From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FcDd-n89uKY

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

the path to Nirvana her mindfulness of

loving-kindness progresses through the

tranquil aware Jonah's to awakening by

david c johnson copyright 2018 david c

johnson third edition 4-16 2018

published by BTS publishing Annapolis

Missouri

acknowledgments I

to acknowledge venerable ban TV

millirems Imahara from whom I have

learned this practice he is the founder

of tranquil wisdom inside meditation he

wim without his skillful guidance this

project would not be possible

descriptions for many of the journalists

have come from evening talks on the ANU

pada Sutter m and 111 by venerable Vinny

larum she it was is struggle through

years of intense meditation practice and

his discussions with many of the world's

most venerable monks that led him in an

entirely different direction he went

back to the earliest Buddhist teachings

the Sutter's in the Pali Canon to

practice what the Buddha himself had

taught his own disciples for this he

discovered T wim and has given us this

gift of true Dharma I wish to thank the

venerable for reviewing this work and

correcting misunderstandings which may

have occurred I also acknowledge bhikkhu

bodhi for his work the middle length

discourses of the Buddha a translation

of the mad Jima nikka wisdom

publications Somerville MA 1995 by

bhikkhu bodhi and bakunano moly this

book with some exceptions is the basis

for Twi a meditation practice thanks

also to brand right a MacRay who wrote

down a one-page summary based on student

interviews of what meditators

experienced as they progressed through

the meditation process seeing the need

to document the levels of practice I

expanded her summary to the book you now

reading also thanks to the Terry Paul

Paul Johnson mark and aunt Roberta Doug

Crafton Jay Delma who helped with

editing and for the many useful

suggestions

thanks to s Jordan who rendered a

beautiful cover art from his own unique

design

introduction the purpose of this book is

to help the earnest seeker and advanced

meditator understand the experiences and

signposts on the Buddha's path which has

as its goal the destruction of craving

and the elimination of ignorance I want

to document these experiences for the

meditation community so they may be

studied and preserved as a guide to

future meditators this book was also

written so that meditators without

access to local teachers could have all

the instructions to continue down this

path on their own every instruction on

how to meditate at every level is here

there are no secret techniques held back

just the words from the suttas and

commentary by venerable bhante Vimy

larum xi in this book the beginners

instruction guide a beginner's guide to

tranquil wisdom inside meditation by

bhante vim alarum she and myself is

integrated and provides instructions for

the beginning meditator if you are

familiar with e starting instructions

you can skip ahead to the section on the

advanced chapters on jhana if when you

are starting you bog down and you just

can't feel this loving-kindness for

yourself take a look at the pamphlet

provided at the end of this book by bart

ava malarum she entitled a guide to

forgiveness meditation try this

meditation and see if it doesn't

loosened possible emotional blocks from

past traumas bosses or other scary

memories forgiveness can be a perfect

prerequisite to experiencing warm

flowing loving-kindness but some places

in the book one will put meditation

instruction to highlight for students

who are using this book as an

instruction guide progressive directions

on how to proceed with the practice

Twi M is a fancy name for basic click

the brahma vihara practice starting with

meta are loving-kindness as the object

breath may be used but tends to have

slower progress these instructions are

taken directly from the meditation

methods described in the suttas the

earliest Buddhist teachings Twi M is the

practice that will leads to Nirvana as

it is outlined in E texts we will see

that when the instructions are followed

there are immediate results precisely as

the Buddha laid out the path to nib

honor elaborates on both the goal in the

practice of meditation is explained by

the Buddha its purpose is to follow the

progress of the practice as it is

explained in the suttas themselves for

that the clearest map is the match Jima

nikka MN number 111 the ANU pada Sutter

one by one is they occurred this Sutter

shows how progress occurs step-by-step

all the way to nib Honor this is the map

we will use as we go through the levels

of insight in this book the Sutter's of

the Pali Canon are traceable back to

thousand five hundred and fifty years to

the Buddha himself they are considered

by scholars to be the words of the

Buddha as he originally spoke them to

put a finer point on this it is thought

that the Buddha spoke my daddy that was

his native language Pali is a form of

that language and later all of the

Sutter's were documented in Pali

first by reciting and then writing them

down by members of the Buddhist Order in

Sri Lanka they were written on palm

leaves about 80 BC as they were written

down monks who had memorized the suttas

check thee written texts for any added

or wrong words the Sutter's were

inscribed on stone tablets in Mandalay

Burma and the today still being

memorized and recited by Buddhist monks

in Burmese monasteries this has

continued since the first Council of 500

senior monks or arahants convened

three months after the Buddha died I

visited this interesting site in Burma

in 2003 and saw the white marble stones

with these very inscriptions groups of

monks memorized the sutter texts

together one monk will recite and the

rest of the group of check and correct

him as he goes this method has been

about as foolproof as any other to

retain original texts for long periods

writing the Sutter's down can be subject

to the translators misinterpretation of

what words to use to describe the

practice precisely but even with this

method there could have been errors that

crept in even as perfect as this system

was we can't really know because we

weren't there and it was over 25

centuries ago thus we use these Sutter's

as the closest direct guide to what the

Buddha really taught there are many

Buddhist sects and many different

beliefs and practices all we can do is

find what meditation practice matches

the Buddha's words the practice of Twi M

is new in the sense it has been

rediscovered in the suttas it is not

practiced very widely yet which seems

rather surprising in fact venerable

bhante v malarum she and his approved

teachers are the only ones who teach

directly from the suttas in this way

others reference the suttas but don't

follow them precisely Twi M is the

actual and correct application of right

effort this is the reason for its

resulting success I will discuss more

about this later changes have been made

in other practices to allegedly improve

upon the Buddha's meditation

instructions but hold on he was the

Buddha is it not just a little bit

presumptuous to think that the

instructions of a Buddha can be improved

upon after all he was indeed the supreme

iya wait can't affogato perfecting his

wisdom over countless lifetimes let's

try to put aside all the other

techniques for now and just focus on how

to practice as described in the early

teachings as close to the actual words

of the Buddha as we can get most

scholars agree that the Pali Canon and

its utters are the actual teachings of

the Buddha so let's go to them and only

them to find the way to practice the ANU

pada Sutter M in 111 explains the

progress of the meditation through the

jhanas and the four foundations of

mindfulness at the same time it will be

shown here that these jhanas when

practiced as taught in the suttas will

lead us to awakening the jhanas

described in the Anu Pardus at were not

to be confused with the concentration

states commonly taught elsewhere these

are the tranquil aware jhanas that are

being taught in the suttas in which you

maintain awareness if both mind and body

the foundation is collectiveness not

concentration which we will cover later

it is this rediscovered to wear jhana

that is the key to a new understanding

of the Buddha's teachings the TWI M

technique referenced in this book uses

for its primary sutter guide the middle

length discourses of the Buddha a

translation of the match Jim Anika by

bhikkhu bodhi and Baku nana moly fontava

malarum she feels this is the closest

translation available though sometimes

he prefers different wordings then are

used there for example he uses the word

habitual tendency instead of becoming

more on this later we will combine here

the explanation of the suttas meaning

with the actual experiences of the many

meditators who have

practiced and have been successful also

we will attempt to explain some of the

reasons why certain experiences and

subtle phenomena occur though only the

Buddha knows for sure please forgive me

for errors and omissions some phenomena

are like the subtlest links of dependent

origination that are deep down in the

mental processes have had their

descriptions left out they are for the

student to discover on their own and it

won't change the pace of a student's

progress by not describing them here

explaining certain phenomena before the

student is ready to see them can create

false expectations and wrong ideas many

students later a grateful the bhante

does not explain to them where they are

in the Gianna's they just want to

progress and not be thinking and

analyzing as they practice they may

develop some sense of pride because of

thoughts about I am in this jar Nara

that jhana they might have some

familiarity with meditation practice and

may have some conceit arisal get stuck

thinking about how far advanced they are

when they are only beginners in this

practice it is better off not knowing

where you are if you are on an intensive

retreat and just follow the instructions

if you are seeking an even deeper

understanding of how the practice works

than what is described here in this book

more descriptions of insights and levels

of understanding that arise and the

subtle references that support this

meditation you may also want to read one

of the following books meditation is

life life is meditation which provides

information in depth and detail breath

of love and moving Dharma volume Volume

one also offers skillful guidance as one

goes deeper into the practice these are

all written by venerable bhante vim

alarum Shi my purpose here is to put

down on paper the steps to awakening the

progress through the levels of insight

to awakening it is my hope that this

knowledge can be handed down studied in

the future and not lost this book is

based on venerable fontava malarum she's

Sutter based methods and results using

texts from his various talks as

drawing on my own personal experiences

involving this practice today's

practices include Brahmanic influences

new-age methods and even a new take on

Buddhism in which the Buddha himself

starts to disappear from the pages this

is called secular Buddhism adjust

mindfulness with no mention of the

Buddha the heart weight of the Buddha's

teachings has been mixed up with Western

psychology and even the word mindfulness

is no longer being used in the way the

Buddha intended and an important goal of

this book is to show how Buddhism as it

is generally taught today has veered

away from the ideas presented in the

suttas it has deviated from what the

historical Buddha taught we are going to

explore among other things what the

Buddha taught us in his own words from

the suttas awakening both mind and body

dependent origination the definition of

mindfulness what his tranquil wisdom

inside meditation Twi M what are the six

rupees two types of jonna's absorption

jhanas and aware jhanas the progress

through the jhanas turn abana the four

stages of sainthood chapter one what is

Buddhism around 2600 years ago when the

young Prince Siddhartha Gautama went

outside his palace into the village he

realized suffering was experienced

universally by all beings he found that

there was sickness old age and death and

it's a shocked him that he left behind

his wife a newborn son his kingdom and

all his worldly goods to go in search of

a way to end this suffering after years

of searching he finally discovered the

path to the end of suffering Nibbana a

path which he described as not only

achieving release from suffering but

that it was also immediately effective

or not taking that long if practiced

correctly he then spent the next 45

years teaching that path to others

during that time many people were

awakened the matter vaca got to Sutter

number 73 in the match Dominica MN

confirms and gives us more details about

just how many

thousands of people were awakened in the

sutter when the buddha is asked if there

were any beings who had been successful

he clearly described the numbers and

attainments of those he had taught what

is suffering the Buddha stated the cause

through his Four Noble Truths there are

suffering and dissatisfaction in the

world and in our lives the cause and

origin of that suffering is craving the

cessation of craving is the cessation of

suffering the Eightfold Path leads us to

the end of that suffering this is

Buddhism in brief suffering the cause of

suffering the end of suffering and the

path leading to the end of suffering

this is the heart of Buddhism it is not

about rites and rituals prayers and

incense it is not a religion but a

scientific investigation into overcoming

sorrow at all levels of mind and body in

modern times it seems that few people

actually reach awakening some teachers

explained that people in the Buddha's

time were more spiritually developed and

some say it was because of the Buddha

himself others attribute the lack of

success to the so called darker times in

which we now live but the Buddha made it

clear that if you follow the directions

awakening can be achieved in a single

lifetime even in as little as a few days

this is as true today as it was at the

time of the Buddha this book just might

be the proof people are different

culturally but our minds and bodies all

function in the same way this means that

if we follow thee true path of the

Buddha we too can experience awakening

in a short period of time the

experiences of our students who have

followed the instructions from the

earliest sutter's precisely without

adding or subtracting anything the proof

of that they have experienced the states

I will talk about answer can you a super

Monday in science dr. Albert Einstein is

attributed to have said that if he were

ever interested in getting involved with

religion he would become a Buddhist

Buddhism he said is the religion that is

the closest to science he talked about

cosmic religion which he felt Buddhism

was closer to certainly most people

think of Buddhism is a religion but what

is a religion religion is defined in the

merriam-webster dictionary as follows

belief in a God or a group of God's an

organized system of beliefs ceremonies

and rules used to worship a God or a

group of God's so is Buddhism a religion

many sects of Buddhism seem to treat it

as such and certainly most people

consider it one but the Buddha left had

the whole concept of God and what the

Buddha taught is certainly beyond any

religious belief system then is it

science perhaps but it may even be

beyond science at least the existing

level of today's knowledge because the

Buddha's concern was with the cause and

the cessation of suffering much of what

he taught focused on the development of

mind through deep meditative practices

there is a growing tendency currently in

the scientific community to explain

everything about mind in terms of

neuroscience and the study of the brain

in fact much of neuroscience sees mind

as just a product of the functioning

brain but this is a limited

understanding of mind so in one corner

you have practitioners of meditation

wanting to find happiness with religious

leaders teachings and meditation and in

the other corner you have Western

scientists wanting to find happiness

through the study of the physical brain

there seems to be the gold may be hope

is a better word that by understanding

the brain we can somehow develop a

therapy appeal to attain happiness

studying the neural system will give us

an idea of how neurons work and what

they look like on an MRI and other

medical measurement equipment it may

also show us what parts of the brain are

used for certain mental functions but it

will never explained the insights that

are experienced by mind for our purposes

it does not give insights into the true

nature of suffering and how it through

seeing these insights Nibbana can be

attained

there is no way at least that we know of

now to duplicate the process of

awakening in the lab by any physical

