(EA12)-01-Purpose-of-Buddhist-Meditation

Tonight the talk is on meditation. Now, meditation is something that nowadays a lot of people are interested in. Now, the purpose of meditation, there are many aims of meditation. For a lot of people in the West, it is for body health and also for mental health. And meditation happens to be the best anti-stress medicine. So a lot of executives in the West, they're not taking it for religious purpose, just for the stress, to relieve their stress, so they practice meditation. But Buddhist meditation, the aim is slightly different. Buddhist meditation is for the purpose of seeing things as they really are. Pali is yatha, bhuta, jnana, dasana. And we want to see things as they really are so that will give us full understanding or knowing. And that will lead to letting go. Now seeing things as they really are and understanding or knowing is what is called in Pali, jnana, dasana, seeing and knowing. And that is another word for wisdom. And the purpose of wisdom is for letting go, relinquishing, letting go of our attachments which give us suffering. And so you can see, if a person really has wisdom, then that person will let go of his or her attachments. That is why it is quite normal for people to prefer monks to give a dharma talk than a lay person to give a dharma talk, because a monk is a renunciant, so they have more faith in a monk. Now why is it that we don't see things as they really are? In the suttas, the Buddha talked about five hindrances. There are five things that cover us and make us not see things as they really are. And these five things, they act like dark glasses, sunglasses covering our eyes. When we are wearing sunglasses and we look at things, the color, is slightly different. When we are wearing the dark glasses, we see what appears to us, not what they really are. So when you are wearing dark glasses, you look at a certain color, you swear it's a certain color. Somebody else without dark glasses may see it differently. Then one day, or later, when you take off the dark glasses, and then you look at that thing again, The color appears different to you.

(EA12)-02-Five-Hindrances

In the same way, these five hindrances obstruct us from seeing things as they really are. And what are these five hindrances? There are five things the Buddha said. The first one is sensual desire. Sensual desire. I think everybody knows that. The desire to see, to hear, to smell, taste, touch, and to think. So sensual desire is the first one. The second one is ill will, ill will or anger. And the third one is loss and topper, which means being lazy and muddle-headed, as they say. And the fourth is restlessness and worry. And the fifth is doubt. When these five things cover us, we don't see clearly, and the Buddha gave a simile of trying to see, say, like a basin of water, trying to see clearly through the water, to see what is at the bottom of the water. If the water is bubbling, or if the water is muddy, you cannot see things clearly, or if you have things covering the surface of the water, you cannot see things clearly. These are all similes for the hindrances. Now the only way that we can abandon the hindrances and see things clearly is by concentration, samadhi. In several suttas, discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha said the condition for seeing things as they really are is Samadhi.

(EA12)-03-Three-levels-of-Samadhi

When we have samadhi, then the five hindrances reduce. The level of the five hindrances come down. But this is called abandoning the five hindrances. But abandoning the five hindrances, there are several levels corresponding to the different levels of concentration or samadhi, concentration of mind. The first one is you don't even have to meditate. If you are reading a book, and you concentrate on reading the book, then you have a certain degree of concentration. And in one sutta, in the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha said, when one listens to the Dhamma attentively, the five hindrances exist not, and the seven bojanga, factors of enlightenment, are complete. It's very interesting, the Buddha said, when you listen to the Dhamma attentively, either through the ear as you are doing now, or when you are reading a book, if you pay full attention, at that time, the five hindrances exist not. But then, as I said, there are many levels. So the five hindrances exist not to a certain degree only. And this will enable you to attain understanding of the Dhamma and become a first stage Arya, first fruition Arya, Sotapanna. And this type of concentration can also be called momentary concentration. It is not perfect concentration, but it is enough to give you an understanding of the Dhamma. That is why you find in the suttas, many, many times, people came to listen to the Dhamma taught by the Buddha for the first time, and after that, the Buddha said they had become Sotapanna, Arya, first stage Arya. So, if you're aiming just for first stage Arya, you don't even have to meditate. You just have to read the suttas more, again and again, read the suttas, until you get some understanding. And a sotapanna destroys three factors. Now if your concentration is slightly higher, medium level concentration, that will lead you to attain sagatagami, the second stage ariya. Both of these, sotapanna and sagatagami, they have perfect sila. Perfect sila in the Aryan Eightfold Path means perfect speech, perfect action, perfect livelihood. These are the three things in the Aryan Eightfold Path. Now, a Sakadagamin has destroyed three factors and has weakened two and ill will. So if a person meditates to a medium level of concentration, this sensual lust and anger would reduce. So if you meditate, and you meditate, you practice concentration meditation, that means Samatha meditation, and if you attain this medium level of concentration, it becomes evident to you, because you will notice your anger goes down very, very much. and also your sensual desire, your sensual lust also goes down very, very much. For a person who has not reduced, attenuated lust, that person tends to think lustful thoughts every day. And not only every day, several times a day, many times a day, that person will be disturbed by lustful thoughts. But if you have attained this medium level of concentration, you will notice that you don't think of sensual thoughts every day. And also your anger is noticeably reduced. And sometimes people around you also notice that. So when that happens, then you know you have a medium level of concentration. And if you have been practicing the Dhamma for some time, then you may have a little bit of confidence that you might be a Sakadagamin. Now, the third level of concentration is perfect concentration, Samma Samadhi. And Samma Samadhi in the suttas is always given two definitions. One is one-pointedness of mind, which is Anijana. Jhana is a Pali word meaning a state of mental incandescence. And the mind becomes to be bright. Jhana literally means a fire or the brightness of a fire. So I interpret jhana to be a state of mental incandescence. When a person attains one-pointedness of mind, a kind of brightness wells up from within, and that is the state of jhana. So if a person attains jhana, he has a chance of becoming an anagami or an arahant. According to the sutta, an anagami has perfect sila and perfect samadhi. And an arahant has perfect sila, perfect samadhi, and perfect pannaya. In other words, sila is moral conduct, samadhi is concentration of mind, pannaya is wisdom. So you can see from the sutta that to become an anagamin or an arahant, you need perfect samadhi, which means one-pointedness of mind, any jhana, or the four jhanas. the perfect concentration in the suttas is always described as one pointedness of mind or the four jhanas. And to make the point that an anagami or an arahant needs the jhanas, there is one sutta, Majjhima Nikaya number 64, where it is stated that there is a path leading to the destruction of the five lower factors, without following it, which it is impossible to destroy the five lower factors. When the five lower factors are destroyed, a person becomes an anagami, third stage ariya. So here the sutta is saying that there is a path leading to anagami, and if you don't follow this path, it is impossible to become an anagami. And later on, the Sutta goes on to say, what is that path? The first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, fourth jhana, and the arupa jhanas, the higher jhanas. So, from this Sutta, it is very clear that it is impossible to become an anagamin without attaining jhana. Also, another Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 52, It was explained, I think whenever Ananda was asked, what did the Buddha say was needed to win liberation, something like that, that means to become an arahant, what is that one thing needed? And whenever Ananda replied, the first jhana, and then the person asked, whenever Ananda again, did the Buddha say another thing that is needed to attain liberation? And Venerable Ananda said, yes, second jhāna, and the third jhāna, and the fourth jhāna, and the higher jhānas. So you find to attain liberation and to attain anagamin, jhāna is needed. So somebody asked, requested me to summarize. So I'd like to summarize here what I just said just now, that Concentration is very important for us to get rid of the five hindrances so that we can see things very clearly with a very clear mind. And there are different levels of concentration. You can see three levels of concentration. The lowest one is momentary concentration, which is ordinary concentration where you don't even need meditation. That is just by paying proper attention, what is called yoniso manasikara in the Sutta. If you pay proper attention or thorough attention, then you can understand the Dhamma that you hear or you read, and that way you can become a Sotapanna. The medium level of concentration is by practicing some Samatha meditation, to the stage where you have not attained jhana, perfect concentration, but enough concentration for you to reduce your sensual lust and ill will. And that is the way to become a Sakadagamin. If you study the suttas together with this type of meditation, you can become a Sakadagamin, second stage ariya. But if you want to become an Anagamin, third stage ariya, or an Arahant, then you need perfect concentration to abandon the five hindrances and you can become an Anagami or an Arahant.

