know what the Buddha taught but I

do know what the Vedas say so he started

taking the instructions from the Vedas

and he used some Buddhist terms and he

started writing about this and there's

one section in there that's called

excess or neighborhood concentration in

Pali

it's called bechara Samadhi Bupa charas

Samadhi is not ever mentioned in the

sutras and when you get to the chara

Samadhi the force of the concentration

that they were practicing which is

absorption kind of concentration

one-pointed concentration the force of

the concentration would suppress the

inferences

and then the next part of the

instructions talks about full absorption

concentration getting into drama and

they call that Hana Samadhi and he said

when you first start and you get beyond

the pajara Samadhi the access

concentration you have a sign a rise in

your mind and the sign is like a round

silver thing in your mind and it's kind

of like looking at the moon it's bright

and shiny and he called that a nimita

the nimita and poly means sign that's

all it means it's a sign the word Dimity

is in the suit does but it's not talking

about a sign in the same way and you're

supposed to be able to do all kinds of

neat stuff with this this sign you can

make it big you can make it small you

can do all kinds of things with it but

the problem with that is he says you

take that as your object of meditation

and you don't pay attention to the

breathing anymore you still have the

breath and it's still there and you can

kind of notice it but you're just

supposed to focus on this sign and when

you get to the fourth jhana your

concentration is so good and it's so

strong they say that you no longer can

see the breath at all you don't breathe

through your lungs anymore

and I know quite a few teachers that are

teaching this but it doesn't agree

with Positas not at all with mindfulness

of breathing you can stay

seeing the breath up to the realm or up

to and through the realm of nothingness

but when you get to the state of neither

perception nor non-perception you're not

able to see the breath anymore now this

one pointed concentration because it

suppresses the hindrances takes you off

of the path that the Buddha taught and

the end result is only going as high as

neither perception nor non-perception

with absorption concentration

you can't ever attain nirvana now when

the Buddha was a bodhisattva and he was

wanting to learn about meditation he

went to a couple different meditation

teachers and his first meditation

teacher he got to the realm of

nothingness and he went to the teacher

because he knew there was still more to

do and he said is there any more and the

teacher said no this is as high as you

get and the teacher offered him to teach

along with the teacher and he declined

and he was very much disappointed so he

found another meditation teacher and he

before he even started he said where

does this meditation take you and this

man said well it takes you to the realm

of neither perception nor non-perception

so he did it and he got to that realm

and he went to the teacher and he said

there's still stuff there there's still

something there this isn't quite right

is there anything that's going to take

me to nee Bona and they said Bona that

doesn't mean anything to me

this is as high as any human being can

experience practicing absorption

concentration so the the teacher said he

was willing to step down and let the Bou

that teach that for everyone and the

buddha declined and he went off on his

own absorption concentration even people

that are practicing the Posada will tell

you that the jhana cannot take you to

Nirvana but it's the absorption jhana

that they're talking about the next part

of the Vasudha maha is quote the possum

pip asana what does it mean in sake

right well the way that he presents it

it sounds like you can do the passo not

just by itself or you can do the dramas

and then add the Vipassana later but

that does not lead to navona that does

not agree with what does it does say

there's a certain here at page 149 and

section 10 if you want to look it up it

says that samhita or serenity or

tranquility and Vipassana are yoked

together they have to be equally pulling

every time if you go to the index just

about every time you look up Samanta and

then you look up in sight and you

compare the pages that they're on

they're on the same page they're

mentioned together many many many times

so the commentaries they talk about 9

different kinds of insight knowledge and

in the 40s maja seaside dog wrote a sub

commentary of the Vasudha manga and he

made sixteen insight knowledge --is and

that's what's currently been taught

today

the insight knowledge is that they're

talking about are not mentioned in the

sutras in the way that they they call

them insights with a possum as I said

I've practiced this for 20 years I've

gone through the insight knowledge as I

understand them very well they do not

mean to me but what they call name Bona

and what maja see sayaka's calls me Bona

is you get to San Carew

Pecha that's equanimity to formations

and then you will see right at the end

of that that state you will see a

Nietzsche impermanence arise and pass

away three or four times very quickly

and then you have a blackout or you will

see dukkha three or four times very

quickly and then you have

a blackout or you will see a not three

or four times very quickly and then you

have blackout and when that blackout

fades away then you will see all of the

insight knowledge is exactly the way

they happen starting from the second

insight knowledge always the end of it

and it happens that way but there are

some problems with this because that

doesn't agree with the suit dose there

is and I didn't bring it with me and I

wish I wouldn't there is a suta in the

Sam unique ayah that it says very very

plainly that if you do not see and