process drugs machines etc to achieve

awakening we must understand at a very

deep level how body and mind working

together is an impersonal process

without any self or soul the brain is

not mind and mind is not the brain the

brain is just part of the body like an

arm or a finger mind brain is something

that sits in dependence upon the

physical body

however mind is something we cannot

directly measure and can only indirectly

understand why because we are dependent

on the reported experience of the

individual for this information when

studying another person to find out

their actual cognition of something we

only have what they tell us we cannot

measure it for example their

understanding of reality so since

science is defined by Merriam Webster's

dictionary as systematized knowledge

derived from observation studied and

experimentation carried on in order to

determine the nature our principles of

what is being studied and saying that

Buddhism leans more toward science than

belief is closed but still not quite

right

the Buddha did leave us a clear set of

methods and instructions that have come

down to us from the suttas which allow

us to go deeply into our mind and

observe things firsthand whenever the

Buddha taught the way to the cessation

of suffering he always told his

followers that they did not have to

believe what he said but that they

should come and see for themselves as he

suggested in the calamus utter do not

take up his teachings with only faith

try it first and then dismiss it if it

has no measurable benefit no belief of

faith was asked for by the Buddha

these instructions still apply try the

practice as the Buddha taught it you

decide for yourself if the results you

are having it the same as those that are

described and if they are beneficial to

you when you see that they were can

produce repeatable results this develops

confidence and encourages you to

continue on the path if we only study

the brain we cannot purport to be

studying mind as mind is only truly in

knowable by the individual being studied

the researcher must ask the subject what

happened they can never know how

understanding and wisdom have internally

affected the subjects mind this is

something beyond simple science when we

say that the Buddha's teachings go

beyond science ie that it is super Amun

then we are talking about both we actual

methods that the Buddha taught and the

results insights achieved with the

practice while both the methods and the

results are repeatable and measurable

they are also subjective experiences

they are transformative and profound but

not easily measured by outside

researchers the Buddha was not just

trying to understand the nature and

principles of what is being studied he

was searching for a way to finally end

personal suffering not just obtain

understanding of it

Buddhism is beyond any scientific study

because only by observing my directly

with one's own consciousness can we

understand mind once the understanding

is achieved then that mind being

observed is transformed

in India it is called a subjective

science I call it super Monday in

science this is why we needed a Buddha

to show us the path the answer was not

as simple this or that it was a subtle

recipe a complex training to which he

gave the name the middle path between

all extremes awakening both mind and

body traditionally Indian masters

believed that enlightenment could be

achieved by controlling desire as desire

was believed to be the cause of all

kinds of suffering practicing initially

within this tradition the Buddha

mastered the mind based practices of

yogic one-pointed absorption

concentration following that he spent

some long years mastering the body based

austere ascetic practices of the yogic

sadhus both efforts were intended to

bring desire under control and thereby

bring about awakening on the one hand

the Brahmanic meditation masters

believed that they could control desire

by controlling mind by forcing the

attention to stay on an object for

longer and longer periods of time it was

thought that craving or desire could be

controlled but it wasn't that craving

would be overcome it was that there

would arise this all-powerful controller

of that craving which by improving self

discipline and self control would be

able to exert mastery of a desire

holding it down and keep it from coming

up pushing it down versus eliminating it

but then would have to ask the question

who is our real self care the

controlling one the mind that wished

took control desire or the one with the

desire or neither for their even to be a

self there must be something that is

considered not the self or at least not

our real self in the Brahma chalice

utter number one of the Darna kya the

Buddha describes there are 62 views of

self there is self watching self not

self observing self the self observing a

not self and on and on there is only one

you but which one is it if an alcoholic

says they will give up drinking by

exercising the willpower then who is the

real self

which desire is the real you it seems

like a fight for control is going to

break out soon on the other hand if

controlling desires with mental

self-control and discipline didn't work

then aesthetics thought that they could

control desire by controlling the body

Yogi's would stand on one leg for

extended periods or eat a very

restricted diet believing that by

controlling the body in this way

enlightenment would surely come mind

would experience a breakthrough when the

control of the body was mastered again

self-discipline would enable someone to

take charge and bring desire under

control this someone was conceived as

the higher self or the I who would

finally have total control such that one

would no longer be subject to desire and

it's suffering this was the perceived

goal of the meditation practice

it wasn't about eliminating desire but

actually controlling desire after

practicing both approaches extensively

the future but Robo de chateau-renaud a

wagon Inge when he entered deep states

of absorption concentration he found

that these states suppress his sense

races so that he no longer felt heard or

experienced anything from the body the

mental states he achieved were blissful

and sublime however he soon realized

that tightly controlling mind did

suppress desire but only while he was

practicing this was temporary it did not

eradicate the craving mind entirely as

soon as he stopped practicing desire

returned in full force similarly after

six years of ascetic practices when he

was about to die from hunger near Bodh

Gaya he understood that excessive

controlling of the body through

depravation would only lead to death

through starvation it would not however

lead to the elimination of desire the

cessation of suffering would never be

achieved with these practices when he

had all but given up practicing

concentration meditation and ascetic

techniques to their absolute limit he

realized

that control was not the answer it was a

futile practice that didn't lead to

awakening using craving to control

craving at that point he sat down under

the body tree and determined that he

would sit there until he found the

answer on a full moon day in met he

became the tathagata the Buddha the

awakened one in the third watch of the

night between 3:00 and 7:00 a.m. he had

found the middle way he had come to

understand the need to employ a

meditation method that used a totally

different approach a method that would

include both mind and body and

eliminated the controller

the buddha had previously developed the

sing and understand by careful

observation he began to see that the

mental processes are a dependent chain

of events arising and passing away we

now know this is seeing the

links of dependent origination the

buddha used the term Pataca sama pada

which is pali for dependent origination

on the morning of his awakening he

realized that seeing clearly the deepest

phenomena in mind is without a doubt the

way to Nibbana by seeing how his own

mind worked and closely observing the

mental processes he grew to understand

that we all caused our own suffering he

saw how desire works how it leads to

suffering and how the cessation of

suffering can be achieved the Buddha

realized that desires arise because we

feed them and continually chase after

them we see them as ours and personally

identify with them in other words if you

are sitting quietly and your mind goes

to thinking about how nice it would be

to be somewhere else can you stop it

can you just say that's okay mind I'd

like to sit quietly and enjoy some peace

this afternoon No

here come the desires for this and that

unasked hum called for in that sense it

is not our desire because we personally

identify with these desires that we

experience thinking of them as mine and

then become attached to them this

craving inevitably leads to suffering we

have no control over how when they arise

or how a when a pass away craving and

suffering occur because we identify with

and personalize these desires and then

cling to them

dependent origination is the

understanding that all things in both

body and mind are conditioned they're

conditioned or caused by what came

before and they are neva tably lead to

what happens next by seeing this chain

of events clearly we see that everything

is impersonal so where are we in this

process where am i an important part of

understanding dependent origination is

that this thing we call itself or Agard

is actually not a self or ego at all but

an impersonal process that happens

completely beyond our control in fact

there is no possibility of control

because there is no continuous a

permanent self capable of being the

controller the Buddha saw that there are

only processes arising and passing away

with no permanent self involved who

controls anything who makes the

decisions even decision itself is

another condition mental process which

arises based on previous actions

decisions aren't made by some permanent

self who has control of what's happening

there E impersonal u at that moment our

only possible input is to recognize the

reality of this situation and not to

take it

personally not to be attached to the

outcome of any given situation this is

the practice of right effort we call it

the six rupees and we'll discuss this

later this was a unique and profound

truth that the Buddha discovered and

presented to thee thinkers of his time

once the Buddha fully and deeply

realized what he had discovered he found

that craving and suffering ceased and

today researchers have found that there

are indeed measurable changes in both

the mind and bodies of meditators as

various types of meditation techniques

are practiced there are measurable

positive results the Buddha realized

that he could not break through to

awakening by controlling either mind the

body independently you can't turn off

input from the body by suppressing the

sense basis in some sort of deep

concentration on the other hand you can

torture the body and expect this to lead

to some sort of control of mind by

controlling pain the Buddha understood

that mind and body worked together but

first he tried controlling each one

separately as far as he could muster his

energy and determination

it didn't work the result was that he

gave up trying to control mind and body

to look for another way to solve this

dilemma hundreds of years later there

came commentaries and opinions about the

Buddha's teachings like the viscid Omega

which started to split our practices

fundamentally discriminating insight and

concentration Vipassana and samatha into

different techniques whereas the

original satyrs had called for them to

be yoked together the visibly Magda was

written in 430 C e over 900 years after

the Buddha lived it is a large volume

written by Buddha hoser that attempts to

lay out most of the chief meditative

practices that the Buddha taught it is

especially considered a very important

document for the Vera vada Buddhist sect

since it is not the words of the Buddha

it is considered a commentary on his

practices in the Vista he Magga there

are many methods involved in developing

concentration some use casinos are

colored discs many use the breath to

create a limiter a sign on which to

concentrate we will describe the origins

of the book later and how it fits with

meditation practice then cave dry inside

practice which avoided deep

concentration entirely those teachers

even told the practitioners to stay away

from concentrated absorption practices

because they might get attached this dry

insight method developed only enough

concentration to start investigating the

mental process without the benefit of

the stronger type of concentration

teachers of such an approach said it was

faster and more direct the question here

is did the Buddha teach this here is the

critical understanding of what the

Buddha taught in the suttas he says that

concentration samatha is yoked together

with Insight Vipassana samatha and

Vipassana therefore must be practiced

together this is what is actually taught

in the suttas and this is what bonteri

malarum she rediscovered hiding there in

plain sight he has named this tranquil

wisdom inside meditation or aware jhana

practice before we get into meditation

practice let us look at her mind works

by examining what the Buddha considered

the most important concept to learn

dependent origination leaving control

behind after years of practice in the

Brahmanic tradition on the night of his

awakening the Buddha realized why he had

not found relief the fundamental premise

of those practices was incorrect that

idea assumed that one could actually

control desire and thereby control

suffering on the night of his awakening

the Buddha directly realized what he had

already reasoned out about his own

mental processes he understood that

everything has craving in it and arises

because of actions that took place in

the past because those actions have

already happened no one has any control

over what will emerge or how they will

react to it

in other words you cannot in fact

control what bizarre arises but can only

observe the impersonal arising of it

what is dependent origination and how

does it work when one sits and quiets

mind all becomes still the next thing

that might happen is a sound arising a

bird may chirp the sound formed the

chirp hits the ear base the organ

physical ear and ear-consciousness

arises these three things sound the air

base and ear consciousness are the

contact link in the twelve links of

dependent origination contact fossa is

all three elements coming together so

that hearing happens in the same way

lighting a match

you have the Majid the flammable

chemicals in the Flint of the match box

when they as struck together this is

called contact heat and light arise

resulting in a flame if either one of

these three things are missing hearing

doesn't happen once hearing happens

there arise as a feeling the Donna

associated with that sound then

perception arises that it is pleasant

and pleasant only the pleasant nor

unpleasant neutral feeling and

perception are followed by craving Tana

arising with the formula I like it or I

don't like it or I don't care this is

where you start to identify with what is

happening and take it personally craving

can always be recognized as tension and

tightness in the head the tension a

tightness is how you recognize craving

you must see and let go of this craving

in the head that desire is what is next

going to lead you into thought

clinging and then meets to the birth of

action and resulting in sorrow

lamentation grief and despair following

craving clinging up a donor or thinking

arises the story about why you'd like it

or don't like it this is based on your

past experience what happened when that

sound arose at some past time you

remember a time when you were bird

watching and heard a unique type of bird

thoughts arise and a story begins about

the sound then there arises a drive or

an urge to action associated with what

you might do when that sound is heard

this is the habitual emotional tendency

a behavior bhava for example if you are

a bird watcher when you hear a bird you

have a habitual tendency to reach for

your camera or you might have a tendency

to reach for your binoculars a habitual

emotional tendency is something you

always tend to do in a certain situation

it can be your habitual reaction to a

feeling you have someone comes in the

room and complains about something you

always react in the same way by not

liking it and emotionally reacting to

the person complaining your spouse calls

and says he/she will be home late from

work you may get this kind of call quite

a bit and react the same way every time

with a negative reaction it might be a

judgment of you are unreliable or it

might be a reaction to lash out because

you think he/she isn't telling the truth

it is habitual it tends to come up when

this situation occurs when this [ __ ]