(EA12)-04-To-see-things-as-they-really-are

Now this seeing clearly, to see clearly, as I said just now, you have to practice Samatha meditation, which is Samatha means tranquilization of the mind. Practice tranquilization of the mind to see things clearly. Now to know things, to know things you have to practice Vipassana meditation. Vipassana meditation, vipassana is translated as contemplation. Nowadays, some people translate it as insight, but that is not a good translation. It is actually a very misleading translation because in the suttas, in the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha said, if you practice vipassana, it leads you to insight. The result of practicing vipassana is insight. Insight cannot be practiced. Insight is a result. How can you practice a result? You can only practice vipassana meditation, contemplation, and the result is insight or wisdom. Now the Chinese translation is very accurate for these two words, samatha and vipassana. And we know that this Chinese translation was done about more than a thousand years ago. And the Chinese translation is chir kuan. Chir is stilling of the mind, stilling of the mind, tranquilization of the mind. That is accurate. Kuan is contemplation, contemplation, not insight. So samatha is tranquilization, vipassana is contemplation. Now, These two things, there is one sutta in the Anguttara Nikaya, 4.170, and that sutta was spoken by Venerable Ananda in his old age. After the Buddha had passed into Nibbana, Venerable Ananda was considered like the father of the Sangha. So if the monks and nuns had anything to say to the leader, they would go and tell Venerable Ananda. And all the monks and nuns who attained Arahanthood came to tell Venerable Ananda. Previously when the Buddha was alive, they would go and tell the Buddha. But now they went to tell Venerable Ananda. So in the Sutta, Venerable Ananda said, All the monks and nuns who attained arahanthood and came to inform him that they attained arahanthood, all said that they attained arahanthood in only four ways. In other words, arahanthood can be attained only by these four ways of meditation, no other way. The first one, Venerable Ananda said, was to practice samatha first, followed by vipassana. Samatha first, followed by Vipassana. The second one is to practice Vipassana followed by Samatha. Normally people know the first one, but people don't know the second one. Even if you've been practicing Vipassana, you still must practice Samatha, otherwise you cannot become an Arahant. So the second one is Vipassana followed by Samatha. The third one is practicing Samatha and Vipassana at the same time. There are certain types of meditation where you can do that Samatha and Vipassana at the same time. The fourth one is a meditation on the self, to investigate who is this self. When you close your eyes, you ask yourself, who is this I? This I is very strong in all of us. It's because we have the feeling of that I that you want to protect this I, this self. So when somebody wants to kill you, you don't let him simply kill you, yes or not? You fight to the extent of even killing him to protect your life. Why? Because that feeling of that I is very strong within us. So when you close your eyes, you investigate who is this I? Is it this body? then you realize it's not this body because if the body were to die and if you didn't have any body, still the mind is working and the self is still there. So you investigate, where is this self? Is it in my mind? So you keep on focusing on that self and that will lead you to one-pointedness of mind. And the Buddha says, I remember Ananda, Since that is the way, when you attain one-pointedness of mind, you will understand and see the way very clearly. In fact, one-pointedness of mind is a purification. Some of you may know the seven stages of purification. You need purification of mind before you can understand what is path, what is not path. So, Arhanthood is obtained in only these four ways. And by the way, the last one, meditation of the self, nowadays it's practiced in Zen Buddhism. They practice, who am I? That meditation, a lot of people think that it's only peculiar to Zen Buddhism. that only in Mahayana Buddhism you have it. They don't know, because they didn't study the suttas, that it originated from the Buddha himself. And that meditation has gone into yoga. It's gone into jnana yoga. That is quite a good meditation, but unfortunately it seems to be lost in Theravada Buddhism. Very few people in Theravada Buddhism practice it, because they don't even know that it was in Theravada Buddhism. So of these four ways, you find all these four ways to attain Arahanthood, you must have Samatha and Vipassana. You cannot do away with Samatha or do away with Vipassana. These two go hand in hand. Samatha is to clear the mind, make the mind very clear. And Vipassana is to use the mind to contemplate so that wisdom arises. So these two, Both are necessary. Now, the practice of vipassana is actually the practice of sati. Later on, I'll explain sati. Sati is the seventh factor of the Aryan Eightfold Path, as you all know. Sati is the seventh factor of the Aryan Eightfold Path, and that is the vipassana practice. Now, if you practice Samatha, that will lead you to attain Samadhi. And Samadhi is the 8th factor of the Aryan Eightfold Path. So you can see, the 7th factor and the 8th factor are concerned with Samatha and Vipassana. That is why you cannot do away with any one of them. And both are needed because the Aryan Eightfold Path consists of 8 factors and all 8 factors are necessary. And unfortunately, nowadays, some people think that samadhi is not necessary. But in the suttas, the Buddha said, samadhi māgo, asamadhi kumāgo. Samadhi is concentration, māgo is the path. Asamadhi is no concentration. Kumāgo is the wrong path. So the Buddha is saying, concentration is the path. No concentration is the wrong path. So it's very clear that concentration is needed for you to see things clearly and understand and know. And as I mentioned just now, the two Majjhima Nikaya Suttas also explain very clearly that jhana is necessary for attaining anagami and also for arahanthood. Now, so I'll summarize here again, that the practice of Samatha and Vipassana, both are necessary. If you practice Samatha and Vipassana, it is equivalent to practicing Sati and Samadhi, which are the seventh and the eighth factors of the Aryan Eightfold Path. So you know that the Aryan Eightfold Path has eight factors and every one of them is necessary. And all eight factors pooling together will help you to get out of samsara. You cannot do with only one factor or two factors or even seven factors. You have to do with all eight factors of the Aryan Eightfold Path. That is why sati and samadhi are necessary.

