Samadhi Meditation
by Luang Por Poot
The Path of Buddhism
Venerable ones with hearts of virtue, today I feel that it must be due to the pirami and merit I”ve accumulated in the past that I”m fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit you, people so firmly committed to practising Dhamma in the right way. The fact that all of you had so much faith in Buddism that you gave up everything in order to ordain as monastics is worthy of the highest praise. There”s nothing I have to offer you other than some encouragement and a few well considered reflections concerning the correct way to practice.
The religion of Buddism is the religion of nature. He studied nature and its laws. After the Buddha-to-be (Bodhisatta) had trained with and mastered the teachings of the most notable sages of that era, and after he had embarked on and rejected the path of extreme asceticism, he reflected on a childhood incident. While his father was engaged in the royal plowing ceremony, the Bodhisatta sat in the shade of a tree. Relying on the abilities developed in his long quest to become a Buddha, he focused on his breathing and was able to enter the first jhana, the meditative state with initial and sustained application of mind (vitakka and vicara), bliss (piti), happiness (sukha) and one pointed unity (ekaggata). He then understood what effort was needed to realize the true Enlightenment of a Buddha: one must study nature and understand the laws of nature.
It is the nature of our bodies to breathe. Whether we intend it to or not, this process continues on by itself, both while sleeping and being awake. Contemplating this, the Bodhisatta then relied upon the breath as his focus of awareness, mindfully knowing each inhalation and exhalation. His heart (citta) calmed, experiencing the peace of samadhi. The breathing then became progressively more subtle until, in letting go of focusing attention on the breath, his heart became still, bright, aware, awake and radiant. Remaining were piti, sukha and oneness, the quality of knowing in the heart. When the heart calmed to an even more peaceful state, piti—the lightness and deep peace of both body and mind—disappeared from the Bodhisatta”s perception. piti was let go of. Sukha was then let go of, and he entered the state with only the one-pointed unity of ekaggata remaining. The heart unified in the state of oneness called appana samadhi, characterized by simply being able to know that during that time there was only the heart, the citta alone: absolutely still, clear, bright, aware, awake and radiant. The body had completely vanished from the field of awareness.
In this state there is just the awareness of the pure citta and nothing else. The heart”s quality of knowing is focused solely on the heart. Awareness of other things does not arise. The feeling of having a body disappears. There”s no body. There”s no thing. There”s only the heart: still, bright, aware, awake and radiant. It”s as if in the entirety of space there exists only our radiant citta. It”s here that the heart enters appana samadhi. This state is also known as appanเ citta, appanเ jhana or the fourth jhana.
This is the path walked by the heart of a meditator. However one chooses to practice—using the mantra ”Buddho” or ”Samma Arahan,” being aware of the rising and falling of the abdomen (the ”Mahasi” technique from Myanmar) or focusing attention on the breathing--when the heart becomes so peaceful that it enters samadhi, the experience is one and the same. It has to proceed this way. If someone reaches the stage of samadhi where the body has disappeared, samadhi characterized by vitakka, vicara, piti, sukha and ekaggata, the citta is then able to advance to the realm of vipassana. This is a point where we as meditators …
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