understand the links of dependent

origination you will never be able to

attain nirvana it's not talking about a

nature to God not that so much it's

talking about seeing the links of

dependent origination and further down

it goes through all of the links of

dependent origination and it says when

you see and understand this that is the

way you attain nirvana and in the

maharajah it says you can see one or all

of the three characteristics i just

mentioned a nutritive God not to without

ever seeing the links of dependent

origination but when you see the links

of dependent origination you see all of

those links in each link you see how it

arises you see that because it arises

it's

for man suffering because it's a

disturbance and you see that it's not so

it's not you so the instructions that

are given in the Apostle ah don't work

very well

because it is a commentary and a sub

commentary but it comes from and the sub

commentary it adds on a little bit and

it says well we also have this idea of

momentary concentration Konica samadhi

moment to moment awareness now the

problem with the Vipassana is that it

does not show you how to do let go of

breathing so you keep bringing craving

back to your object of meditation and

this is why the absorption concentration

and the strength I pass on I don't work

very well now they've made up this thing

well yeah this is what the experience is

I'm going to see an intra dukkha or not

and then I'm going to attain the Ivana I

left Burma very disappointed after a

two-year retreat because it didn't feel

right it didn't feel like I was I went

deep enough or I didn't have the relief

that I was told to that Nibbana was so I

went back to Malaysia

the people in Malaysia had sponsored my

plane trip to Burma so I came back to

Malaysia and they wanted me to teach

meditation because they knew I'd been

gone so long and they had heard that I

was successful and I couldn't in my

right mind I couldn't convince myself to

teach Vipassana meditation I just

couldn't do it because I didn't feel it

was the right thing so instead of that I

started teaching loving-kindness

meditation and after a couple of years I

was invited to go to the biggest

monastery in Kuala Lumpur that was

terrified that's the sri lankan

monastery and to teach the meditation

the loving-kindness meditation there and

while I was there there was a monk that

came to visit by the name of pool engine

and Panaji found out that I was teaching

meditation he said well how he teaching

it what do you do it so I started giving

him the instructions that a how to do

the meditation and he stopped me about

halfway through and he said it sounds

like you're teaching incorrectly but

you're using the language of the

commentaries why don't you put the

commentaries down and go to the suitors

and use suta language so that's what I

did and I said and somebody had just

given me a copy of the middle link

sayings so I was rather enthusiastic

about it because always before when I

picked

the suit does I would try to read it and

I couldn't understand it because I had

studied so many years the Vasudha Mago

and it didn't match and I always kept

going back to the viscera Mago so when

this month told me to put the viscera

market down now I started reading it and

I could understand it and it was pretty

remarkable

I was I was still teaching

loving-kindness meditation but I used

this one extra step of relax and when I

would give a retreat I would start

reading the surface to these people and

their progress and the meditation was so

fast

it was phenomenal before I started doing

this in Thailand they said if you want

to get into it jhana it's gonna take you

15 years if you want to get into it

jhana more quickly go to Sri Lanka it

only takes 10 years and that was what I

thought and I was also reading

commentarial books on the brahma vihara

where it says that you get to the third

jhana with loving-kindness you get to

the third jhana with compassion you get

to the third jhana with joy you get to

the fourth jhana with equanimity in the

first retreat that I started reading the

suta's I had four people that had gotten

as far as the second jhana and I started

going well this is really something this

is something that's supposed to take ten

years

if you're fast but they were all

teaching one-pointed kinds of

concentration and it can take a while to

get that and develop it so as I started

letting go of the ideas that I had with

the commentaries and started reading the

soup does I changed some of the ways

that I was teaching because it didn't

agree with what the suit is were saying

and when I was when I was first started

teaching loving-kindness meditation the

first retreat I gave was for 60 people

and they were so happy with it and so

enthusiastic that they went around

telling everybody else about it but what

I was telling people to do instead of

relax which is a very precise word to

use I said soften your mind make it

softer which it worked pretty well but

when I came up with the word relax after

reading the anapanasati suta that

changed my whole view I was giving the

retreat this is why I was just first

starting to read and I was walking to

give a Dhamma talk and I started really

thinking deeply about the tranquilizing

the bodily formation and one thing that

it always troubled me with Vipassana was

I had great concentration I mean to walk

the length of this building

doing the slow walking that they

recommend it would take me 45 minutes

just one direction and I was seeing the

arising and passing away of all kinds of

different things and I was seeing the

intention as I was arising I was doing

going through all of that but one of the

problems I had with that was I got this

terrific headache so I went to the

teacher I said you know the meditation

is no problem but I got this headache