(EA12)-05-Danger-~-Literal-translation-of-PALI-word

Now I'd like to explain what is sati. Now before I explain what is sati, I'd like to tell you that it is very, very dangerous to use a translation of a Pali word and stick to that word as the meaning of that word. I give an example, sanya. Sanya is a Pali word. And sanya is one of the five aggregates, the five khandas. Now in the Chinese, the five khandas is called wuyin. And sanya is translated in Chinese as xiang, which means thinking or thoughts. Now many years ago when I started to read Buddhist books and there were translations of Buddhist books for the first time in English, people used to translate sannyā as labeling, labeling, putting a label. And later they translated it as perception. So you see the word sannyā has three translations. One is thinking, one is labeling, One is perception. So if you stick to only one word, you're confused because these three words have different meanings. So to understand the meaning of sannyā, you must go back to the suttas and see what the Buddha said is the meaning of sannyā. And when you look into the suttas, the Buddha explains sannyā as something like conception. Having an idea, a view of something, for example, you think that this person is attractive. But that is your perception. of that person as attractive. Another person looking at that man or that woman might not find him or her so attractive. Or your perception of somebody being a very nice person. Somebody else may not see that person as being a very nice person. And also the Buddha said, perception is formed from habit. So because it is formed from habit, it can be changed. For example, a man is attracted by a woman's body, and a woman is attracted by a man's body. But if we practice the contemplation on the 32 parts of the body, then we can see the body as repulsive, and we are no longer attracted by the body. So your perception can change. That is the way to understand the meaning of the word sannyā, not by just one translation.

(EA12)-06-What-is-the-real-meaning-of-SATI

So that is the problem now. Nowadays, people translate sati as mindfulness. And because they think sati means mindfulness, they are very attached to this word mindfulness. They think meditation is all about mindfulness. If you walk, you must be mindful, and they think that is meditation. But in the Sutta, how did the Buddha explain sati? The Buddha said, sati means, to remember what was said and done a long time ago. And there are about nine suttas which gives the same definition of sati, and there's no other definition. To remember what was said and done a long time ago, which means it is a quality of remembering. In fact, the word sati comes from another word which is spelled S-M-R-T-I, and which means to remember. So sati is concerned with remembering. Nowadays people use the word mindfulness, but mindfulness has two aspects, just like the word perception. Mindfulness has two aspects. One is awareness, awareness, being generally aware, and that is the meaning people attach to. People think that sati means generally aware, but that is not the meaning. The meaning has to do with remembering. The second meaning of mindfulness is the quality of remembering, and that is the real meaning of sati. So a reasonable translation of the word sati can also be recollection. recollection, remembering. Why is it we have to remember? Because in the Sutta, the Buddha said we should, when we practice sati, we are supposed to contemplate the body and the mind. In other words, the five khandhas, the five aggregates of attachment that we attach to as the self. We think that these five things are the self. The first one is body, second one is feelings, perception, volition, and consciousness. For example, if your body is tall, you say, I am tall. You don't say the body is tall. You say, I am tall. When the body is sick, you say, I am sick. So you always associate the body with the I. The same with feelings, perception, volition and consciousness. So because we associate these five things with the Self, These five things, body and mind, they are things of the world. And things of the world are impermanent. And because they are impermanent, they change. For example, the body can become sick, the body can age, the body can die. So when that happens, you are alarmed because you think, I am aging. I am becoming sick, I am dying. So the same too with the other aggregates. So because of that, the Buddha said now we should see that the five aggregates, the body and the mind, is not self. So in the suttas, the Buddha had this expression. The Buddha said we must always contemplate the body as this is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself. This is one thing that nowadays not many people sort of point this out or stress on this, but this is in several suttas, that we should see the body and the mind as this is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself. So in the practice of sati, whenever we contemplate the body and the mind, we must always bear this in mind, this is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself. When we see this, then slowly we see that this body and this mind is not I, is not the self, and slowly we detach ourselves from the body and the mind.