will reaction arises this is where the

strong tendency to try and control your

feelings with your thoughts arises you

observe that mind is disturbed and you

react with frustration trying to control

the disturbing thoughts this is the

start of taking something personally you

become emotional mind has many factors

the states of consciousness contained in

it there is a greedy mind and there is a

joyful mind in the ANU pada Sutter the

Buddha says that even the mental factor

of decision is conditioned by previous

actions from the past

this decision process is something that

you might call a volition or intention

but we have to be careful to use those

words because they might wrongly imply

that there is a self making a decision

decision is just a small yet the most

important factor of the coming to a

decision as stated previously phenomena

arise in past like the sound of a bird

and are dependent on that sound for its

existence when your mind is very

tranquil you can see the decision factor

arise as well as the push that goes with

it to make the decision it's pretty

interesting when you can observe your

mind operating at this level and see how

it truly you ie I am not in charge for

example a desire arises to get a cup of

tea you then continue to think about

which tea might taste good if you are

very mindful you can see the exact

moment when you decide which tea to have

there is a moment in which your decision

arises if you back away gently just

allowing everything to arise very

carefully watching it this is your

mental investigation factor you'll see

the decision mental factor arise

entirely on its own and then it also

passes away there appears this call to

action arising through the craving

attached to it this craving is the push

you feel to go into action is there

really free will is there some soul or

entity down deep making decisions kind

of yet at the deepest level there is

only the deciding mind that arises and

passes away so you have the decision

there but it is a conditioned decision

the phrased volitional formations used

in the Sutter Texas inadequate not

precisely correct volition indicates

someone is deciding but there is no one

there to do that there are only causes

and conditions there is no you that

makes the decision just the deciding

moment the only real power we have is to

allow and observe releasing and relaxing

into that decision seeing it fade away

continuing after the habitual tendency

link in dependent origination comes the

actual birth of action jati link and you

get up to go get your camera the drive

to action translates into taking action

this can be bodily action moving verbal

action speaking or mental action

thinking unfortunately by the time you

get back with your camera the bird has

flown away due to the result of your

action in getting the camera

dissatisfaction might arise because now

the bird is gone you think your actions

always will lead you to what you want

but you can never really positively be

sure of the results of any action the

best laid plans of mice and men then

what follows the birth of action link is

the last link sorrow lamentation grief

and despair yes there are some happy

moments here and there but they are

fleeting even if you get that picture

you will wish the bird had stayed longer

or that you'd recorded its song etc in

the twelve links of dependent

origination we just went through the

last part of the process the grosser and

observable part these are the last seven

contact feeling craving clinging

habitual tendency birth of action and

sorrow lamentation grief and despair

these are the ones you can see without

having to go too deep into thee

meditation contact feeling craving

clinging habitual tendency birth of

action sorrow lamentation grief and

despair the first five links of the full

twelve links of do come before the ones

listed above and can be understood as

potentials they can only be observed as

subtle movements in mind with the

exception of ignorance which is your

understanding later when your meditation

goes deeper you'll see the arising of

the first five big runs formations

consciousness mentality materiality and

the six-fold sense base the Buddha said

that it all starts with ignorance of how

things work

that is the grunts of the truth of

dependent

origination and of the four noble truths

which makes clear that craving drives

the whole process of suffering it is

this ignoring of the Four Noble Truths

which leads us to act in unwholesome

ways which creates endless suffering on

the next page is a chart that shows the

circle of dependent origination each

link is dependent on the link before it

has nutriment as food in each link there

is also a small additional amount of

craving which makes the whole process

continue forward in a never-ending chain

of events the sam yot Anika has a wealth

of information about dependent

origination and what it is here are the

basics SN 12.1 monks I will teach you

dependent origination listen to that

into turn closely I will speak yes

venerable sir those monks replied the

Blessed One said this and what monks is

dependent origination with ignorance as

conditioned formations come to be with

formations as conditioned conciseness

with consciousness as condition name and

form with name and form as condition the

sixth sense bases with the sixth sense

basis as condition contact with contact

as condition feeling with feeling as

condition craving with craving as

condition clinging with King as

condition existence with existence as

condition birth with bertha's condition

aging and death sorrow lament OTN pain

displeasure and despair can't be such as

the origin of this whole mass of

suffering this monks is called dependent

a reading nation but with the remainder

as fading away and cessation of

ignorance comes cessation of formations

with the cessation of formations

cessation of consciousness with the

cessation of consciousness cessation of

name-and-form with e cessation of

name-and-form

cessation of the sixth sense bases with

the cessation of the six sense bases

cessation of

contact with the cessation of contact

cessation of feeling with the cessation

of feeling cessation of craving with the

cessation of craving cessation of

cleaning with the cessation of cleaning

cessation of existence with the

cessation of existence cessation of

birth with the cessation of birth aging

and death sorrow lamentation pain

displeasure and despair cease such as

the cessation of this whole mass of

suffering the highest goal of Twi M is

to see how each link is dependent on a

conditioned by the previous link when

one understands this process in a deep

and profound way the unconditioned state

Nibbana arises for the first time this

first instance is the path knowledge one

realizes that there is no personal self

or eager just an impersonal process

dependent on conditions for this

realization comes tremendous relief

because as the famous Zen saying goes no

self no problem no one is there are so

nobody to control it's as if we see a

dark figure walking toward us fear might

arise because our mind throws up this

concept of a villain from our past yet

when we get closer we see it is our

friend and that fearful image is

replaced by another happy image just in

the same way we thought there was a self

there and now we see that it was an

illusion we can follow the links of

dependent origination in our own

behavior in much the same way we look at

a town and trace it back over the last

hundred years the first buildings led to

more buildings then they deteriorated

and were replaced by different buildings

and so on and so forth

this arising and passing away of

conditions is like the arising and

passing a way of a great city

flourishing and deteriorating and

constantly changing

finally it disappears because of

countless causes depending on each other

there is no controller making decisions

and taking actions there in that city

there are only changes occurring

conditioned by what has happened in the

past

similarly you have no personal self or

soul controlling your progress through

life there are only changes that happen

due to causes and conditions arising and

passing away this is what we mistakenly

call ourself me myself and I it's an

impersonal process an endless chain of

causes and conditions that flow like a

river a river that we mistakenly take as

ourselves dependent origination is

indeed the most important principle of

Buddhism along with the Four Noble

Truths understanding the source of

suffering is craving and how dependent

origination works leads to the

elimination of that craving

understanding that the Noble Eightfold

Path is the weight of this goal is the

heart of Buddhist meditation

chapter 2 mindfulness redefined what is

mindfulness just what it does

mindfulness mean there was an article in

a Buddhist magazine where this question

was posed to for meditation teachers by

the end of the discussion a satisfactory

answer still had not been reached they

decided to take it up again in next

month's magazine mindfulness does seem

to be all the rage these days and has

gone from its strict Buddhist origins to

a more general acceptance anywhere from

use by psychologists to children and

even by the military it even has its own

magazine mindful mindfulness is used to

be aware of one's thoughts and once

general state of being and is used to

calm one down and relax these are all

the good uses but is it what the Buddha

taught is the actual procedure of

mindfulness the process he intended I

have a theory and you won't find it

anywhere else so please bear with me the

pali word for mindfulness is sati when

the pali texts were translated the

translators ran into this word sati and

had to pick out an appropriate english

word to translate it to the problem is

that some of the things that buddha

taught were brand new ideas and never

had been exposed to european culture

there never were any English words that

represented these eastern concepts

Buddhism he had never come to the west

thus no English vocabulary had been

developed so what to do pick the closest

word sati had to do with observation and

to know what was happening so the word

mindful was selected made sense but did

it the problem was that mindfulness

already was a solid concept in the

English language be mindful of the

opening and don't bump your head that

sort of definition became applied to

sati and thus to be mindful meant to

remember to look where you are going and

watch carefully the process of getting

there what happened here is that the

English word has exerted powerful undue

influence over the parley term now it

was almost as if the Pali term was

created to represent the English word

and not

other way around the poly term in a

sense became the English term because

the translators were not meditators they

could only guess what sati really meant

that would be fine if that is how satya

is defined and used in the suttas but it

may not be you are now going to get a

new definition of the word mindfulness

that is quite different in its

application when tested against the

satyr text you will see that it works

better the definition of mindfulness is

remembering to observe how mind's

attention moves from one thing to

another looking closer at this

definition the first part is just

remembering which sounds easy but it

isn't once you pay attention you will

find that your mind is constantly

distracted from observation of itself by

thoughts over which you have no control

you are aware of mind a thought arises

and you are pulled away into that

thought until you remember that you're

supposed to be paying attention to the

movement of minds attention you bring

your observation back to mind to hand

then maybe a few seconds a minutes later

another thought pulls your attention

away it's important to remember what it

is you're supposed to be doing observing

the process of mind's attention and its

movements as part of an impersonal

process which leads us to the second

part

on retreat you go for a walking

meditation as you start your practice

and you slowly walk down the path your

mind wanders the first thing you must do

is to remember to be mindful then

actually do it so the second part of

mindfulness means to become aware of

Hammond's attention moves from one thing

to another the Buddha intended that the

meditator be mindful of what arises in

the present whatever that may be and

that they specifically see how it arises

he didn't care what the feelings of

sensations were at whether we peered at

them that closely are not only to know

they had arisen he did not intend from

the meditator to pick out specific parts

of the four foundations of mindfulness

or the five aggregates of mind and body

and only observed those that would have

been a concentration practice focusing

in on those individual parts rather he

wanted you to watch the activity of

mind's attention and to observe one how

it arises and passes away without any

control on your part and two how you

take this mental movement personally as

yourself mind clamps onto a feeling and

then identifies it as my feeling even

though you did not ask for it to arise

or to pass away you never had any

control over it whatsoever

it just arose when conditions were right

this identification with feeling gives

rise to a false belief in a personal

self the concept of I when you see how

we I concept arises you can release it

by not keeping attention on it relax the

tension a tightness caused by that

disturbance smile into it and return to

the meditation object it becomes clear

that there never was a self at all there

is only the endless stream of activity

since you have no control over what

comes up you begin to see how this

identification process craving is at the

root of suffering craving manifests as

the desire to control what happens and

when even that can't be accomplished

suffering arises and we don't like it

this leads to frustration and an even

further desire to

control so again what is the definition

of mindfulness mindfulness is

remembering to observe how Minds

attention moves from one thing to

another as things arise unasked and they

then completely pass away when they have

run their course mindfulness is not over

focusing on an object feeling a breath

or anything else it only knows that it

is happening this process of observing

the movement of minds attention is where

you see the hindrances arise and pull

your attention away there are five

hindrances one greed essential desires

to hatred or aversion three sloth

laziness sleepy and torpor dullness four

restlessness worry or anxiety five doubt

in yourself the teacher the practice or

the Buddha as you stay with your object

of meditation this is where you will

find craving rearing its ugly head it is

your goal to fully understand how

craving arises and by understanding the

process you let go of this craving and

stay with the object if meditation and

you don't do this by clenching your

teeth and pushing it away you want to

make the hindrances your friends they

are your teachers there surely where you

