From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TMoiFfZDi4Y
Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.
now the last factor of the fold path is
called rate concentration and I've never
liked that word because it's misleading
and an awful lot of people will talk
about absorption and the Buddha didn't
practice absorption well he did practice
it when he first started out as a
bodhisattva but he didn't teach
absorption concentration
he taught serenity he taught
collectiveness of mine now if you look
up the definition of collectiveness it
says that there's calm composed still
and that's a good definition so I call
it harmonious collectiveness
the word in Pali is Samadhi Samadhi is a
word that was made up by the Buddha it
was never used before the time of the
Buddha he made that word up there were a
lot of words to describe absorption
extreme one-pointedness but he made up
the word Samadhi to mean a different
kind of concentration not an absorption
kind of concentration the kind of
concentration that he was talking about
is the collectiveness when people
practice one pointed concentration their
mind is under object of meditation and
it gets stuck on the object of
meditation now if there's a distraction
they let go of the distraction and
immediately come back to your object of
meditation they are bringing that
craving back to the object of meditation
and through a lot of hard practice you
can get into the jhanas the absorption
jaundice but your mind just stays on one
thing it's not aware of things around it
it doesn't see how Maya's attention
moves it just stays on one thing and
when it does that the force of the
concentration stops hindrances from
arising and you've heard me talk a lot
about how the hindrances are important
the entrances are a necessary part of
the practice because that's where your
attachment is you have to be able to see
them and
then go not force them to stop because
your concentration is so strong when you
add that extra step of relax your mind
will not go all the way to an absorption
state it will go into a jhana but we
like to call this kind of Jonah and
aware Jonah because you be your being
the Jonah for a little while and it's
real pleasant if your mind is very
stable and your mindfulness for whatever
reason becomes weak then you have a
hindrance that you have to work with the
hindrance comes up now you got to work
with this image letting it go relaxing
coming back to your object of meditation
and you bounce back and forth with that
until that entrance gets so weak that it
doesn't come up anymore and then you'll
go deeper you'll go into from the from
the third jhana into the fourth jhana or
from the fourth jhana into the first
Aruba jhana the hindrances help you to
sharpen your mindfulness but when you're
practicing one pointed concentration
that suppresses the hindrances that
stops the hindrances from arising and
another thing that it does is when you
get out of your meditation and start
walking around you get attacked by the
hindrances you get your discipline
dislike and dissatisfaction and critical
mind and all of these other things you
get them arising but you don't really
recognize it as a hindrance because
you're not used to seeing but when
you're doing this aware jhana
you are being able to recognize
hindrances in your daily life when they
come up
and then you can start 6rn and letting
it go it works really really well
this Eightfold Path is truly remarkable
it's really something you don't have to
know all of the factors of the full path
and when you smile you're practicing all
of the factors of the old path at that
time when you six are something you're
practicing all of the factors of the
full path at that time so this practice
is really it's a basic practice but it's
the one that the Buddha chose to teach
everybody anytime you can let go of your
your time how you're craving every time
you let go of that your mind becomes
pure your mind becomes alert and you
bring that mind back to your object of
meditation so you're bringing this pure
mind back to your object of meditation
your progress and the meditation is fast
because you're not having to work with
pushing down or pushing away the craving
and trying to stop it from coming up for
a brief moment you're learning how to
truly let go of the craving and that's
the cause of suffering
until you get to the cessation of
perception and feeling and then the
practice just kind of takes over by
itself when you come back out of the
cessation of perception and feeling you
will see the links of dependent
origination how they arise and how they
cease and when there is the last letting
go of ignorance
you will experience Nirvana that's how
it works you're letting go of every link
of dependent origination until there's
nothing more to let go of and you go
into an unconditioned State because
you've let go of all conditions you let
them go you've seen them the way they
truly are and this brings true
personality training so that you can let
go of a belief in a personal self you
can let go of an idea that rites and
rituals are going to take you to Nevada
you can let go of all of your doubt
because there's no more doubt you could
you have that experience there is not a
doubt in your mind they that's right now
depending how deep you go it depends on
what stage of of enlightenment occurs
for you and this is all personal stuff I
can't tell you well you're gonna be a
soda bun and you're gonna be a non egami
I don't know it depends on whether you