(EA12)-07-How-to-practise-Sati-Sampajanna

Now in the suttas, the Buddha also said, in practice of sati, we should contemplate body, feelings, mind, and dhamma. Body, feelings, and mind can be said to be equivalent of the five khandhas, which is the body, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness, which is basically body and mind. The last one, dhamma, is the Buddha's teachings. the Buddha's teachings. So when we practice sati, we must contemplate the body, the mind, see it as not-self, and call to mind, reflect on the dhamma, the Buddha's teachings. That is how we practice sati. Now when we practice sati, recollection, we can practice on one object or several objects. If we practice on one object, for example, Anapanasati, it becomes a Samatha meditation. And Anapanasati was a method of meditation taught by the Buddha. In fact, the principle method of meditation taught by the Buddha. And in the suttas, it was stated, that the Buddha said that he used Anapanasati to become enlightened. He practiced Anapanasati and used it to attain enlightenment and become a Sammasambuddha. So Anapanasati is the principle meditation in the Buddha's teachings. But regrettably, nowadays sometimes some people belittle Anapanasati as though Anapanasati was not the Buddha's teachings. In the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha said that the practice of Anapanasati, or recollection of the breath, or mindfulness of the breath, the Buddha said that the breath body is also a body. In other words, the breath body, the breath itself, is also a body. So when you practice contemplation of the body, contemplation of the breath is part of it. And when you practice Samatha meditation to tranquilize the mind, you have to sit down to practice it. You cannot, if you really want to attain perfect concentration, you cannot walk around or stand. to attain perfect concentration. You must sit. Why? Because when you attain perfect concentration, which is jhana, the five senses, the seeing, the hearing, the smelling, taste and touch, slowly recede from you. In other words, the external world slowly disappears from you. To practice Anapanasati, I will explain a little bit about the practice of Anapanasati. Practice of Anapanasati is we sit down and we keep our back erect and we just close our eyes and we just know the breath going in and the breath going out, the breath going in and the breath going out. You don't have to look very clearly at how the breath looks like because For beginners, because your mind doesn't have the concentration, it is impossible to see the breath clearly. And besides, the breath is a very fine object, so fine that you only notice it because of its movement. So there's no point in trying to see the breath clearly. All you have to do is to differentiate whether the breath is going in or the breath is going out. That's all you need to know, whether the breath is going in or the breath is going out. You just know. And to help keep your mind focused on the breath instead of running away, sometimes some people do counting or you can do Like when the breath goes in, mentally you say in. When the breath goes out, you say out, mentally. When the breath goes in, you say in, out. So all you need to know is just this, whether the breath goes in or out. And after some time, if you are able to follow, if you make a determination not to miss any breath, the important point is not to miss any single breath going in or going out. It is not difficult to keep your attention on the breath for 10 breaths, in and out 10 times. To do it 20 times, not to miss a single breath, is a little bit more difficult. To do it 50 times is even more difficult. To do it 100 times, even more difficult. So, the aim, your determination, should be not to miss a single breath as long as possible. Just note, mentally note, in, out, in, out. You just put your attention on the breath. and keep expecting the next breath with a determined mind that you will not miss any breath. So as you keep on doing this, slowly you are getting control of a scattered mind. You are trying to control the mind just like you are controlling a wild horse. So if you are able to do that slowly, you gain concentration, the mind calms down, and you can notice slowly certain things, for example, certain electric currents going through your brain. because there are many circuits in our brain. And if we don't meditate, a lot of our brain, parts of our brain are not used. But when you focus it on meditation, you start to use parts of your brain that you never used before. So electric current starts to move around your brain. And then if you are able to keep this up slowly as you gain concentration, then you're able to notice the breath more clearly. It is not necessary to notice the breath at any particular point. This is only the teaching in Visuddhimagga. And nowadays, a lot of people follow the Visuddhimagga, but everybody knows that the Visuddhimagga is not the Buddha's words. In the Anapanasati Sutta, in the Discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha said, if the breath is a short breath, you know that it's a short breath. If it's a long breath, you know that it's a long breath. That is all. So you keep on practicing this and over a period of time, the mind starts to become stronger and stronger and stronger. And when the mind becomes stronger, you notice that you remember things more clearly. You don't become so forgetful. That is your sati is improving. Your quality of remembering is improving. So, That is the practice of anapanasati or samatha meditation. Now if you contemplate on more than one object, it becomes like a vipassana meditation. For example, we can contemplate on the five aggregates. And for this type of vipassana meditation, if you don't want to sit, any other posture is also possible, even when you're walking, when you're sitting, when you're standing, etc. Even lying down, you can also practice this vipassana. contemplation. And in the suttas, the Buddha said when we practice vipassana meditation, we contemplate on the body. Not so much the movements of the body, they don't give you much wisdom, but to contemplate on the nature of the body. One of the contemplations is the 32 parts of the body. You recite head, hair, body, hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinew, bones, bones, marrow, et cetera, et cetera. So these are the 32 parts of the body. As you recite one by one, you contemplate each part of the body. You recite forwards and you recite backwards. And slowly you understand the nature of the body. Because we don't contemplate on the 32 parts of the body, whenever we see somebody, we see only the outer form. So we become attracted to that person because of the physical outer appearance. And we don't think of the inner appearance. You imagine Miss Universe in front of you, so beautiful, but you turn her skin inside out. and all, they expose all her intestines and her lungs and her heart and the liver and all that. Is she attractive anymore? Ah, no more attractive. That's why the Buddha said contemplation on the 32 parts of the body helps us to cut lust, sensual lust. So, 32 parts of the body is one of the practices. In fact, it was the first meditation taught by the Buddha. And another type of meditation is a meditation on the corpses. One day your body and my body will turn and become a corpse. Yes or no? So imagine the corpse, one day old, two days old, three days old, one week old, all these different types of corpses. They're described in the suttas, bloated, with oozing liquid. smelly and all that. So it's not a very beautiful contemplation, but it helps us to cut lust. And then meditation on death, that one day we must die. Meditation on impermanence, that we are growing old, we are growing old, our body is becoming weaker, and one day we might get hit with more serious illness like cancer or something, and one day we will die. So when we contemplate impermanence, then there is some urgency to practice. If we don't contemplate on impermanence, we forget that there is an urgency to practice. That time is short. We all live to an average of 70 years. If you don't think about it, you think you've got a long lifetime ahead of you. And you see the way some people live, they live as though they're going to live for eternity. They are so careless. But if we contemplate, for example, how old are you? If you think now I'm 40 years old, on the average I live to 70, I'll have 30 more years to go. That means 30 more New Years to celebrate. One more goes by, and then you have 29. Another goes by, you have 28, 27, 26. You can count on your fingers. Then you panic a bit. Then you think there's some urgency to practice. That's why the Buddha said we should contemplate on impermanence. And then also, we should contemplate on our feelings, how our feelings change. But generally, we don't need to In fact, it's difficult to contemplate on our feelings all the time, except when it changes. For example, suddenly you get angry. Then if your mind is sharp, if your mind is concentrated, it becomes sharp, more sharp. So when the mind changes, you notice it more quickly. If your mind is not sharp, if it's full of... So we note our feelings. And in fact, it's very important whenever we practice Vipassana to examine our ego. Earlier I said, the Buddha said to see everything as this is not mine, this I am not, this is not myself. When something affects you, for example, somebody says something you consider as unpleasant, suddenly the anger arises. When that happens, straight away, you must see that it is because of the ego that your anger arises. If there's no ego there, why should you be upset? Yes or no? It's always the ego that's giving us the dukkha. Something happens to us, again, we get upset, then you notice again, it's because of the ego. So every time you see the ego arising, you just ignore it. Just remember, this is not I, this is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself. So every day, if you are careful with our ego, our ego is acting and reacting, then we slowly ignore this ego, don't react. We can watch and observe. We can respond, but we try not to react to our ego, not do things that our ego wants us to do. So that is the way to practice vipassana.