are attached when you fully understand

them you will need no more instruction

you will graduate to awakening you will

see the four foundations of mindfulness

with pure clear observation power you

will see them free of craving and free

of you're taking them personally it will

be a relief to give up the control of

those things that are uncontrollable the

four foundations of mindfulness as we

investigate deeper into Twi M meditation

it is important to understand the four

foundations of mindfulness and how they

are correctly applied to the meditation

practice

and ten the satipatthana Sutter tells us

to observe the four foundations of

mindfulness the Sutter says to observe

the four foundations and let go of

craving and clinging letting go of

taking the Foundation's personally

the four foundations are body-feeling

consciousness and mind objects they are

also known as the five aggregates body

feeling perception formations and

consciousness when the four foundations

are used instead of the five aggregates

perception and feeling are joined

together the four foundations and the

five aggregates are different ways of

saying the same thing but it depends on

whether you are talking about meditation

are talking about the impersonal process

of the existence of mind and body we

want to see what is there before we

create confusion by identifying with

what we are observing and taking it as

our self we want to see the body only as

a body feeling only as feeling

consciousness only as consciousness and

so forth we need to observe in

personality or anatta for ourselves the

visibly Magor explains that the

satipatthana sutter methodology is to

break up these four foundations and

practice them separately if you want to

observe the body then only observe the

breath part of the body if you want to

observe feeling then only observe

feeling and so on the Vipassana inside

meditation practice breaks up the four

foundations as described above you

observe and focus in on just one of them

separately for the most part you watch

breath going in and out but some

teachers will try to explain that you

have to watch feeling a mind object

separately in a different iteration of

the practice as you focus in on feeling

for example you only see feeling and not

the rest of the aggregates that go with

it you are not truly mindful which means

to see how your attention moves from one

thing to another it isn't to just look

at the objects themselves in a

concentrated way but the relationship

between the object of meditation and the

other objects moving around it that

explanation is not what is in the suttas

you don't break the four up you can't

you observe all foundations because they

all occur together all of the

foundations exist in every moment or you

would not exist you cannot have body

without feeling it perceiving it and

cognizing it you can't have a mind with

no mind objects body or feelings the

foundations arise and are observed as

being conjoined they are not separate

things we have a mind and a body

dependent on each other

clearly observable in even the earliest

stages of the meditation you can't

observe body without consciousness a

perception to cognize what is there or

without feeling to know what feeling is

there in the body it is like

disassembling a car down to its parts

and observing it running it can't be

observed in operation without all its

parts assembled and running together

feeling is not feelings let's stop here

for a minute and talk about the feeling

foundation to be clear we're talking

about feeling not feelings in the suttas

the aggregate of feeling vadhana

is without the ass it is just sensation

with a feeling tone to it just feeling

itself that's all the most important

part of this feeling is that it is

either a pleasant feeling painful

feeling or neither-pleasant-nor-painful

feeling feelings on the other hand are

usually understood to be emotional

states which mean there is craving mixed

in if you look at someone whom you find

attractive and a pleasant feeling comes

up lust likely will arise a pleasant

feeling with lust I like it is what we

call emotions Tibbett joule tendency

bhava that emotion might be categorized

as a pleasant feeling a dessert that is

taken personally this feeling with the

personalization is commonly known as

feelings with an S on the end

for example love we're referred to

romantically is not loving kindness this

kind of love in a relationship is much

more related to the state of affection

or infatuation and has craving in it

loving-kindness is a pure non personal

state a true wish for someone to be

happy loving kindness may turn into

compassion when it is directed towards

someone who is suffering it doesn't turn

into hatred or sadness it's never taken

personally these are not feelings they

are just feeling the Buddha considered

feeling to be anything that was felt in

other words he considered feeling as any

mental or physical experience that was

felt he categorized feeling as either

Pleasant and Pleasant and neither

Pleasant nor

he did not use the word sensation here

he did not care whether it was a feeling

of heat or a feeling of hardness said

the taste of a mango or a banana flavor

he only wanted you to consider whether

it was pleasant unpleasant or neutral no

need to dive deeper why is this

distinction important why because

feeling leads to craving the I like it

or I don't like it states of craving are

dependent on feeling and will arise in

the untrained mind if not released

quickly the I like it mine may lead to

thoughts about why you like it when you

last had it and when you'll get it again

with this process your mind starts to

wander away from your object of

meditation this is the unwholesome mind

in which you are watching the five

aggregates arise it becomes muddy with

craving leading to thinking and stories

how do we let go of this craving process

and what is a clearer mind free of

craving in the next chapter we will look

at what this freed state is and how it

arises we will consider the stages of

progress in the meditation that the

Buddha called the Gianna's we will

examine what they are using the suttas

only on how as time passed the original

meaning of this word became confused

Chapter three what is a Jonah more than

one type of Jonah if you have ever run

across the word Jonah before then it is

likely a state that you desire to

experience

Jonah's are described as levels of

concentration contained in them can be

bliss and deep contentment which of

course everyone wants they are important

to understand because the Sutter's

explained that you pass through them on

the way to Nibbana

they're the road to Nibbana actually

there are two types of Jonah today there

are some many methods that are taught in

meditation practice which is right how

can we find out what the Buddha really

taught in the darnisha

this same dilemma was addressed by the

Buddha by Anna cos uttered 21 psycho

asked the Lord sir do all teachers and

Brahmins teach the same Dharma practice

the same discipline desire the same

thing and pursue the same goal no ruler

of the Gods they do not and why not this

world is made up of many and various

elements and people adhere to one or

another of these elements and become

tenaciously attached to them saying this

alone is true all else is false

therefore all teachers and Brahmins do

not teach the same Dharma practice the

same discipline desire the same thing or

pursue the same girl in this book we

will try to remain faithful to the

sutter material as we explain the

differences in the many techniques of

the Buddhist universe yes there are two

types of jhanas and two major types of

meditation practice by which to attain

those two types of jhana

there is the one-pointed concentration

absorption practice in the tranquil

wisdom inside meditation Twi M practice

later

the first type one-pointed concentration

practice will be broken further into one

straight concentration absorption

practice to concentration absorption

inside practice and three dry inside

practice the Pali word Jonna was not

used in reference to meditation prior to

the Buddha the Buddha did use it to

describe his own experiences during

meditation practice while the Pali word

jhana is often translated as a state of

concentration this is not correct from

the viewpoint of Twi M parley experts

like most venerable Panaji of Malaysia

say that John just means level if you

check a poly

dictionary it also defines it as

meditation or state of meditation

most venerable Panaji also offers an

alternate definition of the related word

Samadhi which is often considered and

used to define a state of absorption

concentration the pali word sama means

equal or even DHI means state in this

usage so most venerable Panaji

translates Samadhi as an even state of

balance the word Samadhi implies a

collected and unified state but not deep

absorption that suppresses the

hindrances it is a more open and aware

state venerable bonteri malarum she

defines the word jhana as a level of

understanding each successive Jarrah is

an increasingly deeper level of

understanding of the workings of

dependent origination and the mental

process fontava malarum she uses

collectiveness to translate the word

concentration more accurately

additionally Bonta has found that in

pali that the word DHI may also be

translated as wisdom in terms of the

levels of understanding

thus we put together summer and DHI

resulting in tranquil wisdom in the

buddha's description of the jonna's as

you go deeper into the practice the

attainment of each jhana reflects a

deeper level of understanding of what it

means to let go of craving you pass

through the jhanas as you progress from

gross craving to a finer and finer

balance of mind until finally after the

state of neither perception nor

non-perception thei highest jhana

you reach the cessation of craving this

is the gateway to the attainment of

Nirvana at that moment the cessation of

craving in their ardor samapatti occurs

this is the state of no feeling no

perception and no consciousness arising

at all they mind just stops and Nibbana

arises again Janna never was supposed to

mean absorption it means a collected

state or a level of understanding in

mental

development however as emphasis shifted

away from the Buddha's actual teachings

as described in the suttas to thee

commentaries like the viscid Omega the

word jhana was more commonly used to

describe the state of one pointed

concentration in the anger Turan occur

at the book of fives number twenty-seven

we have this quote and 5:27 the

knowledge arises that is personally

yours this concentration is peaceful and

sublime gained by full tranquilizer tien

and attained to unification it is not

reined in and checked by forcefully

suppressing the defilements clearly this

quote indicates an open and aware state

and not an absorbed suppressing state so

there are two kinds of jhana are two

different ways to understand the term

one style is made up of one pointed

absorption jonna's which are achievable

by various concentration methods

including observing the breath focusing

on a colored disk Cocina or absorbing

yourself in a candle flame these jhanas

of the states achieved by the yogic

masters and were learned by the future

but when he first started down the path

the absorption concentration jhanas have

been adopted by many of today's Buddhist

monks and is supported by commentaries

like the vissa T Magga then Bart AV

malarum she explains the visibly Magda

was written by a venerable Buddha Hosea

Korea in the fifth century 1

the path to Nirvana her mindfulness of

loving-kindness progresses through the

tranquil aware Jonah's to awakening by

david c johnson copyright 2018 david c

johnson third edition 4-16 2018

published by BTS publishing Annapolis

Missouri

acknowledgments I

to acknowledge venerable ban TV

millirems Imahara from whom I have

learned this practice he is the founder

of tranquil wisdom inside meditation he

wim without his skillful guidance this

project would not be possible

descriptions for many of the journalists

have come from evening talks on the ANU

pada Sutter m and 111 by venerable Vinny

larum she it was is struggle through

years of intense meditation practice and

his discussions with many of the world's

most venerable monks that led him in an

entirely different direction he went

back to the earliest Buddhist teachings

the Sutter's in the Pali Canon to

practice what the Buddha himself had

taught his own disciples for this he

discovered T wim and has given us this

gift of true Dharma I wish to thank the

venerable for reviewing this work and

correcting misunderstandings which may

have occurred I also acknowledge bhikkhu

bodhi for his work the middle length

discourses of the Buddha a translation

of the mad Jima nikka wisdom

publications Somerville MA 1995 by

bhikkhu bodhi and bakunano moly this

book with some exceptions is the basis

for Twi a meditation practice thanks

also to brand right a MacRay who wrote

down a one-page summary based on student

interviews of what meditators

experienced as they progressed through

the meditation process seeing the need

to document the levels of practice I

expanded her summary to the book you now

reading also thanks to the Terry Paul

Paul Johnson mark and aunt Roberta Doug

Crafton Jay Delma who helped with

editing and for the many useful

suggestions

thanks to s Jordan who rendered a

beautiful cover art from his own unique

design

introduction the purpose of this book is

to help the earnest seeker and advanced

meditator understand the experiences and

signposts on the Buddha's path which has

as its goal the destruction of craving

and the elimination of ignorance I want

to document these experiences for the

meditation community so they may be

studied and preserved as a guide to

future meditators this book was also

written so that meditators without

access to local teachers could have all

the instructions to continue down this

path on their own every instruction on

how to meditate at every level is here

there are no secret techniques held back

just the words from the suttas and

commentary by venerable bhante Vimy

larum xi in this book the beginners

instruction guide a beginner's guide to

tranquil wisdom inside meditation by

bhante vim alarum she and myself is

integrated and provides instructions for

the beginning meditator if you are

familiar with e starting instructions

you can skip ahead to the section on the

advanced chapters on jhana if when you

are starting you bog down and you just

can't feel this loving-kindness for

yourself take a look at the pamphlet

provided at the end of this book by bart

ava malarum she entitled a guide to

forgiveness meditation try this

meditation and see if it doesn't

loosened possible emotional blocks from

past traumas bosses or other scary

memories forgiveness can be a perfect

prerequisite to experiencing warm

flowing loving-kindness but some places

in the book one will put meditation

instruction to highlight for students

who are using this book as an

instruction guide progressive directions

on how to proceed with the practice

