From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qv48zvvjEhs

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

yes

so is that where there's the division

between

the word

if i get it right

keep going

and one pointedness

ikagita

and

but in

one by one as it occurred they don't use

that word they use unification of mine

right so please explain

okay ikaga

in pali means tranquil

okay

ikaga

is

it's kind of kind of like the act of

being

tranquil

but over the years it's also

the act of being

still

the act of being

one pointed

now there's a lot of justification for

this even if you read

said lucille inanda's book

he gives you five different definitions

of ikagata

and it's always breaking

ika

which means one

and then putting kagata behind it

and he has different

different ways of looking at that

but there are some words in poly

that you can't tear apart

you can't say eca means one so this is

one pointed concentration

so we run into some some problems when

you start looking at

ikaga

which is right after the word

ikagata in in the dictionary or right

before i don't remember which

meaning tranquility meaning stillness

meaning composure

and then having ego ekagata

with a completely different meaning

and

that meaning

has been

changed to mean

absorption concentration

it means one pointedness it means having

your mind glued on your object of

meditation

now the point with the the problem with

one pointedness is

the force of the concentration

suppresses

the hindrances

now according to the burmese

that's a good thing

that means your mind is pure

and it is at that time

but when you lose your concentration

who comes to dinner

right so you have all of these

these hindrances that come up but

because they were suppressed

and it starts being suppressed at excess

concentration

you're not able to recognize when they

come up

you're identified with the hindrances

a lot of people that i know from my own

personal practice i had a lot of pride

i know this meditation better than you

know it

what you're saying is nonsense what i'm

saying is right you know it's that kind

of mind that occurs

because of not being able to recognize

that kind of hindrance when it arises

why

because it gets suppressed

so you don't see it when it comes up

this is part of the reason why so many

people practice straight vipassana for

15 20 30 40 years

and they talk about

there's no real progress

this is a problem

well it's not a problem if you go back

to the suttas

but i went back to the suttas and you

know how much i get criticized for this

i'm an outlaw according to them

i'm really somebody to stay away from

they're afraid because

i can show them what the buddha said

and how he meant it

so in the instructions

there's a word when we're talking about

tranquilizing the bodily formation

okay the poly word

is

oh she's not watching

possum baya

can mean

many different things

depending on the other words around it

okay

now it can be a verb

it can be a noun

it can be an adjective it can be an

adverb

depending on the words how it's used in

the sentence

this tells you what it's talking about

now possum baia

the way

that it's it's supposed to be translated

in english

means that you tranquilize

your bodily formation on the in-breath

and you tranquilize your bodily

formation on the out breath and the

thing that tells you about this

is

he

trains thus

okay that makes it into an action verb

a lot of people will say

i get into this deep concentration i am

tranquil

but that's not what the instructions are

given

were were given

it's not after the fact because it says

that you become

you tranquilize on the in-breath and on

the out breath

they don't do that they don't have this

relaxed step in it now what's the

important of the relaxed step you don't

get into absorption concentration when

you're doing the relaxed step

it won't allow you to go that deep

what is the relaxed step

the relaxed step is

letting go of

craving

see how it works

so anytime somebody is doing a practice

and they don't have that relaxed step in

it and use it often

then

they can get caught by

this deep concentration which suppresses

the hindrances

and all of the hindrances

are where

your

ego belief in a self

is stored

okay the reason the hindrances come up

because of past action

breaking a precept for one reason or

another

and then

you can feel guilty about it for a while

you killed somebody else or you stole

something or you had sexual misconduct

with someone or you you used your your

verbal

uh

telling lies or dividing people or

cursing and that sort of thing

now you can get to a point where you go

oh that doesn't mean anything i don't

care but your mind holds on to that

and your mind will say if you if you

break a precept i shouldn't have done

that

i know i shouldn't have done that

but you can gloss it over

but guess what

that hindrance is going to manifest as

restlessness

sloth and torpor

doubt

hatred

lust

and all of those

have

craving

in them

i

am

that

whatever that hindrance happens to be

so if you're not

consciously letting go of that