(EA12)-08-What-is-not-Vipassana-practice

Vipassana is not concerned with seeing, you know, you see something, you have to know you see. Or if sound comes, you have to know that the sound comes. Or smell comes, you have to know the smell comes. In fact, it is the opposite of this. This seeing, hearing, smelling, etc., this is all concerned with the outside world. It's all concerned with the outside world and nothing to do with Buddhist meditation. Buddhist meditation is concerned with the inside, with the ego inside. That is why the Buddha gave a parable in the suttas of a tortoise and a turtle. And according to this parable, one day a tortoise was walking by the banks of a river looking for food. So he was walking along looking for food and suddenly he saw in the distance a jackal coming. Jackal is like a kind of wolf, dog, coming and this jackal normally will want to eat a tortoise. So the tortoise on seeing the jackal got very scared. So the only way for it to get security or safety is to hide in its shell. So it withdrew all the four limbs and the head into its shell and it kept very quiet. So this jackal came along, came up to this tortoise and looked at this tortoise. Then he thought, this is a nice piece of meat for me. If one of the limbs comes out, or the head comes out, I will seize it and pull it out of his shell. So he waited one hour, waited two hours, waited three hours, because the tortoise dare not come out. So after that, the jackal got tired of waiting, he walked away. So the tortoise was saved. So in the same way, the Buddha said, Mara is waiting, Mara is Satan. Mara is waiting to catch us at the five sense doors. If you go and start looking, oh, this is a pretty lady, this is a pretty girl, that's a handsome man, then Mara is waiting to catch you. So the same with sound, smell, taste and touch. So the Buddha said, don't pay attention, that is Mara's playground. our home ground, our secure place, is the five objects of sati, which is the body, feelings, mind, and dhamma. In other words, body, mind, and the Buddha's teachings. So definitely the practice of vipassana is nothing concerned with seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch. Also, it's very clear from one of the practices taught in the suttas, which is the guarding the sense doors. The Buddha said we should guard our sense doors all the time. What is necessary for us to see, we see, for example, if you are walking on the road, you have to pay attention to the drain, otherwise you fall into the drain. You've got to pay attention to the pole, otherwise you knock your head. Other than that, we should not, pay attention to the other things. It's the same with hearing, smell, taste and touch. So in that way you can see the practice of sense restraint is also similar as I explained just now about the vipassana practice.

(EA12)-09-How-to-practice-Samatha

As I said just now in the Venerable Ananda's saying that all the arahants attain arahanthood by practicing samatha and vipassana. From there you can see that you can either practice samatha first or vipassana first. But samatha appears to be a little bit more difficult to practice, because in the practice of Samatha, you've actually got to tame your mind. And the mind is not difficult to tame, it's not easy to tame. The Buddha said you can fight a thousand battles with an army of a thousand men a thousand times, but to conquer yourself is more difficult than to conquer an army of a thousand men a thousand times. So in other words, it's very difficult to control our mind. But the only way to control our mind is to make it focus on one object. There's no other way. It's not contemplating many objects one after another, because that is the nature of the mind. The nature of the mind flits from one object to another, from seeing, thinking, hearing, thinking, smelling, thinking, and et cetera. It goes from one to other. And to make us understand this, the Buddha gave another parable of a hunter who caught six animals. And what are these six animals? An eagle, a monkey, alligator or crocodile, a snake, a dog, a hyena, which is a dog that lives up the hill, kind of dog. So these six animals, he caught these six animals and he tied a rope around the neck of each one of them. So after tying all the six of them, he took all the six ropes and he tied them into a knot and he let go all the six animals. What happens? The Buddha said that the eagle wants to fly up into the air. The monkey wants to climb up the tree. The crocodile wants to go into the river or water. The snake wants to find a hole to go and hide. The dog wants to go into town to look for food. The hyena wants to go up the hill, his natural home. So these six animals will be pulling in six different directions. And whichever one is strongest, he will pull and the others have to follow him. And when he's tired, another one will be stronger, will pull and the others have to follow him. This is exactly the working of the mind, the everyday mind. The everyday mind, we are pulled by the six sense objects at the six sense doors. The seeing, the hearing, the smelling, taste, touch, and thinking is pulling us all the time. And whichever one is strongest, our attention will go there. For example, now you are listening to the Dharma talk. Suddenly a mosquito bites you. Suddenly you feel the pain or the itch, and your attention will go there. Or suddenly a car goes by and somebody sounds the horn, and your attention goes there. So all the time our mind is going out through the six sense doors. That is why our energy is all scattered. Our mind is all scattered. So because your mind is all scattered, it is not in focus. When it is not in focus, it's like a telescope not in focus. How can you see clearly? You cannot see clearly. That's why you don't see things as they really are. The only way to see things really clearly is to focus your mind. So how to tame these six animals, the Buddha said. What the hunter did was wrong. The Buddha said now all the six ropes tied to the six animals should all be brought and tied to a stout pole. If you take all the six ropes and tie it to one stout pole, then wherever all these six animals try to go, they can only go round and round that pole. Yes or not? Go round and round until they are tired, and they will lie down very quietly, tamed, at the bottom of the pole. That is the only way to tame them. In other words, this one pole represents one object. In other words, if our mind tries to run out somewhere, we pull it to the breath. Tries to run out again, we pull it to another breath. As the breath goes in and out, in and out, we just keep it focused on the breath. So whichever way it tries to run, you pull it back to the breath. Start thinking of the home, you pull it back to the breath. Start thinking of your work, you bring it to the breath again. So you keep on doing that until the mind is tamed. And that is the only way to tame the mind. So that's why I said Samatha meditation is a little bit more difficult to practice because that is basically getting control of your mind, which you never had before. So in the practice of Sati, I summarize, in the practice of sati, we must constantly remember that the body and the mind is not the self. So because the body and the mind is not the self, when you see the ego manifesting and the ego trying to get its way, you don't listen to the ego. You don't react. You just stay calm and cool, as they say, play it cool. And the other thing is that If we constantly remember that the body and the mind is not the self, then we don't use the thinking mind. Because every time we use the thinking mind, we are trying to protect the self. We are trying to get the best situation, the best advantage in any situation. And that means every day you try not to use the thinking mind. You try to let go, let go of the self. And that is very difficult. That is why for a lay person to practice meditation, it's very difficult to succeed. Even for a monk to succeed in meditation, it's also very difficult. He has to give up all the activities and meditate all the time. Because meditation, as I said, if you want to not use your thinking mind, all the time. That means meditation is a 24-hour occupation. 24-hour occupation. That is why you find the arahants, because they have been able to do this, that the arahants are mindful 24 hours a day. Arahants are mindful 24 hours a day. Even when they sleep, they are mindful. So if you don't practice to be mindful 24 hours a day, how can you achieve mindfulness 24 hours a day and become an arahant? That is why all through the years, meditation was generally only taught to monks, to renunciants. Even during the Buddha's time, the Buddha said that his first priority in teaching was to his monks and nuns. That was his first priority. Only those few lay people who came personally to ask for instructions, that he taught them. And those who practiced as lay persons, they had to give up their worldly affairs. You find that during the Buddha's time, there were many anagamis, third stage ariya. But you find those anagamis were basically renunciants living in the house. You find in the suttas, some of them, they gave up their wife, their job, or some of them even gave up their wife in the sense that they They don't consider the wife to be like the normal wife, even though they may stay in the same house and the wife cooks for him and looks after his affairs, his business or whatever. But he spent all his time meditating and didn't sleep in the same room with his wife, etc. So he was basically a renunciant wearing white at home. Only such people could succeed in meditation. But nowadays, Some people are trying to teach meditation to all the lay people and giving them the impression that they can succeed, which is actually not quite correct. So the other thing I'd like to summarize is to say that in meditation we never pay attention to the five sense doors outside. We only keep our attention focused inside to our mind, the nature of the body, and the Buddha's teachings.