Twi M is a fancy name for basic click

the brahma vihara practice starting with

meta are loving-kindness as the object

breath may be used but tends to have

slower progress these instructions are

taken directly from the meditation

methods described in the suttas the

earliest Buddhist teachings Twi M is the

practice that will leads to Nirvana as

it is outlined in E texts we will see

that when the instructions are followed

there are immediate results precisely as

the Buddha laid out the path to nib

honor elaborates on both the goal in the

practice of meditation is explained by

the Buddha its purpose is to follow the

progress of the practice as it is

explained in the suttas themselves for

that the clearest map is the match Jima

nikka MN number 111 the ANU pada Sutter

one by one is they occurred this Sutter

shows how progress occurs step-by-step

all the way to nib Honor this is the map

we will use as we go through the levels

of insight in this book the Sutter's of

the Pali Canon are traceable back to

thousand five hundred and fifty years to

the Buddha himself they are considered

by scholars to be the words of the

Buddha as he originally spoke them to

put a finer point on this it is thought

that the Buddha spoke my daddy that was

his native language Pali is a form of

that language and later all of the

Sutter's were documented in Pali

first by reciting and then writing them

down by members of the Buddhist Order in

Sri Lanka they were written on palm

leaves about 80 BC as they were written

down monks who had memorized the suttas

check thee written texts for any added

or wrong words the Sutter's were

inscribed on stone tablets in Mandalay

Burma and the today still being

memorized and recited by Buddhist monks

in Burmese monasteries this has

continued since the first Council of 500

senior monks or arahants convened

three months after the Buddha died I

visited this interesting site in Burma

in 2003 and saw the white marble stones

with these very inscriptions groups of

monks memorized the sutter texts

together one monk will recite and the

rest of the group of check and correct

him as he goes this method has been

about as foolproof as any other to

retain original texts for long periods

writing the Sutter's down can be subject

to the translators misinterpretation of

what words to use to describe the

practice precisely but even with this

method there could have been errors that

crept in even as perfect as this system

was we can't really know because we

weren't there and it was over 25

centuries ago thus we use these Sutter's

as the closest direct guide to what the

Buddha really taught there are many

Buddhist sects and many different

beliefs and practices all we can do is

find what meditation practice matches

the Buddha's words the practice of Twi M

is new in the sense it has been

rediscovered in the suttas it is not

practiced very widely yet which seems

rather surprising in fact venerable

bhante v malarum she and his approved

teachers are the only ones who teach

directly from the suttas in this way

others reference the suttas but don't

follow them precisely Twi M is the

actual and correct application of right

effort this is the reason for its

resulting success I will discuss more

about this later changes have been made

in other practices to allegedly improve

upon the Buddha's meditation

instructions but hold on he was the

Buddha is it not just a little bit

presumptuous to think that the

instructions of a Buddha can be improved

upon after all he was indeed the supreme

iya wait can't affogato perfecting his

wisdom over countless lifetimes let's

try to put aside all the other

techniques for now and just focus on how

to practice as described in the early

teachings as close to the actual words

of the Buddha as we can get most

scholars agree that the Pali Canon and

its utters are the actual teachings of

the Buddha so let's go to them and only

them to find the way to practice the ANU

pada Sutter M in 111 explains the

progress of the meditation through the

jhanas and the four foundations of

mindfulness at the same time it will be

shown here that these jhanas when

practiced as taught in the suttas will

lead us to awakening the jhanas

described in the Anu Pardus at were not

to be confused with the concentration

states commonly taught elsewhere these

are the tranquil aware jhanas that are

being taught in the suttas in which you

maintain awareness if both mind and body

the foundation is collectiveness not

concentration which we will cover later

it is this rediscovered to wear jhana

that is the key to a new understanding

of the Buddha's teachings the TWI M

technique referenced in this book uses

for its primary sutter guide the middle

length discourses of the Buddha a

translation of the match Jim Anika by

bhikkhu bodhi and Baku nana moly fontava

malarum she feels this is the closest

translation available though sometimes

he prefers different wordings then are

used there for example he uses the word

habitual tendency instead of becoming

more on this later we will combine here

the explanation of the suttas meaning

with the actual experiences of the many

meditators who have

practiced and have been successful also

we will attempt to explain some of the

reasons why certain experiences and

subtle phenomena occur though only the

Buddha knows for sure please forgive me

for errors and omissions some phenomena

are like the subtlest links of dependent

origination that are deep down in the

mental processes have had their

descriptions left out they are for the

student to discover on their own and it

won't change the pace of a student's

progress by not describing them here

explaining certain phenomena before the

student is ready to see them can create

false expectations and wrong ideas many

students later a grateful the bhante

does not explain to them where they are

in the Gianna's they just want to

progress and not be thinking and

analyzing as they practice they may

develop some sense of pride because of

thoughts about I am in this jar Nara

that jhana they might have some

familiarity with meditation practice and

may have some conceit arisal get stuck

thinking about how far advanced they are

when they are only beginners in this

practice it is better off not knowing

where you are if you are on an intensive

retreat and just follow the instructions

if you are seeking an even deeper

understanding of how the practice works

than what is described here in this book

more descriptions of insights and levels

of understanding that arise and the

subtle references that support this

meditation you may also want to read one

of the following books meditation is

life life is meditation which provides

information in depth and detail breath

of love and moving Dharma volume Volume

one also offers skillful guidance as one

goes deeper into the practice these are

all written by venerable bhante vim

alarum Shi my purpose here is to put

down on paper the steps to awakening the

progress through the levels of insight

to awakening it is my hope that this

knowledge can be handed down studied in

the future and not lost this book is

based on venerable fontava malarum she's

Sutter based methods and results using

texts from his various talks as

drawing on my own personal experiences

involving this practice today's

practices include Brahmanic influences

new-age methods and even a new take on

Buddhism in which the Buddha himself

starts to disappear from the pages this

is called secular Buddhism adjust

mindfulness with no mention of the

Buddha the heart weight of the Buddha's

teachings has been mixed up with Western

psychology and even the word mindfulness

is no longer being used in the way the

Buddha intended and an important goal of

this book is to show how Buddhism as it

is generally taught today has veered

away from the ideas presented in the

suttas it has deviated from what the

historical Buddha taught we are going to

explore among other things what the

Buddha taught us in his own words from

the suttas awakening both mind and body

dependent origination the definition of

mindfulness what his tranquil wisdom

inside meditation Twi M what are the six

rupees two types of jonna's absorption

jhanas and aware jhanas the progress

through the jhanas turn abana the four

stages of sainthood chapter one what is

Buddhism around 2600 years ago when the

young Prince Siddhartha Gautama went

outside his palace into the village he

realized suffering was experienced

universally by all beings he found that

there was sickness old age and death and

it's a shocked him that he left behind

his wife a newborn son his kingdom and

all his worldly goods to go in search of

a way to end this suffering after years

of searching he finally discovered the

path to the end of suffering Nibbana a

path which he described as not only

achieving release from suffering but

that it was also immediately effective

or not taking that long if practiced

correctly he then spent the next 45

years teaching that path to others

during that time many people were

awakened the matter vaca got to Sutter

number 73 in the match Dominica MN

confirms and gives us more details about

just how many

thousands of people were awakened in the

sutter when the buddha is asked if there

were any beings who had been successful

he clearly described the numbers and

attainments of those he had taught what

is suffering the Buddha stated the cause

through his Four Noble Truths there are

suffering and dissatisfaction in the

world and in our lives the cause and

origin of that suffering is craving the

cessation of craving is the cessation of

suffering the Eightfold Path leads us to

the end of that suffering this is

Buddhism in brief suffering the cause of

suffering the end of suffering and the

path leading to the end of suffering

this is the heart of Buddhism it is not

about rites and rituals prayers and

incense it is not a religion but a

scientific investigation into overcoming

sorrow at all levels of mind and body in

modern times it seems that few people

actually reach awakening some teachers

explained that people in the Buddha's

time were more spiritually developed and

some say it was because of the Buddha

himself others attribute the lack of

success to the so called darker times in

which we now live but the Buddha made it

clear that if you follow the directions

awakening can be achieved in a single

lifetime even in as little as a few days

this is as true today as it was at the

time of the Buddha this book just might

be the proof people are different

culturally but our minds and bodies all

function in the same way this means that

if we follow thee true path of the

Buddha we too can experience awakening

in a short period of time the

experiences of our students who have

followed the instructions from the

earliest sutter's precisely without

adding or subtracting anything the proof

of that they have experienced the states

I will talk about answer can you a super

Monday in science dr. Albert Einstein is

attributed to have said that if he were

ever interested in getting involved with

religion he would become a Buddhist

Buddhism he said is the religion that is

the closest to science he talked about

cosmic religion which he felt Buddhism

was closer to certainly most people

think of Buddhism is a religion but what

is a religion religion is defined in the

merriam-webster dictionary as follows

belief in a God or a group of God's an

organized system of beliefs ceremonies

and rules used to worship a God or a

group of God's so is Buddhism a religion

many sects of Buddhism seem to treat it

as such and certainly most people

consider it one but the Buddha left had

the whole concept of God and what the

Buddha taught is certainly beyond any

religious belief system then is it

science perhaps but it may even be

beyond science at least the existing

level of today's knowledge because the

Buddha's concern was with the cause and

the cessation of suffering much of what

he taught focused on the development of

mind through deep meditative practices

there is a growing tendency currently in

the scientific community to explain

everything about mind in terms of

neuroscience and the study of the brain

in fact much of neuroscience sees mind

as just a product of the functioning

brain but this is a limited

understanding of mind so in one corner

you have practitioners of meditation

wanting to find happiness with religious

leaders teachings and meditation and in

the other corner you have Western

scientists wanting to find happiness

through the study of the physical brain

there seems to be the gold may be hope

is a better word that by understanding

the brain we can somehow develop a

therapy appeal to attain happiness

studying the neural system will give us

an idea of how neurons work and what

they look like on an MRI and other

medical measurement equipment it may

also show us what parts of the brain are

used for certain mental functions but it

will never explained the insights that

are experienced by mind for our purposes

it does not give insights into the true

nature of suffering and how it through

seeing these insights Nibbana can be

attained

there is no way at least that we know of

now to duplicate the process of

awakening in the lab by any physical

process drugs machines etc to achieve

awakening we must understand at a very

deep level how body and mind working

together is an impersonal process

without any self or soul the brain is

not mind and mind is not the brain the

brain is just part of the body like an

arm or a finger mind brain is something

that sits in dependence upon the

physical body

however mind is something we cannot

directly measure and can only indirectly

understand why because we are dependent

on the reported experience of the

individual for this information when

studying another person to find out

their actual cognition of something we

only have what they tell us we cannot

measure it for example their

understanding of reality so since

science is defined by Merriam Webster's

dictionary as systematized knowledge

derived from observation studied and

experimentation carried on in order to

determine the nature our principles of

what is being studied and saying that

Buddhism leans more toward science than

belief is closed but still not quite

right

the Buddha did leave us a clear set of

methods and instructions that have come

down to us from the suttas which allow

us to go deeply into our mind and

observe things firsthand whenever the

Buddha taught the way to the cessation

of suffering he always told his

followers that they did not have to

believe what he said but that they

should come and see for themselves as he

suggested in the calamus utter do not

take up his teachings with only faith

try it first and then dismiss it if it

has no measurable benefit no belief of

faith was asked for by the Buddha

these instructions still apply try the

practice as the Buddha taught it you

decide for yourself if the results you

are having it the same as those that are

described and if they are beneficial to

you when you see that they were can