and I just it doesn't seem right and the

instructions I was given was ignore it

it's nothing so the meditation teacher

told me to ignore craving but he didn't

recognize that that's what he was saying

so as I was walking to give the Dhamma

talk I started thinking you know there's

his tightness in my head I wonder what

happens if I let that go and relax and

it was such a profound experience I

stopped walking because when I let go of

that tightness in my head my mind was

clear there was no thoughts in it my

mind was very bright and alert so I

thought there's something to this so

after I gave the retreat I didn't tell

anybody about it but after I gave the

retreat I started sitting and following

the directions that I just read to you

on the in-breath you relax on the

out-breath relax

I went deeper faster than I've ever gone

before this is with quote being

successful with all the insight

knowledge ease and I was deeper than

that

so I thought this is pretty amazing so I

went to the head monk and I got

permission to take two weeks and I

wanted to go into Thailand because I

knew where there was a great cave and do

the meditation there and this cave it

was real high it was maybe 20 feet high

and it went out over so it was quite

open and a lot of length and that sort

of thing and I would get up in the

morning I would do my arms round and eat

and then I would study and then after

the after 12 o'clock

then I would say meditation until 10 or

11 or 12 o'clock at night and it was so

interesting

using that relaxed step that after two

weeks I couldn't stop and I just kept

going and I kept going and I kept seeing

all of these things that's talked about

in the suitcase well that was a very

nice confirmation after three months the

teacher in Malaysia got another month to

come get me if I could go back and then

I started teaching more and more what

I'm showing you right now now we get

into the four five four postures and

I've always loved this and I'll explain

why in a minute

again monks when walking a monk

understands I am walking

with standing he understands I am

standing when sitting he understands I'm

sitting when lying down he understands

I'm lying down when I was practicing the

opossum ah and doing the walking

meditation they told me I had to do this

part of the practice and I would get to

the end of the walk and I stood there

and I said to myself ten or fifteen

times standing standing standing

standing like I didn't know that I was

standing or sitting sitting

but when I got the book and I started

looking at it it says he understands do

you understand when you're standing and

when you're not do you understand when

you're sitting down that's all it means

know what your posture is so I was kind

of relieved to see that so you didn't

have to note something as dumb there's

like I don't know whether I'm sitting or

not I'd better check it out now we get

to full awareness again monks a monk is

one who acts in full awareness when

going forward and returning who acts in

full awareness when looking ahead and

looking away who acts in full awareness

when flexing and extending his limbs who

acts in full awareness when wearing his

robes and carrying his outer robe and

Bull who acts in full awareness when

eating drinking consumed

food and tasty who acts in full

awareness when defecating and urinating

who acts in full awareness when standing

walking sitting falling asleep waking up

talking and keeping silent full

awareness of what it's full awareness of

mind when you're doing these full

awareness being means being aware of

when there's tension and tightness in

your head and when there's not while

you're doing activities that's one of

the reasons that I want you to keep your

meditation going during your daily

activities so you can watch what mind is

doing and let go of nonsense thoughts

and you can let go of distracting

thoughts and be with what you're doing

while you're doing okay now

monks if anyone should develop these

four foundations of mindfulness in such

a way for seven years one of two fruits

can be expected for him either final

knowledge Aaron now becoming in our eyes

or if there is a trace of craving and

clinging left they would become a non

returner that means an honor let alone

seven years monks if anyone should

develop these four foundations of

mindfulness in such a way for six years

five years four years three years two

years one year one of two fruits can be

expected for him either final knowledge

here and now

or if there's a trace of cream craving

and flinging left non-return let alone

one here if anyone should develop these

four foundations of mindfulness in such

a way for seven months six months five

months four months three months two

months one month one of two fruits can

be expected for him either final

knowledge here and now or if there's a

trace of craving and flinging left non

return if anyone should develop these

four foundations of mindfulness in such

a way for seven days one of two fruits

can be expected for him either final

knowledge here and now or if there's a

trace of craving and clinging left non

return so it was with reference to this

that it was said monks this is a direct

path for the purification of beings for

the surmounting of sorrow and mammon

tation for the disappearance of pain and

grief for the attainment of the true way

for the realization of Nevada and mainly

the four foundations of mindfulness this

is what the Blessed One said the monks

were satisfied and delighted in the

Blessed ones words

used to take two days doing so it's got

a question

collectiveness is a composed mind that's

very still equanimity is a mind that has

extreme balance okay now what's going to

happen as you keep going deeper and

deeper in your practice you're going to

get to a place where you are going to

experience

Oh disenchantment that's what it what is