(EA12)-10-Sati-vs-Satipatthana

Now I come to satipatthana. Very often, usually people don't explain the difference between sati and satipatthana, but there is a difference between sati and satipatthana. Patthana, from what I understand, comes from two words, pa and thana. Thana means position or a state. Pa means going forward. That's the literal meaning, but it also means going beyond. That means extreme or intense. So satipatthana can be translated as an extreme or intense state of sati, intense state of sati. It's not ordinary sati, a very intense state of sati. And sati and satipatthana are very much related to samadhi. In the suttas, the Buddha said, when we practice the Aryan Eightfold Path, we start with the first one, right view. And when we practice right view, it will lead us to the second one, right thoughts. And that will lead us to right speech, and that will lead us to right action. And in the end, sati, when you practice sati, it will lead you to samadhi. So, if you practice sati correctly, it will lead you to concentration samadhi. So that is the first thing. The second thing is that some people think that when you attain jhana, perfect concentration, there is no sati. This couldn't be further from the truth. In the suttas, when the Buddha explain the state of the fourth jhāna. The Buddha said that the state of the fourth jhāna is a state of perfect purity of sati, perfect purity of sati. Sati is perfectly pure at the fourth jhāna. But even in the first jhāna, you already have quite pure sati recollection. In fact, in the Majjhima Nikaya, it is stated that satipatthana is a characteristic mark of samadhi. In other words, satipatthana is a characteristic mark of jhana. When a person attains jhana, it must be accompanied by satipatthana, intense state of mindfulness. When your mindfulness or your recollection is so intense, then only it can bring you into jhana, deep samadhi. If your sati is not intense, you will be distracted by external things. But because your sati is so intense, it's so focused, it will bring you into your mind. And when you go into your mind, you attain the state of jhāna, perfect samādhi. By the way, when you attain jhāna, when a person attains jhāna, he goes deep into the mind and slowly the external world fades away, then you begin to go into another world, the world of the mind. And that is the way to leave the world. After all, our aim in meditation is to leave the world. So if you cannot go into your mind and leave the world, how can you escape from the world? Now, in one sutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, The Buddha said that when Satipatthana, after Satipatthana is attained, he told his disciples to abandon the practice of Satipatthana. After you have attained Satipatthana, abandon the practice. Yet in another sutta, the Buddha said, all his ariyas constantly abide in Satipatthana. constantly abide in satipatthana, but after you have attained, you abandon the practice. In other words, if you have attained satipatthana, if you have attained jhāna, then this satipatthana stays with you. Instant state of mindfulness stays with you. That is why satipatthana, if you attain satipatthana, is equivalent to attaining jhāna. If you have not really attained satipatthana, it means you have not attained jhāna, or vice versa. If you have not attained jhāna, you have also not attained satipatthana. In another sutta, in the Samyutta Nikaya, the Venerable Anuruddha was one of the disciples of the Buddha. He had very great psychic power. He had such great psychic power that he could see the galaxy, many world systems, like in the palm of his hand. His mind expanded. You know, this Arupajana is a state where the mind expands to boundless space or boundless consciousness. And because the mind is so wide, he could see world systems like in the palm of his hand so clearly. So the monks knew that he had such great psychic power, so they asked him, what did you cultivate that you attain such great psychic power, and Venerable Anuruddha said satipatthana. Normally, to attain psychic power, you must have jhana. If you don't have jhana, you cannot have psychic power. And yet, Venerable Anuruddha said satipatthana. In other words, satipatthana is equivalent to jhana. Nowadays, some monks don't say that, but that is according to the sutta. So, I summarize here again by saying that satipatthana is a little different from sati in the sense that satipatthana is an intense state of sati and sati and samadhi are very much related. Sati or satipatthana is very much related to samadhi and in fact satipatthana is equivalent to jhana.