produce repeatable results this develops

confidence and encourages you to

continue on the path if we only study

the brain we cannot purport to be

studying mind as mind is only truly in

knowable by the individual being studied

the researcher must ask the subject what

happened they can never know how

understanding and wisdom have internally

affected the subjects mind this is

something beyond simple science when we

say that the Buddha's teachings go

beyond science ie that it is super Amun

then we are talking about both we actual

methods that the Buddha taught and the

results insights achieved with the

practice while both the methods and the

results are repeatable and measurable

they are also subjective experiences

they are transformative and profound but

not easily measured by outside

researchers the Buddha was not just

trying to understand the nature and

principles of what is being studied he

was searching for a way to finally end

personal suffering not just obtain

understanding of it

Buddhism is beyond any scientific study

because only by observing my directly

with one's own consciousness can we

understand mind once the understanding

is achieved then that mind being

observed is transformed

in India it is called a subjective

science I call it super Monday in

science this is why we needed a Buddha

to show us the path the answer was not

as simple this or that it was a subtle

recipe a complex training to which he

gave the name the middle path between

all extremes awakening both mind and

body traditionally Indian masters

believed that enlightenment could be

achieved by controlling desire as desire

was believed to be the cause of all

kinds of suffering practicing initially

within this tradition the Buddha

mastered the mind based practices of

yogic one-pointed absorption

concentration following that he spent

some long years mastering the body based

austere ascetic practices of the yogic

sadhus both efforts were intended to

bring desire under control and thereby

bring about awakening on the one hand

the Brahmanic meditation masters

believed that they could control desire

by controlling mind by forcing the

attention to stay on an object for

longer and longer periods of time it was

thought that craving or desire could be

controlled but it wasn't that craving

would be overcome it was that there

would arise this all-powerful controller

of that craving which by improving self

discipline and self control would be

able to exert mastery of a desire

holding it down and keep it from coming

up pushing it down versus eliminating it

but then would have to ask the question

who is our real self care the

controlling one the mind that wished

took control desire or the one with the

desire or neither for their even to be a

self there must be something that is

considered not the self or at least not

our real self in the Brahma chalice

utter number one of the Darna kya the

Buddha describes there are 62 views of

self there is self watching self not

self observing self the self observing a

not self and on and on there is only one

you but which one is it if an alcoholic

says they will give up drinking by

exercising the willpower then who is the

real self

which desire is the real you it seems

like a fight for control is going to

break out soon on the other hand if

controlling desires with mental

self-control and discipline didn't work

then aesthetics thought that they could

control desire by controlling the body

Yogi's would stand on one leg for

extended periods or eat a very

restricted diet believing that by

controlling the body in this way

enlightenment would surely come mind

would experience a breakthrough when the

control of the body was mastered again

self-discipline would enable someone to

take charge and bring desire under

control this someone was conceived as

the higher self or the I who would

finally have total control such that one

would no longer be subject to desire and

it's suffering this was the perceived

goal of the meditation practice

it wasn't about eliminating desire but

actually controlling desire after

practicing both approaches extensively

the future but Robo de chateau-renaud a

wagon Inge when he entered deep states

of absorption concentration he found

that these states suppress his sense

races so that he no longer felt heard or

experienced anything from the body the

mental states he achieved were blissful

and sublime however he soon realized

that tightly controlling mind did

suppress desire but only while he was

practicing this was temporary it did not

eradicate the craving mind entirely as

soon as he stopped practicing desire

returned in full force similarly after

six years of ascetic practices when he

was about to die from hunger near Bodh

Gaya he understood that excessive

controlling of the body through

depravation would only lead to death

through starvation it would not however

lead to the elimination of desire the

cessation of suffering would never be

achieved with these practices when he

had all but given up practicing

concentration meditation and ascetic

techniques to their absolute limit he

realized

that control was not the answer it was a

futile practice that didn't lead to

awakening using craving to control

craving at that point he sat down under

the body tree and determined that he

would sit there until he found the

answer on a full moon day in met he

became the tathagata the Buddha the

awakened one in the third watch of the

night between 3:00 and 7:00 a.m. he had

found the middle way he had come to

understand the need to employ a

meditation method that used a totally

different approach a method that would

include both mind and body and

eliminated the controller

the buddha had previously developed the

sing and understand by careful

observation he began to see that the

mental processes are a dependent chain

of events arising and passing away we

now know this is seeing the

links of dependent origination the

buddha used the term Pataca sama pada

which is pali for dependent origination

on the morning of his awakening he

realized that seeing clearly the deepest

phenomena in mind is without a doubt the

way to Nibbana by seeing how his own

mind worked and closely observing the

mental processes he grew to understand

that we all caused our own suffering he

saw how desire works how it leads to

suffering and how the cessation of

suffering can be achieved the Buddha

realized that desires arise because we

feed them and continually chase after

them we see them as ours and personally

identify with them in other words if you

are sitting quietly and your mind goes

to thinking about how nice it would be

to be somewhere else can you stop it

can you just say that's okay mind I'd

like to sit quietly and enjoy some peace

this afternoon No

here come the desires for this and that

unasked hum called for in that sense it

is not our desire because we personally

identify with these desires that we

experience thinking of them as mine and

then become attached to them this

craving inevitably leads to suffering we

have no control over how when they arise

or how a when a pass away craving and

suffering occur because we identify with

and personalize these desires and then

cling to them

dependent origination is the

understanding that all things in both

body and mind are conditioned they're

conditioned or caused by what came

before and they are neva tably lead to

what happens next by seeing this chain

of events clearly we see that everything

is impersonal so where are we in this

process where am i an important part of

understanding dependent origination is

that this thing we call itself or Agard

is actually not a self or ego at all but

an impersonal process that happens

completely beyond our control in fact

there is no possibility of control

because there is no continuous a

permanent self capable of being the

controller the Buddha saw that there are

only processes arising and passing away

with no permanent self involved who

controls anything who makes the

decisions even decision itself is

another condition mental process which

arises based on previous actions

decisions aren't made by some permanent

self who has control of what's happening

there E impersonal u at that moment our

only possible input is to recognize the

reality of this situation and not to

take it

personally not to be attached to the

outcome of any given situation this is

the practice of right effort we call it

the six rupees and we'll discuss this

later this was a unique and profound

truth that the Buddha discovered and

presented to thee thinkers of his time

once the Buddha fully and deeply

realized what he had discovered he found

that craving and suffering ceased and

today researchers have found that there

are indeed measurable changes in both

the mind and bodies of meditators as

various types of meditation techniques

are practiced there are measurable

positive results the Buddha realized

that he could not break through to

awakening by controlling either mind the

body independently you can't turn off

input from the body by suppressing the

sense basis in some sort of deep

concentration on the other hand you can

torture the body and expect this to lead

to some sort of control of mind by

controlling pain the Buddha understood

that mind and body worked together but

first he tried controlling each one

separately as far as he could muster his

energy and determination

it didn't work the result was that he

gave up trying to control mind and body

to look for another way to solve this

dilemma hundreds of years later there

came commentaries and opinions about the

Buddha's teachings like the viscid Omega

which started to split our practices

fundamentally discriminating insight and

concentration Vipassana and samatha into

different techniques whereas the

original satyrs had called for them to

be yoked together the visibly Magda was

written in 430 C e over 900 years after

the Buddha lived it is a large volume

written by Buddha hoser that attempts to

lay out most of the chief meditative

practices that the Buddha taught it is

especially considered a very important

document for the Vera vada Buddhist sect

since it is not the words of the Buddha

it is considered a commentary on his

practices in the Vista he Magga there

are many methods involved in developing

concentration some use casinos are

colored discs many use the breath to

create a limiter a sign on which to

concentrate we will describe the origins

of the book later and how it fits with

meditation practice then cave dry inside

practice which avoided deep

concentration entirely those teachers

even told the practitioners to stay away

from concentrated absorption practices

because they might get attached this dry

insight method developed only enough

concentration to start investigating the

mental process without the benefit of

the stronger type of concentration

teachers of such an approach said it was

faster and more direct the question here

is did the Buddha teach this here is the

critical understanding of what the

Buddha taught in the suttas he says that

concentration samatha is yoked together

with Insight Vipassana samatha and

Vipassana therefore must be practiced

together this is what is actually taught

in the suttas and this is what bonteri

malarum she rediscovered hiding there in

plain sight he has named this tranquil

wisdom inside meditation or aware jhana

practice before we get into meditation

practice let us look at her mind works

by examining what the Buddha considered

the most important concept to learn

dependent origination leaving control

behind after years of practice in the

Brahmanic tradition on the night of his

awakening the Buddha realized why he had

not found relief the fundamental premise

of those practices was incorrect that

idea assumed that one could actually

control desire and thereby control

suffering on the night of his awakening

the Buddha directly realized what he had

already reasoned out about his own

mental processes he understood that

everything has craving in it and arises

because of actions that took place in

the past because those actions have

already happened no one has any control

over what will emerge or how they will

react to it

in other words you cannot in fact

control what bizarre arises but can only

observe the impersonal arising of it

what is dependent origination and how

does it work when one sits and quiets

mind all becomes still the next thing

that might happen is a sound arising a

bird may chirp the sound formed the

chirp hits the ear base the organ

physical ear and ear-consciousness

arises these three things sound the air

base and ear consciousness are the

contact link in the twelve links of

dependent origination contact fossa is

all three elements coming together so

that hearing happens in the same way

lighting a match

you have the Majid the flammable

chemicals in the Flint of the match box

when they as struck together this is

called contact heat and light arise

resulting in a flame if either one of

these three things are missing hearing

doesn't happen once hearing happens

there arise as a feeling the Donna

associated with that sound then

perception arises that it is pleasant

and pleasant only the pleasant nor

unpleasant neutral feeling and

perception are followed by craving Tana

arising with the formula I like it or I

don't like it or I don't care this is

where you start to identify with what is

happening and take it personally craving

can always be recognized as tension and

tightness in the head the tension a

tightness is how you recognize craving

you must see and let go of this craving

in the head that desire is what is next

going to lead you into thought

clinging and then meets to the birth of

action and resulting in sorrow

lamentation grief and despair following

craving clinging up a donor or thinking

arises the story about why you'd like it

or don't like it this is based on your

past experience what happened when that

sound arose at some past time you

remember a time when you were bird

watching and heard a unique type of bird

thoughts arise and a story begins about

the sound then there arises a drive or

an urge to action associated with what

you might do when that sound is heard

this is the habitual emotional tendency

a behavior bhava for example if you are

a bird watcher when you hear a bird you

have a habitual tendency to reach for

your camera or you might have a tendency

to reach for your binoculars a habitual

emotional tendency is something you

always tend to do in a certain situation

it can be your habitual reaction to a

feeling you have someone comes in the

room and complains about something you

always react in the same way by not

liking it and emotionally reacting to

the person complaining your spouse calls

and says he/she will be home late from

work you may get this kind of call quite

a bit and react the same way every time

with a negative reaction it might be a

judgment of you are unreliable or it

might be a reaction to lash out because

you think he/she isn't telling the truth

it is habitual it tends to come up when

this situation occurs when this [ __ ]