disenchanted it means that the things

that were real special to you and really

meant a lot now they're not so special

anymore

now you're just seeing things as they

are and they're all pretty much people

and then your mind will start to go

deeper and you will experience

dispassion dispassion is the highest

degree of equanimity that you can

experience look over here and you see

this you look over here and you see that

there's really no difference

it's just sight color and form coming in

hitting the eye eye consciousness arises

the meeting of the three is called eye

contact with eye contact as condition I

feeling arises with I feeling when I I

feeling arises by craving arises then

what happens after that is the tinging

habitual tendency the birth of action so

when you see all of that with this

passion you'll be able to see the

different links and you'll be able to

and that's how you get to an

unconditioned state because every length

of the dependent origination is the

condition for the next link and when

that link doesn't arise and there's no

other condition that's

it's such a big Wow that when you come

out of that state your understanding

changes and you start to see things in a

more balanced unemotional state you can

still have emotions arise but you're not

adapted to them there's not a lot of

personality change that happens at first

over a period of time after you've had

the fruition the first thing you

experience is the next thing you'll

experience is the fruition knowledge

once you have the fruition it starts

starts to get set and over a period of

time you'll start noticing changes in

the way you look at things and how you

used to get caught up in something

really a lot and it would take days and

weeks and months to straighten it out

and now it's not quite so bad it's

easier as time goes by and your mind you

sit in meditation your mind can go right

into equanimity and then neither

perception nor non-perception pretty

easily so there's a lot of advantages

not working too hard but working hard

enough

you

tonight the discourse is going to be on

the satavahanas and death foundations of

mindfulness thus if I heard on one

occasion the blessed one was living in

the kuru country where there was a town

of the Kurus named Casas Adama there he

addressed amongst us monks venerable

survey replied the Blessed One said this

monks this is a direct path for the

purification of means for the attainment

of the true way for the realization of

Nirvana namely the four foundations of

mindfulness what are the four here of

monks a monk abides observing the body

as a body ardent fully aware and mindful

having put away covetousness and brief

for the world for those that have

practice Vipassana the four foundations

of mindfulness are a lot different than

what you think it is and I'll explain

that as we go along so the first part is

mindfulness of breathing and how monks

does a monk abide contemplating

observing I don't like the word

contemplating because it means thinking

but observing is a better word the body

as a body here among gone to the forest

or to the root of the tree or an empty

Hut sits down having folded his legs

crosswise and set his body erect and

establishes mindful

in front of him ever mindful he breathes

in mindful he brings out breathing in

long he understands I breathe in long or

breathing out long he understands I

breathe out long

breathing in short he understands I

breathe in short or breathing up short

he understands I breathe out short in

this description did you hear me say

nose nostril tip or abdomen did you know

why it's not that easy not there it

doesn't tell you to specifically put

your attention on any place in your body

it's just that you know when you take a

long breath and you know when you take a

short breath the key word to this is he

understands you understand when you're

taking a long breath you understand when

you're taking a short breath you

understand when it's fine the breath is

fine you understand when it's coarse now

we get to the actual instructions he

trains thus this means now you're doing

the instructions the way he's telling

you I shall breathe in experiencing the

whole body he trains thus I shall

breathe out experiencing the whole body

he trains thus I shall breathe in

tranquilizing the bodily formation he

trainings thus I shall breathe out

tranquilizing the bottle information now

this is key because it says on the

in-breath you tranquilize a bottle

information on the out-breath you train

lays a bodily formation that is

something that you never hear at a

Vipassana retreat what is it talking

about it's talking about your entire

body not as we think of in the West from

the neck down as your body and from the

neck up is your mind this is talking

about from the top of your head all the

way down to the bottom of your feet and

this is where you start to be able to

recognize that tension and tightness

arising in your brain the meninges is a

membrane that goes around your brain

anytime there's a thought

anytime there's a feeling anytime

there's a sensation it contracts it gets

tight and you can feel that you have to

intentionally look for it to be able to

see it and the way you tranquilize it

relaxing relaxed there's a distraction

your tensions pulled away recognize it

you release that distraction the content

of your thoughts is not important the

process is the thing that's important

so you you let let the distraction be

there by itself and then you relax the

tightness caused by that distraction you

can feel them open up and relax now

that's half of right effort the other

half of right effort is bringing up

something wholesome what is wholesome

smiling and your object of meditation

and staying with your object of

meditation for as long as you can and

that's what the six ARS are okay every

time you do that there is a brief moment