(EA12)-11-Advise-for-meditation-practice

Now, I'd like to continue here with some advice. If we want to practice meditation and when we sit down to practice meditation, it is best to practice Samatha meditation. Because Samatha meditation or Samadhi, you cannot practice in any other posture. To attain deep Samadhi, you can only sit down. And to attain deep Samadhi is difficult. So if you don't attain Samadhi first, although you can practice Vipassana first, but if you keep on practicing Vipassana without Samatha, you'll find you have very much sloth and topper and restlessness. So what happens, for example, when we meditate on the breath, you try to observe the breath going in and out, you have two problems. The first one, it's very difficult for the mind to stick with the breath. The mind will run and you think of your home. Did I close the window? Did I lock the door? Or you think of your work, and then you try to bring it back, and then the mind, again, the mind runs away again. So the first problem you have is restlessness when you try to meditate. The second one is sloth and topper. Because of sloth and topper, when you try to see your breath, you cannot see it, you cannot focus, you cannot see your breath clearly because your mind is very muddled. muddle-headed, they say. So you cannot focus and see your breath clearly. So these two things are part of the five hindrances. So because of that, if you try to practice Vipassana, you cannot obtain very deep insight because your mind is not clear. So if you want to attain deeper insight, you have to practice Samatha first. You can practice Vipassana first, but then you make slow progress. Now in the Majjhima Nikaya, Sutra 108, the Venerable Ananda was asked, what type of meditation is approved by the Buddha? What type of meditation is not approved by the Buddha? And Venerable Ananda said, the type of meditation where the five hindrances are abandoned is approved by the Buddha. The type of meditation the five hindrances are not abandoned is not approved by the Buddha. So it's very clear here that the Buddha is always stressing on samatha meditation. Because samatha meditation is the one where you get rid of the five hindrances. Then only you can see very clearly. Now when you get rid of the five hindrances, you have a developed mind. That is what meditation is about. Sometimes the word for meditation is bhavana. Bhavana means development. which means principally development of the mind. That means you alter the state of your mind. You develop your mind so it becomes a different mind. It becomes a much clearer mind. Now when you have attained jhana, then the mind becomes so clear that even you listen to one sutta, you can become an arahant. This was the case when the Buddha went to convert a thousand jatilas. Jatilas are method hair ascetics. They kept their hair very long, you know. And these people were very good meditators. They probably all attained jhana. So the Buddha thought these are the right people to teach them the Dhamma because their mind is very clear. So he went to convert them. First he converted the leader and slowly they followed him. And then when the 1,000 of them had followed him, had agreed to follow him, the Buddha delivered the Anattalakkhana discourse, the discourse on no-self, on not-self. So when the Buddha taught them this one discourse, 1,000 of them became Arahants. You see? Just by listening to one discourse. But here we are, listening to discourse after another, we never get enlightened. Because we are still muddle-headed. So you see how important the jhanas are. And sometimes people think that when you attain the jhana, only in the state of jhana, the hindrances are abandoned. After that, they come back again. Not true. Because when you attain the jhana, you have gone deep into your mind. And if you don't practice meditation, even if the hindrances come back, If you want to get rid of it, it is much easier, not like before. The first time you get rid of the five hindrances, it's very difficult. But after that, to get rid of them is not difficult. And this quality of having abandoned the five hindrances carries to your next life. This is quite clear from the suttas. There was a lay disciple of the Buddha. And he described how he was a rich man, man with a family. So he was a real, a person who really enjoyed life. He used to get drunk much of the time. So one day when he was drunk and surrounded, you know, in those days they had slaves and and all this to enjoy themselves with. So he was drunk and the Buddha walked by. And when he saw the Buddha from a distance, due to karmic affinity, something struck him. It's as though sometimes when we see somebody, we think we have seen this person before. Although this life you may not have seen that person, but perhaps in a previous life you have seen that person. So that person strikes you as very familiar. So too with this man. And he saw the Buddha from a distance. Something struck. And although he was drunk, you know, he was drunk. That drunkenness all vanished. All vanished, you know. Incredible. And that could only have happened because he had already perfected his samadhi, his concentration in the previous life. So he was able to throw off the hindrances just in an instant. His mind just sobered, he just sobered up instantly. And then he went to the Buddha and became a disciple of the Buddha and the Buddha converted him. So that is the great advantage of the jhanas. Now, in the Digha Nikaya, there's one sutta where the Buddha said, if a teacher is able to teach jhana to his students, he is an altogether blameless teacher. A teacher, you can teach jhana to his disciples, it's altogether blameless. But if a teacher teaches meditation, that's all. What I'm implying is that if a teacher teaches meditation without teaching jhāna to his disciples, then he should be blameworthy. Because according to the Buddha, he's only blameless if he teaches jhāna to his disciples. And the Buddha praised jhāna in the suttas. The Buddha said there are four advantages of attaining jhāna. Four advantages of attaining and abiding in jhāna. The four advantages are the first, second, third, and fourth fruition. In one sutta, the Buddha also said that if a person attains and abides in the first jhāna itself, that person is already cooled, nibbhuta, cooled. He has crossed over. Now these words, cooled and crossed over, are normally used for an arahant, but the Buddha used it for the state of the first jhāna, which shows that the Buddha had a high regard for jhānas. And why? because these jhanas are actually halfway stations to Nibbana. Nibbana is a state where a person is totally cooled or the mind is totally cooled, no more agitation. And when we practice and attain jhana, the mind is also very still, very, very still. And that is why I say that jhanas are halfway stations to Nibbana. And you find in the suttas that the Buddha and his Arahant disciples and even the other Arya disciples, they constantly abide in jhana. Even after they have attained Arahanthood, they still abide in jhana because when you abide in jhana, you withdraw yourself from the world. And because your aim is to totally get out of the world, so it's only right that you withdraw yourself from the world because the world is a place of dukkha.

(EA12)-12-+ve-and--ve-espect-of-meditation

I would say that in the practice of meditation, Samatha is the positive aspect and Vipassana is the negative aspect. Why positive aspect? Because Samatha, you are bringing yourself nearer to Nibbana by calming your mind, by cooling your mind. And when you can totally cool your mind, that is the state of Nibbana. And also the aim of meditation is to destroy the asavas. What are asavas? Asavas are uncontrolled mental outflows. For a normal person, the mind is always leaking. Leaking. The literal meaning of asava is leakage. Low in Chinese. Leakage. So the mind is always leaking. Leaking with consciousness, leaking with emotions, leaking with anger and all that. And when we meditate and practice Samatha meditation, we are calming the mind. And when we calm the mind, all these leakages in the state of jhana, these leakages of the mind stop. These asavas are temporarily ceased. So when you attain jhana, you temporarily stop the asavas from flowing. And that is the ultimate aim of meditation, to stop the asavas entirely from flowing. And if that is your aim, to stop the asavas, to destroy the asavas, if you cannot stop it temporarily, how can you attain the state of arahanthood, which is the state where the asavas are totally stopped That is why the state of jhāna is so important. And vipassana, I said, is the negative aspect. Why the negative aspect? Because in the practice of vipassana, we are contemplating the body and mind, and we are trying to see that it is not I, it is not mine, it is not myself. So it is the negative, saying this is not me, this is not mine, this is not myself. It's just like dana and sila. When we do good, there are two aspects, dana and sila. Dana is the positive aspect. positive good, benefiting somebody. Sila is the negative aspect, not harming somebody by keeping the precepts. So the same with Samatha and Vipassana. Samatha is the positive aspect where you bring your mind towards Nibbana. Vipassana is the negative aspect where you try to see this body and this mind is not I, it's not mine, it's not myself. So, I'll summarize here again by saying that in the practice of samatha, to attain jhana, we can only sit down. So when we sit down to meditate, it's best to practice samatha, because when you are not sitting down, you can practice vipassana. And if you make some progress in your meditation, Hindrances should subside. Your anger, your sensual desire should decrease. Your ego should also decrease. And when that happens, you slowly let go of your attachments. If you cannot let go of your attachments and your anger and your sensual desire and your ego, then you're not making progress in your meditation. Another thing, if you really make progress in your meditation because your ego decreases, you have no desire to tell people of your attainments. But you find some people, they meditate, they think they attain this and that, they quickly want to tell people. That is not a sign of attainment. That is a sign of not attaining.