on the in-breath you relax on the out

breath you relax you practice the six

hours you have that relaxed step in it

if you don't do that

the force of the concentration

will suppress it

but

your mind isn't totally pure

why

because when you lose your concentration

you've got the hindrances

and the identification

with those hindrances

so it's a real important thing

to have that

step of

relax and it's done in a particular way

on the in-breath when it when you're

doing breathing meditation on the

in-breath you relax

what do you relax

now

your brain has two parts in it

and around each part

is

a membrane called the meninges

now where the two parts come together

every time there is a uh

a break of the hindrance

they kind of get stuck together

okay

and what happens every time

you have a thought

every time a sensation arises every time

a feeling arises this meninges

tightens

when it tightens

that is how you recognize when craving

has arisen

what is craving

interesting question

something that you can ask a lot of

meditation teachers about

and they won't give you a real idea of

what craving is

it's always recognized as tension in

tightness in mind and in body

and it manifests as

i

like or i

don't like depending on the feeling that

arose right before

that craving came up

and because that craving is there that's

the very start

of

your identification

i am that

i like this i don't like that

then the clinging arises which is yours

your

opinions ideas thoughts cravings uh not

cravings but concepts and stories

okay

that's the thing that pulls you away

and completely distracts you

so you don't even know that you have an

object of meditation

you don't even know where you are most

of the time people don't even recognize

when they have a body they get so caught

up in the thinking thinking thinking

thinking thinking

so when you start practicing this

and you start recognizing that there is

this tightness that happens

every time there's a distraction

a hindrance

and when you're able to relax

you'll feel

that membrane

let go a little bit

and when you do it feels like an

expansion that happens in your mind in

your head

and what you'll notice right after that

is there is no thoughts there is no

clinging

why because there is no craving because

you let it go

your mind is clear your mind is bright

your mind is agile

and your mind is pure why is it pure

because you don't have any craving in it

and you take that mind

and bring up a wholesome object

what's a wholesome object

smile

so your mind gets light

now you bring that smiling mind back to

your object to meditation

if you follow the directions

the way that i'm showing

don't add anything don't subtract

anything use the six r's

roll your r's

it's not

recognize release relax re-smile

return repeat it's not that

it's a flow that you get into it's

there it is let it be relax smile come

back

now you're starting to purify your mind

why are you purifying your mind because

you don't have any craving in it at that

time

until there's another distraction

so

i forgot the point that i was starting

out on

icargata well that was the point

okay

now i

i rather prefer

two other words rather than one

pointedness

or concentration for a kagata i rather

prefer

collectedness or composed

and

unified

because your mind does

come and is very

alert and it's unified on your object to

meditation

now when you look at the word unified

you have uni in it uni means one

but it doesn't mean one pointed it means

staying on on your object without

uh gluing your attention to it

so that if there is a distraction you'll

be able to see

how mind's attention moves

that's the definition of mindfulness

remembering

to observe how

mind's attention moves from one thing to

another

and that's the whole key to the

meditation

how does mind's attention move

not why we don't care about the content

of the thought we don't care if your

your mother [ __ ] or toe when you're

about four years old and you didn't like

it

we don't care if there's anger that

comes up and flares we want to see

how does this process work

this is

a completely impersonal process you

don't ask any of this stuff to come up

it comes up because the conditions are

right for it to come up

what you do with that right now dictates

what happens in the future

the more times

you use the six hours and you relax and

smile and come back to your object of

meditation

the longer you will stay with your

object of meditation

and the sharper your mindfulness come

becomes when there is a distraction so

you don't get caught for as long

so it's like a soft application of

concentration rather than a reform

application yes absolutely

but i i

because of the word concentration the

way it's used in this country i stay

away from it as much as i can

collected means

together

and it is an alert

and i i do prefer that word

and i didn't invent that that definition

i got that from other books that i've

read and i kept on

bumping into it with these other

different books going oh i like that

better than concentration so i

prefer the word collectedness to