of relief because you've let go of

craving so this is immediately effective

because you let go of the unwholesome

mind and you're developing the wholesome

mind when you let go you can't be able

to recognize that your mind is clear

there are no thoughts there are no

distractions your mind is very alert and

bright and you bring that mind back to

your wholesome object smiling and your

object of meditation for most of you

that means loving kindness or one of the

brown of the harvest

now the translators of this book were

very strongly influenced by some

commentaries and they use awesome of the

commentary all things they just added it

into some of the soot discs which

eventually will be taken out I promise

in this way he abides observing the body

as a body internally externally and both

internally and externally this is

commentary and then the translators

start saying or he does something else

or he does something else or he does

something else and I take out the or he

observes in the body its nature of

arising he abides observing in the body

the nature of vanishing he abides

observing the body is nature of arising

and vanishing so you see how the process

works

it arises it's there for a little while

and disappears and that's what this is

talking about

then there there's a sentence in here

that is really taken from the

commentaries and it doesn't have

anything to do with what we mean great

now he abides independent not craving or

clinging to anything in the world that

is our monk abides contemplating the

body as a body so the instructions in

the mindfulness of breathing is four

sentences but almost everybody that is

teaching meditation only uses three of

those sentences they forget the last

sentence which is the most important

part of the practice and that is

relaxing on the in-breath and relaxing

on the out-breath

so the instructions in the the sutas

have been changed a little bit and

commentarial things have been put in its

place and that is the thing that is

caused the most confusion with people

that are practicing meditation and there

are some people that are very adamant

about using commentaries instead of the

original teachings and the commentary

that's most used is called the Vasudha

Mogga

I know there's a monk in Burma who

excuse me I have to sneeze maybe or

maybe not

yeah

he has memorized the entire visu team

Agha and he follows the instructions in

the visu team Agha very very closely and

he's become quite a popular mom the

problem with the Vasudha Maga is that

was written a thousand years after the

Buddha died and

the author who is named by the name of

Buddha goes up and roberto busa

was tired trying to take four different

sects of Buddhism and bring it all

together he was quite a scholar and

Buddha Gosa before he became a Buddhist

monk was a Veda scholar he understood

the Brahman Vedas and he didn't know

anything about meditation and when he

became a monk he went to one of the

universities in southern India and he

started studying Pali and he thought he

was getting very good at that

and he started thinking that he news

Pali better than his Pali teacher and

the Pali teacher read his mind it's not

good now you have to pay a penance for

this so the teacher told him you have to

go to Sri Lanka where they've written

many many commentaries but they've

written them in Sri Lanka and you have

to change them back into Pali

so when he came to Sri Lanka the first

book he wrote was the Sahaba the first

part of the city Makkah is actually

pretty good and it's on

the morality it's on Cielo and there's

there's a lot of things for amongst that

can learn a lot from that

the second part of the book is on

concentration and because he didn't know

anything about the Buddha's teaching of

meditation

he started thinking well meditation as

meditation right it's all the same I

don't know what the Buddha taught but I

do know what the Vedas say so he started

taking the instructions from the Vedas

and he used some Buddhist terms and he

started writing about this and there's

one section in there that's called

excess or neighborhood concentration in

Pali

it's called bechara Samadhi Bupa charas

Samadhi is not ever mentioned in the

sutras and when you get to the chara

Samadhi the force of the concentration

that they were practicing which is

absorption kind of concentration

one-pointed concentration the force of

the concentration would suppress the

inferences

and then the next part of the

instructions talks about full absorption

concentration getting into drama and

they call that Hana Samadhi and he said

when you first start and you get beyond

the pajara Samadhi the access

concentration you have a sign a rise in

your mind and the sign is like a round

silver thing in your mind and it's kind

of like looking at the moon it's bright

and shiny and he called that a nimita

the nimita and poly means sign that's

all it means it's a sign the word Dimity

is in the suit does but it's not talking

about a sign in the same way and you're

supposed to be able to do all kinds of

neat stuff with this this sign you can

make it big you can make it small you

can do all kinds of things with it but

the problem with that is he says you

take that as your object of meditation

and you don't pay attention to the

breathing anymore you still have the

breath and it's still there and you can

kind of notice it but you're just

supposed to focus on this sign and when

you get to the fourth jhana your

concentration is so good and it's so

strong they say that you no longer can

see the breath at all you don't breathe

through your lungs anymore

and I know quite a few teachers that are

teaching this but it doesn't agree

with Positas not at all with mindfulness

of breathing you can stay

seeing the breath up to the realm or up

to and through the realm of nothingness

but when you get to the state of neither