have something left or not and your
merit it depends on you
you
now the last factor of the fold path is
called rate concentration and I've never
liked that word because it's misleading
and an awful lot of people will talk
about absorption and the Buddha didn't
practice absorption well he did practice
it when he first started out as a
bodhisattva but he didn't teach
absorption concentration
he taught serenity he taught
collectiveness of mine now if you look
up the definition of collectiveness it
says that there's calm composed still
and that's a good definition so I call
it harmonious collectiveness
the word in Pali is Samadhi Samadhi is a
word that was made up by the Buddha it
was never used before the time of the
Buddha he made that word up there were a
lot of words to describe absorption
extreme one-pointedness but he made up
the word Samadhi to mean a different
kind of concentration not an absorption
kind of concentration the kind of
concentration that he was talking about
is the collectiveness when people
practice one pointed concentration their
mind is under object of meditation and
it gets stuck on the object of
meditation now if there's a distraction
they let go of the distraction and
immediately come back to your object of
meditation they are bringing that
craving back to the object of meditation
and through a lot of hard practice you
can get into the jhanas the absorption
jaundice but your mind just stays on one
thing it's not aware of things around it
it doesn't see how Maya's attention
moves it just stays on one thing and
when it does that the force of the
concentration stops hindrances from
arising and you've heard me talk a lot
about how the hindrances are important
the entrances are a necessary part of
the practice because that's where your
attachment is you have to be able to see
them and
then go not force them to stop because
your concentration is so strong when you
add that extra step of relax your mind
will not go all the way to an absorption
state it will go into a jhana but we
like to call this kind of Jonah and
aware Jonah because you be your being
the Jonah for a little while and it's
real pleasant if your mind is very
stable and your mindfulness for whatever
reason becomes weak then you have a
hindrance that you have to work with the
hindrance comes up now you got to work
with this image letting it go relaxing
coming back to your object of meditation
and you bounce back and forth with that
until that entrance gets so weak that it
doesn't come up anymore and then you'll
go deeper you'll go into from the from
the third jhana into the fourth jhana or
from the fourth jhana into the first
Aruba jhana the hindrances help you to
sharpen your mindfulness but when you're
practicing one pointed concentration
that suppresses the hindrances that
stops the hindrances from arising and
another thing that it does is when you
get out of your meditation and start
walking around you get attacked by the
hindrances you get your discipline
dislike and dissatisfaction and critical
mind and all of these other things you
get them arising but you don't really
recognize it as a hindrance because
you're not used to seeing but when
you're doing this aware jhana
you are being able to recognize
hindrances in your daily life when they
come up
and then you can start 6rn and letting
it go it works really really well
this Eightfold Path is truly remarkable
it's really something you don't have to
know all of the factors of the full path
and when you smile you're practicing all
of the factors of the old path at that
time when you six are something you're
practicing all of the factors of the
full path at that time so this practice
is really it's a basic practice but it's
the one that the Buddha chose to teach
everybody anytime you can let go of your
your time how you're craving every time
you let go of that your mind becomes
pure your mind becomes alert and you
bring that mind back to your object of
meditation so you're bringing this pure
mind back to your object of meditation
your progress and the meditation is fast
because you're not having to work with
pushing down or pushing away the craving
and trying to stop it from coming up for
a brief moment you're learning how to
truly let go of the craving and that's
the cause of suffering
until you get to the cessation of
perception and feeling and then the
practice just kind of takes over by
itself when you come back out of the
cessation of perception and feeling you
will see the links of dependent
origination how they arise and how they
cease and when there is the last letting
go of ignorance
you will experience Nirvana that's how
it works you're letting go of every link
of dependent origination until there's
nothing more to let go of and you go
into an unconditioned State because
you've let go of all conditions you let
them go you've seen them the way they
truly are and this brings true
personality training so that you can let
go of a belief in a personal self you
can let go of an idea that rites and
rituals are going to take you to Nevada
you can let go of all of your doubt
because there's no more doubt you could
you have that experience there is not a
doubt in your mind they that's right now
depending how deep you go it depends on
what stage of of enlightenment occurs
for you and this is all personal stuff I
can't tell you well you're gonna be a
soda bun and you're gonna be a non egami
I don't know it depends on whether you
have something left or not and your
merit it depends on you
you