will reaction arises this is where the

strong tendency to try and control your

feelings with your thoughts arises you

observe that mind is disturbed and you

react with frustration trying to control

the disturbing thoughts this is the

start of taking something personally you

become emotional mind has many factors

the states of consciousness contained in

it there is a greedy mind and there is a

joyful mind in the ANU pada Sutter the

Buddha says that even the mental factor

of decision is conditioned by previous

actions from the past

this decision process is something that

you might call a volition or intention

but we have to be careful to use those

words because they might wrongly imply

that there is a self making a decision

decision is just a small yet the most

important factor of the coming to a

decision as stated previously phenomena

arise in past like the sound of a bird

and are dependent on that sound for its

existence when your mind is very

tranquil you can see the decision factor

arise as well as the push that goes with

it to make the decision it's pretty

interesting when you can observe your

mind operating at this level and see how

it truly you ie I am not in charge for

example a desire arises to get a cup of

tea you then continue to think about

which tea might taste good if you are

very mindful you can see the exact

moment when you decide which tea to have

there is a moment in which your decision

arises if you back away gently just

allowing everything to arise very

carefully watching it this is your

mental investigation factor you'll see

the decision mental factor arise

entirely on its own and then it also

passes away there appears this call to

action arising through the craving

attached to it this craving is the push

you feel to go into action is there

really free will is there some soul or

entity down deep making decisions kind

of yet at the deepest level there is

only the deciding mind that arises and

passes away so you have the decision

there but it is a conditioned decision

the phrased volitional formations used

in the Sutter Texas inadequate not

precisely correct volition indicates

someone is deciding but there is no one

there to do that there are only causes

and conditions there is no you that

makes the decision just the deciding

moment the only real power we have is to

allow and observe releasing and relaxing

into that decision seeing it fade away

continuing after the habitual tendency

link in dependent origination comes the

actual birth of action jati link and you

get up to go get your camera the drive

to action translates into taking action

this can be bodily action moving verbal

action speaking or mental action

thinking unfortunately by the time you

get back with your camera the bird has

flown away due to the result of your

action in getting the camera

dissatisfaction might arise because now

the bird is gone you think your actions

always will lead you to what you want

but you can never really positively be

sure of the results of any action the

best laid plans of mice and men then

what follows the birth of action link is

the last link sorrow lamentation grief

and despair yes there are some happy

moments here and there but they are

fleeting even if you get that picture

you will wish the bird had stayed longer

or that you'd recorded its song etc in

the twelve links of dependent

origination we just went through the

last part of the process the grosser and

observable part these are the last seven

contact feeling craving clinging

habitual tendency birth of action and

sorrow lamentation grief and despair

these are the ones you can see without

having to go too deep into thee

meditation contact feeling craving

clinging habitual tendency birth of

action sorrow lamentation grief and

despair the first five links of the full

twelve links of do come before the ones

listed above and can be understood as

potentials they can only be observed as

subtle movements in mind with the

exception of ignorance which is your

understanding later when your meditation

goes deeper you'll see the arising of

the first five big runs formations

consciousness mentality materiality and

the six-fold sense base the Buddha said

that it all starts with ignorance of how

things work

that is the grunts of the truth of

dependent

origination and of the four noble truths

which makes clear that craving drives

the whole process of suffering it is

this ignoring of the Four Noble Truths

which leads us to act in unwholesome

ways which creates endless suffering on

the next page is a chart that shows the

circle of dependent origination each

link is dependent on the link before it

has nutriment as food in each link there

is also a small additional amount of

craving which makes the whole process

continue forward in a never-ending chain

of events the sam yot Anika has a wealth

of information about dependent

origination and what it is here are the

basics SN 12.1 monks I will teach you

dependent origination listen to that

into turn closely I will speak yes

venerable sir those monks replied the

Blessed One said this and what monks is

dependent origination with ignorance as

conditioned formations come to be with

formations as conditioned conciseness

with consciousness as condition name and

form with name and form as condition the

sixth sense bases with the sixth sense

basis as condition contact with contact

as condition feeling with feeling as

condition craving with craving as

condition clinging with King as

condition existence with existence as

condition birth with bertha's condition

aging and death sorrow lament OTN pain

displeasure and despair can't be such as

the origin of this whole mass of

suffering this monks is called dependent

a reading nation but with the remainder

as fading away and cessation of

ignorance comes cessation of formations

with the cessation of formations

cessation of consciousness with the

cessation of consciousness cessation of

name-and-form with e cessation of

name-and-form

cessation of the sixth sense bases with

the cessation of the six sense bases

cessation of

contact with the cessation of contact

cessation of feeling with the cessation

of feeling cessation of craving with the

cessation of craving cessation of

cleaning with the cessation of cleaning

cessation of existence with the

cessation of existence cessation of

birth with the cessation of birth aging

and death sorrow lamentation pain

displeasure and despair cease such as

the cessation of this whole mass of

suffering the highest goal of Twi M is

to see how each link is dependent on a

conditioned by the previous link when

one understands this process in a deep

and profound way the unconditioned state

Nibbana arises for the first time this

first instance is the path knowledge one

realizes that there is no personal self

or eager just an impersonal process

dependent on conditions for this

realization comes tremendous relief

because as the famous Zen saying goes no

self no problem no one is there are so

nobody to control it's as if we see a

dark figure walking toward us fear might

arise because our mind throws up this

concept of a villain from our past yet

when we get closer we see it is our

friend and that fearful image is

replaced by another happy image just in

the same way we thought there was a self

there and now we see that it was an

illusion we can follow the links of

dependent origination in our own

behavior in much the same way we look at

a town and trace it back over the last

hundred years the first buildings led to

more buildings then they deteriorated

and were replaced by different buildings

and so on and so forth

this arising and passing away of

conditions is like the arising and

passing a way of a great city

flourishing and deteriorating and

constantly changing

finally it disappears because of

countless causes depending on each other

there is no controller making decisions

and taking actions there in that city

there are only changes occurring

conditioned by what has happened in the

past

similarly you have no personal self or

soul controlling your progress through

life there are only changes that happen

due to causes and conditions arising and

passing away this is what we mistakenly

call ourself me myself and I it's an

impersonal process an endless chain of

causes and conditions that flow like a

river a river that we mistakenly take as

ourselves dependent origination is

indeed the most important principle of

Buddhism along with the Four Noble

Truths understanding the source of

suffering is craving and how dependent

origination works leads to the

elimination of that craving

understanding that the Noble Eightfold

Path is the weight of this goal is the

heart of Buddhist meditation

chapter 2 mindfulness redefined what is

mindfulness just what it does

mindfulness mean there was an article in

a Buddhist magazine where this question

was posed to for meditation teachers by

the end of the discussion a satisfactory

answer still had not been reached they

decided to take it up again in next

month's magazine mindfulness does seem

to be all the rage these days and has

gone from its strict Buddhist origins to

a more general acceptance anywhere from

use by psychologists to children and

even by the military it even has its own

magazine mindful mindfulness is used to

be aware of one's thoughts and once

general state of being and is used to

calm one down and relax these are all

the good uses but is it what the Buddha

taught is the actual procedure of

mindfulness the process he intended I

have a theory and you won't find it

anywhere else so please bear with me the

pali word for mindfulness is sati when

the pali texts were translated the

translators ran into this word sati and

had to pick out an appropriate english

word to translate it to the problem is

that some of the things that buddha

taught were brand new ideas and never

had been exposed to european culture

there never were any English words that

represented these eastern concepts

Buddhism he had never come to the west

thus no English vocabulary had been

developed so what to do pick the closest

word sati had to do with observation and

to know what was happening so the word

mindful was selected made sense but did

it the problem was that mindfulness

already was a solid concept in the

English language be mindful of the

opening and don't bump your head that

sort of definition became applied to

sati and thus to be mindful meant to

remember to look where you are going and

watch carefully the process of getting

there what happened here is that the

English word has exerted powerful undue

influence over the parley term now it

was almost as if the Pali term was

created to represent the English word

and not

other way around the poly term in a

sense became the English term because

the translators were not meditators they

could only guess what sati really meant

that would be fine if that is how satya

is defined and used in the suttas but it

may not be you are now going to get a

new definition of the word mindfulness

that is quite different in its

application when tested against the

satyr text you will see that it works

better the definition of mindfulness is

remembering to observe how mind's

attention moves from one thing to

another looking closer at this

definition the first part is just

remembering which sounds easy but it

isn't once you pay attention you will

find that your mind is constantly

distracted from observation of itself by

thoughts over which you have no control

you are aware of mind a thought arises

and you are pulled away into that

thought until you remember that you're

supposed to be paying attention to the

movement of minds attention you bring

your observation back to mind to hand

then maybe a few seconds a minutes later

another thought pulls your attention

away it's important to remember what it

is you're supposed to be doing observing

the process of mind's attention and its

movements as part of an impersonal

process which leads us to the second

part

on retreat you go for a walking

meditation as you start your practice

and you slowly walk down the path your

mind wanders the first thing you must do

is to remember to be mindful then

actually do it so the second part of

mindfulness means to become aware of

Hammond's attention moves from one thing

to another the Buddha intended that the

meditator be mindful of what arises in

the present whatever that may be and

that they specifically see how it arises

he didn't care what the feelings of

sensations were at whether we peered at

them that closely are not only to know

they had arisen he did not intend from

the meditator to pick out specific parts

of the four foundations of mindfulness

or the five aggregates of mind and body

and only observed those that would have

been a concentration practice focusing

in on those individual parts rather he

wanted you to watch the activity of

mind's attention and to observe one how

it arises and passes away without any

control on your part and two how you

take this mental movement personally as

yourself mind clamps onto a feeling and

then identifies it as my feeling even

though you did not ask for it to arise

or to pass away you never had any

control over it whatsoever

it just arose when conditions were right

this identification with feeling gives

rise to a false belief in a personal