perception nor non-perception you're not

able to see the breath anymore now this

one pointed concentration because it

suppresses the hindrances takes you off

of the path that the Buddha taught and

the end result is only going as high as

neither perception nor non-perception

with absorption concentration

you can't ever attain nirvana now when

the Buddha was a bodhisattva and he was

wanting to learn about meditation he

went to a couple different meditation

teachers and his first meditation

teacher he got to the realm of

nothingness and he went to the teacher

because he knew there was still more to

do and he said is there any more and the

teacher said no this is as high as you

get and the teacher offered him to teach

along with the teacher and he declined

and he was very much disappointed so he

found another meditation teacher and he

before he even started he said where

does this meditation take you and this

man said well it takes you to the realm

of neither perception nor non-perception

so he did it and he got to that realm

and he went to the teacher and he said

there's still stuff there there's still

something there this isn't quite right

is there anything that's going to take

me to nee Bona and they said Bona that

doesn't mean anything to me

this is as high as any human being can

experience practicing absorption

concentration so the the teacher said he

was willing to step down and let the Bou

that teach that for everyone and the

buddha declined and he went off on his

own absorption concentration even people

that are practicing the Posada will tell

you that the jhana cannot take you to

Nirvana but it's the absorption jhana

that they're talking about the next part

of the Vasudha maha is quote the possum

pip asana what does it mean in sake

right well the way that he presents it

it sounds like you can do the passo not

just by itself or you can do the dramas

and then add the Vipassana later but

that does not lead to navona that does

not agree with what does it does say

there's a certain here at page 149 and

section 10 if you want to look it up it

says that samhita or serenity or

tranquility and Vipassana are yoked

together they have to be equally pulling

every time if you go to the index just

about every time you look up Samanta and

then you look up in sight and you

compare the pages that they're on

they're on the same page they're

mentioned together many many many times

so the commentaries they talk about 9

different kinds of insight knowledge and

in the 40s maja seaside dog wrote a sub

commentary of the Vasudha manga and he

made sixteen insight knowledge --is and

that's what's currently been taught

today

the insight knowledge is that they're

talking about are not mentioned in the

sutras in the way that they they call

them insights with a possum as I said

I've practiced this for 20 years I've

gone through the insight knowledge as I

understand them very well they do not

mean to me but what they call name Bona

and what maja see sayaka's calls me Bona

is you get to San Carew

Pecha that's equanimity to formations

and then you will see right at the end

of that that state you will see a

Nietzsche impermanence arise and pass

away three or four times very quickly

and then you have a blackout or you will

see dukkha three or four times very

quickly and then you have

a blackout or you will see a not three

or four times very quickly and then you

have blackout and when that blackout

fades away then you will see all of the

insight knowledge is exactly the way

they happen starting from the second

insight knowledge always the end of it

and it happens that way but there are

some problems with this because that

doesn't agree with the suit dose there

is and I didn't bring it with me and I

wish I wouldn't there is a suta in the

Sam unique ayah that it says very very

plainly that if you do not see and

understand the links of dependent

origination you will never be able to

attain nirvana it's not talking about a

nature to God not that so much it's

talking about seeing the links of

dependent origination and further down

it goes through all of the links of

dependent origination and it says when

you see and understand this that is the

way you attain nirvana and in the

maharajah it says you can see one or all

of the three characteristics i just

mentioned a nutritive God not to without

ever seeing the links of dependent

origination but when you see the links

of dependent origination you see all of

those links in each link you see how it

arises you see that because it arises

it's

for man suffering because it's a

disturbance and you see that it's not so

it's not you so the instructions that

are given in the Apostle ah don't work

very well

because it is a commentary and a sub

commentary but it comes from and the sub

commentary it adds on a little bit and

it says well we also have this idea of

momentary concentration Konica samadhi

moment to moment awareness now the

problem with the Vipassana is that it

does not show you how to do let go of

breathing so you keep bringing craving

back to your object of meditation and

this is why the absorption concentration

and the strength I pass on I don't work

very well now they've made up this thing

well yeah this is what the experience is

I'm going to see an intra dukkha or not

and then I'm going to attain the Ivana I

left Burma very disappointed after a

two-year retreat because it didn't feel

right it didn't feel like I was I went

deep enough or I didn't have the relief

that I was told to that Nibbana was so I

went back to Malaysia

the people in Malaysia had sponsored my

plane trip to Burma so I came back to

Malaysia and they wanted me to teach

meditation because they knew I'd been

gone so long and they had heard that I

was successful and I couldn't in my

right mind I couldn't convince myself to

teach Vipassana meditation I just