concentration because it won't be

misunderstood so easily

you

yes

so is that where there's the division

between

the word

if i get it right

keep going

and one pointedness

ikagita

and

but in

one by one as it occurred they don't use

that word they use unification of mine

right so please explain

okay ikaga

in pali means tranquil

okay

ikaga

is

it's kind of kind of like the act of

being

tranquil

but over the years it's also

the act of being

still

the act of being

one pointed

now there's a lot of justification for

this even if you read

said lucille inanda's book

he gives you five different definitions

of ikagata

and it's always breaking

ika

which means one

and then putting kagata behind it

and he has different

different ways of looking at that

but there are some words in poly

that you can't tear apart

you can't say eca means one so this is

one pointed concentration

so we run into some some problems when

you start looking at

ikaga

which is right after the word

ikagata in in the dictionary or right

before i don't remember which

meaning tranquility meaning stillness

meaning composure

and then having ego ekagata

with a completely different meaning

and

that meaning

has been

changed to mean

absorption concentration

it means one pointedness it means having

your mind glued on your object of

meditation

now the point with the the problem with

one pointedness is

the force of the concentration

suppresses

the hindrances

now according to the burmese

that's a good thing

that means your mind is pure

and it is at that time

but when you lose your concentration

who comes to dinner

right so you have all of these

these hindrances that come up but

because they were suppressed

and it starts being suppressed at excess

concentration

you're not able to recognize when they

come up

you're identified with the hindrances

a lot of people that i know from my own

personal practice i had a lot of pride

i know this meditation better than you

know it

what you're saying is nonsense what i'm

saying is right you know it's that kind

of mind that occurs

because of not being able to recognize

that kind of hindrance when it arises

why

because it gets suppressed

so you don't see it when it comes up

this is part of the reason why so many

people practice straight vipassana for

15 20 30 40 years

and they talk about

there's no real progress

this is a problem

well it's not a problem if you go back

to the suttas

but i went back to the suttas and you

know how much i get criticized for this

i'm an outlaw according to them

i'm really somebody to stay away from

they're afraid because

i can show them what the buddha said

and how he meant it

so in the instructions

there's a word when we're talking about

tranquilizing the bodily formation

okay the poly word

is

oh she's not watching

possum baya

can mean

many different things

depending on the other words around it

okay

now it can be a verb

it can be a noun

it can be an adjective it can be an

adverb

depending on the words how it's used in

the sentence

this tells you what it's talking about

now possum baia

the way

that it's it's supposed to be translated

in english

means that you tranquilize

your bodily formation on the in-breath

and you tranquilize your bodily

formation on the out breath and the

thing that tells you about this

is

he

trains thus

okay that makes it into an action verb

a lot of people will say

i get into this deep concentration i am

tranquil

but that's not what the instructions are

given

were were given

it's not after the fact because it says

that you become

you tranquilize on the in-breath and on

the out breath

they don't do that they don't have this

relaxed step in it now what's the

important of the relaxed step you don't

get into absorption concentration when

you're doing the relaxed step

it won't allow you to go that deep

what is the relaxed step

the relaxed step is

letting go of

craving

see how it works

so anytime somebody is doing a practice

and they don't have that relaxed step in

it and use it often

then

they can get caught by

this deep concentration which suppresses

the hindrances

and all of the hindrances

are where

your

ego belief in a self

is stored

okay the reason the hindrances come up

because of past action

breaking a precept for one reason or

another

and then

you can feel guilty about it for a while

you killed somebody else or you stole

something or you had sexual misconduct

with someone or you you used your your

verbal

uh

telling lies or dividing people or

cursing and that sort of thing

now you can get to a point where you go

oh that doesn't mean anything i don't

care but your mind holds on to that

and your mind will say if you if you

break a precept i shouldn't have done

that

i know i shouldn't have done that

but you can gloss it over

but guess what

that hindrance is going to manifest as

restlessness

sloth and torpor

doubt

hatred

lust

and all of those

have

craving

in them

i

am

that

whatever that hindrance happens to be

so if you're not

consciously letting go of that

on the in-breath you relax on the out

breath you relax you practice the six