self the concept of I when you see how

we I concept arises you can release it

by not keeping attention on it relax the

tension a tightness caused by that

disturbance smile into it and return to

the meditation object it becomes clear

that there never was a self at all there

is only the endless stream of activity

since you have no control over what

comes up you begin to see how this

identification process craving is at the

root of suffering craving manifests as

the desire to control what happens and

when even that can't be accomplished

suffering arises and we don't like it

this leads to frustration and an even

further desire to

control so again what is the definition

of mindfulness mindfulness is

remembering to observe how Minds

attention moves from one thing to

another as things arise unasked and they

then completely pass away when they have

run their course mindfulness is not over

focusing on an object feeling a breath

or anything else it only knows that it

is happening this process of observing

the movement of minds attention is where

you see the hindrances arise and pull

your attention away there are five

hindrances one greed essential desires

to hatred or aversion three sloth

laziness sleepy and torpor dullness four

restlessness worry or anxiety five doubt

in yourself the teacher the practice or

the Buddha as you stay with your object

of meditation this is where you will

find craving rearing its ugly head it is

your goal to fully understand how

craving arises and by understanding the

process you let go of this craving and

stay with the object if meditation and

you don't do this by clenching your

teeth and pushing it away you want to

make the hindrances your friends they

are your teachers there surely where you

are attached when you fully understand

them you will need no more instruction

you will graduate to awakening you will

see the four foundations of mindfulness

with pure clear observation power you

will see them free of craving and free

of you're taking them personally it will

be a relief to give up the control of

those things that are uncontrollable the

four foundations of mindfulness as we

investigate deeper into Twi M meditation

it is important to understand the four

foundations of mindfulness and how they

are correctly applied to the meditation

practice

and ten the satipatthana Sutter tells us

to observe the four foundations of

mindfulness the Sutter says to observe

the four foundations and let go of

craving and clinging letting go of

taking the Foundation's personally

the four foundations are body-feeling

consciousness and mind objects they are

also known as the five aggregates body

feeling perception formations and

consciousness when the four foundations

are used instead of the five aggregates

perception and feeling are joined

together the four foundations and the

five aggregates are different ways of

saying the same thing but it depends on

whether you are talking about meditation

are talking about the impersonal process

of the existence of mind and body we

want to see what is there before we

create confusion by identifying with

what we are observing and taking it as

our self we want to see the body only as

a body feeling only as feeling

consciousness only as consciousness and

so forth we need to observe in

personality or anatta for ourselves the

visibly Magor explains that the

satipatthana sutter methodology is to

break up these four foundations and

practice them separately if you want to

observe the body then only observe the

breath part of the body if you want to

observe feeling then only observe

feeling and so on the Vipassana inside

meditation practice breaks up the four

foundations as described above you

observe and focus in on just one of them

separately for the most part you watch

breath going in and out but some

teachers will try to explain that you

have to watch feeling a mind object

separately in a different iteration of

the practice as you focus in on feeling

for example you only see feeling and not

the rest of the aggregates that go with

it you are not truly mindful which means

to see how your attention moves from one

thing to another it isn't to just look

at the objects themselves in a

concentrated way but the relationship

between the object of meditation and the

other objects moving around it that

explanation is not what is in the suttas

you don't break the four up you can't

you observe all foundations because they

all occur together all of the

foundations exist in every moment or you

would not exist you cannot have body

without feeling it perceiving it and

cognizing it you can't have a mind with

no mind objects body or feelings the

foundations arise and are observed as

being conjoined they are not separate

things we have a mind and a body

dependent on each other

clearly observable in even the earliest

stages of the meditation you can't

observe body without consciousness a

perception to cognize what is there or

without feeling to know what feeling is

there in the body it is like

disassembling a car down to its parts

and observing it running it can't be

observed in operation without all its

parts assembled and running together

feeling is not feelings let's stop here

for a minute and talk about the feeling

foundation to be clear we're talking

about feeling not feelings in the suttas

the aggregate of feeling vadhana

is without the ass it is just sensation

with a feeling tone to it just feeling

itself that's all the most important

part of this feeling is that it is

either a pleasant feeling painful

feeling or neither-pleasant-nor-painful

feeling feelings on the other hand are

usually understood to be emotional

states which mean there is craving mixed

in if you look at someone whom you find

attractive and a pleasant feeling comes

up lust likely will arise a pleasant

feeling with lust I like it is what we

call emotions Tibbett joule tendency

bhava that emotion might be categorized

as a pleasant feeling a dessert that is

taken personally this feeling with the

personalization is commonly known as

feelings with an S on the end

for example love we're referred to

romantically is not loving kindness this

kind of love in a relationship is much

more related to the state of affection

or infatuation and has craving in it

loving-kindness is a pure non personal

state a true wish for someone to be

happy loving kindness may turn into

compassion when it is directed towards

someone who is suffering it doesn't turn

into hatred or sadness it's never taken

personally these are not feelings they

are just feeling the Buddha considered

feeling to be anything that was felt in

other words he considered feeling as any

mental or physical experience that was

felt he categorized feeling as either

Pleasant and Pleasant and neither

Pleasant nor

he did not use the word sensation here

he did not care whether it was a feeling

of heat or a feeling of hardness said

the taste of a mango or a banana flavor

he only wanted you to consider whether

it was pleasant unpleasant or neutral no

need to dive deeper why is this

distinction important why because

feeling leads to craving the I like it

or I don't like it states of craving are

dependent on feeling and will arise in

the untrained mind if not released

quickly the I like it mine may lead to

thoughts about why you like it when you

last had it and when you'll get it again

with this process your mind starts to

wander away from your object of

meditation this is the unwholesome mind

in which you are watching the five

aggregates arise it becomes muddy with

craving leading to thinking and stories

how do we let go of this craving process

and what is a clearer mind free of

craving in the next chapter we will look

at what this freed state is and how it

arises we will consider the stages of

progress in the meditation that the

Buddha called the Gianna's we will

examine what they are using the suttas

only on how as time passed the original

meaning of this word became confused

Chapter three what is a Jonah more than

one type of Jonah if you have ever run

across the word Jonah before then it is

likely a state that you desire to

experience

Jonah's are described as levels of

concentration contained in them can be

bliss and deep contentment which of

course everyone wants they are important

to understand because the Sutter's

explained that you pass through them on

the way to Nibbana

they're the road to Nibbana actually

there are two types of Jonah today there

are some many methods that are taught in

meditation practice which is right how

can we find out what the Buddha really

taught in the darnisha

this same dilemma was addressed by the

Buddha by Anna cos uttered 21 psycho

asked the Lord sir do all teachers and

Brahmins teach the same Dharma practice

the same discipline desire the same

thing and pursue the same goal no ruler

of the Gods they do not and why not this

world is made up of many and various

elements and people adhere to one or

another of these elements and become

tenaciously attached to them saying this

alone is true all else is false

therefore all teachers and Brahmins do

not teach the same Dharma practice the

same discipline desire the same thing or

pursue the same girl in this book we

will try to remain faithful to the

sutter material as we explain the

differences in the many techniques of

the Buddhist universe yes there are two

types of jhanas and two major types of

meditation practice by which to attain

those two types of jhana

there is the one-pointed concentration

absorption practice in the tranquil

wisdom inside meditation Twi M practice

later

the first type one-pointed concentration

practice will be broken further into one

straight concentration absorption

practice to concentration absorption

inside practice and three dry inside

practice the Pali word Jonna was not

used in reference to meditation prior to

the Buddha the Buddha did use it to

describe his own experiences during

meditation practice while the Pali word

jhana is often translated as a state of

concentration this is not correct from

the viewpoint of Twi M parley experts

like most venerable Panaji of Malaysia

say that John just means level if you

check a poly

dictionary it also defines it as

meditation or state of meditation

most venerable Panaji also offers an

alternate definition of the related word

Samadhi which is often considered and

used to define a state of absorption

concentration the pali word sama means

equal or even DHI means state in this

usage so most venerable Panaji

translates Samadhi as an even state of

balance the word Samadhi implies a

collected and unified state but not deep

absorption that suppresses the

hindrances it is a more open and aware

state venerable bonteri malarum she

defines the word jhana as a level of

understanding each successive Jarrah is

an increasingly deeper level of

understanding of the workings of

dependent origination and the mental

process fontava malarum she uses

collectiveness to translate the word

concentration more accurately

additionally Bonta has found that in

pali that the word DHI may also be

translated as wisdom in terms of the

levels of understanding

thus we put together summer and DHI

resulting in tranquil wisdom in the

buddha's description of the jonna's as

you go deeper into the practice the

attainment of each jhana reflects a

deeper level of understanding of what it

means to let go of craving you pass

through the jhanas as you progress from

gross craving to a finer and finer

balance of mind until finally after the

state of neither perception nor

non-perception thei highest jhana

you reach the cessation of craving this

is the gateway to the attainment of

Nirvana at that moment the cessation of

craving in their ardor samapatti occurs

this is the state of no feeling no

perception and no consciousness arising

at all they mind just stops and Nibbana

arises again Janna never was supposed to

mean absorption it means a collected

state or a level of understanding in

mental

development however as emphasis shifted

away from the Buddha's actual teachings

as described in the suttas to thee

commentaries like the viscid Omega the

word jhana was more commonly used to

describe the state of one pointed

concentration in the anger Turan occur

at the book of fives number twenty-seven

we have this quote and 5:27 the

knowledge arises that is personally

yours this concentration is peaceful and

sublime gained by full tranquilizer tien

and attained to unification it is not

reined in and checked by forcefully

suppressing the defilements clearly this

quote indicates an open and aware state

and not an absorbed suppressing state so

there are two kinds of jhana are two

different ways to understand the term

one style is made up of one pointed

absorption jonna's which are achievable

by various concentration methods

including observing the breath focusing

on a colored disk Cocina or absorbing

yourself in a candle flame these jhanas

of the states achieved by the yogic

masters and were learned by the future

but when he first started down the path

the absorption concentration jhanas have

been adopted by many of today's Buddhist

monks and is supported by commentaries

like the vissa T Magga then Bart AV

malarum she explains the visibly Magda

was written by a venerable Buddha Hosea

Korea in the fifth century 1