In so far as mindfulness is to be established and sustained, there is a doing, but samādhi is not a concentration that you do, it is a unified state that you enter. It’s a place from where you can review and reset your attitudes and deepen your understanding. And its determining factor is that the heart is happy in itself.
Ajahn Kevali, abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand, advises us to develop our Dhamma practice by looking at the life of the Buddha. Through becoming familiar with the life story of the Buddha and keeping in mind that he was a human being, we can emulate the same practices. We can regard the teachings of the Buddha as a template, the elephant’s footprint that all of our own experiences fit within.
On an auspicious visit to Cittaviveka, Luang Por Liem, abbot of Wat Non Pah Pong in Thailand, points to the freedom that can be found from deeply knowing the restraints that are present in the mind. He explains how an unwise relation to mental formations and a sense of self creates obstruction in the heart, but by utilizing the tools of samatha and vipassana meditation, we can begin to see all of our experiences as part of nature, which can lead to detachment and a real, lasting freedom.
Luang Por Damrong reflects on the life of the Buddha, and relates how the Buddha remembered his previous births, which arose according to his past kamma. Keeping in mind our own mortality and the Buddha’s teaching out of compassion, he exhorts us to pracice with diligence, developing virtue and making an effort to be free from the cycle of birth and death.
On a rare visit to Cittaviveka, Ajahn Koon discusses the five khandas, explaining that when we regard them as a self, they become a burden, but if we are able to let go of them, there is freedom. He describes how the triple gem is a refuge, and likens the precepts to a boat that fills in the gaps of our experience and allows us to float and eventually sail to nibbana.
Returning to Chithurst after an interval of 40 years, Luang Por Piak, one of Luang Por Chah’s most revered and well known disciples, recalls an encounter with a ghost during his previous visit, and remarks on how much Chithurst has developed into a forest monastery conducive to states of concentration and tranquillity. He stresses that this concentration must be used as a tool for attaining insight, and details the five traditional objects of meditation traditionally given to new monastics: hair of the head, hair of the body, teeth, nails and skin.
Thai audio:
Translation by Ajahn Moshe:
The normal ways of the world are to be excited and interested in sensual experiences external to oneself, being drawn to pleasant ones and repelled by those that are unpleasant. This can create a lot of stress, and a constant searching for “What’s next?”. By orienting oneself by a commitment to moral precepts, and a determination to remain present with all that arises, the heart can learn to trust in awareness and find a strength which can allow a lasting happiness to emerge.
It is very important to balance the traditional Buddhist practice of silent formal meditation, with the more external factors of the practice, namely Right Speech and a healthy engagement with one’s fellow practitioners. Assisting with this are vitakka and vicara, directing the mind on to an object and examining the result, as a way to be deeply informed and directly know that one is on a path towards liberation.
Spiritual practice is not just ‘mystical’. There are benefits in everyday applicable states such as kindness, compassion and careful attention. It is dangerous to claim possession of states, and claiming them can even result in using others for one’s own gratification and needs.