hours you have that relaxed step in it

if you don't do that

the force of the concentration

will suppress it

but

your mind isn't totally pure

why

because when you lose your concentration

you've got the hindrances

and the identification

with those hindrances

so it's a real important thing

to have that

step of

relax and it's done in a particular way

on the in-breath when it when you're

doing breathing meditation on the

in-breath you relax

what do you relax

now

your brain has two parts in it

and around each part

is

a membrane called the meninges

now where the two parts come together

every time there is a uh

a break of the hindrance

they kind of get stuck together

okay

and what happens every time

you have a thought

every time a sensation arises every time

a feeling arises this meninges

tightens

when it tightens

that is how you recognize when craving

has arisen

what is craving

interesting question

something that you can ask a lot of

meditation teachers about

and they won't give you a real idea of

what craving is

it's always recognized as tension in

tightness in mind and in body

and it manifests as

i

like or i

don't like depending on the feeling that

arose right before

that craving came up

and because that craving is there that's

the very start

of

your identification

i am that

i like this i don't like that

then the clinging arises which is yours

your

opinions ideas thoughts cravings uh not

cravings but concepts and stories

okay

that's the thing that pulls you away

and completely distracts you

so you don't even know that you have an

object of meditation

you don't even know where you are most

of the time people don't even recognize

when they have a body they get so caught

up in the thinking thinking thinking

thinking thinking

so when you start practicing this

and you start recognizing that there is

this tightness that happens

every time there's a distraction

a hindrance

and when you're able to relax

you'll feel

that membrane

let go a little bit

and when you do it feels like an

expansion that happens in your mind in

your head

and what you'll notice right after that

is there is no thoughts there is no

clinging

why because there is no craving because

you let it go

your mind is clear your mind is bright

your mind is agile

and your mind is pure why is it pure

because you don't have any craving in it

and you take that mind

and bring up a wholesome object

what's a wholesome object

smile

so your mind gets light

now you bring that smiling mind back to

your object to meditation

if you follow the directions

the way that i'm showing

don't add anything don't subtract

anything use the six r's

roll your r's

it's not

recognize release relax re-smile

return repeat it's not that

it's a flow that you get into it's

there it is let it be relax smile come

back

now you're starting to purify your mind

why are you purifying your mind because

you don't have any craving in it at that

time

until there's another distraction

so

i forgot the point that i was starting

out on

icargata well that was the point

okay

now i

i rather prefer

two other words rather than one

pointedness

or concentration for a kagata i rather

prefer

collectedness or composed

and

unified

because your mind does

come and is very

alert and it's unified on your object to

meditation

now when you look at the word unified

you have uni in it uni means one

but it doesn't mean one pointed it means

staying on on your object without

uh gluing your attention to it

so that if there is a distraction you'll

be able to see

how mind's attention moves

that's the definition of mindfulness

remembering

to observe how

mind's attention moves from one thing to

another

and that's the whole key to the

meditation

how does mind's attention move

not why we don't care about the content

of the thought we don't care if your

your mother [ __ ] or toe when you're

about four years old and you didn't like

it

we don't care if there's anger that

comes up and flares we want to see

how does this process work

this is

a completely impersonal process you

don't ask any of this stuff to come up

it comes up because the conditions are

right for it to come up

what you do with that right now dictates

what happens in the future

the more times

you use the six hours and you relax and

smile and come back to your object of

meditation

the longer you will stay with your

object of meditation

and the sharper your mindfulness come

becomes when there is a distraction so

you don't get caught for as long

so it's like a soft application of

concentration rather than a reform

application yes absolutely

but i i

because of the word concentration the

way it's used in this country i stay

away from it as much as i can

collected means

together

and it is an alert

and i i do prefer that word

and i didn't invent that that definition

i got that from other books that i've

read and i kept on

bumping into it with these other

different books going oh i like that

better than concentration so i

prefer the word collectedness to

concentration because it won't be

misunderstood so easily

you