couldn't do it because I didn't feel it

was the right thing so instead of that I

started teaching loving-kindness

meditation and after a couple of years I

was invited to go to the biggest

monastery in Kuala Lumpur that was

terrified that's the sri lankan

monastery and to teach the meditation

the loving-kindness meditation there and

while I was there there was a monk that

came to visit by the name of pool engine

and Panaji found out that I was teaching

meditation he said well how he teaching

it what do you do it so I started giving

him the instructions that a how to do

the meditation and he stopped me about

halfway through and he said it sounds

like you're teaching incorrectly but

you're using the language of the

commentaries why don't you put the

commentaries down and go to the suitors

and use suta language so that's what I

did and I said and somebody had just

given me a copy of the middle link

sayings so I was rather enthusiastic

about it because always before when I

picked

the suit does I would try to read it and

I couldn't understand it because I had

studied so many years the Vasudha Mago

and it didn't match and I always kept

going back to the viscera Mago so when

this month told me to put the viscera

market down now I started reading it and

I could understand it and it was pretty

remarkable

I was I was still teaching

loving-kindness meditation but I used

this one extra step of relax and when I

would give a retreat I would start

reading the surface to these people and

their progress and the meditation was so

fast

it was phenomenal before I started doing

this in Thailand they said if you want

to get into it jhana it's gonna take you

15 years if you want to get into it

jhana more quickly go to Sri Lanka it

only takes 10 years and that was what I

thought and I was also reading

commentarial books on the brahma vihara

where it says that you get to the third

jhana with loving-kindness you get to

the third jhana with compassion you get

to the third jhana with joy you get to

the fourth jhana with equanimity in the

first retreat that I started reading the

suta's I had four people that had gotten

as far as the second jhana and I started

going well this is really something this

is something that's supposed to take ten

years

if you're fast but they were all

teaching one-pointed kinds of

concentration and it can take a while to

get that and develop it so as I started

letting go of the ideas that I had with

the commentaries and started reading the

soup does I changed some of the ways

that I was teaching because it didn't

agree with what the suit is were saying

and when I was when I was first started

teaching loving-kindness meditation the

first retreat I gave was for 60 people

and they were so happy with it and so

enthusiastic that they went around

telling everybody else about it but what

I was telling people to do instead of

relax which is a very precise word to

use I said soften your mind make it

softer which it worked pretty well but

when I came up with the word relax after

reading the anapanasati suta that

changed my whole view I was giving the

retreat this is why I was just first

starting to read and I was walking to

give a Dhamma talk and I started really

thinking deeply about the tranquilizing

the bodily formation and one thing that

it always troubled me with Vipassana was

I had great concentration I mean to walk

the length of this building

doing the slow walking that they

recommend it would take me 45 minutes

just one direction and I was seeing the

arising and passing away of all kinds of

different things and I was seeing the

intention as I was arising I was doing

going through all of that but one of the

problems I had with that was I got this

terrific headache so I went to the

teacher I said you know the meditation

is no problem but I got this headache

and I just it doesn't seem right and the

instructions I was given was ignore it

it's nothing so the meditation teacher

told me to ignore craving but he didn't

recognize that that's what he was saying

so as I was walking to give the Dhamma

talk I started thinking you know there's

his tightness in my head I wonder what

happens if I let that go and relax and

it was such a profound experience I

stopped walking because when I let go of

that tightness in my head my mind was

clear there was no thoughts in it my

mind was very bright and alert so I

thought there's something to this so

after I gave the retreat I didn't tell

anybody about it but after I gave the

retreat I started sitting and following

the directions that I just read to you

on the in-breath you relax on the

out-breath relax

I went deeper faster than I've ever gone

before this is with quote being

successful with all the insight

knowledge ease and I was deeper than

that

so I thought this is pretty amazing so I

went to the head monk and I got

permission to take two weeks and I

wanted to go into Thailand because I

knew where there was a great cave and do

the meditation there and this cave it

was real high it was maybe 20 feet high

and it went out over so it was quite

open and a lot of length and that sort

of thing and I would get up in the

morning I would do my arms round and eat

and then I would study and then after

the after 12 o'clock

then I would say meditation until 10 or

11 or 12 o'clock at night and it was so

interesting

using that relaxed step that after two

weeks I couldn't stop and I just kept

going and I kept going and I kept seeing

all of these things that's talked about

in the suitcase well that was a very

nice confirmation after three months the

teacher in Malaysia got another month to

come get me if I could go back and then

I started teaching more and more what

I'm showing you right now now we get

into the four five four postures and

I've always loved this and I'll explain

why in a minute

again monks when walking a monk

understands I am walking