(EA12)-13-The-importance-of-Right-View

And the last thing I'd like to say is that right view is very important. In the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Aryan Eightfold Path, the first factor is right view. And that is the first thing you must attain. If you have not attained Right view, you have not entered the Aryan Eightfold Path. And if you have not entered the Aryan Eightfold Path, it's no use practicing. You can practice for 20 years, you'll never progress. Actually, this happened to one lady in Penang a few years ago. She was a committee member of a meditation center in Penang. And she had been, I heard she had been practicing meditation for about 20 years. And she was a very good example of a good Buddhist. Every day, she would keep the eight precepts. She would wear white and keep the eight precepts every day. And then, during the school holidays, because she was a teacher, during the school holidays, she would shave her head, shave her head, and become a nun, a mei qi. every school holidays. But in spite of practicing meditation and even teaching meditation for about 20 years, suddenly one day she changed her religion, gave up Buddhism. What does that show? All that practice went down the drain. Why? Because she didn't have right view. So how to attain right view? To attain right view is to study the suttas. When you study the suttas and you get an understanding of the suttas, then you have unshakable confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. And then you'll never change your religion. So that is the most important thing, to study the Buddha's words. If suttas were not important, the Buddha would not have bothered to preach for 45 years, to teach us 5,000 suttas. What for? If sutras are not important, maybe the Buddha just need to teach one sutra or two sutras. But he taught 5,000 sutras to make us see the sutras, to see the Dhamma from different angles. Every sutra explains the Dhamma from a different angle. So the more sutras we read, the more we see the Dhamma clearly from different angles. The other thing is that In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha said, after you have attained right view, you still need five things to support you to get liberation or Arahanthood. The first one is Sila, precepts. The second one is Dhammasavanam, listening to the Dhamma. Third one is Dhammasakacca, discussion of the Dhamma. Fourth one is Samatha. Fifth is Vipassana. Now we know that the fourth and the fifth Samatha and Vipassana is meditation. So in addition to meditation, you still have three things you must cultivate. in addition to right view. Sila, listening to the Dhamma, and discussion of the Dhamma. So you see, knowledge of the Dhamma, or the suttas, is very important. You find during the Buddha's time, the Buddha's disciples, in the morning they go for Pindabad, which is alms round. They go and beg for their food, they come back, they eat. After eating, they go into the forest to meditate. They spend the whole day meditating. When the sun will come to where the senior monk is, For example, Sariputta or the Buddha, whichever is the senior monk, and they meet together after the sun sets to discuss the Dhamma. They will ask each other questions about the Dhamma, test each other the knowledge about the Dhamma, and if somebody does not understand, then the one who understands will explain the Dhamma. And even after attained Arahanthood, they still discuss the Dhamma every night. It shows how important the Dhamma is. Now there's another sutta, the last sutta I like to quote is in the Anguttara Nikaya. The Buddha said there are five occasions for attaining Ariya-hood. Five times when you can become an Ariya. The first one is when you listen to the Dhamma. The second one is when you teach the Dhamma. Third one is when you repeat the Dhamma. The fourth one when you reflect on the Dhamma. And the last one is during meditation. So of these five occasions when you become an Arya, only one is during meditation. The rest, the four things, the four other occasions, have to do with the Dhamma. So knowledge of the Dhamma is very, very important. So I hope you all, if you practice meditation, not to neglect the suttas. And the original suttas of the Buddha are found in the earliest four Nikayas. The Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya, and Anguttara Nikaya. If you have a knowledge of the suttas and you meditate to clear your mind so that you can understand the suttas better, then your chances of becoming an ariya are much greater. So I will stop here and if you have any questions or comments, we will discuss.

(EA12)-14-Metta-meditation-required-Jhana

Actually in the suttas, loving kindness, the Buddha said to practice loving kindness, you should attain the first jhāna first. Because if you, the Buddha didn't say why, but if you don't attain the jhāna and you try to practice loving kindness, we can only try to, you know in the practice of loving kindness, the aim is to radiate loving kindness to other beings. But if you don't have that strength of mind, you're not able to radiate loving kindness to other beings. Even though you say, may all beings be well, may all beings be happy and all that, but other beings cannot feel it. You know, cannot feel it. But if you have that strong mind and you radiate, it does go out. You know, when I was young, I was in a Catholic school for many years. So the Christian brothers used to give us holy pictures. And I had a a picture of a Christian saint and with these birds coming and resting on his head, coming and resting on his shoulders, flying all about him. Why? Because he had so much metta, you know, and the animals can feel it. So it's different if you have samadhi.

(EA12)-15-Meditation-is-like-marathon-race

I don't know whether it's advisable or not, but it is possible. It's okay if you want to do that. But one thing you must remember, meditation is a long journey. It's a long spiritual journey. If you think you only meditate during retreats, then you won't make much progress. If you want to make progress, you have to meditate every day. to find as much time as you can every day to meditate. If you can practice one hour each day, after two years or so, you'll find you make some progress. Meditation is a long distance run. It's not a hundred meters dash. You know, sometimes in In Penang, people say piah sien, piah sien.

(EA12)-16-Breath-contemplation

If you want to do that, it's all right. It's all right if you can follow the breath. But for most people, it's difficult to see the breath going in all the way down there and up again. Besides, the breath is very fast. It goes in and goes out very fast. So it's quite difficult. Teachers, they say, follow the beginning of the breath to the end of the breath. Of course, if you can do that, it's very good. But usually the breath is so short that it's very difficult. All you know is the breath goes in, the breath goes out. And that's enough.

(EA12)-17-Spiritual-development-is-gradual

I think just now I mentioned if a person attains satipatthana, it means that he has attained jhāna. So when a person attains jhāna, the mind becomes very strong, like in the first jhāna. Although some thoughts may still be there, but the thoughts are only connected with your meditation. They are not Straight thoughts. For example, you may think, I must remember the steps that I took to attain this state of one-pointedness of mind. Because in the first jhana, you still have vittaka and vichara. applied and sustained thoughts. And only in the second jhāna, then you don't have any thoughts at all. And in the second jhāna, the mind becomes very strong. The mind becomes very, very strong so that, and very, very clear so that no thoughts can possibly arise. Impossible for any thoughts to arise in the second jhāna. And yet the mind is very clear. And this feeling of pity and sukha is a very subtle feeling. It's not like In the Visuddhi Magha, they like to talk about overpowering piti and sukha and all that. But actually in the suttas, the Buddha said piti and sukha is a very subtle perception. So sometimes it's so subtle because you read in the other books, they say that the piti and sukha is overwhelming. Sometimes some people, they attain jhana and they don't realize that they attain jhana. But it doesn't matter, we keep on practicing. In the practice, in the spiritual path, we should not look for attainment. We should just keep on practicing. And the Buddha said that, spiritual progress is a very gradual progress. It is not that you suddenly get knowledge, suddenly get insights. Although the insights do come suddenly, it's just like a durian dropping. When the durian drops, it is sudden. But imagine how long it took the durian to grow after the flower has bloomed and then it became a fruit.