with standing he understands I am

standing when sitting he understands I'm

sitting when lying down he understands

I'm lying down when I was practicing the

opossum ah and doing the walking

meditation they told me I had to do this

part of the practice and I would get to

the end of the walk and I stood there

and I said to myself ten or fifteen

times standing standing standing

standing like I didn't know that I was

standing or sitting sitting

but when I got the book and I started

looking at it it says he understands do

you understand when you're standing and

when you're not do you understand when

you're sitting down that's all it means

know what your posture is so I was kind

of relieved to see that so you didn't

have to note something as dumb there's

like I don't know whether I'm sitting or

not I'd better check it out now we get

to full awareness again monks a monk is

one who acts in full awareness when

going forward and returning who acts in

full awareness when looking ahead and

looking away who acts in full awareness

when flexing and extending his limbs who

acts in full awareness when wearing his

robes and carrying his outer robe and

Bull who acts in full awareness when

eating drinking consumed

food and tasty who acts in full

awareness when defecating and urinating

who acts in full awareness when standing

walking sitting falling asleep waking up

talking and keeping silent full

awareness of what it's full awareness of

mind when you're doing these full

awareness being means being aware of

when there's tension and tightness in

your head and when there's not while

you're doing activities that's one of

the reasons that I want you to keep your

meditation going during your daily

activities so you can watch what mind is

doing and let go of nonsense thoughts

and you can let go of distracting

thoughts and be with what you're doing

while you're doing okay now

monks if anyone should develop these

four foundations of mindfulness in such

a way for seven years one of two fruits

can be expected for him either final

knowledge Aaron now becoming in our eyes

or if there is a trace of craving and

clinging left they would become a non

returner that means an honor let alone

seven years monks if anyone should

develop these four foundations of

mindfulness in such a way for six years

five years four years three years two

years one year one of two fruits can be

expected for him either final knowledge

here and now

or if there's a trace of cream craving

and flinging left non-return let alone

one here if anyone should develop these

four foundations of mindfulness in such

a way for seven months six months five

months four months three months two

months one month one of two fruits can

be expected for him either final

knowledge here and now or if there's a

trace of craving and flinging left non

return if anyone should develop these

four foundations of mindfulness in such

a way for seven days one of two fruits

can be expected for him either final

knowledge here and now or if there's a

trace of craving and clinging left non

return so it was with reference to this

that it was said monks this is a direct

path for the purification of beings for

the surmounting of sorrow and mammon

tation for the disappearance of pain and

grief for the attainment of the true way

for the realization of Nevada and mainly

the four foundations of mindfulness this

is what the Blessed One said the monks

were satisfied and delighted in the

Blessed ones words

used to take two days doing so it's got

a question

collectiveness is a composed mind that's

very still equanimity is a mind that has

extreme balance okay now what's going to

happen as you keep going deeper and

deeper in your practice you're going to

get to a place where you are going to

experience

Oh disenchantment that's what it what is

disenchanted it means that the things

that were real special to you and really

meant a lot now they're not so special

anymore

now you're just seeing things as they

are and they're all pretty much people

and then your mind will start to go

deeper and you will experience

dispassion dispassion is the highest

degree of equanimity that you can

experience look over here and you see

this you look over here and you see that

there's really no difference

it's just sight color and form coming in

hitting the eye eye consciousness arises

the meeting of the three is called eye

contact with eye contact as condition I

feeling arises with I feeling when I I

feeling arises by craving arises then

what happens after that is the tinging

habitual tendency the birth of action so

when you see all of that with this

passion you'll be able to see the

different links and you'll be able to

and that's how you get to an

unconditioned state because every length

of the dependent origination is the

condition for the next link and when

that link doesn't arise and there's no

other condition that's

it's such a big Wow that when you come

out of that state your understanding

changes and you start to see things in a

more balanced unemotional state you can

still have emotions arise but you're not

adapted to them there's not a lot of

personality change that happens at first

over a period of time after you've had

the fruition the first thing you

experience is the next thing you'll

experience is the fruition knowledge

once you have the fruition it starts

starts to get set and over a period of

time you'll start noticing changes in

the way you look at things and how you

used to get caught up in something

really a lot and it would take days and

weeks and months to straighten it out

and now it's not quite so bad it's

easier as time goes by and your mind you

sit in meditation your mind can go right

into equanimity and then neither

perception nor non-perception pretty

easily so there's a lot of advantages

not working too hard but working hard

enough

you